#just went and looked up when it actually aired and wow it was 2004. a lifetime ago! wild

[micamicster]

I finished the first season of Veronica Mars! And decided to stop after a couple of episodes of season 2. Idk, I guess I got tired of the lack of closure for many plot lines. The finale was interesting tho, I loved the final villain.

Share your thoughts on the show (here's supposed to be a question mark but tumblr wouldn't let me)

Hi bestie I'm sorry it's taken me so long to talk to you about this show! I'm gonna make up for taking forever by writing like, an essay haha brace yourself

I think that Veronica Mars is a good show that runs into some classic 2000s tv stumbling blocks, manages to do some things that infuriate me personally beyond reason, but ALSO manages to have some elements that are so powerful and so well executed that I'm honestly astonished it got made. These kinda peter out and become muddled over the years, but oh well, we'll always have season one <3

In brief, the 2000s messiness, in varying degrees of offensiveness to the world and to me personally:

The aforementioned plot lines that go nowhere <3

It's case-of-the-week, some cases are gonna suck! What can you do lol

The black best friend who doesn't ever really get any satisfying arcs or attention given to him as a character who contributes beyond letting our protagonist have dialogue with him rather than exclusively monologuing in voiceover

How they handle race in general ofc. Like while I think that in the actual plots of the show there are good intentions (and sometimes good material!) in depicting the racism of this insular hiarchical society, racism in the real world affects the writing by giving the characters of color very little to do, and over all they are taken less seriously by the narrative.

Veronica's rape plot line. I actually think this plot started out very strong! But the minute the show focuses directly on it the writing gets lost in the weeds of plot twists and rival love interests, and I really think the points they were originally trying to make get buried.

Deadbeat Mom ran off she's got a single dad raising her (i feel like the number of single dads in media is exponentially larger than the real number of single dads in life. it's propaganda. and its misogynistic. but I digress)

The stuff I personally hate:

The romances :) lol. lmao, even. (I would love to rant about this but I really think that's not something that deserves to be on what is currently a measured review of the show as a whole)

The stuff that's great:

The noir homage: It's just. It's so good. It's so fucking good. This is to noir detective stories what american vandal will be to true crime 20 years later. I want to give whoever first thought "hey, being an ostracized teen girl is kinda like being a hardboiled noir detective," a raise and a kiss MWAH <3 A+ for tone! Veronica lives on the edges of her society (high school), allowing her to see all of it's pieces and hypocrisy, turning her cynical and aloof. And she's a teenager who solves crimes :D She's funny and self aware of her role, but never in such a way that it feels like lampshading or winking at the audience. They take it seriously--they take HER seriously, and that makes the show work.

Lilly: The central case of the show, the murder of Veronica's best friend and Veronica's revenge-driven mission to find her killer, is where the first season gets its power. Veronica gets to have the noir detective plot line of being haunted by the death of a woman she loved and driven by revenge, and it is so much more powerful here than I've ever seen it in its original form. Lilly is a tragedy, she is an unflinching look at the sexual exploitation of teenage girls and the casualness with which violent men will turn that violence on them, she is a messy bratty bitch of a sixteen year old, and Veronica loves her. Lilly gets to be complicated because Veronica, who knew her and loves her, is telling us her story. There are a lot of people who are affected by Lilly's death, but this show is about Veronica, and her reaction to the murder of her friend is what matters to the writers and the viewers. Once again, the show takes Veronica (and her grief and her rage and her love) seriously, and there is a lot of power in that. I think the reason the later seasons struggle is because they simply can't stand up to the emotional intensity that made up the core of season one.

[yessoupy]

7 and 8 for the band of brothers asks (if you're still doing them!) Can you believe I've had the show on my to watch list for YEARS and only watched it fully for the first time over the Dec 2021 - Jan 2022 winter break.. and I've since watched it multiple times. So happy to see a cozy fandom still thriving here !

omg yes I was just talking today about how wonderful it was to have this fandom thriving SO LONG after the original airing of the show!!

7. how did you first find out about the show

8. when did you first watch the show?

the answers to these questions go together! in the summer of 2004 I was a junior going into senior yr of high school. my cousin and I went on a high school study abroad trip to France and England through the college I eventually attended, end of June/beginning of July that yr. it was a ww2 history course. we spent a couple days on campus and then flew to paris, did some stuff there, took a bus to the Normandy coast for a few days, then a ferry to England and did some stuff in and around London, then flew back home.

while we were on campus we watched 'the longest day' and I really liked it! I asked the boys if there was anything like that but more recent and they said "well there's saving private ryan, but that one isn't as good as the HBO show band of brothers." I only retained the name of the movie UNTIL

on July 4 we were in Paris at the eiffel tower and there were these really old guys all dressed the same and the boys in our group were freaking out like they were looking at a bunch of movie stars. we began talking to them...

and learned their names - don malarkey and buck compton. real ww2 vets!! it was so neat. afterward, the starstruck boys asked us girls if we knew who we'd been talking to. we were like yeah, vets, and they said "NO YOU WERE TALKING TO EASY COMPANY OF THE SECOND BATTALION OF THE 506 PIR OF THE 101ST AIRBORNE" and when were were still like 'yeah... veterans.....' they said "no like, BAND OF BROTHERS."

so when we got home I used my fam's Hollywood video acct (unlimited rentals, one DVD at a time) to watch the show. first time I'd binged a TV show, ever, those days in July 2004. then it was like, holy shit we met malarkey and compton!!!!

so then after that I'd watch the marathons on spike TV around D-day anniversaries or memorial day weekend or whatever, but usually I'd fall asleep to the sound of machine guns and not really pay too much attention beyond "oh I met malarkey and compton." it wasn't until a random half-interested watch in 2018 when I happened to look up at the TV right when nix got dinged outside of nuenen and I sat up straight and said "WHAT HAVE WE HERE???" that I found a ship that obsessed me. (I had read fic before, EVEN THAT SHIP!! but in an abstract way of "I read fic for every media I consume because that's just what I do even if I don't ship anything it's just another medium to consume" [who else does this??]).

and then summer of 2020 I was just really desiring some good leadership in my life and started thoughtful re-watches where I gave a shit about what was actually going on in a broader sense, FINALLY read the ambrose book, and on like my second re-watch I sent Google a question

then posted this on my instastory like "wow gliders seem like a death trap" and my mom responded, "your grandmother's fiancé was a glider pilot, that is how he died during the war, that's all I know about him except oh his name was ray and he was from columbus, oh" and that kicked off a research jag which led to me learning literally all there is to know about 2nd lt. ray schott's military career and being named as his granddaughter (close enough) in the glider pilots memorial newsletter. there were no portraits of him online in uniform until I got a scanned copy of him from my aunt.

my grandmother lit a candle for him every year in his birthday, August 25, and the anniversary of the day he died, December 27 (1944, yes he was KIA at Bastogne resupplying the 101st). when I learned this in 2021 I began lighting a candle on those days in her place. she passed away in 2009. ray was the love of her life. she married my grandfather about a year after Ray was killed. she was an anti-war activist up until her death.

[findingtheperfectcharacter]

Hiding from the spotlight

Unsymp October 1!

Tw: Child abuse (physical manhanding a child and emotionally being terrible, and ignoring their wants, unsymp Patton, Symp everyone else, child!sides (the twins and Virgil are 10.), implied Loceit

@unsympathetic-october-2020

Logan hated these kinds of things. So many child fears in one room, he could see the way some of their bodies sat stiffly in their chairs. Or how others clung to their parents. The subtle shake in their voices as they practiced their lines. According to Keysers and Parrett 2004's study on monkeys, similar neurons are released when people do an action to when they see an action occurring. This explained why seeing those children in this state made his stomach twist into metaphorical knots.

He couldn't stand it and led the twins to a smaller out-of-the-way hallway.The 10-year-olds were practicing their dance for the car jingle with practiced ease. He could still remember the day when they first made that PowerPoint listing the reasons why they should be allowed to audition professionally and what could he say, one slide of, "it'll be fun" one of "It'll keep me from stealing" and 18 more slides of 'please, pretty please' and puppy dog faces... It was an extremely compelling.

"I don't want to be here." He heard a voice mutter. He turned and found a child in a black hoodie and a cloud shaped pin gripping the edge of his jeans. He was younger than his own boys, or at the very least smaller. His eyes flickered back and forth, anxiously looking around it seemed like he was trying to hide from something.

"Where's your guardian?" Logan asked, the child shook his head and clung to his leg, "Please no, please no, don't let him find me."

Logan was frankly bewildered by this situation and mildly uncomfortable with this child gripping onto his leg, but he couldn't help but have pity for him as he began to weep. He shook him off so he could kneel down and look into his black eyes.

"What's your name?" Logan asked.

The child sniffed and played with the strings of his hoodie, "Virgil."

Logan nodded, "Well Virgil, I have no legal authority to separate you from your guardian and frankly there are too many witnesses for me to do so and get away with it. A Far more reasonable thing for me to do at the moment is to talk to your guardian about the situation as an adult on your behalf."

Virgil's eyes widened, sparkling in the light, "You'd really do that for me?"

He nodded, he thought it wouldn't be too difficult to convince his guardian to let Virgil not do the audition. Virgil took his hand and led him to the bathrooms where a man with a baby blue polo was fretting. The man's face lit up and he hugged Virgil, picking him up and spinning him.

"Virgy! Oh dear why did you run away like that?" He turns to Logan, a brilliant smile on his face, "I'm so sorry for all of this trouble." Virgil's guardian tried to pet his short black curls but the child turned away, so he gripped his head with one hand and forced Virgil's head to his chest. "My name's Patton," he held out his hand. 

Logan didn't take it, "Your child, Virgil. He sharred with me the fact that he does not wish to be here. As a fellow parent, I suggest that you quit the auditions for the sake of his health. I would also suggest that you don't touch him unless he wishes to be touched."

Patton laughed, "Is this how you get all the parents to quit?" He kisses Virgil's cheek, "We're prepared for a little competition and we're totally going to wow those judges right sweetie." 

Virgil stayed quiet until Patton flicked him, "Virgey! Pay attention, what did poppa just say?"

"We're gonna wow the judges." His voice was barely audible. 

Patton booped his nose, "That's right you are you little star! Oh! That rhymes! Neat!" He turns his attention back to Logan, "Where are your kids anyway?" 

Logan cursed mentally, it was not typical of him to get caught up in these kinds of things- but he did. He ran down the hall to see Remus, seconds from hitting Roman on the shoulder with his toy morning star. 

"Remus." He said and the boy immediately dropped it. 

"HE STARTED IT!"

"WHAT?! No I didn't, you did with your giant oaf feet!"

"At least my feet taste good."

"What does that- what do you mean?!"

"Do you peanut butter toe soak?"

Logan rubbed his temple, as the boys continued to speak, "Court is now in session."

The twins huffed and sat down quietly. Logan pointed at Roman, "Roman, you have the stands."

And so the conversation went on with the children defending themselves and cross examining each other until a decision could be made. After the final verdict (Remus owed Roman an apology for enacting violence in this case as it was not self defense even if Roman's words were cruel and Roman promised not to insult him for 2 weeks as reparations for emotional damages.)

As soon as the argument ended Roman blurted out, "So who was that creepy kid you were talking to?"

Remus bumped him, "You're not supposed to call people creepy."

"But he was! He looked like a Vampire... Do you think that's why he was wearing that hood? Dad are you a vampire now?!"

"Can you imagine how cool it would be to have a bloodsucked as a dad?! Think he'd bite me, I wanna see how sharp those teeth are!" He made a biting motion in the air. 

Logan cleared his throat, "Actually boys, that kid's name is Virgil and I think he's in big trouble. The kind of trouble daddy fixes."

Roman grinned, "Ooooh solving crimes? Can we help?" 

Logan ruffled his hair, "Leave this one to me Princey, I think getting you two involved will only lead to more trouble."

..................

"I-IeeEe Virgil's voice came in as an offkey whine. The pianist looked at him with a smile, "Go on kid, take your time." Patton was in the audience and gave him a big thumbs up, "I" his eyes began welling up with tears.

Patton looked at Virgil than the judges and said, "May I talk with him, just for a second. It's his first audition and I think my kiddo just got a little stage fright." The one on the far left shrugged, Virgil whimpered when he grabbed his arm and dragged him offstage. 

"What is wrong with you? Do you like embarrassing me is that it? Do you like making me look like I can't handle my kid? This is two times today!" Virgil mouthed out a small I'm sorry. Patton laughed a louder, harsher sound than anything he did in public, "If you were sorry you wouldn't have done it. Stupid brat," he gripped Virgil's arm more tightly, "I'm giving you the world and all you want to do is whine and complain, whine and complain every goddamn second. 'I don't wanna do sports poppa, I don't wanna do art poppa. You're useless! And too old to be crying like this." Virgil's breath hitched in between sobs as Patton grabbed his shoulders, "Stop crying and do something!"

Logan burst into the hallway, a shining blue light in the darkness, Patton straightened his shirt, "Oh hi! It's you again, how did your kids do-"

"The feeling's far from mutual. I just felt the need to inform you that my husband is a lawyer for cases of child abuse and everything you just said and did was caught on camera." He showed Patton his iphone, to his utter horror, Logan couldn't help the beam on his face as he watched the man's eyes grow to the size of dinner plates. He pat his shoulder and gave a small nod to Virgil, who seemed equally awe-struck.

"I reccomend you contact your lawers as soon as you can."

And with that, Logan walked away, confident that soon Virgil would be safe. He looked down at his own kids and smiled at the thought of the quiet black haired boy finding a family of his own.

[icarus-suraki]

12, 46, 119 :)

12. What are your 5 favorite songs right now?

In no particular order...

The Banjo Beat Yeah, I know it's a meme staple, but it's got the kind of sound I love and how cool would a bellydance choreography look to this?

Little Dark Age (slowed) Yes, I first heard this in one of the Angels & Demons tiktok compilations and I loved it, shut up. I love the 80s goth energy in the video too. Like, it just hits the spot, you know?

Tick.Tock.Magical.Idol.Time  Because sometimes you just gotta find a happy place, okay? If there's ever a lipsynch or idol show at a convention, this is gonna be what I perform in my cute cyclops kigurumi mask. Absolutely. (The Pripara animes got me through a very long winter a few years ago. I'd literally get up earlier than I needed so I could see the latest clips after a new episode aired before I went to work lol. And, yes, I love Yui, but Lalaa is best girl. They get to perform together, though.)

Lots of Zenbukimi and Not Secured,Loose Ends songs lately. I'll throw these here for an example: "Loud Asymmetry" and "独白園" ["Garden Monologue" or "Monologue Garden"?]. I have a whole YT playlist, lol. I'm kind of fascinated by the whole "underground idol" phenomenon and the CodomoMental label groups because they're both idols and anti-idols, which is kind of an interesting conflict within "idol-style" music in Japan...

Superman This is what I use for my alarm every morning in the hopes that high energy ska-punk will make me get up. It doesn't always work, but I like the song anyway. I've been on a real ska and ska-punk streak lately.

46. What are you paranoid about?

On the one hand, as a Thomas Pynchon fan, who has major themes of paranoia in, uh, all of his books, I have to laugh. But, at the same time, I'm so much less paranoid than I used to be. I put this down to my medications. In the past, wow, I've been paranoid about, uh, everything?

I think I'm kind of weak willed because any kind of "world's gonna end on x date" thing would send me into multi-day panic attacks. Nostradamus, obscure and dubious prophecies, biblical interpretations, Book of Revelations, political stuff, anything. I'd find myself believing all kinds of irrational things but not feeling like I could do anything about it (I mention this in particular because it’s markedly different from the Q-Anon fandom that is determined to Do Something about what they believe is happening; I felt informed but helpless, like there was an air raid siren blaring but nowhere to go and no shelter to be had, only inevitable destruction needling down from the clear blue sky). Like, all these terrible things are going to happen to us all and there's nothing we can do about it. Biblical stuff would always set me off in a major, major way. I'm rather proud I can shake off all the people talking about microchips in vaccines because a few years ago I would have been panicking about whether that was true and what the ramifications would be because, obviously, there was no way to get out of this inevitable fate or possible damnation and maybe it was the Mark of the Beast so what does that mean? Are there going to be people starving outside grocery stores now? Was xyz event really a sign? How much are we going to suffer??? What if I'm not good enough for God?????? Lots of religious anxiety in my past, as you can see. And some still, to be honest.

Yeah, it sucked. Glad I got most of that anxiety sorted before 2020 lol. (I sometimes think I could use a bit of anxiety because now I'll do dumb shit without fear because, eh, who cares? So I may have swung too far in the opposite direction.)

119. Favourite book? It's a three-way tie, baybee!

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: I wrote a bang-up college admissions essay on this book and why it's not actually about censorship (as is usually but incorrectly taught) but rather about a disinterest in books/reading or an anxiety about the intense emotions that reading can bring out in the reader and I want to major in English so please let me come to your school to do that. And, guess what? They did. I read this book and then I felt feverish for, like, a week after. That's how hard it hit me, especially surrounded by high school classmates who really didn't care about school or reading or anything. It was like "fuck, this is too close to possible!" Anyway, it's still not about censorship.

Ulysses by James Joyce: This book, this thing, has such a reputation of being Evil and Dirty. So I read it. Fuck it, why not? Actually, I had been assigned some stories out of Dubliners to read over the Thanksgiving break my freshman year and I was kind of like "why the fuck did no one ever tell me to read these before now?" So I went and read Portrait of the Artist. N.B.: I think I was ~18 or 19 at the time and that thing hit me like not just a ton of bricks but about six tons of bricks. Like, I know I'm part of the .05% of people who actually like The Catcher in the Rye, but I think that's because I read it when I was ~15 or 16, because I was the ideal age and in the ideal mindset to read it. (The older I get, the more I identify with Holden's teacher, Mr. Spencer, who essentially tells Holden that if you can just hang on, I promise it gets better and you can do the shit you want really soon. But I also know how badly that would have gone over with my 16 year-old self, so...) So, anyway, in internet parlance, I realized I was kin with Stephen Dedalus, right? The only natural next step after PotA was Ulysses, since that picks up after PotA, so I just jumped into that with a copy from the used bookstore and separate annotation book from my school's library. And, o my fuck, Jim, you fucko, how did you do this? Like "I'm gonna create so many references and so many layers that you're going to have fun picking at this for years." And he was right! I have never been to Dublin but I can navigate the older parts of the city thanks to this dirty, profane, vulgar, obscene piece of literature lmao. I finished it the first time when I was almost 22, Stephen's age in the book. I went to Europe that summer, 2004, which was 100 years after the events in the book (1904) and intended to play at being Stephen, but that shit did not work out as planned and ended up being more accurate to canon than expected: i.e. everything was terrible and I suffered very artistically. I had planned on going to Ireland this year, because I turned 38 this year, Leopold Bloom's age in the book. 2020 wasn't having it. So maybe 2021? Or maybe 2022, the anniversary of its publication. This thing hangs in the background for me constantly and it's like the most amazing running joke in my life. I dressed up as Stephen for Halloween in 2004 too. Just sayin’.

Gravity's Rainbow: When I was working at a major chain bookstore immediately after college, it was retail hell and I was extremely depressed and everything sucked. I had no direction, no plan, no nothing. I kind of wanted to go get a PhD in English, though. So I started using my employee's discount to buy and read all the books that everyone seemed to talk about but had never read. Among those was Gravity's Rainbow, which was a title that intrigued me but I had no idea what it was "about." And saying what it's "about" isn't all that easy but that's kind of not the point. Just know that it's a dirty little book about sex and rockets. The point is the fuckery that our boy Tom Pynchon does with words and language and imagery and little winking references to things. I fucking love it. It's like, yeah. It's set during World War II and immediately after and it's bonkers and the author wrote most of it while very, very high. I went on and read the rest of his books (The Crying of Lot 49 is pretty much tied with GR for my affections; I would cosplay a theatrical interpretation of a Tristero courier if I ever had the opportunity) and bought Against the Day literally on the day it came out because I had become that much of a dork. (I also read Finnegans Wake about this time, which I also really love, a fact which really unsettles some people.)

Why can’t I be normal? I have no idea. I blame my past and my proclivities. 

Ask me stuff! Put question in, get blathering out!

[warfear]

WHAT’S GOOD, PARTY PEOPLE ?     the name’s mads :    twenty - four summers young, in love with cj from dawn of the dead (2004), mortal enemies with amc’s the walking dead and so very excited to be here. thus, without further ado, below the cut you’ll find the basics—the general gist—about my horrible, poorly written bastard children. 

trigger warnings for : cancer, death, kidnapping, abuse and assault !!

APOLSKIS, JULIAN      —      twenty-four, comic store clerk.

BASICS :     born in seattle, julian moved to fort elms when he was a whooping eleven years old. why, you don’t ask. well, because he got diagnosed with a gnarly case osteosarcoma and his father took ONE LOOK at that hospital bill and vanished into thin air, that’s why ! so, mommy dearest took her kids and skipped town as well. for less horrible reasons, of course. since then, his cancer has came and went and came back again. until finally it went for the last time, taking his leg with it as it did. he’s cancer free now ! three years and counting. we do love that for him … depressing facts aside, he’s in a punk rock band because we gotta Stick It To The Man. they suck but he’s decent on the drums and that’s all that matters. him. yeah, he’s a bit of a prick. a lovable prick. loves to play the devil’s advocate and hates talking about his feelings because ~ romantic trauma ~. but other than that, a decent guy, alright ! put some respect to his name. 

WANTED CONNECTIONS … 

ex - girlfriend :     bringer of trauma … she was his second ever girlfriend and their relationship was good, okay ! lasted almost two years. and then, without warning, she dumped him, THROUGH A NOTE. left without a word and that was that. a big bitch move, i’d say. 

mother :     the best mom there is ! worked three jobs to support her family after the deadbeat left, and is overall the best person juli knows and will ever know. she’s a second generation polish immigrant and very insistent on julian retaining his jewish heritage. pops was christian, so … gross. 

father :     not much to say about this bastard except he hasn’t spoken to his own children in thirteen years. not as much as a birthday card ! who knows where he is now. we’d like for him to be dead in a ditch but odds are he has a new family. i’d love for julian to knock him out, please hit me up for that. 

hospital buddies :     like i said, he spent most of his childhood in a hospital. so he must’ve made at least one friend there. they can be a teenager, they can be a senior citizen — as long as their friendship was thrust onto julian by sheer proximity and boredom. he’s obviously well now but i’d like for him to have a sliver of his past life close. 

DIMEO, BRANDON      —      thirty-five, mall cop.

BASICS :     very italian. a walking italian stereotype, really. his family is huge and he’s close with them all. too close. i’m talking yearly hunting trips, weekly family dinners, and a mother who still does his laundry. which means, yes, he’s a momma’s boy. a bit of a scrub, if you will. flopped out of the police academy in his early twenties, as he’d almost done high school, and settled for acting cop at the local mall. he’s a bit of a dumbass, and by a bit i mean a lot. unintelligent to the point where he can’t do basic math. emotionally unintelligent to the point where he can’t have a long - term relationship. we do love that. also a big fan of the charlie’s angels television series, AS HE SHOULD BE. he’d be an angel of charlie’s if he could be …

WANTED CONNECTIONS …

ex - girlfriend :     i’m talking first and only. probably didn’t get together until his mid - late twenties, and didn’t last that long either. probably had issues with his weird relationship with his mother, probably didn’t appreciate that he couldn’t clean his own house, probably wanted a man and not a little boy. she definitely dumped him. oh, well.

family :     he has A LOT. two parents ( i was gonna say obvi but is it obvi, i don’t think so. check yourself @ me ) and three brothers … but he’s the baby of the family, physically and mentally. i feel for his mother. i’d love for him to have a kid cousin, though. like one girl ( except his mommy ) he treats well. it’d be cute, shut up.

friends with benefits :     pretty self - explanatory. no strings attached, no commitment, no expectations … it’s all poor donnie here can muster in life. so do give it to him, please and thank. 

broskis :     he needs friends ! who aren’t other mall cops ( sorry egg take it up with HR ) … maybe dudes he’s known since high school, his OG home - boys. either to enable his antics or to call him out on his shit. i’ll take anything for brodawg over here. 

KINNEY, SAWYER      —      twenty-two, vet student.

BASICS :     god’s favorite. just kidding … i don’t think her love for him is much reciprocated. first dropped off as an infant @ the local church’s doorstep, then adopted. all is well ! no, her adoptive parents die in a car crash thirteen years later. she was there, too. sole survivor … even her baby brother passing away in the accident. shit’s tough, my dudes. she still has her older siblings, but who cares about them. was diagnosed with epilepsy shortly after ( she hates it, thanks ) and now lives with a disorder to remind her even more of the event. BIG YIKE LET’S MOVE ON … she’s a ray of sunshine ! loves animals and soccer to death. a social butterfly with no concept of personal space. insistent on not minding her business, plagued by a constant need to be liked by EVERYONE. book smart, emotionally intelligent … yet a whole dumbass. we love to see it.

WANTED CONNECTIONS …

cousins :     fun tidbit, after her parent’s death she moved in with her uncle and his children. so, give me those very children ! her siblings are both older than herself and i’m dying for some same - aged partners in crime here. who played soccer with her after school ? who tried beer with her for the very first time ? i am WAITING.

soccer pals :     captain of the local girl’s soccer team, since seventeen baby, sawyer’s in dire need of her soccer pals. y’all ever see the netflix original girls with balls ? yeah, me neither, but that could still be them versus the zombies. they’re all so close and athletic i NEED them to team up against the undead.

toxic church friends :     i’m not calling christianity toxic … i’m calling white church going pinterest loving bitches toxic. i just think it’d be neat for her to have people from that part of her life really pushing this ~ religious agenda ~ onto her further. you know, shaming everything that she does. WHY NOT ! can’t think of a single reason why not, actually.

someone to get under :     look … last year she got DUMPED by her boyfriend. it was rude as hell ! you don’t need to know his reason, okay … she did no wrong, mind your business … either way, give me SOMEONE ELSE for her to focus on so she can finally get over that skinny motherfucker. it doesn’t have to be reciprocated AT ALL, homies. she can thirst from afar … as long as her attention is redirected from ex - boyfriend to wow - possible - boyfriend. ja feel me ? cool.

OSWALT, KEVIN      —      twenty-one, waitress.

BASICS :     born in fort elms as rowan blake, this teensy bitch had a good life going. two parents, three older siblings, one cool ass dog… you get the gist. but all things must come to an end, no ? so, when rowan here was five years old, she was approached by a teenage girl by the name ryan, and booboo the fool as she was, rowan followed this older, much cooler girl right into a stranger’s car… and then rowan was no more ! she spent the next year thirteen years of her life as kevin oswalt, living with her new sister and new mother — creepily nicknamed mama. to say her life with the oswalt’s was good would be… well, it’d be a lie. because kevin wasn’t the first kid they ‘napped, and neither was she the last. lets just say that house was a shit - fest and we should be glad she managed to run away at the tender age of seventeen. by sheer luck, she wound up back in fort elms and by even more luck, she managed to get an education and graduate. unrealistic ? take it up with 2016 me. other than that super fun backstory, kevin’s baby. she likes books  ( always has, though it was her only form of entertainment for a good chunk of her life there )  and she likes french fries. she’s still discovering the world around her, even if she has been out and about for about four - ish years now. so if she’s a BIT NAIVE, then excuse her…

WANTED CONNECTIONS …

ex - boyfriend :     not to go into too many details but kev’s introduction to the dating scene was less than ideal… barely legal and kept under wraps for A YEAR. it sucked, okay. not a good first experience, IN MY OPINION. kevin has another but she’s stupid. EITHER WAY, that left her kinda fucked - up when it comes to relationships. so, when she started dating her other ex circa summer 2017, she was pretty not - that - into - him. sorry we can’t all be over our 30 year old boyfriends… she never even said those three little words and them bitches dated for a year. TRAGIQUE.

brother :     tragically, throughout the years, kevin’s brother is the single family member not picked up and that’s just… fucked, if you ask me. either way — his name is marcus blake but you can change his first to whatever ! he’s the sibling she was closest to as a wee bairn, alright. and i need him here… even if he wouldn’t know her as his sister anymore, but seeing as kev has managed to weasel her way into the blake family through mother and sisters REGARDLESS if anybody remembers or not, i’d say they’d cross paths anyway. oh, and he’s in a band… which isn’t to say juli’s, i mean it could be, but that’s not what i’m saying… anyways, that’s all.

bad influence :     kevin’s too nice. and i don’t like it. so, please, pretty please, give me a plot of pure mayhem. somebody less outwardly chaotic than pippa but more scheming, and maybe capable of convincing kevin to grow a spine. think penelope and josie in legacies… but not gay. i mean, it COULD be gay. i’m not saying it HAS to be gay… mind your business.

victim by proxy :     okay, hear me out… the oswalts are crazy people, and although kevin would like to be excluded from that narrative, she simply cannot. so, consider giving me somebody with some sort of connection to the kiddos missing  ( alternatively : to the man she shanked… girls, ya gotta read her bio, i’m not exposing her further :see_no_evil: )  so kevin’s guilt can just SKYROCKET. that’s fun, right ? make friends with some poor bitch who’s little bro went missing, knowing full well what happened… sickening, kev, get help.

ROSILIO, ODETTE      —      thirty-five, florist.

BASICS :     flaky defined. dropped out of high school, dropped out of california, dropped out of her own wedding … i mean, the list goes on. originally from mexicali, mexico odette moved to chino, california at the ripe age of five. her mother then proceeded to lose custody six years later. * that one vine vc * WAY TO GO, PAUL ! in and out of foster care since, eventually choosing to stay out for the remainder of her teens. until she got herself knocked up ( not by choice but ait ) and was forced to move back in with mommy … but hey, it all turned out fine in the end ! and when her daughter was four years old, she dipped forever. she’s since been living all over the states, only moving to fort elms five - ish years ago. and has indeed stayed put since. even if she did manage to pull a runaway bride. a bit of a bitch move, but at least she’s consistent. ish. because she’s not a bitch, okay, she’s simply … out of fucks to offer the world. can i get an amen. 

WANTED CONNECTIONS …

ex - fiancé :     like i said … left at the altar, that’s gotta knock you down a peg. or two. but she didn’t mean to stomp on his balls like that. in fact, they were very much in love at one point. dated for about two years until marriage was brought up and well, cold feet took over. and there’s no coming back from being a no show at your own wedding, is there. so that was that. marriage over before it even started. they didn’t get much of closure but that’s life for you.

mother :     a horrible mother, plain and simple. she was in and out of jail when odette was in her custody, mostly due to drug related charges which was … not cute, girlie was like eight years old. though who knows, maybe she’s cleaned up her act, and maybe she’s ready to get back in her daughter’s life. or maybe she’s just looking for money … either way, get miss marisa to washington !

employees :     i want … snotty teens, or early twenties bitches that she’ll have to manage. she’s had it with her own daughter, why not add more children for her to boss around. that, or somebody at work who she doesn’t wanna clock. an ally amongst the flowers. 

chino friends :     odette did indeed spend her early to mid teens on the streets and she must’ve made some friends along the way except for kai ( here’s your one mention of the simp @ salem ) … either some bad influences or some good ones. y’all ever seen the movie thirteen ? exactly like that. give me some blasts from the past to bring out the old odette.

[roswelldetails]

Episode 106: Smells like Teen Spirit - details

Episode Summary Max tells Liz what he knows about the night Rosa was killed, and the viewers get a glimpse of what happened years earlier both in 2008 and 2004. Also, prom.

Details - this is not an exhaustive list of every single detail, just just a few that might be important now or later.

The 2004 camping trip:

The trio apparently celebrates their birthdays on the same day each year - the day they were found in the desert. And they celebrate together, each year taking turns planning what they’ll do. 2004 was Michael’s turn, and it was a camping trip.

By this point they knew that Michael could move things with his mind, and Isobel could mess with people’s thoughts, but they weren’t sure what “superpower” Max had. Other than causing dirty-dream-induced power outages. 

Michael couldn’t control his power yet and would accidentally throw furniture around when he got angry - which was often in the group home. Max obviously couldn’t control himself either. 

There’s no reason to think that Isobel had any control at that point. *Theory on that to come later

The lady running the group home tried to exorcise Michael when he moved furniture around, and hurt him in the process. Michael mentions it, but doesn’t really want to talk about it.

At 13, Michael is already bottling up his pain, and likely not telling Max or Isobel a whole lot of the bad stuff that happens to him.

When the guy in the desert grabs Isobel, he’s looking over his shoulder at something (or someone) - in the opposite direction of Max and Michael who are running towards him.

Max suddenly knows he can kill the guy with his power, so he glow-hands the guy to death.

And Michael buries him.

After that camping trip, Isobel started having blackouts which, according to Max, “were brief and rare. Just little moments where she'd fade away.”

Flashback to 2008 when Max is shooting cans out of the air:

Michael has been accepted to UNM with a full scholarship, and Max plans to spend the summer tutoring to earn money so he can travel and write a book.

Isobel walks away instead of congratulating Michael, which Michael assumes is her “latest ploy for attention.”

Flashback at the high school:

Liz is working at the Crashdown to pay for Rosa’s car so she can use it for her roadtrip. She appears to be good friends with Alex.

Max and Alex walk away together when Kyle shows up - apparently, they were friends too.

At the bleachers, Isobel is laying in the sun, ditching AP History. She tells a confused Max that she doesn’t care about prom.

He says “Okay... who are you right now?” because it’s not like her to not care about prom.

Kate and Jasmine were doing drugs and Rosa was their supplier. They are not happy with her decision to get clean. They threaten to ruin Rosa’s life if she doesn’t come through for them.

Flashback at the diner:

Liz’s mom had apparently promised to be back in time to shop for prom dresses, but Rosa didn’t believe it.

On the roof of the diner, Rosa and Isobel are apparently friends. Rosa is glad to see her, and Isobel tells her about Ophiuchus, her favorite constellation.

Making it likely that the note from the Rosa scavenger hunt that was signed “Ophiuchus” was from Isobel. 

The description for Ophiuchus: "Maybe the man's killing the serpent. Maybe the serpent's killing the man. You can't tell where the man ends and the snake begins."

Possibly a description of whatever’s going on inside Isobel.

Flashback to May 2008 at school:

There were rumors that Michael lived in his truck. Probably because of the blankets in the back of it.

Michael mentions rumors about Alex, but doesn’t say what they are.

Michael is using Alex’s guitar, and even though Alex seems annoyed by that, he lets Michael know that his house has a warm tool shed if he ever needs a place to stay.

Flashback to the diner again - Max and Isobel ordering food:

Isobel knows that Max likes Liz. Like, probably everyone including the Evan’s mailman knows that Max likes Liz.

Isobel has NO MEMORY of her conversation with Max at the bleachers earlier in the episode. She doesn’t remember being banned from prom.

But she bats her eyes, saying that her brain is her superpower, saying that she’ll get Markham to change her mind. Likely, using her powers.

Apparently at some point Isobel also made plans to go to a movie with Rosa, but has no memory of it now.

Rosa’s speech to Liz before the prom about not trusting people was probably something to do with the way Isobel was treating her.

Flashback to prom (May 17, 2008):

Isobel seems to be triggered by Max telling her “besides, this is all almost over” and walks away. Presumably leaving the prom to go find Rosa at the Crashdown.

Kyle says something bad to Alex that he won’t repeat in front of Liz. Kyle is an ass. The two boys throw some punches, but are broken up by Michael and some of Kyle’s friends. Kyle calls Alex a coward - creating a nice symmetry to the earlier episode where Kyle said Alex was the bravest person he knew.

Michael asks Alex if he’s okay, and Liz tells Kyle to grow up, and then chases after Alex.

Flashback to the Crashdown on prom night:

Isobel is being not-herself again. When Rosa asks about the prom, she says, “I just don’t care about those people.”

Upon learning that Rosa plans to leave town, Isobel suggests that they run away together instead.

Later, Isobel wakes at the junk yard covered in paint from Rosa’s artwork, but we have no idea how the evening actually went for them.

Flashback to the prom aftermath:

Max finds Liz sitting alone, makeup ruined from crying (because apparently she hadn’t discovered the water-proof stuff yet, like she obviously has as an adult because -wow- she gets a lot of crying in without messing up her face)

She basically tells Max that her and Kyle have broken up saying “No, we won’t” when he tells her they’ll work it out.

It turns out Liz is crying because she misses her mom. She assumes her mom must figure Liz doesn’t need her anymore, but Liz feels like she still needs a mom.

Though Liz admits that if her mom were present, she’d likely be drunk and selfish - painting a not-wonderful picture of Mrs. Ortecho.

Michael interrupts Max’s moment with Liz to announce that Isobel is gone and he has a bad feeling.

They search all night and find Isobel at the junk yard with no memory of the previous night with Rosa.

They assume she’s on drugs and lying about it.

Isobel is freaked out over the idea of them leaving her to go live their own lives. She runs off while they shrug to each other like “eh... women, amirite?”

Flashback to June 2008:

Michael is hanging out in the Manes tool shed, sketching alien stuff and doing equations.

Alex comes in (apparently for the first time since Michael’s been hanging out there), and says, "It's good that you've been staying here. It's cold at night."

So even if it was Alex’s first time coming in, he’s been aware that Michael has been staying there.

Alex comes bearing gifts - his brother’s guitar for Michael to use. 

Michael admits that playing music helps him quiet the chaos inside.

And he uses the physics term “entropy” to describe it because he’s a precious little genius physics nerd.

After Michael stares at Alex’s lips a while, Alex leans in to kiss him, but Michael turns away and lifts the guitar to play.

Flashback to outside the Crashdown on the day Rosa is murdered (2 weeks before graduation):

Rosa’s car is vandalized and she assumes Kate and Jasmine did it.

Isobel appears and offers to help clean it off.

Rosa almost tells the audience something about her dad, but she cuts herself off: “I thought Kate Long was my friend, but I guess I'm just her supplier. And my mom sucks, and Liz is gonna leave, and I just found out that my dad...”

What? What did you just find out, Rosa??

Isobel approaches Rosa like she’s studying her, and Rosa tells Isobel that she’s “a lot” and that she just can’t handle her right now. 

Then Rosa runs inside, leaving Isobel to give significantly creepy looks to the car.

Flashback to inside the Crashdown, same day:

Max and Michael are acting brotherly, sitting in a booth and talking.

They think Isobel might be on drugs.

Max wants to ask Liz out because he felt like they had a moment.

Michael knows all about those moments - Oh, I bet you do, Michael.

Rosa and Isobel are fighting about the car - probably because Rosa doesn’t want Liz to see the vandalism so she’s not letting her use it after all.

Liz and Rosa’s final words to each other: 

Liz: "You know what, you're just like mom. Nobody matters but you."

Rosa: "I'm nothing like Mom. I'm here." 

Then Rosa slo-mo exits the diner for the last time.

But Liz is in luck for the bio project - Max is willing (and by willing, he means desperate) to take her since he has to do the project too.

Liz decides instead of doing the project, they should have an adventure together, beginning what is possibly the world’s most tame adventure two nerds ever had.

Flashback to Liz and Max’s super tame desert “adventure”:

Rosa got Liz a fake ID. Of course she did.

Looking forward to their 25 year-old selves, Liz wants to be a dancer.

Max wants to be a writer and write something “you can disappear into.”

They take like 2 sips of beer and dance. Liz wants to kiss Max, but decides not to because she doesn’t think she could kiss him and then leave, and she wants to leave.

Remember, though, they’ve been friends for along time. In a voice over during an earlier episode, Liz said that Max was the only one who could make her smile when her mom left. So it’s possible that Liz has had feelings for this dude simmering for a while.

Liz doesn’t want to be the kind of girl who changes her plans for a boy. 

As the sun is setting, Max admits that he’s 100% ready to be the boy who changes his plans for her. He says, “all I've ever wanted was to change my plans for you.”

First of all, at least when it comes to Liz, Max has no chill. Zero. He’s all but declaring his life-long love for her.

And second, he hasn’t really made plans for himself at this point beyond trying to get some money to go on his own roadtrip. So...? They both want to see the world.

But Liz seems on board with it. They have a little back and forth about all the possible places they could kiss on this epic road trip and end up in each other’s arms, smiling dopily as the sun sets.

Flashback to the alien museum:

Micheal wants to talk to Alex privately, and by that he means kiss him in a dark alien exhibit room.

Alex is all for it.

Flashback to the tool shed, same day:

Michael says he’s not a virgin, but has no experience with a guy, and none with someone he’s liked this much.

So they do it. And apparently it’s good, judging by how happy it seems to make them.

Until Sgt. Manes walks in and ruins literally everything.

Alex stands, and steps in front of Michael, although he’s clearly dreading whatever is coming next. 

Words are exchanged, and then Sgt. Manes has Alex pushed up against a wall with his hand around Alex’s neck.

Michael tries to intervene and Manes takes a hammer to Michael’s hand enough times to permanently ruin it.

And most likely prevent him from ever playing guitar again. 

Flashback to the rest of the night Rosa died:

In a bizarre twist, Max didn’t lie to Liz about the events of that night - he just didn’t tell her the whole story. Max really did go write a super sappy letter and leave it under the window wiper of the car, and he really was confronted by a drunk Rosa. Then he really did leave her there.

Rosa is drunk and upset and already has “a fraudulent zodiac” written on her hand, so she’s already been to the Wild Pony, asked Maria not to tell Isobel she was there, written on her hand, and stolen the bottle of booze.

And now we know that what she wrote on her hand was most likely a reference to Isobel.

Rosa finds Max’s letter, and somehow... in a very short time... takes it up and hides it on the roof. Before somehow ending up in the desert with the other two girls.

Meanwhile, Michael is chugging acetone to kill the pain in his hand. There’s a sudden painful ringing, and he sees a vision of the mine entrance, and of the two girls outside it.

It looks and sounds nothing like Isobel and Max’s previous psychic connection.

Somehow he knows that Isobel is in trouble so he heads for the mine.

Max has his phone up to his ear and looks about to get into his jeep when he feels the same painful whatever-it-is, and seems to know Isobel is in trouble.

Michael arrives to see the two girls dead, and gets inside the mine just in time to see Isobel apparently kill Rosa with her mind.

Because she wasn’t suffocating her... her nose was free. 

During the murdering, Isobel says to Rosa, “But I did it for you. Everything I did was for you.”

When a freaked-out Michael asks her what she’s done, she replies, “She couldn't be trusted.” then faints.

Michael assumes that Isobel also killed the other girls.

Max gets there in time to see Isobel drop, and is relieved to see she’s alive. He tries to bring Rosa back from the dead, but he can’t do it.

Max and Michael decide to cover up the murder in order to protect Isobel. 

Michael floats the bodies over to Rosa’s car.

Begging the quesiton how in the world Grant Green missed seeing the two of them walking right behind the floating girls.

They get the girls strapped in, and Isobel appears with no memory of what has happened.

Michael decides to take the fall rather than tell Isobel the truth. He claims he got into a fight with someone who wrecked his hand, got drunk, and then lost control of his telekinesis, killing the girls. 

In all the confusion of the night, this appears to be the first time Max has heard anything about Michael’s hand.

It’s unlikely Michael ever told him the real story.

Michael uses his powers to drive the girls into a tree, and then Max sets the car on fire with his powers.

Present day:

Max tells Liz that they never understood why Isobel did it, but they never asked questions and just tried to forget it.

So Max and Michael stopped hanging out because they reminded each other of what had happened, and they only wanted to forget.

And Isobel has probably spent 10 years thinking that they didn’t hang out anymore because Max was blaming Michael for killing the girls.

Max tells Liz that he wanted to tell her and came to find her “a few days later” but she was saying goodbye to her family and then she left Roswell.

Either Max isn’t being literal when he says it was a few days, or Liz left before graduating high school because Rosa died 2 weeks before graduation.

Sometime between Rosa’s death and Liz leaving, Max made it clear to his siblings that he planned to tell Liz, and they decided to have Isobel mess with her mind so she’d leave before he had the chance to tell her anything.

Liz is understandably upset that Max ruined the Ortecho family in order to protect Isobel. She’s now 1000% done with Max and tells him she never wants to see him again before leaving.

[saleintothe90s]

384. “Mad About You” series finale (5/24/1999)

(source)

So, I remember watching the series finale of Mad About You that night, but I haven’t watched it again since it originally aired. I do remember feeling let down at the end however. This is what I remember from 20 years ago, maybe I’ll remember some forgotten details once I re watch it...which I will after I make this list: 

- Janeane Garofolo was Paul & Jamie’s daughter Mabel all grown up and she had come out with a documentary about her life? Her dad’s life? The film was everything after 1999?

-Paul & Jamie bought the apartment across from them and merged it into theirs? Which didn’t make any sense. Everybody had to walk through P&J’s bedroom to get to the expansion?

-Paul & Jamie were pregnant again with twins but she lost the babies? I just remember the scene where Paul rushes into the apartment with a double stroller excited that he found one. He sees the message light on the answering machine and it’s Jamie. I was trying to figure out if this was early on when Mabel was still a one year old, and one seat in the stroller was for her, or Jamie was pregnant with twins. 

-Paul’s dad died real early on in the episode. 

-Paul and Jamie wonder who should give her the birds and the bees talk when Mabel is a teenager, but turns out they waited too long. When Paul sits down with her to discuss it, she interrupts him and says that she’s already had sex, or she was already on the pill. Paul decides to take Mabel out for bagels every Saturday morning so he can remain closer to her. I just remember them eating bagels and sitting on a stoop. 

- Paul and Jamie separate for realz this time. Remember when they temporarily separated but then got back together and Jamie got pregnant with Mabel?  

[That episode is titled “The Finale”, please don’t confuse it for this one like I almost did. In case you’re wondering about my bitmoji dressed like a snail, our power went on and off the entire time I was writing this. I went ahead and used that save video me website so I could watch the clips offline.] 

- Jamie had become really cold at that point in her life and Paul had it. 

-The last scene was everybody watching Mabel’s documentary in a movie theater and P&J were a little embarrassed. Paul (almost crying) asks Jamie if she would like to go out for pie.

-Clearly they hadn’t shot enough because the last five minutes were “home movies” of the two and Mabel in central park. The montage seemed to last for-ever. 

-Before I re-watch, I also wanted to mention that I hate the theme song! 

I found the episode on DailyMotion, and the username of the uploader is “Magic School Bus” ... ms. frizzle is that you?  It also appears that Ms. Frizzle recorded this episode from syndication, so there might be a tiny scene or two missing. 

(part 1, part 2)

(Apparently it’s on the internet archive too, but it took forever to get the vid to play on my iPad. It has commercials though!) https://archive.org/details/MelrosePlaceHomeImprovementFinales1999 

So, Mabel’s film was titled “The reason why I am this way”. Maybe a grad school project?. Janeane looks grad school age here. 

The film starts with Paul & Jamie’s anniversary when Mabel was 1 in 1999. I was right!

A bird pooped on Paul! Nah, it was just Lyle Lovett the construction worker spilling paint. He married Jamie n Paul 7 years ago, but turns out he’s NOT an ordained minster, so they’re not officially married.  This is so dumb. Such a trope, right? 

Jamie is freaking out that they’re not really husband and wife. Paul is the rational one here, he says just go to city hall next week! Jamie is all “no, we gotta do it today, its our anniversary!”  So they go, there’s a chapel at city hall, there’s a lady named Phyllis there as a witness and who throws rice (25¢ a throw!)  

Stupidly, however, Jamie runs away. I do remember this freeze frame from the episode.

There’s lots of jumping around through time while all this is going on, I forgot about that, I just thought it was a straight up timeline.

We jump to 2005 where P&J are in therapy for the thousandth time, also when Paul goes in for a vasectomy. At first, I didn’t realize that Jamie was talking to her sister, Lisa in the waiting room since she had short hair. Jamie tries to explain to her that Mabel doesn’t need a sister, but Lisa guilt trips her. Jamie tells Paul that she thinks they made a mistake. They Michael Scott-eded it:

It’s 2011 and P&J are trying to give 11 year old Mabel the sex talk.

In 2004 Murray (remember, the dog? Yeah, the dog got forgotten somewhere in the series) got a girlfriend and they had puppies!  There is the best scene ever where Paul teaches Mabel how to shoot video and Nat the dog walker (played by Helen Hunt’s then husband, Hank Azaria) does a play talk show with the puppies. IT’S TOO CUTE, I put it on instagram. I forgot that Hank was on the show. I still remember how heartbroken I was though when Hank and Helen broke up, though.

There’s a real quick scene in the sports shop that Paul’s family owns (which I forgot about in the series). Jeff Garlin (who I like to call “Daddy Goldberg” since I love him on The Goldbergs) is teasing Paul for all his vasectomies. blah blah. You know what I noticed? That old Sketchers shoebox! Those ugly chunky metallic shoes they made in ’95 ’96 used to come in those boxes.  aw. ugliest shoes I ever had, they were most def. Airwalk Jim knockoffs. ANYWAY.

Mabel’s first film “Stabbing Bob” comes out in late 2021 when she’s 23. The whole family is there, including Cyndi Lauper who married Paul’s brother  cousin Ira. The whole family tries to get Paul and Jamie to sit together, so obviously something went DOWN between 2011 and 2021. This is when the syndicated version cuts off.

Part 2 begins again with Mabel’s documentary and her asking “Who do you think was responsible for my parents breakup? The one who ran away from the altar and changed her mind three times about whether or not her partner should have painful private surgery … or the other guy?” So when this film was made, Jamie and Paul were still broken up? Mabel is really tearing Jamie up a new one here. Jamie is the devil.

Back to 2005 and Jamie is pregnant, because Paul didn’t get that vasectomy. This is where everything is back on track with my memories of the episode. Except for those ugly ass pajamas. wow. Jamie is only supposed to be 42 here, the pajamas and glasses made her look 60.

2012, Mabel is 14 and she never did get that sex talk…perfect tribute to Whitney though, considering she had recently died.

Oh, no here comes the stroller scene in 2006. Paul is so happy, he says, “I found it! Last one in the city, and I found it! One big seat one little seat! 2 kids, one carriage! One big happy family. ” Uh, Mabel is 9.  The “one big seat, one little seat!”  makes me wonder if the writers forgot what year it was? Why would there be a big seat and a little seat?” Twins are the same size.  Those stroller seats look the same size. Paul finds a note left by Jamie, so it wasn’t an answering machine message.

In early 2021 we see Jamie’s bff Fran, FINALLY. I was wondering where Fran was! She was married to Richard Kind and he left her so he could ride motorcycles like “Easy Rider”, (remember when Fran kept calling the movie “The Easy Rider” and it drove Richard crazy, he was like, “the name of the movie is EASY RIDER, NOT ‘THE EASY RIDER!”). Riffs is somehow still open, martini glasses are taller, forks have clear spiral handles, and Fran be looking like something that walked off the Enterprise.  

Oh, and Paul left Jamie. Jamie now is wearing reading glasses around her neck. Oh, honey noo, you’re only 58.  Here is Helen Hunt in 2018:

Paul said that Jamie is unkind and that was why he was leaving.  

Aw, there’s my fozzie bear!

Costume and Makeup got Paul Reiser exactly right though!

After that, Paul & Jamie had to be straight with Mabel at all times. Ok, whatever:

 So I was also wrong about Paul’s died dying when Mabel was little.

On the way to the funeral, Paul’s mom encourages the two to pay a bribe so they can buy the apartment across the hall. She says, “Then Mabel can have a room.” …. Mabel didn’t have a room? She was 13 in the Murray’s not real scene. Where did she sleep?!  Now I remember thinking way back then that the episode left a lot of plot holes open, this being one!

I remember feeling kind of turned off by this elevator scene with the sad music after the funeral. I didn’t know the phrase back then, but now I know that it feels so forced. We get it. Paul’s mom is alone.

Casting didn’t do a good job with teenage Mabel, she’s supposed to be 18 in 2015 and it’s still the girl who played her when she was 12. w2g. I didn’t make a screen grab but I was right about Mabel having to cross her parents bedroom, and bathroom to get to her room. I was also right about the bagels! 

It’s back to the scene in late 2021 where everybody is watching the end of Mabel’s movie, “Stabbing Bob”.  I guess she was trying to be a lil Tarintino. Why did I think they were watching the documentary? Ha, at the end, Paul’s sister asks the family if they want to go out for pie. Yesss, the pie scene!

I did remember this from the pilot episode where Jamie kisses Paul on their first date when he turns to her. Jamie asks “buy me some pie?”, not Paul! I swore for 20 years I heard Paul Reiser tearfully saying, “I would like some pie” in my head!

Oh, one plot point that did get patched up was that Paul & Jamie asked the guy from city hall to come over and marry them in their apartment six seconds to midnight.

RIP, Murray the dog.

UGH, I was right about the long montage of the end that is just pretend home movies of the cast. It’s nearly four minutes long, and its set to country music. It’s hell.  I remember actually leaving the room during this part 20 years ago instead of just you know, muting the TV. It completely ruins the quietness of the episode. It’s total filler.

The ending credits are on Youtube, it’s adult Mabel giving a rundown of what happened to who.

Related:

More from the series finale series: https://saleintothe90s.tumblr.com/search/Series%20finale%20series

/edit/

I was curious and went hunting around in google groups (which houses newsgroup archives) to see what people said about it online right after it aired: 

Someone wondered too about where on earth Mabel slept until they expanded the apartment: 

>2)  Where did Mabel sleep before they got the second apartment and >turned it into a room? Shared with mommy and daddy?? Or maybe that little space before the bedroom.  Did they convert the appartments into one or move to the other side? I was a bit confused about that.

>>I wish I had watched Ally (but that's just my

>opinion).<<

Trust me, if you've watched the show at all this season, you've seen this episode.  Ally is depressed about no man, elaine whips out the video camera, the biscuit bobs his head to Barry White, does a gymnastic dismount from the toilet stall, stutters like Porky Pig, and all of the same fucking things he does every single fucking episode.  I really liked this show at first, but I'm about to give up on it because the same shit happens week after week after week.  If David Kelley cannot think of anything new to do with this show, he should hire a writing team, because it it going nowhere fast!

Brian

To know that Paul and Jamie's genes resulted in that shrewish frump Janeane Garofalo was one thing.  But to be "previewed" twenty years of their misery resulting in Mabel's therapy for bad parenting was pretty unbearable.

Crap.  Not quite as crap as the Rosanne finale, but more crap than the last

Seinfeld episode. I knew they were in trouble in the very first scene where

they set up the premise for the episode. Lyle Lovett tells them that he

wasn't really an ordained minister when he performed their wedding ceremony

and that he was drunk when he said he was. (now there's an original plot)

One problem: Lyle isn't the one who told them he was a minister and everyone

was sober at the time.

Then they have Jannene Garofolo as their grown up daughter, recounting everything thing that went wrong in their marriage, another lame plot device.

There're also a few little slips, like Paul buying a double baby carriage in 2005, when their daughter would be 8 or so.

But, to get to the root of why the episode (and the last two seasons for that matter) failed: The whole permise of the show was that these two likable, but occasionally goofy or even stupid, people were so much in love that they would always be together no matter what. Corny, naive, romantic, but also endearing. It made for a nice, comforting 4 seasons or so, but after a while the formula gets old. So they started making the characters a lot less likeable. Paul Reiser turned into Homer Simpson and Helen Hunt became a neurotic version of Lucy Ricardo, until I had no idea why these two people were staying together.

They got back to the original idea of the series in the last ten minutes, but it was too little, too late. In the previous 50 minutes, their whole marriage went to hell. Not only didn't those two people belong together, they didn't even seem to care about each other. They did something similar a few years back (marriage goes wrong, they still love each other and stay together) but it was convincing and they didn't do the gimmicky jumping back and forth over 25 years thing. That was the perfect moment to end the series.

I agree. I watched with the series finale of MAY with the morbid fascination that I would have while watching a car wreck.  I didn’t *want* to do it, but I was drawn to it.  And what a car wreck it was.

The plot of the finale should have insulted every thinking person.  Did anyone accept the premise that two sophisticated New Yorkers could believe they were legally married without having a marriage license and certificate?  For those of you who have never been married, you absolutely need such documentation for your bank accounts, health insurance, social security, credit cards, mortgages etc.   The retroactive vitiation of the Buchman’s marriage is akin to the Bobby’s dream sequence on Dallas a few years ago.

Jaime’s jilting of Paul at the “altar” was vapid.  Tim Conway’s gag in being both the marriage clerk and the justice of the peace was predictable, and as predictably stupid as Conway’s similar gags on the now ancient Carol Burnett show.  The pronunciation of “Buchman” to explain why Paul and Jaime had the same last name may have been amusing to a ten year old, but I doubt it was funny to anyone more mature.  A justice of the peace would not play the wedding march with a dime store cassette recorder while demanding that a prospective bride walk down the courtroom “aisle.”  Couldn’t they have done something interesting with the marriage witness instead of using a stock character such as the disinterested, magazine-reading rice-thrower?  From a legal standpoint, Paul and Jaime’s marriage at midnight was as ineffective as “first” marriage because there was no witness (contrary to the dialogue, a baby simply cannot be a legal witness to a marriage).  Why would a justice of the peace make a house call to perform a civil marriage?

The whole vasectomy gag was asinine.  Have either HH or PR been in a hosptial?  Did they do *any* research before they wrote this gag?  Its pretty safe to conclude that a surgical nurse would *not* lead a post- operative vasectomy patient through a waiting room while he was wearing nothing but a robe.  Moreover, given Paul’s obvious pain from the first vasectomy, don’t you think that Jaime would have known that Paul did not go through with the second one?  Wouldn’t Jaime have asked Paul if he went through with the vasectomy before she purchased and used a pregnancy test kit?  Jaime’s miscarriage was telegraphed from the beginning of the vasectomy gag.

The makeup aging of the characters was amateurish at best.  The sex talk difficulty with Mabel has been done by every sitcom since Leave It To Beaver, and most have done it better.  What was the point of the puppy urination scene?

The breakup and reconciliation was sentimental tripe.  In the real world, people that fight as much as Paul and Jaime do not get divorced and then, with one magic kiss, make everything OK.

Was it necessary to introduce a new character in the finale to narrate the Buchmans’ life story? (As an aside, I hated the casting of Janeane Garofolo (sp?).  She looked like complete crap.  Can’t that woman ever look presentable?  Someone should have given her a mirror and a comb before they began filming the episode.  She is a second rate Roseanne knock off, and, judging from last night’s appearance, she is now attempting to catch Roseanne in the weight department as well.)

The closing montage attempted to simulate a home movie circa 1960s such as that used in the Wonder Years.  But why would Paul and Jaime, a 1990s couple, have used such a medium for their home movies?  Also, even assuming the choice of medium was justified, why did they wave in quick, jerky movements at the movie camera?  Has anyone done that since the 1960s?

In the end analysis, the MAY finale was incredibly lame.  I got home in time to catch the end of the Melrose Place finale, and, IMO, even that show -- as bad as it is -- has more entertainment value than MAY.  At least they don’t take themselves seriously.  I am delighted that MAY is now over.  I hope that the poor ratings associated with the show will cause some retooling at NBC, especially in its high profile slots.

acebook | Etsy | Retail History Blog | Twitter | snapchat (thelastvcr) |YouTube Playlist| Random Post | digital tip jar | Instagram @ thelastvcr |other tumblr | Ko-fi donation |

[romericasecretsanta]

a marvelous night for a moondance

Read on FFnet here! This is for the awesome @aph-american-sin can-sin, who I don’t think I can tag in a submission? Merry Christmas have some Romerica!!

[Soundtrack: Moon Dance/Moondance]

—

a marvelous night for a moondance

Lovino had been turned back in the 16th century at the young age of 23. His sire had been an affable Spanish man, appearing to be in his mid-30s, who Lovino had met before and hadn’t thought to be threatened by until it was too late. He’d awoken from a bloodfever haze six days later, and immediately known what he’d become and what it meant for him.

Being turned so young had been both a blessing and a curse. No wife or children yet, but he’d had a bright future ahead of him that now had turned dim, moonlit instead of sunlit. Being forever young — he didn’t think it was vanity to say he was very attractive, which in some ways made his life easier. He never had any difficulty luring prey. On the other hand, it made him more memorable. He was never able to stay in one place for more than a few years. He’d also never had any difficulty finding work as a stone mason or dock worker, frozen in the prime of his life, a strong and healthy young man, albeit one who kept weird hours. But he would never look old enough for more respectable work, at least not in Italy, where tradition permeated the very stone of the buildings, and seemed to linger in the very air that Lovino didn’t breathe. So, in the early 20th century, he left Rome for New York City.

By that time, Feliciano was long dead.

America was different; it had its own unique mix of new customs and Old World traditions. Lovino had always been a fast learner, so he had little trouble adjusting. Especially among the vampires, there was a set of guidelines for interaction to help prevent disputes over territory or prey. Their kind tended to be fairly solitary anyway.

Which was why it threw Lovino for a bit of a loop when he wandered into a secluded part of Central Park one night and spotted another vampire (they were always immediately recognizable to each other). He was even more surprised when, rather than the traditional solemn nod, the other vamp gave him an enthusiastic wave.

Taken aback, Lovino stopped and gaped a little, which was apparently all the invitation the stranger needed to approach him.

“Hey what’s up haven’t seen you around before my name’s Alfred you can call me Al!”

All one sentence. Spoken without pausing for breath, obviously, but also without even the slightest acknowledgement that there should be pauses between sentences, dammit.

“How old are you?” Lovino demanded instead of introducing himself, which was terribly rude, but the other vamp had started it.

“Uh in like human years or vampire years?”

Oh he had to be recently turned. “Both.”

“Okay, well, I was 19 when I got turnt, haha, but it was back in 1986 soooo I guess I’m 51? Gettin’ up there!”

“Excuse me?”

“What, why, how old are you?”

Lovino felt what little blood he had left from his last meal a few days ago rush to his face in an attempted blush. “What kind of a rude question is that!”

“You asked me first! Hey, are you Italian? You sound kinda Italian.”

Lovino tried to collect himself. “My name is Lovino Vargas, I'm several hundred years old, and yes, I’m originally from Rome.”

Alfred rolled his eyes, causing a fresh wave of resentful blood to course through Lovino’s withered veins. “Oh, one of those old types. Y'all are such sticklers.”

“How is it you’ve been turned for 30 years but your sire or somebody hasn’t taught you any manners?”

“Ha! He tried but I told him noooo thank you, following rules is the opposite of why I got you to turn me into a vampire so you can leave me alone with that nonsense. He was old and British, so you know, if you’ve ever met a British vampire? They are every stereotype you could possibly think of.”

Which, there was a lot to unpack there. But the first thing that came out of Lovino’s mouth, for some reason, was, “Like in the original Dark Shadows TV series.” Incredibly embarrassing, but for some reason this made Alfred light up.

“Yeah! Not the weird movie remake, which I have strong opinions about.” Yeah, Lovino did, too. “Man, I knew you looked cool! Have you watched a lot of vampire stuff? Like What We Do in the Shadows?”

Lovino puffed up a bit. “Of course I have! I’ve seen and read every major and minor piece of vampire media made in the last 200 years. I find it very important to know what the current trends and misconceptions in human media are. You never know when they’ll actually catch on to something.”

Alfred squinted at him, which was ridiculous because they both had perfect night vision and the moon was full, besides. Lovino squinted back.

“That’s a whole lot of media…” Alfred said slowly, sounding exaggeratedly suspicious.

“Well, I have a lot of time on my hands,” was his dry response.

This actually made Alfred laugh. “And he jokes!”

Sometimes, Lovino would actually make jokes about garlic and being Italian when he got food at his favorite pizzeria at 2AM. No one was ever around to appreciate those jokes, though. And he wasn’t about to tell Alfred about it.

Alfred rocked back on his heels, delighted grin on his face. “Every single piece of media, huh? I call bullshit.”

“I have —” he started to protest, but Alfred flapped a hand at him.

“I’m not saying I don’t believe you’ve done it, I’m saying I don’t think it was research. Anyone who watches the 2004 Van Helsing movie willingly is doing it because they’re really into that stuff.”

Direct hit. “Better than Twilight,” he muttered, crossing his arms and looking away. This just made the other vamp laugh again.

Wait.

“Hold on just a damn minute, did you say you deliberately got turned?!”

“Yeah, so I could fly!”

Lovino deliberately took a deep breath, turned around to collect himself, and immediately spun back around and shouted, “We can’t fly! Are you nuts?!”

“We can in Castlevania,” Alfred told him matter-of-factly.

Lovino stared at him. “Are you referring to the video game that came out in 1986? That Castlevania?” Then it hit him. “Oh my God, you are. You said you went out and got turned in 1986. Because of Castlevania?!” He was vaguely aware that he was practically screeching, but he was too riled up to care.

“Well yeah, the game was awesome!” Alfred said defensively.

At this point, Lovino devolved into cursing extravagantly in Italian.

Alfred seemed unfazed. “Man, you sound like my brother. Except he yelled at me in French instead of Italian.”

This brought him up short. “You have a brother?”

“Yeah! We’re twins!”

Like him and Feliciano.

“He’s…still alive?”

“Yeah! I always joke he’s waiting until he looks like the older brother before he lets me turn him. Well, now he looks more like my dad when we’re hanging out together.”

“You're in contact with him?”

Out of this entire strange interaction, this was what hit him. It was just so different from what he’d done. He’d been turned into a monster, someone who would never fit back into society. Rather than subject his twin to that, he’d run, and he’d watched from afar, and Feliciano had mourned him and then gotten older and fallen in love and lived happily and then died. And Lovino had never spoken to him that whole time.

This guy had deliberately gotten turned into an immortal, for a power they didn’t even have, after playing a goddamned video game from the 80s. But. He still talked to his brother.

Overwhelmed, Lovino started to take a step back. Alfred must have seen something in his face because suddenly he reached out to grab one of Lovino’s hands in his.

“Oh, but wow, I’ve been so rude!” he exclaimed in a faux-repentant voice. It made Lovino pause long enough, because yeah he had, that Alfred was able to also grab his other hand. “Do you wanna dance?”

Lovino was speechless yet again. “What?” he finally spluttered out. “What kind of manners did this asshole teach you, what the fuck.”

“You’re the one swearing,” Alfred said primly. “Anyway, I took some ballroom dances when I was in college in the 80s, I mean obviously I’m doing night school and online coursework now, but I had the dancing thing down pretty good, at least by college standards. So! Wanna dance?” He phrased it like a question but by the time he was finished speaking he’d already dragged Lovino into a basic waltz.

“You’re out of your mind,” Lovino told him dazedly, unconsciously following the steps as he stared up at this blond madman. “Castlevania.”

Alfred laughed and graced him with another smile — it was quite a nice smile, actually — but didn’t say anything for a minute. “You know,” he said quietly once they’d gotten into a rhythm, cutting over damp grass with light steps, “We always joke about it but I’m pretty sure Mattie’s going to stay human.” Another pause. “At least I have this time with him. I’m a little scared of what I’ll do after he…well. After.”

Lovino considered this with the seriousness it deserved. “Well. You keep living, I guess. Or not, as the case may be.”

Alfred blinked, surprised, and then snorted. “You really do have jokes.” He said it softly. It sounded almost fond.

They were still dancing, but Lovino started to notice the ground felt odd under his feet.

He looked down.

The grass glistened darkly in the moonlight, several yards below them. They crested near the tops of the trees, and Alfred spun him in a way that made the shining lights of the city around the park, just for a moment, look like stars whirling around them.

They were actually flying. The air under his feet was not quite solid; it had a strange sort of give to it but also an elasticity that seemed to push him back up every time he took a step. Lovino gasped, a breath he didn’t need, and then felt a laugh burst out of him in a way that hadn’t happened in at least a few decades.

“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?” he asked Alfred when he’d managed to contain himself to just a smile. It felt a bit flirtatious on his face, which his dance partner must have picked up on if the way he waggled his eyebrows was any indication.

“You bet! Are you feeling something in that cold, dead heart of yours?”

Lovino looked down and then up through his eyelashes, something he usually did for luring prey. This was more genuine.

“Maybe sometime we should…get a drink. Go dancing again.”

Alfred mock gasped. “Excuse me, I’m only 19 and it’s not legal for me to drink.”

Lovino felt himself snort. At the moment he didn’t care that it was inelegant.

As they started to descend, still slowly turning in circles, Alfred smiled. “I’d love to dance with you, though. If you think you can keep up with me.”

“How rude. You know, as your elder —”

They touched down back on the grass just in time to hear a sharp gasp, the kind that came from someone who actually used the air they took into their lungs.

A man stood on the edge of the clearing they were in, staring in amazement.

Alfred and Lovino looked at each other. Then, graciously, Alfred stood back and indicated he should go first.

Lovino grinned at his companion, feeling his teeth start to elongate.

For the first time in a long time, he felt the burning ember of hope deep inside of him — hope for the future, the centuries stretching out in front of him seemingly without end.

Because maybe he wouldn’t be alone.

With Alfred humming a Van Morrison song from behind him —

— he lunged.

[stillfuckinbetterthanyou]

Rule Of Three

RULES: Choose any three fandoms (in random order) and answer the questions, then tag 10 people you want to know better.

Thank you very much for tagging, @soha-friend​!

Sounds like fun. It’s been a while I did one of these.

Three Fandoms:

Mortal Kombat 

Marvel Cinematic Universe

South Park

I am in too many fandoms, so I just choosed the first three that popped up my mind and I wached/played the last.

The First Character You Loved

Not gonna lie, it was Scorpion. As a kid I was so much into him.

Iron Man, of course. Still love him a lot.

Very very first would be Kenny McCormick. In Czech rep. they aired SP only to year 2004 and then stopped so I could see only the very first episodes/seasons. Obviously, I couldn’t speak english back there and I doubt it was online anyway.  However, there were only little of main and side characters offered back there. So naturally I loved Kenny. I mean, I liked the joke that he is immortal and felt bad that his friends never remember that he was dead.

The Character You Never Expected To Love So Much:

Honestly-- Sub Zero. As I said, as a kid Ioved Hanzo and it would be a sin to also like Sub Zero back there. :’D It was natural hatred but I grew up. I am a better person now.

The first one that popped up my head is Ant-man. Honestly, as everybody else I thought the movie is gonna be lame but then I could see quality in it and Scott’s character. I also appreciate the realistic scene “Look, man. I got a Masters in Electrical Engineering, alright? I’ll be fine.”

Hmm.. Butters Stotch. Definitely. Younger me just thought he is too naive and annoying but as I grew up I see the briliant side of his character. One of the best now.

The Character You Relate To The Most :

Relate? Wow, that’s hard. :’D 

At this one I have no idea, beause I don’t think I can relate to anyone.. Maybe you guys should tell me what do you think I am the most like. //I took like three quizzed and they said Kano, Sonya and Goro but we can’t trust the quizzes unless it’s buzzfeed, right? :’D

Hm... maybe? Not sure. It’s hard to say, I’d act differently if I had some crazy superpowers. But assuming I’d have the same abilities, I’d totally relate to Loki. I’d do the same bullshit as him yet I know my weak place would be in ppl I care about even though I never say it.

Craig Tucker I’d say.  We share a lot of personal traits, people already say that when we watch SP and I can’t say I disagree. Both ISTJs.

As for me, I would have chosen:

Everybody assumes this is meant in a romantic way, so let’s go with this...

I mean.. I am thinking too much logically about everything but.. I’d say Tomas Vrbada. We speak the same language, so no speaking barrier. Same nationality, so I assume somehow similar personality as well.. we’d be cool with eachother I guess. I’d love to have a drinking buddy for long free nights. Also we’d match with the hair-- oh hell yeah, I changed my hair color again, I am the silver fox now. Shoot.

Uhmmm...Dunno. Probably a human, so Peter Quill I guess. Or Kraglin, actually and ironically. He seems as clumsy as me and we’d choose the nice hats together. (I’d say Tony Stark but that is way outta my league. :’D Same with people with actual superpowers.) I have no idea. Again, you can help me out here and send an ask with your opinion.

Craig Tucker, once again. Personality traits and opinions shared. And I’d get along with his friends more than with someone from the original four’s group. And when I thought about it, there is no one else I’d really get along in closer meaning.

The Character You’d Slap :

Honestly, there are TOO many characters deserving a proper beat up but rn I’d go with Raiden. I was just thinking about him and his actions recently.

Captain America.. Just for lolz because he is not my favourite character, quite opposite actually.

Eric Cartman. ‘nuff said.

Three Favorite Characters (in order of preference):

Jesus this is hard af!

Kenshi Takehashi, Tomas Vrbada, Kano..

Iron Man, Deadpool, Black Panther (my very first childhood comic crush, lol)... I love LOT of characters, this is so hard goddammit. They are all on the same level, really. It’s impossible to choose three, so I went with the three that popped up my mind the first.

Craig Tucker, Kenny McCormmick anddd.... Eric Cartman I guess. You can’t judge me for the last one. I know he is the WORST character at the same time but I am sorry-- the show wouldn’t be the same without him and acknowledge all his nasty terrible habbits and flaws but thanks to him the show is what it is. At least the first few seasons.  HATE ME FOR THIS UNPOPULAR OPINION.

Character You Liked At First, But Don’t Like Anymore:

Kung Lao I’d say.. I didn’t like some of his latest actions. Idk. Can’t REALLY think of anyone rn.

Black Widow. I dunno she got annoying over the years.

Hmmm... Wendy Testaburger.. No further explanation.

A Character You Didn’t Like At First But Do Now:

Bi-Han. No logical explanation, dunno as a kid I was weird.

I will go with Thor. I actually didn’t really like him as a character at first but as the more movies were filmed, I started to enjoy him.

Hah, Clyde Donovan. I wasn’t really seen in the early seasons and the younger me didn’t like him. But same case as with Butters-- I grew up and realized the joke of his character.

Three OTPs:

I am not really into pairings.. but I guess I can try..

I really like the canon that is Takeda and Jacqui. I also like Sub-zero (both) and Smoke dynamics.

Uh. well... I guess Star-lord and Gamora are alright! And I appreciate they got Wanda and Vision together, just as in the comics! //And Valkyrie and her girlfriend, it was a sad scene actually.

No, no, I dunno if  can do SP pairings.. I’d go with the canon as well if it wasn’t TOO overrated and annoying by now. I liked Kyle and David moments, tho.

I didn’t read the questions first so with SP fandom it might be a little weird but I ain’t gonna re-do it now... I apologize in advantage before someone will diss me for this.

As always I won’t tag anyone particular, so feel free to fill it up for fun and don’t forget to tag me in it! c:

[antialiasis]

Okay, so apparently there’s a whole extra QftL revision I didn’t know about?? I am bamboozled.

Basically, remember how here, I talked about how at some point I’d edited the version of chapter two on the QftL minipage to remove the infodump about Molzapart, and I should really just put it back in? Well, by the time I sighed and decided to go do that, I was going to look on Serebii to copy the original ending of the ILCOE version of the chapter... only to find that the ending was significantly different, not just in that one paragraph. I briefly looked at the YAR (the previous revision) on the QftL site; the paragraphs I was looking at on Serebii appeared to match that. I figured somehow I’d misremembered, the actual ILCOE had removed Molzapart, and I just hadn’t actually updated the chapter in the Serebii thread for some reason.

Except now I was looking at it again and realizing no, that post explicitly references the ILCOE, and was edited at the correct time for the ILCOE. So I actually copy-pasted the chapter to compare it with the YAR, and nope, that wasn’t what it was at all.

So then I went and compared the Serebii version to the version on the site, expecting to find maybe I’d just changed a few more paragraphs at the end while I was at it, and it... actually changed a bunch of things? Not only are there minor wording tweaks throughout, there are some significant changes? Like, this is apparently the actual ILCOE version of how Mark goes and finds the book:

The search computers along with a few shelves of paperbacks with huge titles greeted him, along with the familiar smell of books that Mark had always loved. But he walked right to the elevators, as this book would be on the second floor.

A chubby middle-aged woman wearing what looked disturbingly much like a Sentret fur coat came through the metallic door, eyed Mark like some kind of a big disgusting insect and then walked away with her nose in the air. Mark decided she was a grumpy old snob as he stepped into the lift.

An endless row of Marks stared back at him from the mirrors on the sides. All of them turned to the buttons at the same time and all of them managed to slip their fingers between buttons two and three, accidentally highlighting both as the elevator started ascending.

It stopped on the second floor and a tall, thin man with a suitcase stepped in, but Mark suddenly felt a weird longing to go up to the third floor. First floor was novels, second was Pokémon training and third was Pokémon. He usually did go to the third floor, after all; he was always looking for books he hadn’t read before.

He didn’t want to keep Charmander waiting for too long, but of course he would just go and have a look around and see if there were any new books. It wouldn’t take long.

He went out on the third floor and looked curiously around. He could go left or right; a voice in his head told him to go right.

For whatever reason, Mark saw one particular shelf and walked firmly towards it, seeing nothing else. On it there was a book that looked older than most of the others, one that he had certainly never seen before:

But this is the version on the site:

The search computers along with a few shelves of paperbacks with huge titles greeted him, along with the familiar smell of books that Mark had always loved. But he ignored them and walked right to the elevators, as this book would be on the second floor, which was devoted to Pokémon training. As he entered the lift, an endless row of Marks stared back at him from the mirrors on the sides. All of them turned to the buttons at the same time, and all of them managed to slip their fingers between buttons two and three, accidentally highlighting both as the elevator started ascending.

It stopped on the second floor and a tall, thin young man with a suitcase stepped in, holding a book. Curious as to why such a man would be reading something on Pokémon training, Mark took a peek at the title. It was something stupid about Pokémon battles being a bad influence on kids; however, Mark completely forgot to get out of the lift until he discovered that the door had closed and they were starting to go up again. The elevator came to a halt and the door opened. Mark looked uncomfortably up at the man, who looked out of the book and seemed to wonder why Mark hadn’t exited yet. He hated to be stared at by strangers; that feeling pushed him out through the door to enter the floor about Pokémon in general.

This was the floor he usually stopped at when he went to the library. Every so often, he would return his books and take new ones, most of which were always about Legendary Pokémon. The shelf containing those books was located… right in front of him.

He had automatically walked straight up to that shelf when he exited the elevator. And as he had so often seen that shelf, he immediately noticed a new book that made his heart pound faster. On the black spine, golden, curly letters formed the title:

So it went from Mark being guided by random impulses to decide to go to the third floor to see if there are any new books there (~destiny~ at work, I guess) to him just getting off at the wrong floor out of pure social awkwardness.

Then the descriptions of the legendaries are different, and while the book in actual ILCOE describes the Color Dragons more or less like the site version does, the sections on Waraider and Chaletwo were clearly originally very similar to the YAR but changed significantly in the site version. Most brainbreakingly, the original ILCOE’s bit on the Waraider herd (which is more or less the same as the HMMRCIG/YAR) is completely incompatible with what Waraider’s deal actually turns out to be (it says there were originally eight Waraider and then seven of them evolved), and while you could excuse it as the legend just being wrong, Mark’s summary of the legend in chapter 66 is based on the site version. So wow, anyone reading the Serebii version would definitely have had the right to call me out on that, but presumably no one remembered.

Then I looked at chapter one, and that also had a number of changes from the Serebii version (actual ILCOE) to the site version. What.

Now I have no idea when the site revision was made (archive.org doesn’t have anything older than 2010, by which time it was the site version), and since it wasn’t just me removing the Molzapart paragraph but making a full revision of the text, I’m baffled by why I didn’t note this down on the Revision History page. God damn it, now this is going to be bothering me.

EDIT: A recovered copy of the Word document from October 2006 that I dug up has the site version.

EDIT 2: The old revision history page, updated in November 2004, has the original ILCOE.

[smilinstar]

I was tagged by the lovely @bisexuallaurellance, thanks hun! <3

Rules: 

1. Post a quote or short excerpt from your early days of writing/ARTING.(I’m talking old fanfics/ART, slash fics/ART, original fic/ART, etc., that are barely edited and have a ton of technical errors and misspelled words.) This is the cringe part. Don’t edit anything! Let it be horrendous. Don’t Panic.

2. Post a quote or short excerpt from one of your most recent works/WIPs. Something that you’re proud of. Something that you’ve written/ARTED that makes you smile when you read it.

3. Tag a writer/artist you admire, anyone who you think is amazing, new friends, followers, writeblrs, anyone who you’d like to know more about. If you think someone is a great writer/artist and you want to see how they’ve developed their skills, tag them! Everyone started somewhere.

1. Okay, so I decided, if I think about it too hard, I’m gonna end up picking nothing because my early work was TERRIBLE. So, I decided the best thing to do was to just choose an excerpt from the first fic I ever published online back in 2004. It’s a Dark Angel, Max/Alec fic called Triangle, and I am cringing so much right now, I’m loathe to even link it, but here you go:

Alec sat lounging on Joshua's sofa, one leg hanging off and his head propped up on an old squashed cushion. He had been sitting there watching 'Big fella' Joshua painting yet another Joshua – 'Joshua no. 257' and after watching him for nearly three hours, he could officially say he was bored.

"Hey Josh", Alec called out, "Do you think – "

Joshua spun around and the paint still on his paintbrush flew through the air and landed on none other than Alec.

"Oops", said Joshua with his puppy dog eyes.

Alec just sat there staring back at Joshua, his previously flawless skin now splatted with blue paint. "I suppose that made things a little less boring", he muttered wiping away the paint, leaving blue streaks on his cheek.

"Sorry", said Joshua grabbing the X-5 by the shoulder and rubbing furiously at the blue marks.

"Hey hey, it's fine really", Alec said pulling Joshua's strong hands from off him. "Body paints all the rage now Big fella!"

"Rage?" echoed Joshua with the same Joshua–specific innocence.

"Um, well it means . . . um."

"I thought you took common verbal usage," came a cold familiar voice.

Alec and Joshua turned to see Max standing at the doorway.

"Hey Little fella," smiled Joshua.

"Hey Big fella," said Max dropping the attitude for him. She walked into the room and gave him a big bear hug, which Joshua of course returned.

"So Maxie, don't I get one," said Alec with a hint of amusement flitting across his face.

Ughhh. It’s terrible. SO many errors, wow. Pretty sure I didn’t even get a review the first chapter I published, but I apparently had thicker skin when I was younger and just carried right on despite it. LMAO

2. I like to think I got better. And I’m actually quite proud of some of my more recent work, so choosing something for this bit was difficult. But in the end I went with an excerpt from this year’s love, one of my time canary fics, cos apparently there’s a line in this bit that made Meg laugh, so yeah . . .

It takes her a little too long to realise just who it is she’s looking for. Despite making him promise to show up, she hasn’t spotted Rip once. She has no idea if he’s here, if he’s barricaded himself in his room, or if he’s (more likely) done a runner.

The easy smile dissolves into a worried frown. Hopping off her perch, she starts to make her way through the throng of people, past Lord Voldemort making out with the Blue Power Ranger to slip out into the hallway. There’s a light breeze coming in through the open front door, despite the number of people filtering in and out.

“He’s outside.”

She looks up at the owner of the voice, and finds Ray smiling down at her with a knowing expression that doesn’t sit so comfortably in her gut, but she tries not to read too much into. She shrugs a quick “thanks” as nonchalantly as she can instead, and heads for the front lawn.

The party has spilled outside but it’s not so intensely packed out here. There’s a movement of air that makes it easier to breathe, cooler too in the night breeze. The odd burst of laughter amongst the chatter blends with the steady beat and thrum of bass as the music escapes through the open windows.

She almost doesn’t see him.

But it’s the sing-song sound of “trick or treat!” and children’s laughter that draws her attention. And somehow, despite it all, it makes sense that this is where she’d find him.

He’s crouching down beside the kids, handing out the goodie bags chock full of sweets to rot their teeth, and it’s not that which freezes her in place mid-stride. Nor is it his tweed jacket and bow tie – and yes, it may have been a little low effort for a costume, but it’s more than she could have hoped for, and she’s not one to talk either (blood-stained nurse’s outfit isn’t exactly pushing any boundaries) – no, what it is, is the smile on his face. Kind and patient, and a glimpse of what he’d been. A father.

The kids wave their goodbyes, and Rip’s smile falls as they turn away, disappearing down the sidewalk. A deep breath in and out follows, as if that small upturn of his lips, the minuscule attempt at joviality and light-heartedness, had been enough to exhaust him.

And all of a sudden, Sara feels guilty.

A tidal wave hitting her as she pushes down the lump in her throat. Too much, too soon. She’d forced too much, too soon.

3. I’m tagging @qarciaflynn @theadrogna @riphunter @knives-and-lint @sarcasticfina - you’re all brilliant, and I would love to see a ‘then and now’ of your writing, but as always no pressure, and feel free to ignore if you like. I don’t mind :-)

[petiteredlady]

End of the year 2.5D Butai/Musical Asks

I found that allyyyyy0619 made an “End of the year 2.5D Butai/Musical Asks” list, and it looked fun and interesting, so I wanted to do it. Some questions were challenging, but I liked answering !

1. Firstly, how did you manage to find out about 2.5D butai/musical? Which butai/musical was your first and your impression of it? In 2003-2004 a friend was studying in Japan. Being a Prince of Tennis fan, she discovered Tenimyu, and showed me her DVDs ! I think the very first I saw was the Dream Live 1st, and then I saw them mostly in chronological order. After that there were Bleach musicals, Hunter x Hunter, and by Air Gear I realised that adapting things into musicals was a thing. (Somehow I only learned about Sailor Moon later O_O)

For my impression of the first Dream Live : what the fuck. Just what the fuck XD I loved it because it was just so funny, but so many actors couldn't sing very well, the plot(?) was insane and several people were just OOC... but it was really fun and I liked it.

2. Who was your first favourite 2.5D actor/actress? Why? Hm... It was probably Takigawa Eiji, because I remember debating whether or not to buy his idol DVD^^" I'm not sure why, because he wasn't a good singer at the time... I guess his charisma alone was enough ? XD He made me laugh as Tezuka (despite actually playing him well), was pretty good-looking and he seemed like such a nice person IRL. (Unfortunately at the time I didn't find anything else he had played in so the "favourite" thing ended at me just really liking him...)

3. Top 3 (or more) favourite butai of the year? I haven't actually seen that many stage plays because I usually prefer musicals XD If I'm not mistaken, I've seen six stage plays this year so.... yeah.

1) Tsumuru Ookami Kuroki Kamo, without a doubt. Probably the best stage play I've ever seen. The staging was amazing, transitions were smooth and clever and easy to follow, I loved the music, I loved the costumes, the characters were amazing (even those I hated)(looking at you Shinpachi), and the story pushed so many of my buttons it's ridiculous. But even objectively, I think it's a really, really good stage play. 2) Yowamushi Pedal Shin Inter-High hen - Heat Up. I had only watched one other YowaPeda stage play so I didn't really know what to expect, but MY GOD. For a stage that had neither my favourite character nor my favourite actors, it was amazing. I loved the staging : everything was very dynamic, the amovible stairs were very cleverly used, and wow you really think they're pedalling. The acting was great and it was really funny, plus there were more songs than I expected ! 3) Haikyuu!! The Summer of Evolution. I wasn't fond of the first stage play and hadn't seen another, so I didn't expect to like it, but wow they have improved SO MUCH. The different choregraphies, for playing and dancing, were insane. I love their use of music to represent different techniques and formations. I really liked the acting. What I liked less was all the yelling, talking at the speed of light and everybody talking at the same time +_+ Like, please people, live Japanese is hard enough as it is XD

4. Top 3 (or more) least favourite butai of the year? By default they're going to be the other three I've seen XD It doesn't mean I didn't like them, but I liked them less and it wouldn't be fair to not answer this question.

1) Mononofu Shiroki Tora. I still liked it because it dealed with a lot of subjects that are dear to me, but honestly it was so confusing +_+ I really had a hard time understanding what was the present and what was the past, and which side the background characters were on. There were several characters I didn't connect with at all, too. It was still funny and horribly sad, but after watching it I just wasn't convinced. (Which is why I waited months before watching Tsumuru Ookami Kuroki Kamo.) 2) Messiah - Yuukyuu no Toki. The best stage play that came out of the new Messiah series. I wrote my impressions after watching it, but to summarise : there are still too many characters, too many plots at the same time, and I'm tired of people being related for no reason. I also thought the whole issue with Ariga and Itsuki was very dumb. But at least Yuukyuu focused more on its characters than Akatsuki, so I ended up liking them more. And returning characters were less OOC in my opinion. And my goodness, action scenes were great. 3) Messiah - Akatsuki no Toki. I was so excited for it and was terribly betrayed. There were a thousand ways to deal with Hirose Daisuke's absence, and they went with an insane plot so far-fatched I can't bring myself to take it seriously. I found the characters very, very OOC and didn't connect with or care for any of them. The new kouhai were not at all what I expected and I found them cringy at best. There are very few things I liked. Mostly the relationship between Ariga and Itsuki <3 I sort of squeed when Ariga called Itsuki by his name, and then at the end Itsuki did the same and it was cute and adorable.

(Messiah has been a letdown this year, it's pretty sad...)

5. Top 3 (or more) favourite musical of the year? I've watched a lot more musicals so this is going to be really hard XD (But I'm not doing more than 3. Ranking things is hard enough like that.)

1) Ribbon no Kishi (2015 version). It blew my mind when I didn't expect it O_O I was watching it for Aoki Tsunenori, but everyone was just so, so good. THE SONGS. MY GOD. ALL OF THE SONGS ARE GREAT, ALL OF THEM, AND EVERYONE SINGS SO WELL !!! The women especially had amazing voices. Everyone played they roles so well, with some being so very over-the-top and kitsch. I loved it. And this is part of being Ribbon no Kishi, but I loved the costumes and the fairy tale atmosphere that was very positive. I have issues with the story, but honestly that's not why I was watching it, so all in all it was a great experience. 2) Sailor Moon - Le Mouvement Final. JUST. AMAZING. Everyone was so pretty and cool and talented, the costumes were full of glitter, and the singing and acting really touched me <3 I may not be 100 % objective because I've loved Sailor Moon since I was a little girl and the last arc always makes me very emotional, but still. The transformations were great, the light effects were really cool, the music was good and all the actresse were amazing. If it hadn't been the last day of the performance I'd have tried to get another ticket... 3) Patalliro!. They don't call it a musical since they're lip-syncing on stage, but as a viewer the experience is basically the same so I've decided it counts. I had read a bit of the manga and watched a bit of the anime to have some context, and it really helped me understand some scenes. What I found most amazing is that the musical looks good while keeping all the weirdness from the manga XD They all acted so well, and managed to create a great story with very few characters. I liked that everything, from characters expressions to every plot point, was very over-the-top and dramatic XD I laughed a LOT. And the songs were really good and catchy. I liked it way more than I expected !

6. Top 3 (or more) least favourite musical of the year? Once again : it doesn't mean I didn't like them. Either they didn't live up to my expectations, or I simply liked them less.

1) Bakumatsu Rock - Climax Live. While I liked the interactions between the characters and liked more songs than I expected, I still feel this live didn't use all its potential. I mean, sure, it's a live, but maybe there could have been more of a plot ? Transitions were good and sketches were funny, but an overarching plot tying it all together would have been nicer, in my opinion. 2) Show by Rock - Shinen no Cross Ambivalence. This is very, very, very personal, but I think ShinganCrimsonZ didn't act enough like themselves. I know they weren't the focus of the plot, but... Rom had only like one speech that made the others cry, they didn't bicker about food, they didn't sing their jingle and Crow almost never called us "cattle" T-T Actually the focus was all over the place so I feel like no band really had time to shine. (And that's ever more personal, but the one and only reason I wanted to see Show by Rock was to see TakiEiji.......)(Obviously I'm not blaming anyone O__O) Overall I liked it, but not as much as I wanted to. 3) Touken Ranbu - Bakumatsu Tenrouden. The expectations/reality ratio was way too high for this one XD I still liked it, but not as much as a Shinsengumi fan should have, I guess XD First, I don't like Yasusada that much. And I'm getting really tired of his and Kashuu's issues with Okita. WE GET IT. We even had them all over Hanamaru. They're pretty popular anyway so WE KNOW ALREADY. I was more interested in Nagasone and Hachisuka's issues, but I think they were only superficially addressed. And Nagasone angsting about Kondou was only at the end with little build-up so it just felt weird, while it had the potential to be a heart-wrenching scene. And honestly, Kane-san and Horikawa felt like secondary characters T-T I'd have been much more interested in THEIR dealing with their owner's death. I also think they didn't have great singers and their voices didn't really work together, even though I liked the songs. So this musical was more of a miss than a hit, for me. (But I liked the previous one so much it was hard to top.)

7. Top 3 (or more) favourite actors/actress of the year?

1) Rachi Shinji. I've developped a real appreciation for him after being initially put off. When I first saw the Bakumatsu Rock musical his voice was so different from anime Ryouma that I thought he couldn't sing... haha =_= It got better the more musicals I saw in this series, then I saw him in Sayonara Sorcier *o* He was so, so perfect for the role *o* Now I really want to see more of him ! 2) Kanda Airi. I was very impressed by her performance in Ribbon no Kishi, and then I saw her in Sailor Moon *o* She was more than amazing. She appeared late, but she was so at ease on stage ! She was very in character, very into her dancing and singing, and she felt much more experienced than the adult actresses. Honestly, it seemed so very natural for her to act, it was hard to look at anyone else ! (And I don't even like Chibi Moon that much so it's really impressive.) 3) Teruma. I think he's one of these few actors who can really change who they are when they play different characters. I just find that very impressive, and since I've been seeing more and more of him, I ended up noticing. He has really improved his singing, too ! (And he does play very different characters while you could expect him to have a type XD)

8. Top 3 (or more) rookie actors/rising actors whom you’ve high hopes for in the future? ... I usually follow actors I know so that means they already have a career XD But let's try !

1) Takano Akira, Toumyu's Hizamaru. He's not exactly a newbie as he's done a number of things, but mostly in 2016 so I guess it counts. I've only seen him in Shinken Ranbu Sai 2017 (I'll see the actual musical in January), but I was SO IMPRESSED. Honestly, despite the huge cast and lots of other actors and characters I loved, he managed to stand out ! His acting was great, his dancing JUST AMAZING, and he was so into his role, it was a pleasure to watch. 2) Ooyabu Taka. I only saw him as Marui in the 3rd season Tenimyu Seigaku vs Rikkai, but my goodness he was perfect. Probably the best Marui so far, definitely one of the best and most charismatic actors of the musical ! It's not even a character I care about much so I'm not biased, and I did hear other people talk excitedly about how good he was. I don't think I'll be closely following his career, but I'm definitely interested in seeing more of him ! 3) Sakiyama Tsubasa. He has been in a number of plays for the past 3-4 years, but I think it's only recently (thanks to Toumyu) that his popularity skyrocketed. The more I watch him the more I like him, and he's one of the very few people who made me buy their CD, so that says something ! I definitely want to see more of him in the future !

9. Top 3 (or more) favourite butai/musical related drama/movie of the year? The original question said it could be a drama that has a butai adaptation or an unrelated drama with butai actors in it (who made us want to watch it). The thing is... I don't watch that many dramas ? Not anymore, at least. When I like a butai actor I like to see what other butai they're in XD There's always tokusatsu, but it's not ONLY for the actors. Oh well, let's try...

1) Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters. Amazing show. Predictable, but everything made me feel good, from the characters to the plot. It was on my list because of Matsumoto Hiroya and Baba Ryouma <3 (Then I realised Jinnai Shou was in it too !)(Now that I think about it they happen to play my favourite characters...) 2) Yowamushi Pedal. It was one example listed in the original question so it feels weird to answer that, but it's true. From the preview I didn't think it'd be anything worthy of note, but it's actually so, so well done. Even the bike races. And the cast is just so good, I love how they play the characters. 3) Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger. A bit cliché, but I loved it. The main characters were great, the villains too, and I love dinosaurs. And I decided to watch it because of Saitou Shuusuke !

(Yeah that's two sentai but honestly I've already gone through all the Kamen Riders that have butai actors in it...)

10. Top 3 (or more) actors/actress that you think have the best singing voice? Now that's very unfair and I can't do it XD Why I like someone’s singing depends on so many things, and I may not like everything that person sings... But I decided to answer these questions so I WILL >< (This will be more like "hey I consistently like these people singing" rather than "they're objectively the best singers")

1) Katou Kazuki. He was amazing in Tenimyu, I actually listened to his original songs when he released a CD, and when I heard him recently I thought he had improved AGAIN O_O I don't think there's any limit to how good he can get. (And I love deep voices like his.) 2) Kimeru. Such a powerful voice. I think he can sing anything and make it awesome. He's sometimes a bit over the top, but I love listening to him. 3) Sakiyama Tsubasa. When I first heard him in Toumyu I wasn't convinced, but he's improved so fast ! I love his calm and soothing voice <3

(4th place is for Rachi Shinji because my god just like Kimeru he has such a powerful and beautiful voice *o* Just... less my style.) (And I'd like to mention Spi somewhere because while I haven't yet seen Mihotose no Komoriuta, I was SO IMPRESSED by his singing in Shinken Ranbu Sai 2017 he deserves a spot. His singing was amazing.)

11. A (or more) butai/musical that you didn’t initially love, but has/have grown on you?

Bakumatsu Rock (the first one). It was such a shock to transition from anime to stage, I didn't take it well. The seiyuu are pretty amazing, and the musical tried to have actors with very different voices try to sing like the seiyuu... and it doesn't work at all. After re-watching the musical, though, I got a better appreciation for the actors’ singing. It's not that they're bad, they're just made to sing things that were not made for them^^ And some songs are still pretty good despite that ! And in later musicals I think they better adapted the music.

12. Top 3 (or more) anime/manga/game that you would love to see being adapted into a butai/musical in the future?

1) Anything by CLAMP ? I mean, why is there no Card Captor Sakura musical ? It would be perfect. Or Wish !! Wish would be so cute. Or Clover *o* (Honestly any manga works. Even the 'heavier' ones like X or RG Veda. These two would have amazing group songs *o*) 2) I'm not sure I'd "love" it but honestly after three Tenimyu seasons it's time to be brave and adapt New Prince of Tennis. 3) I haven't seen it yet but when I read the question I immediately thought "Ballroom e youkoso needs an adaptation" XD

13. Top 3 (or more) favourite fandom on the year?

1) Tenimyu is still a pure and amazing fandom. Honestly seeing people still passionate about it nearly fifteen years later amazes me. 2) Touken Ranbu fans are very impressive, collecting so much information and following every single actor's other projects XD 3) The Hakumyu fandom sprang back into existence, it seems XD With motivated people sharing and subbing. I'm glad to see the fandom is still alive and happy despite the lack of new musicals.

14. How long have you been in the 2.5D fandom? Honestly I wouldn't consider myself "in the fandom" these days... I interacted with other fans much more when I was younger, and then there was a period when my interest in butai faded. But if we count from the first time I got involved... it's been about 13 years.

15. Lastly, what is your overall opinion of the 2.5D fandom so far? As I said, I'm not really "in" it so it's more like an outside opinion...? Honestly, I feel that now that buying and sharing DVDs is so easy, the fandom has grown so big it has become difficult to really interact with people ? Maybe I just don't put enough effort in it, though XD But having so many fans with different interests mean it's more difficult to find someone who matches your interests who is also interested in talking to you specifically while there are so many other fans out there. (But yeah, maybe it's just me. I used to be in small French fandoms, maybe I'm just not cut out for big international ones.)

And yet it amazes me how much people help each other : getting tickets, getting goodies, subbing... (Like, SUBBING ?? When I was younger I never thought about anyone ever subbing butai, fansubs were something anime fans did, I never considered it could apply to butai too XD So I'm always in awe when people sub butai.)

[ihopeyourewell-blog]

Dear Harvey Weinstein,

Dear Harvey Weinstein,

It would be so easy to simply write “eat shit and die, you bag of ass” and that be my entire letter to you, but I’ve got a lot to say. I think every woman can pinpoint the first time they became an object in someone’s eyes, that moment they went from being a carefree girl to being a thing that people could objectify. I say "people" to be inclusive, but we all know I am mostly talking about men.

For me, it was at my aunt’s wedding when I was 13 years old. It was the February of 7th grade and my family had flown to Arizona for the nuptials. I wore a simple scoop neck, black dress with a cream cardigan and 2 inch heeled sandals. I straightened my hair and bobby pinned a section in the front straight back because it was 2004 and I was trendy AF. I wore fake pearl earrings from Claire’s and a little bit of eyeliner. I had braces, alternating red and pink banded braces for Valentine’s Day; yes, I used to coordinate the color of my braces with whatever holiday was happening, as I mentioned I was #TrendyAF. After the ceremony we headed into the cocktail hour. It was only a 50 or so person wedding, consisting mostly of family, but there were a few people that I did not know. As I was waiting at the bar for a Sprite with extra ice, I met a couple who somehow knew my aunt. They were older than my aunt, maybe in their 50s at the time (also I was 13 and thought everyone past the age of 26 was ancient, so they very well could have been 38, but in my early teenage eyes they were practically Jurassic). They asked me how old I was, and when I told them they both seemed shocked. The woman said “wow, you look so much older than that!” Really bitch? I have BRACES! The man then said “I feel bad for your parents, you’re going to be trouble if you already look like this.” And I kind of just laughed and walked away, because while my parents taught me to not get in a car with strangers, or to tell them if an adult touched me in my bathing suit areas, no one really teaches their daughters how to handle casual objectification at their aunt’s wedding.

When I was 16 years old I was on a mission trip with my church. It was my second summer doing the trip and I was excited to be back with my best friends doing volunteer work that I truly loved doing. I loved helping to rebuild houses for those in need. I loved building ramps that helped handicapped people get into their homes easier. I loved sleeping on air mattresses with my best friends in the basement of a rec center. I hated how much we had to pray. But looking back, what I should have hated most of all was the full grown adult trip leader who requested to have me on all of his sites, gave me special attention, and on the last night of the trip waited outside of the bathroom while I brushed my teeth and told me that he wished I was older, because he was in love with me. A man in his thirties waited outside of a rec center bathroom to tell me, a 16 year old girl, that he was in love with me. I stood there in shock while holding a Spongebob Squarepants toothbrush and a travel sized tube of Crest. Again. I just kind of laughed it off when I told my friends because, while we were given a packing list for the trip, and were taught how to use power tools, we were not taught how to handle a grown man who was in charge confessing his love.

Do you want me to go on? Or have the stories from the women you've abused been enough for you this week? Every woman I know could fill a book with stories of harassment and abuse they have experienced. We could fill the pages with comments that have been yelled at us by strangers, quietly said to us by co-workers, or casually thrown around by friends. It is a terrifying thing that connects all women. When I think about the men who say and do these awful things, when I think about you, it makes me wonder if you have ever loved or respected a woman. Have you ever even liked a woman? Your daughters, maybe? How could you respect ANY woman when you have abused so many? I don’t care about how many great movies you have helped make. I don’t care about how many careers you have launched, just like I don’t care about how great of a swimmer Brock Turner was, or *insert Donald Trump accomplishment here*, you are all PIECES OF SHIT WHO ARE BAD TO WOMEN.

Sometimes I think about what my life would be like if I were a man. Oh my god, things would be so easy! Actually maybe my life would be exactly the same but I could breathe normally when my Lyft driver pulls away before I open the door to my apartment building when it’s dark outside. How cool it must be to an actor in Hollywood! To walk into a meeting with you and not be worried that you were going to invite me into your hotel room and to watch you masturbate into a plant while showering. To be able to pursue my dreams and not worry about having to politely dodge a kiss from you in hopes of being cast in a film. What luxury! But not a luxury that Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd, Cara Delevingne, Rosanna Arquette and so many others experienced. Also the women I have pointed out are just the richest, whitest and most successful of your victims. I can’t imagine how many women there are who don’t have the platform or career security to feel comfortable coming forward against a man as powerful as you. How many women did you abuse that didn’t end up getting the roles? Hundreds?

But, I mean, I guess I can’t blame you because you grew up in the 60s and 70s, and that type of behavior was acceptable. Being subjected to your boss jacking off into a plant at a restaurant was as common as bell bottoms and new episodes of The Brady Bunch, you know, just part of the 70s baby!!! OH WAIT! No it fucking isn’t! Growing up in a certain decade doesn’t excuse you for your sexual abuse. Growing up in a different decade doesn’t excuse you for your sexism. Growing up in a different decade doesn’t excuse anyone for racism, or homophobia, or transphobia, or anything fucking else. The only thing growing up in a different decade “excuses you from” is a bad sense of fashion and not being able to name the Kardashians in age order. Growing up in a different decade is never an excuse for being an absolute sack of shit. Repeating the phrase “locker room talk” doesn’t excuse the President of the country for talking about grabbing women by their pussies. You may have voted against him, but you’re no better than him, Harvey- remember that. Everyone needs to be speaking out against you in the same way everyone spoke out against Donald Trump. It is our job as humans to denounce the actions and words of perverts. I don’t care who you voted for, who you donated to- you. are. scum. Being liberal doesn’t pardon you from being a repulsive waste of space.

I, like most women, was not shocked to hear this about you. I am never shocked to find out a man has harassed women. I’m actually shocked when I find out a man is good, only to hear a story from another woman weeks later about something shitty he did to her. So many of you suck, and those of you who don’t personally suck cover up for dudes who do suck (@AllMenInHollywood) which ultimately means they also suck. Vicious circle, huh? And not all women are great, I’ll admit that. Seeing women like Lindsay Lohan and Donna Karan come to your defense is disgusting, because I expect men to not believe women, but women not believing women is soul crushing. But you know what, Harvey? I doubt I am going to see an article about Nancy Meyers masturbating in front of Jude Law at Nobu Malibu while discussing his role in The Holiday. That’s a special thing only men, like you, do. I have so much more to say to you, but I am busy trying to help fix the world, so I guess I’ll just say eat shit and die you bag of ass. Huh, guess I could have just gone with that from the start! I don’t hope you’re well.

Fuck off,

Jacqueline Felker

[dustchest09-blog]

Walmart heiress Paige Laurie splurges with a $40+ million Beverly Hills (Post Office) purchase

Ready for this one? Fasten them safety belts.

Although the sale has not yet officially recorded in public records, Yolanda has now heard from three different little birdies that there’s a monstrous and very hush-hush deal going down in the mountains above Beverly Hills, in an area known as Beverly Hills Post Office (BHPO).

The property involved is a wildly uber-contemporary compound. Spec-built in 2016 by a developer named John Saca, the manse was hoisted onto the market with an arrhythmia-inducing $48 million asking price. The following year — March 2017, to be exact — the estate was sold for a discounted $38,500,000 to Scottish billionaire Sir Tom Hunter. Truth be told, Yolanda ain’t sure if Sir Tom ever actually moved into the residence, as the house was quickly made available for lease at an are-you-kidding-me rate of $450,000/month before being yanked off the market.

Anyway, Birdie #1 — let’s call her Laurel N. Hardy — chirped that the house is about to be resold to “one of those Walmart people“. Birdie #2, Ollie Oxenfree, squawked that the deal is already done-done-done and the buyer is Walmart heiress Paige Laurie. And Birdie #3, Marco Polo, confirmed the buyer is Ms. Laurie and blabbed that the deal secretly closed “a few days ago“.

Since the transaction has not yet made it into records, Yolanda does not know exactly how much Ms. Laurie is paying for her outrageous new compound. But Mr. Polo told us the house went for “over $40 million“. And our Mr. Oxenfree whispered “low 40s“. So there y’all have it. We shall wait and see.

Y’all, this is a very big deal. Should the alleged $40+ million purchase price prove correct, it will not only be the most ever paid for a house in the so-called Crest Streets — a desirable section of BHPO — our research indicates it will also rank as the most ever paid for a house in all of BHPO. It’s bigger than any transaction ever recorded in ultra-exclusive Beverly Park, in fact.

Paige Laurie

36-year-old Ms. Laurie is a grand-niece of Sam Walton, founder of the whole Walmart shebang. She’s also the granddaughter of his business partner (and younger brother) Bud Walton, and the only child of Bud’s younger daughter Nancy Walton Laurie. With Walmart stock currently at a near-record high, Forbes says Mrs. Walton Laurie’s net worth has soared to lofty new levels  — $5.7 billion, to be exact.

Moreover, it’s also long been held that the Waltons are the wealthiest family in all the world. Their unfathomable collective fortune, y’all, is conservatively estimated at somewhere between $150 billion and $175 billion. And yes, that’s billion with a capital “B”. They’re richer than Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, the Koch brothers. Everyone on the planet.

As for Paige, she is best-known for owning Malibu’s Trancas Country Market. She purchased the quaint outfit in 2011 — when she was just a 29-year-old lass — and has since spent many millions to transform it into a major upscale shopping/dining destination for the seaside town. (In case y’all were wondering: Trancas was not damaged in the recent Woolsey Fire, though the flames did come close).

Ms. Laurie’s rustic-chic Trancas Country Market, Malibu

On the personal front, Ms. Laurie was born and raised in Columbia, Missouri, but she has primarily resided in Los Angeles since her 2004 graduation from USC. (Ms. Laurie would later return her USC diploma to the school, but that’s ancient history).

In 2008, Ms. Laurie got hitched in a lavish ceremony to local Missouri boy Bo Dubbert, her high school sweetheart. During their marriage, the couple resided in a contemporary Bird Streets residence. More on that place a bit later.

Ms. Laurie and her ex-hubby Bo Dubbert (left) at their Missouri wedding

Unfortunately, the dream marriage eventually morphed into a nightmare. After six years of wedded bliss, the couple were acrimoniously divorced in 2014 amid public accusations of cheatin’ and stealin’. To be specific, Mr. Dubbert claimed his wifey had a steamy affair. Our Ms. Laurie, no shrinking violet, called Mr. Dubbert’s accusations “baseless and pathetic” and alleged that he underhandedly siphoned huge sums of money out of her Malibu retail operation.

Although the couple had no children and Mr. Dubbert signed a very detailed prenup, he viciously fought for spousal support of nearly $250,000 per month (!!!). As TMZ eloquently put it, “[Paige’s] Hubby Won’t Settle For Top Ramen“. Indeed.

We hope Ms. Laurie tossed Bo a Gelson’s giftcard. A guy’s gotta eat! But let’s move on from that ugliness.

The extravagant structure — it’s sometimes described as a “modern barn”, but it’s really a glassy contemporary — is completely walled and gated for privacy and security. Set on a generous 1.03-acre (mostly) flat lot, the complex is centered around a 210-foot, boomerang-shaped infinity pool. (It’s basically like two “regular” pools in one). A huge grassy lawn provides ample space for hosting an outdoor charity luncheon, playing with the dogs, a quick polo match (?), etc.

Total living square footage here is somewhere around 15,000 — spread between the 4-bed main house and the 2-bed guesthouse. We’re not sure why a single, child-free lady like Ms. Laurie needs (or wants) so much space. But if you got it, flaunt it. Right?

The sprawling manor goes for all the wows with an open floorpan laced with marble, exotic hardwoods, and walls of glass. A main living area has two giant double-sided fireplaces that effectively separate the formal living area from the dining and library sections. A chic kitchen has every high-end appliance known to mankind and plenty of bar-style seating for casual dining.

The sumptuous 2,200-square-foot master suite — that’s bigger than many American homes, FYI — includes a bedroom with sitting area, a starkly minimalist bathroom with soaking tub and party-sized shower. Walls of glass flood the place with light and overlook a large swath of the LA basin.

There’s a 22-seat theater, a humongous wine closet, and a separate “entertainment pavilion”, whatever that is. Oh, and somewhere there’s also an 850-square-foot home art gallery. At the time of Sir Tom’s purchase, the gallery was stocked with name-brand contemporary art by Picasso, Warhol and Damien Hirst, all available for purchase separately from the home. (No word on whether Sir Tom actually bought any of the works, however).

Anyway, it’s not particularly surprising that Ms. Laurie would be in the mood for a new residence. After all, she still resides in her once-happy marital home over in the Bird Streets. It’s high time she rid herself of that bad ju-ju and began afresh with a new swingin’ single lady pad.

Ms. Laurie’s Bird Streets nest – bought from Spidey in 2007

Records show that way back in 2007 — when she was a wee lass of 25 — Ms. Laurie paid a very grown-up $10,800,000 for the contemporary casa of Spiderman actor Tobey Maguire. She then spent a whole ton of moolah on renovations before moving into the pad, where she has remained ensconced ever since. One of our informants told us that Ms. Laurie has been looking for a residential upgrade “for years” but didn’t find the perfect home until she finally viewed the Sir Tom estate.

Ms. Laurie’s “starter” house has an infinity-edged pool, 4,704-square-feet of living space, and is situated on the primo “front row” of the neighborhood — a ridgeline named for the unobstructed, jetliner views of the LA basin it provides.

Yolanda fully expects that Ms. Laurie will soon sell her Birds nest, which happens to be right next door to a $31.5 million teardown/development site owned by French billionaire Bernard Arnault. But we digress.

Nancy Walton Laurie’s Bel Air compound (in red)

Meanwhile, Ms. Laurie’s parents — Bill and Nancy Walton Laurie — currently reside on one of East Gate Bel Air‘s largest compounds. The ever-expanding estate currently includes more than 9 acres of land spread across no fewer than 12 contiguous parcels. And we think the property may be worth something close to $100 million at this point.

The Walton Laurie family

Just for giggles, Mrs. Walton Laurie was famously involved in a nasty feud with her next-door neighbor, controversial developer Mohamed Hadid. Back in 2015, she sued him, furiously alleging that his construction cut off the water supply to her “cherished eucalyptus tree” and demanded $90,000 in damages. Must’ve been one nice tree! (RIP).

Sir Tom Hunter’s agent: Denise Moreno, Hilton & Hyland Paige Laurie’s agent: Michael Collins, Coldwell Banker

Source: http://www.yolandaslittleblackbook.com/blog/2018/12/05/paige-laurie-house-beverly-hills-mansion/

[attractive-asshole]

i see in blue and you see everything in red

title: i see in blue and you see everything in red pairing: baeksoo length: oneshot (3K+ w) rating: pg-13 genre: angst  warnings: broken!baeksoo

Divorced Couple Shares Each Side Of Their Love Story

a/n: based on this video, this was word vomit written at like 1am so yeah please excuse any mistakes or whatever lol (sorry for the cliche ending but the whole thing’s kinda cliche so lolol)

aff / ao3 / lj or click keep reading

September 9, 2017

Divorced Couple Shares Each Side Of Their Love Story

“Can you guys start off by saying your name and age?”

“Do Kyungsoo, 34”

“Byun Baekhyun, 34”

What was your first impression?

Baekhyun’s side >>>>>

“We were in college, I worked at this one coffee shop near campus that everyone would go to and we’d have an open mic night every Friday. Kyungsoo was a friend of my coworker and he came in to sing something. I had seen him around campus once or twice, never really thought about him much since he was usually really quiet and kept to himself,” Baekhyun lightly laughed, “But when he started singing I was so shocked, he had such a beautiful and smooth voice and it completely swept me off my feet. I had been singing for a while too, but when I heard him that night I wished I had a voice like that.”

“I feel like he didn’t really like me when I first started talking to him, I’m not really subtle with my flirting so it probably scared him a little,” he chuckled, “but eventually, he gave into my charm and we really hit it off.”

Kyungsoo’s side <<<<<

“It was back in college. He worked in a coffee shop that my friend worked at and he had told me to come perform something for open mic night because I like to sing. I remember him coming up to be after the performance and I didn’t tell him this at the time, but I thought he was really cute. He looked so happy and excited to talk to me. The way his eyes lit up when he spoke about my singing was what attracted me to him, I think. He was so different from me, that’s what scared me I think. I knew I could fall for him easily, but I guess I didn’t really want to, cause I knew we were too different. He was really outgoing and made friends so easily, everyone loved him, I wasn’t like that. But I couldn’t say no to him and eventually we started going out.”

December 23, 2001

Baekhyun doesn’t know why he agreed to work today, he still has so much to do to prepare for Christmas. The shop is packed, he doesn’t know why everyone would want to spend the day before Christmas Eve at a small coffee shop, figures people would be hurrying to the stores to buy last minute gifts, but here they are. The bright side was that it’s extremely warm inside, despite the three feet of snow and the biting winter air outside. It’s  open mic night again and Chanyeol’s  been waiting for it all day, said he and his friend were suppose to perform something they had been practicing all week for, even brought his old guitar and everything.

~

Baekhyun recognizes Kyungsoo’s face from around campus. Those big eyes and thick lips were hard things to forget. They had never actually talked before, Kyungsoo was always alone whenever Baekhyun had seen him, always sitting under the shade of a tree with a book in his hand or sitting by himself at a table in the library. He’s the last person Baekhyun expected to walk through the doors of the shop that night.

“I didn’t know he could sing.”

Chanyeol pauses his ministrations of tuning his guitar to look up at the boy on the stage adjusting the mic.  “Kyungsoo? Oh yeah he’s amazing, we always jam out together on the weekends.”

Baekhyun hums in acknowledgement, watching the other as he stood awkwardly on stage waiting for Chanyeol to come up.

~

Kyungsoo’s voice is warm, thick but smooth honey, Baekhyun thinks, warming him up better than the hot chocolate he had in his mug. The entire shop is quiet, everyone’s attention on the two on stage and it was Kyungsoo that captivated them all. Chanyeol was right, he was amazing. There’s a fluttery feeling in pit of Baekhyun’s stomach that he can’t quite ignore as he listens to the singer, his voice tickling  it’s way down his spine, sending chills throughout his entire body. Maybe he’s being dramatic, Baekhyun thinks, but he was in love.

~

“Wow, Chanyeol was right, you’re amazing.” Baekhyun leans in closer so the other could hear him better over the chattering of everyone in the shop.

Baekhyun is all smiles and cute droopy eyes, Kyungsoo doesn’t think he’s ever seen him before, he was pretty sure he’d remember a face like that.

Kyungsoo smiles back, a light pink dusting at the apples of his cheeks. “Thanks.”

“Seriously, your voice is so nice. I’d marry it if I could,” Baekhyun chuckles, his eyes curving into little crescents and Kyungsoo thinks he wouldn’t mind waking up to those everyday.

Kyungsoo can’t stop the tingling feeling in the pit of the stomach as Baekhyun laughs. He forces himself to keep his eyes on the other’s eyes when he catches him glancing toward his pink lips, unconsciously smiling when noticing the little mole.

If it was for Baekhyun, Kyungsoo thinks maybe, he wouldn’t mind singing all night long.

Most embarrassing thing he’s done?

Kyungsoo’s side <<<<<

“Hmmm, there’s been a lot actually,” Kyungsoo gave the other a smile small, “The most memorable time I think is this one time when I visited him at work and I was just sitting there watching him make coffee and whatnot. He was chewing gum and trying to sing along to this song on the radio, he always does that he loves singing no matter where he’s at, and he accidentally swallowed his gum and started choking so of course I run to him trying to help him and then he finally spits it out and it lands into this customer’s coffee who was sitting at the bar in front of him.” He took a second to laugh to himself, earning him a curious smile from the other.

“It was so awkward and Baekhyun was so embarrassed but I couldn’t help but laugh. I would always tease about it, even now.”

What was the relationship like?

Baekhyun’s side >>>>>

“Well we’re really different from each other, I was more affectionate like physically. I’d always be the one to cling onto him while he was doing homework or something or wanting to kiss and hold hands in public and he was always more shy about it so when we first started dating I kinda thought like oh shit maybe he doesn’t like me as much as I like him, but then as time went on I just realized he wasn’t the kind of the person that showed love like that and I could still tell he loved me you know? He has something about him that made me feel safe and protected, even though he didn’t always say it, I could tell he loved me. Like whenever he called me from work to make sure I ate or the way he’d pull me closer whenever we walked on the sidewalk and cars were driving by fast. I just knew he really cared.”

Kyungsoo’s side <<<<<

“There’s never a dull moment with Baekhyun. He was something I didn’t know I needed in my life, he’s just this ball of energy that I never got tired of. My friends would always look at us and say ‘Wow Kyungsoo’s never gone out with someone like you before, you guys are like opposites’ We always thought it was funny, because it was true, but Baekhyun just a quality about him that made me feel different you know? In a good way, of course. He was just always there to remind me not to be so serious all the time and even though he loves to joke around he could tell when I was having a bad day even though I didn’t say it. He just always knew what to say and do. I’ve never had anyone like him before in my life.”

February 14, 2004

Kyungsoo comes home to a smoke filled apartment, he quickly dropped his belongings and runs inside to see what was going on. He finds his boyfriend running around the kitchen with a baking pan full of what looked to be burnt cookies, though he wasn’t sure.

“Baek, are you okay?” he asked, concern evident in his voice.

The other nearly drops the tray when he sees Kyungsoo, his eyes immediately welling up and before Kyungsoo could do anything, he drops the tray onto the counter and bursts into tears.

He quickly runs to his distressed boyfriend, taking him into his arms and holding in him tight. “Hey, hey what’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

“I-I wanted to surprise you with dinner since it’s V-Valentine’s day,” Baekhyun hiccups through sobs, “But I ruined everything and everything is burnt and Valentine’s day is ruined! I’m sorry I shouldn’t have done anything, now our kitchen is a mess and we don’t have dinner or anything. It was suppose be a special night.”

Kyungsoo sighs, an endearing smile on his face as he wipes the flour off the other’s cheek with his thumb before pressing a soft kiss onto his lips.

“Hey come on, stop crying it’s okay. Thanks for trying to surprise me, I really appreciate it.”

The other wipes his tear stained cheeks with his sleeves, lips pulled into a pout as he looks at his boyfriend. “Y-You do?”

Kyungsoo helps wipes away the tears running down his face and pulls his head into his chest. “Of course you idiot, I love you.”

“I love you too.”

>>>>>Both sides<<<<<

“It’s been so long since I’ve sat down and thought about all the good times we’ve had,” Baekhyun said, a small smile on his face.

“Yeah, it’s definitely...nostalgic, remembering all the dumb stuff you’ve done.”

A playful pout pulled at the other’s lips as he lifted up a leg to gently kick Kyungsoo’s shin.

“Yah you better not be telling them my embarrassing stories.”

“Too late.”

How did the relationship progress?

Kyungsoo’s side <<<<<

“I think for the first four years, we were still in like the honeymoon stage. Everything was good. We ended getting married right after college and I think it was just too fast and we were still too young and that was when things started getting rough.”

Baekhyun’s side >>>>>

“It was really good at first, we were like the typical perfect couple in romance movies,” he chuckled, “But then after we got married was probably when things got more complicated.”

“We were just too young and dumb I think,” he said with a sad smile on his face.

>>>>>Both sides<<<<<

“We definitely…weren’t ready for marriage,” Kyungsoo said.

Baekhyun lightly laughed, nodding his head. “Yeah I think we just rushed into it too fast especially since we had just graduated and we barely knew what the real world was like and we didn’t realize how hard it would be.”

“Yeah we were probably a little too naive, thinking that marriage was going to be this perfect, easy thing like it was in movies.”

How did it end?

Baekhyun’s side >>>>>

“Well the first couple years were fine, we were still living in our tiny apartment. But then we wanted to move out, get an actual house and everything was just a mess. Work started getting in the way of everything, we never really saw each other anymore. I always told him he was working too much and he’d always just brush me off, I knew he was working hard to support us but it was hard you know? I felt  like we weren’t really in it together anymore.”

Kyungsoo’s side <<<<<

“Looking back it, I definitely think it was my fault. I was never really good at expressing my thoughts and feelings and when we hit the rough patch, the communication wasn’t there and now that I look back I put Baekhyun through a lot of pain that he didn’t deserve. Everyone always called us the perfect couple and we both knew we weren’t. I think the pressure to keep up this act being super in love and happy was just too much and I ended up working a lot to cope with it all and I was just never home anymore. Baekhyun had tried to talk to me so many times and I was just too stupid to make things work.”

>>>>>Both sides<<<<<

“It was really hard for me to get you to talk about what was going on,” Baekhyun explained, looking at the other in the eyes, “I felt like you never really wanted to acknowledge the problem I had to keep it in and deal with everything myself. I should’ve tried harder to fix things and I regret that the most.”

Kyungsoo slowly nodded as Baekhyun spoke, hands in his lap playing with the hem of his sweater.

October 13, 2009

“Maybe,” Baekhyun sighs, “Maybe this isn’t working anymore.”

The silence between them is almost suffocating.

It’s been a week since they’ve had dinner together, with every night ending with Baekhyun sitting alone at the dinner table waiting for Kyungsoo to come home so they could eat together and every night ending with him receiving a text informing him that husband wasn’t coming home that night. Things shouldn’t be like this, Baekhyun thinks, marriage shouldn’t be like this.

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo says quietly as he picks at his steak with his fork, “I know.”

How did you become friends again?

Baekhyun’s side <<<<<

“It was definitely awkward for a while,” he lightly laughed, “But we still had a lot of mutual friends and we started seeing each other more often and things slowly became better and we started talking more and actually became friends. We both liked music and singing so we bonded a lot over that.”

What’s it like now?

Kyungsoo’s side >>>>>

“It’s...good now, we’re definitely not the best of friends,” he joked, “But we talk normally when we see each other like old friends meeting up and it’s never awkward when we hang out with a group of friends.”

Is there something you’d like to tell him?

Baekhyun’s side <<<<<

“That I really value our friendship and I don’t ever regret marrying him even though things didn’t work out. He was the longest relationship I ever had and I’ll always cherish the memories we made together and that I’m glad he’s still in my life now.”

Kyungsoo’s side >>>>>

“That I should’ve treated him better. He the kindest person I’ve ever met and he didn’t deserve everything I put him through. I should’ve been there more, I should communicated better, I should’ve been the support he needed instead of being selfish and stupid and letting him deal with everything on his own. I should tried harder to fix things.”

May 24, 2015

“Hey isn’t that...?” Chanyeol points to the man wearing a blue sweater standing at the cash register waiting for his order to be taken.

Kyungsoo’s heart skips a beat at the sight of the other.

“Oh,” Kyungsoo breathes out, “Yeah.”

Baekhyun’s always loved that sweater, he would wear it all the time when they were still together. He forces himself to look away and turns his attention down at the mug in his hand. Chanyeol gives him an apologetic look, maybe he shouldn’t have pointed him out. “You gonna be okay?” Chanyeol asks, reaching across the table to give the other’s shoulder a gentle squeeze.

“It’s been years, of course I’m gonna be okay,” Kyungsoo lightly chuckles before taking a sip of his coffee.

“I know,” the other sighs, “But, maybe you should talk to him.”

“We do talk.”

“You know what I mean,” Chanyeol sighs, “You should tell him you still love him. It’s been years, both of have you grown and matured maybe it could work?”

Kyungsoo watches as Baekhyun takes his drinks from the barista with a smile and walks through the doors to meet up with a tall man waiting for him outside. He watches as Baekhyun smiles up at the man before stands up on his tippy toes to press a chaste kiss on the other’s lips. Kyungsoo tries his best to ignore the ache in his heart as he watches them walk away down the street, hand in hand, tries his best to keep a straight face even though he feels like throwing up.

“He’s happy now, Chanyeol. I don’t want to ruin that for him.”

Biggest regrets?

>>>>>Both sides<<<<<

“What I regret most...was probably not trying harder to get you to talk so we could work things out, I should’ve been better at vocalizing my thoughts,” Baekhyun said.

“For me, it was not treating you right, I should been a better husband. One that you deserved and needed.”

“Well damn, next time,” Baekhyun joked with a snap of his fingers.

They both laugh in their seats before giving each other a quick hug and thanking the interviewers  and going their separate ways.

~

December 10, 2017

The shops’s packed today. It’s been so long since Kyungsoo’s been back here, back to where they first met. A strong wave of nostalgia hits him as he stands in line, looking around their old hangout spot. Not much has changed, he notes, the same old floral couch is still there and by the look of the sign on the wall it seems like they still do open mic nights, except they’re on Saturdays now.

“Hey, Kyungsoo?”

He whips his head around to the familiar voice.

“Oh, hey.”

Baekhyun is still all smiles and cute droopy eyes, even after sixteen years.

“What are you doing here?” Kyungsoo asks, he catches himself looking at Baekhyun’s lips and mentally curses himself.

“Getting coffee duh.” Baekhyun playfully rolls his eyes. Kyungsoo forgot how much misses Baekhyun’s sass and obnoxious, but cute personality.

“I mean back in the city, you idiot,” the other scoffs, “Didn’t you move?”

“Yeah but me and Sehun are visiting my parents for the whole month, you know, for Christmas and whatnot.”

Kyungsoo slightly tenses up at the mention of Sehun. “Right, right. How’s it going between you two?”

He doesn’t know why he asked, he really doesn’t want to know.

“We’re good, my mom keeps asking when we’re getting married but I’m not even sure if he wants to get married, not sure if he can deal with all this,” he jokes.

“He’d be lucky to married to a guy like you,” Kyungsoo says, trying his hardest to give the other a sincere a smile.

Baekhyun doesn’t hesitate to return it with a big smile of his own, Kyungsoo can feel his heart racing in his chest.

“Thanks, Kyungsoo.”

“Well I better get going, Sehun’s waiting for his hot chocolate, I swear he’s a kid,” Baekhyun laughs, “I’ll uhm see you around?”

Kyungsoo doesn’t want him to leave just yet, he doesn’t want him to go back home to Sehun, he wants them to pick off where they left off.

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo says, “See you around.”

But he knows that can’t happen.

The other gives him one final wave before slipping out the door and disappearing into the crowd of people on the street.

Maybe in their next life, Kyungsoo thinks, they could have their happy ending.

[thisdaynews]

Katherine Legge: The woman who ‘had to fight and claw' her way into motorsport

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/katherine-legge-the-woman-who-had-to-fight-and-claw-her-way-into-motorsport/

Katherine Legge: The woman who ‘had to fight and claw' her way into motorsport

Media playback is not supported on this device

The car doesn’t know the difference between male and female drivers – Legge

In the reception of a nondescript Northampton office block, a young woman sits and waits. It’s a rare moment of quiet for someone used to the thrilling speed of the racing track.

The woman is Katherine Legge, the year is 2004 and the office is the UK headquarters of Cosworth. Legge is, in her own words, “stalking” Kevin Kalkhoven, Cosworth boss and owner of the United States’ biggest racing franchises: Indy Car, Champ Car and Atlantic Series.

At 23 years old and with almost 15 years of driving behind her, Legge had run out of money and was struggling for sponsorship. She feared her dream of being a racing driver was coming to an end.

She was refusing to leave – until she got a meeting with Kalkhoven – so Kalkhoven sent his daughter Kirsty out to get rid of her. After a short conversation Kirsty went back to her father and said: “You ought to meet this person, there’s something different about her.”

In a sport where fine margins and money make the wheels go round, this was Legge’s sliding doors moment. Kalkhoven offered her a chance to compete in the first three races of the Atlantic Series that season.

Looking back now Legge says: “That was the first time I’ve driven a car full-time in anything. It was the first time I’d had such a big, heavy, powerful car. The first race was Long Beach and I won that.”

Victory in her debut race. She would go on to win three of her first six races that season. As she says now: “The rest is history, and I think the moral of the story is tenacity.”

Legge on the starting grid early in her go-karting days

Legge’s journey into racing started almost by chance. After seeing an advert in the local paper for a go-kart track near her home in Guildford, the self-described tomboy and adrenaline junkie nagged her father Derek to take her. Eventually he relented, and her obsession with motorsport began.

“I just loved it,” she says. “The first race I won, I was nine years old. They give you the flag to carry and I wasn’t strong enough to carry it!”

Her pace, however, was not in doubt. She progressed through the same ranks as many Formula 1 hopefuls, coming up against young talents such as Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton and, on occasion, beating them.

Legge was making a name for herself, but the idea of forging a career in the sport seemed a distant dream. “I didn’t know I was going to be a racing driver. I didn’t even know that it was possible because at that time there really weren’t any females doing it.”

She looked for inspiration outside of motorsport.

“Ellen MacArthur – do you remember how she used sail around the world single-handed? I looked up to people like that and I thought if they can do that then I can be a race car driver.”

But the further she progressed, the harder it became to find funding. She was beginning to realise how much of a challenge it was just to make it into the car.

“I wasn’t one of these people who had a rich family and was handed it on a plate, but I’m also grateful for that in a way because I think if it’s easy, then you don’t want it as much.

“I don’t know many people have driven the variety of things that I’ve driven, but then I had to fight and claw my way through racing, so I took every opportunity that was thrown my way.”

Media playback is not supported on this device

Katherine Legge crashes at Road America 2006

When Legge was breaking through, motorsport’s land of opportunity was the USA, and it was there her career took off. But chasing the highs of motorsport brings huge risks.

In 2006, she was racing at Road America in Wisconsin when a mechanical failure caused her to lose control entering a 180mph corner. The force of the crash caused her car to disintegrate in dramatic fashion.

Her dad, who rarely misses a race, was watching, gripped by fear.

“I’m not religious, but I was just praying to any god that would listen that Katherine would just be alive,” he says.

Derek hasn’t spoken to the media about the accident since it happened, and his voice breaks as he recalls it.

“I thought she’d died…”

It took 15 minutes for him to discover that not only had his daughter survived, but she had somehow emerged with only bruises.

“It was one of the worst moments of my life and one of the best moments of my life. Literally within 15 minutes I was down in the depths and then elated.”

As for Legge, she said she would have finished the race if she could.

“It didn’t faze Katherine at all. She’s wired differently,” Derek says with a knowing smile.

Media playback is not supported on this device

‘Wear a sports bra’: A lap of Daytona with Katherine Legge

That 2006 crash had followed an uncertain time in Legge’s career. She had tested a Minardi F1 car the year before, but a shot at an F1 drive never materialised despite her ambition to race in the world’s most popular racing category.

Instead Legge’s is a career that reflects her assertion of having to fight for drives throughout motorsport – touring the world in search of work, a freelance racer for hire.

She competed in the German ‘DTM’ touring car championships from 2008 for two years, then spent two more years racing in the US Indycar series, taking part in the famous Indy 500 race. The following year saw her compete in the ever-more popular Formula E electric racing series – and a stint in the American Nascar series came in 2018.

But none has yielded the kind of success her early career suggested.

Fast-forward to January 2019 and Legge, 38, is lining up on the the grid for the iconic and gruelling 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race.

It’s an event she knows well having finished second in her class in 2018, but this year there is extra scrutiny. She is the lead driver in a ground-breaking all-female team.

“So far it’s been received by everybody really well because it’s being taken seriously. We have the best female drivers in the world. It’s not a gimmick. We’ve got a legitimate shot of winning.”

Legge was instrumental in recruiting Brazil’s Bia Figueiredo, Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro and Denmark’s Christina Nielsen to the line-up. All “bad-ass women”, according to Nielsen.

However, none of this would have been possible without the persistence of Jackie Heinricher, a former US Air Force Medic and successful businesswoman whose name shines proudly from the car they’ll be racing in.

As Heinricher runs her hand over the bonnet she says: “It’s an amazing feeling. We’ve worked for years to bring this whole effort together.

“Sponsorship is probably the hardest thing you can get in any sport let alone racing and let alone women. The door was slammed on me over and over for two years. This makes me feel like all that time paid off.”

The race begins well enough for the team, the first all-female line-up here since 1994.

For the first two stints of the race, driven by Figueredo and Nielsen, the team hold their own in a field that includes several former F1 stars and a sister team car driven by men.

Then comes Legge’s chance to shine. Considered the team captain for her experience and leadership off the track, she hauls the car up six places as night falls and fatigue begins to set in for all teams.

And then, drama. Legge tangles with one of the lead ‘prototype’ cars, sending them both on to the grass. Having lost several positions in the spin, a fired-up Legge claws her way up to third by the time she hands the car over to De Silvestro, wowing fans and commentators with her skill and determination.

Another milestone for the Daytona 24 changes everything. Halfway through the race – in the dead of night – torrential rain arrives, putting out the fans’ campsite fires and many teams’ hopes. For the first time in history the race is under threat of being ended early because of conditions.

Legge senses her chance to seize the initiative again. But this time her willingness to risk everything is punished.

Her car brushes the wall at speed, breaking the suspension and forcing Legge to limp back to the pits.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” comes the question over team radio, as mechanics frantically try to fix the damage. “I’m sorry,” is all an emotional Legge can muster in response.

The race is eventually called off around 10 minutes earlier than scheduled, and the team finishes 15th in their class.

“It hurts, but we gave it everything,” says Legge. “Once you’re done there’s nothing you can do. But we’ll keep fighting – we’ll never give up.”

Caterpillar Acura racing Daytona 24 Hours 2019: (l-r) Ana ‘Bia’ Beatriz Figueiredo, Katherine Legge, Simona de Silvestro, Christina Nielsen and Jackie Heinricher

It’s not difficult to find evidence of women attempting to blaze a trail in motorsport history. It’s just that each time a pioneer puts on a helmet, after the initial wave of publicity fades, so does the trail being blazed.

The presence of women in the cockpit began as early as the late 1920s, when Helle Nice drove in several races, including for an all-female team.

But only two women have actually contested a race in F1’s 69-year history. Maria Teresa de Filippis drove a Maserati during three grands prix in 1958, and Lella Lombardi qualified for 12 races across 1975 and 1976, with a highest finish of sixth at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix.

Several more have competed outside F1. One of the most high-profile female drivers away from the F1 paddock was rally star Michele Mouton, who won four World Championship rallies and was runner-up in the World Championship during the 1982 season for the all-conquering Audi team.

Mouton, arguably, provided the greatest inspiration for women in motorsport during her 12 years as a driver, and it’s a cause she has picked up again as head of the women in motorsport commission for the FIA, the sport’s governing body.

“It’s a pity we don’t have more female drivers, and it’s hard to tell what the targets are – we have to wait and see,” says Mouton.

“But we have initiatives in place to be working on the grassroots. It’s a difficult time for women in motorsport but we must increase the numbers at the bottom of the pyramid.

“There was no problem with sexism when I was in competition. Women need the passion – they need to be motivated.”

But is there a lack of wider support? Has modern-day sexism caused this shortfall?

The new all-women W Series can be viewed as a positive step to provide a platform for women in the sport, but it is not endorsed by the FIA, and for Legge the jury’s out.

“I think part of me is against it because I think you have to race against the best. So, in a way, I think it’s putting the spotlight on women in a negative connotation. Why segregate us? It’s one of the sports where men and women can compete on equal footing. So I think it’s a step backwards in that respect.

“Then I think, well, if I didn’t have the money and I wanted to go into racing and they’re offering this big purse, and then maybe if you shone there then you would get the opportunity that you wouldn’t have had necessarily… I can see that, too. It’s ‘tbc’ in my mind.”

Media playback is not supported on this device

Inside the Caterpillar GTD car with Katherine Legge

While Formula 1 is under new ownership which moved quickly to remove the ‘grid girls’ in favour of a more progressive side, some fear there not enough is being done to promote women drivers.

Despite Susie Wolff taking part in two practice sessions for Williams in 2014, Helmut Marko, a senior figure at the Red Bull team, recently said the “huge physical demands are maybe too difficult and too strenuous for women”.

Two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso believes women have been under-served until now, and says there is still work to do to establish a more permanent presence.

“There’s no reason why women could not succeed in Formula 1 or motorsport in general, and there are more and more coming. I think in future it will balance much more than we see now and that’s what we all hope.

“[Katherine Legge] is great – she is an example to all of us, and I wish her all the success.”

Money is the fuel that currently drives young racing talent to the top. In the absence of funding, talent alone is all too often not enough – for now, it has to be coupled with an extremely rare tenacity and drive.

That, combined with the simple fact that there are fewer girls than boys entering the sport at an early age, means the number of women currently getting to the top of the sport is still shockingly small.

Although Legge may not have had any racing role models growing up, she is now the one providing inspiration for future generations.

Hopefully the only stalking they will have to do is in pursuit of the car in front.

BBC Sport has launched #ChangeTheGame to showcase female athletes in a way they never have been before. Through more live women’s sport available to watch across the BBC this summer, complemented by our journalism, we are aiming to turn up the volume on women’s sport and alter perceptions.

Find out more here.

Read More