#it takes place in like. a version of the real world with fantasy elements mixed in

[kira-the-whump-enthusiast]

Tell me about an oc that is on your mind! Who are they, what do they do, what's their deepest secret?

Thank you!! So much for the ask!! I was so happy when I saw this in my inbox :D

So there’s this OC that’s pretty much constantly living in the back of my head. He’s one of my favorite blorbos you know lol :D and his name is Zack! Just Zack, no surnames or anything.

Before I get into the rant: content warnings for attempted suicide, a lot of torture, serial murder, general bad times with very little comfort, cannibalism, and there might be more that I’m missing.

I do not have a decent visual ref of Zack yet so!! Here’s a brief description: he’s Chinese-American, has pale skin, silver upturned eyes, black hair that’s a little wavy, and he’s pretty much average height. He has a penchant for men’s suits straight from the cities of 1920′s America, with hat and all. Zack also wears a lot of silvery, snake themed accessories.

And he does have a pet snake too! It’s of a fantasy species, because I wanna have the snake be wrapped around some part of Zack’s body at (mostly) all times and I’m pretty sure you can’t do that with like. Real snakes. The snake’s name is Jörmungandr :D she’s an albino snake and also very long. And very cute ofc <2

Anyways! Zack is an AU of. My OC Zach. Yeah. Sorry about that. I’m not changing it tho. Pretty much I just took Zach and I was like “okay but what if he was immortal and everything was worse?”

Zack has never really had a good life. He grew up in 1950s American style suburbia as a transgender kid, in a household with manipulative and distant parents. It really really sucked, as one might guess. He didn’t have any friends, and he coped by developing an ego. It wasn’t enough to sustain any sort of peace of mind, though. Zack was isolated and trapped in this town, in his body, and in his painfully monotonous life. And one day, he couldn’t take it anymore, so he tried to kill himself.

He probably should have died from his attempt, but he woke up afterwards, and he was completely fine. No injuries or scars or anything. Shortly after, he realized that it was because he was some sort of immortal.

And yeah! It pretty much works by like, if he dies, he will come back to life after an hour! His body will also reset to the state it was in an hour before his death. He also doesn’t age. 

After Zack realized he was immortal, he decided to skip town. No point living in a place that made him want to die.

Zack probably could have had a decent life at this point. Found some friends and people who cared about and respected him, and pursued his own passions. But the thing about Zack is that any sort of intimacy is completely off the table for him. He is terrified of it, because he doesn’t know it, and also because it leaves him too vulnerable. In his childhood, he learned that if you got close to someone, or trusted them, then they would use it against you or break it the moment it was convenient to them. So he actively avoids making any friends, or getting even a little bit close to literally anybody. 

He has this manner of speaking where he often minimizes really serious things, but he also has a penchant of being really melodramatic over tiny misfortunes like getting a paper cut (it’s over-exaggerated for the humor lol).

Zack is also a really callous person. He doesn’t really see other people as like, people. Mostly because he believes that’s he’s above them, as an immortal. He’s going to live forever, and that is infinitely longer than any human lifespan. It doesn’t matter what he does to a person, because they’ll be dead in a century at most! No one will care, eventually.

And he also has a complex about being remembered. He doesn’t want to be a guy in the background forever! He deserves something better. He wants people to remember him more than anything. But he won’t make any lasting relationships with people, he’s too callous to try doing good for the world, and he has no desire or passion for the sciences or the arts.

So all these traits converge to lead Zack to find his preferred method of making his mark on the world: serial killing.

The way he sees it, people have such a fascination with serial killers, especially ones that killed their victims brutally, that if he captures someone’s fascination enough, he’ll always be remembered. And he can repeat that for as long as he lives.

And the worst thing was that he was right about it, in a way. A lot of people have discussed and speculated over his murders. In detective offices, in podcasts and blog articles, in daily conversation. And Zack has done some honestly horrible things to people. He convinces himself that it’s okay, though, because they die at the end. They don’t have to live with the pain for the rest of their lives.

(Although, sometimes he leaves people alive at the end and lets them go. Just in the hopes that they’ll remember this and him. For the rest of their lives.)

All the serial killing has absolutely gotten him in some hot water before, though. He’s let himself die numerous times to escape the authorities or a prison. Sometimes he chooses his victims wrong, and then he ends up with vengeful person after him, because he killed someone close to them.

He ended up tortured because of that, once. Zack murdered a woman’s only friends, and she hunted him down. She was just going to kill him, but then she realized he wouldn’t stay dead. So she decided to make him suffer :)

No one came to help him, afterwards. He had to patch himself up.

And sometimes, the person he’s trying to kill is a lot more dangerous than he realizes. Case in point: once, he chose a victim at random, and broke into the victim’s house. That victim ended up killing him, and he woke up in the guy’s basement.

He targeted a cannibalistic serial killer without knowing it. Yeah. Anyways, the cannibal cut off Zack’s left arm, cooked it, and forced him to eat part of it, just because he wanted to. Zack eventually died from the blood loss, but not quickly enough. He woke up with his arm still gone, since it was cut off over an hour before his death.

Eventually he did escape, though, and he got a prosthetic. I’d actually say that the origin of his prosthetic is one of his deeper secrets. Whenever someone asks, he just makes up a new story. He will never tell anyone the real story.

Another one of his deep secrets is definitely. All the serial killing he’s done. He’s not very inclined to tell anyone, since he doesn’t want to rot in a jail for the rest of eternity, and also, part of what makes his serial murders so memorable to people is that they don’t know who committed it. He won’t ruin that for himself!

Deepest secret though? That he needs a friend. Or just someone close to him. He honestly needs people. But the thing is, he doesn’t want people. They’ve hurt him too greatly. He doesn’t deserve it. So he very much denies his need for intimacy. This is a secret so deep that it’s secret even to Zack himself.

Zack is one of my favorite characters, and honestly it’s just because he’s so miserable all the time, but honestly a lot of it is his own doing but he won’t change anything he’s doing because he’s too scared of the alternatives :D

[changelingsandothernonsense]

Arting ask on this round because I love hearing about the nuts and bolts behind your work. What styles and/or real world elements do you take inspiration from when you make fantasy art, and how do you put them in dialogue (this is totally where I'm fishing for an excuse to ask you about the Central Asian inspo for your Dunmer character design, but anything else you want to bring up too!) Is there a specific feeling you hope the viewer to get from your paintings? And finally, are your writing and your art in dialogue in some way, or are they totally separate processes?

Bonus: What do you not enjoy drawing/painting (if anything)?

Yes, an excuse for me to waffle on about process! Under a cut because this is long and full of pictures!

Stylistically I'm heavily influenced by Baroque, Roccoco, Pre-Raphaelite, and Romanticism. I rely quite heavily on chiaroscuro, I really love that luminous look that high-contrast darks and lights give to a work.

Girl with a Pearl Earring, Johannes Vermeer

Throwing in a well-known Vermeer because the contrast in this painting is what I want to achieve in my own.

Luminous, I really feel that coming through in this particular piece. I really love the contrast between dark and light. Plus it means I don't have to detail that damn back wall.

I also really love the movement in this painting.

The Swing, Jean-Honoré Fragonard.

Probably one of my favourite artworks!

Emma Hart as Circe, George Romney

I take a lot of portrait inspo from Rococo and classical court painters as well as a lot of influence from John Singer Sargent.

Portrait of Madame X and Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, John Singer Sargent.

I just like to play with light a lot! I ran into a problem when I was designing Sydari, I didn't want her wearing half the clothes that you find in vanilla. She's from Skyrim but doesn't feel like she belongs there. I wanted to give her a more dunmer-influenced style (this was like a year ago now when I got back into TES, also pre-including Teldryn in like everything).

Playing around in Morrowind and modding the heck out of Solstheim so that it looks like it's actually a part of Morrowind made me think about clothes...yep, I do that.

I noticed a lot of influences from Central Asia, East Asia, Sumer, Neo-Assyria and Akkad in the visual language of the game, as well as influencing a lot of the language, names etc. I decided to go with a general mix of these but most of my focus went towards a more Central Asian/Eurasian Steppe feel. The reason was these.

And this outfit

I loved those shoes, they were perfect in every way. The outfit was a good starting point too. Though this is costuming from a movie so I wanted to look for more traditional versions.

Fantastic!

And congratulations, I have a colour scheme!

More costuming but I fell in love with this one and have used it a few times.

I fully plan on utilising this style for Sydari's Skyrim arts.

I just sorta fish around for influences when I'm not working or painting. I use a lot of Bronze Age Levantine and Mesopotamian influences too, Vivec's jewellery is ripped from the Royal Cemetery of Ur.

Beads are murder! XD

So, my art is influenced by what I'm writing, or what I plan to write.

This one should take place towards the end of Part 1 of the fic. I made this way before I decided to bite the bullet and actually write anything.

And this should occur right before Diplomatic Immunity. Which is in Part 2.

I also create art for an upcoming tabletop game which is influenced by Bronze Age Mediterranean history (can't show it) but a lot of it is influenced by both historical dress and mythology from that time period.

As for feelings, I like to put a lot of small character-specific details in my art. I get a kick out of people commenting about what they notice. For example, I intend the Moon and Star ring to not actually fit Teldryn's finger (it's stuck) and I love that people have picked up on his vein attitude. I'm waiting on people to notice that the eyes move if you move your head. I do like that my art makes people happy. That makes me happy as well.

Bonus! I have a love/hate relationship with painting metal and jewellery in general. I get impatient with it and always leave it to last.

[cbairdash]

Author’s note: Hoist the Colors may eventually inspire fiction. Most likely will and I’ll gladly write it. But right now, it’s a role-playing game setting with what I hope is an interesting take and look at an “Alternate History” of Earth. It isn’t really “steampunk”, though I can see how someone would get that impression. For me, it’s more a “flintlock fantasy” set on Earth of 1722 in all it’s historical mess… that I’ve stirred up even more!

So, with that said, lets get into a Creature Feature! The Wraith!

Wraiths

Wraiths are anything but shadows of the dead. They’re anger and death all wrapped up in a nasty little smile. Like an undead shark just waiting for someone to jump in the water…

Eleanor Vane, Captain of the Wind Eagle

Ghouls to gremlins and grinning ghosts are often found in dark corners of lost ruins or cargo holds of abandoned ships. Each one is a threat in their own right. Supernatural predators waiting for a chance to catch the bold, foolish, or unwary off guard. But none of those can hold a spectral candle to the deadly fiends called wraiths.

These terrifying creatures hold a powerful place in both human and Otherworld cultures. Otherworld refugees know all too well about the deadly reality of a wraith. But for humans, they’ve been a rumor or myth, at least until Crossing’s Fall. Now they’re all too real, if not uncommon, threat. Spectral stalkers fueled by rage and vengeance that kill with a poisonous touch.

A Deadly Elegance

Legends paint wraiths in a terrifying light. Lone spirits of people wronged in life, caught in the gray mists of undeath. Filled with rage and starving for vengeance, they wander the lands after their brutal deaths, eager to feed on the fear of the living. But, the truth is far stranger, and more disturbing, than a simple angry ghost.

Wraiths come in many forms, but each one is a ghastly reflection of the person they were in life, merged with the tragedy that turned them into a twisted creature. Unlike in legends, wraiths are a nightmarish blend of elemental and ghastly ghost. The result is a bloody, scheming specter innately tied to the material most involved with their death. A terror often described as an ‘undead elemental’ as much as they called their true name of ‘wraith’.

Nature of a Wraith

All wraiths share common traits and some physical features, despite the different materials they’re bonded with. These necromantic nightmares are a gaunt version of their former living selves. They have a ghastly pallor mixed with the element or material from their death, and their eyes burn with a pale blue or green flame.

Despite this haunting form, they’re blanketed by an enchanted aura. It’s used to conceal their terrifying appearance, giving them a deep, almost terrible beauty. A lure they use to attract victims or fool anyone that intrudes into their lairs.

These auras are potent manifestations of the Etherwave Arcana. Folded in and around the creature to give it the pallor and semblance of life. But magic, even for a wraith, comes with a price. These layers of spells allow a wraith to look, feel, and even smell like a living being, but they also radiate a chilling cold. This is a sure clue that a person may actually be a wraith in disguise.

Legends claim wraiths are like a ghost, insubstantial until they strike. This isn’t at all true. All wraiths have a physical body, but some can change their shape or make themselves insubstantial for a short time. In most all cases, wraiths are a dangerous but solid creature that stands in both the world of the living and the dead.

Part of that spiritual nature is their clothing. In their natural form, when not using any supernatural abilities, wraiths have spectral clothing. This is a spirit-like, ghostly outfit of what they last wore when alive. For a wraith, it’s a tangible memory of their former life that they can’t discard, but they can conceal it.

Wraiths prefer actual clothing that’s similar in cut and style to what they wore in life. Usually, they take these from their last victims. When a wraith travels, which is often for revenge, they use charcoal colored travel cloaks or long coats with a hood. Rumors say these are wool bound to solid shadows using rituals.

These cloaks or long coats do more than just keep the weather off. Each is carefully crafted and styled to protect the wraith from sunlight, a vulnerability common to most wraiths. In addition, shadows cling to these cloaks and long coats. Allowing a wraith to step into a shadow and entirely vanish from sight for a short time. An effect that adds to the myth that a wraith can become intangible like a ghost.

For the rest about wraiths in Hoist the Colors, see the link above!

Taglist: @thelaughingstag

[drew-mga2022mi6021]

World Building | The Physical World in Detail

Sri Lanka - Uvin Gunasena

With the main character and the story completed, I could now move on to fleshing out the rest of the world. Worldbuilding for this project was not too complex, as I wasn't starting from scratch. Taking a real-world fantasy approach was the smarter move, as I was focusing on an alternate historical take on Sri Lanka which resulted in a move to a pseudo-solarpunk society.

Previously, I briefly went over the geography and climate of Sri Lanka, which is ultimately the basis for my world. In this post, I want to further dig into the general and physical aspects of this world.

Was Sri Lanka always the way it is now? If not, what caused the change?

Sri Lanka is an island nation, and as such is rich in biodiversity. Not much of this would have changed from the past to the present in which the story takes place, as this society also prides itself on its respect for nature.

How much of the world needs to be shown to support the story?

This project takes an almost heterotopic approach, set in a world (Colombo) within a world (Sri Lanka). Elements of the greater world of Sri Lanka would be present within the story, but will not be important to it, instead relegated to visual nuggets of information throughout the film as animated set pieces. Essentially, only the main character's office and a part of the city of Colombo needs to be shown in order to convey the story in full.

How does the terrain influence the story?

Colombo's geography is a mix of land and water. The city has many canals (man made and natural) and is most famous for what is considered the heart of the city, the Beira Lake. During the Monsoonal Seasons, these canals overflow, however due to Sri Lanka's advanced system of water distribution and irrigation, this water is never wasted.

The influence of the natural terrain on the story is minimal. Since the setting is industrialised, the main terrestrial influence would come from the way the city is built. Particularly focusing on the main market district, Pettah. Pettah is known for its interconnected alleys and roads chock-full of people. This would be reflected in my own version of the market district, only busier. The story would take place at the crack of dawn. This varies on the month. In my research, I found that most people quit their jobs in November, so I thought that was a good timeframe to set my story in. Thus, this would be during the early stages of the North East Monsoonal season. The sunrise is generally visible beginning from 6.00 a.m in Colombo, which means the story would take place before this.

The best deals are always available at 5.30 in Pettah. This fact is rooted in real life, and is also due to the steady supply of crops and other perishable goods into Pettah at the wee hours of the morning. Thereby it would be the most crowded at that time, adding even more challenges for my protagonist to push through.

What is the weather like and does it impact your story?

The weather does not impact my story greatly, however at the time the film takes place, it is during the North East Monsoon. Which is to say, it would be very windy and somewhat cloudy, however not cloudy enough to blot out the sun. Because of this, people would not dress as light as they usually wood, gravitating towards longer sleeves and clothing that covers the majority of their skin. They also carry umbrellas and raincoats on hand just in case of a sudden shower.

How many mountains, oceans, deserts, forests?

The geography of this version of Sri Lanka is identical to our own, with the caveat that these places are much more protected due to a greater emphasis on environmental conservation. As Sri Lanka is an island, it itself is situated in the Indian Ocean. In Colombo, the terrain is mostly flat, with some slopes that appear moving inland. Small bodies of water such as Diyawanna Oya (a lake upon which the parliament is built) remain unchanged, however they are used more often as a means of transportation. In 2018, an initiative to start funding water buses to ferry people across the Beira Lake began, to little success. In this world, this idea started much earlier and flourished through the use of solar-powered boats.

Colombo does not contain any forests per se, however there are three wetland parks scattered across the Rajagiriya area; Beddagana, Diyasaru and Rampart. These are particularly important as they have been actively used to promote the healthy lifestyle of the residents. More than 20 km of walkways and jogging paths have been built around wetlands in Colombo, incorporating them as part of public infrastructure bringing the wetlands close to public life. Colombo wetlands also play a critical role in the food security of the city. Due to the strong linkage between the city and its wetland complex, in 2018, Colombo City was declared the first capital to be accredited as an International Wetland City by Ramsar. There are no deserts in Colombo.

Where are the borders?

Colombo is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the West. The Northern and North-Eastern border of the city is formed by the Kelani River, which meets the sea as a river delta. The Eastern sect is bordered by the Ratnapura district of the Sabaragamuwa Province and the Southern Border is Kalutara of the Western Province.

Additionally, the city of Colombo itself is divided into 15 numbered areas for the purposes of postal services. Within these areas are the suburbs with their corresponding post office. This reflects the nature of Colombo in real life.

[zorilleerrant]

I think maybe I'm the odd fan out, because I really enjoy most versions of characters, even if that's not the one that lives in my head. like occasionally I'll get something that I dislike that time and I have to close out of, but in general:

I love extremely canon compliant versions, especially ones that join contradictory elements, because you can see all the places someone spent so much time researching and analyzing the canon and how much joy they take in fitting all the pieces together

I love versions drawn from one really specific canon, especially a really different canon than most, because you can see how meaningful that canon is to them, how much they liked it and how much art can inspire art

I love versions that are gritty grimdark reimaginings, taking something that was wholesome or allegorical or comedic or stylized and filling in all the implications, all the things that could be true within the context once they let their imaginations run wild and take the time to dream

I love versions that are sweet and fluffy, even cheesy, scraping away all the upsetting stuff and just keeping everyone's very favorite things, a collection of all the best parts like showing off the sparkly rocks they found at the beach, only the things that make them smile and laugh that give to prompt laughter and smiles

I love versions that are maximalist realism, finding implications and figuring out what would happen if they were carried to the logical conclusion, fleshing out details, teasing nuance from the text, figuring how everything would mesh with the real world and what meaning there is to derive from that

I love cartoony versions that are flanderized, something people loved and don't want to stop talking about

I love secondhand versions, a character shaped out of the enjoyment they get from other people's passion

I love crossover versions, a way the character was designed to fit within a wholly different text and how painstakingly they were changed to mesh with the overall vision

I love borderline self-inserts, characters who are projected on as much as creators want or need, characters who have some major change made just so someone can take the time to create something not only important to them, but important to so many of the people they share the character with

I love silly versions that are intentionally opposite, or versions that are meant to seem bizarre compared to the original. I love AUs where a version of the character is radically changed and I love people's personal headcanon versions of them - something where there's a kernel of recognizability and that's all that's needed for some specific task people are having fun with

I love versions where someone threw out all the canon they didn't like and built up a new version from the recycled parts, or just removed one part and made the whole machine move more smoothly, carefully modifying the character until it works with the operating system they like best, looking just the way they want everything to so they feel right at home

I love the versions that delve deep into some controversial issue and the versions that talk their way around it, the ones that leave something else in its place. I love the versions that revert back to early themes and find ways to bring them out again, and I love versions that take later ideas and apply them to earlier parts. I love people mixing and matching to meet their own interests.

I love versions that change a character in a way you wouldn't see in canon, or a way you did see in canon but without the parts that got them there, or in a way that canon just didn't go far enough, or went a little too far. I love people going on the journey of creation and the character developing over the course of it as well.

I love the canon version and the fanon version and the headcanon and the crossover and the fusion and the divergent timeline and the AU and the fixit and the OP power fantasy and the sexy version and the friendly version and funny little guy version and the change something to be what you want to talk about one too

I especially love the character you build from scratch because they were there but only the tiniest little bit, or not there at all even though you expected them to be, or having them would've added something, or even just because you want them there

I love fandom

[writingquestionsanswered]

Okay so uh I want to know what you think would be a good mix of fantasy and modern elements? I'm working on a story and I want to mix those elements but I'm struggling a bit because all I have is a mix of more fantasy like governments but some modern things like clothing styles and some towns. There's magic stuff involved as well with it but I'm just trying to figure out what else I could do to make it work out.

“Mixing Fantasy and Modern Elements”

To start with, it’s important to understand that fantasy settings don’t have to be inspired by past eras. They often are, but you can have science-fiction fantasy like Star Wars or Dune that takes fantasy elements like kingdoms, magic, and castles, and mixes them with modern technology like spaceships, robots, wireless communication, lasers, and video. You can also have urban fantasy, which takes place in a modern setting but includes various magical and mythological elements. Finally, supernatural fantasy combines supernatural elements with various settings, including modern.

So, the first thing you need to do is figure out what kind of fantasy story you’re writing. Where does this story take place? Is it a fantasy version of a real or fictionalized location on Earth? Is it a fully fantasy planet or an alternate version of something like Earth? And about what human era would you say your setting approximates? Do you want it to be inspired by medieval and renaissance times, with old school kings and queens, drafty castles, jousting knights, and mysterious wizards? Or maybe you want it to be steampunk, set more in the Victorian/Edwardian eras (mid-1800s to early 1900s) but with fictionalized versions of modern technology built-in? You have to figure out your setting before you can know what elements it needs to include, and how to include elements that aren’t a standard part of that setting. 

Here are some previous posts that might also help:

Incorporating Cultural Elements into Fantasy Low Tech and High Tech Together Semi-Low-Tech Kingdom in a High-Tech World Good luck with your story!

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[nealiios]

The Supernatural 70s: Part I - Corruption of An Innocent

"We're mutants. There's something wrong with us, something very, very wrong with us. Something seriously wrong with us - we're soldiers writers."

-- with apologies to the screenwriter of "Stripes"

Dear reader, I have the darkest of revelations to make to you, a truth when fully and wholly disclosed shall most assuredly chill you to the bone, a tale that shall make you question all that you hold to be true and good and holy about my personal history. While you may have come in search of that narrative designer best known for his works of interactive high fantasy, you should know that he is also a crafter of a darker art, a scribbler of twisted tales filled with ghosts, and ghouls, and gargoyles. I am, dear innocent, a devotee of horrors! Mwahahahaha!

[cue thunderclap, lightning, pipe organ music]

Given the genre of writing for which most of you know me, I forgive you if you think of me principally as a fantasy writer. I don't object to that classification because I do enjoy mucking about with magic and dark woods and mysterious ancient civilizations. But if you are to truly know who I am as a writer, you must realize that the image I hold of myself is principally as a creator of weird tales.

To understand how and why I came to be drawn to this sub-genre of fantastic fiction, you first must understand that I come from peculiar folks. Maybe I don't have the Ipswich look, or I didn't grow up in a castle, but my pedigree for oddity has been there from the start. My mother was declared dead at birth by her doctor, and often heard voices calling to her in the dead of night that no one else could hear. Her mother would periodically ring us up to discuss events in our lives about which she couldn't possibly have known. My father's people still share ghost stories about a family homestead that burned down mysteriously in the 1960s. Even my older brother has outré memories about events he says cannot possibly be true, and as a kid was kicked off the Tulsa city bookmobile for attempting to check out books about UFOs, bigfoot, and ESP. It's fair to say I was doomed - or destined - for weirdness from the start.

If the above listed circumstances had not been enough, I grew up in an area where neighbors whispered stories about a horrifically deformed Bulldog Man who stalked kids who "parked" on the Old North Road near my house. The state in which I was raised was rife with legends of bigfoots, deer women, and devil men. Even in my childhood household there existed a pantheon of mythological entities invented explicitly to keep me in line. If I was a good boy, The Repairman would leave me little gifts of Hot Wheels cars or candy. If I was being terrible, however, my father would dress in a skeleton costume, rise from the basement and threaten to drag me down into everlasting hellfire (evidently there was a secret portal in our basement.) There were monsters, monsters EVERYWHERE I looked in my childhood world. Given that I was told as a fledgling writer to write what I knew, how could anyone have been surprised that the first stories I wrote were filled with the supernatural?

"The Nightmare" by John Henry Fuseli (1781)

My formative years during the late sixties and early seventies took place at a strange juncture in our American cultural history. At the same time that we were loudly proclaiming the supremacy of scientific thought because we'd landed men on the moon, we were also in the midst of a counter cultural explosion of interest in astrology, witchcraft, ghosts, extra sensory perception, and flying saucers. Occult-related books were flying off the shelves as sales surged by more than 100% between 1966 and 1969. Cultural historians would come to refer to this is as the "occult boom," and its aftershocks would impact popular cultural for decades to come.

My first contact with tales of the supernatural were innocuous, largely sanitized for consumption by children. I vividly remember watching Casper the Friendly Ghost and the Disney version of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I read to shreds numerous copies of both Where the Wild Things Are and Gus the Ghost. Likely the most important exposure for me was to the original Scooby Doo, Where Are You? cartoon which attempted to inoculate us from our fears of ghosts and aliens by convincing us that ultimately the monster was always just a bad man in a mask. (It's fascinating to me that modern incarnations of Scooby Doo seem to have completely lost this point and instead make all the monsters real.)

ABOVE: Although the original cartoon Scooby Doo, Where Are You? ran only for one season from 1969 to 1970, it remained in heavy reruns and syndication for decades. It is notable for having been a program that perfectly embodied the conflict between reason and superstition in popular culture, and was originally intended to provide children with critical thinking skills so they would reject the idea of monsters, ghosts, and the like. Ironically, modern takes on Scooby Doo have almost entirely subverted this idea and usually present the culprits of their mysteries as real monsters.

During that same time, television also introduced me to my first onscreen crush in the form of the beautiful and charming Samantha Stevens, a witch who struggles to not to use her powers while married to a frequently intolerant mortal advertising executive in Bewitched. The Munsters and The Addams Family gave me my first taste for "goth" living even before it would become all the rage in the dance clubs of the 1980s. Late night movies on TV would bring all the important horror classics of the past in my living room as Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, the Invisible Man, the Phantom of the Opera, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Godzilla all became childhood friends. Over time the darkened castles, creaking doors, foggy graveyards, howling wolves, and ever present witches and vampires became so engrained in my psyche that today they remain the "comfort viewing" to which I retreat when I'm sick or in need of other distractions from modern life.

ABOVE: Elizabeth Montgomery starred in Bewitched (1964 - 1972) as Samantha Stephens, a witch who married "mortal" advertising executive Darren Stephens (played for the first five seasons by actor Dick York). Inspired by movies like I Married a Witch (1942) and Bell, Book and Candle (1958), it was a long running series that explored the complex relationship dynamics between those who possess magic and those who don't. Social commentators have referred to it as an allegory both for mixed marriages and also about the challenges faced by minorities, homosexuals, cultural deviants, or generally creative folks in a non heterogeneous community. It was also one of the first American television programs to portray witches not as worshippers of Satan, but simply as a group of people ostracized for their culture and their supernatural skills.

Even before I began elementary school, there was one piece of must-see gothic horror programming that I went out of my way to catch every day. Dark Shadows aired at 3:30 p.m. on our local ABC affiliate in Tulsa, Oklahoma which usually allowed me to catch most of it if I ran home from school (or even more if my mom or brother picked me up.) In theory it was a soap opera, but the show featured a regular parade of supernatural characters and themes. The lead was a 175 year old vampire named Barnabas Collins (played by Johnathan Frid), and the show revolved around his timeless pursuit of his lost love, Josette. It was also a program that regularly dealt with reincarnation, precognition, werewolves, time travel, witchcraft, and other occult themes. Though it regularly provoked criticism from religious groups about its content, it ran from June of 1966 until it's final cancellation in April of 1971. (I would discover it in the early 1970s as it ran in syndication.) Dark Shadows would spin off two feature-length movies based on the original, a series of tie-in novels, an excellent reboot series in 1991 (starring Ben Cross as Barnabas), and a positively embarrassingly awful movie directed by Tim Burton in 1991.

ABOVE: Johnathan Frid starred as Barnabas Collins, one of the leading characters of the original Dark Shadows television series. The influence of the series cannot be understated. In many ways Dark Shadows paved the way for the inclusion of supernatural elements in other soap operas of the 1970s and the 1980s, and was largely responsible for the explosion of romance novels featuring supernatural themes over the same time period.

While Dark Shadows was a favorite early television program for me, another show would prove not only to be a borderline obsession, but also a major influence on my career as a storyteller. Night Gallery (1969-1973) was a weekly anthology television show from Rod Serling, better known as the creator and host of the original Twilight Zone. Like Twilight Zone before it, Night Gallery was a deep and complex commentary on the human condition, but unlike its predecessor the outcomes for the characters almost always skewed towards the horrific and the truly outré. In "The Painted Mirror," an antiques dealer uses a magic painting to trap an enemy in the prehistoric past. Jack Cassidy plots to use astral projection to kill his romantic rival in "The Last Laurel" but accidentally ends up killing himself. In "Eyes" a young Stephen Spielberg directs Joan Crawford in a story about an entitled rich woman who plots to take the sight of a poor man. Week after week it delivered some of the best-written horror television of the early 1970s.

In retrospect I find it surprising that I was allowed to watch Night Gallery at all. I was very young while it was airing, and some of the content was dark and often quite shocking for its time. Nevertheless, I was so attached to the show that I'd throw a literal temper tantrum if I missed a single, solitary episode. If our family needed to go somewhere on an evening that Night Gallery was scheduled, either my parents would either have to wait until after it had aired before we left, or they'd make arrangements in advance with whomever we were visiting to make sure it was okay that I could watch Night Gallery there. I was, in a word, a fanatic.

ABOVE: Every segment of Night Gallery was introduced by series creator Rod Serling standing before a painting created explicitly for the series. Director Guillermo del Toro credits Serling's series as being the most important and influential show on his own work, even more so than the more famous Twilight Zone.

[prettyoddfever]

about Panic! at the Disco’s cabin album

ok the original version of this post was just an ongoing random list that turned into a bit of a mess, so I redid the format now and then combined 2 other post drafts into this yay.

THE MAIN POST

ABOUT THE SOUND / CONCEPT

The album had a “modern fairy tale” quality and took place in a “mixed reality” – a place that’s not real. it was a “strange world” Ryan said he was trying to figure out. Jon called it a “timeless age of romantic, poetic fantasies.” Brendon said something about how they were trying to create a fictional world that any era could relate to.

There was an overall plot with a short story that ran through each song. It was like a “Disney-styled fairytale concept album” but was also a doomed love story (they said Pretty. Odd. was a lot more uplifting & positive in comparison). Apparently the album had started along the concept of the seven deadly sins with songs roughly titled “pride,” “jealousy,” etc.

Folkin Around was a song title that was carried over (but not the actual song!! just the title. the band still wanted to use that title somehow). Brendon & Jon were probably joking about the Fill Me Up / Porridge stuff but I thought that was great... so was the “I don’t have a shirt, but I’ve got a hat” bit. (again, jokes).

Jon said that “She Had The World” is the closest to the sound of the cabin album. “Behind the Sea” carried over elements too. Ryan said that some of the Pretty. Odd. songs were about the fictional characters he created for Cricket & Clover, so they carried over some small influences. None of the Cricket & Clover songs were on Pretty. Odd., though.

The band often said the songs sounded “cinematic” and compared everything to a film score (both in terms of the sound and how they approached writing it). Apparently there was a Danny Elfman influence... he’s one of the people they had talked about considering as a producer too.

Ryan told Rock Sound that the album “would have been animated if it had been a movie. It was set in a somewhat alternate world and it did not contain human beings, more creatures of some sort. Maybe. They were not based anywhere in particular, just somewhere. It was more of a fairytale.” So maybe things evolved at some point because he initially said that both Cricket & Clover were human.

There was almost no rock sound, no choruses, and almost no guitar or drums. Producer Rob Mathes said “the song structures were really bizarre." The album was also called “shapeless, formless, largely instrumental... more akin to a film score or rock opera – sans rock that is.”

The band almost didn’t want to use real instruments... Spencer even wanted to build a drum set out of old junk like wood crates & glass etc.

Pete Wentz described the album as a film score/modern Beatles thing and also "a bizarre musical about wolves. It felt a bit forced." Brendon said it “sounded like we were writing a musical – not even a rock opera, just an opera.” The band made a lot of other comments about how it sounded more like a musical than a band.

Sometimes Ryan said it wasn’t a concept album, but other times he called it a concept album himself.

Pete told Popworld Pulp that “I've heard some songs. One was like a film score, then it turns into Beatles 2007… They've got a hard road ahead of them because when you have that amount of success in a short amount of time, you have to repeat it or take a nosedive.”

This next part is from a Japanese interview that was spread through 3-4 magazines. I was hesitant to include it before because the methods of translation available 12 years ago were not the greatest lol. However, I just spent half a week scanning everything & running it through different sites to get a solid sense of the main ideas:

The album was a story about 2 characters: Cricket & Clover. Cricket was the main character (Brendon sang that part) and Clover was the girl he fell in love with at first sight. (example of how the translation sites were iffy in 2008: people used to say that CRICKET IS THE STAR, which the lyrics of Nearly Witches later sounded like they supported. But it turns out he probably wasn’t an actual star in the sky who fell from the heavens... the word translates to “protagonist, star, main character” etc). 

Ryan was asked if the love songs were about him and he said maybe, but it’s easier for him to write through fictional characters. Ryan had written about half of the lyrics by the time this interview happened at the cabin. He knew where he wanted the story to go, but still had to get the rest down in the form of lyrics. 

Ryan liked that there was an overall story the whole band was familiar with, because then they all knew what emotion they were going for in writing the music (whereas when they were writing AFYCSO Brendon would sometimes have to ask Ryan to explain the emotion he wanted before Brendon could take the lyrics and create music to fit that).

Brendon said that the storyline of the fairytale album they were writing was for adults, but he hoped kids could enjoy the music as well. He was a Miyazaki fan and said he loved how those movies were timeless & could be appreciated by all ages... Howl’s Moving Castle sounded like some of his main inspiration for the cabin album. However, Brendon said Ryan had other inspiration and that he wasn’t speaking for him.

Brendon said that the first song on the cabin album sounded like Build God (the band had also been saying throughout 2006 that their next album would pick up where the previous one left off... they wanted to continue with the orchestration).

Ryan said that the third song on the album was about the first time the two main characters met and fell in love at first sight, but there were 3 characters overall. 

Brendon said that a lot of the songs were satirical... and that’s exactly what I was trying to get at when I kept saying that we were probably missing a lot of context for It’s True Love and we weren’t reading the tone right.

Ryan had been working on different stories since fall 2005 and wanted to tie them together... he’d put a lot of work into the background story for the lyrics. There was too much to fit into the songs, so he was hoping to publish a short story to accompany the album that would give people a better understanding of the whole world & storyline.

ABOUT THE WRITING PROCESS

When the band wrote AFYCSO they were sick of the current music scene and wanted to do something different to challenge themselves & their listeners. By 2007 they were tired of playing their old songs and wanted to shake things up & do something "complicated and challenging” that was different. However, they weren’t sure exactly what they wanted to do… and they had the complete freedom to do literally anything. I really need to emphasize how much pressure the guys were putting on themselves at this point (which they admitted later on). Ryan had been turned into a wunderkind by some of the media, the band’s identity seemed to be wrapped up in doing something creative & unique, and the Fever era had ended during the peak of the pre-split band’s fame. 

Ryan took voice lessons throughout the Fever era to prepare for the album. Eric also gave Ryan & Spencer classical piano lessons in late 2006, Ryan took guitar lessons, Spencer took drum lessons, and Brendon learned some new instruments.

Ryan said this was the first time he tried to write a love song.

Ryan wasn’t sure if he should write the lyrics for this album in the style of a modern writer or not. He viewed “timeless” writers like Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, and Lewis Carroll as his inspiration.

Here’s a post of some of the band’s comments throughout the Fever era about their plans for the second album. Ryan had been coming up with some ideas on the road and then he told Helio that “on the new record that we just started to write it has been Spencer and I writing the lyrics together and working out what we call the plot line.” Spencer had been a HUGE part of dreaming up some of the most creative aspects of the Fever era (like for the stage shows, videos, album art, and other visual stuff), so I was excited to hear that he was involved in planning any kind of story.

Jon said in 2008: "It took us some time to get used to writing songs and actually having the time to search and discover what we wanted to be doing.”

MTV talked to the band during the Atlanta show at the end of March (here’s a recent upload with some of the short clips that MTV News used).

Ryan told MTV that "After bands become successful, they always make that choice to do the record about how cool or how hard it is to be in a successful band. So we wanted to do something more universal, something that pretty much anyone can relate to.” He also talked about the writing process: “it's been really fun so far. I'll show these guys the lyrics and we'll all sit down and just come up with ideas. Kind of how you do a film score: the composer will watch the scene and then write what he feels like that scene is.”

Jon told MTV during the same March interview: "We all got together and created this — I guess you could call it a concept — that we all wrote and we were all involved with and pretty interested in.”

Ryan later described the cabin album as “a short story set to music. I was mostly working on it by myself, and while the other guys liked it, it wasn't as good as I wanted it to be.”

The guys said they would write stuff separately on different instruments and then throw it in the mix.

Jon told AbsolutePunk in 2008: “It was pretty much the first time we had ever hung out together not touring or had something else to do, you know, TV shows or all the stuff. Basically just us hanging out. We all felt relieved. It was more a vacation than anything. We didn’t really know what we wanted to do musically. More than anything it was just us experimenting. Just trying different stuff. But then we realized that we kinda got in over our heads. We were trying to do some kind of story - you could call it a concept album - but we didn’t really know what it was.”

Ryan said they were trying to stretch their creative boundaries and “it became a lot harder than we thought.”

the guys took a lot of drugs at the cabin (I don’t really reference a lot of post-split stuff, but this quote sums things up well).

Brendon said in a summer 2008 interview that the songwriting had been frustrating, forced, and no fun. 

It just didn’t sound like anyone was having fun with the project eventually. Jon also said it felt like a chore to work on.

In early 2008 Brendon told Rock Sound that “as a band where we were over a year ago was a very different place. We worked out that egos and pretension can really get in the way. We were at a point where things were getting heated and we were fighting a lot, we were getting freaked out and feeling the pressure of being hectic. So we switched it round and focused on stuff that was fun for us and started to ignore all the criticism.”

Jon said he was frustrated that they were all in a positive, happy place but that wasn’t coming through in the music they were writing. He also said that “we kind of forgot we had to go on tour and play the songs in front of people.” 

Jon told The Cleveland Free Times in 2008: "We'd been touring for so long, and we hadn't written anything on tour. We were definitely rusty. We were never discouraged by it but we were never really excited by it. We were having a lot of fun, we were all getting along really well, but it wasn't coming out in the songs we were writing. And that was a big thing for us. I think we realized that after playing the same songs for two years, we had a chance to write more songs that we're going to play for the next two years, so we better make sure we're going to have fun doing it." (Jon reallllllly seemed like he led the shift towards Pretty. Odd. btw... like I had such a strong sense in late 2007 & early 2008 that Jon had helped them find that particular direction).

later in 2007 Ryan told MTV: "It didn't really sound like a band, it sounded like a film score. We decided to ditch the whole project and just start playing as a band. It's been a lot better."

Ryan told Spin that he “wanted to write a musical and maybe stage it in New York or L.A. It was a love story set in this animated, fantastical world. But we got halfway through some demos and I couldn’t figure out how to finish it, so we decided to do a rock’n’roll album instead.”

This MTV article is just someone’s opinion, but I thought it was really spot-on in its assessment: Panic have already shown a flair for the, uh, dramatic... Plus, they've never exactly been taken seriously by critics, which means that they probably headed into that Nevada cabin with both a bucketful of bizarre ideas... and the always-dreaded something to prove. Now, take all that potential, add to it the pressure a young band must feel when it has to follow up a breakout debut disc, and stir in the idea of four kids spending an inordinate amount of time by themselves in a log cabin, with no one to tell them what to do — or not to do. It's almost like some sort of perfect storm — a mixture of inexperience and ego and idealism and isolation that could have birthed the most terrifically terrible concept album of all time.

HOW MANY SONGS HAPPENED

When Brendon was at The Cab’s show in late March he told a journalist “We're about halfway done with the demos. We're keeping them all so far. Every one we've done, we like.”

Zack told fans at the Atlanta show at the end of March that the band had finished 4 songs so far. Patrick Stump said in April that he’d heard parts and had high expectations for the album.

Ryan also told MTV during the Atlanta show that they had 4 songs finished.

Rock Sound wrote in May (for the June issue) that Pete Wentz had heard some of the stuff that P!ATD was working on. Pete said "I think it will be all over for anyone else in 2008 if this [one] track is picked as the first single. It has the biggest hook I have ever heard. Ryan always likes to keep me guessing or try to freak me out with stuff. So he will message me to tell me that they have just written an amazing song, and I will get excited, then he will message me again to tell me it sounds like Aladdin, and I will feel kind of bemused. Or last week he messaged me to say they had written a song that makes him think of France.”

MTV reported in early May that the band had finished 8 songs and were due to start tracking them in June.

P!ATD’s site updated fans in late May that the band was finishing up writing and would begin recording in a few weeks. Then the band transitioned to the LA area to record their demos (I put all of that info in another post).

The Cab told some fans that they’d heard P!ATD’s new album... as in multiple songs.

Ryan said in early June: "We've got about nine songs complete with lyrics and melodies and everything. Right now we're still finishing writing the last three or four songs.” The album was scrapped in July after the band played It’s True Love at Summerfest (idk if that was the official name of the song, but that’s what it ended up getting called... even though some fans on Buzznet insisted that the full title was “The Simplistics Of True Love's First” because they wanted to make it about fanfiction).

we did get to hear the Nearly Witches demo over a year after the cabin season.

Rolling Stone reported that “the band discarded ten or so songs.”

Different articles made it sound like the band was 3/4 finished with the cabin album when they scrapped it because the concept got spread too thin and it was hard to covert to something a band could play live.

Brendon later said they wrote 6 songs overall. In another interview in summer 2008 he said they had recorded 6 demos. He also told 1Live Radio in 2008 that they nestled in a cabin and wrote 6-7 songs following a very specific concept, but overdid it.

Ryan told Kerrang that “we wrote six songs and it had a storyline that never really got finished. It was supposed to be fun to write but in fact just became a chore. It was creative in a way that just became detrimental because it was so challenging.”

Spencer told Rock Sound in early 2008: “We wanted to do something that we could turn into something more than just an album. But we had never tried anything like that before, so we got about five or six songs done and we evaluated it and realized it was not becoming what we wanted. Us writing music had become a weird task, trying to fit everything into this one idea we had dreamt up.”

A decent amount of the comments from Brendon, Spencer, and Ryan were relatively consistent & similar, but Jon kept trying to downplay the cabin album & dismiss it. Here are a few of his comments from interviews during 2008:

“There were 6 or 7 ideas for songs but very few actual songs. We eventually figured out that we weren’t having as much fun as we thought and that we couldn’t use any of it.”

“Well, just to clarify, it was about seven or eight ideas. Nothing concrete was ever really recorded.... There were a few songs that were demoed - rough, incomplete demos... it was more of random ideas here and there.”

"We didn't get any songs done, but we got like 8 to 10 ideas for songs that never got finished.”

"It kind of blew up into this thing where we had a whole album recorded and we just threw it away… it was more just a few ideas that we had that we ended up never completing. It was just the first stages of writing. We were just having a bit more fun than we should’ve instead of concentrating on writing songs.”

All four guys said there was a possibility that they could still do the concept someday (but Ryan also made other comments that they would never use any of those songs again). Spencer insisted that it was a good idea even if it wasn’t the right time. However, they all agreed that it would be hard to tour with that kind of album since it was more of a musical than something a band would do. Forgive Durden seemed to face a similar challenge with Razia’s Shadow... it’s an awesome musical, but it wouldn’t work well in the context of a normal tour (especially at big festivals). P!ATD talked about how their album’s idea became “very strained” when they tried to make it into more of a band sound or something that could be played at shows. Jon said it was “becoming pretty inorganic as we could only play two of the songs live.” (In comparison, he often talked about how he appreciated that the sound of Pretty. Odd. was so organic).

The guys all sounded relieved to start over after they scrapped the album and began to pursue a different direction that they were happier working on. People from their label have said that it was good the cabin album got scrapped because the band tried too hard to make it perfect and do too much with it. Rob Mathes also said “the only problem with this thing is it’s all ambiguity. I’m all for experimentation but it was to a fault.” 

update: I wouldn’t view the cabin album as some kind of missing link between AFYCSO & Pretty. Odd. This album was like a more extreme extension of what they’d started with AFYCSO (with the Danny Elfman theatrical vibes), and then the band completely changed directions when it wasn’t working.

Basically, spring 2007 was like a season for the band to figure out what they wanted to do next and reset after an intense 1.5 years of touring on AFYCSO. I think the best summary of the cabin era was how The Cleveland Free Times called it a “palate-clearing writing exercise for the band.” The process of writing a weird concept album that sounded like a continuation of where they left off with AFYCSO helped them learn what they did not want to do for their second album. They decided to stop taking themselves so seriously, and to start writing happy songs that were fun to play & they could tour with.

In some Pretty. Odd. interviews the band said the cabin songs were intentionally trashed and probably wouldn’t resurface. But apparently Brendon said somewhat recently that there’s stuff on a hard drive somewhere but he doesn’t have it? I also heard Jon said he found some demos and wants to release them... and then Ryan said a few years ago he has nothing left but then in 2019 he said he has the demos?? 

Also: we can hear hints of the cabin songs in Shane’s documentary stuff, but I’m just saying... there was clearly a lot more of that footage that existed at one point (although idk who would own the rights to that). I totally understand that the songs the band worked on in spring 2007 aren’t supposed to be good or anything that you’d probably want to share with people, but I would still love to hear literally anything.

I guess I’ll include the picture of the “feather fingers” lyrics too because it does look like Ryan’s handwriting (but idk the source so I’m def not saying it’s 100% real... maybe people who have been around in the last decade have more info about this picture, but I’m just saying – I saw enough fake lyrics “from Ryan” in 2007 to make me take everything with a grain of salt):

some comments the band made about where they were at in early 2007:

Ryan to Billboard in 2008: "We wanted to grow, and we were really over the circus theme.”

Ryan to AbsolutePunk at the end of the Fever era: “Our goal wasn’t to become part of the mainstream music scene so if we disappear from it but are making records we’re still proud of, I won’t consider that failing.”

Spencer talked to Kerrang while the band was at the cabin: “We had so much success so quickly, so there are some expectations for ourselves anyway. For us, just trying to write 13 or 14 songs that we’re all happy with is kind of difficult, because we’ll write something and then throw so much away. It really takes a long time for us to be happy with anything!”

Spencer in spring 2008 to the Toronto Sun: “We’d been playing those songs for a year and a half so all you want to do is play something different. We were coming off the road from our first album and we just wanted to write songs that were as far away from the first album as possible.”

Helio asked Ryan at the start of 2007 how he will make sure the band has staying power: “I think a lot of people try to guess what people are going to like and that's what they try to do throughout their career. I think the only thing we can do is keep on creating things that we are happy with and hopefully other people enjoy it too, because the second you stop having sincerity and you just try to appeal to people, I think that's when people can see through what you're doing.”

Ryan talking to Ultimate Guitar about the band’s mindset while they wrote the cabin album: “I didn't really have anyone to relate to in our situation, being 17 and 18 and writing an album - having way more success than we ever thought we would. Then we tried to figure out what we're supposed to do next. I think we were just confused and we didn't really know what we wanted to do. It took us a while to figure that out. I guess you could attribute all that time spent in the mountains to us just trying to figure it out.”

Jon talked to The Cleveland Free Times in 2008 about what the end of the Fever era was like: “In the back of our minds we've all had this feeling of, ‘Wow, what's going on?’ It has all happened so fast. We'd been going non-stop up until starting to write the next record. We spent pretty much of '07 writing the record and it was probably the first time we'd stepped back and actually realized what had happened and kind of went, 'Whoa, that was pretty crazy. Now what?' But after a few months, we got our stuff together and phased all that out and started writing songs."

Spencer told Drum Magazine that “there was definitely more pressure on us just understanding that we were going to have an audience when the new record came out. And knowing what level [of success] we were at made it a little bit scary.

Ryan in June 2007 about the speculation of a sophomore slump: "There is definitely that pressure. A lot of people try and say they aren't affected by it. The only thing we can do is try and write songs we enjoy like the last time... From a radio and MTV standpoint, all of our singles (off the last record) were pretty strange pop songs. It would be hard for us to try and recreate what we did on those because it would be obvious that's what we were doing. It's going to be different this time around. Different doesn't always mean better, but hopefully in this case it will be.”

random note: the earliest versions of Nine in the Afternoon and Middle of Summer had absolutely nothing to do with the cabin album. Also, the version of Folkin’ Around that’s on Pretty. Odd. had nothing to do with the cabin album either (aside from using a title they had liked).

update just in case it’s helpful: the band wasn’t at the literal cabin the whole time that they were working on the cabin album. their time in LA is still part of the cabin era! read this, and then here’s more info. any demo that they worked on in LA instead of at the literal cabin is still part of the cabin album.

[cluz1babe]

A Poem Written by Cas and Your Response

Castiel didn't know how it came to him, but he'd learned that you loved to read and he knew he had to tell you exactly how he felt. When he shyly pushed the letter under your door, you hear it graze and sat up to see is someone was trying to come in. Frowning in confusion, you tilted your head and noticed the paper on the floor.

You got out of bed and opened it, surprised to recognize the handwriting and confused as to why it was so secretive it had been given to you in such a way. Then you began you read

You radiate beauty and purity You smell like innocence Before Like dirt when the Earth was new Like the water on that version of this planet Like that very same air before it was polluted

Your eyes are as deep as the ocean But they light up when the sun shines upon them And I can see the fire in them When they are hungry

Your skin is as soft as down Your arms wrapped around me once You feel warm and safe Like a place I want to burrow And call home The curves of your body Leave me wanting to touch I’ve found myself wondering if I could But dare not ask Should the request scare you away

I haven’t tasted you yet But I imagine your kisses Have a sweet and spicy flavor Like the red lollipops sold in convenience stores The taste of sweet cinnamon burning your tongue A pleasurable break From the norm

Your heartbeat sounds like ancient drums It can be calm and quiet when at rest But then loud and energizing Like drinking too much coffee Giving energy and excitement to a day off

Sometimes I think I cannot control my feelings around you I believe I am not even close To your equal I am not beautiful Like you I probably smell like ozone My countenance can seem Vacant much of the time Therefore, my eyes are Probably not as deep My skin may be soft, But I fear my arms Aren’t quite as inviting My lips I imagine kissing them Would only taste bitter I don’t think my heartbeat is Really mine What good is another’s heartbeat? I’m not very relatable My previous life didn’t allow me to experience all these things, not in the way you have

I wish I could experience this with you

I want to smell your sweat Mixed with mine On us Between us If our bodies are ever found in any position Together

I want to see you All of you Whatever you allow I want to learn every bend Every freckle Every muscle Relaxed under my touch

I want to feel you The way lovers do Fill you up Have you wrapped around me I fantasize what making you feel pleasure Does to your body - What sounds do you make?

I want to taste you In ways I never have Your tongue Your lips The core of you Whatever you want me to

I want to hear you Say my name With lust and exertion With love and devotion To find my ears Tell me what you like

Then I want us to change roles Repay each other All of those things Playful and lascivious Superficially sinful But in love

///////////////////////////

"I'm not a poet. Not nearly as good as you." You handed Castiel the paper it had taken you only five minutes to write in response to his beautiful poem. "You deserve something better, but at least it's something."

He smiled and took the letter, unfolding it to read.

You do smell like ozone, mostly. You also remind of buttercream frosting, Irish pipe tobacco, and puppy breath.

You look magnificent. Powerful, beautiful, adorable. I’ve seen the real you, and there’s nothing else like it. When you hold me I feel soft and sensitive. Vulnerable but strong. I imagine you taste like earl grey - earthy and real. Warm and comforting. You sound like the low rumble of thunder. Your voice drowns out the world. When you speak to me, I feel more confident. When you share with me, I feel special and important.

Yes, I want the same things. I think of the same things.

I want you to grab on to me and hold me close so I can smell you. I want to feel you inside and around me. I want to taste your skin. Kiss your nose. I want to hear your most explicit sounds and know all of your fantasies. I want to be submissive to your touch - I know it’s not what you expect of me - for us to be equals in a tangle of tantric love. Breathe with me. Hold that masculine, dominant element and take care of me. I want to be yours and you will be mine.

Castiel looked up at you, somewhat shocked.

"I told you. It's not as good--"

He immediately pulled you in for a kiss and you lost yourself in his embrace.

[incarnateirony]

I think the issue with death as a happy ending (to a story, I should point out - death can be many things in many places, but I’m specifically talking about it in fiction) is that it’s usually written so badly that it doesn’t feel like a happy ending and it just feels like shit. There’s a very limited number of fictional works that I’ve seen actually manage it well - though in saying that, I have a very limited range, and I don’t really enjoy new things because (reasons). The ones I do recall, it’s because they were just that good and bittersweet is exactly the way I would describe them as a happy ending.

Firebringer was a novel I read when I was 12 or 13, and I still recall it. It was about a deer and it was his entire life - birth to death - and it was a happy ending. I cried through the last few chapters. Then I reread it and cried some more. It was good.

There’s also a fic I want to mention, because it’s on the topic. It’s called The white whale. and it’s by an author named orange_crushed. The entire premise of the fic is that Dean (and Sam, but it’s a destiel fic) is already dead. He died years ago. The title itself should say a lot, and the fic itself is about finding peace. It’s brilliant and beautiful, and I love it.

My perspective on death is a bit. Odd, maybe? I grew up somewhere between Christian (mum and dad and church, a mix of Baptist and Anglican) and animist (local indigenous spirituality), and while bit of both inform my interpretation, I’m very nearly atheist.

I don’t really believe in an afterlife, or rebirth, or anything like that. I believe that this is it. We get one shot at being who we want to be and acting as we choose with what we’re given. (“And isn’t it so wonderful, that we were alive at the same time?”)

I first heard the Freedom From vs Freedom To argument when reading the handmaid’s tale in my English class at school. It wasn’t even presented as an argument, everyone just seemed to agree that freedom to is better. I believe that, too. But freedom from has structure. It’s not “peaceful” and it can’t be when it is enforced, but it is informed by rules, and there it has expectations and is reliable (where reliable means we know what the consequences are, even if they’re awful). Freedom to is anarchy (which I have come to appreciate more). But neither freedom is peace.

There’s a quote I really love, and I can never recall it properly and it goes something like this: “War is an ugly thing, but it is not the ugliest. The decayed and degraded state of moral feeling which thinks nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing more important than his own personal fucking safety, is [the worst thing]” clearly I don’t recall it very well. It’s from an old bit of hp fanfic, of all things, a very violent and disgusting version of civil war - as war is. It was the beginning of why I’m not a pacifist.

I dunno. I guess I really feel like peace - true, genuine peace - can’t be done. It’s certainly worth striving for, worth trying, but peace is either isolation and loneliness or death. Peace is knowing you’ve done everything you can, that it was enough, and being able to let it go.

Any way I think I had a point somewhere in this, maybe something about being unable to put down a fight while you’re living, maybe something about how death can be kind, maybe something about how good writing can make sad things happy, maybe that bittersweet is still sweet. Idk.

Feel free to reply to this mess of ideas or not - or pick and choose what you want to reply to, if you’d like to reply to specific parts. I mostly just wanted to share (I can do discussion, but idk if I’m still gunna have any focus later to do so, or if I’ll even see a response) some thoughts and you’re usually the only person I see on my dash with this sort of ~vague philosophy things~.

Woah when did anons get to let someone submit something so long.

Either way, a few points on this.

1. a thoughtful piece, this is a philosophy piece I will gladly entertain. However, if we are entertaining philosophy we must

2. acknowledge this is a nihilistic piece contingent on your personal world views, that while valid, and I will not take any effort to undermine on a personal belief system level

3. do not have much to do with (dependent on fringe atheism or, perhaps, agnosticism) a piece that is far from secular and atheistic while also

4. relying on the idea that “I really feel like peace - true, genuine peace - can’t be done. It’s certainly worth striving for, worth trying, but peace is either isolation and loneliness or death.”, which is itself the very nihilistic idea imparted by Chuck’s matrix but, whether you believe it in the real world, is the active target of subversion within this fantasy world, (eg, a heaven revolution where the doors are opened just like they were in hell.)

5. Finally, presumptuous that it would not be ‘well written’ and predesignating a potential discontent with the delivery that would sour it, especially with the previous points.

That said, while I’m not going to argue directly with your real life belief system -- even if they clearly disagree with my own -- I do remind you--falling back to your point that you do not believe in an afterlife: we know this fictional story does not hold this belief, ergo using that as a judgment for how it would deliver the concept of eternity is itself already wounding oneself to receiving the moral of the canon. One can not suddenly expect SPN to become a secular show just because a viewer has secular and atheistic beliefs. It is inherently asecular, theistic, and gnostic in its bones and the story will thus tell itself within that structure, which then begs if one is willing to suspend a personal belief system for a fictional canon setting they are digesting the story of.

Similarly-and-so, this is contingent on believing that the heroes’ journey will end with them maintaining the current status quo, rather than making a world where--in this fictional world in which an afterlife exists--death does not itself mean loneliness, but rather reunion.

If we can suspend our beliefs in some shows with fighting dragons or farting lightning bolts (after all, nonnie references HP fanfic), I would hope people could suspend them in regards to a moral telling of found family and the sovereignty of man in a divine and moral play.

If one were to demand SPN have entirely atheistic storytelling, the only real way to handle an ending would be to have one of the characters wake up from a 15 year coma where none of it was real and it was all a dream or something to that affect which--lol, we’re not doing, I promise. I’m sorry, but we’re not.  We’re not taking the “none of it mattered because none of it happened” angle. We’re not going to a world where angels and the afterlife don’t exist, we’re not going to collapse it where suddenly death IS the true end and life sucks and then you die, it’s just not going to happen.

So the point then is an active choice on the part of the viewer: is this suddenly the line you draw after watching a theistic show for 15 years, doubling down that this specific theistic point is the one thing we can’t accept (despite it existing in the past already), or do we continue to watch a theistic show and interpret its theistic points as the story is trying to depict? And if it’s the “drawing the sudden line,” that is, quite frankly, a personal choice to have spontaneous discontent with a critical part of a canon story’s telling at a very sudden drawn line in the sand. 

The point to exit would have been pilot 1.01 if we were going to have fundamental problems with spirits and an afterlife as crucial elements of a story. And if not then, 4.01 with angels. And if not then-- you see where this goes on. There were multiple exit ramps if the idea of an afterlife, which became more and more directly explored, was going to be an issue in reception of or enjoyment of a text. So now we’re 15 years later, and we can’t expect the highway to reroute just because we didn’t take the other 100 ramps.

SPN will tell the full spread of its moral and divine play within the full spread of its moral and divine sandbox, which someone has--to reach the ending--accepted for fifteen years at this point. If one has a fundamental problem with the entire premise of the show, it is not an obligation to any writer to cater to someone who intrinsically disagrees with the entire structure of the body of work to fulfill something within a completely different paradigm. It’s not.

Am I lucky in that it matches my beliefs? Maybe. Also cursed. Very very cursed. Because it’s led to being Through The Looking Glass for two years to the point there’s a segment of fandom that treats me as a magic 8 ball--and sometimes rightfully so, not to sound like I’m tooting my own horn or whatever. It just knows I get the structure in play to a fault. But cursed knowledge aside -- and trust me, it’s cursed as FUCK most of the time -- in the end, even when I watch shows that don’t match my personal theology, I don’t sit here and suddenly expect them to do so. There’s plenty of shows I completely suspend my beliefs in to enjoy within the sandbox they were designed in the constraints of so I find it very weird to project a discontent with a body of fictional canon presenting ideas within its own rule set based on personal beliefs in a real life lens. I mean, I don’t believe dragons exist, but if I watch the Dragon Prince for many seasons, I can’t suddenly expect the ending to have nothing to do with Dragons?

I mean, the show is literally called Supernatural. It's right there in the name. There are going to be supernatural elements about the show. My banner image is literally a reborn soul floating down the aisle. This isn't gonna suddenly be irrelevant at the end.

[tarotbytya]

Scorpio • Pisces • Cancer • Capricorn • Aries • Sagittarius • Leo • Gemini • Libra • Aquarius

Sun ☀️ Moon 🌙 Rising 🏹 Venus ♀Placements

GENERAL

The 5 of Cups appears when a situation hasn’t turned out the way you anticipated or expected and you’re left feeling sad, regretful, and disappointed. Instead of moving on from the situation or with your life, you could be choosing to wallow in self-pity. The 5 of Cups indicates you’re choosing to focus on what went wrong and how you failed. You’re stuck in the past and can’t let go. Some old wounds and bitter memories seem to triggering you into thinking about the past and what happened. Or you could be blaming yourself adapted this mindset where you believe you’re a victim of life’s circumstances. The 5 of Cups wants you to know it’s time to get over it! It’s okay to allow yourself to feel the feels but you shouldn’t let it consume you, it’s time to pull yourself together and move on. Forgiveness is vital with it comes to the 5 of Cups. For yourself and others. Find it within your heart to forgive that person or even yourself. If you’re feeling frustrated with yourself, know and remind yourself that you did the best you could under the circumstances. Now is the time to learn from your mistakes. Reflect on what led to this point and what valuable lessons you can take it. It’s time to shift your mindset and focus on the present and what can go right from this point on. Be open to the brighter side of life because the 5 of Cups is saying there’s some blessings that are in disguise right now.

For some of you, The Devil (R) can appear when you’re on the verge of a break-through or up-levelling. But first thing first, you need to let go of any unhealthy attachments or self limiting beliefs. This could include: addiction, an unhealthy relationship, or a job/career you no longer feel passionate about. The Devil (R) wants you to confront your inner fears and anxieties and ultimately free yourself from the chain and bondages that you have towards these limiting beliefs and unhealthy attachments. The Devil (R) can also appear when you’re slipping into a deep and dark place. Try to understand your innermost shadows so that you can release or integrate them into your life in a more constructive way. On the other hand, The Devil (R) can also be an indication you’re hiding your deepest, darkest self or a secret from others. As a card of inner deceit, the 7 of Swords (R) also indicates keeping secrets hidden from others. You could be harboring a secret that you hope will never be revealed. You may have some thoughts, fantasies, addictions, or habits that you don’t want others to know because you feel embarrassed or ashamed. If you’re involved in some kind of affair or extra-marital relationship, the 7 of Swords (R) indicates a growing reluctance to keep up with this affair. For some, keeping this secret could be causing stress and tension, guilt and/or shame.

Accept who you are. If you need to and feel it’s necessary then forgive yourself for the thoughts you have. The Devil (R) is encouraging you to detach your attachment to the desire for things, people or concepts of the world, and essentially free yourself from any restrictions. Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean you should stop caring for people or things but you should and need to release your dependence on them. The 7 of Swords (R) also appears when you feel like a fraud or could be suffering from ‘imposter syndrome’ where you doubt yourself and your abilities. Or you could be deceiving yourself—trying to convince yourself into believing something even though you feel or know otherwise. For example, you could be telling yourself that everything is okay when it’s not. The 7 of Wands (R) wants you to be real with where you are and address your situation head-on. The Temperance card represents bringing balance, patience and moderation into your life. Temperance wants you to stabilize your energy and to allow the life to flow through you without force, hesitation or resistance. It’s time to recover your flow and get your life back into order and balance. Remain calm even when life feels stressful or frantic, right now is not the time to be opinionated or extremely controversial. Instead, be the peacekeeper. Take a more balanced and moderate approach. Temperance is about blending, mixing, and combining diverse elements in a way that creates something new and more valuable than separate parts.

For others of you, For some, the Ace of Swords encourages you to pursue the truth of the matter and/or to find justice. The Tower (R) indicates you could be going through an important and personal transformation. Or, you could be going through an existential crisis where you’re seriously questioning your life’s purpose. It may be time to create, change and transformation so you can step into a new and evolved version of yourself. Sometimes, The Tower (R) can also be a sign that you are resisting change. You may be in denial that change is even. occurring. Or you could be still clinging to an old belief even though you know they are no longer relevant or align with you. As much as you don’t want to or detest change, The Tower (R) wants you to know you need to go through this difficult phase to learn the lesson(s) and/or make progress in your life. If and you continue to resist this change, the universe will only force its way and lesson into your life even more. The 9 of Wands comes as a sign that even in the face of adversity, you must still stand tall and strong. For some, you may already have an intuitive sense that something is about to happen. Plan ahead to avoid the destruction that The Tower (R) lies ahead. The 9 of Wands wants you to trust that what you’re going through is just a test of your courage and resilience. Know that every time you overcome an obstacle, you become stronger. The 9 of Wands encourages you to establish your boundaries and protect those lines. If you allow others to stand in your way or deplete your energy, you need to assert yourself more effectively. Be very clear on what it is you need in order for this situation to be successful and for you reach your goals. Then communicate those needs and your boundaries to others.

MOONOLOGY 🌙

Full Moon in Aquarius

Show the world the real you.

This card brings the message from the cosmos that you need to detach a little from whatever situation you’re asking about. Someone might be keeping you at arm’s length now but it’s no bad thing. It’s important for you to allow life to unfold and progress, even if change seems like a frightening prospect. If you’ve been holding yourself back from the real world, this card reminds you that your unique characteristics are what make you special. In a relationship, are you being too aloof or detached? Go ahead and be yourself in whatever is coming up for you.

Attune to the Moon:

* Be aware of your feelings but also be prepared to move on.

Additional meaning for this card:

* Don’t lose the beauty and romance of life.

* You are too much in your head—get into your heart!

* A friend needs you—be there for them.

* A situation is going to take a very unexpected turn.

DIVINE ABUNDANCE ✨

Grief

Tears are what happen when the ice in the heart melts.

Worth

You have been worthy to belong to love all along. Without any need to improve. In fact, you are Love itself.

Reframe

“This is happening for me, not to me.”

ANGEL ANSWER 🕊

BIG, HAPPY CHANGES

The positive changes are coming into your life! You may find yourself on a new career path, entering a new relationship, or moving to a new home or city. Embrace these exciting events, knowing that your angels will be beside you all the way! What you were asking about my require you to take leaps of faith that same frightening or beyond your ability. Dressed at opportunities before you were meant to bring you happiness. These options when I have present themselves unless you were ready for them. Release your fears and follow your heart.

ASK YOUR GUIDES 🥀

Psychic Awareness/Divine Soul

You’re Divine Saul is awakening, and with it you’re a psychic abilities are coming alive. More involved in specific then basic intuition, you’re a psychic facilities are giving you access to the fourth dimension and are coming into contact with discarnate, Enlighten Helpers who can assist and guide you in beautiful ways. You may start accessing Divine music or tap into new healing energies. You also may receive telepathic messages and have a clairvoyant visions. Heed your newly aroused psychic faculties and don’t doubt the specific transmissions flowing to you. Record your dreams, believe in your hunches, and accept the symbols and signals being relayed to you from the psychic channels fully; what they’re communicating is essential to fulfilling your purpose. Ask your Divine Soul to lead you. They’re message: “Embrace and trust what you receive.”

Cards Pictured: 5 of Cups, The Devil (R), Temperance, Ace of Swords, 7 of Swords (R), The Tower (R), & 9 of Wands.

[carriagelamp]

November 2020: A Months of Familiarity

This November ended up being a month of me either rereading old favourites, exploring new books by favourite authors, or a mix of both.

…Be prepared for so much Terry Prachett, I found his audiobooks on Libby last month and since that I’ve been unstoppable.

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

The first of my Terry Practhett books to mention! I chose to include this one on my list because it’s a beautiful stand alone novel, perfect to read if you’ve never touched on of Pratchett’s works before, and is often overlooked.

The book is about Maurice, an “amazing” cat by his own admission, who has teamed up with a stupid boy and his very own plague of rats. The moneymaking scheme is simple: set the rats loose on a town and after causing a panic let the boy stroll in and offer to play his pipe and lead them away… for a fee. This is working well, until Maurice, the boy, and the rats arrive in the town Bad Blintz. Here the rats are beginning to question the morality of their work, the boy gets entangled with a young, mischievous local girl, and they’re all shocked to find out that the town already has a real rat infestation… or so the rat catchers claim. Things quickly turn sinister and deadly as the group is forced to confront not only the cruelty of humanity, but something even more sinister living in the small, dark, hidden place of the town.

This is a YA book, unlike some of Pratchett’s other novels, so it’s a quick, fun read, while still having all of his dry wit and heavy, complicated thoughts about society, morality, belief, and what it means to be a person. It’s a genuine delight to see Maurice and the rats, recently made sentient by wizards’ rubbish, struggle to come to terms with who they were and who they are now.

Black Pearl Ponies: Red Star & Wildflower

Y’all it ain’t a secret at this point that I enjoy a stupid horse girl book, right? I picked up the first two books of the Black Pearl Ponies books from the library on a whim and they were basically what they promised. Girl lives with family on ranch, father helps train horses, girl goes on pony adventures with ponies. A particular focus is given to horse welfare and care. Very mediocre but a nice thoughtless covid read if you, like me, get a craving for animals books written for seven year olds from time to time. Plus this comes with the added humour of it being written, as far as I can tell, by a British author who thinks all Americans are stetson wearing cowboys which I find unreasonably funny.

Crenshaw

I love Katherine Applegate’s work; I read the Endling series earlier this year and they are overwhelmingly good. Crenshaw was also an enjoyable read, though not my favourite by her. It read a little bit like a book I read last fall, No Fixed Address, which was also a very good read though not my usual genre. Crenshaw is about a boy, Jackson, whose family, though close-knit and loving, is experiencing financial difficulties and struggle with food scarcity, homelessness, and all the instability and stress that results from this. During this tumultuous time, Jackson is surprised by the reappearance of a tall, bipedal, snarky cat — Crenshaw, his old imaginary friend. This is a charming book that blends genuine, real world hardships with whimsy and magical realism.

The Enemy Above: A Novel of WWII

Since it was Rememberance Day this month, I decided to pick up a holocaust novel. This book is about 12-year-old Anton, a young Jewish boy who finds himself fleeing from his Polish farm in the middle of the night with his old grandma when a German raiding party that attacks their village in an effort to make the countryside “judenfrei”. The book is, perhaps, not the most well-fleshed out, but it’s fast-paced and exciting for a child/YA audience that’s being introduced to holocaust literature, without trying to downplay the absolutely horror and brutality of the Nazis. It manages to strike a satisfying balance between fear, tragedy, and hope.

“Everything he had heard was true. He was just a twelve-year-old boy and yet they hunted him. He had broken no laws, done nothing wrong. He was simply born Jewish. How could anyone want to kill him for it?”

Gregor the Overlander

Somehow I never knew that Suzanne Collins wrote anything other than The Hunger Games? I stumbled across this series at a used bookstore and was first taken by the cover and then shocked when I realized I recognized the author’s name. Well The Hunger Games was such a good read, how could I not pick up a book with people riding on a giant fucking bat?

Such a good choice. I’m almost done book two and bought book three today after work. It is exactly the sort of low fantasy that I live for, when a fantasy world lives so close to the real world that you can practically touch it. I also love the fact that while all the wild fantastical elements are happening, you still have the main character taking care of his toddler sister the whole time. It’s at times charming, hilarious, and nerve-wracking!

It’s about Gregor, a normal kid who’s doing his best to help his mom take care of his two younger siblings ever since his father disappeared years ago. Gregor expected months of boredom when he agrees to stay home over the summer instead of going to camp like his sister in order to watch his baby sister, Boots, and their grandma while his mom is at work. He never could have expected that a simple trip to the apartment’s laundry room would lead to both him and Boots tumbling miles beneath the earth into the pitch black Underland, a place filled with giant rats and bugs and people with translucent skin who fly through the massive caverns on huge bats. He also could have never expected that he would get wrapped up in a deadly prophecy that would force him to travel into distant, dark lands into the waiting claws of an overwhelming enemy.

Kings, Queens, and In-Between

A Canadian queer novel that I’ve seen trumpeted everywhere. Libraries, classrooms, bookstore, this book got so much hype (and has such a pleasing cover) that I had to get my hands on it. Now, I’ve got to admit that it’s not really my genre; I don’t love realistic fiction. But that being said, it’s a fun, heart-warming, queer romp through that explores gender, sexuality, love, family, friendship… there’s a lot of lovable, quirky, complicated characters that get thrown together in unexpected ways at a local summer carnival. While there’s tension and misunderstandings and mistakes, this is overall a very optimistic and loving novel, and would be a great read if you want a queer novel that reads like cotton candy.

Love, The Tiger

This book is the graphic novel equivalent of a nature documentary. There’s no text, but you follow a day in the life of a tiger as it moves through the jungle on the quest for food. The art is honestly beyond outstanding, and though it’s a really quick read it is so very worth it. I’ve also read Love, The Lion in this series (also good, though a bit more confusing imho) as well as one of the books from his other series Little Tails which is still very nature and education based, though for a slightly younger audience.

Making Money

More Pratchett! Making Money was the first Discworld book I ever read, and it’s one of my most reread ones — it’s an ultimate comfort read! This is technically the sequel to Going Postal (another book I reread this month), in which conman Moist Von Lipwig is saved from a rightful death at the noose in exchange for agreeing to work for the city. Going Postal sees Moist narrowly dodging death in many varied forms as he tries to get the Anhk-Morpork postal service back on its feet and get the drifts of dead, whispering letters moving again. In Making Money things at the post office have become… too easy. Moist is bored, restless, until he finds himself thrust into a new job: head of the Royal Mint. There he has been given not only charge of the biggest bank in Anhk-Morpork, but also a dog with a price on its head, a lethal family with all the money in the world out for his blood, and the fear that his secret past life may be on the verge of being exposed to everyone, all while he’s desperately trying to make money…

The Moist series is honestly an example of Pratchett at his absolute best imo, and the amount of humour, wit, adventure, and scathing commentary he can build around a bank is outstanding. Cannot recommend enough.

The One And Only Ivan

Another book I’ve been hearing everyone talk about, as well as another Katherine Applegate book. It’s been on my radar for a while, but with the sequel and a movie coming out, it had everything at a fever pitch and I finally picked it up. Fantastic read, I definitely enjoyed it more than Crenshaw. This book was based off the true story of Ivan, a gorilla taken from his home in the jungle and sold to the owner of a mall, where he spent years of his life growing from child to adult silverback in a small, concrete enclosure. In this fictionalized version, everything changes for Ivan and his friends, when a new baby elephant is bought to help revitalize the mall attractions and Ivan makes a promise he doesn’t know how to keep: to protect this baby, and keep her from living the life Ivan and his friends were forced to. This book made me very emotional. Applegate’s picture book that goes along with it is also a great companion read.

Ranma ½

I realized that our library had the 2-in-1 editions of Ranma ½ and honestly that was it for me. This has been a favourite series of mine since I was in middle school and realized that the creator of Inuyasha had written other things. It is unapologetically ridiculous and larger-than-life and you have to love the shameless joy it has at being ludicrous. It does start to feel a little repetitive the further into the series you go, but at the moment, with covid, I find I have a huge tolerance for rereading slightly repetitive things so long as they make me happy. And boy howdy does the vaguely queer undertones, endless pining, and relentless slapstick of Ranma ½  make me happy. This is classic manga y’all and if you’ve never read it you should!

The basic premise, for anyone that doesn’t is that of an bonkers martial arts comedy. It follows Ranma and his father who, while training in China, fell into cursed springs. Each spring has the tragic legend of a person or animal who drowned in it, and if someone falls in they inevitably turn into that creature any time they’re doused in cold water. Ranma had the misfortune of falling into “The Spring of Drowned Girl” and, indeed, turns into a girl anytime he’s hit with cold water. Things continue to spiral out of control when Ranma meets his arranged fiancée, Akane, who is as exasperated by this situation as Ranma. Both would rather be fighting people than worrying about things like romance. And don’t worry, there is lots and lots and lots and lots of some of the goofiest martial arts fights that you can imagine for a bunch of high schoolers.

Through the Woods

A beautiful and creepy Canadian graphic novel. I honestly really don’t even know how to describe it in a way that does it justice. It’s a collection of short horror stories, with beautiful, flowing art style that draws you in and sends chills down your spine. I’ll let the art doing the talk, and honestly beg you to go find a way to read this graphic novel:

The Witch’s Vacuum Cleaner: And Other Stories

The last Terry Pratchett book on my list (though shout out to the others I’ve listened to this month: Wee Free Men, Hat Full of Sky, Men At Arms, and Snuff) and one that I actually physically, rather than listening to the audiobook. I included this one because unlike the others, this was a Pratchett book I had never read before. It collects a number of Pratchett’s short stories that had been written for children over a number of years. These weren’t necessarily my favourite examples of Pratchett’s writing (I prefer his longer work that can really dive into social issues) but it was such a quick, easy, fun read that you can’t really help but be charmed by it. I liked the stories that took place in “the wild wild west (of Wales)” in particular.

[aion-rsa]

Shadow and Bone’s Best Change From the Books is Mal & Alina’s Relationship

https://ift.tt/3n43xxx

This Shadow and Bone article contains spoilers.

Netflix’s Shadow and Bone is a sweeping fantasy epic that includes everything from an elite magical subclass (Grisha) that can manipulate the matter in surrounding elements and physical material, to a war-torn kingdom struggling to destroy a growing swath of literal darkness, and a girl whose heretofore undiscovered abilities just might be the key to changing the world. It’s also a story that’s unabashedly romantic in every sense of the word, firmly grounding its central narrative in complex human connections rather than Grisha magical castes or other more distinctly fantasy-oriented themes and tropes.

Shadow and Bone takes particular care with all its central relationships, whether they’re between potential love interests, long-time friends, or something in between. The Netflix series builds on the foundation laid in Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse novels, crafting a fully-realized fantasy realm populated with the sort of rich, complex love stories and friendships that remind us why our protagonists are so willing to keep fighting for a world that has thus far given them such little reason to hope for a better future.

Nowhere is this shift more evident than the way in which Shadow and Bone builds and improves upon the relationship between central heroine Alina Starkov and her best friend Malyen Oretsev. A pair of childhood best friends who seem on the cusp of becoming something more now that they are young adults, the duo have shared everything together. From growing up in an orphanage to joining the army, their lives are forever intertwined in a complex and meaningful way, and their interactions reflect that fact. (Plus, they are truly and genuinely adorable together.)

From the series’ opening scenes, we learn that Alina and Mal’s relationship is the crux around which almost everything else in Shadow and Bone will turn. The pair is both the lens through which we are introduced to this fantasy world and the first relationship we are asked to believe in. And in a story full of twists and increasingly deadly threats, their connection becomes an important and necessary constant.

Read more

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How Will Shadow and Bone Incorporate Six of Crows?

By Kayti Burt

More importantly, the show does the work of binding these two to one another emotionally, without ever making it feel as though their connection takes place simply because it also happens to exist in Bardugo’s novels. Shadow and Bone adds some much-needed depth and dimension to both characters by shaking up their histories. Unlike the novels, in the Netflix series, both Mal and Alina are mixed-race—part Ravkan, and part Shu-Han (in real life, Alina actress Jessie Li Mei is a Chinese-British actress, while Mal actor Archie Renaux is White English)—two countries that have long been at war with one another. Both would likely have been ostracized enough for the simple fact of being orphans with no real wealth or prospects to speak of, but their mixed-race status makes them even more obvious targets for the ire of those around them.

Both Alina and Mal are mocked as “half breeds” at their orphanage, called “rice eaters” and bullied by their peers. Their army camp is covered in wartime propaganda posters that depict their Shu Han enemies as uncomfortably angry, vaguely racist caricatures, and even the other soldiers in Alina’s squad of cartographers make rude comments about how she doesn’t belong with them. 

This new backstory not only adds new depth to Alina as a character, but it further underlines why she and Mal are so important to one another – he’s not just her friend, he’s the one person in her regiment, and one of the few in a predominantly White Ravka, who really understands her and who shares her experiences at a base cultural level. It explains why they’re so loath to be apart, and why each fights so hard to get back to the other whenever they’re separated.

In the sort of small-but-significant shifts from the book narrative that come to define this series adaptation, it is the order to send Mal’s regiment across the Shadow Fold that spurs Alina to find a way to accompany him, costing several of her unit their lives and ultimately unleashing her Grisha abilities. (In the novel, they’re both simply assigned to the skiff that is sent across the Shadow Fold.) It is the first example of a trend that will run throughout the series, in which so many of both Alina and Mal’s decisions will be defined by the other’s presence or absence and motivated by the fact that neither can bear to lose the other.

Shadow and Bone also manages to flesh out Mal himself as a character in a way that the book series does not. Since Bardugo’s novels are told from a first-person perspective—Alina’s—we necessarily spend much less time with Mal in the book version of Shadow and Bone than we do in the Netflix series. This means that he’s technically absent for half the story in the book and, as a result, often feels bland and underdeveloped when compared to other characters who don’t disappear for huge swaths of the novel.

The television series instead allows us to get to know Mal as a person who exists separate and apart from his relationship with Alina—instead of simply disappearing, we now see what happens to Mal after Alina is whisked off to the Little Palace, and are allowed to watch his realization of his true feelings for his best friend take place in something like real-time. Though their letters to each other both go missing before either can read them (thanks a lot, Genya!), we as viewers still get to hear both sets ourselves and witness the growth that takes place—for each of them—during their time apart.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Often in YA fiction, a designated couple either is or ultimately gets together simply because they’re the designated couple and that’s what happens in a story like this. But Shadow and Bone is extra careful to not just give us the reasons that Mal and Alina might choose one another, but to show us that is their relationship is utterly central to the story the show is telling—and that it makes that story better and stronger than it otherwise ever might be. In Bardugo’s novels, we may all wonder whether Alina ought to be with the Darkling. But in this version of Shadow and Bone, it feels as though she couldn’t ever choose anyone other than Mal.

The post Shadow and Bone’s Best Change From the Books is Mal & Alina’s Relationship appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[writingquestionsanswered]

hi! i want to write a dystopian story. where after a world war, a ‘powerful’ country have taken over other countries and so changed their occupied countries’ cultures. would this be an okay thing to write or would it be culturally inappropriate? i’d keep some elements of the culture in non-governmental organisations and research some important aspects of that beforehand but overall but it be okay for me to essentially ‘replace’ a country’s culture with another one due to occupation after a war?

Occupied Country’s Culture is Replaced by Occupier

There are three problems with this that I can see:

1) Countries founded by white Europeans (like the U.S., Canada, the UK, and France, for starters...) usually have a history of being colonizers and oppressors. So, if the occupying country in question is one of these countries, and the occupied country isn’t, you’re stepping into an ethical quagmire, even if you’re writing a dystopian story.

2) When you talk about a country occupying another country, and replacing its culture with their own culture, you’re talking about two nations/one culture each. As in, the occupying nation has one culture, and the occupied nation’s one culture is replaced by it. The problem with that is few countries have just one homogeneous culture, even if they appear to on the surface. When people think of China, for example, they tend to imagine the Hans who make up 90% of the nation’s population. But, in fact, the land currently known as China includes the traditional homelands of 55 minority ethnic groups, including the Turkic-speaking Islamic Uyghurs, and lowland farmers closely related to the Thai, known as the Yao. So, when you do the two nations/one culture each thing, you’re actually erasing the minority cultures of both nations.

3) Even countries not founded by white Europeans can have a history of oppressing neighboring countries or minority ethnic groups within their own borders, so you can still step into an ethical quagmire here without even realizing it.

The bottom line here is you really need to proceed with caution. To be on the safe side, you might want to consider setting this story in a far future version of Earth where entirely new nations and cultures have developed, meaning that no real world cultures will be used in your story. Or, if you want it to take place in modern day or the nearer future, you could create two fictional countries and have one occupy the other. And finally, if you absolutely must use real modern nations in your story, instead of having the occupying nation force its culture on the occupied nation, let the various cultures of the country mix and mingle willingly, creating a vibrant fusion culture with elements of different cultures from both nations. Even if the dystopian government adheres only to the dominate culture of its own nation, let the people be culturally fluid. This way, nothing gets erased or symbolically erased. 

I hope that helps!!! (Edited to add: another safe fictional context would be a fantasy world or a Sci-Fi context, such as with different planets...)

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Have a question? My inbox is always open, but make sure to check my FAQ and post master lists first to see if I’ve already answered a similar question. :)

[nuclearblastuk]

The Bards’ Tales: A Blind Guardian Chronicle

Blind Guardian are one of those bands which you will not have gotten far into heavy metal without coming to know. You will have seen their records in shops. You will have seen their logo on the fronts of t-shirts, on the backs of hoodies, or proudly stitched into a denim vest. You might have heard their music played in rock and metal bars. You may even have caught a glimpse of them performing live from far across a festival-ground somewhere. To many the music and imagery of Blind Guardian epitomises the power metal style, and while it is fair to say that Rainbow and Iron Maiden are the real progenerators of the power metal aesthetic, Blind Guardian certainly codified many of the elements which you might hear in contemporary power metal titans and label-mates Battle Beast, Beast In Black, Rhapsody of Fire and Sabaton – high-register wails, fast and technical musicianship, symphonic layering and a conceptual approach to album arrangement and composition. To fans they need no introduction of course, but in celebration of their thirty-fifth year of making music and the remixed and remastered reissue series now available on Nuclear Blast, it seems only right to tell the chronicle of the Bards’ tales.

To see the full remixed and remastered reissue series:  nuclearblast.com/blindguardian-reissues All Blind Guardian albums are also available on picture-disc vinyl and on CD.

Our story begins in Krefeld, Germany (1985) where four young bards – Hansi Kursch, Andre Olbrich, Marcus Dork and Thomen Stauch - have just completed their first work under the name of Lucifer’s Heritage. As though caught under the spell of a premonition, that work was entitled Symphonies of Doom, foreshadowing a grand masterwork to be completed some three decades later by Hansi and Andre - the Blind Guardian Twilight Orchestra’s Legacy of the Dark Lands. The opening song ‘Halloween’ would, in time, become ‘Wizard’s Crown’ and feature on the debut album Battalions of Fear. Marcus and Thomen would before long part company with Hansi and Andre - though Thomen would, of course, be soon to return. 

A second demo under the name of Lucifer’s Heritage would be put to tape a year later in 1986 - also called Battalions of Fear - in which Hansi and Andre were joined by Christoph Theissen and Hans-Peter Frey. All the songs on the second demo, with the sole exception of Gandalf’s Rebirth (which is now available on the remixed and remastered version), would in due course find their way onto the Bard’s debut album in a rerecorded form. These demos are notable for their musical acuity, in spite of the limited production facilities available to them; listeners today will recognise them as falling within the bounds of a fairly straightforward speed/thrash metal style, quite unlike the elaborate arrangements the Bards are known for today - though there is some indication of things to come amongst several of the high-fantasy themed tracks. Before long, of course, Lucifer’s Heritage would be no more. The Bards, unwilling to succumb to the beckoning evil of Black Metal record sales, cast off their Satanic moniker and – under the inspiration of another wandering troupe of bards, Fate’s Warning, took up the name Blind Guardian instead.

Battalions of Fear  (1988)

Battalions of Fear is the first album to bear the Blind Guardian name, and while for the most part it retains the speed and thrash metal techniques of the Lucifer’s Heritage demo tapes, it remains a distinctly Blind Guardian artefact - for it is in this second chapter of the Bard’s story that the Blind Guardian aesthetic is first established; the lustrous gold logo and hooded figures adorning the cover, the unapologetically grand narrative approach to storytelling through lyrics, and the utterly diverse selection of sources from which stories are told – from the enduring inspiration of Tolkein and Stephen King, to the passion of Christ and the Strategic Defense Initiative of the Reagan administration. Thomen Stauch returns to the fold on drums, while Marcus Siepen takes up rhythm guitar duties: this line-up would remain unchanged until 2006’s A Twist in the Myth, beyond what many would consider the ‘classic’ Blind Guardian period. There is much for latecomers to the Blind Guardian story to take from the Bard’s debut: it remains the purest expression of the speed and thrash metal influences which run at the core of the power metal sound which Blind Guardian were the first to forge, opens with fan-favourite and long running live-staple ‘Majesty’ and, for the adventurous, the current remixed and remastered version is appended with the Symphonies of Doom demo, featuring the Bard’s early tribute to Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

Follow The Blind  (1989)

Just as Battalions of Fear now concludes with a direct reference to Monty Python, the 1989 sophomore album Follow the Blind opens with one: Inquisition samples the monk’s chant from Monty Python and The Holy Grail (“Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem”) This sets the tone appropriately, for Follow The Blind sees the Bards shifting towards an even more heavily themed and thrash-orientated sound than on Battalions of Fear, apparently brought about by their exposure to U.S. thrash metal royalty, Testament, at the 1987 Dynamo festival. While the Bards’ consider this to be their weakest album as a result of the emphasis falling on musical intensity, fans who also share an affection for this heavier sound are unlikely to depart from Follow the Blind with any disappointment, especially from live staple Banish From Sanctuary and anthemic live sing-along Valhalla, whose studio-take features the stylings of Kai Hansen, of Helloween and Gamma Ray fame. Hansen would lend his talents to the next two Blind Guardian albums too, featuring on the songs ‘Lost in the Twilight Hall’, ‘The Last Candle’ and then‘The Quest for Tanelorn’. Curiously, at the time the Bards were reluctant to include Valhalla on the album, now a fixture and highlight of their live performances; much like Black Sabbath’s hit-single Paranoid, it was written towards the end of the studio session, and was only included to make up the running-time for the album. Revisiting Follow The Blind, dedicated Blind Guardian fans will find the Bard’s first references to fantasy writer Michael Moorcock (“Dammed for All Time” and “Fast To Madness” are based on characters from the Eternal Champion series) and another Stephen King inclusion (title-track “Follow The Blind” is based on the authors collaboration with Peter Straub, The Talisman.) However, listeners of all persuasions will find joy in the closing number, a medley of The Regent’s Barbara Ann and Little Richard’s Long Tall Sally; the very embodiment of the performer’s maxim, “Always leave them laughing.”

Tales from the Twilight World (1990)

While Battalions of Fear and Follow The Blind certainly laid the foundations for what would become Blind Guardian's signature sound, Tales From The Twilight Hall builds upon this groundwork substantially. Any pretentions the Bards might have had towards being just another speed/thrash metal band, with some classical and high-fantasy themes, are abandoned. This album is the start of what many would consider to be Blind Guardian’s golden-era, and with it perhaps even the genesis of the power metal style. The album’s cover art marks the beginning of a fruitful working relationship with Andreas Marschall, who would create the iconic cover art for the next three studio albums too. In order to record this seminal album, the Bards constructed their own studio to spend more time working on it, and this time was indeed well spent: we can hear them, for the first time, embracing singalong choruses and rich storytelling verses from track-to-track and incorporating acoustic guitars and synthesized instruments in order to reify their world-building efforts. This album is not yet, however, a full-blown concept album - such as we will see later in the Bard’s tale. Rather, the album's diverse themes treat of Moorcockian characters, Gandalf's death at the hands of the Balrog, and subsequent reincarnation, and - supposedly - E.T. ("Goodbye my friend, goodbye!") The lighter-brandishing melodies of fourth track, Lord of the Rings, stand testament to the maturity of song writing which generally permeates this album. Had the Bards ended their journey at Follow The Blind, one might speculate that Blind Guardian would have been no more than a footnote in the grand heavy metal story: Tales From The Twilight Hall places them at the genesis of true fist-pumping dragon-riding power metal.

Somewhere Far Beyond (1992)

Succeeding the success of Tales From The Twilight Hall  is Somewhere Far Beyond, which largely reaffirms the originality and spirit of that breakthrough release. The cover art depicts a circle of time-travelling Bards - which would, in time, earn the band their nickname - assembled around a gyroscopic timepiece, establishing the tone perfectly for the distinctly modern stories which the Bard’s recount on this album: the science-fiction of the Replicant’s story in Blade Runner, a journey through the haunting, surreal world of Frost & Lynch’s Twin Peaks, in addition to the now familiar Tolkein, Moorcock and King inspirations. The album also features several bonus tracks: a cover of Queen’s Spread Your Wings, an escapist’s manifesto, Satan’s Trial By Fire, which tells the story of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bomb attacks as well as an alternative mix of Theatre of Pain from the album itself. This album is particularly notable for its widespread and international critical acclaim, reaching #1 in the Japanese charts. This chart-topping success in the East would beget the Tokyo Tales live album the following year.

Imaginations from the Other Side (1995)

Imaginations From The Other Side reiterates on the quasi-conceptual character of the two previous studio releases and, perhaps, ups the ante somewhat: the titular opening piece abstracts from particular imaginative stories and instead tells a story about imagination itself, referencing the childhood escapist-fantasies of The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and Chronicles of Narnia. The album proceeds to tell the story of a child’s escape through a mirror to an Arthurian world of swords, dragons and crusades before being brought back to reality. This story is picked up again twenty years later on the Beyond the Red Mirror album, which tells the story of how the ‘other side’ has fallen into darkness, and the quest to find a way back. Imaginations From The Other Side is the last album to feature Hansi on bass, who would thenceforth give himself over entirely to vocal and lyric-writing duties. Two singles were released from the album, ‘A Past and Future Secret’ and ‘Bright Eyes’ which would secure the Bard’s a wider listenership, introducing the music of Blind Guardian to the heavy metal world at large.

Nightfall in Middle-Earth (1998)

Blind Guardian’s conceptual inclinations reach an apex on Nightfall in Middle-Earth; a thoroughbred concept album from start to finish, telling a portion of the tale of Tolkein’s Silmarillion – middle-earth’s descent into the dark-age, preceding the events of The Hobbit. It is worthwhile to mention that the album antedates the Peter Jackson film-series by three whole years – the Bards were not riding in the wake of the Tolkein-wave of the early 2000s, but instead had helped to create it. Indeed, in a 1999 interview, Hansi intimated that – owing largely to the praise which Nightfall in Middle-Earth had received within the wider Tolkein fandom – there was some serious deliberation as to whether Blind Guardian might be involved in soundtracking the films. While this project would not - alas! - come to pass, Nightfall in Middle-Earth perhaps stands alone as a heavy metal concept-album adaption of Tolkein worthy of attention. The instrumentation, and arrangement around a core of scene-setting spoken samples, make this Blind Guardian’s most ambitious venture yet – both musically and thematically. This is the first album to be recorded entirely at Blind Guardian’s own studio, aptly dubbed the Twilight Hall Studios. It would not be remiss to say that Nightfall in Middle-Earth is an essential, if not the essential, Blind Guardian album.

A Night at the Opera (2002)

After the heavy-themes and grand-concept stylings of the four previous studio albums, the Bards change tack in an altogether dramatic fashion on A Night At The Opera, so called after the Queen album of the same name, itself named after a Marx brothers production. Just as Blind Guardian fans were beginning to know what to expect from the Bards, it’s as though they said - in true Monty Python fashion - “ ... and now for something completely different.” The result is an album which arguably owes more to the British variety-rock act than to U.S. speed and thrash metal. On this album we hear Blind Guardian at their most musically expansive, and correspondingly, the album marks a return to their earlier approach in which they broach an assortment of stories and themes, most notably: two tracks dealing with Cassandra and the Trojan war, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, the Nazi propaganda machine and the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s descent into a paranoid vision in which he is judged by saints. The galloping track ‘Battlefield’ has since earned the dubious honour of soundtracking the Heavy Metal edition of Adult Swim’s game Robot Unicorn Attack. The last of what most would consider to be the classic Blind Guardian period is marked by Live – a double-album comprised of recordings taken from their world tour, and the last before the departure of Thomen Stauch and their subsequent signing to Nuclear Blast Records.

Blind Guardian would go on to release three studio albums via Nuclear Blast, A Twist in the Myth (2006), At the Edge of Time (2010), Beyond the Red Mirror (2015) with their most ambitious project to date Blind Guardian’s Twilight Orchestra: Legacy of the Dark Lands due out on the 8th of November this year. The album is a direct sequel to - and not the soundtrack of -  fantasy author Markus Heitz’s bestselling novel Die dunklen Lande (’The Dark Lands’) and will be a Blind Guardian first insofar as it features no electric guitars! You can pre-order the Nuclear Blast mail-order exclusive edition via this link: https://www.nuclearblast.de/en/products/tontraeger/vinyl/vinyl-boxset/blind-guardian-s-twilight-orchestra-legacy-of-the-dark-lands-mailorder-edition.html

 - written by Jack Moar (jack.moar@gmail.com)

[laffiteslanding]

If you were suddenly in charge of creative decision making for a Disneyland-style castle park, and could only bring over 10 classic attractions/previously used ones, and bolster it with ten new ones, what generally would they be? Accepting that it would have the usual breakdown of Frontier, Fantasy, Tomorrow, New Orleans Square/Liberty Square, etc.

Oooh, this is a good one!

For classics, I’m doing a mix of rides that are actual classics alongside ones that simply must be there for the place to feel like a true Disneyland experience.

- Jungle Cruise (Adventureland)

- it’s a small world (Fantasyland)

- Mark Twain Riverboat (St. Louis Square)

- Country Bear Jamboree (Frontierland)

- Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride (Fantasyland)

- Snow White’s Scary Adventures (Fantasyland)

- Peoplemover (Tomorrowland)

- Space Mountain (Tomorrowland)

- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Tokyo version) (Adventureland)

- Disneyland Railroad (w/dioramas) (Whole Park)

New attractions are largely a mix of new E-tickets, old concepts that were never implemented, or rethemed versions of classics in new settings.

- Western River Expedition- the famous Marc Davis concept (Frontierland)

- Astro Manor - Haunted Mansion-like attraction that pays homage to old sci-if tropes and stories much in the way that Mansion does to ghost stories. Similar tonally to HM, and will be narrated via radio broadcast a la Orson Welles’ version of War of the Worlds. (Tomorrowland)

- Bandits of Goner’s Gulch - A new coaster attraction that will have you and a horse-riding posse of the sheriff’s finest chasing down bandits who’ve robbed the town bank. Effects include bullets whizzing by and jumps across canyons achieves using technology similar to that patented by Universal for their planned Donkey Kong Country ride. Ends with a successful capture and return to the town as heroes. (Frontierland)

- Fire Mountain - the planned volcano coaster/launch tower concept (Adventureland)

- Robin Hood traditional-style dark ride following the escapades of the famous fox. I’d like to make Fantasyland a more forested area in this iteration and this ride would suit that theme quite nicely (Fantasyland)

- Mary Poppins Caroussel - an outdoor attraction with the famous horses that galavant off the carousel and through the wood, running through some scenes from the Jolly Holiday sequence but also some very peaceful natural environments (Fantasyland)

- Flying Autopia - A combo of Peter Pan’s Flight and, well, Autopia, this outdoor ride will have guests boarding “flying” cars and soaring through and above a beautiful futuristic landscape that takes inspiration from Walt’s original EPCOT, as well as Horizons and other classic concepts that are given an updated, timeless design. Ride features overlap with Peoplemover and actually allows you to enter the streets of a much larger EPCOT-inspired diorama near the end. (Tomorrowland)

- The Forgotten Temple - A multi-level walkthrough attraction of a temple reclaimed by the jungle and cooled lava. Is thought to still contain some remnants of the once great civilization that lived here, as well as some of their treasure. Draws inspiration from Indy queue, Swiss Family Treehouse, and Tom Sawyer Island, as well as real expeditions. Lots of interactive elements and photo spots, maybe including character meet and greets? (Adventureland)

- Be Our Guest - An outdoor Beauty and the Beast ride similar to the Mad Tea Party but featuring a mix of cutlery, dining wares, and food. Guests will spin and move around to songs from the film. (Fantasyland)

- Wagons to the West - an anthology dark ride through the different pioneer themed shorts Disney has made over the years, each room featuring different tales and art styles such as Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, John Henry, Windwagon Smith and Pecos Bill. Wagons are trackless and will go through a different combination of stories each time, symbolizing different routes to the West and increasing reridability. Ride has a narrator that ties everything together. (St. Louis Square)