#I've been gone so i'm probably pretty irrelevant by now

[scarlxtleaves]

Probably the first of few starter calls for the year 2024. BUUUT I'm almost done with my drafts and got a couple of nercomers so I figured why not. Like this for a starter, ranging from one-liners to probably multiple paragraphs. Really depends on the state of mind and muse.

Also please specify which muse you'd want me to send or I'll really pick someone at random, crossover and whatnot are always welcomed here so feel free to pick someone that's not even in your muse' verse. ALSO please give me the specification of which muse I'm writing for if you're a multi too :D

So yeah, that's it. With that I wish everyone a happy (belated) new year.

(muses kinda changed last time you've probably seen 'em so here's the list again.)

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for visiting a restaurant after it changed ownership?

I (young adult, genders irrelevant for everyone in this story) have been living in the same neighborhood for most of my life, and I usually cook my own dinner. However, because my dad left the family when I was young, and my mom made me move out as soon as I was an adult, I wasn't completely prepared to live on my own, so I don't have a consistent source of income. I've had to move between apartments in the same neighborhood a lot, and sometimes when I'm in the process of moving it's really hard to cook my own dinner. The neighborhood is pretty isolated, so there aren't really many other places to get food, so I've mostly been hungry during those moving periods.

However, a few months ago, my friend R told me L, one of our neighbors I hadn't talked to before, was starting a restaurant business. She'd apparently started out by making food for her two children, S and O, who I'd seen around the neighborhood a few times and was vaguely familiar with, but realized her food was good and opened it up to the rest of the neighborhood for a low price. Of course, I was super excited to get to try someone else's cooking for the first time since I'd moved out, so R and I started visiting L's restaurant every now and then when I was moving or otherwise unable to cook. It's her secondary job, so she wasn't always there, but S and O also worked there and were friendly to us.

I thought it was a good arrangement... until I visited one day recently to find the door closed at a time when it's usually open. I would have just gone home, but it had been really rainy lately, I was under a lot of stress, and I didn't feel up to getting food for myself in those conditions, so I stood around for a few minutes, waiting to see if S or O would come out and explain. Instead, some people I've never seen before came into the lobby of the restaurant and just stared at me from inside. Instead of explaining anything to me or letting me in, they just laughed at me and took pictures of me? I was already really upset and that just made it unbearable to be around other people, so I left. I went back a few days later to double check if it was open, because I was still hungry, but the new people were still there, and I left even more quickly this time. I'm not proud of that- maybe I could have talked to the new people if I'd stayed longer instead of embarrassing myself, but I also feel like they were being really rude.

I asked R about it later to see if they'd talked to S or O lately or knew anything about what I assumed was change in ownership, but R didn't help at all. They told me that they hadn't seen S or O, but I shouldn't have expected the restaurant to stay open forever and that it was stupid of me to go back on the second day. I guess I can see how I might have been an asshole to go back, but I don't know what R meant about the restaurant. Is it because it's not L's main job? Were we the only customers and not giving her enough income to continue it for anyone but her kids? Or was the restaurant like... a front for money laundering or something? I really don't know. I'm hurt, hungry, and so confused. Was I in the wrong for bothering the new humans? Am I the asshole?

What are these acronyms?

[tribow]

I did it! I beat Violet Detector!

Honestly, I found it easier than Shoot the Bullet. I was expecting to get bullied more, but ZUN really toned down the difficulty of many patterns when two bosses were at play. Some of the fights against a solo boss were harder than any of the duo boss stages.

It was a tad bit of a shame that many spellcards were actually recycled from previous games, but now you gotta dodge them under a whole new context!

Bosses don't share health bars, so you have to figure out which one to defeat first. When one boss is down, the other increases the difficulty of their spellcard. Which boss would you want to deal with last? Maybe you can defeat both at the same time!

The score chasing could be pretty fun if I cared...but I don't. I just wanted to complete it.

Anyway, spoiler-y talk from here on out if you care

So the Sumireko you play as the entire game is actually the one from the dream world. What a twist! This does explain Doremy's dialogue with Sumireko. It makes her words seem a lot more genuine rather than sarcastic, especially since she made herself be the last obstacle to overcome before Dream Sumireko learns that she isn't even the real one.

However, Dream Sumireko takes this news like a champ and decides that she'll just defeat the real Sumireko and take over! I like how Real Sumireko compliments herself. The confidence is on full display, character development intact.

Now, to my knowledge, Sumireko ceases to be relevant after this game so this currently concludes her story with Gensokyo. I guess now that she has dealt with her doppelgangers and has even garnered a little occult following online her ability to easily enter Gensokyo is gone.

Correct me if I'm interpreting anything wrong, but it seems like Dream Sumireko was entering Gensokyo all the time after the events of Urban Legend in Limbo. Since she fully believed she was the real Sumireko it was as if the real Sumireko was really there.

This only became a problem when Antinomy of Common Flowers started and this resulted in ANOTHER clone. Perhaps Doremy could have solved Sumireko's problem herself if not for that incident, cause now Dream Sumireko doesn't even make it to Gensokyo, she just stays in the dream world while still fully believing she's real.

So....Sumireko can't enter Gensokyo by herself anymore. Even after she defeats herself and ends the nightmares her means of entering Gensokyo are now severed. She'll dream like a normal person now....right? (I'm aware she shows up in Curiosities of Lotus Asia so I need to catch up on those chapters and see if she appears after the events of Violet Detector)

That must be why she's irrelevant as a character as of now, but it's not like she isn't aware Gensokyo exists. There are still some Gensokyo characters that can contact her, like Yukari. In fact, Yukari is probably the only reason why Sumireko could enter the dream world to fight herself.

But then....what was Okina's motive? It certainly appears like she was just instigating the problem for her own amusement, but that can't be it right? Did she just want Sumireko to be aware of her? How was she even keeping tabs on Sumireko that closely? Was she using her as a backdoor to outside Gensokyo and the Dream World?

Strange. Okina's actions are strange, but very interesting.

I wonder who even told Yukari what was going on. She couldn't have known unless Doremy or Okina said something...or Yukari talked to Sumireko herself after noticing something was wrong with her in the outside world.

Well, regardless of how things played out, that's Violet Detector! I finally get to try Wily Beast and Weakest Creature now. I've been wanting to know what the deal is with those characters and I'll finally find out soon!

[kingwuko]

What would make lin warm up to wu? because to her from what ive read in security and secret she still thinks of him as an immature boy king. thats just my inference idk if thats what u were goijg for

I was going to be silly and cagey answering this because I don't want to spoil anything. but I'll just be straightforward.

Lin's feelings about Wu as a person and as a prince/king have been wishy washy throughout the show. She was flippant with him in the first episode about how his chances of being assassinated were almost zero. she seemed genuinely apologetic to Mako about him being used by the president to keep Wu happy. She seemed mildly impressed by how he handled the radio evacuation order. And I think she approves of his plan to democratize the earth kingdom! So there's been some back and forth there.

But her feelings around him as a king are irrelevant. What's happening is her feelings about him being a partner to Mako.

I'm not going to spoil things, I'll just harken back to some details I've already mentioned. Mako frequently lied to his brother about working late to go see Wu (yes, Lin caught onto that pretty quickly). Mako's been different since Gaoling, different in a way that made Bolin think something was wrong with him. He's gone through intermittent periods of being unhappy and high strung. Don't think Lin hasn't noticed all this!

There's the matter of the power imbalance. The history of Wu using his power and influence with Raiko to force Mako to move to Ba Sing Se with him. Mako's history; he has a knack for getting into power imbalanced relationships, Lin's noticed that pattern.

Mako was miserable working Wu's security detail. I think he used to beg to be taken off the assignment, in the early days. Mako never liked Wu before. Why is that now, all the sudden, he's sleeping with Wu? Lin's probably got some theories on that.

So. What would it take for Lin to warm up to Wu, not as a King, but as a partner to Mako? Well. That's probably not clear, not even to Lin. Lin holds a grudge. Wu will have to work hard to get into her good graces.

[polkadotsandtulips]

Thoughts on the HGs after a Week

Matt - Abs for days and he's sweet to boot; hasn't really been able to crack into the strategy - I think winning a comp will help out with that - I do worry about what he in his own words says is his "body dysmorphia" - the hammock talk last night he mentioned he wants to be on slop to lose weight - so that's kind of concerning but hopefully I'm reading too much into it

America - seems very fun and I like that she's a live feeder but so far has been a kind of nonexistent player - a floater some might say

Cirie - not a huge Survivor fan but I know who she is; it really is very entertaining to watch how she negotiates all these relationships; I think the house Reilly and Jared need her mothering presence

Felicia - RIP to those 4 mic pacs; I respect her gaming; it's refreshing to see in an older player

Mecole - I really haven't caught much of her on the LF yet; seems sensible

Jag - he cracks me up; the hammock crew last night was so fun to watch; he seems like he'd be a good hang; I love that he's a substitute teacher and he seems to take it pretty seriously; he seems to avoid a lot of the overly sexual talk which I feel is probably due to him wanting to keep a good image for his kiddos

Cory - I don't know about this dude, but it is impressive that he talked himself off the block; I am decidedly Team Cory on the whole beef with him and Hisam though

Blue - I was initially very high on her but she burned too hot too fast; I'm kind of disillusioned with her now, but her and Jared are awfully flirty...so we'll see what happens there 😉

Reilly - I liked her so much before she became HOH; now, I've been overexposed and am kind of annoyed with her; I don't know if she really has that big of a crush on Matt or not; she doesn't seem to really pay that much attention to him; Kirsten and America were more helpful with getting him to speed on the hammock/pool convo than she was; I don't think she's a bad person by any means - just young and foolish; but somebody please save the girl from the toxicity of Cameron, good gravy, all of their interactions are unsettling

Jared - started off shaky but with his mom's help has really improved

Bowie - I mean, she's just some random chick in the house; she seems fun but she doesn't add much to the game

Kirsten - the underdogs always pull on my heartstrings; yeah, she played a wonky game at the start, but I'd rather an over-player stay over someone boring or irrelevant; she's gone from being my least favorite pre-season to one of my top 5

Red - I haven't watched this guy a lot on the feeds but mainly I'm just like please stay clothed at all times - nobody wants to see you in a crop top

Hisam - if Kirsten was one of my least faves at the beginning, Hisam was one of my top faves; two things have irked me about him - the irrational hate he has for Cory (I cannot relate - if I hate you - I can list reasons - probably more than you'd like, lol) and his whole "let's play with honesty and integrity" - hard pass

Izzy - she kind of annoys me, lol, but she is very needed in this game as an agent of chaos

Luke - play stupid games, win stupid prizes

Cameron - what is this dude's deal? How did he get a woman to marry him and have his child? How is his whole personality not a complete turn off? if he continues the mind games with Reilly - I hope he gets called out or booted or something because she doesn't deserve to be scarred for life

[oskidontle]

Things I've noticed/probably misunderstand on this side of Tumblr since season 2 happened:

-Like only 3 people talk about Candide and the people that do I'm convinced are mostly in it cause horny.

-People don't talk enough about Harriet. That goes for myself. We need to though, she's cool.

-Topher is dangerously close to meeting all the requirements to be made a Tumblr sexyman. It scares me. The only thing holding him back is lack of popularity on Tumblr as a whole. Tumblr is weird in that it likes characters its supposed to hate and vise-versa.

-Abe related renaissance. Dude has gone from overly loathed to fairly loved. Y'know what? Good for him!

-Furries! I don't know where you came from but welcome!

-I'm pretty sure I saw onecest but with Scudworth at somepoint. It's haunting my dreams. It's burned into my retinas. Hopefully it's just a hallucination. Hopefully.

-JoanFK is now mostly irrelevant. Honestly was one of the biggest shit shows I've seen on this corner of Tumblr because of the sheer agony caused by people loosing their comfort ship/otp. Honestly hindsight it's kinda silly but who am I to judge y'know?

-I'm relation to last point. The new fandom otps are in a war for top spot. Tophabe and Khalopatra. It's not a traditional war with arguing but "how much artwork and how many fics can we pump out to drown everything? So it's more like a cold war. Idk which one to root for if I'm honest. I kinda dig both.

-Drama? In my fandom about a show that satirizes drama? Irony. There are far too many to list in one point. But chances are if you have been here these past couple months you have seen some sort of drama. Some justified some pointless.

-"I want Ghandi back"

-The fandom: *wants more Van Gogh.*

Clone High S2: *more Van Gogh.*

The fandom: (:o)

[tessabennet]

So. *wiggles eyebrows* You're saying if I ask real nice, you'll give me ALL the spoilers? I'm SO VERY tempted right now to ask a million questions and have you spoil the shit out of your own fic. 👀

But where's the fun in that? So much of the excitement of reading the series is in finding out how you're going to deal with certain events/characters/canon fuck-ups and how you're ultimately going to turn this ship around.

So, I will refrain (so generous of me, I know!). Still, if you feel so inclined, can I ask 25 & 35 for the ask game?

Also, since I'm writing this in a sort of vegetative state from my sickbed (yes, please pity me, thank you!), can I ask for a line/snippet from one of the future parts, pretty please?

Thank you!🥰

Noo, J, sorry to hear you're sick. Hope it's nothing too serious 😧

Your restraint is greatly appreciated btw, I know how hard it must be 😜😁 So, here we go with the asks:

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

Bucky's favourite drink is a Mamie Taylor. He never much got to drink it, because the places they usually went to before the war didn't really do cocktails (more like beer and hard liquor, you know?) He rediscovered it in the 21st century, by which point it had also become Steve's favourite - because, well, nowadays the drink is called a Buck.

35. What’s your favorite writing rule to smash into smithereens?

Write what you know is the obvious answer. Like... no? Sir, this is comic book logic. I'm no brain surgeon or neurologist, I'm going on pretentious name dropping and wikipedia alone. I've only been to a tiny fraction of all the places I name in the series; I only know Brooklyn by google maps street view. I never once ran an international intelligence agency or worked as a black ops agent. How the fuck would I ever write anything if it was just me and my life experience??

The other thing I've seen as ""advice"" before is to not use semicolons. Which, fuck that. You can pry those from my cold dead hands because I need them and we're bound for live, it's a love story, etc etc.

As for the snippet you asked for, of course you'll get one! A long one even, right under the cut. It's from the latest chapter I wrote, only just this morning.

I really hope you'll feel better very soon!! Gute Besserung ❤️‍🩹

Because Steve moved back to the Heights. Once he'd found the place, he knew there wouldn't be another choice. He's just a few streets away from the place where, before the war, he was the happiest. Just a few block away from his and Bucky's old place.

A few years ago he probably wouldn't have been willing to pay for his new place. Able, maybe, but too stubborn to give in to the insane prices that a place in Brooklyn will cost in this century.

Except the prices have gone way down since the Snap. Fewer people in the world means fewer people with the kind of money that can afford a condo like this. In fact, the apartment Steve got here is probably way below the kind of place he could afford. He started realising way back when he first moved to DC that there's a whole new world of apartments that he could afford, way more luxurious than this one. He never cared for that shit, and he's not starting now.

This condo's more than enough, really. It's a quiet street, relatively speaking. It's only a short way to work. He's close to Cadman Plaza, which opened in 1939, when he and Bucky were still living in Montague Street. It feels familiar. Steve sometimes goes by the War memorial on his way home. Somehow, that feels way more sincere than the showy statue of Captain America in Prospect Park. After all, Captain America never lived in Brooklyn; he never set foot in it, not really. In Brooklyn, Steve's ever only been some guy. A mouthy one, yes, but nothing special.

Bucky would disagree on this. But that's not the point.

[diddybok]

OOOOH ok interesting - first and foremost, guy best friend is a FLOP for being so lazy with your friendship, because you were initially interested in letting things get interesting, but now that HE'S trying to do that ON TOP of historically being flaky with the friendship? like no heaven forbid he goes out of his way during the day but oh at night when he's feeling it you have to? LIKE MATE BE FOR REAL AND be respectful?? it really seems like he likes you right now - did he seem disappointed after you kissed the friend?

if you're over him and his flakiness, then by all means drop him, you deserve infinitely better than waiting for him to want to see you - you deserve someone, a best friend, bf, something else or both, who would love to see you any time of the day and is ACTIVE in seeking you out 💕 i've been through a similar-ish situation with a flaky guy friend showing some level of interest, and a stalker girl mutual friend who seemingly encouraged him and i, but goes off to have a whole ordeal with him after mild things happened between the guy and i, when he apparently was "in love" with her the whole time? that's irrelevant 😭

my point is, i have tried to stay neutral with him the whole time, even though i knew him longer. it would be nice if none of this happened and we could still talk normally, but i'm not interested in trying to fix it, so being neutral is the way to go, rather than dropping him completely, to save the awkwardness. if you were to be neutral with him then you could potentially keep his door open if something were to happen in the future, which might be useful?? but it seems like you're pretty interested in mr uni pookie 😏😏😏😏😏😏 I SHIP IT

all the best with the two of these guys, and i guess just have fun with it?? enjoy the ride 🤪 always here if you want to chat or vent, or spill more tea 😊

omg this is like girl/chix talk time and i want to make it a regular occurrence where we all just talk abt shit happening in our lives atm! obvs not forcing anyone to!

okay imma start by saying REAL!!! i think in this case i would just put a hard line of it being strictly platonic. i already started to distance myself from him and i think he kinda caught on yesterday when i wasn’t entertaining it like i would have in the past.

but yeah all feelings for him are, and i can confidently say, gone🧌 but yeah no the other guy is so cute i wanna squish his cheeks😣

BUT WOAH??? youRE tea?!?! stalker girl and your friend😲 that’s acc kinda crazy. oh my god that would make me feel so, just, my eye would be TWITCHIN! the audacity. i strongly dislike girls like that, boys is a given because they do it to themselves by being themselves,, but the girls that try to set it up KNOWING behind your back they’re pulling a madness?

yeah you’re done for mate.

i woulda instantly removed myself from both of them. probably the guy too because wdym you were in love with her but talking like that with me? how are you to act then if we got into a relationship. next thing you know you get the “hey girly i know you don’t know me but-”😭😭

but i’m not getting my hopes up for uni boy, rather im already preparing for it all to be a purely just friends situation which 😀 is fine because he’s a good mate, so i guess it’d be a win win if it goes either way! but again no getting my hopes up. because i’ve learnt my lesson too many times whilst ignoring the facts and ended up getting all upset when i grew to attached😪

anyways that was fun, thank you for fuelling this little talk time with me!

[skybristle]

I'm really interested to hear about your episode 11/12 CRK rewrite, do you mind explaining the plot? If it's too long to explain or smth, can you at least give some basic plot points/major changes?

[pls rb] It's a bit messy tbh since i never got into the nitty-gritty of the exact play by play events, but i had a lot of thoughts on how i would like to have restructured it / rewritten certain parts. its always bugged me how tonally distant the hb kingdom is from,,,, everything else in the main storyline, especially compared to pv and cacao's plotlines. one of the key things is that i took the mention pitaya burned down the kingdom at one point WAY more seriously than the plot does - as well as them 'taking over' the kingdom. i should note that they aren't nessacarily malicious, moreso trying to bait hollyberry out of hiding to fight them and going about it in the worst way possible. The timeline of cr is so messy and conflicting [esp now with the implication roguefort was very young when their family died in the ob christmas event and they died in my fanon BECAUSE of the pitaya attack but i had other stuff before that that said it was only like 6-7 years ago but. AUGH. WHATEVER]. TLDR the hollyberry kingdom has rebuilt but they're still kinda a mess and slowly losing faith in the royal family and turning to the great houses - leading to a setup similar to the princess contest [i think the 'princess contest' is stupid as hell, like, especially when princess herself shows up for it but it 'must go on'].

TO SUMMARIZE SOME THINGS. For my fanon in general i've kicked gingerbrave and co out of the main plotline - nothing against them, but persoanlly them being shoved into every plotline makes their narratives suffer drastically [at least in my fanon] . i've weighed the thought of either rasp or princess being the main protagonist but like . princess probably makes more sense im just HEAVILY biased towards rasp. Background stuff thats important to the characters -rasp has been staying in the cookie kingdom for a while and becoming dissalussioned with her house and hollyberry kingdom as she spends time away from the suffocating enviorment and begins falling in love with parfait - but cant commit because she can't be in love with a commoner under her house's watch. puts off going home until a carriage shows up asking her to come back to the kigndom for the contest. Is not havign a good time and only gets more and more upset as the plot goes on - batflower [oc of mine] was a heiress, but lost her manor in the pitaya attack. she's a power-obsessed asshole who does Not value people unless they contribute to her amusement or game. Is a literal fucking serial killer! - uhhhh i wanted to do more with tiger lily but the brainrot was never there. i think it would be sillly if part of the reason she went missing was related to hollyberry's dissapearance - i also kicked out the cookies of darkness not because they're irrelevant or completely gone i just liked using batflower and pitaya as the villians wayy more. they might be around but probably serving a more minor role - like how affogato is the main antagonist in chp 13/14 but theyre still around OKAY SO. It runs mostly the same but the one to poison their drinks is - suprise suprise - batflower ! nyx holds a lot of envy towards the remaining heiresses [especially rasp who is trying to walk away from the privlidge she'd been given that batflower so desprately wants back] and she spikes the heiresses' drinks with something similar as to what wizard/strawberry get in the original. And raspberry's already having her emotions run high and is pretty pissy and her and princess do Not Get Along so they start fighting before dueling [11-27 boss fight] - though it gets interupted by batflower showing herself, unfurling her wings and mocking them for falling right into her play. Yadda yadda drama stuff yadda yadda rasp falling even deeper into her want to leave her role because she sees the reflection of what it can do to people in batflower but also. THE GIRLS ARE FIGHTING [batflower replaces the 11-30 boss - it fits nyx well since its in a garden and nyx has plant magic it uses to make its poisons]. Once batflower is beat she retreats. Probably shows up later at minimum as an observer but i havent figured that out. Rest proceeds mostly as normal, with hollyberry showing up having realized how badly she failed her kingdom and what pitaya has done to it as 'ruler', and promptly beats their ass into next week and probably makes them do community service /LH. i wanted to do more to hb's characer arc and i DID mostly but im trying not to get too deep into the psychology of the events [as i often tend to do] and just tell it as it is. i think it would be cute if wildberry was with her [since she took him in while she was in hiding] and when its revealed shes the queen he gets promoted to her personal bodyguard. just thought that though idk a lot of this is loose Rasp at this point is done, goes home, gets in a fight with mousse and leaves the kingdom for good - though that probably wouldnt be featured in the plot. what WOULD be featured is a tiger lily reuinion with her family - i havent thought abt it much but it annoys me to NO FUCKING END that she is completely written off despite being LITERALLY *the missing princess*. And they do nothing with her besides jungleberry offhandedly remarking "oh that might be her,,," like GIRL YOURE NOT GONNA ?? INVESTIGATE ??? i think thats it . i might be forgetting something but whatever.

[sburbian-sage]

DurationPrince... Unhappily speaking.

Okay, I understand that you're mad about me not putting that much effort into getting out of this bubble but:

A. I already tried using my powers on the bubble to no avail. Hell I even tried offing myself using my own powers to see if my abilities can bypass the restrictions. didn't work either.

B. I'm a goddamn prince of time. A FIRST SESSION PRINCE, mind you. (And you should mind, Sage.) I'm literally forced to being end to time, so wasting time was a given. Months, years. So maybe you should've that the purgatory bubble doesn't want me to leave so soon.

C. If you want me to "Achieve Zen" to gain this bubble, maybe I should start by literally venting all the shit I had to endure even before SBURB because poetic prince lifestyle go "trauma", and the shit I had to endure when I was in SBURB before all the Showdown stuff. Which ironically may the key to be solving this, you know the "I mean jeez, just say your goddamn feelings" thing. Couldn't really do that in a lonely bubble outside of time, where you are one of the only people I can talk to. But you probably don't want me to write all my goddamn backstory in this support blog or something.

I wasn't mad at you for not putting effort into escaping the time bubble. I was getting mad at 1) how long this time bubble stuff has gone on for, because it's an unsolved case that's been burning a hole on my desk 2) the lack of feedback on what is even going on over on your end of the line. Like I've recommended seven different potential methods for getting out and when you respond back it's about something completely unrelated. I am only now learning that you attempted suicide, for example. Me not knowing things frustrates me, and it's like I'm getting double-teamed by the bubble and your posting habits.

I'm not sure what you mean by "my role is bringing an end to time so wasting time was a given", but it's not really relevant now. What is relevant is the "achieve zen to escape" bit. It is, at this point, the best suggestion that may or may not actually work, given how what started all of this was immense amounts of stress and pressure, Berserk Triggers are fundamentally emotional, and you are now in a situation where the only thing you can do now is destress and depressurize. You are correct, in that I'm not particularly interested in learning the personal tragedies and incredibly complex sad history of every Tom Dick & Larry in my notifications. You can start a journal over it, or message someone who does online therapy in their offtime, I am not that guy. I'm just recommending it because it provides the highest chance of being the proper solution, and because you seem pretty heated right now.

And once again, if you're mad at me because I keep saying "calm the hell down and destress" because it didn't work, I am unaware of that. Every subsequent ask has been about irrelevant stuff and stressing out about the future, and not even in a "I will keep a cool head and assemble a game plan for managing things because it isn't doomed yet :)" way. From my perspective, your house is on fire, and I am saying "try using a fire extinguisher", and then you ask me where babies come from, and I tell you to use the fire extinguisher, and you keep on not acknowledging the fire extinguisher, so I say "try a bucket of water", and then you get mad when the bucket of water doesn't work. Have you perhaps tried the fire extinguisher? Because that last statement seems to imply you still haven't tried using the fire extinguisher.

[shinxeysartgallery]

Really funny that I keep seeing people bitching about Toyhouse users "hoarding" characters. Are there people that do hoard characters? There sure are, but not everyone that has over 100 characters is a hoarder.

People are really out here like "UHHH IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN LIKE 50 CHARACTERS THAT'S TOTALLY A RED FLAG AND YOU'RE PROBABLY A HOARDER!" Or maybe they're just a writer? Or they're really into character design? And if they're all characters they made themselves, it matters even less.

Sure, I can get why people would be upset over someone having 500 characters that they never use for anything, especially when a large majority of them were adopted and they haven't even had their sales tags removed or names changed from "OTA" or "Freebie". Those guys, okay, I would probably consider them hoarders. If people are constantly grabbing up freebies or buying characters, they legitimately might have hoarding or spending issues, but that's also their problem to deal with. Yeah, it might suck that they bought an OC you wanted and now you'll never get them 'cause they're just going to rot in that account forever, but at the end of the day, they bought the character so they can do whatever they want with it (within the creator's TOS). If they bought it just because they thought the design was pretty and just wanted to have it, then fine; they're allowed to do that. It's not illegal and they're not hurting anyone.

But so many people seem to associate owning a lot of characters with that same sort of mindset. Like, I've now gone over 300 characters at this point (big oof for me lmao) and I've been called a hoarder. Granted, I'm pretty sure the guy who called me one was just trying to guilt trip me into giving them my characters, but that's still the angle they went with. I would not consider someone like myself a hoarder because I'm actually using everyone in some way. I have a Sonic AU, a Murder Drones AU, four original stories (one's actually a sequel to another, but it counts lmao), and some one-shots. Yeah, that's gonna involve a LOT of characters. Some are obvious favorites and definitely get more love and attention than others, but it doesn't mean that I don't like the ones that get less attention. Some are more important to a story than others. That doesn't mean I hate the background or otherwise irrelevant characters; it just means they don't play as big of a role as others (but they do still HAVE a role). There are a lot of other people like that, too! I saw someone on TH a while back that had over 2,000 characters. Now, that's quite a lot, but when I looked at their profile, they also had like a dozen different stories they were writing in addition to a bunch of fandom OCs. I obviously don't have the time to look at all 2k profiles, but I did look at a handful that seemed interesting and they were all pretty lore-heavy. Even though they have like 6x the amount of characters that I do, there's no question about theirs being used and loved on.

It's just so funny and stupid how pressed people get over it. Whoah, big numbers are scary! Waaaah! You can't possibly have more than 1 OC or you're a hoarder because you clearly can't ever love more than 1 at a time!!! /s

[stonewallsposts]

16 personalities questions: 37-39

37. You enjoy going to art museums 

Yes, but even more than museums, I like going to art galleries. Galleries are retail. In other words, they have to sell art in order to stay alive, which makes them much less prone to some of the stupidity found in the art world. Not immune....but at least less prone. Museums, for the most part, don't worry about catering to retail tastes, since they aren't selling the individual art pieces. Which means they can be a little more wrapped up in the BS. 

But I suppose I'm digressing into the politics of art, as opposed to just addressing the statement. I love looking at art. I love seeing what creative people do when they get turned loose on a field. One of my favorite places, though I haven't gone there that many times, is the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts, where you can find all kinds of such things. I love seeing what creatives will do with furniture, jewelry, just about any kind of household item, as well as the usual art mediums like sculpture and paints. 

Going to galleries was one of the things I used to love when we'd go up to San Francisco.  

I should also mention that I'm pretty quick to gauge my interest in things. I can glance in a museum room, or gallery, and pretty much know in a few seconds whether I'll be interested or not. Back in the beginning of 2018, we went to the Getty Villa with a group. One of the guys wanted to stop in every room and look at everything and read the little descriptions. I'll look in a room and think, nah, and just move on.  

Kind of reminds me of when we used to go to the zoo. I'd blow past almost everything and go straight to the monkey cages, which were always the most fun for me. Now that I wrote that out, I'm pretty sure it's irrelevant. We'll put that in the bonus information category. 

In summary though, I love going places to see art. 

38. You often have a hard time understanding other people's feelings 

I feel like I just discussed this in the section on empathizing with others. But that one was focused particularly on empathizing with others whose feelings are different from mine. As I mentioned there, I have a hard time relating to people who have problems I've not had. I'll try, but it's not easy for me. Is it easy for other people?  

As for people that I do have a common experience with, then I can relate to their feelings. 

The longer I exist on this planet, the more I experience, and therefore the more I can relate to people. I've been through some things now that I hadn't been through when I was 40. Things that might have been more difficult for me to understand... well... I have lived it now. 

Do I 'often' have a hard time understanding other people's feelings? I'd probably put this one at a 3, or one step from neutral towards Agree.  

39. You like to have a to-do list for each day 

No. Though I do keep a list of things to do for work. So, maybe I do. I certainly don't have one for my life outside work, but even there I will occasionally write stuff down that I need to take care of. That's mainly because I'm prone to forgetfulness, so writing it down right next to the computer will help remind me. I will occasionally set an alarm on my phone to go off at say 9:30a on monday morning to remind myself to call the roofer. Because my likelihood of forgetting to do that thing, if I try to just remember it, is pretty high. This forgetfulness is the root reason why I make lists, not any innate love of lists. I've just learned through time that it's about the only way I'm going to remember to certain things. 

I've also had the experience at work where my boss comes in and tells me he wants X. 10 minutes later I'm like, what did he want me to do? At that point I'm going to have to go over to his office and ask him again what the thing was, because I didn't bother to write it down at the time. So now I write it down. 

This forgetfulness is the same trait that causes me frequently to ask, when I've gotten to the grocery store, or home depot.... why are we here again?  

But surprisingly, over the years I think I've actually gotten better at remembering things than I used to be.  

[ot3]

first of all, i am violently in love your ace attorney fancomic. that one panel of mia in the elevator and edgeworth on the stairs sitting back to back lives rent free in my head, i think abt it every 3-5 business days and go feral. tysm <3 second, would you ever consider showing us ur process behind it? like how you plan it, the dialog + composition, etc? id personally love to get that insight !!

thank you so much!!!

i actually do have a TON of behind the scenes/process stuff up on my patreon for $2. every thumbnail/color rough/scrapped page comp i've done is up there, and i've been writing detailed commentary on the comic as a whole because it's something people expressed an interest in reading. there's a decent amount of it right now and ill have a new batch of commentary up sometime in the next few days

as for more generalized stuff about process ill stick that here under the cut but unfortunately it is going to be EXTREMELY unhelpful because my process habits are very bad.

so as for prewriting/pre-planning i do almost none of it. i've been trying to get better at doing that but i get so so so bored of that so fast. here's a screenshot of my first outline, cropped to just show everything i've drawn so far.

as you can see this all means pretty much nothing and i also didnt quite follow it. we didn't get the mia and greg postmortem and swiss rolls stuff for turnabout samurai because i later decided to scrap it. later down in this document there are slightly more detailed notes about some specific scenes, but really its all super lose.

Recently i tried to write a more detailed outline for the upcoming parts of the comic, and the stuff that happened in this most recent batch of pages was documented there pretty well

but already the stuff i wrote in this outline for later batches is not accurate to what i want anymore so to be honest the outlines are kind of a wash for me. what's really the meat of my pre-planning process is i just have a private discord server where i dump notes.

the reason i use a discord server for this is because its super easily accessible from every device i have, and doesnt require backing up between locations. i also just dump chunks of canon text in there that i want to pull exact dialogue from when i'm doing my transcript rereads.

a lot of these notes are completely useless and redundant

most of them are snippets of dialogue i want to put in on later pages. almost none of this dialogue will ever be used. for starters, a lot of it is different takes on the exact same handful of scenes and so by default are mutually exclusive bits of content. i like to just dump as many ideas as i have in there even if theyre contradictory, and then just read back through and pick my favorite/most appropriate ones as i get to actually drawing whats coming up.

every now and then ill dump all this in a google doc and arrange it roughly chronologically so related takes go together, but i havent done that in like six months so its all just a huge mess right now.

the reason i can get away with such bare bones planning is because i have a very strong mechanical understanding of how this story is supposed to function. in the two and a half years that has gone by since i came up with the idea and started working on it, almost nothing has fundamentally changed in my big picture narrative goals. knowing the exact shape of what i'm building towards makes it really easy to let the more minute details come to me in the moment. they either are congruent with that end goal, in which case they can stay, or they're more extraneous/irrelevant in which case they get cut.

when i get stuck, more often than not i just slide into mia @demonkix's dms and make her hear out my rambling. thanks mia. shoutout to mia.

now, here's probably one of my biggest sins: i do not script anything. there is no finalized dialogue until i am writing it directly onto the page. unless i'm directly lifting from the text, that is. ill have a rough idea of what needs to be said in each page when im drafting, and sometimes i'll write in rough dialogue on the draft. but most of the time ill just sketch out the approximation of the speech bubble andd either leave it fully blank or jot in one or two keywords in to remind me of what the dialogue should be. then the actual dialogue gets written in once the art is finished

do not do this. i can not stress how frustrating this is for myself. i do this every time and i always hate it.

the reason i dont bother with any proper scripting is because the dialogue bends to the art. not the other way around. a massive amount of my process is dictated by what im in the mood to draw, and by keeping the actual character interactions as flexible as possible until the art is done, i can ensure i dont get stuck at key points because the thing that has to happen is something i dont feel like drawing.

in general, my process for drafting pages is just rough thumbnail -> color rough -> go actually draw the damn thing

however there ill be times when i just do not bother drafting at all and jump immediately into drawing a page. if you go look at the stuff on patreon youll see that in the beginning i pretty much just drew everything after the first batch straight through.

this comic is a lot of work so the most important thing is that hte process is fun for me. i really hate granular planning and itd just slow me down a ton so the process is really just vibes from point a to point b. hope this somewhat answers your question

i talk about my general approach to comic composition in my big composition writeup too, which is pinned, if thats something youre interested in.

[vermillioncrown]

College AU, LXC-endgame, intro

People have hot TAs all the time. It's not special. You just look (respectfully), clasp your hands and beg for their forgiveness before you do the homework for that class ("Forgive my for loops, TA Jason - I'm on the 3rd cup of espresso and Kahlua"), and save the disrespectful behavior for gossip among friends.

It's a situational thing. Like, a little bit of bad luck, not a big deal. Two mis-steps, fine, fuck it's typical college suffering.

The streak of bad luck: missing the first registration deadline for a stupid general education course, getting it re-opened only to click the wrong course, and now not only is the stupid credit-filler class more work than its worth...

In walks Hot Violin Asshole. The very same Hot Violin Asshole that years (okay, two years, at most) of effort that has been expended in carefully picking a safe path through campus, physically and education-wise, has now been laid to waste. Hot Violin Asshole that was a waste of three ounces of pu'er tea leaves, destroyer of composure, a cold-faced killer (just metaphorical, but it's pretty apparent that Hot Violin Asshole would be good at getting away with premeditated murder), all sorts of assignations -

He's in this art history lecture.

He's walking up to the podium.

Wasn't he a junior? How was he a TA?

Side note: come late to lectures. Eyes could have been averted, bliss in ignorance, coffee in hand - the world would have been in hand -

"Hey! You're... Zhu Yunxun, right?"

Hot Violin Asshole is in front of her.

Hot Violin Asshole is speaking.

Hot Violin Asshole is speaking. To her.

"Am I already in trouble? Already?" Fuck, mouth - why?! Next time: come in late, Starbucks in hand, braincells safely in her head rather than wherever the fuck they leaked out at home.

His face is... doing things contrary to typical Hot Violin Asshole expressions (not that she would remember she did her best to wipe her brain fuck fuck fuck this guy -)

Hot Violin Asshole looks taken aback, for once. His mouth opens a couple of times, trying to form and reform the start of a sentence.

Thankfully, the actual professor walks in and she's saved.

=

"Drop the class," Shen Yuan suggests.

"I already begged the professor to reopen registration for the course - if I quit now it's like... like saying goodbye to an acquaintance, and then you end up walking in the same direction as them!" She needs her friend to understand. "I'd rather die than deal."

Shen Yuan's long slurp of his iced drink and deadpanned stare is wholly unsympathetic. "Sounds like a 'you' problem."

"Of course it's a 'me' problem - I'm the one dealing with it!" Complaining keeps her awake, but in moderate doses. She's reaching the end of the requisite amount. "Also, I tried very hard to fit my mechatronics course this quarter, and this was the only GE that could. Or. you know, the other, easier art history class. Free A class."

"Or... you could grow up... and actually have a conversation with Lan Wangji."

"I also would rather die."

"He's not that bad - honestly, the Second Lan is so serious he doesn't have time for other people's bullshit." Shen Yuan fishes for reservoirs of drink left in the crags of ice in his cup. "He probably wipes his memory of any irrelevant people every night. Poof. You're gone."

"No," Zhu Yunxun insists, "he holds grudges. He remembers."

"I'm in that fu er dai old money social circle, I've seen him since we were kids. Trust me - most people are irrelevant to him."

"He knew my name."

"... oh. Huh, I thought it was weird that - nah, that's probably his brother, Lan Xichen."

Zhu Yunxun's feet stumble over themselves, and she barely rights herself before faceplanting. At this time of day on campus, everyone's so busy that the student population would treat her as part of the pavement.

"There are more of them. Twins. Triplets?"

"No, older brother. Three years, I think."

"He looks like an exact doppelganger."

Shen Yuan shrugs. "It's a thing. They don't make a big deal about it."

"No, don't you understand?! When there are doppelgangers, whichever one you meet second is the Evil one." The theory needs massaging. "While Hot Violin Asshole is evil, to me, personally - he must not be evil within the framework of society's morality. The doppelganger... must be very, truly evil."

The coffee is yanked out of her grasp, and tossed into the passing trash can. Shen Yuan looks vaguely smug at his rare show of coordination, but the expression switches to disconcerted.

"Go home now. Take a nap. I'll send you the lecture notes."

Her feet start agreeing with her friend and walks her towards the bus terminal instead, even as her mouth keeps running. "See? See? He's more evil! My attendance streak this year, ruined!"

"Shang Qinghua and I were betting you'd ruin it yourself by next week, either way."

=

So, Hot Violin Asshole v2.

(Never mind that she doesn't actually know if he plays the violin, too. He probably does. What else would be a more evil instrument to play?

The oboe?)

He makes several attempts to catch her eye during the week's lectures. Too bad for him, Zhu Yunxun has mastered the technique of Disappearing Post-Lecture, and can be gone within a blink's duration.

Her luck runs out when he's handing back the weekly quiz throughout the lecture hall. The professor called for a mini-break mid-lecture, so it's not like she could sprint off now (she could, but that's not the optimal usage of her time).

"Sorry, I didn't get a chance to introduce myself. Lan Xichen," he says, handing back her shitty quiz and following up with a handshake immediately, "You know my brother, Wangji. He's spoken kindly of you."

1) Fuck, she'll have to spend more time than she wants actually studying for this fucking class.

2) Her lizard brain automatically reaches for the handshake, like a little grabby chameleon.

3) The implication that Hot Violin Asshole has opinions on her, actively discusses those opinions, and those opinions appear to be... Not Correct is fucking bonkers.

At Lan Xichen's sincere smile, sweet, single-dimpled, Zhu Yunxun adds another clause.

4) Hot Violin Asshole v2 must never, ever find out anything about her.

[2bastardsandabluray]

The Empty Man - Spoiler Review

"This looks like dogshit," I hear you already saying, "Another lazy cheap-assed slenderman type horror movie for middle schoolers. You really watched this? Fucking narc!"

Oh I sure did, asshole. And you should too because looks are deceiving. RLM's Jay Bauman, the immortal weird-indie-sex-pervert-film conniseur, commands it - and who am I if not his humble shill servant? The Empty Man has a lot going on, and this combined with its runtime (>2hrs!) lends toward the general impression that first time writer & director David Prior probably should've pitched it to Fox Studios as a TV series. So even though I do love to complain, I can hardly do so about this movie. Each of the 3 acts are more or less their own film, their plot threads carefully spun together, weaving a mostly successful third and final act.

I haven't actually said anything about the plot yet, because, well... I'm honestly not sure how to summarize it; Even the IMDB summary fails to properly advertise what happens. The plot of The Empty Man is functionally the plot of a full trilogy of movies, which Fox evidently was not willing to gamble on. If the studio wasn't one monolithic quivering pussy, David Prior's ideas would have had ample time across 4ish hours of screen time. In our day and age nobody is really willing to sit down and watch a movie for that long (have you ever tried to watch the original Ben-Hur? Jesus tittyfucking Christ it's like watching a 300 year old man-corpse play shuffleboard with his bare hands) and fairly so. Resulting from this unfortunate reality is a conceptually DENSE movie which makes use of some ideas I've never seen thrown around in a horror film before. I like 'em dense, babey.

The Empty Man opens with a trope-y and unceremonious vignette about a group of hiking buddies working their way up some unnamed mountain in Bhutan, c.1995. One of them, whom I can only refer to as Kmart Brand Aaron Paul, falls into a hole on the mountainside. Whoopsie! Within the hole/cave, Discount Paul discovers, uh, well, it's not entirely clear what he's looking at in this scene. I'd elaborate, but then I bet you wouldn't be as interested.

Hiker fella #2 hurriedly rappels down, fearing his buddy might've broken a bone, or something. Discount Paul appears unscathed, but he's acting really fucking weird. Completely unresponsive to people around him, just sitting cross-legged on the ground mumbling (praying?). The next 15 minutes are pretty bog standard, but it takes a strange twist at the end of this little intro when Discount Paul just fucking murders everyone and then throws himself off the mountain. "Huh," think we, the audience, collectively, "Fuck's this supposed to be about?" I'm writing a review right now and I'm here to tell you I have barely any goddamn idea.

Act two is where things get slightly more explicable. It's a procedural cop drama now, and our tragically generic (but quite nice as detective protags go!) lead is a grizzly, hard boiled ex-detective who left - or lost - his job for reasons we don't really know yet. Cool. His friend's kid (lesbian Finn Wolfhard) has gone missing though, oh no! Detective Whatever sets about hunting for clues and discovers quickly that a bunch of other annoying-ass teenagers have also gone missing here in Plotsville, seemingly in connection to some cheesy Bloody-Mary-esque ritual the school kids venerate as local tradition.

From this point, all the building blocks of a by-the-book garbage horror flick for children who've just recently been allowed into a PG-13 are in place. The Bye-Bye Man, The Smiling Man, Dark Shadows, Slender Man, that one that's set in Moscow I don't care what it's really called, ad nauseum. Act 2 approaches - but deftly avoids - relegation into an obscenely large rolladex of pissass garbage. As it makes this crafty maneuver away from irrelevance, the really interesting events and plot concepts start to throw themselves at you.

Detective Whatever has linked the kids' disappearances to an exceptionally wacky cult, so he pays them a hard-boiled visit and listens to a sermon delivered by Barry and Office Space alumnus Stephen Root's character, who comes across as far less wacky and more trustworthy than your average cult goon. Detective Whatever and the kooky minister sit down for a chat after the service, wherein our hero utterly fails to make any sense of what Root's character is trying to explain. Nice try though, Detective Philistine!

mumble grumble mumble my stapler

Root's dialogue in this scene gives us just a glimpse of what these supernatural yokels are up to. He tries, very very patiently, to introduce our hero to the concept of the noosphere, the imaginary realm from which originates - and through which flows - all conscious thought, human and otherwise. The homely minister goes on to paint a picture of a fascinating occult ideology which draws not only on various sects of Buddhist thought, but also on a real-world cult from the early 20th century called Theosophy.

The cult is fixated on notions of the noosphere, of thought manifestation, tulpas and the like. We don't know what exactly their goal is yet, but a circle of people chanting gibberish (not a foreign language, I mean actual vocal jibberish) in a giant unlit abandoned warehouse probably needs to be stopped by our dashing protagonist before something truly spooky happens.

heehee hoohoo we're gonna summon a demon or some shit idunno

Stop them he does not, however, and hooboy does it get fucking weird from here. Detective Whatever has moved a few links up along the chain of clues, and worn himself down to the bone in the process. The guy is falling apart at the seams trying to find the end goal behind all these high-minded ideas and violent cult bozos, while at the same time struggling to manage what appears to be PTSD due to a tragic loss.

Somewhere along the way, all that he's seen and been told about a higher plane of pure consciousness, about a world beyond the realm of our perception, about entities ancient and malicious, has more or less shredded his relationship with reality. As the plot threads begin to wrap themselves together, Detective WhoEvenAmI unravels at a rapidly increasing pace. Then, coinciding with his complete psychotic break, the detective happens upon the missing girl essentially by chance. She looks extraordinarily cult-y. The girl reinforces this initial judgement by saying some seriously bizarre shit. Detective Cuckoo's Nest is not, in fact, a real person, and nor was his tragically lost family. He is a manifestation of the cultists' combined thought and concentration, a sort of tulpa. "We made you!" she gleefully informs the harrowed and broken man, "We invented every aspect of your existence and conjured you into being".

Why? Fuck if I know, dude. That you're reading this on a Tumblr post instead of Roger Ebert's website or something similar is a decent enough indicator that The Empty Man falls a few hairs short of its ambition, losing some box office schmeat in the process. It's a shame, too, 'cause excepting the last 10 minutes the whole ride is unique in tone and deeply fascinating in content. Prior's debut movie is well-shot, well-edited (if a bit short), and the story is carefully crafted to have you scratching your head and ass the entire time. I love me a movie like that. And though the ending is neither explanatory nor wholly satisfactory, David Prior's blended vagueries of Buddhist philosophy and mass psychology are a very new and fresh take on a horror macguffin that can be spooky and/or scary. If you like spooky mysteries, and especially if you like cult horror, both I and the Great Immortal Jay In The Sky beseech you. Give budding director David Prior two hours of your time, you probably won't regret it. Besides, what were you gonna do with those two hours anyway? Scroll through Instagram? Fuckin' jackass.

[theelliottsmiths]

So anyway, Mein Herz Brennt Making of liveblog, one of my favourites

First of all, I do take any use of piano MHB as a slight towards my tiny hands. -1 point

I really would love to visit this place, it's beautiful

I love that Oli introduces it and then Till is straight in there talking about murder and stabbings. Trust that to be what intrigues him. I feel like 'smells like murder' isn't a direct translation but that's purely because I spent like ten minutes trying to work out what words he says. It rhymes, which is suspicious.

Oh this was before he let his chest piercing reject all the way out in the grossest way

When schneider says Krankenhaus it sounds very Geordie and I'm convinced that kind of thing is why Auf Wiedersehen, Pet was created

Richards eyes light up when he's talking about the room he's in and it's one of those looks where it's just. I would love to listen to anything anyone has to say when their eyes have that sparkle.

"the scavengers had already been here" cue Paul talking about his criminal past thieving from there. See, another example everyone forgets of him being the biggest bastard of them all. The smile is a front.

One of my favourite ever Rammstein things is the combined joy and mockery from Paul when Richard is revealed to be wearing the bird mask and it wiggles as he nods. He looks like a little black cockatoo. Richard looks embarrassed to be wearing it but Paul is having the time of his LIFE.

The way is echoes in his mask makes him sound like he's clucking

Flakes glasses perching in his cone make him look like that sesame Street doctor or scientist

They all suit this make up so much and I wish they'd consider it as a stage look

Peck. Not intimidated.

Considering the nightmares Till has/had, ouch

Richard looks so much like a little vampire prince but like, a character from what we do in the shadows. He makes his own smokescreen entry/exist and everything.

Melanie!!!

Richard has many tendons in his neck huh.

The sounddd. I used to always be curious as to whether or not people in music videos were making the sounds it looks like they're making and now I know and I'm uncomfortable. This and also later when till does the heart

His laugh is never what I expect it to be

That uh. That doesn't look like he's in pain the way the injection sounds implied. At all. Not that I'm complaining but it gives mixed messages.

I'm so sure Richard is the only one I've ever heard use the word quasi. It makes sense for him if true but maybe I only notice because of the tone he uses? His is quite a punchy nasal tone it might just be more noticeable.

Till with kids is always the most adorable wonderful thing. He's really helping to keep them relaxed despite the creepiness of the stuff they're shooting.

"if you look at the cover then you'll recognise a morbidity to the whole thing" till, my darling, do you think people don't already ~see the morbidity~?

I googled and the lady doesn't pronounce renaissance with a g like Till does and that interests me. In fairness I have to assume it's like in Norwegian how words like restaurant are pronounced with a g sound because it's closer to the French sounds? It's not like we in English donut the French way either but the Google translate lady does. This is why I always suspect that when I'm learning a language I'm learning the language wrong and at some point I'll find out there's a Real, For Adults version if the language that's totally different. This is irrelevant. Accents are fun and I like being able to notice them.

It feels so strange seeing this knowing what Eugenio did

Paul taking pictures because he knows better than them

Something about a child saying "ah yes, I know Till and Flake very well" is hysterical.

You can feel the dismay and disapproval radiating off till as he tries to be diplomatic about the Spanish understanding of linear time. He struggles to find a positive and only comes up with the fire walls. "It should have gone out before we filmed anything because they were fucking around with the playback so long but it didn't" is his only compliment.

The German word for French is wild.

Do they know they could have hired an interpreter? Interpreters existed in 2012 I know this

This whole thing with Melanie is beautiful you can't deny that the arm Eugenio made with then was lovely.

Till in the dress with Melanie in his lap. I don't off the top of my head remember seeing it in either video so I simply must assume that it was just what he was wearing that day when he showed up. She's so tiny on his knee I'm glad they're still friends.

"you're left in a state of trauma when everyone stares at you all the time" did this need to get so heavy? It's interesting that he focused more on her voice than her appearance there, though in fairness it's pretty high

They all love her so much and it's totally understandable.

Mit rock n roll und cola trinken

I have to skip the screaming the secondhand embarrassment is too much.

Part 2

Again, this liveblog is so long

Sometimes Oli speaks like his body isn't used to talking.

I want, so badly, to know if Richard was having memories of his dreadlocked youth The tiny cup in his elegant hand is so pleading and then you look left and. It sure is something.

Are they freckles or acne scars across Tills shoulders?...cute. The first set of arm/chest wounds, not so much. I do spy his lil tummy scar

Richard does look like he almost swooped in for a kiss and then changed his mind because of the camera. Paul turns his head that way and then Richard tries to save with a step back and face rub (his own). Just saying.

The fact that a few of them have taken pictures on their personal phones warms my soul it's such a nice reminder that they're good friends outside of work and My Heart

Schneider and Paul ready at a moment's notice to be Dumbasses. J'adore.

What if Zoran was more of a background character tho actually

God, schneider is beautiful. An ethereal, pure beauty that exists no matter how he's being styled.

See okay how is flake almost taller than Oli right now he's not even doing his standard open legs and swan spine thing

It must be so hard to find Oli sized clothes. Flake is also tall and slim but he's a lot more leg, whereas Olis height seems largely to be torso. I have to assume a lot of his stuff is tailored or custom made now.

I always forget about the marks on tills back when he's in the nightmare dress

The child staring with great confusion at a bright red flake reading. I would love to know what his favourite books are.

The childs plural poking and prodding at a very patient Oli, who gracefully bends his spine in ways I've never seen a human do before. I wonder if he's ever dressed up as Lurch from the Addams family.

The actress playing the woman in this half is so beautiful and has a power her younger counterpart lacked when she was threatening him with her weapon.

I am a dummy and was like weird why is Paul speaking Norwegian. I know full well he wasn't saying unnskyld because I've heard Germans say their equivalent before and I assume Entschuldigen either sounds like that fast or shortens so what the fuck, rhi

Till guiding people through him murdering them is truly one of life's greatest pleasures. They trust him so completely. I would like to watch them dance the elegance would be astounding.

Paul lurking watching with what I choose to see as pride as till slaughters an old woman.

Paul being critical (again, as always, rightly so) of the hallway mouthing the lyrics decision.

"for this in prepared to make compromises" he says, hating every bitter word of it

I would like to know what he wanted to say about till and then see him get into trouble over it.

I would like to see till in a bouncy castle. He's adorable jumping into the comfy pit I want to see him in a bouncy castle. Child, utter child.

Paul takes every opportunity to say how hot he thinks they all are and I love that about him. Sometimes your friends are all hot and everybody needs to understand that fact.

Their approaches to pretending to play cello are all so uniquely them. Flake and Richard are taking the time to try and understand what they're being told, whereas Paul just fucking. Lays into it, attracting the weirdest looks from Oli. Richard looks beautiful with that cello and I think he should learn to play. For fun not for work. It's not just that he looks so handsome, but I think that's the easiest way to convince him. I think he'd be good at it, and not being the lead at something might be good for him.

I appreciate that Oli is skeptical because yeah they do all look like they've never held a cello before.

They do, however, all look lovely in their dresses. I'm trying but actually I can't not say that Schneiders little sternum dip makes it seem like he has breasts in that dress and it's a good look for him.

Till singing it in such a high voice, more like his speaking voice, is both interesting and lovely. Oli is trying... So little compared to the others. Laughably incorrect

Why yes, I am laughing at the sheer length of the spikes. They're just... They're so fucking long. So long.

Paul is actually probably the best one there, ironically. They're all comically out of time. They're professional musicians. I know they aren't used to bowed instruments I do understand and I don't want to be uncharitable but also they are struggling. I want to see cellists react to this.

Pretty dresses! And the nightmare but with the most awful and worst fingers! Like the Grinch but goth.

Both Schneider and Richard had the same neverending shoot idea and I am Intrigued.

Till waiting for Schneider with the umbrella :)

Wir brennen! Paul is always so happy to play with fire.