#no tag list because I'm vh

[turtlecleric]

Unspecified iteration, Donnie and Mikey are there but only technically lol. Short, odd thing.

CWs: Implied serious injury, implied abduction, altered states of mind, very confusing to read, I'm sure

-

You don't know what's wrong with you. You can't keep your eyes open. Can't seem to move more than twitching a finger. Your body feels oddly heavy, and everything is all... jumbled? Distorted? Distortled?

Ha. Haha. That's not a word. That's funny.

Donnie's face is blurry above you, his words sounding warped and far away. You pick up on the urgency of his tone, though. Suddenly you're not smiling.

Something is very wrong. Something has shaken him. That almost never happens. His urgency should scare you, you think, and it does - but the alarm you feel is dampened. You're not as worried as you should be.

Wait, what's happening? You can't focus past the sharp pain in your head. It's hard to breathe, too, each inhale making the pain in your throat flare. Your throat? Why- why does your throat hurt?

"-e okay, okay? It's gon - fine."

It takes an enormous amount of effort hold your eyes open. You blink up at Donnie, still trying to keep your breaths even, and think very hard about what you're hearing as he continues to speak.

Oh. He's telling you it's going to be okay. That you're safe now. That's all. Of course it is. You're always safe when you're with the guys. If Donnie is here, you must be safe. That's just the way it is.

A burst of orange suddenly appears next to the purple. Mikey. Mikey's here.

"Leo and Raph are clearing the rest of the building. What do you need, Dee?"

There's a reply, but you miss it. Mikey's serious tone throws you off. Something must be wrong if Mikey's voice sounds like that. You hope he's okay.

There's a shift of color, and you're left with only orange to stare at. Mikey. Mikey's here. You think he asked you something, but you're not sure what it was. You try to respond anyway. All you manage is a soft sound, trapped behind lips that you can't manage to open. It hurts your throat.

What's wrong with you?

It's getting harder to keep your eyes open. You let them slip closed, then you feel someone lightly patting your cheek. Right. Mikey's here. When you open your eyes, you see that Donnie is back. You smile up at them. You missed them. Where are-

Wait. You missed them? What's happening?

"Don't go to sleep, okay?" Donnie. Donnie said that. Donnie's here. He says your name like it's a question. You don't know what he's asking you. All you can do is fight to keep your eyes open. You can only manage a few seconds each time before your lids drift closed.

You're feeling strange. The pain in your head is a constant, sharp, pulsing thing. You're so tired. You just want to sleep, and despite how quickly your heart is fluttering, you feel as if you could slip quietly into slumber within seconds.

"Stay awake, Angel," Mikey's voice says, drifting in your mind like smoke. "Come on, you're okay. Stay awake."

What's going on? Why is Mikey waking you up? You don't want to get up yet. Maybe you can bribe him with some pizza to give you 20 more minutes to rest. It's worked every other time you've tried it.

You're feeling strange. Someone is patting your cheek, gentle but insistent, while distorted sounds flow around you like a water current around a stone.

You miss swimming. That sounds lovely.

You wish whoever was shaking you would stop. Your head hurts a lot. And your throat. And you're so tired. Maybe you're sick?

Something is wrong. Donnie and Mikey are shouting. You can't make out the words, but they sound worried. You wonder if you might be able to help somehow.

You're being moved. It hurts, but the dizziness is worse. What's wrong with you? You're with Donnie and Mikey, right? Do they know what's wrong with you?

Maybe they'll tell you what it is when you wake up. You feel the darkness reaching for you. You reach back, falling into its embrace and letting it pull you under.

It's as easy as falling asleep.

[iolaussharpe-24]

Barbie in the Mojave - Chapter One

I promised. It's time to deliver. Chapter one of the Barbie/Mojave fic.

This is just chapter one, so Jack isn't quite here yet, but I hope that it will set the tone I want the story to have.

Special thank you once again to @waywardrose for helping me finally watch Mojave! If it were possible to wear out a digital file the way you could wear out a VHS tape, it would be by now. There was a day I legit watched it three times in a row. I'm not even kidding. This story would not be possible without you.

I also want to tag @my-secret-shame and @lunar-ghoulie for showing this crazy idea interest, as well as @ominoose, @reallyrallyauthor, @steven-grants-world, @clemdango04, and @have-you-seen-my-sanity because you guys were on the "tag regardless" list I made for people I love and thought might enjoy this.

Strangers in a Strange Land

Somewhere along the way, she wasn’t sure where, a wrong turn had been made. Barbie and Ken, for whatever reason, were still in the car. Still in the seemingly endless stretch of desert. Where was the speedboat? The rocket ship? Tandem bike, camper van, snowmobile? She wasn’t supposed to overthink it but, this was ridiculous! The only difference between now and two hours ago were minor things. The sun was hotter. The breeze was warmer and picked up sand that seemed to go straight for the dolls’ eyes. The radio only played static. Even the landscape had changed around them. Fewer sand dunes. More rocky mountains and plateaus. No one around except for the two of them in her pink corvette. There was growth around them, rather than the empty sea of sand. Plants in the ground. Birds in the sky.

They’d somehow lost the road. It had gotten covered up by the sand. She’d thought they were still on it, but this excuse for a dirt road she was driving on didn’t seem to be taking her where she needed to go.

It was maddening. Especially for Barbie. Ken was too busy looking at cloud shapes, cacti, and wiry bushes to really notice that anything was severely wrong. Granted, Ken was the only one to not notice her flat feet when literally everyone else on the beach was freaking out and screaming because of them. Even Weird Barbie thought it was strange. She said she’d never seen anything like it before. And then the way she’d reacted when Barbie had told her the rest….

Going to see her felt like a nightmare. A horrible, horrible nightmare. Life was perfect. Everything was perfect. Her home, her friends, her body, her entire universe! Everything was just the way it was supposed to be. It always was. In all the years she’d existed, Barbie had never had so much as a knot in her hair, let alone a malfunction so bad that it warranted a visit to-

Ugh! She was starting to spiral. Her world had gotten so chaotic so fast that she was starting to go crazy, and that was only accelerating the problem. It was getting harder to keep her smile on her face. She could feel it trying to fall every time she stopped thinking about it. Smiling was always easier than breathing to her. To all the Barbies! …. And now her body doesn’t want to breathe either because she thought about it!

“Look Barbie! A rabbit!” Ken called excitedly, pointing out from the backseat of the car to a brown hare hopping a few yards away.

Wanting to distract herself from the chaos slowly overtaking her existence and threatening to completely envelope her body as well, Barbie looked out at the animal. She watched it move. It was… odd. To say the least. Alien, to be completely honest. In Barbieland, animals didn’t really move much. They counted as accessories. Not dolls. They didn’t have the joints to move the way that Barbies and Kens and Skippers and everyone else did.

But this hare was moving.

Its legs were pumping, carrying it along the sand at a fast pace. Barbie slowed down the car, her eyes glued to it. It was strangely majestic. And she came from a world where rainbows were more common than sunlight, mermaids appeared out of the water to say hi wherever they wanted, and glittery dresses could transform into brilliant fairy wings with a twirl. Her basis of comparison was odd, but that little creature was so-

Before Barbie could even work out her own thoughts, she hit a bump in the road. A very big bump. The kind that didn’t just cause the two passengers to jump out of their seats. The kind that made Ken fly out of the vehicle because he didn’t have his seatbelt on, and flipped the pink corvette onto its side, taking it’s still strapped in pink clad plastic passenger for a ride that she hadn’t been expecting when she asked to be sent to the real world. It wasn’t like when Ken startled her earlier in the day. The car had flipped yes, but it went through the air and landed back on its tires, no harm done. This wasn’t that. This was something else. Something that she’d never felt before.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the world turned sideways around her. Her blonde braid lifted off her shoulder and the seatbelt across her lap seemed to tighten, digging into her thighs. She screamed in a way she never had before. She’d felt fear, yes, but not like this. She didn’t think that any of the Barbies or the Kens had ever felt fear like this. It was like her entire body screaming right alongside her. Every inch, every joint, and sculpted line in her body tensed up and clenched tighter than Boxer Barbie’s fists.

The car landed on its side and skidded across the sand, Barbie’s head snapped back from the force of it, the seat digging into her back and pressing into something that wasn’t supposed to bend the way it was being forced to. It didn’t feel good. At all. This was the furthest thing from good she’d ever felt. Saying that it felt bad didn’t even do the feeling justice. It was worse than when she fell off her roof. And that had been the worst until this.

Distantly, she could hear Ken’s voice. He sounded like he was in pain too. Like he was just as scared as she was. He was calling out her name.

For a moment, things went black. Completely black. It lasted less than a second. One singular insignificant second in which absolutely nothing existed. No thoughts. No feelings. No sight or sound. Just darkness and perfect silence. It was so peaceful. Like everything was finally right in the world and she didn’t have to worry about flat feet or cellulite or a rip in the fabric of reality. It felt like that last blissful moment of sleep before getting up in the morning. Like she’d open her eyes and stare through the open roof of her dreamhouse at the beautiful blue sky above. She’d hear the voice singing her through her newest best day ever. And everything that happened since the dance party would only be as real as a bad dream, and forgotten just as quickly.

But that’s not what greeted her when she finally did.

She opened her eyes to an endless desert landscape. The pink corvette was overturned, crumpled on one side, and partially buried a few feet away. At some point, the seat belt must have snapped, because she wasn’t in the car anymore. She was laying on her stomach, her hair a mess around her face, cheek in the dirt.

She tried to sit up, but her body didn’t want to do anything. Her limbs throbbed and she felt her joints pop in an unnatural way as she lifted herself onto her knees. …. She was in pain. The most pain she’d ever felt in all of her years. It was awful.

She’d never feel something like this in Barbieland. Never.

Does that mean I made it to the Real World?

“Barbie! Are you okay?” Ken called as he rushed to her side. Looking up, she saw him limping towards her, a worried expression on his face. She wasn’t really sure how she was, but she didn’t want to scare him. She didn’t want to scare herself either. Looking at the positives, she could move. Nothing felt broken or bent out of shape. She wasn’t dead and/or thinking about being… well, she kind of was, but only as ‘Thank goodness I’m not dead!’ kind of thing. Not an ‘Oh no, I just died!’ kind of thing.

She smiled her perfect smile, though it didn’t feel right in the moment, and slowly rose to her feet. “I’m okay, Ken. Really. I’m fine.”

“Your hands are shaking.”

She looked down at them and saw that he was right. Her hands were shaking. Badly. She’d never seen anything like that before. Anywhere. On anyone. She’d read one of Dr. Barbie’s books once… but there was nothing about this kind of thing in there either. The book was mostly pictures of x-rays and instructions on how to mold a cast out of Barbie Dough.

“I’m fine,” she lied again, feeling it stick in her throat this time. “I’m perfectly fine. Everything is fine.”

Ken nodded and looked around. “That was… wow. I’ve never seen a car do that before. Where are we? Where’s the speedboat?”

“Uh… I think we’re almost there. We have to be, right? Weird Barbie didn’t give me any kind of timeframe for anything. Or specific instructions. She just said that we’d go from a sports car to a speedboat, to a rocket ship, to a tandem bike, to a camper van, to a snowmobile, to roller blades and go to the state of Los Angeles in the country of California. She said not to think about it too much.”

“I thought there was supposed to be some kind of portal at some point?”

“Apparently not.”

“…. Oh.”

Barbie looked at the wrecked car and then out into the desert again. She was starting to feel really hot. And something told her that she wasn’t the only one. Ken had already opened his shirt like he would on the beach. “I know you brought your roller blades, but I need to ask, did you bring any changes of clothes? Something that maybe won’t be so… inappropriate?” she asked, picking at the sleeve of her own pink top.

Ken nodded. “I might have brought a thing or too.”

“Good. We should change and then get going. Can’t be that much farther to the speedboat, right?”

Ken nodded excitedly then ran over to the car where it laid on its side. He popped open the trunk and all their things spilled onto the ground. The shoes, clothes, skates, hair ties, jewelry, and sunglasses.

Barbie put her hands on her hips, but didn’t say anything. Now wasn’t the time to complain. They were stuck with each other for the foreseeable future, lost and alone, with absolutely no idea what they were going to do or how. Weird Barbie just said that she would ‘know’ when she found the little girl playing with her. But she didn’t know how to get to the point that would allow her to know! She wasn’t Explorer Barbie or Rock Climber Barbie, or Girl Scouts of America Barbie. She was just Barbie. Stereotypical Barbie. She didn’t have anything special about her other than the name ‘Barbie’.

Why was her breath coming in so fast? Why was there pressure building in her chest and head?

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. And another. And another. It was working. The pressure was going away. Slowly, but surely. She smiled again and opened her eyes. She looked through the clothes and found a resort outfit she had packed just in case she had to stay somewhere before going home. Specifically, the BarbieStyle Resort-Wear outfit. Tan high waisted wide leg pants, a salmon pink and white crop top with a v neck and puffy half sleeves, cat eye sunglasses, dangly gold earrings, black heels, and a tan clutch purse. She laid everything out in front of her and waited….

And waited….

And waited….

Weird. In the Dreamhouse, she just had to stand in front of her closet and her clothes would change. Actually, it was the same throughout Barbieland; in the boutiques and any general area with a mirror or a door. She just needed a place to stop and choose an outfit to wear and then she’d be wearing it. With all the places a Barbie could go and all the things she could do, quick changes were a necessity.

And yet… her clothes weren’t doing anything now.

Confused, she started to unbutton her top to put the clothes on manually. Then she paused. Ken was right next to her, having the same issue with his pale pink shorts, jacket, mesh shirt, white sandals, and sunglasses. Not wanting to make him feel the same way, she gathered up her things and walked around to the other side of the car, using it as a wall to separate the two of them. Then, she went back to taking off her clothes. The feeling was strange, and the action was one that she wasn’t used to doing, but it was conceptually simple enough. Pull over head and take arms out. Easy.

At least, it sounded easy. Her clothes were tight and didn’t want to come off. For a moment, she got stuck. She got the fabric over her head, but her arms were outstretched and trapped. Eventually, she got it worked out, but it did take her a few minutes to do it.

Once dressed, Barbie realized two things:

First, they didn’t have a way to carry their belongings now that the car was ruined. She didn’t think to bring any actual luggage. All her things fit in the trunk with room to spare and Ken wasn’t supposed to come with her.

Second, now that she wasn’t permanently on her toes, high heels didn’t feel as natural or comfortable as they used to. They hurt her feet and made it hard to walk for long periods of time. And, though she’d never noticed before, heels and the desert didn’t actually mix very well. The thin points sank in the loose dirt and the slick soles made the stones she stepped on roll beneath her, very nearly making her trip over and over again.

It couldn’t be that far, could it?

It couldn’t be that far….

[slayerkitty]

There has been ongoing discussion of Only Friends amongst a few of us about central themes of the show and ideas Jojo seems to be exploring. We ended up in a discussion on ephemerality that led to a broader discussion on what the show is trying to say about permanency, mostly through the use of things like Boston's photography, surveillance videos, and other audio/visual means.

We also touched on the idea of voyeurism being a running theme (potentially tying back to the very public nature of queer culture in the 80's and 90's) based on the different medias being presented and the frameworks that each episode has used so far. I posited at the time that the different frameworks of each episode could be a type of voyeurism (and because we've brought up control), a type of controlled voyeurism; the voice overs, talking heads and even the Twitter posts are great for giving the audience insight into character insights, feelings and emotions but only what they want us to see.

There was also discussion in the tag about how this show feels like a throwback to sort of a late 90's aesthetic over all (I can't find this post - specifically I'm thinking of a post that mentioned OF had a very Dawson's Creek aesthetic, which hit me like a truck when I read it because YES). Given that Jojo was born in 1984, so I think this post about OF being the voice of 80's babies is right.

So, you must be asking, duh, we've already talked about this. What's your point?

All of this extremely prolific long-windedness is because I noticed something while watching the Let's Try MV from the OST as well as the BTS videos that have been released so far and I don't think anyone has mentioned it.

In the MV, shots from the show (both what appear to be canon and a smidge of BTS material) are shown like they were filmed on a mid-90's camcorder. This also happens in the in the BTS videos as well (episode 1, episode 2.)

Also, both the MV and the BTS videos have visual effects. Transitions like lens flares, static, and whatever that blippy line distortion was on VHS tapes that we fixed with the tracking buttons (if you know, you know) repeatedly show up in both.

(Please prepare yourself for some absolutely horrible screenshots; I have no skills in this area, lmao, but I wanted a couple of visuals)

(What? No, I didn't choose these three screenshots because of the colors, absolutely not. I also absolutely am not tagging @respectthepetty because of it either, nope. Don't know what you're talking about.)

But Slayerkitty, you ask, what does it mean?

It definitely shows that we're on the right track regarding this, I think, because using it in the MV and BTS materials is a very deliberate choice given the amount of photo, video, and audio focus the show has done to this point. Interestingly, you could also say the BTS videos are a type of controlled voyeurism as well, since it's a specific peek at how things were made (the view they want us to have lol).

(Also interesting but I'm not sure if it means anything or if they just thought it looked cool, but in the MV from about 2:29-2:40 and 2:52-3:10 the scenes are all "camcorder" video and the second time stamp is pretty much all BTS footage.)

(P.S. I also don't think anyone mentioned it before now, but that fluffy jacket/cardigan thing we're all obsessed with that Ray wore in episode two is what Khaotung is wearing the MV. It looks like they probably shot the episode two car scene and the MV the same day/night.)

Tagging the ephemerality squad and anyone who's posts I linked to, in case you guys have any thoughts: @waitmyturtles, @wen-kexing-apologist, @ranchthoughts, @chickenstrangers, @lurkingshan, @twig-tea, @clara-maybe-ontheroad, @distant-screaming, @shouldiusemyname

I know I forgot someone, I'm sure! Apologies if I did. I'm gonna have to make a list, lol.

[ageless-aislynn]

List 7 comfort films and tag 7 people:

I was tagged by the always ever-awesome @missoliverstark Thanks, hon!

Twilight

Hey, man, don't judge me. 😐

😂 I can't explain it but, if I'm stressed out, I can put on the first Twilight and just chill. It is what it is. 🤷‍♀️

2. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Technically, the entire trilogy fits the bill but I've literally seen Fellowship several hundred times by now. I bought the Special Edition DVD set for Fellowship before I even owned a DVD player, lol! I eventually got to the point where I could not only recite the English dialogue, I could recite the Elvish as well. This movie has been burned into my brain and I wouldn't have it any other way. 🤗

3. The Mummy (1999)

I'm not saying I've watched this movie a lot but... well, I wore out my VHS copy. The image literally faded out in places. It's one of the few, if possibly only movies that I own in 3 formats: VHS, DVD and Blu-ray. Considering how much I adore it, I'm floored that I've never actually vidded it yet. Oh well, there's still time; I mean, an Ardeth Bay tribute to "I'm Sexy and I Know It" would totally work, right? 😇

4. Ladyhawke

This one has proved redonkulously hard to find a decent transfer on DVD or Blu-ray, so I haven't seen it in ages. That said, it's another I watched SO many times on VHS and it's definitely one of the formative movies of my life. 😍

5. Beauty and the Beast

I enjoyed the live action version as well but I'll give it to the classic animated version for this reply because I've seen it more. 🤗

6. Godzilla vs Kong

Okay, so is a giant radioactive lizard and a giant gorilla beating the stuffing out of each other supposed to be a comfort movie? Probably not but it's just one I enjoy watching when I want to kinda chillax, so... 🤷‍♀️😂😉

7. Star Wars

Technically, Empire Strikes Back is the one of the original trilogy I tend to default to but I've seen A New Hope and Return of the Jedi a lot as well. Any of them just takes me back to a simpler time as well as reminds me where my love of fictional scoundrels comes from. 😉

Honorable mentions:

TRON/TRON Legacy, Labyrinth, Terminator/T2: Judgment Day, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV and Warm Bodies. Yes, I have weird tastes and odd ideas as to what makes a comfort movie, lol! 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️😉

No pressure tags: @coleishere @ghostslillady @authortobenamedlater @mrtobenamedlater @sarnakhwritesthings @helplessdreamersworld @fandomdancer @brianllama

And yes, I lost count but who even cares, right? 😛😂 Also, if you're reading this and would like to share your comfort movies, I'd absolutely love for you to! Please accept this as an official tag from me! *boops your nose politely* 💖🤗

[campbro92]

INTRODUCTION POST:

Hi! I'm Brian and I like doing stuff. Mostly going to the woods with my friends and filming funny stuff with my friend Alex. I'm in college so I'll take all the enjoyment I can GET this winter break after all the hard work i put in for finals........ xp I mainly made this account because Lee said it was cool and I believe them when they say that. Also if u are seeing this... Hi! I probably SHOULD study or something but. I'm not gonna do that XD

MOD INTRO:

Name: VHSTAPE

Age: 24

Pronouns: He/Him

Primary language: English.

This is a roleplay blog mostly intended for me and some pals but I'll include anyone as long as you pass the vibe check. I'm not picky. You'll find the tag legend and a general DNI list below.

TAGS LEGEND:

#arkspeak: in character interaction/canon to the roleplay

#arkanswers: in character answering questions, cracking jokes, etc.

#arkmod: VHS answering questions, etc out of character.

#arkasks: VHS posting out of character questions to other roleplayers

DNI

Zionists, pedophiles, twink masky enjoyers, alex kralie villainizers, habit stans, and anyone with Meat, Foid or jcrane in their name, anyone who believes in cringe culture, tim wright haters BEGONE, creepypasta fans... ur on thin ice just do NOT draw brian or tim as twinks I'll wither away.

[regina-cordium]

me? responding to a post i got tagged in? wild!

got tagged by @renninflight

Rules: always post the rules. answer the questions the person who tagged you has written and write eleven new ones. tag 11 new people and link them to your post. let them know you’ve tagged them

except. i never know who to tag for these. if u see this tagged ur it. ill put questions at the end

under cut, because as yall know im a Yapper

What's your favorite band/musician? (And tell me why! And if you've seen them live!)

I'm a Hozier girlie thru and thru. he was in boston in march AND HAD NOAH KAHN AND I COULDNT GO AND IM STILL SO DISAPPOINTED. A N D HE WAS AT BOSTON CALLING AND I C O U L D N ' T G O auuuuugh

What's something you're proud of?

i dont mean this in, like, a self deprecating way. but i honestly dont know what to say. i got dean's list a couple times in college. i won some kinda award and now my name is on a plaque in the english department, thats kinda dope (i, to this day, have no idea what it was for)

What's something you like about yourself?

i do tell my parents they overestimate how smart i am, but i will say i am p good with trivia/knowing random things. nothing better than getting most of a jeopardy board right (<- needs to go outside more)

What's something you would like to do, if money weren't an obstacle?

i would literally never leave school. i love learning things (see above)

What's something you do when you're anxious or stressed to calm down and relax?

listen to music, sometimes Very Loudly

Do you have a favorite author? (If so, who?)

im totally blanking, but i dont really think so? theres not really an author that i see and immediately go "oh i gotta read ALL of their stuff RIGHT NOW" yknow?

Do you have a favorite poet? (If so, who?)

emily dickinson. yes, i am gay, how'd you know?

Do you have a favorite artist? (You can probably guess the rest of this question!)

van gogh!!!!!!! i know its such a basic bitch answer, but i L O V E the impressionists

What's a movie or TV show that had a big impact on you? (Could be something you watched growing up, a movie you saw recently that made you emotional, something you've seen a lot, something you quote with friends and family, etc)

i would watch beauty and the beast on vhs CONSTANTLY growing up. tv show wise, definitely buffy and angel and charmed. watched them with ma growing up and they have absolutely shaped my interests since then. also, and i swear im not being sarcastic, supernatural. ma and i watched every goddamn episode together since the pilot and look at me now.

What's something you wish you could forget? (Could be something personal, or it could just be a gross or weird fact)

not to get Very Fucking Morbid, but my dad almost died when i was 12 and i'd super love to forget that, actually

What's something you'd like to change about the world?

I Cannot Emphasize Enough That You Should Care About Other People

okay here're my questions. if u got this far, u are doubly tagged. idk i never know who to tag.

Song you've had on repeat lately?

Favorite play/musical (or both!)?

Book/movie/show you think somebody should read/watch to understand you better?

What's your favorite poem?

What's immediately to your left?

Favorite dessert?

Somewhere you'd love to travel, if money/accommodations were no issue?

Tv show currently/last watched?

Do you think aliens are real?

Do you think ghosts are real?

Do you have overly specific requirements for a room when you're trying to sleep?

[floosies]

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

steve harrington x poc!fem reader

summary: always the babysitter, but has the father figure found the mother figure to help put up with the nonsense?

warnings/tags: friends to lovers, fluff, cursing, (p.s. despite mentions of s4, eddie is still alive here)

a/n: stevie deserves the world and if a fic is how to do that then so be it. merry xmas to my favorite golden boy ❤🎄☃️

tagging: @reidsbtch for the beautiful moodboard 🤍

The holiday season in previous years for the Harrington's meant trips to Australia or Florida, anywhere else where there isn't midwestern cold air blowing around them. Steve would begrudginly string along, forgotten in a hotel room or given spending money and told to have fun in the resort.

It was 1990 now though, and at 23, he was spending this Christmas at his own place with his own traditions now. One of which was choosing a Christmas movie or show to watch as a group. Though his and Robin's place was considerably small they always made it work. This year however Home Alone had just come out and the plan had been to get tickets on a night everyone could make it.

Only scheduling was becoming hell, everyone had plans or work. The Wheelers were planning a family trip with the Byers, Eddie had gotten a new job with more hours so his uncle could have some more rest time, Robin and Vickie as well as Lucas and Max were planning family centered stuff, which left the always trustee Dustin to promise Steve he would go with him.

It was all he would talk about to her, how everyone else had basically ditched him and here he was again relying on Dustin to step in. She heard him intently as they shelved vhs tapes onto the tinsel topped displays, "how do you think I feel? This is my first Christmas away from home. Although I do enjoy being able to hear Wham singing and not my folks yelling over it." She quipped as he sighed, his eyes rolling, "at least your parents hung around for the holidays, I think mine are in Florida right now." She shrugged, "oh Steve lighten up tis the season and you have little Dustin to cheer you up." She further taunted him by throwing him one of the candy canes from their small tree they had on the check out counter.

She'd moved to Hawkins earlier in the year with the only goal of surviving on her own away from her previous situation. Within a month she was hired at the Family Video and met both Steve and Dustin in the middle of a heated debate about batteries and star wars. It was Dustin who vouched for her to join their friend group especially after seeing her homemade twilight zone pin and weird al cassette in her car. However he only ever regretted it when he got into trouble, because now he wouldn't hear the end of it from her and Steve.

Considering Dustin, he had come in before the store closed, ever thankful he ran into her first and not Steve. His face worried and guilt ridden, "what'd you do this time dusty? Am I going to have to talk to your mom again?" She joked as he mocked back, "that was so not cool, but no. It's about the movie night with Steve...I messed up." She was curious now but before she could ask what he meant, Steve had come up from the back of the store, "Henderson you better be ready to get all the snacks dude, we are going in heavy this year since-" catching a glimpse of Dustin's sour face he stopped his ramble, "do we need to talk to Higgins and your mom again?" Rolling his eyes he shook his head, "again totally uncalled for and embarrassing. You guys didn't need to be there" She quipped back "Then why are we on your emergency contact list?" He groaned, "whatever anyways no, that's not why i'm here. I'm sorry dude I royally screwed up my schedule -" "No. No. No! Not you too!" Steve cried out in frustration, "I literally had to beg Keith to give me Saturday night off." Dustin felt like shit about this, "I'll make it up to you I promise. It's just Suzie is coming down from Utah with the whole family and my mom has this whole dinner planned. I'll bring her by so you can meet her!"

She really felt bad for Steve now. He was genuinely hurt by now, it was written over his face. In the back of her mind she knew better but before she could regret it or overthink it, the words flew out of her mouth, "I'm free Saturday night if you still wanna go see that movie? I still haven't been to the theatre here so it would be cool to see the rest of Hawkins?" Steve looked at her about to decide whether to shoot down her kindness or ask if she's serious when Dustin speaks, "problem solved! Thanks so much! You guys'll have all the fun in the world. I got run." He started for the door with a 'merry holidays!' as he ran out and back into his mom's car.

Steve took his hands into his face with a loud sigh, "I was being serious Steve you literally said you did this every year, don't let the tradition fade out because those gremlins can't make it." He looked up at her, "well I guess it couldn't hurt." She smiled at him nudging his side with her shoulder, "see theres the holiday spirit. I'm going to start getting the store ready to close now though." He watched as she walked off to start turning off the window lights while thinking about how happy she seemed at his approval. He didn't want to read too much into but could it be that she might like him?

-

What was she thinking? Sure he was cute but from what everybody had mentioned so far, he was some sort of big shot around the area. He did say yes though, but it was probably a pity yes, still she could always say it was some christmas kindness is all. That's what she told herself for the rest of the week, because deep down she wasn't sure what to make of him entirely.

He spent the rest of the week pestering himself with the notation, the very idea that maybe he had missed something entirely or he was so full of himself that he was misinterpreting the whole thing. Robin was tired of hearing the same ramblings at work and as he dropped her off at home, "don't be a dingus, dingus. She literally said she wanted to go with you, she even brought up having zero plans." He shrugged as he pulled up to Robin's house, "I mean what if she just feels bad for me?" "Oh I think we all feel bad for you." She said opening the car door, he rolled his eyes, "ha ha laugh it up." Slamming the car door behind her she looked back through the car window, "it's gonna be fine Steve."

-

Saturday came by way too quickly for both of them. After multiple outfit changes and hair stylings they both found themselves waiting for the other. Well Steve found himself waiting in front of her apartment door with flowers in one hand and the other in his pocket where he was fidgeting with his car keys.

When the door opened and he saw her in a black mini skirt with sheer tights and a red knit sweater. She had clearly done something right based on the look he was giving her, "hey Steve those for me?" She asked pointing to the bouquet in his hand. He suddenly came to again, "yeah. Yes! I mean yeah, got these for you, I umm...I didn't want to come empty handed?" He was messing this up already, but in her head it was cute how nervous he seemed, She took them gently from his grasp, "well that was very kind of you. Now I feel bad I didn't get you a gift." She stepped back waving for him to enter. He shook his head, "no no, you tagging along to my misery parade is gift enough." This made her giggle, "c'mon it won't be that bad. Plus everyone is saying this movie is really good." He groaned out in frustration "yeah which was why it was so hard to get some damn tickets." She had placed the flowers on a coffee table behind her, "well lets get going then. Don't wanna miss those trailers." Before they could step out he stopped her, "think you need a coat first." Shit, there went the cool look she was going for, "oh yeah. One sec."

For two adults, they both seemed to come off like thirteen year olds, while they did enjoy the movie, they were sneaking glances at each other much than they were paying attention to kevin mcallister's boobytraps. Still they found themselves laughing at the mayhem the kid was making. She hadn't heard Steve ever really laugh like how he was laughing now and it made her smile, no wonder all the girls of Hawkins were into him. Which just made her that much more nervous. He had felt just as nervous since their hands had accidentally touched while trying to get popcorn at the same time.

The movie was great, as expected and they left the theatre in happier mood even arguing about which trap they could make while they walked around the town. It had happened gradually that their arms were linked together while he showed her around adding small stories here and there. Despite the cold and the dark of the night, it was still fairly early but Hawkins was small enough that all the nice scenery could be seen in a half hour or so. They headed back to his car when he suggested the idea of food, "we could get some burgers or a pizza." She perked up at the idea of spending more time with him, "I just got this new christmas record and a new tin of hot cocoa mix?" He smiled at the idea, "take out?" She nodded.

They got the food and headed to her place. The conservation continuing on about both the movie and the stories he'd told her. It'd been a while since he'd felt this comfortable with someone. Maybe it was the hot chocolate or her very decorated home, but he felt good around her. She felt the same way though, he hadn't made her feel the need to keep her guard up. Into their second mug of cocoa she quipped, "you know, you sure do know how to show a girl a good time." He let out a breathy laugh, "I sure hope so. I was worried I was going to bore you to death. By the way you looked great tonight." Her eyes widened in a playful manner, "is that so? Well so did you, that sweater is pretty cute." He smiled at her, his eyes linger onto hers.

The moment grew while the christmas music played in the background, her hand reaching for his as they sat on her couch. His hand also inched closer towards hers, in a soft voice she spoke up "so...christmas tradition saved?" Matching her tone Steve replied, "oh totally, in fact made even better." There it was again, the laugh he was growing to love more and more. They looked at each other a bit more, his thumb rubbing circles over her top of her hand, in the same hushed tone he mustered up the courage to ask, "am I reading this moment right?" She simply nodded, he leaned in closer towards her "got any mistletoe in here?" With a small shake of the head she spoke, "oh I don't think we need that now." Closing the gap their lips met into a tender kiss they didn't pull away from for a while.

[ralkana]

NaClYoHo Day 19!

Put my new tags on my car.

Cleaned out my car, including the center console and the glove compartment.

Attacked the box o'shredding and got it down to about a quarter full, then filled it back up to half full, then got it back down to a quarter full. Emptied the shredder twice, and oiled it.

There's a bench in the bedroom that had succumbed to Flat Surface Syndrome and it had spread to the area around it. I went through everything (and found MORE old mail, omg, as well as more souvenirs from Spain) and either trashed, donated, recycled, or shredded it. Maybe half a dozen items from that area are worth keeping. Amazing.

Went through 2 baskets of old mail that were buried on the bench in the bedroom.

Took a bag of old sorted mail, 2 bags of shredding, and some broken down boxes out to the recycling bin and 3 bags of trash out to the trash bin.

Wiped down the bathroom counter, swiffered the bathroom floor, and cleaned the toilet. I forgot to do the mirror, so I'll do that tomorrow night.

Hung the shower caddy in the guest bathroom. It says I have to wait 24 hours before using it, so I'll put the stuff in it tomorrow night.

Cleaned out a small console table in the den. That literally consisted of opening it up and sweeping the decades old, unlabeled vhs tapes into a trash bag, and then wiping it down. Easiest task today!

Wiped down a plastic file tote we found in the garage so that I could transfer my files into it from the file box they've outgrown. Even that is a temporary solution until I get a file cabinet I like, but it let me tackle the filing that's been piling up.

Sorted through an enormous pile of clothes and towels and linens on the loveseat, and I put together a package to send to thredup and a box of towels and linens to donate to the animal shelter. The rest of the linens and towels are in a basket on the stairs, and I'll take them up and put them away tomorrow.

I also straightened up the stuff I've tossed in the direction of the donate pile, so that I can take it to the thrift store, probably Tuesday.

Underneath the enormous pile of clothes was surprise! Another freaking bag of mail. Ugh. Fairly current, from this summer, so since I already had the file tote out, I sorted it and filed what needed to be filed.

I really have to remember to take before and after shots, because the transformation of the area around that bench is amazing, and I'm sad I don't have pics.

NaClYoHo Task List Tally:

Starting: 50

Current: 106 (including completed)

Completed: 60

Partially completed: 7

Knocked TEN things off my list today! A really good day!

[genderqueer-hippie]

I was tagged by @ineffabildaddy to fill out a get to know you doodad so here we are! Thank you for the tag, I love these things!

Real name: Jasmine - I was named after my dad's favorite flower

Nicknames & origins: In high school I was called Raph (we assigned teenage mutant ninja turtles to each other like normal ppl) and Grandma (long running joke of our friends long story) Jael was my first one online, an alias back in my days of livejournal. Jay is the most common and I enjoy it because it's gender neutral and easy to remember.

AO3:

https://archiveofourown.org/users/PatchouliDreamsForever/profile

Social media: this is the only place I am active

Pets: Oscar, Grace, and Bruiser. Not pictured is Buddy, a lab/mastiff mix

Hobbies: hiking, writing, foraging, camping, video games, reading, embroidery, cooking, other things that my noodle brain has forgotten

Personality: I tend to be more shy, especially in unfamiliar situations. I'm quick to be friends if I vibe well with someone. I tend to babble like a hamster on uppers when I talk about things I enjoy. Idk I'm just a super laid back queer stoner type (who is currently very stoned lol)

Fav holiday: I don't have a favorite, actually? I just enjoy the family time of a holiday meal together.

Fav food: edamame

Fav dessert: I'm a whore for gelato

Fav color: eggplant

Fav quotes: "But I digress..." is very relevant to my daily life

Fav books: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, The Jungle Books, Fahrenheit 451, Good Omens, Wind in the Willows, I could go on but I won't

Fav TV shows: okay in no particular order, let the list unfold- Golden Girls, Buffy, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Interview with the Vampire, Willow, Good Omens, Staged, Our Flag Means Death, A League of Their Own, Torchwood,

Fav films: Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Birdcage, But I'm a Cheerleader, Funny Face, Charade, Princess Bride, The Blue's Brothers, Eyes Without a Face, Chicago, and so many more

Fav characters: I have so many!

Fav actors: currently all about David Tennant but Audrey Hepburn is always my go-to answer

Fav songs: Rhiannon Giddens is an amazing artist and everything I've heard from her is my favorite. I highly recommend Julie

Fav genre: I listen to so many things. I guess most listened to is blues and folk, but classical is another main staple of mine.

Fav podcast: I don't really listen to them tbh

Have you ever met a celebrity? Yes. Went to a Supernatural convention back in ...2013? Osric was running around the lobby in footie pajamas hanging out with everyone. I froze when Misha sat next to me at the cocktail party. I hugged Matt and he was super sweet. Karaoke was super fun. Ah, memories 😌

Have you ever been to a concert? Quite a few! I haven't been to one in a long time though.

Do you collect anything? I like rocks, books, physical media (CDs, DVDs, VHS), teas, wax seals and stationery

Idols? Idk that I really have an idol?

Is there a real life friend you can be yourself around? For the most part, yeah

Where would you love to travel? So many places. I haven't traveled far at all.

Random fact about yourself: when I was a kid I'd spend road trips daydreaming about running off into the woods and living a hermit life in a cave

This took longer than it should have but it was fun! I tag any of my moots that want to have an excuse to do it!

[occasionallythreeowls]

RULES: list 8 tv shows to get to know me better!

Thank you @americanhooligans and @storytellervan!

Yellowjackets: I mean. Yeah. Pretty obvious I'm into this right now. You give me a story about complicated, kind of awful women, fucked up woods, surreal hallucinations/dreams, body horror, unreliable narrators, and a portrayal of the effects of trauma that isn't glib or exploitative, AND there are lesbians? And you expect me to say no? Come on.

The Twilight Zone (Original Series): I love a good anthology, and who can say no to The Twilight Zone? Even if the premise for an episode is incredibly silly, the earnest execution always makes it a good time. Some favorite episodes: "I Shot an Arrow Into the Air", "The Shelter", "The Masks", "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I watched this between high school and college, and I loved every campy, earnest, silly, surprisingly dark moment (for the most part. Some of the writing choices are, uh. Questionable. But I won't get into that). It makes me miss that kind of campy monster-of-the-week show that we hardly ever get anymore. Also. Faith.

Star Trek The Next Generation: I watched this recently with my sibling and it was my first real exposure to anything Star Trek. I really loved the ensemble cast and the writers' clear love for digging into sci-fi concepts and tropes, however weird and obscure, and avoiding simple answers to complicated questions.

BIGTOP BURGER: This one kind of feels like cheating, because it's not technically a TV show, it's a web series. But it's a quick surreal animated comedy with a stacked cast and some really fun visuals. Ayo Edebiri plays a theater kid who tries to blow up a food truck with a cannon. It's good.

Midnight Mass: I have mixed feelings about this one to be honest. But, it's got great cinematography and acting, some genuinely scary moments, a really compelling portrayal of an isolated, dying community, and a fresh take on vampires. Give it a watch if you don't mind monologuing.

Survivor: ...Okay, look. LOOK. Sometimes you're channel surfing as a kid and you stumble upon a show where a bunch of strangers in the wilderness take part in intricate rituals to determine who is in the in-group and who is expendable and it awakens something in you. This show was a guilty pleasure for me when I was younger, but I stopped watching after it got too gimmicky for my taste. But we'll always have Micronesia.

Bill Nye the Science Guy: Speaking of shows that changed me as a kid: I credit this show with sparking my lifelong love of science and making me deeply curious about the world. I have fond memories of popping in a VHS on momentum or dinosaurs or eyeballs and just being entranced by the power of SCIENCE! Good shit.

Honorable mentions: Derry Girls, The Good Place, Russian Doll, Squid Game, Black Mirror

I'll go ahead and tag some folks if they'd like to do this:

@thunderon

@lilmisssammy

@yourfavouritedoll

@prodigaldaughteralice

Thanks again!

[rallamajoop]

Obsessed with you Dracula beauty and the beast au! Who are your top 5 favorite dracula characters?

Thank you very much, kind anon (and many apologies for all the months I've kept you waiting for a real answer). We still have stuff planned for that AU, but Em has been hella busy lately running conventions and recovering from covid and all that, and so things end up on the backburner longer than they really should.

Now, if you're asking me for my favourite characters in any version of Dracula, the top spot can only go to Peter Cushing's Van Helsing(s) from the Hammer Dracula films (a quick glance at my Peter Cushing tag will make this pretty hard to deny). But if we're talking Stoker's original Dracula novel, then VH is not even going to make the top 5.

So, without further ado:

1. Mina Murray/Harker Dracula is an ensemble novel, and Mina is neither the first nor the most vocal of our narrators, but there are ways in which it feels more like her story than any other single character's ‒ and I love Mina. Aggressively sensible and practical even in the face of horror, but still human enough to take the reader through a full roller coaster of emotional whammies, Mina is the kind of heroine you just don't get in gothic novels of the era ‒ or even most of the following century, sad to say. Even if the other characters' little Mina-appreciation-society thing gets a bit OTT towards the end of the book, it's not like they're wrong to appreciate her ‒ and I can only dream there might someday be a single adaptation of Dracula that really does her justice.

That said, there is a damn good Mina in the bizarre-by-excellent 2002 silent-film-ballet adaptation, Pages from a Virgin's Diary, played by CindyMarie Small. But my favourite 'Mina' from any adaptation would have to be Kate Nelligan from Universal's (WOEFULLY under-appreciated) 1979 Dracula, which is ironic for a number of reasons, not least of which that this is one of those adaptation which have swapped the names and spend the film calling her 'Lucy'. Getting back to the list, though, it probably won't surprise you to find that the two other characters who love Mina best take out spots 2 and 3.

2. Jonathan Harker Jonathan's the kind of character who could only have come out of the Victorian era, yet there's so much about his arc that feels subversive even today (and it's been so great to see tumblr take to him).

It's so easy to dismiss poor Jonathan as a coward, a weakling, a fool (plenty have) ‒ but then, people still just aren't comfortable seeing a male character so disempowered and traumatised by a predator like Dracula. It's all very well to do that sort of thing to Mina and Lucy, but to a man? Let alone a man who survives the experience, is "forgiven" by his pre-existing love-interest, recovers through the support and validation of friends and professionals, and goes on to get a happy ending. Nor does Jonathan get nearly enough credit for the way he evolves into a grim, knife-wielding badass towards the end of the novel, the first to throw himself into the fray with his old tormentor ‒ even the one to slice open Dracula's throat in the final moments of the book. He even manages to use his boring solicitor's-clerk skills to help bring Dracula down!

Now, I'm fully aware my opinion on Jonathan has been biased by seeing so many others express these same ideas (from Cleolinda's old posts to FFA's distinctive JONATHAN HARKER WOULD NEVER-anon, whose points I found so convincing I wound up kind of writing fic about it). But I don't just love Jonathan in spite of his detractors ‒ I love him because he's a heck of an endearing woobie-survivor all in his own right. Also, he and Mina are adorable, and goddamn do they earn that happy ending.

The only adaptation I've seen to come close to Getting Jonathan Harker Right would be Michael Pink's Dracula ballet (NOT to be confused with Pages from a Virgin's Diary, based on a completely different Dracula ballet ‒ seriously, there are so many), and even that refuses to give me any really good Jonathan-reference shots. So I'll just use this one again, which does at least tie into why so many mainstream audiences might find Jonathan's story (ahem) uncomfortable.

3. Lucy Westenra ‒ and she is so close behind Jonathan I could really just declare a tie. Here's the thing ‒ there's a 'Lucy' in every Victoran Gothic novel I've read* (because if the monster doesn't victimise some truly pure, sweet, innocent young soul, how will we know how monstrous he is?) She's always someone's love interest, and she usually dies tragically. It's the kind of role you could pretty much fill with a demure lamp ‒ so it says a lot that of all those Lucies, this is one one who feels like a real character to me.

Lucy may be sweet and fragile and sheltered, but she still gets to do things. She expresses herself as eloquently as any other narrator, she turns down two proposals because she knows her own heart too well to lead anyone else on ‒ and even in the wake of her weeks of illness and own mother's death, she has the presence of mind to take charge, calm the servants, and write down a record of events she knows she might not live to tell. In a book with three proposals, two engagements, and one wedding, I will still argue that easily the best-developed relationship is the one between Lucy and Mina ‒ some of the most memorable chapters of Dracula are just the two of them, exchanging correspondence and spending time together. In other words, I can buy Lucy as a person, not just an ideal ‒ and that only makes her death all the more tragic.

It's one thing to tell me how lovable a character is supposed to be ‒ it's another to actually make me love them, and Stoker actually pulls that off.

It seems to take a ballet to really get Lucy right, so have another pic from Pages from a Virgin's Diary (Michael Pink's Lucy is also great, as is Krzysztof Pastor's ‒ did I mention there are SO MANY?). And let's throw in that great Disney-Lucy concept from Joseph Szekeres again, while we're at it.

4. Quincey Morris Quincey's an odd one: a character who was obviously supposed to be much more important in Stoker's early concepts, but whose role in the finished book is mostly limited to bringing the tally of Lucy's suitors up to a round 3. But whenever he's actually on page, he's just such a breath of fresh air! In a novel packed with long-winded, very-British characters (and Van Helsing, who's only worse), Quincey will reliably cut to the heart of the matter in a handful of words. In a world where Jonathan takes a week to figure out he's dealing with a vampire, Van Helsing won't say a word without being allotted time to prepare the equivalent of a full powerpoint presentation, and Seward never even comes up with a theory as to where all Lucy's blood is even going, Quincey shows up in the morning and has figured out that this sure does look like a vampire problem before lunch. And while everyone else is busy having an extremely-long-winded strategy meeting, Quincey's the only one to notice a suspiciously-large bat hanging out over the window and go for his sidearm. Arthur really couldn't have had a better, er 'friend' to 'comfort' him after Lucy's death (if you know what I mean). Quincey's great.

I can't even really complain that Quincey's so ignored in most Dracula-adaptations ‒ it's a long book, and you've got to cut something. But he does at least appear in Michael Pink's ballet, so have a pick of him and Arthur having a threesome er, dancing with Lucy.

5. Dracula. Look, you can't do a top-X-Dracula-characters and not find space for Dracula himself. What do you think this book is about? For a figure who's been adapted, reinvented, and flanderised to the point of absurdity over the last century, there is something rather charming about going all the way to back in the Stoker's novel, and discovering that even the original Dracula was simultaneously utterly terrifying, and kind of ridiculous. He brings living babies home in sacks to feed his wives! (He meets Jonathan on the road in what has to be a fake beard.) He arrives in Britain aboard a ghost ship in the midst of a storm! (He prepares for the journey by amassing a teaboo-level 'research library', and tries to blend in by wearing a straw-boater hat.) He delivers an extended, gloating speech about the futility of his enemies' crusade against him, when he's already claimed both their women! (Then he turns tail and flees before they can catch up with him.) I will never know if Stoker meant all this stuff to be as funny as it is to me, but I love it all regardless. On some level, even the OG Count Dracula was as human as any of us.

Obviously, I had to include Christopher Lee's Dracula here, but I am also inordinately fond of Johnny Chang's Dracula from Pages from a Virgin's Diary,

* The others would be Elizabeth from Frankenstein, Flora from Varney the Vampire, and Sybil from Dorian Grey, if you want to know.

So, in conclusion... well, there's a lot to love about Stoker's characters and his novel that you won't find in any adaptation ‒ but some of the ballet versions come pretty close. What can I say, apparently some gothic novels just call for OTT musical adaptation.

...and on that note, I really should poke Em a bit about how that next Harker-and-the-Beast bit is coming along. *g*

[keefsteef]

VH Question that keeps me up at night: Does it seems to you like they don't get as much recognition as they do the other titian/old bands???

Like it feels like they should be BIGGER than they are or more in the mainstream consciousness, like I'm late twenties and love them but I know if I mentioned Van Halen to any of my friends my age they'd go "Hmm?" Bit if I said Rolling Stones, Kiss, AC/DC, or Def Leppard, heck probably even Cinderella they'd be like "oh yeah" even if they weren't into that kind of music???

Like I know some of those bands I listed bad been around longer than VH but still. Like Bowling for Soup mentioned Van Halen in a song and I think South Park did a VH cameo during the mid 2000s tour but, they're not even talked about that much in general media either (unless I just don't watch as much TV which could be it lol)

You can't even say it's because of the dysfunction that they didn't take opportunity to cement themselves because there are waaaaaaaay more bands with worse drug/alcohol/in-fighting issues that are still like generally popular or known today who also had a shuffle with member/singers

I just don't get it cause yeah you "could" (not that I agree with it) say some of their songs are corny by today's standards as far as lyrics....but like so are plenty of other bands from that time??? And the music itself is still holding up very well far as I can see. Like??? It's a mystery to me, I dunno... maybe I'm just around people who aren't into classic rock?

BELOVED YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY VALID for letting that keep you up at night because it weighs on my mentality too 😩☠️, van halen not being a bigger topic doesn't make sense for SO MANY REASONS, and I'd like to start with the tumblr aspect of it.

I was fairly surprised at how small the van halen circle seems to be. Now I could be closed off and unaware of other van halen blogs out there(I've personally counted maybe 15? I'm not counting fans, I'm counting blogs centered around them)but generallyyyy it's either a strictly Eddie or strictly David focused sort of thing.

Whereas bands like idk led zeppelin, kiss and the rolling stones, sure you have your individual band member blogs,, but the ratio stillll leans way more towards overall band blogs, and the fandoms definitely seem more prevalent.

But on the overall rock topic aspect, van halen LITERALLY HAS DAVID LEE ROTH, EDWARD VAN HALEN, ALEXANDER VAN HALEN, MICHAEL ANTHONY, SAMUEL HAGAR AND GARY "GARETH CHERERONI" CHERONE!

WHOOOO may I add are all iconic in their own rights, just as iconic as all the bands that are prevalently talked about. So it really confuses me as to why van halen seems so overshadowed when at a point in time they were the ones casting the shadow 😩! (Cough cough Edwards guitar playing SHAKING UP the scene....)

Don't get me started on corny lyrics from band to band, I could go...on a tangent, but I'll chill 😭 plus corniness is endearing haha, so it's definitely not a lyrical thing. And it's definitely not a problematic band thing. DEFINITELY NOT 😩☠️☠️☠️....they're quite low on that scope in my opinion.

MOMENTARILY the van halen Tumblr fandom livened up a bit when that Eddie Munson from stranger things started getting compared to Eddie V.H,,, but that was quite short lived and probably produced 20 van halen fans out of the hundred that just found an extension of Munson out of E.V.H.

But anyway yes anon we both share a sleep paralysis demon named whythefuckisvanhalensleptoneisha and she's unfortunately not in a hurry to move out...

BUT I WILL KEEP BLOGGING VAN HALEN AND EVENTUALLY PEOPLE will start a rebellion....vanhalenizing the classic rock tag one post at a time....

[violetfaust]

I posted 3,601 times in 2022

102 posts created (3%)

3,499 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@alwaysdearie

@whiteorangeflower

@lovesthedarkerone

@fuckyeahbelleandrumpelstiltskin

@ryik-the-writer

I tagged 2,096 of my posts in 2022

Only 42% of my posts had no tags

#spn - 235 posts

#rumbelle - 161 posts

#destiel - 146 posts

#castiel - 122 posts

#sambucky - 121 posts

#dean winchester - 109 posts

#rumplestiltskin - 79 posts

#sam wilson - 75 posts

#op - 74 posts

#belle french - 68 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#and the greeks built a gorgeous modern museum with slots for every one of the stolen items and little placards saying why they weren't ther

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

For my own sanity

I'm trying to put together a list of the various versions of Goncharov (1973) screened throughout the last fifty years.

The four-and-a-half-hour film festival cut that even Scorsese felt was a rough draft

The US theatrical release in 1973

The 1973 European theatrical release with its extra half hour of footage

The 1973 Latin American dub with its extra half hour of different footage

The so-called Secret Reels that producer Domenico Procacci the Elder (not to be confused with the unrelated Italian filmmaker Domenic Procacci the Younger, who has only been active since the late 80s) used to screen at his fantastic, legendary drug-fueled parties in the 70s--these seem to be (at least one of) the source(s) of the deleted Goronchov/Andrey sex scene

The 1980 director's cut

The 1980s Soviet bootleg (which became so popular that it led to the 1993 re-envisioning)

Matteo's own controversial "Writer's Cut" (particularly complicated because apparently he never stopped editing and re-editing to fully achieve his personal vision--every time he screened the movie after 1975, privately or publicly, it had at least some minor differences and often incredibly large ones, with entire character arcs added or lost). At least one of these, my own personal favorite with the deleted second epilogue, was copied and got into general circulation on college campuses and whatnot

Also probably based on one of Matteo's cuts, the "Underground" cuts that were the basis of the Queer improv parties dating back at least to 1982

The first VHS release

The rare Betamax release with the extra Patchka scene

The post-Soviet edit 1993 "modernization" re-envisioning Gonchorov/Katya's backstory that was most Millennials' introduction to the movie

The butchered 90s broadcast TV airings (both of which cut vital plot points--such as Ice Pick Joe's lobotomy backstory--and were likely the reason an entire generation lost interest in the film)

The 1998 25th-anniversary director's cut (the one that The New Yorker famously panned with "It seems that Scorsese has forgotten his own movie")

The 40th-anniversary DVD release with six hours of additional footage

The recent gorgeously digitized Blu-ray release that included the nine-hour supercut and "Making Of" documentary (and probably inspired the Gonchorov renaissance)

The eagerly awaited upcoming 50th-anniversary Criterion edition that's rumored to incorporate the "Lost Reels" that Matteo, Scorsese, Al Pacino, and second assistant editor Mariana Lyudmila Manuali had kept private, as well as the distinct four hours of Patchka footage that the cinematographer filmed whenever he got bored.

And, of course, the crowdsourced Internet project to recover the "definitive" Gonchorov, incorporating most of the known footage as well as new home-filmed snippets from the private collections of minor players like Lynda Carter (in her first screen role as Dancer #2) and Henry Winkler (the busboy)--currently running twelve hours

Am I missing anything?

(Note: This list intentionally excludes the probably apocryphal student project that reframed the entire film from Valery's point of view--even if it actually exists and uses original footage, it can only be considered an homage to the full film and not an actual variant.)

292 notes - Posted November 24, 2022

#4

Well, this may be controversial but

I don't care if Chris Rock knew that Jada Pinkett Smith was struggling with alopecia. I don't care if he didn't know his joke was ableist.

Maybe we shouldn't be making fun of how people look even if they don't have a medical reason? Maybe it's bad if you're in a seventh-grade cafeteria, or in a comedy club with a hundred people, or kind of especially in the middle of a huge glamorous production airing live to millions (or even hundreds of millions) of people.

Maybe it's not funny ever to single someone out and try to humiliate them for how they look.

Maybe you deserve a slap for that.

433 notes - Posted March 28, 2022

#3

In the last two weeks alone, Trump's Supreme Court has:

Overturned Roe v. Wade.

Severely limited Miranda protections by ruling that citizens can't sue the cops who don't read them their Constitutional rights.

Expanded gun rights less than two months after schoolchildren were slaughtered and weeks after a racist shooting in a community supermarket, by striking down sensible New York gun control laws.

And now eviscerated the power of the EPA to do its job and try to protect against climate change by ruling it can't regulate emissions from power plants.

These "justices" are not only legislating from the bench and making decisions that are stripping human rights and WILL CAUSE DEATHS in opposition to decades of precedent (50 years for Roe, 60 for Miranda, 110 for the NY gun laws):

Many of them are unfit to serve.

Clarence Thomas's wife is an insurrectionist and election denier who is refusing to cooperate with the January 6 committee. Thomas has also not recused himself from decisions regarding the January 6 committee. He is married to a literal traitor to this country and has blatant conflict of interest. He MUST resign or be impeached and removed.

Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the bench was rammed through the Senate despite credible accusations that he is a rapist (as well as possibly guilty of financial misconduct or crimes). Investigators refused to consider evidence. This investigation must be reopened, and if more evidence is presented (as I suspect it will be), he should be impeached, removed, and prosecuted.

Neil Gorsuch perjured himself in his Senate confirmation hearings about Roe. He said he recognized and respected it as the law of the land, yet last week he cosigned Alito's reactionary brief that claimed not only that Roe was not law, but that it never had been. Thus Gorsuch should be impeached, removed, and if possible prosecuted for lying under oath.

While I don't know of evidence that Amy Coney Barrett is legally unfit to serve (despite being a far-right-wing reactionary), her appointment was illegitimate under the Republicans' own arbitrary rules: they refused to even consider Obama's candidate for the Court after Scalia's death because it was "in an election year" although that was MARCH, then forced through Barrett's a WEEK before the election (and less than a month after RBG's death). Senate Republicans need to acknowledge that either her appointment or Gorsuch's was illegitimate (and McConnell should be censured for it).

455 notes - Posted June 30, 2022

#2

It’s the day after an election, it’s still not clear who won, and Misha Collins is trending at number 1 on Tumblr.

What year is it again?

917 notes - Posted November 9, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

16,005 notes - Posted November 6, 2022

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[madseance]

I was tagged by @destinyandcoins to list my current top 5 songs. There was no requirement that I go into excruciating detail about my feelings regarding these songs, but also, notably (perhaps for next time!) no specific prohibition against me doing so. Therefore...

"This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush. I am obsessed with, and yet also slightly hate, this song; I think the first line and hook/chorus are great, but I'm iffy on the rest of it. It feels unfinished. It's also very hard to just casually sing to yourself, which tbh is one of my top criteria for songs. Once in a delirium I got the idea to combine it with the good parts of another song I love-hate, "Glycerine" by the band Bush, but so far I haven't quite been able to make it work. Fun fact + opinion: despite it being written for a movie in which Kevin Bacon's wife nearly dies in childbirth, the actual best ever use of "This Woman's Work" was in the series 2 premiere of The Handmaid's Tale, during the execution scene.

"Spooky Scary Skeletons (Undead Tombstone Remix)" by Andrew Gold. Look. I didn't really get to enjoy Halloween this year because I was suffering from a dissertation. I'm not ready to let go of spooky season just yet. And as I've said before, by all rights spooky season should last through Christmas at least—the Victorians (my best bitches) told ghost stories at Christmas! A Christmas Carol is a ghost story! I'm probably going to reread The Woman in Black for Christmas this year. Anyway. This is obviously a goofy-spooky song (and best enjoyed in the form of Tom BetGeorge's Halloween light show), but it also brings me a lot of joy. For properly spooky music, we turn now to:

"Bottom of the River" by Delta Rae. A bitch loves some Southern Gothic! Delta Rae is a very Fleetwood Mac-esque group in that their songs cover a range of styles depending on which band member is featured, and I am partial to Brittany Hölljes's "witch" songs (whose music videos tell an ongoing story). They're apparently working on a musical(!), so look out for that if you enjoy this piece.

"Silver Springs" by Fleetwood Mac. A bitch ALSO loves mess, and it doesn't get messier than Rumours, perhaps best summed up by John Mulaney as "an album written by and for people cheating on each other." (One of many observations of his that aged poorly!) This live performance from The Dance may be the best version of Stevie Nicks' wistful-scornful breakup anthem, in which it is clear Lindsey Buckingham truly will "never break away from the sound of the woman that loved you". I distinctly remember first hearing Stevie do this on VH-1's Storytellers, which she verifiably didn't, but I chalk that up to her being a witch. My memory is fine! Get off of my lawn.

Superliminal soundtrack by Matt Christensen. Yeah, I'm putting a whole album on here; arrest me. I have not personally played Superliminal because I have a decade-old MacBook that would burst into flames if I even thought about it, but I watched a playthrough of it while doing my master's degree and got really emotional about the ending. (Yes, it is a puzzle game.) The soundtrack is my go-to for background work music now, and if you also enjoy it, you can buy it directly here. I also strongly recommend playing the game if you can (or else watching a no-commentary playthrough), though if you're really pressed for time, you can also watch the devs react to a 23-minute speedrun.

I don't know who to tag in these, but if you wanna do it, just do it; the police can't stop you.

[mantisfriendd]

(have a graphic here that says welcome)

hey.

I'm Mantis Friend

I consider this an 18+ blog not because I frequently post 18+ content but because I want the freedom to do so if I want, usually though this is just a place for me to post art and reblog things I think are funny.

(full resolution cat pic at the bottom)

Number one Mr. Cupcake fan

I'm mainly an artist and musician but I also do a lot of other things, including shitpost, if you just wanna see my art, I've tagged it all as "#my art" if you wanna see my music I've tagged it as "#my music" ... if you only wanna see the nonsense I've tagged all of it as "#shitpost" any thing I reblog is now tagged "#re🅱️log" so you can mute that tag if you only wanna see my wholly original unhinged rambling and art. "🅰️sks" is the tag for asks.

Reblogs, replies, and follows are NOT a endorsement. Simply put I cannot do a full background check on every person I interact with on this site, obviously if I catch someone I'm following doing something awful I'll unfollow them then, but there is simply no time efficient way for me to do that with every person I ever interact with ever.

(more info below the cut)

https://href.li/?https://mantis-friend.neocities.org/

some more info about me for the nosy:

he/him

I'm a big fan of:

Five Nights at Freddy's , Ace Attorney , Undertale/Deltarune , JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, The Persona Series and Doki Doki Literature Club!

I consider myself a collector, I mostly collect Retro games and pins, but also anything that catches my eye, I have almost the entirety of Star Trek on VHS, I've not watched a full episode yet.

UPCOMING (?) PROJECTS:

Webcomic:

I have been working on this webcomic for quite awhile now, which is unfortunate because I started it with the intention of it not becoming one of my huge projects that never come out.

That being said this will be the first wholly original project I will make.

The comic is inspired by Shonen manga, specifically Jojo's, if that sounds like something you might enjoy, stay posted! I don't have a venue for the comic at the moment but I think I may host it here on Tumblr!

Role Playing Game:

Dont expect this one any time soon, I want to make sure I am at least somewhat competent in Game Maker Studio before I work on this idea I've had for years.

As this project is so on the back burners because of the skill needed for me to actually start work on it, I can't say with certainty what the game will be like when I finally start development, right now it is a scattered series of artworks, documents, and soundtracks, but this is what im building towards.

I will say that this game as I Invision it currently, is inspired by the Persona series, with elements of Ace Attorney's investigation and Cross Examination sequences. The only other thing I will say about this game is that I intend to have a mechanic to replace the "level up to get stronger" mechanic that most traditional RPGs have.

Finished Projects:

VIDEO A DAY PROJECT:

Back in 2021 I decided I wanted to upload a video to my YouTube Channel every day that year, and that I did.

Mostly songs you'll notice that the quality of the videos takes a serious nose dive during most of the year, they aren't all great but there are some good things in there.

I have a playlist of all the videos here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUv6pXjkdl6Bgq5Nim0AJuYzxNImg-Ga_

I do not recommend you watch them all, please don't, but it might be fun to scroll through the playlist and click on ones that catch your eye.

if you don't wanna do that then you at least watch the first video Black on White https://youtu.be/iI9HQg9lyjA and the Last https://youtu.be/qjdoybrOduQ which is a remix of the song using the experience I gained through the year. and who knows maybe there is some secret hidden in the end screen if that last video ;)

you can find me in other places here:

My website is janky but (hopefully) the best place to link you to anything you might desire (if your desire is more stuff by me)

YouTube is where I post my music and other video things: https://youtube.com/channel/UCKDmQwajLVwu_FKKlPqebUA

I sometimes post to Instagram but the way it works kind of annoys me so you might not find all my art there, but you will find some game boy photos!

I have a Gamejolt account but I kinda forget about it

on discord I am "mantisfriend" DMs are open, for now, feel free to DM me!

I have a Twitter but I find myself using it less and less as the CEO makes a fool of himself and guts the platform

I have a Reddit account but I am not really using it anymore as the CEO makes a fool of himself and guts the platform

I got a Newgrounds account have no idea how this site works!

If you want to Email me feel free to email mantisfriendsuggestions@gmail.com

and of course feel free to message me here as well, I'm probably most active here now that reddit has become worthless.

PROJECTS I'M APART OF:

currently I am a composer for the FNAF fan game Fazbear Rebrand

(sometimes this link breaks for no reason, but if you search Fazbear Rebrand on gamejolt it should come up)

Thats the only one for the time being, but I'll make sure to keep this post relatively up to date

Thanks for reading!

[arceoptryx]

I posted 1,217 times in 2022

That's 1,217 more posts than 2021!

424 posts created (35%)

793 posts reblogged (65%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

arcaeasine

pomodoko

orangekingfisher

vesperway

nervousmonolith

I tagged 336 of my posts in 2022

#artcaeasine - 38 posts

#digital art - 19 posts

#here filter out my thoughts - 17 posts

#illustration - 16 posts

#my art - 15 posts

#clip studio paint - 14 posts

#mcyt fanart - 13 posts

#mcsr - 13 posts

#oc art - 13 posts

#self reblog - 12 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#didnt list this as an inspiration but my foundational internet experience was being in the twitch plays pokemon community long past its peak

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

doodle of guy whose base has crabs

125 notes - Posted November 14, 2022

#4

oranged ocelot ??? no way no way no way no way sooooo epic

148 notes - Posted April 25, 2022

#3

build a vault. go on. do it. i swear to god.

no yeah uhh interpretation of the architect vaults from ye olde vault hunters minecraft modpack y'know. nah because i only really got into watching the smp during the bav event (the streamers i watched b4 that went inactive sajj) ,,, good times good times.

148 notes - Posted February 7, 2022

#2

fucked around and made a vh!tubbo design because the series doesn't get enough fanart and I'm the change i want to see in the world. bossman shows up after 6 months and makes himself a problem to everyone, honestly an iconic move.

158 notes - Posted January 13, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

congrats mr streamer man on (hopefully) finishing automating / semi-automating every vault altar requirement. been an experience to watch. also don't talk to me about the color change effect on the crystals it was so tedious to draw. still version under the cut.

258 notes - Posted January 18, 2022

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