#the game isn't a hundred percent my cup of tea

[gothamite-rambler]

Tim isn't actually addicted to coffee it's just his ADHD

Tim Drake, Cassandra Cain. Jason Todd, and Damian Wayne were at the grocery store together shopping for snacks. Tim and Cass stood together in the coffee and tea aisle, but Tim switched it up today and was debating on the best tea to get.

Tim: Lipton Mint Tea or Paddington Mint Tea… hmm.

Cass peeked over Tim's shoulder, her eyes scanning the tea selection.

Cass: No coffee this time?

Tim: Nah, I have enough. Plus, I'm not addicted to it or anything, I can go a few shopping trips without buying a bag.

Cass chuckled, crossing her arms.

Cass: You love coffee. I won't say addicted, but you're a pretty big coffee guy.

Tim: I like coffee, especially when I find the right flavor, but I'm not addicted. I have one cup some days, and that's it. I mix in energy drinks in between, which is a whole other subset.

Surprised, Cass raised an eyebrow.

Cass (noticing his body language was showing he was truthful): You're not kidding. Holy moly, you're not addicted?

Tim (shaking his head): You guys are silly. I drink coffee just as much as you do. My possible ADHD makes coffee easier to drink throughout the day. For me, at least. I like to sip it throughout the day, but trust me, I don’t treat it as a lifeline… unless I���ve been staying up for days at a time. Then it's the giver of life. Sometimes I like tea, soda, diet soda—

Suddenly, Jason rolled down the aisle, with Damian sitting in the back of the cart.

Jason: Diet soda?

Damian (grossed out): Ew.

Cass: I’m continuously concerned that you don’t drink enough water, but that’s besides the point. Guys, he said he’s not addicted to coffee.

Jason (in disbelief): Yes, he is.

Tim resumed his focus on which tea to pick.

Tim: Okay, you know for a fact that I’m not. You haven’t seen addiction until you’ve been around Bruce or Dick… I still can't believe they used to do coffee enemas.

Jason: Oh, I forgot they did that too.

Damian was engrossed in a game on his Nintendo Switch.

Damian: What’s a coffee enema?

Jason: It’s when you replace the actual medical liquids with coffee by inserting a tube into the rectum and just… letting the coffee go up there.

Damian and Cass looked at him horrified. Tim nodded as he grabbed a different flavor of Lipton tea.

Jason: Yeah, it's not even remotely recommended for people to do. Dick stopped after he ended up in the ER because he had heart attack-like symptoms.

Cass (shocked): What?!

Damian (with a knowing smile): Father suggested the… enemas?

Damian chuckled at the word.

Jason: Kind of. He read about it in a magazine dedicated to rich people.

Tim: Ollie Inquirer. Bruce stopped after Alfred yelled at him because of Dick ending up in the ER. Should I get both teas?

Cass grabbed both boxes and tossed them into the shopping cart, one bonking Damian on the head.

Cass (concerned): Get both and never mirror what Bruce did with coffee. In fact, I'm getting you a case of water.

She took the cart and rolled away, Damian still seated inside playing a game on his nintendo switch.

Cass: Dami, why are you in the cart? You're 12.

Damian: I fit in it. Roll me like the prince I am!

Cass (giggling): Oh goodness.

Jason and Tim followed them as the store announced it would close in fifteen minutes.

Jason: You're seriously not addicted?

Tim: Are you addicted to Red Bulls, or do you just like drinking them more than other drinks?

Jason: The latter.

Tim: That’s my answer. Plus, my possible ADHD makes it easier to handle coffee at different times of the day.

Jason: Huh… Glad I learned this about you. I got concerned—

Tim: That I do a coffee enema?

Jason: A hundred percent, yes.

[gatheredfates]

To what extent does it matter that you are being "original" when you create an OC? Or is it OK to base them on an existing character or celebrity, so long as you enjoy it?

Little OC Creation Ask List | accepting! | @thefreelanceangel

I sort of answered this a bit on this ask, but I'll elaborate further here.

For me, personally? It doesn't matter. No one's ideas are a hundred percent original, and I'm really glad in more recent times ( at least in my circles ) people have strayed away from the idea that they need to be.

However, let me add a slight addendum to this: whilst I personally don't care if you want to play a self-insert, celebrity or character from another game series, that doesn't always mean I want to write with you. I think far too many people equate something that isn't to their taste as being 'wrong', when in fact it's completely harmless and just not what you want to engage with.

For example, I don't like interacting with NPC's at in-game events. This is not because I hate NPC roleplayers, but it runs the implication that every single NPC potentially has to adhere to the interaction I had with the first - or that my relationship with that npc trumps the players comfort. If I want to write with an NPC, I'll write on tumblr or in private places with said people where I can cultivate a relationship in an au that doesn't break my in-game lore (like I did with Kor's WoL verse). I'm also not a fan of people who are like 'my character is so-and-so from x series who found their way into ffxiv!' It's not bad, I just don't want to play with the lore implications of it when I'm roleplaying in-game. But there's nothing wrong with a player wanting to do it. It doesn't harm me that the concept exists; therefore, it doesn't matter to me

I remember roleplaying in WoW way back when - and some people might actually remember this because it was one of the few times I have ever made a 'call-out' post - and there was a player running around roleplaying as... I think Bolvar's daughter? I can't properly remember. But, for those who know WoW lore... it's not the most plausible situation, especially in Silvermoon. Yet I watched these roleplayers tear into her in /s chat calling her all kinds of names, telling her to quit roleplay, she was bad, etc. I called them out at the time and they had a go at me about it. So I went, y'know, fuck it. I posted the logs and they got reemed. Because, whilst it's not everyone's cup of tea, you can be at least respectful enough to tell that person you don't want to play with their concept without making them literally cry in front of their screen. I was absolutely appalled by that kind of behaviour. You're not an elite, better roleplayer for it; you're a bully and a gate-keeper. It's why I HATED the term mary-sue back in the day.

I'm of the firm belief that everyone deserves to create ocs and concepts that make them happy, whilst having the courtesy to acknowledge not everyone will want to play with them. I would prefer to play with a character heavily based off an existing concept that's been integrated into ffxiv, rather than a one-to-one, but that's my choice. Originality is dead. Own what you want, make it yours and have fun. It might not be my taste, but I'll fight for your want to have it.

[kaybdoodles]

My version of V from Cyberpunk 2077

she’s an idiot who has no idea how to drive anything. Literally anytime I get in a car an APB ends up being sent for me in like..less than five minutes because ive inevitably crashed or sideswiped a pedestrian

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[rndyounghowze]

An Interview with John D. Smitherman Part 2/2

By Ricky Young-Howze

Welcome back to part two of our interview with Broadway Theatre of Pitman Artistic Director John D. Smitherman. In this installment he talks about a key difference between the audiences of today and the dinner theater crowds of yesteryear and why his relationship with his team is the most important.

“Everything has become quick. Movies used to be three hours long now a movie is just under two hours long if that. And I really don't think people want to be in one place for that length of time. Because if you think about it in dinner theater it's not just an hour you're there for an hour and a half with dinner the way it's all set up and then you have a show that could be two and a half hours long when you add the intermission and so you've been in someplace for four hours. It's almost too much. I've found that people would actually prefer, like say using this theatre as an example, they would rather go to a restaurant across the street or down the street or whatever and then coming over because they have at least gotten up and changed location.”

He’s very quick to offer up examples.

“I’ll give you two things with one show. We did Camelot, our audiences were looking forward to Camelot. But our audiences also did not remember that Camelot when done as is is over three hours long. You add the intermission then suddenly it's four hours long. So that was my first quest, to cut down this classic, and I was able to so that when we were done with intermission we were done in two and a half hours.

John uses a very simple philosophy when it comes to creating a season.

“You also have to do what the people want. I'm sorry that's my thought. you can have shows, and I know that there are plenty of shows out there, that they pound a message to you and those audiences will go to those. But if you know your audience is not that type of an audience and that they just like theatre and they want to go home humming tunes and be happy or whatever then that's what you give them. This is my seventh year and when I got here we had about 4,000 subscribers and now we have 8,000 and so it's doubled in that amount of time. I think it's because of the shows. We’re giving them what they want and they tell a friend. Also the quality of the production.”

But sometimes giving an audience what they wanted is a double edged sword. Sometimes they like a song or a soundtrack more than the musical themselves. When we said that we loved John Stephan's production of Evita Smitherman was ready with yet another story.

“Now it's interesting that it happened to be Evita because Evita was one of those mixed shows for us. It didn't do as well as we thought it would. Our audiences said they wanted to see Evita but then once we presented it to them I think our audiences knew the one song (“Don't Cry For Me Argentina”) and then they see the concept of how the show actually is they were confused by some of it and and it just wasn't really their cup of tea. So we really didn't do well. It wasn't horrendous but didn't do well with Evita and that's one of the few examples I can give.”

But how does he get the info from the audience? We were imagining a call center or a survey manned by a huge team but Mr. Smitherman is just really in tune with his audience.

We don’t do surveys but I have an open door policy. I’m always very accessible so people come up to me and they’ll give me their suggestions on what should be done and what they’ve liked and that’s the main thing. I see what works.

He emphasizes heavily the role the owner, his general manager, staff, and tech team have in keeping the theater running. He doesn’t want it to seem like it was a one person job and he descended on the scene like some kind of demagogue to turn things around. The theatre was very strong when he got there and he leaned heavily on his team when he first got in.

“When I got here the general manager was my only source of input. He would say what has worked and what has not worked and I’ve worked from that.. When I can because it’s not always one hundred percent my [call] I do have the owner of the place, the general manager, and board people that we have to go through before we can actually have a finalized season and such.”

It takes a village to make a season and a lot of his stories start with the group supporting him and trusting him to take the theatre in new directions. Over the years they got in a rhythm together. During the interview his director is texting him to ask if he wants coffee while he’s out. He stops the interview when his interview walks in to make sure everything is alright with the upcoming matinee. You can tell that he has an army of staff behind him and he trusts them greatly.

“We wouldn’t do it if we were one hundred percent sure it was not going to work but there were some that we were nervous about. It’s funny one of the first years I was here I suggested Jekyll and Hyde so that we could start bringing in some of the younger audience but it would still be appealing to our older audience. I literally had to fight to get that show. I was confident that when they saw this production, because I really love Jekyll and Hyde because it was my favorite role, I knew that they would like it. But then of course as time got close to performing it, the production, I was like ‘Oh man they're not going to like it.’ So that one I was like nervous about but it ended up being one of the most successful shows in the history of this theater.”

“So it’s these things you have to take the chances on but then there’s been things I’ve been surprised. 39 Steps is basically a comedy version of all of [Alfred Hitchcock's] movies with a clear storyline played by four characters who all played multiple roles. I thought that they would all get it and find the humor. But they hated it. The audience hated it. So that was a rough one. If the people hung through to the end it was fine but there were so many of them that they were leaving in droves.”

Those are the breaks right? He takes it all in stride. Since he's done a lot of theatre he knows how to pick a show based on what he's seen work before.

“Not all shows translate to different theaters. When I was first given the information of what the age group our audiences are and this is what they’ve liked in the past and so forth there were certain things. I've done South Pacific a hundred thousand times, that to me is a no brainer, we’re going to do South Pacific. They hadn't done it yet so let's do it. And it did really well. I also know there are shows I’ve done before that will never work here. Prom Queens Unchained? It’s not going to work here.”

We couldn't believe that we had been sitting there for fifty minutes without really asking about his upcoming show. He had us entranced for the whole time. We finally got to ask him the all important question: What does the title mean?

“It's My Broadway in general because if we just did what I did in Manhattan it would just be a ten minute concert so it's spanning all of the stuff that I’ve done here and there. It's encompassing all of the leading roles that I've done both internationally, and Broadway, and here, the United States and so forth.

This isn't the first kind of show that he's done before.

“I've done “Music of the Night” that one was more of a variety of things because I love so many different types of music. Like I like Tom Jones, some of the Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Mario Lanza, those type of things, but then feature the Phantom stuff because everyone loves Phantom of the Opera.

Alas the director and hopeful auditionees for The Pajama Game were waiting to use the space so we had to call it a day. But it wasn't over yet. John invited us to enjoy Aida, their show that just closed. We decided this was a good chance to explore John's city that he loves so much and eat at Stage Right, the wine bar attached to the theater. John magically appeared onstage before the show even after a busy day to greet the audience. We have no idea how he does it all. You can see him do a lot of it on June 8 when his one man show My Broadway hits the stage for one night only. This is a man most beloved by the staff and subscribers of this theatre. You had better get your tickets now on their website.