#old card sets

[myfavoriteshow]

survival tips and tricks, so bossy. (here)

[theglitterdome]

Sammy Davis Jr, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, James Garner, and Paul Newman on the set of Five Card Stud - 1968

[honeytrap-graham]

now i need a dm fic where both armand and daniel can be OLD MEN together. like truly domestic but OLD OLD couple doing old people things before daniel’s a vampire obvs, but I just need armand to let his inner old man fly. I want him wearing fake glasses reading on the bed before hearing daniel list all places his body hurts.

[ethosiab]

Wow. It's weird to use a phone screen that's not putting tiny shards of glass in my thumbs.

[pwhl-mybeloved]

when I call myself a hockey fan this is the image I see btw

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

Hi hello I watched all of carmilla in a weekend when I was 17 because a student teacher who in retrospect I had a bit of a crush on mentioned that she knew one of the actresses. also I am pretty invested in all your recent vampire stuff because I watched iwtv in 2 days last week because your edit intrigued me

oh hiiii 🫶 thank you for indulging me. thats so cool that you watched iwtv! did it live up to the expectation?

i also watched carmilla at 17! or like, 17-19. i found it when s2 had just started and followed it to the end. did something permanent to my brain but i think it was a good thing. on rewatch now im like, i was right to like this. like it's a solid show, it's good. it has its flaws obviously but it's well written, the emotional moments still get me, i can see why i liked it and i still like it now even when it's not anymore, you know, meeting every need that baby gay me didnt even know they had

what it doesnt reaallyy do though - i dont remember if i posted abt this or if i left it in my drafts but - is explore vampirism as a concept. their subject matter is more lesbianism than vampirism. which is great! thats what they wanted to do and they did it and it's very good. but reading interview with the vampire the book rn im realising how much potential vampires have to be metaphors for like so many things and i started wondering like 'wait, did carmilla just not really engage with it or did it all go over my head'. but it just didnt really engage with it all that much. which again is fine bc that wasnt what they were doing. im glad they were more about the lesbianism than the vampirism

but there's this interesting difference in framing, because in iwtv they keep calling armand 'ancient' right? and emphasising how old he is. and he's like 500? and i was like 'wait isnt carmilla like 400?'. she isnt, shes 340, but still, thats getting there, you know? and we know quite a lot about her history, but kind of just the Big Events. when she was turned, the events of the novella, coffin of blood, silas. thats sort of what we know. but none of the long lonely slog of history day to day you know? with armand i feel like we can really feel how much time everything takes. how every one of those years is made up of single days. with carmilla i dont feel that as much. i keep kind of thinking about daniel, when louis calls him a boy in the first episode, saying "im an old man, with all the triggers that come with it"

because carmilla might look 18 (or mid twenties at this point) but she has lived all that time. shes also seen her native land be claimed by like a succession of ruling powers, right? like armand. shes been buried alive, like louis. when lestat is born, shes already 80 years old, shes lived a whole human lifetime, and the entire adult part of it shes been a vampire. shes lived through 1680-1870 being a lure. i compared her to abigail hobbs in some tags on a post, i dont know if youre familiar with hannibal the tv show, but i do also kinda keep thinking about that comparison

if youre not familiar, in the first episode of hannibal the murderer of the week is this guy garrett jacob hobbs who kills and cannibalises girls who resemble his daughter. and later on it turns out she was made to be his lure. like they'd go places and he'd sent her to the victims to make friends and maybe get them back to their home or smth. not sure if they specified all the details. but that's what carmilla did for mother. and in s2 we hear from mattie that while every couple of decades carmilla had to lure victims for the fish god, she also seemed to just enjoy humans between those times, right? like the doctor, gets lonely, gets a new companion. but we've only sort of got mattie's mocking word for it ("dont eat him, hes a poet! or her, shes got such a wonderful voice. or that one, shes just too pretty to ruin"), we don't know exactly from carmilla's point of view what she was doing or why. if mattie's talking about stuff that happened after the blood coffin, 1950-now, then i think it's a fair assumption based on what carmilla says in the s1 sock puppet show that after she'd figured out what the real situation was and what her role in it was, when she'd started trying to save girls from being sacrificed, that she mightve been doing the same trying to save people from becoming mattie's victims. it's probably more likely that she was just trying to find excuses to stop mattie from sucking someone dry rather than actually having like an aesthetic based morality. but it might be a bit of both. im still trying to figure out what her philosophy actually is, like i dont know what existentialism actually means ghkfjghkj but i will

i also found it pretty striking in the movie when shes turning back into a vampire she says like "this was supposed to be done, you know? the blood lust, the self-loathing, the sleeping tied to a chair in my own bedroom". thats what defines her vampirism, wanting blood and hating yourself for it (the third part is a joke/reference to s1 but also i think meaningful for how she sees her relationship with laura when she IS a vampire. little bit of that 'she will reject me for my monstrousness' shining through). and thats what defines vampirism for lots of vampires across the genre obviously, but i dont know, it struck me. we dont get a lot from carmilla's pov, we know a fair amount about her, but the story is always told through laura. we get laura's diaries, but just snippets here and there from carmilla, what shes thinking, how shes feeling

and i love that shes a philosopher. i love that thats how she seems to try and find something to hold onto, in a world that kind of moves around her, having been murdered, kidnapped, turned and groomed to be a lure on the cusp of adulthood, never having been properly loved (the relationship with her father wasnt good she says in s3, and her mortal mother i dont think has ever been mentioned (like laura's)). the only good relationship she seems to have had for the better part of 3 centuries seems to have been mattie, and mattie seems to love being a vampire. i can imagine carmilla just sort of going along with anything mattie wants to do just because shes so desperate for that friendship. not like, against her will necessarily really. but more like, she hasnt even had the space to develop her own will, you know? and philosophy lets you do that. philosophy gives you frameworks to understand the world and to develop your own opinions on it. and by the 21st century she seems to have developed those opinions, she has a sense of her own values, but shes also still stuck in that same situation. shes jaded and cynical in the face of laura's optimism and strong moral code a lot of the time in s1 because she feels probably pretty powerless. like she does what she can to save some girls but at the end of the day shes scared of her mother and she has nowhere else to go really, right?

i like how she grapples with that over the course of the series, in tandem with laura grappling with her black and white morality. she sort of jumps ship from her mother to laura bc theyve fallen in love, but then laura still stuck in her hero thinking refuses to see her monstrous side. not literally bc i think the biological vampirism never seemed to be a problem for laura, but morally. the having murdered. carmilla needs laura to see that and love her while seeing it bc the last girl she loved rejected her for being a vampire.

but you see her kind of swing back and forth in s2. she softens first with laura but then they break up and she leans back hard into the sarcastic cynic defense mechanisms, leans hard into "im a monster, dont expect heroism from me". but thats like, it's sort of learned helplessness i think. it's powerlessness, resignation. bc morally shes not a monster. maybe she doesnt have as strong a drive to help other people as laura does and is a little more selfishly hedonistic in that she just wants to enjoy her/their life, but she doesnt hurt people for fun, she never has. she just sort of didnt have another option for a Really long time. so she pretends she doesnt care. "im a vampire, this is what i do, this is who i am". but clearly from the way she talks about it when she turns back into one, she doesnt enjoy it

and i like how she goes even further in s3, where she starts swinging even more to the heroic side, bc she sees hope. shes like "wow if we kill my mother, i'd be free". theres hope and she becomes like a lot more active. and shes like that at the start of the movie too, a lot happier, a lot more relaxed, and then vampirism is back and bam depression gfhgkjh like shes immediately more gloomy, ashamed of her past and her self, retreats into herself

sorry i just took this as an opportunity to dump all the carmilla thoughts floating in my head on you. you didnt ask fhkghgjh consider this an open invitation to you or anyone else to come talk to me about carmilla

[pinkmirth]

it’s so hard for me to imagine alucard in a modern au . . . like what in the world is he doing in the city?!

[twistmusings]

I am definitely showing off a bit under the cut because I can't believe this happened.

Positively losing my mind that this was my first pull, Lilia is the GOAT and no one can tell me otherwise. I love peepaw.

[amethystina]

The Right Set of Circumstances

Fandom/Pairing: Mad Dog - Choi Kang Woo/Kim Min Joon

Length: 6 chapters + 1 bonus chapter (~ 57 000 words)

Rating/Warnings: T / Post-Canon, Canon-Typical Themes, Angst, Grief, Hurt/Comfort, Rejection, Unrequited Love (for a little while), Jealousy, Minor Injuries

Additional Tags: Happy Ending, Fluff, Domestic Fluff, First Kiss, Protective Choi Kang Woo, Idiots In Love

Summary: When Kang Woo is released from prison, he has very few expectations. His main goal is to reconnect with his team and get back to work, eager to continue helping people. The months he has spent away have given Kang Woo ample time to sort through his thoughts and the lingering survivor's guilt, and while the grief over losing Mi Sook and Joo Won will never fade, he's willing to make another attempt at living. It's a road he knows won't be easy, but one he intends to traverse nonetheless.

But having his team helps. Min Joon, in particular, seems determined to remind Kang Woo that there are still things worth living for. He keeps showing up at Kang Woo's apartment — often under the pretense of cooking food — and, before Kang Woo knows it, Min Joon has become a fixture in his new life. It's as disorienting as it is delightful.

And Kang Woo welcomes it — revels in it, even — until one fateful night when everything changes.

Min Joon kisses him.

And, just like that, everything Kang Woo thought he knew gets turned on its head.

GO HERE TO READ

[jill-question-mark]

Re: printer paper being nice for bookbinding...

So you specifically said not to do this but...

1)using plain printer paper is totally fine for books if that's what you have access to. It's what I started with and some people just stick with it.

2)most of us who get really serious into it get custom cut paper to be short grain as it should be. We get 11x17 paper cut into 8.5x11 so the grain is correct. Most Renegade Bindery people in the US get it from Church paper, and they've added a listing to their website for it. And it's nice paper. (Hammermill cream typically.)

Nooo don't encourage me! Danger, danger! As punishment you get to see the results of me going to poke around in my old college work.

Here's a little book I probably made after somehow acquiring a colour inkjet printer. The colours have held up well after 25 years!

The interior consists of anatomical clip art. Why? I dunno. If I pretend to be an art historian of myself, I could say I was making a prescient statement about computers taking over everything including our bodies, but honestly I was probably just having a laugh with the extensive clip art collection that had come with my.. WordPerfect? or Corel Draw? software.

Two little books with non-adhesive bindings and rather nice Japanese paper.

The covers stay on via paper tabs.

Here's a set of two books with covers made from hand-dyed/patterned fabric from my textiles classes. The covers are again attached with paper tabs that I made into a decorative element.

More handmade paper. It's unsized and feels like quality paper towels. Looks like dried flower petals aren't an acid-free material and the colour didn't hold up :P

cool little triple-fold guy.

Hand-marbled paper... I was really into purple and teal in combination.... It was like 1997

Bonus: me snarking on "AI" technology, before the turn of the century. Plus ça change? Unfortunately, the computer didn't do a bad enough job to be funny.

[9w1ft]

Don't you find the strict rules of society in Japan overwhelming for you and the kids?

not one bit

[puppyeared]

crumbs of a story im writing

clumsy rookie news photographer chasing after a gentleman thief to start an advice column ^_^

the thiefs legit job as a librarian doesnt pay enough to cover his rent (not enough public funding?), so he steals from rich politicians.

he kind of sees it as "hitting two birds with one stone," since the politicans are more interested in infrastructure than public funding anyway, and they have more than enough money so he doesn't feel bad doing it

since its done out of necessity, the thief is extremely meticulous and plans out his thefts. but hes also a theatre kid, so he makes a costume and more or less garners the attention of the community

the rookie is a newspaper photographer who has been following the thief for some time and has grown to admire him

the newspaper he works for is community oriented (organizing events and programs, advocating for the public) and believes the thief shares similar values

basically he proposes to start an advice column with the thief to build a rapport with the community, with the goal of winning over the public

the thief is hesitant because he's really only doing it for himself and doesnt want to get anyone else involved, but the rookie tells him to think of it as a way of helping everyone

the rest is kinda fuzzy.. i wanted to touch on community effort and public interests. I don't know if this will be the kind of story that encourages people to take action, I don't see myself as being any kind of model citizen. for now I'm just focused on pouring all my thoughts and faith in humanity into a story setting

[slightlytoastedbagel]

thinks about Kohane Azusawa and photography (explodes)

[brasiliangp]

people recording themselves throwing george’s driver card in the trash….it’s giving children

[kvroii]

9 - The Hermit

[nyxypoo]

PLEASE SOMEONE GET 1-3 AND EVERYTHING ELSE HERE PLEASE OMG