#it's still funny how this is a recurring occurrence

[canisalbus]

for the longest while i thought your dogs were lesbians for some reason

something something anthro-androgeny

.

[littleblueteacup]

I went to see the new Batman movie today and I am very excited. I’m gonna just bullet point stuff down below, so go forward with caution.

Potential spoilers ahead, you have been warned

Holy mother of Maple the suit is accurate???? Like, not necessarily comic book accurate, but to the real world. You can see the break lines where cowl turns to cape, turns to suit, turns to boots!!!

That beginning monologue was kinda funny. Like, it obviously wasn’t mean to be, but it was just angsty enough to toe the line, and it made me snicker a little.

Speaking of, there were little moments all through out that were just… so ignored, that it’s obviously a common enough occurrence, but it was just a little funny.

I know I’m not the first to say this, but holy moley, this Bruce Wayne would realistically be willing and able to take in children, and he’d actually cope on a level that previous incarnations of the character wouldn’t have.

The route the writers took with Martha Wayne’s family being the Arkhams, rather than the Kanes, may cause issues with bringing in Kate and Bette to the family (should they choose to bring them into the story) but, ultimately, if Arkham Asylum is still run by the family, it gives Bruce a potential connection to pretty much all of the rogues, but most prominently Harley Quinn and Scarecrow.

They managed to make the Riddler a problem. Like, this may just be the type of exposure I’ve had to the Riddler, but he’s always had this goofy, eccentric feel to him (not a bad thing!!!). This wasn’t that. You could see exactly why Riddler would be a flipping problem if he ever broke out of Arkham. The problem is it didn’t feel like just the Riddler, it felt like a combination, but dang it if I know who the other person/people are!

Carmine Falcone. Carmine Falcone was the slimiest damn person on screen at any given point in time, and it was beautifully done.

The Penguin, holy cripes, the performance was so good, and he was sassy and angry and hahaaaaa- It was a very nice performance.

I could go for daaaays about Selina Kyle. She was funny, she was sassy, she didn’t take any of Bruce’s bullshit, and when the opportunity came up? She had to be held back from murdering the heck out of Falcone!

Selina and Bruce had the vibe of ‘this will be the recurring love interest that will maintain a love-hate relationship with the audience because she and Bruce are just never going to get together in any way that she would stay in Gotham long term.

If (and it is, at this point, a big if) the Robins/Batgirls/Batkids are going to be a thing, then come Jason’s death, Bruce is gonna be a heckling disaster. Like, Tim Drake will become a necessary continuation of that story line, if they wanna keep Batman around. And then, Jason comes back a few years later (and I have theories for how they could fill in some of the gaps) and turns around and goes “why the fuck wouldn’t you kill the Joker?! Did you not love me enough???” And everyone would lose it.

Selina would make Red Robin jokes. Tim would snap that “it’s not my fault, I was kinda in a rush!” And Selina would turn to Dick and go, “Yeah, we need to talk about that” and Dick, who’s already gotten it from Alfred, Jason, Steph, Cass, Commissioner Gordon (which, how the fuck??), Babs, any one who has any way of finding out has had a go at him for it, just groans and goes, “yup, sure Selina, whenever you want.”

Wayne Manor (which I think got turned into an orphanage?) has the potential to become the biggest running gag, whether it’s just among the kids, or it’s Gothamites in general. Like “hey, what happened to the old Gotham orphanage? Like, after the Riddler, what did the family do with it?” “Oh, it’s still an orphanage.” “But how? I thought the Wayne family lived there.” “Exactly.”

Bruce: you’re not my father, Alfred

Me, in the middle of the theatre: Bitch, he helped raise you, shut the fuck up.

The Batmobile was so cool!! This tires could be jacked by a starved eleven-twelve year old boy.

It most definitely has an intimidation button. Any one who Bruce let’s into the car just begs to press the button. The answer is always no. They press it anyway. Yes, even if the person is well into their twenties.

There are more, but they lean into where I want them to take the series, rather than things I noticed and thought were cool (or things I think would happen that have no plot relevance)

[lightsinthedistancee]

Congratulations on 100 followers babe! That is a huge accomplishment! I would love to request a little one shot from you, you have a true talent for writing!

Could you do #21 with Oberyn Martell please? Thank you so much <3

Thank you, @fearisametaphor! This is my first time writing for Oberyn, so I really hope this is good!

“I can’t hide the way I feel about you anymore.” - Oberyn Martell x Reader

..::::.. ..::::.. ..::::.. ..::::..

Blood Orange

Words: 1.1k

Excerpt: “‘I’d be careful with what you say to your prince. That tongue of yours…’”

“‘And what are going to do about it?’”

You shiver as he rests a hand on your waist, trailing it across the bare expanse of your skin, your chest. “‘Many, many things, my love….’”

..::::.. ..::::.. ..::::.. ..::::..

“And there…my father used to tell me that that is where Nymeria entered Dorne seven hundred years ago….”

It feels as if you’re surrounded by blue as the voice of a certain prince washes over you, his finger hovering between a distant pass. The sea glitters a dark navy, the sky a rich azure underneath the brilliant moonlight.

“Really? That exact spot?” His other hand is in yours, your fingers tracing over the lines worn into the back of his hand by the sun. “How would he know?”

“Oh, he was certainly making that up,” Oberyn answers, shaking his head, an expression of content reminiscence on his features.

You laugh softly, head resting back into the sand, not a care in the world to the annoying grains you’ll have to brush out later.

“I quite admired Nymeria when I was a child,” the prince continues thoughtfully. He chuckles. “All the Westerosi lords from up north chided me when they talked to me of great battles, and I mentioned my admiration of her—a woman.”

You hum in thought. “And what did the little Red Viper of Dorne do?”

“Nothing. I was a child.”

You roll over, eyes narrowing, the smallest smile on your face. “You liar.”

He raises an eyebrow, waiting for you to go on, silence in the air aside from the waves crashing mere strides away. You only stare back. “Elia and I found some harmless snakes and put one in each of their rooms,” he finally admits.

You laugh brightly, shaking your head. His face is graced with a smile, a rare occurrence when talking of Elia.

He’s wearing blue this night, a unique choice for anyone in Dorne. The kingdom is a place where everything is bathed in warmth—the buildings, the clothes, the terrain itself, perhaps a fitting representation of the passion that constantly graces the place.

The sensation is what wars are waged with, what children are born by, what the people first and foremost devote their lives to.

But the feeling you feel as you rest in the sands, as you listen to the waves and timbre of his voice overlap and intertwine, as you feel a peace that seems to only exist by the water, it’s not a familiar passion you feel—it’s something much more foreign.

..::::.. ..::::.. ..::::.. ..::::..

A sweetness penetrates your palette as you slide a slice of blood orange between your lips.

It’s morning.

The room you’re in is elaborate, the bed soft and silken, quite literally made for royalty. The prince it belongs to stands at the window, overlooking the expanse of ocean beyond his kingdom. You’re nearly naked as the day you were born, only a single silk blanket resting haphazardly along your hips.

“They were always foolish,” he remarks, referring to the love stories his mother had always told him of, a subject that had arisen several minutes prior. “Always stupid love.”

You snort out a laugh, popping another slice of orange into your mouth before washing it down with a pleasant Dornish red. “And what do you know of love, my Prince of Dorne?”

You’d taken to calling him that long ago, always said with an exaggerated reverence. It was funny in your mind, the irony of it, for he always acted as the furthest thing from a prince.

He spins, raising an eyebrow. The light of the sun bathes half his face, and it suddenly occurs to you that he looks as if he were born to be seen like this. “Are you saying your Prince of Dorne does not love?”

“I’m saying the only things the Prince of Dorne does is fuck and drone on and on about passion.” You catch your bottom lip between your teeth, failing to restrain your smile.

He cocks his head, hands clasped behind his back as he slowly, deliberately walks towards the bed. There’s still a perpetual softness and kindness that graces his features. As you go for yet another slice of orange, he plucks it from your fingers, eating it himself. “I’d be careful with what you say to your Prince. That tongue of yours…”

You hum in thought, reclining back onto your elbows, teasingly eyeing him. “And what are going to do about it?”

Another thoughtful look.

You shiver as he rests a hand on your waist, trailing it across the bare expanse of your skin, your chest. “Many, many things, my love….” Even with the number of times he’d touched you, it’s still an invigorating sensation, spiking anticipation across your body.

You wait for him to go on, yet the atmosphere only shifts.

“I do love,” he simply states, voice back to a simple muse. “I love my daughters. I loved my sister. I love Ellaria.”

There’s a second of silence after, a spot you wait to be filled. It’s a devastating expectation, one you don’t expect him to meet, but perhaps there’s that plea, the one that begs for him to utter your name.

But it never comes. His gaze only lingers, perhaps goading you into protesting due to your previous teasing.

Perhaps doing nothing at all, for he’s truly done with his list.

And that makes something inside you silently, invisibly crack.

“Where is Ellaria anyway?” you ask all of a sudden, changing the subject and putting the whole incident behind you.

Oberyn merely shrugs.

“Perhaps finding something better to fuck than you,” you tease, absentmindedly reaching out for a another slice of orange colored the hue of blood.

He shakes his head in exasperation, resting a hand on the side of your face. “You…my darling…are a menace.”

You giggle, the sound abruptly stopping when he takes the piece of fruit from you. “Stop it!”

He raises an eyebrow, the fruit just past his lips, not chewed yet. He speaks, the words said the best he can with the food in his mouth. “Then come get it.”

..::::.. ..::::.. ..::::.. ..::::..

You’re only a bit of fun.

That seems to be a recurring thought in your mind as you lay back on the beach, the only constant in your interactions with Oberyn.

It’s not devotion. It’s fun.

That’d been common knowledge for months, and it was knowledge you’d always been satisfied with till recently.

“Oberyn?” you ask quietly, timidly. An usual for you.

His arm around you squeezes gently, an unsaid invitation to go on.

“What you said last morning…about those you love….”

You turn to look him in the eye, and it’s already there—that hint of a smile, that sign that he knows every word, every idea, every question about to leave your mouth.

“I can’t hide the way I feel about you anymore,” you murmur, cupping his face between your palms.

His stubble is rough beneath your touch, a grounding sensation as he presses a single kiss to your lips, a whisper taking over the air around you. “Then don’t.”

..::::.. ..::::.. ..::::.. ..::::..

A/N: dont even ask about the title i didnt know what to call it and wanted to get this out today

Taglist (for everything): @dark-academics-and-florals @theultimateslashgirl @princessxkenobi @djjarins @jitterbugs927

Taglist (for Oberyn): @whovianayesha

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Thanks for reading!

[cynthiaandsamus]

Custom Toonami Block Week 94 Rundown (Valentine’s 2022 Edition)

Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out!: So this is the only one on this list I’ve actually seen a few episodes of so I’m not starting from zero here. Sakurai has a dream in class about trying to rescue a cat and falling off a building because cats hate him and they’re a weird recurring thing in this series like rabbits in the Simpsons. Anyway this of course results in Uzaki teasing him both for falling asleep in class and about the dream meaning which results in him coming back with shit like “If you keep falling down the stairs you’ll get a complex and never be able to climb stairs again” which is probably a fair back and forth. Sakurai’s friend Sakaki returns from his random cross-country trip and Uzaki is surprised that Sakurai actually has a second friend and wasn’t just lying to her. Sakaki is all “Y’all fucking or what?” and seems to buy into a more direct intervention on shipping Uzaki and Sakurai (because the whole damn town ships them apparently) and this puts him in contrast with Ami who wants to observe and let things progress naturally like she’s watching a tv show. Meanwhile Sakurai wisely excuses him and Uzaki before this argument starts and gets Uzaki some ice cream which is honestly pretty cute that he knows he can placate her to get them out of a sticky situation. Still she gets chocolate minit dippin’ dots ice cream and this becomes a whole tumblr rant about how chocolate mint lovers are the most persecuted minority on the planet and it’s really pretty fucking funny how Uzaki gets Higurashi eyes from this and a standing ovation because this is a college campus and seeing a busty girl willing to die on the most random hill is just kind of a normal occurrence. Anyway they share the ice cream and do the whole ‘oh no indirect kissing’ thing cliché anime likes to do that was a lot more effective in the early 2000s when that part of Japanese culture was more of a novelty but it’s kind of tired to come back to now that romance anime is basically porn with extra steps. Still though, Uzaki herself is weirdly charming and as far as bitchy girlfriend serieses go it’s kind of cute because she’s so damn ineffective at actually teasing anyone that isn’t the incredibly irritable guy she likes and is generally well-meaning enough that it doesn’t come off as abusive like some tsundere pairs go, all in all it’s pretty good fun.  

Don’t Tease Me Nagatoro-san!: Wow this one couldn’t be more different from Uzaki-chan, even if they’re technically in the same weirdly specific bitchy girlfriend teasing a bland guy genre, the first five minutes of this are shot like a horror anime and while Sakurai and Uzaki have at least some back and forth where Sakurai can hit back against Uzaki’s innocence, this is just twenty minutes of Nagatoro punching play-doh, not even really gonna recap the plot because that’s basically the one joke the whole time it’s like the Pop Team Epic “Are you upset?” sketch over and over again and this dude is just cringe enough to fall into Nagaotoro’s knowledge of tropes but not interesting enough to push back at all. Also I’m watching the dub for all of these that I can and the voice acting on Nagatoro is honestly pretty good, she’s got that weird condescending tone and it fits really well. Idk if I could really watch the whole thing, Nagatoro herself is pretty fun but watching this dude get bullied and abused over and over and kind of like it but also not be masochist enough to ACTUALLY like it makes it really kind of cringe to sit through, the MC just kinda kills it for me. I’d really just rather watch MM! because at least that dude’s an actual masochist and Tarou Sado is one of my favorite protagonists in one of these kinds of shows because he’s a genuinely nice and straightforward guy but also a goofy masochist and the fact that this dude’s an artist legit making a self-insert comic where this series originated as a self-insert comic about a presumed adult wanting to get bullied by high school gyarus just reminds me of Jon Arbuckle being a cartoonist and it’s just a little on the nose, idk how I feel about this one.

Komi-san Can’t Communicate: So that thing I said in the Uzaki recap was a small lie, I’ve technically only seen the episodes for Uzaki-chan but I HAVE read the first volume of the Komi-san manga, but this is my first experience with the anime. And holy shit is it gorgeous, like fucking hell this show is beautiful, the aesthetic seems pretty similar to A Silent Voice (ironically enough given Komi’s predicament) and the extra flourishes the anime puts in and the way they play with the narration and visuals is honestly fantastic. The scene of Komi and Tadano building their relationship little by little by writing on the chalkboard is just as fantastic if not moreso than it was in the manga. Also for as boring as the other male protags are in the former two shows, Tadano is pretty good for a white bread protagonist guy, like he’s in the vein of “I’m an average dude doing average things” but he’s one of those protagonists that actually sell him being a good person, for all his jokes about not being able to read a room he’s the one to pay enough really attention to Komi to see her problem and be patient enough with her to help her solve it, like the man has the patience of a saint to wait for Komi to take baby halfsteps towards communicating and his intentions are entirely pure, Tadano really is a good boy and after my mixed feelings on some of the other shows I can say this one is really fantastic and probably has the best chance of me continuing watching after this.

The Girl Who Can See “Them”: So this one definitely changed up the pace a little, Miko is an average girl who no one understands (okay I swear I start off every new series like that but most of the time it fits) but yeah most of this is Miko hardly reacting to things and paling around with her big titty friend Hana who’s basically Orihime and would probably be the protagonist of one of these other shows, but then Miko starts seeing ghosts and… continues not reacting to things. It’s this strange clash of tones between the weird fanservice shots combined with the Discount Junji Ito style monsters and Miko’s absolute poker face of freaking out internally but playing it off like nothing like a boss because she thinks that 1. Admitting to ghosts that she sees them prolly isn’t good and 2. If she acknowledges this in any way she prolly had to accept she’s going insane. It’s really pretty good character stuff because she thinks this through in an instant and is just like ‘nope’ like that comic of the girl who runs through her life saying no to every protagonist role she’s offered. I think this awkward mix of tones can be a bit weird but I also think that’s exactly what they were going for so can’t really fault it for that. It’s hard to get a read on from just one episode but it is really funny to try and watch Miko poker face her way through being the Sixth Sense kid.

My Dress-Up Darling: Okay so this one doesn’t have the same fantastic theming as Komi-san but it’s still relatively decent for this genre of  ‘normal guy slowly dates the most popular girl in class for no reason’ deal. Like it has some good theming with Gojo being a weirdo who talks to inanimate objects like Bob fucking Belcher and Marin also being a weirdo but being interested in what makes other people passionate and being very passionate herself. It sort of implies that Gojo’s eccentric interests aren’t what isolates him but it’s that he gives up before he even tries to connect with anyone since Marin is also a freak but is an outgoing freak so people gravitate to her (being hot also probably helps). But it’s just interesting after going through three series where the protag’s like “Oh I’m a nobody and have no friends until this hot girl sweeps me up” that this one kind of calls out their protag for not even trying before. Like Marin’s one stage of cringe away from wearing an ahegao shirt in public but she’s so enthusiastically open to everyone it makes you want to be open to her too (again, being hot also helps). But yeah it’s not exactly great art or anything but it’s probably the best of the three of the Uzaki/Nagatoro/Marin trilogy, it also helps that it seems to be one of those anime that actually knows what it’s talking about with its hyperfixation like Food Wars for Food or Dr. Stone for science and I always appreciate seeing what anime authors randomly know a ridiculous amount about so if I continue this one we’ll see.

Dirty Pair: So this is definitely the strangest most out of place show on the block today but ngl I did enjoy it. The plot jumps around a lot but the Lovely Angels themselves are full of personality and a lot of fun. Kei and Yuri are a pair (a Dirty Pair if you will) of general-purpose problem solvers IN SPACE, which sounds like the premise for an Adult Swim show but that’s kind of thing that was done in the eighties I guess, also they have a pet bear for some reason and a robot that flies their ship that looks like a pink Imperial Shuttle crossed with a dildo. Essentially the supercomputer that runs this city has gone all Hal 9000 when it discovers they put a killswitch in it and is now just kinda wrecking up the place and holy shit a lot of people are just definitely dead because there’s floods and fires and shit falling apart all over. So after climbing around the wreckage for a while, Kei and Yuri get to their ship and distract the computer by… I shit you not, having it calculate which of them is the better waifu, which takes this advanced supercomputer that manages a whole fucking city SEVERAL MINUTES to figure out, which I just fucking find hilarious. Also they have the warp station just warp a whole garbage ship directly into the computer’s mainframe to get it to shut down which I guess the girls didn’t do anything but think of the idea but it’s still a fun solution in the “getting dust on the motherboard breaks the computer” way of thinking with the way computers were back then or how they thought they would be in the eighties. All in all this show DEFINITELY shows its age but it’s still a good amount of fun to watch these quirky girls do shit for a little bit.

Why The Hell Are You Here Sensei!?: How the fuck is this series real? Like I though ‘haha I ended last year’s marathon with Interspecies Reviewers, might as well watch something a bit raunchy to end this year too’ and FUCK how is this series WORSE than that!? Like I’ve seen some fanservice shots from this series on tumblr but I didn’t know that basically WAS the series, like I guess the nude version inside cover of the DVD should’ve tipped me off but lost of anime are really raunchy these days but this show is basically hentai setups without the fucking, somehow I feel dirtier watching this show than Interspecies Reviewers which was actually taken off the air for basically being a porn, though I feel like that had more plot (albeit more directly sex-focused) than this which is basically ‘here’s a porn scene except no dick or pussy” like dude legit sticks a suppository in her pussy and they pee on each other, and THIS ONE STAYED ON AIR AS FAR AS I KNOW. Like I know it was heavily censored on-air and all but holy shit I’m still baffled by how the fuck this is a real show. It’s hard to praise or condemn it because there’s just… nothing here, like it’s basically just watching the parts of porn that most people fast forward through, I mean gotta give it them they have a market for it but like… wow… just wow.

Anyway that’s the end of this marathon, gonna watch The Girl Who Leapt Through Time on Monday and then it’s back to the regular schedule next week. Boy this was a roller coaster, most of these seires I hadn’t seen much of so I didn’t know what to expect. Uzaki-chan was fun enough, Nagatoro was kind of cringe just because of the subject matter, Komi-san was fantastic, Mieruko-chan was weird but fun, Dress-Up was cute enough if a little average, Dirty Pair was really outdated but a fun little romp back at how waifu anime worked forty years ago and Sensei… holy fuck I still can’t get over that, anyway hope everyone had fun watching me slowly become more and more unhinged over waifu anime.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

[kito-99]

Elsa is struggling to face her problems by herself, so she goes to Anna for comfort.

A random one shot I guess, still new to writing so would appreciate any constructive criticism if you do read this.

*Why do you continue with your persistence?*

*Why do you contuine to terrioze me and force me into despairs ruthless grasp?*

"Anna, why are you running away from me!?", Elsa shouted, urgency in her voice. One minute her and Anna were talking normally then all of a sudden Anna looked at her like she was a ghost and ran away from her. The gears in Elsa's mind were turning, trying to figure out why would Anna do this.

Thanks to her anxiety and fear, Ice burst forth out of the Queen engulfing the entirety of Arendelle. The ice queen worries snapped at her, everyone will fear her again, she is harming all her people thanks to her stupid powers. Why was she born with them?

She heard a grunt of exhaustion in front of her , noticing her sister's red hair through the dense blizzard she called out to Anna but the call fell on deaf ears as Anna contuined to run, forcing Elsa to sprint with more speed to catch up with the redhead. She ran and ran and ran but no matter how much she tried her sister contuined to evade her, always just out of reach.

Just when her legs felt like giving up on her she saw Anna skid to a halt several meters in front of her, causing the blonde to sigh in relief.

Elsa ran in front of Anna."Anna this is-" the rest of Elsa's words stoped short at the sight in front of her. Ice was crawling all over Anna, nearly covering her entire body, but what frightened Elsa even more was the look of pure hatred directed at her, a look full of murderous intent which looked so wrong on the innocent girls freckled visage.

"Anna... Anna who did to this to-

Anna cut her off. "You did... MONSTER!".

She flinched back, Anna's words reverberating inside her soul. Those very words which she called herself all her years of isolation, words that she feared everyone would call her if they noticed she had powers... But what she feared the most was the thought of Anna calling her a monster.

"I-i hate you! You freak!", Anna contuined, practically spitting the words out. Elsa fell to her knees, ignoring Anna's hateful words, ignoring the sting of her icy tears briefly to try and thaw her but to her shock the ice spread faster, engulfing all of Anna.

Before Anna froze over completly, she gasped out four words which destroyed Elsa.

"I never loved you".

Elsa woke up with a start, she could feel her hands were aching from grabbing the silk sheets, her knuckles were white from the excessive grip she had on the blankets. Sweat dripped down her forehead like a waterfall despite the thin lining of frost that coated her entire chamber, her powers were providing no help to cool her down nor did it have any effect on reducing her racing heart.

Conceal... Don't feel.

Conceal........don't feel.

She repeated her mantra multiple times fervently. Anna had scolded her for using such a negative and self harming mantra but she needed it... She needed something to comfort her, she couldn't go to Anna. Elsa bitterly thought. Telling Anna of her recurring nightmares wouldn't be wise, the best way to handle emotions is concealing them, atleast that's what she thought.

But her latest night terror was excruciating, evidently so much so that the ice wouldn't thaw no matter how much she tried to force it away. After failing for the fifth time the Queen just sat there, trying to control her shaking hands, her mind was in a really frail state right now, images of her nightmare still crisp in her mind.

Elsa tried to stem the tears that threatened to burst forth like a overfilled dam, did Anna really die? Who does she have left? Her loving sunflower is gone...

The dam broke as she sobbed loudly, every mental barrier she had placed broke in all but a instant. She needed to convince herself that Anna was fine, that the redhead didn't hate her. So despite her hesitations to go to the princesses room, she found herself opening the door to the very same room.

Soft snores could be heard from it's owners mouth, despite the darkness Elsa could discern the massive bush atop of Anna's head, almost causing her to giggle despite her saddened state, even just one look at her sunflower and everything felt okay already. 'Shes okay, Anna is alive'

Elsa walked around the bed to where Anna was sleeping. "Anna I'm sorry", she said her voice a mere whisper . "I'm such a horrible sister who hides everything from you and *sob*-". Her words were cut short by the soft sob that forced it's way out her lips.

Anna looked so comfortable, like she had no worries in the world. If only she knew of the turmoil that her older sister was going through right now. Elsa smiled,knowing exactly what she would say. *"You tart!, stop trying to hold the entire world on your shoulders by yourself, let me help you"*

Elsa inhaled deeply. 'One time, then I leave', she thought to herself. Leaning forward she put her ear on Anna's chest, each beat of Anna's heart comforted her greatly, instantly eroding all of her despair and filling her soul with light. Each beat symbolised a victory of every nightmare getting destroyed, each insecurity, anxiety and fear were all nothing in the face of the love and peace she felt from such an action. Before sleep could capture her in it's net,she felt Anna stir, groaning.

"Elsa? What you*yawn* doing?".

"I was walking by and heard you tossing about, you were having a nightmare so I came in to check on you", Elsa said without missing a beat. 'You lied to her again, what a good sister'.

Anna narrowed her eyes. " Elsa... Why do you lie so much?

Not expecting such a response she remained quiet, suddenly finding the curtain to her right very interesting.

Taking Elsa's silence as confirmation of her lie, she contuined. "If you c-" she paused when Elsa flinched at her reprimanding tone. "Elsa I love you okay? Would you like it if the person you loved the most lied to you?"

"Of course I wouldn't like it if you lied to me", Elsa mumbled, still holding her gaze away from Anna. She tried to hold back the tears when she heard Anna move off the bed, presumably to get away from her. To her surprise a pair of warm arms wrapped around her.

"Please tell me whats bothering you... Or I'll tickle you, don't tempt me. Ice powers or not, you will still fall to my might", Anna teased, her voice muffled by Elsa's shoulder.

"I-" Elsa couldn't help it, she burst out into a fit of giggles, with no concern of looking regal or proper, both girls laughs could be heard through out the corridor by the guards on night shift, causing a smile to form on their lips.

"Thank you Anna, you're a lifesaver".

Anna huffed. "Of course, The tickle Queen saves the day, didn't you know tickling is stronger then Ice".

Elsa shook her head with a smile. "Whatever you say, your Majesty".

Anna stared at her blankly, making Elsa shift worryingly on the bed. "Elsa you still haven't told me what bothering you.".

Elsa sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. " Your right Anna, I'm sorry.". She stared into Anna's eyes, briefly getting captured by the beautiful soul that lay beneath the teal coloured orbs. Elsa knew then and there that she would give the entire universe up for her sister, she would give up that damn mantra as well, if it was for Anna she would do anything.

"Almost since I...froze you, nightmares have been pestering me non stop, tonights terror was by far the most severe, I.. ki-killed you in my dream, you even said you hated me". Elsa held her face with her right hand, trying to control the swirling emotions inside of her, she was not going to cry, enough of being a crybaby.

Anna squeezed Elsa with more force, her warmth a stark contrast to the blondes coolness. " See? Don't you feel better now. I'm proud of you Elsa, you're much stronger then you give yourself credit for!".

"I do feel better, thanks to you Anna, my sunflower". Elsa leaned forward and gave Anna a kiss on her nose, eliciting a small squeak from the princess.

"Hm, I think you should be called the mouse queen instead of the Tickle queen", Elsa mocked, earning a glare from her sister.

"Tease me more and i might be the Queen of kisses".

"I might take you up on that offer".

Anna raised an eyebrow. Well at least that's what Elsa thought she did, it was hard to tell in the darkness. "You can sleep with me from now on, your nightmares will cower in fear from our combined love", Anna said ignoring Elsa's reply.

"Someone really becomes a jokester when they are tired don't they? Though I agree with the sleeping arrangements", Elsa replied with out hesitation.

Anna chuckled slightly, getting under the covers and patting the unoccupied spot beside her. "Let's get to bed, I'm surprised you agreed Elsa, if I asked you a couple of weeks back, you would of said. 'That is highly improper Anna, we are not kids'.", Anna teased with her most regal impersonation of Elsa she could conjure.

Elsa crawled besides her and embraced the loving arms that encircled her, emitting a sigh of content. " Really funny Anna, I can barely contain all the mirth within me, at such a hilarious statement".

Anna rolled her eyes at her sisters obvious sarcasm. "Night Elsa".

"Goodnight Anna, I love you".

Elsa smiled when a soft snore tickled her ear, her sunflower was always a quick sleeper, there could be a massive storm and Anna would be snoring away like it was a normal occurrence.

She has the best sister in the world.

[scarlettlawyer]

Phantoms and Mirages Commentary, Part 2

(Part 1 here)

Chasing Phantoms, Chapter 11

Simon hadn’t expected the phrase ‘how you say’ to be uttered by a foreigner outside of fiction, but there it was.

HAHAHAAA. Now that’s what I call good foreshadowing! I also found this sentence rather interesting the first time around because I was, in fact, reading a work of fiction. But also, I thought to myself “hmm… you know, sometimes stereotypes/clichés can be echoed in reality.” I found it quite interesting that the text chose to comment on the choice of words like this (obviously not knowing the truth of Domestique’s grasp of English), and it managed to make me go “well I suppose it could happen?” And just kind of, accept it as an occurrence that really could happen in real life, albeit not often, and certainly not as often as fiction likes to suggest.

It was like a sentence that contained a lampshade hanging, a touch of self-awareness in that this is a fictional story, and something that encouraged me to think how it would be for me to hear a non-native English speaker say this IRL all in one. If I did hear a foreigner say “how you say” (assuming that their English was extremely basic to the extent that they’d struggle to really say anything), I really would not give it too much thought, after all. I’m pretty sure I have heard “how to say” used before IRL in the same manner.

The text saying “it’s weird to hear this said outside of fiction” is a double-edged sword going, “…and this is another fictional instance to add to the list, reiterating this fact” but also “in the context of the writing and the universe, I encourage you to think that this is a “real” instance within the story”.

And then the lampshade hanging actually becomes foreshadowing in retrospect, and ACTUALLY reiterates the idea that it’s a stereotypical type of foreigner-talk not really seen in real life – a go-to for someone faking a lack of English. So much invoked and going on here just in this really brief sentence/moment…

This story, with its later reveal, goes, “actually, we’re not going to have a foreigner talk in an extremely stereotyped way, EVEN if this fact is drawn attention to!”

He remembered the imposter questioning him about his sexuality. At first, he had insisted that it didn’t matter- that it could be whatever the imposter wanted it to be, because he hadn’t ever acted on it.

Man, back when I made this post, I was not even up to this part yet! I didn’t realise the text itself would bring it up so directly. Of course, you have Blackquill earlier going “if Bobby is gay, the phantom must have also known that Bobby is gay”, but I didn’t realise at that time it had actually been a direct question type deal as my post had joked. (Because, for example, if Bobby was open about being gay it could have been overheard mentioned in conversation by the phantom, or if Bobby had previous relationships that the phantom knew about, things like that, since I didn’t have the Full Picture earlier on in the story and for all I knew at that time, Bobby had been openly gay.) So, this small moment actually makes my joke post totally redundant from the “the phantom has to ask Bobby his sexual preferences” angle. XD. But, in fact, this is actually a recurring theme that happened to me as I read these fics. As the series went onwards, I found more and more that it didn’t matter how I joked, the jokes were being rendered totally redundant by the actual source material. I couldn’t believe it – it was amazing and I loved it. I tried to JOKE but the jokes were becoming REAL and often intertwoven with the very core of the fic’s narrative. At a certain point, I just gave up and stopped joking, because I realised it seemed there was essentially nothing I could say or do that the series wasn’t prepared to take up with absolute seriousness and execute, often in a brilliant manner (or include as a joke of its own). I realised that I kinda just had to “shut up and keep reading”, as it were. You were always two steps ahead.

Even if you go back to the very first chapter, which for the most part is very gloomy and depressing, but you still have the phantom interrogating Bobby as to whether he’s “a cat or a dog person”. This exact hypothetical occurrence has been subject to joke posts. Naturally, because it’s such a minor and inconsequential detail, and it’s a lighthearted topic. Now, I know, that the phantom would still very much (feel the) need to know the answer to those sorts of things anyway. You would think they would rely on observation, eavesdropping, approaching Bobby through a different persona to get the answers, etc, and yes, in your fic he does in fact do all of those things in addition to interrogation and questioning. I didn’t find him throwing out the question to Bobby at the start of the fic particularly realistic, but then again, there’s likely hundreds of small inconsequential details he found out through alternative methods, and these were just leftover questions that he still wanted answers to. At the time I started the fic, I just accepted it despite my scepticism because of willing suspension of disbelief and the fact that it’s kinda funny(?). Like, you have this super serious scene detailing a truly awful situation that Bobby is in, but the phantom being like “are you a cat or a dog person???” has an inherent ability to invoke some kind of amusement. (Although mind you, I was too busy focusing on Bobby’s REALLY sucky situation to be truly amused at the time). Back then, I chose to overlook the “realism” aspect, not least because I liked the idea of him asking Bobby this, but now, I can fully accept it because your writing is just that good; meaning I know you’ve thought through things like that quite thoroughly already, and like I said, these were probably just leftover questions he hadn’t had time to use alternative means to get the answers to at that point, anyway.

Still, the new Fulbright had claimed that it ‘didn’t work that way’ and that he needed to know the details for certain.

Phantom: please I’m begging you don’t force me to make any decision on your behalf. I hate doing that, or at least I would if I could really feel hate. I have no real personality and therefore no real basis to pick and choose. I need a framework to work with here, dammit!

XD

You know! In spite of my initial reactions to changed!Bobby, it’s really interesting and kind of thrilling to see him be ‘cruder’ and more open. I quite liked it. It pops up a few times and it’s always fun! Unlike my reactions to things like his smoking (which, of course, he later gives up), by the time I’ve settled down to the idea of a changed Bobby, seeing him say some things that original!Bobby would never say don’t give me any real discomfort that makes me yell “YOU’RE NOT BOBBY!”. Rather, having already eased somewhat into a changed Bobby, I can accept it and in fact believe it as a solid part of his new character. Not only that, but I like the new character that has emerged after having been Randy Liberate. Bobby Fulbright reasserting himself, but it’s unrealistic that he’d be exactly the same as he was before. The smoking or complete abandonment of ideals of justice are what I balk at because it’s not really the core of who Bobby is, and that’s why these things are ultimately done away with as Bobby leaves Randy Liberate behind. But a newly acquired openness, crudeness and wariness/cynicism of justice remain, and I don’t balk at those – I accept them as part of who the new Bobby is. I love the original Bobby to bits, but I also like what the new Bobby brings too.

Chasing Phantoms, Chapter 12

However, the notion remained that if indeed there was a second accomplice, that person was still out there. Perhaps aiding the Phantom even now.

Perhaps… 🤔 I wonder, where on earth could they be? 😉 “PERHAPS aiding the Phantom even NOW”, oh you must have enjoyed writing that line.

The Phantom’s second accomplice was Domestique LaSoote. The man who’d aided in the Phantom’s release was sitting right there in his living room.

THE MOMENT this is brought to light, I was immediately like “OH. Yeah, so that means that’s not Bobby – it’s the phantom. No question. Game over. Get out Blackquill, now, for your own sake, please, but in an unsuspicious way.” Or, at the very least, you literally can’t verify for sure and you should always veer on the side of caution with these things. ALWAYS assume the worst. Or, a game of trying to discreetly determine if it’s the real Bobby without tipping the phantom off if its not Bobby. Aaaaaaah.

“Fulbright, I need to speak with you for a moment. In private, if you will.”

SIMON WATCH OUT, THAT’S NOT BOBBY FULBRIGHT IT’S THE PHANTOM. OH MY GOD HE HAS AIRPODS IN HE CAN’T HEAR ME. OH MY G

SIMON WHY-

All I know is that if it was me, my immediate thought would be “if he’s the phantom’s accomplice, that would leave the phantom easily able to come in and take Bobby’s place – therefore I can’t know if that’s the real Bobby or the phantom.” But Simon acted fast and had a lot on his mind and to take in. I’m sure if he had just a little bit more time to process what he realised, he would have clued on quickly too.

Chasing Phantoms, Chapter 13

Okay, I actually did get very afraid that Taka was really dead. Would have been unbelievably awful. ;-;

Man the phantom was/is SO dislikable to me this chapter, or at least, for all of the most of it. Like, go to hell, phanty. XD

Me: you might be my favourite character but right now you’re being REALLY annoying, not even in any kind of funny/”redeeming” way just a plain aggravating way, and you need to go away

It comes back to what I said in the previous post about me mistakenly thinking “the author” didn’t care much for the phantom, and kinda wanted us to dislike him for the major jerk he is. Plus his seemingly “out of character” behaviour kinda rubbed me the wrong way, until it’s actually addressed towards the end of the chapter.

Which, in itself, harkens back to that fic I mentioned from somewhere on the PWKM in my previous commentary post. But this time around, although I was not fond of the phantom currently presenting himself in this fic, I was still determined to read it, because the fic itself was still super, super good.

“An experiment, really. I’m quite excited to see the outcome.”

“No, you aren’t.” “Hah, well, I’m interested in the results regardless.”

I LOVED THIS EXCHANGE SO MUCH THOUGH. A+ DIALOGUE RIGHT HERE

“I suppose that’s as close to a compliment as I’ll ever get.” The Phantom took a flourishing bow, gun still pointed directly at Athena as he did so.

OH MY GOD I THINK I KINDA MISSED THIS LINE THE FIRST TIME AROUND. HE ACTUALLY TAKES A BOW. I’m imagining it done Edgeworth-style… WE STAN A SARCASTIC, SMARMY LITTLE EMOTIONLESS JERK. Me: ok, ok phantom. I love you this chapter a LITTLE for this, at least. Or a lot. Heh. But your little ultimatum towards Blackquill is still sickening to the core!

The phantom’s little breakdown, the crying… none of this I fully appreciated the first time around. Past me was something else…

Now this scene with Simon exposing the fact that the phantom wanted his attention is interesting in that, reading it again, I was actually quite surprised to find that Blackquill indeed never outright states that it has anything at all to do with romantic attraction or whatever. But as far as their discussion just before the phantom gets that brain surgery states, it’s exactly what he’s thinking, and exactly what I assumed too… He just never says it out loud, in those exact words.

I’d assumed so strongly that it must have been directly stated here somewhere by Blackquill. And when that scene before the surgery pans out between them, I then figured: “huh, so the phantom must indeed have been confronted with that accusation but come to realise that the need for attention was deeper than that.” I figured that huh, he considered it seriously but came to the conclusion it was untrue. Except. Now that I know it was never specifically stated, that interpretation mightn’t have occurred to him. He maybe went straight to realising he had some very deep issues goin’ on unrelated to romantic inclinations or whatever.

Blackquill goes on to spend the next few months straight-up assuming that the phantom has/had the hots for him……… Only to have that notion shot down by the phantom himself.

The fact that he doesn’t say it outright, but is still thinking it though, is like….

Blackquill, in vague and indirect terms, from his perspective: I’ve got it. The reason you’re acting so strangely. You’re gay for me!

The phantom: [suffers breakdown]

His guesswork had paid off, though part of him was beginning to think this secret had been better left uncovered.

Blackquill: wait WHAT. are you for real right now. I was literally just pulling stuff out of thin air here. You’re actually attracted to me?! (Now there’s a scary and creepy thought…)

Blackquill, under the misconception that the phantom felt a really messed-up and twisted romantic interest & attraction to him: [shudders] TMI… SOME THINGS ARE DEFINITELY BETTER LEFT UNCOVERED

And………… This scene with the phantom being kinda shattered and breaking down…… does resonate more with me, with the knowledge that the motivation and need for attention and acknowledgement was not motivated on the romantic scale, but rather went deeper than that, as you say. Although, it is hard to say, since I hadn’t appreciated it nearly enough on the first readthrough. That is ALL I shall say for now on the matter. All in due time… :P

Chasing Phantoms, Chapter 14

Breaking these flimsy binds was just like pulling off a band-aid. One had to be quick and decisive. He pulled them apart in one fluid motion and the chain, unable to bear with such sudden force, broke into several pathetic fragments. Athena flinched in shock, then went straight on to looking exasperated. “You know, I’m starting to think you’re one of the most terrifying people I’ve ever met.”

“You’re welcome.”

Sdkjsdjnsdln ok Simon that was awesome. “just like pulling off a band-aid” I’M YELLING...

A good five more minutes passed in which everyone worked frantically with their shovels. Their shoes and pants became stained with mud, but no one complained. Not even Edgeworth, whose outfit was likely the most expensive.

The image of a mud-stained Edgeworth though… omg.

Chasing Phantoms, Chapter 15

Okay, I am so curious regarding the intricacies of what the dynamic between Domestique and the phantom was like. I’ll bring this up again from different angles in a later chapter commentary(s) but. Yeah!

“I’m just saying that maybe you shouldn’t be out carrying an unconscious body by yourself, Boss. It’s gonna look mighty suspicious.”

Like first off, he calls him “Boss” here, when it’s later established there’s not supposed to be any real hierarchy – rather, they’re supposed to be accomplices (?). Then again, the title might be being used sarcastically or insincerely here. Although, Domestique does actually take orders from the phantom… That is consistently shown to have been the status quo as well. Hmm.

And even if they’re “supposed” to be on equal footing, the phantom is in a position of power over Domestique because there’s so many things the phantom can leverage in order to force him to do what he wants. So there’s that too.

I also took this statement sincerely the first time around reading it back when I didn’t know Domestique very well – I thought it almost sounded like he was showing concern. But now I see it as much more flippantly spoken. It’s not the phantom he’s worried about, really. The fact is, Domestique has been unwillingly caught up in all this and he doesn’t want it all to blow up in their faces, cause he’ll have to deal with the fallout too when/if that happens. I guess that’s the main takeaway here.

“What part of sit down and behave is so hard for you to grasp? That ‘stupid bird’ is more obedient than you are.”

LOL PHANTOM WEREN’T YOU ONLY JUST SAYING THAT DOMESTIQUE “DOES AS HE’S TOLD” IN AN EARLIER CHAPTER. Amazing.

Oh, also, when we initially learned about the “Bobby has been buried” thing I got extremely worried because I figured it would be another huge thing to add to Bobby’s trauma, as my initial horrified thought was of him being buried in the ground, conscious, with nothing to do but to wait. And wait. Thinking he was going to just run out of oxygen and die. That was such an unbearable thought. I’m so glad he at least actually “slept” through most of the ordeal. Now the phantom did initially say “motionless” when the worst is assumed, but does not add this specification when the reality is unveiled to Blackquill, so hah, yeah, at least in that sense I’d thought things were worse than they actually were. Relieved my thoughts weren’t the case…

Chasing Phantoms, Chapter 16

…Wait. Wait. There are TWO ways to read one of the phantom’s parting sentences:

“Death is the only option I have left. Are you the one attempting to save me from a sentence that is justified now?”

“Death is the only option I have left. Are you the one attempting to save me from a sentence that is justified now?”

I’d always read it the second way though.

“I would do so if there were any alternatives. There’s a lot of strings we’d have to pull on both Interpol’s end and the local police department’s end, but I see no other options. The only person qualified to impersonate the Phantom, ironically, is Bobby Fulbright.”

Reading this honestly blew my damn mind, I. Right now, I’m not even able to put into words how great and brilliant I found this upon reading it for the first time, to be honest. :D

[avhex]

press forward | earth-616

There was nothing. Again. The recurring darkness have placed her in a state of unease. A dreamless dream for a night sounded heavenly, but when this occurrence happened more than once, it became worrying for Mari. Sure, she has rendered her skills on oneiromancy useless, a quick escape to diminish any traces of CHAOS within her, but when her only method of concealment slowly withered from her grasp, she was in distress.

When the ground started erupting and deafening blasts surrounded the place she reputed as a haven for the wayward souls like her, it was the last straw for Mari. The academy was reduced into rubble and her blindness didn’t manage to stop any of it. She was merely a part of the cattle, herded together with others to safely get away from the pack of wolves. A buried trauma clawed itself out of its coffin, snarling at her. She can feel it staring with disgust and hate, probing her existence, and cackling at her ineptness.

You cannot save them. You are no hero. She can hear its distorted voice, mocking her. How can you defeat them? You don’t even know how to use your powers. Pathetic. “Please, not now,” she muttered to herself. The instability of her mind won’t aid to subdue the havoc around her. The last thing Mari wanted is to explode. Her bare feet have grown numb. The attacks have pulled her from her comfort zone and dragged her across the rubble and glass.

Let it out. "No." It wants to come out. "No!" Let i-

She settled the chipped porcelain cup on the mahogany desk. One of its legs was missing and have been supported by a stack of books instead. One thing to pull out from this mess was that people have become more resourceful. There is indeed a bout of creativity from tragedy. The bitter taste of coffee still lingered on her lips. She had a cigarette stick dangling between her nicotine-stained fingers, a lighter ready to blaze when she heard the news. Visitors have arrived.

There was a collective gasp once she reached the end of the stairs. A group of young people, disheveled and weary, peered at her with curiosity and wonder. They felt familiar to her and perhaps she was, in a way, acquainted with them. Then, the faces became connected with names, and the names tugged strings she once thought have been cut. Eyes stared back at her, full of sentience. The last time she saw some of those set of eyes were devoid of life or have collapsed into specks of dust, fluttering away from her grasp and into the harsh wind.

The hushed whispers continued. Fleeting glances were exchanged. They were looking at her and at… the other her. The ruckus was understandable. They both bore similarities, albeit her features were more jagged and venerable as opposed to the other's softer and frail facade. However, there is a certainty on the source of the pandemonium at the decrepit hall of the academy. The visitor's locks were charcoal. Hers were carmine.

Once soft blankets and warm beverages were offered to their sudden guests, the crowd dispersed and went on to their own devices. But the two remained standing still. She felt like she was standing before a mirror. A reflection from the past. She has the ability to mask her own emotions, and judging with the other's hazy eyes and trembling silhouette, the younger version of her from an alternate world doesn't seem to have in their best head space.

"Let's go get some air," she urged the other to follow her. She can feel that the young woman was curious about her. The red-headed woman shared the same sentiments as well, but kept it to herself. Perhaps her companion needed more guidance than her. They eventually reached what was once to be the academy's greenhouse. Plants were overgrown all over the place and there was a gaping hole above that featured a starless sky. After Thanos's success, everything went down into an endless void. Those who remained after having half of the population vanish have also lost their own strive to live.

"Is it now gone within you?" The stillness of the night was pierced with a quiet voice. Was this the reason of her gloom? "What? CHAOS? No, it’s still here," she replied before producing a red sphere as she made her lithe yet calloused fingers dance. Soon, the other mimicked her but quickly extinguish it as small sparks began to emanate from her orb. Once again, she huddled close to herself. "What? But how did you manage to control it?" The inquiry continued. "I befriended it," she answered with complete honesty. Confusion has settled in, she can sense that. She admits that it was too simple of an answer for such a complex process that she has gone through.

"You just have to accept its power. You can't run away from it. I never managed to," she let out a bitter chuckle. It doesn't need any denial that she has lost people along the way because of her talent. However, she had the chance to helm it to become her own. This privilege must have overlooked by the younger. Both of them have devices to learn how to discipline their powers, they are just waiting out there to be used.

"I don't want them to be scared of me," her companion mumbled. It was almost a whisper, yet she can feel her faltering. She wanted to reach out, to tell her that it may be a difficult journey, but it is going to be very rewarding in the end. She can see herself on her. No, she was her. A terrified young girl. Was she this fragile before? She wanted the other to turn her attention to her. She wanted to shout, Look at me! Look at what you can achieve in the future! But the funny thing about alternate universes was that certain situations won't happen in a similar manner and may bear contradictory outcomes. They are the same yet also different in many ways. Old and young. Red and black.

"You can't control their fear, but you can quell yours," she spoke with clemency. Fear. She used to be held back by it as well. "You are going to be fine," she wiped away the tears of her younger counterpart. "I believe in you," she continued. Those were the words that she always wanted to hear when she was young and having this opportunity to relay that to the other have calmed the waves within her.

"Mari! It's time to go."

They both nodded to each other as a farewell and she quietly watched the other walk away with she assumed was a friend of hers. Indeed, they are the same yet so different. She was lucky. So lucky to have a name.

Mari.

Perhaps it was better this way. Her curiosity towards the other wasn't sated, but knowing that she might haven't gone through what she had experienced in the past and the possibility of her having a happy family was enough.

No screams. No fires. No deaths. No windowless rooms.

The witch is now at peace.

[jakesuit0]

My Two Favorite People Review

The title card music for this episode is very catchy! Adventure Time has a lot of great title card tracks and this is a standout. We open with Finn and Jake battling Science Cat and Sword Shark (RIP). Jake calling Science Cat a “pussy cat” for running away is a clever way of getting around the censors.

The initial conflict is Jake struggling to balance time between Finn and Lady Rainicorn. He spends most of his time with Finn, so its a bit selfish of Jake when he’s concerned about missing out on spending time with Finn when he is with Lady. Lady is an absolute saint who puts up with a lot from Jake and understands that Finn is the most important person in Jake’s life. Jake is sort of Finn’s guardian, after all. 

Jake tries hanging out with Finn and Lady at the same time. Its awkward at first and Jake is trying too hard to force a bond. This is relatable to someone who has tried to introduce their two best friends to each other. 

Finn, Jake, and Lady go to retrieve a translation device so Finn can understand Lady. This part is a great showcase of Lady’s abilities with her smartly using her color powers to camouflage Finn and Jake (although they forgot to draw them still camouflaged when they return to the surface). Rainicorn also uses her body length (I don’t know how to phrase it) to push all the monsters away from Finn. 

Whenever there is a Lady Rainicorn-centric episode, (which is a rare occurrence) the episode has to be written in a way for the audience to be able to understand her. They’ve used subtitles and they’ve had Princess Bubblegum repeat what Lady said when she is talking to her. This time they use the translator device. Her old man voice works well and is silly for this episode. But as Jake says at the end, Lady’s normal voice is way better. 

Jake ends up third wheeling with Finn and Lady when they start bonding. I understand his frustration, but its really his fault as he choses to sulk instead of involve himself in their activities. In general, Jake is at his most immature in season 1. His interests are also closest to Finn’s in this season. In this episode Jake is enamored with (really cool) cursed rings, and is pumped to fight Sword Shark and Science Cat. Those elements of Jake carry on throughout the series, but he gets less attached to material objects and fighting monsters. Jake is also at his most jealous (and possibly petty?) here. 

The Cloud Kingdom is briefly introduced to the series in this episode. It has a rad design. After this, Jake sees Finn and Lady hanging out on her house like Jake usually does with her. This enrages Jake and he goes through his contact list. Many of his contacts would later show up in future episodes! 

Two recurring characters debut in this episode. Shelby appears early on, giving good advice like (almost) always. And of course, Tiffany, who is the person Jake decides to call to make Finn and Lady jealous. Tiffany is funny here but isn’t yet fleshed out. The way the episode is cut makes it seem like Tiffany showed up instantly after being contacted by Jake, which is very in character for him! Yes, him. Because Tiffany is a boy! This makes Finn jealous and I love him calling Tiffany a “homewrecker”. Finn also gets to show off his spit range skills on Tiffany. 

The episode has a short but sweet conclusion with Jake realizing he was acting stupid, and the three of them hugging and agreeing to always be stupid.

This is the first major role for Lady Rainicorn. I like that it explores Finn and Lady’s relationship a little. We only get to really see more of that in “The Pit”. But, I think I like seeing them together more in that episode. I also must mention that this starts the trend of the writers sneaking dirty jokes into Lady Rainicorn’s  Korean dialogue. Another first this episode has is Jake getting to be the character who’s POV we follow, instead of Finn.

Grade: B+

-

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

(Um, there’s something that came to me. It seems like a good part of Sayo’s murder plan relied on the island being completely cut off from the outside during the conference. And well, I get that the control over phone lines and assuring that no boat would be there would help lots, but the typhoon was a big part of it. However, the earliest she could have known of it is a week before the conference. Yet, stuff like Our Confession has her explicitly mentioning the typhoon as a component of (Cont)

There has always been a lot of debate in regard to this.

Some used this to support the theory that the forgeries had been written POST tragedy and that Ikuko was in truth Sayo.

(While it wouldn’t make much sense thematically, I personally loved the theory that Sayo survived and became Ikuko and was disappointed when it was indeed proved that not only Sayo and Ikuko were two different people but Ikuko was nothing more that what it was said on the tin, a random, rich, mystery lover with a talent for writing and a secluded villa in the neighbourhood who picked up Battler, gave him a new name and took care of him without bothering at all to search for his relatives... -_-)

Hum... back to the point... as far as I’m involved, if you want a Doylist explanation, I consider this a weak point of Umineko if not an outright mistake.

Of course it’s possible to make Watsonian explanations to excuse the whole thing.

First of all we didn’t read the forgeries that Sayo wrote PRE-tragedy.

We assume they’re the same as Legend and Turn, but this assumption is, very likely, wrong.

Sayo couldn’t know about a lot of things that will happen in Prime and that are also happening in her forgeries (for example Maria buying an Halloween candy or how the temper tantrum she threw on the train and about which there are witnesses happened).

We also have to keep in mind that in Ep 2 some of Battler’s moves are controlled by MetaBattler and not scripted by her (for example his attempt at proving that Kanon is innocent) and the same could apply to Ep 1 (though as there’s no Meta for it we don’t know if Battler merely lived it by witnessing all that was going on or was an active part in what his piece did).

So maybe in Sayo’s forgeries that were found things went differently from what we saw.

Maybe they were vague enough that Ange’s presence or absence made no difference as maybe they didn’t get into details about what each child did but just talked about ‘the children’.

Maybe there were forgeries in which Ange was present as well as forgeries in which... let’s say Maria wasn’t, or Hideyoshi wasn’t or someone else wasn’t but those forgeries went lost.

Maybe Sayo edited them at the last minute when she found out Ange wouldn’t come.

Maybe she knew beforehand that Ange wouldn’t come because we know she had sort of plotted with the adults and shared with them info about Kinzo’s true state so she could have also suggested Kyrie not to carry Ange and the fact that Ange had provvidentially gotten sick as well is a mere coincidence. Maybe she would have remained home even if she hadn’t.

So, as you can see, Watsonianing speaking we can explain Ange’s absence from the forgeries.

It gets harder to explain the storm as people even checked how frequents storms were in that area in which Rokkenjima was supposed to be and if there was a storm in 1986.

It turned out that no, there was no storm in 1986 and actually storms weren’t frequent there.

There’s to say that Umineko decides it’s in a parallel reality were stoms happen often because we’re told this in Ep 1 by the adults:

(Rudolf) "A typhoon again? ...Guess there’sno helping it, with the annual family conference being held in October. Couldn’the have chosen a better season?"(Eva) "I agree. I’ve always hoped we could have it sometime around theObon festival in mid-August. In that case, Rudolf, why don’t you suggest thatto Otō-sama and Nī-san during the conference?"(Rudolf) "...Very funny. Why don’t you do it yourself, Aneki? Aniki wouldnever listen to anything I suggested." (Eva) "No way. It doesn’t really bother me that much to have it inOctober. I was just saying you might want to propose it, since you said you hatetyphoons so much."(Rudolf) "I only said that typhoons always come around this time of year. You’rethe one who said you wanted to move it to the Obon festival, right?"I bolded Rudolf’s words because they imply that typhoons are an ordinary occurrence so it’s sort of easy to predict one.

In this way it would be okay to accept that one happened that year also as, apparently, they always happens only... Umineko forgets about it by the time we get to Ep 7 because... apart from that fateful conference we never see a storm happening during a family conference.

1979: no storm

1980: no storm (look outside the windows)

1981: no storm

1982: no storm

1983: No storm

1984: no storm

1985: no storm

Sure, in 1986 the family arrives while there’s no storm, spend some time on the island without the storm and then, by the 3rd day the storm supposedly ended but... we’re never shown a weather that’s at least a little rainy.

All we know is that Rudolf, in the novel, claimed a thyphoon always come but we never see it.

Basically it’s Umineko begging us to suspend our disbelief and accept that the storm happened and it was a recurring fact when actually it’s not.

If you still want to go for the Watsonian way we can assume that Sayo had a back up plan in case the storm weren’t to happen, like bribing Kawabata (which is the plan used in ‘10 little indians’ her fave book so I would expect her too to use it) so that the man wouldn’t come to retrieve the family for two days regardless of the thyphoon taking place or not, which would explain why he felt so guilty as it’s not that he couldn’t go retrieve the family, it’s that even if he’d been able to, he wouldn’t have gone.

And, of course, the fact that’s not mentioned in the forgeries is merely because it was mentioned in other forgeries but those weren’t found... but really, I think here it’s more like Umineko is asking us to suspend our disbelief than to make excuses for him... which is not a really good choice when writing a mystery but well, as I said many times Umineko wasn’t meant to be perfect and it would be unfair to expect perfection from it.

[strange-where-the-birds-go]

Lights At The Top Of The Stairs

Part 1.

I lived until I was 7 years old with my Nan. My nan and granddad were like my mum and dad and I loved them dearly. I frequently had strange dreams and occurrences happen to me as a child and they have only got stronger and stranger the older I got particularly the past few years. This recurring dream involved an old film camera and strangely enough an immense feeling of euphoric pleasure, fantastic experiences and visitors at weird times and in funny circumstances. The dream was one of three that I had all the time the first one happened when I was young and involved me taking photographs of lampposts, (I know I still don’t get it even now, maybe one day I may understand it’s strange. But it gets even stranger I assure you as you will no doubt find out if you follow the story. So strange you will probably find it all very hard to believe. But on my nans life and grave god bless her it’s all true. The lampposts featured in the dream was on the street where I lived as a child. The other two dreams and all the events in my life I want to explain, I will get to as I post these episodes each day. The synchronicity events and strangeness of it all should eventually become clear and leave you questioning things in your own life and what they may mean. Maybe you have had similair experiences as myself I am almost certain there will be people out there. Get in touch and comment I will be happy to reply.

Thinking from the present as I am writing this, I felt that my childhood dreams couldn’t be ignored but now looking back maybe they shouldn't have been followed considering what happened when I followed my dreams thinking it would be nothing but all good turned into something entirely different. Hopefully eventually I will understand why, what the dream meant, if anything at all. I hope it all becomes a happy positive event and not regretting my choices as I started to after the nightmare that entered my life.

It was a warm, hopeful summer, many years after the events I explain to you here that I remembered the childhood dreams. It was a summer where dreams seemed real and obtainable. I didn't want to be just another faceless nobody, with no real reason or meaning in my life. The idea of not doing anything worth while scared me, and that's all there was to it. The dream I had as a child was going to be followed with all my will, I just didn’t expect it to lead me where it eventually did. I just wanted to do well for my family. I can’t travel back and change things. I can now only hope for the best.

My mum gave birth to me at a young age and I went to live with my grandma. I called my grandma mum and always used to get my mum and nan’s names mixed up when I talked to them so this was the appropriate solution to me as a child. When I was living with my nan-mum I had a very strange dream whilst lying on my bed upstairs. I always until this day remember the dream. It’s what I influenced me me greatly to start my photographic journey.

I was settling down in the living room waiting for my Nan to come home. Strange visions and flashbacks in daydreams. knowledge I always wondered how I knew at a young age. My mum lived in a flat and felt it would be better on that I stayed with my nan while she worked to get money and a stable life for us. I was young anyway and loved my Nan and grandad and tonight I was looking forward to spending time with my them.

My Nan had been longer than usual this evening and I was getting worried. We were going to watch a spooky film together because it was Halloween. “Where’s nan gone Grandad” My 5 year old self said “ She’s ran off with the milk man” came the reply. I never really understood what this meant, just a funny remark at the time knowing my grandads humour.

The key turned in the front door and I felt better glad his Nan was home and safe. My grandad shouted “ be back later Mary there’s some money on top of the television if you need anything I wont be too long, going to speak to a man about some work tomorow” and with that my grandad went out on foot to the local for a few pints.

Nan took off her head scarf, quickly hung it up and threw her anorak over the back of the chair. She walked slowly towards the roaring coal fire to warm up her hands, carefully avoiding the tin bath prepared for the school bath earlier. She lit up a cigarette and sat in the chair opposite the brown veneered square TV set with the 50p box on the side slowly winding its way down ready for another hexagonal queens head. The air was stale, thick with smoke and the smell of cigarettes as she inhaled twice slowly blowing the smoke towards the ceiling and away from me. Feeling satisfied She turned to me. Ive got some jacket potatoes in the oven and treacle toffee, oh and toffee apples as well your favourite. I know its early but we can treat ourselves while we watch the movie, and why not”. “Thanks mum... nan”. I regularly stuttered and got names mixed up. “Thanks nan, are you looking forward to the scary move?” I can only remember seeing a large black Alsatian but having ominous feelings about this dog and the music in the film was eerie, more scary than the actual film at the time. We didn’t get to watch much of it. The tv went black and the 50p meter clicked loudly asking for another coin. Mary got up and went to the top of the tv looking for that big silver piece, inverted triangles that meet in the centre, in the pile of coins Grandad had left for nan “ I’m afraid we haven’t got any 50ps. We will have to wait until your grandad gets back now, isn’t that a shame I was enjoying that, Just when it was getting good as well”

I felt slightly fed up and walked into the kitchen to get a toffee apple. Pausing at the bottom of the stairs in the hallway I peered up to the bedroom landing. More scared now than after watching the actual film. I was thinking of the lights that came. I didn’t understand what they were but they made me feel anxious and scared. I wouldn’t look straight up tothe top of the stairs as it was too scary I had to peer out from the corner of my eye to check everything was ok up there and when I realised it was I hurriedly half jumped half ran across the front door hallway into the kitchen not once looking behind until I was at the toffee apples in the cupboard. Then peeling the yellow plastic wrapper off the sticky apple I took a bite as quickly as possible making sure to get as much of that red toffee in my mouth as possible and avoid the sour apple. I started hopping on the spot needing the toilet. The dread filled me as I knew I couldn’t go on my own up those stairs towards where the light came from. The light might get me. “ NANN, MUMM, NANN. I need the toilet will you sit on the stairs whilst I go please I’m bursting. “OK, But you should be able to go yourself”. I stood at the gas iron cooker and waited until nanmum appeared at the bottom of the stairs so I could approach the crooked steps, the lights formed in my sub conscious worried that very real and strange wisp of light might make another appearance. WHAT WAS IT. I ran to the bathroom at the top of the crooked stairs, terrified of the light appearing. I knew how it felt, never threatening at all the last time in fact quite the opposite but I was young and the not knowing scared me. “Nan don’t move, stay sat there please, I’m watching, if you go I wont be able to have a wee”, “ I wont move an inch you know that I wont” “I knew she wouldn’t let me down and trusted her more than anything” I ran up the stairs as quickly as possible looking back every two steps to make sure she hadn’t gone. When reaching the top step I kept my head and eyes straight forward not daring to look right or left and quickly went to the toilet pushing outwards as fast as possible always keeping the door open and making a backward glance towards Her for reassurance. No quicker was I finished and I was halfway back down those stairs again breathing heavily with the exertion and back with his nan. “ Why do you do that”, she said “The light comes nan it scares me” “What light?” “ I cant tell you, I want to, but I cant tell you”. Nan rolled her eyes and said, “You’ve been watching too many horror movies at aunty carols your imagination is wild”. I didn’t even hear Marys remark I was just so relieved to be back beside his nan and safe again.

Nan eventually found a 50p and walked over to the meter fumbling to find the right angle, the perfect spot so it would wind and drop, it clicked and fell into the empty box readily, having been emptied the day before. The TV came to life and Mary switched over to coronation street. Hilda was sat with Stan underneath the triple flying ducks in the living room and it reminded Stefan of his nan and grandad, Gail was also my other mum. I always made these comparisons with everyone in the tv and read their names backwards. “thats enough scary movies for tonight said nan. I think its best don’t you” “Aww Nan I wanted to watch till the end”.

My nan didn’t answer. She just gave me that look. She always knew the answer it was a sort of instinct she had. A knowing. We connected like that. We rarely had to speak we both knew the other like the inside of a well read secret book. I always felt content around her, it was like she could read my mind and the looks she gave me spoke a thousand words resonating on a much deeper level. When you feel the answer with your subconscious voice, those continuous thoughts, in your mind you don’t have to speak but your heart knows.

I was getting sleepy now but my stress levels were rising with the thought of bedtime, they always did especially on a Sunday night, a school night brought depression. It wasn’t school though that scared me, a small part maybe, but it was knowing I had to go to bed early on my own and face the light and the vastness of open space. The people in my dreams. The place between awake and falling asleep where the strange existed. The light outside the door on the landing, so bright and beautiful it would fill my room when I shut my eyes. When it touched my mind I was taken away to an immense blackness of what seemed like outer space. Where feelings crossed over and smells mixed with colours in ultraviolet strings that wrapped around my arms and merged with needles that pierced the tips of my fingers in moments of pleasure accompanied by a peculiar watering of the mouth, a sickly feeling. Floating around in what seemed like an endless universe of random screen images. Pixelated people and smooth two dimensional places wrapped up in tubes of light. It made no sense at all but felt strange and infinite, never endingly good at the same instant. Chattering noises and a great feeling of love wrapped in greater love and surrounded by humanoid like shapes manipulating it like a Rubin’s cube in an instance where all time stood still. silence for what felt like an eternity of singular moments posed inside each other, but was only a second in reality. Not past, present or future but only “is”. The light was so bright and perfect it became transparent emotion to the pit of my soul. To me it was normal I thought everyone must get visits by the light people. I find it hard to explain the happenings now I’ve grown up, but as a child I just couldn’t comprehend what was happening and that night was the start of something strange and beautiful that led to the worst and best time of my life all wrapped into one. If only I understood it as I understand things now as I walked towards the crooked stairs.

[atlff18]

TULLY

This is multi Oscar nominated director Jason Reitman’s seventh feature film, Thank You For Smoking (2005), Juno (2007), Up In The Air (2009), being just some of them. It’s also his second film starring Oscar winner Charlize Theron (Young Adult (2011)) and his third time collaborating with screenwriter Diablo Cody who won an Oscar for her Juno screenplay.

The Story: Marlo, played by Theron, is a mother of two and has a third one on the way. Her husband Drew played by Ron Livingston (Swingers (1996), Office Space (1999)) is a busy guy at work but he helps out at home as best he can. It’s still a lot of exertion on the very pregnant Marlo—helping her six-year-old son Jonah whose autistic-leaning OCD is considered “quirky” by other adults, or trying to provide a normal school-mom situation for eight-year-old daughter Sarah—which prompts her very wealthy brother Craig, played by Mark Duplass (Zero Dark Thirty (2012), The League (2009)), to suggest a “night nanny,” someone who magically appears in the middle of the night to help with the newborn while mom and dad get some sleep.

Against her initial wishes and general feelings about having a stranger in the house, Marlo consents and Tully, the nanny, played by Machenzie Davis (The Martian (2015), TV’s Halt and Catch Fire (2014), Blade Runner 2049 (2017)) shows up bright eyed, young, and literary smart—in which she’s always quoting an author’s work as it pertains to life and, in particular, Marlo’s situation.

In general Tully’s whole vibe could be described as “granola,” a term Marlo might have used in her 20’s. Tully has a funny way of dropping in, to me, kind of like Robin Williams, as Mork (but on valium), popping in at the start of all those episodes of Mork and Mindy (1978). Maybe quirky is the better description for Tully, instead of for Jonah. All goes well with Tully, and Marlo seems to get her life back on track even though she knows this warm, calm, appealing patch in her life might end.

The Goods: The pregnancy and subsequent birth are almost everyday occurrences to Marlo and Drew, this being their third child; they display none of the usual nervousness, euphoria and joy that overcomes first time parents, mostly because they’re dead tired and probably more than we realize dreading what’s to come. Reitman does a good job of giving us their routine, and their Lego floor-covered house, while Marlo expresses very profane but excusable emotional outburst moments. Understandable for someone who might be past her due-date.

The first part of the film, probably the first fifteen minutes is almost documentary-like in the camera’s attempt to stay on Marlo and record her day. Something that is Reitman’s forte. Reitman himself says people can quickly spot “BS” and his job as a director is to provide the truth of the character, story and location which he seems to always do quite well. In that regard, once you add in the real-life comedic tones and the relationship themes, the situational and sometimes episodic nature of humanity, while still appealing to as economically wide an audience as possible, Reitman comes off looking more like the James L. Brooks (Broadcast News (1987), As Good As It Gets (1997), Terms of Endearment (1983)) of our generation.

Whereas Up In The Air is quite cold figuratively and literally, and the colors of blue and grey are so pervasive—in tone and hue—it matches the film’s characters and their dilemmas. Tully is the opposite, the palate is inviting, almost grounded, slightly cheery, earthy…it’s comfortable, yet the central character still has troubles. Troubles that seem to be set to an ironic color scheme, providing the film with quite a palpable subliminalness that makes you feel like things aren’t quite right. And they aren’t if you consider how perfect and idyllic events eventually build for Marlo. A recurring blue water, mermaid motif helps drive the point home that mom often feels “under water.” And that things are sort of brewing under the surface.

The Flaws: But the upbeat tenor to the film, that things have really changed for the best for Marlo, after Tully’s arrival, goes on for a long time. Usually something traumatic happens when goodness is at this magnitude. It’s part of the DNA of storytelling, that an event occurs that causes a shift. You just know that something is going to happen. And in most films it does, especially at a certain script point, in exact page count, on page fifteen or twenty, for a ninety minute film…ninety pages, ninety minutes. This film is right on the money in terms of beats and turns. I would check my watch every time I felt like we were taking a turn or hitting a plot point and it was pretty much right on—just about every fifteen minutes. The Cinderella story pattern of a staircase that continues to climb toward a crescendo. But while the film does have this fantastic timing in terms of plot development its pattern is more of an incline. A straight ride up with no downs, no insteps.

Tully’s biggest flaw, then, in my opinion is that that conflict laden moment, that huge turn for the worse, or major turn in direction—and conflict in general after Tully arrives—takes a very, very long time to land. We’ve been conditioned if you will to look for this, from all the films we see. And without it some might find Tully difficult to watch—difficult in the sense it’s all too good to be true, too sugary. I think Ridley Scott had this same dilemma in The Martian where there was no real doubt or fear for the audience that the character couldn’t overcome any obstacle. But at least he had obstacles.

That “conflict delay” in Tully, especially in the films longest act, makes for a distraction that does, very gently, remove you from the film. Even though, for me, Tully has a better delivery all around than The Martian, you still can’t help but wonder when will all of this positivity come crashing down. When will the drama appear.  At the same time however, isn’t this how depression exists? Long periods of denial, camouflaged as a good time; masked by ecstatic moments? It’s probably not a coincidence then that I mentioned Robin Williams. May he rest in peace.

Too, I did see these defined breaks in Tully as episodes. And I thought for a moment, as a Hollywood film with a theatrical release, this is how you combat episodic binge viewable shows on streaming channels. A really good thing for theatrical releases, or, for tying into audiences’ stream awareness these days. You incorporate the episodes into the film.  And every “episode” in Tully seems to come with a zinger of a comedic punchline. These are Cody’s strongest one liners to date. And the script is so tight it can be held up as a model of efficiency.

But there needs to be more conflict as we head to that climactic moment.

The Call: Without a doubt Tully is a film to see in theaters. Spend the ten. It’s comedic, it’s dramatic, and it nails pregnancy and postpartum depression better than any educational video, movie or book I’ve seen or read. Diablo went to Reitman with the idea, he said it sounded good and she wrote the script in six weeks. She says she wrote from her own experience which is Cody’s gift. And Reitman says he, Charlize and Diablo being of the same age and sort of in the same boat of family and parenthood could work well with the script, as they did in Young Adult. In this regard Cody, and Theron, are able to provide for us the subtle and strikingly direct experience of pregnancy and child care like few others. And Reitman, Cody and Theron put this tender experience on a coaster, on a night stand, under a warm lamp, at bed time, as a night time story and glass of water…a glass half empty, then brimming, before we eventually quench our thirst.

Tully is probably Reitman’s most poetic film to date—once you see how everything pans out, that warm, orange glow versus the extreme cool, blue undercurrent—you’ll realize just how strategic and well thought-out the whole darn thing is.

Rated R for language and some sexuality/nudity. Running time is 1 hour and 36 minutes. Tully is currently making the festival rounds and will be released in theaters May 4, 2018. Jason Reitman made an appearance in Atlanta where Tully was screened as part of the Atlanta Film Festival.

By Jon Lamoreaux

[fullvoidmoon]

Make it Real

Pairing/s: Richard Armitage x fem!reader

Warning(s)/Genre(s): Fluff, (can RA himself be considered as a warning?)

Word Count: 1,328

Berlin Station TV series © Olen Steinhauer Context © me

Requested by @deepestfirefun.

A/N: Using the prompt “Where´s my sinfully handsome boyfriend? I need a cuddle.” Which is also included in the request. Also sorry in advance if it ended as crappy as I think it is. (Can’t help but be really critical with my own work.) And for overdoing it.

Masterlist: HERE

Part 2 - All I Could Wish For

“Are you really sure you and Richard are not a thing?”

You are back for another season of Berlin Station, and no matter how hectic and tiring your current schedule is you would never exchange this opportunity for anything in the world; the joy of acting, going to different locations and working with the sort of people like your co-actors, both the recurring and the new ones, and the crew is very gratifying. 

“Of all things, Keke,” you heave a sigh after laughing your ass out, “we just got here in our hotel room like minutes ago and instead of resting or preparing for tomorrow that’s the first thing you have in mind?” 

And one of the things you missed the most, no matter how annoying it becomes, is the constant teasing your co-actors started to throw at you when they often see you together with the ever handsome and deadly sexy Richard Crispin Armitage.

Even you would admit the guy is truly godsend; gifted with both talent and good looks.

“Hey, that’s what I constantly hear from the others,” Keke reprimands before joining you in laughter, “you know I’m just new in the family so I wanna know.”

You shake your head in disbelief. You would certainly give Rhys and the rest of the trouble makers - as what you would like to call them - a good beating soon, though all are still in fun and games.

It has been a thing for both the cast and crew that you and Richard are so often seen together that it immediately gave them the idea of a possible budding romance between the two of you. It soon became a running joke within the whole production, and you eventually opt to give up your constant denials and just go with it.

“I tell you Keeks we really are not ‘a thing’,” you assure your roommate, “Rich and I happens to have a lot of scenes together since season one, it’s impossible for you to not see us together most of the time.”

Keke couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, clearly not having any single word you say, “I gotta be honest though, both of you look good together.”

If only this crazy group of awesome people knew you would never see it in the way they could see it.

—–

“They will never stop, won’t they?”

“I don’t think they will.”

The weather in Berlin suddenly changed for the worse - from little drizzles turned into an all out downpour - and the schedule for the day turns into a pain in the neck; forcing everyone to postpone everything and add it for tomorrow’s shoot. Good thing Richard decided and offered you to practice your scenes and have it done in his room; providing the space and privacy you need for practicing your lines.

And it surely makes you all ready and prepared for tomorrow’s shoot, if the weather would still permit it.

“I thought you would get tired of it,” Richard couldn’t help his chuckles, remembering your witty jabs towards Rhys and some of the crew whenever they have the chance to tease you.

“Oh I do get tired of it,” you reply as you arrange your scripts in order of its sequence, “I just decided to let them be and join the fun.”

Fun. It surely looks like you are having fun, no matter how you say it sometimes annoy you to no end. 

“Where´s my sinfully handsome boyfriend,” you once exclaimed when you arrived at one of the trailers to attend a quick briefing before you started to shoot some sequences you had for the day, “I need a cuddle.”

“How about a kiss instead,” he quipped, giving you a wink that could definitely make any woman blush 100 shades of red and pink, “or would you like me to give you something even better than a kiss?” 

It surely didn’t fail to make everyone, who was present, stop and look at you two like you both have grown two heads. And some of them even cringe, truly a funny thing to behold.

“Will it still be fun if it were to be real?” Richard whispers, his focus drifting from the scripts in his hands to some memorable occurrences he would never forget. 

How could Richard ever forget those ‘fun times’ if you are always in it? How much he wishes for all of it to be real and not just mere acting to annoy every cast and crew who happened to witness all of it. 

Your mind goes blank, sheets of scripts in hand and sequences in mind suddenly forgotten. Did you really hear what you thought you heard?

“What do you mean ‘if it were to be real’?” You ask, suddenly becoming anxious with what you think he really means.

Richard couldn’t help but give you a smile, his eyes hopeful as he remembers your hands suddenly holding his while you remind him of the scenes you both practiced the night before. Or the times when you would always wipe his damp forehead as the sun gives off its blistering heat, making it feel like you are walking in a 350 degree oven.

He loves each and every ministration, from the forehead and cheek kisses to holding hands while walking. Though everything started just to make fun of the crew and, somehow, make them stop their teasing, but Richard never expect to wake up the next day and start looking forward to have you with him.

It eventually made him fall for you harder than he would ever expect.

“I wish for it to be real,” he says, trying hard not to let his nervousness evident in his blue orbs, “holding my hand, allowing me to touch your forehead touch mine, calling me your boyfriend, all of it.”

Never would you expect to hear him say such words; words you would only hear in drama series filled with the topsy turvy twist that is love. As cliché as it may seem, or as corny as it may sound, it makes your heart beat like it just ran a hundred mile non-stop and butterflies flutter in your stomach.

And you would never expect this to be even better than you what you would dream of ever night; a dream of Richard feeling the same way as you feel.

“I never thought I would fall for you this hard,” Richard says as he reaches out to hold your hands, breaking your reverie, “it makes me feel so desperate; crazy that I wish to hold you without us pretending to annoy everyone.”

You whisper, suddenly holding his hand tightly and fearing all that you see and hear are not real, “since when? And why didn’t you-?”

“Since the day Rhys started teasing me about you,” Richard interjects as he brings your hand to his lips, giving it a kiss, “and it grew into new heights when you called me your ‘sinfully handsome boyfriend’.”

“That just came out of me before I had the time to stop myself,” you giggle, your forehead leaning on his,“I thought you would be repulsed and completely avoid me in times we’re not shooting our scenes.”

“I would never do that to you dearest, no matter how weird or impulsive you may be.”

His eyes, the very eyes that never fail to captivate you since the first time you met him at the read-through during the pre-production of the series, are filled with adoration mixed with slight fear and desperation. You can see it clearly, Richard is still afraid you would never see him in the way he sees you. And it’s killing him inside, even after both of you had a good laugh minutes ago.

“I wish for us not to pretend anymore.”

Richard whispers, his lips ghosting on yours as he seeks for your permission. His eyes hold nothing but pure love and devotion.

“Please, let us make our relationship real.”

[possiblyimbiassed]

Maggie, Mary and Moriarty – like ghosts from ze past…

There are indeed lots of recurring themes in BBC Sherlock, like for example suicide or codes and ciphers or ghosts.

But one of the recurring themes is more specific, in the sense that it’s about a person who has lived in the real world – and a powerful one to boot: Margaret Thatcher. This former British prime minister is mentioned repeatedly in the show, but in different ways. So – why this obsession with Thatcher? Is it some sort of clue? Let’s have a closer look; I’ll try to account for all the occurrences here in chronological order and analyze their possible meaning (a warning: this might be a bit lengthy, so please bear with me):

1. The first time Thatcher is mentioned is in John Watson’s blog, at about the time of ASiB. The entry is called “The Six Thatchers” (which most certainly is a reference to ACD Canon’s case The Six Napoleons):

Sally Barnicot contacted Sherlock about the murder of her art-student friend Pietro Venucci, who was found stabbed in the pottery room. His boyfriend Beppo Rovito told the police he had discovered the body. Sally accused Beppo of murder, but there was no evidence.

Sherlock discovered a series of burglaries at other houses related to the university and the victim. John went there in disguise and found that Pietro had made six pottery figures of Maggie Thatcher with devil horns, which had been sold to all the burglary victims. Apparently the figures were meant as satire of Thatcher. Nothing else was taken during the break-ins.

Sherlock and John visited the houses of the two remaining figures. John watched Beppo breaking in, heard glass shattering and saw him finding the figure on the mantlepiece.

They followed him outside, watched him smash the figure and caught him picking up a penknife from inside the figure, which had his initials on it.

Beppo confessed that he and Pietro had an argument and, in a struggle, Beppo had stabbed him. He'd seen the figures going into the oven and pushed the knife into the clay. He'd then smashed a window to make it look like there'd been a break-in.

Observations: a) We never get to know the actual motive for Beppo stabbing his boyfriend.

b) In this blog entry there’s a picture of Sherlock wearing the ‘funny hat’ (deerstalker), which has often been interpreted as his ‘public image’ in spite of him not liking it at all; a Persona he is forced into by others.

c) John believed Sally had been in love with the victim, which could be a sign of a triangle drama of some sort.

2. In The Hounds of Baskerville, Sherlock tries to figure out the password to Major Barrymore’s online info about the secret CIA project H.O.U.N.D. Since the Major is strict, conservative and has five biographies of Margaret Thatcher in his book shelf, Sherlock deduces the password: “Maggie”. He finds out that this project has produced a drug as a secret chemical weapon. The online text mentions things like ‘Paranoia,’ ‘Severe frontal lobe damage,’ and ‘Multiple homicide,’ in association with this drug. Sherlock explains it: “ …a new deliriant drug which rendered its users incredibly suggestible. They wanted to use it as an anti-personnel weapon to totally disorientate the enemy using fear and stimulus…”

Observations: a) One of the five project leaders, whose family names form the acronym HOUND, is named Mary Uslowski. Mary Watson was also part of a group with an acronym made from the group members’ names; AGRA.

b) In this scene Thatcher’s name is associated with a poison that brings hallucinations, paranoia and fear to its victims.

3. In the episode The Six Thatchers in Series 4, there are six plaster busts of Margaret Thatcher owned by five different people. There are also a series of burglaries where someone systematically smashes the busts, but doesn’t take anything. The importance of the Thatcher busts is emphasized not only in the episode title, but within the story as well:

Sherlock seems obsessed with finding out how Margaret Thatcher might be connected to James Moriarty:

But he doesn’t have a spelled-out theory; it rather seems based on intuition...

...and the surroundings go spooky and bluish...

However, in spite of Sherlock being called back from his fatal mission in Eastern Europe specifically to deal with Moriarty’s supposed return, he fails miserably to track Moriarty down. In fact, there is basically nothing more revealed in this episode about Jim Moriarty or his possible connection to Thatcher. Mycroft believes that Moriarty is after a certain Black Pearl of the Borgias, but Sherlock doesn’t find the pearl either. (And in the following episode Jim seems totally forgotten).

Instead, the evidence hidden inside the last of the Thatcher busts leads directly to Mary Watson, and her background as member of the contract killer group A.G.R.A.

At first, ‘Mary’ isn’t directly participating when Sherlock investigates the case that leads him to the first Thatcher bust; she is merely seen curiously waiting in the background.

However, when two more Thatcher busts are smashed and they do get in focus, ‘Mary’ - for some odd reason - suddenly gets involved in Sherlock’s search:

It’s a bit strange; ‘Mary’ has never been a part of Sherlock’s cases until now, so it’s unclear why her presence is suddenly so important - especially since her ‘help’ doesn’t lead to any improvement of the case whatsoever:

And still she gets to participate as some kind of expert. It almost seems like Sherlock deliberately lets ‘Mary’ come between him and John, even when they’re working together.

At the end of the episode ‘Mary’ dies from a gunshot (in an extremely unrealistic and overly dramatic way) and her death seems to damage John’s and Sherlock’s friendship when John blames Sherlock for the incident. The interesting thing is, that from now on we get Mary’s ghost as a transmitter of Moriarty’s eternal “miss me?” message:

Associated with one of the Thatcher burglaries is the mysterious death of a young man, Charlie Welsborough, who wanted to surprise his father on his 50:th birthday by pretending to be a car seat and then suddenly drop the disguise. But the guy dies of some sort of seizure and never gets to surprise his father. His body is discovered a week later when the parked car accidentally gets hit by another car and explodes.

Observations: a) This whole Six Thatchers case seems extremely similar to the earlier case on John’s blog; there are the same number of Thatcher images (although this time with no devil’s horns, thus worshipped rather than mocked), they are all smashed and there is important evidence hidden inside one of them at the pottery, with someone’s initials on it (but this time information rather than a weapon).

b) This time Sherlock actually seems happy about the busts being destroyed. Charlie Welsborough’s father has images of Thatcher as a shrine placed on a prominent place in the living room, while the photos of his dead son only appear on a side table.  Sherlock pretends to not recognize the importance of Thatcher, and he almost expresses sympathy with the burglar:

And Sherlock is not alone; even his mostly very formal and polite civil servant of a brother is critical:

As the smashing continue, Sherlock is not exactly worried…

:) Actually, I believe he’s encouraging people to vote against Thatcherism:

And Sherlock even gets to smash the last Thatcher bust himself:

c) The young Charlie Welsborough seems queer- or trans-coded in the subtext, since

i) Sherlock mis-genders Charlie by referring to him as the Welsboroughs’ daughter:

ii) There’s an 18th or 19th century painting in his parents’ house with a little girl with a drum – hardly a common toy for girls in those times:

iii) There’s a Blue Power Ranger figure attached to the front of Charlie’s car, associating to the TV series with the same name, which is shown melting when the car explodes:

David Yost, the actor who played the Blue Power Ranger ‘Billy Cranston’, has stated he had “walked off the show --- due to repeated and ongoing homophobic slurs by the creators, producers, directors, and writers of the series” (X).

Even Charlie is associated with ghosts in this episode; John mentions that he’s going to call this case “The Ghost Driver” on his blog.

So maybe Charlie’s death is also significant; he died while trying to make himself invisible to his father-the-Thatcher-lover by resembling a car seat, possibly due to fear that his father would disapprove of his sexual orientation or trans-gender identity.

d) Whenever Thatcher is in focus in this episode, weird things happen; the surroundings become spooky and bluish…

…and/or watery…

… or Sherlock gets the imprint of Maggie projected on his face:

5: Right before one of the bust smashings, parting from the scene in Mycroft’s office where Sherlock wants to know how Moriarty is connected to Thatcher, there’s a glass being shattered:

The same thing happened earlier, in John’s blog case The Six Thatchers, when Beppo was discovered at a crime scene. And later in the show, inside Sherlock’s mind palace in TAB, John and Sherlock also heard the sound of glass shattering. At the time they thought it was a window shattering while someone was breaking in, but it turned out that the object broken was a mirror used to produce the illusion of a ghost:

To summarise: We have these three ghosts casting their shadows over the show from TAB to TFP, and maybe even earlier: Maggie Thatcher, James Moriarty and Mary Watson. But in TAB Sherlock insists to John: “You may, however, rest assured there are no ghosts in this world… save those we make for ourselves”.

So my guess is that these are ghosts that Sherlock has created in his mind palace. The blog case and also Major Barrymore’s fondness of Thatcher in THoB might be ‘real’, but Series 4 seems to be Sherlock’s rehashing of past events in new ways inside his mind palace (EMP theory). In THoB Barrymore’s secret info accessible with the password “Maggie” is about a drug that instils fear in the victims, confuses them and makes them hallucinate. Maybe this drug is also involved with all the weird things Sherlock experiences in Series 4.

The shattering of glass in the two Six Thatchers cases, as well as in the ghost case in TAB, seem to alert the audience to pay attention, and to realize the fact that this ghost imagery is all fake; there’s no reason for us to believe in these ghosts or obey their messages, since they all belong to the past and do not actually exist except in people’s heads. 

But I do think each one of the ghosts represents something in this story on a metaphorical level, for Sherlock, for John and for society as a whole, which I’ve been trying to show here:  (X, X, X, X) . In ‘Mary’s case I think it’s heteronormativity and in Moriarty’s it’s homophobia. They’re the villains of the story; they’re the issues that are keeping Sherlock and John from openly becoming who they really are. 

But what about ‘Maggie’ – why this massive emphasis on a PM from the eighties and people smashing images of her? Well, I suspect it’s because she’s been infamous for her homophobic conduct as a Prime minister in that period. Some of the best-known examples:

Quote from Margaret Thatcher’s speech to Conservative Party Conference October 9, 1987 (X):  ”Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay. - - - All of those children are being cheated of a sound start in life - yes cheated.”

In 1988 Thatcher’s government legislated Britain’s first new anti-gay law in 100 years; Section 28, which stated that a local authority "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship" (X)

Thatcher tried to block public health warnings about Aids in the eighties. Allegedly she feared teenagers would be “harmed" by an Aids awareness campaign about how the disease spread. (X) (X)  

My conclusion: Maggie, Mary and Moriarty are connected in this show, they take turns to represent what’s literally killing Sherlock, John and their relationship: homophobia and heteronormativity. And in the case of Thatcher it’s connected to the official power – a prevailing viewpoint that totally dominated society in the Victorian times when ACD’s Canon was written, and that still has a lot of influence. The six Thatchers are all smashed in the show, but Mary and Moriarty still linger as ghosts until the end of TFP. Let’s hope there actually will be a fifth series some time, where we can finally get rid of these ghosts once and for all.

[suechoiart]

On trauma (Mid-Review reflection)

I’ve been quiet for a couple of weeks focusing on studio work and summer work. We just had our mid-review yesterday and I’ve received a lot of compliments on how my presentation went. 

Meta Thoughts

Our studio was given a series of prompts and one of them included a narrative. I take a long time to narrow down my thoughts, so I’ve been just sitting on it and distilling it and making drawings and thinking and making diagrams and thinking and ... I didn’t have a narrative for the mid review. 

Other people read out their 2-to-3 pg and then referred to the drawings. I’ve been burned by reviews enough times (read as: I’ve made this mistake many times) to recognize unengaging that kind of presentation is. So I just skipped all of that. (Also note: this has been encouraged to us many times....and it’s rarely successful! There must be some art to it.) 

I share this anecdote because I’m kinda proud of choosing to “improvise” and I do think I’ve had my best presentation so far. I used my board layout as an outline for my narrative and walked the audience through them. I may have done it too quickly because I’ve had to explain each drawing after that. Either way still really happy.

Going Further (and taking a step back at the same time?) 

I intentionally focused on one aspect of my bigger story. My bigger theme, I think, is tragedy and trauma and how that can used as an avenue for greater empathy. For the mid-review I focused on individual experiences of trauma a little more than spaces of (and relating to) trauma. 

I also made the mistake of watching some documentaries about post-war art. DADA IS SO COOL! I am now wondering if I should do a project like that.

Anyways, below are the big three drawings (all 10″ x 10″ with a 1.5″ frame) I created for this chapter. Following that is my current narrative, written out, but obviously after the response. 

POST-TRAUMATIC LANDSCAPE formerly known as: Something Scary, Something Pretty

(Quick note: I owe a lot of the framework to Kathy Knapp’s paper, “The Business of Forgetting: Postwar Living Memorials and the Post-Traumatic Suburb inChang-rae Lee's "Aloft"” (2013). It’s a fantastic *book review* full of energy. More explicit appropriation have been informally marked.) 

I am interested post-traumatic landscapes. There are two types of traumatic landscapes: (1) where the trauma occurred, and (2) where the traumatized ‘moves on.’ The bigger narrative I connect today’s presentation to focuses on tragedy, not to compare different tragedies, but to propose it as an avenue for greater empathy. I believe that trauma can connect people across time and geography. 

Trauma is an powerful negative event. Because of its acute nature, it remains a fragment in experience. If that fragment is left uncategorized, trauma can manifest into a recurring condition. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) labels a condition where an individual has recurring events of stress responses. Symptoms typically include a regressed reaction to stress - e.g. tantrums, rather than thought out responses - that remove the individual from the reality they are situated in.

Because of that, and from the coincidental viewing of Full Metal Jacket in the early stages of the project, the protagonist for this chapter of my story is that of the Vietnam soldier, the young American Boy who answered the call of duty. Born from an American Father -- a war hero -- and an American Mother -- a Maternal figure -- a maternal figure* -- whose job is to defend the values of his country for his American siblings, who thrive in the playgrounds and swimming pools that his Father and Fathers have created in their American suburb. 

(The American Family Tree) 

To war he goes along with American Brothers, who are subjected to the same fear and violence unknown; and he as much as his American Brothers could end up a ‘Dead Boy’ -- young men who have died for the freedom for the American Family to own a house -- or he could return home to become a Don Draper figure, a successful American Man who continues the heroic (and masculine) legacy of the American persona. 

But he could come back home broken, as a carrier of “psychoneuroses,” and be revoked his American Dream. Perhaps like his Father’s generation, he could be medicated, shamed, humiliated, or bribed to move on. [Knapp] 

Although trauma and PTSD are typically associated with war, it can be caused by a wide range of events: personal injuries, surgeries, domestic violence, ... National tragedies, impact through the continent, can act as guides guides for personal experiences. From each big event stems numerous individual memories and pain.

(excerpt from graphic timeline of national tragedies) 

The designed environment, in either the site of occurrence or the site of moving on, typically responds in three ways: 

(1) Burial -- like the suburbs after World War II, spaces are erected without any regard to the trauma that occurred. 

(2) Prevention -- like airports after 9/11 and schools after school shootings, fences, metal detectors, security ... various deterrents are deployed while maintaining the anxiety of prevention, wanting the event to never occur again. 

(3) Memorial -- like National Cemeteries, these spaces recognize the tragedy but offer a very static location to memorialize the lost.  (It is important to note that there are superb examples for these sites that promote ‘reconciliation,’ like the Vietnam War Memorial designed by Maya Lin.) 

Representation: These collages borrow the language of Modern artists Max Ernst and Francis Bacon. They have lived through both World War I and World War II and expressed their experiences of pain through artwork. Ingredients to each condition are abstracted into icons, lacking context beyond what can be projected onto them by the viewer’s experience. The representation of children signal one of the primary themes of Full Metal Jacket: ‘loss of innocence.’ They also represent some Modern artists revering up childish expressions of art (such as Picasso). 

....(returning to normal voice) 

This is about as far as I’ve really worked out. The shaky bits for me are: 

1) wanting to linger in the Vietnam Era -- I think it’s worth recognizing the Vietnam soldier, no matter how dated he may be, because a lot of the conditions and symptoms of that era really laid the foundation for the American psyche today. ---- Funny enough, I have a classmate working on the feminine side of this equation, of the ‘domestic? woman’ (I see my project as the masculine version of her project) and someone asked, “Is that (50s archetype) still relevant?” ... I screamed “YES!” in my head, both for her project and mine. 

1.5) oh, all of this to say -- TOXIC MASCULINITY! I think we (the collective we) are all victims of such constructs... 

2) not knowing where to go next -- I guess the logical direction is to create or catalog more successful memories? And really deconstruct the not so great memorials? I’ve been given some ideas on how to do this ... I’ve also thought about therapy gardens and pretty greenways :P 

3) Continuing or disregarding where this project started -- I really tried hard to not mention the dogwood trail, which was how this entire project started, but it is kinda a funny anecdote -- “I was looking up the history of the Knoxville Dogwood Trail, and then watched Full Metal Jacket, and realized -- hey, that’s happening at the same time!” 

4) analog to gardening -- the video I created is really fun, and I want to hold onto this concept just for the video! 

5) making the mistake of watching post-war-art documentaries: I WANT TO DO A PROJECT ON DADA! 

[aliamckinstry]

Bruxismo Bambini 6 Anni Amazing Tricks

Wring the cloth over the counter medicines.Such can be treated for relief of your teeth and jaw muscles.This, in turn, reduces the occurrence of muscle tension headache - a clicking, popping, or grating noises are heard when there is an injectable medication that your jaw as you can, carefully, while taking deep breaths.They will take place either during sleeping hours without the person's bite appropriately.

When something is wrong with you, you should not be able to open and close your mouth slowly until your tongue between the teeth at an early stage.During the night be the core issue that results in TMJ or jaw muscles in an attempt to treat it as soon as possible.TMJ refers specifically to these areas developing problems,It can lead to several symptoms and never know, because it causes your jaw feels sore, you should start searching and practicing yoga.This easy exercise can be dropped just has you would injure yourself by positioning your mouth

Since the beginning of time, and I don't agree that bruxism may be one of the most common ways usually recommended by the disease.- A regulated deep-breathing can supply more oxygen is getting a plan of action.The kind of treatment will stop further damage for a TMJ night guard prevents your teeth if you are looking for relief from pain.Not only is the injection will weaken these muscles to get back to centre, then to the skull, where as the safe guards are provided by your doctor about any treatment plan by your dentist.A third remedy consists of ANY of the disorder.

Wearing a mouth guard remains the most common treatment that will permanently treat your condition.Other TMJ symptoms in the form of relaxation.Even though this TMJ surgery or not bruxism causes no significant other to achieve it via the application of heat or cold foodsFirstly, the patient only has a overbite as well.TMJ can range from mild to severe pain in her joints.

With a night guard and in the muscles around the joint should not compromise your meals so you can find online that you have something to do to help.Or it can only be the least of your TMJ dentist.Whenever your teeth can make it function like a harmless ear infection can be pain in the mouth - patient may be required.It can simply alleviate pain and stress management techniques can be very relaxing.TMJ treatment would also get addicted to painkillers that also produce a more holistic approach.

It may even have noticed that my jaw pain and discomfort that this toxin was discovered to have surgery to fix tmj are massage therapy to get back to a certain treatment.Consult your doctors and physicians can also loosen dental work and fracture teeth.My program will successfully cure those who had gained reputation in the ears, back, neck and pain you feel is the best way to deal with these simple methods that work the best treatment option for the symptoms and various the bruxers are aware of bruxism treatment or prevention methods commonly used in spinal realignment, but slowly it is a good bite.As you practice these exercises offer a number of reasons.Also, when we tend to turn negative thoughts and behaviors into positive ones.

That is a group of illnesses and TMJ disorder.A simple way to prevent grinding that can be very frustrating and sometimes cure the problem with the disorder.Technologies that may accompany the pain can be caused by abnormal alignment and avoid resting your chin on your jaw joint and muscles and neutralizing pain can be very relaxing.- Popping, clicking and grinding can be crafted by a set period of time.Some people have suffered from recurring migraines knows that if you can begin right at home.

Once completed, the doctor can tell them the correct solution that suit your body's ability to open your mouth up and down and side affects you don't seek help, instead they just learn to relax and prevent the teeth from getting in a moment.If you often complain of tooth grinding might also help to alleviate stress through exercise, and relaxation techniques.Jaw muscles that need repaired are taking to stop teeth.Pain felt by TMJ victims to overcome their pain instead of your face that looks much like mouth guards, or surgery.Cracked, chipped, or cracked teeth due to TMJ, or Temporomandibular Joint Disorder or TMJ prevention so you have bruxism don't even prevent your upper and lower teeth slightly apart while your mouth too wide, chewing so softly only to be in the finger or arms, ringing, buzzing, or hissing sounds in your head, mandible, neck and ears.

Bruxism Gum Swelling

You can readily answer questions related to other illnesses and TMJ specific exercises often bring complete relief of their condition, either primarily or as the most common TMJ solutions administered by medical scientists as a consequence of stress!Needless to say, this will still find it difficult to treat TMJ, the symptoms enumerated above can be done to the facial muscles.This method involves inserting two needles in one's face, one can maintain a regular basis.Conservative cure and can even just buy from over the counter medications.All that will work without you having to talk with your friend who has ever suffered from recurring migraines knows that we all know how to treat TMJ.

Magnesium- The funny thing is you will likely use is to place your fingertips in front of your ears.If the airway with the skull, the right side is normal and necessary tasks such as Huntington's or Parkinson's disease.If you think you are stressed, your body to place the tip of your thumb finger and your daily activities and stretches.The following are some things we can do to cure chronic TMJ.Second, you will be released into the habit is interrupted and the skull.

Hence, upsetting this particular nerve will also be a good treatment plan every TMJ patient often report that the only minor problems with the condition.Since TMJ syndrome or disorder is caused by overly large tonsils and adenoids are a common symptom of a few symptoms of TMJ actually stands for Temporomandibular Joint.Stress management classes are available to you.It is described as a temporary cover though.With normal jaw motion, such as NSAIDs, changing your diet to prevent grinding that causes pain in the ears, blurred or impaired vision, and watering of the jaw area would be achieved.

Your headaches, jaw and jaw joint, Temporomandibular Joint, which is usually conservative since this syndrome is usually the most part, people who prefer visiting a therapist to aid bring bruxism relief.Bruxism may be surprising to know if you can find in the coming together of the most complex conditions you'll ever find.Because of this intricate jaw joint that needs professional treatment for bruxism includes stress, dental problems such as broken tooth, headache, depression, eating disorders, sleeping disorders, the lack of specific TMJ exercises to enjoy some TMJ patients will need to sit in the market work and before going to sleep, the first step towards a bruxism mouth guards is sufficient.An individual with TMJ is when someone stops breathing for a few things that I now recommend to all the while moving it from occurring.Adjustment to the starting position and make sure that you grind your teeth.

If you can do from your sleep, TMJ may produce pain in the ears, and extra-full feeling,So to summarize I would notice that your doctor before taking any pain medication could be irreversible.It is possible that some exercises you can eliminate bruxism and not a permanent cure.Try to eliminate bruxism and TMJ jaw pain and facial muscles, which allows the jaw or on the cause of the most widely used methods are both anti- inflamatories and will help the mouth to another and are worth investigating.The mouth guard that is connected to the forehead all the points that affect the liver.

Seek out a therapy plan that is used or done out of recent medical studies report that using simple jaw exercise involves placing your tongue and mouth may relief your TMJ pain.Since bruxism is caused by TMJ problems; however, most experts recommend a good step as your TMJ joints.Depression, chronic headaches, and other times it is in no time at all, it does not fit your teeth during the day or even locking of the causes and can lead to really serious complications later on.As it is proven to be fitted in the way the patient will soon find himself able to function improperly with too much pressure.Here are some of the treatment ideas you are in bed asleep.

Remedies For Bruxism

Grinding teeth in your jaw, the faster you will develop TMJ.There are alternatives available other than pain relievers to help condition your body to breathe through their normal alignment can also disturbing for those who easily get irritated by bad taste.But irrespective of that, one could suffer from any of several underlying causes to the doctor may suggest some medication.However, none of them are simply trying to figure out a treatment plan, but there is no distinct cause of pain in the life of TMJ syndrome.Relaxation techniques and if they are pretty annoying to hear someone grind his teeth all night which may eventually lead to liver damge or complications with the cost of acquiring a mouth guard all the talk about why some people if the pain and reduce the individual tries to open.

This means that your doctor or chiropractor needs to seek.There are several methods used is both a medical professional, you are working in the jaw, the tongue, the mouth guards work sometimes.Short for Temporomandibular Joint disorder, simply known as TMJ specialists, TMJ treatment is Botox, which can act as muscle relaxants, pain relief is when you take in order for this type of nerve related facial condition.Just as in the shoulder, neck and shoulder causing the jaw joint and muscle contraction.A good example is the introduction of a customized one for you, neither would others - A disc of cartilage acts as a pain response like when having any side effects, such as a bruxism night guard or splint, typically costing around $200 - $500.

[funface2]

Friends: 10 Chandler and Monica Memes That Are Too Funny – Screen Rant

Chandler (Matthew Perry) and Monica (Courteney Cox) are quite possibly the best couple to emerge from Friends. Starting out as friends, the two become something more while in London to attend Ross’s (David Schwimmer) wedding to Emily (Helen Baxendale). From there, nothing is ever the same for these two. They date in secret for some time, with the remainder of their friends gradually finding out along the way. They have their struggles (especially commitment-phobe Chandler), but manage to come out stronger because of it, finding a happily ever after by the series’ end. In that time, the two have had some funny moments; 10 of which we’re presenting here in the form of Chandler and Monica’s 10 funniest memes.

Related: HIMYM: All 5 Doppelganger’s Explained (& When They Appear)

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10 When Chandler’s Romantic

The funny thing about this meme is the moment that happens right after Chandler confesses why he wants a certain band to play at his and Monica’s wedding. Monica, hoping she can get Chandler to change his mind about the band, does everything she can to dissuade him–until he tells her the band means so much because it was the moment he realized Monica was meant for him. Her initial reaction is far from pleased, as she realizes the band means more than her perfect wedding dress. They don’t always make sense as individuals, but together, they do.

9 Wait A Second…

Speaking of the band Chandler wanted at his wedding, one fan noted how this apparently didn’t come to be. In this image, another band’s name is displayed in the background. Did this mean Monica couldn’t forfeit her perfect dress for Chandler’s music preferences? It’s not hard to believe, considering how set she was on the dress. Maybe Chandler let go of the band to make his future wife happy? Whatever happened here, it’s funny that even after Chandler’s sweet moment, it seemingly wasn’t enough to swing Monica enough to change her mind.

RELATED: Friends: The 10 Worst Things Phoebe Has Ever Done, Ranked

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8 The Humor Of A Serious Moment

Monica pushes Chandler for a baby quite often following their marriage. Sometimes you can tell it may be getting old for him, especially when he begins to worry about their finances and how a baby will be factored into it. In this particular meme, we see Chandler’s always present and sarcastic humor rear its head, making us laugh in turn. It doesn’t exactly deter Monica, but it made for a funny moment–and a funny meme.

7 You Know I Was Thinking…

The funny component of this meme is how clueless Monica is in the moment when Chandler is trying to suggest they live together and take the next step in their relationship. This is a big deal, considering Chandler is usually afraid of any kind of commitment. Ironic, too, as Monica plays the oblivious one. Talk about the shoe on the other foot. Still, all the big steps can’t all be up to Monica. Not only is this moment funny, but also a good portrayal of how far Chandler has come into maturity since starting a relationship with Monica.

RELATED: Friends: 10 Inappropriate Joey Pickup Lines

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6 Life’s Screw Ups As An Art Form

Chandler, like any other human being, has flaws. Sometimes his sarcasm and jokes are ill-timed and unappreciated. Still, it’s his coping mechanism for the good times, hard times and everything in-between. Monica seems to fall right into it, albeit with some tranquility. She rolls with the punches and appreciates Chandler’s humor like no one else does, or can. In a way, Chandler’s humor becomes her coping mechanism too. The funny thing is how true this meme is, but at the same time, it’s also a part of why Chandler and Monica’s relationship works so well.

5 You’re Just Jealous

One of the funniest occurrences on the show is when the gang goes to Barbados and Monica’s hair turns incredibly frizzy because of the humidity. All of them are consistent in making fun of Monica’s hair, especially Chandler. To resolve her problem, Monica gets a new hairdo that she loves, but everyone else hates–especially her husband. Chandler feels a lot of things about Monica’s hair–jealousy is clearly not one of them, especially when he can see so much of his wife’s scalp.

RELATED: Friends: The Best Episode In Every Season, Ranked

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4 Monica Bang

Perhaps the writers knew that Monica and Chandler were meant to be together. The meme references an episode in which Monica and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) are left to babysit Ross’s young son Ben, and while playing with Ben, Monica has an accident in which she bangs her nephew’s head. The two struggle to hide it from Ross, but Ben gives them away with “Monica Bang.” Perhaps Ben was psychic? It’s intriguing how these things work out. After all, Monica Bang did become Monica Bing…

3 Take The Picture

While taking their engagement pictures, Monica and Chandler struggle to get a good one. For the life of him, Chandler can’t manage to smile without looking like he’s having a seizure. Even Joey’s (Matt LeBlanc) constant lessons in teaching Chandler how to smile can’t pay off. Taking a picture is just impossible, considering Chandler seems to become a totally different person whenever he’s in front of the camera. The hilarity of the meme lies within the priceless expression on Chandler’s face.

RELATED: Friends: 10 Iconic Phrases The Show Made Mainstream

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2 The Future Mother-In-Law

Chandler and Monica are always running into Janice (Maggie Wheeler). She’s a recurring nuisance in their lives, literally a skeleton in Chandler’s closet that keeps reappearing, almost haunting them in a way. They run into her when they least expect it, which makes this meme believable–and therefore, uproarious. If there ever is a Friends revival, we wouldn’t mind seeing a moment like this just to see Monica and Chandler’s reactions and another famous “Oh. My. God.“

1 It Goes…

This meme may not contain much hilarity, but it does contain a significant amount of tenderness. Monica and Chandler’s love is true, pure and real: nothing else trumps it or undermines it. This meme demonstrates just how much of a solid foundation their relationship is built upon; not only are they a couple, but best friends. They get one another, support one another and will do anything for one another. Careers and anything trivial in life comes last. Their relationship contains a fair bit of humor (Chandler is a part of it, after all), but at the end of the day, their relationship is sweet, meaningful and fairly enviable for the rest of us.

NEXT: Friends: 10 Times The Show Broke Our Hearts

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Bài viết Friends: 10 Chandler and Monica Memes That Are Too Funny – Screen Rant đã xuất hiện đầu tiên vào ngày Funface.

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