#it's a really bad night for missing my source material

[killerlookz]

Your Problem | Heartbeat! AU drabble no.1

part of a series of supplemental drabbles that take place in the heartbeat! au, not intended to be full length fic material- just bits and pieces of lore to expand the universe <3

description: on a night out michael decides to be a major buzzkill and chastise you for drinking too much, joost attempts to talk some sense into him... or at the very least tell him off

warnings: michael (ew), toxic relationship, vomitting, excessive drinking, not proofread, rpf!!! do not continue if uncomfortable

Try as you might- but you simply cannot make sense of the conversation around you. A cacophony of conversation, and loud music- every sound, every syllable pierces your eardrums, the tingling headache you feel creeping up the back of your neck climbs higher, and higher, making you wince.

You had done it again. Drank too much. God on a week night too.

You sit at a table in the back of the darkened bar, head resting in your hands, all of your focus put into keeping yourself upright. Had you really drunk so much more than everyone else here? It had seemed so.

Your eyes widen, suddenly anxious as everyone at the table turns to you, it had seemed you had missed whatever conversation was at hand, one that you were currently the subject of.

"Wha-" You furrow your eyebrows, chin lifting ever so slightly from your palm. Your voice is meek, rich with confusion.

"Oh, no," You hear a familiar chuckle, lazily, your eyes move to the source of the noise, gaze settling to the man who sits diagonally from you. Joost stares at you, a smile on his face, clearly amused at your state, "Someone's had too much fun tonight."

Your eyes narrow, you suppose that someone is you. Though, you can't say you're having much fun anymore.

"I'm f-ine," Your eyes close, hiccuping, a small smile on your face. But soon enough the room feels like its spinning around you, and your eyes are snapping back open, and you force yourself to sit up straight. Its bad.

"Jesus Christ." A much less leart hearted voice comes from beside you, "How much did you have to drink?" You'd know that accusatory tone from anywhere, Michael, your boyfriend, ever the buzzkill.

You shrug, "A lot," Shaking your head, in no state to give an estimate of a figure. "Maybe- uh…. a lot."

"It's every fucking time you go out." You don't even have to look at Michael to know the look on his face, jaw probably tensing, cheeks bitten, so worked up over something so insignificant.

"Its'kay," You're too far gone to even worry about what he's saying, "Calm-hmm down." And you hope for the sake of the rest of the table he does, another argument in front of your friends is not what you needed tonight, after all the whole point of going out was to relieve the stress of your day, nobody, especially you, needed Michael stressing them out more.

"And how do you think you're getting home?" He asks, his voice forceful.

"Walking," You say matter-of-factly, like its a no brainer.

"Yeah right, I'd like to see you stand up without busting your fucking ass right now."

"Wo-hoa-" You giggle, eyes widening, "Language!"

"Are you even listening to me?"

"Loud. And. Clear." You nod. Not really.

"Oh my god." Michael sighs, exasperated, and you can't help but laugh, just a little, at the ways he gets worked up over little things like this. If you had been more sober, you'd let Michael's tenseness get you stressed out too, but right now, it hadn't really phased you.

"Aww, c'mon, lighten up," You pout, placing a hand on his shoulder, "You're like alergic to having a good time." Your words are slurred, far from eloquent, but your point stands.

"Having to babysit you while you're belligerent is not a good time."

"Right," You roll your eyes, turning away from Michael, "God forbid you care about your girlfriend."

"And god forbid you have a little self control for once in your goddamn life."

"'Hey man," Joost interjects, "Calm down." He waves his hand, shaking his head, trying to emphasize how unserious the situation was, "She's fine."

Thank god, at least someone acknowledged how ridiculous Michael was being- unfortunately, not only would Michael never listen to anyone else, he'd especially never listen to Joost.

"Easy to say when you don't have to deal with this all night." Michael is having none of it, angrily gesturing towards you. You furrow your eyebrows, thankful the intoxication at least numbs some of the sensation of what he's hurling at you. Deal with? That's harsh.

"Dude, stop being such a dick, man." He's slightly more confrontational now, telling Michael off, "I've "dealt with" your girlfriend while she's been drunk more times than I can count, she's fine, bro, calm down." Joost throws up his fingers in quotations.

"Going out and getting her wasted doesn't really count as dealing with." Since the moment the two of them had met Michael had gotten some weird idea of Joost in his head, he loathed the fact that he had tattoos and messy hair, hated the way he dressed and the fact that he had chosen music over a "real job". In Michael's eyes, Joost would be nothing else but immature, irresponsible, reckless.

Of course, Michael had utterly oblivious to the many of nights Joost had spent taking care of you after you'd partied a little too hard, even the nights that had occurred while you'd been with Michael. Even post-breakup when you had just needed someone to come home to after a wild night out Joost had been the one to call, much more patient with you than you could ever dream of Michael being.

"Trust me, man, you don't know the half of it." Joost scoffs, unwilling to divulge more than he should, for your sake. If it had been up to Joost, he'd probably have bragged to Michael about all the things the two of you had done together, about all the things that he did that Michael couldn't, "You think all the times you flip out on her and leave after a night out she just miraculously finds her way home? And she just spends the rest of the night alone?"

"Well, then, enlighten me." Michael presses.

"Nah," Joost shakes his head, "Better left unsaid." If Michael knows what's good for him, he'd stop there, shut this conversation down and not continue on. But that couldn't happen, unwilling the accept that anyone could best him, much less Joost, he needed an answer, what was this half of it he was so clearly missing?

"No, no, you opened the door,"

Joost's eyes glance around the table, uncomfortable faces all glaring back at him, Apson, Alanis, Julie, Tantu, You- everyone knows but Michael.

"Look, bro-I'm just saying lighten up, okay, buddy? You're just being a shitty boyfriend." There's some effort to diffuse the situation, wanting to restore the peace at the table, but telling Michael he's a shitty anything is bound to get him even more riled up.

"Oh my god," You mumble, leaning forward, forehead resting in your palm, not ready for whatever is about to come out of Michael's mouth.

"Not wanting a girlfriend with zero self control, who spends most nights getting belligerent with her burnout friends isn't being a shitty boyfriend, I'm trying to get her away from this shit."

"You're just being mean, man." Joost says, matter of factly, "Like, fuck go home."

"Just what I wanted in the first place," Michael almost sounds relieved Joost told him to leave, apparently never having wanted to come to begin with. Yet somehow you doubt Michael's motives, part of you felt as if he had enjoyed hanging out with your friends, if for no other reason then to feel some fake superiority over them. He'd crossed the line tonight though, vague backhanded comments was really the worst Michael had done until now, outright calling your friends burnouts? How could you ever bring him around again?

"Come on," You feel Michael's hand on your shoulder, but there's no affection in his touch, it's merely to get your attention, "We're going home."

You lift your head, the room spinning once again, your head bobs up and down a few times, as you attempt to regain your stability, you don't know if you'll be able to stand up, your sudden movement making your far more nauseous than you had already been. You don't want to be here, but you certainly do not want to go home with Michael.

You're certain all the life has drained from your eyes by now, biting at your cheeks to fight back the uncomfortable, twisting feeling in your stomach.

"Hello," Michael snaps his fingers, "Can you hear me? Home."

You can hear him just fine, but truthfully, you have more important things to worry about now then catering to his every whim, like making sure your dinner doesn't end up on the table.

"Woah," You hear Joost speak once again, concerned, "Hey, alles goede?" You can see in your periphery he begins to stand up from where he's been sitting, probably aware of the sudden sick feeling that's washed over you. You look up at him, taking a deep breath, you squint your eyes tight, not good, you shake your head. He begins to make his way to your side of the table, "C'mon," and you're much more obliged to listen to him than Michael, reaching for the hand he's now stretched out, "Get some air."

Your legs are like gelatin as you attempt to stand up on them, wobbling before you feel Joost's arm around your waist to catch your balance, a bold show in front of Michael after just having told him off. Though you can't care much now, if Michael has anything to say you certainly aren't paying attention- barely able to focus on anything besides getting out of that bar.

Even with your lack of coordination, Joost is able to help you outside with relative ease, obviously no stranger to this. The cool breeze of the night air is nice for a mere second before nausea smacks into you once more, you practically push Joost away from you as your stomach acid burns your throat, closing your eyes tight- finally throwing up the liquor that had been making you so ill.

Truly embarrassing, if you had still had your wits about you you'd feel the full breadth of that shame, but for now, all you could do was sigh, mostly relieved of your nausea.

"Eugh, gross." You mutter, wincing at the taste in your mouth. Joost chuckles from somewhere besides you, clearly amused by your state. "Not funny." You stand up straight, the back of your hand wiping across your bottom lip, surely dragging some of your lipstick with it. You couldn't care less about how you looked now, more so concerned with getting home and some mouthwash.

"It's a little funny."

"Feel s'disgusting." You finally turn towards Joost, who's leaned up against the brick wall outside the bar, disgusting was right, the acidic sting remains on your tongue, the sudden realization of your situation somewhat coming to you, despite your impaired state/

"Awh, mijn arme meisje" He frowns, "Why don't we sit down." Joost cocks his head toward the curb. Usually you would vehemently sitting on the sidewalk, especially in Amsterdam, god only knows what has touched the city's streets, but you're certain if you attempt to stand any longer you'll fall, your brief moment of clarity quickly fading.

"Right," You nod slowly, rocking back and forth while you do so, "Siiit." You take a few, uncoordinated steps forward before Joost is once again grabbing you by the waist, leading you to the curb on the street corner.

"Here," Joost slips his grip from your waist and grabs onto your hand, for stability "Sit down," Your hand remains in his as you plop down on the sloped surface of the curb, his grip strong to keep you from falling over. "Feel better at least?" He asks as he sits next to you.

"Guess'so," You blink as you stare down at your knees, your legs bent in front of you, "Want to brush my teeth."

"I bet," He laughs, "We'll go home soon, ja? Just want to make sure you're good."

"M'fine." You shrug, before wiping at your mouth once more, suddenly insecure about how utterly disgusting you feel. Not just for getting sick, but for seemingly everything else tonight, disgusted by yourself fundamentally. You loathed that Michael had been right about you, that you couldn't handle yourself, that you had no self control, and look where it had led you. You hang your head between your legs, "I'm sorry." You whine.

"Sorry?" Joost asks, confused, "For?"

"I ruined everyone's night." In usual drunk, dramatic fashion tears begin to brim in your eyes. Perhaps you could see the humor Joost seemed to find in your situation if you had been more sober, but for now it had seemed like the end of the world, "I can't control myself, I ruined everyone's night." You repeat.

"Ohh," Joost coos, "No one's night is ruined." He snakes an arm around your shoulder, shuffling closer to you. You fall into his touch, letting your head rest against Joost's chest.

"Don't lie to me," You whimper, tears finally rolling down your cheeks, you sniff, "God everyone must hate me." Dramatic much? Definitely.

"No one hates you." Joost assures, his hand falling to your back, rubbing affectionately.

"My own boyfriend doesn't like me." You nearly choke at the realization, a sob escaping you.

"Michael's just a dick." Joost sighs, "Don't listen to him, hm?" Joost continues to rub soft circles to your back with his palm, tilting down slightly as he does so, pressing a kiss to the side of your head, "We all love you- even when you've had too much to drink."

"I don't deserve you." You sniffle, feeling utterly unworthy of Joost's reassurance.

"Silly girl." He scoffs, giving you another kiss, this one to the crown of your head, "I tell you way often you deserve more."

"Don't feel like I do." You slump down further in Joost's grasp, unable to hold your head up much more, feeling the strain in your neck, "Don't want t'feel like you have to deal with me."

"I like it," Joost's arm returns to holding you around your shoulders, giving you some stability as you rest against him, "Makes me feel like I'm doing something right."

"Stoooop" You mewl, "Make me cry more."

Joost hums, "Sooo sooorryyy," he lengthens each sound, crooning as he extends his sympathy.

His tone makes you giggle slightly, despite the residual tears that fall from your eyes. It had been at least a few weeks since the last argument you had gotten in with Joost, your relationship with Michael stealing all your energy of being mad at someone. If Michael was good for anything perhaps it was, at least for now, repairing your relationship with Joost.

"I need a cigarette," You groan.

"I got you, here, sit up real quick." Joost pats your arm, signaling you to move. And you do, slowly lifting yourself from where you rest against him, letting Joost get to his pocket, pulling out his favorites a pack of Camel blues. You watch as he opens the pack, taking a cigarette out, "Here, open." You part your lips slightly, letting Joost slip the cigarette between them. The small gesture brings a warmth to your cheeks, its intimate, especially as he moves to light the cigarette for you too. His face is close to yours now, tattooed fingers cupping the end of the cigarette, shielding it from the breeze as he lights your cigarette.

You're too busy staring you hardly notice when your cigarette lights, and Joost pulls away.

You inhale, feeling the prickly smoke fill your lungs, a small smile spreading across your lips, despite being a more than merely social smoker, there were few joys in life that could rival a drunk cigarette on a night out. You grab the cigarette, between your pointer and middle finger, turning your head over your shoulder to exhale.

You can hardly stifle the, ugh that leaves your mouth when upon turning around you notice Michael has made his way outside. Your heart sinks, pulling you back to the reality where Michael is your boyfriend and Joost is merely an ex. You wonder how much of everything he's just seen, not much probably, maybe just Joost lighting your cigarette, if that. But part of you just wishes Michael could have seen all of it, the way Joost held you as you cried against him, regardless of how utterly ridiculous the reason, the small kisses he placed to your head, you wish he could have heard Joost's kind, reassuring words.

"Why are you sitting on the ground, it's fucking filthy." Without missing a beat Michael immediately returns the negativity to the night, "Come on, get up, I'm going home."

"Not finished with this," You wave your cigarette in the air, unable to muster the strength to lift up your head to make eye contact with him.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, just get up I want to leave." Annoyance laced in his words, his hand flailing upward to beckon you up. "I've had enough of this for tonight."

"Just wanna finish my cigaret-"

"I don't care, stand up." Michael interrupts you, more forceful now.

"Dude, she's not gonna get up, just go home man." Joost interjects, "She obviously doesn't feel well let her chill."

"Fine," Michael throws his hands up, "She's your problem tonight. Have fun getting her home."

"I will," Joost hums, his voice matter of fact, "We always have fun."

"Yeah right, good luck." Michael scoffs, walking away. You can hardly feel bad about being called a problem, the relief of Michael finally walking away too great for the moment to be dampened.

Joost laughs slightly, clearly amused by Michael's histrionics,

"No one else I'd rather have as my problem."

[stoner-butch-blues]

Maybe a basic one but I'd love to hear your thoughts/analysis on Whizzer Going Down (in trousers)

I'd love to share it!! I usually focus more on Marvin's relationship with the ladies than Whizzer in In Trousers, so tell me what I missed in the notes guys. Using my '85 script bc it is designed to be easier to follow and has more detail.

Starting as always with what William Finn has to say:

Whizzer Going Down is the song that rekindles Marvin's giddiness, which the ladies tell us he hasn't experienced in a long time. The last scene he was in was on his wedding day, the day of his "death," so presumably his giddiness was the part of him that died that day and has now been restored.

The first verse tells us how little he thinks of Trina, acting as if she's no more important than Whizzer's cooking. Food represents love and Marvin says that love isn't sex, so I think these first lines also mean that they have great sex but that Whizzer doesn't give him the type of love he craves. This verse also establishes the push and pull in their relationship--for every positive there's a drawback, and that's part of the fun.

(Side note- imo Whizzer doesn't really hate Trina, he's hates Marvin's life choices and family charades. Marvin can't tell the difference bc he thinks of Trina as a lifestyle, not a person.)

Slipping out at night every now and then is easier for Marvin than properly dealing with his situation, and their setup is easy for Whizzer too- he's scared of emotional intimacy and commitment, so some casual fun (or so he tells himself) is as easy as it gets. "I care" contrasts all of this, because caring is the antithesis of ease.

Sweating, nail biting, and smoking are all nervous tells--they are both anxious, but for different reasons. I think "and then he takes me in his arms, and then he lights another cigarette" is Whizzer being anxious about starting to fall for Marvin, esp considering he doesn't usually smoke and the intimate touches that precede it. (+ ofc the cigarette innuendo I didn't forget lol)

Not sure what lying flat like a bad idea or the colors of his surroundings signify (pls tell me in the notes!!) but fighting is certainly a theme for them. Both fighting and giddiness are described as forms of passion in the source material.

"I think I'll die, die, die," reminds me of Marvin's first death in The Wedding Song, but this time it's a 'little death' that marks the beginning of his new life.

The scat break is when the ladies fully interrupt Marvin's activities, I think this is Marvin's guilt preventing him from moving on. It also explains his earlier line "I'd like so much to whizz without them there."

Ok I think this is all I have to say about whizzer going down!! Ty so much for the ask :):)

[owltypical]

I've read something like 90-95% of Agatha Christie's bibliography and it's not a small bibliography so y'know what, I'm going to go ahead and give my quick list of personal recommendations for anybody who wants to give a book or two a poke:

Miss Marple: Honestly as far as Marple goes, I enjoyed all of her books, even the weakest ones. To be more specific though, The Body In The Library and A Murder Is Announced are considered the two best ones by most, and yeah they're good. I also really like The Murder At The Vicarage, The Moving Finger, and Sleeping Murder, even if she's more of a deus ex machina that's only present in smaller parts in those.

Hercule Poirot: There's a reason Murder On The Orient Express and Death On The Nile are the two most famous Poirot books and keep getting adaptations, they've got some definite interesting stuff going on.

Other really good Poirot books are The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd, Peril At End House, The ABC Murders, and Five Little Pigs. My personal favorites also include Sad Cypress, The Hollow, After The Funeral, and The Clocks.

Et Cetera: Yes, everybody knows about And Then There Were None. Why Didn't They Ask Evans?, Murder Is Easy, Towards Zero, Sparkling Cyanide, Crooked House, and Ordeal By Innocence are also great.

The Pale Horse and Endless Night are decent late-era books. Warning though, Endless Night is a huge fuckin' bummer of a story.

If you want more Orient Express-style big twist endings, The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd and Crooked House will get you there.

Death Comes As The End is an interesting one. Not what I'd call a huge standout, but it was the first historical fiction murder mystery/detective novel, and it's kind of a fascinating read to see Christie apply her usual genre writing style to a nerdy interest of hers, ancient Egyptian history. Just know that it's historically accurate so the characters are slave-owners, and at one point a character will invent christianity while staring directly at the camera.

That oughta be a good starting point for folks, and the majority of Christie's works are easily readable and decently entertaining at the very least, so you can branch out with whatever you like after.

The one other big recommendation I'd make is to source your reading material via older printed books and older versions of digital files. As of a couple years ago Christie's publisher decided that all new versions of her books going forward would be heavily edited to take out a lot of the bad things, and all for-sale digital copies would be automatically updated with the new edits.

This sucks, not only because censoring unpleasant material (no matter how genuinely so) from older writing is bad because people who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it and this includes finding out about and dealing with the racism/sexism/etc. of the old days, but also because your average person can never be trusted to do this sort of thing, because where do they stop? Who decides what is good and bad? And so you wind up with silly things like editors removing "pussy" in its context of a slang term for old women and replacing it with "old dear", which really changes the mood and cadence of a sentence.

Which, yes, also takes away the fun and modern enjoyment of getting to read serious dialogue where a detective cheerfully talks about the number one champion pussy of all pussies.

[porcelainseashore]

VTM: Afterparty (Amsterdam style)

Since we were missing Tati @mortifying-macaroni last night, I'll use this opportunity to fill her in on what the coterie has been up to. Be prepared to gasp, facepalm, shake your head, and groan!

Ares and Johnny engaged in an unforgettable night of exquisite pain and pleasure with their favorite Tzimisce, Lady Joanna Harker, where they finally indulged in what's underneath her pretty dress. An insectoid abdomen with multiple segmented legs and scales meshed with a human upper body that's the epitome of hyperperfection. Oh, and don't forget the feelers too! Anyway, so impressed she was with their eh-hem "performance" that they received an invitation to join her coterie of Zuidoost.

Meanwhile, Gael checked out the Bahari stomping grounds and woke up in time to partake in a cult-like ritual, letting her blood to nourish a tree sapling. Guess this was her initiation rite and she's one of them now? Gael needs a backup plan, especially after the whole mess with the Winter Family, so she's willing to put aside her skepticism and play along. However, she harbors suspicions against Mariella, their leader, and mostly Sylvester, a seemingly ancient Nosferatu. Sylvester can invoke strong visuals and emotions to his retelling of theological events. He also tried to force Gael (unsuccessfully) to reveal her intentions through a charm that he wore. That's an absolute no-no for Gael, so he's currently on her watch list.

Ares, stoned af from feeding on a B-rate busker, courtesy of his host, does what he does best—sucking up to Miss Harker. He discovered that the plethora of different family portraits hanging on her walls are for her to preserve a memory of every family she sucks dry. How lovely. Johnny gets in too deep by accepting Miss Harker's coterie offer and messages Gael about it, only to send another message hours later expressing his buyer's regret. And in ala Johnny style, he gave NO context, i.e. that his intentions were to spy on Miss Harker from within. Wtf, Johnny?!! Well, at least he realized that Miss Harker's desire to experiment surgically on him was "not really first date material" and politely turned her down.

At the end of her stay, Mariella gifted Gael a rose with roots and soil, telling her to plant it in her garden. What garden, Mariella?? On the roof of Gael's car?? (N.B. Doomed bane). It is only then that Gael saw all of Johnny's frantic messages at once. On a call, Johnny told her that Miss Harker requested him to find a family for a hunt. This hit a little too close to home, so Gael only agreed to help him source roofies as long as he doesn't tell her what he does with them. Of course, Johnny's big mouth goes on to divulge what he and Ares did with Miss Harker and Gael shuts him down with TMI!! Johnny then lied that Ares took pictures which he could send to her, causing Gael to yell, "Get rid of that shit before it gets us into trouble," and "Don't give Ares my number!!"

Being a good little Ravnos, Gael gave Johnny half of the required amount of roofies to sabotage his plans, because he doesn't know any better. But that didn't deter Johnny! He ended up bagging a gym bro couple, tossing them steroids before calling Ares and Miss Harker to the hunting grounds. Too bad the couple didn't make it as the unholy trio were just OP. Is it any surprise that Ares won the hunt, AGAIN?? Dude, you're supposed to be a Ventrue K-Pop star wannabe, not a... savage *cough* Gangrel *cough*—that's Johnny's job.

While they were having fun, Gael searched for Bridgett, finding her alone on a street. Tough luck! Gael's Beast took over and Bridgett got a smashed phone and a boot stepped on her face (+ Daunt and switchblade to the eye). That's what happens when you fuck around with Gael's touchstone! Well, it turned it out it was all just a big misunderstanding, and Bridgett was actually an ally, not arch enemy. She wanted to escape the Winters and thought Gael would work with her. Also, she's not Kindred, but Mage (N.B. Entropy). Dun, dun, dun! After Gael warned Bridgett about Grace Winter's plans to make her "take another sip soon," they schemed to disrupt the blood bond by having Bridgett drink from Gael instead.

For the rest of the night, I leave you with the image of Ares and Johnny having a round two with the wonderful Miss Harker 😉

Dividers by @diableriedoll

[boxturret]

Galactic Conflict Robotic Chicken

I was young and foolish once, I was a fan of *t*r w*r*, I'm not happy to admit it, but its true⁰.

I made quite a few models back in the day, what some would call "M.O.C.¹"s. I didn't have a ton of parts, so I had awful blue grey mixed in with normal grey, I didn't really use "Studs Not On Top²", and I used minifig parts in ways that would likely get me murdered by purists.

Did you know minifigs hands fit in the hip holes on minifig legs? They don't want you to know this, to keep you docile. There's dozens of uses for minifigure parts outside of being in the shape of a tiny plastic man.

So I wasn't a great builder, I just worked with what I had. Also was quite bad at taking photos. Still not that great honestly. One day I'll work out white balance.

But I was going through some old files and found a bit of an anomaly. Usually I did the classic bit of white paper in the back and a couple shots of the front back and sides, but for one build I did, of the robotic chicken from the third episode, I went through the effort of making instructions, but only had one shot of the final model.

And it was quite blurry.

So I just thought, why not use these instructions I made to rebuild the thing.

Insert that obnoxious LSW building sound all the terrible meme channels use³.

The instructions were...not quite as great as I would have liked. I missed some steps, parts weren't really visible when added, and I didn't really know photo editing back then, so I used some program that came with the camera, and this was genuinely how large the text went. I also had the bright idea of just making the notes out of bricks, but had to use roman numerals since I didn't have any curves.

But nevertheless, I was able to build it. I made a couple substitutions here and there, things I would have done had I had the parts.

And then I removed it from the vile studio program⁴ and moved it in to blender to rig it.

Wow was I ever rusty. Forgot all the shortcuts.

I was quite happy with the legs. They're quite accurate to the original, and as I recall were quite strong. Gelo doesn't want you to know how useful studs in to technic holes are.

I'm quite happy with the build really, even if I'm no longer a fan of the source material. Or the medium.

Good night and/or morning. Sleep well and/or have a nice day.

⁰-I think its more accurate to say I was a fan of the IDEA of s*a**a**, as for most of my time being a fan I really just played LSW1 and read wikis. After I started actually watching the movies I fell off a lot. Also LSW2⁵. ¹-A term A.Fs.o.L.⁶ use for when they buy instructions for someone's custom model. The original meaning has been lost to time. I was too poor as a child so I made my own designs and pretended to buy them on-line. ²-Abriveated as S.N.O.T.⁷ in the parlance of the A.Fs.o.L.. ³-There was only ever one good gleo youtube channel, G.N.A.J. Bricks. And he is gone now because he was too pure for this wretched world. ⁴-I only use studio because the non technic parts are not on a nice friendly 8mm x 8mm grid. Who ever designed these brick things was a madman. ⁵-LSW2 is vile. ⁶-Adult Fans of Elgo. The acronym pluralisation may make you uncomfortable, but its been verified by acronym scientists. I'm just as unhappy about this as you, but this is the world we live in. ⁷-Which is short for "Studs Not On Top⁸". ⁸-Often referred to by AFsoL as "S.N.O.T.⁷".

[president-homewrecker]

10 People I’d Like To know Better

tagged by @cardboard-aliens @blue-likethebird AND @smol-tired-binch-blog (THANK YOU ALL YOU'RE SO SWEET!!!)

Last song(s): Ordinary World by Duran Duran. Now that I'm free from Spotify I just listen to the radio on my drives. I've been enjoying it way more than I thought I would!

Marionette by the Blake Robinson Synthetic Orchestra. very loopable banger that may or may not be on one of my bioshock project playlists

The 13th Struggle by Project Destati. I can't help it, I hope you understand. I am who i am and i FUCKING MISS AXEL

Last Book(s): Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. Honestlyyyyy not my fave. I can definitely appreciate what she did for the genre but the middle sags so hard. But at least it picks back up in the last 70 or so pages

Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen. BIG RECOMMEND. Bob's humor and heart really shine in this book. Very few books make me laugh out loud and this was one of them. Also absolutely check out the songs he made alongside the book because they're all so good

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire. I actually read the second book in the Wayward Children series years ago and I absolutely adored it. I picked up Every Heart a Doorway because it was on an ace rec list and enjoyed it so much I'm continuing with the series. The series has such a kind feeling to it with the way it treats its teenage cast that I really appreciate

Favorite color(s): Purple, pink, and blue! Cool colors my beloved <333

Last movie(s): Robots (2005): tbh if it weren't for server movie night i would never watch anything ever probably 💔

Sin City: I've never seen a movie more dedicated to replicating the source material, and it didn't make it GOOD but it did make it very very funny

Daybreakers: I remember seeing advertisements for this one when I was 14 and deep into my vampire phase with no means of getting to see it BUT I found it on Kanopy when I was browsing and it was meant to be. ILY silly action flicks!! Willem Dafoe cures his vampirism by flinging himself through his car windshield and into a nearby lake and it is THE funniest thing

Spicy/sweet/savory: Sweet 100%

Last Show(s): SEVERANCE!!!! First show in a long time where I didn't struggle on some level to put it back own. I always struggle so bad with sitting down and actually watching stuff and I think it says a lot to Severance's quality that I was constantly finding excuses to watch more lol

Knuckles is a show! idk it's just cute and silly and I don't have much to say beyond that. Helps that the eps are only 30 minutes so I can flip them on easier than with my hour long shows.

Link Click can I talk to you about my good friend Link Click. Shoutout to my friend for giving me the group crunchyroll password because all my pirating sites either had only the french dub or all the sound slightly out of sync. This show has everything, time travel, guys doomed by the narrative, codependent superpowers (and also absolutely banger openings)

Current obsession(s): oh... you know... very very normal things hey hey look at me stop it don't scroll dow-

I tag @taxevasiondoflamingo @krumbaphant @aishutoon @cutter-kirby @cookies-super-secret-blog @somacruising @ode-to-dumplings @cattailscoolad @confused-and-clumsy @palmmall

[em0-alpaca]

after like over half a year or smth i finally finished him

meet Dante, the master of light!!! [srry for the bad english, i dont think ive ever written lore for any of my ocs lol]

HIS LORE IS STILL A WIP SO SOME THINGS MIGHT NOT WORK WITH CANON!! [i might miss some details, but thats because i dont wanna write too much]

plus in my au, Wu met Morro when the Elemental Alliance was created already and before Acronix and Krux betrayed them. [if.. thats not already canon lol, i dont keep up with when anything happened]

_____________________________________________

THE PAST:

[12-16 y.o.]

- He was one of the most determined and challenging teenagers, training hard.

- Dante has been the youngest member of the Elemental Alliance, making him the main interest as every single elemental master trained him. [his parents went to a journey, leaving him with Wu ans Garmadon at the monastery and they never came back. no one knows what happened to them, although, that didnt effected him much as he was often left with Wu.]

- when Dante was 16 years old, Morro was taken in under the blonde man wings. At first he didnt like it, but after some time he grew warmer to the jet-black haired boy, taking him for a younger brother and training with him. He mightve gotten more protective over him.

- Dante, too, believed that Morro was the green ninja after Wu talked about it, encouraging him and and lifting his hopes up subconsiously. the rest of the story is obvious.. this was one of the moments that really affected him.

- as he watched the EA fall apart, he craved for more power to fight against evil and find his little brother. he was told his whole life that he should never take his power for granted as its one of the strongest elements, especially with him being exposed to the main source of light very often. Dante, on the other hand, couldnt really deal with others leaving.

HIS ABILITIES:

- can bend and materialize light into weapons [his weapon of choice were mostly his light blades, but anything dual wielded was fine for him].

- he could move at the speed of light, often did it to attack his enemies from suprise [not a stealthy ability as he leaves glowing bright lights behind him when using it].

- can flashbang others by either throwing a small light ball at their eyes or snapping his fingers.

- as hes pretty strong during sunny days, at night and on cloudy days he usually uses weapons from Wu. [that doesnt mean he cant use his elemental power, but during his youth his power wasnt so strong with absence of the sun. it only changed what weapons he uses though]

[18- 27y.o.?]

- one night after sneaking out to clear his mind, a strange figure approached him. it was a tall one, hidden under the black cloak. everyone knew who Dante was, so with no beating around the bush, the mysterious man gave him an offer in joining him. green haired boy declined his offer immediately, but after what he heard he was shocked.. the mysterious man told him that he would help him find his so-called younger brother.

- after making him believe he can erase the evil from all of the ninjago he joined the cult. They burned the mark on his face to officialy take him as their member, making him their leader. the longer he stayed with them, the more corrupted and brainwashed he was, turning him into their weapon. they formed a plan, making an elemental burst and trying to erase "the evil".

- one day, he started his journey to look for Morro, going for days and days into every part of Ninjago, only to find his cold body in the Cave of Despair. he grieved him for a good few hours before finding a field to bury him and let him rest in peace.

- his desire for ubspeakable strenght grew bigger, forcing him into trying to create artificial element of light and mixing it with his own. this, unfortunalety, worked horribly with his mental state and making him more of a villain. when he attacked the city once, Wu was devastated and tried to help him. this lead them to have a fight with Wu desparately trying to convince him and change his mind. Wu after that meeting tried to talk with other elemental masters to stop Dante.

- when the city got under Dantes control after the cult betrayed him and he fought with the new-built Elemental Alliance, he used the Elemental burst. unfortunately, his light element mixed with the artificial one made him fail to destroy anything other the city. this, made him half-blind and left him scarred on his limbs, losing his power.

- after that he finally snapped out of his sinister desires and managed to ran away unnoticed from the city somewhere far away.

PRESENT [WIP]:

[30↑]

- he lives far far away from the town and anyone else in a small cottage house out of shame.

- if necessary, he comes out of the house in disguise to buy some food. hes had various jobs already, but his bad eyesight [no glasses helped with his vision] he couldnt work in too many for too long.

- his elemental power was slowly recovering, but due to the fact that it was corrupted and mixed with the artificial one, it was infecting his body, making it age slower and weakening him over time.

- after so many years he started recieving money in his mail.. perhaps from someone with a kind heart?

- he tries to stay away from anyone with elements and people who couldve been a part of a terror he caused, especially away from Wu.

_____________________________________________

ive been thinking of making another oc [his child] so for now im not planning on adding too much!!

im not really sure what to add to him in present Dante, but im up for any ideas. :) also i was too lazy to draw more doodles lol!

[terrathetulpa]

I would like to bash the Minecraft movie teaser immediately. Because we need to bully the studio into getting rid of it or changing it like we did to Sonic. It is the most egregiously hideous abomination of Minecraft I have ever had to look at through these poor shared bloodshot eyes. The animals look like fucking horseshit supreme! Like someone was fucking around with some fur shaders for the first time and went "What if I pulled in a model of a sheep from Minecraft?" That llama is gonna be in my nightmares and I'm gonna lucid dream for the first time in months just so I can banish it to the wretched cursed CG hell plane that it came from. But first I'm gonna bash it's hideous skull in so it doesn't come back!

I am so unimpressed by your wide angle shot of a landscape that is supposed to be Minecraft, and doesn't even pass for modded Minecraft! It doesn't look like the game at all! It looks like someone tried to do a 4k voxel style remake of genshin impact and then someone else photo-shopped random ass stock photos into it. And when is someone gonna tell the movie execs that we don't wanna look at Jason Momoa anymore!? I hate his stupid bearded face!

The only snowball's chance in hell that this thing has of being watchable at all is Jack Black, and even he looks scuffed as shit! You bought that man a blue T-shirt from the GAP SEVEN MINUTES before filming- didn't even check to make sure that shit fit him! LOOK AT THIS!!!

I love you Jack Black, but you are not Steve!!! YOU ARE NOT STEVE!!! Did anyone bother to like- LOOK at the source material for more than 0 seconds!? Do you realize what this movie COULD HAVE BEEN!? I CAN'T EVEN SIT HERE AND DESCRIBE TO YOU HOW BAD THIS MISS IS FOR ME, WE WOULD BE HERE ALL NIGHT!!!

GOD!!! AT LEAST GET HIM A PROPER SHIT FOR FUCK'S SAKE!!! FUCK!!! FUCKING FUCK!!! FUUUUUCCCKKK!!!!

MOTHER FUCKING DAMNIT! BITCHES IN HELL!!! FUCK THIS MOVIE! PLEASE KILL THIS MOVIE!! BOMB THIS FUCKING MOVIE!!! I need all of you internet haters to pretend this thing is Morbius! When this comes out in theatres, if they haven't at least tried to fix it. Every time you see it just pretend it's Morbius. It is not worth your time. Do not see it. Even if you really like Jack Black. Do not.

You know what fuck it- I can write a long ass post.

Listen, you have to understand that I love Minecraft. I love Minecraft so much. I love running around, making things and exploiting villagers. Roaming vast landscapes of blocks and tricking the skeletons into shooting each other. The greatest burden of my childhood is that I couldn't convince my friends to continue playing Minecraft with me. If Minecraft were a beautiful woman, I would marry her. We would host lavish dinner parties and all of the guests would compete to build the coolest Minecraft build, and I would always win because Minecraft is my wife! Now I will proceed to spend several minutes resisting the urge to describe even the most intimate aspects of this theoretical marriage I would have to Minecraft in excruciating and graphic detail. (The fuck was I saying?)

This movie could have been LITERALLY ANYTHING! Because if it has ever happened, it has happened in Minecraft. This could've been a thriller, a murder mystery, an action movie, they could have remade literally anything and gotten away with it because "It's Minecraft, it's different" They could have made INFINITE MINECRAFT MOVIES!!! But more painful to lose, and more painful to see missing from the discourse about this film is that it could have told stories that nothing else could have told. This could have been a base wars movie, this could have been about conflicting factions competing for land, with complex politics, interesting heroes and villains, doing goofy ass shit like building sheep everywhere or making chicken bombs as much as they actually genuinely fight with TNT cannons and crazy ass ANIMATED PVP sequences. This movie could have been FUCKING SICK!!!

This could have been a retelling of an anarchy server's history, or a long romantic love letter to the game itself in movie form, or a playful exciting romp through someone's LAN game but from the perspective of those in game characters- AND NO ONE PLAYS AS STEVE HE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN THERE!!! Where is our community's representation??? I don't trust this studio to show us massive sprawling builds that represent years of work, the fortresses, the cathedrals, the giant nether mansions. We're not going to see seasoned players strike down the ender dragon with 5 beds and a wooden axe. We're not getting elytra courses, SMP stories, redstone computers, massive pixel art, giant sculptures, hidden signs in peoples bases, pastoral communities farming by the river, villager outposts, torn up server spawns, that one guy who built a 150 block tall wheat farm overnight, the absolutely massive expanse of mods for this thing, the elaborate RP plots, the full on cities constructed by dozens of people, adventure maps, survival challenges, that one fucking log by the door that you keep stripping on accident- THE ACTUAL ANYTHING ABOUT WHAT MINECRAFT IS FOR ANYONE!?!?

NO!!! NOOOOO!!! None of that for you! You know what you get instead!?!?

You get JACK FUCKING BLACK trying to lug this 150-million dollar 6000 pound TURD through the box office BY HIMSELF!!! In a shitty blue T-shirt that some poor underpaid intern bought for him for 9$, 7 minutes before they started filming!!!

and I don't think he can do it!

There's no band-aid big enough to make this better.

Not even Jack Black!

[pinktinselmonstrosity]

everything i read in april!

have had significantly less reading time this month bc i've been driving and getting the park and ride (15 min bus ride) instead of the proper bus (50 min bus ride) to work but i have still done some reading!! it was a bit of a mixed bag, and i also had my first non-finished book of the year (drama!) so let's get into it!

The Man in the Red Coat by Julian Barnes

This was the first non-fiction book I've read this year and it was absolutely brilliant! It's supposedly a biography of Dr Pozzi, of Sargent painting fame, but it goes a lot broader than that, looking at the history and culture of fin-de-siecle Paris with Pozzi as a connecting factor (he really got around). It was so interesting, very well written and entertaining. I'm definitely going to read some of Barnes' fiction now, because I really enjoyed his writing style.

A Delicate Truth by John Le Carré

My second Le Carré of the year, and it did not disappoint! I enjoyed it much more than The Night Manager actually. It's about the uncovering of a cover-up of a covert operation that went bad, and is as clever and exciting as I expect from Le Carré. Really good!

Green Water, Green Sky by Mavis Gallant

I got this for Christmas and have been really excited to read it. It's about a family sort of falling apart, told through very intense vignette-like chapters across the course of a decade. It was very very good: incredibly well written, very evocative - I read it in basically one sitting. I did wish it was a little longer, not because the story needed it but because I enjoyed it so much.

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes (DNF)

I already posted some of my initial thoughts here, but I thought I would just sythesise now why this book wasn't for me.

First and foremost, as someone with a Classics degree I have Opinions about myth retellings. I think they derive a lot of their perceived value from being 'new' takes on these classic stories, but looking at the Homeric poems from a feminist/queer/post-colonial perspective is literally like. week one of a classics degree, so that novelty doesn't really hit for me. I won't deny that re-interpreting ancient stories is a cornerstone of the Western artistic canon and has been done for literally millenia, but there's something about modern attempts that just seem... less necessary? I mentioned this in my previous post, but the idea that the perspectives of Trojan women were completely ignored by the ancients is kind of ridiculous when you've read Euripides' The Trojan Women, written c.400BCE. I'm not saying Euripides was a feminist or anything but like. it's right there! I do think this is more of a personal criticism, and I can definitely see why people with less knowledge of the source material enjoy this genre.

This brings me to my second criticism, which is that this book in particular just... isn't very good! I think it is just way too broad - Haynes attempts to focus on literally *every single woman* in the two poems, which means that none of the characters are particularly well developed. This sort of shoots the whole 'feminist retelling' thing in the foot, because the surface level attention paid to these characters really doesn't give them any more depth than they have in the original poems.

I think that myth retellings can work really well when they *add* to the source material, either by focusing on one character closely enough that we learn new things about them (like Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls), or by actually literally adding new things to 'canon' (The Song of Achilles actually does this well!). A Thousand Ships misses both these marks in my opinion, and ends up just clumsily repeating the original story, with its original patriarchal framing. The women in this story might have a voice, but their lives and narratives are still completely shaped by the men around them. I don't think that you can say something is feminist just because it's about women, especially when the source material is so deeply rooted in misogyny. Haynes doesn't seem to really interrogate this tension at all. This is already getting too long so I'll stop now, but yeah. If you must read Greek myth retellings, just read Pat Barker!

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Whenever I'm in a reading slump I like to read a classic to break myself out of it, and this one worked perfectly. I wasn't expecting this to be as good as it was! My prior knowledge of it was as a 'sensation' novel, shocking people with immorality among the upper classes, but in reality this is more of a detective story. Even though I figured out Lady Audley's secret pretty early on, I was still very gripped by the cat-and-mouse game between Lady Audley and Robert. It also had lots of little flashes of brilliant writing, especially in her descriptions of people. They all seem so real, so like people you could meet today. Would highly recommend!

Lemon by Kwon Yeo-Sun

I've been thinking about this book ever since I finished it, trying to figure out if it was actually bad or if I just didn't like it. I think I've come to the conclusion that it was bad! It's a vague crime story, that's more about the effects of crime than about solving one but also... not really about the effects of crime either? I did like some aspects of it, especially the ambiguity around what actually happened, but I think it needed some certainty somewhere! It definitely didn't need so many different POVs - for a book that's less than 150 pages, it tries to do a *lot*, and not very successfully.

Currently Reading + On My Radar

I've just started The Likeness by Tana French, who long-time readers will know is one of my favourite authors! So far it's absolutely fantastic. I don't have many reading plans for May, but I am going on holiday at end of the month (hopefully to Paris), so I've been stockpiling Parisian books for that. Bring on Madame Bovary!

[lifesizehysteria]

For the fanfiction ask meme: 14,15,17,19,20,24,27,28,30 (sorry it's a lot 😅)

Holy SMOKES this is going to be long one 😆

14. where do you get your inspiration? Mostly chemistry between characters or a desire explore dymanics/situations that intrigued me in the source material.

15. favorite weather for writing I actually really enjoy writing when it's sunny out. I feel like it gives me a very clear head. Writing at night is good, too, regardless of weather because it's so peaceful and isolated without interruptions.

17. talk about your writing and editing process I have a very bad habit of editing what I previously wrote when I sit down to start working. I've gotten better about it but I still do it. When writing, I try not to get stuck on the details, leaving brackets to come back to later, otherwise I get bogged down and end up wasting my writing time. I always always edit multiple times and still end up always finding at least one typo 😅 I also try to used betas because a second pair of eyes is likely to catchings I miss when I've been looking at word doc for so long.

19. the most interesting topic you’ve researched for a fic I'm not sure how interesting it is but before I wrote Tending a Garden in Bloom, I researched wither regency era wore underwear (they didn't lmao)

20. in what year did you publish your first fic? I did a couple of one shots back in my livejournal days back in 2008/2009. And then I didn't write anything else until 2013 for the fosters.

24. how do you recharge when you’re not feeling creative? When I'm specifically blocked for writing, I tend to pick up a different craft, as well as trying to read other works - preferably actual books, but fic can help, too.

27. your favorite part of the writing process Either when I'm on a roll and the words are just flowing with ease, or those moments when I've been stuck on something and it just suddenly comes together.

28. your least favorite part of the writing process When I know exactly how I want something to feel/read and I can't get the words quite right.

30. share a fic you’re especially proud of I'm still insanely proud of She is Home and Journey to You for the fosters. I'm extremely proud of pretty much everything I've written for Bridgerton so far. I feel like my writing has really improved. A Mother's Blessings specifically is one I think is really well done and that it's not getting the love it deserves, honestly.

Thank you for asking!! 💜

[isnt-that-wizardd]

in every fandom, I see a lot of posts that are always like "if you don't like this character you're wrong" or "you just don't understand them" and seeing those kinds of posts just makes me so frustrated???

most recently I've seen a lot of those posts about the cat king from dead boy detectives (just because it's my latest hyperfixation), and frankly, yeah, I don't really understand. and I will read your entire long post explaining why he's got all these little nuances or subtle tones or genuineness that I missed and I can grow a little more understanding about him. but hey- when I'm done reading your post? unfortunately I still do not like him. I can appreciate him and what he brings to the show, but I just don't like him. it's not because I think he's creepy or gets in the way of a ship or anything most people automatically assume - he's just not my vibe. he simply doesn't fit in the scope of characters I enjoy.

and why is that wrong?? why do I need to be lectured at because of that?? when did fandoms get to a point that people aren't allowed to have differing opinions on a character or dislike a character just because? yes, a lot of the time it is, but it doesn't always need to be deeper than that.

YOU relate to that character on a deeper level, YOU understand their intrinsic motivations, or at least what you perceive them to be, and YOU love that character. fantastic!! I'm happy for you!! enjoying media in a way where you can do that is how it is meant to be!! but in absolutely no universe will everyone ever have the exact same interpretations of a character or piece of media. we all see different aspects of people and relate to things/characters differently. I've been on both sides of things! sometimes my favorite character in a show is someone that everyone else hates or doesn't care for, but I'm okay with that! if they disagree with me, then they disagree with me. I've done the deep dives into why I think the character acts the way they do and taken time to devote myself to better understanding them.

but some people just don't do that. you can be a fan of something without doing that with a character. hell, you can be a fan of something by only ever consuming the source material at its surface level and NEVER going deeper if you do not want to do so. it's allowed.

maybe while you're interpreting a character to have a deeper trauma that results in them acting the way they do, they're reminding someone else of trauma they went through and that character makes them feel bad. maybe you see someone trying to help, but someone else sees it as manipulation. maybe you see someone cold and bitter while someone else sees the kindest person with years of walls built up around them. maybe what someone else interprets as funny, you have never laughed at.

((if we're keeping with the dbd example, think about when the Night Nurse watched Charles' death. what she saw was the quick and utter devotion that Charles developed for Edwin and how deeply he cares for him; she's seeing that Charles will truly not give up in getting Edwin back from hell. what Charles saw was the pure kindness Edwin had done for him even after all those decades in the worst place imaginable; he's seeing who Edwin is on a deeper level. neither interpretations of the memory are incorrect. but after watching the exact same thing, they are thinking in two entirely different directions))

so why does everything seem to start off with "you're wrong" and "I'm sad for you because you just don't get it"? we should be HAPPY that there are people out there who take different approaches and have different interpretations. that is how media is meant to be consumed. and I'm not saying that you shouldn't make your long posts explaining why you love a character- by all means do that!! you understand something that others don't and that should be put out in the world!! but if you're going to do that you also need to understand that there are a lot of people who you WILL persuade, and there are a lot of people who you will NOT. don't be upset about that and certainly do not put down or lecture anyone who doesn't agree with you. it's OKAY. it is not the end of the world just because someone doesn't like a character you like.

everyone interprets media differently. and that's amazing.

[snowblack-charcoalwhite]

I used to scratch my head when some people (mostly TB fans) compared Aemond to Ramsay (once I read that he was a combination of Jon Snow and Ramsay, believe it or not) and Rhaenyra to Daenerys. However, it seems that Condal and the rest of those clowns think the same because the way they write Aemond this season is atrocious. I wouldn't be surprised if he flayed someone alive at this point. And Rhaenyra is more rational and less cruel than Daenerys so she is actually an upgrade, according to them. It's such a shitshow atp. And to think that i used to wake up at 3 am (when the show airs in my country) just to watch it since it was an old habit of mine since the got era. All that excitement is lost now and it just makes me sad. Idk, I really hate this season not only for the butchering of the characters I liked, but also for many inconsistencies, plotholes, rushed plots, cheap and badly executed callbacks to GoT with zero logic and respect for the lore (e.g. the whole food riot suplot). It's too much. But I guess the fandom is easy to please because they talk the most about Seasmoke "adorably" chasing Addam or Rhaenyra and Mysaria's kiss after this episode. And many of them were yapping about horrible season 8 of GoT and its writing decisions. Hot take: I really miss Game of Thrones because it was in general a really good adaptation and the problems started when they ran out of the source material and with the shortened seasons (they obviously didn't learn that lesson and we got another shortened season which is, surprise, surprise, bad) . Still, i enjoyed the last seasons of GoT far more than I enjoy s2 of hotd. Controversial or not, this is the truth.

Good day/night to you!

Actually, I don't think that believing GoT, even taking into account the flop that were seasons 7 and 8, to be way superior to HotD is such a hot take anymore. A lot of things went wrong by the end of the original series but ultimately, at the very least, the audience (myself included) came to care deeply for the characters by having been on a very long journey with them - and because the characters were well established. In HotD though... Well, after watching 6 episodes of season 2 I look at the characters and feel that without the actors' input (I mean amazing acting as well as them sharing their takes on their characters in interviews), the sourse material and, in some cases, good foundations laid in season 1 I wouldn't really care about them.

As for unwillingness of HotD writers and showrunners to cut the proverbial apron strings tethering them to GoT, it is both ridiculous and sad. Ridiculous - because of the amount of references and attempted copy-pastes (with some adapting twists). Sad - because sometimes it feels like in part this lack of originality stems not only from the desire to play the nostalgia card but also from the lack of belief in their own ability to tell a compelling new story. And I say "attempted" because at the end of the day the parallels don't work. Rhaenyra is no Daenerys - she is but a shadow of her, bland, passive and boring. Aegon is no Joffrey (and never was - not even when the writers unashamedly pushed this parallel after season 1) - he is way too sensitive and cares too much to be like him. Even after what the writers have done to Aemond, he is still no effing Ramsay Bolton - whatever he did or does next will not produce the same impression Ramsay's atrocities made at least because of rushed and fumbled execution - and because Ewan doesn't play him that way. And for sure Viserys "if I ignore the problems piling up around me maybe they'll just disappear" Targaryen is no Ned Stark.

As for Aegon and Aemond, writers themselves keep saying contradictory things about these characters. They keep low-key (in Aegon's case even not so low-key, at least in the past) pushing for these Joffrey/Ramsay parallels - but in the same breath are waxing poetic about the complexities of Aegon and Aemond's nature and are trying for nuance in the narrative as well. What game are they playing?

All in all, my take on it is that GoT became iconic (even the atrocious ending - which also became legendary in its own ironic way) while HotD as a TV series for now mostly feels shallow and forgettable. Like you said, it's s damn shame HBO hired incompetent amateurs to build the project meant to atone for the sins of the last seasons of GoT - and these amateurs ended up making something that turned out to be even worse.

[kroosluvr]

My entire life I have been so bad at reading manga or comic books or anything like that, because I just want to read the text and I never stop to appreciate the art. Then I saw one of your VioletFox comics, the one they're walking on a bridge discussing their pursuits of gymnastics and painting. I remember getting absorbed in Yusuke's wall of dialogue, and then the beat panel of Sumi silently crying hit me like a gut punch. That one image affected me more deeply than the whole moving block of text I had just read. I went back and reread the comic, and I saw that every facial expression, even the panel layout, was telling a whole complex emotional story underneath the text bubbles.

Now every time I see one of your comics I end up reading it twice, once for the text and once just to look at the artwork. The dialogue you write gives the characters so much more depth than they ever got in the source material, and your art style is so evocative and fills every scene with more emotion than the words can convey by themselves. And I've started doing this with other comics I like as well. It's stunning to see how much I've been missing, but my enjoyment of them is so much greater now.

I dunno, this feels like one of those things that's obvious to everybody else and I'm only just now figuring out because I'm autistic. But I've been reading comics online for at least fifteen years, and yours are the ones that finally made me look at the artwork as more than a backdrop for the story being told in the dialogue. Thank you for using your art to feed my Persona brainrot, and thank you for making me better at appreciating comics as an art form.

oh my god thank you so so much for such a lovely comment ;--; this is the first thing i read after waking up and I WAS CLOSE TO TEARS UUAUHHH im so amazed and so honored that my art could have this sort of impact on anyone,, ;o; <3333 LIKE IM SERIOUSLY SPEECHLESS IM SO FREAKING FLATTERED TO RECEIVE THIS LEVEL OF PRAISE FOR MY WORK!!!!!!! my latest persona comics and stuff is straight from the heart so when people also connect with it or resonate on a deep level i feel so so happy....

the violetfox..!!! AHHH that comic carries such a deep weight in my heart........ sumi and yusuke carry such complicated feelings abt their passions and they had no one to talk to abt it (before akira) (but i want them to talk to each other and share notes ehehe...) im so happy that one could resonate with you... //w// i really like drawing facial expressions!!!!! that one is kind of old so now i look at it like TCH.. I COULD DO BETTER..... but art is all abt improving every day amiright ehhewhe

im so SO happy you enjoy my dialogue too!!! ////w//// not a writer by any means..... but it really does come straight from the heart eheh.... so if the shoe fits amiright //w//

but seriously im so happy to hear this, thank you so much for telling me LIKE IM GONNA THINK ABT THIS FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE IM SO SERIOUS. im so so amazed and happy that my art could help you also enjoy other art/comics/works.... i didn't know i could have this sort of impact ;w; thank you again so much!!!! I WILL KEEP DRAWING FOREVER (AND PERSONA FOR A LONG TIME IM SURE!!!!) thank you again for your lovely comments waaaah my heart so warm... please have a good day/night!!! //w//

(sorry my reply is so not eloquent compared to yours IM CRYINGGSJDFSD AAA

[sublimegentlemanalpaca]

Where’s Feste? Rambling about Twelfth Knight

So a week or so ago I finished reading Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth. It’s a retelling of Twelfth Night by everyone’s favorite builder of bridges of ziggurats William Shakespeare. Takes Twelfth Night to a High School. Orsino is Jack Orsino, star running back and Student body President who gets a bad injury. Viola is now Viola or Vi Reyes…fan of Ttrpgs, Ren Faire and not Game of Thrones stand in War of Thornes (which disappointingly is not just a historical drama of the Lesser Henriad…dang) she plays as Cesario online to avoid misogynistic assholes. There’s a lot great about this. How both navigate fandom, and social circles besides. The fact they two know eachother, don’t get along, then later do (it’s a retelling of Twelfth Night of course it’ll be romance). The fact that Orsino is asking irl Viola to help figure out why his girlfriend is wanting a break….and like…dude isn’t a creep about it. He’s just…wanting to know? This is a very likable Orsino. There’s a lot more but there that question in the title. Where’s Feste?

To those unaware, Feste is the Fool in Twelfth Night. Noted as Clown in stage directions, he’s in my opinion one of if not the best Fool in the Cannon. At the very least the best of the Armin performed Fools of the middle to later plays. The Kemp clowns of earlier works…that’s a matter of debate. But Feste is my favorite so….the best. This retelling streamlines stuff. Cuts out the Malvolio subplot (probably for the best in this instance), Maria is seemingly non existent. No Dead brother for Olivia…but Feste though! On the one hand…it might be that Sebastian’Bash’ Reyes stands in for Feste.? Given he’s a dramatic Thespian who ‘loves to make people laugh’ and ends up forming a supportive relationship with Olivia (not romantic mind you as opposed to the play with Sebastian) and there’s a really good scene between him and Vi in the tail end of the book….but regardless of that. There are two instances it seemed there was a Feste shaped specter….

First of all, both Jack and Vi but especially Vi thinking to herself of wishing she could just voice her opinions without people being assholes about it…calling her bitch and other such things. Would have been a neat time to think on the Fool’s License I thought. While yes that in and of itself is a can of worms…given historical views of Folly….but could somewhat avoid that given Feste as fool is an allowed an ‘artificial’ fool. Don’t know. Just think it would be neat. Second…hm…to my recollection there wasn’t a point at which Vi reflected in a ‘he’s wise enough to play the fool’ bit. But…thinking on it now this is not a retelling bound to the text, and all better for it at times. I don’t know if this is in the same ball park of Ten Things I hate about you, where the retelling I find far better than the source material. However it is alongside Ten Things as one of my favorite retellings of Shakespeare ever. Heck, I think I’ll even take another shot if that Atlas Six book I enjoyed Twelfth Knight so much. Love this book…though still miss an overt Feste. Kept thinking this Pastor character would be Feste given ‘Sir Topas the Currate’ but not quite. Extra kudos to the level of restraint in not being up the ‘Means of Greatness’ bit. Anyway…think I’ve rambled away from whatever point I had. Do highly recommend you read Twelfth Knight be you a Shakespeare nerd specifically, or some other sort. Excellent book, funny and heartfelt. Even with the lack of overt Feste.

Make of this what you will,

Al, the Chronographing Cottager and Prince of Naming

[ceruleanmusings]

hey! i’m loving Inconsolable! I just have one question: What made you make Squid diabetic? Is there any lines in the source text? (I haven’t read the book in years.) I don’t mean this negatively, I’m just very interested in how fic writers make these decisions and what leads them to it! (:

hi there! thanks for reading my fanfic! it came at a good time, i'm working on getting the next chapter up this week!

there isn't any source material in the books about squid being diabetic, that's to say in canon he is not diabetic, and that's partially why i made the choice to make him diabetic.

compared to the other characters, we know next to nothing about him except for him being x-ray's right hand man/being seen as the "tough guy in d-tent", being upset about something (most likely that he doesn't have a loving mom like stanley) to the point he cried one night, and having shit parents. at the end he asks stanley to tell his mom that he, alan, was sorry for something. this was changed to armpit in the movie and it bugged me because it stripped us of the smallest glimpse into squid's life pre cgl.

squid is basically a blank slate. he has a missing dad, an alcoholic mom, and, as per the movie and it's deleted scenes, kind of dumb but also seen as tough. that's all we get. the fact that stanley yelnats' guide to surviving camp green lake stated he was arrested for breaking into homes to steal loose change and soda cans made me think "that's a very small reason to be arrested and put to labor" (ignoring the breaking in part). though if he was stealing that i thought "if he's stealing soda cans it must be because he's selling them for money." and then i thought "if he's selling it for money, he most likely is poor." and then i thought "if he's that poor then it's either because of his mom spending all his money on booze (which may account for potentially not holding down a job?) or there's another factor that's making them be short on money." so then i wondered what could make someone constantly short on money? medication. what medication is expensive (especially now)? insulin.

i then dove into hundreds and hundreds of YT videos, blog posts, reddit posts, and medical journals talking about insulin and it's history, how it was handled in the 90s, the effects if it's not taken properly, personal stories about how they manage it, and i had one reviewer on FFN give me some extra details to fix any mistakes i made in my portrayal.

it just made sense to me and how i see squid in my head. he's angry a lot because he has next to no control over his life. that's all he wants, that's his goal, control and agency. to live his life his way. not to have society telling him where he's supposed to be and where he's supposed to stay because of his (lack) of money, because of his alcoholic mom, because of his missing dad, because of his bad grades, because of his (terrible) friends (excluding mickey.) the biggest blow was being chained to life-saving medicine that he (technically) can't control either. it has control over him. (plus, it shows extra audacity for cgl to sometimes purposefully withholding squid's insulin as a form of punishment. especially from pendanski.)

once he finally reaches a point where he realizes that he can control how he reacts to those things and the outcomes, he'll grow and be headed in the right direction. it's taking him some time but he's getting there.

thanks for asking! i love when people ask me questions like this! i don't really ever get a chance to discuss my thought process and the choices i make for my fics, the behind the scenes as it were, so this was fun! if you (or anyone else), have any questions please feel free to ask!

[frostyreturns]

Frosty Ruins The Lord Of The Rings (1978)

This will be my first time ever watching this version of Lord Of The Rings, I didn't even know it existed until fairly recently. So this review is based on total first impressions.

To start with it opens like an old film serial and looks kind of janky. You could tell it was from a time where a lot of people probably didn't even know what Lord Of The Rings was, back when it was a far less mainstream property, back in the days where Robert Plant could slip plot details from the book into a song and expect that nobody would really take notice.

I'm not sure if the opening is live action or is rotoscoped like parts of the rest of the movie but it looks like they just filmed actors but did them all in shadow so they didn't have to design quality costumes. The voice over is classic 70's and is vaguely the same as the opening of Jacksons Fellowship Of The Ring, which becomes a theme.

The movie differs from the books and the Peter Jackson movies because it puts the scene of Smeagle murdering for the ring in with the introduction. However you can also see that Jackson obviously took a lot of inspiration from this version rather than just using the books as source material.

You can also see the ways that Jackson made it better, there are elements of the storytelling that to me are missing in this version. For example in this version as the nature of the ring is being revealed by Gandalf, he knows coming in what the ring is and begins the conversation by saying it is evil. Whereas in the movie there was some additional tension added by Gandalfs uncertainty, and there was a bit of a fake out and a moment of false relief. There's also the way Frodo just casually slips in the line about wishing this wasn't happening in his time…but it hasn't yet been established just how dire the situation is so the line falls flat.

As the animated portion of the movie takes off, you kind of see also that originally the story was marketted more exclusively to kids. The art style is a lot more cartoonish than I would have guessed, it's like studio ghibli crossed with an 80's cartoon like He-man. The voice over also sounds cartooney and is done in that same 80's cartoon manner. While I don't enjoy it as much as the live action which to me was near perfect…it's not terrible. The character design isn't my favourite but the art style is still very good even though the realistic live action animation rotoscoping doesn't mesh well with the cartoonish simpler animation or look all that great, but it is interesting, very well composed. The backgrounds look like they would all make good paintings that I would frame and hang around the house. The movie looks like it's a product of its time so I can see there being a dedicated fanbase for this version but I can also see people saying it's cheesy and dorky.

Speaking of bad character design. I hate what they did to most every character especially Sam, they made him look and sound like a little effeminate homunculus. Saruman the white they for some reason depicted in a red cloak. The Nazgul looked less intimidating and more zombielike, they had the movement of lurchy hunchbacks that would have been reminiscent of old 30's horror movies. Aaragorn also looked so frumpy and plain, almost native american looking. Elrond looked so plain and looked more like Kevin Nealon than the animated Kevin Nealon from 8 Crazy Nights where he played the mayor. The orcs and trolls looked like smudgy incoherent blobs, the only reason you can tell it's supposed to be a creature is the glowing eyes. Even the balrog looked weird and less intimidating…and they didn't really build it up in the Moria scenes like the books and other movies do. Although one interesting thing about the characters is I thought the voice actor for Frodo was excellent and actually sounded a lot like Elijah Wood, to the point I wonder if that effected his casting at all.

There are moments compositionally that seem amateurish, for example they introduce Merry And Pippin by having them simply walking behind the main characters without introduction, and then they threw in dialogue about them agreeing to follow them as far as Bree…but the audio sounded different and it sounded like the voice actor rushed the line to make it fit into the scene before it changed. Seems like they made a last minute change because they had to cut the scene where they introduced the characters or because they realized they forgot to explain who they were. Then it cuts to a shot of them doing a weird little dance and then the scene changed again…very strange and makes the whole thing looks less professional.

One other complaint I have is that the visual depictions of magic use are not well done at all, and if I did not already know what was happening I would have no clue what I was looking at. The duel between Gandalf and Saruman was just flashing lights, and there was a prolonged scene with the black riders where the background kept shifting in and out and it looked like they were in the sky one second and on land the next. And they just held out their hands and Frodo just seemed to stand there watching them point at him for no reason at all. Knowing the story I know what is happening but without the context of the books or the Jackson movies this scene would have been very confusing.

The action is also underwhelming. The way they swing their swords makes them look like less effective weapons than a twig, they hit enemies with a sword like they're using a blunt object, it's hard to describe what I mean but it just looks wrong.

The other main issue I have with the movie is that because it squeezes the whole story into one two hour movie a lot is missing, a lot is glossed over and many of the scene changes seem abrupt. For example they talk about going through Lothlorien and then cut immediately to talking with Galadriel. The biggest problem with this version is that so much is missing. It's only half the story with Return Of The King completely missing because of a cancelled sequel. But even much of the parts they did show were greatly cut down and much was ommitted.

One thing i liked about this version is that they never really explain in the Jackson movies how Frodo kept gollum in line. The idea that he could threaten to use the ring to command him as a thrall was never in the movie but it was in the books. So for all my complaints I can't say it wasn't a faithful adaptation. It was an interesting one time watch and for parts of it I did enjoy it, it is still Lord Of The Rings so it can't be totally bad. I'd certainly rather watch this than anything Amazon shits out. Overall though it wasn't good and it's enjoyablity depends on how much you enjoy anachronistic cartoons about classic fantasy literature.