#once again I am one away from having all of the protaganist characters

[fallout-lou-begas]

F, U, K?

hahaaaaa

[Fanfic Questions]

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

“Am I alright?”

“Yeah,” Agnes mumbled, “are you alright?”

Cass released a deep sigh. “The fuck is that supposed to mean, do you  think I’m alright?”

“No, I don’t, and that’s why I asked.” Cass’s brow furrowed and Agnes immediately turned away to dodge an incoming look, but she slowly leaned over to the courier, pursuing eye contact like a shark on a blood trail, bringing her face close to Agnes’ own again. She loomed in her periphery with the same acidic glare as before. Now, though, Agnes could see tears welling in the corner of her reddened eyes, and when Cass finally spoke again, it was close to whispered.

“Tell me why it matters to you.” It dripped from her whiskey-stained lips slowly, carefully. It sounded like a threat with an implied “or else.”

This is from my one-shot prose fic “Scar Tissue” on AO3, itself an extension of the vignette depicted in IKROAH #7. I love this exchange so much because Cass is someone drinking herself to death at the Mojave Outpost, and everybody knows it, even herself (“Got a lot of memories to drown. If I die while doing it, so be it. Got nowhere else to go.” is in-game dialogue). Everyone else at the Outpost, Major Knight and Lacey included, treat her slow and incidental suicide attempt as a black joke about some deadbeat alcoholic living at the bar. Agnes is the first and only person to really ask if she’s...alright. It’s mostly just a cordial gesture, something that slips out, hence why Agnes is a bit awkward about it and Cass is so suddenly defensive. Cass is staring death through the glass bottom of a bottle and Agnes is someone still reeling and shaking, literally, from the effects of having died once already. This confrontation between the two of them, and the way they humble each other and see themselves in each other from that, is what puts them at ease once they recognize it and forms the bedrock of their mutual respect and quick friendship.

U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

Admittedly I read far less fanfic than I write, and I’m usually friends with authors before I fall in love with their writing. I want to celebrate @yesjejunus for their incredible work that scrapes raw and deep; their two novels (yes, novels) about their courier, Joan, demonstrate their incredible talent for crafting intense, gripping stories with that have you screaming at the screen like it’s a horror movie, “don’t go in there,” and for shackling you into the headspace of these characters going through hell, horror, attraction, infatuation, hatred, fear, regret, safety, and so many contradictory feelings all at the same time in this horrible, alluring fireball (and they also have this very wry sense of humor that leaps out preciously often in asides and dialogue). They write their works as a survivor of assault, something they’ve been public about, and their perspective on the subject and the brutally real complexity of it as it manifests in their writing is so meaningful to me. Their work just hollowed me out, a powerful and deeply visceral emotional response that I love to receive from art, and for that reason I highly recommend Learnin’ the Blues and No Light (if you’re 18+ and not going to be upset by the very thorough and clear attached content warnings).

I also want to thank @sas-afras for helping me further the trans agenda but also for creating this really immediately interesting and unlikely protaganist in Penn, a character whose flaws and insecurities are so clear in the way they’re written and move around the world. I don’t think I would have been inspired to make IKROAH if I hadn’t seen them do such incredible storytelling on their own fancomic, and I can’t wait for more once they’re able to work on it again.

My other friends whose fics I love and adore most are still primarily in the WIP phase and haven’t posted much publicly yet, but they know who they are and know I cherish them.

K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with?

Just, the entirety of It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin’, haha.

[probabltbry]

Carole & Tuesday [Rants/My Opinion/Controversy]

THIS TOOK SO LONG TO WRITE, PLEASE SKIM IT AT LEAST (T.T).

This is very different than what I usually post and I want to begin by saying that I may not have all of the facts! I am basing this on what I’ve seen other people say on this site (and others) and fact checking. I am open to learning and understanding more, and I will read any and all comments (if this post gets any lol). If this changes anything, I am making this post through the lense of a black bisexual female, so my view on things may be different. :)

I try to keep this spoiler free in general, but since I’m going to talk about characters and episodes that have released that’s a little impossible, so I will warn you if there are any spoilers in the section I discuss. I want people who haven’t seen the anime to get a taste of what it is! 

In this long post I will touch on the following; LGBT+ representation, POC representation, exposure of the anime(streaming and where to find it), the community/fandom of C&T, Cybelle????!!, and other characters. Remember- this is my opinion and that is always subject to change.

For those of you who don’t know about Carole & Tuesday, it’s a Spring 2019 anime directed by Shinichiro Watanbe in association with the popular Bones studio. Shinichiro is well known for his other successful series such as Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloos and Space Dandy and Bones studio has produced many popular animes like Noragami, Soul Eater and Ouran High School Host Club, etc. [Fun fact, Cowboy Bebop and Carole & Tuesday are said to be set in the same universe and I died when I heard this.]

The plot of Carole & Tuesday, as provided by wiki is:

Set in the future on a partially terraformed Mars, teenager Tuesday Simmons runs away from her posh lifestyle as the daughter of a politician and makes her way to the populous Alba City to pursue her dream of being a musician with just a suitcase and her Gibsonacoustic guitar. On her first day in the city, she crosses paths with Carole Stanley, another aspiring musician who plays the piano, and the two decide to team up as a singer-songwriter duo under the name Carole & Tuesday.

Where can I find this? Why haven’t I heard of it?

I actually discovered Carole & Tuesday through google since I was looking at new and upcoming animes for the Spring and Summer of 2019. Sadly, the website I used show that Carole & Tuesday was an anime many people weren’t looking forward too- but that was only a handful of votes. Personally, I had been super ecstatic since, just from the promo poster, I assumed Carole and Tuesday would possibly be a couple, there’s a person of color as a main protaganist, and they’re both SUPER CUTE. This all made me happy beyond words. 

As of now, Carole & Tuesday should only be available on Japan Netflix. Japanese viewers tend to prefer weekly released episodes whereas Americans prefer to binge shows. I am assuming that once the show has completed airing in Japan (there are going to be 24 episodes) it will appear on other Netflixs around the world. 

I believe that’s why the promo for it has been severely lacking and the fanbase appears non-existant. The fandom is there, if you squint (which is why I’m surprised there’s already controversy). The fact that I had to look through a list on an unknown website and scroll to the bottom to find this anime is very showing of how unknown this anime is.

I also saw a post comparing Yuri!!! On Ice to Carole & Tuesday and I personally believe that OP took the wrong approach. I forgot the posters name (I will edit and tag if I find it again) but the post said something along theses lines; YOI is so popular because it’s a mlm show whereas C&T isn’t nearly as popular because it’s a wlw relationship with poc. 

While this can prove to be true in the future, there are some major differences that were overlooked. I was into the YOI hype when it was first released but it didn’t truly become popular until Yuri and Viktor were canon and everyone was speculating whether it was a kiss or a hug, etc. Yuri!!! On Ice is also a relationship with a person of color, Yuri, and the anime was also supported by Crunchyroll, a major streaming service for Americans/others. It has had two years to become popular, grow and this is one of the very few animes that had positive lgbt+ representation since the relationship grew just as normally as any other type of relationship. It also wasn’t labeled a yaoi/shounen ai (though this sadly didn’t stop the fetishization of the characters and No.6 did it first but let’s move on-). It felt like a big step in the anime lgbt+ community and it won’t be forgotten! 

Carole & Tuesday has just started off! Not much promotion is being shown in other countries outside of Japan and the first episode premiered in early April this year. I believe it’s harsh to compare C&T to such a popular anime when it’s literally just begun. It’s also exclusively on Netflix (besides pirating sites) so there is a little foreseeable loss since it won’t be available on Crunchyroll. But despite that I know there’s hope! Though mlm couples tend to be more popularly viewed, and any pairing that doesn’t have completely white/asian/white-presenting people in the relationship they tend to not garner much interests, but I don’t think C&T will fall into that pit. There’s simply not much promotion of it yet but it still has defied odds and has a fanbase with people from many different countries already!

Though I do see the OP’s point and concerns and they have facts on their side (look at fandometrics popular characters/couples, they’re mostly male) I think it’s too soon to point fingers.

Just imagine how large it’ll get when it has proper streaming (because many people do choose not to pirate in order to directly support the anime and it’s creators!). I think this is where our patience comes into play because if you have seen Carole & Tuesday already, you are most likely not using the most legal means. We are all early to the party.

LGBT+ and POC Representation (spoilers in part of this section, read first line):

I will say this, and this will only be the only spoiler free line, I think it has decent lgbt+ representation and that there’s more to unfold. If you’re going to watch exclusively for lgbt+ representation then I don’t think you will be too disappointed but the anime has a ways to go before it’s finished so my opinion can change.

But the most recent episodes and commentary has caused a ripple in viewers beliefs.

Anne and Marie 

I literally adored when Marie kissed Anne whilst Carole and Tuesday sat there blushing. Then, Marie was careful to ask if either of them had a boyfriend or girlfriend not assuming C or T’s sexualities at all. This happened on in an early episode so this left me to believe that more casual representation was on the way!

Cybelle

This was where it began to become uncomfortable for me and a few others. I actually couldn’t figure out whether Cybelle was a female, male or left to be ambiguous intentional (I just concluded she was non-binary until they used she/her pronouns). But many people concluded that since it was clear Cybelle was a female with an infatuation (not a crush, an infatuation) on Tuesday people simply labeled her as lesbian. A few are labeling her interactions with Tuesday and Carole as a harmful and negative commonly used trope when involving wlw characters.

Cybelle was being creepy and aggressive towards Tuesday, constantly touching her abruptly and without consent and going as far as biting Tuesday’s neck and leaving a mark. Actions like these feed into the trope that is commonly used in anime/television shows and it actually demeans real lesbian couples. It’s like a scapegoat; saying ‘here’s your rep’ but it’s very, very, very bad rep.

The controversy comes in since there are people defending Cybelle’s actions because she’s a girl, and people are literally calling others ‘homophobic’ because they choose not to ship Cybelle and Tuesday despite their ‘canon interactions’ but they still want Carole and Tuesday to become a couple.

My personal stance is that none of Cybelle’s actions were consensual and I will never want her and Tuesday to become a couple. I think the creators fed into a bad trope (I’m not sure if intentionally or not), and the real only development we got from this was Tuesday learning to stick up for herself. I also think that Cybelle is simply a crazed fan who is not in a sound mental state and that her gender may not necessarily play into this; maybe she was meant to just be an aggressive fan that overstepped boundaries and made people uncomfortable and just happened to be female. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be representation and should not be labeled as such.

But these are just thoughts!

Mermaid Sisters - Galatic Mermaid  

I was personally pleased that the Mermaid Sisters blatantly said they weren’t male or female, just like mermaids aren’t fish or human. Non-binary representation is my fucking jam!

But there are worries that this group was used as a comedic affect due to the way the characters were dressed and how they presented themselves, and the fact that they were POC who were interrupted, immediately lost and were shown to be aggressive directly after. 

When I first viewed this I was more focused on the fact that they were non-binary, had amazing voices and had sang a song that was clearly not the most appropriate for Mars Brightest. Now I understand that how there were presented can be damaging and as a person of color, I am disappointed but I’m still conflicted. This scene caused people to ‘cancel’ the show and they’re trying to discourage others to not view it but I want to watch until the very end.

Overall I am super happy with the POC representation in the show! Especially since various races and skin tones are show quite frequently.

Dahlia

The same can be said about Dahlia. People feared the a negative trope of transgender females was being displayed though it’s stated that Dahlia is currently male but their sex varies from time to time, on the official website!

The Community/Fandom

Honestly besides the few odd balls who stir the pot and clearly use harsh words when not needed, the fandom is chill. The artworks are sooo cute and a little scarce but you can find Carole and Tuesday content here, on twitter, on YouTube, Deviantart- literally where you would find any other fanbase! Most people are friendly and (NEED) are willing to talk with you! If you’re still hesitant to watch just message someone who constantly tags Carole & Tuesday because I assure, they’re dying to rant to someone about what goes on lol.

Here’s my last little tid bit on whether or not to watch!

You should watch this show because you want to. Don’t do it because someone else keeps saying you have to because it has representation, or because they think Pyotr is hot or whatever. Of course I am the biggest hoe for Carole & Tuesday and if someone wants a new anime to watch I will suggest this one!! But!! Watching a show just because you feel you have to and you have no genuine interests will dull the experience! You should watch and support the show if it makes you laugh, feel love and genuine enjoyment. That’s the point of anime and that is definitely the point of Carole & Tuesday. 

I have already seen so many people drop the show because they were forced into it and promised things that weren’t delivered (it’s still early on) and then they bad mouth the anime. If you want to start watching when there’s more hype and a fandom, then wait!! If you’re unsure and want more convincing, message me!! If this doesn’t seem like this anime suits your tastes and, then why did you read this far (kidding)?!!! Regardless, I just want everyone to have a good experience when watching so we can have more good vibes all around.

I would definitely give this anime a shot if you love music, beautiful voices, dancing, poc/lgbt+ rep, suspense and just amazing animation all around, though! It’s has a baby fandom but it’s surely going to grow and I can’t wait to see the outcome of the anime and what becomes of our lovely Carole and Tuesday! <3 

I’m also in love with Roddy, just look at him~ | I’m still not super fond of Angela but I am wishing her the best to achieve happiness in the end!

[ikemenfics]

About Me

Tagged by the lovely @mineko811

How tall are you?

5′6″

•What color and style is your hair?

Calico...it’s naturally brown, but I tried to bleach it and got splotches..so calico.  Wavy to curly, thin, and soft

•What color are your eyes?

bluey, greyish, greenie, yellowish 

•Do you wear glasses?

Supposed to

•Do you wear braces?

No

•What’s your fashion sense?

My fashion sense could be described as “hobo chic”...I live in pjs and lounge wear...I’m the master of athleisure wear

•Full name?

Esteban Julio Ricardo Montoya de la Rosa Ramírez

•When were you born?

Summer

•Where are you from and where do you live now?

Germany...Washington

•What school do you go to?

Western Governors University was my last school

•What kind of student are you?

I’m the person that slept through psychology and walked away with an 87 average....I am also the person that took math twice and still made an 83 the second go around.

Do you like school?

Depends.  Did I like HS, fuck no.  Middle school, hell no.  Elementary school, god no.  I did like college though.

•Favorite subject?

Literature, history, and A&P

•Favorite TV show?

Right now, Hardcore Tabletop.  On Cable...probably doctor who...I dunno what’s on there anymore.

•Favorite Movie?

I have many...but Dangerous Beauty is always a winner for me

•Favorite books?

Rather than give you a list of like 20+ novels (hey, top twenty is epic considering I read more than a 1000 books), I’ll give you my favorite authors Jacqueline Carey- if you talk to me, I’m gonna mention her and her Kushiel Series.  Her eloquence and use of language makes the idea of being cut up like sashimi sound sexy...that’s talent.

Kim Harrison- Imagine if Clint Eastwood wrote a vampire and witches novel...Kim’s Hollows Series is amazing, though her other series is equally compelling.  Her characters feel real and relatable...she also has quite the sense of humor.  Ever see a vampire dance a la Michael Jackson?  Also, Tink’s Tits is a thing...not what you think.

Sara Douglass- Her vision is far reaching and full.  Her worlds are full of lore and her novels will keep you engaged.  If you aren’t getting lost in the enviroment, you’re lost in the emotions of what’s going on.  Also, her ability to tie large scale events is amazing.  From the fall of Troy to World War II, Sara’s Troy Game will leave you loving and hating our protaganists all at once...

•Favorite pastime?

Staring at code...staring at words...staring at words and pretending I can write some more of them.  Also, youtube.

•Do you have any regrets?

Many.  There are people I wish I had never tried to befriend.  People I wish I had never gotten involved with...I regret people.

•Dream job?

Forensic Archaeologist.  Sadly, there wasn’t a school in my area that was dedicated to such a profession...not to mention that it’s not exactly a field much in demand.  Shame.

•Would you ever like to be married?

Yes, though at this point I’m fairly certain that’s not gonna happen.

•Would you like to have kids?

The one I have is enough.

•How many?

Uno

•Do you like shopping?

Yes...but I like online more.  It’s peopley out there, but also...i go out shopping and wind up with much more shit than I needed or intended...online somehow I avoid that..That and...it’s easier to buy stuff from Japan online

•What countries have you visited?

Germany, France, Spain, Alaska, Mexico, Brazil.  I now live in the US

•Scariest nightmare you have ever had?

I’ve had two... When I was seven, I dreamed my mother was a vampire and killed my family...her last words before killing me were “I just can’t help it”...funny enough she cheated on my dad, they divorced...and now my family is scattered and doesn’t talk to each other...

more recently, I had a nightmare...I was awakened by a knock on the door...I went to check the peephole, wondering hwo was knocking so late at night...I see an eye staring back at me...like someone was looking into the peephole from outside...then I woke up again...and heard knocking...when I checked, there was no one there...but the door was unlocked...so I relocked it...and was awakened again...no knock this time, but going to check the door anyway, I found it partially opened...I shut it, locked it, and looked into the peephole...and found the eye staring back at me...I can’t tell you how I know, but I somehow knew that whatever was there was going to hurt me if it got inside...and all I could do was stand there and choke on my own terror...even now, i’m not 1000% sure that I’m not still in the dream...or if I was attacked and am  now dreaming of life from a coma.

•Any enemies?

Ironically...It sounds arrogant, as I’ve definitely not done anything grand or great that would garner enemies...but there they are.

•Any significant other?

What would you say if I told you you’re all significant to me?

•Do you believe in miracles?

I would like to...

•How are you?

I am alive...

I’d like to tag @notsafefortum-blr, @tsundere-mitsuhide, @darkmindsthinktwistedthoughts, @lulidrafts

[danfadil]

Reception of culture-specific music in media.

While I was finishing up the last restful weeks of summer, trying not to panic about the approaching new academic year, Bouchra had been getting pushing her animation work further, and discovered the wonderful More Sweetly Play the Dance by William Kentridge (2015). Witnessing this work over her shoulder left me with much to think about: In one sense, I had not considered the use of sound art as a narrative device, and in another sense, the approach of using video art, performance art, charcoal drawings, shadow-puppetry, and recorded music reminded me of the multi-media Happenings of Allan Kaprow. Something about using so many aural, visual, and cultural stimuli engages the ears, eyes, and mind in a way more akin to life itself. However, this mode of working, and indeed Kaprow’s Happenings are something I will inevitably come back to. What was most prominent for me was the music, played by The African Immanuel Essemblies Brass Band (Kentridge, 2015). As the fourteen minutes of the work go by visually, the sound of each instrument, together with their respective parts of the composition are phased in and out. Going between cacophony and silence, brooding and jovial, melodic and droning. Meanwhile, the characters in this long procession march, dance, shuffle, and drag their way across eight large screens portraying various parts of South Africa’s history. Kentridge had found the song while looking for music which represented South Africa on Youtube, and sent out people from his studio to find the band who played the original recording (Kentridge, 2015).

“They came from Sebokeng, an hour’s journey from Johannesburg. It is both their image and their music that goes through the film” (Kentridge, 2015).

Reading his book from front to back, it seems to me that the origin of the band influenced the final product’s imagery, with Kentridge basing the landscape on the flat mining areas, burnt grass, and empty billboards of Johannesburg (Kentridge, 2015). To me the musical choice on the part of the artist seems at once fitting and unusual. As the soundtrack to the tumultuous political events of South Africa, the sound of a brass band does seem more in place in Northern Europe or New Orleans, though the composition itself is reminiscent of more traditional South African chants. Together with the images of politicians at podiums, and criers calling through megaphones, the connotations of propaganda, that all is well amongst the apartheid, violence, and famine, is apparent. I will revisit More Sweetly Play the Dance again another time analysing the multi-projected film element.

 Film sound has come up as the prime focus for this semester, and while not conventionally designed for use in fine art I am interested in learning the techniques for use in video art projects. Much of my class has more experience in this area than I do, but during my Alternatural work from earlier this year, I worked visuals together with a track made up of recordings of metal found in the local environment. This involved making visual cues to line up various markings with corresponding sounds; nonetheless, I need to push myself into learning these techniques. I am currently reading Sound Design by David Sonnenschein (2001), and want to find time this month to apply the techniques within to an unknown radio play script, so as not to have any mental imagery or particular voices influencing me, and allow myself the opportunity to create the aural world from scratch myself. This led me to looking for radio play scripts on the BBC website, where I was drawn by title alone to one play called Atching Tan by Dan Allum. As the first script I was drawn to and looked at, I was surprised to find it was about a Romany family in England. My ideas generally seem to come from, or end up heading towards this formative part of my life; something I will talk about in my next post. In Dan Allum’s Atching Tan, a main focus of the story seems to centre on the protaganist, Lovvie’s, love of singing. Allum seems to have researched the pseudo-language considerably, and the original play was “recorded on location on a Traveller site, with all Traveller parts cast from the Traveller community” (BBC, 2017). This has led to much of the singing being done in Anglo-Romany. The first song Lovvie sings is neither one I have heard of, nor one I can find elsewhere on the internet, but Allum has provided translations in the script where songs are sung, and it fits with the one Anglo-Romany song I am familiar with. A favourite with my Dad Mandi Velled to Puv the Grai has all the tone and bounce of a traditional English nursery rhyme, but lyrically it is about persecution and violence. The same them is contained in Lovvie’s song in Atching Tan. I look forward to hearing this song, as Anglo-Romany has never produced anything as famous, influential, or romanticised as Wallonia’s Django Reinhardt, or Andalusia’s Flamenco genre.

 The artist who has led me to reconsider what I think of film sound and its use in fine art recently is Mikhail Karikis, a lecturer in Fine Art: Performance at my own university. Like the other works talked about here, many films and installations of Karikis centre on collaboration with communities. It is hard to say which film has the most relevance in terms of culture-specific music and sounds, but The Politics of Love: An Audio Library (2017), part of a show about the Summer of Love 1967 is a good place to start. 

“A convivial, green, orange and grey wooden amphitheatre next to windows overlooking the absurdly blue sea, it’s a communal place to sit, talk, play records from a selection released in 1967 and read a selection of books by Roland Barthes, Simone de Beauvoir, Luce Irigaray and others on the subject of love.” (Higgie, 2017).

The vinyl records and books contained in this installation not only represent the media and air of optimism coming out of San Francisco at the celebrated time; it also represents the migration of hippies to the Greek islands, and sets up a juxtaposed backdrop for an island which in recent years has been the first European land reached by thousands fleeing war (Higgie, 2017). The presence of American Hippy culture in Greece at this time also contrasted heavily with the Junta uprising and military regime controlling the country. According to Karikis, each day a different record and book would be taken away from the room so that the sense of censorship increased, representing the freedoms being stripped from Greek citizens. This subtraction of culture-specific music is perhaps a more effective concept than having it there in the first place.

 In my view of each of these works, the connecting factor is that music can provide a level of cultural context and narrative to art that incidental sounds so rarely do. The purposefulness on an increased scale is openly received by a larger audience than what is typically heard in contemporary sound art. Even music that is unheard of in the country where the art is displayed still has some of the same impact. People recognise melodies, singing, instrumentation, and tie it together with what they are emotionally tuned to themselves. This seems like a route into an idea I had a year ago to use mainstream style music itself as a medium for fine art.

 BBC (2017) Atching Tan, Afternoon Drama, [online] Available at URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w1zlr [Accessed 12/10/17]

Higgie, J. (2017) Summer of Love, Frieze.com [online] Available at URL: https://frieze.com/article/summer-love-0 [Accessed 12/10/17]

Karikis, M. (2017) Mikhail Karikis [online] Available at URL: www.mikhailkarikis.com [Accessed 12/10/2017]

Kentridge, W. (2015) More Sweetly Play the Dance, Amsterdam: nai010.

Sonnenschein, D. (2001) Sound Design, California: Michael Wiese Productions.