#guys you can just start calling me victor hugo because i go OFF (on off-topic tangents)

[partyinthemysterymachine]

;u; i'm whiter shade of pale anon and i'm like 3 days late but everything you wrote in response was so beautiful and exactly what i was thinking about when i said it gave frank vibes. you and i are on the same wavelength. thank you for ur silent hill service and i hope you have a good day!!

We Are Vibing

(also sorry i am ALSO x amount of days late to respond to this dldgflg it's been. a long week and some change lmao)

thank YOU for the question!! i'm so glad that you dug my response, i rly rly love those two and the mystery surrounding their dynamics and james's childhood and frank as a parent. i'm a SLUT for anything i get to get me talking about them!!!!

(nervous glancing at Frank Anon still in my inbox)

((more nervous glancing at Writing Anon))

uh... coming...... ................. s-soon™️ (i learned it by watching Blizzard)................. are THOSE posts i promise oh my god it's just that the library arc you guys oooooooh my my god and i have SO MUCH to say about james and frank's relationship and james's childhood. there's a bit of developing lore in GOOMT pertaining to how James grew up/how he feels about/views Frank, but........ you'd have to go reading it (or just diving into it by pulling up the whole thing and just searching 'Frank' on the page but YANNO (life hax, if ur interested))

theres also developing lore from FRANK's POV in Puttin' On The Fritz (and by 'developing lore' i mean, 'it's in my Notes app and you guys aren't getting to see any of it yet because i havent published any POTF since christmas haha i swear to god i have ch3 written and i also need to put up Heya, Neighbor! but LIBRARY ARC, AS YOU KNOW')

sucks in a breath

BUT ALSO AS WELL i have generic-type lore for the both of them because UNFORTUNATELY, a lot of big parts in my lore beliefs etc are rooted in GOOMT lore and can't be revealed. so like even tho i'll disclaimer it in the Frank post, i just feel like i gotta mention it anyhow for some reason i think i was going somewhere with this but y'all i ain't awake yet and i've been up since idk 8:30a, i rly gotta go run my errand now b4 it gets stupid hot out LOL

CHEERS THANK YOU THAT WAS JUST A LONG WINDED WAY OF SAYING THANK YOU ILYSMMMMMM 💖❤️❤️🥚🥚😭😭😭🙏🙏

[codenamed-queenie]

Bohemian Rhapsody

No one knows who started it. Stephanie will claim credit whenever the topic’s brought up, but no one can really be sure. Because, really, when you and your caped family all spread out to the far reaches of the city at night, with no way to talk to each other except a group comm link...

Singing over said comms is inevitable. 

It started out innocently, enough. Dick and Barbara would hum radio tunes on boring stakeouts, and Bruce would pretend that it bothered him. Then, the two sidekicks got older--and bolder--and started expanding their musical range. By the time the others came around, it wasn’t uncommon on slow nights to hear a quick burst of song lyrics on someone else’s line. Anything ranging from nursery rhymes to hard rock classics. Dick’s Discowing phase scarred everyone, because with the frills and the mullet came an inexplicable obsession with ABBA. Jason fought back with overly loud rounds of ACDC as Tim frantically tried to hum Tchaikovsky to tune out his brothers. The others could only roll their eyes and listen passively to the cacophony. 

So really, the night when someone started out with a soft “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?” came as no surprise. This particular number had made appearances before.

No. The real surprise was when someone else picked it up. “Caught in a landslide, no escape from re-al-i-teeee...”

And where they left off, yet another Bat started up. “Open your eyes...”

Maybe it was boredom. Maybe there was just a collective frustration stemming from a case involving Victor Fries where the trail had literally gone cold. Maybe the fancy just struck all of the Family members at once. Whatever the reason, that night everyone sang, as they ironically pointed up at the lit batsignal in the cloudy Gotham sky, no matter where they were. “Look up to the skies, and seeeeee....”

And that was the first time they all sang Bohemian Rhapsody together. Bruce included, though to this day, no one really knows why. 

After that, it became something of an unspoken tradition. Boring nights were Bohemian Rhapsody nights. The rules were simple. Someone would start it up with the opening lines, and if no one else joined in, everyone would carry out the rest of patrol in silence (or with different musical selections). But the second someone--anyone--else picked up those next few words, the game was afoot. The rules dictated that once two people were singing on the line, everyone had to join in. No choice. No back-outs. If the others don’t hear your voice chime in, you’ll probably wake up the next morning with a Sharpie mustache. Maybe find something with too many legs in your breakfast cereal, or fall victim to a far more sinister prank. (It’s collectively assumed that this was how Bruce and Damian agreed to play along.)

But the kicker? Every Bat can hear the others perfectly, and the collective result actually isn’t half bad. On the comms, 

But to everyone else? The only thing they can hear is the Bat in front of them...

For instance:

Poison Ivy is still reeling from the time she was fighting off Batgirl and Spoiler, when suddenly, the purple girl skidded to a halt. She threw her arms out to the sides, tipped back her head and belted, “I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy!” Then immediately recovered and punched Ivy in the face.

Commissioner Gordon was getting a debrief on a case from Nightwing when suddenly the masked man held up a finger, cocked his head, then grinned as wide as a cheshire cat. It was unnerving. It was unsettling. But what followed was even more so.

“Is everything alright?” Gordon asked cautiously. Nightwing’s only response was to bellow out a loud, “~Easy come~!” 

Gordon took a step back, stuttering, “Um. S-son? What’s--” 

“~Little high~!” 

“I-I...don’t doubt that.”

If only the Commissioner knew that on the other side of the city, his daughter was perched behind her computer system singing softly, “Easy go...little low...” Softly, since she’s on the Birds of Prey group line as well.  It isn’t the first time this has happened, but her girls still don’t understand why their leader will randomly start singing in the middle of conversations. 

Bullock once called Batman in a panic. “Your boy’s danglin’ off the edge of a roof, Bats! And the stuff he’s sayin’--” 

Bruce could only sigh, “I’m sure it’s alright, Harvey.”

“Not hard to hear, he’s practically screamin;...uh, somethin’ about ‘his time has come’ and a shiverin’ spine...and ‘leavin’ you all behind to face the truth’. Aw, geez, Bats. Now he’s on about how he wishes he’d never been born at all.”

“Red Robin’s fine, Bullock.”

“You sure? He could be on another one’a his coffee benders or somethin’. The kid’s always worried me, Bats. This time he could be--”

“He’s fine.”

And Hugo Strange was almost tempted to check himself into his own facility when he saw Robin leaping amidst a hoard of angry Arkham inmates, all the while groaning out in staccato monotone, “I’m just a poor boy, no-bod-y loves me.” The girl calling herself Bluebird, who was fighting nearby, dropped everything to point at the small boy and bellow, “He’s just a poor boy, from a poor family! Spare him his life from this monstrosity!” Little did he know that every other Bat in the city was belting out the same line, scaring pedestrians and police officers alike. 

During an interrogation, a mob boss couldn’t believe his eyes when the Red Hood--leering above him with a fist full of his shirt--suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. Tilted his head as if listening to a thousand voices in that crazy head of his. Then he lowered the gun pressed to the man’s temple and groaned. 

“Seriously? Now? You guys!”

Then, with a sigh, he added in haunting falsetto, “Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?” The mobster’s jaw dropped as he proceeded to watch the schizo in front of him bark out several ‘let him go’s and ‘let me go’s successively, as if singing along with the demons in his head. (The poor man didn’t know the half of it.) 

And Jonathan Crane still has nightmares about the night he was squaring off against the Dark Knight himself. The Batman’s fist was poised over Scarecrow’s face when there was a pause, and annoyed huff from the man above him, then, a softly hesitant,

“Scaramouch, Scaramouch, will you do the fandango?” 

The mere thought has haunted Crane ever since. 

Not to mention Bane’s confusion at seeing the Batwoman and the Signal lobby back and forth as they got in hits and kicks, 

“Galileo!” “Galileo!” “Galileo!” “Galileo! “Galileo FIGARO!” Signal took the high notes. Batwoman’s voice dropped very low for the rest. 

Sometimes, a family member will have to whisper the words, instead of singing. This was declared ‘allowed’ after the incident where Tim was hiding in an air duct above a gang meeting. His turn came and all that could be heard on the line was,

“Thunderbolts and lightning! Very very fright-ning m-AAGGGHHH!” Followed by the barrage of gushots as a dozen gang members whipped out their pistols and began shooting at the ceiling.

He was lucky. Only a few small scrapes. But after that, whispering was permitted. As was saying ‘not clear’ if one was in a dangerous situation. 

The only other rule is that every Bat must chime in together at certain points. But everyone’s favorite part is just after Jason, Dick and Bruce go on their back-and-forth ‘we will not let you go’ ‘let him go’ tirade. 

Namely? The guitar solo. 

Years of acapella over the comms have trained the Batfamily well. Some of them really get into it, pretending to strum air guitars, others only make the noises, (much to the confusion and terror of any non-Bat in the vicinity). Tim and Stephanie pick up the next few words, before finally, the mass rendition sobers a little. Things calm down. Usually, Nightwing or Red Hood can be found doing dramatic poses on rooftops as they pretend to be all angsty and brooding. (They’re not doing their best Bruce and Tim impressions...not at all...)

When the song ends with Cass gently singing out the last few words, Gotham City breathes a collective sigh of relief, and the Bats continue on their patrol as if nothing ever happened. As if nothing really matters...

(Feel free to add on!)

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S4 Ep1 Part 1: Yugi Ditches Algebra, Cards Become Real

Ah, a new season a new day. It’s Season 4. And we’re going to start of with:

A deep sea sub. Sure, why not?

So Yugi’s unofficial other grandpa, Arthur Hawkins, AKA one of the member’s of this show’s only really happening OTP has decided to kinda ditch his Granddaughter Rebecca and go to the bottom of the ocean. Don’t blame him. Down here is where, I guess, he will come across this very Grecian looking structure.

Like Yugioh nonchalantly passes a lot of bad history at me but like...he’s in the Atlantic Ocean and there’s Grecian style stuff everywhere?

Why? I mean at least he’s not in the Pacific but like...Yugioh. Anyways, we’re not in Greece but the show had very little time to invent a brand new ancient architecture style although I would be super down for that.

But like...here’s the thing about columns--you can go really deep into column lore and people are really freakin picky about columns and what they mean, and this could have been a low key hilarious place to make an entirely new column order just for Yugioh. They could’ve done it and they decided not to. It’s OK, I’ll save it for the Marik’s Boat Time spinoff they’ll never ever make.

But I just want to bring up just real super fast that Noah and Gozaburo must’ve known about this place for years right? Like they super lived underwater and had robots poised to attack mankind stationed all over the sea floor so...we can pretty much guarantee they already knew about this place?

Just gonna bring up what a shame it is Noah freakin died.

Also want to bring up what a shame it was that Arthur didn’t show up at the beginning of S3 and be like “hey Yugi, I was just in the neighborhood, noticed you got picked up by an undersea gang, what’s up?”

(read more under the cut)

Anyway, there he is, our 70 yo adventurer, who has more energy than I have at under half his age. Arthur Hawkins needs to take it down a few pegs.

Or is it Hawkings?

Wtv.

Anyways, I gave Hawkins this tweed colored font that I just realized is nearly the same as Joey’s so it’ll change if he ever comes back.

Thanks for that prologue, Yugioh. Anyway, apparently no one on this side of Japan freakin cares, because despite finding what looks exactly like Godzilla’s lair on the bottom of the sea, we’re gonna instead fixate on Rex and Weevil.

Y’all I was going to make a joke about “why does this show fixate so much on Rex and Weevil at the beginning of so many arcs?” when I remembered that Bakura basically murdered all the other mean mini bosses from S1 except for Bandit Keith, who probably got deported by now.

I had to think long and hard just now about whether or not I’ve used that joke before because it is S4 and y’all I just don’t even remember.

(I have a very long story about Warby Parker that I just deleted fyi)

Rex is a Christmas plaid now because there are too many characters in this show.

Now that Rex and Weevil have been reunited, which is surprising because I just assumed these two have been Bert and Ernie-ing it up in some condo in the NYC, They say:

I almost forgot about the secret side-plot of Yugioh, that everyone is a cheese monger and very open about it.

So anyway, they’re off to have a very simple storyline of “I will try and Challenge Yugi Muto for God Cards” which...good luck with that, it only took 2 seasons for Yugi to finally accept his challenge from Seto Kaiba. Have fun following around Yugi Muto for 2 seasons.

When there’s a...really bizarre twist that happens. Just a very weird turn of events. Like recall that it’s the middle of the day, and the sun is shining, and there’s people and cars everywhere, and it’s a good neighborhood, and then, like playing Pokemon in tall grass, this guy just appears in front of them.

And guys, I’m from the Bay Area and I have slipped and fallen right on top of my phone on Fillmore which was DEVASTATING so like...their unstoppable speed walk down this 12 degree slope is...

I think they wanted to run into them, I really think they did. I think people in this town are so desperate for any excuse to fall into a horrifying disaster that they are just magnetically attracted to anyone wearing an oversized blanket.

Also this guy’s look is...kind of forgettable. It’s somehow weird and also forgettable at the same time. Hit that sweet spot for me. I don’t even remember this guy’s name, it was so forgettable. I’ll look it up later. Maybe bro will do it. I dunno. He wears a Monocle so like...that’s all I can say about this guy.

OK so I just checked in with Bro and then Bro made a weird rant about this guy being called Gurimo and how bro had some strong opinions about Season 4. Then Bro said a statement that really stuck with me, although I only remember part of the statement which was: “...this guy can just go get more monocles from Forever 21 and Hot Topic...” which made me very quickly realize my adult brother has never entered either a Forever 21 or a Hot Topic if he thinks a cultist in a monocle would purchase monocles from there.

I learned a lot and now you have to know this too.

And in case you’re wondering “did Rex and Weevil deserve this?” No. He just immediately decided to steal their soul on the sidewalk in front of Women’s Foot Locker from what I assume is just down the street from Yugi Muto’s house/game shop.

(how did this storyboarder nail the 3/4 degree angle on Weevil here? Do you know how hard that is to do with not just glasses but weird ass chunky glasses?)

Ah, a duel disk that can stab yourself in the stomach with two very poorly laid out barbs.

Very nice rival to Kaiba’s duel disk that will behead you if you don’t fling your arm out just right.

So like...did he steal a duel disk from Kaiba and then mod it? Is that what they did? The whole point of duel disks is that you’re linked up to the Dueling Facebook or whatever...so did this Cultist buy a normal duel disk from Toy’s R Us and then say “ahahah I’m going to do so much card crime!” and then start modding it with help of a cosplay forum? Like what’s the story here of how this guy spent all of last year (and definitely all of last season) modding this duel disk over a computer desk, some metallic acrylic paint, and a sauntering iron, feverishly asking his forum if anyone can 3d print some sick ass runes for his soul-sucking duel disk?

And then I guess this guy dueled both Rex and Weevil at the same time? Like this was all off screen...but why didn’t Rex and Weevil just leave? Just don’t pull out your duel disk and you’re probably good?

Just so many ways to have avoided losing your soul in the first ten minutes of Yugioh.

Anyway, on the other side of town, Tea is worrying about Yugi which is basically her normal.

Joey and Tristan decided to meet up with her, not because she was clearly in distress, but because Yugi isn’t around, and why worry about Tea when instead your friend Yugi is probably going to destroy the world the moment you turn around (and he did. Yugi absolutely effed everything up the very moment these three took their eyes off of him)

And what was weird is that it took Yugi until, I dunno...several streets over to kind of come out of the ether and be like “heeey Pharaoh...um...what’s up?” Like it took him this long to say something. Probably so that by the time they would have walked back to school math would have been over.

So...did Yugi just not notice at first? Like it’s sort of amazing what these two don’t know what the other one is up to. Including this situation that little Yugi absolutely should have picked up on.

As it turns out, the cards are speaking very audibly to Pharaoh. This should have been somewhat of a...youknow...red flag...since Yugi can’t hear them but Pharaoh can. But, Yugi’s like “well...we’re so used to everyone just giving us the answer and that being the right call, I guess this must also be the right call.”

And...although he had quite the head start, These three are more than willing to drop the hell out of class and rack up those absences. I’m gonna assume they had to make up another wild excuse about Tea’s cat to that one teacher to get out of school just like last time, but they did all that offscreen.

And then Tea just kind of snapped, and she did so with a smile the entire time.

Her wording was somewhat different, but she did basically say something along the lines of “if you don’t remember me telling you this a million times, you are an idiot” and Pharaoh didn’t have an answer and so it was like he said without saying anything “yes, I am.”

Which he will further prove like five minutes from now.

Like Y’all, bless his cursed perfect ass, but Pharaoh is the biggest idiot in this show. Sometimes he’s brilliant, but if he’s ever left to his own devices, just the biggest idiot. He got duped by some guy pretending to throw his voice so that his cards looked like they were talking to him. Pharaoh thought cards can talk.

And so that’s how Pharaoh freakin caused the Apocalypse. The first of many.

He did so just so very easily.

His cards started wigging out, the tablet started icing over--it was like “hey remember what took 2 seasons to build up to? Well screw it.”

Also this happened, apropos of absolutely nothing.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand cards are real.

I mean they’ve been real for a few seasons but now the cards are officially real and they’re not cute like Pokemon. They’re all really gross and roided out and they probably have a funky smell. All of them.

I knew we’d get here eventually I just didn’t know it would be SO fast.

When no one was paying absolutely any attention--when my entire focus was inside of this museum, that was when cards became real.

Well...

...time to shove em into little balls I guess. Anyways, that’s it for this update because this episode was a lot of stuff so I’m gonna split it so y’all have it easier and so I have it easier too.

And if you just got there this is S4, if you want to start reading these from S1, here’s a link to the collection in chrono order, it’s basically like reading a Victor Hugo length of book except its just me ranting about WTF is going on in OG Yugioh for 100+ episodes, knock yourself out.

[pilferingapples]

Victor Hugo vs the workers’  barricades, 1848

@melle93  mentioned hoping someone would talk more about Hugo’s involvement in 1848?  I will try!

For people interested in this part of Hugo’s bio in particular, I rec Graham Robb’s “ Victor Hugo: A Biography” as the English-language bio that deals with this in the most depth. (Some, though not all , of the main chapter on it is here). Also just...read up on the June Days in particular. It’s a pretty important episode to understand , both for Hugo Studies and Western Political Developments in General and for why the barricades of 1848 aren’t a happily ever after ending, don’t do that in your les mis adaptation,oh, my god, do NOT. 

I feel I should note that there are a lot of wildly varying accounts about Hugo’s involvement in 1848, not least from Hugo himself-- if you go looking for primary sources, you’ll find conflicting claims about who did what when all over  the place.  So I’m definitely not trying to make this be a comprehensive account-- this is only about Hugo’s role, and it can’t even be comprehensive about that!   We Do Not Purport Here to Give a History of 1848, etc.  Still, it’s gonna be Long. So!  Under the cut:

 What really touched off the June Days of 1848 was the issue of the National Workshops, the Ateliers Nationaux.  Basically a stopgap measure from the new government (the new Republic that had just gotten started that spring!) , the Ateliers gave a (very very small but better than nothing) wage and “ work” to around 100,000 Parisians in June of 1848.  

The Ateliers were supposed to help alleviate poverty (like many welfare programs, they helped but not enough), alleviate the Scourge of Unemployment (because Unemployed Poor People are the worst  poor people, don’tcha know /s) and just generally do the things social welfare programs are supposed to do. They weren’t particularly successful at any of these things--again, the government had been in place for less than a year and there were a lot  of Complicated Things to work out--and by June of 1848 people were talking about shutting down the National Workshops.

Hugo stood with the workshop-closing side; as an elected government official, on June 20, 1848, Hugo gave a typically Hugolian speech urging the closing of the workshops, calling them an insult to the people of Paris.  Hugo was of the majority opinion; the Ateliers were closed. 

This was A Problem.  The Ateliers Nationaux may not have been the most successful welfare program, but they’re been the only steady income for ~100,000 Parisians, who suddenly went from “ surviving”  to “ utterly destitute” . That’s pretty panic-inducing, and for a city of around  1,053,000 that’s a major chunk of suddenly desperate and angry people!

But it gets worse. To quote Graham Robb: 

Two days after (Hugo’s) speech, the Ateliers were closed. Workers under the age of twenty-five were to be conscripted; all others were ordered to go and work in the provinces (that is, they were going to be deported out of Paris--Pilf).  It was a political purge designed as a new employment policy. As expected, the poorer areas of Paris immediately reached boiling-point. 

which..They WOULD, right?  There was no replacement welfare program,no fallback. And now they were facing deportation and conscription.  

The inevitable barricades arose (and  some , including Hugo and Lamartine, began to suspect that the uprising was actually being allowed and encouraged to justify a more intense retaliation). Then (Robb,again):

Hugo and fifty-nine other representatives were chosen to go and inform the insurgents that a state of siege existed and that Cavaignac was in control. Their mission was ‘ to stop the spilling of blood’. Nine of the representatives would be shot dead before they had a chance to complete their mission.

...When the author of Les Miserables came face to face with the people in June 1848,he went far beyond his remit from the Assemblee Nationale.  The representatives had not been asked to lead a full-scale assault on the barricades, backed by cavalry and heavy artillery....

But that was exactly what Hugo did, with selfless heroism and/or Pontmercyish suicidal tendencies:  one witness reported 

Twice, I tugged at his sleeve, saying“ You’ll get yourself killed!”  to which Hugo answered “ That is why I am here”, and continued to shout “Forward! Forward!” With such a man to lead us, we reached the barricades and took them one after the other. 

and Hugo himself said of his combat, “ I offered myself, but God didn’t want me.” 

He was in the fight, intensely, noticeably , and seen as a leader, for three days, not sleeping and rarely so much as sitting down.

The end result of the June Days was intensely bad for the workers and insurgents (4,000 deported to Algeria; ~3,000-5,000 killed; thousands more injured and arrested) and Marked a Turning Point in the political discourse of the day, as history docs like to say. 

I’m not gonna pretend I don’t have an opinion about this; the whole thing was handled disastrously by pretty much everyone (except the people who WANTED to undermine the idea of the republic and potential for organized working class/left wing resistance, who got exactly what they wanted). Hugo was only one piece of a moving calamity. 

That he was involved at all was...weird. He hadn’t approved of the first 1848 Revolution, just like he hadn’t approved of any of the earlier republican insurrections. Even 1830 made him uncomfortable! And yeah, he was on the Right , in the political alliances of the day-- Hugo’s specific political opinions were constantly changing --but he was never really at ease with violence, either politically or personally.  His friends laughed at him when he talked about dueling or joining the army! He  laughed at himself about it! 

And then he just. Went and helped gun down a bunch of people fighting for their own immediate survival.  Who’s writing this mess? Where’s the character consistency?? 

That’s an understatement, Groban. 

But it gets weirder!

The June Days seem to have been THE point where Hugo’s politics finally, genuinely, started to swing around. Yeah, he endorsed Napoleon III --he thought the guy would be Socially Conscious! (and Hugo wasn’t gonna vote for Cavaignac, the general who’d helped orchestrate the massacre. That Hugo also helped run.)  And Hugo’s swing left can hardly be considered opportunistic , given how things went.

Anyway. All of that, plus nearly 14 years of political transformation, an exile, and endless discussion, are wrapped up in all Hugo’s commentary on 1848. I’ve got some more about it here, but honestly, this is one of those Get A Degree About It level topics, and there is, as The Kids Probably No Longer Say , A Lot To Unpack here.