#kevin is also a rogue

[just-an-enby-lemon]

No one:

Absolutly no one:

My brain at 3 a.m: But what if Carlos was the Batfam support scientist and Cecil was a rogue but like the way Waylon eating cops to save his comunity is rogue behavior?

[annamariedarkholmes]

the “would you return as your x-men character in deadpool 3 if they asked” starter pack

aaron stanford’s lack of poker face + mentioning, unprompted, his “lasting friendships” from those movies - months before the first trailer confirmed pyro was back - made me clock that the other two must be returning, too

then they had equally terrible poker faces in their own interviews lol

[cynningly]

sorry i dropped off the face of the earth for a few months but uh here’s some art that i totally didn’t draw back in december and forget to post in honor of pride month!! 🏳️‍🌈

Milo Asher is a trans woman and Noah Maxwell is a trans man. Once they’re Collective-fied, they both end up on the nonbinary spectrum with Mx. Scars being transfem and Firebrand being transmasc. Kevin is probably also somewhere on the nonbinary spectrum and if he isn’t, than The Observer definitely is.

To me like 90% of the TribeTwelve cast is not cis. 🏳️‍⚧️💕

(alternates without the flags and words under the cut. If you can’t read the written words, there’s also a transcript cause i’m aware of how bad my handwriting sucks)

[hopecomesbacktolife]

may I present: star wars tunes! kevin kiner (rebels s4 theme with a hint of tcw’s ahsoka theme) and michael giacchino (rogue one major key motif) edition ✨🌌🪐

I am by no means whatsoever a professional at playing the guzheng, nor is this video a perfect performance whatsoever— but, I have a lot of fun figuring out fun techniques, tunes, and miscellaneous things on it when I can, and this was super fun to play, even if a bit imperfect! ✨

also, please don’t mind the shaky camera, I had my phone sitting directly on the tuning box of the guzheng while playing it to get my rebels mural stone in frame for the ~vibes~ so occasionally a particular string would make it shake a bit more, lol. in any case— enjoy ♡

[security-unit]

okay but after its govmod is hacked, MB mentioned that Unnamed is probably going to keep doing its job and pretending like MB did.

like MB did... for nearly 4 years. and it would have KEPT doing it had The Survey not happened.

except.

Unnamed didn't hack itself. Unnamed had an interaction with a rogue secunit with its own crew who cared about it and who it cared about in turn. That's a far different experience than MB had. and sure, it does presumably go back to Barish Estranza and keep doing its job for a bit, but don't forget that the other unit is also hacked now, once it starts up again. it isn't alone. (for a bit I forgot about the other unit. maybe that one is named Kevin.)

my main point is that Unnamed started its life as a rogue through external kindness, and it showed kindness in return, while MB started its life as a rogue after it killed a bunch of members from a mining installation, and it wanted to make sure it wouldn't happen again.

Unnamed's very first action when it gains free will is to help.

[noctilin]

it might be a bit late since dunmeshi has ended but when i saw kabru and rinsha i immediately thought of your blorbos cimm and that one ponytailed girl!! lowkey i was hoping theyd have a somewhat similar dynamic but im satisfied with whatever we got... (cimm and kevin u'll always be the og otp in my heart tho)

GJHSDJKGSHG the resemblance is pretty funny isnt it? me and my friend have been amused by it the entire time (we wish kabru and rinsha's dynamic was a little different) its also extra amusing bcs they seem like they roleswapped, keva is a physical fighter (rogue to be exact) while cimm is a spellcaster

anyway its okay anon you can enjoy the cimmkeva dynamics right here in my home <3

[bitter-hibiscus]

I absolutely your Robin Jason headcannons, do you have any more? Maybe some Red Hood ones as well?

!!! im so happy to be getting these asks this is so fun

More Jaybin hcs (part one here):

He has a bunch of 1960s style clothes because Rena likes dressing like a mix of Amy Winehouse and Twiggy

baby goth in the making thanks to Natalia. she gives him a collection of Edgar Allen Poe's poems and he's just hook, line, and sinker into the subculture

He usually listens to metal bands but his guilty pleasure music is slow ballads and gayboy pop (think Kevin Atwater and Troye Sivan)

His favorite rogue to fight is KGBeast because of sentimentality, since KGB is the first rogue he ever defeated as Robin

He has pimples on his thighs and neck but somehow never on his face

He hates having his nails painted because of sensory issues, but lets Rena paint them anyway

His favorite of Dick's teammates is Vic, because he let Jason watch him fix one of Kori's alien weapons once, and he's super patient and kind and answers all of Jason's questions

Red Hood hcs:

Still mostly listens to metal but his favorite band is Rainbow Kitten Surprise (his favorite song is Finalist)

He has a journal where he writes shitty, angsty poetry with a fountain pen

He can never quite resist petting dogs during patrol, so there are multiple pictures online of Mafia Boss Red Hood playing with civilian's puppies

Has a tattoo of a wilded rose on top of his batarang scar to hide it. It's corny and ugly as hell but that was kind of the point. After he starts dating Rose he tells her it's because they were destined to meet. She gags every time

full-fledged romantic goth now. I'm talking manic panic white base, big eyeliner, and fake fangs. I'm talking huge messy hair with about a ton of hairspray. I'm talking "hates that every goth clothing he can find has bats on it"

His main mug is one of those corny millennial "don't talk to me until I've had my coffee" ones that Roy got for him during the outlaws. Jason uses it ironically but Roy thinks he also finds it funny

Sometimes when he's feeling nostalgic Jason will lay down on a rooftop and try to find where Oa is up in the sky, because he and Kyle looked for constellations together during Cosmic Mistake

Contrary to popular belief, his favorite superhero isn't Wonder Woman, it's Black Canary. Which is too bad because she hates his guts

Sent Sasha to live with an ex-con he trusted in South Dakota. He still sends her gifts often but they don't talk anymore since they realized how bad he was to her mental health

Deathstroke's #5 hater. Loses only to all 3 Wilson children (minus Res), Cassandra Cain, and Oliver Queen

Really wants to meet Connor Hawke because he was actually being genuine in GA Vol3 when he told Ollie he'd always wanted to meet him, and has since really really wanted to meet all of the Arrows even though none of them like him. He's the world's worst fanboy

Will do anything Talia asks of him but spits on Ra's face if he so much as looks in Jason's direction

Calls Damian "little prince" in Arabic (Amir Le-Zghir) specifically because of the book, but ALSO because it was what Willis called him when he was a child

Duke is his favorite bat because he isn't afraid to make fun of Jason, gets into a shit ton of trouble, and swears around Bruce like it's nothing

Whew, I think that's enough for a single post. Still have a lot more though lmao

[chacusha]

Visions of Mana class system

A lot of information about Vision of Mana's class system has been released on the Japanese website (see source).

Val's classes: [No element:] Soul Guard (moribito). [Wind:] Rune Knight. [Moon:] Aegis. [Water:] Duelist. [Fire:] Liege (Lord). [Wood:] Edelfrei (Swordmaster).

Val's classes are very "knight" archetype, mostly based on Duran's classes (Duelist, Liege, and Edelfrei) with a bit of Riesz (Rune Knight) and some that are new although still in line with the knight theme (Aegis).

Careena's classes: [No element:] Oracle (kannagi). [Wind:] Dancer (maihime). [Moon:] Moon-reader(?) (tsukiyomi). [Water:] Dragon Master. [Fire:] Divine Fist (Godhand). [Wood:] Exorcist(?) (onmyouji).

Most of Careena's classes are new ones based around a kind of priestess or shaman sort of vibe (Oracle, Dancer, Tsukiyomi - not sure what the localized name for this will be but I wonder if it will be something like Fortune Teller - and Onmyouji). But some of her classes reference Riesz (Dragon Master) and Kevin (Divine Fist - this outfit is BOMB by the way).

Morley's classes: [No element:] Ranger. [Wind:] Nomad (Wanderer). [Moon:] Nightblade. [Water:] Hermit. [Fire:] Rogue. [Wood:] Samurai.

Morley's classes are entirely based on Hawkeye's classes (Ranger, Nomad, Nightblade, Rogue), with some new additions along that same thief/rogue/vagrant vein (Hermit, Samurai - I wonder if this one will be localized as Ronin or something to fit the theme).

Palamena's classes: [No element:] Queen. [Wind:] Rune Seer (Rune Master). [Moon:] Empress. [Water:] Grand Diviner. [Fire:] Masquer (Masquerade). [Wood:] Beastleader (Beast Tamer).

Palamena seems to have a mix of royalty-themed classes (Queen, Empress), Angela's classes (Rune Seer, Grand Diviner), and some new additions that seem quite quirky (Masquer, Beastleader). I'm a fan of the pirate-themed Masquer costume and the blue Grand Diviner costume (makes me think of Angela's pixel art).

Julei's classes: [No element:] Custodian (Watcher). [Wind:] Hamelin. [Moon:] Warlock. [Water:] Scholar. [Fire:] Gatekeeper. [Wood:] Sage.

Julei is the squishiest mage ever the party healer, so his classes are very much based on Charlotte's (Warlock, Sage; Scholar is not a Charlotte class but is kinda in line with that theme). He also seems to have a sentry theme as well (Custodian, Gatekeeper), and I'm not sure what is going on with the Hamelin class; maybe it will have some musical/musical instrument elements to it given that horn on his hip?

Overall, it looks like we have four of Trials of Mana's six classes that are aligned with one character each (Duran (->Val), Hawkeye (->Morley), Angela (->Palamena), and Charlotte (->Julei)), with the last two (Riesz and Kevin) being distributed wherever they fit.

Anyway, I am so excited. I love me a good class system, especially when it comes with different costumes, especially when the costume designs are as fun and elaborate as these ones are. (This is like Bravely Default all over again, haha.)

[discoscoob]

Since I thought about exploring Neo x Reader x Tom Ludlow (I am planning write something I just don’t know if/when I will actually do it) here are some more rare Keanuverse pairings that I haven’t seen yet:

Ted x Matt (Rivers Edge):

Idk why but Ted and Matt are enemies, well not enemies so much but Matt doesn’t like Ted, maybe because Ted’s dad arrested him a couple times so Matt just hates Ted by association. Now they’re in college and the guy Ted usually got his weed from moved town. Ted knows he can get some from Matt, but he also knows Matt doesn’t like him so he begs you to go for him instead. You think Ted is being dramatic and you think he should just go talk to Matt himself, you end up compromising and you both go to see Matt together.

Johnny Utah x Kevin Lomax:

You’re a criminal that Johnny is trying to catch but you’ve got one of the best lawyer, Kevin Lomax, that keeps helping you slip through his fingers and it’s pissing him off.

Don John x Cowboy!Tex

Don John is the mayor or sheriff’s son idk but he’s got a lot of influence in the town and he’s also got his sights set on you. It almost seems inevitable that you would end up with him, there’s no one in town that could offer you anything better than him with his influence and money you would want for nothing. Although nothing is set in stone, to both your families and the whole town you’re practically engaged. Every thing is going as expected until a lone cowboy comes riding through town and decides to stay. It infuriates Don John that some no good rogue with nothing to his name but his horse and the clothes on his back caught your eye.

[kevindayscrown]

Neil Josten, a Tier 4 Rogue (Arcane Trickster) NPC

Next up, I figured Neil should be next, and while I thought that he could also have been a sorcerer, I thought that a Rogue with a bit of magic to help him on the run would be more fitting;) Also decided he is a half elf cause I found the imagery of High Elf Kevin training his half elf protégé cute.

(Also i thought I was funny with my choice of spells heh)

Next is probably gonna be Andrew.

[flanaganfilm]

Hey Mike, I’ve really enjoyed reading your long posts on projects you’ve worked on through your career. I was wondering if you could talk a little about your experience in film school and making your student films. I was able to watch Ghosts of Hamilton Street a while ago and found it really interesting how some of the same themes in that film have been consistent through all of your work and have really liked seeing the progression and progress you’ve made in your stories since. Thanks!

Oh wow, deep pull here. I don't often talk about these movies, which I think of as the "Towson Trilogy."

They were amazing learning experiences, but aren't really fit for public consumption. I consider them an incredible, irreplaceable film school, but I've gone out of my way to not to help them become available - they just aren't on a level that I'd feel comfortable putting out into the world.

So let's go back to 1998.

I was an undergrad at Towson University in Maryland. I had dreamed of being a filmmaker for most of my childhood, and had made a few backyard movies on VHS with friends, and some VHS shorts in high school. But the idea of a career in filmmaking was very farfetched. My father was in the U.S. Coast Guard and my mother was a medical office manager. They were always very supportive of my little "movie projects," but also very much invested in my education and wanted me to focus on careers that were more likely. A career making movies seemed very, very unrealistic, and I spent my senior year of High School focusing on coming up with a "real job" I could get passionate about. As I graduated High School, I had let go of the filmmaking dream and was hoping to get enough scholarship money so I could afford to go to Loyola University Maryland, where I wanted to major in secondary education.

I was going to be a high school history teacher.

I didn't get enough scholarship money to attend Loyola, so I ended up enrolling at Towson University (then called Towson State) instead. I was initially very disappointed by this outcome, but it turned out to be one of the best things that happened in my life.

I was still planning on following the education track, but I felt discouraged and bruised by missing out on Loyola. So as I filled out my freshman electives, I signed up for Intro to Film on a lark. I mean, my hopes and dreamed hadn't panned out. I didn't get into my first choice school (or my second, for that matter) and here I was.

Why not?

It was immediately clear to me that this was what I wanted to do with my life. It was what I'd always wanted to do, if I was honest - I had been making all of those little movies, I lived and breathed movies, I had been saying since I was kid that I wanted to make movies for a living, and here was my chance to learn more about that world. I was hooked immediately. I started to ignore my other classes in favor in spending more time in the Mass Communications department (there wasn't an official "film" major at Towson); so what if this wasn't a "real job," so what if I didn't have a chance in hell of being a professional filmmaker... I had access to cameras. That meant I could make movies.

This happened to coincide with an exciting time in independent filmmaking. Spike Lee, Edward Burns, Kevin Smith, Jim Jarmusch - we would talk excitedly about the rumored budget of Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi (everyone said it was just seven thousand bucks!), we would talk between classes about the filmmakers who were forging careers out of thin air on shoestring budgets. People were breaking the rules, and bucking the system. Careers were being made on one rogue film. They weren't climbing the ladder; they were suing for membership. Make a movie, then make a career. Independent Film was the way in. The odds might be against you, but if your number came up... man, you were on your way.

I had a substitute teacher in one of my film classes. His name was Steve Yeager and he'd just won the filmmaker's trophy at Sundance for his documentary about local hero John Waters, a movie called Divine Trash. He was the toast of Baltimore at the time, and he spoke breathlessly about the independent filmmakers who were leading the charge and finding audiences outside of the studio system. He told the students that any of us could do this - any of us could make a movie, especially using this brand new technology called:

DIGITAL VIDEO.

Steve argued that DV had democratized filmmaking, and cited filmmakers like Mike White, whose DV feature Chuck and Buck had just hit the festival scene. Dogme 95, the creative movement founded by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, was the talk of all the cinephiles. Not only could we make a movie, Steve declared, we could make it for a fraction of the cost that most filmmakers had had to bear over the years when dealing with purchasing and processing film.

I had been inspired by movies like Clerks, The Brothers McMullen, and Stranger Than Paradise - I was working on my own script, a slice of life story called Makebelieve, which was focused on the only slice of life I knew anything about: a college kid,,, who loved movies... and... had a crush on a girl.

You write what you know, I guess.

Now, our little Mass Comm program at Towson was a great way to get experience making movies, but we made them as part of a group. The best case scenario was waiting until you were an upperclassman and hoping you'd be able to direct a short film with your classmates, but most students never got their turn directing. Some students would labor through the department for four years but never sit in a director's chair when the senior projects came around. I was too impatient to wait for that. I wanted to be like Kevin Smith, Mike White and Ed Burns - I wanted to make my movie, my way, right now.

I was actively averse to commercial viability (an allergy it took me far too long to overcome), utterly enamored with the emerging mumblecore "indie film" vibe of the time, and convinced that a movie comprised of extended conversations about collegiate dating would make for riveting entertainment. I had several friends in the Theater Department, enlisted the help of my roommate Dave Foster, and pretty soon we were doing table reads and shooting proof-of-concept trailers on miniDV.

Raising money for the movie was a huge challenge. A girlfriend had managed to get ahold of Bruce Campbell's email (it was the worst-kept secret on the fledgling internet at the time), and I emailed him to invite him to be part of our little movie. He actually wrote back - he declined participation (for reasons that are astonishingly obvious to me now) but was kind enough to send some advice for the production. We were so grateful he took the time to respond that we named our production company after our favorite line from Army of Darkness... we were Sugarbaby Productions.

Steve Yeager, my substitute teacher, had told the class "if any of you write a feature film, I will do what I can to help you produce it." I came up to him after class and handed him the script for Makebelieve. He looked a little shocked, but he agreed to read the script. He did, and he liked it, and for reasons I may never understand, he said "okay, fine. I'll produce your movie."

Steve was true to his word. He didn't bring money (it would have been certifiably insane if he had), but he used his connections to find a crew of professionals in Baltimore willing to work on a little college movie. We had fundraisers, we had bake sales, we sold T-shirts on campus to raise cash to shoot. We hit up every family member and friend for possible investment (my parents, to their endless credit, put up more money than they could afford), and we scraped together enough to shoot the thing.

We filmed Makebelieve on miniDV in over the summer of 1999. The University gave us access to its facilities to use for locations, we had the run of campus, and our tiny cast and crew received independent study credit for their participation in the film.

The technology wasn't quite the amazing godsend people had made it out to be. It was low resolution, there was not yet anything that allowed you to change frame rate; everything still had that "soap opera" feeling you get with 30 fps.

We compensated for this by emulating a Hal Hartley film I'd seen at festival called Book of Life, which had opted for a slower shutter speed to give the film a dreamy, smeary look that hid the frame rate. We shot at a 1/15s shutter speed, and the movie looked a bit like an acid trip... but at least it didn't move like a soap opera.

The finished movie... well, it's not very good.

It was my first feature, it wasn't really about much of anything, but it had some fun dialog and a truly committed young cast. It had promise. And we finished the thing! That was the biggest miracle. It was the best film school I could ever hope for - a trial by fire that pulled me through each and every phase of production and forced me to learn on the job.

The film was rejected by every single major film festival - my dreams of being the next Sundance breakout auteur were dashed very quickly. But we had our world premiere at the Maryland Film Festival in 2000, to a sold out crowd, and that was the single biggest night of my young life up until that point.

I was completely hooked. I knew the film was deeply flawed, and I was eager for another at-bat - I knew I could do better.

I wouldn't wait long. I had already written a script for an "edgy" follow-up to Makebelieve called Still Life. It was "edgy" because it featured a more nihilistic plot, about a group of photography majors who begin exploiting elements of their lives for their senior thesis project, and in doing so get disconnected from their lives by examining them through lenses (Get it?! Man, I sure was a film student, wasn't I)

I had gone through a bad breakup after Makebelieve was done, an engagement that had ended and broken my young heart. Frankly, we were just babies - I really had no business whatsoever trying to get married at 21 - but I wrote that breakup into the script and let the bitterness rip. Edgy, right?

I used most of the same cast from Makebelieve (thus beginning a habit that still holds true today) and set about trying to find money to make the film.

The issue was how to raise money. We had already knocked on every door to finance Makebelieve and nobody got their money back; the movie never sold. Investing in independent films is one of the highest risk investments you can make. We'd turned over every single rock we could think of last time, how the hell were we going to do that again?

We courted more investors, including some professional risk takers and VC people. An accountant named Harry Rosen drummed up a bunch of investors in exchange for a role in the film (he played the grandfather of one of the leads). This movie had more money than the last, and it wasn't from friends and family by and large - it was from people who were giving and expecting much more.

We shot Still Life in the summer of 2000, just after Makebelieve had premiered (even then, I couldn't wait for one movie to come out before starting another). It was a more ambitious shoot across the board. And again, it was a phenomenal learning experience. And again, the movie wasn't quite... good.

The first cut was 180 minutes long. Yep, 180. The Final Cut is... 75 mins long. So... yeah, it was probably a few drafts undercooked.

It was indulgent, it was uneven, and it was spectacularly self-important. But it got into some more festivals - quite a few more than Makebelieve -and it even won some awards.

See, the rise of digital video meant an avalanche of digital movies. It had democratized filmmaking after all - suddenly, the sheer volume of submissions at film festivals increased by a factor of ten. And with that many thousands of extra movies flooding the festival market, the laws of supply and demand kicked in - there were suddenly a LOT more film festivals.

And there were film festivals who weren't terribly scrupulous. There were festivals who only existed to collect submissions fees, and they'd accept movies that otherwise would never have made it into a fest, so long as they thought they could make some money of the filmmakers. Some of the fests we played back then soon became notorious for running these kinds of scams. But it wasn't nearly as difficult to get into festivals as it once was... and it wasn't nearly as difficult to win awards.

One of the festivals we were accepted into was in Los Angeles, and I came out to LA for the first time in my life for the screening. While here, I started making plans to move to California. It seemed impossible, daring, and crazy at the time - I had no money, my movie had some laurels on the poster but wasn't commercially viable - and I had no idea how to pull it off. But I decided then, walking around Santa Monica late one night after a screening: as soon as I graduated from Towson, I'd move to LA.

But it turned out graduation was a long ways off.

Still Life took up an enormous amount of time, and I fell behind on my studies. The film never did find a distributor. It played a few dozen fests (some of which were downright predatory) and then it was over.

Itching to keep shooting stuff but certainly out of fundraising options, I ended up part of a startup production company consisting of a recent grad and another student at Towson, and we actually got a couple industrial jobs around Baltimore. I took a semester off to focus on the work. Graduation got pushed back. And then I took another semester off when more gigs came in. I finally graduated in May 2002, two years later than I'd planned. My production company had gone bust (we had no idea what we were doing) but we did some good commercial and industrial work and I got some experience trying to manage a business.

I had also wised up in one very important respect: I had kept writing scripts this whole time (you really can't help it, if you're a writer) and I had finally decided to embrace GENRE.

I had written a script called Ghosts of Hamilton Street. On the outside, it looked like an episode of The Twilight Zone; the plot centered around a washed-up alcoholic who starts to notice people in his life disappearing without a trace... but whenever one of them goes, the world around him completely rewrites itself as though they never existed at all.

I thought I was starting to play with genre conventions, doing a light sci-fi story that would be fun and character-forward. What I was really doing, though, was dealing with the fact that a lot of my closest friends from college had graduated on time, two years before me, and gone out into their adulthoods. I missed them, and I felt that my world was altered with each of their absences. I was starting to get introspective.

This was about something. It was about regret, it was transition, it was about losing one's comfortable world and heading into the unknown. It was about my regret for my failed engagement (and my exploitation of it for Still Life), and about the friends who had gone ahead into adulthood without me. It was also, I realize now, about having a drinking problem. I wouldn't really understand this, or take any action to fix it, for fifteen more years.

For now, I just knew this one felt a little different. It had an engine. I had something to talk about for the first time in my filmmaking career. This one wasn't a class project, just fumbling around with the technical realities of production; this had a tiny, infant, unformed little voice in there. It was small, it was buried, but it was there.

So how could we finance it?

Okay. You're not going to believe this, but it's true... I've never really talked about this publicly before, but it's the truth so here goes:

A good friend of mine, a fellow student at Towson, was hit one night by a Papa Johns delivery car while crossing the street. He settled with the company and came into a lot of money. He invested some of that to finance Ghosts, and... well... that's how we did it.

Yep, you read that right: my third feature was financed because a friend of mine got hit by a pizza delivery guy. So when people ask me what advice I have for fundraising, unless I say "start shoving your friends in front of delivery vehicles", I'm being a bit of a hypocrite.

My friend was now a bonafide executive producer, and he was walking normally again, so we were off to make a movie!

It was a modest budget compared to the sprawling mess that was Still Life, but the digital video technology had advanced - we were now shooting in 24p, and for the first time in my career, my little digital features actually moved like a movie.

Again, the cast brought back some familiar faces from Makebelieve and Still Life. We held auditions for the other parts.

One of the fellow Towson students who auditioned for a role was a girl I knew tangentially from the theater department. She was much closer to my roommate Paul Jerue, who was working on the movie too, but she'd been over my place a few times and we'd hung out here and there.

Her name was Amy Schumer, and I remember her audition very well. I didn't give her a part in this movie. I remember telling the producers I thought she was too funny for it. She was quite funny, in fact. I think she's also now the most famous person to come out of Towson University.

Somewhat ironically, there aren't a lot of photographs from this period of my life, because I didn't have a digital camera. Everything was on film, and just about all of those shots are lost to time.

But there are a few leftover from Ghosts that I'll share here - I've used my phone to snap some pics of pages from a single surviving scrapbook:

(Holy god, I actually had hair...)

Ghosts of Hamilton Street isn't a bad movie. It had taken me years of work, but I had finally made something that wasn't bad. They say your first ten movies are gonna suck, so get them out of the way early... maybe I was a little ahead of schedule after all.

Even though I had graduated just before we shot it, I still consider it a student film. It was shot in and around campus, utilizing equipment from the school, and the cast and crew were comprised of students and graduates (a lot of the cast were returning actors from Makebelieve and Still Life).

The star of the movie was a student who was ahead of me by a year named Scott Graham. I loved working with him, and I loved what he did with this movie.

(The great Scott Graham, three years before the Oculus short)

Three years later, he would fly himself out to LA from Washington DC in order to star in a short film I'd make in Los Angeles called Oculus.

(Filming Oculus - Chapter 3: the Man with the Plan in 2005)

Looking back, I think of Ghosts of Hamilton Street as my first movie. The other two were just class projects, really, and I was throwing spaghetti against the wall. But this one... it features an ambitious 90 second oner in the middle of the movie that competently tracks Scott through a bewildering office environment. It's a good shot.

It uses its genre moments as extensions of character, and is not concerned with scares or set pieces. It's metaphorical, whereas the other two movies were literal.

And it ends on a monologue.

As far as film festivals, it actually did okay. We screened at a few dozen places, and even traveled with the film. It won some more awards at some reputable festivals. And that winter, just after its premiere, when I packed the moving van to go to LA, I brought 100 DVD copies with me, hoping it would kickstart my career in Hollywood.

It wouldn't; that would happen ten years later, with Oculus. And when I filmed the Oculus feature, Scott Graham - star of Ghosts of Hamilton Street, and star of the Oculus short - played the janitor at the auction house where the mirror was kept.

And the two police officers who arrest Brenton Thwaites at the end of the film? Zak Jeffries, star of Makebelieve, Still Life, and Ghosts, and Dave Foster, my freshman year roommate, who worked crew on every film I made - even the little 8mm shorts - in Towson.

Nat Roers, who starred in Makebelieve and Still Life and was also my roommate for the last two years of college, appears as a jogger in Absentia, Dash Mihok's doomed wife in Before I Wake and as a reporter in Gerald's Game.

My professor at Towson who encouraged me to make all of these movies, and helped every way he could, was a man named Tom Brandau. He acted in Ghost of Hamilton Street, but he also was running the Fargo Film Festival in 2011, and he invited us to host the world premiere of Absentia at the festival. He also sat with me at the monitor for a week while we filmed The Haunting of Hill House, and for several days at the Overlook while we shot Doctor Sleep. He passed away a few years ago, and I miss him terribly.

As for Steve Yeager, the substitute teacher who dared us to make a movie my freshman year, and then put his money where his mouth was and produced my first digital feature a year later - Steve was also on set for Gerald's Game and for Doctor Sleep, and we went out for a beer to celebrate after a long shoot day. I quit drinking before that movie wrapped, so I believe it may have been one of the last beers I ever had, and I'm so glad I got to share it with Steve, who took this pie-eyed kid from his class and told him he could be a filmmaker.

My roommates when I moved out to LA were Ghosts star Zak Jeffries, Ghosts producer Jeff Seidman, crew members Amy Winter (soon to be Amy Seidman), Joe Wicker and Gaby Chavez.

In a way, all of these people were the foundation that started it all. I actively hate Netflix's lame "Flanaverse" idea, but if there was a Flanaverse, these were the people who built it. Scott Graham, Zak Jeffries, Dave Foster, Nat Roers, Jamie Sinsz, Megan Anderson, Steve Yeager, Jeff Seidman, Amy Seidman, Will Pinkine, Rich Koeckert, Jessi Bounelis, Chris Cridler, Sarah Yarbrough, Kara Webb, Kerry Brady, Joe Wicker, Gaby Chavez and Tom Brandau.

They were ride or die, man.

I think back on that time now and laugh. What a deal we made about digital video... I remember scraping together $2,000 to buy a 9 GB hard drive to edit - yes, I said NINE GIGABYTES.

I think about all of those dreamers out there today who have a 4k camera with 256 GB (or more) IN THEIR POCKET.

Yep, you've got a camera in your pocket that is infinitely more powerful than the cameras I filmed the first four features of my career on. Anyone who says they want to be a filmmaker and aren't sure how to start... I mean, take that thing out of your pocket and SHOOT SOMETHING. You are so, so, so ahead of the game.

So thank you for asking the question, and sorry for the long post. What I will always remember about that time was just how wildly, recklessly, adorably foolish we were... and how if we hadn't been, I might not have a career at all.

I made three independent feature films in my twenties, and another in my thirties, and while I don't think most of them are ultimately worthy of an audience, they were the best education I ever could have hoped for. I made them with dear friends, some of whom have remained in my life and heart to this day, and all of whom I owe an enormous debt.

My favorite thing? The title of the first one.

Makebelieve.

Because man, we were kids. Everything about that word is whimsy, innocence, and naivety. It's not a perfect movie; in fact, it isn't even a good one.

But that is a perfect, perfect title.

[tennfoldassailant]

Some more thoughts about the Ben10xDPxDC thing;

-Ben and Beast Boy become fast friends, at some point having competitions between their transformations

-Danny being ecstatic to get into the watchtower and Ben having a smug moment because it ain't his 1st rodeo.

-Kevin and Superboy working on their vehicles together until the inevitable damaging happens via a rogue Diamond shard and Ecto blast.

-Kevin getting a job as an engineer in the watchtower because that boy knows his tech

-Gwen going to college in Gotham and having to beat the allegations of becoming a villian for doing so.

-Azmuth's very thankful for the new mentors reigning Tennyson in and also interested in this Ecto energy.

‐Ghostfreak becomes a problem again and tries to take over the ghost zone only to be outclassed and clowned on by the residents

I think a decent name for this is Going Hero so that'll be to go to name for now. As always, you're welcome to add on to this

[0l-unreliable]

The rest of the monsters, as prophesied (OG Post); Neil the Tiefling rogue, Kevin the Elvin fighter, and Nicky the half-elf bard. I imagine questing with them would be either the worst thing you could ever go through or the thing that makes you turn your life around for the better.

Also, idk how the crossbow got there it just happened

also also: size comparison with Neil's old horns included

[santiagonex]

hello besties january is coming to an end so i’m just going to introduce you to all my gay tv discoveries of the month and all of you gonna sit and listen and like and reblog this... see how i didnt use ‘or’ between those words so you better do all of that otherwise you’re not getting anything out of me ever again remember that

1. Jack & Rayane on ‘Demain nous appartient’ - at this point everyone must know what’s up with this, it’s been trending on tiktok everybody’s living for them and you can watch their storyline translated on twitter @jackxrayane so get to it asap

2. Fred & Yuri on ‘Vai na fé’ - rivals to lovers? we’ll see... there’s this telenovela which has just started and multiple publications reported on gay storyline between them starting soon so we’re seated... oomfie is translating their storyline here on telegram go check it out

3. Antonis & Spyros on ‘Maestro’ - already promoted them here, greek gays, will show up on internation Netflix in February, if you can’t wait go to the comments of this video

4. Phillip & Bruno on ‘Blutige Anfänger’ - if you just watched their 10-minute cut on youtube and called it a day you’re an absolute loser IDGAF... important stuff was cut OUT... the whole season is so much fun to watch given out of the 5 main rookies, 2 of them are queer, and there are also other two main gay characters, if you can I really advise you to watch the whole season, it’s available for free on official ZDF site

5. Preston & Kai on ‘Waterloo Road’ - another slay, the show is fun, talks about important issues, if you liked Ackley Bridge and Cory/Naveed, you’re gonna enjoy it as well... this storyline in particular has been a surprise in a sense that being with a guy is not an issue for Preston, but he’s been dealing with something tough and it’s handled amazingly well, don’t want to spoil so be sure to check it out on BBC iPlayer (you can watch with VPN if you’re not in UK)

6. Harlan & Cyrus on ‘Wolf Pack’ - yeah the show has just started, yeah it’s created by Jeff Davis, but episode 1 was actually fun, it has Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jeff actually promised prominent gay representation... Harlan is a main character, he is part of the core four and Cyrus has yet to make an appearance, so we’ll see

7. Paddy & Eoin on 'SAS Rogue Heroes' - this was already a thing last summer I think, but I only discovered it now... heartbreaking story between those two and if you also want to see Jack O'Connell playing an amigiously gay soldier, there you go

8. Deivid & Kevin on ‘Rensga Hits!’ - this is also from last year but I’ve NEVER seen anyone talking about this gem and I’ve only found out about it recently... it’s such a serve, their scenes are equally passionate to the ones they show with straight couples just woah... I don’t want to spoil anything so I’m just going to say that the actors are kings and even kissed on a stage at an event irl yuuup

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Joan McCarter at Daily Kos:

The conservative Supreme Court has gone rogue. It has “cemented its place in history as the most radical Supreme Court ever,” in the words of historian Kevin Kruse. It handcuffed all federal regulatory agencies last week, and elevated the president to king on Monday. They’ve done so on behalf of the American oligarchs who have bankrolled the lavish lifestyle of at least two of the justices. They have also done so on behalf of twice-impeached convicted felon Donald Trump. If there is any hope of salvaging our republic out of this mess, President Joe Biden and Democrats have to fight back, immediately, in the campaign and in action. That means setting aside the trust institutionalists like Biden and Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin have in the system and in the basic decency of people like Chief Justice John Roberts. It means directly taking on the corrupt court and making the case to the American people that it has to be stopped. Biden made a start Monday evening, giving a short prime-time address to the nation to point out the “dangerous precedent” of placing “virtually no limits on what a president can do.”

“This decision,” Biden said, “has continued the court’s attack in recent years on a wide range of long-established legal principles in our nation, from gutting voting rights and civil rights to taking away a woman’s right to choose to today’s decision that undermines the rule of law of this nation.” In perhaps the most chilling words a president has uttered since the Civil War, Biden starkly defined where we’re at as a nation.  “[I]t will depend on the character of the men and women who hold that presidency that are going to define the limits of the power of the presidency,” he said, “because the law will no longer do it.” 

[...] There are plenty of good ideas for reshaping the court from expanding it to imposing term limits to create a stable of justices that rotate in and out of the court. The solutions are there—Democrats need to embrace them. And run on them. That can start with rallying around Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s impeachment resolution against the justices who perpetrated this “assault on American democracy.” No, it won’t move forward in a Republican-controlled House, but it can help unite Democrats for an immediate course of action should they regain the House.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries echoed that, saying Democrats plan to “engage in aggressive oversight and legislative activity” to determine that “extreme, far-right justices in the [Supreme Court] majority are brought into compliance with the Constitution.” The Senate has to take the lead in the coming months, and it has to come from Durbin, who failed in his first task of responding to the devastating ruling. He complained over spilled milk, that Thomas and Alito “brazenly refused to recuse themselves from this case.” He scolded Roberts for not using “his existing authority to enact an enforceable code of conduct.” It’s a lot too late for that. Durbin and his colleagues need to get on the same page as House Democrats, because they actually are in an oversight position and need to start using it. No, they can’t fix the Supreme Court now, but they can start building the case for it. 

Joan McCarter of Daily Kos has a solid banger of a piece on why Democrats must run a campaign against the ethics-challenged MAGA Majority on SCOTUS.

[hypnostouched]

i forever have dnd brainrot so,,, aftg dnd vibes

Neil is, of course, a rogue. lock picking, quick, lying sneaky lil bastard. In particular I would make him a Mastermind rogue as it comes with disguise profienecy , boosts so lying and vibes of a manipulator. I'd also build him into a wood elf - for the mechanical speed and hide buffs; but id flavour him as a half elf. The Hatford family would be elven and Mary is the one who trained Neil to hide and run. Other than some small things, he would look almost identical to his human father.

Now the Ravens in dnd, to me, are a Paladin order that is a lot more of a defined cult. They'd be a mix of Oath of Glory Paladins (one of their channel divinities is literally called Peerless Athlete) and Oath of Conquest Paladins (Kevin was Glory, Riko is Conquest) Paladins are physical builds with good Charisma and you can think whatever you like about the Ravens, they are charismatic (also to note, intimidation is a charisma skill in dnd)

now Oathbreaker has a very specific vibe but what I will focus on is the feeling of emptiness and darkness that come with it. Kevin is an oathbreaker when he leaves the Ravens, but he won't remain as one indefinitely. He would retake his Oath of Glory when it could mean something different to him (which would align with canon Kevin gtting his new tattoo). For him, being an Oathbreaker is connected to his fear and depression rather than any form of evil (High CHA Kevin is so funny to me bc its canon and i love a CHA build who generally doesnt seem charismatic until they turn it on) Kevin is a high elf seemingly in every way. He took after his mother almost entirely.

As said, Riko is a Conquest Paladin - I would also consider giving him a few levels in Shadow Sorcerer; as something he just is inherently rather than something he's trained to be like Paladin. Riko is also a half elf; most of the Moriyama family are High Elves but his mother was human. Riko can't claim that his family doesnt like him because of this, because Ichirou is also a half elf.

Returning to the foxes--

Andrew is a fighter. Human fighter, a v basic build lmao. he is a champion fighter; he's just a fucking threat.

Nicky is absolutely a bard (glamour). I would love to pitch Nicky as a Satyr because of their interest in freedom, revelry and enjoyment.

(can i just say its so hard to do dnd thoughts when so many characters are related and youre autistic so you have to factor all of that in)

Renee is a Barbarian/Cleric multiclass in the way that she used to be a barbarian and now mostly ignores those abilities to focus on her cleric shit. Light domain cleric. Also she is an air genasi and the colours in her hair are natural and look like the colours of sunset or sunrise on clouds

Dan is also a human fighter but she's a banneret fighter; which has a focus on inspiring allies. Still a threat, just also an inspirational one.

Aaron is a ranger; gloomstalker as he lurks around a lot. Mechanically he wouldn't be as high a level as Andrew. Neil is his favoured enemy.

Matt is a sun soul monk, taught to him by his mother. Bright and also quite scary when he's trying to kill you.

Allison is a bard/fighter multiclass. Similar to Renee, her Bard levels come from before her life with the foxes but she doesn't ignore them like Renee does. Eloquence Bard, champion fighter