#Cartoon by Matt Golding

[t-jfh]

How do you imprison an ex-president with lifetime Secret Service protection?

If Trump is convicted, his Secret Service protection may be an obstacle to his imprisonment.

All former US presidents, including Donald Trump, are provided Secret Service protection for life — technically this entitlement and protocol applies, even if Trump were to be convicted and sentenced to prison or home confinement.

By Spencer S. Hsu, Carol D. Leonnig and Tom Jackman

The Washington Post - August 4, 2023

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/08/04/trump-criminal-cases-prison-secret-service/

This article originally appeared in The Washington Post August 4, 2023. It was republished in Australia by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age - August 5, 2023:

YouTube video >> Please Explain Podcast - Inside Politics: Is Donald Trump going to jail? [Podcast (televised) 4 August 2023 / 18mins.+35secs.]:

From the newsrooms of The Age and SMH, Please Explain Podcast provides daily insight to the stories that drive the world.

On Tuesday 1 August 2023 in the Federal District Court in Washington DC, special counsel Jack Smith filed an indictment against former US president Donald Trump, for his role in the violent aftermath of the 2020 US election.

Trump faces four criminal charges related to alleged conspiracies to overturn the results of the 2020 election and obstruct the process of certification of those results on January 6 2021, the day of the violent Capitol riot.

If convicted, Trump could potentially go to jail for decades.

Please Explain Podcast host Jacqueline Maley talks with North America correspondent Farrah Tomazin and international editor Peter Hatcher on the latest charges against Donald Trump.

Try looking at the Trump legal saga without congratulating yourself.

How the Modern Meritocracy made Trump inevitable.

By David Brooks

This article originally appeared in The New York Times August 2, 2023. It was republished in Australia by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age - August 7, 2023:

[strniohoeee]

Disdain

Pairing: Matt Sturniolo X Female Reader ⚠️SMUT⚠️

Synopsis: Matt wants to keep Y/N, but won’t be her man’s, so what happens when they go to a Halloween party, and Matt sees something he doesn’t like🫠

Warnings⚠️: This is straight up SMUT. There’s smacking, degrading, manhandling. It’s just filthy sooo read at your own risk

Song for the imagine: Drama-Roy Woods ft. Drake, Thong Song- Sisqo

This story is 18+, so if you’re a minor DO NOT INTERACT⚠️

Matt and I had been in this weird gray area of being a couple, but not really being a couple. Like he was so sweet to me, and would take me out on dates and treat me like his girl, but then wouldn’t call me his girlfriend or be with me publically.

I hated it so much because he would treat me like I was his, but really I wasn’t, and anytime I brought this up he would go on this whole rant of “it doesn’t matter . Who cares about labels” My issue with that was he’s had girlfriends publically in the past, so I wasn’t sure what changed when it came to me.

About a month ago when he and I were doing really well, and acting like a real couple we decided we wanted to be Jessica Rabbit and Roger Rabbit for this Halloween party his brothers and I got invited to. Slowly I started looking into buying the costume parts, but when he started pissing me off I had only purchased the red sparkly strapless dress.

About two weeks before the party I decided I was no longer going to match costumes with him, but I didn’t tell him I wanted him to look like an idiot. Just how he made me look like one

The night of the party I had went over to the triplets house to get ready with them. Still Matt didn’t suspect a thing, but I had been distant these past two weeks not really talking to him or hugging or kissing him. He just assumed we were on our “break” and he didn’t really care. Not shocked

The party started at 11, and we were all finishing up our costumes. We decided to all walk out one by one and show them off.

Nick was Corlines other dad, and Madi was the other mother, Chris was Steve Harrington, and Matt came out dressed as Roger rabbit.

The only person who knew I changed my costume was Nick, and he was trying to keep his composure looking at Matt dressed like a fool.

“Okay Y/N come out” Madi said clapping her hands together

I walked out in my strapless sparkly red dress that pushed my boobs up nice and high, and the slit was from my bikini line down to my ankles. Sadly I wasn't going to be going commando as my whole ass would be out with a slight movement, so I had on a red thong. I had a gold leg garter that had a red heart on it, and my black stiletto heels. I had my makeup done like a sad flapper

“What do we think” I said spinning around

“BETTY BOOP” Chris screamed jumping up and down. Betty boop was one of Chris weird cartoon crushes

I nodded my head at this giving them a slight spin around

“You look so fucking hot” Madi came screeching over to me and grabbing my hands

“Y/N this costume is too good” Nick said in a giddy way

“What the fuck” Matt finally says with a straight face

“Oh I forgot to tell you I didn’t want to do a matching couple costume since we aren’t a couple” I said giving him a fake frown

“Ouuu she got you good” Chris said laughing at his idiot brother

“Whatever I look like an idiot, and I’m changing my costume” he said standing up abruptly and going to his room

About 10 minutes later he came back downstairs dressed as a cowboy. He looked hot I can’t deny, but he wasn’t my man so fuck him

We had all piled into the car as Matt drove us to the party at Larrays house. We knocked on the door and Larry opened it

“BITCHHHHH yall look so fucking good” he said letting us walk into his house

“Okay matty poo with the slutty little cowboy costume” Larry said, and to this Matt gave him a half smile, and then he walked away from us

“Oh what crawled up his ass” Larry said looking at us

“Y/N decided to not match costumes with him, so now he’s all pissy” Chris said

“Oh boy bye, Y/N you look so hot like Okayy with the red thong I see you” he said, grabbing my hand and spinning me around.

“Thanks baby” I said hugging him

We were at the party for a good two hours at this point. I had drank two drinks, and was feeling so confident, and decided I wanted to dance. Initially I was looking for Matt, but when I saw him he was shooting darts into my eyes with his arms crossed over his chest, and his jaw clenched. I just rolled my eyes, and looked for someone else

I had grabbed any random influencer I saw, and asked if they wanted to dance. Of course they did a random girl wanting to grind on them? How could they say no

As we got to the dancing area Thong Song started playing

Immediately I started jumping in excitement

“This is my fucking songggg” I screamed and pushed us to the center of the “dance floor”

At first I was dancing alone, running my hands all over myself swaying my hips while I sang the song. A circle had opened up surrounding me dancing. I grabbed Madi and we started dancing on each other, and then I grabbed

Chris and Nick also dancing with them in a friendly way.

“LARRAY COME DANCE” I said reaching for his hands. He immediately jumped into the circle and started dancing with me while everyone cheered us on. That’s when I saw the guy I initially brought to the dance floor

“Come on hottie let’s dance” I said grabbing him. I turned around so my back was against his chest, and started to grind on him wrapping my hands around his neck as our hips swayed together

“Bitchhhhhh FUCK IT UPPPP” LARRAY screamed clapping his hands together

“SHAKE THAT ASSSSSS” Nick yelled at me

This whole time Matt was in the corner watching Y/N intensely with a straight face. Fuming that she had the audacity to even grind up against someone who she didn’t know. When his hands started running down her waist, she threw her head back laughing. Matt got so pissed he pushed himself off the couch, and started to stomp over to them. Just as he reached them the song ended, and it got quiet

“Let’s fucking go” Matt said to Y/N going to grab her arm

“Fuck no” she said pulling away

“I didn’t ask! WE ARE LEAVING NOW” he said yelling the last part and yanking her away from the boy

Everyone in the crowd is watching with a shocked face

“BYEEEE, and cute boy find me I wanna take you out” Y/N said looking back at him, and to this Matt yanked her harshly to walk in front of him

Matt brought the girl to the car opening the passenger side door for her, and throwing her in

After he got back in the car and turned it on he turned the car on, and put it into drive quickly taking off

“Aww what a gentleman opening the passenger side for me” Y/N said giggling at him

“Shut the fuck up” Matt said clenching his jaw not even looking over at the girl

“What crawled up your ass” Y/N said

“You grinding on another guy” he said bluntly

“Not like we’re a couple” she said rolling her eyes

“Doesn’t matter” he said looking over at her

“Oh but it does. YOU ARE NOT MY MAN I CAN GRIND ON WHOEVER I WANT” I said lightly

“Watch your fucking tone” he said scoffing

“Or what? You gonna hit me” She said looking at him

“Want me to?” Matt asked as they pulled up to a red light

She started to lean in like she was going to kiss him on the cheek, but instead said “go fuck yourself” she said leaning back away.

Matt looked over at her, and smacked her across the face. Harshly but not enough to actually hurt her. It was more of a sexual smack

“Don’t fucking smack me” Y/N said and smacked the boy back in the face. He grabbed her hand and yanked her in closely

“Put your hands on me again, and I’ll fucking make you regret it” he said pushing her away as the light turned green

“Don’t touch me” she said back to him, and he grabbed her hand once again and brought it down to his bulge

“Do you see what you do to me, you make me so fucking hard” he said sighing as her hand came into contact with his dick

“Oh do I?” She said palming his dick, and he slightly threw his head back

“Fuck you’re gonna make me crash” he said

“So pay attention to the road, and let me take care of you” she said taking his dick out of his pants

She spat on the tip, and slowly started to jerk him up and down

“Shit that feels so good” he said gripping the steering wheel with his left hand

She slowly took his dick into her mouth. Swirling her tongue over his tip, and deep throating him. As her head was bobbing up and down Matt grabbed her hair moaning and thrusting his hips up. Y/N gagged at this

“Sorry baby I can’t help myself” Mat said moaning, and to this she moaned on his dick

“Fuck this I need you now” he said, and slowly pulled over to a secluded empty parking lot

After he threw the car in park Y/N took her heels off and jumped to the back seat, and Matt followed.

Immediately crashing his lips to her in a heated sloppy make out session. He pulled her dress down a little bit allowing her breasts to fall out. He started sucking and groping her breasts. As her back was digging into the handle

“Fuck Matt don’t stop” she said throwing her head back a little bit

“Look at you in this slutty dress with such easy access” He said squeezing her thigh

“Matt please I need more of you” she said pushing his head back. He backed up giving her a once over before nodding his head.

He went down to her thigh and grabbed the leg garter with his teeth pulling it down and off her leg, and putting it on the arm rest

“Open your mouth” he said lightly smacking her face, her mouth opened and he shoved her middle and finger finger in her mouth

“Get them nice and wet for me” he said watching her through half lidded eyes

Y/N swirled her tongue around his fingers, and he pulled them out. Pushing her panties to the side he rubbed her clit, and slowly slid both of his fingers in

“Oh my god” she said grabbing his arm

“You hear how this pussy sounds for me” he said slamming her fingers into her, all you could hear were the most obscene sounds coming from her pussy

“Matt I’m gonna cum if you keep speaking like that” the girl said as her eyes rolled to the back of her head

“You’re not cumming on my fingers” he said, and pulled his finger out her and smacked her pussy

She jumped at this and whined. Matt slid his pants down just enough for his cock to spring out. He pumped his cock a few times before spitting on Y/N pussy

“You’re getting fucked like a slut” he said as he slid his cock up and down on her pussy

“Please Matt I need it” she said moaning and breathing heavily

He slid into her pussy completely bottoming out. They both sighed at this feeling

“This pussy is mine” he said as he harshly grabbed her breast

Matt was relentlessly pounding into the young girl. Her back banging into the door handle, and her head slightly hitting the window

“Matt please harder” she said pulling his hair

“Shut the fuck up” he said as his hips snapped in an even fast faster

All that could be heard was skin slapping, moans and the banging of Y/N’s head on the window

He started to rub her clit as he pounded even harder into her

“FUCK MATT OH MY GOD” she yelled grabbing onto his hair for support

“Shut the FUCK up” he said looking into her eyes

“I can’t Matt you feel too good” she said moaning

He repositioned her hips, and started slamming into her at an ungodly pace

“MATT MATT MATT” she started screaming

“I said SHUT THE FUCK UP” he grunts out loudly as he smacks her across the face

“Fuck Matt” she said whining

He was getting close so his thrusts started to become deep and hard. Slamming into her with no mercy. He hit her G spot really hard, and Y/N was sure she died

“FUCK MATTTTTT” she screamed

“You don’t learn do you” he said as he grabbed her leg garter and shoved it in her mouth to keep her quiet

Matt continued to pound into her, and when she started to shake he knew she was about to cum

“Come on baby cum for me” he said furiously rubbing her clit. It didn’t take much more of that. She came on his cock moaning and weeping with tears falling down her face as her thighs started to shake

“Matt cum in me” she said coming down from her high as she removed the leg garter from her mouth

Immediately after that Matt came inside her with his brows furrowed and his mouth hung open. Pumping her full of his cum. After he came down from his high he pulled out and she slid her panties back on and pulled her dress up

“Fuck that was so hot” she said fixing herself up

“You’re mine” Matt said as he finished readjusting himself

She looked over at him confused

“Whatever it is you want! I’m yours I’ll be your man, your husband, your boy toy whatever you want I’m yours” he said looking at her in a fucked our expression

“Damn you’re so pussy drunk” she said laughing at him

“Don’t push it” he said with a straight face

“I can be your girlfriend I suppose” She said shrugging her shoulders

“Don’t play with me” Matt said looking at her

“I’m kidding. Yes Matt I’d love to finally be your girlfriend” she said kissing him on the cheek

“Good because I’m never letting you go” he said kissing her on the lips

“Alright let’s head home” Matt said as he helped Y/N back to the passenger seat

“Yeah my back is fucking hurting after being slammed into the handle non stop” she said laughing

“Im sorry baby” Matt said laughing with her

“It’s okay you were fucking me so good the pain went away” she said winking at him

He just looked down shyly and then drove back to the house.

The End

This was so fun to write🤪🤪 Now I’ll be working on my request I got, so expect to see that shortly🫶🏽

-J💅🏽

[sophaeros]

arctic monkeys for q magazine, june 2011 (x) (x)

ARCTIC MONKEYS: Inside Alex Turner's Head

Words Sylvia Patterson Portrait John Wright

The day Arctic Monkeys moved into their six bedroom, Spanish-style villa in the Hollywood Hills, where the first-floor balcony looked over the patio swimming pool, they knew exactly what to do.

"From the balcony, you could get on t'roof and jump in't pool," chirps the Monkeys' most gregarious member, drummer Matt Helders, in his homely Yorkshire way. "We looked at it and said, That's definitely gonna happen. So by the end, we did a couple of 'em. Somersaults in t'pool, from the roof. At night time."

In January 2011, as Sheffield and the rest of Britain endured its bitterest winter in a century, Arctic Monkeys capered among the palm trees, eschewing hotels for a millionaire's Hollywood homestead as they recorded and mixed their fourth studio album, Suck It and See.

The four Monkeys, alongside producer James Ford and engineer James Brown, lived what they called the "American man thing": watched Super Bowl on giant TVs, played ping-pong, hired two Mustangs, cooked cartoon Tom And Jerry-sized steaks on barbecues on Sundays, had girlfriends over to visit, all cooking and drinking around the colossal outdoor kitchen area featuring a fridge and two dishwashers. Living atop the Hills, they could see the Pacific Ocean beyond by day, the infinite glittering lights of downtown LA by night.

Every day, en route to Sound City Studios, they'd travel in a seven-seater four-by-four through the mountains, via bohemian 60s enclave Laurel Canyon, blaring out the tunes: The Stones Roses, The Cramps, the Misfits' Hollywood Babylon. For the sometime teenage art-punk renegades whose guitarist, Jamie Cook, was once ejected from London's Met Bar for refusing to pay €22 for two beers, the comedy rock'n'roll life still feels, however, absolutely nothing like reality.

NICK O'MALLEY: "It were really as if we were on holiday. When we came back it's the most post-holiday blues I've ever had!"

JAMIE COOK: "It's hard to comment on that. It were just really good fun."

MATT HELDERS: "We always said, As soon as things like that feel normal, we're in trouble. But it's just funny. You might think it would get more and more serious as you get older but it's getting funnier. We've done four albums now and I'm still only 24, I'm still immature to an extent. So who cares?"

Alex? Al? Are you there?

ALEX TURNER: "Yeah, it were good times. But we were in the studio most of the time. So there's no real wild Hollywood stories. Hmn. Yeah."

Wednesday, 16 March 2011, Strongroom Bar, Shoreditch, East London, 11am. Alex Turner, 25, slips entirely alone into an empty art-crowd brasserie looking like an indie girl's indie dream boy: mop-top bouffant hair which coils, in curlicues, directly into his cheekbones, army-green waist-length jacket, baggy-arsed skinny jeans, black cord zip-up cardigan, simple gold chain, supermoon sized chocolate-brown eyes.

Almost six years after I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor became the indie-punk anthem of a generation (from the first of Arctic Monkeys' three Number 1 albums), and nothing prepares you for the curious phenomenon of Alex Turner "in conversation". Unlike so many of the Monkeys frenetic early songs, he operates in slow motion, seemingly underwater, carrying a protective shell on his back, perhaps indie rock's very own diamond-backed terrapin. The most celebrated young wordsmith in rock'n roll today talks fulsomely, in fact, only in shapeless, curling sentences punctuated with "maybe... hmn.. yeah", an anecdotal wilderness sketching pictures as vague as a cloud. He is, though, simultaneously adorable: amenable, gentle, graceful, and as Northern as a 70s grandpa who literally greets you with "ey oop?".

"People think I'm a miserable bastard," he notes, cheerfully, "but it's just the way me face falls." Still profoundly private, if not as hermetically sealed as a vacuum-packed length of Frankfurter, his fante-shy reticence extends not only to his personal life (his four-year relationship with It-girl/TV presenter Alexa Chung, whom he never mentions) but to insider details generally. Take the Monkeys’ Hollywood high jinks documented above: not one word of it was described by Turner. Before Q was informed by his other Monkey bandmates, Turner’s anecdotal aversion unfolded like this:

Describe the lovely villa you were in. AT: "Well... we certainly had a... good view."

Of what? AT: "Well, we were up quite high."

The downtown LA lights going on forever? AT: "I dunno. It was definitely that thing of getting a bit of sort of sunshine. Is it vitamin D? If you can get vitamin D on your record, you've got a bit of a head start. So we'd get up and drive to the studio."

What were you driving? AT: "Nothing... spectacular. But yeah, we'd drive up the studio, spend all day there and sort of, y know, get back. To be honest... we had limited time. So we spent as much time as possible kind of getting into it, like, in the studio.

So your favourite adventures were what? AT: "Well, they were really… minimal. We were working out there!"

Any nightclubs or anything, perhaps? AT: "You really want the goss 'ere, don't you?"

Yes, please. AT: "I could make some up. Nah!"

And this was on the second time of asking. It's perhaps obvious: Alex Turner, one of the most prolific songwriters of his generation (four Monkeys albums and two EPs in five years, The Last Shadow Puppets side-project, a bewitching acoustic soundtrack for his actor/video director friend Richard Ayoade's feature-length debut Submarine), is dedicated only to the cause – of being the best he can possibly be. He simply remembers the songs much more than the somersaults.

Throughout 2009, Arctic Monkeys toured third album Humbug – the record mostly made in the Californian desert with Queens Of The Stone Age man-monolith Josh Homme – across the planet. While hardly some cranium-blistering opus, its heavier sonic meanderings considerably slowed the Arctic Monkeys' live sets and on 23 August 2009, Q watched them headline the Lowlands Festival, Holland and witnessed a hitherto unthinkable sight – swathes of perplexed Monkeys fans trudging away from the stage. With the sludge rock mood matching their cascading dude-rock hair it seemed obvious: they'd smoked way too much outrageously strong weed in the desert.

"Heheheh, yeah," responds Turner, unperturbed. "That's your theory. You probably weren't alone."

Back in the Strongroom Bar, Turner's arm is now nonchalantly draped along the back of a beaten-up brown leather sofa. He ponders his band's somewhat contrary reputation…

"I think starting the headline set at Reading with a cover of a Nick Cave tune perhaps was a bit contrary. D'youknowhat Imean?! But to be honest, that summer, at those festivals, we had a great time. And I know some fans enjoyed those sets 10 times more. And you can't just do, y’know, another Mardy Bum or whatever. Because how could you, really?"

With Humbug, notes Turner, "I went into corners I hadn't before, because I needed to see what were there," but by spring 2010 he wanted their fourth album to be "more song-based" and less lyrically "removed". He was "organised this time", studied "the good songwriters" (from Nick Cave, The Byrds and Leonard Cohen to country colossi Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline), discovered "the other three strings" on his guitar, and wrote 12 songs through the spring and summer of 2010, mostly in the fourth-floor New York flat he shared with Chung before the couple moved back to London late last summer (the New York MTV show It's On With Alexa Chung was cancelled after two seasons). The result: major-key melodies, harmonised singing and classic song structures.

At the same time he revisited the opposite extreme: bands such as Black Sabbath and The Stooges ("we wanted a few wig-outs as well"); he was also still heavily influenced by the oil-thick grinder rock of Josh Homme, who is clearly now a permanent Monkeys hero. After four months' rehearsals in London, on 8 January the Monkeys relocated to LA for five swift weeks of production and Homme came to visit, singing backing vocals on All My Own Stunts. Tequila was involved.

"Tequila is probably me favourite," manages Turner, by way of an anecdote. "But it takes a certain climate... It's not the same... in the rain. Yeah. [Looks to be contemplating a lyric] Tequila in the rain."

Vocally, he developed the caramel richness first unveiled on The Last Shadow Puppets' Scott Walker-esque The Age Of The Understatement, finding a crooner's vibrato. "Everything before was so tight,” he notes, clutching his neck. "Probably just through nerves. That's just not there any more." Suck It and See contains at least four of the most glittering, sing-along, world-class pop songs (and obvious singles) of Arctic Monkeys' career: the towering, clanging She's Thunderstorms, the summertime stunner The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala, the heavenly harmonised title track and the Echo & The Bunnymen-esque jangly pop of closer That's Where You're Wrong.

Elsewhere, in typically contrary "fashion", there's preposterous head-banger bedlam (Brick By Brick, the rollicking faux-heavy rock download they released in March "just for fun", featuring vocals by Helders; Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair, and Library Pictures). News arrives that the first single proper will be Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair. Q is perplexed. Brilliantly titled, certainly, but arriving after Brick By Brick, the new album will appear to the planet as some comedy pastiche metal album for 12-year-old boys.

You've got all these colossal, summery, indie-pop classics and you've gone for... The Chair? AT: [Laughing uproariously] "The Chair! I'm now calling it The Chair, that's cool. Well for once it weren't even our suggestion. It was Laurence's (Bell, Domino label boss). And I were, Fucking too right! He's awesome. It'd be good to get a bit of fucking rock'n'roll out there, won't it? It's riffs. It's loud. It's funny."

If you don't release The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala as a single I'm going round Domino to kick Laurence's "awesome" butt. AT: "I think it'll be the next one!"

The record's title, meanwhile, could've been more enigmatically original than the un-loved phrase Suck It and See. The band, struggling with ideas due to the opposing sonic moods, invented an inspiration-conjuring ruse: to think of new names for effects pedals in the style of Tom Wolfe, Turner being long enamoured with the American author's legendarily psychedelic books The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, "cos that just sounds awesome".

"There's the Big Muff pedal," he elaborates, "That’s the classic. I've got the Valve Slapper. And there's the Tube Screamer. So we came up with the Thunder Suckle Fuzz Canyon. And… wait till I assemble it in me mind… em… it'll come to me… The Blonde-O-Sonic Shimmer Trap. So we were going for summat like that."

A wasted opportunity?

"Nah. Because some of those things ended up in the lyrics anyway. Suck It and See was just easier."

Alex Turner, rock'n'roll's premier descriptive art-poet, still writes his lyrics long-hand in spiral-bound notebooks. "Writing lyrics is a craft that I've practised a bit now," he avers. "In me notebook it looks like sums. Theories. There's words and arrows going everywhere. There's always a few possibilities and I write the word 'OR' in a square."

For our most celebrated colloquial sketch-writer of the everyday observation (all betting pencils, boy slags and ice-cream van aggravations) the more successful he becomes, the less he orbits the ordinary. "I'm not struggling with that, to be honest," he decides. "In fact I'm enjoying writing lyrics much more than I did. Stories. Describing a picture. Um. There's quite a bit of weather and time in this one. Which is probably not reassuring. 'Oh God, he's writing about the weather.' Maybe leave that out!"

There are also some direct, funny, romantic observations: "That's not a skirt, girl, that's a sawn-off shotgun/And I only hope you've got it aimed at me..." (from the title track).

Some of your romantic quips, now, must be about Alexa. AT: "Right. Yeah. Definitely. Well... there's always been that side to our songs, when we weren't writing about... the fucking taxi rank. It's kind of inevitably... people you're with." [At the mention of Chung's name, Turner is visibly aggrieved, head sliding into his neck, terrapin-esque indeed.]

It must have been very grounding being in a proper relationship through all this madness. Because if you weren't, girls would be jumping all over your head. AT: "Em. Hmn. Well, of course that helps you to... I don't really know.. what the other way would be."

Does Alexa wonder if the lyrics are about her? AT: "Oh there's none of that. Yeah, no, there's no looking over the shoulder."

She must be curious, at least. "Maybe."

Did you ever watch Popworld? AT: [Nervous laughter] "Em! Now and again."

Did you ever see the episode where she helps Paul McCartney write a song about shoes? AT: "Ah, yeah I think so, maybe I did see that."

Well, if I was you, I'd have been thinking, "She's the one for me." AT: "Well. Yeah... maybe that would've... sealed the deal! Hmn. But maybe that wasn't when i got the ray of light. When was? Nah [buries head in hands]. I might have to go for a cigarette..."

Q can't torture him any more and joins him for a snout. Turner smokes Camels from a crumpled, sad, soft-pack and resembles a teenager again. As early song You Probably Couldn't See For The Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me says, "Never tenser/Could all go a bit Frank Spencer…”

In January 2006, when Arctic Monkeys' Number 1 album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not became the fastest-selling debut in UK history, inadvertently redefining the concept of autonomy and further imploding the decimated music industry (& wasn't their idea to be "the MySpace band", it was their fans': the Monkeys merely kick-started viral marketing by giving away demos at gigs), the 19- and 20-year-old Monkeys were terrible at fame. They weren't so much insurrectionary teenage upstarts as teenage innocents culturally traumatised by the peak-era fame democracy.

To their generation (born in the mid-'80s) fame was now synonymous with some-twat-off-the-telly a world of foaming tabloid hysteria where renown and celebrity meant, in fact, you were talentless. Hence their interview diffidence and receiving awards via videos dressed up as the Wizard OfOz and the Village People. Which only, ironically, made them even more celebrated and famous. (���That were a product of us just trying to hold onto the reins," thinks Turner today. "Being uncooperative.")

Q meets The Other Three one morning at 11am, in the well-appointed, empty bar of the Bethnal Green, Bast London hotel they're staying in (all three live in Sheffield, with their girlfriends, in their own homes). First to arrive is the industrious, sensible and cheerful Helders, crunching into a hangover-curing green apple. He has recovered from last year's boxing accident at the gym, which left his broken arm requiring a fitted plate. Now impressively purple-scarred, the break felt "interesting" and the doctor couldn't resist the one-armed drummer jest: "D'you like Def Leppard?"

Currently enjoying an enduring bromance with Diddy, he still doesn't feel famous, "it just doesn't feel that real, there's no paparazzi waiting for me to trip up." He and Turner, during the four-month rehearsals last year, became an accomplished roast dinner cooking duo for the band. "I reckon we could have us our own cookbook," he beams. "Pictures of us stirring, with a whisk."

O'Malley, an agreeable, twinkly-eyed 25-year-old with a strikingly deep voice and a winningly huge smile, is still coyly embarrassed by the interview process. A replacement for the departed original bass player Andy Nicholson in May 2006, he went from Asda shelf-filler to Glastonbury headliner in 13 months and still finds the Monkeys "a massive adventure". His life in Sheffield is profoundly normal – he's delighted that his new home since last October has an open-hearth fireplace: "Me parents had electric bars." He has also discovered cooking. “I’m just a pretty shit-hot housewife, most of the time," he smiles. "I cook stews, fish combinations, curries, chillies. I made a beef pho noodle soup the other day, Vietnamese, I surprised meself, had some mates round for that."

Recently, at his dad's 50th birthday bash, the party band, made up of family and friends, insisted he join them onstage "for ...The Dancefloor. So I were up there [mimes playing bass, all sheepish] and it were the wrong pitch, they didn't know the words or 'owt, going, Makin eyes... er..." He has no extra-curricular musical ambitions. "I'm happy just playing bass," he smiles. "I've never had the skill of doing songs meself. It'd be shit!"

Cook, 25, is still spectacularly embarrassed by the interview process. He perches upright, with a fixed nervous smile, newly shorn of the beard and ponytail he sported in LA: "Rockin' a pone, yeah, because I could get away with it." With his classic preppy haircut and dapper green military coat (from London's swish department store, Liberty), he looks like a handsome '40s film star. (Turner deems Cook "the band heartbreaker" and had a word with him post-LA: "I said to him, Come on, mate, you've got to get that beard shaved off. Get the girls back into us. Shift some posters.")

His life in Sheffield is also profoundly normal. He still plays Sunday League football with his local pub team, The Pack Horse FC (position, left back), remains in his long-term relationship with page-three-model-turned-make-up-artist Katie Downes and "potters about" at home, refusing to describe said home, "cos I'll get burgled".

A tiler by trade, he always vowed, should the Monkeys sign a deal, that he'd throw his trowel in a Sheffield river on his last day of work. "I never did fling me trowel," he confirms. "Probably still in me shed." He's never considered what his band represents to his generation. "I'd go insane thinking about it, I'm pretty good at not thinking about it… Oh God. I'm terrible at this!"

Back in the Strongroom Bar, Alex Turner is cloudily describing his everyday life. "I just keep meself to meself," he confounds. He mostly stays indoors and his perfect night in with Alexa is "watching loads of Sopranos. And doing roast dinners".

No longer spindle-limbed, he attends a gym and has handsomely well-defined arms – "You have to look after yourself."

Suddenly, Crying Lightning from Humbug rumbles over the bar stereo. "Wow. How about that? I was quite happy the other morning cos Brick By Brick were on the round-up goals on Soccer AM. It's still exciting when that happens. It was like Brick By Brick is real."

He spends his days writing music, "listening to records", and recommends Blues Run The Game by doomed '60s minstrel Jackson C Frank ("who's that lass?... Laura Marling, she did a cover recently), a simple, acoustic, deep and regretful stunner about missing someone on the road.

Lyrically, he cites as an example of greatness the Nick Cave B-side Little Empty Boat [from ‘97 single Into My Arms ], a comically sinister paean to a sexual power struggle: "Your knowledge is impressive and your argument is good/But I am the resurrection babe and you're standing on my foot."

"I need a hobby," he suddenly decides. "I'd like to learn another language." Since his mum is a German teacher (his dad teaches music), surely he can speak some German? "I know how to ask somebody if they've had fun at Christmas." Go on, then. "Nah!"

Where Turner's creative gifts stem from remains a contemporary rock'n'roll mystery; he became a fledgling songwriter at 16, after the gift of a guitar at Christmas from his parents. An only child, did his folks, perhaps, foresee artistic greatness? "I doubt it!" he balks. "Cos I didn't. I wasn't... a show kid." Like the others, he doesn't analyse the past, or the future.

"You can't constantly be thinking about what's happened," he reasons, "it's just about getting on with it." The elaborate pinky ring he now constantly wears, however, a silver, gold and ruby metal-goth corker featuring the words DEATH RAMPS is a permanent reminder of he and his best friends’ past. The Death Ramps is not only a Monkeys pseudonym and B-side to Teddy Picker, but a place they used to ride their bikes in Sheffield as kids.

"Up in the woods near where we lived," he nods. "Just little hills. But when you're eight years old they're death ramps." The ring was custom made by a friend of his, who runs top-end rock'n'roll jewellery emporium The Great Frog near London's Carnaby Street. Ask Turner why he thinks the chase between his writing and speaking eloquence is quite so mesmerisingly vast and he attempts a theory.

"Well, writing isn't the same as speaking," he muses. "Not for me. I seem to struggle more and more with... conversation. Talking onstage... I can't do it any more. Hmn. I'll have to work on that."

The ever-helpful Helders has a better theory.

"Since he's been writing songs," he ponders, “It seems like he’s always thinking about that. So even when he’s talking to you now, he’s thinking about the next thing that rhymes with a word. Even when he’s driving. We joke he’s a bad driver, his focus is never 100 per cent on what he’s doing. Which is good for us cos it means he’s got another 12 songs up his sleeve. I think music must be the easiest way for him to be concise and get everything out. Otherwise his head would explode.”

The Shoreditch.com photo studios, 18 March. Alex Turner, today, is more ethereally distracted than ever, transfixed by the studio iPod, playing Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, a version of I’d Rather Go Blind. Occasionally, he’ll completely lose his conversational thread, “Um. I’ve dropped a stitch.”

The first to arrive for Q’s photoshoot, he greets his incoming bandmates with enormous hugs (and also hugs them goodbye). Today, Q feels it’s pointless poking its pickaxe of serious enquiry further into Turner’s vacuum-packed soul and wonders if he’ll play, instead, a daft game. It’s called Popworld Questions, as first posed by someone he knows rather well.

“Oh, OK. Let’s do it,” he blinks, now perched in an empty dressing room. He then vigorously shakes his head, “Um…I’ve gotta snap back into it.”

Here, then, are some genuine “Alexa Chung on Popworld” questions (2006-2007), as originally posed to Matt Willis, Amy Winehouse, Robbie Williams, Pussycat Dolls, Kaiser Chiefs and Diddy.

Why do indie bands wear such tight jeans? AT: “Um. I supposed they do. They haven’t always. When we first were playing I was definitely in flares. You need to be quite tall to get the full effect, though. So, that's why this indie band wears such tight jeans, cos we've not got the legs for flares."

What makes you tick in the sexy department? AT: "Wow. Pass. What do I find most attractive in a woman? Something in the head? That's definitely a requirement. Well... Hmn. I'm struggling."

Tell us about all the lovely groupies. AT: "No!"

If dogs had human hands instead of paws, would you consider trying to teach them to play the piano? AT: "Absolutely. I'd teach Hey Jude."

How many plums d'you think you can comfortably fit in one hand? AT: "They're not very big. [Holds small, pale, girly hand up for inspection] It's a shame. Probably three. Diddy only managed two? Maybe not then. I can carry a lot of glasses at once, though. If they're small ones I can do four."

Are you cool? AT: "Not as much as I'd like to be. There's this clip where Clint Eastwood is on a talkshow and he gets asked, Everybody thinks of you as defining cool, what d'you think about that? And he gets his cigs out, takes one out, flicks it into his mouth, lights it and says, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Here, Turner locates his Camels soft-pack and attempts to do a Clint Eastwood. He flicks one upwards towards his mouth. And misses. Flicks another. And misses. "Third time lucky?" He misses. "I'll get it the next time." And succeeds. "Hey. Fourth time. Don't put that in! So there you go. I'm four steps away from where I wanna be."

Thank you very much for joining me here on Popworld, here's my clammy hand again. There it is, let it slip, hmmn. You can let go now. AT: "OK! Were you a Popworld fan, then? It was funny. Cool. What were we talking about, before?"

Blimey, Alex. What must you be like when you're completely stoned out of your head? AT: "Stoned? What d'you mean, cos I seem like that anyway? Yeah. A lot of people... tell me I'm a bit... dreamy. But I like the idea of that. Of being somewhere else."

Two days earlier, Turner had contemplated what he wanted from all this, in the end. Many seconds later he gave his deceptively ambitious answer.

"I just wanna write better songs," he decided. "And better lyrics. I just definitely wanna be good at it. Hmn. Yeah.”

—

RUFUS BLACK: AKA Matt Helders, on his ongoing bromance with Diddy

Matt Helders has known preposterous rap titan Diddy since they met in Miami in 2008. “He goes, Arctic Monkeys! Then he said summat about a B-side and I was like, He's not lying! I just thought, This is funny, I'm gonna go with this for a while." Last October Diddy texted Helders, suggesting he play drums with his Diddy Dirty Money band on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, to give his own drummer a day off. “I were bowling with me girifriend at the time. In Sheffield, on a Sunday." On the day of recording, says Helder, "We had a musical director. That were one of the maddest times of my life. Next day Diddy said, Why don't you just stay? Come along with me. So I went everywhere with him." Diddy had "a convoy of cars" and made sure Helders was always in his. "He'd stop his car and go, Where's Matt? You're coming with me! So I'd get in his car. Just me, him, his security, driver." Diddy, by now, had given him a pseudonym - Rufus Black. "He kept saying, I don't wanna fuck up your image. And I'm, I don't think it's gonna do me any harm!" He stayed in Diddy's spectacularly expensive hotel. Some weeks later, Helders almost returned to the Dirty Money drumstool for a gig in Glasgow. "But we were rehearsing in London. I were like, I might come, how are you getting there? And he were like, Jet. Jump on t’jet with me. But I had to stay in Bethnal Green instead.”

Love’s young dream: Diddy (left) with Helders

[rainbow-filmnerd]

How I painted my G3!Cleo doll's molded wrappings (and other stuff)

Hey! So I wanted to make this neat post to break down the steps on how I did some customizing on my G3!Cleo doll.

This is obviously the signature doll that came out in 2022, right when g3 was starting and when Monster High made its return. This is the polypropylene hair version, but I did wash it a bit and it feels better (still not great, but an improvement). I'm not quite done adding all the details and things to her, but I feel like I made more than enough progress to share what I did.

Firstly, as you can see, I have completely modified her dress. Although the wrapping printed sleeves were fine, I personally found it hard to put her extra fashion accessory (which is this cute wrapping/fringe jacket) because of those sleeves. I wanted to save them so I chopped off the sleeves and cut them up to my likings. Although, I had to take the dress apart to get the sleeves themselves, so I used a seam ripper to do just that, and then I stitched the dress back together.

I also wanted to try to make the sleeves look like those arm gloves that Maddy Perez wore with that one look from Euphoria btw, please stop making MH/Euphoria AUs because the casting feels out of character and MH and adult content shouldn't mix. But I ended up with one longer arm glove/sleeve on the left and a smaller piece on the right upper arm.

Speaking of wrappings, Cleo de Nile dolls have been seen with molded on wrappings on her lower right arm/hand and left lower leg since g2. I wasn't sure if I liked how it's brought back, and after getting my hands on this doll, I grew to appreciate that detail. I decided to paint these parts to bring out that detail. I painted most of her hands (up to her fingers to make it look like a glove, and most of the arm and leg (I painted to just above the toes).

So what I used was acrylic paints and matte Mod Podge to seal everything (mostly). I mixed an ivory with a bit of yellow to get that aged bandage look. It took a few layers of paint on each part to get it as solid as possible. Although I didn't have to paint that much of her leg since I'm keeping her in her boots, this is also used as a reference on how I imagine Cleo's wrappings on her leg look. And yeah, it did chip a little when I put her boot back on, but it's in spots that's not noticeable. This goes for any doll that you paint, but please do be careful if you decide to do this. It's always a nightmare to see all that hard work get scraped off.

Also, if you paint most of Cleo's hand like I did, PLEASE don't paint the articulation point on her wrist, right where the peg is (seen here!). The paint will chip off if you paint that area and move it around so much. The same goes for the arm and leg, but I stopped short before the joints, because I don't want that paint to wear off regardless.

Also, you might've noticed that I made a cuff bracelet for Cleo, because her right arm just felt bare. A quick and easy way to make these types of bracelets is cutting a piece of a drinking straw to the desired length. I then painted it gold and painted blue "jewels" just to add color. And like with my other G3 dolls (I plan to do the same for my G1 and most of my EAH dolls), I painted her nails. Inspired by the cartoon, I painted Cleo's nails turquoise, and her accent/ring finger is painted gold. I know there are looks where one finger nail on a hand (usually the accent/ring finger) is painted or styled differently from the other nails. So I had fun with this (I also did the same thing for Catty!).

All that's left for me with Cleo is her boots, belt, necklace (need to fix a smudge), and headband, but a lot of the bulky stuff is done. I hope this post helps inspire someone who plans to make these modifications to their g3 Cleo doll(s). 💛

[mizzmellos]

M2 sleeping hc bc I don't wanna sleep:

+ Mello can fall asleep anywhere if he's tired enough. Falls asleep at: his desk, the kitchen table, the study halls at Wammy's, the sofa, the floor (occasionally), in the backseat of cars, and especially likes to sleep on trains (the sound is relaxing). He doesn't sleep that often though and usually just tries to take 15-20 minute power naps <- he read about this once and is a firm believer.

+ Matt is a chronic sleepyhead (poor diet, constant substance abuse, lack of exercise) and can easily sleep for 14-16 hours a day if he has nothing else to do. He's a really light sleeper, though, and prefers to sleep in front of the TV for background noise/ambient light (no it's not a nightlight. Shut up.) In contrast, Mello's preferred place for slumber is in a giant nest of 20 memory foam pillows with an eye mask and earplugs.

+ They are both sooooo cranky in the morning 😭 <- much of their married bickering happens during this time. Matt misplaced his keys, Mello is making them late, they're fighting over who gets to use the toilet, the temperature of the shower is always too hot, Matt forgot to start the coffee pot, etc.

+ Mello has the occasional night terror and wakes himself up screaming <- was incredibly embarrassed by this at Wammy's. Matt tried to cover for him but well. Matt is a bad liar. Mello refuses to elaborate any further.

+ They shared a blanket for a few years when they started living together but Mello is the most selfish bedmate in the world (in every sense) and always stole it to cocoon himself in. So they each had to get their own. Matt's is the raggedy grey one they used to share (that was also his comforter back at Wammy's) and Mello's is a big black fluffy down blanket with gauche gold silk embroidery.

+Matt sleeps spread eagle or in the family guy death pose and has to have like 18 fans pointed at him bc he's yucky and sweaty. Mello sleeps in the fetal position normally all tucked up like a pillbug but if he's really tired he'll sprawl out and push Matt off the bed. -> Matt is always trying to cuddle up to Mello even tho he's like a human furnace. They both toss and turn like crazy so they take turns being the little spoon 🥺 <- Mello would mace Matt for saying these two words in succession in any situation other than an etiquette lesson.

+Matt sleeps in wifebeaters and gross old boxers with ridiculous prints (think those white and red cartoon heart boxers). Mello sleeps naked obviously but if he does have to wear pajamas he usually just wears a big fluffy robe.

[gatheringfiki]

The following ficlet was written by @i-am-still-bb​ based on this photoset.

Fili/Kili, Gen.

You might also be able to read this story on AO3.

If you’ve enjoyed this story, please leave a comment either in replies or on AO3. :)

Deck the Halls

—

December 1st

Kili opened the cardboard box that he had brought down from the attic days before. It was dented and soft around the corners, and there was a water stain from some long ago roof leak. He had dragged the ornaments down after he put the tree in its stand. He had intended to start decorating the tree. But then he just… hadn’t.  He had gone to the tree farm and cut down the tree on his own, brought it home, and gotten it into the stand and it was more or less straight. That was enough. And it felt like it might be enough for the whole holiday season.

He pushed the box into the corner and turned on the television to watch a hockey match. He did not like hockey, but every other channel was playing Christmas movies, talking about Christmas, or airing the news. And he wanted to avoid all of those things. Right now he did not want to watch parades, see men be tricked into becoming Santa Claus, watch fathers run all over town trying to find the toy their child wants for Christmas, or the chaos of a family Christmas complete with a kidnapping and a house fire. 

Fili and he had always watched those movies together—Jingle All the Way, The Santa Clause, Christmas with the Kranks, Home Alone 4, Merry Christmas Charlie Brown, others, and the whole plethora of animated Christmas cartoons from their childhoods.

They had spent the holiday season apart before. School, work, illness—all got in the way at one time or the other. So sometimes Kili put up the tree and FaceTimed Fili while he decorated it. Other times they would watch movies on their laptops, clicking start at the same time. But they always saw each other at some point even if it was just for a day. But since they had completed college, grad school, and internships they had spent each Christmas season together for nearly a decade.

Not this year. And probably not next year if the news of the expedition was correct. 

Fili had taken a job as a Navigator on the HMS Dauntless. It was a tremendous honor to be chosen, but it still took Fili away and into the stars. Fili was going to spend Christmas on a different planet looking at different stars. He wouldn’t have a Christmas tree with colored lights and baubles flashing in a darkened room. There would be no light displays in the city center to look at with peppermint hot chocolate in hand. Instead Fili would have twinkling stars and maybe lights from a distant, alien city peeking through cloud cover. And Kili had his job on Earth. He had all of things things available to him. But he had not bought a single peppermint hot chocolate or gandered at the light displays. 

—

“You brought what?” Fili asked incredulously.

“Baubles,” Matt said, grunting as he pulled a large tote out of the storage closet. “Tinsel, some fake garlands, lights.”

“On a space mission? Where we could very well be fired on at any given moment given how the negotiations are going.”

Matt shrugged. “And that’s a reason not to celebrate Christmas, why?”

“It’s not…” Fili faltered. “I just was not expecting it, was all.”

“And that’s part of the point,” Matt said. “No one is expecting it, so it will be a good surprise. And we need some good surprises rather than just all the bad ones that we’ve been getting so far on this voyage.”

“I suppose that makes sense.”

“I even had some honeyed hams put in the deep freeze.”

“Did you think about presents?”

“I did,” Matt admitted. “It’ll have to be crafts something”

“I have exactly one crafty skill, and only one. Mapmaking,” Fili held up his hands, “Not really a jumper or a scarf.”

“Well, make a map then.”

Fili grunted. “Who’s going to be doing the decorating?”

“That would be you,” Matt pushed an unlabeled, but heavy box into Fili’s arms. “Merry Christmas.”

Fili strung up silver and gold garlands over the doors into the common areas and around the windows in the navigation cabin. The captain saw him and rolled his eyes, but said nothing. Then there were the baubles in blue, silver, and gold, and the warm white twinkling lights. The refectory, the navigation cabin, and the recreation lounges were certainly more festive than before, but still sterile in the way that spaceships always were. Despite the definite cheerful bend  it felt off for Fili. He had grown up with trees covered in eclectic ornaments; some were antiques, some were preschool crafts, some were hand made gifts, and some were mass produced spheres. Those were all hung on a tree that they had cut down themselves. Kili’s family had always used a fake tree, but once he moved in with Fili he had been initiated in the tradition of wandering a field and cutting down your own Christmas tree.

Fili had brought other traditions with him into the house that he shared with Kili. There was gold tinsel, multicolored lights, and a Moravian star on the top of their tree. Kili had brought origami snowflakes, stars, spheres, and his love for bells of all sorts. 

Tubs now empty of decorations were now stored away and now released from duty Fili was reading over some navigation reports in the largest of the recreational lounges. The reports could have waited until tomorrow, but the appearance of the Christmas decorations had made him a bit melancholy. He had been excited to take this job, but he had simultaneously dreaded it. To spend almost 2 years aboard the Dauntless, but very possibly more, was a dream job, the very job that he had been working for most of his career working on navigation systems. But it also meant nearly 2 years away from his friends and family.

And Kili.

Fili shook his head and refocused on the reports, but his thoughts started to drift almost immediately.

A few of the younger crew members were seated around a television and they had selected a show to watch. The telltale introduction for Rudolf started with the introduction by the snowman. 

Kili knew all of the songs. They had sung them together on more than one occasion.

Fili ended up watching the program from his spot at the table, reports completely forgotten. He wondered if Kili would watch any of the movies on his own.

—

December 7th

Kili had put decorations on the tree, but it was minimal; tinsel, lights, and the most meaningful ornaments—the one commemorating their first house together, baby ornaments, a felt bell decorated with puff pant and a photograph of Fili as a toddler with red cheeks and a cowlick  in the center.

Snow had fallen the night before, and Kili could not yet be bothered to dig himself out. 

So he set a photograph of Fili and him standing in front of a Christmas lights display on the coffee table, made himself a hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream, and settled in to watch one of their favorite Christmas movies. 

—

December 10th

The alarm set for 7:50 pm always startled Fili when it sounded at the same time on every second Saturday. He expected and looked forward to this alarm with its chiming bells, but it always caught him off guard. His turn in the Communications room started at 8pm. He was always waiting at the door so he could use all of the time that was allotted to him. 

—

Kili’s phone sat fully charged, screen facing up, on the coffee table. He sat anxiously on the edge of the brown leather couch, elbows on his knees, staring at the tiny black screen. He tapped the glass to wake up the display. It was still fully charged. There was still a full signal.

And it was only 7:58 pm.

The screen turned dark and Kili tapped the glass again.

7:59 pm.

Then 8:00 pm. 

The phone never rang immediately no matter how much Kili willed it to. He knew Fili had to sign in with the attendant, find a terminal, sign in to the computer, and then dial Kili’s number. Tasks that ate up precious seconds and delayed their only means of direct communication.

They could also send emails back and forth. They took advantage of that, but the emails usually consisted of a list of things they did that day and that they missed each other. Kili looked forward to those emails, sometimes refreshing his Inbox every few seconds for hours waiting for the next missive to appear. But emails were not the same as video chatting.

And video chatting was a far cry from seeing each other in person. But it was the best they were going to have for… a while. Kili had an app on his phone counting down to the Dauntless’ anticipated return date. And for now he never looked at it. The number was far too large. 

Then Kili’s phone rang.

Fili’s face filled the screen with a large green button that Kili swiped to answer the call. The photograph shifted from one of Fili smiling in their kitchen to him sitting in the Comm room with large black headphones covering his ears and a microphone extending from one earpiece.

“Hi!” 

“Hi yourself,” Fili replied with a smile. “You are not going to believe or be able to guess what I did this week!”

“Discover a new planet? A race of aliens? Fixed a broken Nav-1500-K12 system yourself?”

“See, those are all things that would make sense given that I’m on a Space Cruiser with the specific mission of locating new planets and I am employed as a Navigations Specialist.”

“Umm…” Kili searched for less plausible activities, but he was distracted by Fili’s voice and face. He could have sworn that Fili looked different in each call, but Kili could never pinpoint exactly what was different. “Used a pogo stick in zero gravity?”

Fili laughed, “Now that would be a challenge.”

“I give up,” Kili grinned back.

“I put up Christmas decorations,” Fili said proudly.

Kili frowned, sure that he had misheard, “What?”

“Christmas decorations,” Fili repeated, “Let me see if I can…” Fili reached forward, fidgeting with the camera to change the direction it was facing.

Kili squinted, nose almost touching the small glass rectangle in, and tried to make out what Fili was trying to show him.

“See? There? Over the door?” Fili said, holding the camera up trying to give Kili a better view.

“I think so?”

“It’s not much. No trees or anything, though, now that I think about it, I am a bit surprised that Matt didn’t bring any of those on board. He had me hanging faux greenery garlands, lights, tinsel, and baubles. He also has a whole bunch of wrapping paper, tape, ribbons and such for presents.” Fill returned the camera to its stand and sat back. 

“Are you going to be giving each other astronaut ice cream or other dried food stuff?”

“I don’t really know. It’s not like any of us can run out to the mall to buy something, or hop on the internet and have it show up on our doorstep within twenty-four hours. He did say something about crafting, but,” Fili shrugged. “You know how I am with crafting.”

“You’re just comparing yourself to Bilbo. And he’s practically a wizard.”

“I guess,” Fili said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Enough about life on a floating metal tube. What did you do this week.”

Kili sat back into the couch cushions. The light emitting from the woodburning stove flickered. “It snowed.”

“Oh? You know, I never thought I’d say it, but I actually miss the snow and cold. The ship is cold, especially in the hallways and lesser used rooms, but it’s cold without a purpose other than conserving fuel. Cold that brings snow? At least there’s an upside.”

“Are you sure you miss snow? Maybe you can take over shoveling when you get back. It took me hours to clear the driveway the other day. I did just leave it for a while. And then it snowed more, and I’m still not sure if waiting was a good thing or not because of that. I only had to shovel once instead of twice, but there was more to shovel in one go.” Kili ran a hand through his long hair.

“I’ll shovel all the snow you want me too when I get home,” Fili replied.

“Good.”

“As long as you make me that hot chocolate of yours.”

“I can, but it’s not that hard. I even taped the recipe card to the top of the cocoa tin.”

“It’s never right when I’m the one making it.”

“I’ve watched you make it. It’s correct.”

“Must be the love that you add.”

Kili stuck out his tongue to cover up his pleasure at Fili’s words. “Oh! I also saw an elk when I took a short hike before clearing the snow.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t a reindeer? It is the season.”

“It’s Colorado, not Sweden or Canada.”

“Did it have a red nose?”

“No,” Kili said. He leaned back on the couch, slouching deep into the cushions. “I miss you.”

Fili’s expression softened. “I miss you, too.”

“It… it doesn’t feel like Christmas without you here.”

“Are you going to put up any decorations?”

“I did put up some,” Kili shrugged despondently. 

“Show me?”

Kili held his phone up and turned it so Fili could see the green tree standing in the corner of the room with its garland, lights, and ornaments. 

“Looks good, Kee.”

Kili turned the camera back around. “Eh,” he shrugged. “I didn’t put on all the baubles. And most of the boxes are still in the attic.”

“You don’t have anyone ordering you to decorate. Do what you want. You don’t have to put up any decorations.”

“I know.”

“I’m glad you did though. I miss you and I miss doing the holiday activities with you, but I’d hate for you to just not do any of them because you enjoy those things as well.”

Kili nodded, but did not respond right away. “I watched The Santa Clause yesterday.”

“You did?” Fili leaned forward on his elbows, braids swinging over his shoulders. 

“Yeah. I made hot chocolate and had some Christmas cookies that Bilbo had dropped off.”

“Jealous!”

Kili smiled a little. “I put on your Christmas jumper.”

“The jumper with the hole in the elbow?”

“That’s the one. And I had that ridiculous blanket you bought. That one with the ghosts wearing Santa hats and wrapped in Christmas lights over my lap.”

“It’s not ridiculous. It’s wonderful!”

“It was warm.”

“I didn’t think to pack one of your shirts,” Fili said a bit sadly.

“The jumper didn’t smell like you if that makes a difference?” Kili offered. “It smelled of laundry detergent and that stuff we always put in with the sweaters so they don’t smell all funky when we get them out of storage.”

“The herb sachets.”

“Yes. Those. Though I think the one in the bit needs to be replaced before next year.”

“I’ll send you the instructions whenever you need them.”

—

December 23

“Would you look at that?” Matt’s voice was full of awe and wonder. 

He was talking about the planet that they had been approaching for nearly a week and now it was below them and the ship was orbiting the planet that had the familiar, blue, green, and brown of earth, but also some unexpected colors like pink and coral. 

“There should be another moon,” Fili said looking from the planet back to his charts. 

“It’ll show up,” someone said.

“Or it won’t,” someone else quipped. 

As the line between daylight and darkness moved across the planet below lights started to flick on. There were clusters, but they were not near the oceans, like they would be on earth, and they were not connected by slender threads of highways.

“So which navigator gets to go on the cruiser to land on the surface?” Aaron, one of the other Navigators, asked.

The captain opened his mouth to answer the questions, but before he could speak another Navigator spoke up. “It should go by seniority.”

“You would suggest that, Zach,” Fili said. “Since you are the most senior member of the navigation crew.”

“And the most experienced,” Zach replied. “I have done this sort of thing before, and experience is invaluable in situations like this.”

“But the people are responding well to our communications,” Alexandra, the youngest Navigator said, “Do you really think that there’ll be trouble?”

“No,” the captain said quickly.

“But there’s always a chance,” Zach added. 

“It would be a great learning experience…” she said wistfully. Alexandra had not finished her college degree before taking the job. She had accepted her position on the ship and her university pressured her professors into grading her work and awarding her degree in the middle of a semester. “Maybe I should join whoever goes, to help with any instruments and such.”

“We should draw lots,” Aaron said. “That’s the only fair way to do it.”

“Like drawing pieces of paper from a hat?” Alexandra asked.

“It will be Fili,” the captain said, interrupting the conversation about how people should draw lots, which methods were easier, and which ones were statistically more fair. 

“That’s not fair,” Zach protested.

“But it is what I have decided,” the captain said firmly, giving Zach and any other Navigators who looked like they might protest a dark look  from beneath bushy grey eyebrows. “Alexandra.”

“Yes, captain?”

“You may accompany us.”

“Thank you, sir! I won’t let you down!” she gushed. 

“Both of you will be ready to depart at 1100 hours.”

“Yes, captain,” Fili and Alexandra said in unison.

Fili went back to his charts and calculations and tried to ignore the jealous glares that his crewmates were shooting him.

—

December 24

“You did what?!” Kili’s eyes went wide as he listened to Fili.

“The captain picked me to join him on the trip down to the surface,” Fili repeated, eyes bright and practically glowing in the dim light of the Comms room. “You should have been there, Kili,” he said dreamily. “It was something else. There were mountains unlike any that I have ever seen before. And we were received in a building that reminded me of that trip we took to Europe when we saw all of those cathedrals. Except this one had nothing to do with any sort of religion. It was just a standard building.”

“That sounds like it would be a bit weird.”

“It was,” Fili admitted. “Every building that we saw was ornately decorated.”

“Did the meeting at least go well? Or is that classified and I’ll find out the public version of events on the news in a week or so?”

Fili’s brows furrowed. “I think it went well, but, to be honest, I was not really paying attention to any sort of negotiations. My job stopped the second we got out of the cruiser pod and started when we got back in. I was mostly looking at the people and the architecture.”

Kili settled back into the armchair with the holiday ghost blanket pulled up to his chin, “What were the people like?”

“For the most part they looked like us, actually,” Fili said. “Which was not what I was expecting.”

“For the most part?”

“They had pointed ears, Kee, like Spock.”

Kili’s fingers went to his ears where he pinched the top to create a Spock-like crease. “Interesting.”

“But I want to hear about your day,” Fili said.

“Yours was much more exciting than mine,” Kili adjusted the blanket. “I went over to Bilbo’s for Christmas Eve dinner. He made ham. I took rolls like we always do.”

Fili nodded and listened as Kili told him about the holiday gathering and how the younger generation had started a game of Spoons that had ended when someone nearly got a concussion after being pushed into a wall but after someone had needed to use a first aid kit to treat a bleeding finger.

Fili leaned forward, his chin resting in his palm, “Did you play?”

“No!” Kili said emphatically. “But it is weird not being one of the kids, you know? I’m one of the grown ups now. Not that we’ve been kids or sat at the kids table in a longtime. It just felt more obvious this year. Bilbo managed to foist off planning the New Years’ planning on to Ori, Gimli, and I. I did warn him that he should expect to have just bags of chips and maybe some dip.”

“What did he say to that?” 

“Uh,” Kili looked at the ceiling for a moment. “He laughed and then said, ‘Kili, my boy, you’re all in your 30s. I’m sure you can manage a sandwich platter from a deli at the very least.”

“And did that end up falling on you?”

“I put “ordering a sandwich platter” in my planner for Monday. Gimli can manage napkins, maybe.”

“And hopefully this year they won’t be wet and say Starbucks on them,” Fili laughed. 

“Hopefully,” Kili echoed. 

“So are you ready for tomorrow?” Fili asked.

“No,” Kili said.

“What are you planning to do?”

“I’ll probably sleep in since I plan to stay up late tonight watching whatever movies they decided to air on the TV. I ended up watching Last Christmas the other night on some such channel and it was decent. So I’m going to give some of those ridiculous holiday made-for-tv romcoms a chance on the off chance that they’re decent.”

“Sounds good. I think someone is hosting a Christmas movie marathon in one of the common lounges tonight.”

“You should go.”

“I’ll think about it,” Fili said with a shrug. “So you’ll be sleeping in because you’ll be up late tonight; what about tomorrow?”

Kili lifted his shoulders noncommittally and scootched lower into the corner of the arm chair. “Probably sleep late, like you said, maybe go on a run if it’s not too cold.”

“Heathen.”

“I know,” Kili replied before continuing. “Then probably some leftovers for lunch and dinner, read some, light a fire.” Kili shrugged again. “There’s not much going on tomorrow. All the group plans have already taken place and they avoided the day of Christmas to avoid conflicting with family plans. You?”

“I actually drew the short straw and I have to work most of tomorrow.”

Kili pulled a face, “Gross.”

“I know.”

“Hey, we’re almost out of time.”

“Already?” Kili whined and pulled the blanket up over his chin.

“And I have one final thing to tell you.”

“What?”

“After we hang up I want you to go look in my underwear drawer.”

“What will I be looking for? Holiday underwear? Boxers that say ‘Unwrap me?’”

“No,” Fili laughed. “No boxers saying that. Though maybe I’ll have to find some when I get home. No, you’ll know it when you see it.”

“Okay…” Kili said skeptically.

“Love you, Kee.”

“Love you, too.”

“Merry Christmas.”

The connection was lost before Kili could reply. He sighed and dropped his head back, his hand holding the phone dropping into his lap. Then he put his phone down and pushed the blanket to the floor. 

The wood-burning stove kept the cottage fairly warm when someone was home all day to tend it, but the floors where air from the drafty doors was still cold on Kili’s feet. He pushed open the bedroom door and flipped the lightswitch which lit a couple of lamps that were positioned throughout the room. “What did you hide in with your underwear, Fili Durin?” Kili asked the empty room. 

Fili’s drawer squeaked from long disuse when Kili opened it. All he saw at first were rows of Fili’s neatly folded white underwear. Kili pulled the drawer out a little further and caught sight of a glittery red ribbon. He fished the object out of the back corner of the drawer. It was a small package, wrapped in brown paper and tied with a red ribbon. The label said “To K, from F.” And there was a card tucked under the ribbon.

Open Me First 

Kili flopped down on their bed, leaving the drawer open. He squirmed a little on the bed currently decked out in the gray linen duvet cover that was too warm to use during the summer, and some flannel sheets with a holiday themed fuzzy blanket thrown over one corner to get comfortable. 

He set the wrapped package to one side. He ran his fingers over the slightly rough duvet cover absentmindedly while he stared at the envelope considering his options and savoring the anticipation. Kili flipped the envelope over, stuck his finger beneath the flap and tore the envelope to reveal a Christmas card with a standard scene of a snowy forest and a trite greeting on the front.

Kili opened the card.

Dear Kili,

I’m sorry that I’m not home for Christmas this year. I want you to know that I love you and I miss you, and I will be thinking about you all day. I did not want you to feel lonely this year, so I planned a surprise for you, but you don’t get to find out until Christmas morning! (Or you could find out now, I can’t enforce rules from 3,000,000 miles away.)

Love you and can’t wait to see you again soon!

Yours,

Fili

P.S. Have one of those wonderful hot chocolates of yours for me, please!

Kili considered the instructions for a few moments before taking the package in hand and returning to the living room with the wood burning fireplace and the Christmas tree. Kili carefully set the package down on the plaid tree skirt.

He straightened and considered the present for a moment. Then he picked up the blanket from the floor, folded it, and went into the kitchen to make the hot chocolate that he was supposed to drink for Fili. Once it was ready and loaded with whipped cream and chocolate shavings he returned to the living room, settled in on the couch, feet outstretched towards the stove, and turned on the television. He flipped through the stations until he found something worth watching. 

—

Fili had gone to bed after ending his call with Kili. His bunk mate had lit a peppermint scented candle, and it felt a little festive. But if Fili had been on duty on the main navigation deck he would have seen the shadow of a sleigh drawn by reindeer pass in front of the double moons of the planet they were orbiting. 

—

Kili drank the hot chocolate and watched the predictable foibles and shenanigans of the main characters. But he did not see how it ended. By the time that the happy ending had rolled around Kili was asleep, head lolled to the side, and warm beneath the blanket.

Outside his window the moon was shining bright and the world was light in the blue light of reflected moonlight. And then, across the moon, a silhouette briefly appeared of a sleigh and eight tiny reindeer.

[thevaudevilledemon]

Cartoon Rap Battles: Magica De Spell vs Count Duckula

Been a while... and this may be the last one of these for a good while until I can get some better creativity going. That's neurodivergencies for ya.

Magica De Spell:

Abra Cadabra, and a Bette Midler movie too I’ve summoned a vampire before that was much greater than you

You really wish to go beak to beak with one of Cartoons greatest foes? I can outwit Scrooge McDuck, so I can keep you on your toes

I’ve got control over meteors, I can alter the shape of reality While all you strive to be is a half-wit no talent celebrity

Your first Foray against a real opponent, not that incompetent Goosewing You don’t have any teeth kid, this battle was your greatest misdoing

I’ve watched your show, every episode is a slog It can’t be easy being green, let me turn you into a frog

You’re just a cowardly egotist, a juice drinking kale lover So fly back to home and cower under your bed cover

Count Duckula:

In the Vampire Hall of Fame In the heart of Transylvania There’s not a vampire Zanier than me, Duckula

Tell me to fly home, I’ve got a genuine castle you know And it’s nicer than your shack you built at the base of a volcano

You’re rival is Scrooge McDuck and you’re his ally from time to time But I find it all the more curious that you’re fighting over a stupid dime

You’re an Italian, questo è un fatto, so answer me this De Spell Why did they decide to give you the voice of Natasha Fatale?

You’re after the midas touch to make everything turn to gold But it couldn’t save your rhymes, your bars are worthless all told

Go throw a tantrum like this is yet another one of your failed plans You’re being beaten by another old duck Magica, this victory is out of your hands

Magica:

Alakazam, Klaatu and Hey Presto too! I haven’t laughed at vegan beasts like this since I watched Troll 2

I’m a sultry and seductive enchantress from comic pages You’re an improperly resurrected corpse from the middle ages

I’m dropping nothing but Foof Bombs you’re all quack and no bite Best friend of Madam Mim I’m the real terror of the night

The original Duck Witch stepping up to take over the house While you’re predated by Quacula on Mighty Mouse

This evil witch shall haunt you from the shadows for as long as I please I’m so evil and naughty I can make the Beagle Boys freeze

You’re about as threatening as an understuffed Care Bear Between us both, you’re Green Day while I’m Aurelio Voltaire

Count Duckula:

Keep shouting Pokémon names I’m sure something will happen soon I think I’d be more intimidated By the lamest of Maleficent’s Goons

Evil witch? I think the proper word is terrible You were defeated by a family you turned into animals

You turned your brother into a raven drove away your own niece Or should all this annoying cartoon multiverse garbage simply cease?

There’s too many of you Magica, there is only one of me Resurrected from DangerMouse it was Nickelodeon who summoned me

Capcom stole me for a boss, I was out a few months prior, you know? And Matt and Frank made an emo version of me for your brother Poe

You’re always outwitted by some kids you can’t even handle your own And everybody knows you want the magic wand of Lucky Gladstone

Seriously, you’re the worst witch I’ve ever had to fight You can call me Michael Stipe because this is me in the Spotlight

[sharpeyecreations]

Stormy Trix (Winx Club) - My Sims

Fictional Characters Series

cc links under the cut

Genetics

The Sims Resource - Deiji Hairstyle

brntwaffles: all 24 of my sims 3 nosemasks... — Ridgeport's CC Finds. (tumblr.com)

NELL — Nose Cuts hq compatible base game compatible make... (tumblr.com)

STROBELITE. (tumblr.com)

lip fullness slider & msblue skintone set v3 overlay ! | Patreon

GPME-GOLD Face Contouring | Patreon

misc. face details | Patreon

MIX N MATCH FLOWER LASHES | Patreon

alexaarr (tumblr.com)

The Sims Resource - Lue Eyebrows | NO 33

Soloriya's custom content: ***Highlight 01-02, eye catchlight 02, lipstick... (tumblr.com)

Eyes G13 / Eyes G14 / Lipstick R3 | Patreon

TOPAZ; a face highlight | Patreon

fire walk with me : ABOUT FACE - SKIN DETAILS BY PYXIS A set of subtle... (tumblr.com)

obscurus-sims.tumblr.com/post/647285197858045952/skin-n21-18-colors-36-swatches-each-color-has-2

Mysterious TS4 CC finds (tumblr.com)

JOURNEY: CARTOON STYLE GENETICS SET ✈️ | Patreon

Makeup

The Sims Resource - Eyeliner N304 V2 Glitter Version

GPME-GOLD Bobbi Brown - Luxe Matte Lip Color | Patreon

GPME-GOLD MAKEUP SET CC46 Download at GOPPOLSME patreon ( Public Now ) HQ mod compatible Thank for support me  ❤   Thanks for... – @goppolsme on Tumblr

Clothes & Acc

VEGA RINGS (simpliciaty.blogspot.com)

Lyla Boots Set | Patreon

GPME-GOLD Fingernail N3 Download at GOPPOLSME patreon (Public Now) HQ mod compatible Thank for support me  ❤   Thanks for all CC... – @goppolsme on Tumblr

EvellSims | Evell’s Advent Calendar - Day 15 To The End Skirt... (tumblr.com)

Eugene Necklace | Patreon

EvellSims | Mx Sinister Set ✩ 20 Swatches, HQ compatible ✩... (tumblr.com)

Kiele Buckle Top - The Sims 4 Download - SimsDomination

Punk dress + ripped stockings (To be published on 20 Dec) – @arltos on Tumblr

The Sims Resource - Tattoo-Lightning

Presets

Chin slider (remake) | Patreon

Eyebrow Slider | Patreon

Eyebrow slider 02 | Patreon

Teanmoon Mouth Scale Slider Fix | Patreon

[the-hourglass83]

I'm finally getting the hang of this Tumblr thing so how about an intro post:

Hi, I'm Lindsay 👋 she/her

Then: I was a kid in the '80s and a teen in the '90s. I watched Nickelodeon, the Disney Afternoon and Cartoon Network, and wrote fanfiction and RPGs about it with my friends in a spiral notebook. 😆 I studied English and art in college and love to write and draw.

Now: I do communications and social media for a Fortune 500 company. Wish I had more free time to write and create for fun. My goal is to carve some time out soon to start making and posting my own stuff again. Until then, exploring your creations brings me lots of joy.

First fandom: Mystery Science Theater 3000

Current obsession: Discworld! I finally read my first of The Watch series and now going down a huuuge rabbit hole. #VetinariforPresident2024

Other favorites: 

-Disney

-Marvel

-Star Wars

-The Muppets

-Hanna Barbera

-Classic '60s toons like Rocky & Bullwinkle, Total Television and Batfink

-Obscure '80s toons like Danger Mouse, Count Duckula, Maple Town, Willy Fog, The Little Koala and The Mysterious Cities of Gold

-Detectives, especially Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Nero Wolfe and Benoit Blanc

-Jeeves & Wooster

-Duckman

-Matt Groening's Disenchantment

-Asterix and Obelix

-The Adventures of Tintin

Tell me about you? 👇

[dorothydalmati1]

Obscure Animation Subject #34: Scaredy Squirrel

Originally posted on Twitter on March 13, 2023

OBSCURE ANIMATION SUBJECTS ARE BACK BABY! Our last subject was on FantomCat on February 2nd. Been a month and 11 days huh?

Anyways, loosely based on the book series by Mélanie Watt, the show was produced in Canada by Nelvana.

Developed by Matt Ferguson and Jillian Ruby, it was directed by co-developer Matt Ferguson, whose also a writer on the show, and aired on YTV from April 1, 2011 to August 17, 2013. In the US which is my home country, it aired on Cartoon Network and grew up with it a bit.

It aired on the channel from August 9, 2011 to June 22, 2013, only the first two seasons aired, but Qubo started airing the show on March 27, 2017, and aired the third season, with the show making its final broadcast on July 24, 2020. Qubo would also shut-down by 2021.

The series ran for a total of three seasons with 52 episodes, each episode containing two 11-minute stories, which makes a total of 104 segments. The show follows a squirrel named Scaredy and his best friend Dave, a skunk. They have adventures in their town Balsa City.

Scaredy works as a stacker at a grocery store called Stash "N" Hoard, and is fond of cleaning and is germophobic. His best friend Dave, is dimwitted and fonds being messy, and because he’s a skunk he also loves farting. Does some of what I describe sound a bit familiar to you?

This show is often considered a rip-off of SpongeBob with most characters having similar personalities to ones you may find in SpongeBob. However, that isn’t the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that this show is so ANNOYING! It’s one those shows that won’t shut-up!

It thinks that screaming and shouting is comedy gold, but it bleeds ears instead, especially with the theme song where the main characters SINGS OBNOXIOUS GIBBERISH! Yeah the voice-acting is terrible. The animation, character designs and the backgrounds are generic and dull as well.

The characters if you take the annoying voices out, are very bland and forgettable, with Dave being the worst offender, with his only trait being a self centered dumbass and being gross and that’s it. Yeah, this show is insulting to the books that were innocent and lighthearted.

I beg you to not watch this show and just stick to the books instead. Watching-wise stick to SpongeBob as its this show but less annoying, a lot funnier, better animated and better characters. As bad as seasons 6-8 were, their definitely better than this show!

[buffyfan145]

Really happy so far with what James Gunn and Peter Safran revealed of the first part of the new DCU slate!!! :D Chapter 1 is going to be called “Gods and Monsters”. Nice to see that this will have no affect on Matt Reeves’ movies/shows, “Joker 2″, the 2nd “Constantine” films, if the CW keeps any of their DC shows for next season, and the other cartoon series as they’ll all be branded as “DC Elseworlds” from now on. They also said that “Superman and Lois” will be able to go on till at least 2025 when their movie comes out but it’s The CW’s decision and they could get a final season next season if this one isn’t written to work that way. Also they will be keeping some of the current actors after “The Flash” movie creates this new DCU with Gal Galdot’s Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa’s Aquaman, Zachary Levi’s Shazam, the “Blue Beetle” cast, Voila Davis’ Amanda Waller, and the entire “Peacemaker” cast all being confirmed to be a part of this new universe. They haven’t decided yet about Ezra Miller but I have a feeling they might just bring in Wally West as another Flash going by the new slate. So here’s my thoughts on the new movies/shows in order of how they’ll be released though “Peacemaker” season 2 is also now a part of it. The shows too will all be on HBO Max.

Creature Commandos (TV): This one is new to me as it’s a group of characters similar to the Universal Monsters that band together. It’ll be an animated show too but the actors who voice them will also play them in live action so that will be cool and it will fully connect to the other movies, shows, and games.

Waller (TV): This is the show James has been working on about Amanda Waller and it’ll include Viola Davis and fully connect to “Peacemaker”.

Superman Legacy (movie): This was the Superman movie already revealed with a new actor to be cast and we know he’ll be in his 20s and trying to live his life as a journalist and as Superman. It’s been dated now for July 2025.

Lanterns (TV): This is a new version of the “Green Lantern” show that was originally in the works from Greg Berlanti but is now being fully by Gunn and Safran. Very cool that Hal Jordan and John Stewart are going to be the leads of the first season though others will appear.

The Authority (movie): This is another I don’t know that much about but it sounds cool. I do recognize a few characters the mentioned from the comics and having appeared on shows like “Stargirl” and “Legends of Tomorrow”.

Paradise Lost (TV): This one sounds really cool as it’s a prequel about the Amazons before Diana was born. They even compared it to “Games to Thrones”. Sounds like it will still connect to Gal’s version too.

Batman & Robin: The Brave and the Bold (movie): This one got me excited as it’s another Batman movie but the Robin in this is his actual son Damian Wayne!!! :D They also confirmed the rest of the Batfamily will be in this too and starting their own movies connected of them. With Damian already here this means that Dick/Nightwing, Barbara/Batgirl/Oracle, and at least Jason/Red Hood should be around as well as Alfred. Possibly could include Tim/Red Robin, Stephanie/Spoiler, and Cassandra/Black Bat as James said these characters have been long neglected by the Batman films. Depends on what Reeves is doing too but I think they’ll be fine with Dick already as an adult here and if he’s a still a teen in Reeves’ movies/shows. They will be casting a new Bruce/Batman, so curious to find out who that will be. They also dated “The Batman 2″ for October 2025 too.

Booster Gold (TV): This has also been in the works for years and he too showed up on “Legends of Tomorrow” so it’s finally happening.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (movie): This will be cool to see too. Though not sure if Kara will still be played by Sasha Calle like in “The Flash” movie or if it’ll be a new actress as Sasha’s seems to be tied to Henry Cavill’s. They didn’t mention Sasha either as staying so might be another recast.

Swamp Thing (movie): This one has me so excited!!! :D I’ve loved Swamp Thing for years and that he’ll be in the movies again and tied to this new DCU. It’s going to be darker than the other movies and shows listed here and end the first chapter leading into the 2nd chapter.

Overall I’m really excited and glad they’re doing this more like Marvel now with such a larger plan and focusing on getting the scripts done first before they film. Also looking forward to finding out the castings as this is going to be a lot of actors.

[blueikeproductions]

Heathers AU future families.

Veronica and JD have twins: a boy called Vincent and a girl called Victoria. Vincent takes after Veronica being more down to earth, geeky and gentle, while Victoria takes after JD, being more mischievous and handy with a gun if need be. Victoria once called in a bomb threat, but it turned out to be a dumb prank, as she taped a bunch of cherries under the gym bleachers and called them Cherry Bombs. Vincent inherits his mom’s love of literature and aspires to be a writer of some kind when he grows up. He has a penchant for dark comedy, and likes to help Dan’s son Mason with his own interest in art and comics.

Dan and Martha have three kids: Liam, who is Dan’s little brother and technically their first kid as they look after him the most. Their second by two years is a chubby daughter called Skye who takes after Martha, and their third and youngest is a boy called Mason who is sort of a blend of his parents with Dan’s build, but wears glasses and has curly hairy and a round face like Martha. The entire family is nerdy and quirky, with Liam taking an interest in football thanks to his uncles Kurt and Ram, and the two gladly help out with that. Liam still retains a close relationship with his adopted brother JD, and the two hang out when ever JD stops by. Skye is a bit of a cloud cuckoo lander, and has a love of musicals and movies, particularly Beetlejuice. Mason is quiet, shy boy that loves Pokémon and is often humming the PokeRap when he’s in a good mood. Mason enjoys art and comics, and wants to grow up making comics and cartoons for a living. He often collaborates with his older “cousin” Vincent on projects.

Kurt and Ram have a plucky, fireball of a daughter called Felicia, and it’s a whole new ball game for them considering their sticky past with girls back in high school. The trio love each other dearly and the two ex-jocks are VERY over protective when Felicia gets older and is starting to date boys. Felicia is sporty and competitive like her dads, and plays girls basketball and volleyball, stuff not quite in her dads’ wheelhouse, but are always there to cheer her on regardless. She has a playful rivalry with her “cousin” Liam when it comes to their respective sports.

Green Heather has one son, Levi, but never married, and is a single mother. She means well, but she’s never fully divorced herself from her Queen Bee-Starscreamish habits and is a control freak, to which the cool headed Levi often has to diffuse a situation no matter how asinine. Levi shares his mother’s love of the color green, wears her old green scrunchie around his wrist and is sort of the unofficial, kind hearted leader of the kid group. He occasionally butts heads with Gold Heather’s daughter Harriet, but their relationship is more akin to Digimon’s Tai and Matt’s rivalry and far less antagonistic than Red and Green Heather’s. He and Liam are the closest in age and when they get older, Levi develops a not so subtle crush on Liam.

Gold Heather has a loud, outspoken daughter who eerily seems to be a clone of the not so dearly departed Red Heather called Harriet and a geeky son named Spencer who eerily seems to be a clone of Dan’s dead friend Specs. Gold Heather and Specs did get along well in middle school, and the two did have a mutual crush before his untimely death Senior Year. It’s thought by Veronica and Dan maybe Red Heather and Specs reincarnated, and were given a second chance. While Harriet, nicknamed “Crimson Heather” by Dan, shows Red Heather’s more vicious tics, she does use her gifts to instead defend her meeker brother and best friend Skye, so that’s seen as an improvement. The “risk” still exists that Harriet could revive the Heathers clique in the future so Veronica, Dan, JD and Gold Heather try to nudge her in a better direction. Gold Heather lives comfortably with her charming and doting girlfriend.

Tracey never married or had kids, but fancies herself the cool aunt to her friends’ kids. Her child is a loving Komondor named Eddie.

[nijjhar]

Spiritually Blind Abbots at Mount Athos harbour spiritual Prostitute Dis... one of the Temple ousted by the hypocritical Temple Priests who were making Jews of appearance and not inwardly spiritual of heart. Such hypocrisy is best exposed through logical reasoning. People of Judah, Levi, Benjamin, etc. tribes were born in covenant with Abraham but led by their Blind Guides who hated the knowledge of the "Oral Torah", which is His Word that Christ Jesus came to deliver to expose their hypocrisy but they refused to listen to Him because they loved Darkness to fleece the people in Mammon in which they decorated the Temple of Yahweh with gold and silver very pleasant to look at as the Fig Tree was but no fruit busy turning the faithful tribal sons of Abraham into Jews of appearance or liars and murder fanatic devils - John 8v44, who killed Jesus. Such Jews in the USA filled with the blood money of the poor as Lazarus used to sit at his door to collect the leftover food are killing people worldwide as depicted in a cartoon by the Green Party Deputy Head in the U.K. So, there is nothing Sacred left in Jerusalem except the Western Wall of the Temple for the worship of the sons of the most High Satan Al-Djmar Al-Aksa - John 8v44, liars, murderer fanatic devils that are being bundled up for the FINAL BURNING THROUGH THE ATOMIC WAR expected very soon – Matt 13v24-30 would be fulfilled. It could be on 14/05/2025. Israel was established on 14/05/1948 + 70 years of full protection till 14/05/2018 when President Donald Trump pressed the TRIBULATIONS BUTTON by declaring Jerusalem to be the Capital of Israel. Now, they are left with 7 years in Menorah to 14/05/2025 for possible Atomic War. For this, Donald Trump is required to end the Dark Age with the destruction of the hypocritical Nations that destroyed Iraq, Libya, etc. 144000 tribal people would be saved in Israel. Thus, the tribal people of Russia, China, etc. will win the War. This Planet Earth is for the habitation of the tribal people only. Watch my other videos for detailed information. The Gospel is as easy as ABC if you think logically and do not go by what is written in the holy books or newspapers, which are corruptible.Living Islam of Living Allah is of the “Al-Kitab” that gets written over your own heart through "Logical Reasoning" by the Grace of our Supernatural Father of our supernatural “Soul” Al-Ilah = Allah. No son of your tribal father, Qom, "Ilah" no son of Supernatural Father Allah = INSHALLAH ISLAM.Only “fools” will believe in me and not in Allah.http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/JattIslam.htmNANAK HOSI BHI SACH.ASK, SEEK AND KNOCK.REAL SHARIAH-FREE ISLAM OF ALLAH - NOORIN HONOUR OF ROYAL SHAH SHAMS TABRIZI.HUKUM RAZIAN CHALNA; NANAK LIKHYA NAAL.Sants of the Fourth Panth = Millatt are “Dass” and the Khalsas of the Third Panth are of the “Singh” surnames, Gotras. And Nanak was the Second Coming of Jesus, the “Christ = Satguru” and not a Brahmin “Guru”. The greedy Khatris messed up the devotees so much that they did not know the First and the Second Panths.http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/tenlights.htmwww.gnosticgospel.co.uk/JAntisem.htmwww.gnosticgospel.co.uk/JOHN 8V44.htmMy Books:- ONE GOD ONE FAITH:-www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/bookfin.pdfPunjab Siyan.John's baptism:-www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/johnsig.pdfTrinity:-www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/

[newfashionlove]

Chanel House presented the new J12 model at the Watches&Wonders exhibition in Geneva. J12 Couture Workshop Automation Calibre 6 were released in 100 copies. The cartoon about Coco in the atelier on Rue Cambon is set in motion by pressing a single button and consists of 355 parts stacked in 5 layers.

The black matte case is made of highly durable ceramics, the mechanism is encased in white gold and sapphire crystal, the steel bezel is decorated with 48 baguettes with a total weight of 3.19 carats.

[jkjs]

Comic characters that should be crushed by cartoon anvil

- matt murdock

-booster gold

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[degolhardware]

Common hardware handle knowledge

It is the most widely used in furniture and cabinets. Hardware handles can be embedded in high-end cabinet accessories with newly popular elements. They are made with brand-new technology and produced according to the standard of artworks. They are made of popular antique and fashionable colors after electroplating. The representative color can be: bronze , White ancient, coffee ancient, ancient silver, baked black, gold-plated, chrome-plated, pearl silver and other home colors. With the continuous progress of technology, aluminum alloy handles now have oxidized colors: matte, bright, champagne, sandblasted silver, etc., plus electrophoresis, spraying and other processes. Make the colors of hardware handles more diverse. Uses: Hardware Handle is a part of home decoration hardware, which is mainly used in furniture, bathroom cabinets, cabinets, wardrobes and other furniture. The hardware handle has a decorative effect, but the most important function is the pulling effect.

The styles of hardware handles include European antique style, pastoral style, ceramic series, cartoon small handle and so on.The materials are copper, zinc alloy, wood, plastic, aluminum, ceramic, stainless steel, iron, acrylic, etc.

Degol:Contact us about good quality and cheap furniture hardware and door hardware.

Please check our official website:https://www.degolhardware.com/

+86 13725946499

Email:info@degolhardware.com

Wendy

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