#well he was supposed to look kind of sad and pathetic. i digress

[theforgetter]

the sims needs longer hair and longer beards

[chantealalune]

Love Like Yours Fest @lovelikeyoursfest

Day 1 Catch-Up: Start of Something New

“Fool in the Rain”-An Asra x F!mc Laura short story

Asra hums and drums, slouching over the top of the counter with a sleepy Faust around his shoulders. Eyes closed and face smushed in his hand he groans, “My love, is anyone really going to come in today with this hurricane going?” As if on cue, a loud clap of thunder roars outside. “Danger Air!” Faust squeaks.

I smile to myself as I continue tidying up the shelves and displays along the walls, “It is raining harder than usual that’s for sure,” picking up one of the moonstone orbs, a carefully buff a smudge from its surface “But we still have a few charms and ritual kits ready for pick-up. I would hate to keep anyone waiting out there if we were to be away.” Satisfied with the presentation of the items I turn to face him.

“You’re welcome to go rest upstairs though. I don’t mind at all.” I saunter towards him and gently rest my forehead against his. He closes his eyes and pecks the tip of my nose making a thoughtful sound. I flush a bit and laugh softly.

“I know,” he sighs happily pulling away to look at me “but I always loved waiting out storms with you by my side. It reminds me of the first time we met.” he gently squeezes my hand.

First time we met?

“I thought you told Nadi and her sisters that we met when she first came to Vesuvia and I was pushed into your booth.” 

“Well technically that’s the first time I saw you, but we actually didn’t talk or ‘formally’ introduce ourselves then.” he clarifies looking up at the ceiling. 

“Yeah, you were probably too starstruck. And here I thought Muriel was the shy one.” I smirk coyly as he blushes.

“What?! No! I mean- how was I supposed to say anything when the famed goddess next door was suddenly on my table.” 

“I only kid. Anyways if we didn’t ‘meet’ then, when and how did our first meeting go?”

Asra looks to the side while using his free hand to scritch Faust’s chin, “Hehe..yeah, it’s kinda a funny story. Er, a bit of a long one-” “Crimes with Asra!” Faust perks up, dodging Asra’s hand.  “Faust!” he feigns betrayal.

“Haha, what? What does she mean? Oh gosh Asra, what did we do?” I give a loving, skeptical look and squeeze his hand. 

“Oh no no! You didn’t do anything at all I swear it was all- well.. like I said it’s a bit of a funny story.” He smiles sheepishly looking at Faust for some grain of mercy.

“All right then,” I let go of his hand, “how about I get us some tea and you can tell me at the table” I smile as I walk through the warm yellow glow of the kitchen entrance next to the opening of the counter. 

“Yes please!” He all but sprints after me. Immediately pulling out the wooden chairs for us to sit in. Faust slithers down his arm and into an empty Prakran fruit bowl for a nap. 

I gently rouse the stove salamander and place our copper kettle over the ignited flame. As the water heats up, I pour my favorite Chai tea blend into two mismatched clay cups. Taking out the last of the week’s cream and some ground hazelnut for fix-ins. A few minutes later our tea is brewed and ready. I hand Asra his cup before placing mine and sitting down, rubbing the top of Faust’s head. 

“This is really nice, thank you.” He takes a sip, giving a satisfied ‘mmm’ of approval “Oh, but before I start- please let me know if you’re feeling any headaches or pains. I know, I know you are ‘infinitely stronger’ now and you haven’t had a spell like that since the night at the fountain but you know I’ll always worry.” he warns somberly.

“Of course, thank you.” I reassure and pat the top of his hand before comfortably leaning back into my chair and taking the first sip of my drink. It’s nice and spicy, perferct for the cooler weather.

Asra takes another quiet sip before going into the story, “When we first met it had been about a year since Muriel left the arena and him and I moved to the woods. We lived off the land okay but going to the markets for things was inevitable. So I had been selling charms, masks, readings, y’know the usual crowd drawers. Like I mentioned to Nadi I had set up my booth behind the shop once and that’s how I met you,” We smile cheekily at the last bit.

“After that first time I saw you, I just- I couldn’t get you out of my head. I had to see you once more at the very least just to know it wasn’t a dream. So from then I would constantly hang around the back or within the streets just hoping to catch another glimpse of you. Maybe even work up the nerve to talk to you. It worked eventually, we would see each other as you would come and go to the markets. Sometimes you would come and look at the wares I had that day” he smirks mischeviously, “Really I think you were scoping out the competition and got distracted by my charm. I certainly did with you, at least.” I giggle

“Oh shush, you... You said the shop was originally my aunt’s, didn’t she see you at all? Did I ever say anything?”

“You didn’t of course, you have always been the same friendly flirt. Honestly, I think we were both excited to find another student of magic around our age. Even your aunt didn’t say much. She never did.” he looks to his tea with a sad smile. 

“Why? What was wrong with her?” I say through a slow sip.

“I don’t think you ever told me the full story, but there was certainly talk around town. When you came to Vesuvia, it was to take care of your aunt. She was becoming increasingly sickly and could barely manage the shop anymore. In exchange she promised she would teach you everything she knew about magic, when she was up to it of course. You didn’t mind though, you always said you were excited just to live here. You guys were very close, but I digress. She saw me enough from the bedroom window, always with a stern look and intense gaze just like yours. I always thought it was intimidation or that she was sizing me up. Now that I think about it though, she was just waiting.”

“For what?”

“One of us to make the first move, I guess” he laughs. 

“I guess I can relate, I’m waiting to hear how our first meeting went. All this build-up and you’re starting to sound like Julian.” 

Asra playfully rolls his eyes smearing a hand over his face “Oh please, that’s the last thing I want. Don’t worry, though, I’m almost there.”

“Okay..”

“So anyways, your aunt did scare me off just a bit. I thought she was going to tell you something- she didn’t of course. But I still made it a point to rotate my selling grounds, going to different markets every other day. On top of that I even sort of demoted myself to something like a ‘door to door snake venom salesman’. What a sight I must’ve been, huh? A disheveled, gaunt, 17 year old kid and his snake selling crude twig charms and sigils for some coins to buy the morning’s bread- or sometimes yesterday’s. It was rotton work to put on that ‘mysterious vagabond’ act for hours everyday but it brought food to the hut so it didn’t matter. 

“One fall it was incredibly stormy, just like this kind of weather except it wasn’t even letting up. I mean, it went on for days. Of course no one wanted to stick around the markets long enough to buy whatever I was selling. And I couldn’t go back empty handed so I just wandered around the city all day, going up and pitching to anyone who bothered to answer. Still, no one bought anything. I was tired, hungry, cold, soggy, wet, hurting, you name it! I felt so defeated and I knew Faust wasn’t exactly comfortable at the time. It was already too dark and still pouring buckets to try and make it back to the forrest on my own so I knew I was going to stay the night on the streets again. I was starting to walk back to the borders of the city, that way I wouldn’t be too far from the forrest. But I stopped in my tracks when I saw the shop. I though ‘maybe this one, maybe they’ll be willing to buy something, or at least maybe I can stall enough to get out of the damn rain for a while’ but when I tried the door, it was locked. Even after I knocked, too. That did me in, I felt so silly and alone. At one point I even slumped to the ground against the door. Knees to my chest and arms encircled tight as I tried to keep me and Faust warm. I probably looked pretty pathetic but I didn’t know what else to do.” His voice begins to quicken pace as he remebers the desperation of the situation. I put my cup down and take his hand in both of mine.

“Oh, my love, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, it gets better. After a few minutes of moping while watching the rain. Faust noticed the window we were sitting under was open and-”

“Asra Alnazar! You broke into my shop!?!” I cry accusingly.

“No! It was Faust! Yes, you Faust! As soon as she saw the window was open she cried ‘warm for Asra!’ and slithered in too fast before I could catch her” Faust hisses at the snitching before recoiling herself tighter to face the wall.

I start to giggle and pet her gently.”Oh Fausty, that is absolutely something you would think of. No wonder you and julian got along so well.” She slithers out of the bowl and closer to me to spite Asra, who can’t help but smile and chuckle.

“I tried to stop her, Laura, I really did. But she had already made her way to the ground and was drying or warming herself up on one of the rugs. I called and called for her in an intense whisper but to no avail. You know how she gets. I even tried to levitate her back but she was too determined and I was too weak to focus. So I- I did go through the window. BUT ONLY TO GET FAUST! I swear.

“And I mean, you’ve seen me. I’m not like Muriel or Ilya but when I was younger I was pretty lanky so getting in was actually really hard.” 

“You fell on your face didn’t you?” I prompt dryly

“Hahaha, yeah I actually did and it hurt too. I fell on a bag of sharp twigs and wood floor for magician’s sake!” He woundedly admits.

“Of course as soon as all this happend, We heard footsteps running down the stairs. I jumped up and grabbed Faust as we tried to unlock the door but I was panicking too much to undo the spell. That’s when we whipped our heads around and saw you glaring wided-eyed from across the room with a ball of glowing energy in each hand. I swear I have never been more scared in my entire life. I don’t think I’ve seen you more scared or surprised in both of your lives. As soon as you saw Faust though, you relaxed a bit and you remembered us from the market.”

“Did I say anything?”

“Yeah, the first things you said were ‘Who the hell are you?!’ and then when you saw Faust slither out of my arms again and to your feet you picked her up and said ‘Oh, hello! it’s just you guys’ And well from there the rest is history.”

“What do you mean ‘the rest is history’ ? What else happened?! What kind of a story teller are you?” I tease.

“I mean you asked what I was doing and I explained the whole situation, we laughed and I offered to leave but before I did you grabbed my sleeve and stopped me. You told me that I was not allowed to go back out there until I was full dry, I had some tea and rest, or the rain stopped. You gave me, fresh shirts to wear that you said belonged to your aunt, but they fit decent. Then you made us some tea and let faust warm up by the stove. We ended up talking practically all night, about ourselves, magic, Vesuvia. and-”

I lean over the kitchen table, to kiss him. Slowly and lovingly with one hand supporting his chin. The warmth and spiciness of the tea lingering between us as we pull away. “And the rest is history.” I smile before we lean into each other again.

[sammysreelreviews]

How Dead Hannah Baker keeps the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Trope Alive

*pictured above: Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford) from 13 Reasons Why

***SPOILERS AHEAD FOR 13 REASONS WHY, PAPER TOWNS, 500 DAYS OF SUMMER. AND ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND!***

I know that some of you may be wondering what exactly is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Well there’s no text book definition but here’s one I found online from urbandictionary.com:

“A Manic Pixie Dream Girl or MPDG, is a term coined by film critic Nathan Rabin after seeing Elizabethtown. It refers to "that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures." A pretty, outgoing, whacky female romantic lead whose sole purpose is to help broody male characters lighten up and enjoy their lives.”

Now that you have an idea of what this is I’ll start by giving you examples. Usually the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, MPDG for short, is only there so the nerdy usually white male that is obsessed with them can grow from the experience with them. Now I know you’re thinking “how exactly do I spot one of these creatures?” Well guys it’s very easy and I’ll give you some tips. Most MPDG’s are white, have a wild outlook on the world, and are deemed gorgeous by the general public. 

*pictured above: Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) and Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) in the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

The first MPDG I can think of is Clementine from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind. She is a wild says whatever is on her mind kind of girl and meets poor Joel on the train. This film happens through flashbacks and dreams showing how happy she made him. The relationship went sour which it usually does with a MPDG and they both have each other erased from their memories. Dramatic, I know, but losing her and getting her back helps Joel in some crazy way. It’s like without her he can’t fully live his life and that’s just sad.

*pictured above: Tom (Joseph Gordon Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) in 500 Days of Summer

People love this movie and don’t even realize that Summer is problematic as fuck. Summer is this cool girl who doesn’t believe in love and basically drags poor Tom around for you fucking guessed it, 500 days. Tom thinks that Summer is the one for him and tries to date her and show her love exists. Even though they do end up dating things fall apart because cool, secure, witty as all hell Summer is still scared of love. I mean I thought that was a LA thing. It doesn’t take Tom to realize how pathetic he is until he sees Summer at a park AND REALIZES SHE FUCKING GOT MARRIED. Summer’s excuse is that she wasn’t sure about Tom but she was sure about her husband now.... LOL need I say more? 

*pictured above: Margo (Cara Delevigne) and Quentin (Nat Wolff) in Paper Towns.

Last example is John Green’s book turned film Paper Towns. Quentin has been in love with the popular girl next door Margo. One random night Margo climbs into Quentin’s window and asks him to get revenge on her now ex boyfriend. They spend the whole night at the store getting supplies, ruining the boy’s car, and looking over the city they live in. Margo feels stuck where she is and unlike feels different tan her friends. Spoiler alert: she’s not. At the end of the night they both go home and of course nerdy Quentin is blissed the fuck out. Before I go in on this, we have to acknowledge that all of John Green‘s main characters are MPDG’s. It’s basically his forte. But I digress. Quentin wakes up and, surprise, Margo has gone missing. Quentin is determined to find her and believes that she left clues for him. Quentin his two friends and Margo’s bestie go on a roadtrip from florida to upstate New York and find themselves while trying to find Margo. His friends eventually leave him because no way in teen rom com hell are they going to miss the prom. Quentin stays and eventually finds the girl of his dreams. Turns out Margo didn’t want to be found at all and just like Tom in 500 days of Summer Quentin looks like a fucking dumb ass. Quentin makes it home in time for prom and enjoys it with his friends cause in the end that’s all he really needed... but it took a cross country road trip trying to find a selfish teen girl who doesn’t care about you to figure that out. Nice!

*pictured above: Clay Jensen (Dylan Minnette) and Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford) in 13 Reasons Why

As we all know Jay Asher’s book 13 Reasons why has been turned into a tv show on Netflix. The premise is that high schooler Hannah Baker has killed herself and left 13 tapes for certain people to listen to. If you’re on this tape, you’re one of the reasons why she’s gone. Creepy right? Well in the book, which is only 288 pages, Hannah is a sweet girl who seemed to have the worst time of her damn life. The book is short so it seems like every event that happened to Hannah happens like one day after the other. Clay listens to his friend’s tapes in one night and it really hits you in the gut. Personally I like the book better but I am here to address the show. If you want to read my full opinion on the entire show you can do so by clicking here. 

The problem with the Tv series is that by stretching the fuck out of this book they have to add on to the characters. Unfortunately Hannah is made into a MPDG from beyond the grave. In the show Hannah is deemed pretty by everyone around her. If the high school jocks think you’re hot, you’re golden am I right? What makes Hannah a MPDG is the way she treats poor Clay Jensen. Clay is the main character in the show and you find out what happens to Hannah by watching him listen to the tapes. SInce it takes Clay fucking weeks to listen to 13 DAMN TAPES only through flashbacks do you get to see what Hannah is truly like. Hannah on the show confused me after I watched it. I was like “Why don’t I like her?” Don’t get me wrong I felt for the girl and everything that happened was horrible but something was just off. She talked to Clay all the time in witty banter and even gave him a nickname. There were so many chances where she could have just kissed him or got alone time but she didn’t. The other problem with Hannah Is that she was so confident and cool, and filled with teen angst, it didn’t make sense for her to care about what people thought. It’s like she had two personalities. When we see her with Clay she’s this smart funny girl who seemed unattainable but when we see her with virtually anyone else she’s insecure and dying for attention from any popular boy in school. Hannah makes it seem as if Clay isn’t good enough for her when in reality he’s the only person she has. In the 12th episode while Hannah is taking a walk she ends up at a house party where all the popular kids are. Even though she thinks Clay hates her at this point she could’ve tried to talk things out with him. It just frustrates me that she would go to a rapist’s house cause she’s that desperate for attention. Why fight for these douche bags that have done nothing but hurt you instead of fighting for Clay? 

Clay shows character progression only when he’s listening to the tapes. Hearing his dream girl tell the stories before her untimely death makes Clay a better person to people around him. I mean that is the point of all this but at the same time, it shouldn’t take tapes from a girl who has committed suicide to realize that hey, high school is hard don’t be a fucking asshole to people. Clay also grows some balls while listening to the tapes. He basically yells in the middle of the school hall and even lowkey bullies this kid Tyler. I mean Tyler was a creep but bullying someone would be the last thing on my agenda while listening to a dead girl’s tapes. I wrote this for me to get my thoughts out cause everyone keeps asking me about this show. Every conversation I have I always say that I didn’t really like Hannah so if you think Hannah kind of sucks I’m here with you. Hannah is the most twisted MPDG ever and yes it’s because she’s dead. Clay only grows while listening to these tapes which is kind of in a way fucked up. Even though Clay, unlike the book, gets justice for two sexually assaulted girls and Hannah’s life it shouldn’t take Hannah’s 13 tapes to grow. Hannah killing herself should’ve made everyone change and grow on their own.

I know at this point you’re probably saying “ I read this long ass article what is the point?!” The point is that women are not objects. Being a woman is hard and having to grow up is truly a journey. You have media constantly showing you how the perfect woman acts or talks or dresses. Going through high school you have to deal with the pressure of society and unfortunately care about what your peers think. I grew up from my own damn experiences. I didn’t just find myself cause I left a boyfriend or cause I cut my hair I learned that I am what I am and I can’t change that and I’m very happy with who I turned out to be. This is especially hard to do when you’re a black girl like me raised in an all white community. Why must men in these movies need a girl for them to realize who they are? I’m not saying it’s easy to be a boy but come on dude the girl of your dreams isn’t gonna finally give you this sense of Omg I know what my purpose in life is. Your dream girl is not your mom teaching you about life. You know what’s right and what’s wrong without a girl whispering you to the right direction in your ear. You can only figure out who you are by being you and it is completely possible for films and TV shows to show this without a MPDG. I know the show 13 Reasons Why is supposed to show how small things matter and can snowball into this big thing. I get it I really do. The problem is that they could’ve shown that making Hannah solely the victim and not a jaded Manic Pixie Dream Girl.