#maybe im too arthouse for that

[wisehearts]

yeh bunwill is niche but also... totally makes sense? i cant even explain it lol. and mike literally is a black cat so... lol (speaking of, i havent seen any cat!mike x bunwill details on here... surely that's the most playful of all? and a little bit dangerous too maybe... when mike's claws are out even when he's a human i always recoil a little in fear hehe)

is hybrid shipping a common thing in fandom in general? also i'm chuckling cos i remembered that movie the shape of water which is basically a beautiful take on hybrid smut and it won some oscars lmao

personally im hoping for a gay merman romance movie sometime in the next decade! it could be amazing as long as they keep it arthouse and don't go all mainstream hollywood with it

I'm happy to hear it makes sense 😌 mike sooo has black cat energy, cat was another on the mike list of animals he suits but you're right I or others over the years still never really explored it!

I feel like everything cat!mike does he does it with a cheeky grin on his face 😼😭 definitely playful, definitely dangerous, I see a lot of him twirling a finger along bunwill's ears and his tail just to get a reaction, or even swiping his tail around bunwill's face as a little seduction heheh.

I don't know if hybrid shipping is common as much as people tend to assign "vibes" to their ships whether it be animals, weather and nature elements, alternate universes etc, and the animals seemed to work for byler? I mean I saw plenty of people on the sfw side just commenting on will's bunny teeth, and mike's cat energy and the nsfw side was like. hear me out- hybrids 🙌 I think in general it's more of a thing when the source material has hybrid characters (like the video game genshin, I saw nsfw art that helped me visualize the concept of hybrid bunwill in my head tbh)

gay merman romance sounds fun, I'd honestly like to see that! We need more fresh concepts that aren't made with no heart to them

[applejee]

im sad, looks like tumblr killed my reply to your melbourne recs ask because Oh Boy I Have Opinions. anyway if you're gonna recommend Brunetti's, you've got to go to the lygon street one, the original. Right next door is the Nova Cinema, a definite must hit up imo, cozy smaller cinema that always has fun arthouse films on, and does super cheap tickets on mondays. A short walk down lygon from there is Green Man's Arms, who do the most delightful all vegetarian pub fare, and have such a chill but funky ambiance along with a locally sourced, seasonal menu. They only do lunches on weekends though, it's otherwise very much a dinner venue. Nearby you'll find Tiamo's, an excellent authentic italian restaurant and piece of melbourne history, that place has been there Forever. The OG Readings bookshop is also right there, a small independent bookstore that's grown maybe half a dozen shopfronts around the melbourne area. I'm always happy to browse through and support them. In that vein, I can't not recommend Brunswick Bound, a quirky little bookshop on sydney rd that specialises in local authors and has a wonderful, eclectic range on their shelves. Also on sydney rd, just south of Brunswick Bound, you can find my favourite cheap eats brunch place, Green Refectory. Not a single thing on the menu over like 18 dollars, and it's all really tasty! I love their chicken burger, it's only $12.50 and so, so good. They also make beautiful cakes all baked in-house, as well as some really good sandwiches, rolls, and salad boxes available to take-away. You've recommended a heap of ramen places and I wholly agree with them, but I gotta add in my favourite Izakaya bar in Chinatown, Gyoza Gyoza. They've expanded to have places in Emporium and Melbourne Central now too, but I standby their original venue, it's nicer imo. They have a great range of japanese alcohol, including umeshu (my beloved), as well as my favourite cauliflower karaage and some really good, tender yakitori.

Okay I think I'm tapped out on additional recs for now, but there is just So Much, I hope @srbxzero has a great time visiting!~

YES YES YES THANK U!!! GREAT RECS CAN AGREE

on top of this the cornish arms is a fun pub too. also has many vegan options.

unsure if tags in asks work but for reaaaal theres so many things u can do in melb pls enjoy more recs @srbxzero

[rathayibacter]

TTRPG WIP meme

pretty late on doing this, but hey whatcha gonna do. wips!

TTRPG Projects in some form of active development:

KATABASIS, my folkpunk afterlife dungeon crawl heartbreaker. ive got a pretty outdated edition of this out on itch, and ive been working on a pretty thorough revamp of it. im not too far out from having the whole first chunk of the game done, just gotta figure out how i wanna write out the mechanics chapter and then pretty it up a lot.

Unskilled Labor, a game about getting supernatural powers from your minimum-wage job and then fighting authoritarianism before your shift. i put out a google form asking folks for their job experience and got some *incredible* responses, ive read through nearly all of them and have definitely taken some serious inspiration already. unlike KATABASIS i dont really have the full shape of the game in my head just yet, so i cant say exactly how much ive got left, but it’s still pretty early on.

TTRPG Projects on some sort of hiatus or back-burner status:

Disparateum Act II, the second third of my weird arthouse reality-hopping adventure game. ive got the whole thing outlined and a couple chunks completely finished, but there’s still a ways to go. Disparateum’s tricky cuz it’s such an eclectic montage of weird ideas that it kinda needs to be my sole focus for anything to get done on it, but ill probably be coming back to it soon.

TTRPGS I've let go of but might return to some day:

oh god too many

like you dont even know

for every game i release i write up notes for maybe thirty

and ive released a lot of games

[dr-neurotic]

New year's at Levi's

As the credits rolled on the old year, Levi refreshed his texts. The clock read 11:40. Twenty minutes until the year would change and the promise of a better life would beat in his heavy heart.

Justin and Amy sat on the L couch, drinking from sparkling juice containers. Clarice hadn't responded to his invite. Another failed talking stage. Levi chewed his cheek.

"You missed it!" said Justin. "Come sit and watch. Whoever comes will come!"

"Yeah, no problem," Levi said, not looking up from his phone. "Just waiting for Alex."

This was a lie, but there was some truth to it. The others had used the snow warning as an excuse to miss his new year’s party, but Alex hadn't even opened the message. He'd worried Levi all week. No time to hang out, apparently. He didn't like dragging him if he didn't feel like it, but maybe he should have this time. He hoped it wasn't another depressive episode.

All year he pined for Clarice. They were going to watch some arthouse movie last week but apparently some last-minute work thing came up. He sighed and joined Justin and Amy on the couch. A comfortable distance between him and the couple, who laughed among themselves.

Levi poured himself a cup of sparkling apple juice. He rubbed his freezing feet on the shag carpet.

"Any resolutions for next year?"

"Maybe get married," joked Amy, slapping Justin's thigh.

"She's so funny," he said. "Maybe I'll try to lose some of this weight finally. Amy says we should become gym rats. You?"

Levi shrugged. "Nothing special. Go back to school. Get a new car." Fall in love, he didn't say.

It was adorable how they sat so close that their hearts could touch, but the sight made his heart feel weak. He had to pinch himself. His turn would come soon.

A headlight brushed against the curtains and blinds and into his living room. Could that be her?

He jumped out and pulled two blinds apart. The car drove past, slow as not to slip on the growing field of ice.

Levi pulled his phone out of his jeans. Still nothing from Clarice. He had hoped that maybe she'd say what the heck and come down anyway, but didn't seem likely at this point. As he slipped his phone back in, he felt the buzz of an incoming message. Alex.

"Thank you for everything."

Levi's blood froze over, cold as the roads. Fingers cursed with Seattle brand rigor mortis, he managed to type out "plz wait, im omw," before dropping his phone.

Levi's face scrunched. He stifled a sob. A wave of exhaustion washed over him, threatening to knock him off his feet. He hopped to the front door while pulling his boots over his socks.

Justin watched, confused. "What's going on?"

"Alex," he muttered, like he was in a trance. Wind and snow stormed through the living room. Levi ran out into the snow. He clipped the curb and almost fell. Alex lived about a mile away. Levi's brain ran the calculations. One mile. In the foot of snow, he could run four miles an hour. It would take fifteen minutes. He tried not to think. Only run. His phone didn't buzz any longer. Not Alex. Not Clarice. He would not fall in love that year. He sprinted down the street, past flashing Christmas lights that his neighbors had been too lazy to take down. Streetlights seemed to go on forever, spinning circles on a sea of snow.

The frost burned Levi's lungs and flayed the skin on his face. Love... He wouldn't find love this year? Was he an idiot? Sure, he hadn't shared a kiss with Clarice like he'd hoped, but he knew love. He loved Alex. He knew it then. He ran and ran and ran, knees plowing snow. He loved Alex. He loved to sit in parking lots eating stale fries, loved playing games all night, watching sitcoms and... he needed Alex. Even if it was selfish. He had done everything, even if it was not with a girl he loved, it was with his best friend.

[undyinglantern]

just to be clear i ive known abt the song for months bc. okay, heres what happened. yt recommended gbgb and i liked it so i added it to the playlist, but i was too focused on upcoming vctn album that i put aside listening to them for until after. so next day, after i'd listened to chaos album and probably a few hours to get it out of my system, i listened through their discography (starting from oldest album→newest) and cysm was the first i came across and liked. but i only listened to it like once bc i still had vctn on the brain for the next idk how many months. it was actually antiromantic that slowly wormed its way into my brain, which is the song that piqued my interest to look into their stuff more deeply (theres other groups i got into inbetween all this but thats besides the point). it was also their chaos chapter and b-sides of their latest album that i got hooked on though bc i am -at my very core- always and forever in my emo phase so i didnt watch the music video for cysm until literally yesterday. BUT

i dont think ive ever felt this strongly about a music video before or maybe im just a sucker for symbolism but i was so blown away like it felt like i'd watched an arthouse film or something (in a complimentary way; i mean nothing pretentious). idk how to explain it but it was more than just a 'tug on my emotions' or 'fun and pretty to watch' experience; like, 0x1=lovesong is a 'tug @ emotions' song and the mv serves amplifies that, while gbgb is more of the latter for both song and video. idk i dont think im making sense, or maybe i dont pay enough attention to enough mvs to experience it enough, but it was just such a good combination of the two and really left me feeling like the final experience was 'greater that the sum of its part' sort of deal.

[staghunters]

So Jhonen Vasquez (of invader zim fame) recently tweeted this and my media analysis brain can't get enough of it because it points out Exactly my problem with Marvel films.

Disclaimer that I've never been a marvel fan, and this development will only minimize the chances of becoming one.

So multiverse of madness is currently in theatres and people can't get enough of it (that's fine, ill let people enjoy things). What this tweet points out, however, is that this film will probably signify marvel going in the direction of requiring having seen previous films to enjoy the next ones.

Of course, this is nothing new. Trilogies (or longer, but those are rare) have existed for a while now. What is different with the recent marvel films is how, where trilogies were tied together by a storyline or a character, marvel is tied together by a brand.

F.e. if we would use the logic of character names in the title, Harry Potter would make sense as a film series. Yet, if we would apply that to Doctor Strange it wouldn't work. Watching Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness after seeing Doctor Strange will not provide you with the necessary information to understand the new film.

And there are two ways to solve this: 1. Provide context/exposition with each film. 2. Require the audience to be dedicated to watching each addition to the marvel brand.

Naturally, Disney is interested in the latter part. See for example the rollout of spinoff series that is exclusively on Disney+ but are necessary to understand the films that are accessible to everyone. (F.e. you have to have seen Wandavision in order to understand Multiverse of Madness).

Is it daring to pull off a story spanning multiple films/series? Of course. Given the various directors, I'm surprised it managed to hold up. But don't think that this is solely for creative vision. Disney also wants you to pay them €9,~ a month on streaming and an additional €11,~ on tickets at the cinema

This is a good video that mentions bits of this more clearly at points

[theboarsbride]

I’ve been having an idea brewing of how to turn Tathareth into a non-fandom OC so I can use her in a piece of original fiction!! 

So far the concept is essentially a body horror romance with the vibes of A24 arthouse movie meets cheesy 1980s/90s Hallmark romance meets David Cronenberg meets Guillermo del Toro meets Angela Carter’s The Tiger’s Bride, and the working title is “Temperance and Mr. Wyrm.” So far in my head I see this being a novella, so not too terribly long!!! Something short and sweet lmao

The story, as of right now, is set in the LATE late 1980s or EARLY early 1990s mayhaps in England, and Tathareth is Temperance Cavell (a nod to nurse Edith Cavell). She works as a nurse and is all about herbal remedies and natural healing and essential oils, but doesn’t dare bring this up at work because she both isn’t bold enough and also knows to separate work from personal interests. Basically the story is that she gets hired as an in-home nurse for a strange man affected by an arcane affliction that makes him more and more snake-like with each passing day.

obviously the snake man (the titular Mr. Wyrm) is based on Grima Wormtongue and hhhhskskjsksjksjsksdkjkdssdkj no I do not need another Brad Dourif-inspired monster-man character i do not BUT AUUGGGGHHHH MAYBE I DO?????????? I LOWKEY WANT TO????????? BECAUSE I JUST????? LOVE HIMB SM?????? AND LIKE MAKING HIM INTO MY SYMPATHETIC WEIRD MONSTER MEN LOVE INTERESTS??????? IM JUST AUUSHSJSDLJSDLJSDSJLSJDLDSJLJSLSDJL--

A N Y W A Y-

IDK this is definitely another self-indulgent monster romance type of thing I think could be a fun WIP! Plus I’ve always been interested in writing purely body horror since my other WIPs are either Gothic, psychological, folk, survival, or supernatural horror! Definitely making this piece self indulgent and SUPER experimental in terms of style! 

But, for now, it shall remain on the back burner until I get more ideas or the motivation to develop it further!!

[capstoverogers]

Stolen Jeep - Part I

Ok hear me out

Bucky Barnes and Howard Stark, bros to lovers, set in the Captain Carter “What If” timeline

(Because I have an uncontrollable urge to make everything gay. Sorry, can’t help it.)

“Bet you won’t steal that jeep.” Stark baits Barnes with a quirk of the brows.

Bucky hits Howard with a look - brooding Barnes meets scheming Stark, and there’s *sparks* that neither of them are gonna talk about.

“Oh yeah?”

“Oh yeah.”

So of course Bucky steals the damn jeep and Stark is thrilled, because he’s finally gotten one of these stiff ass army punks to dick around with him.

Not like dick around, he doesn’t mean it literally, but...you know what, I’m just gonna stop talking.

They whisk off swole!Peggy & scrawny!Steve in the stolen jeep, stocked up with a buncha also-stolen whiskey (Barnes is a rascal, and Stark is loving. it.) with plans to steal one last thing - just one moment where it doesn’t feel like they have the entire world on their shoulders.

They end up parked on this overlook with glittering stars as far as they can see, and of course in no time, Peggy and Steve meander off to make eyes at each other and talk vaguely around their feelings with that overused dance metaphor, leaving Howard to catch Bucky’s eyes and waggle his brows suggestively at their two friends’ retreat.

“Don’t get too frisky!” he calls out devilishly at Peggy and Steve’s ebbing figures. “We still got a war to get back to!”

Bucky tilts back his head and howls, bottle of whiskey dangling from his fingers. He can just imagine Steve’s cherry blush.

“She’s gonna break ‘im,” he says, and Stark joins in on his cackling.

“Hell, I’d let her break me,” Stark jokes. Barnes smirks.

“Yeah? You like ‘em buff?”

If that sounds suggestive, then Bucky’s blaming it on the alcohol and not on how the air suddenly seems thicker between the two of them.

Because, look. Bucky’s a dude in his prime, but being in the army - there ain’t much of a chance for some action, you know? And we’re not talking frontline, Hydra-busting, gun-toting action here.

But, like, Bucky’s dick’s been real dry lately.

And he’s always been...not a homo, because he can appreciate a dame real good but, ya know, he can appreciate a lot of other things too.

Like a lot of different kinds of people.

Fellas. He could appreciate some fellas.

Not that he’d ever say it out loud (not that he ever could; they’d boot him back to the States so quick he wouldn’t have a chance to pack). But there were a few nights he found his arms wrapped around Steve to, you know, comfort a friend but maybe he enjoyed it a little more than that.

All that to say - Buck’s drunk and constantly horny and he can recognize a handsome man when he sees one.

And Stark - yeah, he’s handsome. A little smarmy but good looking.

Speaking of Stark, he’s smirking now too at Barnes’ suggestion as he gives a coy shrug and a quick sweep of the Sergeant’s frame.

“I like ‘em all sorts of ways.”

Because c’mon, you can’t tell me playboy hedonism isn’t in the Stark genes and just because he doesn’t fondue with Peggy doesn’t me he hasn’t fondued with fongirls and fondudes and everyone outside and in-between. He’s a rich and charming New Yorker, dammit, who came of age during the Roaring 20s.

Like y’all really think alcohol was the only thing people were sneaking during those Prohibition parties. Sexual fluidity wasn’t invented in the 21st century; just talked about more.

Now Howard’s definitely gonna eventually settle down with a lady - that’s ultimately more his speed. But in the meantime...how does that one saying go?

All’s fair in love and war.

And they’re in the middle of a pretty big war right now.

So yeah, Stark’s drunk and he’s feeling mischievous and Barnes is all ruggedly handsome in a way that he can really appreciate. He’s always liked a square jaw.

And Bucky likes ‘em a little delicate and real mouthy.

So when Peggy and Steve make their way back to the look-out, hands slotted together after finally getting that kiss - quick and chaste but so sweet - they find Stark and Barnes fucking in the back of that stolen jeep.

(Can’t decide if it’s “Brokeback Mountain,” all-the-way-fucking-in, 0 to 100 style or if it’s a gentle arthouse hand job à la “Moonlight” - I’ll let y’all decide.)

“Guess we can’t return that jeep now,” Steve quips.

*Cue trombone whomp-whomp sfx. Marvel’s 20 minute credit sequence starts to roll*

Part II

[datingdonovan]

W with Tsukki, Yamaguchi and Kogane!

anon thank you from the bottom of my heart. this one really made me think and also made me feel so cute and soft by the end im!!! loving you <3 I hope you had/are having a very happy new year :)<3

w: where do you like going together?

for tsukki and I its absolutely bookstores bookstores bookstores!! I get the feeling he doesn't like movies as much as I do but I could also see us going to like, funky arthouse places or different special events movie nights :) even if I might have to drag him there it could be fun lol

ok yamaguchi is a tough one I feel like I haven't thought of this too too much before but... one thing that came to my mind was like, hiking? also I have a little road trip story with this man brewing in my notes app so... idk, maybe we just like ~journeying~ lol. i could also see us enjoying something or somewhere nostalgic like, going to our hometown or alma mater to visit old friends. maybe that's where the journey is taking us lol

ok kogane is so hard!!!! I feel like as I explore this self ship more it'll continue to be in the works but rn I have 2 dif thoughts ok?? we're both kinda goofy and wild so my first instinct is to say someplace that's good for causing ruckuses hahaha. I thought of an amusement park, the mall, or even doing silly things like sneaking around different buildings on campus? oh my goodness. roller skating. a boardwalk. an arcade or something. you know what I mean. some place kiddy and fun. I dont know. these are all thoughts lol. BUT!!! on the other hand, kogane's like, the comfort character for me, and I feel like part of what's really cool is that we're both just so ourselves and safe and comfortable with each other, and I feel like that would maybe manifest in like, a favorite hole in the wall place to eat <3 oh my gosh stop. im feeling so soft rn.

send me some characters and letters and I'll answer with self ship facts!!! :) <3

[spinningsong]

i wish i could go back to when i was like 11 and influence/convince my past self to keep going with my writing and like ..... start getting passionate abt film and directing early. ive always loved film and writing but i never put the two of them together i guess,, maybe bc most directors ppl talk about are men so it never even occured to me. i feel like in another life directing and screenwriting would have been such an amazing fit for me and it sucks that i had the realization so late in life. i know its ~ never too late ~ but like..... eh it feels too late lol. i dont have the means to start looking into it and probably wont for at least the next 5-10 years which sucks !!! basically the fact that im not an eccentric arthouse horror director rn is proof we are livin in the darkest timeline