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wafflebloggies · 6 months

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the long con - part 4/7

a Don't Feed The Muse/Captain Disillusion crossover story. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

“I’m sorry, Alan.”

Alan stared at the Captain. He looked like a person who was seriously doubting the input of their own ears, and, in the dim cabin, the bright neons of the control panels and lights around them turning every speck of luminance into sharp glimmering point, his astonished expression wobbled. He did not actually burst into tears, but for just a moment he looked as if he might.

Only for a moment, though. It passed, and his expression sobered and settled, and he slowly sat back in his seat and leaned his head back against the worn leather, staring into the night.

“I… don’t believe you,” he said.

Blinking, almost as if the words were a question he was asking himself. Shaking his head, a numb little motion that grew as he spoke.

The Captain reacted sharply enough for both of them, flinching as if shot, turning towards him with an astonished, stung-to-the-core look.

“Alan!”

“It doesn’t make sense,” said Alan, calmly. He sounded more like he was talking to himself than the Captain, telling himself something important, with quiet, bewildered conviction. “There’s something you need me to do, or… something you’re not telling me, another temporal emergency that means you have to make me feel positive emotions, or- or something. There’s no other reason why you’d ever say that.”

The Captain bridled. “Alan, I don’t lie! This is me we’re talking about! I’m basically- thematically incapable of it! I literally spend most of my time telling people on the Internet not to lie because it freakin'- pisses me off so much!”

“Just back there, you told that ticket booth guy that vehicles of extra-terrestrial origin aren’t liable for parking tariffs under U.N law.”

“Come on, that was an exaggeration at most- and sixty dollars for a weekend? That is blatant extortion!” The Captain grimaced. “Okay, not the point. I wouldn’t lie to you!”

“You also tell people on the Internet not to accept claims without evidence,” said Alan, doggedly. “Sir.”

He sighed, glancing down, tucking his phone away behind him. “Captain… you’ve been acting strangely since Friday. Iknowyou. You gotta at least give me that, right? I know when something’s wrong, or- something’s upwith you, even if I can’t understand it because I’m just a dumb human, you could maybe at least just… tell me what’s really going on. Maybe-” He shrugged, looking away through the glass. “Maybe you’d feel better, at least.”

Feel better. It wasn’t hard to extrapolate from the tired undercurrent of apathy in Alan’s voice that what he really meant was stop acting weird. Quite easy, to go further and hear because, whatever this is, I don’t trust it, I don’t want to deal with it, and it’s making me uncomfortable. I’d just like it to stop.

The shuttle hummed, the systems purred and clicked. The Captain gazed out of the rain-streaked glass, shoulders slumped, following the faint smudges of lighter cloud scudding by above and below with his eyes. He looked wretched.

“You didn’t even remind me.” He swiped his sleeve quickly across under his nose, with a sharp sniff and a struggle into something more like his usual confident, upright posture. “About your talk. I... I’ve had a lot of other things to think about, you know. I’ve had a lot on my mind!”

“I know,” said Alan.

There were probably a lot of other things he could have said, but none that would have been so effective. Without meaning to, without meaning anything beyond just a simple agreement, he didn’t know how quietly, flatly damning he sounded.

I know. I’ve had a lot on my mind too. With everything we do, and everything it needs from me, everything you need from me. I know what it’s like, to have a lot to think about.

The Captain swallowed again, as if it hurt, flicking a couple of switches overhead as he stared through the windshield, the bright overlays and the HUD blinking between them. At last, like every word was a pulled tooth, he said,

“Fine. Listen, when I was on stage, I… I don’t know what happened. I’ve never felt anything like it before, or at least I…” He hesitated. “I… I just looked at some random guy in the audience, and the next thing I knew, I felt… it was like, I felt seen. Not in a good way, it-” He stopped again, his mouth pulled into a moue of discomfort and distress, gazing a hole through the clouds ahead as he struggled to explain. “It felt like... the tiniest part of something really, unfathomably big was looking straight at me and… it could see way more than you people can.”

“More?”

The Captain huffed. “Humans don’t exactly see a lot, Alan. Visual acuity isn’t really your species’ thing, you know? Your basic three dimensions, barely a million colours… well, you know, we made a whole video about it. But this, I felt like it could see… everything. Like it- it could...” He stumbled, stopped.

“It... wasn’t a great feeling.”

Alan frowned. “You said you were looking at someone in the audience, when it happened. Do you think it was anything to do with them?” He watched the Captain’s face, but saw only confusion, and that strange edge of fear- a mix of emotions which looked so out-of-place there that he felt pushed to try to help, to clarify, say anything if only to stop the Captain looking so frighteningly lost.

“What were they like? Maybe I would’ve noticed-”

“I hardly think that’s likely, Alan,” snorted the Captain. It was a relief for Alan, to hear him taking refuge in impatience. At least it was normal. “There’s no way you would’ve seen him from the booth, anyway. Some kid, hair all slicked back like George McFly, grey sweater, he was sitting in like centre-G with another guy- red check jacket, band shirt- that French prog rock thing-”

“Escalier,” said Alan. The Captain blinked.

“You saw them?”

“Not then. They- they were sitting at the same table I was at, after my talk, you literally just miss- sir, please maybe sometimes, um, actually look where we’re flying, you’re making me really nervous.”

The Captain finally returned his eyes to the windshield, where the low lights of early evening were gleaming through the soft rain, glinting across the dim landscape below. In grids and in tangles, towns and highways and the huge blackout zones of the Everglades, the state slipped through the rainy night under a blanket of cloud.

“I don’t like this, Alan,” he said. “I feel things, like my whole... vibe thing? Like when I say I’ve gotta go, because someone’s aunt in Des Moines is thinking of investing in crypto, that thing. You know?”

Alan blinked. “I… kind of always thought that was a bit?”

The Captain went to put his head in his hands, remembered he was supposed to be flying a shuttle, straightened up again. “No. Sometimes, people get all lined up to make exceptionally poor decisions- particularly ones involving the Internet- and wherever they are, I feel it. It’s like... someone sticking a Q-tip so far up my nose it tickles my brain. Ughh.” He shuddered, as if his silver skin was crawling from the inside out. “But it’s never been a two-way thing before. This time, it was. Like… like some super-terrible, super-toxic, life-altering decision, but- with eyes.”

Alan thought about this. He thought about Mark’s flat, hurried voice, how even in the middle of his pitch he’d sounded kind of frantic, more like a hostage with a gun to their head than someone nervous and eager at the chance to work with a favourite channel. He thought about the sinking feeling the whole thing had left him with, the anxious funk he’d been stuck with ever since.

“I don’t think I… understand exactly, but it sounds bad.”

“It is bad. I haven’t been able to stop- thinking about it, and...” The Captain trailed off, rubbed his forehead. “Other stuff. Whatever, the point is, this isn’t something we want to just leave roaming around loose out there. Look, I know tracking down some random guy we saw for five seconds at a convention full of thousands of people sounds like a pretty crazy, gargantuan mission, but honestly, the more I think about it, the more it feels like something I just gotta do.”

“Oh, that’s easy, I got his number.”

“You may well ask why, Alan, but it’s a question of responsibility. I have to ask myself, does it fall to me, as the sole superpowered defender of verifiable truth and generally good digital decision-making in this entire galactic sector, to… wait, what did you say?”

Alan was wrestling with his seatbelt, trying to get into his back jeans pocket without loosening the strap. “He gave me a business card, Captain. His name’s Mark… let me just give him a call.”

Anthony, shocked silent in the wake of Mark’s outburst, struggling for something to say, had only just opened his mouth when the sound of Mark’s phone came buzzing, muffled, from under the jackets in the back seat. It pulsed against the upholstery, vibrating through the fabric covering it like a smothered wasp. Anthony barely reacted to it at first, but as the sound came a second time, the fabric of Mark’s jacket illuminated faintly by that small blueish rectangle underneath, he blinked, twisted in his seat. Relieved, maybe, to have any kind of distraction, a reason to move.

“That’s, uh- that’s yours-”

He was already fishing into the back, feeling blindly around in the clustered shadows with one arm. Mark, instantly panicked, took a hand off the wheel long enough to try to grab the phone himself, but even though his arms were longer the driver-side seat was directly in front of where his jacket lay, and he would have needed to be some multi-jointed tentacle-being to have even stood a chance of getting a hand on it.

“Leave it, it’s fine!”

Anthony was fumbling under the jacket, hanging out of his seatbelt with half of his torso leaned into the back. “No, I got it- gimmie a sec-”

“I said leave it!” yelled Mark. The rhythmic double-pulse buzz of the phone felt like it was wired directly into his brain, the scraping of an insect buried between his ears. He felt the car start to drift under his control, and returned both hands to the wheel in a hurry, heart lurching, gripping hard. “Just let it go to message-”

“I got it, dude,” said Anthony- puzzled, uneasy, not a little wounded still. “What if it’s your mom?”

He sat back, poked the screen. “Hey, this is- hello? Shit, missed it.”

“See? Put it back, I don’t care who-”

“Wait, I could check the number-” All of a sudden, Anthony’s voice stopped in its tracks. Mark, glancing desperately sideways in snatches as long as he dared, was in a perfect position to see the exact moment that his worst fears were confirmed, right as it happened. Anthony’s brow scrunched, his hands went still, and he looked down at the phone in silence.

“What’re all these notifications?” he said.

“Don’t,” said Mark, but all the volume had gone out of his voice, all of the force, and with it the ability to even try to sound in control. The word sounded more like a small winded plea, and it was ten to one if Anthony even heard it, his finger already tracing and flicking and tapping, his eyes glued to the small screen.

“Thumbnail edited successfully? Thumbnail edited… thumbnail… description edited successfully… video title edited- Mark?”

Mark couldn’t breathe.

“Mark, what’s going on?”

Mark could feel Anthony looking at him. He could imagine his expression far too well even without looking, his accusing eyes, floating in the darkness with the lights flicking past the windows like the last crashing embers of his oh-so-clever plan. He said nothing, swiping the tears from his face with a quick, hot palm, kept staring straight ahead.

“Why did you change the video title?”

One last try. One last try, to explain again what he’d been trying to explain all weekend, to make Anthony see, as if anybody could explain anything well while battling the rising fury and panic that the embarrassment of being caught red-handed only flamed and fuelled, like throwing water on blazing oil. Like he should have to feel guilty, like he’d done something wrong, when he was doing the only thing he could, the one thing left that he’d been forced to do. Anthony was even incapable of understanding how he had forced him to this, forced him to lie and sneak around and feel like some kind of traitor.

“No-one cares about our videos,” he said, as patiently as he could. “This is the only way they’re going to be seen.”

Anthony was shaking his head slightly, automatically, the harsh light from Mark’s phone casting ghastly blue-white shadows up across his shocked, hurt face as he dropped the phone in his lap and turned to look at Mark.

“You’re making us sound like some stupid contrarian clickbait channel-”

“Those channels actually make money,” said Mark, evenly.

Anthony let out a quiet, punctured breath, and Mark didn’t even have to glance at him now to know he had that maddening, sympathetic, pitying look on his face again. He didn’t want to see it, he didn’t want Anthony’s pity. As if pity wasn’t completely useless, as if pity would green-light his mother’s medical coverage, or save her life.

“Look. I know you’re in a tough situation with your mom,” said Anthony, gently. “I get it! But that doesn’t have anything to do with the channel-”

“No, you don’t get it,” snapped Mark. His hands were still neatly at three and six, but his nails were digging into the fake leather of the wheel and he might as well have been driving underwater, or on Mars, for all the attention he was paying to the road in front of his burning eyes. On one level, he was aware that Anthony was not going to be any more easily convinced by being snapped at, or talked to as if he was a particularly stupid six-year-old. On another, he was too angry to care. “My dad’s not helping, our insurance got denied- I have to take care of her!”

“I’m sorry, Mark-”

Injured, understanding, but even now full of a kind of petulant, aggravating sympathy, Anthony’s voice grated in Mark’s ears and on his fraying nerves. To Mark, he sounded just like a whiny kid whose favourite toy was being handed away to someone else. And maybe that was the last straw, to hear so clearly in Anthony’s voice that the channel, the thing that was being dangled relentlessly over Mark’s head as his last thread of hope, was in Anthony’s eyes nothing but a neat toy he refused to give up, something fun he didn’t want to let go of just because it was his too.

“-but this isn’t just your channel! I’m not going to let you ruin this!”

Because this, this, was really the only thing Anthony cared about. Fun. Keeping something fun.

“You asshole-!”

Anthony’s stunned face, his eyes flicking all of a sudden past him, to the road. In the tumbling slowdown of seconds, his mouth opened without sound, the betrayal in his eyes flaring into panic, horror. Mark turned back to the road, far too late, as the car completed its slow drifting slew across the empty road and hit the kerb with a sickening, bone-shaking lurch, mounting it in a series of terrible earthquake bounces. A final glare of light, a snatch of safety rail, before the car dove headlights-first into a black void beyond. A black and crowding host of branches slamming against the windows, a rush of wet wheels tearing at the soaking grass, a final heavy impact that ended in a splintering crash of glass.

Silence.

Slowly, his pulse a jackhammer in his throat, his heart loud as a marching band in his ears, Mark raised his head. For a moment- a jumbled collection of moments- he wasn’t even sure where he was, only that his neck hurt and he felt sore and shaken in every nerve. His grasp on the thread of the world felt as if it had undergone a terminal skip, and he could catch hold of nothing coherent other than the fact that it was horribly, hideously dark, and something awful had happened.

Was happening.

Reality overtook him fast. Everything tumbled into place, and he jerked forwards- tried to- but his seatbelt held him clamped across the chest, a mechanical death-grip too tight to escape.

“Anthony?”

The car was quiet, the headlights, dash, every system dead and dark. The road, somewhere above and behind them, was empty, hidden, lightless. The engine ticked slowly as it cooled, water dripped and trickled, crushed branches groaned in the damp black night.

“Anthony??”

Fresh air started to seep in, cool against Mark’s face, full of rain and the scent of churned earth and bruised growth.

“Anthony!!”

#dftm #muse arg #don't feed the muse #mark mayhew #anthony williams #captain disillusion #alan the intern #alan amelik #my writing

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hyperdrama · 12 days

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there were too many to post in a read more under the post, so here's all the credits for my hyperdrama criterion posters set - fonts list & photoshoot sources included

photoshoot sources: - neverender, dear alan, explorer, afterimage: julia & vincent from their instagram & featured in mixmag - moonlight rendezvous: photo by andré chémétoff (alt) - one night/all night, incognito: boby for liberation - mannequin love, the end: joel barhammond for billboard - generator: benoît peverelli for télérama - saturnine: jessica pons for nyt - muscle memory: justice rockyrama issue, scanned by @/lesreptiles! - harpy dream: australian financial review textures/overlays - paper texture master folder - i don't remember who compiled this unfortunately but i've been using it for ages! - saturnine bg - pikisuperstar on freepik - additional textures & layers from @/colour-source - everything else handmade by me! inspo - 'one night/all night' inspired by the band static dress & their advertisement for rouge carpet disaster - @/spikes-jonze's franz ferdinand criterion edits - @/hidekomoon's paramovies fonts list - criterion: gotham - neverender: heavitas, kiona - generator: semplicitia, ting tong - afterimage: modernline, balgon serif - one night/all night: gotham, AXIS - dear alan: the artisan, modernline - incognito: century schoolbook, feeling passionate - mannequin love: romance, losta masta - midnight rendezvous: cezanne, betty noir - explorer: kiona, powerlord - muscle memory: minecraft, arcade - harpy dream: aesthetic, ting tong - saturnine: losta masta, cezanne - the end: lemon milk, tondu

special thanks to eva and lydia for their support & feedback during the entire editing process :) and of course justice community for all your support <3 x

#somehow more time consuming than my deleted ghost gifsets #thought this would be easier than gifs but it took me over a week #as it turns out the you have so much freedom it makes it a diff kind of challenge #i said i gotta be louder abt these guys and churned out four poster sets in 2 weeks. woman era up next (if i can...i have 2 only)#i had a lot of fun #if you see this post early dw about it...it will make sense soon #*credits #*fonts

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danni-nip-nip-nyan · 8 months

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Alan posting again⁉️

He's my bbg pookie bear snookie mookems (put me out of my misery)

Background is from the ibis paint library, I just put a pink overlay on it

Reference:

Why does his head look cropped on

Also here's my pfp cause he's super cute and I'm rlly proud of this one

I have a problem maybe

#danninipnipnip #alan barbie #alan kens buddy #barbie #barbie fanart #barbie movie #meme #meme redraw #alan #my husband #uwu #im going to consume him

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autisticwriterblog · 7 days

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Fandom 50 Post 18

My sixteenth piece of Alan Wake 2 meta. This one is about Return 7.

Return 7: Summoning

What happened in this chapter?

After informing Casey and Estevez that she is ready to enact the plan to summon Alan Wake from the Dark Place, Saga leaves the station and phones Tor. She asks Tor if the Old Gods could create a song for her, and Tor and Odin happily agree to take part. On the way to the lake, Saga phones David, but he reacts with anger, telling her not to call him and blaming her for Logan’s death; realising that the story has spread all the way to Virginia, Saga is understandably distressed.

When she arrives at the parking lot, Saga travels to the lake on foot. She gets radioed by Casey and Estevez, who fly the FBC’s equipment to the lake in a helicopter. Saga also checks in on the Anderson brothers, who are driving erratically, if the phone call—and the pieces of their vehicle littering the path—are anything to go by. At the lakeside, Saga finds lots of FBC equipment spread about, whilst the injured Casey and Estevez stand somewhere safe on higher ground, and the Anderson brothers have set up their gear on top of the bus.

Once they start performing the song—Dark Ocean Summoning—it doesn’t take long for Taken to appear. Saga fights off the enemies whilst Tor and Odin play their new song and Casey and Estevez drop down more ammo for Saga to restock.

As the song starts to work, Saga approaches the shoreline with the Clicker in hand and flicks the switch. For a moment, Alan appears on the shore, before he disappears again. At first Saga is confused, but then she understands that it did work; instead of summoning Alan right now, they actually made him appear when Saga first found him after fighting Nightingale. But this also means that Alan and Scratch have always been the same person—Scratch is Alan with the Dark Presence inside him.

Soon enough, Scratch appears, forcing Saga to fight him. As she battles him and avoids his attacks, Saga is also forced to turn the FBC’s lights to face the cage they set up on the shore. Once everything is in place, Saga lures Scratch into the cage, and once he steps inside, Estevez boosts the lights. The cage can’t cope with the power of the Dark Presence leaving Alan’s body, the roof bursting and knocking Saga over. Alan, no longer possessed, apologises to Saga for everything.

The Dark Presence looks for a new host and chooses Casey, which Saga realises when her possessed partner approaches her. He steals the Clicker from Saga and throws her into the lake before vanishing.

Scratch makes his way to Bright Falls, where, as Pat Maine tells people over the radio that Deerfest is cancelled, he uses the Clicker. After pressing the switch, Scratch drops the Clicker, where it falls through reality. Shown in a series of black and white shots, the Clicker falls and is caught by someone’s hand.

My Thoughts

This chapter is so much fun! Saga gets her own musical action sequence soundtracked by another amazing Old Gods of Asgard song and I always have so much fun playing that section.

I love the conversation Saga has with Tor and Odin when she’s walking to the lakeside, because it’s obvious how much havoc those two are causing in the nursing home’s minibus. Seeing the pieces of the bus litter the path as you walk down to the lake is so funny, as is noticing what terrible shape the bus is in by the time they reached the water.

Speaking of Tor and Odin, I love hearing them mention that their audience is mainly federal agents, and Odin dedicating the performance to “[their] favourite tortured writer” really made me laugh. Also, when they first try to perform, Odin starts coughing and they have to start again, whilst Tor moans that Odin is embarrassing him in front of Saga.

Once the song begins, just like in the Overlaps, you can see live action footage of a different scene overlayed with the gameplay. In this case, it’s a clip of the Old Gods in their prime rocking out. It’s really sweet seeing Balder there, because even after being dead for so many years, Tor and Odin clearly consider him a member of the band.

When I first played this game, I remember being really worried for Saga after Scratch threw her into the lake, because people do not have a good track record of making it back out of Cauldron Lake. I also felt bad for Casey, because being possessed must be a terrifying experience. And Alan must also feel awful from having been possessed in the first place. Overall, a lot of people are in danger and/or suffering by the end of this chapter.

#alan wake 2 #alan wake 2 spoilers #saga anderson #meta #fandom 50

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faolonfiendrender · 3 months

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Okay just listing what I know about the alan wake/control universe's magic: There are parautilitarians, they have magic powers that they can just use, mostly from either bonding with objects or entities. There are also seers, who seem to be more innate in their paranatural powers, and subtle. The main parautilitarian we have seen, Jesse, has largely "flashy" powers like chucking safes or making crystals grow rapidly, Alan, who is a suspected one, seems to mostly be able to shape the dark world so far without using items in his direct possession. In addition parautilitarians tend to be able to connect with entities, such as jesse with polaris, dylan with the hiss, or alan with the dark presence. Seers are different, I am unsure if there are any outside the Andersons, but, again, Alan seems a likely if unconfirmed candidate. However, one of the things the andersons display is a "immunity" of sorts to the reality warping of the dark place, remembering the truth not the overlay. In addition, they are able to, I believe, probe minds. This seems different to how jesse's powers are gained in that there is no apparent bond with anything that grants this. Both of the above are likely able to persist in bloodlines with seerhood very clearly running in bloodlines, and both faden siblings being parautilitarians.

In addition, a lot seems symbolic, a lamp taking light into itself or sending it out, a safe defending itself telekinetically, a projector opening a gate to strange vistas. Writing rewriting the world. Finally there are entities, the main commonality most of them share is that they are clearly extradimensional. The dark presence seems to work comparably to the hiss, but unlike the hiss manifests as a lack of light as opposed to sound. Unclear if it is a resonance entity.

It is worth noting that there is no reason to believe all of this phenomenology has the same root, but some is clearly connected, for instance both the known resonance entities and the board can connect to OOPs. Finally there's Ahti, who I haven't the foggiest about. It is tempting to think he is a really powerful seer or parautilitarian or both, but I don't think that's it. Ahti is Ahti, he is found in random places because he's the janitor and almost everywhere has something to clean up, he knows things he shouldn't because he's the janitor.

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wellntruly · 1 year

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M*A*S*H - Viewguide, S6

Are you interested in the long-running anti-war situation tragicomedy M*A*S*H (1972-1983), but there are simply so many asterisks and so many episodes?

Well I can’t help you with the asterisks, but nor can I help myself: I started watching all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H, and bringing back for you my viewing selections, chosen for The Qualities.

— — —

Would you like to hear a little secret? I watched the first three episodes of Season 6, and then the next day, I just flipped back and watched them again. I was so happy. I was on CLOUD NINE.

Here are some things that have happened this season!

(1) Charles! We’ll get to it!

(2) After a two season absence, the surprise and I’ll offer glorious return of two of their most regular directors from the markedly more chaotic, but wild & wonderful first three seasons, along with a handful of new writers who clearly really loved some things about that era that they’re eager to bring forward into this 25% new cast (150% new among the top-billed officers, at this point), and a reprise of some of that early days energy played over the last couple seasons’ greater steadiness underfoot, could make something like my platonic ideal M*A*S*H.

I was going to say I kept this to 10 but that’s not going to be true, it’s gonna be 12. Once again the order is adjusted a bit to what I think would be the optimal sequence in which to watch these, because I love you, and M*A*S*H (1972-1983).

M*A*S*H - Season 6 Recommended sequence

6x01-02 ‘Fade Out, Fade In, Parts 1 and 2’ - This terrif two-part premiere turns out to be the only one key Seasons 2 & 3 architect Hy Averback comes back to do this season, but a particular director just doing the first episode to set the tone is a long-standing tradition in television, and it sure seems to hold here. PLOT: Frank Burns is out, Charles Emerson Winchestahhh is in. In just one season, Charles has established himself my favorite technically on our side but it’s a technicality (most of the time) intra-community antagonist since Deep Space Nine’s Quark. He is a sublimely hilarious frenemy optimally designed to make me scream into my hands every episode in west coast public school-raised, New England private college-degreed flashbacks, or specifically: a Boston Blue Blood. Good lord I never saw this coming. It’s so specific??? I'm So happy.

6x04 ‘Last Laugh’ - And now we bring back director Don Weiss too! Not for nothing, this episode also brings back the more ostentatiously queer (all historical meanings) Hawkeye who tucks his chin into the crook of his roommate's neck and drunkenly asks the clerk to kiss him and hollers his availability to sleep with his male coworkers in front of superior officers. Meanwhile, Klinger has an invisible camel named Habibi, and BJ has gotten embroiled in prank war gone too far with his childhood friend, young James Cromwell. SEASON 6.

6x06 ‘The Winchester Tapes’ - I like the innovation on the letter-home format here, where with the way Charles is recording his to phonograph, instead of just VO narration overlaying loosely connected vignettes, we’re frequently just watching his live reaction to scenes that have just happened—which are largely him being unaware BJ is mounting a campaign of psychological warfare against him. This is more the kind of musing I usually save for the note posts, but BJ’s quietly maniacal streak has been an interesting development for him. [Ed. note from the future: oh, hang on babe]

6x12 ‘The Grim Reaper’ - Hawkeye battles Death (the Army statistician who predicts casualties). I could include this one almost entirely on the merit of Harry Morgan’s performance as Sherman, Midnight, Annoyed. He and Hawkeye also just fully start calling each other Dad and Son in this one. I like this; Henry was Radar’s dad, Potter is Hawkeye’s. Yes Hawkeye just has two dads. You know this to be true.

6x03 ‘Fallen Idol’ - This was that third sequential episode that had me spinning. Alan Alda writes & directs very possibly my favorite thing he’s done yet, if not even flirting with my favorite episode entirely. The script, the performances, some of these cuts—I yell! One physical injury kicks off a cascade of emotional injuries, and it’s all because they love each other, but somehow it’s all coming out wrong and everyone's so distressed. God! And it’s so funny! This is my ideal. Charles says the line “Where is the badinage of yesteryear?” The Heller of it all?!

6x15 ‘The Merchant of Korea’ - Can’t believe I’m writing this, but I’m actually not including the And They Were All So Cold episode of this season, in favor of the opposite: And They Were All So Hot. BJ wears capris. Hawkeye wears his arm cantilevered across BJ’s thigh for most points in a conversation where he’s not doing a full this

And that’s right: it’s a poker game episode :)

6x17 ‘Patent 4077’ - The Gang Invents A New Vascular Clamp. Sort of apiece with the one where Hawkeye & Trapper are trying to get an incubator so they can run their own blood cultures—I always like these Supply angles. Plus a good little Margaret side plot with Klinger & Co. trying to fix something for her too. This one is just pretty cute, I think is what I'm getting at.

6x19 ‘Your Hit Parade’ - Sometimes it happens to me in a season that there’s an episode where it isn’t, but also it kind of is my favorite? A quiet favorite, different than a favorite-favorite. That’s ‘Your Hit Parade’ for me. There’s so many small things I enjoy in this one, and they all pile up to a cumulative effect of me just feeling very fondly toward it. A lot of that freewheeling early seasons energy but on that steadier mid-seasons frame, the thing I’ve so loved about this season. Casualties are pouring in, Margaret and Charles are at odds and hilarious, BJ and Hawkeye are being charmingly ungovernable, and Radar is DJ’ing over the PA system the whole night with a bunch of jazz records that have just arrived. This episode itself: it’s jazzy.

6x20 ‘What’s Up, Doc?’ - Very good Hawkeye & Margaret episode. While it does not actually do the thing I thought holy wow are we gonna do, SO much does it feel like we could have that I often forget we didn’t actually do it. Some kind of ‘70s broadcast sleight of hand maybe.

6x22 ‘Temporary Duty’ - Hawkeye is banished this week to another MASH with Nurse Bigelow (who rules—shout out to Nurse Bigelow in the one where they’re all reading the mystery novel) on some sort of surgical technique exchange; they send in trade an impossible buffoon to stress BJ & Charles into shared schemery (thrill), and Margaret’s old bestie???! (THRILL)

6x23 ‘Potter’s Retirement’ - Someone is sending nastygrams to I-Corps or whatever about Colonel Potter’s leadership, and he’s like ugh maybe I’ll just QUIT. Spoiler alert: he does not do that. The most moving bleakly earnest line I’ve seen yet, and a Derby party where BJ has, incredibly, I believe come in character as Tennessee Williams. I swear, this season...

Season 1 • Season 2 • Season 3 • Season 4 • Season 5 • Season 6 • To be continued

#M*A*S*H hours

#M*A*S*H #M*A*S*H hours #viewguides #Tarra watches

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chanceofclouds · 9 months

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[Image ID: Preorder for a wooden keychain inspired by Reicarnated as a Villainess with a border. Text is overlayed that reads “PREORDER”.

The design features Catarina surrounded in a circle by the rest of the cast watching her as she pumps her left hand up in a fist with a look of determination. The circle starting from the bottom right and going counterclockwise is Jeord, Alan, Nicol, Sirius, Maria, Sophia, Mary, and ending with Keith. /End ID]

Etsy Shop

Square Shop

Preorders open for Reincarnated as a Villainess-inspired 3-inch double-sided wooden keychain! The design is the same on both sides.

Preorders run from September 16, 2023 - October 1, 2023 at etsy and square along with a sale for 20% off all orders. For square, use code "MONKEY19".

#bakarina #reincarnated as the villainess: all routes lead to doom #merchandise #catarina claes

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kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 1 year

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WISH Teaser, Paramount CinemaCon Presentation Thoughts

Well now, our teaser for WISH is finally here... Been here for a few days...

youtube

And my reaction took a while to type up, because I spent most of my day out and about, namely seeing another movie in theaters that happens to star Chris Pine... and being up to other stuff earlier today.

I've ready spilled my thoughts on WISH's visuals on an earlier post, but I'll repeat... This does look like a cool next step for Disney's CG animated movies. Sure, it's pretty much the TANGLED/FROZEN/MOANA/etc. house style and character models with a 2D linework overlay and subtle textures/tones, but it looks very nice and if this is the baby step to even more experiments and equally cool-looking movies? I'm down. I particularly love the color work of this world that it's set in, the architecture is eye-catching, along with the stylized forests that look to be channeling Mary Blair and Eyvind Earle even. Very, very classic-like FX on the star character. The brief taste of the song shows promise, too. Not much else for me to say, other than... It looks like a typical Disney animated movie, but sure to be served up quite nicely and with fantastic visuals that will *pop* on the big screen. I know, it's not actual pure 2D, but I'll take what I can get. Alan Tudyk's goat character Valentino is a standout as well.

The trailer's proclamation of the film being a story a century in the making is utterly silly, though... As if Disney, stretching all the way back to the day Walt and Roy founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in 1923, had this thing sitting around... and it sat and sat and sat and sat for decades until the current administration decided to go through with it... I mean, c'mon... What does that even mean? I'm pretty sure, per what I hear from the trenches, that this thing was pitched around 2018... Ahhhhh marketing. It's not dissimilar to how director Chris Buck's own FROZEN was touted by Disney's marketing machine as a film that was over 70 years in the making, when it really... Wasn't. FROZEN, as you and I know it, came into existence around 2008 as ANNA AND THE SNOW QUEEN. The early 2000s SNOW QUEEN project and the short segment that Walt was going to do for a scrapped Samuel Goldwyn movie about Hans Christian Andersen in the 1940s do not count. They are merely separate stabs at the source material, whose only link is said source material. I extend the same to something like BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, or RAPUNZEL/RAPUNZEL UNBRAIDED/TANGLED.

What *is* cool is the trailer not only saying "From the creators of" the more recent WDAS movies like FROZEN, MOANA, and ENCANTO... But also THE LION KING, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and... CINDERELLA??? Wow, we're going way back! Surprised PINOCCHIO and THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, actual Disney animated movies with a wishing star in them, weren't mentioned. You can tell Disney's not going to take the marketing of this one lightly, they need a not-sequel hit big-time, as they haven't had such a thing at the box office since MOANA aaaaall the way back in 2016.

The typography nut in me also noticed that they used the original poster and home video logo for BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. CINDERELLA's logo, curiously, comes from the 2012 Blu-ray and DVD release. Not the more recent DMC exclusive 4K disc release.

So yes... WDAS' WISH... I'm there! I mean, they had me at WDAS, and the style, so, I'm expecting a fun ride with great visuals.

Paramount presented at CinemaCon yesterday, dropping plenty of animation news... Though Paramount Animation's future is largely IP-based stuff...

More word on next summer's all-animated TRANSFORMERS Cybertron-set prequel, which now carries the title TRANSFORMERS: ONE... Okay then, if you say it as that, people might think you're referring to the first of Michael Bay's TRANSFORMERS movies, the first one from way back in 2007. Nope, TRANSFORMER: ONE, as in the animated prequel. Josh Cooley, director of TOY STORY 4, has been attached to this one, so that made me pretty excited for it. I mean, an animated TRANSFORMERS movie in this day and age is also exciting to me given that it all started as a cartoon series. And said cartoon series spawned a theatrical animated movie in 1986. What's a little concerning is how star-studded the voice cast is. I'm sure they'll do great as the various bots, and I get that these are younger versions of the Transformers, but... I dunno, I don't want to sound like one of those people who complains all the time about voice actors not getting to voice these legacy characters, but... Why not? Either way, I'm looking forward to this movie... Does it function as a prequel to the Michael Bay movies? The BUMBLEBEE-verse movies? Or is this starting its own all-animated TRANSFORMERS universe?

The Smurfs musical they have set for Valentine's Day 2025 is now called THE SMURF MOVIE... As if, five Smurfs movies later, this is *the* one. Chris Miller, director of SHREK THE THIRD and PUSS IN BOOTS, is confirmed to helm the picture. Good to see him directing again, long after his PUSS IN BOOTS sequel got canned. Despite earlier reports saying this is an all-animated Smurfs movie, there appear to be some conflicting reports on this one being a live-action/animation hybrid much like the first two Sony Animation Smurfs movies... I'd rather it just be all-animated, myself, like THE LOST VILLAGE was. I wonder if, since this is a Paramount Animation film, they'll push the visuals even harder than LOST VILLAGE did and really make this dynamic, 2D-looking translation of Peyo's original comics? Rihanna voices Smurfette, much like how a pop singer voiced her in both the hybrid movies and the all-animated one.

The first of the new wave of AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER movies is still on and going full steam ahead, so that's nice. The 4th theatrical SPONGEBOB feature is titled SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS: THE SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS... Kind of a mouthful of a title there, but a big epic is promising, one involving the Flying Dutchman. Wonder what visual style it takes on, given that the previous three movies all tried on different looks. The original 2004 movie resembling an upscaled version of the show, the 2015 sequel having sequences where it's a hybrid/CG movie, and the 2020 movie being all CG but in its own unique style.

But... My burning question... All this talk about MUTANT MAYHEM, PAW PATROL 2, TRANSFORMERS: ONE, THE SMURF MOVIE, SPONGEBOB 4, AVATAR: TLA MOVIE #1...

What's going with... UNDER THE BOARDWALK?

UNDER THE BOARDWALK, directed by David Soren (TURBO, CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS), was announced as a "GREASE with crabs" musical set on the Jersey Shore. For a while, it carried a summer 2022 release date, until Paramount out of nowhere kicked it out and threw in a movie they acquired the distribution rights to: PAWS OF FURY: THE LEGEND OF HANK, formerly known as BLAZING SAMURAI... That movie came and went last summer, and there's been radio silence on UNDER THE BOARDWALK. Soren has spoken a few times every now and then, indicating that the movie is finished, but Paramount was figuring out a release plan for it...

I have a feeling they'll just offload it to Paramount+, like they did with RUMBLE, which was originally set to be a theatrical release and even had trailers rolling in theaters. That's how last minute that decision was. There's next to nothing for UNDER THE BOARDWALK other than previous announcements and maybe a piece of concept art... Where is it at? Are there still plans to give it a theatrical release?

For that matter, there was no word on THE TIGER'S APPRENTICE, either. That film - directed by Raman Hui, Paul Watling, and YongDuk Jhun - carries a 1/19/2024 release date, but Paramount said nothing about it during their presentation. Maybe they wanted to prop up the franchise movies, to whet the appetites of CinemaCon's audience... Theater business people. Of course sequels and IP movies would get them excited for potential profits and attendance... Because, outside of animated movies, what else did Paramount strut around? SMILE 2, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING, PART ONE, A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE, a Bob Marley biopic, and Martin Scorsese's KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON. Outside of the Scorsese movie, it's all IP (SMILE, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, A QUIET PLACE) or something immediately recognizable to the public (Bob Marley).

Either way, I still wonder what's going on with those two particular pictures, being that they aren't entries in long-running movie franchises. UNDER THE BOARDWALK is an original story that takes inspiration from GREASE and other musicals and named after a song by The Drifters, while THE TIGER'S APPRENTICE is based on a book that wasn't adapted elsewhere. I'd at least like to know if the former is even being released or not.

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nantosueltas · 1 year

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🏹 The Arrow and The Flower 🌺

Chapter 1 — Heavy Clouds of Woe

“Take your risk of life and death

Underneath the open sky.”

— E. Alan Mackintosh

— Let's go, Angus.

Coming down that snowy hill, Merida was lost in thoughts.

Layers of images, sounds and emotions were overlaying in her mind's eye, vanishing as quickly as they arose: the preparations of her upcoming eighteenth birthday with Elinor ordering the maids how to decorate the throne room for the perfect event while Fergus and the boys would yell random things at the table; pieces of her adventures among the mountains, rivers and hills in her lands before and after turning Elinor into a bear.

“Dear, we both changed” was the last thing Elinor said after the dreadful spell that turned her into a bear was broken. Once back as a human Elinor could see how much what they've been through and how much they've grown. And changes kept happening even after all of these adventures. Elinor wouldn't touch the subject of marriage anymore, but she complained the appearance of her daughter was “way too fierce for a princess, you look like you're about to fence for your life, not rule a kingdom.”

And indeed she looked way more fierce. She tried to mirror her inside on the outside: she felt like a warrior, she wanted to look like a warrior. Now her long curly red hair was kept in a long ponytail, lying all across her back. She could see and move better, it felt comfortable and appropriate since she would spend many hours outside.

The blueish tones of her kilt against her scarlet hair against her now toned arms and legs were contrasting features on her appearance that she learned to love.

Some of her adventures in the forest and mountains gave her some permanent marks, like a scar on her right eyebrow after a riding accident with Angus. Elinor almost fainted when she realized the mark was permanent but Merida could feel more like herself than ever but at the same time couldn't ignore a growing emptiness inside her chest.

She couldn't really explain why but somehow it was always there, feeling it strongly while alone in the forest, looking at the dancing branches of the trees full of apple blossoms in spring. Somehow life was now more of the same. Dealing with her parents, brothers and castle servants, still having lessons with Elinor and now with Fergus (Elinor agreed Merida should keep learning the “arts of war” and even she was taking some lessons), getting to know the subjects. The cottage witch was never seen again and Merida would often ride there, maybe in the hope of seeing these googly eyes or the hysterical talking crow once again.

Somehow she missed that spark of life-threatening magic. The wisps were also gone, the menhirs where they once first appeared to her now perpetually empty and silent.

That added to a series of unsettling nightmares would make the once lively and energetic DunBroch princess to shun inside herself in a way she never did before. She would also think about her kingdom, threatened by it's own nature, that looked almost…vengeful.

Something wasn't right with Dun Broch's weather and Merida knew it. She felt her heart sinking in her chest whenever she gazed upon the heavy dark clouds hanging on the sky for more than a week.

"I am telling you, it's the Fae's doing!!!" Fergus would yell and beat the table during dinner while discussing about the subject.

"So now you believe in Fae and magic? What a cursed cake given by a witch and the spirit of a dead warrior inside a bear won't do! And would you mind not knocking out our tables? Honestly, Fergus." replied Elinor with her usual impatience for any kind of noise and abrupt reactions.

"Well, I see no other explanation! Such clouds aren't normal, they're sitting there… Like watching us! And won't fall, not even a drop of rain, it's just thundering and roaring like an old man's stomach!" He was still exalted but trying to control the fury of his hands. The boys would imitate his previous euphoric gestures.

"Well, maybe our daughter could pay a visit to the cottage witch once again and discover which treacherous being is haunting our lands. Skies, in this case."

Merida didn't pay much attention to her parents' conversation or to her food or to her brothers yelling as customary in every meal. She was lost in thoughts and too distracted to reply.

"Merida?"

"Hum? What is it, you were talking to me?"

"What is with you,child? Yes, I was talking to you. Actually this is a communal conversation so we were all talking to you" her tone seemed more worried than bothered.

"I'm sorry. I think I might be just tired. If you excuse me, I'll just get to my bedroom"

"The sun didn't even set yet, Merida"

"Well, it was a long day and I didn't sleep well. Good night"

Elinor worryingly watched her daughter to climb up the stairs while Fergus and the boys were fighting over her untouched dessert.

Cold winds softly caressed the princess’ rosy cheeks and ember-like hair, shaking her from her flashback. The vision of ice and snow on the trees and the whole landscape, as well as of the dreadful clouds of woe above slowly brought her back to the present moment.

This was the last memory she dwelled on, an one hour ago memory while climbing Angus to get back to the palace. Even though she said she was going to her bedroom she managed to leave to the stables to get Angus for one of her lonesome time rides through the forest. Whenever she had her head full, that's all she tried to do. To ride all her problems away.

🐻🐻🐻

Merida wished her arrival was as smooth as her leaving. Once she got to the royal stables, guess who was there?

"Having problems reaching your own room?" The darkness could hide her identity but Elinor's voice could be recognized even from a distance.

Merida jump scared right when she was adjusting Angus to his stable.

"Well, I, actually, I…"

Merida unwillingly interrupted herself with a loud sneeze. Elinor sighed.

“First dress these up, Merida, you're still going to get yourself killed staying outside in the cold winter without proper dressing.”

She handed Merida a thick and long fur cape she could adjust to her body like a blanket. She also gave her thick blue cloth stripes to wrip around her arms and leather hand grips to protect herself from the impact and constant friction shooting arrows would cause. Merida covered herself with the fur coat and wrapped the stripes around her arms, admiring the quality of the material and the deep blue color of the fabric.

"Are you having these dreams again?"

Elinor’s voice was calming and her face looked almost ethereal under the moonlight.

Merida was caught off guard and after a surprise moment she calmed herself down and sighed.

"Yes. It's always the same dream. Nightmare. Every night. This will be the seventh night, if it happens again.

Elinor seemed immersed in thoughts for a moment until speak again.

“You never mentioned how such dream, nightmare, unfolds.”

“Well, it's difficult…I…”

Elinor gently landed her hand on Merida's shoulder.

“Yes, I know, first would be thoughtful to leave a place smelling like horse ordure before engaging in a chit chat”

Merida chuckled despite her worry and fears and left with her mother to an open courtyard in front of the palace. They watched the moonlight in silence and sat on some massive rock tile, reminiscent of DunBroch’s castle construction. Elinor cleared off the snow covering its surface with a piece of cloth and invited her daughter to sit next to her.

Elinor looked at Merida tenderly and rested her hand on hers, supportively and tenderly.

“My little brave girl”

Merida's eyes glowed with child like expectation and seemed watery. She breathed in as preparing for saying something but breathed out still in silence and waited for Elinor to speak again.

“The ancients used to say dreams are meaningful and a sign or a warning of a higher power. But whatever they mean, whatever they're predicting, now that there's no challenge we can't overcome… together.”

Merida's eyes were teary but she opened a wide and relieved smile. She squeezed her mother's hand and with a sigh of relief and shaky voice, proceeded to tell the dream.

“I am in a dark place. A dreadful place. A beach, at night with no moon or stars in the sky. And it's cold, really cold, I can see each of my breaths coming out as smoke. I take a look around but all I see is a vast body of water. Maybe the sea, I guess. I was so alone and, and I was calling for you and dad and Harris, Hubert, and Hamish, Angus, everyone that I know but… I never got an answer.”

Elinor was listening with utmost attention and it gave Merida strength to tell further.

“Then after calling for someone for so long I just give up. And I feel so lonely I start crying and I can see my tears falling on water. And that's when the sea starts rising. When it touched my knees I jumped back, looking for a way out. Then the waters withdrew, starting forming a whirlpool. And it was so noisy! And such strong winds blowing and whistling out of nowhere! It was so confusing but I could see the center of the whirlpool, because of this strange white light glowing inside of it. And finally I heard a voice.”

“A voice? Did it say something?”

“Yes and it wasn't saying anything. It was… Shouting. I think it was a name that I had never heard before. Even foreigner. Artio.”

Elinor looked serious. She seemed to be meditating on everything she just heard, resting her hand on her chin. But Merida doesn't have this kind of patience for contemplation.

“Well? What do you think?”

“All of that? Cryptic, ominous, surely terrifying. The kind of thing your dad would like to go through.”

“Mom!” Merida chuckled.

“But… On a more serious note. This dream you have seems to have some connection with these ominous clouds over our skies. It involved much of water… And and a feeling of uneasiness. And danger.”

Merida felt her chest heavy.

“And this word, this…name. Artio. Does it sound familiar?”

“Honestly…No. But I heard of a clan that was taken by the Romans, with whom they had epic battles. They never surrendered and fought as much for freedom as we did. This name sounds like the language of theirs, as I read in the registers of the history of their nation. And this name, Artio,was commonly given to children, baby girls born on spring. It's an ancient word, and it means… ‘bear’”

“What?” Merida jumped on her sit.

“Yes, I know. We are just haunted by such fascinating creatures, aren't we? But whatever or whoever is this Artio… Has a connection to you. To us, somehow. Everything is somehow closely bonded, knitted together, like a tapestry. Whatever is coming, will come to us, someday.”

As Elinor finished speaking, a gentle blue light appeared from thin air, like invoked by their conversation. A being made of supernatural deep blue color, manifested with a characteristic ghostly whisper.

“The will-o-wisp!” Merida shouted nearly jumping. She thought she would never see them again.

Elinor looked surprised but also worried. The will-o-wisps usually leaded to chaos and danger, like they did before.

The wisp disappeared and quickly reappeared some steps ahead, in the direction of the the forest. Elinor and Merida looked at each other. As if guessing her thoughts, Elinor simply said,

“Careful, child. Come back for breakfast”

Merida's eyes glowed like receiving a flash of confidence.

“I will!”

Nan

And after wrapping her mother in a clumsy embrace, she quickly moved to get Angus and her archery tools, to follow the mysterious wisp into the unknown of the dark snowy forest.

🌺🌺🌺

Hiyo, everyone!

I decided to post this fanfic here as well, besides AO3. I am not sure how much people read long texts here so I decided to give it a shot (all pun intended). Below I will link some of my social media so you can get to know more of my work:

AO3: The Arrow and the Flower 🌺 🏹

Instagram: nantosueltas 🌱 (where I post my OC Artio x Merida fanart)

tiktok: nantosueltas

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