#and it's kind of hilarious how big the gap is when it's the same artist...)

[seyaryminamoto]

Gladiator's Tenth Anniversary

Against all odds... we have made it! Not only is it crazy that we've managed to keep going for ten years... it's also really crazy that my internet survived over 12 hours worth of uploading the project. I was very much terrified that it would collapse at some point, but somehow it didn't, and thank the universe for that.

While I'm definitely rejoicing in Gladiator's big milestone... I also admit I'm grieving a major setback that was dealt against me and my life plans earlier this week. It felt bad enough that I nearly lost all my drive to finish what I was doing... but I didn't spend the last months working non-stop on this project in vain. So, as hard as the road ahead might be, I'll keep going in the hopes of finally finding a better future for myself and my family in due time. Gladiator can keep me somewhat sane in the mean time, I hope (?)

I'm really stoked to have endured the hurdles and challenges that have run parallel with my telling this story (as well as the challenges within the story itself, too...) so that I could be here today to say... that I'm really grateful that I chose to go all in on this journey ten years ago. Gladiator has changed me and built me up, perhaps more than anyone knows, even myself. I'm not quite where I want to be in life yet... but Gladiator has fulfilled some of my most ambitious dreams as a writer, far sooner than I ever imagined it would. I'm really glad I've come as far as I have... and I'm also grateful to all of you who have accompanied me on this journey so far. It has been an extraordinary experience, one that many aspiring writers dream of but aren't always lucky enough to live through. I certainly was fortunate to find my way to this story when I did, knowing I was making a huge commitment and knowing that, as long as I gave it my everything, I wouldn't regret it.

Thank you for sticking by me as I carry us forward through Gladiator's Part 3, all the way towards what I hope will be the most epic conclusion I could bring to this massive story. I hope you enjoy the video <3

(... also, all the new art in the video shall be posted, at full resolution, in my Patreon in due time, in case anyone wants to see it in better detail... :'D)

[pluviophile-imagines]

Shiggy hand 🕴🕴

I gotchu anon

You think, maybe, that you’re being a little heavy-handed (pun absolutely not intended, but hilarious nonetheless).

Really, it’s the oldest trick in the book. You used to scoff and roll your eyes at the girls who would do it with their crushes in high school—oh, if they could see you now, a secret villain trying to make a pass at your infamous boss.

To be fair, Shigaraki’s hands are quite nice, large and slightly veiny but in a nice way, with long fingers that aren’t quite spindly or skeletal but just thick enough. They’re deadly, though; if his touch were less lethal you’d have done this weeks ago. Instead, it’s taken days of planning with Magne and Toga to get a solid plan in the works. But you’re certain it’ll be worth it—it’s an investment, a present you’re hoping both you and he will be thankful for in the future.

Magne informs you as you walk into the bar tonight that the package you ordered had arrived, and that Toga had already delivered it to Shigaraki. He’s not out in the main area with the others, but he’ll make his entrance now that you’ve arrived. You’re pretty sure past the first week of joining up he’d never missed a single day you’d visited (and to be fair, that could be written off as simply being a good leader, considering your appearances are a lot more rare than those of your other associates save perhaps for Dabi, but you like to think he wants to be around you).

Sure enough, not even three minutes after you make yourself comfortable at a small table in the corner away from where everyone else is sitting, Shigaraki stalks into the bar with a small package held in one hand, pinky up like always; you’ve always found that cute.

“What’s that?” You try to act coy as he comes to find a chair across the table you’re seated at. You’re pretty sure he knows you’re behind this; he’s not a fool, and Toga’s not the quietest of your colleagues (though none of them are exactly quiet right now as they greet their leader quite loudly and he solidly ignores them in favor of, well, you).

“Toga gave it to me.” He’s willing to play along at least, and you’re fairly certain that’s a good sign. Occasionally when you set him up like this he’ll be a bit more amused. If anything, he looks more nervous; he’s not wearing Father, but he’s keeping his head low, letting his hair drape over and provide some cover for his crimson eyes.

Five fingers brush against the shipping envelope, quick and efficient, no need for a knife. A single sealed package is left on the table in the dusty remains. He picks it up, two fingers raised this time, and inspects it.

“She said they were anti-fouling gloves.”

“Artists use them.” You lean forward, resting your chin in the palm of your hand and looking up at your boss through your eyelashes. “They reduce smudging for traditional mediums, friction with tablets…”

They’re black, made of nylon, covering his pinky and ring finger and velcroing around the wrist. Costing less than $10, you’d actually gotten three pairs, because you’re pretty sure there’ll be a bit of a learning curve getting them on.

“You seem to know an awful lot about a present Toga got me.”

He definitely knows you’re behind this, then, but still no clear indication of if he’s put two-and-two together as to why, or even if he’s more excited or nervous for what you have planned.

Instead of getting yourself worked up thinking about that, you reach forward and gently take the packaged gloves from his hands, busying yourself with opening them.

“I think they’ll suit you.” It’s a bit of a struggle; kind of embarrassing, but you play it off by ignoring it as you take out your pocket knife and cut the package entirely, leaving you with a pair of identical black swaths of fabric. “There we go.”

You don’t allow yourself to hesitate or give him a chance to take them from your hand. Dropping on, you reach forward to take hold of his left wrist, pulling it towards you so that you hold his hand over the table right between the pair of you.

Shigaraki’s hands are weapons, this you know; you’ve seen him in action plenty of times between sparring and watching the news. You’ve never quite had the chance to touch them like this—actually, now that you think of it, you don’t know if you’ve ever really touched them at all. He’s not the most tactile person; even when you’ve sparred with him he hasn’t bothered to help you up.

This was a mistake. You shouldn’t have thought you could get away with it.

But when you pause halfway to pulling the glove over his fingers, he doesn’t let you retreat. His free hand comes up, three fingers holding you hostage so you can’t set down the glove.

Your breath hitches. You glance up to see him staring at you, face no longer hidden behind that blue hair and eyes locked on yours, and the intense look in those irises makes your heart beat a little faster. You can’t quite place what emotion he’s trying to get across, something like anxiety or anticipation or excitement. He doesn’t say anything, but the message is loud and clear: don’t stop. Keep going.

So you do.

You pull the glove all the way onto his wrist and velcro it closed. His gaze moves to it now, and you watch as he slowly moves to plant four fingers onto the top of the table, then solidly presses his thumb down. Nothing happens. There’s a little hint of a smile that quirks his mouth as his eyes dart back up to you, then immediately to where your own hands lay laced together on the table before you.

That’s enough of an invitation, you decide. You lift your right hand just as Shigaraki removes his left from the table—you’re pretty sure he’s caught on—and raise it so that it hovers, almost touching.

Then you press your palm to his, fingers bowed back so they still don’t touch. He’s warmer than you expected; you’re not sure why you expected his hands to be cold, but somehow you did, and it’s a pleasant surprise that they’re not.

His eyes never leave where your hands touch, anchored there, but you’re captivated by his face. You watch his Adam’s apple bob with a swallow and decide to go further.

One by one, you press your fingertips to his (or rather, as much as you can, because his are long and on a notable few yours don’t quite reach), pinky and then ring, followed by middle and pointer, and then thumb. Still gauging his reaction, you let your fingers rest fully, hand entirely pressed flush to his.

You hear him sigh; a quiet sound, one you’re pretty sure you weren’t meant to hear but cherish nonetheless. He’s stark still, stiff and unmoving, and you’re floored by how much you like this simple touch.

Is it intimate? You can’t really tell. It’s strange; you’re pretty sure those high school girls who flirt this way aren’t this stunned by it, but to be fair none of them are doing it to an S-class villain whose hand could kill them with a simple slip-up. Your heart is beating fast; you wonder, fleetingly, stupidly, if he can hear it. Now that your fingertips are also pressed against his, his warmth is more obvious, sending gooseflesh rising up your arms.

It’s dumb, you think, insecurity sinking into you. Shigaraki probably thinks you’re a fucking airhead. But the words come automatically; you’re possessed by the spirit of those little high school girls you used to envy as a first year and they spill out as if drilled into your mind.

“Wow. Your hands are so big compared to mine…”

Behind you, all the way at the other side of the bar, Dabi lets out an emphatic groan. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

You whip around towards him, shooting him a glare and flipping him the bird to get a lazy eye roll in response. Ordinarily you’d get at least a little huff of laughter from Shigaraki for that, but he stays uncharacteristically silent, which pulls your attention solidly away from Dabi and back to the man you really want to be talking to because damn if that didn’t make you all the more insecure.

You’re not sure if you’ve given Shigaraki or yourself too much credit, but this was clearly a bad idea. Either you’re too awkward to pull this off or he’s too awkward to pick up your signals. Maybe it’s a mixture of both. Either way, you can feel your face burning.

You move to pull away, removing your palm just barely, but Shigaraki’s hand stops you. It follows, as if desperate to keep you there, and in the same motion his fingers shift.

He moves them to the right just slightly, aligning with the gaps between yours, and then tentatively threads both of your fingers together, resting the pads of his on the back of your hand.

Your gaze shoots up from your now linked hands to his face. His Adam’s apple bobs again. He might not have Father to cover him, but he’s tipped his head further downward so that curtain of pale blue hair shields his whole face from you—you can’t tell if he’s still staring at your joined hands or if he’s moved on, but you’re decently certain he’s still looking at you.

“I can’t wear them often or I’ll get out of practice going without them, and I can’t risk that,” he says softly, almost reverently; you get the feeling he might be talking about you. His head tilts up slightly and you decide, quite suddenly, that you’re very glad he’s been covering his face. He’s giving you a look that takes your breath away. The way his red eyes are wide and blown and soft like a villain’s should never be is not something you think you want anyone else to see. It’s yours; you want to keep it all to yourself.

He gives a little squeeze and you swallow thickly as his mouth quirks up, just barely. “But maybe I’ll keep them on just a bit longer.”

[letterboxd]

Bridging the Gap.

Filmmaker So Yun Um highlights ten underrated Asian American and Pacific Islander films set against the backdrop of America.

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month has many film lovers seeking to celebrate Asian American cinema. Beyond Minari, Always Be My Maybe and Crazy Rich Asians, there are dozens of films that depict the Asian American experience. In choosing to focus on ten of the lesser-seen, I contemplated the notion of what defines AAPI cinema.

For me, it goes deeper than films that have been directed by, or star, Asian American and Pacific artists. Having watched a wide selection of Asian American films, I can firmly say our cinema, no matter the genre, puts Asian Americans at the forefront on both sides of the camera. I believe the essence of Asian American cinema was born out of resourcefulness, mining themes and ideas that distinctly bridge the gap between Asian and American culture. These films tell stories that explore the vast differences between the two, and the ways in which they coexist, whether comfortably or uncomfortably.

In selecting these ten underrated AAPI films, I searched deep to find stories with uncompromising vision and character; stories about Asians that could only be told within, and against the backdrop of, America. These ten films highlight intimate, distinct and unfiltered experiences mostly unseen at our local multiplexes: family and cultural obligations, generational and cultural gaps, and raw, mostly obscured views of American life.

Chan is Missing (1982) Directed by Wayne Wang, written by Isaac Cronin and Wayne Wang

There would be no Asian American independent cinema without Wayne Wang’s Chan is Missing. Shot on black-and-white film, this striking noir follows Jo, a San Franciscan cab driver, and his nephew, Steve, as they track down the titular Chan after he disappears with their money. Wang’s unpredictable directing career spans neighborhood intrigues, rom-coms and family movies; alongside which, he has kept a strong focus on Asian American stories (he helmed the adaptation of Amy Tan’s generational bestseller, The Joy Luck Club).

In Chan is Missing, for the first time on screen, we get to finally see an “ABC” (American-Born Chinese) story from the source, with an all-access pass to the often misunderstood terrain and people of Chinatown. It’s the tightness of the plot and the authenticity of its characters that make this movie such a classic. Even after 40 years, Chan Is Missing doesn’t feel dated—its laugh-out-loud dialogue (they actually utter the word “FOB”!) and moody tone capture why Chinatown continues to be an enigma. Spoilers: Chinatown runs by its own rules.

Available on DVD via Indiepix Films.

Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) Directed by Justin Lin, written by Ernesto Foronda, Justin Lin and Fabian Marquez

Justin Lin’s directorial debut film is a visionary portrait of Asian Americans that’s still relevant two decades on. Since its release in the early aughts, there has yet to be a film that explores the nuances and complexities of the average Southern-California Asian American teen like this film does. Better Luck Tomorrow focuses on a group of Asian American overachievers who become bored with their lives and enter a world of petty crime. It’s loosely based on four Sunny Hills High School students and the real-life murder of Stuart Tay, a teenager from the OC.

With its depiction of overachieving A+ students who are also foul-mouthed, drug-taking kids, this film was the launching pad for many iconic Asian American actors today—Sung Kang from the Fast and Furious franchise, John Cho (Star Trek) and my personal favorite, Jason Tobin, star of the Warrior TV series. (It’s entertaining to see the seeds of the Fast and Furious series planted in this film in the character of Han, played by Sung Kang, before the explosion of the franchise: one of the characters mutters, “Rumors about us came and went fast and furious”—and the rest is history.)

Better Luck Tomorrow still stands as the most iconic film to capture the suburban Asian American teen existence in all its good, bad and ugly light. “I was part of a movement,” Tobin recalled in this GQ oral history of the film, “and it was a culmination of all the battles I had fought before that to get Asian faces on the big screen.”

Available to stream and rent on multiple platforms.

The Grace Lee Project (2005) Directed by Grace Lee

If you’re an Asian American who grew up in California or New York, chances are, you know at least two Grace Lees in your life. But growing up in Missouri, Korean American filmmaker Grace Lee was the only one she knew with her name. She soon discovers that with the name comes a certain stereotype, that of the “good” Asian—quiet, well-behaved and a hard worker. Lee goes on a quest to interview a wide range of women who have the same name and soon discover if this wildly common stereotype is true.

Lee’s witty, autobiographical documentary is effortlessly funny and insightful. The Grace Lee Project dives deep into identity politics to reveal that sometimes, a name is simply a name. This was the start of Grace Lee’s journey as a filmmaker and she continues to be an important voice in not just the documentary space but in narrative stories as well.

Streaming on Kanopy.

Saving Face (2004) Written and directed by Alice Wu

Alice Wu’s Saving Face is a timeless queer love story. Produced by none other than Will Smith (yes, that Will Smith), Saving Face follows a Chinese American lesbian woman and her traditional mother (played by Michelle Krusiec and Joan Chen, respectively) as both battle with their reluctance to go against cultural expectations and reveal their secret loves. It’s part family drama, part rom-com, exploring expectations specific to Asian women across generations.

While most Asian American films focus on familial obligations through the point of view of the children of immigrants, Wu’s film considers the conflicts of both daughter and mother. For Asian Americans, it’s a tale as old as time but with a twist that shows that no matter how old you get, you still have to, unfortunately, fight to be who you are. I also highly recommend Wu’s spiritual sequel, The Half of It, on Netflix.

Streaming on Amazon Prime and Tubi, and for rent on various VOD platforms.

In Between Days (‘방황의 날들’, 2007) Directed by So Yong Kim, written by Bradley Rust Gray and So Yong Kim

So Yong Kim’s debut feature, In Between Days, follows Jiseon Kim, a Korean teen immigrant, who falls in love with her best friend while navigating the challenges of living in a new country. Director Kim is a masterful storyteller and captures life as it should be seen: unfiltered and trivial at times, but using the mundane to find cinematic magic.

I like to categorize So Yong Kim’s work as a showcase of extreme intimacy. Her story features painfully delicate characters and moments so real, you’ll wonder how any of these scenes could be fiction. There’s a sense of vulnerability and loneliness that fills the air as Jiseon struggles to assimilate to a new country, replete with toxic relationships, self-sabotage and unrelenting jealousy. So Yong Kim’s work is so painfully real, it hurts to watch.

Available on Kanopy and Amazon.

Ping Pong Playa (2007) Directed by Jessica Yu, written by Jimmy Tsai and Jessica Yu

There are two things that embody countless Asian American men’s experience: their love for basketball, and their love of rap music. Ping Pong Playa covers both, and is exactly the kind of Asian American comedy I’ve been waiting for! Christopher “C-Dub” Wang (played by co-writer Jimmy Tsai) is a wannabe baller and a supreme slacker who has to step up to the plate when his family’s business and ping-pong-champion reputation is on the line. In addition to being centered around an Asian family, the core of the film rivals any other low-brow, underdog sport film.

Laugh-out-loud hilarious, this is Academy-Award-winning filmmaker Jessica Yu’s first narrative feature, following a groundbreaking career full of daring documentaries (her Oscar was for this portrait of writer Mark O’Brien, who spent much of his life in an iron lung). Seeing C-Dub as an NBA-loving slacker turned ping-pong playa felt validating; it showed that even if you’re a lazy and immature Asian, you can always find something to succeed at.

Streaming on Tubi, and for rent on Amazon and iTunes.

In Football We Trust (2015) Directed by Tony Vainuku and Erika Cohn

While Salt Lake City, Utah, is seen as predominantly a white Mormon town, it in fact has the largest population of Pacific Islanders in the US mainland, due to the strength of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ proselytizing in the Pacific. The documentary In Football We Trust follows four Polynesian high-school students, as they chase their lifelong dream of attaining professional recruitment. Told in moments of adolescence, the film follows the greatest challenges for these four young men, as they chase their dreams while trying to grow up.

In no time, they’re faced with the harsh reality that just maybe, football isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. As much as their hefty attributes and builds serve as their greatest advantages, these boys’ cultural and familial obligations become both their greatest motivations and, possibly, their downfall. Filmed over the span of four years, first time filmmakers Tony Vainuku and Erika Cohn chronicle the NFL hopefuls as they navigate the pressure to balance dreams and family to win a golden ticket out of gang violence and poverty.

Streaming on Kanopy, and for rent on various VOD platforms.

Spa Night (2016) Written and directed by Andrew Ahn

In his directorial debut, Andrew Ahn perfectly captures a specific corner of Los Angeles’ Koreatown. Spa Night’s focus is David, a closeted Korean American teenager who takes a job at a Korean spa to help his struggling family, and then discovers an underground world of gay sex. You may recognize Joe Seo as the goofy bully in the Netflix hit show Cobra Kai, but it’s Spa Night where you can see him truly shine—he won Sundance’s US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance.

Seo delivers a powerfully restrained performance, exploring the burden of hiding your true self from your family. Spa Night is more than a coming out story, it’s also about the broken American dream that so many immigrants experience. Ahn’s direction is finely tuned, honing in on the specificity of Koreatown. It is an acutely queer story of second-gen Asian Americans, where coming out is never really about just you, but also your family.

Streaming on Kanopy, and for rent on various VOD platforms.

Punching at the Sun (2006) Directed by Tanuj Chopra, written by Tanuj Chopra and Hart Eddy

Mameet is young, angry and has always lived in the shadow of his basketball-legend brother, Sanjay. When Sanjay is suddenly killed during a robbery at the family store, Mameet spirals and takes his anger out on anyone and everyone. Coping with loss at a young age is hard enough, but Punching at the Sun mixes in the specific anxieties of being a South-Asian man amidst the backdrop of post-9/11 America. In doing so, the film addresses the difficulty of juggling teenage angst and immigrant identity—Mameet is not afforded the option to express his anger and grief.

Cathartic and emotionally validating, this is a simple yet nuanced slice-of-life story that conveys the heaviness of growing up with the weight of the world on our shoulders. In Mameet’s case, thank goodness, he ultimately shares some of that burden with his comical friends and knit-tight family.

Available to rent on Vimeo.

Meet the Patels (2014) Directed by Ravi Patel and Geeta Patel, written by Ravi Patel, Matthew Hamachek, Billy McMillin, and Geeta Patel

In the romantic documentary Meet the Patels, Ravi Patel is a dutiful first-gen son whose parents are continually nagging him to marry a nice Indian girl. With Ravi's sister Geeta Patel co-directing and co-writing, and his parents in the frame, his film (and true-life story) are indeed a family affair. What starts as his journey to find a wife to make his family happy becomes an enlightening intro to Indian culture and modern love—think dating apps, weddings and a Patel Matrimonial Convention (gotta see it to believe).

Humorous as it is outrageously charming, Meet the Patels ultimately shows the struggles and cultural expectations most immigrant offspring face, on top of the million other obstacles of trying to find your one and only true love in this mad, mad world.

Streaming on various platforms.

Related content

Ten Underrated Asian American & Pacific Islander Films, a Letterboxd list

Best Asian American Films: So Yun Um’s list

Debbie Chang’s comprehensive Asian American film canon list (also features Asian-Canadian, Asian-British and other diaspora)

Bellamy’s list of feature-length films directed by Asian Americans

Follow So on Letterboxd

[chaosmax]

No screenshots bc DVD at home and amz.n doesn’t allow screenshots--

Diva/Aigami!Dub :“When the pharaoh leaves this world, the power of the Plana will be granted. But shall he ever return, this power will be recanted....[the power to remake the very fiber of reality. I will use this powr to avenge him [Shadi]]”

Diva/Aigami!Sub: “Evil souls will transform into light, and the door to a new dimension will open. The people who have noble souls will create a new orderly world of light.”

Because I’m not dedicated enough to make a huge list of sub and dub comparisons of DSoD I’m going to be using this one line to illustrate my general thoughts on the matter. I do want to preface this post by saying I’m in no way trying to rip on the dub or vice versa. There are some things from the sub I like better and some from the dub I like better (for real, hilarious lines like ‘You fight me with fruit’ and ‘perfectly coiffed hair’ would only happen in the dub & I love it xD and even more powerful ones like ‘You set me up... But I knew you’d set me up.’) Also, given accessibility for many people, dubs are honestly necessary, not everyone can read subtitles. It doesn’t always mean they’re being that lazy English speaker (tm) who can’t be bothered. I will also say I don’t know too much about the dubbing process and what goes on, if the dubbing writers get to see a full translation of the original script, if they get to talk to Japanese people during the process, if the VA’s get to read the original script as well, etc. So keep that in mind.

However-- This scene itself is one of the perfect reasons why when analyzing lore stuff of any artistic creation that gets localized, I use the original Japanese first and foremost. I think people that only see the dub sometimes forget that a lot can be altered in the translation or give off a totally different vibes because LANGUAGE IS COMPLICATED.

Both versions are sort of saying the same thing, but given how word diction works and how it’s phrased if you only watch one version you can get totally different vibes from the same scene that hasn’t really been censored in any way. (As for once, DSoD had no censorship between versions) Order, diction, what is said and what is left out and emphasis can make the same idea/sentence have many different meanings in English and different things can be inferred from what is said and what is not.

The Dub line here is very vague, it says the power of the Plana and talks about how it can rewrite reality-- but what that truly means is left pretty open-ended. It’s far less explained what the Plana as a whole is shooting for and more so focuses on Diva’s personal vengeance.  This can make the plots of the Plana seem kind of foolish and confusing because it's far less concrete-- it makes them harder to sympathize with because we don’t understand really what they are after and why--we see Diva’s desire for revenge at that moment and that’s about it (which he later lets go too, so).

The Sub line is still pretty vague because the Plana is a soft magic system, but it is also used more in an example and says exactly what can be accomplished with its power. This one is saying that everyone evil (unknown if that includes people that aren’t outright evil but aren’t Plana members) will be changed into light and a new dimension/world will open and in that new world the Plana will be able to create a utopia, (which makes a lot of sense given how many Buddhism motifs and ideas are alluded to by the Plana it’s not a 1:1 with it, but there are a lot of simularatires).  Through this version it’s not all about revenge as the end goal, it’s to achieve things thing that has both been promised to them and also this mission that has been entrusted to the Plana to create this new world free from Earthly suffering. This is far more understandable and easier to sympathize with because we actually understand it better. Or at least know more what it is about. There’s a concrete A -> B.

But not only the Plana members, but it also makes everyone’s else’s actions more powerful-- we know better what the Plana is capable of and thus when Yugi turns down the offer to join it’s much more powerful. But that’s a post for another day.

Back to the main point, this doesn’t mean the Sub is # better than the dub in every way fite me -- ugh no. It just means it often elaborates more which in some cases can make it more compelling (though of course the Sub has its weaknesses as well and so does the manga, which of course, the movie was following the manga continuity). And at the end of the day, because the movie was made in Japan in Japanese even though the translation process has room for error in itself as you often can’t get across the exact meaning you want (or certain cultural things are a given in one culture and not the other) it is closer to what KT & the other staff intended than a dub which has passed production hands several times. In many cases the sub and dub of yugioh are so different you have to treat them as separate entirely.

This isn’t to say people can’t enjoy dubs or draw upon them for fanwork or their own personal viewing/reading of the content, of course not (personally I take a mixture of both). I guess all I’m saying is it frustrates me when there are as big gaps as there are and different vibes between the versions that people will do things such as write off Kaiba’s actions in DSoD as “lmao so stupid what a sore loser lmao he’s never gonna win give it up bro”  or knock Diva only down to “petty/revenge dude who wants revenge (tm)” when there are so many more layers that were meant to be present, but got altered and the vibe the work as a whole changes just by a bit of a language barrier and how specific and finicky word choice is.

[sweetwritertanya]

Afternoon Tea

Summary: You receive a text from your boyfriend, Taehyung, telling you he would come over to your house in about ten minutes. You decide to make some afternoon tea as you wait for him.

Warnings: just FLUFF. Maybe a bit of heavy kissing and a dirty innuendo by the end, but that’s it for this one.

Word Count: 1430

You heard the sound of a message arriving on your phone. Stretching on the sofa you were lying on, you grabbed it from the coffee table and immediately smiled when you see it was from Taehyung. He was on a taxi on the way over, would take about ten minutes to arrive.

If it was earlier in your relationship, the first few months, maybe you would have worried. In fact, you definitely would be panicking, trying to find something nice to wear and freshening up a bit in the ten minutes you had. But now, now you just smiled and decided to make some afternoon tea for him to drink when he arrived.

The kind of inner progress you made while dating Taehyung was not only unexpected, but unthoughtful. Both your physical and internal flaws, you learned to love them because he showed you that they were lovable. You always had been a bigger girl, heavier than most of the woman you studied and worked with every day on your life. Ever since you noticed the whispers and stares, which ended up becoming bullying in your high school days, it bothered you. You used to be a cheerful and friendly person, but became reserved and very quiet due to it.

That was another painful self-doubt you had about yourself, how you had become what they called a boring person, aside from being fat. Because you didn’t have many friends, you spent most of your time on your own corner, trying to go by unnoticed. You didn’t experience all the fun times that most of your colleagues had, didn’t have the crazy stories from when you were younger or of rollercoaster drunken nights that ended in unexpected ways.

But Taehyung didn’t find you boring at all. And he didn’t seem to mind your extra weight, if anything he welcomed it. He loved that you didn’t like drinking, because neither did he. He loved that you seldom got into trouble in school, talking about how good of a role model person you were. Instead of hearing about crazy personal stories, he settled for the normal happy memories you had.

And your body… he had no problem with it. When you first started dating, he would barely hold your hand, shy as he was. It concerned you, thinking he didn’t like your figure. But as you eventually found out, it was far from it. Once he could touch you, more of you, all of you, there was not a moment when he was in the same room and not touching you in some way, be it your back, your thighs, your shoulders or just your hand. He did not keep his hands to himself anymore.

You chuckled while pouring the hot water into his cup, thinking about it. A deep familiar voice made you jolt up slightly, gasping at the sudden sound.

“What’s so funny?”

You looked up to see Taehyung coming in through the front door, taking off his shoes before coming in. You were so lost in your recollections that you didn’t hear him using his key to let himself in.

“Nothing, nothing. Was just thinking about you, actually” you tell him, grabbing the two mugs with tea, offering one to him.

“Am I that hilarious that I make you laugh when I’m not even around?” he asks with an innocent smirk, grabbing the cup from your hands.

“When one spends so much time with an aloof ball like you, is difficult not to remember funny movements every once in a while” you explain, taking a sip from your tea and smiling knowingly when he frowns slightly.

“Aloof? I’m not aloof” he defends.

“Yes, you very much are, Tae” you persist.

“Give me one example, I dare you” he pouted. You tilted your head as a dozen moments crossed your mind. Deciding not to tease him too much for now, you placed your mug in the counter and crossed your arms as you looked up at him.

“Well, for one, you came in and still haven’t kissed me hello” you point out, the corners of your lips tugging up.

“Dear God, you’re right!” Taehyung exclaimed, appalled with himself. He always kissed you the first time he saw you, and tried his best to kiss you goodnight as well, if he could.

Placing his own cup next to yours, you were suddenly swallowed by his warm hug, arms enveloping your shoulders and waist, making you only able to lift your lower arms to hug his waist as well. His lips were puckering at every inch of your face, tickling you with each small contact, making you giggle.

“Taehyung, it’s fine” you admitted, starting to blush a bit under his attention. No matter what, he always made your heartbeat race and blood rush to your chubby cheeks with the smallest of gestures.

“No, it’s not” he contradicted, big hands coming up to frame your face. He was staring deeply into your eyes and you felt your breath escape you. “I am going to Japan for a week tomorrow. Can’t waist time with your distractions.”

Before you could contradict him, telling him you never did anything to distract him, he closed the gap between your lips and you lost yourself into the kiss. Moving lips pressing ever so lovingly against yours, it never failed to make you sigh in pleasure. Warm soft tongue daring out to taste your lips, you pressed your plump body against his lean one, in tippy toes to deepen the kiss as your hands grabbed the back of his neck. His hands were grabbing at the flesh of your sides, his long fingers dipping into the softness there as he kept you close.

You were moving in direction of your sofa, him pressing you ever so slightly in the correct way. The back of your legs hit the couch and you fell into the cushions, pushing Taehyung down with you as you did so. It broke the flaming kiss, but only for him to wrap his arms around your middle and settle his head against your fluffy stomach.

“I’m going to miss you so much” he whines against your soft skin.

“It’s just a week, Tae” you tried to console him, fingers running through his hair, making him sigh against you.

“Don’t care. It’s too long. Don’t want to go” he continues pouting, arms holding you tighter. “I hate sleeping in hotel rooms. They are never as comfortable as you, Y/N. I love sleeping against you so much.”

“So you’ve said” you agreed, smiling at how sweet he was. Really, he loved hugging you as he fell asleep, you were his pillow more than his actual pillow was. “You’ll be back before you know it, you’ll see.”

“Aren’t you going to miss me?” he looked up with pitiful dark eyes.

“Don’t be silly, of course I’ll miss you. The world grows grey and cold whenever you are away, you know this” you whispered to him, brushing the palms of your hands on his soft angelic face.

Holding himself up, arms on either side of your face as he moved up to stare at you from above, he regained an almost childlike shine in his eyes, a large smile on his lips.

“I love it when you talk like that” he admitted, one hand moving to brush a few hairs from your forehead. You giggle a bit.

“Only you would love artistic metaphors and comparisons over dirty talk” you mentioned, knowing how much Taehyung loved hearing you voice your feelings in such a way.

“Oh, leave the dirty talk to me, darling” he said, wiggling his eyebrows and the tip of his tongue daring out to brush his top lips.

You chuckle against his eager lips, feeling his hands growing impatient and slowly making their way down your clothes, only content when coming in contact with your warm fluffy skin. Kissing you deeply, you felt your body grow hot and needy, your own hands moving under his shirt, marveling at the expanse of his bare back. He gasped against you only for a second at the sensation, but soon was kissing down your neck instead.

The brief thought of your afternoon tea growing cold crossed your mind, but it was immediately forgotten as soon as his deep, raspy voice whispered on your right ear, making you shiver.

“Bedroom, darling. I’ll make up for all the love I won’t be here to give you next week. Want to make you tremble just from you remembering the things I’ll do to you today.”

[herohawks]

I just wanted to let you know that I just saw the tattoo artist/actor AU and I’m now following you. I need more of this content please and thank you. I’m excited for reveal if Dabi past/family whenever that happens. I’m also very curious about Dabi relationship with his siblings in this.

part 0 / part 1 / part 2 / part 3

I went ahead and wrote what I headcanon Natsuo and Touya/Dabi’s relationship would be like in this AU. Will definitely get to Fuyumi and Shouto, too! Just too sleepy rn...

It’s long, so I put it under the cut <3

Natsuo: As the second eldest Todoroki sibling, Natsuo is able to witness first-hand the rise and fall of Todoroki Touya. Growing up, Natsuo had initially been jealous of Touya. His older brother commanded all of their parents’ attention: Enji and Touya would be gone weeks at time, no doubt enjoying all the father-son activities Natsuo isn’t privy to. In the rare instances that Touya is home, their mom would dote on him - any request, big or small, would be granted. Mochi for lunch? Sure. Video games past curfew? Why not. 

Whenever Touya is home, he almost always locks himself in his bedroom, snapping at Natsuo to go away when he asks if he wants to play. Natsuo hears Touya crying a lot, through the door. Crybaby Touya is the nickname Natsuo secretly gives his older brother. It must be a hard life, being the favorite. 

Sometimes, though, Touya will agree to play with him. Natsuo learns very early on that Touya hates to play-pretend, so he makes sure to steer clear of those kinds of games. Touya likes quieter activities, like coloring and drawing. They play soccer sometimes, but they have to be secret about it because their dad doesn’t like it when they roughhouse. 

As they grow older, the chasm between them yawns wider. Touya, who’d always been reserved in comparison to Natsuo’s boundless energy, becomes even more withdrawn, snapping and snarling at everyone and everything. He picks fights with Natsuo about petty things, scoffing and making snide remarks. It’s like walking on eggshells being in the same room as Touya. He still cries a lot, usually when he’s arguing and his frustrated tears spill over. Natsuo starts calling him Crybaby Touya to his face, usually leading to the two of them scuffling on the ground until Fuyumi cries to their mom to break their fight up.

By the time they’re in Jr. High, it’d be a stretch to call their relationship “close”. Touya doesn’t go to school like Natsuo does; he has a private tutor because he’s special. Touya used to ask Natsuo about school a lot, what it’s like. Natsuo had told him about class, how he’s made so many friends, how nice his teacher was, the things he’s learned - he tells Touya everything and anything because despite it all, a part of him still likes having his older brother pay attention to him. It’s the only time they can interact without it dissolving into a fight. Touya always seems a little sadder after their conversations though. 

It’s around the time that Touya is entering high school that their relationship slips  like sand between his fingers. It’s like a flip has been switched and Touya actively tries to become the worst version of himself. Fuyumi is naive and Natsuo shields her from the worst of it, but he knows their older brother is hurdling full-throttle on a self-destructive path. 

It’s always Natsuo who finds Touya splayed out in the hallway, reeking of cheap booze and stale sweat. He shakes and mutters nonsense when Natsuo hefts him up, dragging him to the bathroom or bedroom with an arm slung across his shoulders. Depending on the damage, Natsuo may wipe him down with a cool washcloth to clean the worst of it, helps Touya strip into cleaner clothes if he’s coherent enough. 

He sees the baggies, the pricked skin of his inner elbow and legs and wonders why Touya? Touya has everything: dad’s attention, the looks, the fame. It’s the life many can only dream of. Why is he so set in ruining it? Natsuo tells himself This is the last time I’ll help him. Let Mom or Fuyumi find him next time. But everytime he hears the telltale sound of uncoordinated limbs trying and failing to sneak down the hall, Natsuo is up and halfway to his own bedroom door, bracing himself for what he’ll find when he opens it. 

Then, the Todoroki Touya Scandal hits. 

Suddenly, the media focuses on the Todoroki family. Micro-analyzing every little thing they do or say. Natsuo isn’t prepared for the onslaught of sudden attention from strangers and peers alike, bombarding him with questions he doesn’t know the answer to. He doesn’t know why Touya did that. He doesn’t know if it was consensual. He doesn’t know anything. Natsuo’s relatively private life is abruptly put on display and Natsuo has no idea how Touya has survived this long under all the pressure. The things Touya has said and done for years are starting to make more sense. 

After that, it’s like Touya takes this as explicit permission to dig himself an even deeper hole. With a force that surprises even Natsuo, Touya throws himself headfirst into scandal after scandal. The tabloids begin running out of witty one-liners for their headlines - that’s how much Touya’s destructive behavior becomes the norm. It’s like he’s trying to prove something but Natsuo doesn’t understand it, can’t even begin to try. 

And just as the scandals reach their peak, Touya vanishes. Natsuo has no idea where he’s gone and doesn’t have the first clue of where to look. Touya has always been an intensely private person but Natsuo comes to the startling realization that he doesn’t really know his brother at all.

Fuyumi holds onto the hope that Touya’s out there, living some happy, secret life. Natsuo is more pessimistic, but keeps his opinions to himself. He’d blame Touya at first, for leaving. But with their father at home more now, focusing on Shouto and grooming him to become a better version of Touya, Natsuo knows the only one to blame for Touya’s demise is Todoroki Enji. 

So for about five years, there’s absolute radio silence. Then out of the blue, Touya calls him. A simple: “Sup, little brother.” And Natsuo promptly hangs up, thinking it’s a sick joke. Fuyumi calls him later, crying, and says that she and Touya talked. That he’s changed a lot and Natsuo should call him. 

Natsuo does not call him. He texts him instead, tells Touya how fucked up it was that he up and left with no warning, how hurt Fuyumi was, how scared and confused Shouto had become, and how heart-broken it left mom. Out of all the Todoroki siblings, Natsuo has the hardest time forgiving Touya. Mostly because he had thought he knew Touya the most, only to have the truth blindside him. 

The problem is this: Natsuo is stubborn and hard-headed, just like their old man. When Touya reaches out, Natsuo is quick to shut it down, not trusting that Touya won’t disappear again. He doesn’t think he can forgive Touya so easily like Fuyumi, or Shouto who doesn’t really remember Touya much at all. 

The second problem is this: Touya wants to mend his relationship with his siblings so much that the task seems almost insurmountable. When Natsuo pushes him away, Touya (well, Dabi now), accepts it, doesn’t think he’s worth forgiving anyway. It’s actually Hawks who points out that it’s because Dabi loves and cares so much that he can’t bring himself to bridge that gap, to push harder for the result he wants. 

It takes a long time for them to build a relationship again, but once they overcome the hurdle of actually talking, they start to repair their relationship as brothers.  Natsuo is probably the most skeptical when he hears that Dabi-Touya is dating Hawks, of all people. For a guy who hated the acting industry so much to leave it behind, it’s ironic that he’s dating one of the most well-known A-Listers right now. But, when he meets Hawks, it’s hard not to like the guy. The guy’s the polar opposite of Dabi which is hilarious. Hawks is chatty and genuinely kind; he really wins brownie points with Natsuo when he offers to give Shouto a ride to & from school when Fuyumi can’t. 

It’s through Hawks that Natsuo sees Dabi has become truly comfortable with who he is, and can finally forgive Touya for leaving them all those years ago.

[myncisworld-2point0]

[NOTE: This article is from 2014.]

According to some people, Mark Harmon is best known to his fans as Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs on CBS’s hit drama series NCIS. Those people are wrong, of course, because he’s always going to be Freddy Shoop, a summer school teacher in over his head in 1987’s appropriately-titled Summer School. Harmon turns the ripe, young age of 63 today, and it’s clearer than ever that this man is in possession of a map that leads to the Fountain of Youth, because Harmon ages with grace, am I right, ladies? In fact, while it’s no wonder why this actor was named People’s Sexiest Man Alive in 1986, it is rather shocking that he never received that accolade again, specifically in 1987, when the most important work of his career was released.

The coke-fueled era of the 1980s in Hollywood was filled with more high school movies about slackers and smartasses than anyone actually needed, especially when it came to featuring students who looked like they were older than the teachers. Summer School was always perhaps the most underrated of the decade’s tributes to slackademics (trademark pending) because what it lacked in the typical star power of, say, a John Hughes film, it more than made up for in creating arguably the most creative collection of “teenage” dipshits than any film of the genre. At the same time, it showed that Harmon, who was probably best known at the time for his role as the HIV-positive Dr. Robert Caldwell on St. Elsewhere, had a strong sense of comedy, while also confirming (along with her debut on Cheers that same year) that Kirstie Alley was much, much more than just a really attractive Vulcan.

Summer School isn’t just some cult classic that people love to mention whenever someone randomly asks, “Hey, whatever happened to Dean Cameron?” It was actually well-received at the box office, earning $36 million in theaters on what I assume was a budget of a few rolls of nickels and someone’s baseball card collection. Critics, however, were a little more mixed on this mindless comedy, as Roger Ebert gave it one-half star out of four, which sounds a lot better than one star out of eight, so you know what? I’ll take it.

Maybe in the movie business we could coin the term vaporfilm, for movies that zip right through our brains without hitting any memory molecules.

“Summer School” is a movie like that, a comedy so listless, leisurely and unspirited that it was an act of the will for me to care about it, even while I was watching it. This movie has no particular reason for being, other than to supply employment for people whose job possibilities will not be enhanced by it. (Via RogerEbert.com)

Here’s a tip for all of you aspiring film critics out there, courtesy of King Ebert – if you’re watching a movie with a title as lazy as Summer School, and the opening of the film features a school’s teachers trying to haul ass after the bell on the last day of the semester so they don’t get suckered into teaching the titular course, get up and walk out. Leave the movie for those of us who love to watch stupid movies and go to the next theater to watch and analyze La Bamba. Perhaps that’s why the fan reviews of Summer School on Netflix seem to be so glowing, as I only found three that were two stars or less. In fact, here’s the worst of them all:

Nothing but trash. Nothing worth seeing. Degenerate teens in bad need of harsh discipline. It’s depressing to think that so many young people actually enjoy this trash. This movie is immediately available from NF while so many more interesting ones languish in the ‘saved’ section, or in ‘short wait’, ‘long wait’, or ‘very long wait’ status. Just one more nail in the coffin of American culture, or lack thereof.

Thank God Armond White weighed in. The majority of people, myself included, fondly remember Summer School for what it is – a fun, stupid movie that was meant to make us laugh, while perhaps also rubbing our noses in the awesomeness of 80s California if we didn’t live there. But I’ll take this analysis one step further by laying out these 10 very important lessons that I took away from Summer School after watching it this morning, in paying tribute to Harmon, a man who was Kevin Costner before Kevin Costner was Kevin Costner.

Always put sunglasses on your dog.

Fact: 100% of movie posters that have dogs wearing sunglasses on them are movies that I’m willing to at least watch. The movie could be called This Dog Dies from Space AIDS, and I’d still be curious to see why that dog is wearing sunglasses.

Always have an escape plan.

When everybody else is hauling ass from the faculty parking lot at the last second, there’s no reason that you shouldn’t already be packed for your trip to Hawaii. I don’t like to point fingers, but Mr. Shoop’s girlfriend is clearly at fault here. All she had to do was pack the car for him, and he could have jumped in and taken off for the airport. Instead, Kim kicked her man while he was down and not only snatched her ticket to Hawaii from the pocket of his rad flowered shirt, but she also told him to drive her to the airport. I don’t mean to offend anyone who is overprotective of fictional characters, but I hope that Kim was eventually fed to the volcano gods.

Also, let’s consider this a lesson within a lesson – would you walk away from your teaching job right now if someone handed you a winning lottery ticket for $50,000? I say no. Just pass all of the morons while you spend the class time reading up on investment opportunities.

Never be afraid to encourage the creativity of your students.

https://youtu.be/-5Pku48YPFo

The true sign of a teacher’s efforts in a classroom is how far the students are willing to go to show others their appreciation of his work. In Shoop’s case, once he resigned because his students were greedy little pricks, those same students objected to a new teacher taking over the class by staging a gruesome and horrifying murder scene, complete with two of the students wielding chainsaws, declaring themselves psychopaths and thus taking credit for the violence. Of course, I can’t stress this enough, no high school students should ever think about trying to recreate this scene today.

On a side note, and I hate to nitpick true artistic masterpieces, if you’re going to have a severed hand pull a dude’s tongue out of his mouth and slap him with it, it’s really important that he not blink. Damn it, people, we need accuracy.

Being a male teacher in California in 1987 was probably terrifying.

https://youtu.be/farC0cWkpvc

Between Summer School and Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise, 1987 was a huge year for Courtney Thorne-Smith. Hell, both movies came out in the same week in July, when she was just 19 years old and poised to become the next big things in terms of girls that all teen boys wanted to marry. Unfortunately, her movie career never really panned out, as the last live action role she had on the big screen was as Natalie in the Carrot Top hot fart Chairman of the Board. Her TV career was obviously a lot better, but that’s neither here nor there. Having her play a lovelorn surf goddess crushing on Shoop probably lured a lot of guys to the teaching profession, only to have them learn the hard way that prison sucks.

Additionally, there was the foreign exchange student Anna-Maria Mazarelli, who would grow up to win our hearts as Alotta Fagina. Was it standard procedure for foreign exchange students to be shoved into remedial English classes upon arrival? Sure.

It’s important to support fine arts programs.

https://youtu.be/u0kF24ceZMI

When I write about how hilarious it was how Hollywood tried to make us buy that some actors were teenagers when they were clearly at least a decade older, Ken Olandt is really Exhibit A. The guy who played Larry, the sleeping student by day and male stripper by night, was actually 29 when he was portraying a 17-year old, which is pretty hard to pass when very few teenage boys A) look like that and B) are hired to shake their dongs in strip clubs. Still, glaring age gaps and statutory and employment laws aside, it was nice to see that Shoop was so cool about Larry’s awesome after-school job. That is until he was busted by his mom and presumably spent the next decade in therapy.

It’s not lying if the company ripped you off in the first place.

The first time that I ever saw Summer School, I was convinced that the part about writing letters to companies to get free stuff would work every time. I spent a lot of time trying to write letters to the companies that made my favorite toys, so I could convince them that the action figures and especially the vehicles that I couldn’t afford had been broken. But then I realized that I might be called on my BS, and guys in suits might show up to my home demanding to see the broken toys, and then I’d be screwed and sent off to prison for lying. Ultimately, owning Krang’s fortress wasn’t worth a life spent in prison making license plates, which is how TV and movies taught me that license plates were made.

Jail in California looks very scary.

I still don’t know what the guy with the mustache is doing with his hand, but it’s really scary and I don’t want to ever have someone do that to me, so I’ve chosen to lead a life on the straight and narrow. Thank you, Summer School, for teaching us that jail is filled with scary perverts who want to do bad things to shirtless men on roller skates.

No matter the risk, steal your boss’s girlfriend.

https://youtu.be/B7ZTNm5o780

Vice Principal Gills was a pretty big bite in the ass, so we had to cheer for Shoop in pursuit of Robin Bishop, because Shoop was the coolest and his girlfriend had only recently taken off for Hawaii without him. Sure, Robin was kind of stuck up because she questioned the legitimacy of taking students to something as awesome as a petting zoo, which produced adorable moments like this:

And she also wore a denim shirt tucked into a different shade of denim skirt, because it was the 80s, but she had a good heart and she just wanted what was best for all students, even if it meant agreeing to a date with Shoop to get there. Also, Gills looked like a total goober-douche, and there’s no reason he should have been with Robin.

Education can be a compromise.

https://youtu.be/LzdoMQL_jR8

Is Alan Eakien one of the most underrated teen nerds of cinema? I say yes. That kid may have been dumber than rocks compared to his genius brothers, but he negotiated circles around Shoop. In exchange for a slightly-above-half-assed effort from less than half of the original class roster*, Shoop’s couch was set on fire, his goldfish murdered and car wrecked, bookending that whole going to jail for the two D-bags thing. Things could have been considerably worse, too, because Robin could have tried to get him banned from teaching for the rest of his life for allowing a female student to live with him.

But ultimately Shoop sacrificed so much for the sake of helping a few of his students learn some lessons about life, since they didn’t all pass their exams. Is he a good teacher for that or was he just an idiot being taken advantage of by other idiots? Especially idiots who looked like this:

Being an idiot isn’t all that bad, so long as you’re not a total idiot.

https://youtu.be/8fvhchY0UmY

Hey, in the end, some of those kids passed their exams, and the most important of them all was Pam, because that meant she could move on and not try to make it so Shoop returned to jail. This guy went from being just a run-of-the-mill bro’s bro gym teacher to making an impact in the lives of some kids who looked like they were grown adults. Sure, he couldn’t even talk a 17-year old out of stripping, and he allowed some of his students to treat the foreign exchange student like a sex model, but Freddy Shoop probably learned more than anyone.

Also, he totally stole the douchebag Vice Principal’s girlfriend, and Wonder Mutt found Bobby again in the end, so this really was a movie with a beautiful and happy ending.

[hopeaterart]

CHRONICLES FROM REDWOOD: Citizens part 4

Chronicles From Redwood is currently a work-in-progress, and this is the last post about the cast! I hope. Despite the stories focusing on the girl's attempts at juggling their personal issues, school life and dealing with ghosts, Redwood is still very important in being it's setting: this is their home. As Redwood is a small town, they know a lot of the people who live there beyond their families. Personally, I'd love to explore most of these characters in stories separated from the girls. This particular post is about some of the other teenagers and kids around town, and how they're related to the girls. As always, feel free to ask questions about it!

Natsuko Yukimori is an older student at the Institute. She's part of a tutoring program as one of the tutors, and her giving academic advice to the girls slowly shifted into giving plain old advice. She doesn't really mind: the girls use weird metaphors for the ghost problems, so she thinks they have very hilarious but severe problems.

While Valkyrie's social circle more or less collapsed when she first came out, her closest friends stayed and she still hangs out with them a lot outside of school. There's the kind and mature Kotaro Yukimori, the wimpy and dorky Cedar Hawthorne, and the loud and abrasive Storm Sorrow.

Makoto and Ichigo Masayoshi are Yui's older and younger brothers respectively. Makoto is a high school dropout who's suffering from severe depression after burning out spectacularly, and Ichigo is a cheerful child with a passion for space. Being there for her brothers- since their parents certainly aren't- is one of the multiple stressors Yui has to deal with.

Parisa Abdi is Afeda's younger sister by two years. Unlike her sister, she's very mindful of the assumptions people make about her and doesn't know how to deal with them. Afeda just told her to do what she thought was right, and that's the advice that made her feel better. She looks up to her older sister a lot.

Yu-Jun Callistro is Shin-Hye's toddler half-sister that her mom had with her long term boyfriend. She thinks that Shin-Hye is the coolest person ever, and wants to be just like her when she grows up! On her part, Shin-Hye thinks her younger sister is adorable, even if the age gap makes things a bit awkward.

Glimmer used to be part of a different group of girls, but had a falling out with them during the summer before the beginning of the first story. Which is probably a good thing, seeing as they were a bad influence on her by worsening her need for attention to harmful levels. Jessica Duong is essentially a social delinquent, and while Paige Sherwood doesn't really mean any harm, she still causes it.

Noori Sari is a nice boy who spends most of his free time at the library. He and Dawn end up striking a quick friendship once they work up the courage to talk to one another. In fact, he's probably the only reason why Dawn still gets out of the house outside of necessity.

Lyric currently lives in a foster home, alongside 6 other kids. From oldest to youngest, we have: Ivan Dimitrije Sokolovosky (I.D. for short) lost his parents in the same gruesome incident that destroyed his vocal chords. Bryan and Cassie Wood are twins who lived on the street for the longest time until they were put under Monique's care. Mia Allen ran away from her home in the big city and refuses to go back for reasons that were good enough for Monique when she asked. Chun Zhang's father is unable to support him due to a severe illness, and no one else was able or willing to step in. Ariel Borsellino's parents were severely neglectful, and he's staying with Mrs Castle until a more suitable situation is found. I.D. currently works as a freelance artist- mainly commission work-, and the rest are still going to school. Lyric's age is in-between the Wood twins and Mia.

One of Fred's favorite sport is skateboarding, so it's natural that she made friends while doing it. Mateo Viotto is the confident sort, not minding what people think of him as he's having fun. Hugh Whitlock gives off a pretty intimidating vibe, but he means well.

[seawolvesanddragons]

Merlin Short - The Youtuber AU

Alright, to start with, Gwaine [Username: AngrIrishman] mostly does prank videos; his is primarily a comedy channel. It starts off as in the moment pranks (probably while he is uni). As he gains more followers and grows more confident he starts doing a few sketches, usually the same characters in different scenarios (the series “drunk Irishman confused by British things is the number one favourite.) After a semester or two he drops out of uni, deciding it isn’t for him and he was only following family pressure, and he wants to do follow this youtube idea. He mostly pranks friends and family, all harmless stuff. After he meets Merlin he does a good deal of his pranks on him, but Elyan and Percival show up the mst as his victims (or partners in crime) since he’s lived with them both. He’s always willing to help out his friends with their videos, and often appears in Percival’s gaming competitions. Occasionally, for when Gwaine wants to address something serious or do a straight video of something bothering him, he has a series of “what’s aleing me today” where he talks about the serious stuff under the guise of drinking. His is one of the bigger youtube stars and his fame only skyrockets after he meets the others.  Percival [AllTankedUp] started in youtube as just responding to some of the more ridiculous challenges (planking, cinnamon challenge, parkour, etc) but ended up accidentally setting a ton of records. He started getting a lot of followers suggesting more challenges for him to do. After a year or two he began  

uploading video game run throughs after he purchased a video game and streamed playing it, not expecting anything big to come of it. The first video ending up trending for a few hours and requests came pouring in. However his biggest project, and the one he is most proud of and best known for, comes along in year three, after he met Elyan. They began recreating live action versions of video games, giant board games, etc. The internet fucking loses it over these videos. Most of them are endearingly low budget - the first is a live action super mario, where they had set up mushrooms and platforms in the park and a plushie princess peach is the prize. Elyan did MATH for this, guys.  Percival has to do exactly what Elyan tells him to do when Elyan holds the “controller” and vice versa. The video is ten minutes long and mostly consists of them falling over. Percy barely wins in the end, but he holds the plushie up all proud, looking adorable. By the next day they have over a hundred subscribers asking for more. Some of the live actions are HUGE events, brining in all of Percy’s friends and acquaintances and even family members but that’s usually only once a year. Typically, it’s no more than Percy, Elyan, and Gwaine or Leon or Merlin. Elyan helps out a lot with most of the recreations, but Percival came up with the idea and is the driving force behind it. He also has a side channel for workout videos after 2 1/2 years of requests, where he posts irregular updates. Elyan [Elyuminati] gets pulled into youtube by Gwen, and starts out as the occasional guest star in her vlogs, before submitting the odd vlog video himself, usually just him ranting about whatever in his life is annoying him at the time. It was meant to just be a way to let off steam, he didn’t expect anyone to watch them, but Elyan has a certain kind of odd charm and humor that attracts a humble but loyal following. During his gap year he travels around Europe and posts a lot of video diaries as a way of keeping in touch with Gwen, and it steadily improves over time. He starts doing “day in the life of” or “creepy ghost tour” or just sharing crazy stories about his travels. Elyan’s not a bad artist, so he’ll sometimes recreate brief sketches of the crazy stuff that happened to him while narrating what is going on. After his gap year (which almost turned into two) he returned to the UK and ended up rooming with Percy, who he knew from youtube, and started getting a degree in maths. His channel with Percy to do live action games took off, and he ended up being offered a job at a radio station after a year or so. The radio felt he had a personality that worked over radio just as well as camera. His radio show has a little bit of everything in it: acting as a voice of the millennial people, sharing whatever crazy thing happened to him that week, traveling and reviewing places and (his latest obsessions) weird news stories and conspiracies. (Leon and Gwaine could be blamed for the last one.) He doesn’t post as much except for the game videos or guest starring in others, since’s he’s busy with his radio show, but he will occasionally do a vlog session now and again, usually on his theories on conspiracies, game of thrones, and why the cosmos hates him enough to stick him with Gwaine. Leon [GiantRedGnomes], unlike Percy and Elyan, actually means to start a youtube channel. He starts off with gaming videos, including a dramatic series of the SIMS that everyone gets a little too invested in. However Leon is very conscious of the good that youtube can do, and so he also starts doing more educational style videos with fun animation. His main topics are history (but the fun kind, he focuses a lot on the weird parts of European history that no one ever talks about) space and alien life, etc. He also reviews a lot of popular tv shows and movies and shares his thoughts, opinions, and predictions for them as well as how the nerdier stuff checks out. Being the gentleman that he is, he typically tries to post both spoiler and non spoiler versions. He and Merlin start a Dnd series where they do short campaigns with different members of their friend group and other willing youtube stars. Lancelot [Lancephew], like Leon, does youtube “for the greater good.” He started youtube in high school as a project to bring “truly great people” into the spotlight by interviewing the people in his town about amazing things they had done in their lives, and he still tries to post videos like that whenever he can. Half of his videos are him taking news stories, politics, economic theories, etc and explaining it in layman’s terms for the average viewer. He shares his own opinions in the video as well. During college Lancelot started adding a musical element to his interview stories, writing his own songs to bring into the background. This branched out into him writing instrumental music, which he often shares on youtube and itunes. Lancelot is currently doing a YouTube Red project in aide of a charity that is about small town civilians having to deal with a zombie dystopia in a realistic manner - asking questions such as “do we still have to pay for data?” “Can someone take my braces off.”) Also, he’s dating Gwen and they do really cute “ask us questions” and dating game videos that the internet loves. There are also several videos of his dog doing crazy things he manages to catch on film. Gwen [GwenSmash] is mostly a youtube vlogger, and she shares a little bit of everything. Her day to day life, sped up streams of the cosplay outfits she makes the group, sims and gaming videos, ask/advice videos, review videos, and stories in a series called “Growing up Gwen” where she shares moments of her childhood/teenage years having to deal with being the only girl in a household of guys, such as buying a bra, trying to find a video game character that is a female without exposed breasts, etc. After she gets to know all the guys better, she will share moments of being one of the few girls among many guys, and has no shame in calling them out. Half of her twitter is photos of the guys holding up a sign saying “I said/made *insert sexist remark here*.” She doesn’t really try to limit herself to one brand and just does all kinds of videos. She and Morgana are often work together/guest star in each other’s videos as flatmates and best friends.   Morgana [ExplodingSparkles] got into youtube during college at Gwen’s encouragement. She liked to create her own music mashups and Gwen starting encouraging her to share them on youtube. Nowadays, she and Lance will team up occasionally to do music together, and she has written a few of her own songs, all released on youtube/itunes. A LOT of her video vlogs are feminist, LGBTQA, and wealth inequality rants, typically following her having to talk to Uther. She as a popular series called “Ask Morgana” where she answers questions her subscribers ask her. The beginning/middle of her channel (when it was getting big) has a lot of anger and rant videos about everything wrong with the world. Morgana eventually grew out of her angry stage, and began discussing the issues from a healthier pov, such as how you can be an ally, etc. She also started doing a lot more comedy sketches, all written and directed by herself. Some of them just have her in it as multiple people, others have her and Gwen or other guest stars. Some of them are just sketches about funny moments in her life, but most are original content, such as “Smart Shakespeare in Five Minutes” where she acts out a sketch of Shakespeare’s plays where everything goes very differently, usually based on one character making a smarter decision. Arthur [KingCamelot] started doing youtube in his final year of boarding school, and for the first year or so he and Morgana both tried to hide the fact that they were doing youtube from each other, until one day Morgana stumbled across his channel after it was recommended after one of Gwen’s videos. This was over summer break and the result was her barging in during one of his vlogs, and the entire (loud and hilarious) conversation was caught on film. Arthur later uploaded it to youtube, and neither will admit it is one of their favourite videos. Arthur kept it in a vlog style during uni, sharing his thoughts on current events, challenge videos, his favourite books and tv shows, his daily life and his struggle with uni/the business degree his father wanted him to get. He ended up switching to film editing sophomore year after Morgana, Leon and other youtuber friends supported his ideas. While it made things rockier with his father, Arthur was much happier. Videos became much more frequently after that, and Arthur began to guest star in his friends videos as well. Arthur became a big name on youtube almost instantly, largely because of his good lucks and his notoriety as the son of a famous parliament member, but remained a big name through his own merit. About midway through his time at uni Arthur began to post videos about insightful topics about things that suggested he was starting to see the world a bit differently. After he graduated about 4 years ago, it started to turn into full blown advocacy and outreach videos raising awareness for social change. Of course, Arthur didn’t get to that point by himself. Enter Merlin, stage right. Merlin [MerlinTrixx] started youtube HIS final year of public schooling, about two years after Arthur. He started with just short simple vlogs and magic tricks that even professional magicians couldn’t figure out. He followed Gwen and Morgana and saw Arthur a few times in their videos or recommended suggestions. After picking up on Arthur’s rather one sided view of how wealth and poverty work he called him out on it in a private message. Arthur did NOT take it well. There began a video war where both boys passive aggressively mentioned the other. Before it got to far, however, they accidentally ended up meeting at a youtube convention. (Arthur was there to speak on a panel, Merlin went to learn editing tips). The recognized each other and ended up talking for the remaining two days of the convention and became fast friends. Gwen, who had known Merlin through uni for about a year now, had had no idea that Arthur and Merlin had been complaining to her for the past few months about each other and was ready to knock sense into both of them when she found out. After becoming friends, Arthur and Merlin began showing up in each other’s videos more. Merlin, who hated his roommates, began hanging around more at Arthur and Leon’s flat (they went to a different uni in the same city, but had moved off campus) instead of Gwen’s as much. By the end of sophomore year, Merlin had gained a decent number of followers and his channel consisted of vlogs, his magic tricks, him and Arthur hanging out and being weird, and sharing his vast and unparalled knowledge of all things fantasy and nerdy. He, Leon and Gwen get into the longest discussions when they do reviews together. Merlin takes some time off of school, still unsure what he wants to do beside youtube, and moves in with Arthur to split the rent. The videos continue in earnest, and views/followers for both boys continue to grow as they feed off of one another, make more compilation videos, and add more content. After a couple of years, more than half their followers are wondering if they are more than just flatmates, but they are keeping quiet on the matter. The both still have their own channel, which they update frequently, but they also have a shared channel where they do reviews of shows they both like, ask/challenge requests, gaming videos, a few prank videos - they got into a prank way with Percy, Elyan and Gwaine once. Morgana and Gwen somehow won. They also do a deep discussion on Arthurian legend and other mythos, in comedic style. They are known as the “Avalon Nine” - a nickname given to them by the internet after they learned they all knew each other and they frequently appear in each others videos now that they all live in the same city. Morgana and Gwen had met in boarding school, and are currently living together after Morgana moved back after Uni until Lancelot finally asks Gwen to marry him, which Morgana suspects will happen soon. Gwen met Merlin at their uni, the same city that Arthur and Leon were going to uni in. Arthur already knew Gwen through Morgana and they had hung out fairly often, which only increased after they both befriended Merlin. Merlin and Gwen both met Lancelot separately at youtube conventions, and thought it hilarious the day they found out they both knew him. Lancelot moved to the city after graduating uni. Elyan met everyone through Gwen and Morgana met everyone through Gwen and Arthur. Gwaine met Merlin at a convention and later Merlin recognized him auditing his film class for “free editing tips/ideas.” They became fast friends and Gwaine spent a few nights in Merlin’s dorm when his water or heat wouldn’t work. He moves in with Elyan when he comes back from his gap years. Lancelot and Percival, who knew each other prior to the rest of the group, lived with each other for a while before the landlord sold the building. Lance moved to a single while Percival moved in with Elyan and Gwaine. There have been a series of “who knows you better” challanges and games throughout the group, including ones based off of dating games, best friend games, and family games. Merlin and Arthur have won them ALL. Even against Lancelot and Gwen that one time. Leon shared in one of his videos that Arthur and Merlin are also banned from teaming up in charades, pictonary and catch phrase in the gaming videos because they are undefeatable and possible psychic.  Bonus:  Mordred is obviously much younger than the others (just now starting Uni while the others are in their mid to late twenties). So he grew up watching a lot of their earlier stuff and he just idolizes them. He somehow managed to befriend them through social media/convenstions and is a bit surprised he is actually on first name basis with these amazing, talented (giant dorks). He appears in their videos sometimes but is hesitant  to upload anything on his own channel for a long time, since it is harder to get started on youtube now than it was for his older friends. After some encouragement he uploads a few, and the whole  group advertises him since they all kind of adore him, he’s like a little brother. Unlike the others though, Mordred doesn’t vlog or do video games or reviews or anything. Oh no. His videos are all freestyle rapping/spoken word poetry. About whatever catches his fancy. The weirdest thing is they’re GOOD. Its at such odds with his personality but it is what it is. Gwaine has started a betting pool on when Mordred reaches 1,000 subscribers.  Cenred is a little asshole who does mean/staged prank videos and blogs full of sexist and racist remarks on youtube. The group hates him, half of youtube boy cots him and he has had several scandals.  Elena is a youtube they all know and are friendly with, but because she lives in Scotland they aren’t as close. She does a lot of gaming videos, embarrassing stories from her life, and videos about her horse.  Morgause is a powerful admin/part owner of youtube and constantly makes decisions that hurt most independent and creative youtubers. At one point she tried to flag coming out videos or videos with content/opinions she didn’t agree with. She also pressures them to do advertising and tampers with the recommended and trending list. The group pushes back against these regulations, and it turns into an all out war, where Gwaine, Merlin and Arthur are all nearly banned from youtube before Morguase is fired. 

[maiji]

Process and wip images for A House That Holds Long Limbs (Part 8)

Previous process and wip documentation: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Parts 6 and 7

Read the pages here: Part 8 (full complete version will be linked from YYH North Bound master post)

I personally love exploring character dynamics and character interaction! It's definitely what I tend to focus on in comics and stories. Plus you get to draw lots of closeups of people's faces and have a lot of fun with expressions. And that's what Part 8 is full of.

IN THIS EDITION, after the usual script and thumbnails, I'll take a bit of time to talk about expressions and characterization (my thoughts on Raizen and Hokushin specifically, but also some general thoughts on how I approach writing characters and character interactions). More details of some of the panels from part 8 so you can see the faces better!

Script and thumbnails

(If you look closely at the top of pg 2, you can see the page behind was where I started drawing my random dream sequence hahahah)

It’s always kind of funny to look back at the script and see my rushed typing (or texting on my phone, since I’m often doing this on mobile...) - odd typos and dangling/incomplete thoughts like ”my blodd” (lol).

Part 8 was one of the first sequences conceived in the development of this story. As a result, the script and the thumbnails both line up very closely to the final, because I’d already been thinking about it for so long and playing the scene out repeatedly in my head. I had a very concrete sense of how I wanted to direct it, unlike many of the action sequences from previous parts. The main areas I struggled with were historical details (the karaginu was originally labelled “tarp” in the script as a placeholder until I decided what it would be), and the biggest pagination change was probably moving Raizen’s “Maybe you just didn’t take enough off lol!” to the previous page so that Hokushin’s (literal) punchline would be at the beginning of the next.

Expressions

I have a huuuuge soft spot for subtle expressions - the kind where just a bit of extra line or texture around the eyes or the mouth, plus the dialogue or context of the scene, adds nuance to an expression. Especially ones that otherwise can read as relatively neutral. Even a very simple expression that’s just dots for eyes and straight lines for the upper/lower lids and eyebrows can have a lot of variation in how you interpret them, simply based on context and slight adjustments. Here are some examples with Raizen, where his face is super basic:

A: pretending nothing is wrong, calmly answering question

B: pleased with self for being smart - clearly a happer expression than A

C: similar to A, chillaxing and answering question

D: no big smiling mouth so he looks more like he’s focused on intensely sniffing the air

E: same as B basically, but a bigger smile of “everything’s fine!” (when you read the text)

F: extra thickness for his upper lid gives the sense that he’s in the middle of his casual sexy/chivalrous how ya doin’ expression

G: ... which changes in this panel to be more a realization (“oh shit I’m on fire”)

Actually, Raizen and Hokushin are both pretty difficult face types for me, being more “mature” looking male faces with stronger features/jawlines and narrower eyes. Hokushin especially has been challenging because his design has really low eyebrows which result in a default glare. Togashi still manages to make him fairly expressive and not look like he's glowering all the time. With my more limited art skill and lack of confidence, I tend to soften his expressions by really laying on the top line of his eye (this sounds like I'm putting mascara on him or something lmao), and also adjusting the size of his pupils (within reason or it starts to look even less like how I draw him normally, which is a big problem since his shaved head is a defining aspect of his series character design so he already looks pretty different). Here are some comparisons of his face - bearing in mind I had to keep his eyes wide open because of the seals in the story:   

A: crying/relief

B: this one here is supposed to be a bit miserable/self-loathing because he really didn’t think Raizen was going to look for him

C: shock, unexpected

D: thinking + “ugh plan B”

E: worried/apologetic and then “OOF/URK”

F and G: a progression to show the differences in rendering the eye. First is a bit angry because he’s realizing where all the blood for the seals came from, then he notices Raizen’s hands, and G is that example of softened expression (more lines on the top eye, larger pupil) to show how bad he feels about Raizen’s injury. 

One last thought on expressions. They can easily lose their nuance when inking (the slightest shift to a line can change the expression completely), and especially for someone like me who has unsteady hands it can be a bit of a nightmare. The nice thing about ballpoints is that they can retain a bit of the pencil sketch quality, which helped me freak out less when inking the last page with Hokushin’s glare. Here’s a comparison of the progress:

Though this particular expression isn’t that subtle, you can still see some differences as the drawing gets built up. When the pencil lines are gone and the drawing gets rendered in bw only, a lot of shading is lost. The messy lines can be interpreted more flexibly by your brain since they’re less defined and you haven’t “committed”, so the final version looks and feels less expressive. (This is why a lot of artists prefer their sketches to the finished piece, myself included...) Characterization This will get very specific to this comic, obviously, but hopefully my approach (and biases haha) will come through. With something like a fancomic, there are obviously existing expectations around the characters, but the benefit of working with these guys is that they’re not as prominent in the story or the fandom, so I feel more comfortable playing around and filling in the gaps. (This is probably why I like minor characters so much.)

In the case of Raizen and Hokushin, we know these two have a close relationship and history only through assumption and insinuation. We never see them interacting directly in the series at all. Actually, we don't see Raizen interact with anyone except Yusuke in non-flashback sequences (aside from the kudakusushi. In the anime, more scenes were added with his estranged friends, mostly their fond memories of him beating them up lmao). But it's very clear that they're extremely important to each other. Hokushin obviously speaks of his king in an exceedingly respectful fashion. Meanwhile, Hokushin is actually the last name Raizen says before he dies - his second last line, to Yusuke, is "Take care of Hokushin and the others" - or in my Taiwanese edition, "I leave Hokushin and the others to you". (Lol “the others”. Also I need to draw a comic about this at some point.) Despite this zero actual interaction, it's still extremely easy to imagine it because their characters are so clearly defined. In fact, they're both such consistent archetypes with enough particular quirks that they practically write themselves. So it wasn't difficult to extrapolate and imagine much younger versions of them, and how they may have interacted if they had only just met, which is the foundation of North Bound. Archetypes and stereotypes walk a fine line together, but they do serve as really useful building blocks for sketching characters quickly. This is why I really enjoy symbolic systems like astrology (or some of the the modern incarnations - personality assessment frameworks) because of all the character sketching it helps you do really quickly. Astrology in particular because, without even caring about birth dates or charts or whether astrology is "real" or not, the basic idea of a sign and its bucket of traits and symbols is simply a great resource when you want fleshed out character archetypes to build off of. I talked a bit about this in my Lenormand post, but I think of zodiac signs as one of the many games humans have developed in our attempts to categorize our world into recognizable patterns, and since we've been at it for thousands of years, there's a wealth of reference material, scenarios, analyses not only of the individual archetypes, but for all sorts of combinations and relationships. Some of it very well-thought out, and some of it just lots of fun to read. For my purposes, applying this to North Bound, Raizen is basically a Leo. He's dramatic, positive, powerful, passionate, a straight-shooter. Not only does he embody its main traits, he's literally a king (or eventually one in this story, I guess). And he even has a mane, for crying out loud. Meanwhile, Hokushin is a solid depiction of a quintessential Virgo - hardworking, practical, analytical, stoic, kind - and literally the loyal servant that typifies the Virgo paradigm. The Leo/Virgo duo is a classic partnership, and at the point where we meet them in the series, the relationship we can see has stabilized to exactly that. At the same time, there's tons of potential for a hilarious dynamic as well, especially imagining how they got to that point. (If you wanna have a laugh, look up some analyses of Leo and Virgo relationships and you'll see what I mean.) His freakouts next to Raizen's "hahhaa everything's fine!" carry most of the humour (similar to how his freakout at Yusuke's vandalism of the rurimaru stones carried a ton of the humour in that episode lol). Obviously there are other things that further finetune their characters so that they're more than bland cookie cutter personalities (Raizen's deep thinking about the future of the Demon World, for example, and Hokushin's sense of humour and appreciation/enjoyment of fighting), but in broad brushstrokes, these archetypes work incredibly well, and make it so easy to come up with scenarios and write interaction to the point that I'm now ridiculously behind in actually turning them into comics ahhhhh...

[the-galactic-pretty-boy]

ALL OF EM FOR INDUSTRIAL 👏

How many children does your character have? How many would they ideally WANT?The good boi has split spark twins right now, but I could see Industrial wanting more sometime in the future!

How did the children become a part of the family? Were they born into it? Adopted? Somehow else? Talk about the journey! :DIndustrial became sparked through @thejapanesemapletree oc Lightningstrike! Two smol dancers learning to love themselves through the other. The first time Industrial could have been sparked was avoided for fear of them being inexperienced, but this time was planned. They just didn’t expect it to happen so fast. The spark split not long into conception, and it became obvious Industrial was carryin for two, lol.

What kind of a parent is the character? Does their own idea match that? Do they think they are a good parent? What are some of their insecurities as a parent? How about their partner?Industrial tries his best, and is very empathetic and sweet to his kids. He supports them in everything that they do, and tries not to blame himself for the problems they have. Industrial is mostly afraid that since his girls do such outlandish things, they might get hurt. Lightningstrike adores them as well, and is mostly stressed by shenanigans.

What are the meanings behind the children’s names, if they DO have meanings? Were they named after someone?Thunderclap was the first to emerge, and her name is a play on her coder’s. Dreamscape was second, and was named to have big dreams. Industrial hoped that with strong names, his girls would become confident and strong as well. One of them did, lol. Dreamscape learns to get over her shyness in the future.

What do the children call their parents?Industrial is Carrier, and Lightningstrike is coder!

Talk about the children! What do they look like? What are their personalities like?Dreamscape and Thunderclap looked identical up until they really started to part ways with their career. Sleek black paint like their carrier, and rainbow biolights and glowy bits adorn their armor- as well as their carrier’s trademark helm ears. Their alts are mopeds tho(Dreamscape upgrades to a motorcycle later), and Dreamscape get’s yellow racing stripes in the future. Thunderclap is an artist, and ends up leaving the paint splatters she gets on her armor, giving her a very *Artsy* look.Dreamscape is super shy, and has a constant stutter. She seems very sweet and kind, but ends up being a daredevil. Wants to ramp and race like Coder once wanted to. Thunderclap is mouthy and huffy. She acts aloof and unkind, and like she doesn’t care, but she actually does. Since Dreamscape favors Lightningstrike, she favors Industrial, and often get’s mouthy with Lightningstrike. Only for lack of understanding. Their relationship changes as she gets older and it becomes apparent that she’s colorblind, and that the colors of her painting’s were not intentionally done with those tones.

The children’s first words?Dreamscape: “C-c-coder!”Thunderclap: “… Fool.”

What are some of the character’s favorite memories from their kids’ childhoods?Lightningstrike was very proud the day Dreamscape told him she wanted to ramp things. Proud and terrified. It’s not a young memory, but Industrial remembers the day Lightningstrike and Thunderclap’s relationship finally melded. He holds it dear to his spark.

What are some of the character’s favorite things to do with their children?Industrial’s is dance! Lightningstrike’s is race or draw(both kids respectively. He did used to be an artist)

What about the CHILDREN’S favorite things to do with their parents? :D This isn’t necessarily the same thing!Dreamscape really enjoys it when Lightningstrike takes her to Velocitron! Once everyone stops staring at her, she really enjoys watching everyone race!Thunderclap likes to go to art galleries, and loves it even more when her parents come along. Not that she WANTS you here! Primus Coder, you’re so clingy!!!

What’s playtime like? What kind of games does the character tend to play with the children? Are they GOOD at it? :DTag was a big one as kids(Dreamscape always won), but Thunderclap has an appreciation for cardgames, and Industrial may not be very good, but he always manages to rope everyone into playing.

Does the character (or their partner, or BOTH) have some mutual hobbies or pastimes with the children that aren’t strictly playing? Like some crafts or sports that they share and have fun with?As aforementioned, racing and art. Dancing is also one, but Lightningstrike and Industrial usually just dance with each other. Industrial can’t race because he’s a turntable. lol

Does the character have any meaningful items they pass on to their children? Like an old toy, or a piece of jewelry, or some other family heirloom?Not really.

What are some of the skills or things the character teaches to their children? Some family traditions, or particularly important life lessons? How about their partner?Well, the whole reason Dreamscape admits she wants to do daredevily things is because Lightningstrike was bragging about how when he was younger, he would have loved to ramp that gap. No sir! Not anymore! He has his gorls to worr- Oh. You want to do that?Industrial tries to teach his kids to be confident in their abilities, and to not rely on others for justification. He himself used to be so dependent on that that it wasn’t healthy. He doesn’t want that for his gorls.

Is there a toy/book/game the character is almost as excited about as the child (or even MORE so than the child? :D)Maybe cards? Industrial always learns so much!

Sleep time! Talk about the sleeping arrangements and rituals of the family through the years!Industrial has a nest of pillows on his berth, and Lightningstrike has become used to nesting with his nightlight love. Them biolight’s dim and brighten with Industrial’s sparkbeat lol. But that comforts Lightningstrike.Thunderclap insists that her and her sister sleep apart, but they usually end up in the same bed, lol.

Talk about what happens when a child gets sick.NYOOM TO FAIRWAY. PANIC!!!

Talk about a time when the children did or said something that was both hilarious and definitely embarrassing for the parents!One time, at a Velocitronian event, Thunderclap was watching a bots poor attempts at picking up her coder, and she just pointed at the bot and said, “Ah. You don’t understand ‘no’?” Industrial was mortified and proud.

Talk about a time the children scared their parents.Dreamscape ramped off of something she wasn’t supposed to and got stuck up high on a pole. Lightningstrike was using Mica(She’s a microphone) to tell the poor little thing everything would be alright, but secretly, he was terrified.

Talk about a time the children made their parents very proud.Thunderclap goes through a phase after learning she’s colorblind where she tries to use the “right” colors to pain, and hates it. But, as an artist, and for her livelihood, she can’t be picky. Industrial and Dreamscape try to tell her that if she doesn’t enjoy it, she shouldn’t do it, but it takes a huge fight with Lightningstrike for Thunderclap to realize how much he understands, and that she shouldn’t change her art just because it’s not “correct” to other people. Lightningstrike and co were very proud of her when she started painting the way she loved again.

Talk about a time when the children got into trouble!Dreamscape is a stage fright ornery. She wants to race. She wants to go fast! Problem is, she’s a two wheeler. Faking her parents signature, she goes to Knockout and has him do an engine overclock, as well as frame re haul to change her altmode to something faster. Despite knowing the note is fake, he does it anyway, and tells her not to expect him to protect her from her creators lol. When she get’s home, Thunderclap knows immediately what she’s done, and tattles because she’s afraid of Dreamscape doing things that could hurt her. In turn, this spoops Lightningstrike, because when he heard that Dreamscape had surgery, he thought that maybe she had been removing parts. She hadn’t, but she still got in double trouble, lol.

What kind of people do the children grow up to be? What do they do?Thunderclap is an artist who uses her platform to bring to light frame abuse/racism, as well as other social issues on cybertron. Dreamscape becomes a stunt bike and racer! Nyoomin of with Wildbreak and the Stunticon’s for a while!

Snapshot! Describe a scene or a full day from the family’s life. It could be anything from a normal daily routine, or some special day and what happened that day. ^u^Dreamscape sitting as still as she can while Thunderclap uses her as a model for a new piece, avoiding Industrial’s questions and yelling at Lightningstrike for trying to critique.

Has having children changed the character? How?Industrial has become more confident in himself since having the twins, and the insults he faces from Velocitronian press rolls off him more easily now. They’re his precios gorls, and nothing can dampen his mood.

Wildcard! Share at least three of your favorite headcanons about the character and their children!Industrial has glass over his spark, so everyone can see the new sparks pulsing there when they first form. It’s not obvious they’re split because Dreamscape was hiding behind her sister, lol.Dreamscape overcomes her stage fright the more she races, but doesn’t lose her stutter. Eventually, she comes back to Velocitron, and shows the bots there exactly what a two wheeler is capable of.Thunderclap has a habit of just plopping herself down in her coders lap after the two’s relationship mend. Just sits there and listens to his sparkbeat, not saying anything. Lightningstrike is too afraid if he says something, she’ll leave. lol

[sartle-blog]

GUEST POST| They Fought The Law and Their Art Won (Part 1) with The Scéal

This just in: Sartle makes new friends! 

Amelia, Victoria, and Susan make up the magnetic trio behind the always fascinating transatlantic website, The Scéal (pronounced shh-kale—we had trouble with that as well). Based in both Scotland and New York, The Scéal tells the hilarious, strange, and often mysterious stories at the intersection of art, fashion, and film. In their own words, they're "as poetic as a Drake meme, as brash as Rizzo in Grease, as conscientious as Leonardo Di Caprio in real life, all with the charm of Liz Lemon." Basically, our kindred spirits.

We hope you enjoy their unique brand of historical banter as much as we do. You can head over to their site at www.thesceal.com to peep some more of the often overlooked facts regarding subjects like Michelle Pfeiffer, Mean Girls, and of course, the timeless fashion of Frida Kahlo. Without further ado—

They Fought The Law and Their Art Won (Part 1)

Charles Manson may have the crown for popular culture’s favorite serial killer but he is mainly spoken of with condemnation, anger or amazement (not the good kind). His ‘Manson family’ had all fallen under the spell of the troubled ex-convict turned cult leader, which led to them committing several murders throughout July-August 1969. Manson was sentenced and imprisoned in 1971, and remained there until his death late last year.

In 2015 his alleged son Matthew Roberts turned the Charles Manson criminal case into a performance art piece at Los Angeles’ Vector Gallery. Roberts played the role of Manson, performing his trial for gallery attendees who took the role of a quasi-jury. It sounds uncomfortable, a steroids induced performance of a Cats in the Cradle father-son relationship, and it swam in murky ethical waters. But as the ‘artist’ Roberts was only acting the criminal in this scenario, posing new interpretations of Manson’s innocence and walking away relatively unscathed (mentally though, I doubt it). What would we now think of seeing Charles Manson’s artworks on the gallery walls? What if Manson was the one producing performance art in the contemporary art gallery? What if he was an untapped well of artistic talent, the greatest painter of our time?

It’s doubtful that we’d treat him with the same respect, appreciation and enjoyment we have when, say, seeing a painting by Caravaggio. Yet, Caravaggio was far from an innocent lamb with eight crimes under his belt before his early death at barely 40 years old. So why do we forgive his criminal biography, praise his genius and romanticize his mysterious past? How also would you treat an artist who you knew was a thief, stealing invaluable national treasures? Enter, Picasso. Here we delve into the darker side of art in part one of our series They Fought The Law and Their Art Won.

Caravaggio: Artichokes and Murder

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) epitomized the fame and power bestowed upon talented artists in Baroque Italy. As he gained the patronage of the powerful figures of Rome, he became one of the most sought out artists of his time. His paintings are renowned for his ability to render emotional depth, light and naturalism. But his place in art history is amplified by his personal life, earning himself the titles “...notorious bad boy…”, “the master of darkness” and that’s all just from one art historian, Gilles Lambert’s Caravaggio, my new favorite book. The gaps in his biography, especially in his early training and youth, are balanced with the sensational details of his sudden rise to fame and wealth when he started working in Rome. From dabbling in smaller criminal charges, to murder, we see Caravaggio steadily declining into a life of criminality - one that even his Vatican patrons couldn't pull him out of.

  In 1595, Cardinal Francesco del Monte saw The Big C’s potential and adopted him into his household, helping him to gain several public commissions. Prior to this Caravaggio had been selling his paintings on the streets of Rome trying to make a living from his talent. Thrown into his new circumstances he was given plenty of opportunities to paint and experience the virtues and vices of Baroque Rome. It also meant that he had exclusive access to some of the most powerful men in Rome, with his works being greedily snatched into the private art collections of cardinals and patrons.

The Cardsharps by Caravaggio in Kimbell Art Museum

He was stuck flip-flopping between approval and disapproval; in one instance painting the prominent, religious commission for the Vatican at St. Peter’s (below), which was then removed by the church and offered up for sale (bought later by Cardinal Scipione Borghese).

Madonna and Child with St. Anne (Dei Palafrenieri) by Caravaggio in the Borghese Gallery

From 1600 to 1606 he had commissions out the whazoo, but also seriously flirted with crime and the law courts. He was saved from sentencing in these early instances by his patrons, the Marchese Giustiniani and also a handful of cardinals. This seemingly never-ending and public battle that he had with the law meant that the Vatican knew full well of his criminal doings. His relationship with the church would have been further exacerbated when he assaulted a Vatican official in 1605. Surely someone in the Vatican had heard the saying “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”?

  Some of Caravaggio's crimes included possessing a weapon without a license, street fighting and throwing artichokes at a waiter. The latter is potentially understandable if they were undercooked, or under-seasoned and he’s hardly the only artist who appreciated their food. But from 1598 the crimes he committed grew in severity and frequency, from escaping prison after murdering a sergeant to a second murder charge. This lead to him fleeing to Malta and Sicily in 1606. His moral compass was askew but rather than send his career into tatters he continued to work successfully. His paintings even benefited from his changing attitude to life and mortality. After it was announced on 31 May 1606 that Caravaggio was sentenced to death, the cities and countries that he fled to readily took him in and he continued to produce some of his most expressive works, such as David With the Head of Goliath from around 1610.

David With the Head of Goliath by Caravaggio in the Borghese Gallery

Even now Caravaggio’s paintings have been recognized for his talent and his biography always swirling with intrigue and mystery. With two films based on his life and numerous novels and historical texts, we are still fascinated by this man who could barely balance his brilliant abilities in art with a frenzied life of power, privilege and criminality. If he was alive today he’d be on the headlines of the Daily Mail every weekend, but would we still love him as much as we do now and would we still worship his paintings?

  Picasso: Thief (?)

Picture now, Pablo Picasso: Cubist hero, poster boy of pushing the boundaries of modern art, peace campaigner, collector of muses, all round great guy - right? What if he was, instead, just a lousy little thief? At one stage, that’s exactly what the French judicial system thought of him. Let’s take a look at Pilferer Pablo’s rap sheet.

What follows is a crime story that sounds more like BBC prime time viewing than an actual case of art theft. On the morning of 21 August 1911, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was stolen from The Louvre. Don’t know enough about Mona Lisa? Let Will.I.Am enlighten you. In a hilarious case of staff miscommunication the guards had assumed that the painting had been removed by another staff member. This is why Slack was invented. When they discovered the frame in the service stairway they suddenly realized their error - so the crime wasn't reported until the following day. The police were at a loss as they had little leads and little clues. It wasn't until the newspaper The Paris Journal received an anonymous tip-off from the con-man Honoré Joseph Géry Pieret who the paper labeled ‘The Thief’ in their articles, that the case gained momentum. Pieret and the journal whipped up a media frenzy, as visitors were queuing to simply see the gap left where Mona Lisa used to be, and he eventually implicated the poet Guillame Apollinaire in the crime. The police arrested Apollinaire in September and during his questioning he admitted that Pieret was indeed a thief and had sold statues stolen from the Louvre to none other than (*drum roll*) Pablo Picasso.

  The police files of the time show how Picasso had already been on the radar of French officials as far back as 1901. This was originally due to his association with Pere Mañach, Spanish art dealer by day and an anarchist by night. The French police had kept Picasso and Mañach under surveillance for several years, as discussed in the New York Times’ ‘Picasso in Paris…’ (my recommended read of the day FYI). Anarchist or no, the evidence for his only crime was all located in Picasso’s flat; he most certainly had two pre-Roman statuette heads stolen from the Louvre in 1907. So although he was innocent in the case of the missing Smiley Mona he was nevertheless a criminal. However, his art did not suffer - in fact it had benefited from his possession of stolen museum goods. The statuette heads served as the inspiration for his Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907.

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Pablo Picasso in the Museum of Modern Art

Abandoning the historical approach to the human form, Picasso’s Les Demoiselles depicts five nude women composed of bold lines, flattened shapes and dismantles all assumptions about how to portray the female figure. It is now considered one of the most influential works of modern art. I’ve always loved Picasso for his versatility, some of his earlier works are brilliant studies of draftsmanship and his talent in studying the academic tradition. To find out that some of his most revolutionary works existed because of a crime surely lessens their impact, right? The MOMA, New York has this painting in their collection, yet in their gallery label no mention is made of how Picasso’s inspirations were a product of a crime. Surely we should talk about this more?

 Picasso’s crimes, although only by association, did not dissuade the art world from collecting and embracing his works. Similar to Caravaggio, his genius has trumped his run-ins with the law. In both cases their artworks benefited from their criminal activity - be it through continued patronage, or new sources of inspiration. They weren't the last artists to dabble on the dark side, though, as we find out in our next post: Dissidence and Charges Against Morality. Coming soon.

By Amelia Rowland

Reposted with permission from The Scéal by Rose

By: Rose Cannon

[its-a-queer-thing]

Gallavich fics list

Soo I said that I wanna share my favorite (so far) Gallavich fics. I tried to choose them quickly but ended up with 55 opened AO3 pages at 3 am, reading some reeeally filthy smut…. but finally here I am :D These fics are listed in no particular order (except maybe first two) because they are all amazing. A few things at first: I read smut (don’t we all? ^^). There are almost none G-rated fics in my list. Some of them are pure smut but like…very good smut :D I also like a good slow burn, so prepare to suffer while reading.   And this is the list of MY favorites, I’m not telling these are the best in the fandom, there are so much more wonderful fics. Go find your favorite! ;D  (And I will be just extremely happy, if someone tells me their thoughts, opinions about those fics after reading, or suggests other works, or anything!) Ok enough blah blah.

Waiting on My Own Too Long Series by Ride4812  One More Night Something More This Time No More Lonely Nights This is my absolute favorite thing, after-prison future fic. This is just perfect. These three big fics deal with all the issues that could possibly happen, when you meet the love of your life after an 8 years break-up. What I love about it, that it’s all in character and realistic, not just “let’s hug\fuck and forget about everything“ thing. It deals with lack of trust after betrayal, bipolar thing, Yev, Gallaghers not liking Mickey, Yev growing up and asking questions and everything else. Nnnnice.

The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Ian Gallagher by Shamelessquestions (KagekitsuneXXX) This is my second absolute favorite. I don’t usually like AUs… but this is so good! It’s not for nothing that this author wrote the first and the second (and the fourth :D) highest kudo-rated fics in the fandom (talking about AO3 only). This is so interesting to read, such a good quality of EVERYTHING, so surprisingly in character despite the AU! And I loved that we get to see all the Milkovich siblings in action. So many great new characters, everybody is soo charismatic. It’s like I’ve read an entire new series! I’m just really passionate about this fic sorry x)

Proof by pink_ink That’s my favorite “canon smut”, it shows all the offscreen relationship development and fills all the sex scene gaps till Frank’s invasion. That’s so canon you wanna cry when you read it. 

The New Year Series by LanJevinson The New Year Bird Set Free  A very nice after-prison future fic. 8 years are taken away from Mickey’s life. The second part explores what Mickey had to deal with in prison. There are many dark moments.

Friends by zankiefanatic

Gallavich deals with all the possible life problems that you can have from 5 to 50 years of age. The fic is not complete yet, maybe we will see them in their eighties :D

Mandy in the Middle by Shamelessquestions (KagekitsuneXXX)

I suggest to check out all the Domestic Bliss series by this author. 

“Look, he’s a really nice guy…” Pete warmed into presenting his case. Again, Mandy shut it down immediately. “He’s the absolute sweetest, but he will also crack open your chest, rip out your still beating heart and present it to my brother in some kind of weird form of foreplay. Seriously, do not go down this road, Pete.”

The Miseducation of Derek Hill by Shamelessquestions (KagekitsuneXXX)  A hilarious domestic future fic, jealousy issues.  

Boy In The Box by Mellow_Yellow An unexpected and sometimes really dark plot, AU. The Milkovich family centered.

Show Me, Baby by Ride4812  Not so lately finished AU with age difference (Ian is older here). That’s everything that young Mickey deserves…

Minute by pink_ink It’s not even explicit written but such a sexual small thing. I just love how this author always makes you almost physically feel written sentences.

Restoration by pink_ink Long slow burn AU by the same author as above. <3

Life, or Something by pink_ink   Long slow burn AU by the same author as above but dark.

Our Stubborn Love by TheWaywardBride  Great after-prison future fic. I like how differently Gallaghers react to Mickey’s return here, very in characters.

Is There Somewhere by andchaos Soulmate AU which I usually don’t like but this one is so good! This is just amazing how the author managed to make Ian mute (not a spoiler, it’s written in the description) but still a chatty puppy as he is. 

First Day of My Life by Ride4812  A post 7x11 fic. Mickey didn’t break out of prison, he’s an agent now, it was all a test. I’ve seen many people on Tumblr speculating about that. 

The Sex They Should Have Shown by Ride4812 Everything is in the name.

coup de foudre by Ride4812 I think this is the 7th fic by this author in my list. That should say something. Thank you, wonderful person!

Give Me Love by zankiefanatic Just a really nice and hot Artist\Model AU.

dried ink by orphan_account   A future after-prison fic. Sloooow burn. A lot of feels. So good!

On Ice by ElfyDwarf Ice-skating AU I didn’t know I needed. Many great original characters, great humor, really hot smut. Mickey deserves it so much!

The Casanova Catering Conflict by horror_business  Another great AU, a really hot slow burn. A lot of food descriptions, do not read while hungry ^^

Closer by ElfyDwarf  Do you like smut as much as I do? This is the smut of the smuts. I think I teared up a little bit while reading.

Good Vibrations by Lockmyheart  This is just wow. (smut).

I have to stop myself here or that will be A LOT. Please read and enjoy. 

I have not read most of these, but I am always more than willing to share recs! :3 Thank you for this list, darlin! I’m sure they are great! <3

[minpsone]

Beyond gallery walls: Yangon’s graffiti artists

[featured in Frontier Myanmar ]

By Min Pyae Sone , Photos by Nyein Su Wai Kyaw Soe- October 26, 2019

Graffiti flourished in Yangon a decade ago, but the number of artists has since slumped by more than half, and some say the scene never developed its own style.

Graffiti is synonymous with delinquency in most countries, and Myanmar is no exception. Many Myanmar parents would regard a young person going out at night to deface walls and buildings as no more than a deviant. However, for the past decade, the graffiti scene in Yangon has allowed a small group of young people to defy conservative norms and stake a claim on the city’s streets.

With the international art world’s embrace of artists like Keith Haring, Taki 183 and Blek le Rat, graffiti has come to be recognised as something much more than a crime or gesture of defiance. That is, art that reaches beyond the walls of a gallery.

We easily disregard the lurid doodles and scarcely legible text sprayed in alleys and on fences around abandoned construction sites in Yangon, but those who care to delve into the scene will find a small but diverse group of professional and amateur artists, most of whom are still drawn to the raw, vandalistic approaches of the New York graffiti movement.

However, since the city’s graffiti scene began to blossom a decade ago, it has yet to develop a discernable style of its own. For most practitioners, graffiti has been a way to plug into a cool, foreign culture, and this has created a tendency towards imitation rather than innovation – similar to pop music, where cover songs rule, and a large portion of the films produced in Myanmar.

Like Yangon’s hip hop scene, many of Yangon’s graffiti artists are from fairly well-off families. Some picked up an appreciation for graffiti while studying abroad, and this has given it an added “elite” allure for aspirational young people. The graffiti scene’s connection to politics, and any genuinely dissident sub-culture, has been oblique at best, and few graffiti artists describe themselves as “political”.

But to dismiss Yangon graffiti for these reasons is to forget that it came of age at a time when embracing an item of foreign culture such as graffiti was to defy state policy.

Hip hop’s twin

In the late 2000s, many young people were intrigued by the sight of barely decipherable scrawls that popped out of stale walls or columns left mouldy by years of neglect. Graffiti culture emerged in Yangon at a time of isolation, when limited access to the internet and an official censorship regime concerned with protecting traditional Myanmar morals kept “deviant” Western cultural influences at bay.

Before that time, ACID, one of Myanmar’s first “underground” hip hop groups, who performed in small, unofficial venues and sold most of their recordings illegally, introduced elements of predominantly American hip hop culture to a young and impressionable fan base in the early 2000s. It was only natural that graffiti, together with baggy jean shorts and oversized T-shirts, appeared along with ACID’s raunchy music videos and live shows.

After ACID’s demise in 2008, when two of their members were arrested for assisting the pro-democracy movement – an unusual fate for Myanmar rappers – graffiti culture in Yangon mostly thrived underground, though it received some assistance from the French and German cultural institutes.

Ko Thu Myat, 33 who has been doing graffiti since 2008 and now works mainly on canvas, believes the scene’s development has suffered from not being moored in a broader and more radical sub-culture, which makes it feel a bit like a cultural transplant.

“There’s nothing special about Yangon graffiti, except the fact that it suddenly appeared. It’s almost like there’s a gap in our development,” he said. “Like technology; for example, we didn’t have any internet until recently. Now, we’re on our way to 5G. It’s the same with graffiti and street art in general.”

Thu Myat was among the fans captivated by late-90s American rap albums and decided to imitate the stylised lettering on album covers. He started with marker pens on A4 paper; it was a while before he was using spray cans. He learnt spray control and other techniques at an Alliance Française (now the Institut Français de Birmanie) workshop on graffiti in 2008. Thu Myat also tried his luck in the music industry, which he said “invoked his passion” for graffiti even more.

“Nobody really understood why they were tagging; it just all looked cool to us,” he added in an interview at his family home in Yangon. “It took us [the graffiti writers] a while to figure the fundamentals, the history of what we were doing. Then I was properly obsessed!”

Ko Toe Wai – better known as Satan – was a member of Western Crew, a small, rowdy gang whose members hailed from Sanchaung Township. (Nyein Su Wai Kyaw Soe | Frontier)

Drinking, fighting and spray-painting

The first official graffiti event in Yangon was held at the New Zero Art Space in Dagon Township in 2009. It enabled graffiti artists who were comfortable about revealing their identities to share their knowledge with curious young people. Many who attended that event are still doing graffiti today.

In 2012, weeks after graffiti artist Ko Arkar Kyaw made headlines for a mural welcoming the visit by United States President Barack Obama, the Yangon municipal government issued a warning against graffiti that threatened criminal penalties. Among those who ran foul of the law was a small, rowdy gang that called itself Western Crew because its members came from Sanchaung Township in western Yangon.

“It was originally a group for the members to meet up and get drunk, get into fights, you know… the usual,” said Western Crew’s Ko Toe Wai, 28, better known by his alias, Satan.

Initially, Toe Wai was strongly inspired by American bubble fonts. He began experimenting and worked odd jobs to support himself. His efforts have enabled him to become one of the most successful commissioned graffiti artists in Yangon.

In 2012, when the municipal government cracked down, Western Crew was busted. “It was kind of late,” Toe Wai recalled. “Me and a group of friends decided to go wild, you know, picking up boxes of ATM spray cans and going around tagging up alleyways.”

“After the deed was done, we noticed two men tailing us. We weren’t sure what to do and disregarded it. One by one, they picked us up at our houses. By the time they showed up at mine, a lot of people had already been caught. It was a pretty big thing; a lot of squad cars, motorcycles. It was chaos. When we finally got to the station, all the other [detainees] were cracking up because of us. They thought us being caught for drawing stuff on walls was hilarious!”

At this time, plainclothes intelligence officers on the lookout for political dissidents would tail graffiti artists. However, most police officers regarded graffiti as a petty offence that generally didn’t warrant charges. This didn’t preclude mistreatment, though. Officers would stake out locations preferred by graffiti artists and detain and beat them.

One favoured spot was on Lower Kyeemyindaing Road, provocatively close to Ahlone Township Police Station. With graffiti even appearing on the walls outside the police station, police action was never thorough, but officers would sometimes take graffiti artists into custody for short periods as a pre-emptive measure.

Into the gallery

Today, only a small group of artists are continuing the tradition. From the original community of 50, only about 20 remain, said Toe Wai, who believes a failure to innovate a distinctive style meant that the scene lacked staying power.

Toe Wai said improved internet access is a mixed blessing in this respect, because it allowed artists to more easily copy internationally renowned styles rather than develop their own. Although the Yangon municipal government tried to block a proposal for a public graffiti zone made in 2013, the idea went nowhere for other reasons, including differences among artists.

Some graffiti artists now exhibit in gallery spaces, and bring graffiti elements to canvasses and installations. They include Ko Kyaw Moe Khine, 23, aka Bart Was Not Here. Growing up in Yangon in the early 2000s, he regarded hip hop and graffiti as synonymous; but after getting a diploma from Singapore’s Lasalle College of the Arts in 2018, he developed a deeper appreciation for graffiti from the perspective of global art history.

“I thought if you like hip hop, you’d like graffiti,” Kyaw Moe Khine said, describing his initial attitude. “As I grew older, I started to see it as more of an art movement than just an element of hip hop. In my opinion, hip hop is more commercialised … there’s an industry for that. But when it comes to graffiti, you don’t make money off it.”

Many of Kyaw Moe Khine’s paintings include graffiti-style lettering but he tries to introduce not only graffiti’s motifs but also its spontaneity into his work. “I do the same thing I do on the walls, but on a canvas,” he said.

But he said a commitment to spontaneity shouldn’t preclude an appreciation of where graffiti came from and how it has influenced the rest of the art world. “Most graffiti writers don’t research art history,” he said, describing this as a mistake. “When you’re an artist, you need to acknowledge all the history behind the techniques we use today.”

[alexanderwrites]

The A-Z of TMBG

Introduction

They Might Be Giants have forever been one of those bands that, when asked my opinion on, I would say “Oh, I adore them”. But similarly to my relationship with The Mountain Goats, I have gaps in my knowledge of their history that are so big that they rival the amount that I do know about them. I always list them as a favourite band, but if I turned up to one of their shows I’d be the asshole excited by every other song, then trying to work out if I knew the rest, nervously mouthing the odd lyric here or there. “Duhh muhh duhh BAG OF GROCERIES duhh duhhh muhh muhhh EXPIRATION DAAAAATE”.

This is because I have a very silly way of listening to music in which I discover a band, love a couple of their albums to death, then struggle to move on from those because those are the ones that I love so much. Most people who have good critical thinking skills would say “Gee, I loved this album so much that I should probably try another of their albums”. Not me! Figure 8 by Elliott Smith, Entroducing by DJ Shadow and This is Our Music by Galaxie 500 are some of my favourite albums of all time, and guess what? They’re pretty much the only albums i’ve listened to by those artists. Now, I have listened to quite a lot of TMBG, but I haven’t often sat down to dig into their music (or stood up! I don’t exclusively listen to music sitting down on a couch like some record producer trying to feel the vision or fall asleep). It’s time to change that, and i’m going to be going through each of their studio albums over the weeks, one by one, and giving them a bit of an appraisal, and a bit of a praise, because, as hard and objective as I wish I was, i’m going to be gushing over TMBG a lot. But if any band, or any album, deserves a hot torrent of gush, it’s this band, and this album....

#1: Untitled, or, The Pink Album, 1986

“We were the most stoppable force in rock music”

- John Flansburgh

John Flansburgh and John Linnell’s (or the Johns as everyone, and now I, call them) first album is quite a rorschach test of an album. Whatever you see in it, and whatever you want it to be, it is. Musically adventurous and avant garde? Check. Goofy and hilarious? Check. The one thing I don’t think anyone could see it as is boring. It feels like an album that will elicit strong feelings and strong opinions from its listener, primarily because it truly does not sound like anything else. While Flansburgh self-deprecatingly refers to the band during their early days as a stoppable force, their music right from the off sounds determined, self assured and insuppressible. What Flansburgh means by stoppable is that they had no record label and no publicist, and that the only people who could really support the band were the few locals who’d catch their shows in Brooklyn. It wasn’t their music that was stoppable, but their situation.

In more ways that one, the music on this album is unstoppable. In their huge bursts of energy and ideas, and in how easily listenable the album is, it is unstoppable. Once I start the opening track on this album, I cannot and do not stop until the album is over, because it’s such a damn fun and specific world to be in. You know that feeling when you’re so deeply into a TV show that when the episode finishes, no other show on the planet can hit the spot? That’s how listening to this album feels.

I’d heard it a couple of times before, but sitting down (again, I don’t just sit down to listen to music! Sometimes I even have a nice little walk!) and paying proper attention to it really opened my eyes to what an incredible debut it is. Though it’s basically an adapted version of a DIY cassette, its distinctive sound is really professional and well recorded, and the songs themselves are fully-formed statements by a band who know what the fuck they’re about. Everything Right is Wrong Again is a legitimate contender for best opener on a debut ever, and it summarises everything that the band is about. It’s a mission statement and a litmus test; a song that, based on your reaction, tells you whether or not this’ll be your new favourite band. Linnell’s distinctive nasal vocals, the prominent drums machine patterns and a huge array of synthesised instruments underneath (is that a fucking harpsichord??) all tie together to make a pop song that sounds nothing like any other pop song around at the time. The lyrics on the opening track touch on a common theme for TMBG, that things feel out of step, and that confusion and even pain are weird damn things to deal with. I mean, take a look at the lyrics. It’s pretty unusual that such a fun and bizarro song would contain lyrics as precise as “The healing doesn't stop the feeling” and “Everything right is wrong again, every movement false, every four is waltz again”. 

TMBG are demonstrating that as silly and playful as they might get, they write real songs that sometimes touch on very real ideas and feelings. And then they have songs called Toddler Hiway that describes a highway of toddlers that leads to Toys R Us. Their ability to mix the astute with the absurd is unique in that they often do it at the same time. Whereas a more traditional band might have a track alternation of serious song - silly song - serious song - silly song, this album blends the two so idiosyncratically that it creates a flavour unlike any other. All their serious songs sound silly, and all their silly songs sound serious. The album takes musical influence from all over the place which results in tracks that boil over with the enthusiasm of two very smart music-buffs who know how to use their inspirations. Number Three has a bluegrass rhythm to go with its self-referential storytelling (”I got two songs in me, and I just wrote the third”), while Alienation’s For The Rich has a country swing to complement its lamenting lyrics. And while these influences are never repeated in a straight forward manner, they also are more than parodies or pastiches of a genre. They’re influences that are put on a conveyer belt and processed through a strange and beautiful machine that mashes them up, flips them upside down and releases them as strange mirror images of themselves. What makes the difference is the skill the Johns have as songwriters, and how intelligently they use references and influences. 

And so, accordions and harpsichords don’t feel parodic, or “how weird ARE WE”, but instead complementary tools used to build very specific little worlds. It might seem strange to start the song Youth Culture Killed My Dog with a James Bond riff (fittingly, TMBG would years later write Dr Evil’s Theme for Austin Powers) but it all gives off a mood, a vibe, and sometimes a good fucking laugh. The album feels like the Johns are saying “Look, this is the music we have to make. It has to have silly skits, it has to be ridiculous, because that’s what we care about.” Or as Flansburgh says in Put Your Hands Inside the Puppet Head: “Memo to myself: do the dumb things I gotta do”. 

The album is built on smart absurdity, a kind of dadaist desire to reveal the strangeness of its characters, and of the music itself. Youth Culture Killed my Dog seems to parody the conservative’s public to youth and counter cultures:

“Bacharach and David used to write his favorite songs

Never, never, never would he worry/he'd just run and fetch the ball

But the hip hop and the white funk just blew away my puppy's mind”.

They seem to be tackling the topic of music itself, and the expectations on what music is and should be. They subvert this by making music that doesn’t sound like what traditional pop music is supposed to sound like. You could call it experimental, but the Johns seem to know exactly what they’re doing. They’re art school weirdos who mercifully don’t take themselves too seriously, and instead have a post-punk, Talking Heads-esque idea of deconstruction and why-the-hell-not attitude. And like Talking Heads, aside from all the oddness and whimsy, what TMBG sound like on this album is a really, really good alternative rock band. Their guitars sounds consistently excellent; Don’t Let’s Start in particular has a great surfer-y guitar sound in the verses that sounds like Pixies’ Here Comes Your Man (but a few years before that song was released), and She’s An Angel, which is the loveliest track on the album, has gorgeous, almost slide-like guitars giving a wonderful texture to the song. And songs like Don’t Let’s Start and (She Was A) Hotel Detective speak to the fact that as well as being a niche, cult item, the Johns create songs that are indisputable alternative classics. The songs might not be as well known as the Blue Mondays and Killing Moons of their era, but they are just as important, clever and classic.

This album makes it clear that the Johns probably won’t go on to be the biggest rock stars on the planet, but it does make it clear that they are truly worthy of their cult status and their passionate fan base, and that they have a hell of a lot in them to look forward to. It’s an album that, if you’d heard it in 1986, you would’ve rooted for it. You would’ve gone up to your friends who liked Devo and Oingo Boingo and told them to please listen to this. You would’ve attended their shows and bought cassettes and written reviews, like the one i’m inspired to write now. The album connects to me in an immediate sense, the songs instantly working their way into my ears and heart. They’re songs that i’m always happy to hear, and to instantly incorporate into my life. Songs that I want to live with. What I mean by that is, there are songs that are always swirling around in my head, so that when something even tangentially connected to them is mentioned, the songs barge their way to the front of my brain. Someone on TV a couple of days ago said “Not to put too fine a point on it”, and I instinctively said “Say i’m the only bee in your bonnet”. Because that’s who TMBG are for those who love them: a band that are constantly right there, dancing around in your head and giving you a wealth of songs, lines and tunes to enjoy. 

And as an album, there really is no better example of their talents and their personality. It’s a surprisingly cohesive set of songs, the 19 of them flying by in just 38 minutes (they do have a lot in common with punk!). It strikes a good, even balance that spreads the tentpole tracks across the two sides, and though there are shorter songs that really are goof offs, they don’t feel like filler. It’s not like they’re saying “shit, we need to throw a 25 second a-cappella about a toddler highway in there to pad the album out”, they’re just giving you sort of...bonuses? Little treats, really. The album would be full enough without them, they’re just the weirdo icing on the cake. If the singles on the album are the equivalent of a comedian doing a longer monologue, then the shorter tracks are one-liners, and having both means you’re spoiled for choice.  A lesser band trying that might not be able to hold your attention for so long, but the Johns do it effortlessly. I kind of think of them and this album as Pee-Wee Herman: Self aware, subversive, a little anarchic, but also completely warm hearted. The kind of thing that those who love it, really deeply love it.

It’s hard to imagine them breaking the mainstream, but looking at the few videos they produced from this album, they begin to make a bit more sense. Because as goofy, nerdy and joyful as they are in these videos, they’re also really fucking cool.

They look like the art-school weirdos that they are, but the kind that like to have lots of fun and make fart jokes. In the Don’t Lets Start video, Linnell is dressed sharply in black and has his hair long and floppy, and he instantly looks like a dweeby counter-culture hero. They dance like David Byrne and seem to be having the most fun of any band in any video. In the Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head video, they look like Tears for Fears letting loose with an accordion, which sounds like the uncoolest thing ever, but The Johns pull it off. It’s their enthusiasm and sweetness that sells it.

(She Was A) Hotel Detective has some great vintage Nick-At-Night vibes which (pardon the pun) illustrates their playful style, which is interspersed with self-mocking clips of the Johns playing, with the word “MUSIC” hanging behind them.

Please, if you haven’t seen them and if you get a few minutes, watch these videos. There are not many examples this good of such pure joy and fun. And there aren’t many bands who have music videos that feel like such an accurate extension of their ideals, and it’s in these that you can start to see how they carved out their niche. 

Seeing this play on MTV would’ve been eye and ear catching to say the least, and though it might’ve made many ask “what the fuck is this”, there had to be those people in between who this connected with. And it turned out, there are a lot of those people, and they are now the TMBG fan base, as passionate and excited today as ever. TMBG don’t necessarily speak for them, but they speak to them. The Pink Album says it loud and clear “be weird, have fun, feel things, do the dumb thing you gotta do”.

[petty-crush]

An open letter/retort to the “honest trailer” for “Alien Covenant”

Of course people can disagree and of course this is a sarcastic video. But since this contains a lot of knee jerk, being negative for views comments, (and because people may get fooled by just watching this video)I think this is a good place to dissect frogs.

My bias; I think “Covenant” is a truly great film. Spectacular in ideas, behaviors, visuals, and pure fun. I loved it. I am clearly willing to die on a hill for it

The main gap is that it’s really a different series, under the mask of the “Alien” series. It actually veers closer to the 1932 film “Island of lost Souls”. Ship of survivors representing normal veer into uncharted territory; a mad scientist bending the rules of biology encounters and clashes with them; the monsters he creates go to war with the ship. And in this film evil wins.

It also contains genuinely great performance(s) from Fassbender, grand sketches of gods wrecking the cosmos, humanity abandoning its children to go after unanswerable questions, and more that harken back to Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” sandbox of sci fi.

To me, this film is all about David. The humans are cannon fodder for them. Which justifies their characterization. Also, he’s clearly a stand in for Ridley Scott and the work + wonder of being an artist, film director in particular.

I love this. I can see others liking it less, but is beautifully realized, staged, and executed.

So what are people looking for? Well…

[quotes around their words, mine by themselves]

“From Ridley Scott, one of the best directors… And one of the worst”

-first off, I think an artist is judged by their best work, not overall average

Scott can be quite varied. I personally favor going to cosmos than staying in your lane. Sometimes that make mistakes, but interesting ones.

Make no mistake though: “The Counselor” is a first rate film, acidic in the extreme, but so totally gonzo that it makes you breathe a different air. It’s the kissing cousin to “Covenant”, and both show a director willing to try new ideas and tones, and pulls it off spectacularly. Both have no interest in making the viewer feel good or flatter them, which definitely pushes some people away

“There are now more bad alien films than good ones”

-first off, where is “Prometheus”? Isn’t it an alien film? If not, and “covenant” is clearly a sequel to it, then maybe this film should be judged apart from the Ripley saga.

-I have wondered at times if calling it “Prometheus: Covenant” would have cut down on the confusion

-“Alien 3” is a spectacular film. It fully commits to the idea of Ripley having courage and purpose to her life as she knows she will die. It is completely different to “Aliens”(which may have been its problem concerning reception,as we will see) and “Alien”, it forms a perfect trilogy. Fincher may hate how fucked he got by the system, but it is a beautiful and wonderful film

“Alien resurrection” less so. But it is an odd, French splatter cartoon; certainly worth watching, not at all bad.

The “vs predator” films are largely minor, and I have no qualms with considering them less successful films.

-What makes the alien series great is that with each film the xenomorph changes to be what the film needs it to be. It’s flexibility storytelling wise is impressive. The problem comes when a audience only wants one type of story done

“When Ridley Scott wanted to talk about the meaning of life, he wanked for two hours”

-“Prometheus” has nothing to do with life, and everything to do with death. The characters in the film want to know about life (particularly Shaw since she can’t give birth) but they are punished at every turn, showing the universe to be uncaring.

Disagree with that statement or not, that is the rule that “Prometheus” and “Covenant” is abiding by.

Hell the first shot of “Prometheus” is an engineer killing himself. “Covenant” starts with life and realizing how the creator will die. There is consistency in this film universe.

And it also totally vibes with “Alien”.

“Save the philosophical stuff for ‘Blade Runner’, I want a short haired girl, in a tank top, fighting a xenomorph, who kills it by sucking it into the vacuum of space”

-and now we come to the real discussion/thorn in the side; this film isn’t a damn thing like “Aliens”

One thing that makes the alien series so fascinating is how it allowed two totally different filmmakers to make their masterpiece.

Also, it’s the rare series where the sequel brought in a bigger and wider audience.

I bet money that most people really only like “Aliens”. And that’s no shame, it’s a brilliant film. It’s strengths are the set pieces, the use of xenomorph as locusts, and characters that are simple but snappy and endearing.

In comparison to “Alien” which is cold, weird and slow moving (and brilliant) “Aliens” charm is more warm and dynamic. It doesn’t ask you to wait, it asks you to hold on. It gets kids in the door with Newt, it sets up a deep chord with Ripley giving her mother like affection , and it also makes Ripley more feminine and kick ass (she was wonderfully butch and joyfully selfish in “Alien”)

Cameron said it best in his critique of “Covenant”; “ I don’t like films where you invest in a character and they get destroyed at the end.”

Some people share that opinion. Ridley Scott does not. (Nether do I)His films generally have had the protagonist go through hell and often destroyed them. I admire that in him.

But that point of view explains why “Aliens” is so successful; it makes us love the characters and be sad when their friends die. Cameron is a genius, and is warm with his characters. Scott is also a genius, and picks their wings off like a cruel child.

Every alien film post “Aliens” has had to bear that cross, of creating such lovable stock characters. “Alien 3” didn’t give a shit, and made a impressive gathering of detached male prisoners. “Resurrection” came close with goofy space pirates, but were weird as shit.

In my opinion, if “Alien” came out after “Aliens” it would have not been as warmly received, because, got damn, is it cold and weird and hurts its people. It’s suppose to. The reaction to “Prometheus” and “Covenant” shows that all too clear.

Finally, Scott clearly does not give a shit about any alien film after his. I don’t think the Prometheus saga will show the queen alien because it came after Scott and he considers it invalid.

With this in mind, I can see how people are upset. Cold, hateful, sadistic are what “Covenant” are. And I love it for that.

I love mean films with a purpose and artistic flourish. And the Prometheus saga does it so well.

If you came to “Covenant” to root for its human characters, you are fucked (and kinda an idiot). Scott is making big budget sci fi epics about the mass murder of nature and survival of artists.

You can hate that, but call a spade a spade.

“In a franchise full of unforgettable characters”

(Shows only “Aliens” characters)

What about Dallas? Ash? Clemens? Golic? Call? Elgyn? Gediman?

There exists good characters other than the second film, guys

Once again, this love for “Aliens” blinds people to everything else

“Forget the humans”

Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

-but also, that slipping on blood part was (intentionally) hilarious

“Freshman philosophy class…two versions of same pretentious professor..flute”

-why do I get the feelings that the people who say stuff like this never study philosophy and just consider anything even slightest bit about talking about feelings and ideas just stoner shit, because they are the only people that talk about those subjects they let in their social circle?

I dunno, the idea about humanity killing its children for vague reasons, someone trying to better himself against cruelty and going mad himself, and finally having the courage to create something even when everyone else tells him to stand down sounds pretty universally relatable and human to me.

And even if it was pretentious, that is what art is, to subtract the distractions, and focus on what you want the world to be

-to me, David is sad Walter cannot create, like Scott is upset younger directors don’t get to make original universes and material. But David is also a fucking maniac who will stop at nothing, to whom other lives means nothing. That kind of grand vainness is perfectly at home in the world and its what art leisure to create out of whole cloth

But all of this gets in the way of watching strong men blow things away with guns, doesn’t it? (“aliens” did this to show how ineffective the marines were, not to worship them)

-the flute adds to the fantasy element, of the pied piper trying to lure others away, to their doom

Plus, it’s just fucking funny

“Snickers at 'I’ll take care of the fingering’”

See? This film is just so much fun

“I was not expecting this much flute playing”

I love it when films surprise me. I adore it when filmmakers follow their strange urges and give us scenes I never saw coming.

I love the scene of David tempting Walter with the flute.

I marveled at the scene where David drops his black plague on the engineers(who look totally different).

I looked around as David played the fucking theme to “Prometheus” on his flute. I starred at the other audience members, as if to ask “is this the real life?”

I laughed uproariously as just when you think it’s safe the xenomorph tracks the two pilots shower sexing, like it’s 1982 slasher time.

As soon as the humans delver us to David, I could see who this film was about. And really, the humans are just for showing his gentle and different Walter is.

Ridley Scott delivered a new horror classic, with a eye towards the 70’s and 30’s, but both feet in the present, with the score and design to make it work.

The first victim convulsing and back blood shooting. David acting as satan. Terror of trapped in the sick bay. The aforementioned shower scene. The cross bearing xenomorph rejects. The puppet master pulling the strings of the first post face hugger.

This is a brilliantly conceived, written, directed, and persevered treat for horror fans. I loved every second of it.

“Thrill of seeing the xenomorph move. In full daylight. Which just looks…wrong”

This is the best point of the video, though I disagree with the conclusion.

It is weird and against the vibe of the Ripley saga for the xenomorph to be a servant. But clearly these creatures are the hounds to mr burns. Satan. Evil mad dr Moreau.

It definitely gave the the film a totally new vibe. As did all the green life. But isn’t that what films are about, showing new images?

It just looks so damn different. I like different. Different and great-even better.

“Cgi Ripley?”

That would be pretty weird. But since I more or less wash my hands of any continuity, why not?

It’s probably just a spur of the moment statement. But also incredibly funny

“It asks [x] questions but leaves you wondering [y]”

Mac, the real question is, do you like to create? That’s all this film is about. The joy of creation. Of weaving something new out of something old.

Like, Ridley is literally exploiting his own creation. It’s surreal and the best.

“Compares terminator series to Alien series”

This is more apt, but in a different way.

For both series, The first film is a stand alone classic. A low key masterpiece. The second is an expansive blockbuster which really really skewed expectations for future films.

The comparison ends there though. Sigourney Weaver has way way more character to work with. Poor Schwarzenegger had so so directors to work with, while the Alien series put down the work of real filmmakers making challenging art.

I enjoy the terminator series, but it’s clear that it’s so much the work of one man (James Cameron) so no one else can make it work. But the fluidity of the xenomorph makes every single film worth watching and honestly essential.

The second film in both series cast a long shadow. But while the following films in the terminator series really don’t hold up if stand alone, the following xenomorph films all showcase a different side to hubris and death

Which is honestly the best way to approach this film. Something new, vibrant, and bizarrely personal

Respecting and knowing horror and monsters films for what they do helps too

“Me at the idea of six more alien films”

I love it. I usually get tuned out after a few films, but this Prometheus saga just works. The possibilities are endless.

Ridley Scott deserves the highest kudos for turning this series into greatness

In a certain way, “Alien” is “Halloween”, perfect in its execution and of its singularity.

Prometheus saga is Friday the 13th series. Messier, off to an odd start, but a snowball of its own delights that fosters an utterly nihilistic universe. Like Jason, David is too good for just one film, and we need those eight films of him. It may indeed prove to be the essentials space monster-mad scientist series, just like Jason is the essential slasher killer.

Is this pizza to a steak? Yes, but each have their own pure delights, and like a certain pie, it just gets better and beautifully blurrier with each dizzying bite

Long live Prometheus saga; may it rule in hell for an eternity. Just as “Covenant” does in my heart.