#the glam rock makes a lot more sense

[hallowvamp]

I watch the season 3 teaser a lot, and I happened to check the comments this time. And of course there was a lot of praise and excitement for Rockstat. But I also noticed people who are upset that they aren't taking Rockstat in the direction they did in the QOTD movie. People are upset and shocked that they are taking him in the campy, queer, theatrical, glam rock direction. And I guess I just want to understand why? Why are people upset? Why are people shocked? The way they're writing Rockstat in the show makes A LOT more sense for the character than whatever the hell they did in QOTD.

This is literally Lestat. Lestat "theater kid" de Lioncourt.

[sendmyresignation]

finally reading dance of days (thank you ohiolink and oberlin college <3) but my most consistent takeaway thus far. is oh my god. people who think punk is primarily ideological and not subcultural/musical. are so out of touch.

[comradecowplant]

hm i started getting youtube recommendations for Castle Rat precisely around the same time i first heard of Chappell Roan and it has just come to my attention that she is not in fact the lead singer of Castle Rat 😬

[akajustmerry]

jokes aside, speaking purely as someone who enjoys movies/shows about music, i genuinely think choosing glam rock as the genre for lestat to be famous in, in 2024, is so stupid. like yeah sure he's a vamp he can mind control ppl to make himself popular whatever whatever. BUT it doesn't change the fact that the kind of modern white male artists with the star power he's meant to have are NOT rock artists. they're r&b or pop OR they're producers. it would have made more sense to make him an eccentric DJ/producer in the vein of david guetta or daft punk or marshmello, etc. you could have still done all his outfits really fun and would have the opportunity to use the series to have lestat collab with lots real artists to draw audiences like they did with grunge/rock artists for the queen of the damned movie in '02. like. i get it doesn't matter because he's a vampire and that's why he'll be famous within the story anyway, but it drives me nuts how obvious it is rollin jones doesn't have a single finger on the pulse here.

[devilst0at]

Do you think Dale likes ‘basic’ looking people or more alt/goth people? Is Dale a sociable person like would he walk up and be like “when’s your birthday?” Or is he shy? :) I need ur opinions on this

I think he would like people with a sense of fashion, whether or not that would be more mainstream fashion (but he definitely appreciates 60s-80s fashion more if that’s the case) or alternative fashion! Glam-rock was definitely somewhat of an alternative subculture especially in the fashion sense, it defied social norms by rejecting traditional gender presentation, which is also part of the reason I think Dale is so androgynous. Like have you seen those guys, they had long puffy hair and crazy in your face makeup and high heels and shit, so Dale would definitely appreciate someone with a weirder/more unusual sense of style! As someone who’s alternative myself (i sort of belong to multiple different subcultures but mostly identify as goth-adjacent when i actually have the energy to dress the part lol, besides that i’d say i align most with romantic goth and listen to goth music) I would really like to imagine he’d appreciate alternative subculture/style. I definitely do think if he saw someone who was alternative outside he would be impressed and oggling at them and think they’re so cool. If it came to having a partner I think he’d just want them to love him regardless of their personal style, but being stylish would def be a plus for him!

As for whether he’s more sociable or shy, I think he’s more sociable/extroverted but maybe that’s been kinda dampened because everyone else sees him as a freak so he kinda keeps to himself a little more if he can help it 😔 Especially in his younger days, I think he’d be quite friendly! Like especially if he wasn’t hunting you down to give you a Satan doll to make you kill your family (lol) I think he’d be quite sweet! Maybe it’s cause he’s talking to Lee in the opening/flashback scene, idk, but he seems so cute and cheery like he’d be fun to talk to [“downstairs… from where?” “everywheres! :)”] [“cheese and crackers!!”] I really do think he’d be a sweetheart if you were involved with him outside of his Satanic duties. He seems sociable in the sort of less socially aware way which I think is why a lot of people think he’s weird and creepy (aside from the fact that he looks odd). He means well and is friendly but he just often goes about it in the wrong way, is too forward, is too weird, etc and gets negative reactions. The only time I think he’d he shy is when he’s receiving romantic attention/affection from someone for the first time, in that case he’d lose his confidence and just become a shaky shivery dazed-out mess. Which I love. I can never understand the people who genuinely think he’s horrific because personally I’d be jumping into his arms and asking him to take me home but 🤷

[paragonrobits]

so i've been annoyed now and again when i see big name v-tubers or whatever making fun on Transformers for being a toyetic series (which is deeply ironic when they're super into things like My Little Pony which is also a toyetic series) and get weirdly intense about saying its actually a garbage series for boring people that has no dimension outside of being a commercial, and they get super shocked when you tell them its one of the more convoluted series out there, with every single series almost invariably being a completely different setting and universe and timeline with no real connection to others, for the most part with a TON of lore and characterization and like

not a lot of people are into Transformers as intensely as, idk, people like me who get salty about Beast Wars not being respected

but i got to thinking and i realized something about Transformers that makes it stick out is, its basic premise is usually set around the point of no return, the complete cessation of hope for the protagonist's initial dreams:

their homeland is lost.

There's no going back to Cybertron; in most settings, Cybertron is not occupied territory, or a place they were driven away from. Sometimes that's the case, but not always. Its not a matter of beating the Decepticons and then you can finally go home and live in peace.

That's already gone. There is no hope for that, and there never was. Cybertron is dead. The planet is, more often than not, poisoned or drained of resources from the war, and can no longer support life. There's no going home because... that home is gone.

The war continues, but the Autobots generally have the motif of trying to restrain the Decepticon war machine from ravaging more worlds like they did to Cybertron. There's no real win condition besides a slim hope that MAYBE Megatron will see reason and just stop (which is unlikely) or that a marginally less deranged Decepticon will take office and be willing to accept peace talks even for a generation or two to just STOP killing everything for a while.

That's the best hope. Otherwise, it seems that the only peace is the peace of one side being wiped out, in a rather tragic sense rather than a 'we're the good guys so its okay if we wipe them all out' thing. Most series, when they acknowledge this, very strongly go with the Autobots don't want that. But it doesn't seem like there's a choice.

So this wraps around to the initial point here; people often don't respect this series because its goofy, and it is that. It's a series about transforming alien robots that turn into cars, military equipment and more silly, bizarre stuff; into airplane-dragons and scientifiaclly inaccurate robot dinosaurs and unusually large rats and whatever the heck the Transmetal 2 line and the Fuzors were. It's often bombastic, cheesy as hell, with a soundtrack codified by 80s glam rock and its perhaps best personified as 'GOD EXISTS, HE'S A GIANT ROBOT WHO TURNS INTO A ROBOT PLANET AND HE HAS AN EVIL SIBLING WHO IS BASICALLY ROBOT SATAN WHO TURNS INTO BIGGER EVIL PLANET'

But at the same time, even in the cheesiest series, when the war is still a thing, there's still a melancholy aspect to it. Robot God existed, and he was legitimately good and kind (if somewhat hands off), and he's probably dead. He was murdered by the ones he made; maybe bcause of the horrors of war draining resources until there's nothing left to keep anyone alive, or because the self centered despot in charge of the Bad Guy Team poisoned the planet with the hateful blood of the ungod of death and oblivion just for a tactical advantage, and now God's dead. The homeworld is dead with him.

The Autobots left home because there's nothing left to return to. And often, when there IS some hope of bringing life to Cybertron, the price is far too high for a mind to consider and still think you can be a hero of the story; it requires the mass death of an alien species, the subjugation of a planet, to let humanity die so the Transformers can prosper.

Optimus and the Autobots say no; no matter what. That is a price they can't even consider and still call themselves Autobots. If making a decision like that is the only way to save Primus, then Primus would rather them let him stay dead. And it goes on, in other ways; Optimus is often characterized as tremendously burned out of being the ultimate perfect heroic figure he's become to the fandom, carrying out through sheer grit and heroic spirit but keeping no hope for himself, and just coming off as so tired of the endless conflict, of seeing a former friend completely lost to his own ambition and becoming so much worse than everything he fought.

As a plot, it tends to be significantly broader in scope than the sort of stuff I see these v-tubers and reactors that I dislike really get into. I've seen people dismiss Transformers out of hand and just go 'lol how am I supposed to relate to robots even if they're gay' and its like, I see you relating to demons; that's not any more realistic than robots even if you gave them cutesy little horns or something. But that's still making it about YOU, about pretending they're actually you or something.

This isn't a series about projecting really hard onto a character and erasing their personalities so you can imagine you're the main character, this is a series ROOTED in character and bizarre tones and a surprisingly somber aspect at times. Even G1, the least serious of its interpretations, still had surprisingly brutal and gruesome deaths for a good portion of the cast, and did the unexpected; showing its robot characters as having been made by others and rose up to free themselves, and being treated as heroes for it. And then, those same creators show up later, prompting Rodimus to state: "We Transformers have seen the face of our creators... and it is the face of an enemy."

This is a series that REALLY goes all out on investment in characters, specifically. Makes me wonder if the people who dismiss it just aren't that invested in characters, or don't really get the concept of continuity specific stuff. Or that they dismiss it because they don't think sapient robots are relatable, which is a minor thing in the grand scheme of things. (Again, if you're constantly depicting your online persona as some kind of fictious creature, or a demon or something, mocking sapient robots as being worth having interest in is just splitting hairs.)

There's one episode in G1 that ends in a pyrric victory; a lake with a powerful resource is discovered, the Decepticons attack and the Autobots fight them off, but in the destruction, the entire natural area is completely obliterated, leaving a smoking ruin. The episode ends on a somber note, and nature-loving Beachcomber ends the episode looking at the ruin as he bitterly says "We won."

and in a lot of ways, that kind of feels like a summation of the series at its more somber.

[agena87]

I was meant to make some models for my future cc releases, instead I created some new OCs.

I present to you, some of the Winderburgese elite (plus an old rock star). Countess Hendrika and Grand Duke Meint are engaged. Don't think for one minute that they love each other, 'cause their (future) union is just politics and money. The Grand Duke needs a wife after his father stepped down from the throne, and Hendrika, while "only" a countess, is the only heir to the richest family in Windenburg, but as a female, she can't inherit her family lands and fortune, and needs a (legitimate) male heir; hence the engagement. Of course, in public, they appear as the perfect couple, seemingly happy and deeply in love. But behind the closed doors of the various palaces and mansions they find themselves inhabiting at any given time, things are quite different. See, Meint couldn't care less about his fiancée; he didn't even want one to begin with (he was perfectly OK with one of his cousins inheriting the throne after him). As for Hendrika, well, she has needs (lots of). And a very specific taste for older, dominative, men. So, she starts an affair with the Prime Minister; a short and unassuming man who, it turns out, is into pet play (him, being the master of said pet), which is right up Hendrika's alley. But it's not enough for the countess, so she turns toward her future father-in-law, and former monarch and general, Ambroos, who had been widowed for more than a decade, and used to be quite the lady's man during his youth and rumoured to be on the violent side in the bedroom (he is). Finally (?), Hendrika meets Kobus Baas, the former singer of a glam/hard rock band, a known political opponent to the tyrannical Windenburgese regime and "degenerate" (as in he's openly pan, which is not something that is accepted, or even quite legal, in the Grand Duchy). The sense of "danger" of being caught consorting with such an individual (and the sexiness of the guy in question, 'cause look at him!) pushes the countess to "jump" into his bed nearly as soon as they meet.

THE END (for now).

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 2/6/2024

some weeks it's really hard to come up with a snappy little bon mot to put here

listening

Barbarella, by a fuck of a lot of people. yes i DID watch this movie this week! this is the single catchiest theme song i have ever heard. i cannot link the actual opening credits scene bc tumblr will censor that shit SO fast. spotify

-

reading

Rebecca Roanhorse's Tread of Angels novella. this is an urban magic old west religious fantasy novella. VERY sangfielle friendsatthetable vibes, there's an old west mining town centered around the body of the demon Abbadon, which is being mined for its powerful properties. demons and angels have sort of interbred throughout the human population. there is some deeply nerdy catholic bullshit and i say that as someone who was in catholic school for fifteen years. actually let's just take Roanhorse's explanation

the setting and premise are not where the novella bites off way more than it can chew. the main character, a cardsharp, has a chanteuse sister being held accused of a murder and she's got 48hrs to prove her innocence. the time limit and general structure is good, and it uses its side characters wisely, there's just a fuck of a lot of them.

in general, this novella does not have the emotional room to make its emotional beats really count. for example, there was a second breakup with an ex after a night of passion that mostly just left me confused. more broadly, the main character has an oldest sister's selfsacrificing nature that has twisted into utter ruthlessness with regards to her sister, and i'm both impressed Roanhorse managed to convey that in so few pages and annoyed bc i really wanted to see more of that in way more detail. due to the nature of it being a novella, the series of escalating decisions she takes feel very jagged in their escalation. i hope that makes sense.

it's got really interesting ideas! i want to know more about the ideas! i wish this was a full book instead of a novella, so the ending hits a little better instead of a Well That Just Happened way. from this interview it seems Roanhorse also wanted it to be a full book, but it was sort of a "i need something short and sweet so i don't go insane while adapting my other book for TV" (which is very exciting!!!)

-

watching

really a bizarre set of films. extremely unemployed energy in this watchlist this week. largely composed of "what's on my letterboxed watchlist and also available for free on tubi, with brief forays into hulu"

Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (2013, dir. Chow). loved the overall visual design of the antagonists and the monsters, did not overall love this movie. it is a solid martial arts showcase and the first twenty minutes with freshwater JAWS are the most tightly plotted. it kind of flounders (lol) after that. can't find a gif i like.

INU-OH (2021, dir. Yuasa) genuinely healed my heart a little i think. queer (complimentary, not queer in the western massachusetts housing coop way) feudal anime glam rock opera. i am sooooooo picky about bad dads in movies as a driving force but this really soothed my daddy issues. stuck the landing on both storytelling and visuals.

Barbarella (1968, dir. Vadim) WOW Jane Fonda was hot. this was both sillier and less porny than i was led to believe (if we ignore the softcore porn opening credits). however horny this movie was it was not brave enough to have some girl-on-girl action with barbarella and the evil empress, even though the evil empress never seems to actually learn her name and just calls her “pretty” or “pretty-pretty”. shoutout to the one fic on ao3 that rectifies this situation. certainly a piece of scifi history, i wish modern scifi was as brave with its theatrical set dressing, i think one viewing is good enough for me bc i cannot stop thinking about how all the women on set might have been treated.

john philip law popped up and i said out loud to my cat “hey i know him from cowboys”

Flower Drum Song (1961, dir. Koster) got conned into watching this by the hotvintagemen poll bc i wanted to see what james shigeta’s deal was, and if he did have a sort of ratpack sensibility as the propaganda described. he does! however this movie is unrelentingly awful. it is so so so slow. all of its comedy is racism-based. it feels like a three and a half hour two-VHS set instead of two hours. i like to think i have a stronger stomach for older media and am able to consider things as products of their times but this is my upper limit i think. one brief fleeting moment of cool production with this triple mirror effect

Dirty Dancing (1987, dir. Ardolino). we were trying to find something to watch on either peacock or hbo max, and when i said "oh i've never seen that" out loud my my best friend said "that's insane we're watching it". i did not hate this movie, but i feel like i missed some critical window of development in which i would have had to see this movie to really love it. i had sort of an abnormal high school experience and i am a smidge too old to relate to bildungsroman any more. but it was cute! it was fine! i think patrick swayze’s jawline could cut glass. this film was made after Roe v Wade (1973) and i feel like the backstreet abortion b-plot has done this interesting 180 from sort of a historical novelty to a real threat and terror again. fun!

that’s it for the watching section i promise

-

playing

im doing the thing where i play a game for ten minutes, put it down, and then pick it back up again, which is probably not terrific for the health of my elderly switch. but whatever. what have i been up to in breath of the wild?

not a ton of progress map-wise, but did make it up to zora’s domain.

i was planning on the camel being the first divine beast, to get that over with bc i had such a devil of a time in my last playthrough, but the thing about the desert is it’s really far away.

dicked around the dueling peaks stables for a while without managing to defeat that guardian and unlock that shrine. so it goes. i think i really need an actual guardian shield from one of the minor tests of strength shrines instead of a normie shield. this line and sidequest made me laugh— it wasn’t terribly hard to find this little cache but it was a tricky bit of gliding.

didn’t realize the horses don’t have that much vertical threat perception, just like real horses. this little band walked right under me and i failed to glide down and land perfectly on someone’s back, which did freak them all out.

i think my new favorite place in a game is this little grove clinging to the side of the dueling peaks. it felt very peaceful and cozy. nothing can get me up there and there’s more than enough room to make a little campfire and cook dinner and not roll off the mountain in a sleeping bag the middle of the night.

also fully kitted out my house bc i had a very successful mining expedition along dueling peaks. EXTREMELY forgiving and generous secondary opening area imo, thanks game

-

making

i started this glitch sampler pattern by tumblr's own mathysphere (not @'d bc this is a fuck of a long post) at the beginning of the pandemic, june 2020, while thinking "eh let's give this friends at the table counterweight thing a shot" got most of the way through both counterweight and this piece, put it down bc i was so annoyed with all the confetti stitches (random one-off stitches of colors that aren't anywhere near other stitches of the same color. i think i resorted to fraychek at several points in the rover square) and then put it down so long i had to throw it out during the great moth debacle, bc it was partly eaten.

here's what it will look like finished, and a link to buy the pattern

i think this time around i am a much better technical stitcher (the first crack at this i didn't know the loop method of starting, or pin stitches, or really any alternate endings except running the tail under the last few stitches). i usually stitch with three strands bc i like the look, but i think the loop method with three strands is overly fiddly. i have not picked up cross stitch since mmmm 2021, but any mistakes or unevenness in this will simply contribute to the glitch effect. i'm going to go back and backstitch the four "frames" and key portions of the sampler to highlight portions of the glitches (eg the yellow and blue centers of the spiral galaxy, the interior of the eclipse, perhaps add an antenna to the rover).

still not my tidiest back, but hey. it's going to sit in a frame and not have any sort of friction or extra force applied to it ever

i am really looking forward to framing this in a deep shadowbox, i have an idea about how to mat it with little melty cutouts for the drips at the bottom.

[electrificata]

confirmed that we are doing glam rock

this is just a "jean genie" but thats fine a lot of things are

on the one hand, i like that we've chosen a genre where having lyrics that dont make any sense and arent that good is kind of baked into the whole thing. like i love t rex and "hubcap diamond star halo" is beautiful to me but thats an exception rather than a rule

again i am worried that theyre just gonna make him a massive rock star with number 1 pop hits and stuff and i dont love that idea, like we get that shit on occasion these days but maneskin is a fluke and also they are bad

it might be kind of fun if they play with the fact that lestat is resurrecting a genre that isnt really in the zeitgeist right now, and that hes getting farther on charisma and novelty than anything else. like in the queen of the damned movie he crashes a random nu metal band's practice space, maybe in this it can be an aging bowie cover band or something

we can underline all this by adding elements of 80s hair metal which will be very funny

actually the fact that we are now existing in a landscape of weirdos analyzing song lyrics for details of the lives of pop stars theyve overidentified with might work well with this. in the moobie i think the vibe was more "we are trying to see if led zeppelin has satanic messages hidden in their lyrics" but this might be more "which ex did taylor write this about"

i want stan twitter addressed in a way that is more than a joke

[keeperofthebox]

I thought it would be fun to try and capture what I think the ninjas’ music tastes would be in playlists. So, here are 5 playlists of 20 songs each for Lloyd, Kai, Zane, Jay, and Cole. My goal was to make these painfully realistic, so be prepared for a little nonsense!

LLOYD // KAI // ZANE // JAY // COLE

(Warning for explicit lyrics in Lloyd, Kai, and Cole’s playlists. See notes under the cut.)

These playlists are generally meant to be enjoyed in order, but I forgive you if you can’t do that. It's only that I jumped between a lot of different genres for these guys in order to give the impression that they’re well-rounded, so I tried to make the transition smooth. I don’t want you to get jump-scared if you have it on shuffle.

I didn't repeat any artists except for Daft Punk (because I had to for Zane, like, legally), and I tried to stick to each artist's most popular music. I want the average listener to recognize a lot of these! I think that makes it more fun to listen to.

The covers are inspired by those iPod commercials with the silhouettes from the mid 2000s. :)

LLOYD: This playlist is inspired by my experience being a tween/teen in the early-to-mid 2010s. Thank you to all my classmates for your unintentional contributions. And you may be wondering, friend, why did you put so much moody rap music on Lloyd’s playlist? Well, in response I raise my own question: have you ever met a real 16-year old-boy?

KAI: I tried to make the playlist flow with his arc. It starts out with edgy rock music, moves into emo, then J-rock (yes, there’s a Naruto opening in there, it’s Kai, why wouldn’t there be), then scene, then horny dance-pop—just like Kai starting out super angsty, but eventually chilling out to the idiotic flirty mess we know today.

ZANE: I mostly just wanted to capture that he’s really weird. He gives me an oldies vibe. It’s also fun to imagine him trying to figure out wacky song lyrics—I think they would mystify him. I wanted to put “My Kind of Woman��� by Mac Demarco on there, but it was the only song from this century on the whole playlist, and it stuck out like a sore thumb. :(

JAY: Thank you to everyone who helped me with the video game OST choices! RIP Jay Walker, you would have loved the Portal games. Other than that, I just went for a mix of Tumblr-y lovey-dovey pop rock and glam 80s pop type junk.

COLE: I think Cole is probably the only one who has a good sense of music. He gives me a music bro vibe. I tried to give him some variety to reflect that, but with a focus on grunge and older metal.

Anyway, enjoy!

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s5 ep20: Juggernaut

I don't know if I'm in any frame of mind to review a Star Trek episode right now, since I'm American, and it's election day, and we may or may not be descending into fascism in the next day or so, which is obviously terrifying. And since I'm in more than one of the groups that are on the fascist chopping block, I am very not okay. I haven't looked at election news yet, since I'm too anxiety-ridden to look before all the votes are in, so bear with me if I get a little upset about this otherwise middling episode of Star Trek: Voyager.

Gonna just say that I don't like this one. I hate episodes where they bring up B'Elanna's very understandable anger issues as some sort of terrible thing that's ruining everyone's day, so she should just have to to suck it up and get over it. Miss me with that shit. B'Elanna's actually calmed down a lot over the years, so for them to do a story like this now just feels like punishing women for ever showing a hint of anger. (Meanwhile, everybody is angry with her for being angry, yet somehow them being angry is okay, but her anger isn't. Ok, sure, that makes so much sense! Not!)

While there is merit in the idea of healing from trauma including letting go of your anger to at least some extent, I don't feel like that's what they were going for here. Nobody seemed interested in exploring why she feels the way she does, or finding ways to help her heal by making her feel safe and loved and accepted, they just wanted her to suppress her feelings so they weren't an inconvenience to them, which, in itself, compounds the trauma and makes it worse. So this whole story gets a fail from me, which is too bad, because it could have been pretty effective just as a thriller without all the weird misogyny thrown into it. It's basically Phantom of the Paradise on a Malon garbage scowl, just without the 70s glam rock. (It would have been more fun with some 70s glam rock, honestly.) The whole environmentalist commentary they're doing with the Malons was enough of a story by itself without having to throw in everyone making B'Elanna feel bad about herself. Kudos to Tom, Neelix, and Janeway at least for being supportive of her, but I loathe how they made Tuvok and Chakotay treat her- after almost 5 years together, and more than that in Chakotay's case, they wouldn't be so shitty to her and have so little faith in her. What the hell??

Also, I fail to see why B'Elanna was the only one in a tank top on the Malon ship. Why didn't any of the men take their jackets off for the whole episode? More sexism, methinks! And this is like, what, the second episode where the camera has followed B'Elanna into the bathroom while taking a shower? Eww? I don't care that they only show her back- when was the last time we followed any male characters into the shower and showed even their backs? Never, actually. And it was gratuitous here, since that whole thing about her remembering hitting that guy had nothing to do with her being angry with him, she had to do it to protect an entire sector of space from being irradiated and killing everyone, so why are they making this thing about her feeling guilty about it or whatever? It's very obvious that the guy who wanted to kill eveyone because he was so angry and wanted revenge was supposed to be a cautionary tale about letting your anger run wild, but that's a false equivalency to compare him to B'Elanna. She doesn't ever intentionally cause harm to people when she's angry, and has time and again volunteered to sacrifice herself to help others. She cares far too much about other people to be in danger of doing anything so destructive.

Stories about how harmful the anger of wronged or oppressed people are need to walk a fine line if they don't want to veer into the territory of gaslighting people with legitimate grievances into believing their anger makes them just as bad, or worse, than the people who caused them harm, and don't think this episode walks that line well. It doesn't really seem to have a message other than 'anger is bad', which is an incedibly un-nuanced take that has no usefulness to anyone whatsoever.

Tl;dr: Another episode where B'Elanna gets undeserved crap for being angry, made the worse by being late in the series, when it hasn't even been an issue for a while. No fun, and no useful message or character development. (Tbh I'm surprised but thankful that no one told her to smile more. Good grief.)

[choicesmc]

🎀🍄🧿 for Sawtooth

And 🎃 for everyone u wanna answer for

thank you!! from [this] ask game

🎀Do they have something they collect? {Stamps, rocks, stickers, etc}

For certain!! Sawtooth has a fairly decent animal tooth collection! It started ~the time when they were in middle school and stumbled across a hagfish tooth! Since then he’s been slowly expanding his collection + trying to get more land animal teeth (<- being in Cali (<- Woosley gives me West Coast vibes) and all)

🍄Say it's their love interests' birthday, how would they celebrate it?

Contrary to their typical attitude, Sawtooth is super frantic about Channing’s birthday!! Channing’s the sort of dude go be too “cool” for his birthdays but tries to do something for everyone else, so he never bothered telling Sawtooth it was his birthday, leading to Sawtooth only learning it was Channing’s birthday only a couple of days to the event itself.

Sawtooth does not take that lying down and absolutely pulls out every ounce of romance in his bones. He really goes full out: home-cooked food, picnic in a scenic spot, lots of being held, and very many kisses. <- Does it exhaust him? Yes. Romance doesn’t come naturally to him, but the look on Channing’s face is so entirely worth it that it makes Sawtooth repeat all the romance every year just for Channing.

(note: Sawtooth has time-space synesthesia and Channing’s birthday is very elevated compared to the any other day, <- for more info, I made a post about it [here])

🧿Do they have a superstition or belief? Such as "black cats bring bad luck", belief in ghosts, tarot, crystals, meditation, etc.

Also a hard yes! Sawtooth is vaguely spiritual in the sense that if something gives them bad enough vibes —they ARE nope-ing out so very quick, no amount of logic is convincing them to stay.

He’s kinda into divination like geomancy + cartomancy but doesn’t really believe they tell the future. It’s more they force him to consider something he may already have known from a new angle, y’know?

That being said: ghosts are real; fungus is sacred; and all plants have souls. o7

🎃What would their Halloween outfit be?

okayokay— so jia would very much go as Setsuka Heel from Skip Beat. I do not expect you to know who that is so here are some helpful photos:

rams would do something anachronistic!! maybe 70s disco or glam rock inspired?

those are the only two I have solid ideas for but im almost certain all my MCs would do a little something for halloween <333

[8iunie]

Måneskin: “When you get famous, people just want to know who you’re f**king”

The global Italian rockers open up about discovering themselves, mastering fame and finding their genderless sound. (posted on 20.01.2023)

It’s late morning and Italian rock band Måneskin are comfortably seated in a swanky West London hotel room, already kitted out in signature Gucci, jet-black eyeliner, and clean-cut 70s-style statement suits. The quartet, an electric gleam of cool against a silver-spotted setting, are nonchalantly scrunched into a deep turquoise couch. Their suave image serves as a reminder of how far they’ve come since their early Italian X Factor days.

Over a year has passed since the group’s whirlwind takeover as glam rock stars conquering the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 and they’re showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, the band’s authentic image and relentless sound has earned them over six million followers on their band’s Instagram account — a figure greater than the population living in their fashion capital hometown, Rome, where the rock and rollers were born. Måneskin’s rise as next generation figureheads isn’t too unconventional, after all, plenty of breakthrough acts – ABBA, Celine Dion, One Direction – have cut their teeth on televised competitions. And as game-changing winners, the rock band are eager to start writing their own legacy.

Måneskin’s commitment to being more than a hazy Eurovision memory is not to be unexpected. The band have committedly popped where you would least expect them – the 2021 BRIT Awards, Gucci’s luxury Aria campaign, or Disney’s live-action adaptation of Cruella – reminding us that they’re not going anywhere. And, just yesterday, the Italian artists spontaneously flew to London for a glitzy one-off showcase to debut their emo ballad, The Loneliest, co-written by British producer MNEK. While they’ve marginally recovered, the band are still buzzing from last night’s sweaty reception at Camden’s The Underworld in front of 500 die-hard fans. (“Oh my god, it was like a sauna in there,” bassist Victoria De Angelis chimes in, her voice hoarse from the manic show). It doesn’t matter if they’re pulling off last-minute sold-out performances or rubbing elbows with Guns’N’Roses, the Eurovision victors are doing it in style: flamboyantly dressed and with a compelling sense of gratitude.

Now, whether they’re rocking fashion red carpets or main stages, Måneskin are ready to make their presence felt. “We’ve gained a lot of successful things in the last year and we’re really happy about all the paths we’re going through,” drummer Ethan Torchio says, gesturing to the wider band. “We never had a specific ambition to gain or to achieve anything. It’s all about how we approach it day by day.”

While the band may not have pinned their hopes on a specific accolade, Måneskin’s shared teenage experiences primed them for their rapid accession as one of Europe’s hottest rock exports. Forming at high school as a unified three-piece, Ethan Torchio joined the gang after responding to an online open call out for a drummer. This fateful pairing, alongside the band’s long-standing friendship has become the crux of Måneskin’s outlook. “We all have a very clear vision — we are very bitchy,” Victoria says confidently, smiling. “We have very specific ideas. Being only four [of us] and not having overproduction, we think that our individual sound really makes the difference”. Ethan, who’s taken to perching on the couch armrest, echoes his bandmate: “We’re perfectionists.”

As Måneskin’s latest album, RUSH!, dawns, the artists have been busy splitting their legacy between Italy and the rest of the world – from showcasing support for Ukraine at Coachella in California to bringing their rock and roll swagger to The Green Fashion Awards alongside style icons Karolina Kurkova and Elisa Sednaoui. “These two ways of expression (rock and roll) are ways in which we have always liked to measure ourselves,” youngest member Thomas Raggi says in accented English. “We like to alternate them because they represent the different musical souls of which the band is composed.”

Måneskin’s rock and roll philosophy is more than a reliable shoehorned statement. Much like their striking clothing, it fits like a well-worn mantra. (“In a younger age, it really helped us define our personality and stand out in some way,” Victoria says.) Growing up in a “very conservative country”, the artists found the music scene as an opportunity to experiment with their image as teenagers. Labelled as “weird” or receiving “a lot of judgements” wasn’t going to hold Måneskin back. Instead, the alternative act learned to lean on each other for support, she says, and strengthened their bond. “It really helped to have a purpose and have this project together. It made us feel reassured that we’re doing something cool and we were allowed to be ourselves.”

As the band found themselves migrating from headline to headline, they became accustomed to facing off gossip together. Ask them about the cocaine-meets- Eurovision moment and they all laugh, sharing familiar smiles with each other. “We were already so successful in Italy so we got kind of used to hearing speculation about us,” Ethan shrugs. “The huge Eurovision blowout was a good moment of our lives because we were all at a point of growing and personality building.”

But the speculation didn’t just stop there. The questions of drugs subsided and talk about sexuality quickly rose to the fore. At the time, a quick internet search of Måneskin’s name would lead to autofills poking questions at everything to boyfriends, girlfriends, and identity labels. “We’re not very touched by these kinds of comments. We all are very sure of what we are and how we want to show it,” Ethan responds. Although the band were quickly dismissive of the online talk, a bigger lesson loomed, frontman Damiano David reveals. “In Italy, we did not discover that there’s more than one sexuality until we got to use social media. Just like everybody else, I was [use terms] ‘straight’ or ‘gay’,” he candidly shares. Since then, the vocalist admits he’s taking on “more knowledge” to better himself as an ally — “I’m fully straight but this doesn’t stop me from being an ally. I’m on the side that has to learn new things.”

The band’s public discussion of identity has been one they’ve decidedly kept close to their chest, until now. “We understand people can get very affected by [speculation] because they’re making themselves sure of what they are and how to express [themselves] to their parents or to their friends,” Ethan empathises. As a member who has faced the brunt of opinion, the drummer pauses, choosing his words carefully: “[Trying] to guess people’s sexualities is one of the worst things to do — it’s very bad.”

A time that was particularly testing for the band was when Måneskin’s provocative Want To Be Your Slave music video hit the internet. A visual centred on sexual liberation and self-expression, the band quickly faced questions on their aesthetic and affiliation to queerness. “People are curious about it because it’s been quite a taboo topic for many years, it’s something now that other people are so interested in, not only with celebrities, but just generally with everyone,” Victoria says. She recalls times in high school where similar-aged teenagers would guess whether an effeminate boy is gay or not. “Like, who the fuck cares?!” she huffs. “People are really interested in the private lives of the artists. They look it up because it makes them feel like they know you better or it’s just to gossip or break a scandal.”

A brief pause falls over the band and Damiano shakes his head, prepping an answer: “I think it’s easier. It’s just not that complicated. When you get famous, people just want to know who you’re fucking. It’s just sick curiosity.” The inner-band debate strikes up again as Ethan proposes the media curiosity is fuelled by a misdirected want for knowledge and understanding.

While this is one the few times the band disagree, they respectfully onboard one another’s opinions as they take stock of the bigger conversation. The root of animated discussion breaks open as the members begin to turn the question inward. “I don’t really know how to identify. In the past years, I’ve been identifying as bi, but, lately, I’m having no interest in boys. I’m discovering [my identity is] developing,” Victoria says, her striped brown tie falling forwards. “I like some girls and then it changes to ‘okay, I almost don’t like any boys at all’. It is something constantly… It’s lesbian but also Harry Styles.” Damiano cracks up with laughter and Ethan quips that the former One Direction star is christened “the chosen one”. Circling back to her line of thought, the bassist proves she’s hardcore with her closing line — “It’s just who you are and you can really express yourself and I think this is like what matters the most and what we think is real rock and roll and freedom.”

Måneskin are no strangers to taking a stand. If you ask us, it looks like they love causing a bit of a stir. Mid-last year, the band, once again, caught headlines after Damiano and Thomas shared an unplanned kiss on stage at the Polsat SuperHit Festival. The band vividly recalls fans sharing the impact their music had on them. “When you get there and see how you can help thousands of people, it really makes you understand the difference you can have in that moment,” Victoria reflects. The group’s commitment to ensuring freedom of expression is larger than a few lyrics in a song – it feeds into their interviews and on-stage actions too.

“Being part of this generation it’s hard. It’s useful to take some strong positions on topics, because we need some strong actions. We’re just trying to do our part,” Thomas elaborates, explaining Måneskin’s move to be controversial every now and then. “We also try to improve ourselves every day. But at least you can try to find and to look for the right thing to do.” Lead singer Damiano backs up the decision to use their platform to back political causes. “If you have the courage to speak up about things, I think it’s very, very helpful,” he says earnestly. “We have to be able to understand when it’s better for us to take a step back and let those really affected people talk about it, because we are just allies and we’re not getting discriminated against, but we can try to be empathetic and use our voice and our power to help everybody.”

The four-piece have chalked up a reputation for being unpredictable and stylishly outrageous, but this consensus doesn’t sway the young band. If anything, their years in the on-screen media pipeline has taught them how to utilise the spotlight. It doesn’t matter whether they’re discussing music, tours or politics, the band inevitably comes back to the value of being authentic for their fans (“We just feel very close to them,” Victoria says protectively.) At the centre of their overlapping comments on friendship and frenzied life changes, Måneskin are humbly aware of how their fanbase supports them. The bassist continues, saying it’s important to create a place where everyone can be who they want. Pausing, she periodically slips into Italian, asking her bandmates to translate a term.

“It’s obvious everyone wants to be free for who they really are. In my experience, at first, I was so concerned and worried ‘who am I if I do this’ or that I’m something else or that I’m changing, but it’s [best] to not be worried about these things,” she says passionately. “We want to create with our fans and to put everyone in this healthy environment. And doing this really gives strength to young people or people who are in more oppressed situations to have courage to see that it’s okay.”

There’s no doubt Måneskin have distilled their lived lessons into this new record to create a rock and roll oasis. From beat-thumping inductions to media gossip to tongue-in-cheek comments on becoming the “kool kids”, the monstrous, hardcore noise of RUSH! has it all. “For me, it is a very personal record. It tells the story of how I came to discover myself and what I want to be as a person and as an artist,” Damiano explains. “All this frenzy led me to look inside myself, somehow I felt free to express a part of me that I had kept more hidden.”

The album is a chaotic amalgamation of crushing guitar riffs, full-throttle lyrics, and sonorous vocals sways through lines of Italian and English. Måneskin’s charge forward with spluttering drums, cranked up instrumentation, with songs pouring their original larger-than-life stamp into their broad rock productions. At their height, the band’s best tracks (La Fine, Gossip ft Tom Morello, Kool Kids) ignite like a blazing stage sign giving direction to Måneskin’s inevitable rise as one of today’s spirited rock acts.

An evolution from their gutsy sophomore studio release, Teatro d’ira: Vol. I, new album RUSH! captures the spark of each member. “Each of us had the freedom to follow our own personal direction. This time we didn’t look for the synthesis, the lowest common denominator between our different personalities, but we kind of added them up, exalted them all to the same level, and despite everything I think we still retained our identity,” Victoria shares.

With that, the band did not shy away from splurging on animated guitar hooks or fret over going too heavy with the familiar political zing of their rock tunes. Victoria adds: “We live in the concern of a progressive loss of people’s rights and we are afraid that this common thought is growing. In the track La Fine we refer precisely to this thought. Our music wants to be free and genderless. The goal is that people can identify with our message without having any definition of gender or category.”

After months of mania and unrelenting bouts of success, Måneskin are eagerly positioned to take on what’s next. And with a sold out arena in London already on the cards, it won’t be long before they’re greeting roaring fans once more. But, for now, as they savour the release of RUSH!, the band have found renewed strength in their amped up sound. “We have found our synthesis in diversity. This record is a point of pride and artistic growth for us,” Damiano reaffirms. And in a lesson learned by all, Victoria shares a final note of uplifting advice: “Never be afraid to express yourself. Always be free!”

WORDS BY ZOYA RAZA-SHEIKH

PHOTOGRAPHY BY FABIO GERMINARIO

[godly-paternity-testing-dot-com]

Hi! First of all I hope you are having and amazing day/night! I happened to find this little blog that his helping demigods to find their godly parents and as someone who really unable to solve their own personality I would be very happy if you could help me out too!

Sooo somethings about myself:

1) I study at the univeristy at the moment for two different professions (One is Gastronomy and Culunary Art while the other one is Ethnography)

2) My hobbies are drawing, listening music, reading, writing, swimming, hiking, cooking, conduct research on history and cultures and doing some little crafting projects. Most of the people who knows my hobbies often tells me that I'm good at drawing and writing. Also from some experience I'm pretty good at acting too

3) I have an interesting connection between kids and animals. Somehow I make most of the young kids relaxed and happy when I take care of them. Same could go for animals too. Many of my acquaintances said that veterinary medicine or teaching could be good professions for me when choosing a department but I really didn't want to leave my love for researching.

4) I mostly have a mixed taste when it comes to music but most of my playlists consist of alternative singers and music groups. My fave Alt music category is Glam Rock, I can listen any kind of Glam Rock for ours.

5) My love languages are speding quality time and giving gifts.

6) My social life is kind of weird tbh. Most people a little shy about approaching me. One of my close friends actually straight up told me that I was looking so intimidating and happy while being alone that she got scared to approach me for a while. But in realty I'm just afraid that I won't make a good impressions in people (I thing this is some kind of anxiety ?). Also I'm not very good at endure people who are not willing to develop or do good things for themselves, "stupid" people (which there is a lot of them in my country) in my book so whenever I get in a chat with them I somehow use my expressions more than normal so that they understand I don't wish to talk with them.

7) I have this weird thing about my look. I don't like to be standard. Just as I can express myself with my clothing, I think I can do the same with my body. That's why I like tattos, colored hairs, piercings and such. Also some little step to achive my thought made me realize I was and am genderfluid. Soo I think it was also a win win.

Hello camper! Glad to be of help 😌 honestly I had the same problem, and then as soon as I got input from others I was like "wait yeah it really was obvious" 😅😅😅

Ok so I had to do some research BUT

I reckon you're a Demeter kid. Demeter is traditionally goddess of the harvest, but she is also the goddess of culinary arts. Although it's not explicitly stated, I'm so very sure the Demeter kids are the most multicultural cabin. You can't tell me that Demeter doesn't travel all over the world to see all the different crops and plants and dishes other countries have, even if her home base is still America. She's also the goddess of fertility and her children are natural nurturers (despite what dear Meg McCaffrey may make you think), which makes sense why babies and animals are drawn to you.

Well, child of Demeter, welcome to Camp Half Blood! Cabin 4 is unfortunately still under construction, although hopefully it'll be finished soon - for the time being, you'll have to continue camping out in Cabin 11. On the up side, Miranda Gardner, head counsellor of Demeter Cabin, has just negotiated that her and her siblings get a section of the cabin exclusively to themselves, so that should be more comfortable. I'm honestly not sure how she pulled that off, although I will say I saw Meg walking around earlier with an extremely smug look on her face... and some shiny new steel-toed boots...

[puhpandas]

Listen as much as I love the old characters, their story is over. I really want the new characters be their own character. Gregory shouldn’t be a reincarnation or a robot version of the crying child and glam rock freddy should just be.. Freddy. I love glammike when it’s an AU but in canon is just iffy. Also the same for Cassie, I don’t really like the thought cassie being Cassidy or something. They can have similarities but if they’re the same person just wouldn’t make sense ngl. There’s a lot of potential for the new characters and I really hope in future games people will come to like them as much as people like the old characters.

yeah! I understand that some people dont really like the new characters because they didnt get the development they needed, but just a little bit of theorizing and fanon (which is what the Afton family lives off of) makes them so interesting! you can easily see what their characters were supposed to be, with vanny and vanessa and Gregory with GGY, and all they need is just a bit of creativity to be amazing protags

they deserve a lot of love and not nearly as much hate as they get! they're not bad characters they just got screwed over in a bad game launch. I guarantee the newer games will give us some more to chew on like how ruin did and make them even better

[thr4shdoes-selfships]

Soooo...

Intros!

Username:

@/theclowndoes-selfships, now @/thr4shdoes-selfships

Name:

I go by Evan or Vinnie, but I also use the name Alex or Lex.

Stuff I do here:

Selfshipping, OCs x Canon, etc

( here will be only selfshipping and similar stuff to that. If you want other content. I recommend you check my main, which is @thedancingclowns !! )

But... yeah! I have a self shipping blog now, and... yay!

( Please be aware!! I am legally an adult! But any minor characters I mark as romantic f/o's are in relationships with YOUNGER s/i's!! I know that sounds weird, maybe, but I'm trying to explain that as clearly as I can. With those f/o's, I either make my s/i's younger/towards their age, or I do age ups! I'm not just like: "welp, I'm an adult, but one of my f/o's is this x years old character!" because to me that doesn't sit emotionally right. A similar thing for multiple characters of same fandom, sometimes I will use different s/i's for them because I like too many characters from some fandoms as romantic f/o's and it gets/feels awkward so times. I'm guess I'm kind of like a... f/o multishipper, if that makes sense lol...? :'> plus I still have them as f/o's because I technically considered them f/o's before I WAS an adult, so it felt less weird back then. )

f/o list and more below cut

f/o list!!

Key:

an orange source title means a platonic f/o, a pink source title means a romantic f/o, a purple source title means a familial f/o and a blue source title is a f/o outside those categories, like a qpr, or friends with benefits, etc. noncolored source titles are for uncategorized f/o's, likely new to the list.

(work in progress, give me some time, I'm slow and there are a lot. :'D)

Heavy Shvagenbagen (Metal Family)

Dee Shvagenbagen (Metal Family)

Lif (Metal Family *and familial because of a different oc / s/i*)

Lordy (Metal Family)

Bob (Metal Family)

Sebastian (Metal Family)

*like, ONLY the Younger version of Glam is a romantic f/o. Glam as an adult is a platonic f/o*

Sal Fisher (Sally Face)

Larry Johnson (Sally Face)

Todd Morrison (Sally Face)

Ashley Campbell (Sally Face)

Travis Phelps (Sally Face)

James (Pokémon)

Jessie (Pokémon)

Brock (Pokémon)

Catfeine (Frowning Critters AU)

Catnap (Poppy Playtime *Smiling Critters*)

N (Pokémon Black/White)

Brewster (Animal Crossing)

Eyeless Jack (Creepypasta)

Toby Rogers (Creepypasta)

Jeff the Killer (Creepypasta)

Ben Drowned (Creepypasta)

Tim Wright *Masky* (Marble Hornets)

Alex Kralie (Marble Hornets)

(More Creepypastas I still need to add. The phase is returning :'D)

Bonnie/Withered Bonnie (FNAF 1/2)

Nightmare Bonnie (FNAF 4)

Foxy (FNAF 1)

Shamura (Cult of the Lamb)

Leshy (Cult of the Lamb)

Heket (Cult of the Lamb)

Kallamar (Cult of the Lamb)

Hvitur (Wings of Fire)

Riptide (Wings of Fire)

Flame (Wings of Fire)

HABIT (EverymanHYBRID)

Evan Myers (EverymanHYBRID)

Lady Liberty (Schoolhouse Rock) < yes, I'm confused, too. I don't know how she got here. But she's so pretty ;-;

Bill (Curious George)

Milo Asher (TribeTwelve)

Kevin Haas (TribeTwelve)

The Observer (TribeTwelve)

Vincent "Everyman" (EverymanHYBRID)

Orin the Red (Baldur's Gate 3)

Also, just in case...

NO, I am NOT possessive of my f/o's... People who also have any of my f/o's are allowed to interact, I don't care? At least I don't think I do.

Please don't interact if you're extremely nonsharing and hate on people who share f/o's... Hopefully that makes sense? I understand nonsharing. But I DO NOT understand nonsharers who go out of their way to harass people who share f/o's.

The rest of my DNI is the same as my main.

ps.

to any fictives/introjects/etc of my f/o's, I am so, so sorry if this blog makes you uncomfortable. I get how selfshipping is seen as weird, and gets weirder under various perspectives... so... yeah. Sorry in advance.