#i've known about repo for a long long time

[slashingdisneypasta]

WAIT...

Bill Moseley can sing??...

[alexanderpearce]

ooh i would absolutely love a media rec list from you (im a different anon but 👀)

omg u flatter me.. here are some pieces of media that i really love that i consider to be somewhat lesser known outside of my circles.. i do have lots of favourites not mentioned here that are far more mainstream (my favourite book ever is, embarrassingly, still The Secret History) but it's nice to shine a light on the more niche. i'll add content warnings but they're not comprehensive because i am just going by memory. im also not tagging gore because To be honest with me that's a given.

books and plays

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499) by Anonymous/Francesco Colonna; very strange book where the author (who is actually revealed in an acrostic poem in Latin made by the first letter of each chapter) clearly has a sexual fetish for buildings and architecture. cw misogyny.

Seneca's Phaedra (1st century AD); i live here. Seneca's tragedy about doomed fatal diseased love. sorry i don't have a translation to recommend but you will be able to read mine one day i promise. cw pseudo-incest, misogyny.

The Pepsi-Cola Addict (1982) by June Alison Gibbons; vanity-published in the 1980s and only existing in five libraries around the world (until i suppose its republishing this or last year), this is a fascinating and very weird little book, and the story behind it too is very sad and interesting. i have a pdf if anyone wants it. cw predatory relationships, incest references, suicide.

The Doloriad (2022) by Missouri Williams; strange and swirling little debut set in a post-apocalyptic future, some really incredible prose. cw incest.

Geek Love (1989) by Katherine Dunne; What if the mother of sideshow freaks was purposefully consuming poisons and alcohols and cetera while pregnant to engineer her kids to be attractions Would that be fucked up for what. cw incest and the ableism inherent in the sideshow "freaks" scene.

Equus (1973) by Peter Shaffer; just read this fucking play man (or watch the 1977 movie!). cw animal death

movies

Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) dir. Darren Lynn Bousman; sorry not sorry but this is my favourite movie ever. i've seen it 17 times. complete garbage trashy 2000s comedy-horror-gore-musical. insane cast. literal genius.

Caligula (1979) dir. Tinto Brass; Do you want to watch a two and a half hour long porno filled with torture and gorgeous costumes and conversations on power. well do i have the movie for you. cw rape, incest, i know i said i wouldnt tag gore but this one does have explicit penis mutilation so.

Van Diemen's Land (2009) dir. Jonathan auf der Heide; a pretty good movie adaptation of alexander pearce's first descent into cannibalism!! my main real criticism is that they desaturated the gorgeous green and vibrant west coast to grey doomy fakeness. cw beautiful gay love

Żywot Mateusza (1968) dir. Witold Leszczyński; incredible little Polish movie set in a rural village, on youtube with english subtitles.

May (2002) dir. Lucky Mckee; literally the most relatable movie of all time to me. socially awkward (super autistic) girl has trouble with love, you won't Believe what happens next

The Lair of the White Worm (1988) dir. Ken Russell; peter capaldi and hugh grant's earth shattering gay love story... super campy phallic lesbic homoerotic vampiric wyrmesque weirdo horror. peter capaldi wears a kilt and plays the bagpipes. you MUST watch this movie.

Ravenous (1999) dir. Antonia Bird; can cannibalism represent manifest destiny AND homosexuality? find out now!

And Then There Were None (2015) dir. Craig Viveiros; Agatha Christie could only dream of writing Burn Gorman's gay homophobic character in this. transcends the book hundredfold and if you disagree you genuinely have shit taste.

albums

At Least For Now by Benjamin Clementine; just listen to this right now i mean it this shit is fucking phenomenal. incredible voice and lyrics and piano and strings.

Stygian Bough Volume I by Aerial Ruin and Bell Witch; gorgeous atmospheric doomy metal

Ludevo by Ifi Ude; Polish folk with a modern twist as well as influences from Ude's Nigerian background, songs about death and drunkenness and love and ancient pinewoods

Songs About Teeth and To The Dark Tower by Cake Bake Betty; the vibe you have created is so freaky and awesome

Juniverbrecher by The Indelicates; something something brexit punch and judy isn't englishness awful etc etc. seriously underrated.

Bath Time by Maija Sofia; super atmospheric devastating album with lots of songs focusing on specific female figures throughout history. her recent album is also great.

honourable mention to The Thick of It (2005-2012) which if you follow my sideblog you will know ive been spiralling into depravity over for months now. you may ask, if you compare my posts to what the show is actually like, What on earth is she talking about and to that i have nothing to say

[dragonomatopoeia]

Do you have any recommendations for zines?

I ended up writing a pretty long front-matter to this ask, so I've put it all under a Read More. If you only want the resources, feel free to skip to the end

So: I am always going to be a little too pedantic and autistic for a comprehensive, unambiguous rec list. Someone asked me what my favorite book was once, and it felt like my brain stalled and rebooted five times.

Don't get me wrong! I love putting specialized recommendations together, like puzzle-box mystery novels, or horror genre video games with thematic emphasis on grief, or documentaries on sewage treatment

But I am very, very bad at recommending general purpose Media full stop. alas I am a fussy and particular creature who hisses at five star rating systems on review websites because I think using the same Quality Metric regardless of genre and medium and purpose is Silly

Making recs gets even more difficult with things like zines, where they are small press by nature. A lot of my favorite zines are DIY projects with Very Small Distributions. One of my prized possessions is a small, hand-drawn zine of one hundred cats the artist drew with their eyes closed, which they gave to me for free because they liked my shirt. But that's a zine that means something to me because of circumstance and taste and my own ability to pick it up in person

Your mileage tends to vary with this stuff. If I found a Repo The Genetic Opera zine that ranks every organ in the human body, I have friends that would love that WAY more than I would, and I'd probably send it their way. If I found a zine about Gundam and gender and disability and idealized bodies that have been shaped into weapons, then I have dozens of friends I would need to send copies of it to, but that wouldn't make it any less niche. Zines are for VERY specific audiences. That's one of the best things about them!

That Being Said! There ARE popular, more-accessible, or more well-known zines and artists with broader appeal, and I mean that in an enthusiastic, complimentary manner.

I've even seen zines being advertised on my tumblr dashboard. Zines like:

Oh No! A kidpix zine by Louie Zong (Pay what you want- all proceeds donated to LA Foodbank)

Golem Zine is a publication by and for Jewish creatives living in areas where Jewish life is challenged. Their Out West issue sold out before I could grab a copy ($10 per issue, physical)

FYMA: A Lesser Key to the Appropriation of Jewish Magic & Mysticism goes hand in hand with the previous zine, I think (Pay what you want)

But you're more likely to get something that caters to your specific interests and artistic sensibilities by getting in touch with your community members, asking friends who have similar tastes, or checking out some of these resources:

Your Local Library (I'm being serious here-- your library likely has connections to local artists, galleries, resources, and e-resources that can set you on the path to zines you'll enjoy)

Any local art walk or small press events near you (your library can help you find these)

Itch.io's Zine Tag (Adding more tags will help you filter these)

Papercut Zine Library's Virtual Library

Internet Archive's Zine Collections

The DC Punk Archive Zine Library (Specific to punk and DIY interests, as you might imagine)

The Library of Congress Online Zine Web Archive Collection

QZAP (The Queer Zine Art Project)

POCZP (People of Color Zine Project-- and they're on tumblr!)

Hevelin Fanzine Collection (Literally a bunch of sci-fi, horror, and fantasy fanzines that were all collected by one guy which are now being digitized)

From Staple to Spine: A Compendium of Zine-Related Books (This doesn't have zines itself, but the books included can be a great starting point for where you should be looking and what will be of interest to you)

I also recommend making your own zine! It's fun to make things and put words and images on paper.

And if you downloaded the bundle for Racial Justice and Equality off itch.io, you already own the Electric Zine Maker (Warning for brightly colored, glitched, and moving visual elements that may cause eyestrain. I would also be wary if you're prone to migraines)

I know this has been a Lot and I got a bit carried away, but I hope that this helps you in your quest for finding cool, obscure art made by people who care deeply about niche topics. Personally, that's my favorite kind of art

[ames-writes]

Constellations: a WIP intro

It’s pretty well known that the universe loves a good cosmic joke. Everything that has ever happened in the history of anything can always be traced back to the smallest most insignificant thing. A thought, a decision, sometimes even an accident. All of them are sparks that become flames that grow and die as they see fit. And despite what some people believe, the universe does not have the time or energy to tend to every fire. But sometimes, it does light a match.

Basic info

genre: YA/NA, sci-fi, the start of a romance pov: limited third person status: too many drafts (hopefully the last one) features: lgbt cast, diverse cast, the beginnings of a wlw romance, many MANY aliens, pirate activities, violence and blood, a snarky robot, a murder plot, neurodivergent issues

Summary

Vic's life was as good as it was ever gonna get. As an engineer on a pirate ship her only worries in life was making sure the ship didn't fall apart and finding new fun ways to make her Captain's life harder. Altheae's life couldn't be worse than it was right now. Three months into her galactic marital tour she finds out about her fiance's long term plot to kill her mother and overthrow her family's rule. With no time to panic she has to find a way to return to Earth with her fiance non the wiser. A chance encounter between the two will spark a flame that will threaten to engulf the entire Tri-Galaxies for years to come. And even worse, they can't stand each other.

Setting

The Tri-Galaxies, is aptly named due to the three galaxies that connect to one another. The Milky Way Galaxy, The Carnian Galaxy, and The Vax’ilia Galaxy. If you want to check out more Tri-Galaxies lore please visit my lore tag! Lore subject to change via new ideas and forgetting what I've already written down.

Characters

Vic: 20 - Earthen - Engineer of the Black Claw pirate crew - good at talking, bad at confrontation (she/her) Altheae: 21 - Earthen - the Princess of Earth - good at fighting, bad at thinking things through (she/her) Repo: REP0: Reactionary Engineering Prototype: 0 - old model of the current Engineering droids that work for the IGMA - liberated via the Black Claw crew - Engineer for the Black Claw crew and official babysitter of Vic - good at sarcasm bad at reading the room (they/them) Ellion: 40's - Taxxian - Captain of the Black Claw crew - definitely hiding something - good at lying through his teeth, bad at hiding his emotions (he/him) Kil'ian: 24 - Yvestian - Prince of Yvest - Altheae’s fiance - seems like a pretentious asshole, is a murderous asshole (he/him as default as it's impossible for Earthens to say Yvestian words) IGMA: Inter-galactic Military Alliance - a militia made up of species from all three galaxies that operates outside the influence of individual planets and systems - colloquially known as "The Alliance" - agents are mockingly called Iggies or Iggy

[directdogman]

Sorry if this is known already, but do we ever actually find out why Norm keeps the bag on? I figure in the meta context it's to not reveal to face of the person posing the sprites, but I always wondered why he kept it on in a lore sense. My guess is that people are so used to object heads that they have a mini freakout whenever they first see him and he just doesn't want to deal with that.

Believe it or not, the practical reason you mentioned wasn't a variable. If I'd wanted the audience to see his face, I could've used a workaround (transplanting another face onto the model's body, different model, etc), it was a deliberate choice. As for the in-game reason... To make this more fun, I'll provide a mix of correct/incorrect reasons!

Norm is a wanted federal criminal and doesn't wanna get arrested.

Norm owes the IRS a boatload in unpaid taxes.

Norm wears a shirt in the pool. It's just a part of that.

Norm is hiding something horrific underneath.

Norm is secretly so hot that he'd blind anyone (un)lucky enough to gaze upon his rugged visage, so he keeps his face covered up out of consideration for others.

Norm's face is made of antimatter (troublesome.)

Norm's face lacks skin, and he essentially just has a skull underneath the bag.

Norm is very insecure about his gross human face.

Norm is afraid the IRS will take his face.

Norm is afraid a repo-man will take his face.

Norm is afraid Gingi will eat his face. (Gingi has implied he would eat Norm's sticky note face if given the chance, since it looks like a slice of cheese.)

Oliver asked what colour Norm's eyes are once and the way he asked was weird enough that Norm will never let see Oliver see them under ANY circumstances.

Norm is too cheap to buy sunglasses or a sleep mask, and the bag functions as both, technically.

Norm has tried to take the bag off, but found there was just another bag underneath. After four or so attempts, he decided to accept the bag as an inevitability.

The bag IS norm's head and he was just lying the whole time.

Norm has left the reveal too long and now he's too anxious to take the bag off because he knows the result will be too underwhelming to warrant the build-up.

Norm is IDENTICAL to Bob Odenkirk underneath the bag and taking off the bag now would just raise far too many questions.

Norm tried to take off the bag off-screen and somehow got a papercut, and he hasn't tried again since.

The paper bag is somehow bulletproof and he's terrified that Mayor Mingus' "I've changed" spiel is an act she's putting on to lull him into a false sense of security, and has a sniper trained on him 24/7 on the off chance he trusts her enough to take the bag off for a moment.

Norm is afraid that Billy will doxx him. (he totally would, too)

Thank you. you may decide for yourself which of these you consider canon. hope this helped!

[fallforfables]

First of all I want to say I’m sorry for for the way Terrence treated you. I hope writing this blog has been therapeutic for you and your healing. Please only answer if you feel comfortable, but I wanted to ask how you felt about the recent YouTube video that discussed your abuse. I used to be a repo fan a few years back, and watched that video when it came on my suggests. It was my introduction to the youtuber, and to your blog and well. Watching the video felt a bit upsetting, but also helped me make sense of my experience in the fandom and the weird culture of these niche gothy fanspaces where a lot of ickyness and misogyny goes unnoticed. I imagine the extra attention you got from the video might have been stressful. I wanted to hear what you thought about it and whether hearing someone else talking about it felt therapeutic to you. Hearing Laura talk about your involvement in so many of these art projects made me feel for you, because I realized how invested you must have been in these movies as well. Wherever you are, I hope you are able to still be involved in art and/or projects that you love.

Thank you! Between being able to share what happened to me and actual therapy, I'm better than I've ever been. Progress is a not-fun roller coaster, but I have so many more days where I can look back on my life with him and laugh about the ridiculousness rather than cry about the damage done.

I have really mixed feelings about the video. Laura's critique of the movie and terrance's work was hilariously on point and the whole video is just super enjoyable to watch, as both an ex-Repo! fan and someone who enjoys snarky media critique.

While I understand her reasoning as to why she never reached out to me, I don't agree with it. I'm honestly still a little mad about it and I don't know that I ever won't be. It would have been nice to have been asked for permission, which I would have happily given. It would even have been nice to have a head's up, whether or not she wanted my permission. There's just something uncomfortable - to me, the subject - about someone else telling my story - which is in good part about being left out of my own story - and leaving me out of it.

Obviously she couldn't have known this, but also, the video dropped at a time when things were not so hot for me. I didn't really have the energy to spare for that unexpected burst of attention, but I still felt like I had to run to catch up to all of it since I hadn't been given the opportunity to get in front of it and prepare. It's been a long time since I had active bullies, but the comments on the video absolutely awoke that same feeling again - except, tbh, kind of worse because I knew I couldn't jump in and defend myself or cut anyone to the quick with my sharp wit without looking like a whole idiot. Reading them became something of a self-harm routine for weeks after, where I'd be refreshing the video multiple times a day to see if there were any new hateful, ignorant takes about me - which I really didn't need at a time in my life when I already had other things making me feel isolated, not listened to, and hated. And, look, I know that knowing she was going to make this video wouldn't have saved me from any of that, but...I don't know, I would have liked to have been able to do some prep work with my therapist beforehand rather than being forced to frantically try to patch the cracks after.

At the end of the day, I do think it's good that the video exists. I'm glad it's put more attention than I've ever been able to on the fact that he's a self-important, predatory bag of trash. I want people to stay safe from his bullshit and I want people to hear a funny, inciteful take-down of his overinflated ego. If there's more than one place on the internet for people do that, that's a good thing!

[fanarchoslashivist]

How’s your dad?

He's very weak, but strong enough to start arguments and demand to go home.

His trailer door is 4 feet above the ground, and he can barely walk so he can't live there safely. The nurses and doctor have told me that he is only allowed to be released to an in patient physical therapy anyway so we can't bring him home.

And he wanted to be switched to the VA hospital, which is great they have much better PT facilities, but he told us they weren't calling him back so while my brother was waiting for his case manager to come to sign Medical power if attorney paperwork so my brother and I could go to the VA and speak with them in person of course the VA calls.

They had sent him an iPad with free cell service so he could schedule virtual meetings with his doctors, and he hadn’t set it up yet so they were going to walk him through setting it up with his nurse there to help, but he tells them, while my brother is still there in the room. "I don't have time for all that, call me back when you want to talk to me."

????

He was just complaining that they never called him back, and the nurse was going to set everything up for him, and then he could get all the information he needed sent directly through the hospital, and he just hung up on them in a huff!

See, dad has this thing where he wants something (face to face visits) and so will have an excuse to to accept alternatives (virtual meetings) and usually they accommodate him but it takes time to get into those appointments. So a week's wait for a virtual meeting becomes a month wait for an appointment. And be mad that the wait is so long. He needs to have this excuse of not being able to do virtual meetings so he can keep saying its everyone else's fault. This has been something I've known about him all my life, and have watched him pull time and time again.

I know why he's doing this, because he wants to be discharged to us and brought home and drive himself to all his PT, he'll tell them "one of my kids will bring me" even though neither if us drive. He's used this con at hospitals before where he'll tell us he wants us there, and later as he's checking out we find out he told them we were driving him.

So my mom and brother got fed up and told the nurse that he can go to the in patient care of their choosing.

My dad is not a bad person, he is very kind and very giving, but he is also very bull headed and self centered and has gone through mist of his life with the "What are you going to do about it?" and "make me," attitude. This makes him very difficult to reason with once he has his mind set, but when it comes down to it this usually gets him fired, or evicted, or have his car repoed, and now have his transfer to the VA jeopardized.

It's frustrating, and hard to deal with considering this is his second heart attack and that it took 10 minutes to bring him back, but I accepted a long time ago that I was never going to get my dad to make the choices that would give me more time with him.

I'm just hopeful that being in in patient PT will help get him into an assisted living home.

It's just really hard to be both worried and pissed off at him right now.