#it’s all gay and indie like this lmao

[theslimewave]

I Dropped My Fries and Then I Hurt Myself // Sludge Nexus

[timeisacephalopod]

I've kinda seen some pushback to the idea of representation in media and I don't necessarily think it's bad to point out actual rights are more important than Disney's thousandth first gay character that's fine, but I've had a LOT of people comment on my works about asexual characters and tell me what I wrote changed their life-and it's always that phrase- because they now have the language to describe what they feel. I've had people who ARENT ace or aro comment that what I wrote finally made a concept they didn't understand make sense, or that the way I explained things was interesting and enlightening and I'm kind of a mediocre writer who hasn't written anything in ages.

Like idk, if reading something from a writer who is fucking around and only somewhat talented can genuinely impact someone because they've not seen anything like them reflected back at them in life or media I don't think pushing for representation in media is as "needless" as some people seem to think and caring about that doesn't mean you don't care about more "important" (although if you think seeing people like you in media ISNT important it's because you already have that representation or are privileged enough to not care if you do, in which case maybe pipe down) stuff. Hell, I even got a Facebook message ages ago from someone who found a comment I left in an ace group about QPR's and what they meant to me and how I perceived them and the person no joke said what I wrote two years before they even found it changed their life forever because they finally knew what kind of relationship they actually wanted.

So like sure, of course there's always bigger fish to fry them diversity in media (you know, like diversity in real life lol) but I don't think it's as frivolous as some people are beginning to act like it is. At least not if you're an aspec person it's not, I STILL don't see ace characters almost ever and I'll bet my whole everything if I asked a writer of a show why they'd tell me that EVERYONE has to be in a sexual relationship and characters that aren't won't sell and are boring- I say this because in film school I had a teacher TELL ME every character needed to basically be sex obsessed and when I pointed out a GREAT MANY CHARACTERS are not revolved around sex (Supernatural stars two brothers, I pointed out) and when she asked if I had love interests I was like ??? That doesn't matter- using my aforementioned supernatural example almost all their love interests die or get mind wiped because at the end of the day that's not what the story was about. So actually I think writers who act like that teacher need like 50 reality checks, and representation in stories isn't unimportant and also support indie writers you'll probably find more funky shit there then Disney anyway lmao.

And also even the asexual characters I DO see in media don't remind me at all of myself even if I appreciate the effort, but they never feel real or genuine and their sexuality doesn't get a lot of exploration so 🤷🏻‍♀️ I actually could use more media focused on characters that I can genuinely see my sexuality reflected in in a meaningful and narratively impactful way because I've got nothing.

[moonshynecybin]

hmmm idk if this is anything, but rosquez as romcom co stars that keep getting cast together even though they hateee each other but the chemistry is too good?

this is fun because like. it keeps some of my favorite little rosquez saw traps and wraps them up for me like a little treat. forced proximity public pda and EXTREME media scrutiny kind of their bread and butter tbh. make them crazy make them kiss im watching like tashi in the hotel scene in challengers

like marc as a young tom cruise esque (sorry. SORRY. im sorryyyyy) action star who does all of his own stunts loves the physicality of acting loves getting to pretend to do crazy stuff and be a HEROOOO but still kind of plays the same exact character every time. BIG smile always standing on apple boxes to make himself seem taller as he attempts to generate chemistry with whatever actress is his badly written love interest of the day (marc would be SO good in the mission impossible movies im sorry he WOULD be like. can i parachute off of a motorcycle into a ravine please please please youre NOTHING. santi is his extremely stressed stunt coordinator. lmao.) versus vale who came up doing indie movies as a teen in the 90s (his lil face would DOMINATE gay cinephile gifset tumblr) before launching himself to super stardom with a string of successful comedies and sort of settling into that because its easy... secretly frustrated no one will let him bust out his drama chops... BIG chip on his shoulder here a la leaving honda for yamaha etc

so eventually both of them are getting a little tired of being pigeon holed. and decide 2 book a serious ass gay romantic drama. they are tired of being hailed as the kings of fiction for the masses and they want to win at acting!! they get into the chemistry read (marc is still pretty young i think) and its. insane. INSTANT. james dean and marlon brando levels of ARE YOU TWO FUCKING?? but they literally just met. and marc has been a fan of vale's forever but not just the comedies also his earlier dramatic stuff (apocalyptic little gay crush) and they have similar taste in movies and vale is sooooo funny and it is OFF to the races. like. i cannot emphasize this enough they are fucking the WHOLE time. every scene in this movie its just leaping off the screen... they go in to film and its like that BTS clip of the americans where the director was having matthew rhys and keri russell do a sex scene and theyre suspiciously comfortable pretending to 69 and he turns to his assistant and just goes. oh yeah these guys have fucked. they are wayyyy to comfy hitching the other's pussy into their face lmao. just fucking going for it. the director is like hey guys. can you tone it down a little. marc biggggg smile okayyyyyy :3

and the movie comes out and they attend the premiere all smiley and bouncy and feeling really good about the project and then, theyy watch it. and its like. uh oh! not a lot of acting happening there ! um. best performance of either of their careers and they both look at it an can identify all the points they werent acting like evil little signal flares.... and vale shuts marc out HARD yadayadayada the Usual Rosquez Breakup Ensues.... until they both get cast in a revival of the brokeback mountain stage play and shit pops off in the most nuclear explosion of horny heartbreak to ever hit the STAGE…

[eggtqrt]

EAH Music Headcanons

I am slightly too scared of people judging my music taste to share the ever after high playlists I made so instead I will share some headcanons I have about their music taste!

obligatory mention that dexter is the biggest swiftie and convinced raven to get into her music

usually though raven prefers goth or punk rock music, maybe some metal when she's angy, some alt rock, but she has a sweet side and is trying to go against her mom so she also gets really into tswift

apple is kind of a basic baby gay UAHFJDJF like girl in red and phoebe bridgers vibes

darling likes oldies, billy joel, elton john, I need a hero bonnie tyler, etc etc (side note: she is okay with taylor swifts music but she is so fed up with dexter being obsessed with her)

90s music is faybelle and briars THING (although faybelle acts like she doesn't like it but she totally does) like NSYNC, backstreet boys, Selena, destiny's child that era is so them TO ME

cupid is open to listening to literally anything like she loves all music so much and she picks out songs for her radio show that she knows milton would never allow but he hasn't noticed yet so she keeps doing it (but if she had to choose she probably leans towards r&b, hip hop, chill vibes, and anything super unique, AND OFC any type of love song)

ashlynn loves anything relaxing, mostly classical music, jazz (loves laufey), indie, and folk (her playlists would have super ethereal, cottagecore picnic vibes) oh and! Ghibli music or music with those vibes for sure

hunter likes similar music to her but leans more towards the folk side (he likes listening to relaxing music to calm down when he gets too fed up with pesky)

Cerise likes indie rock and alt rock, but also I feel like she secretly loves some really girlypop Taylor swift songs

Cedar I think would enjoy r&b and classical (tho maybe more like movie soundtracks...) And maybe some folk and indie as well (like cupid she's probably pretty open to anything)

Duchess obviously listens to some ballet music just for practice BUT I think she'd also have a music taste that's really embarrassing to her and one time someone overheard her singing really badly in the shower (like to one direction or smth idk)

I just thought of this on the spot but maybe Humphrey likes edm LMAO

The wonderlandians are my fav characters but I don't have a solid headcanon for their music tastes because I think it would be so purposely chaotic and random and eclectic and strange

[slasheru]

Slasher U 1-Year State of the Union / Unholy Census!

Holy fucking shit we're coming along towards the 1-year anniversary of the release of the Slasher U Act 1 alpha!! We've come SO FUCKING FAR. Sawyer wasn't even a romanceable option back in the day! As of April 27th, it'll be Slasher U's first ever anniversary!

Mostly, I am SO FUCKING GRATEFUL that you all came along on the adventure to make my weird horny dating RPG a smash fucking hit!! Taking narrative seriously in dating/adult games was kind of my entire M.O (is?? mods??) and I am SO GRATEFUL Y'ALL UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M TRYING TO DO HERE lmao

THE BIG NUMBERS

As of 11:21 AM EST on 3/23/24, Slasher U: Act 1 has sold 6,100 copies across Steam & itch.io (Not including the copies sold as part of Games for Gaza that weren't redeemed/downloaded, so this only counts people who actually downloaded or bought the game!). This is obviously BEYOND MY WILDEST FUCKING DREAMS AND I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH HOLY SHIT. I didn't even realize it until I added it all together. (On top of this, we sold several fucking tens of thousands of games for Games for Gaza!! Hell yeah!)

For my fellow solo devs out there, this comes to Slasher U making a total of about $6,000 + $2,000 net USD through sales (the former) and crowdfunding (the latter, for Slasher U: Act 2) over the last 11ish months!! The game started off being free for the first 6ish months, then went to $6.69 for the Beta (with dong! whoa!!), and now at its full size, stands at a good ol' $14.99 for 15 hours of primo datin' sim!

This is objectively the most money I've ever made off of anything I've developed in my entire life, and paid my whole ass rent for the entire year, so THANK YOU HOLY SHIT. According to Steam, most indie games barely break $1k in total, so I am AGOG. FUCKING AGOG. THANK YOU FOR LIKING MY GAME AND LETTING ME MAKE MORE VIA NOT DYING FROM CAPITALISM

The average review score, across 89 reviews on itch.io, remains 4.9 out of 5 stars, and we're rocking a 93% Positive on Steam!!

THE UNHOLY CENSUS

The best part of Slasher U is, as I always say, THE STUDENT DISEMBODY!! Slasher U will always be a place where everything is gay and trans as fuck (although I'm also proud of writing my cishet storylines too :V /lh)! I knew y'all were gay (hello fellow gays) but I did not realize the QUEER FUCKING FORCE THE STUDENT DISEMBODY IS

Here's the demographics of Slasher U players as taken from Tumblr polls (that's a skewed sample size of about 280, so grain of salt here for the homo website for queers):

92.6% of you ID as queer (see below for the breakdown!) | 7.4% of you ID as straight

This fictional horror movie campus is: 48.5% bi/pan, 16.2% gay/mlm, 10.3% lesbian/wlw, 10.3% ace (oo tie!), 7.4% queer but not defined as above, and 7.4% straight!

61.9% of you ID as trans/not cis | 23.8% of you ID as cis | 14.3% of you ID as neither trans nor cis

46.8% of you are between 22-26 | 32.3% of you are between 18-21 | 16.1% of you are between 27-32 | 4.8% of you are between 32-45 | 0% of you are older than 45 (sample size I am guessing lol)

For 14.6% of you, Slasher U was the very first dating sim you've ever played (!). For 3.8% of you, Slasher U was the first indie game you've ever played (holy fucking shit!!! this is an actual absolute honor)

76.7% of you instinctively Road Runner away from Melyssa at the fountain in Act 1 | 23.3% let the Melyssa tsunami arrive at you

--

A FINAL WORD (FOR NOW) ON MAKIN' VIDJEE GAEMS

You should totally do it.

No, okay, but for real, I started working in games professionally in 2009 (yeah yeah i'm old. i am 32 and i am dying and they're coming for me in the corpse wagon etc) and I burned out in 2016 and came back two years ago with THIS THING and I can tell you RIGHT FUCKIN' NOW that, if you have ever wanted to make a game and the big guys aren't gonna do it, grab yourself and/or some friends and fuckin' make a video game. I have worked for a bunch of AA and mobile companies and I can tell you right the fuck now that this is the most fulfilling experience I have ever had writing a video game. I taught myself programming logic to make this thing! And sound design! I fucking learned to animate sprite sheets!! YOU CAN ALSO DO IT given the time and energy (pace yourself don't die)! And there won't be any execs around to tell you your weird niche game won't sell!! BECAUSE IT FUCKING WILL

Anyway, my entire career as a game designer, nobody let me write shit for them. You don't need permission to make stuff or write stuff. If you write it, they will fuckin' come, Field of Dreams style (also don't forget to tell everyone you made stuff and share it around. super key here. lmao). Turns out writing is all about sharing yourself with people, and who knows, you might just find that a fuckton of people ACTUALLY relate to you. (And that you're a pretty good writer. Which you knew. Yes, you. I am mixing metaphors and pointing to myself AND you now.)

xoxoxoxooxoxox,

Professor Plutonium

[thefanboyhub]

More random HeadCannons for the SBG gang because yes:

Aiden has two different music tastes. The goofy kind (party rocks for example) and then the "oh shit, he's depressed" kind. Think Pierce The Veil, Melanie Martinez, Get Scared, any kind of "I'm fucked up" kind of music.

Ashlyn listens to a lot of classical and instrumental music or like indie alternative kind of stuff. Think James Marriott, Fish in a Birdcage, ECT.

Tyler listens to guitar heavy stuff (like I said last time I did this shit) but he really likes rock/metal kind of stuff. Think Get Scared, Limp Bizkit, Three days Grace, Pierce The Veil, that kind of stuff.

Taylor listens to more upbeat things. She also likes classic pop (Gwen Stacy, Shakira, ECT.) Think Britney Spears.

Ben listens to everything and anything. It depends on his mood how much energy he has the vibes he feels ECT.

Logan shockingly listens to rock. He'll say he's a Fish In a Birdcage girly (which he is but he likes Get Scared and Nickelback more) but he is lying. He wants that head bangers that drown out everything while he zooms into shit.

Tyler would be the worst with road rage when driving.

Logan would be the most normal about driving.

Taylor would be scared at first and relax afterwards while Ben is not relaxed and generally hates driving.

Aiden is shockingly the best driver???

Ashlyn is actually decent at driving when a giant monster isn't trying to kill her and her friends.

Tayler tried to become friends with Ashlyn when they were little but it uh... Failed.

Creator has confirmed Ashlyn is autistic and has kind of said Logan has OCD and Aiden has ADHD I believe. I would like to add to this by saying: Ashlyns autism is more on the social aspect, less on the texture and touch, and HEAVY on sound aspect. Logan's OCD gets worse the more stressed he is, his obsession is intrusive thoughts and the need to be perfect at anything academic, his compulsion is auto cannibalism(chewing not his nails but the skin around them, his lips, inside his mouth, and time took a tiny chunk out his hand) and finding work to do. Aiden's ADHD is very low in the aggression and anger, he does still have it but his ADHD is more on the social and focus stuff. Aiden also has an adrenaline addiction and depression. He also has an addictive personality.

Taylor and Tyler are intersex. It's only on the hormonal level but it's still there. (Do you see the vision???)

Ben hates that he's mute. He does and doesn't have a choice in it. He wants to speak often but something just stops him, it's like a part of him has his hands around his throat just like the day he lost his voice.

Logan is actually really competitive but it has to be something he's good at to really get him going. Tyler found that out during trivia game in the back of one of these classes (they decided to not pay attention and okay a random Kahoot. Logan won.)

It is also confirmed Tyler would be in cosmetology if it want for the scholarship baseball gives him. SO. He dyes Aiden hair, he and Taylor has dyed purple hair at one point. He knows how to do piercings, he did his and his sisters. He has more than her (nose and all ear pericings possible).

None of the group is hetero. None. Ashlyn is the closest to it and that's just cuz she's be Demiromantic and heterosexual. Ben comes in second place for that and that because he's bi but female leaning cuz men scare him. (He be the opposite of most people lmao) Aiden is Pan but doesn't really understand it. Tayler is unlabeled cuz she just likes whoever the fuck. Tyler is a literal raging Bi but doesnt think about it cuz he be busy. And Logan is most likely gay or that one thing that's attracted to like masculinity.

Remember that one scene of Ashlyn popping her bones? Tyler has that when he wakes up in the mornings. He does sports. He gonna snap crackle pop.

Aiden has only had four hospital visits before, he actually more careful then people give him credit for. That and Ben stops him a lot.

Ben sticks closer to Aiden even more now because he heard and saw him die.

Aiden and Ben's sister bully each other.

Tyler once had someone ask him out randomly and he was so confused so he was like "Uhm... No? I think?" Because he was up late trying to help his mom pay bills the night before and didn't understand what she said. The baseball team would not stop bullying him for that the rest of their freshman year.

Taylor had an emo phase in middle school which made Tyler follow suit. They were emos in middle school, I know they were. The hair says it all.

The group has two sets of matching outfits that they wear randomly and somehow always wear on the same days without even communicating it. S

Ashlyn becomes a big baby on her period and me willingly let's Adien and or Tyler carry her around. Taylor just gets really mean and aggressive (becomes Tyler 2.0 frfr) or just cries randomly and it stresses our boys out.

Ashlyn knows baby sign language so she can understand some stuff Ben says to Aiden when they us ASL thinking the group isn't paying attention.

Logan writes fanfiction. I'm not elaborating.

Tyler and Taylor both were princesses one holloween and literally everyone thought they was a third one, making them triplets. People from their middle school that go to their current school still ask if their other sister is doing okay and Tyler dies inside a little every time.

Tyler hates mayonnaise. I feel like he'd hate it.

Ashlyn hates Tartar sauce. Like she will punch anyone who tries to give it to her.

Aiden forgets to eat a lot and has to eat timers to remember.

They all share clothes but Aiden and Ashlyn share more than everyone else. Specifically with each other. They trade a lot.

Logan is constantly missing his sweaters because of Ashlyn stealing them.

They all signed each other shoes on the inner left ones with their initials.

Ben tried not to stick out as much as possible because of trauma.

Logan is edging into his emo phase soon. He'd be the fancy emo, more like and e boy but less cringe.

Aiden worships Lady Gaga. No further explanation.

Everyone gives Aiden the side eye when he plays party rockers (party walkers). He just vibes. (He's actually trying to keep the memory of Ashlyn face in his brain so he doesn't fail her again.)

Taylor has a middle school relationship with a girl one time. It ended cuz she moved away and Taylor was like a sad puppy for two weeks.

That's all bye now

[biracy]

I think it's deeply unfortunate that conversations about "representation" have become dominated by the issue of gay representation and That's It. I'm someone who thinks mainstream gay representation matters, but I also understand why it's easy for so many people to go "well I don't NEED boring lame high school romcoms for LOSERS. The only 'representation' I need is like, idk, weird furry comics made by the fagdykes online! Become unmarketable!" when the only issue on the table for them is sexuality. But I think it's not useful to take that mindset and apply it to "representation" as a broader concept, because in my experience at least it becomes quite different when the issue is less "the only mainstream representation for me is something I find kind of boring" and more "I don't think I have ever seen a person who Looks like me be presented in mainstream media in a positive or desirable light" (which applies to all sorts of stuff including trans stuff, body stuff, disability stuff, race/ethnicity stuff, etc.) Obviously I love subcultures and I love niches and I love Finding Community With Other Freaks or whatever, obviously I love that! But I also, as someone who is of Many Overlapping Marginalized Identities, Kind of want to see people who look and act and live like me be presented as People. Visibly trans characters who have things going on besides just experiencing transphobia or gender dysphoria, openly Latino characters who have things going on besides just experiencing racism or xenophobia, neurodivergent or mentally ill or socially disabled or whatever characters who have things going on besides being Weird or Creepy for the sake of a joke, chubby or fat characters who have things going on besides being demonized or mocked or A Message About Body Positivity. Characters who are People, the way like. normie white guy characters get to be lmao, and not just tools to teach some kind of lesson. "You shouldn't look for that in mainstream media/pop culture" well why not? Why shouldn't a culture's popular media represent the people that make up that culture? Not everyone is an online 20something attuned to the best queer indie art of the decade, yknow, and people who exist outside of our subcultures deserve "representation" too. Ever since I was a little kid I had an affinity for openly Latino characters on TV or in books, and that hasn't gone away. Different kinds of people Exist and deserve to be seen in art that isn't relegated to being "alternative" or "niche." Because while I am alternative, it's not my body or my upbringing or my social problems that make me that way. No human being should be considered a "deviation from the norm." Don't let art and culture forever belong to those who have deemed themselves "the norm" through continued subjugation

[full---ofstarlight]

OC SMASH OR PASS

Rules: pretty self explanatory. include physical descriptions or pics, and propaganda. the “other” label can be used for “sexuality misalignment” (ie: oc is femme and you’re gay, vice versa or you aren’t into smashing but a specific thing you wanna do with them like perhaps hug or study them under a microscope idc).

tagged by @dekarios!

ok SO my first instinct was Miss Camille, and then i was like nah i can't just give my canonically so hot she uses her hotness to stop a monstrous rampage character. so i put my ocs in a randomizer. and she still WON! SO she just really wants to play IG

(art by me, @yappacadaver, and @cainmak1990 !!)

Rapid fire stats:

height: 5'6

age: 24

sexuality: bi bi bi

gender/pronouns: cisfemale, she/her

half-chinese goth girl who studies gothic literature at school and loves to game, write smutty anime fanfic, and watch horror movies

scorpio, enfp, type 7

Pros:

literally so hot that it's one of her main character traits

great in bed lmao

loves to have fun! always down to take the scenic route/try a new restaurant/go to a weird indie house show

amazing sense of fashion

good sense of humor

actually very smart about chosen topics, even if you wouldn't be able to tell

outgoing, social, loves to make small talk

Cons:

commitment issues

has no sense of self-preservation

says really really weird off-putting shit all the time with little to no filter

kinda spoiled slash expects you to just do things for her because, like, everyone always has????

high maintenance

insecure about people undermining her intelligence, so will need constant validation that you don't think she's dumb too

tagging people below !!! if you see this and want to play, say i tagged you and tag me so i can vote too!!!!!

@a-treides @sun-marie @cynda-queer @yappacadaver

@disasterdrvid @theredtrails @birbycakes !!!

and anyone else if you wanna be tagged in these things pls just reply below aha (also feel free to ignore these idk idk)

[transboysokka]

Spotlight on Taiwanese Artists

I’ve wanted to make this post for a long time.

If you’ve been considering broadening your musical horizons, think about trying these, MY top 4 (admittedly #basic) Taiwanese artists. I was going to do a top 5, but actually I love these four so much more than anyone else, they’re in a tier of their own.

1. Jolin Tsai/蔡依林

This lady is like the Britney Spears of Taiwan, a gay icon, a fashion icon, and absolutely GORGEOUS. Known as the “Queen of C-Pop”, she’s been around forever and I hope she doesn’t go anywhere!

Recommended Songs: She has recorded 210 songs and I can’t even BEGIN to choose the best ones. But I’ll try; here are some hits:

I’d also recommend the video for that one ^^

2. Accusefive/告五人

These guys are hot on the scene right now and I’m obsessed! They’re relatively new (formed in 2017) and all over the place. They will even be performing at midnight at Taipei’s massive 2024 New Year’s party, which is kind of a huge honor. I actually really love how catchy their songs are and the way they keep it simple and use repetition. I also live for the way the male and female singers’ voices blend!

Recommended Songs:

3. EggPlantEgg/茄子蛋

These guys are great. They’re on hiatus as of 2022 but they’ve got some great indie stuff in Hokkien/Minnan/Taiwanese. They’re actually hugely responsible for the resurgence in “T-Pop” in Taiwan!

Recommended Songs:

4. Mayday/五月天

I don’t know this for a fact but this has GOT to be Taiwan’s most famous band. They’ve been around forever. I really don’t know what to say about them, everyone just knows them. They’ve toured all over the world, have broken countless records, and have influenced entire genres of music in the Chinese-speaking world.

Recommended Songs:

lmao I’ve hit the Audio Limit actually but You Get It

[yonpote]

i really want to write a full analysis comparing dnp to that one stupid lil gay furry indie rock album with the dogs on the cover but that requires way more research than i thought... so for now here is a lyrical analysis of "Twin Fantasy (Those Boys)", the final song off the album Twin Fantasy (Face to Face) by Car Seat Headrest, and comparison to dnp wrt to their careers and lives.

the original context of this album and this chorus is that the narrator is reflecting on a tumultuous past relationship, at first viewing this romance through rose-tinted glasses (the dark, inside, fantasy) before finally being able to see the truth (the sun, outside, reality.) the pain of looking at the sun is the pain of revisiting the narrator's past. often times we use pain as an indicator that we are experiencing reality (pinching yourself to make sure you're not dreaming.)

these lines repeat throughout the song, yknow like a chorus...

the past few years of dnp's careers and lives have been very much on the reflective and introspective side. for them, the "fantasy" is the explosion of their careers, their success as creators, the audience who has stuck with them. of course all of this is true, but at the same time, the reality is that during the absolute height of their careers, they were in the closet, had repressed mental health issues, had overworked themselves, and had their boundaries frequently overstepped. and they have been reflecting on both sides of this coin.

the story and memories the narrator has retold will never disappear. the fond memories of the relationship will always be there, both figuratively and literally as they have been recorded in song form.

this is true for dnp as well. the memories that they share, both with each other and with the audience, won't go away. we will always have pinof 1. we will always have videos of them being silly and goofing off and just having fun with each other. and even when they have deleted stuff in the past, they are no longer trying to take any of it down and even reference deleted videos and old posts as they no longer have anything to hide in showing them.

dude im not even gonna analyze these lyrics i just wanted to add them here cuz like just fuckin read them what the hell is this gay shit this is so dnp (and also its the same concepts as seen above)

edit: i lied i am going to expand my thoughts on these lyrics

dnp have basically built their careers on having fun. they've taken jobs and sponsorships they didnt want necessarily, they were workaholic closet cases, but like. they always made sure to have a good time. you can especially see this in the very early videos as well as on the gaming channel, where they felt ever so slightly less pressure to put up a front. they LOVE creating stuff together, they love hanging out with each other, theres absolutely no denying this! theyre not kissing and theyre not fucking i mean who knows lmao but instead of interpretting that literally, its more like. thats not the point, that was never the point. are there shippers amongst us? yes fer sure, but that isnt what pulled us all in. what pulled us in was their connection, their dynamic, and how much fun they have on camera together!!!!!!! these two brothers lovers boys and their smooth-cocked youthful adventures!

the cover of twin fantasy is a very simple drawing of two anthropomorphic dogs in an embrace, their arms seeming to be conjoined, and the eye of one dog overlapping with the similarly drawn nose of the other dog.

dan and phil. are so symbiotic. how much of this do i have to explain... from the very start, from their first meeting. yes there are the superficial similarities (tall gay british emos who like the same media) but anyone can have those similarities. dnp knew immediately that there was a connection that they shared that was different from anyone else's. there was some sort of inescapable pull toward each other, call it fate or soul-bonding or autism, they simply could not keep away from each other even if they wanted to.

alright THIS. OK THISSSSSS.

ok ok so there are two versions of this entire album, and in the rerecording (which is what we're analyzing) some lyrics have been changed. this part is spoken word, and is completely different from the original. in the og (mirror to mirror) version, it seems the narrator is lamenting this awakening into reality, and breaking the fantasy for him is dark and twisted. in this new version, the narrator is no longer talking about himself in third person. he is Actually breaking the fantasy now, literally breaking the fourth wall, and directly addressing the person whom this album was written about. the contract is up, the names have been changed, aka, they no longer have to be tied down by this dark history. in the real world, the songwriter and this ex are still friends (or have become friends again?) and said ex even drew the art for the album that came after this rerecording. this story that the narrator had put out into the world, they no longer allow it to chain down what could happen in the future.

DAN AND PHIL. OK WAIT ACK OK so like circling back to what i was saying earlier about THEIR fantasy and reality, i mentioned how their reality was dark compared to the fantasy that they showed to us on youtube. and now they have shown us that reality. BUT AGAIN. they refuse to let that tie them down!!!! yes it took a few years of recuperation but they are creating stuff together again! AND AGAIN! the version of them that can exist outside of everything, is in their old videos. we can always go back! they will always be there for us (both dnp and the audience) to revisit. in theory i mean things get deleted but ykwim tho... the contract is up. they are no longer obligated by their management or by publishing or by radio to censor themselves or hide any aspect of themselves. the names have been changed. dan rebranded in 2017, but phil also very subtly and very slowly rebranded in his own way. the gaming channel literally came back from the dead, got a facelift, and yeah itll always be the same ole dnp banting and jesting but from the very first return video the energy is SO MUCH DIFFERENT and i PROMISE it is not just bc they are out as gay although OBV thats a huge part of it but they are just. happier! and more themselves! and its so visible in their faces and body language and tone and EVERYTHINGGGGG.

but listen, remember, these are only lyrics now. theres a version of them that exists outside of everything. and that version is in the old videos. yes they were closeted and overworked and mentally struggling, but they were still happy there too. and they never ever discount how happy those videos have made US. they know how much all of their older content means to us bc it means so much to them too. "you are as important to us as we are to you."

i'll end this with the last line, that repeats over and over before the song finally ends. this line can be interpretted so many ways imo, but i just think it generally ties together my entire thesis. thank you for reading my deranged gay rambling <3

when i come back, you'll still be here.

[callmearcturus]

Also raised my eyebrow that the “pseudonyms” used in the piece were all TMA characters (and generally well-liked ones) which is something that’s going to play a certain way to the readers depending on who they’ve chosen and they definitely knew that! That alone discredited some of their journalistic integrity for me, even without knowing who the author was. The title of the piece was also off to me, considering it really wasn’t about Alex at all and that was acknowledged near the end. Not saying this means one thing or another either, but knowing who wrote it definitely puts some things in perspective for me!

yeah no zyka is sharing parts with the class and like this is so far from being objective or reasonable, it's complete horseshit

again: i am sure that managerial fuck ups happened and screwed people and that's not okay

but this shit is trying to build a narrative and uuhhhhhh

Was Rusty Quill testing the waters to see what they could get away with, and what people were prepared to call them out for? It seemed they hoped for everyone to stay quiet so the company’s image could stay clean and things would blow over. Why?

nah brah its pretty common to ask people not to talk about layoffs while they are still in progress, that's actually really fucking normal. you can choose not to obey but its not weird

An observation has been made to me that there’s a very good chance that the list on Kickstarter of stretch goal guest writers may be the totality of the people in the audio fiction indie world that have still not had an experience with Rusty Quill.

this is provably untrue and also the way it frames a specific narrative is incredibly suspicious

What Rusty Quill seems to be doing with The Magnus Protocol is banking on its fans to bail it out. Instead of putting in the work with their original shows, shows full of stories and characters fans have already become attached to, they’re pulling back and returning to what is profitable and nostalgic.

lmao fuck off

guess what, folks, i knew the second the KS was announced that TMA2 was for money. like, i'm sure they worked on an idea and formed it and tried to come up with something cool. but if one of their other properties had blown up, we would not be seeing TMA2

just because you are doing something to get paid doesn't make it soulless and evil.

and folks I'm sorry but: when you are a working artist, doing the art that gets you paid isn't a fucking crime, and the marketing director of fable and folley knows it.

also i hated the "WTNV is only big bc its gay" and i hate the "TMA only blew up bc its gay." get fucked. a lot of people found out about TMA bc jonmart but to be clear: if the show wasn't good, people would not have listened to 159 fucking episodes just for two boys to hold hands. grow up.

no fucking sell.

[ap0stle]

WIP questionnaire tag game

THANK U FOR THE TAG @astramachina

umm the wip in question is TMNTDT aka Tell Me Not to Do This aka teenage mutant ninja turtle...dookie time

What’s the first part of your WIP that you created?

oough that was back in like... 2016? 2014? and i started with the first chapter right away which ended up being the fourth chapter and then became Nothing At All because i have wrecked this thang beyond recognition <3

If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

definitely Burn a Church by Coma Cinema bc it's been in my mock-soundtrack playlist for years and fits the vibes really well :3 the playlist in question is kind of a mess and old as hell but i'll link that too just in case ^_^

What are your favorite characters that you made? Why?

curtis definitely, i think i get caught up on the details of everyone but he is the most wholly developed and also umm. very similar to me so i love him dearly. he is the worst.

What other pieces of media do you think your fanbase would share?

if you like weird indie movies about young mentally unwell people that may or may not be queer and/or on da spectrum... you will enjoy my garbage and such movies as I Am Not a Serial Killer, As You Are, Super Dark Times, etc. ALSO magnus archives fans maybe bc of the whole Mold Cult thing that is still under development

What has been your biggest struggle with your WIP?

settling on a format was and is still my number one struggle lol. i have switched between a book, comic, videogame, screenplay, website... i have like 50000 drafts scattered across different websites and applications and if this thing ever comes to life i think i will actually fucking ascend

Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

ssssssssssort of. there are a lot of dead animals. and fungi. and mold. there have been some minor pet ideas thrown around for the more. Safe Environment characters but for the time being no actual lovable creatures :/ maybe eventually!

How do your characters travel/get around?

Juno's car because mr. dumbass dumped his murder truck into a river ^_^

What part of your WIP are you working on right now?

....yes. in all seriousness i have so many different versions in different POVs and tenses it's a toss up as to what i work on and if it will even make it to the next round of editing LOL

What aspects (tropes, maybe?) will you think draw your audience in?

its not quite explicitly queer (in the latest version) but heavily HEAVILY implied and i feel like the stories that are sort of ambiguous about their queerness tend to draw more people in ?? or they're more popular anyway LOL. so trope: queerbaiting ????

deeply unwell man who has not slept properly in 600 years. the ladies love that shit

^ unreliable narrator ?

religious horror sort of?

bury your gays except. is he actually dead?? .....

What are your hopes for your WIP?

to settle on a fucking medium LMAO. i cannot for the life of me stick to one, or a point of view, OR a tense so um . makin a goddamn decision would probbaly make the writing process like 600 times easier

tagging UM. shaking my brain for writer mutuals ik ive tagged yall before but i cannot think rn so @hammity-hammer @aether-friskets @xxdrowninglessonsxx @deviantartidentitydisorder

anyway if anyone else wants do this just pretend u have been personally tagged ily THANK U AGAIN MITCH ♡♡♡

[paradox-oflife]

Top 10 albums 2024

Tagged by my mate @lememecollector, last time I did this was.. I was still in high school 💀I had a lot of stuff from the Killers, Mitski, twenty one pilots lmao so let's see how much I've changed

In Rainbows - Radiohead

To me, this is the golden record and the most perfect album. It gets better and better every single time I listen to it. If you want to listen to it on a more normal level, it's so fun to groove and jam to. If you want to dig deep, you'll realize every single track is actually pretty complex from a musical perspective. 15 Steps being in 5/4 signature, Bodysnatchers being in something of a syncopation, Weird Fishes in a very layered polyrhythmic soundscape, Faust Arp changing time signatures every few measures etc. The closing track, Videotape still confuses me with it's rhythmic patterns. The lyrics seem to contrast the vibes of the music, e.g. 15 Step opening up with "How come I end up where I started?" and that feeling of never being able to escape your old faults. Even the track order is so perfect, it's ordered in a way where it never feels like it drags or rushes, and everything just flows so seamlessly into each other. Upbeat, depressing, innovative, experimental all at once.

What puts this at first place is really the musicality of it. It's very much what I think of as an objective perfection. I think some of the other albums I put on this list isn't as polished, but it's more about the emotional and rawness of the music. Like, I would blast In Rainbows if I'm on aux, but I wouldn't blast like. Shoegaze. I've never been much of a fan of Radiohead for their lyrics bc ngl I don't even know what Thom is singing half the time, but it's always been about the actual musicality for me.

Favorite is Jigsaw Falling into Place! The bass player in me is obsessed.

2. bury me at makeout creek - Mitski

My first love <3 musically speaking. I was in like 7th grade when I heard "Francis Forever" play on Adventure Time then immediately going to search it up. Then I heard First Love/Late Spring, then Townie, and something in me flickered. It was the first time I ever heard an Asian American in the indie rock scene. Back then, Mitski was such a small artist and relatively unknown. I remember journaling about her music in 7th grade lmao. The explosiveness of Texas Reznikoff, the teenage angst in Townie, crushing First Love/Late Spring, the yearning self-affirmation on Francis Forever..etc. It's actually quite musically simplistic but it's so catchy and manages to have some of the most personal and confessional lyrics at the same time. And it's not like Mitski doesn't know how to be "musically complex", she was literally a studio composition major and you can really feel that bleed through in Retired from Sad, New Career in Business.

Bmamc feels like something you would sing to yourself on a guitar in your bedroom, or perform in your garage, or something you would write in your diary. It's meant for yourself, not for a large crowd of a sold out stadium. It's raw, cathartic, intimate, and says everything it needs to say about love, insecurity, anger, grief, youth in a short 30 minutes. It meant everything to me and it still means everything to me. I hold it very close to my heart.

It's so hard to choose favorites for this. I have a special place in my heart for Francis Forever but every track means so much to me. I think Jobless Monday is so underrated though.

Side note: I have a lot to say about Mitski. I hate gatekeeping music but honestly like. I hate how her music has been dumbed down into "sad/yearning" or "for the gays", and that makes it feel sorta bland and discredits a lot of the depth. Like sure, a lot of her songs sound sad on surface level but when you really pay attention to what she's saying.. e.g. First Love/Late Spring is about loving someone so much that the feeling scares you. It's not even negative, by any means. Or Your Best American Girl is about never measuring up to the standard of your non POC partner. And her relatively recent success seems to have had a terrible impact on her, with concert behavior and the whole recording controversy, it's unfortunate to see her grow really uncomfortable with her fame as she's known to be a very private person.

3. Grace - Jeff Buckley

I've always known about Jeff Buckley since I was a small kid because of his cover of Hallelujah, but I never really dug that deep into his discography until later in high school. The first time I heard Grace I was so blown away by how powerful his voice was. I had Grace on repeat for a month when I first discovered it. The soft rolling guitar in Mojo Pin.. the intensity of the title track Grace, the summer break up vibes in Last Goodbye, the fragility of his voice in Lilac Wine, the odd chord progression in So Real.. "I love you, but I'm afraid to love" being whispered.. His voice is SO profound. Etc, He is probably one of my favorite lyricists ever, every line he writes is straight poetry. Not to mention the Sufi influences from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.. He has such an odd vibrato and singing technique. He was such a sweet and sensitive guy. Also quite an underrated guitarist. He's like the King Midas of covers, every cover he makes turns into gold.

It's funny how a lot of my favorite artists have been influenced by him in some way. From Radiohead to Mitski to Lana Del Rey.. even people like Adele, Brad Pitt?, Jimmy Page, Phoebe Bridgers, literally you name it. The way he died was so tragic. I always wonder what he would have went on to accomplish if he had a little more time. The demo for My Sweetheart the Drunk was such a large departure from Grace, I genuinely wonder what public perception would've been if that ever released properly. Maybe he would have only been remembered for Grace and considered a flop after that, a one-album wonder. Maybe dying young cemented his legacy.

Favorite track is either Mojo Pin or So Real.

4. OK Computer - Radiohead

alright alright yeah I know two albums from the same artist on a top 10 list can be cheap but here me out. OK Computer is typically seen as the white edgy incel doomer album and is "overrated" but. From a musical perspective it's extremely impressive. Its place in alt rock history cannot be understated. At a time where grunge was dying, this album brough rock back in relevancy but in a different approach. This idea of a more artsy, experimental rock was a new and fresh flavor. The layered instrumentation and complexity.. it was very "out there" because the new computerized electronic noises were new for artists, and Radiohead was out there messing around with it. Paranoid Android was the first time I ever heard a guitar solo in 7/8 and it absolutely blew my teenage mind. There's a bit of political commentary though I don't know enough about UK politics to really say anything about that.

The themes in this album have aged beautifully. The paranoia of our world being engulfed by technology, a society where we're so advanced but even more alienated and isolated from each other, the fear of what would happen to humanity once technology became our rulers. The feelings of overstimulation and digital numbness. Fitter happier is often joked upon, but I think the lyrics really do sum up the album so well. The mundanity of life, a painful reflection of reality.

Picking a favorite is hard because I always listen to this album from start to finish. I think Climbing Up the Walls is very underrated. It captures the feeling of paranoia and losing your mind so well. I'm stopping myself from putting the rest of Radiohead's discography on here.

5. Did you know there's a tunnel under ocean blvd - Lana del Rey

Lana is... a messy person to say the least. She's made very questionable and controversial choices but honestly? She's somehow always in every single one of my playlists. But ocean blvd might be my favorite album to come out in the past 5 years, and i rank it above NFR. I love a good orchestral album, and when it lost every single grammy it was nominated for I almost saw red. I think A&W is a masterclass in songwriting and storytelling. The beat switch is so Jack Antonoff core. The themes of loss of innocence, trauma, family, identity... BEAUTIFUL!! Even the title itself is so interesting. The idea of something iconic slowly fading into irrelevancy, the question of will Lana's legacy end up just like that tunnel? I really love how personal the lyrics are compared to her previous works. I started crying at the opening track lmao.

I know she considered Chemtrails Over the Country Club to be the album that represented who she was, but Ocean Blvd nailed who she really is. I'm curious for how her next album is going to sound like. Never been a country fan but I believe Lana can nail a very specific aesthetic in the country genre.

Favorite is A&W and Kintsugi. I thought Kintsugi was a bit too slow paced for me at first but then when I heard "Daddy I miss them" I bawleddd.

6. Either/or - Elliott Smith

I'd always heard his name a lot but I never got around to checking him out until not too long ago. I knew Phoebe Bridgers cited him as a major influence, but then I kept hearing more and more people citing him like Frank Ocean, Alex G, Sufjan Stevens, even like Mac Miller, and I think I got tired of wondering who he was. When a lot of famous artists cite someone as an influence, I gotta check them out. You could immediately tell where Alex G got his low quality production vibes from haha.

I think what really drew me in is this feeling of a just a guy with a guitar singing to himself in his bedroom. I really like how soft and vulnerable his voice is. Could you argue he's not a good singer? Yeah, sure, I guess. But that's not really the point, is it? His chord progressions are very interesting and trying to learn like any of his songs on the guitar is such a nightmare, he's extremely skilled with the guitar. I love a depressing song, what can I say?

Favorite: Between the Bars, No Name no. 5, and Say Yes.

7. Melodrama - Lorde

I'm not an avid pop listener by any means, but Melodrama is the most perfect pop album I've ever heard. There are literally no unskippable tracks on this album and every time I listen to it, I feel like I have to listen to the whole album instead of single by single. Because her first album was slow paced and minimalistic, she received some flack for going more towards the maximalist pop approach, the very thing she was changing in the beginning. Despite all of the early criticism, Melodrama's aged beautifully. The lyricism is just gorgeous. It paints such a distinct picture.

It's interesting to follow Lorde as she grows older, and all of it is reflected in the music. Pure Heroine is the "growing up" album, Melodrama is the "growing pains", and Solar Power is really about settling into herself. Melodrama is her late teens/early twenties sophomore album, where she goes from the early teenage experiences to the more mature experiences. Talks about doing makeup, partying, breakups and heartaches... It's about the growing pains of moving past teenagehood. It's perfect. Listening to it while walking around college campus at night is an out of body experience. I would pay to have the album cover as a painting on my walls.

Favorite track: Hard Feelings/Loveless or Perfect Places. Love that weird experimental noise in Hard Feelings

8. Loveless - my bloody valentine

They were not lying when they said this was one of the best shoegaze albums ever. If you want to start getting into the shoegaze genre, this is the album to go to. The heavy distorted guitar banging in on the first track, the drum patterns and memorable melodies. It's very rhythmic. Shoegaze as a genre has always been so interesting to me - To have the vocals take a backseat and let the soundscape do the work, and you let this wall of sound wrap you up like blanket. It's less about what you're trying to say with the words and more about the sound itself and how it makes you feel. That fuzzy distortion makes me feel unlike anything else. When You Sleep is probably the most stand out track and the most popular, but there are many tracks that don't have any vocals, just repeated guitars. Yet somehow, somehow it's not boring to listen to.

My favorite one is Sometimes, probably the closest thing to a love ballad they'll get to. It makes me feel complete and empty at the same time. Drowsy and intimate, the mumbled lyrics. When that song came on in that one scene in Lost in Translation, it became one of my all time favorite scenes ever. That feeling of derealization and staring at a world that's right at your feet but you can't really enter it. Idk. But I think that's the point.

9. Vessel (And Regional at best) - twenty one pilots

This album has such a special place in my heart. I was going through the early teenage angst and it was the first album where I heard where it was saying "It's okay, we feel this way too." It felt a lot more personal that what I was used to hearing in middle school, like Despacito or whatever was trending that time. Yeah it's a bit reminiscent of the mid 2010s but it was also my gateway to more alternative music. It combined so many genres where it didn't feel like a particular genre. I don't really listen to twenty one pilots as much anymore but Vessel always will take me back.

I'm combining Regional At Best in this because it has a few overlapping songs and it's technically not a real album. But I would kill for a remastered version of RAB, esp songs like Slowtown. The songs meant so much to me and my younger self. However, I think Trench is the objectively best record twenty one pilots has put out.

Not sure what my favorite track would be. RAB has some golden ones. I think I would choose Kitchen Sink, but Anathema also means a lot to me.

10. Continuum - John Mayer

This album was quite influential towards my perception of guitars. I used to be obsessed with the bass guitar and I used to want to play the drums until I really listened to this album. I guess I used to think about guitar solos as flashy - Something you could shred on to show off your talent. I thought people like Van Halen and maybe Slash were talented, but the intensity and difficulty didn't really appeal to me. But I guess because Continuum is more heavily inspired by blues and souls, you don't really feel any of that (except for the Hendrix cover Bold as Love). Each solo is melodic and laidback. Mayer's known for his virtuostic guitar talent but here, he's demonstrating that he knows when to strip back.

Overall, it's just a very clean and solid album. No very skippable tracks, very ummm "friendly" to listen to. Like anyone can enjoy soft rock playing in the car, y'know.

Favorite tracks: Either Belief or I'm Gonna Find Another You

Honorable mentions (some other 10/10s)

Sam's Town - the Killers

My once favorite album.. I still love it a lot. I guess I've discovered a lot more stuff since then it took a backseat in my list of favorite albums. But I'll gladly do a rewrite of why I love it so much

This album makes you feel patriotic but not in a nationalistic, America is the best country on Earth, racist way. It's more of a cowboy, rugged individualism, independence, No Country for Old Men, western saloons and faded glamor type of feeling. Red Dead Redemption 2 type of feeling. It makes sense since they were trying to escape from the Hot Fuss era where everyone thought they were a British band. So they went the opposite direction and made this whole album is this declaration that they were Americans. Sam's Town has such an iconic opening, very "guns blazing", very Bruce Springsteen feeling. Read My Mind changed me as a person and I have no idea why exactly. It must have been my favorite song for 2 years. That final verse after the guitar solo is soul ascending.

Kessoku Band - Kessoku Band

Bocchi the Rock was the first anime I'd watched in a while and really got hooked on. Chainsaw Man was going on at the same time, but I'd already read the manga so many times I guess it wasn't the same. But BtR being a spiritual successor to K-On just really made me fall in love. The rotoscoping, attention to detail, the amount of inside jokes that only musicians can really understand. The humor is unmatched, and imo it's the embodiment of anime at its creative peak. The plot is heartwarming and relatable, the character dynamics are so great. It reminded me of my high school band lol

Overall, extremely well produced album and they got some of the best musicians in the j-rock industry like tricot haha and the peggies. The lead guitars go HAM with every solo and riff, the drum fills and patterns, not to mention how good the basslines are.

Blonde - Frank Ocean

Admittedly I was late to the Frank Ocean train, but this album in unmatched in its circle. It's such a good concept album, I just know Frank Ocean had been cooking this up for a long time. The ideas of duality, masculinity, and femininity and how the album is perfectly split in the middle at Nights during the beat switch, and how the album starts diving into the "masculine" part. Less singing, more rapping. Femininity is expressed through those pitch shifts and the topics of the songs. Blonde was even released as blond in some versions. I think my soul ascended a bit the first I heard Seigfried - Could literally pinpoint where Johnny Greenwood contributed, also the verse about dreaming about a thought. Close To You is such an underrated track. Also one of my favorite album covers.

twenty one pilots - Twenty One Pilots

Their first album and of course, it has a very fundamentally different feeling than the rest of their work. It was made in the basement Tyler Joseph and the original members of the band were staying at, and you can honestly feel it lol. It's overtly a lot more religiously themed (or more so the struggle with faith) and I guess you could say it's a lot more darker in sound, Songs like Addict With a Pen.. whew.. The songwriting is already pretty strong here, and it's a lot more piano heavy. The thing I might not like the most on that album in the way he sings. The midwestern emo accent/enunciation pops out so hard LOL. But I really appreciate this album for what it is. I'm also obsessed with the album cover.

I think my music taste has definitely evolved a bit, but I also lowkey sound like a white male/alt girl on tiktok 💀 I think compared to my last post I ever made, I've definitely improved at expressing a lot of my thoughts on music and why it's so special to me. I also really just enjoy blabbling a lot about music even though no one will probably see this haha. I have a lot more albums that I absolutely love and picking just 10 is impossible. Maybe I'll do this challenge again in another 5 years and see what's different haha

[leonardoeatscarrots]

So i don't really know much about your fandoms or interests so... idk, would you mind giving me the rundown maybe? Like a little description about the games you like, or some info about your different comics? I want to chat more with you but I'm not sure where to start since I'm not familiar with your fandoms

Haha, that makes sense, my Fandoms can be considered a little niche.

First off, I'm super glad to finally meet you, lol. I've sorta been watching you and Pringles from afar, and you two seem like good friends.

But yeah, I'll happily give you a rundown, thanks for asking ^^

Pathologic/Мор: Утопия is a Russian videogame developed by Icepick Lodge. You play as one of three healers in a bo-hum steppe town, and your goal is to try and save the population from the outbreaking plague. The game has a lot of heavy theatrical influences and is well known for being extremely difficult and cruel. Which means the writing is perfectly catered to my tragedy-loving gay-theater-kid ass.

Karamora/Карамора is a show I got into a while ago. Basically, it's a fictional retelling of the Russian revolution (one of my special interests, lmao), except all the nobles are vampires. It's dumb but it's unironically so well made. Plus it has that twinky ginger guy, Evgeny Schwartz, in it. This show is also what got me on the Russian media pipeline to begin with XD

Lost Splendor was a memoir written by Felix Yusupov (aka the guy who killed rasputin, aka an important figure in the Russian revolution), and it's just incredibly funny for no reason. Man killed Rasputin, but all he could think to write about was how gay and ADHD he was.

Comics. I'm just very normal about them. I have a collection of around 80 different comics, single issues and graphic novels included. My favorites are queer and indie graphic novels, but im also a huge sucker for some of the classics like V for Vendetta. I have yet to purchase The Sandman comics, but they're on my list.

As for webcomics, I'm addicted to those too. I'm probably the biggest fan 5-ever of The Peculiar Compendium of Victor Van Wolfe on webtoons, and I've written a few fanfics and made fanart aplenty, as well as made custom stuffies of the characters. But I have a wide list of recommendations across a lot if genres XD

As for comics that IVE written, I currently have two open to the public on webtoons and tapas.

The first is Spaceships and Vodka, which is my primary comic. It's an anachronistic sci-fi surrounding a band of space pirates. It's a monster of the week style story with a lot of extra narrative told through backstories. It's currently still in the exposition stage and on hiatus.

The other is Gentle Hands, which is technically an AU of S&V. It's a gay romance following a disabled WWI soldier in a shellshock home and one of the nurses he has a crush on. This one is, alas, also still in the exposition stage, but is currently updating one page every other week.

As for like individual OCs, I mostly obsess over my comic characters. I don't typically make Fandom OCs.

My absolute pride and joy is Craig. He's also the fan favorite thus far.

I don't even know where to begin with him.

I have a bio for him and some other OCs I think, but I have yet to actually fill out any more >>_>> executive dysfunction my beloathed.

The full main cast list includes

Craig

Mirium

Derick

Terric

Carl

As well as Erasmus, Rusty, Cipher, Jadyn, and Jesper as some other extras.

So long as I'm here I may as well finish all the bios and make a master post lol...

[orcboxer]

Did you ever watch that found footage movie The Outwaters? I finally got around to it and I really enjoyed the sound design but I'm undecided on the rest of it, and I thought a fellow found footage enjoyer might have some opinions/insights

I did! But it had been a while so I rewatched it just now cuz yeah it's...a weird one lmao.

I think I appreciate it more on the second watch, if only because like, for an indie horror flick, it's got some really impressive work in terms of the technical aspects. The sound design is brilliant, and there are a lot of great camera shots scattered throughout. And I have to admit the diagetic indie music was actually like, pretty good, which is also rare for indie flicks lmao.

The story, though... It didn't really work for me, particularly the latter half of the movie. I was wicked interested in the unexplained "thunder" sounds, and I appreciated the symbolism in terms of queerness (the protag's actor and director is a gay man), but it's all so jumbled and disconnected, it just kinda went nowhere. Disappointing on that front. The ending of a story has a massive impact on the overall quality, so if it's got an unsatisfying ending it loses a lot of points.

All that said, I think Robbie Banfitch should be proud of his work! Indie filmmaking is insanely difficult and he managed to accomplish a lot with virtually no budget. Even if the story ain't very good, you can tell it was made with love and honestly that's what gives found footage so much of its charm for me. I can't say I liked this movie overall, but I can say I would love to see what this guy makes next. I think he's got great potential

[anthyies]

Hi! Can I ask for more info about the necessity of reading Baru books 2 and 3? Because ngl, I really disliked book 1. Not because of the ending. The ending was the only part I liked. I was like, "Something is FINALLY happening in this goddamn book, the promised treacherous behaviour is FINALLY here." I know some people are reluctant to read on because they found the ending of book 1 devastating, but that was not my experience. Sure, it's sad, but it's narratively necessary. So... WILL reading the sequels help, in my case? I see so many people talk about how amazing this series is, comparing it to other series I really like (like Locked Tomb). What is it that makes the sequels worth reading to someone who didn't enjoy the first one?

tl;dr: idk if you’d like them. if you’re invested in baru as a character and her emotional arc try them. Long post under the cut lmfao sorry

without knowing why you disliked the rest of the first book i can’t really tell you whether you’d like the second and third. negative reviews of monster and tyrant revolve around a) “Baru is too emotional and messy and i wanted her to be a calculating mastermind cryptarch plotting” b) on the other hand “Baru is too cold unemotional calm and it’s freaky” (she is just autistic, most people who think this drop out at traitor) c) not connecting with how the cryptarchs are portrayed as a messy group of people / not liking the expanded scope and introduction of the cancrioth (secret cancer cult) / not liking the story of ash sections that focus on a new character, tau indi bosoka. take that as you will i guess? you need to be invested in baru as a character for them to work, i think. and it depends on what you want/expect from the books. if you were bored by the first book well the second and third do have a lot of things happening like the aforementioned cancer cult. basically yeah traitor is just the start of baru, i think monster and tyrant are necessary if you’re going to talk about baru being “grimdark” (imo it’s not), or if you want to figure out what the series wants to say, but if you didn’t like the start of baru’s arc idk if you’ll like the rest of it you know? it really does depend on ur investment in baru + what you want from her; a lot of neg reviews of monster are from people who expected something completely different.

monster and tyrant are special to me because of how baru’s arc is carried out as she deals with the aftermath of traitor - her narration does get wildly more emotional which im obsessed with personally #griefcore #widowpilled, and the emotional catharsis of baru freeing her mind from the influence of empire is incredibly important and personal to me. and i rec that people who have finished traitor and can’t make themselves read the next two because of emotional devastation read them because baru dealing with the emotional devastation helps 👍 it gets worse it gets to the worst place she could possibly be and then it starts to get better. also monster and tyrant have tau in them ❤️‍🔥 and ISCEND. and ulyu xe becomes so important. and aminata gets to be so fucked up and closeted-to-herself-probably-bisexual. they have fucked up gay women in these books 👆

re; locked tomb comparisons I’m not into tlt like that but i don’t really understand them beyond the superficial level of “lesbians who commit atrocities and also there’s an empire and also lobotomies and also dead gf in your head”. the lobotomy and dead gf in head happen in monster and tyrant fwiw (although the context of the lobotomy is so different .. they don’t match up thematically at all lmao. the htn lobotomy is out of love the baru lobotomy is an existentially horrifying threat). baru has a very different prose style and also is a much more focused look at empire like it is about empire and colonization that is what the books are about. whereas at least gtn/htn were not that focusedly about empire. also crucially baru is about homophobia it is very much about homophobia and tlt is queernormative (i prefer baru because she feels truer to my own experiences like when i say she is just like me her journey is personal to me i mean it lmfao. stream this essay)