#anyway this is the little.. center stage page

[ambitions-of-an-eccedentesiast]

at least he stopped monologuing

Next->

<-Previous

[jay-pones]

Known Infection Totals to Date in Largest Population Centers and Original Infection Site:

Ponyville: 10

Canterlot: 2

Manehattan: 26

Text from page under the cut

Twilight Sparkles Notes:

Marrow Bloom - 9 Days After Market Attack

Discord has been keeping Fluttershy quarantined since the attack.

I wish he would use this spell on the others but he can't be everywhere at once.

He only lets her out of the ward spell to clean her and remove the flowers.

Her skin is so delicate. Scrub too hard and it comes off.

The ward is only slowing the effects a little bit...

SAMPLES

We have collected blood and plant samples from various ponies.

Fully bloomed flower was pulled from Cheerilee.

DECEASED

Control blood sample was generously given by Rarity.

Sample A - Fluttershy

Sample B - Cheerilee

Both heavily contaminated by sap.

Page Two:

Dr. Fauna - Stage 4

The town guards found her at the animal sanctuary. She had killed every animal that did not escape.

A few animals were blooming but most were just dead.

Roots are starting to reach for the ground and he is exhibiting a behavior we have dubbed "STAR GAZING"

She is also bleeding a lot but doesn't seem to be affected. Some of the doctors believe the sap from the flowers is sustaining her.

She doesn't have long...

CHEERILEE

Died from her wounds at stage 3 but the bloom progressed to stage 4 anyway.

Based on the scans of her head it seems the blooms do not cause the madness that occurs at later stages.

We theorize that the sap may be the cause due to the roots not breaking through the skull cavity.

Hopefully we can use what we learned from Cheerilee to come up with an effective treatment.

[summerf0x]

I think the real reason why Artic’s death is so horrifying isn’t because of the gore. It’s because it represents Darkstalker finally becoming the monster he was prophecized to be.

The entire book you know how it’s going to end. Darkstalker will be sealed beneath a mountain, Clearsight will flee the continent, and Fathom leaves the public eye with Indigo. The build up is an entirely different story. All three of them want the future to be different, one where they stay together and avoid the grim fate that awaits them, and for a few brief periods all over the story you think they will. Clearsight says that she had almost entirely written out the scroll as a possibility because of how few timelines it appeared in.

Fathom manages to gradually reign in Darkstalker to the point where the thought of him enchanting the goblet was shocking. And yet, Darkstalker continues down the dark path. He doesn’t trap Indigo just because he loathes her (although that definitely contributed to it). He traps her because it’s a stepping stone to getting Fathom more willing to use his animus powers, weather that be voluntarily or not. He gives Clearsight the earrings not because he dislikes her power. He gives it to her because it’s only a temporary thing to make sure she’s happier and he check all her work anyway, so nothing bad would happen!

Darkstalker has convinced himself that every action he does is the right one. It’s all to move them towards the best possible future, where everyone’s happy in the end. At least… he says that. Some part of Darkstalker still knows these are wrong. That’s why he wrote them in the invisible ink. That’s why he never fully enchanted, Clearsight or Fathom to change. Little, justifiable nudges that he could write off as a necessary evil. It doesn't matter how they get to the big, happy ending. Just that they get there in the first place. Everyone will be happy then, so when he reveals what he did they'll be mad for a bit but will ultimately accept that it all worked out in the end.

It's this philosophy that helps Darkstalker continue. He's not a monster because he never changes them directly, only with something small and disposeable like an object. He is so terrifed of being that bloodstained dragon in the future he refuses to do it directly, maintaining plausable deniability the entire time. It creates a buffer between them, and as long as it stands he considers himself blameless.

Even when everyone else is against him for surviving Quickdeath’s attack, he doesn’t focus on the fact that they are horrified that he enchanted himself to be invulnerable and instead says that the problem is resolved and is shocked that they aren’t relieved and going on as normal.

When he enchants Arctic, he still doesn’t lay a hand on him. Not his claws. He is not bloody. Not yet. He flies Arctic to the center of the Nightwing kingdom and creates a mock trial out of his father’s death. He kills him as a show of power, yes, but convinced himself it’s justifiable. He waits for the crowd’s reaction before doing it.

Arctic’s death isn’t even that descriptive. The book says that it was “messy” but there aren’t pages and pages of vivid gore. It’s a short paragraph and while it is the culmination of Darkstalker’s decent into power-driven madness the violence is so very small in a book filled with it. There’s no return from here. Clearsight says it herself, when everything is done. She can’t return to the Nightwings after being seen on that stage with Darkstalker. This is what finally gets Fathom to give up on any attempts to bring him back to the friendly, charming version of the Darkstalker he knew.

There’s no return for Darkstalker, either. In his mind, he’s won. He’s “triumphed” over Arctic after all this time. He’s finally killed someone. No. He’s finally made someone kill themselves. Like some sort of horrible gotcha to the universe, there is no blood on his claws. No blemishes on his body. Even when killing his father, he remains blameless in his mind. He would have remained blameless when killing anyone else.

[weast-of-eden]

it seems like some people actually liked my last fic rec, so here's another one, guys! this time i tried finding some fics that were a little different, like AUs, different POVs, rarepairs, WIPs, etc. again, these are pretty all set in canonverse (ACD or Granada) or victorian era unless specified otherwise. so without further ado, here is:

Eden’s ACD/Granada Unique Fic Recommendations

And With Him Disaster by eggshellseas (@/maxwelljacobfriedman on tumblr) 14k | Rated E Summary: John Watson is being stalked by a vampire. Notes: not-your-mother's vampire au, that's for sure. definitely read the tags before getting into this but man, this fic is so, so good. features not only vampire!holmes but also dark!holmes and it's a ride from beginning to end. ugh i want to talk more about this fic but i can't spoil anything!!

Into darkness then without a candle by Solshine (@/thehumantrampoline on tumblr) 10k | Rated T Summary: At first, Moriarty is just a disguise, like all the rest in his wardrobe; a helpful alias to bring Holmes closer to the evils he duels. And then the disguise wins at the Reichenbach Falls. AU inspired by the stage play, “The Secret of Sherlock Holmes." Notes: i can't even get into this. I CAN'T EVEN GET INTO THISSSS. there are no words. if there were, the word would be: UGH. this is such a unique fic and watson really pulls through in this. I CAN'T EVEN GET INTO THIS RIGHT NOW.

Back to Edinburgh by mightymads 4k | Rated T Summary: The Jezail bullet in Watson’s leg causes him so much pain that he is on the verge of despair. London doctors deem it impossible to extract the bullet without inevitable nerve damage. Holmes finds a surgeon in Edinburgh, who agrees to help. It is none other than Professor Joseph Bell. Notes: Dr. Bell says 'gay rights'! also Scottish Watson for the win! this is such a beautiful story, Watson really gets to take the center stage while Holmes gets to worry for his well-being. oh how the tables have turned. plus lots of ACD's personal life mixed with Watson's own, which I think makes this such a unique fic. it's just really nice to read. *chef's kiss*

The Red Notebook by Garonne 10k | Rated T Summary: Holmes is dead, or seems to be. Watson starts to write, and Mycroft starts to read. Holmes/Watson slash set during the Hiatus. Mycroft's POV. Notes: i LOVE Mycroft POVs, and this is one of my favorites. also i love fics that depict watson's stories as completely false, like Moriarty is not real and 'The Final Problem' was just john's way of coping. STELLAR FIC.

Some Power of Selection by wordybirdy 12k | Rated E Summary: John Watson is a struggling doctor in recent practice on London's Upper Wimpole Street. One dreary Wednesday, an urgent telegram summons him to 221B Baker Street, where he meets a sombre and initially taciturn gentleman by the name of Sherlock Holmes. Sparks immediately fly – but not of the positive, life-affirming variety... Notes: enemies to lovers AU for the win! Stamford is such a knob in this one, truly. but that's okay, our heroes figure themselves out anyways. great banter in this one, if you like rom-coms then this is the fic for you!

One Page Is Missing by PlaidAdder 2k | Rated T Summary: "From this point onward I will follow the course of events by transcribing my own letters to Mr. Sherlock Holmes which lie before me on the table. One page is missing, but otherwise they are exactly as written and show my feelings and suspicions of the moment more accurately than my memory, clear as it is upon these tragic events, can possibly do." --The Hound of the Baskervilles, Chapter 8 **** This is the missing page. Notes: ok first of all you should read all of PlaidAdder’s Missing Pages series, it’s so beautifully written. this is the first of the series and the premise is so interesting and mysterious! this fic is for any fans of HOUN (me) or enjoyers of jealous Holmes (also me)

On the Orbits of Asteroids by Sheila_Snow 22k | Rated E Summary: Watson has a secret from his past that he's kept from Holmes, but the past has a tendency to come back and haunt you. Notes: Watson/Moriarty fic. yes you read that correctly and YES it's crazy good. there's still holmes/watson but it's angsty and– i can't even get into it, you just gotta read for yourself. also feat. Moran who is currently questioning his sexuality (yeah watson will do that to you mate)

The Better Part of Valour by rachelindeed 7k | Rated T Summary: Mr Melas considers himself a coward, but more than one man's courage comes with complicated cracks. Notes: for any fans of 'The Greek Interpreter' (aka ME) this fic is the coolest ever. POV from Melas, who is smart, witty, and very observant. you get to meet Paul Kratides when he's not in the middle of being tortured, plus the ANGSTIEST background story about Watson's war injury. Oof. But I literally love this fic guys pwease read it

☆The Adventure of the Purloined Heart by ladyblahblah (@/hungrylikethewolfie on tumblr) 15k | Rated M Summary: A gruesome murder unveils secrets kept buried for years. Some feelings can only be hidden for so long. Notes: This fic checks every single box for me. HOLY SHIT. It's got murder, mystery, intrigue; it's got pining, secrets, and unrequited (?) love. I think the reason I'm so unwell about this fic is because it's a WIP that ends on a doozy of a cliffhanger. if god loves me he will let this fic be finished one day. IT'S SO GOOD GUYS PLEASE READ THIS FIC. in my ao3 history is says 'visited 12 times in the past month.' what is wrong with me

i hope someone out there enjoys these! also i was going to tag the authors whose tumblrs i knew, but then i chickened out, so... sue me i guess?

also if there’s any AUs, tropes, or somesuch fics you wish existed but can’t find, feel free to ask me!! maybe i’ve read something you’re looking for :)

[carnivorousyandeere]

Hihi! I always love seeing your zodiac yans being written about!

How do you think they would react to a darling that has recently been heartbroken and refuses to let them in? Just kinda open for any of the yans to be written in- even Quinn!

- cow anon 🐄

Goin with the fire sign zodiac yans just bc, but I’ll write the other signs sometime if they’re requested too. Just thought these three would be interesting to see in this situation. Written under the assumption of Darling and the Yans having been friends for a while, with the yandere tendencies and obsessions only beginning to arise…

Thank you for sending this in, and sorry for the long wait ❤️‍🩹

CW: alcohol, lack of boundaries, murder, mentions of sex but no smut

Kosuke pretends not to give a damn that you’re avoiding them— telling themself they’re too cool for you anyway, they don’t need you— but it’s a lie. The situation honestly pisses them off, especially if they don’t know why you’re being so ‘weird’ all of a sudden (they’re not the stalking type of yandere usually, so they really may not know why). They do get really pushy and demanding with you, basically forcing you to spill your guts about what’s up. Once you tear up and admit you’ve had your heart broken, they’re at a loss for words. They feel embarrassed and guilty about how they acted, but they’re definitely too prideful to apologize directly. They think they oughta be happy that there’s one less source of competition for them in your life, but seeing you so sad ruins any enjoyment they might get from it. Orders you food and (tries) to clean up around your place to help you out. Not the best at comforting, per se, but they’ll let you cry on their shoulder and shit talk whoever hurt you. Definitely thinks about beating the shit out of the other person, and depending on the circumstances, might actually hunt them down to teach them a lesson.

Jett doesn’t expect you to get over it quickly, but they do get impatient if you keep blowing them off to stew in your own misery. They firmly believe that you’re never gonna recover if you keep uselessly pining and mourning in your bedroom. You’re way too good to be heartbroken over some loser, anyway. If anything, you should celebrate being free from that nobody! They’ll take any chance they can get to drag you out with them— brunch, shopping, or especially partying. Maybe you’ll spill all the details if they get a few drinks in you, or if you’re just tired enough. Jett is plainly happy to have that worthless slime competing for your attention out of the picture— they should be the one in the center stage of your heart, anyway! They’re likely to flirt a little extra heavily and try to worm their way into being your rebound. Pretends like they were just kidding if you get annoyed by the flirting instead, but, like I said, they’re not patient— it burns them deeply inside.

Blake is the most hurt by you having feelings for another person, even if it was in the past, and you’ve since had your heart broken by that other person. If Jett and Kosuke get irritated and angry with you for pushing them away, respectively, Blake gets sad. They’re not used to outright rejection, especially from people they’re close to. They’re fun, they’re gorgeous, they’re kind (to anyone who isn’t a romantic rival, or who’s been a hater first)… and they just want to help you. They want to help take your mind off of things. Blake honestly, and with no self-awareness, manages to take a page from the water signs’ book and guilt trip you into feeling bad for not accepting their help and company to get you through your breakup. Most likely out of the three to kill whoever broke your heart and bury them out in the middle of nowhere, ‘just to be on the safe side,’ and also so they can truly feel like they “fixed” the source of your heartache by removing it from this world entirely. They don’t tell you, they just expect you to feel as if a weight’s been lifted from your shoulders in some mysterious, mystical way. They want to feel like they’ve fixed the problem as they hold you in their lap and look up at the stars, off-road on a spontaneous trip to bring you someplace fun. This is where their own impatience starts, if you ‘keep moping around’ when you ‘should be having a good time with them,’ similar to Jett.

As insensitive as it probably is (depending on the Darling’s personality, I suppose), Jett and Blake are also the types to suggest sleeping with them as a way to take your mind off things. Kosuke definitely thinks about it, but they’re trying to be more delicate with emotional matters with their Darling;;;

[pluckyredhead]

just because you just answered an ask about kon stories i am still made at the superboy man of tomorrow for setting up such an interesting arc with kon feeling superfluous to the superfamily, and clark not even noticing for a while that he’s left the planet, for such a supremely average comic and kon hand waving clark’s single attempt at an apology like it didn’t matter.

I one hundred percent agree with you, but I also feel like...it's almost not the Superboy mini's fault it was mid, because...what the hell kind of character development are we going to get out of any miniseries? Especially in the 2020s, where all miniseries are like, Issue 1: Introduce the concept; Issues 2-5: Nonstop action!; Issue 6: I guess we have to wrap things up now? There's no room for any kind of character or relationship growth because contemporary comic book storytelling simply isn't structured that way.

I did a deep dive into 80s/90s Superman comics a few months ago, and one thing that really struck me was how much time they spent on character. There were a billion subplots and every supporting character got one. Every issue told me not just what was going on for both Superman and Clark Kent, but what was going on with Lois, Jimmy, Ma and Pa, Perry, Perry's wife, Perry's terrible son Jerry, Cat Grant, Pete Ross and Lana Lang, Jose Delgado (MISS U JOSE, COME BACK TO ME), Professor Hamilton, Lex, and usually a handful of other antagonists. Pete and Lana didn't even live in Metropolis or Smallville or hang out with any of the other main characters, and the comics were still constantly like "Better check in on Pete and Lana!" And it never felt overfull, because the comics were structured to keep the central plot moving forward while always juggling multiple narrative balls, so that when, for example, Superman finished saving Cat from Morgan Edge and Intergang, the latest Jimmy plotline would be ready to take center stage.

I'm mostly enjoying the current era of Superbooks because I like seeing all my blorbos, but I'm frustrated too, because they finally have the whole Superfamily all hanging out all the time and they haven't actually done anything with it but let them all strike a dramatic pose on a splash page once per issue. (And, I guess, hint vaguely that various characters feel insecure - Kon, Jon, Kara, Karen - but never ever ever let those hints become satisfying stories.) Between Superman and Action Comics (especially when the latter was still an anthology book), they absolutely have the page count to tell a story about whatever villain Clark is currently fighting...and also Lois's struggles to lead up the Planet while Perry is in the hospital, and also Jon adjusting to not being the baby anymore in the face of his own lost childhood, and also Kon coming to terms with the Lex side of his DNA, and also Kara getting to do literally anything interesting, and also Kenan adjusting to living in America (...is he???), and so on. They're just letting a limited story bloat to fill the page count, instead of adding more story.

I mean. I cannot imagine picking up a Superman book in 1989 and not knowing what a character's job was or where they lived. Where the fuck do Kara or Kenan live? Is Jon living at home? How did the Kents fit two extra children in their apartment, then? What the hell does Jon do all day if he gave up on school after 20 minutes? If Kon is still in high school as that one terrible backup story implied, why is it not a problem for him to go into space for weeks or spend every day in Metropolis? Is Kenan commuting from China? Do Kara and Natasha have jobs? WHAT DO THESE PEOPLE DO WHEN THEY ARE NOT SPLASH PAGE POSING???

Anyway. All that was a little beside the point of what you asked, but I think my point was: we're never going to get anything satisfying with Kon (or Jon, or Kara, or anyone else) until a) he gets to take up space in an ongoing that b) is concerned with something more than fighting the latest villain or Shocking Revelations.

[nyoomfruits]

🔀 for landoscar if you like :)

i got super trouper by abba so OBVIOUSLY my brain immediately went 'landoscar boyband au' and uuuh. i actually wrote thing for it??? so??? here you go????

Most of the time, Lando’s relieved they gave up on trying to do any kind of synchronized choreography long ago. He’s never been very good at remembering all the different steps, always sort of missed his que, and next to George ‘what like it’s hard?’ Russell, anyone ends up kind of looking like a floppy fish anyway.

But right now, he kind of misses it. At least it gave him a purpose, especially during slower songs like these, the romantic love ballad that means he can’t just run around and make weird faces at the crowd for a bit while he waits for his turn to sing again.

They all have their thing during this song, anyway. George is center stage, carrying most of the verses and the chorus, belting like his heart depends on it. Pierre and Charles are doing, well, whatever Pierre and Charles do. Right now it looks like they’re doing some kind of ballroom dancing, Pierre twirling Charles around as they giggle loudly and nearly miss their que for the chorus, coming in just a second too late.

Meanwhile Alex is off to Lando’s other side, blowing kisses at the crowd and encouraging them to put up their flashlights and sway along, making a group of girls in the front row giggle and swoon.

Speaking of the front row, Lando glances out in the crowd again, searching, as he has been all night. Their lighting set up is insane, so he’s barely been able to see the crowd, but with the ballad it’s softer, more forgiving. He can actually see people’s faces now.

And so it doesn’t take long, before he spots him. Oscar is kind of awkwardly crammed between the barrier at the walkway stage and a girl holding a sign that says ‘CHARLES WILL YOU MARRY ME’. He looks horribly out of place, wearing a plain dark blue t-shirt and a pair of black jeans, a stark contrast with the decked out glitter covered fans around him. But his face, god.

There’s about 17.000 people in the venue right now. Many of them have posters of Lando above their bed, have entire Instagram pages dedicated to him, write his name next to theirs surrounded by hearts in the margins of their notes. And yet no one is looking at him with more love in their eyes then Oscar is right in that moment.

The bridge of the song comes around, and Lando fumbles for his mic, raising it just in time to start singing. He sings the whole cheesy, generic, saccharine sweet thing right at Oscar, not breaking eye contact for a moment.

No one knows about them, and maybe they never will. Maybe they will have to spend the rest of their lives in the shadows, hiding and sneaking around and keeping it a secret. It’s the prize, of the ridiculous level of fame Lando finds himself in.

But this moment, this little moment in the harsh glow of the spotlight, this is theirs. And no one is going to take that away from them.

[borzoilover69]

> BORZOI: Read HOMESTUCK like its 2011 (part 2)

I'm back. My barber made me look like Jake English deadass.

Page 4149 i s a neat callback to page 629. I just realised the adjustment of what he's holding, since Egbert replaced him in Janes timeline, which is so interesting.

AND OF COURSE ONE OF THE BEST FUCKING BOOKS KNOWN TO MAN. Pony pals. Detective pony. So awesome. So cool. That's all there really is to say about it. I read the thing on AO3. Janes right it was heavy handed but incredibly intriguing. You remember lolcat Jane? You remember lolcat? Yeah I remember lolcat. Its so cute that the recipe for it is a combination of tiny maplehoof, wise guy, and dirks sweet shades. Its such a neat little combination. A wise horse guy qith an affinity for ponies and sweeeeet fucking shades.

But anyways, I'm getting offtopic. Comparing and contrasting these two Andersons, we also draw parallels of our characters learning valuable information for their session later. In Egberts case, after reading through wise guy, Egbert gets the idea to overlap two cards and create a new totem lathe, alchemising and creating one of the first items. In janes case, she goes to check out the gristwidget and show how it can convert cards to grist, something the kids will find incredibly useful later on in their journeys. The Betas session was about creating and adventuring and finding something new (keeping with the spring theme, you see?) via the kids alchemising loot to make them further overpowered and giving them character. The betas session had BREATH. A lot of it. It was centered around their leader, and gave them all the freedom to go fuck off and do their personal quests with their troll guides and alchemise and learn as they go.

Meanwhile the alphas, again, stick with that autumn theme. The gristwidget is going to prove useful later, because all the enemies and consorts are dead on their planet. Their session is not meant to spring life anew, but to conserve, to survive, not thrive. I guess it's why reasonably we never saw them doing an alchemising session together. It just didn't fit the theme. They were not meant to thrive, they were meant to wait for the end of the long dead winter, to survive off of what they could conserve, for spring. Their leader as stated by Dirk is not Jane, nor Dirk, and heaven forbid Jake, but ROXY. Their leader was Roxy, keeping them together but also essentially setting the stage for the stagnant and obscure nature of their session, one that would test and strain their relationships to the furthest they'd ever been strained.

4154

Don't mind me, just enjoying the subliminals in the background. This shit looks like what I assume a tiktok page looks like.

4155 oh neat!

And here we get another flaw from the get-go. The flaws of the alpha kids are so prominently stated just from the get-go, how opinionated and stubborn and *wanting* to do their way they are but begrudgingly having to put up with others to some extent. Jane getting pestered by Jake, who has no time for japery or mild fun in his quest to deliver the package to Jade who will go on to give it to John and getting downright passive-aggressive. Roxy, in another quest to give a gift but not so urgently, being absent (They had plans) ignoring nor apologising for her absence. She ignores and seems unaware. We start off seeing Roxy at sort of her worst, while others are more reasonable, and then shit flies off the deepend and Roxy straightens herself out (as a leader does) and everyone else sort of catapults into things fucking up. But i'm getting ahead of myself.

Reading this conversation just grates me honestly. Both sides are being pretty inconsiderate and I have to watch through my fingers and let out a breath as they get frustrated at each other. Janes reasonable in feeling chagrined about the whole thing, she's 15 dealing with a friend who's underage drinking and making generally bad decisions and Jane is no therapist by any terms of the words. The alpha kids rely on needling others for getting across things they cant really say upfront because they lack emotional maturity. Going "hey im doing xyz just letting you KNOW just making you AWARE." And it always always allllways backfires on them!! Just be upfront for once you idiots!! I'll put examples as I come upon them, but Jane is the most prominent.

Speaking of Jane, I always headcanonned her voice as either Velma from Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated. Velma reminds me of Jane very much, from crushing hard on a clueless and albeit not really fit for guy wearing green to ( and this is just my thoughts ) realising they're both lesbians and avid mystery enjoyers with relatively skeptic if wellmeaning airs behind them. I think seeing Jane in a vein similiar to Velma makes me fond of her.

It's good to see them winding down a little as their conversation comes to an end. At the end of the day they're girls whove been friends for a very long while for better or for worse and i feel like a fair deal of early friendship with the others per Roxy was when she was inebriated which left them in a limbo of "hey what the fuck do we do" especially with Jane, who seems moreso trying to spur Roxy on via comparing how good her life is and how motivated she is in a push for action on Roxys side, to Dirk, who leaves it to his autoresponder to deal with her illadvised advances on his personhood.

Its great to see them while down after they sort of passive aggressively aired their annoyances at each other. At the end of the day its so important to know that despite it all, all the ribbing and nudging and stuff, the alpha kids work to try and spur the others on to be better and take care of them in their own ways, wellintentioned but not always hitting home base, you know?

4160 Here she is playing pretend and giggling over her cute little detective get ups pretending to be a guy with an especially dashing mustache. Meanwhile Egbert in the beta session simply said "This disguise is stupid" and left the premises. But Jane is having FUN with it damnit shes so LOVEL-

Ok. Well yeah you have a point but can you go back to roleplaying.

Well thats the end of janes interaction. Moving onto Jake!

4166 ANNND theres Jake talking about wearing a generally feminine thing and considering it genuinely how he pulls it off. Gender nonconforming as fuck really. Both Jane and Jake. Like daaamn go for it i know what you are. Wear whatever the fuck you want to wear!

Man. Looking at all these movies as a movie nerd its so insane. They revolve around curses from thousands of years ago, green menaces and demons, and blue lady femme fatales that guide the protagonist figure. Also Weekend at bernies 2 SUCKS. Wait holy cow is that smurfette.

Anyways the thing that stands out i guess within these pages is how Jake doesn't exactly cherrypick here. hes pretty upfront with some things and hypothesies.

You think your bed is some sort of electronic gadget. You're pretty sure those bedpost globes are supposed to glow like light bulbs under certain circumstances. But you've never been able to figure out what purpose it serves.

You have never seen a movie you didn't like, you are pretty sure. People give you a hard time for that though.

This is your collection of beauties. But you don't call them that to anyone but yourself in private, because somehow even you are aware of how dorky that sounds.

I guess Jake strikes me as the type to know quite a lot but never know exactly what to do about it. Live and let live while it lives.

You are oft-times the recipient of a good ribbing from Jane on account of your peculiar fascination with blue movie ladies. You don't have to justify yourself to her though. What is even her deal? 

Hmm. I don't have anything to say it's 12 am i should probably sleep. So with page 4171 of Jake kissing Neytiri, mirroring a wish to be the hero that Egbert had on page 223, I bid you all adieu- hey whats with these losers and kissing their damn posters.

Jake: Stop kissing stupid poster.

Yes, that was a waste of time. Definitely. It's definitely not something you spend much time doing whenever you are alone, which is always.

Here he is being aware again to some regards, and trying to brush stuff off by showing how aware he is of what others think and how stupid some bullshit is. Which is intriguing to me. The way Jake talks about himself and his internal dialogue and thoughts is so intriguing to me, that often he brings up what he likes, what he thinks, vs relaity, vs others expectations, etc. Hes rather introspective and aware of things, and it's jsut. It's just interesting. Anyways I'm going to pop off to bed now. Goodnight all. I will be thinking about Egbert is so very forthright with whats good and whats not and Janes general deal for theatrics on her thoughts and Jakes more observant nature and write something tomorrow. Leave me a nice reblog or comment or drop a letter in my anon box.

[hotasfahrenheit]

So you wanna get into NCT, eh?

Part 3 - NCT 127 - More MVs and Social Media Links

Oh hey I'm finally back. It's been more than a day but life happens and it's only been like two days... or so? (it's been three) but let's get back into this!

So last time we covered a little bit about the members of the group and then I linked some MVs. I realised something I could have done there was link some social media accounts so let's do that!

There are general accounts for NCT on most of the big social media services such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. There are also accounts for all of the subgroups, so NCT 127 does have their own accounts on all of those as well. I feel like the Youtube content deserves its own post so I'll get to that but 127 does have a Youtube channel as well.

The individual members share things like the Twitter and Instagram accounts on and off, taking turns sometimes to post on there, tho most posts are from the company. Facebook gets posts from the company and not from individuals very often. The boys do all have their own Instagram accounts tho, and they also all use Bubble to varying degrees, which is an app which a lot of kpop groups use where fans can pay to access special posts from idols that include text posts, pictures, voice recordings, etc. I have never been a Bubble user, but I follow everyone on Instagram so here's all of those:

Taeil | Taeyong | Johnny | Yuta | Doyoung | Jaehyun | Winwin | Jungwoo | Mark | Haechan

You can use those to become more familiar with the members and see some of the nonsense they get up to. Some of them post often and some post almost never so your mileage may vary with them as a tool, but I'm a sucker for personal social media accounts so I'm clearly following those all.

It's also worth throwing out there since I skipped talking about positions last time that Taeyong is the leader of both NCT 127 and also of NCT in general. He's also a main rapper, main dancer, visual, center, helps write and produce music and has since The 7th Sense was released, etc etc, you name it, he's probably done the thing. He's ridiculously talented, basically. (They all are.) I could list everyone's positions but there's tons of wiki pages and etc with those kinds of lists and I find them to be less helpful when you have a group like NCT where everyone kinda does everything a lot of the time and has multiple talents and jobs since the rappers might be singing or the vocalists might be rapping depending on the song and literally everyone is a visual etc. But that's part of why you might be noticing that Taeyong is front and center like... a lot. Very often. He's recognisable and has a distinctive voice and being the leader is a good extra excuse to focus on him.

Anyway, let's get back to the music! I somehow managed to come up with ten more videos to link to hit the max per post so you're getting another full variety tasting of 127's style and range with a special treat at the end.

Favorite (Oct 25, 2021) was the lead single from the repackage of Sticker and was not quite as divisive as Sticker but still a bit weird. Released right before Halloween, there's a whole vampire concept going on (GREAT) and the MV and live stage performances all have a weird electronic dance break 2 1/2 minutes in (BAD) that I am PLEASED TO TELL YOU is not part of the song on the actual album. The first time I watched the MV it threw me for such a hard loop that I almost hated disliked the song but when I listened to the album later on spotify I was like "wait it's gone!!!! it was all just a bad dream!!!" and I try to forget it until I do something like watch the MV to make a post like this.

We're gonna mix in some of 127's Japanese releases today starting with their first one, Chain (May 8, 2018) off their first Japanese mini album. Despite NCT's initial plan to have groups based in different countries and markets, they are still now in early 2024 only ABOUT to have their first Japan-centric subunit debut, which means that they've just been having 127 (and Dream) release some stuff in Japanese in the meantime. It helps that they have a Japanese member. Anyway Chain is just a great song so here it is.

gimme gimme (Feb 15, 2021) suffers a little from the eternal problem of kpop songs even in primarily Japanese having some.... wild? English lyrics (spicy disease? dead clowns? who wrote these lyrics? why did their native English speakers go along with this?) but despite the nonsense it's a catchy, mesmerizing earworm of a song with a tight MV with a lot of neat cuts and transitions and I have watched it VERY MANY times. I love it. Spicy disease and all.

In the first main NCT intro post I included WayV's version of Regular (October 8, 2018) and linked both this and the Korean version. I was going to include the Korean version and just link the English here since the Korean one is the one that I personally listen to the most, but then I noticed that the English version has like 66 million more views so I decided to reverse that and you get the English one. Anyway. All versions of Regular are great and the English version has some great weird lyrics too ("I be walking with the cheese that's the queso" is like... ultimate. Incredible. A+. How did Jaehyun record that without laughing? Legendary.). It's also, with Simon Says, one of the only MVs that has all ten members of NCT 127. It also has a CGI tiger, shiny cars, rockets going off, Winwin jumping off a building, there's just a lot going on.

Sliding back to Japan for a minute, I feel like I should include Wakey Wakey (March 18, 2019). I almost forget this song exists sometimes and I think it's because I just want to block out having seen the absolutely terrible wig they put on Johnny for this MV. Seriously why? The song itself is solidly in the weird but also very catchy lane that 127 does so well but I just keep thinking about the wig. Johnny had some long extensions for NCT 2020 that looked great on him, but this wig was just not it. My eyes are drawn to it every time he's on screen. I need to put this into my regular listening-only playlists and let my brain block that wig out the way I forget the dance break in Favorite exists.

127 started 2023 off with Ay-Yo (Jan 30, 2023) which was the (somewhat delayed) repackage of 2 Baddies, which we'll get to in a moment. I wasn't sure what to think of Ay-Yo at first but it has definitely grown on me despite having veered back into some questionable hair territory mainly for Taeyong (and I say that as a grown up late 90s punk kid who thought giant hair spikes were cool). The MV has some absolutely wild visuals mixed in, and the song is definitely outside of the realm of standard kpop releases even if it's not as weird as some others like Sticker. It's solid.

Okay so. Like. I honestly didn't really pay enough attention to the general reactions to 2 Baddies (Sep 15, 2022) to tell you how divisive this song was to most people, but it split one of my group chats VERY strongly and one of my friends has refused to listen to any 127 releases since then because she hates this song so much. I tried to get her with Fact Check at the very least and she's so anti this song that she still refused and I may have lost her on 127 altogether 🤣 It's mainly the chorus that she dislikes, and I'm a little back and forth on it myself sometimes honestly but also I have absolutely BLASTED this song while driving down the highway so it feels kinda like a guilty pleasure song sometimes. If you ignore the chorus the other parts of the song are so goooooooood and no one can deny that the last part of the bridge slaps. Plus there's a whole lot of shirtless Johnny and Yuta which you can never go wrong with.

Touch (Mar 13, 2018) is a little off from the style of kpop that I listen to regularly since it's a bit more in the bubbly poppy side of things that I don't always go for but the vibes are immaculate and everyone looks so happy in the MV and there's fuzzy sweaters and everyone smiles so much? It's hard to not love it. It's fluff and cheery and delightful.

I don't know if SM actually started the "track video" trend (short MVs that have an edited, cut down version of a song so they cost less to produce than a full MV- Lemonade is 3:10 on the Sticker/Favorite album, but this track video is 2:01 for instance) but they love doing them with NCT, and despite Lemonade (Sep 9, 2021) definitely deserving a full MV, since it wasn't the lead single it didn't get one but it did at least get a track video and was performed a lot on the music shows when they were promoting Sticker. It's catchy and has some clever work in the full version lyrics that involve titles of other NCT 127 songs and I've listened to it as much as or possibly more than Sticker.

I've covered all of the lead singles and there ARE some other track videos or special release songs like the recent Be There For Me that I could be using the last slot for but you know what? We're gonna go fully off the expected path and include Let's Shut Up & Dance (Feb 21, 2019) instead because it's wild and fun. 127 doesn't do much besides sing part of the chorus and do a bunch of dancing in this (on the ceiling? on the walls? in an alley?) but like. Lay is here too and the song is SO fun and an absolute bop so that's what we're closing this post out with.

So that wraps the NCT 127 music videos! I'm thinking the next post and the last of the 127 centric ones will be a guide to some of their Youtube content, since there's a whole lot, and that'll kinda set up expectations for the posts about Dream and WayV as well when we get to them. I think after I get through the main posts of MVs and content for all of the sub-units that I might do some special posts of performance videos for songs that don't have MVs just to get some of those out there, or I might just post a bunch of links to them. We'll see how I'm feeling and if my audience of like two or three people has any kind of preference (that's you, hey, yeah you, lemme know what you want from me).

This post is the third in a series of posts introducing new fans to NCT in a way that makes sense, by getting familiar with one subgroup at a time before moving on to the next. Linked down at the bottom is the intro post, and the rest will be linked as they're added.

Dedicated as ever to @catatonicrainbow and @poetry-protest-pornography 💖

[So you wanna get into NCT eh? 1 | 2 | 3]

[haritonseldonshusband]

omg Cyril is so 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫❤️❤️❤️ I’d love to know more about him because he’s so..so…..so hggdbhddhdnd

THANK YOU!!

flkjgg i love my little characters ahhh - it always makes me so happy when other people enjoy them too!

Cyril is from a horror/romance game I was developing called “Deerest”! He’s the main Love Interest, but there were four LIs in total: Cyril, Basil, Olive, and August. It’s kind of a “came back wrong” game, and it’s my little pet project that I’d love to get back to someday. Some of the development stages can be seen on the blog I had centered around horror content: @softhorrorgay

He’s a medical professor, previously a doctor. He’s unlicensed now, but does have experience in the field. He’s very in love with the game’s main character, and will do everything in his power to make sure they stay healthy, happy, and safe. There’s some more information about him on my toyhouse: here’s his page!

Here’s my favorite art of him that I’ve done aside from my most recent one:

AND ALSO I MADE A KEYCHAIN OF HIM ONCE!! I have a copy of it, and @pharaoh-ink has a copy; she’s the one who commissioned it to be made, and I’m so thrilled to have a little piece of physical merch for MY character. That’s just the coolest thing to me. 🥹

Here’s a picture of that:

ANYWAY yes I’m love him very very much!!! If you have any specific questions about him, I’ll be happy to answer them!! 🥰

[bradenthompson]

Book Announcement: Illcontinuum! (available now)

There's something buried under Wishkah Shopping Center.

Or that was the story Junior heard growing up.

Now that Junior's an adult, all his friends have moved away, and all the remaining artifacts of his childhood have been demolished or remodeled, 

Wishkah Shopping Center is all that remains of the world he was once so comfortable living in.

Now Wishkah is earmarked for implosion, and Junior had precious little time to confirm or deny the biggest mystery of his youth.

An eclectic dirge through a sacred retail monolith, equal parts silent and expired yet lively and inexplicable, Junior finds a titanic mall fighting against its own damnation, producing "ghosts" of its previous tenants and slowly revealing the all-encompassing role it had always been playing in his life. All roads leading to the inconvenient reality that Wishkah shopping center isn't the only thing doomed.

illcontinuum.carrd.co

I thought I'd be announcing Illcontinuum was done and available four months ago, but given the release day and the personal circumstances which this book was completed under, time really is just a friendly suggestion.

This is a book that really snuck up on me, fueled largely by the feelings I needed to unpack following my graduation from college last summer. At no other stage of my life, at no graduational checkpoint, did I experience the same listlessness and grief I did in those first few weeks after unpacking my dorm and heading home for good. In my dreams I was back at college but, obviously, that dream college was exactly such. In the days before taking the podium I'd smoke weed and play arcade games downtown (ever spiral before? It's not without fun) -- unpacking, alone, what exactly I was going to miss.

And it was from those liquid lunches (I'd have a bag of funyuns or something from the vending machine) that Illcontinuum took shape. I've long dug on the notion of liminal spaces but, if you'll let me be real, I do not like the popular set of feelings this suburban phantom pain has taken. Why does it have to be scary? Hm? I'll be less of a sass; is horror, or dread, or melancholy, the only valid emotions we can explore regarding the retail/municipal monuments we leave to waste away in the crannies of our minds? I don't think so. I think in-between there's a very real warmth, and if Illcontinuum were to be listed among "new horror novels" I would worry I had done something wrong.

The end result of what proved to be a turbulent drafting process (probably the hardest time I've had writing one book) is what I think is my most complex and satisfying work. Not always clear and not always meant to be taken literally, the novel enters Wishkah shopping center within a few pages and does not leave until the curious and socially diminutive Junior is cracked open, leaking personal gooey stuff all over the tile.

I'm not sure how that last sentence came to be but I can't bring myself to rewrite it. Anyway...

While reading, feel free to replace details. Readers ought to bring themselves to the text regardless, but do not fight the moments where Junior becomes you (not You from Radiosault but you in specific) and Wishkah becomes the mall you remember but will never see again. Ask yourself what it is you'd be looking for were you given the chance to go back. And laugh a little--the book is funny.

Without further ado, enjoy Illcontinuum. And keep in mind the three initials you'll enter at the high score screen. I use BRA.

[cementisgud]

Evil’s Theater Productions : LUST ARC

Okay, so I’ll probably getting questions like “Why are you skipping all the other OSS songs?” I just feel like if the rest were in a stageplay it would be pretty self-explanatory on what would happen for a stageplay. If you have any ideas for the OSS songs, please share them on the OSS post!! Now... Let’s grab our books/mangas/novels and get our headphones on... *Opens some big ass LODV book* Let’s talk about one thing: How will Venomania do... stotheetothex? 1. We can’t make the actors do THAT because that’s very illegal.. 2. We could maybe imply that it happened.... or water it down.  Any other options? Share your ideas here. Okay let’s actually get onto the song. One thing for sure, we wont start with the yet, we need to do Venomania’s past of course, I think it’s self explanatory on how things will work there... *skips a couple pages f.*  So the stage will be dark, purple dim light shows, we’re at the part of the song we’re showing the dead bodies. We see Irina with the Venom Sword (she enters Left stage center btw if people still care about stage directions cause im giving up on them for these are just hcs) and she approaches Venomania, he stabs himself as usual. After he does that, he goes near the audience BUT NOT TO NEAR (downstage for stage direction ppl) and says his lines.... “Saa, odorou ka?” and he extends his hands out to the audience. The music starts, AND WE GET A WHOLE DAMN PREVIEW OF THE HAREM. Since this is a concert time thing rn.. no we’re not getting to chase down 18 girls, their just there. As Venomania starts singing the first lines, we see Lukana and she runs up to Venomania and kinda hugs him ig ??? IDK  HOW TO DESCRIBE JUST WATCH THE MV. When he says “ This power I obtained by a contract, with a forbidden demon. “ we get to see a screen that shows Irina giving him the katana and Venomania opening it. Venomania does his little (nahh why am i saying little??) lust spell on Lukana when he says “ All of the woman who see my eyes, fall into a charm. “ I GUESS QUICKLY WE COULD SEE LUKANA CHANGE INTO HER HAREM OUTFIT... LIKE THOSE DRESSES THAT TRANSFORM AND THEY’RE SUPER COOL BUT ANYWAY-- Lukana and Mikulia sings their parts ig.. idk what to do here. Skipping the chorus cause it’s self explanatory.. and DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO ABOUT THAT. When Venomania says, “When the clothes come off and we embrace, we can never again return to reality.” WE SEE A BIG, GIANT, ASS SCROLL THAT THE ENTIRE AUDIENCE CAN SEE. It shows the missing woman as we see the set-up for the next verse. We see an old portrait burning and all the girls are present and yk what the lyrics say... he smooches Gumina (I ALMSOT SPELLED GUMILLIA SOMEONE KILL ME)  Gumina and Maylis do their part... rest is self explanatory.. and we see another giant scroll with more missing girls. While the epic piano solo is playing, we see Karchess getting ready to go beat some ass and yk he’s like “im get my wife back from the girlfriend stealer” once again he wont say that..we know what happens. Yk what happens this time Karchess goes up to Venomania and he’s like “HEYYY *smirks and blushes like an uwu girls* and then he stabs Venomania... During this stageplay, we know what happens, but I want it to be like nobody knows, SO WE GOTTA MAKE SURE WE CAN’T SEE KARCHESS STABBING VENOMANIA. There’s blood now as you know, but Venomania aint collapsing yet, we need Karchess to sing his part. When Karchess sings “And thrust into the demon a dagger from his breast pocket.” the lights can glow green for a second cause that’s a wrath vessel. VENOMANIA COLLASPES, AND HE’S LIKE “ASFHISHIGHVDIUIFJIOHUAS NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! MY ART! DIOHGHAGIUHDFOPGHIU!” (once again he won’t say that im being silly) and we see the blood changing to purple. The woman are running away and stuff like that. For a second the music stops, we get to hear Venomania actually scream with all his emotion!! “Ah. . . Gumina... Wait! Wait!” (more silence as Gumina turns around, as two spotlights focuses on the two) “I haven’t yet told you I love you!”, and Gumina runs away. - The Potrait that Glassred Drew -  Gumina is holding a canvas, it’s torn, and burnt. She says the lines... “If only you hadn’t changed.” There’s another canvas on an aisle, and she’s painting as she’s singing. She’s painting Cherubim. As we get to the chorus, more paintings show. It’s her memories, her memories of Cherubim and Sateriasis when they were children, all having fun, all playing. Second verse “That burnt protrait. You said “I hate that face.” I really don’t know what to do as I’m listening to the song, so please share your ideas. As we get to the part “It’s not that changing is bad.”, I want her to face the audience. She continues to paint Cherubim. At the last chorus... She shows the painting to the audience... and the curtain closes. *Rips off headphones and closes the book.* I sobbed listening to The Portrait that Glassred Drew. I’m not doing Flower of Plateau because I just want to move on with this so if you have ideas for that one send them please (not forced). Also my brother--Nana likes Mikulia Calaground now so... yeah.

[usafphantom2]

F-86s and MiGs over Korea

By Elizabeth Borja

On December 17, 1950, the first known aerial combat between swept-wing jet fighters took place in the skies over Korea. The Russian-built Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 had been introduced to the Korean conflict in November, its speed and maneuverability causing trouble for the United States’ fleet of B-29 bombers and escorts. The North American F-86 Sabre was rushed to Korea, setting the stage for a clash in the air. Ward Hitt Jr., a member of the 4th Fighter Interceptor Group based at Kimpo Air Base near Seoul, chronicled the early days of the F-86 in combat in a detailed scrapbook, part of the National Air and Space Museum Archives’ digital collections.

Black Scrapbook Page with white ink drawing of Korean Peninsula and Japan

Inside front cover of Lt. Ward Hitt, Jr.'s Korean War scrapbook with hand-drawn maps of Korea and Japan. NASM-9A09976-02

A native of Kansas City, Kansas, Hitt entered Air Force cadet training in 1948 and graduated from Williams Field in February 1949. He received his promotion to first lieutenant after he completed his radar training later in October 1949. In November 1950, he was sent to Johnson AFB in Japan. He joined the 4th Fighter Interceptor Group at Kimpo on December 8, 1950, reflecting in a letter home: “Our planes won’t be here for a week and I’m afraid Seoul won’t last that long.”

As they waited for their aircraft, Hitt was excited by General Douglas MacArthur’s December 11 visit to Kimpo, very aware of the situation. “General MacArthur came in here yesterday, walked right past me not more than 15 feet away. I took a picture of him, hope it comes out ok. The Reds are twenty miles away and things are really tight here.”

Black scrapbook page. Centered photo in photo corners: 3 men in uniform (Gen. Douglas MacArthur 3rd on the left) walk in front of a building. Background left: group in uniform following. Background right: Man in leather jacket and cap.

General Douglas MacArthur, third from left, arriving at Kimpo AFB, Korea, December, 1950. General Edwin Walker is also in the photograph; possibly the figure second to the right. Page from Ward Hitt, Jr., Scrapbook. NASM-9A09976-14

The F-86As arrived at Kimpo on December 15. Hitt wrote, “The situation here remains the same, tight and jumpy. Our planes arrived today so I guess I’ll be in business tomorrow. Don’t worry about me, we are flying top cover here and no one is getting shot down in jets here anyway. The Reds are 12 miles away.”

Hitt was scheduled to be part of the F-86's first mission over North Korea. He wrote home on December 17 as if he was, “We started flying today. I was on the first mission. We didn’t see anything on our flight but the one this afternoon did.” But a photo caption released by the Far East Air Forces told a different story:

A little bit of Lt. Ward Hitt's combat heart broke off recently at an air base in Korea. He drew an assignment of making the first U.S. Air Forces F-86 Sabre jet mission over frozen North Korea.

The airplane he was to fly developed trouble just prior to takeoff. Hitt, of 2834 Parkwood Boulevard, Kansas City, Kan., ran to another plane to take off. He got off the ground late, however, and was ordered to return to base by the flight leader.

"There will be other chances, " Hitt said later, "but never the first chance again.

Man in a helmet sits in an aircraft cockpit giving the okay sign with his right hand to a man in a cap and flight suit on his left

Lt. Ward Hitt, Jr., sitting in the cockpit of his North American F-86A Sabre fighter, gives his crew chief the OK hand sign, South Korea. An attached caption tells how Hitt narrowly missed taking part in the first F-86 mission over North Korea. NASM-9A09971

Hitt’s letter home continues with the biggest news of December 17: “Colonel Hinton shot down a swept wing MIG! Can’t tell you much about it but it will probably be in the news.”

Black scrapbook page with photo of the right side of model airplane with star on tail and fuselage centered. Handwritten white text below reads: "MIG!"

View of a model of a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 Fagot, probably made by a member of Ward Hitt's 336th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron. Korea, 1951. Written on album page - "MIG!!" NASM-9A09976-37

Hitt’s scrapbook contains several newspaper clippings in which Col. Bruce Hinton, commander of the 336th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, described his group’s success in the air about 10 miles southeast of Sinuiju. They tricked the MiGs into combat by flying at a “very low speed in an area where the MIGS usually play possum while waiting for slower American planes.” After waiting in the area for a few minutes, “They were below us and we headed into the attack.” He continued, “I closed in gradually and when I figured I was within range I let go a short burst. I could see the bullets flying. I continued to maneuver and fired a long burst and he started to smoke and burn very badly…. I closed in to within 600 to 800 feet and first another burst and then I pulled off. As I looked back I could see him spinning down, trailing smoke and fire.”

Black scrapbook page, four mounted photographs. Upper left: view of fields, a range of hills, a canal and a bridge. Upper right: villagers among thatched huts. Lower left: Left side view of Sabre in flight. Lower right: right side of aircraft more in back

Upper left: “View North [of Kimpo] from Field.” Upper right: “Korean Village near Kimpo.” Lower left: [North American F-86A Sabre (registration 49-1297)] “Mission over North Korea” Lower right: "Flight line" beyond the nose of F-86A at Kimpo Field. Page from Ward Hitt Scrapbook. NASM-9A09976-17

Hitt would get his own chances in aerial combat later. The citation for the Air Medal he received in April 1951 read: “He performed an act of meritorious achievement as a member of a flight of four F-86 type aircraft on a combat aerial patrol south of the Sinuiju-Yalu river area, north Korea. In the face of superior numbers of high performance enemy jet aircraft, Lieutenant Hitt’s flight made repeated attacks upon the enemy.”

(Left) Man in military uniform and hat pins an award on man in cap on right. Air field with aircraft in background.

Lt. Ward Hitt, Jr. is awarded a ribbon (most likely the Air Award) by a Colonel Smith. NASM-9A09976-31B

Hitt was then ordered to Forward Aircraft Controller Duty in January, for which he was awarded the Oak Leaf Cluster to the Air Medal in April as well. He was assigned to the 5th Republic of Korea (ROK) Corps, 36 Regiment February 3 through 26, 1951 in central Korea. Hitt returned to Japan in June 1951 to attend the Combat Orientation School at Johnson AFB until September 1951.

By the end of the Korean War, the US awarded almost 800 aerial victory credits to Sabre pilots, while losing less than eighty F-86s, although Soviet and Chinese records challenge these numbers. The North American F-86A Sabre on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is one of the aircraft that was assigned to the 4th Fighter Interceptor Group at Kimpo in December 1950 (along with Ward Hitt). The history of the Museum’s Chinese Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 is unknown.

[slide-s]

꒰⠀⠀⠀⠀hwang hyunjin.   twenty-three.   cis man.   he/him.⠀⠀⠀⠀꒱        hold your f*** horses !   jonathan “jonnie” yoon   has just been spotted walking into revolution headquarters. they are best known for being the   drummer   in   glow   and have been signed with the label for   two years.   they share a lot of interesting things about life in the music industry on their social media, so make sure you don’t forget to follow them at   @jonniedrums.  fans know them for being   laidback   but i swear they’ve got a   sharp-tongued   side as well. maybe that explains why they’re always associated with   unbuttoned shirts on stage, glazed over eyes, and feet kicked up on the table.   stan twitter even voted them most likely to   wear flip flops in the middle of winter.   we’ll see how they live up to that reputation.

hi ! i'm chase and i do just want to say before i get into this intro that i am super rusty .. i haven't rped in about four years and have also not been on tumblr in about two years on top of that, so please be patient with me when it comes to this new layout and relearning everything 🙏 anyways ! down below is a little bit about jonnie's background and personality, plus some plots !

background.

u can check out his stats page for more random tidbits 🫡

hates being called jonathan first and foremost .. his bandmates are probably the only ones who get that luxury unless ur trying to piss him off 🤚

jonnie grew up in new york city, he was born to a mother who was better off as a single mom considering his father was an abusive shitbag.

besides the obvious Daddy Issues, his mother was as good of a mother as she could've been for him. she worked multiple jobs to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table.

however, because of that, she wasn't home much and jonnie wanted to spend as little time as he could with his father. this meant he spent a lot of free time at his neighborhood's community center where he hung out with kids older than him that introduced him to The Cool Kid™️ music. this is where his passion for music really took off.

at age 10 he began to fuck around on the center's rickety old drum kit and would perform for anyone who would listen. of course he wasn't good, but that never stopped him. music and learning it was an escape and freedom he'd never felt before and that was something he realized he didn't want to give up.

as he aged, he spent less and less time at home. enough to the point he was even estranged from his mother whom he loved more than anyone else.

personally, he never found anything wrong with it, he wanted freedom from a place he wasn't safe in, so by the time he was 16, he was completely moved out of his parents' place and couch surfing through his friends for the remaining years of high school.

school wasn't necessarily his strong suit, he wasn't Bad per say, but he just had a huge lack of focus because as a teenager struggling to stay afloat without any support, there was a lot more on his mind than doing the best he could. which basically means he didn't apply himself nearly as much as he probably should have.

despite the lack of any sort of structure or support in his life, he still managed to somehow weasel his way into university .. but only for a year or so before he dropped out, realizing pursuing something that wasn't music never felt right to him.

after dropping out he worked at a shitty deli getting yelled at by white soccer moms for not putting enough arugula on their sandwich.

every other second, he was working on music whether alone or with the band.

he hasn't spoken to his parents since he moved out, his mother has tried to reach out to him on multiple occasions, but his excuse is he's busy when in reality he's not Ready to face that shit.

personality.

jonnie is an extremely easygoing dude, he's never one to take something too seriously and is definitely the type to know absolutely nothing about anything

he's pretty oblivious ? mainly because he's stoned 80% of the time and he also hates thinking .. coping mechanism 💪

LOOOOVES to talk .. will talk ur ear off about everything

he is a major Loser .. laughs too loud at stupid shit, will tell u bad jokes, has horrible style unless he is styled by someone else and i mean horrible. like patterned button ups and khaki shorts and SANDALS .. help him ..

can get pretty reckless because he loves doing stupid shit

hates being serious like. would rather die because being serious means actually having to think about how he feels and he hates doing that shit more than anything .. as u can tell he has a lot of Repressed trauma ..

he can be Unintentionally flirty .. he definitely doesn't try to be, but it's just part of how he acts and most of the time he doesn't realize he's doing it. like pulling a Wow Ur Eyes Are So Pretty in the middle of a conversion because he Just noticed and can't keep his mouth shut

he has a hard time understanding love .. it's sort of a foreign concept to him ? it's not that he doesn't believe in it per say, but he's never been shown a positive romantic relationship .. so he doesn't know how to navigate one

can be pretty clumsy like trip over his own feet clumsy

he's like .. a himbo meets dude bro meet shaggy from scooby doo all mixed into one ..

wanted connections.

confidant: as much as he trusts his bandmates, i think having someone outside of them that he can talk to and be real with would be really good for him

mentor / role model: i have a current wc on the main for it, but this person would've been jonnie's first real introduction to music and the reason he wanted to be a drummer ( so the muse would have to play the drums ) and after joining revolution they became like a parental figure to him

flings: i mentioned in my application that i was unsure of his sexuality, so i think it'd be super interesting to see him explore it within the group !

enemy / rival / someone to dislike: also mentioned in my app that as much as jonnie is a easygoing person, i think it'd be interesting to see him have someone or a couple people that just don't vibe with him and how he acts, so they're always at each other's throats and they bring out the Non Chill side of him

high school buddy: this is most likely someone who he lived with for a period of time while he was couch surfing .. they could've stayed friends or maybe tiffed with each other and that's why he moved in with someone else .. possibilities = endless

an ex: for obvious reasons this did not work out .. they could still be friendly, could be on rocky terms, whatever

a sibling figure: maybe someone he takes care of and vice versa

partner in crime: someone he just gets into shit with

honestly anything else ? like i mentioned before i'm a bit rusty, so coming up with a lot of plots was a little 😵‍💫 for me so i'm down to just vibe a plot or just vibe in general and see where chem takes our muses !

[java-dragon]

Bookbinding for beginners by a beginner.... [Inhales slowly] PART 6

[sits quietly while contemplating life's choices about typing all this out] I could have just said "Hit these links and go watch these guys" but no.... I had to go the extra mile...

Alright Sailor... get up keep going... Come on y'all we're getting towards the home stretch finally.

Alright I'll pick up a bit more from my last post. I didn't put end pages down. Well. Here we go

Whatcha wanna do- raid your craft store, the nice fancy paper that scrap bookers use??? That's the shit. Pick out whatever you'd like for your end papers, try not to get anything too thick (cardstock thickness). There is also proper end pages TALAS and Hollanders is a good resource for proper end pages if you'd like.

So what you're going to do is take your chosen end paper and fold it in half like you were making any other page for your bind. You're going to measure your awaiting fic, height and width plus 2mm (or a 1/4 inch) not much for the width. Trim to size.

Shift the mull that's been chilling hanging foot loose and fancy free and ease it up and over, measure the 2mm/1/4 inch and mark it on the paper and dab the glue on the edge along the mull and along the line- try and get a thin line and ease the two together, put some wax paper between the last page you glued the end pages to and in between the end pages.

I glue the mull down over the end back of the end paper Is it right? Not a clue.

I was racing to get this photo so I could get the wax paper back on otherwise it just looks like everything is frosted over.

since we're using a gross amount of wax paper feel free to flip the block over and do the other side the same manner and just put something mildly heavy on it or put it back in your book press.

Now?

We got a case to build.

Take out your glue, Davy Board, and card stock. Measure your cover- height, and width of front and back cover, and the width of the spine. Write it down somewhere or on the Davy board itself.

rough measurements it's good to be slightly larger than your finished text block than smaller.

Measure it out give yourself an extra half inch of space so you have good "hang" on your book on all sides. You can always trim this later. You will also need your text block to test fit everything.

This.... this is how far I've gotten on my journey bookbinding. So we will be finishing a book bind together.

Cut out your covers and measure out your spine. Always use the "Measure twice cut once" method, I use and abuse a rotary cutter. I need to change the blade that's why some of my lines aren't as crisp as they could be.

Now you're going to grab your glue, and a silicone or glue brush, and some sort of wax paper lay it down on your cutting mat or your work surface this WILL get messy. Also grab your bone folder. We need this to be CRISP... wait hang on I can do this better

There we go.

Now you need to figure out how you'd like your book to fold out. how big of a 'swing' I suppose for your book. I like 10mm most binders like 7mm. this can be DIY'd but if you'd rather just buy it do it. So take your card stock and measure out a good 3-5 inches depending on your comfort level I usually shoot for 4 inches. Glue the spine down to the center of the card stock and take your guide and just... nudge it around a little while the glue is still damp.

Great now... flip her over so the freshly glued side is down. Take your bone folder and outline the edge of the spine.

Make sure you have your wax paper DOWN at this stage.

Take your measuring guide and place it down to the crease you just made, where the cardstock is exposed? Lay some glue down and spread it out, and spread it around.

Take a few minutes and let the glue set for a bit, then flip it over AGAIN so the spine is facing you and run your bone folder along the edge of the cover.

don't be alarmed if the glue squishes out. It will dry clear and it will be covered up later anyway.

Allow it to set for a few minutes and then gently fold everything so it makes a book shape.

You now have a cover ready and waiting for book cloth, but take a break let the glue cure. Have a snack.

Once that's done go around and test fit your text block. If you have any hardcover books laying around that are mass produced I'd study those to see how the textblock rests. Trim off little bits at a time.

There are a few ways to go about Book Cloth. You can buy it. If you got the budget for it. DO IT.

Here's an Amazon Link , Here's Hollander's , TALAS , and Blick

For those that want more options or are like me that went "well let me learn a thing" you will need:

Tissue paper pick your colour it doesn't matter, the tissue paper is to give the fabric structure so we can make it stay on the Davy Board.

Heat n Bond Lite Sewable

And some sort of fabric, hit up Joannes or your local fabric store and pick some fat quarters ( a 1/4 yard and a bit).

And in iron, borrow your neighbors if you want too, ask your grandmother's if hers still works. Mine appeared one day. I think it tried and failed to hold me hostage. I don't remember. Plus and Ironing Board... mine has always been here... and will likely remain long after I leave. I call it Squeaky... Anyway!

Cut everything an inch larger than you need we can trim stuff later. Better to be a bit over rather than under.

Measure your case length and width and cut that out of the fabric, the heat and bond, and the tissue paper.

Iron out the wrinkles in your fabric and if there is a pattern- lay the pattern with the deepest colour down with the dull side up (or whatever side you like best). Or if it's a solid colour... just flop it down. Take your heat and bond put the textured side down against the fabric. The textured side is the glue, don't get that on your iron- paper side UP towards you. General rule of thumb- shiny down, matte up.

Iron according to the directions. Let cool and peel the paper up, put the tissue paper down atop of that, and flip it over to where the fabric is pointing towards you. Tissue paper is delicate, the fabric can take the heat better than the tissue paper. Iron. Let cool, and behold, your book cloth.

If you bought book cloth I just made you read that just cause.

See you next post. We're getting near the end y'all.

[glassprism]

Why is that there are way more poto bootlegs on Broadway than on West End? I can find clips on YouTube of a lot of Broadway phantoms even full shows of less known ones but of someone like JOJ there are only the show with RB and a couple of clips with Celia Graham. It is because the West End end audience is older so they didn't bother to film?

A couple of reasons.

First, there simply are more filmers for Broadway shows than there are for the West End, and more of them who are interested in filming Phantom specifically. You can see it even just by comparing my page for London videos vs. Broadway videos - the amount of videos for the Broadway production far exceeds the videos for the West End (and keep in mind I also threw in videos of the UK tour and the 25th anniversary concert just to inflate it a little). Whether it's because the audience is older, I can't say, but from my perspective, it's been this way for years. And I think another part of it is that it's Broadway that's considered the theater destination, it's Broadway that seems to be the most prestigious place to be, so it's the Broadway shows that will attract the bootleggers. And yes, I am American so I might my viewpoint might be naturally blinkered, but I think it is saying something that the words "Broadway musical" are considered synonymous with "musical theatre in general". (Which, no, I don't like that, it leaves out a lot of other, equally great musical theatre centers as well as amateur and community theaters, but I do see that sort of view a lot.)

It doesn't help that the West End production went through a 4 year drought (2015-2019) of no filmers or videos at all, leaving us with just some clips of the many performers who were at that time. Meanwhile, during that time on Broadway, there were still regular filmers, and even as some left, there were others who remained who would go and film the show at least once a year or so. (To the point that a few of the videos filmed in London in 2019 were made by a Broadway master who flew over there.) Even today, when there's several West End filmers, there's really only one of them who's consistently filming the various Phantom West End casts. More videos filmed in general means that there will be more of them uploaded to YouTube.

The other reason, though, is far more situational, and it's that the Broadway production is closing. If you check this channel, which uploaded many Broadway videos, you'll see that they started doing that around 4 months ago. And what happened 4 months ago? Ah yes, the announcement of the closing of the Broadway production. For some, that means a celebration of the many casts that have played on the Broadway stage, and what better way to do that than by uploading many of the videos that have come out there. Should the West End production ever close, I'm sure a similar thing will happen.

(Which absolutely does not mean that you should hope for the West End production to close just to get videos uploaded.)

Anyway, that's my theory!