#the zombie genre... such a complicated beast

[bagofbonesmp3]

If you're horror buffing, have you seen the Val Lewton RKO horror movies of the early '40s? The best-known are CAT PEOPLE and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (which are also the best), but you might start with ISLE OF THE DEAD or THE BODY-SNATCHER.

I NEED to watch the original cat people because I watched the 80s "remake" (not really a remake just a vague reinterpretation) and when I found out how different the original was I knew I had to check it out... it's all in my watchlist (same as I walked with a zombie just because after watching Romero's trilogy I kinda wanna dig up the inspirations)

[thanksjro]

Dark Cybertron Chapter 5: the Issue that Made Me Stop Reading MTMTE for Three Years

So, Megatron’s still getting space-bridged in the torso. That’s still happening. Nova Prime and Galvatron are coming through the rift, as Shockwave, who seems to have lost most of the mass in his lower body, thanks Megatron for his service.

Robert Gill’s on art for this issue alongside Ramondelli, and this is basically the only place we’ll be getting a taste of his style. Let’s see what he’s bringing to the table.

JESUS CHRIST.

WHY DO YOU HAVE GUMS.

Nightmare Murder Death Ravage, the Decepticons, and the Autobots just broke into Shockwave’s underground lair, and are ready to kick some ass. Shockwave was expecting this to happen, because he is a very smart boy, and also apparently genre savvy. Soundwave tackles Shockwave to the ground, and gets insulted for his troubles.

Sir, your eye's been turned into a silver-dollar pancake.

Shockwave calls in Metalhawk to handle these goons who’ve broken into his domicile, and Metalhawk, who legitimately looks like he’d snap in half if the breeze blew the wrong way, gets to work. Bumblebee tries to reason with the man- ripping off his whole-ass face to reveal... his face... in the process- but it’s useless. Metalhawk is just too het up about politics.

Over in another part of the room, Ironhide and a couple of buddies are going to lay the smackdown on Nova Prime and Galvatron, who are still coming out of the space bridge. They’ve been at this for like ten minutes now. Ironhide starts trying to shove Nova Prime back through the bridge, punching him in the face as he does. Megatron, at this point, has lost his arms. They’ve simply disappeared from the scene at hand.

The art isn’t great this issue, if you couldn’t already tell.

While this is happening, Skywarp is busy messing with the medical equipment Megatron’s hooked up to, and losing his corporeal form, because that death wave from a couple issues back did, in fact, hit him a little.

This is the Rattrap issue, by the way.

Over with Arcee, it would seem as though we’ve given up on even pretending to give a shit about size continuity, as Rumble and Blitzwing are the same height now. These three are on a mission to grab some of the resurrection ore and bring it back to base for the wounded, which is nice of them.

Shockwave shoots Soundwave, then calls Waspinator over, as Skywarp sticks his little hands into the ore that’s growing out of the walls. This makes him better, I guess? Because it’s resurrection ore? Even though he’s not dead? Also, his mouth looks like it’s full of wood pulp, and I don’t like it.

Bumblebee is trying to make a breakthrough with Metalhawk, but there’s no time for that, as Shockwave’s up to some weird nonsense involving Nova Prime.

The same could be said of this entire comic event.

Waspinator meets up with Shockwave and hands him his “staff”. I use quotations because it super isn’t a staff, but that’s what it’s called in-issue. What it actually is… well, it looks like a gun with a stinger for a barrel. I know he had a gun that looks very similar in Beast Wars, and he whipped it out on the regular, but I guess it’s a staff now? A staff that isn’t even remotely a staff? TFWiki makes the claim that it’s his stinger, which makes way more sense, but I don’t know that I’d want to hand the rump roast portion of my own ass to the purple science gremlin, even if it did mean cool stuff was going to happen.

Look, I don’t know, okay? I think someone fucked up the script.

Shockwave pops off his gun hand and attaches the “staff”, claiming to know how to handle the Titan way better than Waspinator ever could, because he’s just that smart. Then the Titan comes to life and bursts through the ground. Ironhide, who is still straddling Megatron as he punches Nova Prime into submission, gets his shop wrecked by a giant fist.

Meanwhile, in the Dead Universe, we’re finally getting back to that whole Nightbeat thing. Everyone is very surprised to find him here, and sort-of, maybe alive? Dead Universe complicates things.

Back in Spotlight: Hardhead, Hardhead and Nightbeat went on an adventure together to Gorlam Prime, trying to figure out what the hell had happened to Nightbeat’s brain in Spotlight: Nightbeat, where he was brainwashed into being a sleeper agent for Nova Prime, who was still in the Dead Universe at the time, and are you beginning to see why I sort of just gave up on following the plot and stopped reading? You have to have read essentially all of Phase 1 for any of this to make sense. Between that and the art, I was just sort of over the whole thing.

Anyway, Hardhead had to shoot Nightbeat in the head after the dude got his… brain taken over. There were some little tiny guys involved, Jhiaxus was there, it was weird. Because Nightbeat died at the edge of a portal to the Dead Universe, it took his body and dragged him inside, both trapping him and keeping him alive.

Rodimus isn’t too keen on this turn of events, and Hardhead feels really awkward about the whole thing. Nightbeat seems to be taking being an off-brand zombie in stride though, as he immediately makes himself a nuisance to Cyclonus, by way of cold-reading the guy. Because he’s a detective, he’s pretty good at it.

Nightbeat, you fool! It’ll be another 22 issues before Cyclonus is ready to even acknowledge his feelings!

Orion Pax breaks it up before we can see what Cyclonus considers a good punishment for putting him through the ordeal of being known, and we finally get back on track.

Back on Cybertron, I guess there’s been a bit of a time skip, as Megatron is back on his feet and carrying Ironhide to safety. Also, his mouth has gone AWOL. He tries to ask Bumblebee what the plan is, only to be interrupted by Galvatron ripping him in half.

God, I wish you hadn’t found your mouth, Megatron. This is awful.

Galvatron throws Megatron on the ground, and things just keep getting better, because now the Titan’s up on its feet, and Shockwave just told it to go ham.

Back in the Dead Universe, things are getting complicated, and I don’t think we’ll be getting answers any time soon.

Oh, well, I’m glad Nightbeat is as lost on this whole thing as I am.

Hardhead wants to know what was up with all that cryptic bullshit Nightbeat was spouting off earlier, and Nightbeat reveals even more details about Cyclonus- his forcefield generator was damaged when they got to the Dead Universe, and now he’s infected with… I dunno, bad vibes, I guess. That’s why he got sick a couple issues back, and also why the Cyberwraiths ran away from him; the Dead Universe is assimilating him back into its fold.

Even though it’s been established to want literally everything inside it dead.

Though Cyclonus did spend six million years hanging out in the Dead Universe, so maybe it’s fine, actually.

You know, truth be told, I’m not sure exactly how it works, and neither does anyone else, it would seem.

Anyway, Nightbeat tells the fellas to hold tight while he goes to grab somethingaaaaand he’s trapped them in a magic box.

Ugh, whatever, Orion.

Turns out getting shot didn’t fix Nightbeat’s sleeper agent issue, and now the boys are going to pay for being so chatty.

And that’s a series wrap on Team -Imus! Let’s give ‘em a hand, folks!

At this point, Nova Prime reveals that he did, in fact, get shoved back through the space bridge, and is still in the Dead Universe. Sucks to be him, I guess.

...Man, this Rattrap issue was great! Loved the part where he was in it.

[canmom]

Animation Night 25: HORROR

It’s almost halloweeeeeen!

Which means tomorrow’s Animation Night theme is going to be spooky. Spooky like this red tentacle beast...

That’s right: it’s time for inducing safely simulated fear and tension as a dramatic effect, or some such overly wordy definition of ‘horror’ :p (You know what it is, though, I’m just fucking about)

Now, the first draft of this post went into a long tangent on the origins of the modern horror genre and specific characters in the gothic novel, but honestly? If you’re curious about that, I am probably not going to be able to bring you more than surface-level information.

So let’s cut it a little shorter! Naturally stories about monsters or awful events have shown up in probably any culture you could name (kaidan for example since we’re gonna be dealing with Japanese horror today); but in early modern Europe, people got into a particular way of doing that, drawing on the existing genres of romanticism and the realist modern novel.

In Europe, and before long everywhere else, the 18th and 19th centuries were a time of ridiculously dramatic social upheaval - the enclosures, new science and industrial manufacturing, colonialism, witch trials - and to the newly dominant bourgeois, this period was for the creation of a ‘rational’, scientific world order in contrast to a past dominated by mysticism and magic.

So a big old portion of gothic novels fretted on the return of that scary magical old world, and attempted to cultivate an appreciation of the ‘sublime’ beyond human control, either a rebellion against the prevalent movement towards ‘realism’ or else a synthesis of the best of the old chivalric romances and the new novel. Not that Gothic novels were all about supernatural stuff; they could just as much be about a guy trying to build a dyke, or hardcore emotional drama out on a moor.

Which sometimes meant monsters! Most of the ‘canon’ of halloween monsters, from vampires and werewolves to torturers and Frankenstein’s monster, were established in the pages of Gothic novels. The monsters included stuff like scary undying aristocrats who literally sucked blood, or doctors who abused their power, or people who couldn’t trust themselves to be good rational little humans. Well, people loved that shit! So these Gothic novels were really big in the 18th and 19th centuries, which was also when everyone learned to read...

Then BAM the 20th century arrives and oh shit, we’ve invented the cinema! Horror film was pretty quick to follow; first in ‘trick films’ which experimented with spooky editing techniques (as seen above in The Haunted Curiosity Shop (1901)), such as double-exposures, attempted match cuts, objects on wires

efore long, in 1910, Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel Frankenstein (1818) got filmed and other Gothic novels like Jekyll and Hyde started seeing adaptations.

So this new genre, which became known as “horror”, turned out to be wildly popular. A full history of the horror genre and its many twists and turns would be beyond the scope of this post, but suffice to say it splintered into numerous subgenres, each concerned with particular themes, narrative devices and affects to evoke: psychological horror, splatter films, horror-comedy, zombie films... some deemed more prestigious, some less!

The popularity was surely bolstered through its complicated relationship with censorship/age restriction (nothing like banning a film to make people want to see it), and meanwhile directors would iterate on each other to chase particular tones and try to find ways to surprise people who’d seen most of their tricks... It became a pretty serious cultural force in countries like the UK and America at least, which at the same time saw gradual development of the old festival of ‘halloween’ to centre on horror-genre images and (at first home-made, then increasingly mass-produced) costumes.

(as an aside I feel like you could write a really wanky but also interesting article on how these old-school holidays of masses and handing out home-made like soul cakes became the modern version of dressing up as a vampire and asking your neighbours for branded sweets. Apparently American trick-or-treating developed in the late 20s/early 30s, but WP has little speculation as to how and why.)

So what about ANIMATION? Well, compared to live action, horror animation seems to be a relatively small part of the genre. But it’s definitely been there! Horror-inspired images were present in some of the early animated films, such as Disney’s The Skeleton Dance (1929), which doesn’t particularly try to scare anyone, but absolutely grabs from the milieu of ‘spookiness’. And of course, Fleischer also used images of ghosts and executions and graveyards pretty heavily, including some of the ones with rotoscoped Cab Calloway performances we talked about back on #21.

There was also an early example of horror paper-cutout animation in the brief informative sections of the Swedish-Danish film Häxan (1922), attempting to illustrate the medieval worldview which the filmmaker considered to be the origin of the witch trials. This included, for example, depictions of Aristotleian cosmology:

But as far as animation as like ‘serious’ horror animated films, with the actual intent to unsettle or scare or just like, at least not playing it for kitschy laughs, there are fewer examples!

The same is kinda true in Japan, in that horror anime is a relatively slim part of the whole anime corpus (wanker hand motion)... but there’s still considerably more horror anime than horror animation in other countries. And of course, developing alongside anime, was an incredible tradition of horror manga (most famously represented in the work of Junji Ito) and horror-related Japanese art movements like ero-guro (an erotic art movement emphasising shocking content like intricate body horror or in some cases sexual violence; check out the amazing work of Shintaro Kago for a fave here). Japanese live action horror films also went to some really fascinating places, such as cult-fave Tetsuo: The Iron Man.

The earliest horror anime I can find is the Toei adaptation of GeGeGe no Kitarō, which widely popularised yōkai to modern audiences. This was in large part inspired by an earlier kind of street theatre called kamishibai, which used illustrated panels as a kind of slideshow; kamishibai characters influenced a fair few of the films I’m about to talk about! (Shoutout to my friend Mogs here, who streamed the OG trans woman weeb Jennifer Diane Reitz’s digital kamishibai program last year...)

In the late 80s and early 90s, there was something of a boom in horror anime OVAs and films. The most prominent studio is definitely Madhouse (the original studio of Satoshi Kon and Mamoru Hosoda, if you’re keeping track!). Madhouse produced a whole bunch of horror OVAs and films, typically directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri - these include Bride of Deimos (1988), Demon City Shinjuku (1988), Doomed Megalopolis (1991), and Ninja Scroll (1993). Studio Pierrot also appeared around this time and made plenty of horror. Also very prominent are adaptations of the work of wildly influential mangaka Go Nagai, such as Violence Jack (1986) and especially the (slightly earlier) Devilman TV series (1972-3).

Unfortunately (for my personal taste!), as far as adaptations of ero-guro are concerned, it seems to have mostly been the rape story side of the movement rather than the cool body-horror imagery I like: you get examples like such as Shōjo Tsubaki (1992) which is a one-person limited-animation story centering on a kamishibai character, about a circus freakshow which is, behind the scenes, loaded with every paraphilia and fetish the artist could think of. Similarly, the ‘tentacle rape’ motif (that became kinda ridiculously overblown as a stereotype about anime in the West) was widely popularised by an ero-guro anime adaptation called Urotsokidōji: Legend of the Overfiend (1987-1996) (which goes way harder with that stuff than the original manga). These were outré enough to cast a really long shadow today.

Naturally, since the 90s, there has been absolutely loads of anime that uses horror motifs, to the point that it’s kind of hard where to draw much of a meaningful line between ‘horror’ and ‘not’. Like, would Evangelion count as horror? Madoka? They’re not really seen in that light though. Still, we can pull out a few that are definitely part of The Genre!..

One prominent trend is vampire anime, exemplified by the series Vampire Hunter D, or the Madhouse project Blood: The Last Vampire, which spawned like a million sequels. For whatever reason, bloodsucking European aristos got pretty popular over in Japan! Perhaps in D’s case, that had something to do with the gorgeous manga panels drawn by Yoshitaka Amano (that guy who did so much to define Final Fantasy!), which Ashi Productions and later Madhouse did a great job adapting into the more limited format of animation cel. And for Blood, well, a girl chopping up vampires with a katana is just cool I guess.

Whatever the reason, these early vampire anime led to plenty of other vampire anime, such as Hellsing (2001) about England getting invaded by nazi vampires which I note mostly because its English dub is incredibly hammy and silly.

There are also a couple of striking anthology series to mention here; Yamishibai (2013-) tells a bunch of really short ghost stories in a kamishibai-inspired format, which will be watching much of tonight. There’s also jidaigeki anthology horror series Ayakashi (2006) which led to the extremely stylish spinoff Mononoke (2007-8) about a medicine seller (not to be confused with the legendary Miyazaki film!). And there’s a short CG OVA called Kakurenbo (Hide & Seek) which sports some very stylish masks and creature designs drawing on traditional Japanese festivals which we’re going to screen also...

In terms of psychological horror, Madhouse (these guys again!) went in hard adapting Monster in 2007, about a surgeon who saves a life only discover that the man he saved is a serial killer with a long career, which seems to be widely noted. And of course there are Satoshi Kon’s films: his first film Perfect Blue (1997) about an idol facing a stalker, and many episodes of his series Paranoia Agent, which tells a series of loosely connected stories about people mostly facing various kinds of mental health crises.

And as far as personal recs from friends... Made in Abyss (2017) as some of the most genuinely affecting horror in anime.

tl;dr: there’s an absolute fuckton of horror anime. Of which I can only show a little, because Western animation has also done some incredible stuff, and my friends already call me a weeb enough :p

Our main feature tonight is actually an incredible Spanish film Psiconautas, los niños olvidados (2015), directed Alberto Vásqez (and based on his own graphic novel), which was released in English as Birdboy: The Forgotten Children. It’s a beautifully illustrated, surreal story about animal people living very bleak lives on a secluded island that was devastated by an industrial accident. The adults have mostly resigned themselves to the miserable state of affairs. A few of the children, facing no future and a routine police violence, plan to try to escape the island.

The film’s title character, Birdboy, is both a social outcast and a kind of protector spirit, haunted by a demon born of grief after the cops murdered his dad. Like most of the characters, he’s getting by through taking drugs. Much like Vásquez’s amazing short film Decorado, which we watched on Spanish animation night, the film is paced initially as lots of short punchy scenes; some bleak, some funny. Though the bleak setting and slightly unsettling style could easily seem to be like a sort of shallow ‘haha mental illness and drugs’ comedy it is nothing like that, but a blistering systemic critique that’s hardcore ACAB. And the soundtrack is fucking incredible. Try and listen to it with headphones if you don’t have a bass speaker :p

Birdboy follows an earlier short film by Vasquez in 2011, where we can see an early form of many of the ideas... but in the intervening five years we can see how much he’s tightened the themes, the editing, the general intensity of the whole thing.

So! I am absolutely stoked to share this really cool film with you all; I don’t want to say too much more because it’s best taken as a feeling, but content warning wise the main things would be like, drugs, trauma, parental abuse, dark psychedelic imagery (the above gif is p typical), police violence, occasional gore and a pretty bleak mood (but very justified I think).

Another notable spot of horror animation is the Korean Seoul Station (2016), dir. Yeon Sang-Ho, which I told everyone I was gonna show... but on consideration I’m probably not going to show because the way it handles sexual violence, sex work and such sounds, at least off the summary, a bit eh. It’s usually described as very heavy on the social commentary; the message is pretty much ‘wow this society is pretty fucking hierarchical and maybe you should stop treating homeless people like shit’ but like a lot of Korean live action film, it does that through going really hard on gore and sexual violence and such.

But while that approach can lead to some incredibly impactful films like Oldboy or The Handmaiden, in this case, I’m not sure the animation - which I’d guess is probably Toon Boom or similar software used to animate puppet rigs, because while smooth it has a weirdly mechanical quality - is up to the task of conveying that in a way that makes it meaningful and effective.

(Not to just like rip into this film I haven’t fully seen, I just wanted to mention that in case anyone’s wondering why it’s been dropped.)

Instead, I’ll be throwing in an assortment of short horror-related things. Among them I want to throw out a highlight on some web animators and student films, among them CalArts->Pixar animator David Ochs’s short film Who’s Hungry?, and independent horror animator David Romero (who’s on here at @cinemamind​ !). While we’re visiting America, we’ll also check out a little of Cartoon Network’s short series Over The Garden Wall (2014), which is very definitely of the post-Adventure Time milieu (complete with the slightly sardonic brown-haired boy who appeared in every mid-2010s American animation! must be friends with short-black-hair mild-mannered anime boy), but it has a decent sense of humour and some properly spooky scenes now and again.

Another one I want to play again - though we saw it before in the misty past of Animation Night - is the music video to DyE’s song Fantasy, which features some splendid body horror animated by Jérémie Périn.

Animation Night 25 is set to begin at 7pm UK time, now just one spooky hour away, and continue until probably well past the witching hour! The haunting ground will be twitch.tv/canmom, and the playlist is portended to be:

Yamishibai: Zanbai + The Family Rule

Kakurenbo (Hide-and-Seek)

Yamishibai: Umbrella Goddess + The Next Floor

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

Intermission

Yamishibai: Inside + The Overhead Rack

Mushishi episode 2

Yamishibai: Contradiction + Tormentor

Intermission

Midnight Snack - David Romero

Birdboy: The Forgotten Children

The Other Lily - David Romero

Who’s Hungry - David Ochs

Mon Ami qui Brille dans la Nuit - Gobelins

DyE: Fantasy

audience requests and music videos!

[yuexuan]

Fic Tag Guide

I’m not the most conscientious when it comes to providing warnings and basic information in my fic recs. So I thought I’ll create a guide about the common tags used for CN fiction summaries/tag systems.

Disclaimer: This is not all-encompassing and most of them are drawn from my reading of danmei novels (although tag application may extend beyond the danmei circle). I tried grouping them under similar tags, but know that these groupings are not set in stone. Feel free to let me know if I’ve missed anything!

Additionally, please check out Link 1 and Link 2 who have also done similar posts.

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古代/古风 (Gǔdài/Gǔfēng) “ancient times/ancient style” - Stories set in historical timeline or contain historical elements

武侠 (Wǔxiá) “martial heroes” - Heroic stories focus on martial arts; may or may not integrate more fantastical elements.

仙侠 (Xiānxiá) “immortal heroes” - Fics falling under the xianxia genre typically draw heavily from Chinese mythology/folklore, Taoism, Buddhism, mixed with some martial arts. The concept of ‘cultivation’ (修仙 Xiūxiān) to achieve immortality is central to this genre. Fics are usually set in historical periods.

民国 (Minguo) “Republic of China” - Fics with backgrounds set in the time period of the Republic of China/Minguo Era (~1912-1949). Stories under this category tend to include a lot of tragedies, wars, complicated politics, and anti-Japanese sentiments. I tend to avoid minguo fics, but of the few ones I read, the trope of a military officer (军官 Jūnguān) falling in love with an opera actor (sometimes derogatorily referred to as 戏子 Xìzi) is quite popular.

宫廷 (Gōngtíng) “imperial court” - Fics focused on imperial court drama.

玄幻 (Xuánhuàn) “fantasy” - Stories with elements of Chinese mythology/folklore. Note that xuanhuan novels are NOT limited to historical settings.

魔幻 (Móhuàn) “magical realism” - A genre of novels incorporating ‘magical realism’ (think Lord of the Rings). Alternatively, another term 奇幻 (Qíhuàn) is also commonly employed.

西幻 (Xī huàn) ‘Western fantasy’ - This is sometimes used interchangeably with Móhuàn, but can also refer to general stories with Western-fantasy/folklore elements (e.g. vampires/werewolves). Alternatively, the term 欧风 (Ōufēng) - ‘European style’ may be used.

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现代/都市情缘 (Xiàndài/dūshì qíngyuán) “modern day/urban love” - Fics set in the contemporary era/within urban setting.

豪门 (Háomén) “wealthy elite” - Featuring one or more characters originating from wealth. A common trope is the ‘Cinderella’-esque dynamic where a commoner gets noticed by a rich dude and is embroiled into the conflicts of the rich.

娱乐圈/演艺圈 (Yúlè quān/yǎnyì quān) “entertainment/showbiz” - Stories where the characters are actors/celebrities. A common trope is the ‘Cinderella’ dynamic where an unpopular artist (e.g. 十八线艺人 ‘18th-line artist’) gets into a relationship with a top-tier celebrity (e.g. 影帝/一线明星 ‘1st-line celebrity’)

网络/网游/网配 (Wǎngluò/wǎngyóu/wǎng pèi) “Internet/online games/online matching” - Characters in the fic develop their relationship through the web. Entails a lot of chat-speak and web memes. A common trope involves the main pairing meeting each other online and in real life, but not knowing their alternative web ego until the Big Reveal.

军文/军旅生涯 (Jūn wén/jūnlǚ shēngyá) “military adventures/life” - Characters are part of the military, usually involves power couple dynamics.

职场 (Zhíchǎng) “workplace” - Office-setting fics. A related category is 霸道总裁 (Bàdào zǒngcái) “domineering CEO”  featuring the popular trope of a possessive, rich, and popular CEO with his partner

校园 (Xiàoyuán) “campus” - Romantic slice of life stories set on campuses.

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未来世界 (Wèilái shìjiè) “future world” - Fics set in futuristic timeline

末日/末世 (Mòrì/mòshì) “doomsday” - Fics with apocalyptic-settings; usually contain survival-focused plots

丧尸 (Sàngshī) “zombies” - Usually survival-oriented fics with zombies

星际 (Xīngjì) “interstellar” - Fics set in outer space and alien planets. A common plot features the conflicts between the ‘Federation’ (i.e. 联邦 Liánbāng) vs. the ‘Empire’ (i.e. 帝国 Dìguó). May or may not include a third party: the ‘worm/insect species’ (虫族 Chóngzú).

机甲 (Jījiǎ) “mecha” - Futuristic fics where mecha with virtual personalities are prominent features.

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盗墓 (Dàomù) “tomb-raiding” - A specific genre dealing with tomb-raiding adventures and hauntings.

灵异 (Língyì) “supernatural” - Self-explanatory

悬疑推理 (Xuányí tuīlǐ) “mystery” - Suspense and mystery

探险 (Tànxiǎn) “adventure” - Self-explanatory

无限流 (Wúxiàn liú) “Infinite flow/style” - This genre of fics is all inclusive; i.e. including elements from sci-fi, history, religion, myth, game, animation etc. where characters enter into different settings. A common example is where the characters are forced into a game in which they have to pass through multiple levels/settings in order to survive. For more details on this genre and their sub-division, please see here.

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重生穿越 (Chóngshēng chuānyuè) “rebirth and transmigration” - The main protagonist died and is transmigrated either back in time or into another dimension or timeline. Alternative/related tags that you might see include:

穿书/快穿/系统  (Chuān shū/kuài chuān/xìtǒng) “book transmigration/quick transmigration/system” - System specifically refers to the transmigrator having an internal system that interacts with them in their new body. Think RPG style games lol

金手指 (Jīn shǒuzhǐ) “golden finger(s)” - A common trope in transmigration novels where the transmigrator is gifted with talents/powers that allow them to thrive in the new world.

前世今生 (Qiánshì jīnshēng) ‘past and present” - Characters continuing their relationships from their past lives.

破镜重圆 (Pòjìng chóngyuán) lit. translated as “re-rounding the broken mirror” - Fix-it reunion stories

异能 (Yì néng) “special abilities” - Characters with special abilities/superpowers/mutants

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甜文 (Tián wén) “sweet fic” - Fics that are filled with fluff and tooth-rotting sweetness.

种田 (Zhòngtián) “farming” - Piece of life, fluffy stories featuring the main couple; often takes place in rural areas (hence the whole farm image lol)

爽文 (Shuǎng wén) “satisfactory or feel-good fic” - The whole point of this type of fic is that the readers feel good after reading it. A common trope is a revenge style plot where the main protagonist regains what they lost through taking revenge on those who had wronged them.

沙雕文 (Shādiāo wén) “silly fic/crack” - Homonym for ‘傻屌’ (Shǎ diǎo; silly/stupid); these fics are not intended to be serious

美食文 (Měishí wén) “food fic” - As the tag suggest, don't read this type of fic on an empty stomach lol

虐文 (Nüè wén) “angst fic” - Self-explanatory

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ABO “alpha/beta/omega” - Self-explanatory; you can read the fanlore here

哨兵向导 (Shàobīng xiàngdǎo) “sentinel-Guides” - Based on the original Sentinel fandom (see fanlore here).

兽人 (Shòurén) “beast/anthros” - Similar to abo. Males (雄兽 Xióng shòu) are capable of transforming between an animal and a human, whereas “females” (雌兽 Cí shòu) retain the human form and can get pregnant. There may also be the beta, in this case referred to as 亚兽 (Yà shòu) who can neither transform nor get pregnant/difficult to impregnate. Usually set in some prehistoric era and entails the protagonist transmigrating into this world as a “female”. In the same vein, for the interstellar insect species, some fics developed the male, female, and sub-insects trope.

哥儿 (Gē er) - A ge er is similar to an omega, basically men who can get pregnant and are marked by a flower shaped pattern on the forehead. I’ve only come across 3-4 fics with this trope and all of them are set in the historical era where the ge er tends to be very feminine. If anyone has any more info on this trope, let me know!

🌸 🌸 🌸

攻宠受 (Gōng chǒng shòu) “top pampering the bottom” - The top in the relationship will care very well for the bottom. The opposite would be 受宠攻 (Shòu chǒng gōng) “bottom pampering the top”. Alternatively, the writer might just mark it as 宠文 (Chǒng wén) “pampering fic” in general.

年下 (Nián xia) - Younger top and older bottom; one common phrase you might encounter describing the younger top is 小狼狗 (Xiǎo lánggǒu) or “little German Shepherd”, referring to handsome and domineering young man.

On the note of dogs, you might also see 小奶狗 (Xiǎo nǎi gǒu) “unweaned puppies) referring to cute and soft young men, and 二哈 (Èr hā) “dumb husky” referring to silly characters

年上 (Nián shàng) - Older top and younger bottom

As a warning, age gaps in these types of fics can sometimes be large depending on the context, and could overlap with more controversial, dubcon genres 

师生 (Shī shēng) “teacher-student” - Fics featuring the relationship between teacher and student

师徒 (Shī tú) “master-disciple” - Fics featuring the relationship between the master in a martial/cultivation sect and their disciple

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] Chat On The Beach

Duel Academia was quiet. Too quiet, in Manjoume’s opinion, and he didn’t like it. The major reason for the quiet was, of course, because Juudai hadn’t turned back up yet from wherever he’d gone after whatever the heck it was he did with Yubel.

Truth to tell, Manjoume wasn’t at all sure. They’d only managed to get little glimpses of what happened in Dark World from that place of torment Yubel stuffed them into. He’d been surprised that he could even talk to Shou for those few seconds when the other passed by. He’d tried to scream at Juudai but the idiot hadn’t even noticed him.

Probably Yubel had something to do with that, too. What he did know was that Juudai used Super Fusion. Shou told them all about what happened at the end of the duel. Exactly what that did to them, no one knew. Manjoume wasn’t even sure if he knew what Super Fusion could do or what it was. A Fusion card that no one had ever seen before that strange world…

For the most part he tried to tell himself that it didn’t matter. Whatever else happened, they’d made it through safely and now they were just waiting for Juudai to get back from wherever he had flittered off too. The sooner the better in Manjoume’s opinion. Maybe then things would liven up a little around here, and Shou would stop drooping around as if nothing else mattered.

He refused to even consider the notion that he was moping around just as much as Shou was. Even if he had, he would simply have reminded anyone who brought it to his attention that he was Manjoume Thunder and Juudai was his rival. If anyone had the right to be upset about Juudai having vanished, then he was that person, he and no other.

Manjoume refused to just mope around the Red dorm. He wasn’t going to mope around either of the other two dorms, for that matter. Since it wasn’t class time, he didn’t wander around the main building. He instead vaguely wended his way to the beach, wondering if he might encounter Fubuki or Tenjoin-kun or someone else who might be worth having a chat with. Maybe even a duel – not that there was anyone else here that could give him, the winner of Genex, a real challenge. Not without Juudai there.

He hadn’t gone too far down the beach before he revised his immediate opinion. There on the beach there sat Johan Andersen, arms wrapped around his knees, staring at the ocean, a mildly distant expression in his eyes. Manjoume slowly sauntered up to him.

“What are you doing out here?” If he thought about it, he couldn’t remember having actually spoken to Johan ever since the North School duelist arrived there. Johan had always been locked in step with Juudai and too much else happened to Manjoume to even get the chance to. Then the whole duel zombie thing and well – it just hadn’t happened.

Johan glanced up at him. “Waiting for Juudai to come back.” A hint of a smile tilted his lips upward. “He’s got something of mine.”

Manjoume furrowed his brow. “Huh?” He vaguely remembered that Yubel possessed Johan for a while. He wasn’t sure of how that ended up, only that clearly he wasn’t possessed anymore.

“My deck.” Johan let out a bit of a sigh. “I gave it to Juudai so he could fight Yubel and then he left with it. So I’m waiting for him to come back.”

Manjoume believed that Juudai would return because if he didn’t, Manjoume would have to track him down throughout the worlds and drag him back by his ears, because what was he going to do without his rival? He needed to beat Juudai one day. And here was Johan, simply believing that Juudai would return to give him back his deck.

He wasn’t sure what to think of that. So he didn’t bother; just mentally shrugging his shoulders and moving onward.

“Hey, there’s something I wondered about,” Manjoume said, settling down on the beach next to Johan. “You’re from North School, right?”

“Right.” Johan glanced at him curiously.

“Then how come I didn’t see you there when I was there back in my first year? That was your first year too, wasn’t it?” That had bothered Manjoume for a while now, at least when he didn’t have anything else to worry about.

Johan laughed, resting one hand on the back of his head. “Yeah. I heard about you when I got back there. I was sorry to have missed you.” His eyes gleamed gem-like in the afternoon sun. “Maybe you could have been the first person I used the Gem Beasts against.”

Manjoume blinked several times and delivered a very complex and complicated question that conveyed all of his confusion. “What?”

“We didn’t see each other because when you showed up there, I wasn’t there. I was off at a tournament – the same one that I won and President Pegasus was there and gave me the Gem Beasts.” His eyes glimmered in soft memory and a deep heartache that Manjoume almost understood. “You know, this is the first time I’ve ever really been separated from them since we met.”

“I wish I could lose mine sometimes,” Manjoume muttered. He could hear the Ojamas’ voices, chattering about something just beyond the pitch of actually hearing them. He knew they were talking but not what they were talking about. He wasn’t that interested in finding out, either.

Johan glanced towards him, and his eyes focused on a bit of air above Manjoume. He smiled. “Hello, there.”

Manjoume sighed and followed his gaze to see the three Ojamas hanging there. Ojama Yellow waved, chirping a hello, and Manjoume started to reach over to grab it, intending to stuff it out of sight.

But Johan reached out instead, holding his hand out, and Ojama Yellow perched there. He stared up at Johan with large googly eyes. “Hey! You’re not Yubel, are you? Not now?”

“Not now,” Johan agreed. He regarded Ojama Yellow a little more. “You saw me back then?”

“Sure did! Shou-aniki and I both did!” Ojama Yellow waved his hands back and forth. “And there were these pretty little fairies!” He let out a long, happy sigh. “I wish I could see them again. I think they liked me.”

Manjoume rolled his eyes. He doubted that the so-called fairies had even noticed Ojama Yellow existed and if they had, they’d probably had a few things to say about his lack of hygiene. He wondered if he should hit up the hot springs and see if he could introduce the three of them to the concept of soap and hot water.

Johan smiled. “Maybe they did. And you might see them again if they decide to link themselves to a card. You never know what could happen.”

Ojama Yellow clasped his hands together and let loose with an even deeper, dreamier sigh. “That would be amazing!”

He floated back up, fading away with his brothers. Manjoume snorted a little. “You really see spirits just like that, don’t you?”

“Ever since I was a little kid. I scared some people – I didn’t know which were the spirits and which were the humans sometimes. There was one time I got lost and I met a spirit. I don’t remember which one it was, just that she looked like anyone else.” He drummed his fingers on the sand for a few seconds. “Except for the wings. I should have guessed those weren’t normal, but I was six.”

Manjoume couldn't wrap his head around not realizing wings meant a spirit. But if he’d been six – well – his brothers wouldn’t have been too happy if he’d wandered off like that.

“She guided me back home. Never saw her again after that.” Johan shrugged. “What about you? When did you start seeing spirits?”

“After I dueled Juudai a few times.” He wasn’t going to say that it was when he’d first met Ojama Yellow, even though it was true. “I think it rubbed off on me from him.”

Johan nodded in placid agreement. “He’s got that effect on people. Makes me wonder who else could have it and they just haven’t met their proper partner yet.”

“No clue.” But the idea did intrigue him. Could Tenjoin-kun see spirits now? What about Shou? Or – well – anyone that Juudai dueled more than once. How many times did it take?

Damn it, Juudai needed to get back here so he could find out. It wasn’t fair that this question cropped up just when he couldn’t shake an answer out of Juudai.

Johan leaned back on the sand and stared up at the afternoon sky. “He’ll be back. He and Yubel are working things out.”

Manjoume opened his mouth to ask about that, then closed it again. He really didn’t know what he would ask or what kind of answer that he’d get. Johan had been possessed by Yubel for a long time. Did he know things? Suspect things?

I don’t want to know, he decided. Besides, he probably wouldn’t tell me. That’s Juudai’s stuff to talk about.

He wriggled his fingers in the sand. “So, when Juudai gets back here with your deck, you wanna duel?” He remembered hearing that Johan and Hell Kaiser dueled to get them out of that sand dimension. No one had managed to record it, but clearly it had been beyond fantastic. He wanted to fight against either one of them and Johan was right there.

Johan’s eyes met him, the sparkle of challenge gleaming in the sunlight. “I can hardly wait.”

The End

Notes: This is my absolute headcanon for why Johan and Manjoume didn’t know each other – and they didn’t, because Johan had to ask who he was when Manjoume dueled Amon. He didn’t even know about the Ojamas. So, they clearly never met before then.

[dayawantstosleep]

Love & Zombies Nov 4, 2020

Summary: All I wanted to do was survive, not get involved in a love triangle with Changbin and Chris. Things spiral out of control from there.

Genre: Dystopian, Apocalyptic

Word Count: 2,834

Warning(s): Swear words, implied cheating, jealous 3RACHA

I ran a hand through my hair for the billionth time and shut my eyes tightly. The bed seemed too big for me now that Han is not here anymore.

A quiet sniffle came out of me and I wiped my tears with my hand covered in my sleeve. I turn around to bury myself in my pillow and sobs wracked my body.

"He's still here with us." Changbin's hoarse voice said next to me. I must have woken him up with my crying.

"I should've been bitten instead of him." I said, sitting up. I hug my knees and bury my head on my arms.

"It's not your fault. He wouldn't want you to be like this." I snort softly. Han gone must have taken a toll on Changbin if he was comforting me.

"I just miss him. He's my buddy and I let him down. I was supposed to have his back, but I didn't. Now he's one of them."

"Just go to sleep, Aria." He said exasperated. I sighed and laid down on the bed again, the jackass I know making an appearance.

"Goodnight, Changbin." He hummed and I took that as a goodnight before closing my eyes.

It was past midnight when I woke up to go to the restroom. Chan words echoed in my mind.

We have a buddy system. If you want to leave at night tell your buddy. Things will be bad if you don't.

"My buddy was turned, Chan. Turned into a monster." I said rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

I sighed deeply and looked at myself in the mirror. I looked pitiful. Dark half circles perched under my eyes and my skin looked paler than usual.

I unlocked the door and turned the lights off, heading to my room. I stopped in front of the door and sighed again.

I slipped inside my room and walked towards Changbin's sleeping figure on the far end of the room. I took a deep breath and prepared myself mentally.

"Changbin." I whispered, but the sleeping boy didn't even move. I sighed and reached for his shoulder.

His eyes shot open and he grabbed my waist, slamming it into his mattress, knees on either side of me. I let out a yelp as he glared at me menacingly.

"Can you get off me, Changbin?" His eyes soften slightly as he rolled off of me. I sat up and I heard him grunt.

"What were you thinking?"

"That I could wake you up. I need to show you something."

"Why?" I rolled my eyes and sighed. Why did I think this would be easy? When it comes to Changbin, things are never easy.

"You're my new buddy." Was all I said before leaving out the door. I heard footsteps behind me and I ventured further into base.

"Where are we going?" He asked. I didn't answer until I stopped outside.

"Don't freak out, ok?" I asked as I walked towards a ladder on one side if the building.

"What do you mean?" He asked, following me up the ladder. I walked towards the coffee table in the middle of the roof and clicked a small switch.

The coffee table parted and a large thin glass tube appeared out of the floor. Inside, a beast stared back at us; its eyes were a dull brown and the skin was grey and decaying.

"What the hell is this?" Changbin asked loudly.

"What do you think? This is him." Tears appeared on my eyes as I stared at the beast. The beast I used to call a best friend and confidant.

"How the fuck did you bring him here without none of us knowing?"

"Easy. Remember when we had Chris' party last week?" He looked at me as if I had two heads.

"No." I nodded.

"Yes. He was Chris' huge present. I feel super bad for lying, but I couldn't just leave him at the shopping mall. You know how much he means to me." I looked sadly at the beast before me.

"So, you've kept him here for a week?" I nodded again.

Han let out a gutteral sound and clawed at the glass. With one bite, my best friend had been reduced to a mindless being, with a knack of biting people.

"It's been really hard and Chris almost figured me out the other day. I need you to keep the secret." I turned to him.

"What?"

"I know you don't like me, but you're my roomate. We need to have each others backs, Changbin."

"What we need to do is kill that thing."

"No. He's my best friend. Han is gone and I know its selfish of me to keep him here in this state. But if there's any way to save him, I'll take it."

"This is for our survival, Aria." I suddenly felt consumed with rage. He was closer to Han than any of us, and he wants to kill him just like that?

"What do you know of survival?" I ask. He tightened his jaw and frowned.

"I lost Han already. I don't want to lose you too."

"Excuse me?"

"You're excused. I'm killing that thing." He walked closer to Han and took out a knife from his jeans.

"You can't kill him. He's-"

"He's what, huh? He's not just your friend. You love him. I've seen the way you look at him." His voice was growing louder.

Love him? Have I really loved Han all along and not notice? No, Changbin is just misinterpreting things.

"No. I don't look at him in any way." He sneered.

"What would Chan think?" My blood ran cold. What would he think if he knew I had Han locked up in here?

"He would want to save Han."

"So, what? You can dump him for Han?" What the hell is he on about?

"No. Listen, I-"

"No. You listen. You think I like it that Chan is with you? Or that Han used to talk about you every fucking second you weren't there? When you were with Chan."

"What's that gotta do with keeping Han a secret? You're mixing up your shit."

"No. You just don't want to talk about this now."

I walked closer to him and flipped a switch on the tube, making it slowly go down from where it came from. Changbin's frown deepened and he let out a tch.

"You're clueless." He crossed his arms and shook his head.

"Don't patronize me. Now, cut the bullshit and talk straight."

"What's the point? None of it matters now." His eyes turned sad and he turned around, walking away.

I stood there, watching his receeding figure until I walked into the base alone.

Changbin didn't speak to me the next day or the day after that. Whenever one of the guys asked about his behavior, he would either shrug and give one word answers or ignore them.

"What is up his ass?" I asked Chris after a week of Changbin being unresponsive. He shrugged and put an arm around me.

"I think having Han gone hit him hard." My breath hitched and Changbin's words resonated in my head.

What would Chan think?

I turned to Chris and saw Changbin sitting at the dining table, looking at something behind us. I'll confront him later, when I'm done with Chris.

"I have to tell you something." I said. He nodded and turned to me.

"What is it?" He looked concerned and I suddenly felt my stomach started hurting. I grabbed the arm that was on my shoulder and pulled it off of me.

"This is kind of hard to say but-"

"You're not breaking up with me, are you?" He let out a nervous laugh and I shook my head furiously.

"No. No of course not. I just...it's a bit more complicated than that."

"Complicated?" I took a deep breath and prepared myself mentally.

"Han's not dead." His eyes widen and his breath became ragged.

"What!?"

"He's a zombie. And he's on the roof."

"He's what?"

"I trapped him on the roof and I know this is wrong but we can save him. We just gotta wait a little longer."

"What a little longer? Aria, why didn't you tell us?"

"I didn't know how you'd react, Changbin said-"

"Changbin? You told him before me?" Please tell me this wasn't going to be a fight? Please, please, please.

"He's my roomate, Chris. I couldn't just not tell him."

"It's good that you told him, but you could have told me first."

"You're kidding, right? What does it matter who I told first? That's not even the damn point. The point is that I want to save Han." Out of the corner of my eye, the guys retreated to the kitchen.

"You want to what? I'm sorry, but he can't be saved." My heart broke then and there. My best friend can't be saved.

"Bullshit." I whispered softly.

"What?"

"Bullshit. He's one of us, he's always have been." He ran a hand through his hair, seemingly trying to formulate words.

"Where is he?"

After showing Chris and the rest of the guys the zombified Han, they freaked out. Half of them wanted to save him and the other half wanted to kill him. It was chaotic, until all of us went back inside.

"What is wrong with you?" I asked Changbin as soon as I walked into our room. He was laying on his bed with earbuds on.

I walked closer to him and yank the earbuds off, making him curse. He glared at me and sat up.

"What do you want?" He barked out.

"What did you mean back there?" He let out a tch and looked away from me.

"Changbin." I growled. I sat next to him and he turned away from me again.

"Why have you been so mean to me? You never liked me and it bugs me so much."

"You really wanna know?" He inched closer to me, we were centimeters apart.

"Yes. I want to fucking know." I growled. His lips slammed into mine roughly and pulled away.

"What the hell?" He didn't answer me just unbuttoned his jeans and took them off.

"You think that just because you kissed me everything is fine?" I was beyond pissed. All this time he was jealous of Chris and Han. That's bullshit.

He inched closer to me and kissed me roughly again. He pulled away and smirked his usual 'you're beneath me' smirk.

"Shut up."

"Don't fucking tell me what to do."

"What are you gonna do about it?" There he is again, feeling superior. Well, I've had it.

I raised an arm and slapped him. He just stared at me, I didn't wipe that smirk off of his face.

"That's hot." He pulled me in again and I pushed him away.

"I'm with Chris, Changbin."

"That's not fair. You can't pull that shit on me. You can't let me kiss you and pull that shit on me." He glared at me expectantly.

"You can't just kiss me and expect me to come running to your arms. It doesn't work that way."

"So, you just expect me to throw my feeling away?" He was getting angrier.

"You can do whatever you fucking want." I growled. His lips crashed into mine but this time, I kissed him back.

I don't know why I did it. Maybe I wanted to release my pent up anger at him for being an inconsiderate asshole all this time. Or maybe at the very back of my mind, I knew I liked him back.

He pulled me closer to him and I laced my hands on his neck. The kiss became more heated, and his lips travelled down my neck.

I grabbed his shirt and pulled it off of him, glazing over his well toned abs. I suddenly remembered the first time I saw them, when I barely got to base.

I didn't think nothing of it because he was rude to me and I didn't like him at all. But now, I find myself oogling.

"Look at you, Bin." I barely registered that I called him by his nickname.

"Don't call me that." He growled, capturing my lower lip with his lips and bit me.

"I'll call you whatever the fuck I want." I growled, biting where his neck and shoulders meet.

He moaned out and I would be lying if I said that it wasn't sensual. He grabbed my hand and led me to his bed, getting on top of me.

The beast in front of me tried clawing it's way through the glass. The attempt was futile, Han stopped and just looked at me with soulless eyes.

"I don't know what I'm doing." I whispered. Last night flashed in my mind and then I sat down on the couch.

"This really wasn't supposed to happen, you know? We're in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. I didn't come here to sleep with anyone. I came here to survive."

Han just stared at me, dull brown eyes staring into my ones. I ran a hand through my hair and looked at the tube.

"You must be lonely in there, huh? I can't exactly let you out, but I can do this." I stood up and clicked a switch on the tube.

A small opening parted in front of his facex big enough for one hand only.

"Rawwwr!" He snarled and reached his hand out towards me through the window. I sighed deeply, taking out my dagger from the inside of my jeans.

Changbin is right. I can't save him even if I try. He's my best friend and I'll always love him. But, having him here is a huge risk.

"I'm sorry, Jisung." I raised my dagger and sung it. I winced, blood coming out of my hand.

"Fuck it. I can't." I looked at the sky and let out a yell. I looked at Han and then I heard the door to the base open.

"Aria?" I walked towards the edge of the roof and look down. Chris was looking at me as he climbed up the ladder.

"Yeah?"

"I heard someone shout so I came looking for you." He said as soon as he got to the top.

"I'm fine. Just talking to Han." I put my dagger behind my back but he quickly grabbed my hand.

"Aria what did you-?"I cut him off and yanked my hand back.

"I said I'm fine." He stopped and let his hand hang at his side. I sighed, feeling guilty for raising my voice at my boyfriend.

"Sorry. I'm just very on edge." I turn to the tube where Han is imprisoned and frowned.

It was now or never. I flipped a switch on the tube and the glass slowly started opening.

"What are you doing?" Chris asked next to me.

"What I should have done a long time ago." I take my dagger out and then Han pounced.

I heard Chris shout my name and the dagger went flying out of my hands. Han snarled and bared his teeth at me, trying to claw me.

I put an arm under his chin to try to stop him. He roared and I did the only thing I thought of. I grabbed his arm and bit into his grey skin.

His eyes rolled upward and he fell on top of me. I scooted away from him and felt Chris arms around me.

"That was risky." He said kissing my cheek.

"I needed to do something, he was gonna eat me." I turned to Han and gasped.

My best friend stood up and started walking towards me. His skin wasn't grey anymore, and his eyes were soulless either. They were brown.

"What happened?" I malfunctioned. He could form sentences. He was human again. What the hell?

I ran to him, arms extented and he extended his arms too. I slapped him as soon as he was within arms reach.

"Oww." He said, rubbing his cheek. I ignored him and pulled him in for a hug.

"Don't you fucking do that again." Tears pricked my eyes as I began sobbing.

"You were gonna get bit. I needed to do something." I let out a laugh.

He was still the same Han I knew. I pulled away and he grabbed my hands.

"I've been meaning to tell you something, but I just couldn't. And then when I got bit, I was gonna say it but...well, you know" I nodded and then he cupped the sides of my face and closed the gap between us.

My eyes widen and I pulled myself away from him. This is what he wanted to tell me? That like Changbin, he's been liking me all this time.

"I- Han...I'm sorry. I can't. I'm with Chris." He turned to Chris behind me and his face fell.

"Oh."

"Yeah. I um, have to go..." I clicked my tongue and pointed at the ladder before walking away.

[fyrapartnersearch]

original, percy jackson, pokemon, avatar, skyrim, fallout ;

I’m AJ! I lost a couple partners in the holiday craze, which is totally fine! Now I’m lookin’ for some RPs to head into the new year. If we had something lined up and things fell off the wagon, no sweat, just message me again and we can get the ball rolling again! :)

  For original settings: apocalyptic (zombie, disease, extinction event, whatever), supernatural (fantasy, urban, sci-fi, literally anything). For fandom universes: Percy Jackson, Pokemon, Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra, Skyrim, and Fallout.

  Gonna run through my basic info and then onto the particulars. 💕

  ⥽ About Me ; ⥼

  • Name/Age ; AJ! 22! Finally!

  • Timezone ; CST! I don’t mind time differences, this is just so you know my general schedule.

  • Length ;  Depends on whether it’s novella or multi-paragraph. If m.para, around 3-5 minimum I guess? Novella would obviously be much longer.

  • Reply rate ; Varies depending on whether we’re doing multi-paragraph or novella. I can respond anywhere from every day to every other day or a few times a week to weekly depending on the writing style of the RP and my schedule.

  • OOC ;  I like getting to know my partners and sharing enthusiasm over our ideas and characters. Nothing hits quite like mutual investment! I like making playlists/pinboards/sending you videos or songs or memes that remind me of our characters!

  • Contact ; Strictly email for OOC and roleplay unless we’re using GDocs for the RP itself. You can find me at jackrabbitsonata@gmail.com.

  ⥽ On the lookout for ; ⥼

  • Doubling ; Not a deal-breaker!! I just prefer writing a cast of characters, so this is something that’s more of a bonus. Ideally we’ll double, but I’m down for writing just one character each. Let me know how ya feel about it!

  • Will only write MxM or FxF ; MxF’s not my cup of tea (I’m extremely picky with it, fellow gays u know how it is). If we’re writing a cast of characters then I’m fine with having an MxF side couple. And I STRICTLY write OCxOC! Canon characters won't be found anywhere near this stuff, folks!

  • 20+ ; Partner’s gotta be 20+ even if we don’t write anything explicitly adult! I’m outta my teens now and don’t have any interest in writing with them. Same goes for characters. It’s a 20+ zone for both partners and characters ‘round here, folks!

  ⥽ Yes! ; ⥼

  • Smut ;  I enjoy writing it, but it’s not a deal-breaker if you’d rather fade to black.  All characters will obviously be adults. I expect versatile characters in bed by default, that way we’ve got an even route for playing roles in bed. Admittedly this shifts a bit depending on the character I write but for the most part, yeah, I stick to verses.

  • Face claims ; Spent a huge chunk of my roleplaying years on tumblr (it was very over-the-top and flowery and weirdly formatted and grossly difficult to read, I know I know), so having a face for characters stuck with me. If you don’t have any of your own and want good resources to find a face, I’ve got some recommended sites I can throw at ya! Not a deal-breaker, though, and for certain fandoms (Pokemon, Avatar) I actually prefer not to use realistic face claims so we can just opt outta that when writing in these universes.

  • Depth & growth ; Not a fan of one-dimensional characters or characters who act the same from beginning to end! People change with experiences and the people around them, so this is to be expected. ESPECIALLY when doubling with a cast. I loooove complicated characters growing together.

  • Plotting & Worldbuilding ;  *For original settings/worlds! I’m not picky with this if we’re working with a canon setting, so if that’s what you’re looking for, we can skip this section. I run into loooads of folks who say they do this when they really don’t. We’re writing an entire world together, so there’s some degree of effort involved! I need specifics to use as a start-off point for the roleplay and a general outline for where the story’s going. RPs that are just random, spur of the moment with writing as we go on tend to burn out REALLY quickly for me. I know not a lot of people are into this, so I’m sorry about that.

  ⥽ No! ; ⥼

  • Single paragraphs ; I’m not too picky with a lot of length a lot of the time, I just don’t mesh well with people who don’t write more than that. Go ham. I like my responses meaty!

  • Limits ; Abuse, nonconsensual/sexual assault, pedophilia, incest (includes step-relations, adopted relations, and that figurative like if one character essentially raised another or they were raised as family), weird age gaps, BDSM, any kind of master/slave or dom/sub dynamics.

  As for the goods, I’ve laid ‘em all out for you here! Keep in mind that while all of these are fun on their own, I’m definitely the type of writer who’s into mixing and matching. Sci-fi apocalypse? Fantasy apocalypse? Fantasy supernatural stuff? Sci-fi fantasy? Sci-fi supernatural stuff? Supernatural apocalypse? Period settings? Literally whatever you could think of, I’ll give it a whirl. The particulars down below are just to get the ball rolling and catch some interest, some asterisks for current cravings but I’m soooooo honest when I say that I’d love to write anything down below and won’t shoot you down if you come at me with stuff. Hit me up with whatever you’d like!

    APOCALYPSE: My bread and butter! Bro. I’m all about the tense, harrowing, and especially gut-punching when it comes to how close people become to survive together in quiet moments of a world they used to know. I’m a big fan of zombies, so that’s my loose preference. I loved Black Summer on Netflix – the earlier episodes, at least, as well as The Last of Us. That’s the kind of vibe I favor with zombies/zombie-like creatures. But, ofc, an apocalypse can be anything! I love writing different takes on the genre since there’s so much to cover. Extinction event, pandemic, impact event, monsters/beasts, man-made, whatever. The more creative the apocalyptic setting, the better, so I’d love to bounce some ideas back and forth. Not too into a nuclear apocalypse setting, since that overlaps a lot with Fallout down below. I’ve also had some ideas of a futuristic/sci-fi apocalypse that I’d love to tell you all about if you’re interested!

  FANTASY***: High fantasy, low fantasy, medieval fantasy, urban fantasy, whatever. Love dragons, love magic, love weird fantasy flora, definitely love the classic prince/princess x knight or commoner schtick. You want prophecies? I’m game. You want elves? I’m game. You want steampunk? I’m game. You want none of that and wanna do something else? I’m game, baby. The possibilities are endless. I’ve had two particular ideas floatin’ around in my noggin lately: an apocalyptic-fantasy that takes place in a medieval fantasy realm wherein an ancient curse/plague erupts across the land with horrifying zombie-esque symptoms (obv with more fantasy elements than just that) that involves a quest to try and awaken a god or two OR some magic journey to the heart of it all and out and end to it, and a modern fantasy involving a run-down summer camp secluded deep in the woods. Two new counselors (our characters) start working there over the summer and things slowly unravel from there, either with faerie stuff involving replacing campers/staff (definitely aiming for the freaky horror faeries as opposed to like, beautiful or only slightly unnerving faeries) or the camp being run by a secret cult that sacrifices campers/staff.

  SUPERNATURAL/PARANORMAL***: Vampires and werewolves and demons, oh my! Can’t go wrong with horror, especially can’t go wrong with comedy-horror. I’m more of the type to prefer humans and supernatural beings together in a ragtag duo type of way as opposed to two supernatural beings, but anything’s cool in my book. Medieval/fantasy setting for a dark fairytale vibe, urban/modern supernatural beings slinking in the shadows outside of the human eye, supernatural sci-fi stuff, mysteries and danger lurking around every corner? Seriously, it’s a great genre! Any and everything is fantastic. I’ve got a loose concept of demons/the Underworld I’d like to get into revolving around a human accidentally summoning a demon or making a really poor deal with a demon and the eventual threat of the opposite effect (humans who work with angels/angels who clean up demonic stuff) since I’m struggling with the worldbuilding of it, so applying all that to a roleplay to give it a whirl sounds like a great way to work out the kinks. Plus, c’mon. Paranormal romance. End of the world. Flipping the script on angels and demons with the demons being “good” and the angels being “bad” but really there’s more nuance to that since they’re two sides of the same coin. What’s not to love there? I’m a sucker for human/demon relationships and/or human/angel relationships, what can I say!

  PERCY JACKSON*****: I haven’t ever roleplaying this verse before, so this is completely new grounds for me. I’ve seen some fun takes on it, though! Scoured older ads but haven’t reached out to anyone because the posting time’s pretty old, but a couple ideas I’ve skimmed through sound fun. HP got a period take on it, so why not put that spin on PJ with a period setting rather than in modern times? Or just a regular modern setting. Y’know, keep it classy, keep it sexy, keep it fun! I’m definitely interested in life outside of camp since they’d all be adults. Life’s supposed to suck for demigods, so let’s get into that. I’ve only read the first series but I’m game to read more or look over the Wikipedia if it suits your fancy! I’m REALLY looking for a PJ RP, seriously, message me.

  POKEMON: Man, I just… miss Pokemon, dude, what else can I say? :( I miss fun adventures and goofy scenarios and taking a more serious or realistic route with threats. I’ve got a couple of ideas from heists to evil Elite Four members to Poke-Jurassic Park, but I’d love to hear anything you’ve got in mind!

  AVATAR*****: Alright, not gonna beat around the bush, I had a killer post-Korra RP setting like a year ago that died off early on and now I’m kinda itching to put it back into action! Basically this whole thing just revolves around our own Avatar and world/conflicts. Something before Aang could be fun too? Or a couple Avatars past Korra? There’s so many routes we could take this! And so many things we could bring in! I had an Avatar marathon with my brother this weekend and I just miss this universe. I’ve never actually managed to RP it before, so I wanna remedy that!

  FALLOUT***: Played 3, watched various playthroughs of New Vegas, 4, and working on 1+2! I’m a recent fan and I’ve fallen head over heels for it! I’ve got ten prepped OCs for this universe so feel free to take your pic once we get into contact! :D I think it could be fun if we make our own setting for this, but I’m so down for piggybacking off canon settings. I love the Mojave in particular, but everything’s cool in my book. I’ve also got a couple plot ideas, so I can tell you all about ‘em when we get into things!

  SKYRIM***: Well I’m a new Fallout fan so it should come to NO surprise that I’m new to Skyrim too. I recently got into it after someone recommended it to me and I’m having a blast playing the game on the Switch! I don’t have any particular ideas but I’d love to dip into the water here and see what comes of it. I’ve got a couple character ideas already so if I manage to rope anyone into this universe I’ll be one happy camper.

[bookclub4m]

Episode 154 - Battle of the Books 2022

This episode we’re giving our book pitches for our Battle of the Books 2022! Each of us has picked one title that we think we should all read and discuss and you get to vote for which one it is!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards

Books We Pitched

Vote for the book you want us to read and discuss!

Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien 

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks by Keith Houston

Hurts So Good: The Science and Culture of Pain on Purpose by Leigh Cowart

Our “Long List” of Titles

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch

Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum

Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner

Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez

Amoralman: A True Story and Other Lies by Derek Delgaudio

Podcast Episodes

Just Plain Wrong - Zombies, Sharkfarmers, and Beavis & Butthead: Discussing Comics and Graphic Novels with Amish Characters (Featuring Matthew!)

Episode 058 - The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

Episode 079 - Which Book Should We Read?

Episode 083 - The Fifth Season

Episode 103 - Battle of the Books 2020

Episode 107 - Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

Episode 130 - Battle of the Books 2021

Episode 134 - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Episode 007 - Cozy Mysteries

Links, Articles, and Things

PEDMAS - Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication/Division, Addition/Subtraction

Order of Operations (Wikipedia)

Dim Sum of All Fears by Vivien Chien

What Should I Read Next?

At sign (@) (Wikipedia)

Soft sign (ь) (Wikipedia)

Financial domination (FinDom) (Wikipedia)

“Our cats opened the bathroom cabinet drawer, thereby blocking the bathroom door from opening.”

30 LGBTQ+ Non-Fiction by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors - to help readers to diversify their reading and library professionals to diversify their readers' advisory. All of the lists can be found here.

Angry Queer Somali Boy: A Complicated Memoir by Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali

Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas

A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt

¡Hola Papi!: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons by John Paul Brammer

Punch Me Up to the Gods by Brian Broome

A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder by Ma-Nee Chacaby

When We Were Outlaws: A Memoir of Love and Revolution by Jeanne Cordova

Asegi Stories: Cherokee Queer and Two-Spirit Memory by Qwo-Li Driskill

Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution by Shiri Eisner

Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi

Brown Trans Figurations: Rethinking Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Chicanx/Latinx Studies by Francisco J. Galarte

Histories of the Transgender Child by Jules Gill-Peterson

We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib

Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da'Shaun Harrison

Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals by Saidiya Hartman

Becoming Human: Matter and Meaning in an Antiblack World by Zakiyyah Iman Jackson

All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson

How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones

Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays by June Jordan

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde

Continuum by Chella Man

The Black Trans Prayer Book edited by J Mase III and Dane Figueroa Edidi

Antiman: A Hybrid Memoir by Rajiv Mohabir

nîtisânak by Jas M. Morgan

Borealis by Aisha Sabatini Sloan

Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton

I'm Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya

I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World by Kai Cheng Thom

Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon

Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights by Kenji Yoshino

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, August 2nd we’ll be discussing the genre of Literary Fan Fiction!

Then on Tuesday, August 16th we’ll be discussing an update on what media we’ve been enjoying outside of the podcast!

[aion-rsa]

Best Horror Anime To Watch on Netflix

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Come every October, audiences can be guaranteed that programming will shift over to horror-centric content to fit with Halloween. With the litany of streaming services that now exist, it’s gone from being difficult to fill 31 days of content to it being a serious struggle to fit everything in. There’s horror programming everywhere at the moment and this is also true when it comes to anime. 

Netflix has built up an increasingly impressive library of anime content  that includes some moody horror selections that are perfect for the season (or anytime really). However, with so many titles out there it’s not always easy to know what’s worthwhile, especially when the names of some series don’t do much to help on the matter. Here’s a helpful selection of some of Netflix’s best and most frightening anime titles so you don’t have to dig through the herd.

Parasyte –the maxim–

How Many Episodes: 24

Sub and Dub

There are plenty of anime that feature unassuming humans who are suddenly paired together with a supernatural partner or even become a hybrid of man and beast themselves. Parasyte -the maxim-,however, is the only one that feels like it could be an unofficial sequel to The Thing. Aliens have invaded the planet with the goal to gradually subjugate the entire human race. Shinichi Izumi is a run of the mill highschooler who finds himself bonded with one of these parasitic monsters who takes up residence living inside his hand. Shinichi and his alien parasite try to root out and eliminate the rest of these predatory species and the result is an amazing hybrid of mystery and action with constant body horror thrown in for good measure. There are hundreds of different aliens featured in anime, but the threats in Parasyte will actually make stomachs churn. In addition to the disturbing visuals, Parasyte crafts a surprisingly emotional relationship between Shinichi and the alien living in his hand.

Devilman Crybaby

How Many Episodes: 10

Sub and Dub

The Devilman series has been around for decades in various iterations, but the most recent take on the material, Devilman Crybaby, feels special and like it’s trying to do something different with the property. Devilman Crybaby‘s plot isn’t overly complex. It features a world that’s at risk of being overrun by demons. Akira bonds with a demon in a way that turns him into Devilman, a hybrid between man and demon that’s the key to ending this war. Devilman Crybaby is dripping in carnage and it’s a series that trades in extremes. The legendary Masaaki Yuasa is the director and it’s the fluid ways that he plays with animation and color that makes Devilman Crybaby such a delight. Bloodshed and monsters have never been so visually beautiful.

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress: The Battle of Unato

How Many Episodes: 3

Sub and Dub

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress is like if Resident Evil and Snowpiercer had a baby. It’s one of the few genuinely creative takes on the zombie genre in years. The Battle of Unato is Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress’ movie that’s set six months after the events of the series and it features the humans’ united front to take back their world from the undead. The animation is on a whole other level and there’s such satisfying world building present in this broken steampunk society. Obviously a knowledge of the original anime is helpful here, but The Battle of Unato can still be appreciated by genre fans who are looking for something like Attack on Titan meets Frankenstein. It’s a smart combination of old-world technology with radical new forms of destruction. Netflix splits up Battle of Unato into three busy episodes, which makes this the perfect watch that won’t take up a lot of time and can help bring more people around to the preceding series.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

How Many Episodes: 26 and 2 Movies

Sub and Dub

Neon Genesis Evangelion may not immediately come across as a horror series, but there’s disturbing imagery that’s present from the first episode that only becomes more intense as the series goes on. Evangelion is a moody deconstruction of not just the mecha genre, but also human nature. The series elegantly meshes together provoking questions with incredible action sequences and gutting character drama. The anime stands out for its unique take on robots, monsters, and how it intertwines religion with it all. It’s an ambitious project, but few anime create the same sense of anxiety and dread as Evangelion. Neon Genesis Evangelion is still considered to be one of the most acclaimed and challenging anime even decades after its debut. There’s truly nothing else like it. 

Ajin: Demi-Human

How Many Episodes: 26

Sub and Dub

Ajin: Demi-Human is a horror anime that riffs on many of the themes that populate the genre. Kei Nagai learns that he’s an Ajin—a hybrid between human and demon—who have advanced regenerative abilities. Ajin can also create powerful ghost-like warriors to combat other Ajin, which is kind of like if Tokyo Ghoul mixed together with JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Ajin are hunted by the government and turned into science experiments, which makes Nagai and the rest of his kind determined to take out the corrupt organization and quell the conflict between human and Ajin. Ajin: Demi-Human is more interested in action and atmosphere than some of the heavier psychological issues explored in these other anime, but it’s still addictive and morbid fun.

Read more

TV

The Best Anime on HBO Max

By Daniel Kurland

TV

Best Anime On Hulu To Stream

By Daniel Kurland

TV

Best Anime On Amazon Prime Video

By Daniel Kurland

Culture

The Best Anime to Stream and Where to Find Them

By Daniel Kurland

Death Note

How Many Episodes: 37 

Sub and Dub

Death Note is one of the bigger anime to come out of the past few decades and it’s because despite the hyperbolized places that the story goes, it still presents a parable that explores the curious nature of man and the dark places that curiosity can go. Death Note is a brilliant exercise in perspective as it shifts between killer and detective with the titular and mysterious Death Note caught in between. There’s something deeply terrifying about the Death Note’s power to kill anyone whose name is written inside of it and how flippantly Light Yagami utilizes this function. Death Note has some provoking thoughts and it’s impressive that it’s able to mesh such exaggerated visuals and extreme elements into this disturbing character study. Part of the joy in Death Note is that Light makes mistakes from the start and only works himself deeper to the point of no return.

Erased

How Many Episodes: 12 

Sub and Dub

Erased is a fantastic mix of genres that wraps together elements of horror with science fiction and psychological thrillers. It tells a very different kind of story about the pursuit of a serial killer and plots a tight story that doesn’t meander within a lean 12 episodes. The anime centers around Satoru, a man who experiences a phenomenon known as “Revivals” that send him back briefly in time to help prevent accidents. Suddenly Satoru’s mother is killed and it looks like the culprit has ties to a series of crimes from nearly two decades ago. Satoru’s next Revival sends him back to his childhood with the opportunity to prevent these crimes and save his mother in the process. Erased isn’t interested in the mechanics behind Satoru’s ability and it instead focuses on powerful character dynamics and a mystery that’s actually suspenseful and frightening. Satoru’s efforts to solve this crime as a 10 year-old boy makes for a fantastic complication.

Dorohedoro

How Many Episodes: 12

Sub and Dub

Horror anime should primarily be scary, but one of the perks of the genre is that anime can animate terrifying visuals on a level that often surpasses standard American animation. There’s still a lot of debate on whether the increased presence of CG in anime is a good thing or not, but Dorohedoro is proof that it can be used effectively and stylistically to amplify the surreal nature of the story at hand. Dorohedoro is set in a wild gig-economy world where magic is rampant and the schism between humans and sorcerers creates crime and disorder. Most humans are subjected to crude magic and find themselves with bizarre heads as a result. Caiman, the main character, wakes up with a reptile head and no memories of who he is, which leaves him even more vulnerable than usual in this chaotic world. Dorohedoro is another excellent example of creative world building that mixes horror together with fantasy and crime in an inspired way. It’s the type of freaky meditation of identity and society that Bright wishes it had been.

Attack on Titan

How Many Episodes: 25 

Sub Only

Attack on Titan has grown into one of the most popular anime series of this decade and it’s incredible to see how the scope of the story has slowly grown over time. The anime takes place within a walled city where humanity has feared the gigantic Titans that roam the land outside their walls. The anime chronicles the population’s efforts to combat these monsters, but it also looks at the war that’s been going on for generations and the sordid history of how Titans originated in the first place. Attack on Titan truly rewards dedicated audiences and the betrayals, revelations, and character development is just as satisfying as the epic fights with hordes of Titans. Netflix only has the first season of Attack on Titan available, but it’s still a convenient way to get introduced to the influential anime before its fourth and final season hits.

The Promised Neverland

How Many Episodes: 12 

Sub and Dub

The Promised Neverland tells such an addicting, enigmatic story that there’s a reason a slew of horror films and even Stephen King have riffed on the idea that’s at its core. The anime is set in a broken version of the future and it looks at a number of young children who are confined to an orphanage. The orphanage’s charity seems to be a blessing in this harsh times, but it turns out that there’s actually something much more sinister going on with the orphanage and the people that run. The Promised Neverland tells a disturbing story that gets more intense with every turn. It’s not afraid to incorporate deadly creatures, but more than anything else it highlights how humans can be more evil than anything else. The second season of The Promised Neverland is on its way, so these excellent debut episodes should be mandatory viewing. A live-action adaptation is in the works at Amazon.

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Other horror-centric or monster-based anime titles to check out on Netflix when you’ve scared yourself stiff from everything else: Black Butler, Blue Exorcist, Castlevania, Gantz: 0, Vampire Knight

The post Best Horror Anime To Watch on Netflix appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[fuckitfireeverything]

10 Spooky Book Recommendations from your Favorite Ex-Librarian

Now that I’m not a Librarian anymore I really miss recommending books to people, and since Halloween is my favorite time of year, I thought I’d made some recommendations of my favorite Halloween-appropriate spooky books! Below, you’ll find a list of ten of my favorites -- I’ve tried to spread them out in terms of genre and style as much as possible so that everyone can find something they like!

1. My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Emil Ferris (2017)

Spoiler alert: this is already my Book of the Year, and for good reason. Ferris’ semi-autobiographical comic is half coming of age story, half post-Holocaust mystery adventure, and her unique ink sketch illustrations are interspersed with old horror movie posters against a backdrop of 1960s Chicago.

Read if you like: Harriet the Spy, the Universal monster movies, lesbians, stores about outcast preteen girls finding confidence, stories about outcast preteen girls trying to solve mysteries, stories about outcast preteen girls having crushes on other preteen girls, hippies, the 1960s, monster theory

2. White is for Witching, Helen Oyeyemi (2009)

A supernatural story from one of my all-time favorite authors, White is for Witching is told through a litany of voices. It is about Miranda, a late-teen girl, and her twin Eliot, and their dead mother Lily, and the house-turned-bed and breakfast that their mother and her mother and, eventually, Miri herself, haunt; featuring: Miri goes to Oxford and vampirizes her cute girlfriend for a while. I sound flippant, but there’s something very haunting to the novel, a kind of late-fall-emptiness to the resonance of it that you can’t easily shake. 

Read if you like: haunted houses, dead mothers, lesbians, witches, mirror selves, Oxford, magical realism, African folklore, co-dependent twins, maternally inherited curses

3. House of Leaves, Mark Z Danielewski (2000)

I think this one makes it onto most spooky book lists, but the feeling I got when I read it almost ten years ago still sticks with me, so I can’t pass it up. The book is the transcript of a documentary about a house that is bigger on the inside than on the outside (in a terrifying way, not in a Doctor Who way), which has been footnoted by a literary scholar writing about the film, which has been found by a drug-addled tattoo artist who scribbles his own story in the margins. Notorious for it’s typography, there is no right way to read House of Leaves, but you should absolutely give it a shot. 

Read if you like: haunted houses, documentary horror, literary theory, footnotes, getting very dizzy while reading, post-structuralism

4. The Changeling, Victor LaValle (2017)

I think the newest release on this list, but possibly already one of my favorites -- LaValle’s latest tells the story of a new father, Apollo Kagwa, who was abandoned by his own father as a child, and his search to understand the unthinkable actions of his wife both right after she gives birth, and several months down the line after she has disappeared. It’s a little heavy-handed on the “social media is Bad” undertones, but well worth it for a particularly good joke about a bad iPhone app.

Read if you like: warrior women who live in secret hidden islands, distrusting social media, Scandinavian folklore, contemporary stories, complicated characters, unexpected twists, not trusting men, being afraid to have children

Don’t read if: you just had a baby. Seriously, don’t do it. 

5. Through the Woods, Emily Carroll (2014)

A graphic novel that collects several discrete stories, Through the Woods is a quick read and delightfully macabre. If you’re unsure, read a couple of Carroll’s online comics (linked below) to get a feel for her -- especially “His Face All Red,” which is included in the collection as well as available online.

Read if you like: a sense of general unease, creepy folk tales, being afraid to look under your bed, bold colors, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, body horror, scaring the bejeesus out of children, any of Emily Carroll’s other work

6. The Girl With All the Gifts, M R Carey (2014)

Not your typical zombie story, Gifts is a zombie apocalypse story that focuses on a young girl, Melanie, who is both a zombie and not-a-zombie. While most of the zombies (called Hungries, in the novel’s parlance) are mindless eating machines with no higher cognitive functions, human scientists study the learning capabilities of an unusual group of zombie children who, aside from an irascible hunger for human brains, are perfectly normal, thank you very much. Set primarily in the English countryside, the novel follows a scientist, a solider, and a teacher, who are traveling to safety with Melanie in tow and trying to decide whether to see her as a person or as a monster.

Read if you like: who-is-the-real-monster stories, questions of scientific ethics, precocious children, survival horror, the-earth-wins-out post-apocalyptic fiction

Bonus tip: Gifts was made into an excellent movie in 2016 with one of the best soundtracks I think I’ve ever heard -- worth a watch if you like a good zombie movie. A follow-up novel, The Boy on the Bridge, was also released this year, but if you’ve read Gifts, check out my article on why you shouldn’t bother with Bridge.

7. Harrow County, Cullen Bunn (2015-present)

The third graphic novel to make it onto this list, and an ongoing serial so there’s always more coming when you’ve caught up! Harrow County takes place in a haunted town in rural Southern America filled with all kinds of restless ghosts and ghouls and monsters; it follows a girl named Emmy who, on her eighteenth birthday, realizes she has a strange connection to these haints, along with a whole family of other mediums, psychopomps, and witches. 

Read if you like: Southern Gothic, haunted forests, power struggles, uncertain pasts, whispers in the night, amazing but morbid character design, stunning artwork in muted colors

8. The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter (1979)

A fairly famous collection of short stories, most of Carter’s works are feminist re-tellings of famous folk tales like Little Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast, and Bluebeard. Carter’s use of language is exquisite and her stories are quick reads. Themes are about what you’d expect of late-70s feminist writing -- female sexuality, marriage, coming of age, corruption, female relationships -- and her prose has a distinctly Gothic feel that’s just right for this time of year. 

Read if you like: Gothic fiction, more creepy folk tales, wolves, feminist reinterpretations, wolves, girls drinking blood, wolves

9. Mr. Splitfoot, Samantha Hunt (2016)

Two connected stories told interwoven together, part of Mr. Splitfoot is about Ruth and Nat, orphans adopted into a religious cult where they learn two things: co-dependency, and grifting strangers by pretending to communicate with ghosts. The other part of it is about Cora, Ruth’s niece, who finds herself first pregnant and second visited by her old, mute aunt who leads her on a strange and inexplicable road trip on foot. 

Read if you like: the Fox sisters, unhealthy co-dependency, orphans converging timelines, strange and silent road trips, pseudo-religious cults, doomsday cults, upstate New York

10. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier (1938)

“Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again” will always be my personal favorite opening line to a novel, and for good reason: even though Rebecca is known for its plot, primarily through Hitchcock’s film version of the story, the writing is gorgeous. It tells the story of the unnamed Second Mrs. de Winter, who joins her new husband in his mansion on the English coast and is haunted by the memory of his first wife. 

Read if you like: stories about rich people, Jane Eyre, gorgeous prose, being the second wife of a rich man with a dark past and enjoying the lap of luxury even though his dead wife is haunting the shit out of you, Alfred Hitchcock, British mysteries, that late-1930s posh English aesthetic

Have any other good spooky October reads? Let me know! I’m always looking for more to read and recommend and I’d love to hear what books you revisit when the Halloween mood strikes--

[diamonddeposits]

BEST TRACKS OF 2017-ARTISTS LIST #11

JARED SALTIEL

Multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Jared Saltiel offers up striking tunes that are reminiscent of deliciously detailed short fiction. In February of 2018 he will be using his latest LP titled Out Of Clay, a concept album that serves as a travel guide to an imaginary landscape with colourful characters that is a follow up to 2014′s The Light Within. His list is  mix of both contemporary folk and billboard pop. Enjoy!

01. Bedouine - Solitary Daughter

This is probably my favorite record of the year. I'm a huge fan of Spacebomb Records, based in Richmond. I think what Spacebomb has figured out is that "timelessness" is not just about a retro aesthetic, it's about the quality of the songwriting, arranging and production. I'm not sure if this is my favorite song on the album, but it's the one that woke me from the cozy slumber of the album's chill aesthetic and made me realize I was listening to a truly great singer-songwriter.

02. Seasonal Beast - Dry Bones

Disclaimer: these are my friends. Yuval, the lead songwriter, plays keyboard in my band. But Seasonal Beast is easily my favorite rock band in NYC. "Dry Bones" isn't representative of their layered, spacey pop-rock sound, but I think it's the best song on the record. I'm a strings guy, and I absolutely love this arrangement, especially in the way it's seamlessly blended with the droning synths and textures. And then there's the song itself, which is just a perfect composition, in that sad, beautiful, autumnal sort of way.

03. Kendrick Lamar - FEEL.

This album came out at the perfect time, soon after the election, when a cloud of clinical depression was settling over (half of) the country. I love that this song is called "FEEL." Kendrick probably knows that a lot of people are, in fact, praying for him, but he's such an expert at channeling his emotional realities and making them compelling, so the song title comes across like a deliberate gesture to recognize that feelings are not facts, but they matter more. I love the clave cross-stick pattern in the beat, it's like equal parts hip-hop and bossa nova.

04. Ryuichi Sakamoto - andata

I discovered Ryuichi Sakamoto some time late last year, and he immediately entered my top ten. His film scores have a melancholic quality which completely overwhelms me, yet the music is totally accessible. And then he has a whole discography of experimental electronic music, which I've been slowly working my way through. This song "andata" seems to come from both worlds: it's a beautiful, straightforward theme that could easily have been written by Ennio Morricone in 1968, which is then layered with electronic textures. Interestingly, the real emotional weight comes from the electronic elements more than than the central piano theme.

05. Sondre Lerche - I'm Always Watching You

Pleasure is easily my favorite Sondre Lerche album. It has the same super-creative production approach as Please, but I think the songwriting is stronger. I love how the record employs an 80s sound a la Pet Shop Boys, but colors the party vibe with deeply sad and personal lyrics. The whole album feels extremely unstable, like the hedonism and self-discovery could slip out of control at any moment and land in despair. This song does the album's thing so well - it's a fun single, catchy and upbeat, but when you listen to the lyrics you pick up on the emotional vulnerability and comically disturbing subject matter.

06. Katy Perry - Chained to the Rhythm

Look, except for maybe "Teenage Dream" I never voluntarily listened to any Katy Perry song until this one. The song is completely ridiculous, and has a number of objectively terrible lyrics. But there's something about the second chord in the progression (the minor ii chord) that I'm absolutely obsessed with. That chord change brings me so much joy that I'm willing to listen to Katy riff ludicrously on the line "Like a wasted zombie!"

07. Thundercat - Tokyo

Drunk is such an insane album, it's hard to pick a favorite song. I think "Tokyo" is my favorite, if just because it's such a perfect example of Thundercat's particular aesthetic of Futuristic Funk By A Total Nerd Who's Also Legitimately Cool. Love the impassive delivery of the ridiculous lyrics, the keyboards that seem to deliberately channel video game music, the way he harmonizes the bass line. I saw him live in Brooklyn, and when he played this song he made it clear that all of the lyrics are completely factual, including the part about trying to get a girl pregnant.

08. Laura Marling - Nouel

The new Laura Marling album has super cool Blake Mills production, which I really enjoy. But she's always been one of those rare singer-songwriters who can actually sit down and perform a song perfectly in one take. I'm so glad this song was recorded that way, because it captures the 60s/70s color which has always been central to her appeal. Apparently this song is about how her friend Nouel serves as a sort of platonic muse. As somebody with a lot of songs about complicated muse dynamics, I really appreciate Laura Marling taking on that theme with a fresh perspective, as a straight woman writing about an inspiring woman.

09. Eric Slick - You Are Not Your Mind

This is one of those rare instances where the press angle about an album has actually given me some deep insight into the songwriting. Apparently Eric Slick wrote this album after working through a deep depression with meditation and Jungian therapy. As somebody who practices Jungian therapy and is six months into meditating, I'm naturally a fan of this album. But I find this song particularly touching, especially when he delivers the line "And all the pain, it isn't real."

10. John Mayer - Roll It On Home

I've always had a love-hate fascination with Mayer, but I appreciate that throughout his various hubristic downfalls, he's always been grounded by the humbling task of grabbing a guitar and trying to write a decent song. Production-wise, this might be the kitschiest track on a kitschy record, but I honestly love his nerdy affinity for the country form. The genre exercise seems to liberate him to write cleverer lyrics. My favorite line in this song: "The last ten texts were with your ex, and all of them were sent by you." All the more hilarious when you realize he's talking about Katy Perry (her again...).

11. Esperanza Spalding - the entirety of the EXPOSURE livestream

When Esperanza Spalding said she was going to record an album in 77 hours on Facebook live, I was slightly intrigued, but couldn't possibly begin to imagine how jaw-droppingly awesome it would be. Like many others, I became completely obsessed and had it playing in the background in my apartment for hours on end. The most striking thing was how calm and collected she was, despite having her entire creative process broadcast to thousands and thousands of people. I don't know what any of the songs are called but they were all incredibly inspiring, intricate creations and it was such a treat to see a master at work. Can't wait to hear the finished record.

[televisor-reviews]

Top 10 BEST Films Of 2018

Taking this extra year to look at the film market of 2018 has given me the space to really look at the year as a whole as, what I’d describe as, really extreme. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t awful, and I wouldn’t really say it was mediocre either. There were lots of movies I loved but just as many I hated with surprisingly few I thought were just okay. Both the best and worst lists were pretty hard to put together because there were so many movies I really wanted to put on them. Cutting Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom from my worst list was a serious heartbreaker for me. But that only means that I’m particularly quite happy with how both turned out, there’s some seriously game changing films on this list. And keep in mind that, despite how much I tried, I still couldn’t watch every movie from the year: so as amazing as I’m sure A Star Is Born and Best F(r)iends are, I just didn’t get around to them. If you’d like a list of every movie from 2018 I have seen (in order from best to worst), it can be found on my Letterboxd here: https://letterboxd.com/animatorreviewa/list/every-2018-movie-ive-seen/

#10. Searching Back in 2014, the world was introduced to a new form of filmmaking that told a story via the screen of the main protagonist’s computer in Blumhouse’s Unfriended. Kind of like a modern day found footage film. And while I was one of five people who really liked Unfriended and its 2018 followup Unfriended: Dark Web, I think Searching is the penultimate of what this newfound sub-genre is able to accomplish. Similar to what Cloverfield was able to do for found footage, Searching was able to use the computer screen film style to heighten the tension and breaks down a part of the audience’s suspension of disbelief to create a horrific experience for anyone who witnesses it. Which also puts a ton of pressure on the lead, John Cho, as even a moment of bad acting can break this fragile fourth wall. Pressure that Cho overcomes like it was nothing. All of this combines into an incredible experience that keeps its audience on the edge of their seats and constantly on the brink of a heart attack. I’m almost certain that Searching will be considered an important piece of 2010′s film history. #9. Bad Times At The El Royale In 2011, Drew Goddard set himself apart as a director with a very unique and interesting vision with his landmark piece A Cabin In The Woods. In 2018, he did it again with, in my opinion, an even better film, Bad Times At The El Royale with a fascinatingly put together and complicated story featuring some of the best acting from such a star studded cast I’ve seen in years. From Jeff Bridges playing against the Big Lebowski type most are familiar with to Jon Hamm definitely playing towards his Richard Jewell typecast to Dakota Johnson making up for all three Fifty Shades Of Grey movies with quite possibly her best performance. Bad Times At The El Royale is one of the most uniquely made mainstream movies I’ve seen in a while with several scenes told several times from different perspectives and each character breathed life into them with such interesting backstories. My only real problem is that the whole thing with half the place is in Nevada and the other half is in California doesn’t really go anywhere but it’s made up for as soon as Chris Hemsworth shows up to ham the hotel up. Incredibly entertaining and amazingly fascinating, this is a movie that threatens you with a good time. #8. The Favourite I appreciate that powdered wig period pieces are coming back into style with shit such as Beauty And The Beast (2017), The Age Of Adaline, and Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. But among the failures of this once well respected sub-genre are good stuff too, for instance, The Favourite, a movie that actually remembers that British people spell some words with a “u”. One of my personal Favourite cliches of films nowadays is having a cast in which literally everybody is an asshole, see #9 and #1. And what I really like particularly with this is that old time-y movies about royalty can be really intimidating to hurdle, even now I have to hype myself up to watch something like Downton Abbey. But this overcomes it by being really entertaining with some great performances from the entire cast, especially Emma Stone showing once again why she deserves an Oscar! And the directing from Yorgos Lanthimos is so good, it actually makes me want to check out The Killing Of A Sacred Deer. The Favourite is a magnificently smartly fun picture that can satisfy both the most bored audience member and the most pretentious film critic. #7. Love, Simon Look, we all have biases. Some lead people to rave about how BlacKkKlansman is the best movie of the year because of how well it portrays black culture and their relationship with the police and evangelical racists. Some lead people raving about Crazy Rich Asians because it had the balls to fill its cast with Asians and Asian Americans. For me, an (at the time) openly bisexual 18 year old who masks most of my anxiety and fears with a very thin facade of comedy, Love, Simon really spoke to me while also entertaining the hell out of me. The script knew exactly when to be funny and when to be serious, when it should have a heartfelt scene and when it should go on a random tangent, and even when it’s trying to be funny or go on a tangent, it gives incredible insight into the main protagonist’s psyche. And for those moments, the context is everything. I remember cringing pretty hard at the whole “coming out as straight” bit in the trailer, but laughing my ass off when it showed up in the film. And Nick Robinson, who plays the titular character, kills it and I think he’s going to go places very soon. All of this culminates at the end, when the emotion is high and I (along with the rest of the theater) are on the edge of our seats, and Love, Simon got me to shed some tears. #6. Ralph Breaks The Internet Of the two million Disney movies released in 2018, this sequel is the highest one ranking on my list. And of the one million animated films released in 2018, this is actually the lowest one ranking on my list. Which kind of surprises me because you wouldn’t think so on the surface. On one hand, it’s just a sequel to a video game movie that lost Best Animated Picture to Brave, how is Wreck It Ralph 2 doing better than the emotional rollercoaster that was Christopher Robin or the long awaited and ton of fun that was The Incredibles 2. But then again, anyone who knows me knows that Wreck It Ralph is one of my favorite Disney cartoons, so how does it barely creep above the smart while not being funny at all Smallfoot or the only surface level hilarity that is Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation? Well, in some sense it’s much better than the original: with superior animation, a cooler concept, and finally realizing that the focus should be entirely on the real star, Princess Vanellope Von Schweetz. On the other hand, it doesn’t even come close to matching up: the humor is a tad sub par, too much is really going on, and considering the very cool concept, it should’ve done more with it. But did I still watch it a ton as soon as I could: absolutely. So who really won here: me for being a little disappointed or Disney who made a very entertaining film? The sixth spot feels about right to me. #5. Annihilation Between J.J. Abrams’s batshit crazy Nazi-zombie experiment Overlord, Steven Spielberg bringing his amazing talent to Ready Player One, Netflix throwing their hat into the “ripping off Big Hero 6″ ring with Next Gen, and do I even need to mention Marvel, 2018 was a damn good year for sci-fi in the middle of a decade that was, as a whole, great for the genre. And while Annihilation isn’t the last we’ll see from science fiction on the list, it is the one that’s here largely because of that. Flatly, I love how the science in this movie works; in general, I tend to prefer my sci-fi very grounded and that is how Annihilation works. I could kind of see how something like this bubble can exist and everything inside it really working this way. But what I really love about this film’s science is that it is a borderline horror flick. Once Natalie Portman walks through into the anti-Wizard Of Oz, the shit that goes down is horrifying. All of a sudden: up is down, left is right, and nobody knows what time it is and I loved it! This kind of gaslighting horror that I don’t see a whole lot of lately really throws the audience through a loop because for once, we don’t know what’s going on either. And for a film to really go so far just to confuse people, I have to at least respect. And to do it so well with some amazing acting on just about everybody’s part, I must love! Annihilation is a serious experience that I wished I was able to catch on the big screen. #4. Sorry To Bother You In 2018, Donald “Childish “Lando Calrissian” Gambino” Glover released his major #1 single, This Is America. Whether you love it or you hate it, you have to admit that it was saying a lot in such a unique way. The world that music video took place in was a nonsensical cartoon to somehow represent the plight of African Americans in the United States. I’m not gonna pretend like I totally understand because I definitely don’t; the point is that the portrayal struck a nerve with a lot of people and, personally, it did feel like a proper way of showing it. And Sorry To Bother You does something very similar, portraying the African American plight in a humorous, cartoonish, and unrealistic way to counteract the very serious, down to earth, and realistic parts. Do black people need to completely show themselves as white to get anything done; maybe not but we all know that people in general are much friendlier and nicer to those who sound like their ideals, usually meaning white. Are we, as a nation, (spoilers) turning poor (and considering how blacks are predisposed to being lower middle class because of reasons relating to how capitalism works, most of the blacks of the world) people into horses; I sure hope not but big companies and better off citizens do tend to think of the working class as just objects to do shit for them. Sorry To Bother You brings up a lot of the problems prevalent in modern society, especially those that directly relate to African Americans, in a palpable and entertaining way is ingenious and amazingly well done thanks to the overwhelming talent of Boots Riley and I cannot wait for his next big project. It’s definitely the best racial relations film of the year, beating out other great films like Monsters And Men, If Beale Street Could Talk, and The Oath. #3. Isle Of Dogs 2018 is a year that really threw me through a loop as far as films went. When I went to see Isle Of Dogs, I was certain that it’ll be the best movie of the year, absolutely no competition. Then, later on, when the #1 film came out, I was certain that would be it. Then the #2 spot came out and made me question everything all over again. Anyway, Isle Of Dogs is Wes Anderson being very Wes Anderson-y while combining it with the same kind of claymation he used in the fantastic Fantastic Mr. Fox and the traditional culture of Japan that’s oh so lovable. And as much as I love the Anderson style, the animation used here, and how Japanese culture is portrayed, involving my favorite animal brings my appreciation over the top. I am so down to get a million more films in which the theme of the picture is that dogs rule. This really is the kind of film that I love just about every aspect of, and though it might mostly be on a surface level way, I really don’t have anything bad to say about this film. It’s almost boring how much I enjoy this, I don’t have much to say except please watch it. It’s so good! #2. Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Back in 2012, the world as a whole was introduced to a pair of directors mostly known for animation named Phil Lord and Chris Miller when they directed the surprise hit 21 Jump Street and its followup 22 Jump Street. The world then got to know them a little bit better when they seemingly single-handedly jumpstarted the beloved The Lego Movie franchise. Then in 2018, everyone learned that no matter how crazy, Lord and Miller know what they’re doing when their firing spelled doom for the financial flop that was Solo: A Star Wars Story. So when the pair brought their producing and writing talent to a Sony Animation made Spider-Man movie just a year after The Emoji Movie, I think most people were expecting to enjoy it if only because that snippet at the end of Venom was really well animated. But I don’t think anyone was expecting an Academy Award winning film. Whenever I went onto my Twitter for a solid month, all I saw were people exclaiming how Into The Spider-Verse was their favorite movie of the year and then again for another month after the Oscars took place. All of a sudden, Disney Marvel, Warner Bros. DC, and Fox X-Men (rest in peace), have a brand new and major competitor... and for good reason, this movie is incredible. I immediately accepted it as easily the best Spider-Man movie ever, but took a few watchings for me to accept it as the second best film of the year and a few more to accept it as my Phil Lord and savior. It is so much fun, so entertaining, so enjoyable with such great characters, amazing writing, and hilarious comedy all wrapped with a brilliantly animated bow. Another film I really have nothing bad to say about, this is just a fantastic film through and through. Before we get to #1, here’s some Runners Up:

Black Panther This was the year I got a little spent on superhero movies. Considering how I still put Into The Spider-Verse as my #2, clearly not that much, but I just wasn't super amazed by what Marvel, DC, or X-Men had to offer. But I don’t think I even disliked any: Avengers: Infinity War was fun but incredibly unfocused, Teen Titans Go! To The Movies was hilarious but was still just a poor child’s version of Teen Titans, and Deadpool 2 had some great action but not nearly as entertaining as its predecessor. Black Panther was the only one that really left a real mark on me, but even still, it’s not the best film of the year to handle black culture. Even as far as Ryan Coogler films go, I think I’d rather watch Creed or its sequel Creed 2. It’s good but I don’t think it deserved a best picture nomination. Instant Family Hear me out, the movie in which Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne adopt Dora The Explorer and her two bratty siblings directed and written by the same guys behind Daddy’s Home 2 and Horrible Bosses 2 is the feel good movie of the year, is incredibly hilarious and underrated, and even got me to shed a tear by the end. There is no excuse to let Daddy’s Home flourish and this beauty and die, I implore you to please watch it. You will not regret it, let it get big on home media, get more of these made! Vice I get that not everybody gets the Adan McKay style of making a dramedy like in The Big Short or Bombshell, but I do and I love both Christian Bale and Amy Adams so Vice was really up my alley! I just thought of it as a really enjoyable movie with a message I was predisposed to agree with. What really throws this into being a great movie to me is that Christian Bale really is that good in this, maybe one of the best performances in his career. I don’t know, I thought it was funny so I enjoyed it well enough. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? I think most people agree that this was easily the best documentary of the year. As much love as I have for Fahrenheit 11/9 for being my first theatrical documentary and Behind The Curve for being one of few docs that are incredibly entertaining, I had to eventually break down and admit that Won’t You Be My Neighbor (once again) made me cry because I grew up loving Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood that much. Especially now that we’re past A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood leaving not nearly as big of a mark as people were expecting and we’re still watching and talking about this documentary, I think this actually has the lasting impact it earned. Green Book It won best picture, I guess I’ll talk about it. As a movie, Green Book is fine. It’s well made with some good acting, I’ll allow it being considered good. Is it racist? I’d say probably not but it does definitely feel racist. Kinda like that scene from The Office where Michael Scott does his Chris Rock impression; you know he’s not racist and he doesn’t mean for it to come across as it but it still absolutely does. Considering the message of the story is “don’t be racist/homophobic,” I’m pretty sure that it’s not racist/homophobic, it just doesn’t know how to say it without coming across as such. My real big issue is with it winning the same year that had Roma and Can You Ever Forgive Me?, it had no business even being nominated. But outside of all of that, Green Book is an okay movie. Mid90s The 2010s owes a ton to Jonah Hill and I don’t think most people realized that. He told studios how to translate old properties to a modern audience with 21 Jump Street, showed how comedians can combine their sense of humor with the serious setting around them in The Wolf Of Wall Street, and most importantly to this entry, showed how coming of age stories should be told in this day and age with Superbad. Ever since, for better or worse, coming of age films have been trying to recreate that magic. The closest to get it right, in my opinion, is The Edge Of Seventeen but still goes wrong by being much much better, but Mid90s does some really great stuff as well. I appreciate any theatrical film that’s willing to be filmed in a way that doesn’t look theatrical at all. And I also appreciate the likable but very flawed characters portrayed. Mid90s really left a mark in my mind and is a great start to Jonah Hills directorial career. Aggretsuko: We Wish You A Metal Christmas And for my pick of short film of the year, let’s talk about what might be my favorite Netflix series, Aggretsuko! As a cradle between season one to season two, this does a great job at portraying these super relatable characters in a very entertaining scenario all set during Christmas! Maybe it’d make more sense to give this honor to something more impactful like A Sister or clever like I’m Poppy: The Film or even a nice surprise like Harvey Birdman, Attorney General, but no. I refuse. I enjoyed A Very Merry Aggretsuko Christmas much more. Book Club Considering how I’ve spent literally every Worst Of list talking about how awful Fifty Shades Of Grey is, even that year it took off I ended up watching and bitching about Fifty Shades Of Black, I’d like to talk about what is easily the best film to come out of this franchise. Book Club is basically a bunch of old lady celebrities getting together, reading the Fifty Shades books, and talking about their sex lives. It’s like a feature length Gilmore Girls movie and I loved not only the idea, but the film itself was hilarious. I enjoyed the hell out of it. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch As a die hard Black Mirror fanatic, of course I was excited for a full Black Mirror movie with, from what I’ve heard, five hours worth of footage. Especially since its story was told in such a fascinating and unique way, I was interested as hell into this and I loved it! I’ve loved select your own adventure books and games for a long time now, from Detroit: Become Human to Gravity Falls: Dipper and Mabel and the Curse of the Time Pirates' Treasure!: A "Select Your Own Choose-Venture!". So one set in the well established and amazingly well put together world of Netflix’s British Twilight Zone, sounds incredible and it was! It’s just so cool! Bumblebee Laika didn’t have a movie in 2018, but I feel like we still did with Bumblebee. Getting Travis Knight, the director of Kubo And The Two Strings, objectively their best picture, to do a Transformers entry is ingenious! If anyone should know how a creature like this would move and how to differentiate any one robot from another robot, it’s an acclaimed director from Laika. Now that we’ve finally pried this franchise from Michael Bay’s claws and Paramount playing it smart with their directors, maybe we’ll finally get a series of good Transformers films... or maybe Transformers 7 is cancelled and all hope is lost. #1. Hereditary I think the 2010s get a bad wrap when it comes to horror. All too often I hear Gen X-ers proclaiming how, “there’s no good scary movies anymore!” Completely forgetting hits like The Cloverfield Paradox, A Quiet Place, and The First Purge. Every new trend of a certain genre can usually be traced back to one major film: 1930s had Frankenstein, 1980s had Halloween (BTW, the 2018 one is also great), 2000s had The Blair Witch Project, etc. I think this new trend of mixing slow and suspenseful with big jump scares and everything is dark can be thanks largely to The Conjuring. While that franchise might have started the trend, I feel pretty certain that Hereditary perfected it. Every scare is at least mildly horrifying, the loops it throws you through is abundant, at no point are you sure what’s going on, and by the end, you find yourself breathing much heavier than you remember doing. Hereditary is a trip and a half that I loved going through again and again. I think when people think back to what was the best horror film of each decade: 1930s Dracula, 1980s The Shining, 2000s The Ring, 2010s Hereditary. I loved this movie in all its horrific glory.

[shirlleycoyle]

Stop Comparing ‘The Witcher’ to ‘Game of Thrones’

The Witcher—a new fantasy series airing on Netflix—opens with Geralt, the eponymous Witcher, fighting a giant CGI spider-beast. He rends it limb from limb and stabs it in the face. As the beast shudders its last breath, the camera gives us our first good look at hero Geralt of Rivia. His eyes are dark and black lines run underneath his skin, as if he’s infected with something terrible. The Witcher signals in its opening moments that viewers need to shrug off comparisons. This is not Game of Thrones. That’s a good thing.

Game of Thrones was a once in a generation phenomenon. A courtly drama with dragons and ice zombies captivated the world and sold more HBO subscriptions than The Sopranos. Game of Thrones is gone now and studios are scrambling to find a replacement. To hear the media tell it, The Witcher is Netflix’s attempt to fill the void left behind by Game of Thrones.

Comparing the two franchises betrays a lack of imagination. The fantasy genre is weird, deep, and filled with variety and saying The Witcher is the next Game of Thrones is like saying Law and Order is a replacement for The Wire. Both are crime dramas but both are telling very different stories in very different worlds.

Game of Thrones took several seasons to build out its more fantastical elements. The White Walkers and dragons came later. Its first few seasons swirled around distinct characters and the courtly intrigue that kept the plot moving and all our favorite characters dying. I’ve already seen that show and read those books. I don’t need to see it again.

Spoilers for the first episode of ‘The Witcher’ follow.

The Witcher is a high fantasy. It wears its weird magic and strange monsters on its sleeve. In the first episode we see a mutant slay a great beast, a wizard defend a castle from a siege, a force push used in a sword fight, and a morally conflicted hero navigating a twisted take on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The Witcher is a grim story with complicated politics and a cynical view of the world. That it manages to work these themes through a world of high magic, prophecy, and monster hunters is one of its core charms.

It’s not that The Witcher isn’t a political story, just that it’s politics are radically different than Game of Thrones. Thrones is a story about the upper classes, the landed gentry who move the world. The Witcher is a story about the lower classes, the people oppressed by prophecy and power. For all his supernatural strength, Geralt of Rivia is a dog catcher. He’s a working class guy who hunts monsters for a living. More often than not, the society he works for despises him and sees him as no better than the monsters he’s hunting.The elves too (this show has eleves), are an oppressed class with complicated politics that diverge along generational lines.

The Witcher isn’t a replacement for Game of Thrones and it was never meant to be. It’s its own thing. A story about a guy who just wants to do his job but gets swept up in an odd story about prophecy and class divides. My favorite moment from the books involves a lengthy carriage ride where Geralt and a friend discuss trade wars, economic conflict, and guerrilla warfare in the radicalization of elvish youth. It’s a long philosophical discussion punctuated by a moment of staggering and predictable violence.

There’s room for that moment in The Witcher’s TV series. The set up makes it clear that it’s interested in the little people as much as the kings and queens. Game of Thrones never gave us the stories of Flea Bottom. The Witcher just might.

Stop Comparing ‘The Witcher’ to ‘Game of Thrones’ syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[fyrapartnersearch]

eye-catching title ;

Once again, I’m AJ! Lookin’ for a couple of different things, mostly similar to my last ad. We love a (mostly) one trick pony!

  For original settings: apocalyptic (zombie, disease, extinction event, whatever), sci-fi (futuristic, space-faring, space opera), fantasy (high, low, medieval, urban), supernatural (fantasy, urban, sci-fi, literally anything). For fandom universes: Percy Jackson, Pokemon, and Fallout.

  Gonna run through my basic info and then onto the particulars. 💕

  ⥽ About Me ; ⥼

  • Name/Age ; AJ! So close to 22 I can taste it. One more month…

  • Timezone ; CST! I don’t mind time differences, this is just so you know my general schedule.

  • Length ;  Truly varies to the point where sticking an average on it is difficult to do. 3-5 minimum I guess? I can go with that as an average if you prefer multi-paragraph style or write novella.

  • Reply rate ; Varies depending on whether we’re doing multi-paragraph or novella. I can respond anywhere from every day to every other day or a few times a week to weekly depending on the writing style of the RP and my schedule.

  • OOC ;  I like getting to know my partners and sharing enthusiasm over our ideas and characters. Nothing hits quite like mutual investment! I’m ditch-friendly but don’t ditch myself, so you can expect communication. I’m not picky if I don’t get the same from you, though. I’ve been around the block enough to know it happens.

  • Contact ; Strictly email for OOC and roleplay unless we’re using GDocs for the RP itself, no messengers even for OOC. You can find me at jackrabbitsonata@gmail.com.

  ⥽ On the lookout for ; ⥼

  • Doubling ; Unlike my last post, this isn’t a deal-breaker! I just prefer writing a cast of characters, so this is something that’s more of a bonus. Ideally we’ll double, but I’m down for writing just one character each.

  • Will only write MxM or FxF ; MxF’s not my cup of tea (I’m extremely picky with it, fellow gays u know how it is). If we’re writing a cast of characters then I’m fine with having an MxF side couple.

  • 18 + ; I’m pretty much 22! Partner’s gotta be 18 +. 20 + ideally. Same with characters, extra bonus points for characters who are 30+. Romance doesn’t die once you hit middle age!

  ⥽ Yes! ; ⥼

  • Smut ;  I enjoy writing it, but it’s not a deal-breaker if you’d rather fade to black.  All characters will obviously be adults. I expect versatile characters in bed by default, that way we’ve got an even route for playing roles in bed. Admittedly this shifts a bit depending on the character I write, but a HUGE no on anyone who comes in guns blazing off the bat with how they only write bottoms.

  • Face claims ; Spent a huge chunk of my roleplaying years on tumblr (it was very over-the-top and flowery and weirdly formatted and grossly difficult to read, I know I know), so having a face for characters stuck with me. If you don’t have any of your own and want good resources to find a face, I’ve got some recommended sites I can throw at ya! Had a previous partner who had a character sheet format that I use now that’s simple but looks nice! Nyx if you’re out there don’t come for me for copping your format.

  • Depth & growth ; Not a fan of one-dimensional characters or characters who act the same from beginning to end! People change with experiences and the people around them, so this is to be expected. ESPECIALLY when doubling with a cast. I loooove complicated characters growing together.

  • Plotting & Worldbuilding ;  *For original settings/worlds! I’m not picky with this if we’re working with a canon setting, so if that’s what you’re looking for, we can skip this section. I run into loooads of folks who say they do this when they really don’t. We’re writing an entire world together, so there’s some degree of effort involved! I need specifics to use as a start-off point for the roleplay and a general outline for where the story’s going. RPs that are just random, spur of the moment with writing as we go on tend to burn out REALLY quickly for me. I know not a lot of people are into this, so I’m sorry about that.

  ⥽ No! ; ⥼

  • Underage characters ; Total given that there will be NO sexual themes with underage characters, but in general as well! I only write adults.  20 +.

  • Single paragraphs ; I’m not too picky with a lot of length a lot of the time, I just don’t mesh well with people who don’t write more than that. Go ham. I like my responses meaty!

  • Limits ; Abuse, nonconsensual/sexual assault, pedophilia, incest (includes step-relations, adopted relations, and that figurative like if one character essentially raised another or they were raised as family), weird age gaps, BDSM, any kind of master/slave or dom/sub dynamics.

  As for the goods, I’ve laid ‘em all out for you here! Keep in mind that while all of these are fun on their own, I’m definitely the type of writer who’s into mixing and matching. Sci-fi apocalypse? Fantasy apocalypse? Fantasy supernatural stuff? Sci-fi fantasy? Sci-fi supernatural stuff? Supernatural apocalypse? Period settings? Literally whatever you could think of, I’ll give it a whirl. The particulars down below are just to get the ball rolling and catch some interest. Hit me up with whatever you’d like!

  APOCALYPSE: My bread and butter! Tense, harrowing, and especially gut-punching when it comes to how close people become to survive together in quiet moments of a world they used to know. I’m a big fan of zombies, so that’s my loose preference. I loved Black Summer on Netflix – the earlier episodes, at least, as well as The Last of Us. That’s the kind of vibe I favor with zombies/zombie-like creatures. But, ofc, an apocalypse can be anything! I love writing different takes on the genre since there’s so much to cover. Extinction event, pandemic, impact event, monsters/beasts, man-made, whatever. The more creative the apocalyptic setting, the better, so I’d love to bounce some ideas back and forth. Not too into a nuclear apocalypse setting, since that overlaps a lot with Fallout down below.

  SCI-FI: Sci-fi’s a bit tricky since it encompasses so many different takes, so I’m clearing the air to say anything’s good. Futuristic, space travel, time travel, space opera, AI, apocalyptic, cyberpunk – if it works in sci-fi, it works for me.

  FANTASY: High fantasy, low fantasy, medieval fantasy, urban fantasy, whatever. Love dragons, love magic, love weird fantasy flora, definitely love the classic prince/princess x knight or commoner schtick. You want prophecies? I’m game. You want elves? I’m game. You want steampunk? I’m game. You want none of that and wanna do something else? I’m game, baby. The possibilities are endless.

  SUPERNATURAL/PARANORMAL: Vampires and werewolves and demons, oh my! Can’t go wrong with horror, especially can’t go wrong with comedy-horror. I’m more of the type to prefer humans and supernatural beings together in a ragtag duo type of way as opposed to two supernatural beings, but anything���s cool in my book. Medieval/fantasy setting for a dark fairytale vibe, urban/modern supernatural beings slinking in the shadows outside of the human eye, supernatural sci-fi stuff, mysteries and danger lurking around every corner? Seriously, it’s a great genre! Any and everything is fantastic. I’ve got a loose concept of demons/the Underworld I’d like to get into since I’m struggling with the worldbuilding of it, so applying all that to a roleplay to give it a whirl sounds like a great way to work out the kinks. Plus, c’mon. Paranormal romance. What’s not to love there?

  PERCY JACKSON: I haven’t ever roleplaying this verse before, so this is completely new grounds for me. I’ve seen some fun takes on it, though! Scoured older ads but haven’t reached out to anyone because the posting time’s pretty old, but a couple ideas I’ve skimmed through sound fun. HP got a period take on it, so why not put that spin on PJ with a period setting rather than in modern times? Or just a regular modern setting. Y’know, keep it classy, keep it sexy, keep it fun! I’m definitely focused on life outside of camp, since all the characters will be adults. Life’s supposed to suck for demigods, so let’s get into that.

  POKEMON: Leaning a little more on the Detective Pikachu take, since it was fun to see a less anime/game-esque take on the pokemon world. The almost neo-noir style was sooooo cool, so I’ve got my sights set on leaning maybe a little more into the noir sensibilities and themes as an homage to the blending of genres between Pokemon and noir.  So a lot of themes of alienation, mystery, ambiguity, things along those lines. Definitely a weird mix with Pokemon but I think it can be fun.

  FALLOUT: Gonna be real with you guys, I’m a total newbie to Fallout and have only played F3 because it was the only game I found in my family storage for Xbox 360 and I don’t have enough money to get a gaming PC/Laptop to play the other games. I’m watching playthroughs, though! Dipping my toes in the water, so to speak. I’m into it! It’s a fun franchise from what I’ve played and seen so far, so I’d love to write OCs in this verse.