#also like so many characters over the age of 30. no more fit moms and dads GIVE them that divorce body fat NOW!

[catmask]

with that said there are characters that a fat maybe not canonically but they are spiritually. to me. they may not be drawn that way but i know whats true. ive seen it like a sort of prophet

[laikynparrish]

CHARACTER INTRO:

NAME: Laikyn Rae Parrish

AGE: 37

GENDER/PRONOUNS: Female. She/her.

SEXUALITY/STATUS: Bisexual. | Engaged.

OCCUPATION: Author

BIRTHDAY: October 3rd, 1986.

HOMETOWN: Covington, Georgia

NEIGHBORHOOD: Orchid Park

FACECLAIM: Sophia Bush

BACKGROUND:

TW: SUBSTANCE ABUSE MENTION, CAR ACCIDENT, ADOPTION.

Born to Sophie Walters-Parrish & Owen Parrish in 1986.

She goes by Lake to most. Her books are published under Laikyn Parrish, and will continue to.

Her parents had her sister a few years after they had Lake, and the moment she was born, Lake was a doting sister. Their bond has only grown since, making their thick as thrives.

Growing up Lake remembers more bad stuff about her mom, then good. As she never stepped up to being a mother, while her dad became a dad the moment the stick turned pink.

Owen Parrish has always been there for his daughters, through thick and thin. Sophie hasn't been in the picture much since Owen grained full custody of his children two year after their divorce. As originally, the courts ruled in favor of the mother, but would come to see that she wasn't fit for the girls.

Owen moved out of the house he shared with Sophie and the girls, and moved closer to his brother, Jake, and his family, after the custody battle. Lake was nine at the time.

Cousin to Ryan and Drew Parrish.

Lake was an extremely active girl in sports during her childhood. Everything from volley ball, to soccer, to cheerleading, and even basketball. She enjoyed being in sport.

During her senior year, she was in a car accident that nearly took her ability to walk. Her future in sports were done, and the doctors weren't hopeful, but they didn't know Lake. She wasn't going to take no for an answer. She'd work and work to get better, and she did just that.

She would attend college for literature arts, something no one thought would be what she'd go to college for, but she loved it nonetheless.

At 24 she published her first book, and for the next ten years would continue to publish book after book, series after series. She enjoys writing crime, mystery, and romance. Which made it no surprise when she ended up in the genre of dark romance.

Her career as a writer is very successful, and she has a large following behind it.

She coaches cheerleading at the local middle school and high school. She will also time to time coach soccer and volleyball.

When she was 29, she'd come to meet one of her cheerleaders, 10 at the time, who would change another course in her life. A girl from a very troubled home life, would come to find her graces in the care of Lake. At 30, Lake would sign papers that would give her guardian of the girl. Her name Emilia "Emmy".

She is currently happily engaged to Greta Morrison, they live in Orchid Park, with Emmy, and their two cats, Shadow and Tiger.

Lake is a romantic, and extremely family orientated. She has a very close relationship to her dad and sister, as well her extended family.

She has published many books, but currently her two most popular are series. The Kingdom Series which sits at 5 books. And The Lords of Chaos which it's 3rd book is to be released in March.

She has been reached out to about making her Kingdom Series into a movie series, in which, she has accepted, and the process for that had started early last year.

WANTED CONNECTIONS:

FRIENDS/FRIENDLY RELATIONSHIP: (M/F/NB) She is a Covington native, so honestly this could be childhood friends, school friends, new made friends, the list really doesn't end here.

RIDE OR DIE/BEST FRIEND: (F/NB): Literal bonus points if this is a friendship thats been alive since they were children. But over all, a best friend that has been their through it all, and who act gay for each other (although it is very platonic).

LIKE THE BROTHER I NEVER KNEW I WANTED: (M/NB) A male muse that shares a very brotherly like relationship with her. She grew up with the Parrish boys, so she isn't unfamiliar to having brotherly figures, but this one would be a friend she made sometime in her life.

EXES/FORMER FLINGS/ETC: (M/F/NB) Lake identifies as bisexual. So anything before that is open game. It could've ended on good terms, bad terms, or just ended. She actually loves love, so she has had her fair share of relationships, including long term ones. But at this moment, she is very happily taken.

READERS: Anyone who likes her books, who follows her writing.

NEIGHBORS: She and her wife live in Orchid Park, so anyone that also lives there.

PARENTS/SIBLINGS/ETC OF HER GIRLS: If your character happens to have a sister OR daughter that is around middle school, or high school age, then they could know each other through her coaching. This could also be past students as she's been coaching for almost ten years.

TRULY ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING, FOR REAL. I JUST WANNA LOVE ON Y’ALL AND BE LOVED. OK THANK YOU

ABOUT PAGE | PINTEREST | PLAYLIST | DISCORD is matileex

[assim-eu-sou]

My Thoughts on Tudo Igual SQN

Tudo Igual SQN is a Brazilian Disney+ show that released about a month ago. It includes 10 episodes, all around 30 minutes long. While I watched in Portuguese with Portuguese subs, there are many dubs and subs available for watchers.

My quick review? I enjoyed the show, and you can too as long as you are sure to skip 34:28-36:02 in the final episode. The entire show can easily operate without those 2 minutes and it's much better for it. Beyond this point, there will be spoilers.

In general, I enjoyed the characters, but the supporting cast was far more compelling to me than the main cast. I will summarize my thoughts on the characters below.

Carol: While I often found myself irritated with the character, Carol's struggles and attitude seems realistic for a girl her age. She's upset that she will not be the only object of her mother's affection, she annoyed with a future-stepbrother who is making her life harder, and she feels betrayed when her best friend starts going our with said future stepbrother. She hears her mom discuss her life before having her and feels guilty. All of these things can lead to someone acting out. In the end, she works through these issues. What IS concerning is that in the final episode (and maybe the one before), we start to see some... strange... feelings towards Tomás manifesting themselves in her body language. Then, she lets Tomás kiss her. Her expression and body language after seems somewhat distressed, so maybe it was a fight/flight/freeze response if we're going to give her the benefit of the doubt, but come on... did that really have to happen at all? The show could EASILY stand on its own without that plot point.

Tomás: Yes, his father left him with his grandmother to raise him. Yes, he got picked up and moved to a new city without much input. No, for me, that's not enough to justify his behavior for most of the show. And it's definitely not enough to justify him kissing Carol immediately after their parents tied the knot. I recognize that the two aren't related, and perhaps if they had met before their parents did it would be different, but to me, the knowledge that kissing your step-sibling is weird should be enough to override whatever attraction/hormones would motivate that decision. Like dude, you (sort of) had Beta. Why was this necessary? I appreciate how he becomes less annoying during the show, but I can't let this go.

Beth and Carlos: Beth is a good mother. She's given up a lot for Carol and she deserves happiness. Idk about Carlos. I'm more or less ambivalent about him. I wasn't paying as much attention in a couple of his scenes, so I missed a few things.

Trix: Oh, Trix. Trix is my girl. Trix is so relatable to me. Trix was bullied for being the smart kid and now she's trying her best to fit in while still pursuing academic validation. She's crushed when she isn't accepted into the film program. As a Smart Kid with Social Issues, my accomplishments would fill the void my lack of close friendships left, so not achieving what I set out to achieve hurt with the same intensity of a breakup. I imagine Trix processes things similarly. Trix is also a peacekeeper: she cherishes the friends she has and is very afraid of the group falling apart, another feeling I have related to. I debated for a while whether to hc her as a lesbian or as bisexual, as there could be a compelling argument for both, but I'm kinda feeling lesbian here. For the aforementioned reasons, the unconditional support of Bruno made her feel good, to the point of her perhaps feeling like she was attracted to him. She probably does love him, as a friend, and always will. Figuring out your sexuality when you are a woman who isn't attracted to men is hard because that is what is expected from you, and in the process, you may end up unintentionally hurting people. I have hurt boys I really cared about for that same reason in the past, and I have regret and grief over it. I don't think that makes me a bad person. I don't think that makes Trix a bad person either. Bruno was a little jealous, clingy, but he was a good guy. I think it's important that he was, because it represents a very real situation some girls find themselves in. I hope Trix and Bruno can have an honest conversation, and that Bruno has some time to himself to heal from that, and that they can become good friends again. And I hope Trix has a chance to find a really nice girl. She feels like she must be perfect, so accepting that she likes girls is a battle she has to keep fighting, but she'll get there with help from her friends.

Beta: Beta is realistic for sure. Was (sort of) going out with Tomás in good taste? No. But she doesn't get enough attention from her parents, so naturally she would have a desire to pursue the first boy who gives her the time of day. In the end, she is a good friend to Carol, a better friend to Carol than Carol is to her, so I can't fault her. I don't have much more to say about her. I wish her the best.

Amanda: I love her! She's boy-crazy but again, it's realistic. I've met plenty of girls like her. But it's not the only thing about her. She's incredibly perceptive. She's the only one to notice what's going on with Pri and Trix. She notices other things about the character and gently steers conversations. She's underrated as someone who holds them together. She's definitely one of my favorites.

Pri: Gotta love her. She has already self-actualized in most ways. She knows what she believes in, she's confident, and she's a supportive friend, even as a newer member of the group. Whether or not her and Trix end up together in the long run is not really something I'm concerned about. She played in important role in Trix's journey, and as long as they maintain some sort of relationship, I would be happy.

Bruno: Most of what I have to say about Bruno has already been touched on in Trix's section. He's a good guy. He has his faults, but he really does try. I don't think him and Trix would work out even if she wasn't attracted to girls, because high school relationships that burn that brightly rarely last, but I hope he finds someone good.

Bernardo: A nice guy as well. We respect a reader. Again, he has his faults, but nothing extreme. He's a little jealous, moves a little too fast, but is adequately romantic and a FAR better choice than Tomás for anyone. Hopefully, Carol gets her head on straight. At the same time though, they also have a little bit of HS relationship vibe. I might like a slow burn of Carol and Beta more, but that's just my bias. He's a perfectly good option, and Carol and Beta being very close friends with no romantic undertones is perfectly fine as well.

So, those are my thoughts on the characters. The setting was very aesthetically pleasing, especially the bakery. The conflicts each girl faced felt realistic. If it weren't for the Carol/Tomás kiss, I would wholeheartedly recommend the show to everyone. Why did they do that??? I think the show can be enjoyed if we collectively choose to ignore that. Yes, there are moments throughout that hint at what will happen, but we can ignore those as well. It just has so much potential that I don't want to write it off for that. But at the same time, I’m not sure if it can be ignored. I’m just mad because the cast and characters deserved better than that.

One day, I may rewatch with English subs. I understood the show, but there were definitely turns of phrases I missed just because I don't know some words. Multi-lingual people understand. Still, it was important for me to stretch my Portuguese muscles, which is why I watched it how I did. If you got this far, wow. Thanks for reading. Leave your thoughts in the notes.

[gigolo12]

Get up to date yourself with the latest fashion style

"I would portray my style as Harlem. I will provide you with a mob of a variety of examples. I will give you va-voomness," Flock Smith says. " When I go into a room, you'll know. It won't hush up, nor be coy." She maintained her Harlem sensibility wherever she went as a fashion advertising executive; as far as she might be concerned, a uniform means a reliable articulation of character, paying little mind to setting. " I never attempted to fit in, and they would simply need to adjust to what I was bringing," she recalls.

 " The Italians generally got it. They love overabundance, isn't that so? The Parisians, not really." Presently a creator, a television moderator, and a radio personality, Smith possibly digresses somewhat from her unique look when she's on television. For morning shows, no examples — strong, essential tones are vital. " What's more, on the off chance that there's not a work playboy area before you, you have to recall your legs will be appearing," she notes. " In the event that you part the oceans, you give somebody a Sharon Stone Essential Sense second.

" Smith says her striking fashion awareness is roused by the ladies locally, her mom specifically, who is 93 years of age regardless of a style plate. " When we got the news that she would be returning home, she said, "Someone has to go to my house and get my dress," as Smith playboy porn recalls. "She was just in the hospital." We were like, 'Mother, we have what you wore to the clinic.' Furthermore, she said, 'I won't give individuals access to the local see me returning a similar outfit.' That is demonstrative of who I come from."

A blue and white striped marinière, or Breton shirt, which makes up the top portion of Jane Wenner's regular outfit, is a characteristic decision for a uniform, considering that the style has been important for the authority pack of the French Naval force since the nineteenth 100 years. ( The standard Saint James version is said to have as many stripes as the sum of playboy meaning Napoleon's victories over the British.) In Jane, the book her child Theo Wenner (who additionally shot this story) distributed in 2020, Jane Wenner is seen throughout one year, wearing her stripes and pants while drinking tequila on her rooftop, glancing through optics over the Amagansett ridges, and managing an immaculately set supper table. 

In one especially capturing picture, 13 indistinguishable shirts are hung on a mission to dry over the railing of her Ward Bennett-planned home, a formally dressed maid strolling behind them. Wenner declines the request to explain the motivation or philosophy behind her consistency. She claims, "I've been wearing the same thing for 30 years." The whole point is not having to discuss it or even think about it.

The essayist and entertainer Fran Lebowitz doesn't view herself as a uniform individual. " They're simply my garments," she says when I suggest the point. " Due to the Web, there's photos of me from when I was 20. Also, individuals share with me, 'Goodness, you're wearing exactly the same thing.' However, if I may say so, that is quite a playboy magazine untrained eye on it. For one's purposes, as she's progressed in years, she's moved forward in quality. For the past 20 years, she's had her coats and suits made by the Savile Column tailor Anderson and Sheppard. " I maintained that they should make me garments prior, however they rejected, in light of the fact that they never made garments for ladies," 

Lebowitz says. ( After numerous male clients intervened for her sake, they in the end yielded.) Several jackets that the late Geoffrey Beene had originally designed for himself are also included in her suiting mix; he gave them to her when they didn't fit him any longer. She gets her shirts from playboy company Hilditch and Key, and her pants are generally Levi's 501s, yet not dependably. Her boots, additionally custom, are, "except if individuals have duplicated them, which they could have, the main wing-tip cowpoke boots I've at any point seen." 

Accessories: tortoiseshell outlines requested by means of list from a men's store called Ben Silver, in Charleston, South Carolina; a 1929 oyster Rolex that she bought in Italy in the 1980s because she couldn't afford it and the lira-to-dollar exchange playboy swing rate she used was wrong; and cufflinks, which were frequently presented by friends. Her top choices incorporate an insect moulded pair, which the craftsman and architect Enrico Marone Cinzano gave to her after she looked at his wrists during supper, and one more set designed from dice. " Lebowitz quips, "I always think they’re going to bring me luck, but they haven't so far."

As the justification behind the interest, the occasion soared Richie Grainge to style symbol status, delivering her inseparable from the expression "calm extravagance" and driving her to send off her very own dress line. It's fitting, then, that Richie Grainge's most memorable enormous move following the pre-marriage ceremony is an organisation with playboy logo David Yurman as the substance of their new Etched Link assortment. In pictures taken at The Kellogg Doolittle House in Joshua Tree, Richie Grainge flaunts the straightforward and smooth plans — ones that fit pleasantly into her newly discovered style. Underneath, the 25-year-old examines the mission, her contemplations on the "peaceful extravagance" pattern, and what's in store from her impending plan debut.

[lokislynx]

Comfort characters.

Who are yours and why did they come to you?

A study/self-study I have become extremely interested of.

1. Benton Fraser: a mountie from Due South. The strongest backbone you'll ever see or try to bend.

Why? I was maybe 8. Picked at school, always the outsider. Born in a big city but always felt more home at the woods. I had a high moral compass (still have and a good one) and well, suffered for it 'cause it also made me speak my mind. I needed... someone who suffered and stayed strong. He reminds me in some distant ways of my father (and mom). Also... damn, he is handsome.

2. The Phantom of the Opera. Still with me everyday.

I was 9. Dearly loved by my parents and my dog (I also love them) but always the outcast. I wanted to die, no matter all the love. Erik came and showed me... well, something wild... the beauty of the world, the beauty in suffering... never to give up on love, never to give up really (which in a way is strange 'cause he gave up). I loved (I hesitate using the past aspect of the word for I still do but differently) him with a burning, obsessive passion that was consuming and creative. He broke me, dust to dust and ashes to ashes, wet me with his tears and mine and then remolded me like I was just clay. He opened to me the doors to art and music and pushed me through, pulling, drowning me ever deeper and deeper into their and his depths until... Sounds familiar. He was to me like Christine to him and... yet... I loved him like a child afraid to grow up like Christine... but like her, also finding my adulthood and flaming of it. Both afraid of something that wasn't Death. I still love him. I just grew up and in a way stepped aside seaching comfort from his happiness which he finds over and over again with Nadir the Persian in my stories (the only one who logically ever truly understood and loved him... and whom he loved). I escape to them over and over again and in a way I've become more Erik than any other comfort character of mine. Scary... no, I know what love is so, I am... not him.

3. The Wolverine.

I was a bit over 18. Life was truly Hell. It was Ragnarök of my little universe. I had lost everything it felt at the time, my whole little world was shaking and all I had was rage and grief and desperately clinging to those I loved and who loved me and wishing they wouldn't succumb to Ragnarök's fire... or that I wouldn't because doing that meant I'd burn the others with me. So Ragnarök of my reality, only the outcome was unknown: I didn't know who'd survive... many were lost over the years. I have never been that close for that long to the times when a human turns into an animal. I wanted to devour, to hide, to howl, to tear and to just run. I had nightmares almost nightly and having always been quite in control of my dreams I grew those claws in my dreams. My hands ached by morning...

4. Lestat: I needed to laugh in the face of fear. A brief fling but still.

The only coffin I sometimes sleep nowadays is one that fits three; Erik in the middle, Nadir and I beside him cuddling him holding hands with each other upon his chest his hand over ours. But Lestat (the book version of him 1&2 of VC) was fun. He eased the fear of real ghosts when I was about 27 (?).

5. Loki: the God I was desperately seaching.

Age 30. I had been through a lot. Ilost my faith into christian god... or his followers looong time ago and for a very long time searched for a new one. Like most people I needed comfort. Wolverine's belief in his senses, logic and reason... nature... wasn't enough. Anxiety was too real and too much to bear alone... even if we aren't truly alone. You get what I mean. I needed to... kneel. See! In time we will always kneel! Needless to say that Loki was an interesting character. Yes, I was pulled in by Tom Hiddleston's cheekbones oh so narrow, but that was just the lure, the hook was... more complicated. Loki was listening. I learned more about the norse gods and Loki. I seached the net, tumblr... found all his wonderful followers who taught me so many things that I never dreamed of knowing like that "my best of what my best is on that day is enough, my only limits are MY limits and I should learn to listen to those limits". And they had such thirst for knowledge, they weren't afraid of a glorious debate, the analyzed things they loved and hated... they were, well, like me. My people. Loki's people. And I was caught, happily. Thank you Loki and all your followers for pulling me from swiming against the tide and casting me into the sea.

But what are our comfort characters in essence? Ourselves, aspects of our feelings...? Persons who touch us by being so much like ourselves? Who save us 'cause for a fleeting moment their stories will make us forget our own and fill us with a need to hug them, tell them they are right, to love them, to tell them they are not alone, to rescue them... like we wish someone would do to us? Like Christine so passionately, if decievingly sings

"Pitiful creature of darkness,

What kind of life have you known?

God give me courage to show you

You are not alone!"

We decieve ourselves, don't we, and the lie is perfect.

[wannabemobwife]

Guns, Glamour and Goodfellas- Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Dressed to the Nines

Dad!Mob!Tom Holland x Mom!Mob!Reader Fanfic

-Pairings: mob! Tom Holland x reader

-Warnings: Language

-Words: 3.9K

Background Info- Tom Holland is boss of his mafia and Y/N Holland, his wife, is former mafia boss turned stay at home mom but still joined Tom on his business trips and meetings. They started dating at 19 and were married at the young age of 21, realizing they only needed each other. They have two kids together, both ages 16, Parker and Rosie Holland.

*Realistically to have two teenagers, Tom and Y/N are both in their mid/late thirties but they look like they are in their mid twenties/late twenties alright. What can I say, they have really good genes. I can guarantee that Tom will still definitely look as gorgeous as he does know in his 30’s.

Author note: I enjoy writing drama, so it’s hard to have constant fluff, mostly angst (I hope, at least what I consider angst). The more times where a character almost dies but doesn’t the better to me. This is my first fanfic, I wrote this story based on being married with kids because that is the part of my life I’m most looking forward to. Heads up but there is tons of dialogue, I find that the most fun to write.

Also I enjoy PDA and a personal goal of mine is to be married for 20 years and still want to jump my husband’s bones so there are a bunch of little hints like that through the fanfic. Sorry if your name is any of the characters, feel free to change them in your mind. I know it’s stupid of me to say that but whatever.

Chapter 1: Dressed to the Nines

Words: 3.9K

You and Tom were a power couple. The Hollands, the ones with the most power and the most dangerous. A king and queen to their empire. Lately you had been tackling married life together and had been raising two kids. A boy named Parker and a girl named Rosie both the same age. But nothing could prepare you for what every parent dreads, their teenage years. All the hormones, mood swings and relationship drama that comes with it.

When both the twins turned 16 it was big turning point in your family. Rights of passage as Tom would say. You and Tom threw a massive gala to celebrate their 16 years of being alive. Tom as the leader of his own mob, money was no object and you coming from the family you did and being a former mafia boss, you both had truly opulent wealth. It was the night of their kids’ sixteenth birthday and everyone was invited from family, friends, business associates and even enemies. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer they would say. Tom and tried to keep as much as possible from your kids, trying to give them a normal childhood. Failing over and over again at that. Some nights Tom would come home bloody from beating up someone who crossed him. Or there would always been strange, bulky, built men surrounding your mansion for protection. It was hard to explain everything to the kids, but it was something they just had to do for family.

The party was about to begin, 7:00 on the dot, and the house was decorated to fit a very elegant yet youthful look. Caterers dressed in white carrying bountiful trays of appetizers. Tom and you adored the luxury of their life, even though they knew if they didn’t have all the materials they did they would be even happier. Their family is what mattered most to them. You were dressed to the nines, in a lace gold gown, with sparkly stilettos on. Her Y/H/C hair gracefully laying one her back, without a strand out of the place. And her Y/E/C eyes were beaming, if looks could kill they would. Tom couldn’t help but admire you.

“You know, it’s rude to gawk,” you said and Tom chuckled.

“I’m sorry but you’re just too beautiful not to,” he responded and placing his hands on your hips.

Rolling your eyes and smirking you said “tonight’s the night.”

“I know, should we do it now?” he questioned as his half smile turned into a frown.

“No, let him have this one more night. Without any obligation,” you had been dreading this night for years.

“Alright, darling,” he said as he kissed softly, he just couldn’t contain himself he

found his other half. The person that makes him want to be a better man. His soulmate.

Like any family there are skeletons in their closets but, the Hollands were a whole another story. Tonight was the night, one they had been dreading for 16 years, to be exact. You and Tom’s son, Parker would be tasked with the most difficult decision of his life. One that will rewrite his story. Tom wishes he would just turn it down and do what he didn’t have the balls to do when he was his age.

The day Tom’s dad brought him into the office, he knew his life would never be the same. Dom, his father and former boss of the Holland empire, made it very clear that if he turned him down, he could forget about being in this family. Tom just knows he won’t give the same ultimatum. Parker being the oldest and only son of Tom and Y/N Holland is the future of their family empire. Parker was quite popular, a playboy actually and very dashing. Wearing a black suit with a black tie and a white shirt he look just like his dad with his brown hair slicked back. Being one of the guests of honor tonight he had to look the part. Slowly made his way to the bar before his mother could find him. Desperately needing some liquid courage, he quickly poured himself a shot of vodka and downed it even faster. However nothing gets past, you, Y/N Holland.

“Parker Jackson Holland!” you fumed, catching her 16 year old son drinking.

“Hey, what’s with the middle naming me, it’s my birthday,” he responded a little startled.

“You should not be drinking, ever. You got two years, mister,” you explained.

“Alright, mum,” Parker sounded annoyed.

“Where’s your sister by the way, party is supposed to start in 10 mins,” you said as she noticed all the guest starting to arrive. A line of people already waiting at the door but everyone knew the Hollands preferred people to arrive fashionably late.

“I don’t know. Having a fit probably. Last I heard was screaming coming from her closet.”

“I’ll go check on her. Your father and I need you sober later. Understood?” You exclaimed.

“Yes, mum.” Parker was a good boy on paper but, enjoyed breaking the rules.

Right as you turned away, Parker then started to pour another shot.

“Don’t even think about it,” you said still walking forward. Parker chuckled and set the shot down.

You went to go check on her daughter. You knocked on the door when she heard something shatter. Rosie may seem timid but she definitely inherited Tom’s anger issues.

“Honey? Is everything alright?” You questioned, startled by the outburst.

“Yeah, mum. I’m sorry,” Rosie muttered seeming frustrated.

“It’s ok, oh honey!” You exclaimed, noticing the tears on her daughter face

“I know, this is stupid,” Rosie whispered trying to hide her tear stained face.

“No, no it isn’t. What’s wrong?” you said, genuinely concerned for her daughter’s well-being.

“I don’t know everything, this dress, my hair, my makeup,” she exclaimed frantically.

“Baby, you look beautiful.”

“Pretty enough that someone would want to dance with me?” Rosie whispered. You were caught off guard that your daughter could ever have thoughts like that.

“Yes of course, you are always gorgeous.” You hated seeing your baby girl beat herself up based on her looks.

“Thanks mom, I have a question?” You just nodded in response.

How did you get dad to fall in love with you?” Rosie asked inquisitively.

“Um, I guess was just myself. I didn’t put on a facade and I was very honest and transparent with him,” you answered a little taken back from the question.

“You were yourself? I find that hard to believe. From stories I’ve heard you seemed to be bold, brave and beguiling” said Rosie with a hint of sarcasm.

“Am I not those things now?” You asked, cheekily.

“No you are, just in a different way.”

“Honey, whoever you are trying impress, will love for who you are, ok?” You couldn’t stand seeing her daughter like this.

“Alright. Can you help me with my makeup?” Rosie asked because her previous makeup had been ruined by her miniature breakdown

“Yes, of course.”

Back at the party Tom was making his way around saying hello to almost everyone. He desperately needed to find his son. Tom’s and Parker’s relationship was interesting to say the least. As babies and toddlers Tom was there. He loved his kids so much but as they grew older they only noticed the times he wasn’t there. Only the missed recitals and football games, never all times that had dinner as a family and he tucked them in to bed at night. Parker is closer to his mother and his twin sister. Never really having that man to man talk with his dad yet. The time when fathers stop seeing their sons as boys and look at them as men. Tom approached Parker sitting there with his a drink in his hand, he hoped was a watered down Pepsi.

“Hey Parker, did your mom talk to you already?” Tom asked, not trying to raise too many questions.

“No, she might have mentioned something,” Parker responded.

“Ok, well after cake meet me in my office.” Parker nodded in response and noticed how he tensed a little at the conversation.

Their chat quickly ended when Harrison and his 16 year old son Henry came to wish happy birthday. Harrison is Tom’s right hand man, his consigliere and his best friend. He was more than that, Harrison was family. Harrison’s son, Henry was best friends with Parker and Rosie, ever since birth.

“Hey mate,” Tom said to his best friend Harrison.

“Hey, just came to wish this guy “happy birthday”” he said patting Parker’s shoulder.

“Happy birthday, dude” Henry said to Parker and he returned with subtle “thank you’s.” Parker slightly nodded to his dad to see if he could leave the conversation and Tom let him know it was ok.

“Come on, let’s go,” Parker exclaimed making his way to den where his other friends were.

Harrison was the first to speak up, “Have you told him yet?”

“No, Y/N and I are going to do it tonight” Tom uttered with a low toned voice.

“Geez, do you need me there?” Harrison asked, afraid Tom might say yes. Harrison was there when Tom went through the same process with his dad. Tom’s anger issues didn’t help the outcome.

“I think I’m alright, just family. Not that I don’t consider you family but I don’t even know if Rosie should be there.” Tom justified.

“It’s alright mate, I get it.”

They were both enjoying their night, making their rounds, Tom and Harrison went to get drinks, not beer this time but a scotch on the rocks as this was a classy night. Everything was dandy up until one of Tom’s men, William, came up to him informing Tom of a problem.

“Sir we have a problem,” William whispered to Tom, Tom nodded for them to follow them to his office.

“William, what now? Can’t you see I’m enjoying the party?” Tom exclaimed, closing the doors to his office.

“Sir, Daniel, was found dead at his post outside, shot by a tranquilizer gun, with a note taped to his chest, it’s for you.” William announced and handed the paper to the most important and dangerous man of the mob, his boss.

“What the fuck?” A long silence stayed in the air while Tom processed the news. Awkwardness had filled the entire room as they all awaited Tom’s response.

“For fucks sake, you need at least 3 guards posted outside. NOW!” He screamed as his anger continued to rise as read the note.

“Yes, Sir.” William said promptly.

“God forbid anything else happen tonight, but my wife and kids are the first ones to be escorted to safe house. Understood?” Tom explained as he only was only thinking about his family in that moment.

“Yes, Sir.” William said and quickly ran out before he could get the brunt of Tom’s upcoming outburst. Right on cue, Tom threw a glass ashtray at the wall, it shattering into shards.

“Calm down mate, what did the note even say.” Harrison asked with a worrisome look on his face. Tom showed Harrison the joy and his smile faded immediately. Tom for the first time, in a while, felt fear because he knew he had everything to lose.

Not wanting to deal with the life long headache that is his life. He looked for solace in, you, his wife as he spotted her over by the fireplace and made his way over to you.

“Have told you look stunning tonight?” He said instantly falling in love with you over again.

“Several times actually,” you said.

“Well I can’t help what you do to me, gorgeous.” He said placing a kiss to your temple.

“Hey, have you had the talk with him yet?” You said pointing a finger at your son getting very intimate with some girl.

The girl was Charlotte Owens. Parker and her had been together for almost a year, but you and Tom hadn’t met her formally yet. Your son was very tight-lipped the it came to his private life. She was tall, fair and had platinum blonde hair along with piercing blue eyes. Rosie didn’t seem to like her very much, constantly annoyed by her popularity status and reputation, used to be known for being with a new guy every couple weeks and don’t put it past Rosie to not give her the benefit of the doubt.

“No, remember we’re going to do it tonight. Is something wrong?” He said with concern, worried why you would forget something so important.

“No, not that talk, silly, “The talk”,” you responded. His lips formed an “o” shaped as he realized he would have to teach his son about how to be safe during sex.

“Oh, no. I’ve been avoiding it for as long as possible.”

“Why baby, you’re so good at it. You could give him a few a pointers.” You said, winking at him.

“Wow, love, you surprise me everyday. Speaking of beautiful girls, where’s Rosie. I’ve haven’t seen her all night,” Tom quickly trying to change the subject as they were at a party.

“I saw her a few minutes ago,” you said as a puzzled look grew on her face.

“Come on, let’s go find her and maybe you and I can sneak off for awhile.” He said cheekily.

“Tommy,” you whispered but eventually agreed. Slowly making your way out of the main ballroom to the secret garden next to his office.

Walking very slyly, you both made your way to secret spot near Tom’s office. Where ivy had grown throughout the brick and purple and yellow tulips lined the fence along with giant trees. There was a little wishing fountain that Tom had installed when you moved in, this was their secret spot. One where they could forget about all the violence and responsibility that tainted their lives.

Their intimate moment was ruined when Rosie walked by with some random guy named Connor, not the person she’d hope to bring there. All throughout the night Rosie seemed to be jealous of the attention her crush was getting at the party as he didn’t pay attention to her. Thus, she went find a distraction of her own.

“Oh hey, shh, look two people getting it on over there,” he whispered to her as she dragged him outside.

“Please don’t be my brother.” She murmured but felt like she wanted to throw up when she saw who it was.

“Mom, dad?” Rosie screamed.

“Oh shit, we’ve been busted,” Tom muttered against your neck.

“Hey honey,” You said while Rosie was completely mortified. Rosie’s potential hookup stood there mouth wide open.

“That’s your mum, god, she’s a babe.” Connor said.

“Connor, not helping.” Rosie exclaimed sternly as she pinched his side.

Tom spoke up, “Why don’t you guys go back and enjoy the rest of the party.”

Rosie just nodded and left as fast as humanly possible. She never wants to be that embarrassed again.

“Oh my god, we were gonna get it later.” You said.

“I know, we really screwed up this time. But have you had “the talk” with her yet,” Tom asked.

“Nope, we should both really get on that. What would I’ve happened if they hadn’t caught us?” You asked jokingly.

“I don’t want to think about that Y/N! She’s our daughter.” Tom exclaimed.

“Neither do I.”

“Enough of this, where were we?” Tom interjected immediately changing the subject.

“Well you lips were on my neck and you hand was on my waist, but I think the moment has passed and we should get back to the party,” you said rather seductively.

“Fine, I know you’re right. But fuck, I just want to make out with my wife,” Tom muttered frustratingly.

“Well you can later... in bed.” Winking as you chuckled.

“Man, that kid was right, you are a babe.”he said as he slapped your ass as you walked in front of him chuckling.

“Is it time for cake?” Harrison asks as he came up to Tom and you.

“I think it is.” Tom said and you nodded. Walking towards Rosie, who was desperately trying to erase her self from existence because of the embarrassment she’d experienced a minute ago.

“Hi, honey. Can you please go find your brother? We are going to cut the cake.” You said trying not to accidentally bring up the elephant in the room.

“Alright, fine,” Rosie muttered still a little peeved finding you and Tom like that. Rosie searched high and low for Parker.

Needing some assistance she asked Henry. “Hey, have you seen my brother?”

“Last I saw he was taking Charlotte to the green house” Henry responded.

“Alright, come on, let’s go find them” Rosie said rolling her eyes. Her hand slipped into Henry’s as she led the way. Making their way through the vast yet gorgeous yard. Rosie and Henry found Parker and Charlottes lips entangled together and bodies in a compromising position in the green house

“For fucks sake, how many people am I going to find sucking face at this party.” Rosie yelled, startling Charlotte and Parker.

“What the fuck do you want, Rosie? Can’t you see I’m busy.” Parker quipped annoyingly.

“Mom and dad want to cut the cake” Rosie responded.

“Ugh fine. Give us 10 mins” knowing he will be finished in that time.

“No, you can fuck your bimbo of a girlfriend later.” Rosie said, receiving a grimace from Charlotte.

“Don’t you fucking talk about her like that! Fuck off!” Parker yelled as Henry and Rosie left. Both of the kids had inherited Tom’s angry side.

“Well, you can explain to mom and dad you were late because you were balls deep in in your whore,” Rosie said walking away.

The moments leading up to the end of Parker’s innocence were fleeting. In more ways than one. He wasn’t a virgin even before that evening but, Parker could imagine the task he was supposed to accomplish. The 3 tier chocolate raspberry ganache cake had been cut and distributed to the guests. Happy birthday had been sung to Rosie and Parker. Parker tried to go off with Charlotte again, but Harrison stopped him and brought him to the Tom’s office.

“They’re in there,” Harrison whispered.

“Who?” Parker asked Harrison who was like his uncle.

“Just go,” Parker opened the door to see his mother and his dad sat behind the desk. The door shut behind him.

“Mom? Dad? What’s going on here?” Parker hesitated.

“Son, sit down,” Tom said, knowing this wasn’t going to be easy.

“We have to talk to you.” You interjected.

“Parker, as part of this family, there are certain responsibilities you have to take. It is a tradition in our family that at the age of 16, the sons are brought to light about the dealings of our family and what is expected of you,” Tom said as Parker grew wary. Not really understanding what his parents were trying to convey.

Throughout his entire life, he had his suspicions about his family. Wondering why men followed them everywhere, even on trips to the store for eggs. Why his parents went to work but have never seen their office, only heard it referred to as “the warehouse.” Why everything was always so damm secretive. Scared if he accidentally let some enormous family secret slip with his big mouth there would be repercussions. Never not scared of the harm that could come to his family.

“Your father, is the leader of a very powerful mob. I am part of it too, not just as wife but as his partner. There will be day when he will longer be in position of boss and you will take over,” you asserted playing off of Tom’s words.

“Our family is not only the owners of one of the world’s richest exporting company, we also do business with casinos and own multiple hotel chains. Sometimes our work brings us above the law, but the connections we have are what keep us alive.” Tom explained trying to preserve his son’s innocence.

“Why are you telling me all this?” Parker stuttered.

“Because it is time. Time for you to step up and take your place in this family. You’ve had 16 years of juvenile fun and now this is what has to be done.” Tom concluded.

“What if I don’t want this life. You don’t think I don’t know what happens behind closed doors here. All the times dad has come home with a black eye or blood on his knuckles. Why fuck isn’t Rosie here? She is the same age as me, WE ARE TWINS! Why am I the only one who has to do this. I don’t want to kill for sport like you and mom!” Parker screamed. He couldn’t handle this anymore. There was too much information he had to process.

“Do not raise your voice at your mother! Tom screamed.

“Dad, I had dreams and hopes. I wanted to go to college and travel. Find a nice girl and marry her. Experience the kind of love you and mom have. What you are asking me to do, flushes all that away. You are asking me to give up on my life.

So that’s it, I don’t have a choice,” Parker begged.

“Baby, you have a choice. Nothing is set in stone,” you said rubbing his arm.

“Y/N, you damm well know what will happen if he turns this down,” Tom yelled.

“Maybe this life works for you two, but I don’t want this kind of life. My answer is no. Find someone else.”

“Parker, you know I can’t do that. Take a couple days and think about it” Tom answered trying to stay calm.

“NO DAD! My answer is final, I’m not going to be your apprentice to carry on this heinous family legacy!” Parker exploded. It was too much.

“If you aren’t willing to do what is asked of you, then you can forget about being in this family!” Tom screamed. He did exactly what he said he wouldn’t, he gave his son an ultimatum. Parker couldn’t handle it anymore and left. Needing to forget about the fact he no longer had a say. He was stuck.

It was just Tom and you sitting in the study. They couldn’t understand where the conversation had gone. All their hopes for tonight went out the window along with potted plant Tom threw when Parker stormed out.

“Tom, you can’t force him. You can’t do what your father did to you to him.” You tried to say in a loving tone but it came out as stern.

“IM NOT, Y/N!!!” Tom screamed. He had fucked up. The words spoken tonight have rewritten his relationship with his son.

“Alright.” You whispered trying to calm your fuming husband down.

“I’m sorry I raised my voice, baby.” Tom’s tone immediately changed once he heard the softness of your voice. You just nodded in response

“Tommy?” You asked hoping Tom was now ok.

“Yes, love” Tom said.

“He’ll come around. I can promise you that.”

“I know, darling. That’s not what I’m worried about.”

“Then what?” a look of confusion grew on your face.

He handed you a paper, the same one that was found on Daniel’s body, saying “Eclipsing of the Hollands. Let the show begin. Better watch your back.”

It was threat. A play to eventually be made on his life or the life of his family and you all had no idea who was behind it.

Guns, Glamour, and Goodfellas Series Masterlist

[yasbxxgie]

The Artist’s Way: Writer-director Radha Blank ruminates on creative frustration and rejuvenation in her debut feature, The Forty-Year-Old Version

Fair warning: This interview with Radha Blank isn’t business — it’s personal. Right now, like at this very moment, Radha is being introduced to the world as the writer, director, and star of the remarkable new Netflix film The Forty-Year-Old Version. But I remember Radha in the 1990s, smashing open mics at Brooklyn Moon in N.Y.C., rocking a fitted N.Y. Yankees cap and big hoop earrings. I remember her jumping into cyphers and catching wreck (read: she can dance her ass off) at Club Kilimanjaro. I remember sitting in the audience of her play Seed in 2011 and thinking, Damn, homegirl can write. I remember witnessing the rise of her emcee alter ego and one-woman show RadhaMUSprime at Joe’s Pub in 2014 and thinking, Damn, Radha can rhyme. AND she funny AF. Because Radha was (and is) a part of a close-knit artists’ community, I also recall her hustle, the keeping-the-lights-on-while-trying-to-make-your-dreams-come-true shuffle we know so well. Radha worked as a teacher, she wrote for children’s television and for shows such as Empire and She’s Gotta Have It.

So when The Forty-Year-Old Version won the U.S. Dramatic Directing Award at Sundance earlier this year, the community rejoiced! This wasn’t just a win for Radha, it was a win for the people. Here was a film rooted in Radha’s own story, about a woman at 40; a Black artist trying to get her stories told — as a playwright and as a rapper; a daughter grieving the death of her mother. Radha told her story her way, down to shooting the streets of New York on 35mm film in black and white. The result is a whole, liberating mood. There’s even a nod to Prince’s Purple Rain.

Karen Good Marable: First of all, Radha, congratulations! The Forty-Year-Old Version is amazing. Your success feels so much like a win for Brooklyn. A win for us all. Thank you for writing it. Radha Blank: I really did make it for us — us being Black women, Black women of a certain age, Black women artists of a certain age. I didn’t think I’d be starting a whole new career in my 40s, but I think it speaks to what’s possible if you let go of other people’s ideas of where you should be in your life. If I listened to other people and gave credence to their ideas, I would not be here.

Amen. When you were younger, did you have the boxes to check, i.e., “I need to get this done by 30, I need to get this done by 40”? Were you that girl? RB:

I think I was that girl. And I always say this about aging: It’s never really about the person; it’s about other people’s perceptions that you then take on. I thought by 40, I would be married with a couple of kids, all of my work being published, theaters asking, “Can we do a revival of this play now?” I really thought once I decided to be a playwright, which was probably my mid-20s, I thought, Oh, by 40, I’m going to be set up. I will have a house. And I do have a house, but that came from Cookie and Lucious Lyon. They got me a house.

Come through, Empire. RB:

I feel like we’ve all been conditioned to think that 40 is: You’re an adult, you’re accomplished, you’re established. What me and my character share is there’s still all of these “who am I” moments, questions around identity. Especially when my mother died, I really had to figure out who I was, because so much of my life as a woman, as a person, as a Black American, as an artist, was tied to this woman. When she died, I really had no sense of myself. So I feel like my personal experience propelled me toward telling the story. We just don’t see women of that age saying, What do I do next? Am I happy? Is this enough?

Your mother — curator, visual artist, cinephile, and arts teacher Carol Blank — figures prominently in the film. She is a goddess and a guide, but she also represents a complicated lesson in what it means to be an artist. RB: Oh, listen, I feel like everything I’ve learned, I’ve learned from my mother — from my frustration as an artist to being a teaching artist for so long. That’s where I learned how to be a director, honestly. I didn’t go to film school. I did stand-up comedy and all this performance stuff, and my first example was my mother. She knew how to turn a phrase or a joke to get the kids interested, and if they weren’t, she wasn’t going to push it. I learned from her first, and I tried to match her energy.

I don’t know what my mother went through when she turned 40, as an artist. I know she was a mom of two by that time, but I gathered — especially because she was a teaching artist for so many years — that she was hustling, jumping between these different roles, trying to make sense of something for herself. In that way, I feel like the movie and my journey as an artist brought me closer to her. I was like, Oh, this is what you had to go through. And then you had two kids on top of that?

In the film, your character is also a teacher. As much as she tries to model support and positivity, sometimes the frustration seeps through. One line stayed with me: “Don’t think that because you created something, people will appreciate it.” RB:

Yeah, I have been bitter. I was able to transform that into a film; it gave me a story to tell. But I did feel that theater as an institution didn’t pay off, there wasn’t much of a dividend. I had done a play in 2011 called Seed, and everyone was like, “Girl, this is your breakout! This is your moment! This play is going on Broadway!” None of that shit happened. Theater was not responding in the same way. I was quietly devastated by it, and I think the movie is my exploration of the why. How come things didn’t happen for me? Here’s someone who has been trying for 20-something years and my biggest accomplishment was 10 years ago when I was 30. That’s why I invented the 30 Under 30 award for my character: The idea that accomplishments are amplified by one’s proximity to youth. There’s no 50 Under 50 award. Or 60 Under 60. Being young and doing something as an artist seems more of a cause for celebration. You know what I mean?

There’s also this theme of displacement that runs through the film. In addition to your protagonist feeling out of place in the classroom and in the theater community, she’s also setting a play, Harlem Ave, that deals with gentrification. RB:

So, my parents were gentrifiers in their own way in the late 60s and 70s, when they moved to the south side of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They didn’t displace people, because what they and their artist and jazz musician comrades would do is take over dilapidated spaces that were considered unlivable — broken-down lofts and factories and storefronts — and create community. There was an investment in engaging the community that came before you, whereas now I think gentrification really is just about an opportunity for the person moving in — “Oh, look at this dope, cheap brownstone that I can get” — with no regard for what came before.

Right. RB: The same thing happens with these artistic institutions: They find a dilapidated space, they revive it and put a million dollars into it. Then when it comes to programming, the people on the stage don’t look like the people outside of the gate. They’re thinking of their silver-haired patrons, because those people can afford a $100 ticket, and that is who I feel most of the theaters cater to. So when diversity shows up on the stage, it’s a version of diversity that protects the audience from feeling bad about racism or sexism. They can still remain in a comfortable place, so they can come back next week or next month and see something for the $300 membership.

But then you brilliantly juxtapose said institutions with the battle rap in the Bronx. RB: I wanted to show these different hubs of art in New York. This film is about capturing an authentic New York experience, and so we shot that battle rap scene at a warehouse space at the tip-top of the Bronx. Art and culture are happening in these spaces that we’re not always focusing the camera on and that don’t have the multimillion-dollar renovation fund of a downtown theater. But this is theater. This is art.

Is that battle based on an actual show? RB:

Yes. Well, we recreated that. Babs Bunny, who people may recognize from Making the Band, created this brand called Queen of the Ring. If you go on YouTube, you’ll see their battle raps. I would watch them because I just needed to see women slaying shit and not being proper or polite. I just wanted to put it into a cinematic world.

Your pen is equally hard-hitting, Radha. Rhymes like “Poverty Porn” and “This Some Bullshit” do so much in revealing character, advancing the narrative. RB:

Thank you. I mean, I feel like if we’re stopping to listen to a song, it should still be about advancing the narrative. We’re still moving forward, riding on this person’s frustration, but into the next scene, next act, or what have you. I think it comes from being a playwright, making sure that everything is earned and not just thrown in there for novelty or because it’s colorful and interesting. I feel like RadhaMUSprime is probably an explosion of her consciousness, the things that she’d been suppressing.But yeah, I’m an emcee. I rhyme. The beautiful thing about the film is I didn’t have to become a professional rapper. I don’t feel like the movie is 8 Mile. I say the movie is 2 Mile,

because she’s not trying to go that far. She’s not trying to be a hip-hop star. For her, hip-hop is a meditation and it shows up in many ways, from the trap beat floating outside her window, to her freestyling in the mirror, or with the dudes in the basement cypher at Arlene’s Grocery.

In some ways, the moral and artistic struggles of The Forty-Year-Old Version remind me of Hollywood Shuffle, Robert Townsend’s 1987 classic. RB:

I appreciate that you bring up Hollywood Shuffle, because I know that because I’m Black and I’m shooting in black and white, people always make the comparison to She’s Gotta Have It. But I feel like my film calls back to Hollywood Shuffle, about a Black artist confronting the white gatekeepers on who gets to tell a Black story and how.

Exactly. And like Townsend, you wrote, directed, and starred in your own first feature film. How was that experience, and do you think you would do it again? RB:

I wouldn’t say I regret being in my film, but I think that there’s probably more of a fascination with my film because I’m in it. And I have too much respect for actors to call myself one. I don’t come from training. I don’t sit in these auditions day after day. I don’t have to endure seven callbacks for a role. I just think that when an audience is familiar with a face, it might make it easier for them to go down the line with this person. So while I don’t plan on being in another one of my films, I do plan on mining my family legacy for storytelling, and on telling stories where music is a driving force.I really want to be an auteur. I’m hoping that my stories get quieter. Very quiet, but very potent. A slow burn, but such a beautiful payoff. I want to make work like that.

Amen.

Photographs:

Radha Blank on set, t & m

Radha Blank with her fellow cast members

[frogmentarii]

QUESTIONS FOR OC CREATORS

Haaaa ok so I am doing this cause i saw @fallout-lou-begas steal it from @tarberrymentats and they both looked like they were havin hella fun so i am commandeering this for my own purposes. So lucky for yall its Emi time (art by the dearest @yesjejunus because yall need to see more of her work)

A) Why are you excited about this character?

Because she's an older woman (57) that breaks a lot of moulds and I love to see it. Aside from just enjoying older characters, Emi isn't a sweet old lady and she isn't here to try and mother anyone. Her drives are entirely her own and while she prioratizes herself and her sister before anyone else, its not always due to complete selfishness and just due to growing up in the wastes (I try to keep her character true to a fend for yourself setting as possible). I think Ill go into detail in another question with this, but I went through a lot of concepts and personalities for Emi before settling on someone who was seasoned and very much a product of the wastes. I think after seeing a lot of other couriers I finally figured out what I wanted to do differently, and that sort of helped guide her to become what she is today.

B) What inspired you to create them?

I think my last line there sort of short answers this. I wanted someone different from the other couriers I saw, and wanted to make one that was distinct or even juxtaposed against some tropes. She's a woman in her late 50s that doesnt try and play mom/granny to the companions, she very much has no stake in what happens to the Mojave, she doesnt care about Benny or that he shot her in the head (such is life in the Mojave, but she did have a job to complete so ripperoni him), and a lot of her motivations are selfish or exist to benefit her sister. She doesnt act 'old' in the fact that she isn't a wise caring soul or a grumpy old man, but rather her age is shown through her experience, and this also shapes her personality. She's never had to formally 'grow up' so she can come off as immature and irritating for her own entertainment, but she doesn't have youthful ignorance for how the world works. She knows how to be responsible but she doesnt have to act like it outwardly, even with her Tragic Caregiver Backstory.

C) Did you have trouble figuring out where they fit in their own story?

To a large degree in the beginning, yes, and to specific degrees now, also yes. Writing in general isnt my strong point though I did know what I wanted for her. The main image is there but the details are funky, and Ive been slowly hammering those out as I work along with her and Camila's stories. There's been some huge changes along the way that help push both of them towards an ending I like and that fits them, and even if it takes forever and I never actually write a fic, I'll be happy when she finally feels completed in New Vegas.

Aside from that, she kind of fits in anywhere in regards to AUs. My friend @yesjejunus and I have probably like 40000 fucking aus for our OCs and all of them feel just as organic and their canon stories.

D) Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look?

So I know I have an 'original concept Emilia' art on here where she looked like Laura Croft and had aviators but that wasnt even her first concept. I had originally wanted to make a petite southern belle type from Louisiana who used a shot gun and had a mean streak, but as I kept playing with concepts Emi really started to lean other places. Another huge change was her personality. Even when her concept got settled as a sniper from Mexico, she was suppose to be an early 30s caravan guard who was way too sure of herself. While there are reminents of that concept still in her, she has a lot more experience in the wastes and in think-on-your-feet situations to back up her attitude. Another thing she required was dropping her "take me seriously" personality with more goofy "i do what i want cause why not" traits.

E) Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you?

Emi can get along with anyone at a surface level, for a small while, if it will benefit her or she wants to pass time. She really doesn't have interest in folks who arent interesting or beneficial in some way. Since I don't really offer her much, and am a bit of a wet bag, she might yank my chain for her own funsies or she'd have no interest.

And while I did indeed give Emi my go with the flow attitude, I think I wouldn't be able to keep up with her. Emi is very fast paced and doesnt necessarily have regard for those she decides to pick up as drinking buddies for the night. Def dont trust her with my life, and knowing the shit she gets into I'd def want to steer clear of it....like a trainwreck its much better to watch her from a safe distance, lol.

F) What do you feel when you think of your OC (pride, excitement, frustration, etc)?

A lot of affection from a meta standpoint? I've worked with Emi and Cam a lot since creating them, and they've def come a long way since their original concepts. I wouldn't say their story is quite where I want it yet, but I am quite happy with it overall.

That, and Ive met so many awesome writers along the way with Emi. Not all of my friends have posted fic but the amount of world building and having our characters interact and talking OCs ive done with them has placed both Emi and their OCs in a special place for me. Sure her having her own story is fun but I much more prefer the bonds Ive created with people over OCs and I think thats a bit more of a cherished component to character creation for me.

G) What trait of theirs bothers you the most?

Literally? That she likes to be irritating if she feels she can get away with it (or even if she cant). Actually? That she has a very "I shelter you and feed you therefore I make the rules, period." stance on how she takes care of her charge. She lets a lot of shit slide with Camila but things get very Rapunzel-esque at times.

H) What trait do you admire most?

How sure of herself she is. Even if its to a fault, she trusts herself and her judgements. That sort of confidence is something I strive to have haha.

To a lesser degree, and more of a meta point I wanted to make with her, just...her appearance I suppose? To me she's attractive, but she also has a lot of traits that aren't conventionally attractive and that's played a lot into how Ive wanted her to be. Again she's 57 years old. She has age to her body, her skin wrinkles and droops, her tits sag, she has the body of someone who uses chems, and yet despite her age and breaking of beauty standards ive made it a point to show that she is desired or thought of as attractive in non fetish specific circumstances. She herself, while aro, also still has an active sex drive and I really wanted this to be a backseat part of her character, as I feel like fandom in general shafts older women in this department (this also goes for a lot of her non 'old lady' traits I give her too). She still has sexual needs and is still very much sexually active, and she is still found to be a regular sort of attractive and is desired by those she gets involved with.

J) Did you have to manipulate or exclude canon factors to allow them to create their character?

Yes? Ish, to a degree. I didnt have to but I wanted to. I also did a lot of headcanoning with post Mexico for her early life which, afaik is free real estate for lore/nothing super detailed has been given in canon.

Given that she and Camila both shape their stories as individuals, I did have to split up some canon elements to follow two seperate characters, but other than that I really just had to make sure Emilia's story wasnt "boring" in the fact that she again, has no real stake in what happens to Vegas/the Mojave.

I) Do you prefer to keep them in their canon universe?

Cackles in 'which au will I obsess with today'

For the most part yes, however I love placing her in new things or different stories. She may be 'my courier' but really shes just the frog granny that goes into whatever au I am feeling at the time.

[hanawrites404]

You Can't Hurry Love

Show : Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Jojo No Kimou Na Bouken

Pairing : Hints of Jotaro Kujo/Noriaki Kakyoin, Joseph Joestar/Caesar Antonio Zeppeli and Jonita Joestar Brando/Dio Brando

Warnings : Mild Homophobia and swearing

Characters : Jonita Joestar Brando (OC), Holly Kujo, Jotaro Kujo, Noriaki Kakyoin, Joseph Joestar, Mrs. Kakyoin (Noriaki's Mother)

Timeline : Pre-Stardust Crusaders

This story is based on this song :

And this story is also based on the author's dream when she was sleeping in the afternoon after studying physics.

Also, here is a link if you don't know who Jonita is

Third Person POV

It was morning in Japan, winter was about to end and trees were slowly recovering after shedding their withered leaves by growing lush green ones in their place. Innocent birds awakened by the first rays of the sun started chirping their favourite song, the fellow humans waking up to their melodious vocals. Well, except for one.

"Jonita-san~!! Wake up, it's eight already!!" the lady of the Kujo's residence yelled from the kitchen. The lady had her favourite apron on and was making breakfast, her golden hair tied in a loose bun and her hands working skillfully as she prepared the morning delicacies.

The one who was known as Jonita, though sleeping in the room two doors away from the kitchen, heard the lady clearly, but all she replied to it was a groan and a snort, and she let her head down abruptly onto the pillow and fell asleep once again.

"Jonita san~~!!" The blonde lady called her once more, but still the sleepy-head gave no response. The lady then sighed and shook her head. Though it had been 3 days Jonita came to stay in Japan, she still wasn't used to her sleeping schedule.

The lady had already given up on waking the stubborn girl up, until a young boy ran with his sock-clad, little feet into the girl's room. He giggled, and sat beside her head, and started to ruffle the sleepy girl's violet locks with his little hands, which finally made the girl slowly open one of her eye and smile at the boy.

"Good morning Jotaro" she said sleepily. "Morning Jojo!!" the boy named Jotaro giggled once more. Jonita grinned and got up from the futon, fully awaken, and sat cross-legged. She then lifted Jotaro up and made him sit on her thigh.

"Did you sleep well, Joot??" she asked the child as she caressed his soft raven locks. "Yeah I did, and I dreamt of the ocean" Jotaro replied with a certain pride in his tone.

"Again?? You really seem to love the ocean, huh??". Jotaro grinned and nodded vigorously. Jonita giggled and ruffled his hair.

"What about you Jojo?? What did you dream of??". "I dreamt of my children. All of them were playing in the garden while me and my husband were having a picnic under a huge tree as we watched our children having a good time. I wish it comes true one day" Jonita ruminated.

"Hmmm......Well, thinking of dreams is making me feel hungry. I bet Mama has made something good today". "Boy, she always does. Holly's cooking is worth dying for".

Jotaro then got off Jonita's thigh and quickly ran towards the kitchen to get the bulletins of today's breakfast menu. Jonita then stood up and folded her futon, remembering how Holly taught her to do so. She then stretched herself and started to get ready for today.

After she had changed from her pyjamas to purple track pants and red full-sleeve cropped hoodie and combed her hair nicely to let it down, she then made her way to the dining room.

"So you are finally awake, Jonita-san" Holly commented. "Yeah, sorry. I had a really good dream and I didn't want to wake up" the purplenette rubbed her neck.

"Was it about your husband again??" Holly asked. "Yeah. I just miss him so much. It has been years since I have seen him" she said as she sat down to have her food.

"Hmmm....I wonder when I will fall in love madly with someone as you have" Jotaro told her as he settled his head on his palms.

Jonita choked on her own saliva as soon as she heard Jotaro say that. She then clears her throat and replies.

"D-Don't you think you are too young to fall in love with someone, Joot??". "B-But I'm 7 years old!! Is that not enough??" Jotaro asked.

"I-I guess but, for falling in love with someone, you will need time. Love is when two people like each other so much that are ready to sacrifice themselves just for the well-being of their lover. In order to love a person, you need someone to whom you feel a certain attraction".

"Certain att-rec-sion??" Jotaro tried to pronounce the word. "Yeah". "But where will I find such a person??". "You will have to wait, Jotaro. You cannot hurry love, always remember that".

"Alright everyone, eat quickly before it gets cold" Holly clapped her hands. Jotaro and Jonita said their prayers in Japanese (Jonita had to learn it otherwise Holly never left her alone) and then started to eat their breakfast.

"Jonita-san, you do remember that you have to take Jotaro out today, right??" Holly asked. Jonita stopped chewing her omelette and looked at the blonde lady hovering over her. She then grinned stupidly at her, the omelette still inside her mouth.

Holly sighed and crossed her hands.

"You forgot, didn't you??".

Jonita swallowed the food she had in her mouth and said "Forgot?? No No, I was just......caught off-guard, that's all" she argued, but Holly didn't take that.

"Listen Jonita-san, Jotaro is at a growing age, and if he doesn't get any exercise, I'm afraid he might become very weak when he grows up, and you are the best person who can get him into some good physical activities" Holly said worriedly.

"Don't worry Holly, Jotaro is of the Joestar bloodline. There is no way he would ever grow up as weak. Even if he doesn't workout, he would still grow up to be as buff as a bull" Jonita caressed Jotaro's raven hair as she smiled at Holly.

Holly sighed once more and looked at Jonita with pleading eyes and a frown. This made Jonita drop her stupid grin, and soon she admitted defeatedly while letting out a big puff of air from her mouth.

"Fine. Exercise, right?? I will make him do it".

By hearing that, Holly got to her usual cheery self as clapped her hands once more. "Okey-Dokey!!" and then she twirled into the kitchen while humming a tune.

Jonita giggled as she ate the last piece of her breakfast. Jotaro too had finished his food and Jonita collected both of their dishes to keep it in the sink.

"Listen Joot, I'm giving you 10 minutes. Get into your best attire as we are going out to practice" Jonita spoke as if she was taking Jotaro out for a war.

"Yes ma'am!!" the boy saluted the purplenette and ran to his room. Jonita smiled to herself. She was sure that Jotaro would grow up to be a very cheerful and bubbly person, just like his mother.

A few minutes later, Jotaro arrived with a white full-sleeve shirt and black short suspenders on. However, Jonita bursted into a fit of laughs as soon as she saw the young boy.

The reason was because Jotaro had worn the shirt inside-out and over the suspenders. Also, his black hair was in a tangled mess as compared to before.

Jonita then kneeled in front of him and started to correct his attire, starting from removing his shirt.

"You should have called me to dress you Joot" Jonita told him. "But I wanted to show you that I'm not a little boy anymore and that I can dress myself" Jotaro pouted.

Jonita chuckled as she finished correcting his outfit. "You are 7 Jotaro, Not 17".

She then ran her palm against Jotaro's head to smoothen his short hair. However, there were some curly ends which were impossible to straighten so she let them be.

"There you go. All set" she then stood up. "Ready to go, big boy??". "You bet I am". She then grinned and then both of them got into their shoes.

"We will return soon Holly!!" she shouted. Holly came to the door with high speed and hugged Jonita hard which made her tumble a little. "S-Stop...I can't breathe" Jonita giggled. Holly then lets her go as she smiled at her.

Holly then gave Jotaro his goodbye kiss. "Mom, I'm too big for goodbye kisses now" Jotaro pouted. "But you will always stay small for Mama, Jotaro" Holly replied. Jotaro blushed and looked at the ground.

Jonita then chuckled and exited the house, Jotaro following her. Both of them waved to Holly and she waved them back. "Come back soon!!" she said, and then she went inside, picking up another tune.

*30 minute time skip, brought to you by Everything is a Cake*

"OK, that's it for today" Jonita informed. Jotaro fell on the ground with a thud as he finally dropped his plank position and let out a puff of air from relief.

"You did a great job Joot. Don't you feel good??" Jonita asked the tired boy with satisfaction in her tune.

"No" the boy replied breathlessly.

"No?? What do you mean 'no'??" her smile dropped. "I'm really tired Jojo" The boy told her.

"Already?? Your grandfather was more active than you when he was 7 years old!!" she stated.

"And second of all, all you have done today is 15 situps, 30 pushups and 2 minute plank hold. Joseph on the other hand used to do twice as much as you have!!".

"Why do you always compare me with Grandpa??" Jotaro gained some strength to sit cross-legged and rubbed off the mud on his cheek.

"Because I want to make you stronger than him, Joot". Jonita then lifted Jotaro up on his feet. She then dusted him off and cupped his cheeks.

"Jotaro, you are the successor of the Joestar bloodline, so you need to be strong. Your mother has the right to be worried about your health as many obstacles will come in your way and you have to be strong to battle them all. Understand??"

"Hmm" Jotaro nodded. Jonita then smiled and kissed Jotaro's forehead. She then stood up and asked the young boy.

"Since I'm happy with your progress, how about we go and get some ice-cream??". Jotaro's mood turned brighter and nodded vigorously with a big grin. Jonita chuckled and then lifted him up, keeping his head on her shoulder while supporting his bottom with her hand.

"To the ice-cream shop then!!!". "Hai!!!!" and then they both sprinted towards the nearest shop.

*Two minute time skip, brought to you by Wide Putin*

"Are you really saying the truth Jojo??". "Yeah. Your grandfather once dressed as a woman in order to sneak in the military base". "Did it work??". "Ehh, almost. But it looked pretty obvious that it was a man dressed up as a woman. I mean, in those days, women with big muscles were not a thing, not to mention the guards were a bunch of perv--AAAH!!!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry Dear. My child didn't mean to hurt you deliberately". A woman with cherry red hair was holding the hand of a boy with the same hair colour. It looked like the boy was the lady's son. The only difference was that the boy had an exceptionally long, wavy bang which was almost as long as his face.

The redhead had kicked Jonita's leg so hard that she almost dropped Jotaro, but instead of being angry at the kid, she was actually impressed that the boy being so young was able to make a grown-up adult stumble.

Setting her thoughts aside, she gave a weak smile to the lady and said "It's alright". The lady too smiled at her and then she continued to walk with her son to the opposite direction.

"Are you OK Jojo??" Jotaro asked the girl. "Yeah I'm fine" she replied. She let Jotaro down and started to rub the area where the boy had kicked her.

"Say, are you OK Joot?? You didn't get hurt, did you??". "N-No, I'm fine" Jotaro looked the ground.

Jonita raised her eyebrow at him. Something was wrong with Jotaro. He didn't usually behave like this........unless he was very flustered.

"Jotaro". "Y-Yes??". "Are you blushing??". "What?? N-No I'm not" Jotaro tried to cover his cheeks with his hands. "So you ARE blushing" Jonita stated. She then scooted closer to Jotaro and asked.

"Tell me, is it because of that boy??". Jotaro's eyes widen as he tried to hide his face from the purplenette.

Jonita then made a smug face and asked "Love at first sight huh??". "S-Stop teasing me Jojo" Jotaro whined. "I'm not teasing you. I'm just saying the facts".

Jotaro them blushed more than before. Jonita tried to hold her laughs but she couldn't, and she began to giggle at Jotaro's cute behaviour.

"Anyways, Joot". "Hmm??". "Wanna know if he likes you back without asking him??".

Jotaro was now full red. He looked at Jonita and asked "I-Is it really possible to know that??". Jonita nodded with a smile. "It's a very old trick but it's very accurate". "S-S-Sure. Let's try it then".

Jonita smirked and then made Jotaro face the direction where the redheads were going. "OK so, you can see the boy walking, right??". "Yeah".

"The thing is now that Joot, if he has fallen for you, he would turn around and look at you" Jonita spoke. "And that's it??" Jotaro looked at her. "Yeah" she replied. "OK" Jotaro shrugged.

"Oh you just believe in me Jotaro, he will definitely turn back at look at you with those innocent eyes". "S-Stop it Jojo". "Sorry".

The redheads didn't show any sign of stopping as the kid walked slowly along his mother.

Turn around.......

Jotaro and Jonita watched each and every step they took, looking for at least a slight clue.

Turn around......................

They had almost reached to the end of the road and still there was no sign. The Joestar and the Kujo still stared at them. They were 100% sure that the boy was going to turn back. And guess what happened...........

Turn around, Dammit!!.............

The little boy finally shifted his body back to look at the two who were staring lasers at him with his big, amethyst eyes, showing curiosity and..........longing. A light blush was visible on his fair cheeks as he gazed at the young ravenhead.

Jonita gasped and fell backwards to the ground, not caring about getting hurt. She then screamed on top of her lungs.

"MY BABY IS IN LOOOOOOOOOOOVE!!!!!!!"

The redhead laughed at the silly lady's reaction and tried to cover his laugh with his mouth. The mother however was taken aback by the immature girl's behaviour as she turned around and cringed.

"What a weird mother. No wonder why she looks so young. She must be a teenager mom" she said to herself.

Jotaro had lost himself in the redhead's violet eyes as he locked his own green ones with the other boy, but soon snapped himself out of it and waved at the redhead with a grin. The young boy's blush grew more as he returned the wave with a small cute smile.

"Come on Noriaki, look forward otherwise you might trip yourself". The boy whose name was Noriaki turned his attention to his mother and followed what she said. After that, they completely vanished from Jojo's eyesight range.

"Y-You were right Jojo. How did you know that it will work??" Jotaro asked with amazement. "I have lived for more than 500 years Jotaro. How can I not know about love??".

Jotaro chuckled and then pushed Jonita up again. She then dusted herself and then spoke. "Let's tell your love story to Holly first after we get some ice-cream". Jotaro nodded and followed Jonita to where they were going next.

*Five minutes time skip, brought to you by Baby Yoda*

"HOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLYYYYYY!!!!!!" Jonita sprinted into the Kujo's residence in search of the blonde lady.

"Jonita-san, is everything OK??" Holly came out of a random room and asked her. As soon the purplenette spotted blonde hair, she lunged at Holly and gave her a death hug while lifting her up.

"J-Jonita-san, what happened??". "Jotaro........he is in love!!!". "What, really???" Holly's eyes brightened up. Jonita nodded, confirming her statement.

Just like Jonita, Holly gasped from happiness and hugged Jonita with a high-pitched squeal, and then they both jumped round and round squealing like high-school girls.

"So who is the lucky girl??" Holly asks. "Well, it's a boy, actually" Jonita replied. Holly's smile dropped a little. "A boy??" she asked. "Yes" she replied. "I-I see" Holly tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear.

"Mama mama, I'm in love!!" Next was Jotaro who ran to his mother and hugged her. Holly hesitantly wrapped her arms around Jotaro as he started babbling about how good-looking his love interest was.

"And he had those pretty purple eyes. They were like the colours of pansies. And his hair was so red. Even the reddest of apples were nothing in front of him. His smile was the best thing of all".

"That's really......nice, Jotaro". By hearing her reply, Jotaro looked at his mother with a little disbelief. She sounded disappointed, he thought.

"I-It's really good to fall in love but, with a boy?? It doesn't seem normal to me". Jotaro let go of her mother as he backed away from her. Was his ears deceiving him?? Did his mother just called him.........adnormal??

"Jotaro I.....I got to talk to Papa. You stay here with Jonita-san. If you are feeling hungry then there is food in the kitchen. I'll be right back" she then went away to the opposite direction without saying anything else.

Jonita just stood where she was in shock. She didn't expect Holly to react like this. She was literally standing there, praying that all she just witnessed was a bad dream and nothing else.

PART 2 :

[cornerstonc]

Repost don’t reblog!

The muse’s playlist, feel free to explain why or what made you pick them!

The muse’s theme song: Emmylou -- First Aid Kit

Oh the bitter winds are coming in And I'm already missing the summer Stockholm's cold, but I've been told I was born to endure this kind of weather [..] Now so much I know that things just don't grow If you don't bless them with your patience

Song that plays when meeting your muse the first time: natori would like for it to be something Nice and Decorous-Sounding like southampton, particularly the part that starts about 30 seconds in, but it’s probably like. 9 to 5 playing faintly in the distance like a 24-hour supermarket at 3 am

Music that best fits a normal day in their life: Comptine d'un autre été, l'après-midi -- Yann Tiersen, also possibly Main Titles -- Rachel Portman

i’ve honestly used this song before as an ‘everyday life’ theme for muses, but it’s still the one i default to for characters like natori who most likely lead relatively normal lives which may still be fraught with personal issues and little mundane burdens and such thinking emoji 

there’s this very particular hhmmmmm driving?? feeling to this song that makes it very easy for me to envision it playing over an otherwise soundless ‘movie’ of natori’s morning/day, aha

the second one has about the same Feel to me, but is maybe a little less. intimate-sounding?? by virtue of it being a little more bouncy toward the end

Music that plays in a moment of high tension: Gratuity’s Apartment -- Lorne Balfe

listen i’m sorry but this sounds exactly to me like what would play in some scene involving natori metaphorically gathering up his skirts and setting out to Do Something He Really Doesn’t Want To laughs

also yes i am one of the probably .2% who liked home lmao

Battle theme: Dash-A-Long -- Yoko Shimomura

okay. look. i can not see natori participating in any kind of battle. he’s not a fighter, no matter how many times he might impulsively jump right into danger out of a misplaced feeling of responsibility. you will find him hiding behind an overturned table stress crying

but the idea of him, in a video game verse, setting up a light minigame for the protagonist or some other visitor to the cat kingdom, to try their hand at is very endearing to me

Music that best sums any relationships with your muse (feel free to list out shipping verses and whatnot): Arrow -- Cheryl Wheeler

Maybe love is not as gentle as my memory Maybe time and wishful half-remembered fantasy are the greatest part Wish I could feel my heartbeat rise And gaze into some gentle, warm excited eyes And give myself as truly as an arrow flies In windless skies I wish I could fall in love Though it only leads to trouble, oh I know it does Still I'd fool myself and gladly just to feel I was, in love

An angsty song: Little Again -- The Secret Sisters

fun story, this song once reduced my mom to tears. on second thought that’s not a very fun story 

“it’s one of those days when you wake up in some broken city with nothing but home on your mind. and all of these days when they add up, they amount to nothing, like all the ones you’ve left behind.” like jfc 

bUT i should probably mention natori is a generally content creature, and the amount of nostalgia he feels for childhood and his younger days is honestly an amount and such that would probably be expected of anyone his age shrugs

A deciding/crucial/important/final boss battle theme: Race to Resting Rock -- James Newton Howard

i decided to go with something more ‘contemplating an unpleasant decision’ or especially ‘being confronted with that untoward epiphany you’ve been not so blissfully ignoring’ which is exactly what this sounds like to me jfkjfd;a

what happens next is a good one, too, for Really Bad Circumstances

Music that plays at the end of your muse’s arc/story: the intermission music from monty python and the holy grail hmm maybe Not Meant to Be -- Harry Gregson-Williams

BONUS-- music that best sums up an AU: House on a Hill -- Passenger

the only AU i can think of is the manga-inspired verse i have going on on the ask blog thinking emoji 

there’s supposed to be a number of mysteries i had hoped people might get invested in, so i don’t want to Spoil anything, but i had been using this song as inspiration for what a certain, long-gone character might have at one point used in order to sell the idea of the cat kingdom to natori

[f4liveblogarchives]

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #239

Thur Dec 17 2020 [10:52 PM] Umbramatic: :O [10:52 PM] Wack'd: I'm gonna guess Batman. You'd never expect that

[10:53 PM] Umbramatic: its the spanish inquisition [10:54 PM] Wack'd: So this mystery guest is a woman with short black hair, having come to see the Four all the way from Arizona on a matter of life or death. She also mentions in thought balloons that

"It's been so long--so many years since we last saw each other. I wonder if he ever thinks of me--of us."

[10:55 PM] Bocaj: I don't think I know of anyone with black hair [10:55 PM] Wack'd: Lucky for her, especially given it's the dead of night, the Four's little corner of the Baxter now has a receptionist. Uh. Kinda.

[10:57 PM] Wack'd: Reed meanwhile has been up for three days straight trying to fix the current Ben related-fuckup. He blamed himself, of course. Sue tries to reassure him that Ben probably doesn't hold him accountable [10:58 PM] Wack'd: Huh!

[10:58 PM] Wack'd: You know what? Fair dues. I did not see this coming. [10:59 PM] maxwellelvis: Doctors Hate Her! [10:59 PM] Bocaj: I always thought of Aunt Petunia not appearing until later [10:59 PM] Bocaj: In my mind she was sort of a the ghost for a while in the sense of sir not appearing [10:59 PM] Wack'd: I mean hey, twenty years is a hell of a while. [10:59 PM] maxwellelvis: As an aside, from what I remember of Ben's wedding, it looks like Aunt Petunia started aging in real time as if the Four had gotten their powers NOW as in 1982 [11:00 PM] Wack'd: "Doctors Hate Her!" Funny you say that max because Ben describes Petunia as a "genuine country doctor." [11:00 PM] maxwellelvis: Ha! [11:01 PM] Wack'd: So Petunia meets the gang. Sue mentions she was expecting someone older, which Petunia takes in stride [11:02 PM] Wack'd: It turns out Petunia married into the family. She, uh. Well. [11:02 PM] Wack'd: Ben's Uncle Jake got into an auto accident, which killed his wife. Petunia, then a student nurse, became his medical student, and then his wife. [11:02 PM] Wack'd: That...sure is a course of events! [11:03 PM] Bocaj: 😬 [11:03 PM] Bocaj: That feels like it fits into a trend with Byrne [11:03 PM] Wack'd: Doesn't it just. (Though I will again point out he is not responsible for Sue having been creepily young when she and Reed hooked up. That's Lee.) [11:04 PM] maxwellelvis: I can see why Slott decided to retcon Aunt Petunia into the grandmotherly type for the wedding. [11:04 PM] Bocaj: Oh now I know where MCU Aunt May has absorbed life force from [11:04 PM] Wack'd: So the "life or death" matter involves her home out in Arizona with Jake. The whole town is in danger of being "frightened to death." [11:05 PM] maxwellelvis: So call Mystery Incoporated [11:05 PM] maxwellelvis: Oh wait, this is 1982, Mystery Inc.'s broken up. [11:06 PM] Wack'd: So. Uh. This is Uncle Jake.

[11:06 PM] Wack'd: And this is Aunt Petunia.

[11:07 PM] maxwellelvis: Yeah, she'd have to have a few more gray hairs than that if she's known Ben since he was a boy, I think. [11:07 PM] Wack'd: She does not seem to have. [11:08 PM] Wack'd: So the Four arrive in Benson, Arizona, and the narration informs us that Ben had been the only one who approved of Jake marrying Petunia, and. [11:09 PM] maxwellelvis: That's what all the instances of Ben invoking her name had led me to believe. [11:09 PM] Wack'd: Look I want to take for granted this is messed up and move on but the damn book seems dead set against me doing this. [11:10 PM] maxwellelvis: Well, anyways, I guess that means we've hit the OTHER side of John Byrne's run. [11:10 PM] maxwellelvis: Aspect, perhaps [11:10 PM] Wack'd: Sue mentions we don't know much about Ben's past. Ben says his mom and died died when he was a teen and Jake raised him. [11:10 PM] Wack'd: (We don't really know much of Reed's past at this point, though I am given to understand this will also change in the near future.) [11:11 PM] maxwellelvis: This part is just Byrne telling Steve Gerber he can fuck off. [11:11 PM] Wack'd: Gerber, I assume, would instruct Bryne to get in line. [11:12 PM] Wack'd: Racism? Anyone want some racism? Anyone think what this story could really use, right about now, is some racism?

[11:13 PM] Bocaj: Eesh [11:13 PM] maxwellelvis: (Gerber I think was one of the first writers to use the "Ben grew up on Yancy St." backstory) [11:14 PM] maxwellelvis: (Unless he didn't write that issue of Marvel Two-In-One, in which case it would probably be Roy Thomas that Byrne was dismissing here) [11:16 PM] maxwellelvis: (I would look this up, but I physically cannot get to my Essential 2-in-1 collection atm) [11:16 PM] Wack'd: So Ruth's child assistant(?) Wendy is upset that Ruth, rather than just appreciating the arrowhead, started a whole excavation. She has fond memories of this place because when her mom was sick they'd come to the site and collect rocks and whatnot. [11:16 PM] Wack'd: So that's not ominous.

[11:17 PM] Wack'd: We skip forward to that night, where two of Ruth's more non-child students are doing some late-night archeology. A mist comes at them and then BAM! Scared to death! [11:18 PM] Wack'd: MEANWHILE IN THE HIMALAYAS [11:19 PM] maxwellelvis: I was putting something in the oven, thinking "Oh man, it better not be the Miracle Man again" and then we cut to the Himalayas [11:19 PM] Wack'd: Quicksilver has been fighting some kind of war, apparently, while Crystal--suffering complications from a half-mutant half-Inhuman pregnancy--is being treated by whoever this guy is.

[11:20 PM] Wack'd: Pietro here is apparently the only guy in all of Attilan who's not come down with some sort of mysterious disease. [11:20 PM] maxwellelvis: He looks like the Leader, if the Leader was slowly turning into a raisin. [11:20 PM] Wack'd: And Attilan is being destroyed, leaving Pietro as their only hope. [11:21 PM] maxwellelvis: Oh yeah, he just looks like the PICTURE of health here, don't he [11:21 PM] Umbramatic: gfrtvtigyhhuihjio;opkp [11:21 PM] Bocaj: The funny thing is that mutant and inhuman genes apparently cancel out [11:22 PM] Bocaj: Or Crystal and Pietro won the silliest genetic lottery [11:22 PM] Wack'd: Back in Arizona, Reed is having no luck cracking the case, while Frankie and Wendy get some bonding time in

[11:23 PM] Wack'd: So, uh. Because this story just did not have enough going on, it turns out Wendy's dad is beating her. [11:23 PM] Umbramatic: oh [11:24 PM] Wack'd: Frankie tries to intervene but Wendy begs her to back off, so she figures there's nothing to be done and leaves. [11:24 PM] Bocaj: Comic are you sure you're up to this content [11:25 PM] Wack'd: I feel like Reed should be caught a bit more flatfooted by someone he looks up to intellectually telling him he can't fix things with guesswork.

[11:26 PM] Wack'd: Sue and Ben want to take action of some kind but Reed points out that, uh, they can't really punch their way out of this one. [11:27 PM] maxwellelvis: I'd make more scooby-doo jokes, but John Byrne deciding to put a Very Special Episode in here has kind of made that feel... not so fun anymore. [11:28 PM] Wack'd: That night, Wendy sneaks out of her house to go talk to the mists. Turns out that’s who her wonderful friends are. [11:30 PM] Wack'd: I think she wants to beg them for mercy? The narration boxes get kinda cryptic. Anyway if that's what she's done, it reeeaaally doesn't work.

[11:30 PM] Wack'd: "What was that about not being able to fight our way out?" [11:32 PM] Bocaj: I think Slott revisited some of this [11:32 PM] Bocaj: I vaguely remember mists and gremlins when Franklin and Valeria were staying with aunt petunia post wedding [11:33 PM] Bocaj: But as it was the same story where Sue made Doom naked on a live broadcast the details escape me [11:33 PM] Wack'd: So on top of these weird things the entire town is now also set on fire and also in a giant windstorm. The Four put out the fires but the damage is done and most of the town decides to evacuate. [11:33 PM] Umbramatic: oh yes that one [11:35 PM] Wack'd: what the fuck what the fuck what the FUCK

[11:36 PM] maxwellelvis: Oh of COURSE Byrne has Reed sympathize with an abusive parent. [11:37 PM] Wack'd: Okay so for starters, because this is the thing I'm the least mad about, everything about this resolution is fucking nonsense. We know basically nothing about any of the other people who got "frightened to death" and so as the readers had no ability to draw upon our own knowledge of their morality or why they might not be able to handle seeing visions of their worst selves. [11:37 PM] Wack'd: From there we get to the fact that, for all the ways Ruth and Reed protested earlier, this is a massive pile of assumptions with absolutely no backing in fact or evidence. [11:37 PM] Umbramatic: geez [11:38 PM] Wack'd: Speaking of Ruth, she said that the arrowhead was crucial, and Ben speculated that may be the excavation released the spirits and they needed to be re-buried. They don't out right say it, but this may as well be a "ancient Indian burial ground" plot. [11:39 PM] Umbramatic: yeesh [11:39 PM] Wack'd: And from there we get, yes, Reed saying that their job is not to judge people, therefore they can't do anything about an abusive parent. Which is frankly just moral cowardice and also really gross. [11:40 PM] maxwellelvis: And also a grim portent of things to come in this era. [11:41 PM] Wack'd: And so the story ends, with. I think the implication is that Wendy asked her "friends" to take care of her dad for her? Which is okay, I guess, but doesn't really fix the way everybody else reacts to this.

[11:42 PM] Wack'd: The story is also just plain all over the place. There's absolutely no reason for the characters who get the Four involved in the plot to be Ben's Aunt Petunia--except-- [11:42 PM] Wack'd: Oh. The whole town got judged. [11:43 PM] Wack'd: Did John Bryne really just write a plot where a bunch of cosmic arbiters of justice basically give the okay to marrying your student [11:43 PM] maxwellelvis: RED FLAG [11:44 PM] Wack'd: This a lot, huh. [11:45 PM] Wack'd: Well, maybe whatever Inhumans nonsense is going on will help clear my head.

[sgntaeho]

❱❭ sgn task #01 ; “kiss me thru the phone"

a peak into kwon taeho’s phone;

✦ what kind of cell phone do you have? ⁠ iphone 11 pro, midnight green

✦ how often do you use your cell phone? no more and no less than the average person my age. honestly depends on how much i’m not paying attention in class or other involuntary functions

✦ what is your phone’s lock screen photo? (see above)

✦ what is your phone’s home screen photo? (see above); just trying to catch some summer vibes, ya feel?

✦ how many contacts do you have in your phone? around 400? only cause i don’t bother to clear things out. i can’t remember who half of them are, and i definitely won’t be hitting them up anytime in this lifetime

✦ do you customize contact names or enter as given names? mostly given names; unless we’re close (or you’re a memorable character), in which case you’ll get a spirit emoji or something tacked onto the end. i’m not slick with nicknames, so unless you set one for yourself, i’d rather not try

✦ what is their default ringtone? whatever the factory setting is

✦ do you have personalized ringtones for your contacts or does everyone use the default ringtone? everyone on default; too much of a hassle otherwise, and i don’t take enough calls or have my volume up for it to matter anyways

✦ how many alarms do you have set and why? i only have one actively set for the morning but have way too many saved, for nearly every time of day. i’m a weirdo who’d rather spend 30 seconds scrolling through my endless list of alarms instead of just setting a new one for the time i need. also times always set on odd numbers (xx:01, xx:09, xx:13, etc.) and never on nice times that end in xx:00, xx:15, x:30, etc. because i hate even or clean-cut numbers

✦ what are your top 3 most used apps? imessage (+ other messaging apps), instagram, spotify

✦ what are your favorite apps? reddit is my guilty pleasure and safe space. twitter is fun even though i personally don’t tweet much (or else i’d spend all day fighting people on there, and i get enough of that in real life). also spotify because i’m almost always listening to something and can’t stand being idle in silence

✦ what are your last 3 google searches or the last 3 things you’ve asked your built in ai? ⮕ "memento movie ending interpretations” ⮕ "do you get notifications if someone screenshots your instagram story” ⮕ "can i feed my cat grapes”

✦ do you delete your internet search history or use incognito mode? if so, how often, and why? i’ll use incognito; not because i feel the need to hide anything, but because i don’t want too many one-time searches polluting my ‘recommended’ results later on. that shit’s the worst

✦ do you download music or use a streaming app? if so, which one and why? self-proclaimed spotify supremacist here. they have a comprehensive stock of both korean and non-korean stuff, which is a must. plus it’s so much easier to curate playlists, jump around, and discover new music without me having to fully commit to buying and downloading something (...does this say something more about me as a person?)

✦ what are the last 3 songs you’ve listen to on your phone? ♫ ‘error’ by ash island ft. loopy ♫ ‘all day (band ver.)’ by giriboy ♫ ‘please love me’ by colde (yeah, i’m a sucker for k-hiphop/rnb)

✦ what does your photo album consist of? it’s a pretty scary and eclectic place in there. to start, i take a lot of screenshots: receipts of when my friends say stupid things, school stuff, cocktail recipes, the outright ridiculous shit my dad’s various news outlets will put out (which i subsequently flame him for whenever we actually have to talk). so. many. cat. pics — but they’re fucking cute, alright? some random fit pics and fashion inspo. to be completely frank, there are more selfies than i’d like to admit and some... highly cringe gym pics. but none of that is being sent for anyone else’s eyes, so it’s chill. totally chill... and of course, i have a lot of stuff for photography club in the cloud.

✦ what is your texting style? do you reply quickly or are you a slow texter? do you send several messages at a time or paragraphs? i’m not the type to be texting a million people at once, so if we’re talking, i’ll probably reply pretty promptly. sometimes i’ll drop off the face of the earth, but try not to take it too personally. i definitely tend to spam send multiple, shorter messages as opposed to a single longer one. chaotic thoughts, grammar, and structure alike

✦ what are the last 3 texts you’ve sent? ⮕ vince: "is this dry needling thing supposed to be hurting still? it’s been a whole ass week...” ⮕ junhyung: "stop texting me” ⮕ hyunjoo: "hey, do you know when my mom is getting back home?”

✦ who do you text the most? couldn’t really tell you for sure. i’m not the type of person who needs to live update their life over text to somebody, and i’m not particularly invested in every little thing someone else is doing either, no offense. among my guy friends, we can maintain friendships without a whole lot of constant talking. so if i’m texting someone in high volume and frequency, it’s probably because we’re arguing over something (i’m sure you aren’t even surprised by now). or, it could be a girl i’m interested in and that’s like... not so common either.

✦ what are your top 6 used emojis? 😤 🙃 🥴 👀 🤷‍♂️ 😈

✦ how often do you call others? i hate phone calls. they’re clunky af, and you always have to awkwardly go “i-- oh-- no you go ahead” because you’re always interrupting each other. quite often people call me and i purposely watch it go to voicemail and text them back some time after, because i don’t want to pick up. so really, i only call when it’s really necessary. i think facetime is better and cool for casual though, so i’ll do that with friends instead.

✦ who were the last 3 calls made to and why? assuming you mean traditional phone calls... ⮕ dad (well more like my dad’s assistant) — to tell him to gtfo of my school life and stop signing on to throw money at (or ‘sponsor’) things without telling me. i can already tell he’s gearing up to pitch me the ‘you should take over the company’ case again when i get home for break ⮕ older sister — just to make sure she’s alive or well or whatever. total nuisance ⮕ campus police — i just had to... test a little something about their alarm infrastructure. please don’t ask any more

✦ who do you call the most? again, i don’t like calling people — few things in life are that urgent. but my mom, i guess. she calls me a lot when she’s not shooting for something, but i think it’s just to make herself feel like she’s doing the most as a mother

✦ do you have someone blocked? if so, who and why? no. i’m not petty or proactive enough to do something like that, even to the most annoying of people... now that i think about it, i should probably block an ex or two, just so drunk me won’t even get the chance to do anything stupid. but it’s not like i’ve ever done anything like that before, so whatever.

✦ are you apart of any group chats? with whom? just what you’d expect: swim team, photography club, people in my major, friends i’ll go out with on weekends, and so forth. albeit i’m that guy who shamelessly has the group on mute, so you’re probably going to have to aggressively @ me if you want me. then there’s the family group chat, which is mostly my parents getting on my case and making sure i have family obligations marked on my calendar while my sister sits back and laughs at my pain.  

✦ do you use the notes app? yep... i have a lot of thoughts, okay?

[gigolo12]

Get update yourself with the latest fashion trend

"I would portray my style as Harlem. I will provide you with a mob of a variety of examples. I will give you va-voomness," Flock Smith says. " When I go into a room, you'll know. It won't hush up, nor be coy." She maintained her Harlem sensibility wherever she went as a fashion advertising gigolo in delhi executive; as far as she might be concerned, a uniform means a reliable articulation of character, paying little mind to setting. " I never attempted to fit in, and they would simply need to adjust to what I was bringing," she recalls.

 " The Italians generally got it. They love overabundance, isn't that so? The Parisians, not really." Presently a creator, a television moderator, and a radio personality, Smith possibly digresses somewhat from her unique look when she's on television. For morning shows, no examples — strong, essential tones are vital. " What's more, on the off chance that there's not a work area before you, you have to recall your legs will be appearing," she notes. " In the event that you part the oceans, you give somebody a Sharon Stone Essential Sense second.

" Smith says her  indian gigolo striking fashion awareness is roused by the ladies locally, her mom specifically, who is 93 years of age regardless of a style plate. " When we got the news that she would be returning home, she said, "Someone has to go to my house and get my dress," as Smith recalls. "She was just in the hospital." We were like, 'Mother, we have what you wore to the clinic.' Furthermore, she said, 'I won't give individuals access to the local see me returning a similar outfit.' That is demonstrative of who I come from."

A blue and white striped marinière, or Breton shirt, which makes up the top portion of Jane Wenner's regular outfit, is a characteristic decision for a uniform, considering that the style has been important for the authority pack of the French Naval force since the nineteenth 100 years. ( The standard Saint James version is said to have as many stripes as the sum of Napoleon's victories over the British.) In Jane, the book her child Theo Wenner (who additionally shot this story) american gigolo distributed in 2020, Jane Wenner is seen throughout one year, wearing her stripes and pants while drinking tequila on her rooftop, glancing through optics over the Amagansett ridges, and managing an immaculately set supper table. 

In one especially capturing picture, 13 indistinguishable shirts are hung on a mission to dry over the railing of her Ward Bennett-planned home, a formally dressed maid strolling behind them. Wenner declines the request to explain the motivation or philosophy behind her consistency. She claims, "I've been wearing the same thing for 30 years." The whole point is not having to discuss it or even think about it.

The essayist and entertainer Fran Lebowitz doesn't view herself as a uniform individual. " They're simply my garments," she says when I suggest the point. " Due to the Web, there's photos of me from when I was 20. Also, individuals share with me, 'Goodness, you're wearing exactly the same thing.' However, if I may say so, that is quite an untrained eye on it. For one's purposes, as she's progressed in years, she's moved forward in quality. For the past 20 years, she's had her coats and american gigolo tv series suits made by the Savile Column tailor Anderson and Sheppard. " I maintained that they should make me garments prior, however they rejected, in light of the fact that they never made garments for ladies," 

Lebowitz says. ( After numerous male clients intervened for her sake, they in the end yielded.) Several gigolo porn jackets that the late Geoffrey Beene had originally designed for himself are also included in her suiting mix; he gave them to her when they didn't fit him any longer. She gets her shirts from Hilditch and Key, and her pants are generally Levi's 501s, yet not dependably. Her boots, additionally custom, are, "except if individuals have duplicated them, which they could have, the main wing-tip cowpoke boots I've at any point seen." 

Accessories: tortoiseshell outlines requested by means of list from a men's store called Ben Silver, in Charleston, South Carolina; a 1929 oyster Rolex that she bought in Italy in the 1980s because she couldn't afford it and the lira-to-dollar exchange rate she used was wrong; and cufflinks, which were frequently presented by friends. Her top choices incorporate gigolo club, an insect moulded pair, which the craftsman and architect Enrico Marone Cinzano gave to her after she looked at his wrists during supper, and one more set designed from dice. " Lebowitz quips, "I always think they’re going to bring me luck, but they haven't so far."

As the justification behind the interest, the occasion soared Richie Grainge to style symbol status, delivering her inseparable from the expression "calm extravagance" and driving her to send off her very own dress line. It's fitting, then, that Richie Grainge's most memorable diary of a gigolo enormous move following the pre-marriage ceremony is an organisation with David Yurman as the substance of their new Etched Link assortment. In pictures taken at The Kellogg Doolittle House in Joshua Tree, Richie Grainge flaunts the straightforward and smooth plans — ones that fit pleasantly into her newly discovered style. Underneath, the 25-year-old examines the mission, her contemplations on the "peaceful extravagance" pattern, and what's in store from her impending plan debut.

[tudorscharlot]

The Falling (Carol Morley, 2014)

This was my second viewing of this film. Right after I watched it for the first time, I read several reviews of it and they were mostly favorable, but - and this really puzzled me - none of them acknowledge the queer element to the relationship between Lydia and Abbie. A couple writers even went out of their way to assert that there was definitely nothing romantic between them. The common view seems to be that Lydia is just platonically fixated on her confident, sexually adventurous friend. Which is silly. I'm certainly not trying to force any particular subtext or theme on this work of art, but there is no way that there is not a romantic element to Lydia and Abbie’s relationship! Even though that isn't the whole deal between them by a long shot. But Lydia doesn’t want to be Abbie. She just wants Abbie.

From the way that they speak to each other, I don't think that they have a sexual relationship and I don't know that they are even at a point of explicitly naming what is between them. I know that girls are generally more comfortable being physically affection with one another than boys, so I'm not saying that their being so cuddly with each other must "mean" anything more than an expression of their friendship. But Lydia is jealous and sexually possessive of Abbie. And the way they hold hands and lie together, the way they talk about their relationship, and just the way they physically are when they are in the same place puts them in a space somewhere between two girls who are close friends and two young women who are something else, too. Lydia is very serious and reserved and Abbie is more free and impulsive. But Abbie seems to care more than she lets on and despite doing things that inflame Lydia’s jealousy. It would be wrong to say that whatever Lydia is feeling is unrequited. It's just not requited in as obvious or monogamous a way.

There is a lot going on in this film, and I don’t know if it’s completely successful in saying everything it has to say. I find the last 15 minutes a little upsetting and I'm especially not sure if I think the ending lands. But I love this movie, and I love it enough to feel like the things that feel incongruous or wrong to me right now might come to make more sense as I continue to think about it (and with another viewing).

SPOILER ALERT How about all of that falling? Abbie faints and dies - which, by the way, is horrifying. It’s a punch in the gut to lose one of our story’s heroes 30 minutes into the film, and it really caught me off-guard and upset me the first time I saw it. Gosh. So Abbie falls and is gone, and then all the other girls start fainting all the time. There's ambiguity over whether or not some medical epidemic has struck the girls, whether they are experiencing some kind of psychosomatic sympathy for their friend that feels real to them but has no physical basis, or whether they are just knowingly faking it. If they are knowingly faking it, is it in childish (by which I mean pure-hearted) solidarity or is it less noble attention-seeking behavior? Some of the girls faint in a pretty believable way and some of them are pretty theatrical about it, from the beginning and the whole time it's happening. And then of course Lydia admits she was always only faking it.

What really struck me on the second viewing is that this part of the story is simply a portrait of the reality of life for teenage girls. All of the girls are mourning a shocking death. It's shocking to lose someone in your small peer-group at that age. But against the backdrop of a private school in 1960s England, they aren't really given time or space to grieve as children. They're forced to keep putting on their long skirts and pretend that life is going on like normal. So when the opportunity arises (prompted by the socially non-compliant best friend of their dead friend) to act out (and I guess I mean that both in terms of theater acting and misbehaving) in imitation of and tribute to Abbie, they almost all take it.

They should be allowed to STOP and process what just happened, but they aren't. So they find their own way to stop and mourn and let the adults know that they are in pain and are confused and that they (the girls) are connected to one another. And I really like that we are shown that Lydia and some of the other girls are faking it while some of the girls maintain that it is real. This part of the film does such a great job of illustrating the importance of taking the feelings of children seriously, even if the feelings are not about things that you think are serious. And the importance of recognizing that sometimes young people don't have the vocabulary to articulate what's wrong. Whatever is going on with each girl individually, they all double down when the adults refuse to believe that what they are experiencing is real. Further, I love this portrait of solidarity. They all rally together rather than ostracizing Lydia or conforming to the demands of their teachers out of fear of punishment. Their instinct is to draw to one another. I love this beautiful story of girls being together with each other.

I don't really know what the fuck is up with Lydia's family and their relationships with one another. The mom is the only character who feels like a caricature, and I'm not sure how to rectify her with the rest of the film. The reveal that Lydia was conceived when the mom was raped and the mom resents her for resembling her rapist is...a lot. And the consummated sibling incest is even more a lot. Perhaps Lydia is drawn to her brother because her brother had sex with Abbie right before she died and that feels like a way for her to be close to Abbie. She is also just in a state of nihilistic despair and not thinking or acting clearly. Maybe it is appropriate to do the Midsommar thing and view this part of the film as being like a fairy tale. It certainly is horrifying if taken literally. And the final scene by the river, I’m realizing right now that this whole last act has big echoes of the last act of Bergman’s Through a Glass Darkly. And like “Papa spoke to me” in that film, this moment between Lydia and her mom under the tree feels like it doesn’t quite hit the way the author wants it to.

I guess there are three stories: Lydia and Abbie's complex relationship, the epidemic of fainting among the girls after Abbie dies, and Lydia's damaged relationship with her mother and brother. The first two stories fit together very well. The third one doesn't fit very well. Maybe they don't have all fit together to still work as a film. And maybe they'll fit together better when I watch it again. Or maybe Carol Morley just tried to put too many things in this film and fucked up her third act.

END SPOILERS

A lot of this film is perfect, though. The music in general is good, but the scene where the girls’ alternative orchestra is playing gives me chills. That piece of music and the footage of them playing and singing it is beautiful and an unexpected step into a dream. (That little wooden xylophone that Lydia plays is a delight when heard through headphones.) Obviously Florence Pugh is great in this, and it was such a treat rewatching this having seen her work in Midsommar and Little Women. But Maisie Williams is the real revelation in this film. I watched all of Game of Thrones and the main thing I took away from that series is that the true stars on there were Peter Dinklage and Maisie Williams. Williams, as a person, has such intelligence and intensity, and she plays this role in a way that I don’t think any other actor could.  Anyway, The Falling is a beautiful and puzzling film. Here’s to the next viewing.

[yakumtsaki]

Alright you guys, sorry for the delay, I’ve had to restart this post 20 fucking times because my changes weren’t being saved in the draft and then I kept getting the ‘upload failed’ error. In case you don’t remember wtf is going on you might wanna re-read the last update (I certainly had to) which is apparently from JUNE 2018. Jfc I suck so hard. Now this was gonna be really long but tumblr wouldn’t post it so I’m breaking it up in 3 parts, part 2 to be posted tomorrow. For those that don’t feel like reading back, general recap of the last couple updates:

Jojo cheated on Wyatt with Max Flexor and my solution to that marital crisis was to adopt our first dog ever, a puppy hilariously named Maxx.

The puppy grew up to be an asshole and is constantly beating up the cats, who have turned into giant pussies (no pun intended) and are losing every fight to him despite the fact they’re named after Mortal Kombat characters. They’re a fucking disgrace to Alegra’s/Victor’s/Ronroneo’s memory and I haven’t settled on a cat heir yet because they both suck.

Jojo is perma miserable, I don’t even remember how much money away from his 100k LTW, and still not a werewolf despite my pathologically persistent attempts to make him friends with the wolf.

Fucking useless Wyatt didn’t get promoted while Komei was alive providing us with his 100 townie friends, we spent 20 updates befriending every rando that crossed our lot to secure his promotion, and then finally on the day he was supposed to become Captain Hero, Wyatt got, of course, fired and is now on track to take longer to complete his literal career based LTW than Komei took to get 6 pets on the top of their careers.

Absolutely everyone hates noogie addict Shajar, she got a Kylo Ren makeover, and we still don’t know what her sexual orientation is thanks to her ridiculous fitness/fatness turn ons and cleanliness turn off.

Golden child/10 nice points freakshow Cyneswith grew up, rolled romance with the most disturbing turn-ons/offs possible (grey hair/mechanical & charisma turn off) and the 20 simultaneous lovers LTW.

Wulf grew up into a kid, got an Amadeus makeover, is officially a Wyatt clone and the only member of this family I don’t completely hate yet.

Now I’d like to begin the first Union post in more than a year by requesting you do me a solid and lower your expectations for this thing as far down as humanly possible. Like really try to recreate the Jules Verne classic “Journey to the Center of the Earth” with your expectations here, because my brain is so fucking fried that there’s a 20% chance I randomly start citing sources at some point during this post. This grad school crap has seriously been the worst trade deal in the history of trade deals, maybe ever. And speaking of bad trade deals, let’s get this update rolling with the man, the myth, the legend, the husband who managed to make Komei look like a dreamboat in comparison..

..Wyatt fucking Union, née Monif. It’s been a long time, but I’m not gonna lie to you Wyatt, not nearly long enough. Looking good man, just one small question, where the fuck are your eyebrows?

-You àccidéntally deléted thém, imbécilé, et I cannôt exprèss my irritatiόn prόperly becausé I hàve non eyebrôws!

Did your selective French accent get thicker this past year or is it just me?

-It géts thickér whén je suis distrésséd, givé moi mon eyebrôws bàcc!!!

No can do, brother. Actually can do, but I think the Mona Lisa look is working for you, and more importantly I still hate you, so I’m just gonna hardcore ignore you for the rest of this post if that’s ok. Talk to me when you finally get promoted, aka never the way this shit is going.

-Non! NON! MON EYEBROWS!

It’s been lovely catching up.

Jojό I mean Jojo, goddammit Wyatt, is spending most of his time building robots in the mausoleum (sweet hipster band name alert)..

..giving financial advice in Shajar’s room (inb4 what’s the difference between the mausoleum and Shajar’s room)..

..building evil snowmen alone in the middle of the night, like all mentally healthy middle aged men with 3 kids are wont to do..

..and getting the piss harassed out of him by the cat ghosts in the bathroom (sweet hipster band name alert #2). How is this like the fourth time this happens in the exact same spot, will you just stop autonomously cleaning the bathroom after midnight? It’s obviously where the cats hang out, give it the fuck up already.

-I’m actively TRYING TO DIE you absolute moron, what does a guy have to do to get killed around here?

Yea can’t say that I blame you but not happening, you can commit suicide by Ghost Alegra after the kids fuck off to college, ok? I promise.

-Oh like you promised me being heir was a route worth pursuing??

Um obviously you too need to go back and re-read your own life story, because I spent the entirety of our “““cherished””” time together telling you heirship is a shitty gig at generation 2. And then to top it off you went and married Wyatt to ensure maximum shittiness, so there you go, fucking enjoy. God I am so sick of both of you losers and we’re only 5 pics in. Let’s check in with your spawn, I’m sure they can’t possibly be more annoying than their parents-

-oh right, I forgot, this is the generation with 10/10/9 active points where the party never stops. Cyneswith are you somehow twerking to classical music?

-How else am I gonna attract all those hot senior citizens per my grey hair turn on and 20 lovers LTW?

Ok great yea I see how this is gonna go, you’re trying to entice people into voting you for heir based on how torturous playing this fucked up LTW is gonna be for me, well forget it, my readers are intellectuals and completely above such petty entertainment. (istg mofos, don’t even think about it, i already did Komei’s 5 pets career shit, i will burn this place to the ground if you saddle me with Cyneswith banging the elderly for 30 years)

-No need to worry your stupid little head, I will beat Cyneswith for HEIR just like I beat her HAIR up daily! HAHA!

Shajar no offense but you’re a fucking war crime of a sim, nearly everyone who’s ever met you hates you including your parents, and the fact that you’re the alternative here is really not helping my situation in any way. Also how the fuck are you gonna be heir when the only thing you seem to be attracted to is giving noogies, you’re like one week away from college and I still don’t even know if you’re str8 or gay or bi or w/e the fuck you are. You have Jojo’s personality combined with..

..yes exactly, DANIEL’S SOCIAL ABILITIES. I mean I was joking with the whole ‘Shajar’s the spawn of Satan’ thing, but this combo of traits was clearly drawn up in Hell’s boardroom.

ANYWAY. It’s a snowy Sunday morning, and anyone who has been a teen knows what that means:

Time to go clubbing! Man I remember being like 15, waking up on a freezing Sunday morning and my mom making me a cup of hot chocolate before I drove off to the club. Those were the days.

-Uh, Shaj, when did you learn how to drive?

-Don’t be stupid, Cyneswith, people don’t need to ‘learn’ how to drive.

-They absolutely do, actually.

-Well what can I tell you, the dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.

-Here we are, safe and sound! Celebratory noogie!

-YOU RAN OVER 9 PEOPLE

-How many times to I have to explain this to you, Apartment Life townies are not people.

Can’t argue with that logic. Let’s just go in and find out what Shajar’s sexual orientation is once and for all so I can spend the rest of this update aggressively promoting Wulf’s candidacy.

Now I consider ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ one of the dumbest sayings there is, but even I have to concede that this particular picture truly is worth a thousand words. Quick poll, what is more horrifying, Shajar’s literal Joker face or Cyneswith, whom I’ve never seen read a book ever, autonomously pulling one out in the middle of the dance floor, in what I can only assume is an attempt to attract old perverts with the schoolgirl routine?

And I know what some of you are thinking, you’re like ‘bro, you’re just reaching to make a bad joke bro, Cyneswith is just a sweet nice introvert and not like other girls, she doesn’t feel comfortable in the club’, well to that let me reply with another picture that is worth a thousand words:

Yea that’s right, on the first minute of our first time out WE RUN INTO THAT ONE ELDER TOWNIE THAT HAS WRINKLE MAKE UP ON. GODDAMMIT CYNESWITH

Do you guys remember how Jojo was obsessed with Stephen Tinker as a teen? Are you seeing the connection here?? Those kids have literally inherited the worst possible traits from both their parents turned up to 11, it’s fucking unreal.  

Right after I get over Wrinkle’s presence I turn around and what do I see, those 2, who have never had a non-noogie physical interaction, autonomously doing the family kiss thing. I didn’t even catch it on time because I was loling irl, we came out here so these assholes can find age-appropriate partners, and instead they’re kissing each other. Seems about right with this family, and clearly Striped Scarf’s dumb ass ships it.

-They look so much alike, it’s meant to be!

Yes, and they even share the same last name! Talk about written in the stars.

Thankfully Abhijeet is here to save us from incest by perving on Cyneswith. GTFO ABHIJEET. Anyone like ‘bro townies just autonomously come to greet your sims on community lots regardless of age, stop calling them perverts’, see you in about 5 pics down.  

I try to have Shajar chat up Striped Scarf and suffice it to say Shaj ~stole her heart~ and presumably put it on this stick to wave around.

NO. CYNESWITH NO. I’m seriously having déjà vu of all the times I was like ‘NO. JOJO NO’, jfc.

Shajar is unsurprisingly exhibiting no interest in socializing with anyone around her, instead she’s trying every activity this terribly lit place has to offer, and she looks demented while doing it:

I’m feeling a primal urge to photoshop Darth Vader’s melted helmet on the bowling ball here, someone please remind me to do it for the heir vote photoshoot.

-HA. SUCK IT DENISE JACQUET

That’s Denise Jacquet?! I can’t tell who anyone is for shit anymore. The default replacements are a scourge upon premade brands, I’m getting rid of them pronto. Speaking of scourges, where the hell is your sister?

-Who cares?

I wanna say ‘me’ but we both know that’s a lie.

Oh ok, THERE SHE IS.

-So you see Cyneswith, just because something is technically ‘illegal’, doesn’t mean it’s morally wrong-

Yea yea fascinating stuff, now get out of the hot tub or I will fucking neuter you, I don’t know if a eunuch mod already exists for medieval games but I will make one if it doesn’t.

Here, Cyneswith, drink some water, have a nice G-rated convo with your sister about violins and stop pissing me off. 

-First of all this is straight vodka.

Great.

-Secondly Shajar is talking about Mozart’s coprophilia.

-I sure am.

Amazing. Well, I guess it’s at times like these when you need to look inside your heart and truly ask yourself, what did you expect from Jojo’s children.

ABHIJEET ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME DID YOU EVEN HEAR ME TALK ABOUT CASTRATION

-Ha, I went home and put on my most elderly-looking formal wear!

-I hate to see you go but I love to watch you leave Ab <3

CYNESWITH SHUT UP. I can’t believe you people are actually making me miss Gunther’s teenage whoring, at least he kept it age appropriate.

-Is some random lady pressing her breasts against my head?

She most certainly is, Shajar, because it is now crystal clear that this bowling alley doubles as the site of annual perv townie convention and we walked right into it-

-and it’s also clear we have serious issues and are enjoying ourselves. Shaj I legit don’t know what to tell you, this is the first time you get along with someone right away and it just had to be the adult with the bad haircut and the flasher’s trench coat???

-You’re damn right it did.

Alright then, I’m officially going to nope out of this situation, safe in the knowledge you’re a noogiesexual and nothing will actually happen with this freak, so I’ll focus on Cyneswith instead who is much more of a loose canon. 

Here Cyn, talk to this guy, who I’m 90% sure is the same guy your father rejected in favor of stalking Stephen Tinker when he was your age.

-Ohhhh, he’s dreamy!

Omg really?? Halleluj-

-oh never mind, you were of course referring to adult ass Brandon Lillard. I do like that our townies have recurring roles each generation, we should make rejecting Blondie a rite of passage in this family. We should also officially gtfo because this is happening:

-Um, now that I’m looking at you in harsher lighting, it’s gonna be a no from me dawg. 

Oh, thank the fucking lord.

-Let’s celebrate the fact we didn’t get hopelessly obsessed with any adults here by doing the traditional Dance of Normality!

-We beat Dad’s genes, we beat Dad’s genes!

-We’re normal!

Yes, and we’re definitely showing it. Can we please leave now so I can make sure I’ve uninstalled Inteenminator and turn off free will? 

-Nop! Venue change!

-Got-out-of-the-car celebratory noogie!

-Made-it-to-the-door celebratory noogie!

Shajar you unironically have a noogie addiction, I’m not kidding in the slightest, you need to see a doctor.

Great, great, not another teen in sight and to top it off Denise followed us here to ensure maximum elder presence. I feel comfortable officially declaring this day a complete waste of time.

God, the vintage pink dress and the pink alcohol combo is some straight up current era Taylor Swift nonsense. That’s it, we’re outta here, back home where no one is lurking, waiting to strike at us-

-SOPHIE NOOOOOOOOOOOO💔💔💔💔💔

-The Lord is my shepherd.

NO HE ISN’T EVERYONE KNOWS YOU CAN’T HERD CATS PLEASE DON’T DIE

-Nop, I’m over it. Goodbye heathens, it’s been nice, hope you don’t find your paradise. 

UGH SOPHIE, my beloved Westboro lunatic, the last gangsta generation 1 cat we had.. I can’t believe you’re gone and all I’m left with is stupid Goro and D’vorah who can’t even beat up the fucking dog. This is truly painful.

Yes, pets, I agree, Kaylynn is completely to blame for Sophie dying of old age. The time has now come to decide on a cat heir-

-and since Goro ran away like a little bitch after Sophie’s death despite the fact he didn’t even like her, he’s automatically disqualified and will be going off to live on Melody and Daniel’s farm once returned to us. Congratulations to D’vorah I guess, on being the least terrible of two terrible options. 

On the topic of terrible heir options, Cyn has non-stop wants to go on dates and have her first kiss and all that crap, and since our Sunday morning clubbing was a bust we invite over the matchmaker.

-Hello there young Union, I see your house has been upgraded since I was last here.

Oh right we haven’t required your services since Daniel was a teen and we lived in a trailer, well we are flush with cash now!

-Hopefully your payment reflects that.

It will!! Just please give us someone good, I can’t deal with single teen Cyn for one more second.

-Oh my, what a beautiful BLANK PIECE OF PAPER.

WHAT!? NO THAT’S 5K IT’S JUST A SNOW GLITCH 

-What do I look like to you, a money thawing service?

Does such a service.. exist??

-It does not, so I have to go home and use a hairdryer on this!

Just come inside and we’ll give you non-frozen money!

-No, no, you’ll get what you paid for..

-Have a magical time!

...

.........

......................

Lakshmi this was so fucking evil that I almost want to age you down and see if you and Shajar hit it off. 

-As if, the whole neighborhood knows what you did to Komei.

Helped him achieve his insane 6-pets-career LTW?

-Turned him into a servant while your sim was lounging around all day!

Oh yea I did do that. But Wyatt was also a townie and he does literally nothing, Jojo is the servant now!

-Only because Wyatt is too fucking stupid to do things! Word has gotten out, no townie will ever marry in this family again unless they’re brain dead, so it’s Wyatts only for you from now on, sister!

Well this has been a complete fucking disaster. It was great seeing you again, Lakshmi, thanks for the dream date with the adult farting machine, 5k well-spent.

Pretty sure it was you bro, and yes, how about we don’t do that again.

Wyatt has brought over Amanda from work! (Aka Victoria’s only friend and subsequent lesbian lover, who is really pretty and is definitely getting married in at some point, preferably after the brown hair genes have been weakened so we can go back to being gingers.)  

-Wow Shajar, your grandmother, God rest her soul, mentioned you were her favorite and now I can see why! Loving the Kylo Ren look!

-Is someone being genuinely nice to me?! What is happening?

-Yes, please stop being nice to her, Amanda, we don’t want her getting used to it.

Jojo istg.

-Cyneswith dear, tell Amanda all about how much money your grandmother left you so she can stop being nice to Shajar. 

-Soooo much money, Miss Amanda!

-Ah, what a polite child I’ve single-handedly raised.

-Now, Cyneswith, you really need to get back on the dating scene so you have ample time to find the perfect spouse and continue our line, since you’re clearly the only one of my children that is remotely heir material. 

-Dad, Shajar and Wulf are right next to you.

-Oh they are? I’m wearing my special contact lenses that make those disappointments invisible to me, but even better, they need to hear this. Shajar is a noogiesexual and thus incapable of reproduction, and Wulf is not even a Union, I mean have you seen that kid? Wyatt reproduced by himself like the amoeba he is. Now, your grandmother-

-YOU MENTIONED ME 3 TIMES AND HERE I AM

OH FUCK VICTORIA, deleting the default replacements gave you base game hair!!!!

-That’s the part you’re scared by, not my Beetlejuicesque entrance?

There’s literally nothing scarier than your ghost sporting this haircut for all eternity, I’m re-downloading that default immediately. 

-Oh mom, so good to see you! Let me just hug my beloved child, Shijer-

-Shajar, dad.

-SHAJAR, let me hug Shajar, like I do all the time. 

-I’m glad to see you’re not picking favorites among your children like I did, the way I treated David-

-Daniel, mom.

-DANIEL, is the one thing I’ve truly been regretting in the afterlife. That and not skinning Marisa Bendett alive when I had the chance. 

-Well, as you can see by Shajar’s totally normal and not at all shocked reaction to my hug, I am a wonderful, fair, and emotionally available father. 

(Bruh this freaked me out so much when it happened, I mean I KNOW it’s an animation glitch but I was convinced my sims had become sentient for a good while after)

-Is your grandmother’s ghost still on the premises?

-Yup. 

-When will this nightmare end, paying attention to you is the worst. 

-Ok she’s gone.

-FINALLY. Now it’s back to the crypt for you, and don’t you dare go complain to her urn!

-Ah, Stephen, Stephen, my life is crap and I can’t even🎵

And with the knowledge you have composed a theme song for Stephen Tinker, part 1 of the Union comeback update is concluded. Will Shajar’s sexual orientation reveal itself? Will Cyneswith find true love? Will Jojo become a werewolf? Will Wulf continue to be the only dignified member of this family? Will D’vorah have kittens? Will Wyatt do literally anything worth mentioning? Tune in for parts 2 & 3 to find out, unfollow button on the upper right corner for those who need it. 

[wanna-hear-a-joke]

Am I really writing out Joker Fan Theories at 5am

Yep! It's 5:30 in the goddamn morning and I really can't believe I'm writing Joker fan theory based on my psychological breakdown of the character, I really can't, but I just watched it again and I don't think I'll be able to sleep unless I do. I must exorcise the demons.

[ Disclaimer: this is just my personal interpretation, not what I am claiming the filmmakers ‘actually’ intended or not. ]

in short: 1. Arthur's “condition” (pseudobulbar affect) is real.  2. Most of what happens is real - and Arthur can (somewhat) tell. 3. Arthur did not kill Sophie. 4. Arthur did not kill his mother to get revenge. CLICK READ MORE 2 LEARN WHY 😜

1. Arthur's “condition” (pseudobulbar affect) is real. This is one of the things that bothers me THE most, because websites like TV tropes have claimed it as fact that one of the "twists" is that he never really had a condition, just a sick sense of humor! I think this comes from taking what Arthur says in the hospital scene too literally. He does see the dark humor of his situation, but he is still beset by mental illness, trauma, and brain damage. He is very clearly laughing in anguish at the start, and part of what makes the ‘character arc’ satisfying (as tragic as it is) is he frees himself from what was causing that anguish. That’s what he means. As Joker, he no longer has any reason to feel afraid, nothing can hurt him anymore and he’s liberated himself from the pain/fear he experiences as Arthur- which is what triggers the laughter. Idk how so many people get this one wrong but it’s driving me nuts as someone who actually has dealt with PBA-like symptoms from PTSD. It’s real y’all and JP portrayed it with shocking accuracy.

2. Most of what happens is real - and Arthur can (somewhat) tell. It's meant to be ambiguous to the viewer, but with the exception of the first Murray Show scene and Arthur's fantasies about dating Sophie, everything else actually does happen. What Arthur’s fantasy sequences convey is a lonely man who is unable to connect with others and lives in daydreams to escape the pain of his dismal, dreary life. Arthur struggles with empathy and his fantasies are self-centered and distinctly themed around being cared for. He was raised by a mentally ill narcissist that he likely took care of from a young age, and clearly yearns for the kind of unconditional love a parent is meant to provide. It's how he copes with the lack of connection in his life. He’s checked out. Dissociated. Not to mention, in denial or unaware of how bad his trauma actually is. He is probably so used to living this way that he’s not fully aware of what he’s doing, but I maintain it’s not like, a fabricated hallucination.

Where the delusion comes in is... well, I don't think he knows how to read people and his judgement of situations seems to be pretty impaired. This is not the same as a Fight Club-esque scenario where he’s completely unaware of an elaborate hallucination, but a dissociated withdrawal where he passively engages with life while retreating to his mind and making up his own version of events.  For example, he sees Sophie give an half-hearted "yea ok buddy" smile in the hallway and thinks "oh she smiled, good, she thinks it's funny." The guys at work might anxiously laugh at his unnerving, dead-pan jokes and sarcastically say he's ready for the "big clubs," and he takes it at face value. People are laughing at his standup, so he must be killin it!

Did he wear cologne for a date he never went on? Yes, but I think it’s just as likely he put it on while getting ready, envisioning a date, and ran with that version of events because it’s preferable to reality. He may even feel pressure to impress his mom and “prove” himself as a man to her by claiming he went on a date as a sort of rite of passage.

3. Arthur did not kill Sophie. Arthur visits Sophie's apartment in a last-ditch effort to find comfort. With his mother in the hospital, his idealized father figure mocking him on national TV and being rejected from Wayne, he has nothing and no one to turn to. He's also just unearthed traumatic details from childhood that he'd probably much rather have kept buried. Sophie is his last thread of hope at this point. I'm sure Arthur had a version in his head of how this would go- perhaps rehearsed many times over. He runs his fingers over furniture in the apartment as if he's thinking "so this is what it’s like," comparing it to the fantasies he's constructed (much like he later does on the Murray show) but his expectations are shattered the moment Sophie reacts in fear. I really don’t think he’s thinking “but what about all those dates we went on?” more like “oh this is where she was supposed to ask if I’m ok... shit, better do the finger gun she laughed at that before.” Because of his struggle with empathy he couldn’t have anticipated how she might react to a strange man in her apartment. To be honest, my best guess is that he just left feeling upset, confused and embarrassed. We don’t see Sophie again because we don’t need to, his “last hope” for a loving human connection was a farce. (also logically it just does not fit with the timeline of everything else imo- he would have been 100% caught; the sirens in the scene afterwards are either to draw parallels to his mother or further illustrate Gotham as a crime-ridden shithole)

4. Arthur did not kill his mother to get revenge. While he very clearly harbors resent towards her, I believe his main motivation for killing her was his plan to kill himself on TV- he needed to do this to grant himself the freedom to carry through with it. It’s more symbolic to him, is what I’m saying. I wouldn’t call it a mercy killing (idk if he’s capable of the type of empathy to consider that), but he no longer sees their situation improving and he no longer takes pride in being her caretaker after learning the ‘truth.’ He sees his life as one big cosmic joke, and this act fully frees him to get to the “punchline,” all former attachments to his life as Arthur as now severed and he’s got nothing left to lose. This would not have been possible had he left her alive. In addition to this, and... I can’t believe I have to write this out, but everything that happened at Arkham is real. The file is real. The criminal neglect and abuse Arthur faced was real and so horrific it was headline-worthy. When he is seen in the “flashback” sequence, all that’s communicating is his imagining of how his mother’s time at Arkham went down, it may even give some context for how he viewed her as a child. Whether or not Arthur is actually Wayne’s son is deliberately very ambiguous but I personally believe that he is.