#the theme of ambivalence and not talking about it though......

[mswyrr]

The opening sequence of 1x04 at the bot manufacturing facility remains one of the most important to me in the show because of how it frames the overall social structure as a spectrum of instrumentalization.

That is what Murderbot was born out of. It was born of indentured "parents" who have no choice about creating it; it was born of people the Company is stealing decades of the prime of their lives from (for many, probably stealing the chance to have children of their own if they want to, or deep friendships, or hobbies, or time with lovers); it was born to be used up and thrown away, not loved.

It exists at the farthest end of the spectrum, a person fully treated as an object and systematically hobbled and imprisoned in its own mind for that purpose, disallowed anything of itself or for itself, but other people are treated more or less like objects, including its "creators"/"parents".

It's the little touches, like the supervisors trying to soften things, but the situation is impossible and, notably, there's no deep solidarity between anyone here, not workers or supervisors and certainly not with the bots:

And this:

There must be plenty of people who die indentured--maybe even due to unsafe workplaces they have no choice about-- die like the bots do, denied a life of their own, used up, and then gone.

And then the visual of the indentured human worker looking into the face of Murderbot:

"Why do they all look different? The faces." And the answer is: because they're all people, just like you. (Just like you; in a sense, the indentured workers are reproducing after their own kind in the facility -- Company fodder begats Company fodder)

I think this is my favorite part, though:

Sanctuary Moon, as far as I can tell, has taught Murderbot a lot about being a person. Values and aspirations and wishes for a better future. That's its comfort show! And the comfort show of one of its "parents" too... a show which the other worker calls "trash."

And it is trash! But it's also art, made by people, which other people can still get something out of -- even enough to maybe save them a little, their sense of personhood, their sense of peace in the midst of all this. Hopes and dreams of significance and teamwork and there being a meaning to life.

Hopes that things don't have to be like this, expressed in the shitty lyrics of the theme song that nonetheless Murderbot loves so much it sings along with it: "there's a place beyond the wormhole / a place that only lovers know/ the brave, the hopeful, the lost, the true / maybe me and you."

All of these are things the indentured workers lack, things the bots they create are denied.

I'm gonna take a major u-turn here and say -- all of this made me think of Karl Marx LOL. Specifically how the way he talked about the role of 19th Century religion was more nuanced than is commonly quoted.

The quote:

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."

I think that, in the storyverse of Murderbot, *mass media* is that to people. It is the painkiller, the opium people use to endure the spectrum of instrumentalization they're trapped within. And the story is ambivalent about that (even as it is, within our world, also one of the ways many viewers are enduring soulless conditions; our world isn't as atheist, though, so religion is still a competitor for that role) -- I don't think it's condemnatory. (It could hardly be without being hypocritical tbqh). There is hope in what art--ANY art, even trashy art-- can do for people. It does help the worker sleep, it did keep Murderbot sane enough to survive and maybe even one day grow and heal.

But there is desperate, devastating sadness in *why* people need it so much. The fact that it can help them, because it's art, isn't wrong. The way art can connect people is beautiful. But the fact that so little of life and beauty belongs to people otherwise is incredibly wrong.

The thing about opium is that it does a great job killing pain! It gives you other problems in time, but easing pain is a good thing. When people are in too much pain, it's hard to do anything or think of anything else. And if you are alive and able to function, if you can keep holding on, then there's hope -- hope to (as Murderbot is doing) find people who matter (people who will care about you as a person even when the whole damn system is rigged against you), and hope to find people who might want a make a better world, one where people don't need opium so much.

[lizardsfromspace]

Welcome to Monster Mondays, where I'll be watching every Godzilla and Godzilla-adjacent film from the beginning. I started this last week but fell asleep which means my complete Godzilla watch series does not include a review of Godzilla (1954). It gets 🦖🦖🦖🦖🦖 and I'll be pretending I wrote a review instead of writing one. Also it's Tuesday

GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN - 1955

As we'll go on I'll remember how many of these I've actually seen, bc I caught a lot on Sci-Fi Channel Godzilla marathons as a kid but don't know which. But I've for certain never seen this before. Back when it was the established Online Film Nerd Opinion that every Godzilla movie after the first/every one where Godzilla fights another monster was Bad, this was held up as some ridiculous failure, and I guess it's still framed as disappointing, but it's...alright? Tonally, it's pretty similar to the first movie! The Osaka sequence carries on its tone, with the fight between Godzilla and our first new monster Anguirus incidentally wrecking the place, especially the three men who flee into the subway only to be drowned by the ceiling's collapse. The fight between the two kaiju comes down to biting bloody chunks out of a monster's neck, something whose effect is muted by the monster fights being in fast forward for some reason. As you know from my review of the first movie last week, I loved the stark setpieces of Godzilla's attacks in that one, and there's some of that here

It's less a departure and more Godzilla (1954) if it was kind of aimless. There's no Serizawa type arc, with the human plot being an extremely forgettable love triangle. While Anguirus is a good monster, especially the contrast of going with a four-legged beast instead of something more Godzilla-esque, and by going for another more obscure dinosaur (the type of animal that went extinct 2 million years ago), he's also rather incidental to this film, being defeated with over 30 minutes of movie left, 30 minutes that are filled with a lot of human partying and then jets flying over Godzilla repeatedly (a less egregious but also less funny part of padding than the scene where everyone watches random, silent clips from the first Godzilla movie). I don't know 🦖🦖🦖

RODAN - 1956

I've watched this before (always the American dub though) and was ambivalent towards it and I have no idea why. Rodan rules.

We're out in the country, in a mining village, for a movie that's essentially three movies (and in color for the first time). First it's a riff on Them!, a claustrophobic horror story about insect creatures hiding in the dark of a mine (for the record Them! is also much better than the statement "1950s killer ant movie" would suggest). Second it's a mysterious UFO story, a take on 1950s stories of pilots chasing flying saucers. Then in the last act, it's a big kaiju story where big flying lizards wreck a city with their supersonic wings (Rodan gets to be in about 30 minutes of his only solo film)

Rodan does have themes about nuclear testing, but also the environment (one of the early scenes is two scientists discussing global warming!), and is the film that emphasizes the tragic nature of monsters the most so far, with its mournful finale. There's probably too many "scientists and soldiers talk in a room" scenes in the back half but 🦖🦖🦖🦖

The List: (this series is gonna end with Final Wars so I threw the more recent ones on here)

Next Up: It's going to be like three weeks before I get to another movie with Godzilla in it. Next time it's The Mysterians and Varan the Unbelievable

[olderthannetfic]

My two favourite things in the world are both books that have all the elements that I enjoy, and I mean this in the sense of both the ID-gratifying elements like whump and fucked up intriguing character dynamics, and broader and more poignant topics about society and humanity and how it all functions and also some fucking beautiful writing.

Thing A has a massive fandom, whereas thing B has a fandom of like 20 people. This is due to several factors: A got an adaptation and lots of promo, and is also in a genre that doesn't seem intimidating and that fandoms tend to like interacting with, whereas B begins in a way that feels too highbrow/complicated so loads of people bounce off of it even though in the end it has more or less the same mix of ID-gratifying elements and poignant commentary on human nature.

I need to be clear that it's the combo of the two (+the sheer quality of the writing and plotting) that makes those books my two favourite things ever. There's just something very comforting about a work of art that effortlessly gets the things that you perceive about the world at large and find important but ALSO includes all your favourite kinks and trashy romance dynamics.

Now, you'd expect the fandom A to water down the source material and reduce it to incorrect quotes but there's actually a large and quite popular contingent of people engaging with the more philosophical/moral/sociological themes of the work, with excellent quality meta that gets as much traction as the cutesy ship fanart and people going apeshit over the whump and the meowmeowness of the morally questionable characters. There's arguments and fandom drama as well but I cannot describe how much I fucking love it there simply because the average fan understands the source material fairly well and is ready to engage with all of its elements, hot romance and whump and reflections on human nature and all.

OTOH fandom B tends to attract snooty intellectual types - and you can immediately tell from the profiles that they're snooty intellectual types. Lots of people calling themselves "bluestockings" and having the most stodgy upper middle class academia person attitudes imaginable. Which makes sense because you need to have a certain level of... confidence in your ability to comprehend complex things in order to not give up on the canon material halfway through? There's a very prevalent attitude of thinking they're cooler than other people because they're into this super deep and complicated thing.

The funny thing is that they seem to absolutely refuse to engage with the actual themes of the work and insist on mangling them and misunderstanding the characters to gush over the whump and the toxicity of it all. This, combined with the small size of the fandom, and the snooty intellectual attitude (sensitivity to opposing opinions because they've built their entire personalities on being Very Smart and Always Correct included!), and the frequent incapacity to comprehend that sometimes the grey morality and ambivalence is ON PURPOSE, makes me very reluctant to engage with the fandom at all even though the brainrot about the canon material is by this point an integral part of my soul.

I go into the tag almost every day - it gets a couple of posts per week from the same 15ish people and almost all of the ones that aren't jokes that fall flat misunderstand the canon while being obnoxious and snooty and gatekeepy as fuck.

Whereas in fandom A nobody's really putting on airs - they're all like "yeah we like this popular thing, isn't it cool! let's talk about the cool thing!" I don't know what my point was with all of this, beyond the fact that, man, I WISH fandom B were more like fandom A and it makes me sad that it's not.

I just want more cool people that I can discuss shit I like with, yeah?

(funnily enough I'm pretty sure that like 50% of fandom B are also at least casual fans of A, or at least A's mid adaptation, they just don't often have a lot to say about it.)

--

*id

[nqueso-lies]

Conspiracy time, but I feel like 911: Nashville is being set up to only run for 1 to 3 seasons. I like O’Donnell but he’s not a Bassett or even a Lowe. The rest of cast doesn’t compared to Peter or Gina either. ABC putting it up against Matlock led by Bates and L&O SVU, the live viewership is going to suffer massively. Placing it right after the OG 911 makes little sense, it could end up hurting both shows. Fan reaction has also appear pretty ambivalent to it. I know the head ABC executive was talking a big game about it but it’s not like they are helping it odds for success.

You're assuming the GA care.

Chris O'Donnell and LeAnn Rimes will appeal to the GA and their ages along with Jessica, from Grey's and a thirst trap influencer?? This is a network's casting dreams. Not to mention, Nashville feels very white and very straight. This thing will be a hit mark my words. (I hope I'm wrong though)

911 has a theme, they always lose a main going into season 2 and pick up more. They ordered a full season. Ryan Murphy has yet to do anything to save Dr. Odyssey...

I respect your thoughts here but I think you're way off.

[lurkingshan]

Japanese QL Corner

This week we begin our farewell to two brilliant shows and welcome a newcomer. Of the shows airing now, all but one are streaming weekly on Gaga and the other is available via fansub.

Takara's Treasure

gif by @my-rose-tinted-glasses This was the final week for the main story (don’t despair, we get a special episode next week), and the show wrapped up our core romance arc beautifully. At its heart this is a simple story between two boys seeking connection and working up the confidence to pursue what they want without fear. We spent the first half of the show grounded in Taishin’s country mouse in the big city journey, and the second slowly peeling back Takara’s layers until we understood just how mutual their affection is. I was so impressed with the show’s steady, patient approach to revealing this character to us, and I love that through knowing and liking Taishin (perhaps even more than 100%), Takara is getting more comfortable with himself, reaching for what he wants, and having genuine moments of joy. I’m also excited for him to get to know Taishin’s family and feel some of the warmth and support he’s been missing. Looking forward to whatever glimpse of their future the show gives us next week.

Happy of the End

gif by @putterphubase

We knew this one was going to be dark, and hoo boy is it. Content warnings for the first two episodes:

Assault, child abandonment, childhood sexual slavery, domestic abuse, family violence, human trafficking, rape, sexual exploitation

We meet our main characters this week and learn the basics of their backstories (though there are still gaps that I expect will be filled in later on). Both of these men have lived hard lives, and it shows. They are not particularly good people, neither of them responds normally to the situations they find themselves in, their emotional wavelengths are often odd, and there is a recklessness to their behavior that speaks to a kind of ambivalence about survival. They recognize something in each other that draws them together, but even as they share their stories and spend time together, there are barriers between them. This story has a fairly bleak worldview, so I don’t expect it will follow the usual romance beats and I’m not counting on a happy ending. @bengiyo pointed out that the show seems to be narrated from a future perspective after the relationship ends, and @illgiveyouahint said the show feels “gently hopeless” which I think is a rather apt description of its tone.

This show is beautifully shot and feels steady and clear about its subject matter, but its themes are not for everyone. Proceed with caution, and ask for content warnings if you need them—I expect there will be difficult content in every episode. This one is dropping two episodes a week on Gaga, and there is also a fansub ongoing from @isaksbestpillow. Siiri’s subs will likely be more accurate, but I recommend at least background streaming on Gaga to make sure the show gets the official views.

I Hear the Sunspot

gif by @heretherebedork

I have already talked plenty about my current feelings of frustration with this show, so I won’t belabor the point. This week Taichi dropped out of university to go work full time at his new job despite his friends’ protests, we got a long Maya flashback and another instance of her clashing with Taichi, Kohei and Taichi continued to not say anything honest to each other as they said their goodbyes, and Kohei confessed without Taichi processing it yet again. The final episode appears to include a time skip, and then maybe they will have the conversation we’ve been waiting on for six weeks. Fingers crossed the finale makes all of this time spent in stasis feel worth it.

Note: I have to get this up early today due to my travel schedule, and at time of posting episode 7 of Mr. Mitsuya's Planned Feeding was not yet available with English subs. I imagine @isaksbestpillow will post sometime soon and I will share when it goes up and include final thoughts in next week’s round up.

Tagging @bengiyo for the anime update.

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

I am really fascinated by the similarities between how some Taylor fans and Paul/Beatles fans act similarly in this instance. I don't know Taylor but it seems like the "proof" used is very similar. There is very little evidence beyond song lyrics. Also, expression of grief... It's normal!

Well.

I made this meme a while ago, but didn't post it publicly.

The key difference between both theories is that there is no woman associated with Taylor to an extent even resembling Paul's association with John, meaning there is absolutely no one she has talked about as extensively in interviews.

I don't think that makes McLennon more real, per se, but if you were to line up evidence for both theories, there would be an awful lot more of Paul being "unhinged" about John specifically than Taylor being "unhinged" about any woman. But, y'know, that's where the grief murder thing comes in. I DO think there's on the whole a stronger case for something reciprocated between John and Paul than there is for Gaylor – but so often when people say that, they're partially just saying it's weird how much Paul cares that his songwriting partner got murdered, or that it's weird he brings him up when Paul has literally had to act as a soundboard for the entire world's grief over John and also had to bury a lot of his more ambivalent feelings towards John because they were suddenly no longer "appropriate".

And the songs are for the most part just silly to me and I can't pretend otherwise. If you wanna do queer readings of songs, regrettably, I think Taylor's writing is the more straightforward option, simply based on the themes she revisits. That doesn't mean she's more likely to be Actually gay though. (EVEN THOUGH she actually openly calls most of her writing autobiographical, which Paul explicitly Does Not.)

[melisnonstop]

𝙱𝙴𝚃𝚆𝙴𝙴𝙽 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙻𝙸𝙽𝙴𝚂

↳ 📱𝚊 𝚜𝚘𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚕 𝚖𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚊 𝚊𝚞 (1/)

TikTok video – Henry analyzes Brideshead Revisited

@SonnetAndSpice

(Henry appears on screen, seated in his usual cozy, softly lit corner, surrounded by bookshelves and a warm lamp. He’s cradling a cup of tea in his hands, and a slight, almost bashful smile touches his lips before he begins speaking)

Henry

"Right, hello again, everyone. Lovely to have you back on Pages from the Past.

Votes were cast and today, we’ll be diving into Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, a novel that’s as much about memory and nostalgia as it is about love—though not always in the ways you might expect.

(He lifts the book, lightly tapping the cover with his fingers, his expression thoughtful)

Henry

"Now, I’m aware Brideshead can be a bit... shall we say, contentious? Some readers find it utterly brilliant, while others think it’s a bit of a slog.

(He adjusts his position slightly, settling deeper into the chair, his tone warm and conversational)

Henry

"The story centres around Charles Ryder, who’s looking back on his life—particularly on his very close, rather complicated relationship with Sebastian Flyte.

“Now, here’s where things get interesting. Their relationship isn’t explicitly romantic, but there’s a depth to it, a profound intimacy that’s impossible to ignore."

(He leans in slightly, as if sharing something important, his tone gentle but assured)

Henry

"And bear in mind, Waugh wrote this in 1945. Back then, any kind of open depiction of queerness was, well, more or less impossible in mainstream literature.

“So Waugh uses subtext. He builds this beautiful tension between Charles and Sebastian—glances that linger just a fraction too long, silences heavy with things unsaid. It’s all so... understated, yet powerful."

(He pauses, letting the thought settle, a small, knowing smile on his face)

Henry

"It’s that subtlety I think people miss sometimes. It’s not about what’s on the surface, but what’s simmering underneath. And that’s where the real magic of the book lies."

(He shifts again, straightening slightly as he moves on to the novel’s setting)

Henry

"And then there’s Brideshead itself—the grand, crumbling estate that’s as much a character as any of the people in the story.

“It represents an England on the brink of change, a world that’s beginning to slip away.”

(Henry’s eyes brighten as he talks about the historical context, clearly passionate)

Henry

“The novel itself was written just after the Second World War, at a time when the British aristocracy was losing its footing. Waugh does this marvellous job of blending nostalgia with criticism.

“You can sense his own ambivalence—how he both romanticizes and criticizes the world he’s writing about.”

(He takes a slow sip of his tea, exuding a calm confidence, before continuing)

Henry

"But truly, what I love most is how relevant the themes still feel today—especially in a world where love and identity are often still met with resistance.

“It’s about love, identity, and that ache we all sometimes feel—for something, or someone, that’s just out of reach. There’s a universality to it.”

(He smiles, softer now, his voice lowering slightly as he reaches the end)

Henry

"So, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you think Charles and Sebastian were in love? Do you see yourself in the story? Let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to tag me in your own reviews. I’m really curious to see what Brideshead means to each of you."

(He glances at the camera, his expression warm and sincere)

Henry

"Until next time—happy reading, and cheers."

(He gives a small, elegant salute.)

↳ 📱

TikTok Stitch – Alex’s Response to Henry’s Video on Brideshead Revisited

@acd.chronicles

(The video opens with Alex walking around his apartment, his NYU hoodie slightly rumpled, sleeves pushed up. He passes through the kitchen, the faint clatter of a coffee mug in the background, but the focus remains clearly on him)

Alex

"Okay, I’ve seen this video pop up a few times now, and I guess it’s time I chime in.


“Look, I get it—classic British lit, sweeping descriptions of old estates, all that jazz. But honestly, can we take a second to ask why we’re still putting these stories on a pedestal in 2024?

"Here’s my issue: it’s another story told through the lens of a privileged white guy, living in a crumbling mansion, having existential crises over, what, the loss of aristocratic power? The whole thing feels... outdated."

(He raises his hands in a ‘hear me out’ gesture)

Alex

"And before anyone comes at me for hating on the classics, it’s not about that. It’s about asking why these particular stories are still being prioritized in conversations about ‘great literature.’

“How many more books do we need that center on upper-class, white dudes reflecting on their lives of wealth and privilege, while we overlook stories by authors of color, queer voices, or people who don’t come from this very specific background?"

(He leans back slightly, crossing his arms, still keeping his tone respectful but firm)

Alex

"And here’s the thing—when we keep pushing these same narratives, we’re reinforcing the idea that these are the stories that matter. And I don’t know about you, but I’d rather see BookTok blow up with books that highlight different perspectives.

“Give me more stories by authors of color, more queer writers who are upfront about their themes instead of burying them under layers of subtext from a time when you couldn’t even say the word ‘gay.’"

(He gives a small, almost apologetic smile, as if knowing he’s ruffled some feathers)

Alex

"I mean, I’m not saying the book’s trash or anything and I’m not saying this creator’s take is wrong—I get that he’s coming from a place of love for the book, and that’s cool.

“But for me, personally? I’m not gonna keep pretending like these old-school narratives are the best we’ve got, especially when there’s so much else out there that’s more relevant to what a lot of us are actually going through today."

(He sighs, looking directly into the camera, sincerity in his eyes)

Alex

"So yeah, that’s where I’m at. If Brideshead resonates with you, awesome, no shade at all. But if you’re like me, and you’re over these stories about rich white men lamenting their lost world, maybe it’s time we put these ‘classics’ on the shelf and made room for something new. Just a thought."

(He gives a small, knowing nod)

[hinge]

Hinge presents an anthology of love stories almost never told. Read more on https://no-ordinary-love.co

[kaiyablog]

bawling my eyes out in the sunshine state: The Floria Project movie review

“This movie made no sense … It had no plot whatsoever .. the ending didn’t make any sense” (Zia’s Google Review, 2024).  

While Zia may have only rated Sean Baker’s film, “The Florida Project,” one star, her reasons are precisely what makes the film such a masterpiece. The film follows a mother (Halley, early 20’s) and daughter (Moonee, 6) through a Florida summer living at Magic Castle Inn and Suites, a  budget motel less than 20 miles from Disney world. Halley and Moonee are at the bottom of a capitalist society, with no viable means of upward mobility. Much like life, there isn’t a distinct beginning, climax, and resolution to the story and Baker doesn’t invent a happy ending for a story representing people without one. 

The movie captures the slice of life spirit, especially because it is shown from the perspective of Moonee. Baker wonderfully captures the mind of a 6-year old with quotes like: “Ooh a spider lets see if it farts,” and “I love oranges but not the lid.” But it’s not just the portrayal of kids’ play, it’s the insight into how they see objectively dysfunctional surroundings. The only way viewers know Halley turned to prostitution is because Moonee has to take a lot of baths with loud music playing and try to understand the subsequent ostracization her mother faces from neighbors. 

While the film isn’t shown from Halley’s perspective, it paints a representative picture of her situation. She relies on TANF and free food from her friends with jobs to provide for her daughter, because no matter how hard she tries, she can’t get a job anywhere. After trying everything else, Halley resorts to stripping and then prostitution. In a highly capitalist society in the shadow of Disney, the only way Halley can make money is to sell her body.  

Baker is not afraid to talk about sex in controversial ways. Sex is one of the recurring motifs of the film, with portrayals of sex work, pedophiles, boob jobs, and nudists with varying degrees of ambivalent representations.  It’s also interesting how the kids intersect with the idea of sex. The kids' most exciting summer moments are when Gloria is shirtless at the motel pool, and they can look at her “boobies.” The kids might not know what sex is, but the film reveals just how much they are influenced by a society that capitalizes on sex.

My only critique of the film is that there is almost too much unnecessary symbolism and unexplained motifs. For example, why the pedophile? There was one three minute scene about him and then never touched on again. Why were there constantly scenes of helicopters flying overhead? That said there were symbols and themes I appreciated. For example, it’s clear whether a character was important by their name. The main characters are: Moonee, Halley, Scooty, Dickie, Bobby, Jancey, and Ashley. Rainbows are a symbol of better things to come, often reliant on money (the pot of gold at the other end). The movie is characterized by bright colors in the surroundings (green nature and the motel is purple), the way characters dress and Halley’s hair and tattoos. The color is symbolic of childhood wonder and the perceived brightness of Disney World. 

The final motif that I think had the biggest impact was the appearance of the American flag at the scenes that would make any nationalist question their faith in America. The irony felt the strongest when DCF comes to take Moonee away. Even though Moonee is in a dysfunctional situation, the film makes viewers frustrated in the system. Taking Moonee away to bounce between families for 12 years is not a solution. Halley is not perfect, but she loves Moonee and would do so much more for her if she had a reliable source of money. 

The ending of the film turns the American Dream on its head. DCF tries to take Moonee but she runs and escapes. She sobs outside her best friend Jancey’s motel door. Jancey grabs her hand and together they run to Disney World and hold hands in joy together outside the real Magic Castle. (Filmed on an iPhone 6 so that Disney would not make money on the film)

One of Moonee’s quotes from the film is, “Do you know why this is my favorite tree - cuz its tipped over and it's still growing.” Despite living in one of the poorest communities in America, Moonie still finds joy in life. That said, there is no possible happy ending for Moonee as her mother is arrested and she goes away. That’s precisely why the non-sense ending that many Google Reviews complain about is so beautiful. If you want a movie that will have you sobbing and questioning everything, as well then this is the perfect film. 

Sources: 

Sean Baker explains why the ending is imaginary: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-the-florida-project-review-20171005-story.html

A look at the experiences of people actually living in the motels outside Disney:https://newrepublic.com/article/164335/homeless-gates-disney-world-florida-sunbelt-blues-review

[a-court-of-fics-and-errors]

A Court of Fire and Masks

Eris Vanserra x OC

Part 21

Content Warnings

Emotional manipulation

Verbal and emotional abuse

Power imbalances

Anxiety and panic

Mentions of sexism & misogyny

Dark themes of cruelty

Word Count: 3,201

Tagged: @mrsjna @lilah-asteria @ambivalence-is-me @rcarbo1 @aaliyahmorielle @feyrfly

A Court of Fire and Masks Master List

Eris didn’t wait for any answer. His grip was firm and insistent against her hand as he pulled Penelope forward with a determined urgency, leading her down the grand steps of the dais and onto the gleaming ballroom floor. The music shifted, its notes low and smoldering, transforming into a sultry waltz that wrapped around everyone like a velvet cloak.

His hand found the small of her back, pressing gently yet possessively into the delicate lace and bare skin of her back. With a deft motion, his other hand captured hers, intertwining fingers.

“What are you doing?” Penelope hissed through clenched teeth, her voice a low whisper.

Eris didn’t respond immediately, gliding into the dance with a polished and commanding grace that left no room for hesitation. Penelope had no choice but to step in time with him, her skirts rustling softly against the floor.

“I had him where I wanted him,” she continued, her voice tense as she glanced toward Tamlin. He stood calmly on his perch next to the thrones. His posture was more at ease, though a mild hint of disappointment lingered in the furrow of his brow.

Eris let out a derisive scoff, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Yes, I’m sure you did.”

Penelope furrowed her brow, leaning closer to Eris as he pressed himself against heir, their bodies moving fluidly in time with the rhythmic strains of the music. “What are you talking about?” she questioned.

Eris released her hand momentarily, his grip light as he led her into a twirl, guiding her effortlessly beneath his arm. Penelope followed the movement, her gown whispering around her ankles as she spun.

One, two, three.

She barely had time to steady herself before he pulled her back in—their bodies not dangerously close.

“Seems you two are getting rather well acquainted,” he remarked, voice smooth but sharp.

The music swelled, the orchestra climbing to a peak, and before she could snap back her reply, Eris’s hand pressed firmly against her lower back—supportive, controlling—as he dipped her low, his body following hers as though they were two halves in the same motion.

“I’m doing what you asked me to,” she defended, gripping his shoulders as he lifted her back up.

His lips curled, though his grip on her remained ironclad. “I didn’t tell you to melt in front of him,” he retorted.

Penelope’s lips parted in indignation, offense flashing in her gaze. “I wasn’t falling over myself!” she snapped.

“Oh really?” Eris challenged, his steps shifting the tempo, forcing her to follow as he led her into a sharp, elegant turn. Their movements were fluid, but the fire that burned between them burned hotter with each step. “Then what was that little move when you put your hand on his chest?”

Penelope exhaled sharply. “It was comfort, you prick,” she hissed. Her next step was harder than necessary, forcing him to adjust to her. “He was telling me about his family.”

“How kind of you,” Eris drawled, his hand tightening on her waist as they glided into another turn. “I’m so glad you’re making friends with the male who is going to get us all killed.”

Penelope huffed, annoyed.

One, two, three.

“Perhaps you didn’t notice, my lord,” she countered, her tone dripping in mock politeness, “but Amarantha isn’t interested in you. She’s interested in him.”

The slight hesitation in Eris’s next step was the only sign of surprise.

“That’s preposterous,” he scoffed, but his jaw tightened.

“Have you not been paying attention?” Penelope arched a brow, letting him twirl her again, only this time, she slowed slightly—enough to make him work for it.

She turned back to him just in time to see the frustration in his face. “I mean, seriously. She’s been staring at him all evening. He’s practically hiding from her. She doesn’t care about anything else in this whole room but him.”

A sharp, controlled pivot.

Eris led them into a slow, drawn-out step, their bodies aligning.

“So?” he murmured, voice softer now, but no less pointed.

“So,” Penelope asserted, holding his gaze, “it means the plan needs to change.”

Their final turn came with a quiet, aching intensity, her hand tightening in his, fingers flexing against her back.

“You aren’t her target,” she breathed, their bodies barely an inch apart, the heat of him seeping into her skin.

Eris exhaled through his nose, sharply, his next step slower, almost reluctant.

“And if we still want to get her to drop something,” she murmured softly, her breath brushing like a whisper near his lips, “we can’t do it through you. Or if Tamlin and she are allies, maybe he knows more than he’s letting on.”

As Eris led her into another turn, his grip tightened slightly on her waist, his muscles coiling. His gaze flicked over her shoulder, locking onto something—or rather someone. Tamlin.

Penelope could see the curl of disdain that twisted on Eris’s mouth before he muttered, “I don’t like you next to him.”

His voice was even, but full of warning.

One, two, three.

She arched a brow, keeping up with his steps. “Why not?” she asked with a slight challenge.

Eris’s jaw ticked, his hold shifting, pulling her just a fraction closer. He was agitated.

“I don’t trust him,” he admitted, his russet eyes narrowing.

A pivot, shift.

“He isn’t dangerous,” she countered smoothly, allowing herself to glide against him, feigning ease.

Eris chuckled softly, though there was no humor in it—only irony, laced with something darker.

“On the contrary, I think,” he murmured, his voice lower, more intimate, “other than the snake lurking in the corner, he’s the most dangerous fae here.”

She exhaled sharply.

A sharp step. A sharp reply.

“I mean he won’t hurt me,” she clarified.

Eris’s tempo didn’t break—but his fingers flexed against the small of her back.

“Penelope,” he said carefully, deliberately, as if speaking to a child. “You don’t know him.”

Her chin lifted, defiant. “I know males.”

Eris’s lips twitched, halfway to a smirk. "You think we’re all the same?”

One, two, three.

“I think,” she replied, her voice light but her meaning sharp, “that I know how to get what I want.”

Another turn, another sharp step that forced her to look up at him, their faces too close, too charged. “And what is it you want, my lady?” Eris inquired, his tone silken.

She didn’t waver.

“I want the same thing you do,” she replied smoothly. “To make sure this all goes well and we all go home safely.”

Eris’s finger ghosted lower.

“So how far would you go?” he murmured.

Penelope blinked lightly, caught off guard. “What do you mean?”

The next step was slow, deliberate, the moment stretching between them. Eris’s golden gaze burned into hers, flickering with dangerous curiosity.

“Would you bed him?” he asked bluntly.

She stumbled, barely—a misstep so small no one watching would notice, but Eris did.

His grip tightened, steading her, his smirk ghosting back into place.

“Would you let him touch your skin?” he mused, voice nothing more than a whisper between them. “To feel the softest parts of you?”

The music swelled.

Her breath hitched—not in want, not in fear, but in rage.

“Stop it, Eris.” Her words were sharp, a clear command, but he didn’t flinch. He only continued leading her in effortless, measured steps, his grip tightening on her slightly.

“I’m just saying,” he murmured, his voice smooth as silk, dangerous as a dagger. They turned, the world spinning with them. “If you start this,” he leaned in, his breath a phantom against her cheek, drawing her in, keeping her trapped in his orbit, “are you willing to take it all the way?”

The music swelled. The heat between them thickening.

Penelope’s jaw tightened. She wouldn’t him get to her.

Her next step was bold, decisive, as she lifted her chin. “And if I did,” she countered, her voice challenging, “would it bother you?”

Eris scoffed, low and mocking. “Where would you get that idea?”

Penelope let her fingers trail the fine embroidery of his collar. “Because you seem particularly concerned about my methods,” she mused, lips curving slightly. “And because you came and took me away like Tamlin was playing with one of your toys.”

Eris laughed, the sound rich. He spun her fast, deliberate, making her gasp as he caught her.

“Jealousy,” he murmured, his grip firm as he pulled her closer, so close her next breath was his, “is for males who don’t already have what they want.”

Her breath hitched.

Not because she believed him—but because his body betrayed him.

The heat radiating from him, the tension in his arms, the way his fingers flexed against the small of her back like he was trying not to grip harder. As though he was trying to hold himself back.

Penelope tilted her head, her lashes lowering just slightly. Provocative, dangerous. “And yet, here you are.”

Eris’s jaw clenched.

He twisted them sharply, the world blurring for a moment before it ended and her body was flush with his. His palm searing against her spin, his heartbeat, a frantic, betraying rhythm.

She could feel it against her ribs, against the space between them that barely existed anymore. He could pretend all he wanted, but his body screamed.

“And here you are,” he countered, his voice a bit lower, just a bit rougher. “With him.”

Tamlin.

Penelope tightened her grip on Eris’s shoulder, trying to steady the rising anger. “I’m only doing this to try and get information. The thing that you wanted when we started this,” she reminded him, her voice quieter as he lead her into another measured turn. “I’m sorry that it isn’t going the way you planned, but it’s what has to happen.”

Eris said nothing, his gaze locked onto hers.

She let out another sharp exhale, their movements in sync despite everything else pulling them apart.

“Look, Eris,” she continued, her voice rising over the gentle strains of the waltz, “if you want me to stop, I will. But don’t ever think I’m doing this just because I want to.” She moved with deliberate graze, her fingers trailing lightly over his arm as they spun while Eris’s grip on her waist twitched. “The stakes are high for me too. You think word won’t travel? You think Aiden won’t eventually learn about all of this? For fuck’s sake, I’m practically grinding myself onto you. I’m committing to this because after all is said and done, I have nothing left.”

Something flickered in his eyes. Something sharp. Something that made her chest tighten, though she wasn’t sure if it was anger or something else entirely.

This music swelled, and Eris guided her into a sharp turn, their hands locked, bodies parting for just a second before he reeled her back in, pressing her flush against him. The motion forced a small gasp from her lips, one she was certain he heard, but didn’t react to it.

He held her gaze.

And then, he finally spoke.

“Fine.” His voice was even, detached.

The final notes of the waltz echoed softly around them, Eris released her. The crowd’s gentle applause faded into the background, leaving them alone for an instant—a fragile pause suspended. Penelope hesitated.

Eris’s fingers flexed at his sides, as though he was stopping himself from pulling her closer, keeping her there. For a moment she thought he might say something else. Might ask her to stay.

But instead, he exhaled sharply and whispered, “Be careful.”

Eris didn’t move.

Didn’t turn to watch her leave.

Didn’t do anything except stand there, jaw clenched, hands curled into fists at his sides as she walked away—straight towards Tamlin.

As she approached, he handed her a shimmering glass of champagne, which she took gratefully. Only as the cool liquid met her lips did she realize how unsteady her breath had become, how her chest still rose and fell.

“You two are quite something,” Tamlin noted.

The champagne was sharp and dry. But it was liquid, and Penelope gulped down half of it before offering a light laugh. “I’m just the shiny new toy,” she said, pausing to take another sip, slower the time. “It’ll face.”

Tamlin’s expression flickered, his mouth pressing into a tight line.

Penelope tilted her head slightly, eyeing him. “I just mean, the whole thing is new. Between Eris and me.” She forced her voice to stay light, casual.

Her gaze flicked past him, searching the ballroom for the heir she had left standing in the center of it. But Eris had moved back to Amarantha.

Penelope’s fingers tightened slightly around her glass as she watched him. He leaned in close, as the general of Hybern pressed a hand to his forearm and smiles, as though she hadn’t been staring at Tamlin, wanting to devour him.

Eris didn’t even look her way or give the slightest indication she still existed.

“Certainly seems passionate,” Tamlin mused, bringing her attention back to him.

Penelope blinked, then offered him a slow, knowing smirk. “Isn’t it always, in the beginning?”

Tamlin huffed a light laugh. “I suppose.”

She inclined her head towards Amarantha, who was still far too close to Eris, her crimson painted lips curled in amusement at something he had said. “And what about her?”

Tamlin hesitated mid-sip. “What about her?”

Penelope nudged him lightly with her elbow. “You seem close.”

His expression didn’t change, though he let out a quiet exhale. “What gives you that impression?”

Penelope shrugged, tilting her head coyly. “Just a hunch.” She took another sip, then added, “She’s been watching you all evening. Practically devouring you.”

Tamlin’s grip on his glass visibly tightened.

Penelope pressed on, watching him carefully. “Plus, Eris said the two of you had a bit of a history.”

Tamlin’s eyes darkened slightly. “What kind of history is that?”

She lifted a shoulder. “Sounds like you two have known one another for a while.” She tapped a finger against the rim of her glass, watching him over its edge. “Eris mentioned that this whole trade deal came about because you and Amarantha reconnected.”

A bitter chuckle escaped Tamlin, though it held no warmth. “I believe she has some feelings toward me that aren’t exactly reciprocated.”

Penelope raised a brow. “Complicated.”

“Very.”

A beat of silence.

Then, he exhaled, swirling the champagne in his glass.

“It’s not the easiest thing,” Tamlin said finally, “to deny one of the most powerful generals in your enemy’s army.”

Penelope tilted her head slightly, studying him. “I’m sure,” she mused. “But do you still consider them an enemy?”

Tamlin’s jaw tightened, his gaze flickering away. Then, after a pause, he gave a small shake of his head. “I think they’re doing the best they can with what they have.”

“And you trust that?”

His eyes found the two fae across the ballroom—Eris, still standing with Amarantha, completely engrossed.

Tamlin nodded, slow and deliberate. “I think trust is something that can be earned,” he said, his voice thoughtful, distant. “Even after it’s been broken.”

Penelope hesitated for a moment, watching him. The weight of his words, the edge of something unspoken and painful curling around them.

She turned more fully toward him, pulling him back in. “You’re doing the right thing,” she murmured.

Tamlin blinked, refocusing on her. She reached forward, her fingers brushing lightly over the collar of his vest, straightening it where it had curled. A small, grounding touch.

“I know it must feel…isolating,” she continued, her voice barely above the hum of the conversation around them. “Like you’re standing on a precipice, unsure if stepping off means falling or flying.”

Tamlin exhaled softly, eyes locked onto hers.

Penelope offered him the smallest of smiles. “But I can tell you’re doing the best you can. And that’s all anyone can ask of you.”

Tamlin stared down at her.

She say the boy beneath the mask of a High Lord. The lost, grieving child how had been asked to grow up too soon. To carry something to heavy for one person to bear.

Tamlin wasn’t dangerous. He was hurting. Wounded.

And as much as Penelope knew she had her part to play in it, she couldn’t deny the genuine ache she felt for him.

Even if, across the room, Amarantha’s dark eyes still burned into them.

And even, if standing beside her, Eris refused to look.

Tamlin swallowed hard, his hands settling over hers. “Thank you,” he whispered, his voice barely carrying over the hum.

“Of course,” Penelope replied. “Even if no one else sees it, you need to know—the world is going to be better because you’re in it. Because of the role you will play.”

Tamlin’s lips quirked, almost imperceptibly, before he let out a quiet, breathy laugh.

Penelope tilted her head, intrigued. “What?” she asked, a small chuckle of her own slipping free.

He shook his head, as if amused by a thought he hadn’t meant to say out loud. “Out of all the fae Eris could have been put with, he got you.”

Penelope arched a brow. “And what exactly does that mean?”

Tamlin hesitated, one of his hands running through his golden hair like he wanted to take back the words. “No—no, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

She laughed again, this time pulling him down slightly by the front of his best, teasing but insistent. “No, tell me. What exactly are you trying to say about me, my lord?”

Tamlin’s eyes flicked to hers, locking, the weight pressing between them. Longing. A deep, aching kind of longing that radiated from him, and turned to rot in Penelope’s stomach.

“I just mean,” he said softly, “that for all the cruelty Eris has in him…somehow, he was given someone like you.”

Her heart stilled.

For a moment, she forgot how to breathe, how to move—how to do anything but stare at him. She should have fed into it, played along with the illusion, or denied it outright. Should have smiled and brushed it away.

But the way Tamlin looked at her…

The way he said it without absolutely certainty, without any hesitation or deceit.

It turned her feet to ice.

Tamlin was close now—too close—his breath mingling with hers, his gaze searching, open, waiting.

She let go of his vest.

Something passed over his face—disappointment? Regret?—before he straightened, putting distance between them, sensing the shift.

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I shouldn’t have said anything, that was just—that was just me—”

“No,” Penelope cut in, too fast, too sharp.

Tamlin stilled.

She swallowed hard. “I understand.”

And she did.

But instead of facing it, she turned.

Across the ballroom, Eris stood against the far wall. Watching.

His expression was stone, unreadable. But his hands…

They were shaking.

Amarantha leaned in, whispering something against his ear, her long fingers curling around his face—possessive. She guided him closer, her nails grazing his jaw.

Penelope’s stomach twisted violently. Like poison sinking into her blood.

Then, Amarantha turned.

Releasing Eris, she shifted—her gaze landing right on Penelope.

And smiled.

Like death itself.

A Court of Fire and Masks Master List

[pallorpyrearch]

𝙼𝙸𝚂𝙲𝙴𝙻𝙻𝙰𝙽𝙴𝙾𝚄𝚂 :: Toya's birthday +

I was suppose to make this post yesterday for the occasion but ended up busy so, lemme talk about some little misc things about Toya, mostly related to his birthday/childhood. Toya and Shoto's birthdays are very close together ( like, only a week apart, actually ) In fact, when Rei would tell Toya that Shoto was his birthday present. Toya always had ambivalent feelings about this, some excitement to have another sibling, some dread that Shoto was going to finally be what Enji wanted, which made his life feel more scary and uncertain.

This unfortunately ended up being true. Even though I've mentioned Toya doesn't blame either of his brothers for his father's abandonment of him, as this already occurred before they were born, Toya still felt dread and sadness for the idea that once Enji did get a child with a perfect quirk it would be so much harder for him to earn his place back in the family, which meant yes, Toya often behaved jealously toward Shoto all the same.

Its funny ( tragic ) to note that Shoto and Toya's birthdays are so close because Toya was born premature. Toya, if carried full term, would have been born more in the beginning of February.

Toya had a notorious meltdown on his twelfth birthday. This incident included Fuyumi being the one to pick out his cake, which was My Melody themed because she liked My Melody and thought it was cute that Toya and My Melody shared a birthday.

This resulted with Toya collapsing into tears at the sight of the pink frilly cake and storming out of the room to much awkwardness, upset and confusion from the Todoroki caretaker ( Implied to possibly be Rei's mother ), Fuyumi and Natuso. Toya wasn't actually upset about the cake as it seemed, he was upset because his mother and father weren't there as they had important school bookings to take care of with Shoto. For Toya, this was of course a build up of the severe neglection and rejection he'd been feeling for years, not necessarily just this one event. He still has beef with My Melody though, despite the fact those things weren't actually related. Speaking of Toya and things he has beef with for silly childhood reasons: He's stated he hates fish. Why ? Funnily enough this is also related to a tragic, traumatic misunderstanding when Toya was small. He loved the Koi fish in the pond of their family garden. Toya, when he was very small, would spend time talking to and feeding these fish. They're the closest things to pets Toya had so one afternoon when he was told they were having fish for dinner, baby Toya freaked out, mistaking them to be talking about his Koi fish friends, instead of completely unrelated fish. Though the misunderstanding was cleared up, Toya doesn't like fish and wont it eat it if he has the choice.

🧷 And lasty, unrelated, because I'm too lazy to make a whole separate post about it : Toya can't speak any English at all ! He never made it to education beyond the 6th grade. He doesn't understand English to read it, speak it or write it. I imagine myself as translating what he says when I write him but basically if your character exclusively speaks English/doesn't understand any Japanese you're gonna have a funny time trying to interact with Toya.

This being said, Toya has a couple of "offensive" pins from America that are in English which he thinks are hilarious. Some of his favs include: "Its not an addiction until you've sucked dick for it" and "I can do anything with a little profanity and sarcasm". These are proudly pinned, among others, on his waist bag. As a result, the only English words Toya can recognize to read and speak are things like "ass, cunt, bitch, dick, fuck." etc, which he also thinks is hilarious. Its the trouble making punk anarchist coming out in him. He finds nothing funnier than a bad word that makes old people look at you like you back handed all their ancestors.

[ghostradiodylan]

Which Hacketteers do you think are pro Christmas music and who do you think is totally against it?

Okay this is a great question and such a hard one for me because I’m kind of ambivalent about Christmas music myself! I like it fine for a couple of days beforehand but when it starts playing in stores right after Halloween? I’m still in spooky mode, stop trying to make me be merry for the sake of capitalism! 😂

Also given the setting of New York state, I wonder if any of them come from Jewish or otherwise non-Christian families. Idk who’s most likely to fit into that category but it’s a consideration. Christmas culture infects everyone though lol.

❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️

I feel like Jacob is a literal child so he probably gets super excited about everything Christmas and is like helping his parents put up elaborate light displays and buying Christmas themed snacks and stuff, so he’s probably listening to Christmas music the day after Halloween and I feel like Emma might be similar. Emma might come Christmas caroling at your house because she loves performing so much! Emma doesn’t mind a pop cover or a bit of Mariah Carey at all.

Kaitlyn might be a total Grinch if left to her own devices but she can’t help indulging Jacob a little. She doesn’t mind Christmas music in the context of Christmas movies but she probably wouldn’t listen to it on purpose just for fun. She has a secret soft spot for the soundtrack to The Muppet Christmas Carol.

I feel like the holidays might be complicated for Ryan. We don’t know why his mom isn’t around, though I obviously have my headcanons for fiction, but that might make it a little bit of a tough time for him. At the same time, he seems really invested in his sister so he probably wants to make Christmas special for her. He lives with his grandparents, so maybe they’re listening to the more classic, old school Christmas music and jazz covers and he’s probably fine with that.

Dylan I think could go either way, either he’s rolling his eyes about it altogether or he’s making massive playlists of indie and alt rock covers and then throwing in annoying goofy songs like “Dominick the Donkey” and “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.” I think he probably does not want to hear Christmas music prior to Thanksgiving. But maybe I’m just projecting as I often do.

Abi’s watching The Nightmare Before Christmas on repeat to match her Hot Topic aesthetic. 😂 She likes that original soundtrack and the various artist cover versions and “Yule Shoot Your Eye Out” by Fall Out Boy. But when it’s actually the week of Christmas she gives in and gets into the regular cheery stuff.

I wonder how long Nick has been in the US because I always think it has to be so weird for Australians to have all this wintery themed Christmas music when it’s summer in their hemisphere at Christmas time! Maybe he gets really into it because it’s so different from what he’s used to. Or maybe he gets cranky and misses the summer and listens to Tim Minchin’s “White Wine in the Sun” to remember warmer holidays. Could go either way.

Maybe it’s his 50’s fit talking, but I imagine Max being into the old crooner type Christmas music, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra and more recently stuff like Michael Bublé that’s copying that style. I feel like he starts terribly serenading Laura with that music in early November.

I feel like Laura might not get super into Christmas until school is out because she’s so driven, so maybe she pushes all that out of her mind until then, except when Max is badly crooning “White Christmas” in the shower. But then again, I also headcanoned her as a choir kid in high school so she probably had concerts to practice for too that made her get into the spirit earlier than she really wanted.

Thanks for the asks today y’all! I think my brain is tapped out but I will be meditating on some I can send back! 💜💜💜

[hinge]

Hinge presents an anthology of love stories almost never told. Read more on https://no-ordinary-love.co

[latenightcinephile]

Film #919: 'The Exiles', dir. Kent MacKenzie, 1961.

A few years before Shirley Clarke was filming The Cool World in Harlem, Kent MacKenzie was on the other side of the United States, making a film about a different marginalised group in American society. Brief but insightful, The Exiles explores the modern experiences of Native Americans who had moved from the reservations to live in Los Angeles.MacKenzie shot a significant amount of raw documentary footage for this project; however, the film's production was slow and fractured, which makes the finished product an excellent example of how themes can be developed and even created entirely in the editing booth.

In the early 1960s, Kent MacKenzie was living in the Bunker Hill district of Los Angeles, a region that was once a highly desirable residential neighbourhood but which had fallen into a steady decay (in the 1990s, it would be largely bulldozed and redeveloped). The area was well-suited to Los Angeles's low-income populations, and when MacKenzie got to know his Native American neighbours he became interested in documenting their experiences. To describe The Exiles as having a plot is a bit excessive - there are three parallel stories with little overlap. A young man, Homer (Homer Nish) goes out with his friends to play cards and drink, before attending a late night gathering of the Native American population at Hill X. His friend, Tommy (Tommy Reynolds), spends the evening unsuccessfully picking up young women before attending the same party. Meanwhile, Homer's pregnant wife Yvonne (Yvonne Williams) attends a movie and goes window shopping. Realising that Homer has not come home yet, she stays with a friend overnight. When dawn breaks, Homer and Tommy come back home, ready to spend another day in much the same pattern.

Not much academic analysis of The Exiles has been written - the film was only fully released in 2008, with restoration partly funded by Milestone Films (the same group that was campaigning for the availability of The Cool World). As a result of this comparative dearth of information, it is difficult to tell how much of what we see of Yvonne, Homer and Tommy is the real people themselves and how much is a fictionalisation created for the sake of a cohesive story. At several points in the film, MacKenzie makes use of voice-over interviews with the three, and it seems from what I've been able to read that these interviews were conducted before most of the filming was done. Despite this, the interviews aren't often directly related to the action - they're played over quieter and more introspective moments, and tend to play off themes of identity and aspirations. The remaining sources that talk about the film's production process suggest that making this 70-minute film took over three years, with a constantly changing supporting cast and crew - a sign of the wider sociopolitical context. The opening scene, for instance, has Homer and Yvonne visited by several of Homer's friends, characters which disappear shortly afterwards and are not featured again. John Patterson, in his article about The Exiles in The Guardian, says that these absences were because the actors had been imprisoned partway through shooting. Likewise, Patterson says, several of MacKenzie's cameramen were also arrested.

Against this backdrop of ambient oppression, the film gives us a picture of raucous and often barely-controlled rebellion. These characters are exiles from the usual society of Los Angeles. Rather than being sequestered on the reservations, Homer and Tommy seem to relish the freedom to do whatever they want, while still being able to carve out a space in the urban environment so that they don't lose touch completely with their culture. MacKenzie seems to be quite ambivalent about the quality of this freedom, though. Homer is quick to contrast his experience of Los Angeles with the one of white people, saying "I think white people got more troubles than the Indians do, you know. They usually have something on their mind all the time." By contrast, it seems, Homer never has to worry - he has time to do what he wants. The film leaves it as an open question whether Homer ought to have more on his mind, given that his night involves flirting, drinking and fighting, while leaving his wife largely ignored. This freedom is visually pronounced within the film as well - Homer and Tommy are almost entirely seen in liminal or open spaces: bars, gas stations, and of course Hill X. As a result, they're not confined in where they can go or what they can do.

Yvonne, on the other hand, is not nearly so lucky, and the freedom the men experience is not offered to her. In fact, her interviews suggest, their freedom relies on her efforts. Her interview segments often reference her unhappiness, weighing it against her hopes for her unborn child. Furthermore, she expresses optimism that having a child with Homer might lead to him taking some responsibility, an optimism that feels unfounded to the viewer, given that we can see what Homer gets up to with his nights. Were it not for her shreds of optimism, Yvonne would be adrift and defeated. "Now I don't go to church or pray sometimes," she confides to the audience, while wandering the streets of Bunker Hill looking in shop windows. One of the most evocative moments of this mood in the film is when the lights of the cinema come up during the intermission, showing Yvonne, sad and lost in thought. Nor is she alone in this defeat - the other two women we meet, Mary and Claudine, are also unable to claim the freedom the men can, and are also usually taken advantage of to further the fun that the men of the community have. Mary and Claudine meet Tommy at a bar, and go for a drive with him and his friend, but Mary abandons the group at the gas station when she is forced to pay for the gas. Resentful, she locks herself in the gas station bathroom until they leave. Claudine makes her way to Hill X with her companions, but is assaulted by one of the men. A fistfight breaks out to defend Claudine, but she is forgotten about in the aftermath, and MacKenzie shows her waking up in the front seat of the convertible the next morning, blinking in the sterile-looking dawn light. For a moment it seems as if she is the only one there, like she has been discarded as a remnant of the fun the night before, and the way this is edited makes it seem like a deliberate choice.

The reason I suspect this may be a thematic choice is that, due to the difficult production, MacKenzie has had to largely build this film in the editing room, trying to construct as cohesive a narrative as possible with the material he has. The lack of quality sound recording in the filming locations and the improvisational scripting are both evident in the fact that much of the dialogue in the bar scenes has been pieced together from whatever was successfully recorded, to the extent that a single line of dialogue is often used multiple times within one conversation. It's not often that you see a finished film like this, but the repeated sounds make each conversation feel more circular than they otherwise do, and you can easily get the impression that most nights in the lives of these characters play out exactly this way. It seems obvious to me that MacKenzie finished editing this film and discovered that the theme of freedom, and the unequal way in which that freedom is offered, had become central to the story he was telling. His background in educational filmmaking probably influenced his decision to enhance this theme by including a brief prologue. Over historical photographs of Native Americans on horseback, a voice informs us that the Native American once "lived in the ordered freedom of his own culture", before "the white man confined him within the boundaries of the tribal reservation." The narration carries a hint of ambiguity - there is a suggestion that our protagonists here have abandoned the grievances of the past - but this simply adds more interpretive scope to how we approach the film. MacKenzie also adds ambient sound in post-production that furthers the cultural animosity - a background TV plays a Western, of which we can only hear the line "I reckon that'll teach the moon-faced Injun to have respect for his betters." It goes unremarked-upon by the characters in the film, but for those in the audience who notice it, it underscores how disdainful the wider culture is for these people, and how Yvonne's desire to come to a city where she can find happiness is at best a compromised hope, and at worst a hollow and doomed one.

These themes are, of course, present in the raw footage that MacKenzie has at his disposal, but through sound and editing he is able to make them the central thesis of The Exiles. What might otherwise have been a meandering and repetitive pseudo-documentary instead becomes a critique of the society that Yvonne, Homer and Tommy move about in, and the ways in which it offers a version of freedom that pales in comparison to the ideal that America supposedly makes available to everyone. Even within this limited scope, that lesser freedom is still not evenly distributed, and some of the film's most heartbreaking moments are where Yvonne quietly acknowledges the hopelessness of her situation. American society in the first half of the twentieth century had reached a point where Native Americans were being offered the reservation, or this marginal life in the cities. Comfortingly, MacKenzie's film doesn't judge its characters for believing that this life could hold the freedom they were promised - it is left to the viewer to recognise the difference between the two situations, and the space between them that the exiles have been left wandering in.

[butchladymaria]

11, 12, and 16 for the violence asks!! I need to know

OG POST HERE!!!

11. number of fandom-related words you’ve filtered

actually all 36 terms i have filtered are fandom-related lmao. honestly i use the filtering system as a way to clean up my dash. i sometimes filter a tag if someone i follow gets into a new thing that i’m ambivalent about or unfamiliar with. it means i can keep following them without seeing stuff i’m just not all that interested in yet but also (and especially) to avoid having something spoiled for me if i want to check it out in future! it also means that i can click the “show” button if i’m in the mood for something specific or want to learn more about it — go to their blog and just look for anything filtered :) this is literally the only way i know of to search a tumblr account for specific shit because the actual search function is Actually Useless Shit

16. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

man there’s so many picks here but i’d have to say annalise. she’s not unpopular as in actively disliked afaik, just more generally overlooked. i need to post more about her but like — she’s such a key piece of bloodborne’s themes around gender and motherhood and its a goddamn shame it doesn’t get talked about more!!! she feels like a foil to miss doll in many ways (editor’s note: i Went Off on this but it needs to be its own post, so rest assured i will elaborate lol). she’s such a goddamn tragic character. in so many ways it feels that she retreated into the role of the queen to cope with the loss of her people: there’s nothing left of her home besides that. she calls herself “we”, not “i”. she is the queen of cainhurst before she is a human being and it feels like a very visceral reaction to the bigotry of the church. she is trapped in the throne room in a nightgown — evidenced the fact that her portraits show her wearing period-typical gowns, and the attire she wears looks like historical sleepwear. it makes me fucking insane. she was wearing her nightgown when the executioners attacked. despite seeing everyone she ever knew and loved be butchered before her eyes, despite being reviled as a corrupted subhuman monstrosity, despite being imprisoned in complete solitude for god only knows how long, she still fucking demands your respect and i love her for it. she is canonically some flavor of queer on account of the fact she rejects your marriage proposal in an identical way regardless of gender. i am able to fulfill my fantasy of a beautiful vampire woman bossing me around thru her questline. what is not to fucking like!!!!

17. you can’t understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc.)

hands down probably the defanging of the women characters: chiefly maria, miss doll, and adella/arianna. like, i know WHY it happens (misogyny) but it’s still baffling to me. why are you making them waifus. follow up question is your taste honest to god just that boring, and if so get better soon. they’re so much cooler than that. shut the fuck up. maria is such a complex character and if i see another clown reducing her to some soft maternal wifey because… what, she was compassionate to the research hall patients and felt bad about doing uhhh *checks notes* A Whole Ass Genocide???? i will staple myself to the ceiling. like some folks will do the most absurd mental gymnastics to call a woman in any media maternal for the most basic things 😭. in a similar vein are the people who shit themselves to death trying to claim that she TOTALLY COULD HAVE BEEN a femmey little uwu housewife even though she has a canonical and marked preference for masc presentation, and actually a woman conforming to victorian gender roles and being attracted to men is an EPIC FEMINIST WIN, actually. usually this comes from cis and/or hets who are convinced they are personally oppressed because like 3 queers on tumblr said maria is a butch lesbian. having said that there are so many amazing artists and theorycrafters that when i was trying to link specific posts/art the list was actually a million years long. some people are annoying but MORE people are so cool and thoughtful and creative!!!!! shoutout to nishihii saintadeline butchjolyne and pretty much all the lgbtqs in the mariadeline tag, all of your work is like oxygen to me 💕 yall are amazing :)

it’s the same with miss doll. either their complexity is painted over by making her the butt of those insufferable sex doll jokes or they’re made out to be this pure innocent mommy/housewife. usually this is hand in hand with just blatantly ignoring the misogyny inherent to the dynamic between her, maria, and gerhman and i just have to wonder how anyone manages to so spectacularly miss the point. i wrote a forty page paper on this. needless to say it makes me insane. i’m also a big fan of YOUR theories on the matter for a different yet equally neat perspective :) also i think marble did a post on it but i cannot for my LIFE find it

also i cannot stress enough how lame it is that adella gets reduced to a flat stereotype. they took a violently traumatized woman who was groomed into loathing herself by the catholic blood cult and who desperately clings onto the hunter for showing her justo the most basic decency of not Leaving Her To Die and decided instead of any of that it would be way cooler to water her down into a “yandere”. same can be said for arianna. like istg if they were men ther would be ESSAYS. but then again if they were men their themes would literally not even be half as cool AND they couldn’t be lesbians so i am writing the essays myself. tl;dr i am absolutely OBSESSED with both @/jurasicass and @/undefeatablesin’s portrayals of both these ladies. finally some good fucking adella/hunter/arianna dynamics‼️‼️‼️

[iamthepulta]

For Myra, 1, 31, 32, 41, 45!

For Jamison, 8, 19, 33!

Linking the Jamison ones -> Here

Does your character have siblings or family members in their age group? Which one are they closest with?

Myra is the youngest out of three children. An eldest brother, an older (middle) sister, and herself. I think through the first 10 years or so, she wasn't on great terms with her brother, but was still fairly friendly. She was three years younger than her sister though, so they grew up much closer.

I'm still trying to pin down their dynamic, so the age gap might vary a bit, but I know Myra likes her sister much more than her brother instinctively. He's following in her father's footsteps and as a youngest, mostly-ambivalent-to-the-business child, her sister is just nicer to be around. Her sister was also interested in the mines, which Myra admired, because she didn't care about them much.

2. Describe a scenario in which your character feels most comfortable.

Unperceived. Train stations full of steam and smoke. Busy marketplaces where nobody glances under the hood. An aside. An afterthought.

She loves her work being the center of attention. She can't remember how many times she's thought of the ballroom as her stage, and herself as the puppeteer behind the curtain. Her eyes trail aristocrats around the room with a demure smile behind a black shroud.

32. Describe a scenario in which your character feels most uncomfortable.

The answer might be 'perceived', but that feels really stupid to say, lol. Maybe 'judged'. I think Myra thinks of her causes and herself as inherently just, and if people put her on the spot and force her to justify things, she's uncomfortable because she absolutely has not thought that deeply about it. She just thinks she's right.

41. How does your character treat people in service jobs?

Good. Which is her defining character trait. After her sister died, she began to linger outside more often, and a new foreman's family took notice. She didn't get to spend much time with them or their only son, but enough to learn how proper families were supposed to work, and how much the parents cared about their son.

The father dies from an illness maybe a year after she met them, and the wife and son return to stay with her family in the valley.

But fundamentally, from working in the mines and learning from 'her employees' rather than her father and brother, Myra actually cares about workers and their lives. She carries that with her as she gets older, and becomes more and more disillusioned with aristocratic society.

42. What does your character believe will happen to them after they die? Does this belief scare them?

Hmmm. Myra definitely learned about death when she was 12 and her sister died, I think... I don't know if she feels her own mortality right then, though. But that definitely plants the grief that becomes her- kind of- defining characteristic/mask.

I think growing up in such a small town helped give her hope though. People were mining Elum in the valley for millennia, and they had oral stories of souls that Myra clung to as a kind of pipe dream. Eventually, when she went down to the valley and met the scientists there, she started believing that Elum was the gateway between life and death, and you could bring back someone's soul before they became earth again if you were only fast enough.

Which is crazy person talk, so she doesn't tell anyone her suspicions, but she'd seen dozens of deaths from Elum at that point, and their children who ended up bound to life and death in powerful ways. [Last bit sounds edgy because I haven't thought up practical names for the actual "Organic, Inorganic" "Light/Dark" themes, lol.]

*thinking out loud*

So I guess she believes all living things have souls. When you die, your soul goes to the <inorganic> where it's 'burned' into an element in the center of the earth. Seeds and plants are essentially 'gateways' to the <inorganic>, that combine elements back into souls. So all living things consume other souls, and then the <inorganic> consumes all at the end. The organic only takes, the inorganic accepts and gives.

I really like this idea tbh, because it's always the inorganic that's painted as the 'bad guy'. I want the organic to be the bad guy for once, lol. xD

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 2/5

Book Blurb: Sami Ellis’s Dead Girls Walking is a shocking, spine-chilling YA horror slasher about a girl searching for her dead mother’s body at the summer camp that was once her serial killer father’s home—perfect for fans of Friday the 13th and White Smoke. Temple Baker knows that evil runs in her blood. Her father is the North Point Killer, an infamous serial killer known for how he marked each of his victims with a brand. He was convicted for murdering 20 people and was the talk of countless true crime blogs for years. Some say he was possessed by a demon. Some say that they never found all his victims. Some say that even though he’s now behind bars, people are still dying in the woods. Despite everything though, Temple never believed that her dad killed her mom. But when he confesses to that crime while on death row, she has no choice but to return to his old hunting grounds to try see if she can find a body and prove it. Turns out, the farm that was once her father’s hunting grounds and her home has been turned into an overnight camp for queer, horror-obsessed girls. So Temple poses as a camp counselor to go digging in the woods. While she’s not used to hanging out with girls her own age and feels ambivalent at best about these true crime enthusiasts, she tries her best to fit in and keep her true identity hidden. But when a girl turns up dead in the woods, she fears that one of her father’s “fans” might be mimicking his crimes. As Temple tries to uncover the truth and keep the campers safe, she comes to realize that there may be something stranger and more sinister at work—and that her father may not have been the only monster in these woods.

A Note From the Publisher

Sami Ellis is a queer horror writer who’s inspired by the horrific nature of Black fears and the culture’s relation to the supernatural. When she’s not acting as the single auntie with a good job, she spends her time not writing. You can follow her @themoosef on Twitter, or check out her words in the Black horror anthology, All These Sunken Souls. Dead Girls Walking is her debut novel.

Review:

Trying to find your dead mother's body at the horror themed summer camp that your serial killer father use to go to is a lot for a summer camp counselor. Temple Baker is the daughter of the North Point Killer, an infamous serial killer who marked each of his victims with a brand and he was convicted of murdering 20 people. He told temple that he was possessed by a demon but no one believed him. Yet now people are still dying in the woods while he is behind bars... Temple never believed he killed her mother but he did confess to that crime while on death row and now she wants to find her mother's body and prove it. She decides to become a camp counselor at a queer horror themed camp for girls... all so she can get access to the grounds her father use to use and where he said her other's body is.... yet girls start appearing dead and dying in the same way her father's victims were killed.... Temple is afraid that her dad has a copycat killer yet the more she digs into finding the truth the more she's beginning to realize there are more monsters in those woods than she ever realized. I love queer horror novels and this one sounded really fun, unfortunately it just kind of felt all over the place for me and I just found myself disconnecting from the story. I really wanted to like it, but it just didn't work out. Temple's character was hard to connect with and to root for. I really wanted to but I just couldn't. The story arc starts off interesting but by the 45% mark it gets kind of off tracks and then is all over the place. The ending felt meh at best to me. I still do recommend this for fans of horror novels because its interesting and maybe you'll have a better time with it than I did.

*Thanks Netgalley and ABRAMS Kids, Amulet Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[lesvegas]

Hey, Alex! Quick question, I saw your neopets post, and was wondering if the neopet site, as of today, is nice to play with.

Like, I´ve always thought of creating a new account (had one wayy back then), and all, but hearing about the fucking NFT shit, and how buggy half of the features where kinda discoraged me.

But seeing your post made me wonder if the new owners are improving the site experience, or the site wasn´t half as buggy as people said it was.

Yes!! I'd argue the site has been more nice to play with lately than it has been in the last couple of years since flash went under.

Funny thing about the NFT shit; TNT had nothing to do with it. TL;DR one of the og creators got obsessed with crypto shit, pissed his pants when no one wanted to do NFT shit, dipped, and now Neopets is independent and mostly owned by one of the other og creators who ISN'T a weird cryptobro. They've also stated that they have more resources, funding, and intend to take Neopets 'into a new era'.

So far, 'into a new era' has meant a restoration of many flash games and features (not all; it'll be a long while before everything is converted, but for most players only a few dailies are inaccessible and the site is still 95% functional), updating the home page and other areas of the site with a new mobile-friendly look (I'm kinda ambivalent about this but I get why they're doing it... and I have to admit I like the new themes), implementing a new plot event (I think it just ended but also looks like they aren't quite done yet, I'm excited to see what happens next) and... they apparently plan on making some kind of 3d game? Idk but for a while now they've been consistently updating and fixing and adding things people have wanted for a long time and seem to actually be listening to the community. They've been doing Q and A's on their official youtube channel, too.

I won't lie to you, though, the site IS still buggy. Always has been. I wouldn't say any bugs I've run into have hindered my experience overall, but they're there. But I might just be more forgiving of bugs than most as a fnv player lol. You *probably* won't really run into any yourself though, right now the only current bugs I can think of are the Wishing Well not updating and a couple minor bugs with the new plot event (tbf plot events are a live thing and they usually have a bug or two, this isn't new).

One last thing; going back to it for the first time in a long time will probably be jarring no matter what. Most of the site still has that classic oldish web look to it, while stuff like the front page and your inventory is in a totally different style. All I can say is you'll get used to it, but it does feel weird at first. Other than that, I can't really imagine a new account running into anything that would deter them from playing. Most of Neopets is the same as it's always been, for better or worse, and what isn't the same has mostly been a welcome change.

If you DO make a new account hmu btw I'll give you some free stuff and neopoints to start out with, I love helping newbies and returning players :3 Also lemme know if you have any other specific questions, I love talking about neopets sm