#write a small webseries or something

[aboringredmop]

k still don't know how im gonna post the videos (YouTube? unlisted?someone please help) but I can't sleep so I thought it'd write down whatever I remember happening!

(edit: here's the full recording! )

Becky and Joe walked on stage wearing sunglasses and red leather jackets and threw 3 of the trio plushies into the crowd. didn't get one unfortunately but it's really cool some people got free plushies :)

they made this robot child called the Inspiration Child, who's clearly meant to be a nod to ai (can learn from our show and generate it's own content!)

they explained how they met (and had some dodgy animated retelling), and how they started with small projects like commercials and music videos, until they came up with designs of the trio (and a mysterious fourth fella)

they made the designs first, then made the set, then the song and finally wrote the script for creativity. red guy was just a red mop head with legs at first ("alien squid thing") but Joe put the red guy head on for shits and giggles once and Becky thought it was hilarious so they kept it in the show

they were really not expecting it to blow up, and when Sundance called because they wanted to show creativity Becky thought it was a scam caller lol

they talked about the kickstarter and the credit card fraud kid. the mailed him saying "hey maybe dont do that" but the kid didnt know how to undo it cuz he just found a website full of credit card information and went ham, so Becky and Joe had to contact kickstarter because people were pulling out of the funding because they thought the project was overfunded (kickstarter was very difficult to contact)

they also made (lighthearted) fun of nsfw fluffybird art ((no padlock 😔) "using OUR characters to act out their SICK FANTASIES" - Becky) and theorists, especially because most if not all of the webseries is just them fucking around.

Inspiration Child also says something along the lines of "wow what a cool show with a great message of how corrupt the media is. I hate the media!"

Becky and Joe had these rules to make the show as vague as possible (no pop culture references, no names, no swearing and way too much detail put into small things)(the duck guy drag queen absolutely obliterates the no swearing rule lol)

they talk about the pilot, how they focused too much on the story because they felt like they had to due to it being on the big screen now, and how it ended up ruining the atmosphere and such of the pilot. they did show the entire thing sped up but my phone sucks ass so I could not get it to focus correctly. I'll see what I can salvage so you people can dissect frames of your blorbo you're Legally Not Allowed To See (which is also the official reason we don't get the pilot)

also pilot concept art showed that Mean Steve is in fact just called Key

they showed a whole post-it wall full of ideas for the tv show. don't know how much I got on footage, but what stood out most to me were 2 episodes called Money and Christmas. Joe mentioned "clock in a wheelchair" specifically

also really fun fact. Becky made the Lesley suit during covid, and pretty much threatened Baker into writing a human character into the show to wear it. concept art also shows Lesley with a mask made out of the same fabric, don't know if this was part of the original suit tho

they showed Warrens old models (?). he was gonna be a wayy more ugly looking silicone pug-worm thing y'all got lucky with the bald fuck

lily and todney were directly based off of some cancelled show about two porcelain doll children with panda parents. do not for the life of me remember what it was called but Becky and Joe were very enthousiastic about it (UPDATE: Candy and Andy!)

international release of the show soon!

Inspiration Child talks about what he's learned and sings a little song, then generates his own dhmis inspired content of a cult meeting in a forest at night. the dhmis Discord server called this "potential new content" but I doubt it

3 cultists walk on stage, face the screen backs to the crowd, drop their cloaks and boom! drag queens!!!

they were not mentioned on the site or during earlier parts of the show at all so they were a complete surprise. I asked Becky about it later during the night and she said she really wanted them there, so she asked and they were excited to! hope this means more official content with them soon I love them

they dance to There's Three Of Us, then Duck lipsings the shredder song which turns into a techno remix while Red and Yellow dance during the background

then Duck and Yellow make out while Red tries to undress to the instrumentals of the Fucked Up Part of Creativity but can't get out of his suit on time before the song ends

the drag queens, Becky and Joe and the Inspiration Child walk around during the meet and greet later and I got signatures from all of them! except inspiration child he didn't have thumbs

the drag queens were so fucking funny. Duck adopted inspiration child and loudly yelled at everyone to "GET AWAY FROM MY FUCKING CHILD" (their duck voice is sooo good). yellow stood in a corner staring at a wall for like 10 minutes and red was constantly awkwardly hovering just outside the frames of pictures (and also could not see shit lmao)

Becky liked my shirt! (the one with the melting trio heads) said she handdrew it

I'll post the signatures and some more stuff tomorrow because it is. 5 am

edit Heres the signatures! yellow guys is Italian I think? and means hi I love you :)

(the liyskaen is duck trying to spell my name. they got pretty close)

[butchsophiewalten]

03/09/24 Twitter Space Recap

Quick recap of the twitter space from yesterday. Another one with Martin, Kyle, Coral, and eventually Eva. They tried to make this another Q&A but they mostly just talked and joked between themselves. Here's a rough recap of what they talked about:

-Martin talks about how it's always difficult for him to answer questions like, "Can I get a fun fact about [Character]?", because he doesn't just have a bunch of information pre-prepared about every character in his webseries. He specifies that it's not bad to ask those questions, just that he has a hard time answering them.

-Martin tells Kyle to give his idea for what each of the Showstoppers would dress up as for Halloween, and he says, "Boozoo is a lion, Sha is a sunflower, Banny is a horse, and Bon doesn't dress up." Martin says he agrees, but that he thinks Banny could also be a pirate.

-Someone asks for confirmation on whether Chris' last name is 'Easterday' or 'Easteryear', and Martin says that it was always supposed to be Easteryear, but after the fandom caught in calling him Easterday, some of the crew caught on to calling him that, too. But "Easteryear" is what his name is supposed to be.

-Martin mentions that just the other day he was talking about Chris with the rest of the crew, and how they've worked on polishing his character arc into something they all think is much more cool.

-Martin says that they explained some lore stuff to Coral, about something that happens "very, very later," in the series, and how they were extremely upset and heartbroken over it. They mention a drawing they had posted to Twitter a few days before, of them hunting Martin down with a knife, and how that was the context for it.

-Eva talks about how Martin was explaining the series lore to Felix's new VA in the crew discord server, and how it apparently took him an hour and a half of explaining just to get to the point of explaining the car crash.

-Martin says, "Everything that happens after Brian's death, after BunnyFarm is so much! I don't know how I'm going to write all that down!"

-Kyle asks Martin how he comes up with last names for characters, because he knows that Martin never googles to find authentic or realistic American last names, and just makes them up. Kyle says that he knows "Walten" is a portmantaeu of "Walls" and "Martin", but wants to know what some other ones are.

Martin explains how he came up with 'Easteryear', saying "Back in 2020, when I was doing research for The Walten Files, I started looking for, like, show tapes of like, 70s animatronic bands. And I came up with Chuck E. Cheese show tapes, and there was this one that was called "Broadway Yesteryear", and I kept mispronouncing it with 'Easteryear, Easteryear', and I was like, 'That would be a fun last name,' and I kept it in my pocket until it was, like, useful. And then I started coming up with all the names, and shit like that. I think Easteryear and Letterson were like, the more creative ones i did."

Kyle asks him how he came up with 'Letterson', then, and Martin says, "Letterson- Letterson is like 'Letterman', but instead of Letterman, it's just 'Letterson.'

-Martin says that he's always trying to find ways to insert Brian Stells into The Walten Files, even though he's a character with absolutely no depth, and was never intended to do more than teach the audience that Bon is dangerous, but he appreciates Brian's place in the legacy of The Walten Files, with him being the first human character to speak and the first character to die, and he likes to kind of honor that by trying to find small ways to include him.

-Martin says something vaguely about Chris in season 2, which confuses Eva. She asks him if Chris appears in Season 2, because she doesn't think he does, and Martin responds, "Yeah. Yeah, he does."

-Coral is confused about how many seasons The Walten Files is supposed to have, because last they remember, it only had two. Martin explains, "There's three seasons. Season one is like, y'know. Season two is like, shorter, and it's about Sophie and Jenny, and Season three is how everything, like, ends. What happens after."

-Martin reads a question, "What character is the community's perception of most inaccurate?" and then says, "I think we can all agree that it's Jack." Kyle then says that he thinks another good candidate answer is Sophie, saying that he thinks people tend to characterize her as much more "bubbly" than she even remotely is.

-Martin takes the time to specify that there's nothing wrong with misinterpreting these characters, because we've seen so little of them in the series and it's been so long in between episodes that people are bound to come up with their own ideas of what characters are like, but that he wants everyone to keep an open mind when we start to see more of how those characters are actually depicted, because it may not line up with that people are imagining or hoping for, and how that's not necessarily a flaw with the series.

-Martin says, "The Walten Files, when we make the series, we don't create the characters and go, 'oh, he's a villain, he's that,' we create the actions they make, and we let the viewer decide whether or not this character is a good or bad guy. The characters make good and bad decisions."

-Eva says, in reference to "Bon", "You guys have not even scratched the surface. I'm so fucking excited for his character."

-Martin says, "Here's like, a message to the audience. Do you wanna know a word that can, like, fucking destroy the crew, but to you guys, has like no fucking meaning? Y'know what fucking word it is? 'Sayonara.'" The second he says this, everyone else in the space starts groaning in agony, or shouting at him.

-Eva reads a question, "If Sophie was a cat, what kind of cat would she be?" Martin does not answer, and instead posts this drawing to twitter:

-Martin talks about how, for the upcoming episodes, Kyle & Coral recorded their lines (as Charles and Susan) separately, but their dynamic is so good, that it sounds very authentically like they could've been recording in the same room. They say that they'd love to record some audio in a call together at some point, but that it'd be difficult to coordinate around Coral's timezone.

-Eva reads a question, "Would Jenny like My Little Pony, if so, what would her favorite pony be?" Martin answers, "Uh, she would definitely like Applejack, in my opinion."

-Martin reads a question, "Will any of the episodes take place past the Relocate Project?" and answers, "Not in season one, but in season two, I think all the episodes take place after BunnyFarm."

-Martin reads a question, "Will you guys get a new band for The Walten Files after Sweet Tuesday?" and answers, "Uh, No, I don't think so. We don't talk to Sweet Tuesday."

-Martin reads a question, "How would Rosemary's sister react to hearing about Rose going missing?", and answers, "They weren't close, but I think she would be very-" and then Coral interrupts him, going "Rosemary has a sister?" to which Martin responds, "Yeah, it isn't brought up in this season, but yeah, she does have a sister. But they're very- they're not close. They don't have a very good relationship, so. Uh, it's Laura Peony."

-Eva asks, if Susan would be like a cool aunt to the Walten kids, and Martin says, "Yeah, she would be."

-Martin reads a question, "Was "Bon" planned from the start, or did you come up with him later?" and answers, "This is really good! Okay, so, Bon was always a character, but, uh, the idea of "Bon" as a ghost, it was born after episode 3. But this character always existed, just not in this way.

-Martin says, "'We know Jack used to make sandwiches for his employees, who was the one that always got sandwiches, and someone who almost every time didn't get one?' Um, the one who almost every time didn't get one was probably Richie."

-"I like the idea of Richie just being a lazy piece of shit, and he would just like, hide in the bathrooms so he can just smoke and do shit, and Jack would just ominously stand next to him until he notices, for just minutes and minutes."

-Martin says Susan is 6'2, and that Jack is "a few inches" taller than her.

-Eva reads a question asking if Sophie & Jenny would keep their relationship a secret because of the time period. Martin says, "Okay, no, I don't think they would keep it an entire secret, I don't think they'd be like, 'oh, dude, we can't say it,' I feel like they would just be, like- I feel like they would just- they don't feel the need to like, tell it to people. They don't feel the need to be like, 'oh, we're girlfriends,' y'know?"

-Martin and Coral joke that Sophie wouldn't even know what homophobia is, growing up around so many other queer and accepting people. During this conversation, Coral says, "Charles is like, the ultimate lesbian." (I assume they meant 'lesbian ally'? but this is way funnier.)

-Martin has spent much of the space repeating a joke about Jack telling Rosemary to "make [him] a sandwich", stemming from a conversation about how funny it would be if Jack in the series was just this terrible person. He jokes now, approaching the idea a little more seriously, that Jack would say that to Rosemary as a joke, and she would give him an absolutely terrifying death glare.

He says it'd be funny if Jack made the same 'make me a sandwich' joke to Rose, and she went, 'oh okay!! ^_^', to Jack's surprise, and then came back with a sandwich that is just a "gallon of salt" in between two slices of bread, and she forces him to eat it.

-Coral tries to answer a question about whether or not Richie would sell weed, and Martin interrupts them to say that he thinks Richie would try to sell weed to the BSI crew, and they would be like, 'yeah, no thank you.'

-Someone asks if Susan would like the Showbiz Pizza animatronics, and Coral says they think she would like them from a technical standpoint.

-Coral reads a question, "How did Susan find out she was a lesbian?", and says, "I feel like she never 'figured out', it was more of a case that she always felt like that and didn't care what anyone else said," to which Martin agrees.

-Martin reads a question, "Does Sarah Evelyn have a favorite animal?" and says, "How the fuck do you remember Sarah Evelyn? She was just like, an animator on Bon's Burgers, that's it. I don't know." Coral corrects him, saying that she was a writer, but agrees that it's really funny for people to remember that character at all.

-Izzsplash, Jenny's VA, joins the space! She's recovering from Covid.

-Martin reads a question he really likes and seems excited for, "Will we ever see a clip of Jenny angry?", but answers it by quoting the same "Make me a sandwich!" joke he's been quoting for the entire space.

-Martin reads a question for Izzy, "How has your perception of the character of Jenny changed from the first time you voiced her to now?" Izzy answers, "That is a good question! I think, when I first met Jenny, I was like, 'that girl looks silly,' but now that I've talked to everyone and like, really, like- after BunnyFarm, I was like, 'this is not just a silly, that's- that's an actual, like, good friend, person. Like, she's a lot- there's a lot more to Jenny than people thing. I'll put it there. She's not just a silly- she is silly! She can be '/j', but she's also '/srs'.

[monstrous-femme]

Have you ever felt embarrassed posting fic?? I have so many ideas and I really enjoyed doing stuff for fsw but I cringe at the thought of writing anything else?? Or at creating anything generally? I don't know why and I really want to get over it n u seem insightful about this stuff.

(feel free to answer public or priv I don't mind, also feel free to ignore me entirely x)

I love this question bc I think it's about art and vulnerability and imperfection and those are things I think about a lot! (Alternatively, I may be viewing this question through the lenses of art and vulnerability and imperfection BECAUSE I think about those things a lot.)

If I tried to make this all connect it'd be a 1500+ word essay, so instead I'm going to provide some random thoughts and you can connect them however works for you:

1. No fic I write is ever going to get the number of kudos of a very mid Drarry fic I wrote when I was 18. It plagues me that this is my most-read story. I also refuse to take it down. It might still be meaningful to someone, even if it's not too me, and it did mean something to 18 year old me and I want to respect that. But the real reason I keep it up is because I don't want people to think my new, better work appeared from nowhere. I write so well now in part because I wrote a random 50k Drarry fic in high school. Writing it helped me become the writer I became.

2. I think a lot about the cartoon of a dog(?) playing piano with the caption "He plays very poorly, but it keeps him from destroying things."

3. I make paintings and don't post them because they aren't beautiful but I am still glad I paint, and when I first started making earrings I didn't understand how to use little beads to hold big beads in place so things often fell apart.

4. Someone who I met while writing fanfiction and meta for a tiny webseries fandom became such a dear friend that she flew across the country for my wedding party.

5. Many of the best scenes from In Her Hips are ones that scared or embarrassed me to write.

6. While we're on the subject of embarrassment, those smut scenes/fics I wrote that y'all like so much? Literally almost couldn't handle posting them but I bet you're glad I did 😉.

7. When my poetry collection came out and we did a reading and discussion, one of the members of my poetry cohort talked about the paradox of vulnerability, how we think that people will only connect with us if we write broadly but it is actually only in the personal details that we manage to connect. I really, really want to connect with other people. It feels like the most important thing I can do.

8. If you write your stories and never show them to anyone else, I promise they still matter.

9. If you write stories and choose to share them, I promise they will not matter less with someone else's gaze on them.

10. It's terrifying to be perceived because we can't control what other people see when they look at us. When I let myself be perceived, it's like admitting that I want to be loved, and the terrifying thing about admitting that I want something is that I may not get it. I may lose in public. I may be seen as small and human and wanting. There is no way around this.

I hope this somehow answers your question.

[galwithalibrarycard]

Hi, it's me again, I hope I'm not being to much (We really are anxious people, isn't?). We're a small fandon now, but I love how you keep going it, seriously, and it's so nice to have a place to talk about beadick. I just wanna say that I really enjoy your fic about them breaking the rules, I wish we could've seen more of that in LoLiLo. Anyway, could you share some of your headcanons post Lolilo? Also, I was a little bit disappointed with the way "they got together again", I mean, it was so rushed, they barely talk about it, anyway, thanks

Not at all, I’m so happy to keep hearing from you, Anon! 😁 I’m glad to be your place to talk about Beadick, of course! I hope you’re not too anxious!

And thank you so much, I’m so glad you liked the fic! I assume you mean Lovebirds? (There’s also Plausible Deniability and Rules For Thee Broke, though!) Either way I’m proud of how all those fics came out and I had a lot of fun writing them, so I’m thrilled you enjoyed reading whichever one!

I agree, I wish there was more Beadick in lolilo in general, and especially rule-breaking fluff. I don’t think I’ve talked to a beadick shipper yet who doesn’t wish we’d gotten more of a fleshed-out reunion and resolution for them and their plotline. It did feel unsatisfyingly rushed. I think it’s the vlog-style format that limits a lot of what we could’ve gotten, though. There’s so much the characters would never put online, including the full conversation and reconciliation that would’ve happened between Bea and Ben after FEATHERS and the goodbye episode. I wish Lolilo was one of those webseries that’s half vlog style and half traditional omniscient scenes where we’re watching the characters interact when they DON’T have a camera on them in-world. Would’ve changed the whole game.

That being said, I still think we should have gotten at least one getting-back-together kiss in FEATHERS right at the end before Hero comes in. Beadick deserved to have their last onscreen kiss be about their love and how happy they are to be back together, not about Bea tricking Ben into breaking a rule. I will be dying on this hill and I do have a fanfic in the works about it (it’s just very difficult to describe a kiss for any length of time or wax poetic about what the kiss means for them when I know their brains are just a blank and their internal monologues have left the building. Because Big Damn Reunion Kiss.)

As far as my post-lolilo headcanons, I think that Bea and Ben stay in Auckland for however long it takes before Leo’s cancer goes into likely remission or at least to a place where they know he’ll survive. Bea and Ben use that time to be with their families and to work on their relationship and to plan their trip. Ben also uses that time to get a therapist and start figuring out his anxiety (and also what’s probably ADHD worsening his struggles academically- that’s something I can say way less about bc I don’t share that experience but I’ve heard the headcanon from other people and I agree with it.)

After Leo is out of the woods, Bea and Ben embark on their year of travel. It’s life-changing and so much fun and brings them closer together than ever. They’ll talk about it fondly for the rest of their lives, and have plenty of pictures and stories to share about it (and some stories that are just between them).

I think Ben quits vlogging forever. He realizes it’s unhealthy for him, enabling his avoidance of deeper conversation and vulnerability with the real people in his life, and that it’s violating other people’s privacy as well. Instead, I think Ben starts keeping a diary or journal. His therapist suggests it, and he loves it. It’s a way to get his thoughts out of his head in situations where he isn’t ready to talk to people about them in person, without also involving strangers on the internet. It allows him to be honest with himself and not have to put on a front out of fear of being judged. He loves writing, and it turns out to be a great avenue to explore his passion for the universality of storytelling and the way human emotions have been the same for thousands of years. He goes back to school once he’s rested and ready, and writes books of scholarly analyses of Marlowe and other classic plays and stories, and is a Literature teacher at both high school and university levels during his future career.

Bea is a lawyer, a headcanon I believe I adopted from some of the Candle Wasters and Harriett (who plays Bea) talking about that in a behind the scenes somewhere? Anyway, I like that she gets to go to work doing her favorite thing, arguing, and do it better than anyone else. She lets herself have what she wants: her independence AND Ben. And she’s still fierce.

I know most people don’t spend forever with the person they dated at 18, but the beauty of fiction is that I get to say, screw realism. Bea and Ben are one of those very few young couples who make it work long-term. They stay together for the rest of their lives, because even when it’s hard, they always keep choosing each other, choosing to do the work of growing together. They have lives outside of each other, but they’re still each other’s absolute world. One of my favorite things about the Beadick side of the fandom is that we pretty much all believe that’s true. The fans, the creators and actors (when last we heard from them), and arguably Shakespeare himself- all of us think Beadick is forever. You don’t split up two people with matching name-meanings and a romance for the ages. (Of course thinking they don’t last is also valid and I’m not bossing anyone around or saying you can’t be a fan if you think differently- I’m just stating what I’ve seen as being the most popular fanon.) (They are together forever though. To me.)

In my headcanon, they elope when they decide to get married, and they eventually have two kids, two because they both grew up the only child and know how lonely that can be. I think future fic about their family is one of the most frequent requests I’ve gotten when I’ve opened my ask to fic prompts, which is fun. I headcanon that they name their daughter Olivia, and Ben likes to call her Olive (see what I did there? 🫒). Their second kid is a son, who I named James (nicknamed Jamie) in my fic “Twice Blessed”, though I don’t think I have a reason for that one. I really do not mean to keep plugging my fanfics here, it’s just that most of my headcanons are laid out in them already! :)

I like fluff, I like my ships to be happy by the end. So Ben improves his mental health, Bea improves in asking for what she wants and expressing her love more directly, they both work on communication, and they live and bicker and tease and love happily ever after.

I hope you don’t mind that I wrote you a novel here, Anon! I’m so glad you mostly enjoyed lolilo and I’m so glad to talk about it with you. This is so fun for me, so thanks again! 💖😊🦩

[acustardduckling]

Meet the Writer Tag

I was tagged by my friend @emeraldhazeart ! :D

Rules: Use this picrew to make yourself and answer the questions!

Three fun facts about me:

I never learnt how to swim properly ... I was pretty good at diving though!

When I was 13-ish I made a webseries by editing Harvest Moon sprites and overlaying them with text, inspired by one of my then-friends who had a similar series. It’s called Pansy Quest, and it’s very poorly made. While it’s no longer canon to Pansy’s lore, I haven’t taken it down. 

 It’s difficult for me to seem excited about things irl. I am of course pleased, or grateful, but for example when I got my results for uni I was kinda just like. ‘Nice!’ and my family was expecting some bigger reaction... Meanwhile, new releases of games I want make me go eeee!

Favourite season: Springtime is my favourite! The warm sun and colourful flowers really improve my mood. I like Autumn too because it brings relief after Summer, but there’s a melancholy that comes with it.

Continent where I live: Europe

How I spend my time: Work, gaming, writing things that aren’t my main project ... I’ve been really struggling with the book I’m meant to be writing. I either don’t have time, or feel like writing something completely unrelated. It’s a struggle. Oh, I draw too!

Are you published?: Yes, actually - but only very small-scale. I have a few published poems via competitons, and worked with my university to publish a poetry anthology that has my name on the cover! This isn’t my end goal though. I aim to actually have a full book of my own prose get published someday.

Introvert or Extrovert: Introvert, definitely

Favourite Meal: Chicken Katsu Curry and Aloe Water from specific restaurants is the winner at the moment! I like curry that has potato and carrot in. Everywhere seems to have their own spin on it, though.

Tagging: I’m going to tag @duckiefishpond​ this time!! You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, though! I’m just identifying you as a writer here - everyone go read her sidon fic. 

Also, if any other people in my followers list want to do this, feel free!

[the-lincyclopedia]

The desire to make the most niche fanworks. To find out how to make an AMV just to make one for a webseries that came out a decade ago. To write Shakespearean sonnets for a fandom with under 1,000 total works on AO3. To fixate on a side character who’s tagged in under 50 fanworks. To write obscure AUs, crossovers, and fusions that no one asked for.

Sometimes it’s worth it (sonnets are fairly quick, so I don’t really care if they get attention), but sometimes it’s not (I am not going to spend hours teaching myself to make AMVs to make something that like three people will watch). It’s great to be the standard-bearer for something you’re passionate about, and it’s fun to form a little community with the small number of other people, but you’re also allowed to decide that the return on your invested energy isn’t worth it and that you’d rather just imagine the fanwork in your head and enjoy it that way. Either way is fine.

[ellowynthenotking]

Apr 20

Dear Dad,

There are tracking spells. I’ve at least confirmed their existence. That’s something we’ve got going for now. We stopped in a town for a quick break, and they’ve got some kind of festival going on, which happens all the time, it seems like all the time. But this place has one for magic, and magic people, and people who might be able to do magic or who’ve been affected by magic. Though they call it, it was touched by magic. 

So we’ve all been touched by magic, most specifically, though we have a weird symbol on us: a tracking spell. Specifically, ON US! We’ve been marked like cattle. 

They’ve put something on the backs of our necks, where we couldn’t have seen it or noticed it if not for this festival. There are straight brands, magical brands, on the backs of our necks. 

The blue magical powder stuck to us, pretty much our entire bodies, but loosely, then packed onto the spots at the back of our necks. Like when you lift up iron dust with a magnet. 

We could wash off most of the powder, but the magic was literally on us, on the part of our skins, somewhere we couldn’t easily remove it. It’s messed up. 

They did this to us while we were sleeping. They came into our rooms and put these on us. That’s so creepy. They had to know what they were doing was wrong, and they still did it. They still did it to be able to keep finding us.

We didn’t stop in the town very long—long enough to be dusted and to wash it off. I haven’t had much time to research the marks, but I was able to sketch them down off of the others' necks, so when we actually get somewhere I can research, I’ll at least know what to look for. I don’t know when we’ll actually stop again, though. 

We haven’t seen the cultists since we left the city—small mercies. But now that we know what they’re using to hunt us and that it’s not something we’ll be able to get rid of easily, we’ll need to figure out a way to get rid of it.

We’re still on the road, still speeding along. We’re not stopping anytime soon. The only reason we stopped in the little village for their festival was to hopefully steal some food before carrying on. Finding out we were marked was just a side effect. I was going to say happy side effects. But it’s really not that. 

Who wants to find out that they’re marked by some crazy people to be magically followed?

It’s not great! I assure you!

We’re still figuring out what we’re going to do. I don’t know what the plan is, but I’m pushing for us to head back to the city or a different city to see if we can find something to remove the signal from us.

I’ll write when I can. We haven’t stopped in a while, so I don’t know what I’ll actually be able to write on something other than the see-sawing cart. It’s actually making me kind of sick to write on here, so I’m probably not going to do it again unless I absolutely have to. 

One of the upsides of having more horses is that we’re going faster, and no one has to walk. The downside is that everyone is in the cart, and it’s somehow worse than if people were out walking because now we’re all squished back here with all the supplies that we have stored away for when we need them. 

The only way to stretch out is to get out of the cart. This isn’t a good idea, but you must jog to catch up with the cart and climb back in while it moves. Trust me when I say it’s not fun. 

But it’s better than being cooped up in the back of the cart constantly.

I think I’ll end it here for real now. Cause I’m getting kinda motion sick. 

I love you and miss you. I'm sorry I didn’t write soon. I don’t know what we will do in the next few days.

Love, Jack

Read the rest of the series here: 

Or read more by this author here: 

[mia-talks-toons]

(S1E5) Battle For Dream Island: The Power Of A Community

Today I'm doing something a little different, and delving into the world of indie cartoons! Instead of being aired on a big channel like Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, or even a streaming platform, Battle For Dream Island is a YouTube webseries! I’ve always had an admiration for people who find ways to do big projects like this without the support of a whole company behind them. The show was released way back in 2010, created by twin brothers Cary and Michael Huang when they were just 12 years old. It follows a cast of anthropomorphic objects competing against each other to win the titular “Dream Island”. Since its initial release, the show continued on for another 4 seasons, two of which are still going on RIGHT NOW, and they currently have an entire crew and production team to help make episodes!

While it’s an incredible success story, the reason I’m talking about BFDI isn’t because of the show itself, but the community it created. The show raked in tons of fans even when it was a small no-budget project, and it only grew as the show got bigger. Heck, I was a fan way back when the second season was coming out, back in 2013! Soon, other people got inspired by the show, and by the fact that it was made independently by two preteens, and made their own “Object Shows”, as the genre is called. Nowadays there are dozens of different shows in the category, such as Inanimate Insanity (the second object show to be created), ONE (A genre deconstruction of object shows), and Open Source Objects (a show in which every scene is animated by a different person, in their own style).

Even those who didn't go through the effort of making an entire show still made things inspired by the show. There are a lot of people (including me) who make fan art, original characters, write fanfiction and more! An especially interesting phenomenon is object “camps”, where someone will host a competition online, and other people in the object show community will join with their original characters as contestants. The host will set up a challenge, and each contestant will write their character completing said challenge. In fact, this is actually how I met my boyfriend! 

Which brings me to a personal point. The show and its community are important to me, personally. Like I said before, my boyfriend and I were both huge fans of BFDI, and we first interacted when he was hosting an object camp! He loved the way I wrote my character, and we bonded over the show. We became close friends, and a few years later, got even closer! On the non-romantic side of things, the object show community really inspired me to draw art consistently and create my own characters (even if they were just drawings of household objects with stick figure limbs), since I wanted to participate in all the fun I saw my community members having. I even tried to create my own object show (which I almost fully wrote out but never animated, but hey maybe I’ll revisit it someday)! Also, a group of my friends and I created our own little BFDI-inspired competition show multiverse called the Character Elimination Cinematic Universe. We all take characters from shows, movies, or games we enjoy and write them into our own big crossover stories, where they do fun challenges to win a prize! It’s a bit silly, but it’s a lot of fun too! Though I don’t watch Battle For Dream Island too much anymore, I cannot deny that it had a huge impact on me as a person, as it has for so many other people.

And that’s really all I have to say for this post! Honestly, I could ramble for way longer but I’m writing a blog post, not a 10-page essay! Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you in my next post (also please give me cartoons to cover I’m running out of ideas lol)

[simpingwriter]

Cameron Monaghan

x

Bailey Baumbach

___________________

'Method Acting

and

Intrusive Thoughts'

___________________

It being my Impulsive thoughts that led to this being written. Depending on how it gets taken by you, my precious audience, I might write more oneshots for them. But not a whole book, I don't have creative capacity to hold up two books at once-

Enjoy! :)

Word Count: approx. 3.630 Words

___________________

You were nothing but a middle tier – but rapidly growing – streamer and YouTuber when he was made aware of you via a clip from a fan that had watched your stream, tagging him on a Retweet after he jokingly wondered if there was just about any fucking talent left in his Generation – knowing very well that there was, enjoying the chaotic waves of people that had the joke fly higher over their head than an airplane.

In the Twitch Clip you were talking about your own "small" Video Project, and how – now that the last episode had come out – you wanted to try yourself with something bigger after the project was received very well by the YouTube Community, specifically the Analog Horror Community, but even by some horror movie critic Content Creators. Your series has incorporated the same style of an all-time classic under the Webseries genre, Marble Hornets, while back then also becoming the stepping stone of the modern ideas of the now newest, most hyped content trends on the site, like the Mandela Catalog or the Backrooms.

It was a well planned Q & A with something very special to you included at the end, your very first official video audition for movie studios to send to…

After all, you didn't have an agent like a real, established actor that helped you find your first opportunity. You had to do everything yourself.

The first thing Cameron absolutely fixated on with you, even before the Audition Video, was your uncanny talent for controlling your facial expressions, you could talk about the most gruesome things that inspired your series with a near constantly straight face – only deviating when reading chat and cracking a equally gorey joke, catching some first time viewers off guard – while boredly fiddling with a burned, ripped Bible. It was a original prop, a real Bible you bought on Ebay and "messed up" yourself to be used for the series, it turns out.

From the audio of a child crying that he was hungry and that nobody loved him to stomach twisting snuff, you went through the darkest corners the legal web could spit out to constantly stay at that right level of depravity only known to be done by humans, needed for not just writing the plot but also for staying in your very own character, who slowly was written to lose more and more of her sanity and humanity.

Method acting, he had noted, at her explanation of how she figured out her character's personality and her quirks. She started out as the victim and slowly the story turned the tables as her character began to act just as twisted, the events of her life, past and happening on camera, slowly turning her brain into 'Hot Fudge Brownie Batter', in Bailey's own words.

"Once, while practicing my lines during breakfast, obviously having to stay in character the whole time, I actually threw a bowl of perfectly well porridge against my newly painted walls…fucking hell, it was such a mess and i just...went about my day, leaving it lying on the ground..." and your Chat quickly went to ask basically 'Why the FUCK would you do THAT?!', mourning the bowl and the food she wasted as she chuckled before also chugging the burned prop somewhere to the side, a deep thump from the impact on the carpet of your floor.

"Why? Easy enough…Do any of you ever just…let your intrusive thoughts win, like taking said cereal bowl and instead of chugging it at the wall, you just throw it out the window full fuckin' force, perhaps hitting a pedestrian?! No, most, about 99%, of us fucking don't, a huge amount of people had or has these thoughts blip into their everyday thoughts once at least, sure, but most of the time they are absolutely the worst or at least most stupid shit our gray cells can produce! NOW…make all that into a character and you got half a Hannah already, near the end she's almost solely controlled by these abominable thoughts." 

The description of your Character made him check out your web series, wanting to see just how well you actually put those thoughts and ideas into action, already intrigued after your Video Audition. You were absolutely brilliant at portraying a mentally…unwell…character, and that put Hannah's Personality and general acts lightly. 

After that, he ended up watching your streams almost always after work or studying his lines for the next scenes for his own role. It was obvious that you didn't always talk about your career dreams, but it was brought up regularly while you played various games for almost hours sometimes. Even after your normal 8 hour shifts, sometimes even longer ones, you still managed to keep the chat entertained with your incredibly out-of-pocket comments – the clips of the best moments on your Youtube channel – for certain moments on stream.

He found out that way that you were a massive fucking nerd, not a nerd for Maths though, you say you're horrible at that. Horror Movies, anything with the Words 'Star Wars' and Horror Games. You couldn't stand scary shit, in reality, you had confessed multiple times by now, but it never stopped your morbid and natural curiosity. And absolutely a good chunk of all this was Masochistic, you hated and loved getting scared.

Then one day, a viewer of yours called him out. Cameron wasn't very well versed in Twitch, since he never really had time to get into watching streams, and just simply made an account with basically his name...nothing else. So when he once finally decided to make an incredibly humble donation of 300$, you know, the usual for a total normal, not even a simp, viewer that was probably between 13 and 25 years of age-

'Yo wtf, Cameron Monaghan??? Ian Gallagher???'

And you, the absolutely brightest crayon in the box, at first had brushed it off as either, a) just someone ALSO called Cameron or b) also, just like you, a fan of him and his small roles AND his role as Ian. After all, isn't he busy with the new Season of Shameless? Or maybe a Movie you don't know of yet? 

No normal person that busy would waste their time on Tw-

'I think someone shared your recent Q&A on Twitter and tagged him in a Retweet??' 

'Ya, was me.'

'Just a coinky dink trust me that's NOT the real Cam lol!'

'yeah...but what if…???'

'SUS MUCH…'

'Wait, I am getting major Inception vibes'

'Yeah wtf a celeb watching one of their fans…acting like a simp himself lol'

CamrMonaghan donated 10$:

'What the hell is a simp lol'

Yeah, this couldn't fucking be Cameron, you both are literally two years apart, you 18 and him 20, how can a Millennial NOT know what a Simp is in these times of the Internet. This is probably some poor itty bitty grandpa getting lost on some foreign App after their grandkid left their phone on the table to take a shit-

'BITCH LOOK AT HIS FUCKI TWITTER WTHA HELL??'

And you did.

Would you believe it, the same question but on Cameron Monaghan's Twitter…w-weird coinky dink indeed, JogaLungoFTW…

At that point you incredible hesitantly did something you always held yourself off from doing because you knew how weird it was to receive them from some fucking stranger. You tried sliding into his DMs.

You remembered all the times you thought about telling him privately that you were a huge fan of his current work in Shameless, Prom and – despite them being just one-off stunts, his roles in your favorite crime shows, The Mentalist and Law & Order. But unlike your Character, you didn't let your own regular not intrusive but instead impulsive thoughts win...not always at least, you yourself always felt absurdly uncomfortable at some fans with their walls of text of weird confessions. You really didn't want to stoop to their level of weirdness, your methods to get into Character sometimes already had gotten you to question your sanity more than once on their own alone.

So it all started very simple as you gave one last glance towards the Webcam on your main monitor and the chat before looking back down to your phone, beginning to type, only the classic typing sound of your Android heard.

Bailey: I don't want to sound weird, trust me I know the feeling, but…are you watching my Stream right now?

Not even a minute later...

Cameron: Yes :) Didn't think they would realize that soon tbh…

Bailey: The Chat has more keen eyes than us, unwritten streaming rule.

And you hit it off quite well after the short introduction, soon having switched from the unconventional and difficult way to write in the DMs of each other to an actual Messenger service – which took a while to find one, you using Android and him Apple.

But in all that time, you not once let it slip that you were such a big fan of his, hoping he didn't catch the one viewer's message in Chat those days before.

You wanted a friendship that didn't build on each other's work and success, knowing the risk of the other thinking they might be getting used for a career lift. Especially after he mentioned having seen your Video Audition. After that, you watched your words even better, trying to talk about your dream as few times as possible without it looking odd.

How hard it was to not squeal like your little past self getting the main role in theater class when he, Cameron Monaghan himself, told you on your very first actual Phone Call together how natural your type of acting was to him and that he really believed in you for hopefully getting cast for an actual show or movie in the near future.

Oh it was the hardest challenge by now, using every inch of self control you had in you.

And months passed. You had actually become really good friends with the ginger, to a point you Video called regularly and you made it your job to teach him how some internet things he somehow never learned worked, including getting him a Discord Profile and how Twitch actually fucking worked – for example, a more unique Username that didn't blow his cover the moment he was getting active in a chat. Everything had been going on like always even with his sudden addition to your small, very small, rooster of close friends. Unfortunately you never heard back from any of the studios you send your Audition to.

But it was nothing to lose hope over, he told you. And he should know best of course, as he is literally right in the middle of the acting business…

Until one day he made a completely new request.

"Hey, you think I can join you during your next stream?"

While it was odd at that point of time, he had been very much alright with staying a regular spectator in the chat, usually communicating with you via the messenger or Discord DMs, laughing at your growing and very entertaining misery of getting jumpscared or killed in the games you played, you agreed without a second thought needing to be wasted on it.

That Friday morning, it was a normal stream you planned, playing some chill Lego Star Wars instead of the next potential candidate for a heart attack, Cameron listening with the patience of an angel as you ranted and vented about probably your favorite fucking franchise. Especially about the various news getting leaked about 'The Force Awakens' , how excited and through the roof you were that the Story was finally getting continued, how you wished other older Star Wars Fans weren't literally gatekeeping Star Wars from fucking Star Wars itself…

And he just sat through everything, worrying you that he was probably bored beyond belief until he suddenly began asking his own question regarding the franchise with deep, serious interest. He was just listening to get a grasp on your overall opinion...

But then the door bell had rung, a stupid habit of your local mail service, forcing a very annoyed eye roll and sigh from you as it interrupted your by then very intense discussion about the Jedi and their views. Could've almost made that into a Star Wars Podcast, to be fair.

The useless advertising papers were thrown aside and onto your bed the moment you came back through your single room apartment's front door, kicking the door behind you back shut as you shuffled through the various other letters. Sitting back down, you just came to the last one, stopping quite confused at the address it came from. It wasn't a German Address…

"Is everything alright, Bailey?" You didn't hear the suspension in his question, like he knew what it might be as you silently yet very urgently ripped the suspicious letter open. The other letters and the now empty envelope had been haphazardly thrown behind you on the floor as you unfolded the small stack of papers.

It was from a studio, they received your audition and you had left a positive impression with your range of uniqueness and your talent for adapting in highly emotional scenes.

But it was a studio you never even wrote to. Because they seemed so far from your league – it can't even be called one, you're that low – that you didn't even dare thinking about sending it to them…mother fucking Warner Bros and DC Entertainment.

How…how had they gotten their hands on your lowly Video Audition?!

"I...I hope you like your gift?"

Your reaction wasn't the best at first, wide eyes snapping up to the camera he and everyone else watched you through, even the chat silent as they awaited your answer. You ended the stream abruptly, didn't answer the worried wave of questions on Twitter from your fans and viewers that had witnessed everything while Cameron desperately tried to get you to respond to his calls and even more worried texts, but with no result.

This had been exactly what you tried to avoid like the plague with this unlikely friendship! You never wanted this kind of help, it wasn't your own success…you would've never gotten this chance if you hadn't become friends with him, this felt so...wrong. 

Two weeks after that stream, you sat at your Desk, so close to finishing writing back to the one responsible for contacting future Talents at the Studio, that you unfortunately wouldn't be able to accept their offer due to..."personal reasons"…when once again your doorbell rang. But it was the middle of the night.

Being as always again the brightest crayon in the box, you went to press the button to open the front door two floors down, equipped with your painted aluminum bat – also a past, and well beloved prop from your web series – as you cautiously opened the door when you heard them knock against your own actual front door.

Who it was…you would've never expected in a million years.

"C-cameron...?" And you nearly passed out, only his quick reaction stopping you from hitting your head against the hard wooden door frame before he helped you back inside, holding you by your shoulders. No matter how close you got as friends via chat or phone calls by now…seeing your literal celeb crush – that felt like so much more once you got to know him – in your shabby apartment's hallway???

"Careful, can't have you falling for me a second time, can we now?"

Turns out he did know about your at first innocent crush all along, which was only kept at bay due to you knowing from terrifying personal experiences how toxic parasocial thoughts can become if you're not careful with how you interact with fans, two actually psychotic stalkers later very stern about that subject with your own fans.

But Cam and you knew each other more than that now…he was no longer just an unreachable Celebrity on a screen. So with that line crossed by both of you, your crush grew to more as well, something you made 100% sure to hide from everyone that knew you, personally and not. 

"Why…why are you here?! Don't you have to shoot more scenes for Shameless?" You had asked, initial shock keeping your questions surprisingly grounded as your heart began to hammer against your chest…he was sitting directly next to you…on your squeaky old bed! 

And he answered with a small frown, "I was way too worried for you to concentrate on them, even the director and Noel noticed…you became such a staple to my breaks – if i couldn't watch at least a recap of what i missed with my usual sandwich, i would've been grumpy all day – evenings and sleepless nights, not hearing your voice complain about your boring day job at this warehouse, your horrible grandmother…I needed to know that you're alright.". Something that caused you to almost shut down fully then…he worried so badly for you that he couldn't sleep right. You fucking made your friend worry with your stupid, egoistic behavior, you really did everything wrong.

You really ruin everything, just like she always tells you…

"I'm sorry, Cam. I just, I…I never wanted to start my career this way, by the help of someone else. What…what would others think if they–" "You're already an actor, you're not just a "content creator", as they call it, you should know yourself that you only really lost once you let their criticism get into your head and poison your thoughts. Don't let such a once in a life time opportunity get ruined because of what potentially could get said."

And he was right...painfully right. You couldn't let them win before they even started. Before you were able to get started. You didn't show your full potential yet, so why should they all try to bash your head in...

*

You apologized profusely him that night, for your incredible stubbornness and stupidity, for him ending up all they way in some stupid suburb of Munich just because you refused to act your fucking age for at least once in your life.

That he ended up with someone as useless like you as a sad excuse of a frien-

Your list of apologies were cut very short that night, the unfinished email forgotten on your desktop as it went into sleep mode and he shut you up with his lips on yours.

"Fuck, don't friendzone me again, please, Bailey…"

The night went past you like a blur, you only remembered the articles of clothes that suddenly began reducing themselves onto your beige carpet floor – joining other objects you threw onto it over the course of the day – hasty and needy hands grabbing, scratching and latching onto pale skin, thin layers of sweat on you and obscene noises – much louder than allowed in Germany after 10PM – in the entire apartment, a sure guarantee to wake some people up.

It had built up in both of you with every chat you shared, every call he or you initiated and especially the video calls he always wanted so badly. He said he really liked watching your expressions change, sometimes abruptly and sometimes so subtly and smooth when you were truly passionate about a subject…you could've caught onto him so much sooner if had just once watched HIM closer, how his own expressions changed. You were good at reading them, ever since you were a child, but it set out entirely with him.

Because of that you never had, too concentrated and busy with hiding your own infatuation at those times. Keeping yourself from falling asleep to his warm, calming voice when the timezones ended up with you calling him in the middle of the night while he just got back from his lunch break and he had finished a clip from your latest stream, dying to ask questions…

After that…very special night…it didn't take long for him to convince you to take probably the biggest step in your life yet.

Moving to America, permanently.

He had told you about everything, there would be no stones left in your path by the time you're really ready after he talked to the Studio and his own Agents. They would even be ready to sponsor your Green Card application if you really had been ready to accept their offer, one you didn't know for what show or movie it was until you had stood on the set with your script. Thankfully Warner Bros. doesn't produce Porn...

"They could with you as their model– owww, dammit Bailey…" he had mumbled with a cheeky grin next to you on the plane – cursing and whining out under his breath as you lightly smacked him upside the head for the comment – having come back down to Germany just to help with your few things once the date was set in stone, just two months later. The application had been sent already a day after he convinced you, helping you to pull through with it.

"Did you tell your parents by the way?" Oops.

At least you finally gave your grandmother a real good reason to despise you. But your mum didn't deserve your sudden decisions…so you had called her as soon as you reached New York's airport. And boy did she yell your ear off – you could almost call yourself Van Gogh – but not without telling you over and over again to please be careful with whatever your plans were, you were an adult with her own mind and thoughts, but she would never stop worrying for you. In the end, she always wanted the best for you and in her eyes that was you following your dreams. She had started to support you and your web series dreams when no one else in your family had your back – they didn't budge even when the first views brought in the real good bread – she said she would now as well. 

She believed in you and was happy for your incredible opportunity, that had been the main points she tried to bring across in her motherly almost 10 minute long rant.

"I need…to meet her…someday, she sounds really nice..." Cameron had only left for a breathless response when he heard you finally finish your call, coming to help him as he fought with the luggage cases you two had to drag all the way from Germany to the US. The important and much bigger stuff was getting collected together by a full-service international moving company, the time it took to ship them to the LA Address Cameron provided you with while placing the "order", so you would be separated from your Main Computer and Desktop.

But you still had your Gaming Laptop, constantly with you with the rest of your stuff in your scary big backpack, keeping yourself mobile even in the first weeks or so.

On your way to his own currently rented apartment, something he sheepishly told you mid-flight – that he forgot to talk to the Housing Agents like planned and gave you his own main Address for the Moving Company – he grew more anxious with every silent minute that passed. While you weren't a fan of now also having to occupy his own home after he already got you this job opportunity and everything else, you wanted to freak out on the inside, most preferably have a secluded, isolated five minute temper tantrum on the plane's toilet stall, but he gave you the window seat, boxing you in...

You would be living under the same roof as the Cameron Monaghan! The dream of any fan…but you had to play it cool. You two are not strangers, you have been friends for months now! This is not just a celebrity and a stupid fan that somehow found themselves in this situation, it's two friends that…kinda have been pining for each other without the other knowing and ended up fucking bare back for three whole hours from their equally high frustration.

Not really just friends anymore, right? This was slowly becoming much more and neither of you knew how or wanted to stop that development of your relationship. Something made obvious when you both fell asleep and woke up, somehow, on his lap, snuggling into his chest and him about to start drooling onto your head, only bothered by a flight attendant when she woke you two up, since the plane was about to land.

Now you're in the present, two months later…

"Cammmm, sooner or later your phone is going to fall off the dinning table! They don't seem to be giving up, just take the call!" You shout upstairs, cupping your hands around your mouth to try and be louder so he couldn't say he didn't hear you again. A few moments later the ginger popped his head over the railing, leaning onto it with his arms. He was sweaty all over from his workout routine, a sight to behold and it took all the willpower a girl your minuscule size could conjure up to not beg him to fuck you silly right where you stood, so the bottom of the stairs.

"I don't wanna talk to that asshole, I already told him what I thought about their stupid idea, I wouldn’t even watch that in the theater." His – and now your – agent was currently trying to talk Cameron into a new movie deal, filming planned for next year, but from the things he told you, it apparently had so many requests that were against his – not even that outrageous – morals as an actor that he immediately refused when he first heard of it, not doing it unless the writers changed at least some of the details that deterred him. And of course the writers of the script were not exactly happy to hear that, which you sorta understand from their perspective. 

Writing a good, smooth script that didn't sound like it could be used as toilet paper when it was tried to be brought to camera was hard enough…but having to possibly rewrite the whole thing because changing multiple scenes would fuck over the whole flow and plot? You went through that with your web series' script TWICE because of YouTube's disgusting Demonetization Kink and your Patreon had not yet given the needed monthly revenue to depend on that alone.

"Can you at least throw me my headphones from the Bedroom? I need to tone that shit out while cooking or we got a pasta-disaster at hand…" He quickly nods, disappearing for a minute before returning and letting your mint green headphones drop over the railing and into your waiting hands. "Thanks! And don't overdo yourself again today, please. Last time was bad enough."

Two weeks ago Cam for whatever reason didn't feel tired as quickly as usual and kept going and suddenly for much longer, from his memory, exhaustion caught up with him in not even a minute and he just barely got caught by you as you heard his shout when he collapsed. 

"I won't, I promise. Just half an hour anymore anyways, then I'll take a quick shower and help with cooking!" 

'I'm long done with cooking when you finally get out of the shower, you joker…literally.'

If anything, you would probably be quick enough to still jump under the shower along with him…and then get to help with washing his sore, fit body, hmmmm~

Fuck, what exactly did you do to deserve this amazing life? You were nothing special and yet…you're probably one of the few people that actually had all their wildest dreams fulfilled.

An actual, official acting career, your first role under one of the most famous studios there is and in a big budget show at that.

A beautiful and caring roommate that turned more and more into your boyfriend with every kiss, sensual touch and of course sharing a bed, never ending without one on top of the other…

A nice house shared with said "roommate"

Money far beyond your average-Joe needs, just for SIGNING the contract for the first season…

Now you just had to find some local friends to hang out with, your others all scattered across the globe, most of them left back in Germany.

Well, two of them did live in the States…you should ask if they want to meet up, for the very first time too. You had always talked about it, but never had the time, especially since you were busy with your series so you had to stay in Germany for filming everything.

When you had them as well, knowing you wouldn't be almost alone in this country, next to Cam and his own friends that would hopefully eventually become yours as well, everything would REALLY have become perfect…

___________________

* (because that's how the internet works with people in the entertainment trade, despite them being nothing but people as well...)

[luminanceofficial]

(UPDATE)

hey guys!

so.... yeah. um. you may have noticed that luminance, indeed, did not begin at the end of may. or the beginning of june. or july.

so let's talk about it! :')

for the most part, it's that both personal life and personal projects really got the best of me and everyone else. for that, i completely apologize. i never, at any point, wanted to leave you guys hanging, and i really don't want to leave any of you with the impression that this thing will never get posted.

that said, luminance is, in all seriousness, a passion project that was started all in good fun. it's a goofy little webseries with a super small following! so if we have to push back our initial publishing date, we will. we want this to be fun-- an escape from work and school, rather than another priority to add on to all of it.

i also underestimated the switch from a classic tv script to a novel-esc format-- i'd been spending quite some time writing the characters into scripts, so i found the transition to be a little awkward, and i ended up having to make a few plot changes to accommodate. i was essentially challenged with adapting something i'd already written. and none of the changes are major-- all of the characters still remain mostly the same throughout their core values, personalities, dynamics, etc-- but it's just enough to where i must warn you that the blog may change a little! this could be updates on the pinned synopsis post, the deletion/alteration of the character profiles, or anything else that applies to the overall plot/any minor details that were mentioned.

now that all of that is out of the way... i can update you on uploading! we're aiming for mid-august-ish, although that may be pushed back further. regardless, we'll keep you posted over here and let you know if anything regarding our previous posts or our first official upload changes. we expect scheduling, once that happens, to remain as it was listed in our first announcement post. :)

again, we are SO sorry. thanks for sticking with us. <3

IMPORTANT!

hey yall! writer here. can i talk with you one on one? bro to bro? dude to guy?

here's The Thing. we've been pretty explicit that luminance is a work-in-progress when it comes to the series itself, so we wouldn't have any Official Content out for a While. a lot of factors play into that-- we're still in the process of finalizing season one's scripts, some of us are still in school, we don't really have the means to hire a group of animators OR a team to film this, edit this, it's literally a superhero show, for fuck's sake, this shit would be HARD to film without assistance from a proper studio. HOWEVER. we really do want to tell the story of these characters, and we'd hate to keep you waiting.

here's where i come in! i've been spending time with luminance as a story and writing these characters for a LONG time, and when i was first getting started with it, i was going to turn luminance into a book trilogy. so, we can't really make this thing a show at the moment, and the initial plan was a book series... do you see where i'm going with this at all? :')

let me clarify: the plan as-is is chapter-by-chapter biweekly or once-monthly updates, posted here for free in narrative form. we may even share some snippets of the scripts we've got for certain scenes along the way!

and don't get me wrong-- the show is our end goal, and we'll do everything we can do to make sure it happens eventually, but right now, this is both smarter and better suited to what we've got going.

all of this to say, the first chapter will be up anytime between now and the end of this month! once we find our footing with scheduling, updates will become consistent. we're so so so so SO excited for you to see what's in store.

see you soon! <3

[littlemissmitsukihorenake]

Hey guys, it's Mitsuki! Here for another theory but no less weary~

This time, I'm gonna talk about the symbolic meaning behind a scene that I am 100% sure had no symbolic meaning at the time of creation. Which is fine, cause it's also one of the most GIFed moments from the series~

The one where Damien takes our body and runs after William. To kill him? Or to talk to him? I dunno why he ran after him. But that's not the point of this theory.

Before this scene, we talk to Damien and Celine in the black space, and he exclaims that he (meaning Mark) has taken everything from us. In that scene, he's definitely talking about him and Celine, due to both of them being dead and all.

But what if it's not just them?

What if Mark took something from us as well?

And by us, I mean US us, not the us that Damien takes over in the end.

Well, obviously Mark can't take our lives like he supposedly did the others. For one thing, we're in a different dimension from the rest of the cast. We could technically leave whenever we want by shutting off the video. He can't do anything to us.

But he did take something from us. From all of us.

He took Darkiplier himself.

That's a weird statement to proclaim, but in order to explain what I mean, let's compare their relationship to how Jacksepticeye works around his evil counterpart, Antisepticeye. Unlike Mark, Jack keeps Anti rather ambiguous. He doesn't establish a character, he doesn't establish lore, he's only really relegated as a cameo character left to make the fans go nuts on Tumblr while his editor gets to have a few more hours of editing without having to upload another video that day (don't say that I'm wrong, Jack, I know shortcuts).

Now look at Mark and Dark. We the fans made Darkiplier the same way we made Antisepticeye, but Mark decided to use him in the same series manner as Jack did, he instead went in the total opposite direction. His first appearance was in a miniseries instead of glimpses off the facecam, where he has a very established character and personality.

Mark later hosted a live stream where he explains Darkiplier as a character and establishes a set personality that he envisions him to have. Most align with what the fans had, but some of it stray away from our interpretation. I think he said that because of all the stuff fans did that made Dark a tragic character instead of a manipulator or something. I'm not sure what exactly he contrasted, I'm not that deep into the fandom.

But this? This whole thing? This whole series? It gave Darkiplier something extremely concrete and unchangeable: a canon backstory. A backstory for a character that we the fans have made first and probably haven't written any specific history about. Not only that, but Dark was given a canon name, a canon explanation for his appearance, and even canon relationships. Since when did the fans make anything of this reach for this character?

This is Mark reclaiming a character for himself. A character made for him that he now fully embraces.

It's fitting that we were the one who ends up being the host body for Darkiplier. We were the one who made him, shaped him into a image that we all wanted.

In this scene, Mark has firmly established Darkiplier as his creation. Mark now has full canon, creative control over him.

And us? The ones who first made him?

Well, we have now been regulated to the ordinary viewer, who can only sit back and watch what our creation will do without our pens and keyboards writing his actions.

He has finally, truly become unpredictable.

[itsclydebitches]

Its funny but...

Y'all keep calling us the "Anti-rwde" or whatever, talking about how we "outnumber you?"

Look, fact of the matter is, we just want to enjoy a fun and cool show without somebody pouring over the show looking for a speck of dirt to complain about at every opportunity.

That's not saying anything about the various rwby fans you harass.

Whenever we say "Let us enjoy RWBY!" Your response is basically claiming that you feel that we don't let you rant about how much you hate it.

And no, seriously. I have YET to see a positivity post...unless it was about attacking others for it.

If you don't like RWBY's writing? MOVE ON. Can't you see that your obsession with trying to find something wrong with a show people enjoy is hurting others?

Anon, it's very clear that no, you don't just want to enjoy RWBY because you came here and took the time to write an insulting rant in my inbox. From day one RWDE has been a very small corner of the fandom that can be easily circumvented by using the block tool. You could have the entirety of RWBY criticism off your dash and searches with a couple of clicks. The RWBY reddit succeeded in making a separate forum for anything deemed remotely negative years ago. And though I can't speak for Twitter or Youtube, the same basic premise of cultivating your own social media experience applies.

I don't harass anyone, either fan or creator.

I've never claimed that fans can't enjoy RWBY, or taken steps to try and prevent that. I still enjoy a lot of what RWBY has to offer.

"I have YET to see a positivity post... unless it was about attacking others for it" - really? Than you obviously didn't look very hard considering the fandom is filled with positivity, just like any other.

No, oddly enough me writing personal posts on a personal blog that people only read if they want to isn't hurting anyone. Stop trying to frame a webseries opinion you don't agree with as a dangerous, moral failing. What I choose to write about has no bearing on what you do with your free time. You want to enjoy a cool show? Go do that. Literally no one is stopping you! The obsession here is not a fan discussing the pitfalls and future hopes for a show she's invested in, but those like you who see something you don't like on a public website and, instead of doing the mature thing of passing it by, send anonymous hate that tries to dictate how a total stranger should engage with a show. There are only two options here. Either you're honestly incapable of seeing how fucked up that is, in which case you should not be on a site like tumblr that houses a very wide variety of content and opinions... or you simply enjoy leaving vitriol and feeling superior about it far more than you enjoy engaging with the RWBY content that actually brings you joy.

Based on my 6+ years in the fandom, I'm banking on the latter.

[goofyhoffy]

Chapter 1

Fanfiction : My First Kiss 'just a kiss'

Genre : best friend to enemies to lovers! Roommates au! Classmates au! Romcom.

Pairings : Taehyung × reader

Series: a drabble fanfiction of 3 sets.

Word count : 2.9 k

Summary : you shifted to a new city for your best friend Taehyung. He's your bestie since birth. You admitted to his school where you find life difficult. Taehyung being a fuckboi and you being is bestie he shares everything with you even his sex life and moves. But your character is far more different from him. You always looked for your comfort person. You dreamt of spending time with your future partners. Summary : you shifted to a new city for your best friend Taehyung. He's your bestie since birth. You admitted to his school where you find life difficult. Taehyung being a fuckboi and you being is bestie he shares everything with you even his sex life and moves. But your character is far more different from him. You always looked for your comfort person. You dreamt of spending time with your future partners. Even you're in high school you haven't kissed anyone as you want to secure your first kiss for your special one. What happened when Taehyung seized the chance from you of your first romantic kiss! you're in high school you haven't kissed anyone as you want to secure your first kiss for your special one. What happened when Taehyung seized the chance from you of your first romantic kiss!

Warnings : fuckboi, bestie bad words, private talks, best friend sharing sex life, abusing, angst, misunderstanding, bullying, kissing, smut, fluff, explicit, student life, dirty talks, wet dreams, hitting on, making out, Dom,sub, yandere.

Author note: here you go again, I loves writing this fic as it's have Loads of dirty talks we shared with our bestie, so just enjoy and read. Tell me your opinions then.

Chapter 2 ∆ CHAPTER 3

MASTERLIST

(๑♡⌓♡๑) (๑♡⌓♡๑) (๑♡⌓♡๑) (๑♡⌓♡๑)

Sitting on your couch you were unfolding the clothes you took from home last weekends. The purple frill short dress of your sister is now yours as she already left for her higher studies at aboard. You were  happy but missing your family a bit more these days cause you were new in this high school where only friends of yours is Taehyung. The dumb. Your bestie since ages.

Yesterday, you came back from your hometown Daegu to Seoul for the studies. Or you can say to help your best friend Tae in his studies. As his mother forced you to stay with Tae in Seoul because of his poor academic performance. You're not so happy staying in Seoul leaving your family far miles away. But only for your bestie you were there. The last high school year you were gonna spent with Taehyung. You haven't met him since so long but he was the only one you keep on texting, calling every day when you both live far away from each other.

Here the academic things are quite different. Taehyung was helping you in all of that. He was so happy that you were accompanying him there. Living with eachother was both of your childhood dreams and now it's fulfilling. You and him live in his two storey building. You were on the ground floor and he was on the top. You were stressed but happy that Tae was still the same here. Nothing between you two have changed. He still baby care you like he used to during middle school. You were on the random thoughts of memories.

Suddenly someone patted from the back and you looked "Tae how are you?" He hugged you.

"You already home? I missed you." Tae replied.

"Yes, I'm. Unfortunately only for you here. By the way where were you?" You asked.

"Umm... Just Making out!" Taehyung sighed

"You're life is cool. Making out with Seulgi your girlfriend as much as you want." You smirked.

"Wait, no. I'm not making out with her. Apart from that also Seulgi is just my contract girlfriend. We have nothing like that stuff. We didn't even kiss. Soon our contract being a couple will end. Understood!" He scoffs

"I know. Then whom did you make out with?" You asked.

"Umm... Uhh.. actually I don't her name. But she's also new student in our school like you. But she's junior. But  tomorrow I will ask her name!" Tae frowned .

"You're such a dick. Didn't even know her name. Only God can save you." You eyed.

"I'm an angel. Huh. She's the one kissed me first. I just kissed back. But her plump red lips taste like watermelon. God I want to kiss her again." Tae excitedly said.

"Stop. Maybe she use watermelon taste Chapstick. You never know." You chuckled.

"Whatever she uses is delicious. But she bite me in my lower lips so hard. It got redness and swell so much. See." He point out his lips to you.

"Aha! My poor baby got hurt. Use my lip serum or else it will get lump, you stupid." You handed over him your lip serum.

"Don't call me your baby tomorrow at school please. I'm the most popular here. Only your baby bestie at home." Tae smiled.

"Well, I got something to tease you. Baby bestie." You giggled.

"Stop now." Tae frowned.

You chuckled and put the clothes on your shelfs. And arrange your study desk. While you're doing all this Taehyung was sitting there and looking at you all the way. He was looking at your long dark hairs, pale fingers, thin postures and your beautiful small face. After completely setting up all the necessary changes you sit at the couch.

"You have changed a lot. Huh!" Tae asked.

"Me? Why!" You eyed him.

"I mean.. nothing. It's just when I saw you two years ago at our hometown you're so different. Now, everything about you changed. You're not my lil baby bestie anymore." Tae sighed.

"Shut up. I'm still your baby bestie for ages. Might be I'm little more glowing here. You know good looks matters." You smirked.

"Yeah, good looks. You got so much prettier. Now you have curves and boobs-" you cut him off.

"Of course. Got so much wiser too. I'm not 16 anymore. I'm a 18 year old girl with beauty." You said proudly.

"Leave that. You have packed your bag for tomorrow school?" He asked

"Yeah. Pretty much. You've plan for tonight?" You pinned.

"Umm... Yeah. If you're asking me to stay then I can actually. What's your plan? You probably should sleep!" Tae said.

"No, I'm just gonna watch something. You're good to go but remember your mother send me here to look after you. So, don't be late or either I will call Mrs. Kim aunt." You glanced.

"Okay, okay. Don't be so demanding. I'll be back at midnight after clubbing. You can do whatever you want in this home. With whoever you want-"

"Wait. What?"

"Sorry, my mistake. You're single. No one is there to do any fun with you. Poor _____, you can probably drink milk and sleep." Tae laughed so hard.

"You! Fucking Kid. I'll kill you.  Stop." I screamed.

"Catch me if you can. Meet you at the morning. Byee." Taehyung said as he gone for clubbing.

You're sitting there getting bored so you watched some shows. Watching webseries is a whole mood. Romantic movies and your imagination for your loves one just increases. You were still searching for that special one who can get you butterflies in your stomach. The show was on climax where the protagonist gonna kiss his lady love. But suddenly you heard someone open the living room's door.

"You're watching porn?" Someone screamed after slamming the door. You can't see cause it's dark in the room and only the television screen light makes the person slightly visible. But you recognized the voice. It's Taehyung.

"What the fuck! You scared me asshole." You screamed.

"What's are you watching, is it porn? I haven't expected that from you."  Taehyung sighed.

"Shut up, you ruined my moment. They're gonna share their first kiss. You know how much first kiss mean actually?" You gritted.

"First kiss! Lol! Is there something you should highlight like first kiss?" Taehyung eyed annoyingly.

"Yess! Fucking yes! You don't know how much first kiss mean for everyone. Most importantly for me. I want to share my kiss to my favourite, trustworthy and love of life. I have huge dreams for my first kiss." You explained.

"Ugh! I never thought about like this. My first kiss was... Um.. uh.. I don't even remember who it was! And you're still dreaming for your first kiss?" Taehyung rolled his eyes.

"Is dreaming is prohibited here? If no then shut up. I live in hope and imagination. One day, at the sunset into the sea shore, me and my love gonna share ourselves." You smiled.

"Ew. It's so cringe,______. Your lips gonna die virgin. You get it." Taehyung arrogantly said.

"What's so ever. But you're so early at home? Any special reason or were you missing me?" You asked giggling.

"Ah! That girl. She's the worst. I mean she runied my whole mood. She didn't even know how to moan." Taehyung sighed.

"I see. You were making out again and she wasn't good at it.?" You asked.

"No,she was good but she didn't moaning my name. That's the thing. Moaning is important." Taehyung said.

"Why? You want to hear her screams? Ew." You chuckled.

"It's the best thing. The pleasure in hearing your name when you're getting pleasure is insane. But she's just so silent. That's so important. That motivates me to go hard you know." Taehyung gritted.

"Well, you're just overreacting and nothing. How even moaning matters if anyone is good.!" You yawned.

"Huh. You will not get it. You still are a huge Virgin. Moreover your lips are too virgin. You have such a sad life,_____" Taehyung chuckled.

"I'm not like you. The one who got my lips will be special. Huh." You exclaimed.

A deep silence between two of you turned. Taehyung gazed on your orange plump lips with his pointed eyes. And then he smirked.

"How your lips will taste?" Taehyung smirked.

"Umm.. stop your flirting skills at me. You dickhead." You growned.

"Just kidding. I know it will taste like your peach Chapstick. I used it infinity of times. So I don't need to know." Taehyung chuckled.

"Now, go upstairs and sleep. Tomorrow it's my first day of school. I don't know how the kids gonna treat me there. I'm worried." You sighed.

"Don't worry, I always got your back,____" he pinched your cheeks.

"Thanks for always. Good night, bye. Sleep well, baby Kook." You wished him and went to your bedroom and slept.

Walking down the streets for the school. You looked at Tae , he was playfully kicking the rock across the road and he seems really happy. But on the side, you're super nervous for your first day of school. The hands keeps getting wet of sweat. You again remembered if you have take all your books and stationary in place. You dressed well and you look great as a high school kid. You keep on calculating things you need to tell others to befriend with them. And finally with handful of step counting you arrived on the front gate of your new school. It was huge, big then your previous school. Paintings, article and quotes all over the wall. The names of the top grade student at the board. You were excited to go inside and explore more but your nervousness can be seen.

"____,you look so nervous. Don't worry. I'm here. Student are quite friendly. You gonna love this place. Trust me." Taehyung smiled.

"Y-yeah. I have to love this place." You confidently answered and both of you entered the building.

With entering Tae just left you and went to a group of boys. You decide to find your class on your own and explore the school. The walls were coloured in yellow and purple. Neat and cleanliness all over. You look for the twelve C class at the school map and make your way there. Student are quite disciplined there, sitting at their places and making zero chaos. Looking at all the classroom you finally find yours. Not many student are there. Only some girls sitting at the last benches goosiping about something. You find a known face out of them. It's of Seulgi, Taehyung's girlfriend. He have quite a many times send you her photos. But in reality, she looks more hot and gorgeous. With out interacting with anyone you straight up choose a bench and sit. Few minutes after, the empty classroom get filled with student. You saw Tae with his group of boys. Laughing and kidding with each other. A chaos shifted when they entered. But at your surprise, Tae even didn't look at your face or talked to you. He completely ignored you. But then the teacher walks into and everyone settles to their place.

"Good morning kiddos. I think you probably have seen our new student,____. Introduce yourself to the class,____." Teacher asked me.

"Hey, I'm _____ from Daegu. Your new highschool classmate. Please treat me well." You introduced.

Everyone just rolled their eyes, pretending like they didn't even care about me. No one even came up to you to befriend. The class was horrible basically the kids there. But Tae's behaviour is the most shocking, he didn't even asked or introduce any of his friends to you. You felt really guilty to be there only for Tae. The teacher was kind to gave you enough attention and praising. You answered well in the class as no one other than you was interested in the class. For the first few classes you didn't speak to anyone but at last you thought of talking to Tae.

During the lunch time,you went up to the last few benches which were covered with boys. There your bestie was also present. You walked to him, but all the boys were looking at you. They were making laughing faces or most probably mocking you for talking to Tae.

"Tae, you want to have lunch with me?" You asked him.

He felt a little uncomfortable while speaking to you. "umm.. actually I don't really eat with anyone. We boys gonna eat together. Go help yourself." He rolled his eyes.

You just can't processed what he said. You still were blank. You thought of yourself what he mean by not eat with anyone. He was your fucking bestie and why he was pretending that he don't know you. You felt regretted asking him and walked out of there.

"Another gold digger, Taehyung. Don't let the girl trap you."

"I don't know that she also will be like everyone."

"Taehyung, she's hitting on you. Your pretty face always traps everyone gaze."

"This little nerd also have a taste to ask the most popular guy like Taehyung for lunch. Huh."

Everyone started to speak trash about you. You were just hearing everything carefully. Trying hard not to cry or fall a tear. Tae is literally standing there and hearing all that shit about you and not letting them stop. He just hummed with everyone. You were keep on cussing your self for thinking about anyone betterment. Those tear can't hold but fall from your eyes. You let out a sigh and ignored all of that and ate your lunch.

You were so distrubed that you decide to take a break from the classes and sit on library. You started to read a book comfortably.

"Taehyung, What's I'm hearing? The new nerd is hitting on you?" Seulgi asked

"Ya. You know, perks of being the most popular kid." Taehyung smirked

"Basically I came up to you, cause I just want to tell you that our contract of being a couple is gonna end." Seulgi said.

"Thank god. At last you get the boy you were looking for? Then let's post that officially. Taehyung and Seulgi broke up." Taehyung excitedly said.

"But before that you have to do one thing. That boy whom I'll be dating should know that we broke up because you cheated on me. Okay?" Seulgi said.

"I cheated, why? Then how would we show that I cheated? Any plan." Taehyung sighed.

"Kiss the new girl,____" Seulgi smirked.

"What? No way. She's my bes-" Taehyung stopped mid way.

"She's hitting on you. Then if you kiss her, then probably she also get happy. And you're for sure a fuckboi. So go for it." Seulgi said.

"It's enough. I'm not going to kiss anyone. Shut up." Taehyung arrogantly said.

"Well, then I think I should reveal your secret to everyone. Huh? Do you want it?" Seulgi rolled her eyes.

"But it's totally wrong. I ca-" Tae frowned

"You have to. Or else your secret will be no longer a secret." Seulgi giggled devilishly.

"Umm.. uh.. Fine. I will." Taehyung sighed.

He thought about you so much. He even know that you have high expectations for your first kiss. He knows you haven't kissed anyone. That's you're pure. But he realized that after all you were his bestie. The one you trust the most. The one you love the most. Starting from the birth you were with each other. He realized that you were gonna accept his mistake to take away your first kiss.

Reading your favourite novel of all time. You feel someone call you from behind. You take a look at the back and see it was Tae. You make a annoyance face at him cause he was acting like he don't know you.

"Hey." Tae underconfidently said.

"What?" You growned.

"Umm.. can you lend me something?" Taehyung said and looks at Seulgi and her group who was watching you both.

"Why are you acting so weird today? Don't you know me?" You asked.

"I said can you lend me something?" Tae arrogantly bunched the table Infront of you. It's like he desperately need you.

"Ya!" You screamed.

He walks closer enough to close his dark eyes. He softly breathed across your soft cheeks. You hitched and took a back from the chair. But he pinned you with hand on your arms. You were just going to tell him to stop. But he quietly plant a kiss on your smooth peach lips. For some seconds the moment was out of control, you can feel his plump red juicy lips of your. He again pushed you further to kiss back. Without your knowledge, you can't resist his lips and kissed him back. His soft delicate tongue hit your teeth, you just asked him to enter all along your mouth. The kiss you first shared with your own bestie. But as you gather the knowledge of what's happening, you just pushed Tae so hard with all your strength. He hit across the wall. The moment was shabby, you never thought something like this you have to face in your entire lifetime.

The anger of your first kiss going away, gives you severe pain. That pain turns to anger. You got panic how your own best friend can do this to you. You realized he's isn't trustworthy anymore. He was the same men like everyone who just want to get into your pants. You shuttered to even remind the memory. You looked at Tae with your anger and panic face, he was looking dumfounded.

You walks up to him and straight up slap him in his golden cheeks.

[cthulhubert]

What have you already read and what sort of books do you like?

I just read most of the novels by Greg Egan, and liked most of them. They're mostly really deep speculative sci-fi and not very long. Quarantine remains a favorite, but also Incandescence and Schild's Ladder and the Clockwork Rocket trilogy.

Most books by Alastair Reynolds are decent Sci-fi, usually on the hard-but-not-super-hard end.

For something a little more wrenching you could read anything by Octavia E Butler, I think Dawn is one of her most famous (first book of the Xenogenesis or Lilith's Brood series).

Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan is good cyberpunk by way of detective noir but I don't care for the sequels half as much.

Since I'm thinking of Cyberpunk now I want to recommend William Gibson, but instead of Neuromancer (and the Sprawl trilogy) which basically created the genre, I liked the Bridge Trilogy more (it starts with Virtual Light).

But my favorite cyberpunks are probably Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams and This Alien Shore by Celia S Friedman (you could make a solid argument that this is outside of cyberpunk but I will simply disagree with you).

Most of the Discworld books are worth your time (Weird Sisters; Guards, Guards; and Small Gods would be my favorite places to start).

Some of my top rated works of narrative fiction are actually completed webserials. Worm by Wildbow (super heroes but if living in a world with constant fighting and calamities caused as much havoc and PTSD as it should) and Worth the Candle by Alexander Wales (weird self-aware Isekai with an epilogue that I hate but), google and you can find and read them.

The Baru Cormorant series by Seth Dickinson is quite gripping, with some heavy subject matter. I have a bit of a bug up my butt about secondary world fiction with no magic (what's the damned point), but I devoured the three books that are out anyways (honestly the third book feels like it stops at a good place but he's apparently writing a fourth one).

One of my big weaknesses, especially lately, is cultivation fantasy stuff (isekai or not). Unfortunately, a lot of these tend to not be picked up by my local library, and are only available as e-books from Amazon, but they also tend to not be expensive. one of my favorites of those is the Cradle series by Will Wright which just recently completed. I also enjoyed the Weirkey Chronicles by Sarah Lin, which really stands out in my memory for having world building, characters, and plot elements I really love paired with incredibly bland prose (though it gets better).

That's off the top of my head, sorry I only wrote down the hook for a few of them.

hiii book-reading mutuals please recommend books i’ll do anything

[anatthema-art]

well, okay, at least finding your channel meant I found some cool animations. still, I barely understood any of them.

i. HAHDJIAHSJS god i am. i did not expect a post of me talking about tumblr men taxonomy to inspire anyone to look at my youtube channel but i’m glad you enjoyed the incomprehensible monstrosity that it is regardless. genuinely thank you! it means a loy

for uhhh…??? context because APPARENTLY i have some sort of observer audience now, i will leave that under the cut for anyone curious about fandom history of a stupidly insular community

i was/am a fan of a niche webseries/podcast thing called discord murder party (DMP), which has now ended after 4 years. most of what’s on my channel spawns from the incomprehensibility of a single discord server size fandom making memes and in jokes which cannibalized itself, and as you can probably see if you look at my upload list, most of them revolve around dreamland, which is the animatic to the song by the swingrowers, i made last year around 3/4 of the length into DMP.

now, dreamland became a huge meme within this extremely niche webseries community to the point where the joke (mainly being based around my personal hell of the animatic being something i tried to make one years prior then failed and it continually coming back to haunt me) kept finding new ways to invent itself and multiple people in the community covered it and made meme versions of it

this culminated in that hour long cinematic shitpost with the salt and pepper diner playlist but with various versions of this song and it has far too many layers of what’s essentially a large friend group’s 3 year history of memes. catatonic is the same: it’s a meme animatic i made for the anniversary of dreamland which i didnt intend to put as much effort as i DID but it just kept going

now for the last small piece of context to tie this nightmare together you may have noticed if you go into my animations playlist the single video that’s not on my channel with a very long title. that’s the animatic i worked on OFFICIALLY for this show. i got brought on as essentially an ascended fan for the last 6 months of the show’s run as an artist and this spawned a whole OTHER wave of in jokes and memes which are borderline incomprehensible without me walking through every step of the way. also it… kinda ended up getting me into art school so thats neat??

ALL THIS IS TO SAY is that i don’t actually super recommend watching dmp to get these jokes. almost all of them are fandom memes that ARE connected if you have it EXPLAINED WHY but DMP is a very very long show that has a ROUGH first 2 seasons and if you know nothing about it you will probably not have a good time because the quality and style shifts rapidly in the second half

HOWEVER COMMA this is where i go to plug and say the director of DMP will eventually be working on a new show called chaos van, and a little behind the curtains peak is that the two main characters of that show are what INSPIRED me to write the tumblr men taxonomy post, because if charlie was a man i argued she would be a TSM with the disney channel eldritch horror body type and Oz would be a DCHE with the tumblr sexyman body type.

the show is only in early production but it’s planned to be a lot more accessible and easy to jump in on (you dont need to have watched dmp even though it’s technically a continuation) and is a real fun pitch: it’s a multiversal road trip where a god of stories and a god of chaos are on the run as they meet absurdist set pieces and characters while learning to fight gods!

so. yeah. lmao

[ellowynthenotking]

Feb 10

Dear dad

So, a couple things. We are definitely being watched. It turns out that’s what we’re supposed to either figure out or fix. Whatever it is that’s watching, everyone is making them all paranoid. I was right about it: eating the stored food, too. So they want it dealt with in the sooner rather than later category, which I totally get, and the best part is, I think I know what it is!

At least, I think I SAW what it is, not that it’s a good thing. It looked like a little gremlin-like creature. Small, with weird brown-green skin, and these weird little oval-shaped heads, and they have huge teeth. 

Absolutely massive teeth, the size, shape, and amount of these teeth should not fit into one of these things heads, but they do, somehow. And the weirdest part is they’re bipeds. They walk around on two feet and have little hands that are made for mischief.

And probably worse. 

They’re supposed to be the prey, but I don’t want to deal with it at all. They’re weird. 

And just looking at them, I’m pretty sure they’re going to bite the hell out of us. 

And I mean that literally cause that was, like, a football with teeth, an angry football. Angry sharklike football. 

Anyway, we’re supposed to figure out how to deal with them or get rid of them, and that’s going to be a hell of a task. 

I’m thinking big ass sticks and hoping for the best.

Or a baseball bat.

That would probably be perfect for it. 

Or whatever those weird flat bats are for that big sport. Cicada? 

No, that’s not right. 

Anyway, we’re trying to figure out how to get them out of the town without doing too much damage to the town or ourselves. And I’m pretty sure animal control might have an idea, but I have no idea and don’t really know what the plan is.

The plan might be to skip town if we can’t figure out how to do this without getting hurt. 

Which would not be cool of us, so we really should do that, but I think it’s considerable as an option. I mean, really, if they can’t get rid of these things themselves, but they’re not really a threat most of the time, it should be fine, right? 

I know it’s not fine, and we said we’d help. But I am not equipped or prepared to deal with football-headed gremlins with weird little shark teeth that I’m pretty sure can and will kick my butt and then maybe eat me if I’m not careful.

Actually, I take that back. With how much I’ve been seeing them now that I know what to look for, I’m very, very, very sure that they’re going to eat me if given the chance, and now I really don’t want to sleep here.

What if I don’t wake up?

It’s some scary nonsense, is what it is. 

Terrifying.

Anyway, we’re figuring out what to do, I might write you later today if there’s anything worth writing about, or I won’t write if we end up fleeing town because the gremlins are kicking out collective butts. We don’t really know how to fight them. 

We should probably check with someone to see if they have any weapons or anything we can use to stop them.

You know what, I forgot to ask if anyone knows what the Rune did. Maybe it can do something to help us, or them, instead.

Okay, gonna go do that, love you, write you later, if you know how to deal with football-headed gremlins with shark teeth, don’t be afraid to write back and tell me the answer. 

Love, Jack

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