#I love how in the reaction shot

[ohtendril]

colin & pen + text posts

[crispywizardtale]

[damnamour]

SHORTLAND STREET ― 6th August 2024

[izel-scribbles]

just finished malevolent relisten. needless to say the obsession has been rekindled tenfold its previous magnitude

[good-beanswrites]

A drabble for an anon asking about the prisoners watching their music videos! This is focused on specifically Mikoto’s initial shock at seeing MeMe for the first time, but just know that Double comes with a whole new set of shocks as he truly listens to John for the first time ;-;

Mikoto was no criminal. 

He didn’t know how to break into locked rooms, or hack into complex prison security systems. He figured there was no way in hell he’d be able to see these so-called incriminating videos that the Warden was recording, and had resolved himself to an eternity of wondering what they could be. He was shocked when he didn’t need to do a single thing to gain access to them – Es simply adjusted the computer monitor and told him he could hit play when (and if) he wished. Then they left the room.

“A-are you sure?” he called, but they were already gone.

Mikoto blinked at the screen. It showed a stretched version of his apartment couch, near his bathroom wall, broken to reveal sky above. He thought he could spot his tarot cards at the bottom of the frame. Had Milgram broken into his home to film this? 

He scoffed, and hit play.

Distorted guitar started up. He flinched as his own face appeared for a moment – looking directly into the camera and making a wild expression he would never have made if someone was recording. His body tensed up more as he heard his own voice start to sing lyrics he’d never spoken before in his life. He wasn’t even a good singer, and here he was sounding like a professional. 

There were plenty of ways to accomplish all of this, of course. Software could mimic one’s voice, making him say anything these crazy reality hosts wanted. A team could easily add some digital effects to a stunt double and match his appearance perfectly. Knowing that didn’t make the experience any less unsettling.

He watched himself commit a nasty murder. He watched himself return home bloodied. But it was all ridiculous. How could Milgram even claim that this was him? He’d never raised a hand to anyone in his life. Were the other prisoners’ videos as outlandish as this one?

But then, a switch. 

The song shifted to a new melody. He appeared to wake up from his couch, and suddenly Mikoto got the sense that this was him.

He was struck with how familiar this new segment sounded. It simultaneously felt like a favorite song he must have played on loop not too long ago, and one that he’d never heard before. As it played, each new note and lyric felt right on the tip of his tongue. 

It ended as quickly as it began. The song returned to the heavy-metal-murder aesthetic it had started with, and once again he felt like he was watching a cheap copy of himself onscreen. He watched another murder, a shower scene (had the warden seen all that? How embarrassing…) and then he turned to his bathroom mirror.

At the same time as his musical counterpart, Mikoto leapt backwards in horror. 

His eyes remained glued to the screen. His hand flew up to grab the lower half of his face. It was fake, he told himself. AI and CGI and all that. It was fake. It had to be. 

Something deep inside of him said “no. That’s real. That’s me.”

Something else deep inside of him echoed the sentiment.

The video was less than four minutes of music, but by the end he was panting and tugging at his hair as if he’d endured hours of prison torture. He burst out of the room. He sucked in breath after breath. The melodies still played in his mind, lines repeating in his memory as he tried to put as much distance between himself and that little television screen.

He found the others in the common room. They gave him a knowing look, but somehow he knew his experience had been very different from their own. Es approached him.

They studied his expression for a moment. Thankfully, they didn’t ask anything stupid, like “how did it go?” or “what did you think?” 

Instead, they just told him, “if you ever want to watch it again, just let me know, I can get it set up for you.”

He would want to see it again. Of course, it would be better, then. He would take a moment to calm down. He’d watch it later and everything would be okay. He’d have a clearer mind. He’d pick out all the little camera tricks they used to make it. He’d be sure it was a fake, and laugh about how ridiculous he was being now. 

Of course. Of course. 

He nodded to Es, unable to produce any words. Es left him.

The rules in this prison never made any sense, but in this case, he was grateful. He wouldn’t need to figure out any snooping or hacking to get access to the video again. After all, he was no criminal.

… he wasn’t, was he?

[jacarandaaaas]

I love watching encanto reactions especially the ones who constantly comment on the performance and characters. Saw a reaction recently where this guy kept mentioning “such a great performance” and he’s right the voice acting is so good in this movie I feel like I don’t praise it enough. Nobody had a bad performance even those townspeople with like 2 lines were super memorable!

[coconut530]

I CANNNNNNOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTT THEY’RE AMAZING 🩷🐦‍⬛🖤

Other WTs today:

[etrevil]

Bones has somehow made Fyodor's reaction gayer I now believe one of the big executives there is a Fyolai enthusiast

[theusernameiwantisntavailable]

So I have officially finished watching the first episode of tdp and I am once again asking Netflix to stop releasing seasons that are like 3 episodes long

[unproduciblesmackdown]

it occurred to me to Juxtapose the current lackadaisy triumvirate w/the former, now especially mysterious one: namely [rocky ivy freckle] vs [atlas mitzi mordecai]

you have mitzi and ivy where this is sort of an alternate, glamorous, welcoming and potentially promising world. ivy saying everyone treated her like royalty, mitzi's focus on atlas individually and the surprise of his interest & treatment.

then there's freckle and mordecai at least somewhat spontaneously drawn into "but he's just so good at it!"-based professionally shooting and killing you. perhaps also being obliged to someone as further motivation, whether they helped you finish school or not be killed today.

atlas is too mysterious & undialogued to cite any examples while considering Parallels, but you can wonder about rocky kind of being at the helm of the trio / drawing the others in, and trying to get to compose the result you want even if you're improvising your way there, but the proximity of disaster anyways

[coquelicoq]

rip to hiiragi in the moon-splitting festival arc though. first she paints a protection charm on natsume's arm, standard stuff, but even though right before this he was in a huge hurry to get back to everyone else to make sure they're safe, he's like okay now let's do you. and takes the brush and paints the same charm on her arm. uhhhh. okay. this is fine. okay. then minutes later he throws himself in front of her to protect her from a ton of falling logs with his fragile human body. like not only is he actively making it harder for her to do her job, which is to protect him, by doing stupid heroic shit that puts him in danger, but he's doing said heroic shit to protect HER? like he thinks she's a PERSON??? the fuck is she supposed to do with this shit!

[keitheaverage]

came back from a walk today with the worst, uneven sunburn I've had in a while which is making my face & shoulders hurt so I made this edit to cope bc tbh?? how tf did he not come back from the desert with the most goofy ahh tan lines known to man???

like ik it would have been a nightmare to have had to animate him this way but STILL. if I'm not exempt from misshapen suntan lines, neither is he. 😤🔥 /lh

also this was slightly inspired by the first TTATC tweet I ever made after watching it for the first time:

[barkingangelbaby]

I feel like such a broken fucking person lol

I talked way too much in the tags don't read them

[arkashas]

i don’t care if will killed randall tier with his bare hands that doesn’t mean he can “easily” take hannibal in a fight....

[thewild--flower]

Code: Realize Wintertide Miracles ~ Special Epilogue: Victor Route

[jlf23tumble]

I'm really trying to understand. I know Joshua does take good pics but some of his pics are awful and they still get so much praise. I'm seeing comments "I know the pic is blurry but it fits Louis' tour aesthetics". Seriously? Is that the excuse now? "This pic looks like shit but it fits Louis' tour aesthetics". Since that pic Harry posted on IG that was super super blurry, which I think he was trying to make a point with. That fans don't control him. I thought Lloyd's pics have got better since. They show more of the audience. I really like his recent pics that show Harry and the audience. They give a vintage postcard kind of feel. Old school. But he's still being trashed as ever. Sometimes I'll see a pic and think... that's not that bad so surely they won't be trashing that. But they will be, always are. He can't do any right. But Joshua can't do any wrong. I think it could be partly because Joshua talks to the fans on twitter. So they feel 'closer' to him. They're still incredibly bitter about the iHeart? tour photography award going to Lloyd, while also saying that it means nothing. If it means nothing then why still so bitter? Why the desperate push to vote for Joshua? They say that Lloyd only won the award because of Harries. Well yes. If Joshua won the award it would be because of Louies and Larries. That's how fan voted awards go. If anyone does like Lloyd's pics they get insulted for having bad taste. They really despise Lloyd and they just don't stop complaining about him. Why is it always like this? That everyone Harry works with is hated by the fandom and everyone Louis works with is loved?

I'm sitting here, nodding my head as I read this like a goddamned kitsch toy dog on the dashboard of someone's bitchin' Camaro because yeah, YEAH. I have some thoughts about it that I'm sure I'm not all that articulate about, so I'll take it to the tags and let your ask just shine up here, uninterrupted yet fully appreciated