#opposite and original pretty funny i guess

[bitchfitch]

My mother's bf had a fairly major surgery (he's fine and recovering well DW) and he's going to be housebound for his birthday this year, so I've been enlisted to come up with a fancy birthday meal for the special birthday boy that's primarily fruit and veg, sweeter than savory, and is something he's never had before.

Bc I'm making watermelington. It's beef Wellington, but watermelon. bc my mom only found out recently you can use watermelon as a tuna substitute. And I know that you can substitute most higher quality beef cuts with tuna or salmon.... usually. Anyways the idea fascinates her so I'm hoping to use that for bonus points.

Now he's off his ass on pain killers so I can't like. Ask him if he's ever had something before. so to meet my brief I've decided to just. commit a novel hate crime against the British I guess.

Anyways. I'm writing this because I need to walk myself through this process and think it'll be surreal enough to be worth taking y'all along for.

So, Beef Wellington. In its most basic bitch arrangement is a beef tenderloin wrapped in prosciutto/really thin bacon, with a layer of mushroom and onion mush, that has been further wrapped in mustard slathered puff pastry.

We will be ship of Theseusing this. bc beef Wellington is like. the opposite of what he wants. Which is why it's funny.

Puff pastry-> it's still just puff pastry

this one doesn't have to change (aka I can't be fucked to do pastry prep and I'm just gonna use store bought it's Fine.)

the prosciutto is also just going to be prosciutto.

Thin meat

Beef tenderloin-> watermelon,

Tbh this is a pretty 1 to 1 substitution. I'll bake the slices at like. 250-300 for an hour or so ahead of the rest of prep to dry it out a bit. bc you can't like. Sear watermelon to seal in the water like you can beef. By definition it's a very wet fruit (like me when I fall into the lake). Ill Add salt and chili and lime juice while baking maybe. this is the easy part

The mushroom mush-> salsa done bad style

As the word mush implies, this is meant to be a very soft mix. It adds a lot of nuttiness to the wellington that rounds out all of the salt from the meats. I'm replacing it with white person salsa(the birthday boy can't handle spice). Tomato, lime juice, parsley, avocado, cucumber, feta, and maybe mango so I can have an excuse to have a lil mango treat. I said I wasn't making it spicy. I'm still putting a bit of chili in it. bc it'll be better like that. This is also a ridiculously wet bit of mush, Even the original mushrooms have too much water. I'll figure something out.

Mustard -> jelly

He lives in a big city. those preserve sections are massive. I'll find a weird one. maybe apricot.

Prep:

We're in the mind palace kitchen, I have not attempted any of this. We're just thinking real hard about it and I'll edit as needed on the day and post results.

The watermelon

Preheat oven to eh. 300f? We want low and slow to dry things out without it taking a year. but idk what his oven is like. If it's gentle I'll bump it up another ten-twenty.

Slather some watermelon slices in salt chili powder and lime juice mixture.

bake for 30 min on a wire rack or directly on the oven racks (after cleaning thoroughly) if he doesn't have a wire rack. with a drip try underneath to catch the drippage. check frequently. Have one slice that's for being poked to see if it's approaching being meat. Bake longer if needed.

Salsa bad style

chop everything up and add it to a pan with some oil in it. Tbh I don't think the type of oil you use for cooking matters if you're not like, getting near any smoke points. Most people can't tell the difference unless you made your food bland as hell.

Anyways there's some wildly different moisture contents on the list so there has to be an Order to cook off as much water as possible without getting yucky.

Tomatoes and cucumbers go in together with some salt to get the cucs softening, then the mango chunks and lime juice. Once most of the water is gone the avocado feta and parsley can go in. There is a good amount of water in avocados but they're delicate and don't pan fry well, so we're just going to ignore their water crimes and hope for the best. They just need to be evenly mixed through the rest of the mush.

Putting it together

lay out the puff pastry, cut into sections to wrap each watermelon slice individually with.

Slather in jam

Take the prosciutto and lay it out on half of each section of the pastry,

spoon the salsa onto that

Melon

Another layer of salsa

another layer of thin meat

Fold the pastry over the top and pinch the edges bc watermelon slices are not a rollable shape and I don't want to carve a watermelon into a tube for this because that sounds irritating.

Brush with egg wash and more parsley

Cook in oven following the pastry's preferred temp and time. it's fucking watermelon, you're not getting ecoli from it.

watermelington :)

I'm serving it with baked sweet potatoes and spinach based salad with whatever toppings are left over from making the salsa.

anyways thank you for joing me on this thought experiment. I will post updates once the deed is done. I'm sorry to every British person ever.

[hotvintagepoll]

hotvintagepoll Hot Men Tournament rundown thoughts

I promised a final recap post and here it is! I'll try to cover the questions I saw the most as we closed out the bracket, reveal my ✨secret faves✨, and talk about the biggest surprises and turnarounds I saw in the brackets.

Yes, this will get silly.

ROUND 1

As I've mentioned before, I worked off submissions for who to include in the bracket, so if your fave was missing—that's why. I used submitted pics when I could, but many submissions didn't have one, so I tried to find decent ones in the couple of days I had to prep the first round (I didn't always succeed). By decent, I mean pics where 1) I could see the hot man's face, so not too much moody lighting, and 2) hopefully conveyed something about his vibe, even if it was a funny thing (yes, I showed Howard Keel in full Shakespeare get-up—I'm not beyond putting up a pic because I think it's funny). I didn't know all of these hotties going in, so some I had to guess with, but when I could I tried to pick shots that had a touch of the humor, class, or genre of the hot man.

For Round 1 and Round 2, I grouped the hotties by each decade, so only '60s actors ran against '60s actors, '50s against '50s, etc. Male beauty standards shifted pretty dramatically over the sixty years this tournament covers, and I didn't think it was fair to pit dramatically different styles of beauty against each other immediately.

I pitted hot men against each other based on opposing energies—hot vs cold, elegant vs rough, comedy vs drama, etc.. I wanted the polls to be interesting and I've never liked brackets where everyone is clearly in different "lanes" until the finals! I also wanted to make polls where I couldn't tell which way they would swing, so by setting matchups that felt opposite but equal, I got to be surprised by the bracket results too.

The only reason we had any three-way matchups is because the amount of men submitted didn't round to a nice bracket number. I don't like them generally and find them really hard to balance.

Secret faves from Round 1—I am a James Coburn girlie and knew he would die immediately, so that was not a shock but a bummer. I similarly knew Robert Preston is only magical to people who have seen him do His Little Dance Routines in That One Iowa Musical, but it would have been nice for him to last longer.

Surprises—Jeremy Brett was a last-minute add and I didn't think he really had a shot, so I put him in as a third wheel on the Sean Connery/Dean Martin matchup. Little did I count on the Granada girlies. (Always count on the Granada girlies.) The Elvis/Peter Falk poll was the first one to gain any momentum—Elvis was winning for the first 24 hours but then, my god, did Peter fight back. I didn't expect the Tab/Toshiro poll to make that bad a mincemeat out of Tab—people have different tastes, and I thought the people who like blonde sunny All American white boys might turn out for The Blonde Sunny All American White Boy. Sorry, Tab. I hope you've peeled yourself off the sidewalk by now. And, of course, I was SHOCKED and APPALLED that James Cagney would be obliterated by, of all people, Mr. Bing Crosby.

SHADOW BRACKET

The fervor of the Harold Lloyd and Fredric March people inspired the shadow bracket, and I couldn't be happier at the way it's gone. You were right, the original photos I had for them did suck. Cunty Harold Lloyd in his little life guard uniform was a revelation.

ROUND 2

For Round 2 I'd gotten a better sense of who was doing well and who was not, so a little of that came into play, but I mostly paired on vibes again. (I genuinely think this is a good way to make a fun, challenging bracket.)

Secret faves—Noooo not hot dilf Dick Van Dyke don't take my hot inventor dilf away uwu!!! (He was up against Marlon Brando. I would have been shocked if he'd won but for a minute there, a glorious second, it was possible.) I am also a big old softie for David Niven's particular brand of repression to the point of volcanic rupture, but he is one of many hotties who does not look good without moving and speaking so I figured he would be going.

So much beef—hey! hey you. I ran a poll asking if we are horny for dancers. Yes, was the resounding poll response. Where, then, did all the fucking dancers go? This round we lost Donald O'Connor, Fred Astaire, Harold Nicholas; Sammy Davis Jr., Danny Kaye, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby all sneak into this category as well, by token of having been in the kind of big MGM bang-a-pan-and-put-on-a-show beloved bedlams we all watch at Christmastime. Round 2 voters HATED musical matchups. Except for one.

The one—SOUND OF MUSIC, the voters said, WE LOVE SOUND OF MUSIC. we will KILL the man responsible for salad dressing because of the SOUND OF MUSIC. every other dance man can die but THIS man dances a FOLK DANCE with JULIE ANDREWS in a GARDEN. I did not go into this poll with strong opinions about Christopher Plummer or Paul Newman but my god did I leave having heard all of them.

Surprises—James Edwards/Anthony Perkins matchup was a nail biter! Conrad vs Oscar kept me up at nights. Surprised to see Basil Rathbone survive against Sabu Dastagir—both very fetching, but Sabu had some top-tier propaganda. Cesar Romero put up a surprisingly stiff fight against Cary Grant (an omen for things to come).

Oh horrors—horror heroes surprisingly fell all over the place. I was sure either Bela Lugosi or Turhan Bey would sweep their three-way matchup, but Michael Redgrave of all people carried through; Boris Karloff went down against Johnny Weismuller (while holding hands with fellow fallen hottie Fred Astaire), but at least we got his guacamole recipe before he went. Delighted to see that the Venn diagram of the coalitions who support horror hero Vincent Price and funny lil guy Donald O'Connor is a circle.

Secret faves pt 2—oh yeah, I fucking love Danny Kaye and Donald O'Connor. RIP funny lil kings.

ROUND 3

For some reason this was the hardest one to make matchups for. Oh no, all the men are hot.

Secret faves—Michael Redgrave i love you SO much you're SUCH an idiot, how did you make it as far as round 3. I want you to sweep the whole thing but you should NOT be surviving this. I love you, here's a kiss, go home.

Surprises—Marlon Brando is gone! Errol Flynn is gone! Christopher Plummer exhausted himself beating the organic oreos man to death and goes out with a whimper. Beginning to actually see the roots of #mifunesweep as Tyrone Power, a hot man very different from Burt Lancaster, who was in turn very different from Tab Hunter, also gets swept under the wheels of the unbeatable toshirobus. Conrad Veidt finds that no amount of purring svelte eccentricity compares to the people who will fuck a young Lt. Columbo.

SHADOW BRACKET 2

Cannot believe it but Veidt loses this one too. Perkins sweeps and becomes Prince of the Shadow Realm!

ROUND 4

At this point I've set a formal bracket that I'm following.

Secret faves—this isn't secret anymore, but losing Jimmy Stewart hurt.

Surprises—The Gene Kelly/Jeremy Brett matchup was the diciest one all round, moving back and forth between the two by sometimes .01%. Far more surprising, however, was Cary Grant getting eliminated before the quarterfinals. Grant has never been my type, but he is famous for being THE type, so while the writing had been on the wall the whole tournament—how on earth did Michael Redgrave even get 36% in his matchup?!—seeing Grant go down was a SHOCKER. Other fallen hotties included Gregory Peck, James Dean, Harry Belafonte, and Sessue Hayakawa. Peter Falk finally met his match in Omar Sharif.

QUARTERFINALS

Secret faves—I don't know if it counts as a secret fave, tbh, as my horses in the race really went out with Stewart, but I do have a soft spot here worth mentioning. Here's my childhood dog, Keaton.

The resemblance is truly striking, and yes, he was short, fast, and not prone to smiling.

Surprises—I couldn't predict how any of these matchups would go down, but I was most interested in Keaton vs Sharif, as they are both SO hot in SUCH different ways.

SEMIFINALS:

This was such a good batch of semifinalist contestants. By this point I think we could all tell Mifune was unstoppable (though I thought Sharif might give him a run for his money), but I really didn't know which way Robeson vs Poitier would flip.

FINALS:

I wanted Sidney Poitier to pull a last-minute sweep out of nowhere, but alas, Toshiro is just THAT GOOD (maybe. I will admit that I find Toshiro's domination a little hard to believe, given the variety and hotness of all his competitors; the man is hot but all these men are hot). I'm still happy with how the tournament went.

FINAL MEDITATIONS:

Biggest shock of a dropout: the loss of Paul Newman

Biggest "you people have no taste": the loss of James Cagney

Biggest victory: Paul Robeson making it to the semifinals over often-assumed champion Gregory Peck

Biggest coalition who deserve justice: dancing men

Biggest ask character: vents anon (currently eating Laurence Olivier)

Biggest, uhh, anything: how many of you are here! I genuinely thought it would be me and 10 other people voting for the whole tournament. I'm thrilled it took off like this!

I think that's everything, but I'm happy to answer addl asks. And THANK YOU to everyone for your tags, rants, impassioned propaganda, beautiful pics, and love for the hot men! See you for the ladies!

[slavghoul]

Interview from Sweden Rock Magazine 10/2023

Hi, hi. There is an interview with Tobias in SRM’s newest issue, but it’s in the subscribers only section, so I thought I’d translate/share since I guess not many people will be able to get their hands on it. It is about Prequelle and it’s part of SRM’s „200 best Swedish hard rock albums of all time” series. Prequelle placed #68. The other albums may have scored higher, but for now we don’t know the whole list. Either way, enjoy. Very insightful. 

„Do you think that "Prequelle" is Ghost's worst album?” Now that’s an unusual opening question. Especially when the interview is about an album that Sweden Rock Magazine's writers and qualified Swedish hard rock musicians (including Tobias Forge) have voted as one of the 200 best Swedish hard rock albums of all time. The question wasn’t planned, but comes spontaneously, as a reaction to the first thing Tobias Forge says when we sit down on opposite sofas in the record company office. I'm here for a two-part interview, partly about the EP "Phantomime" (published in #6 2023), partly about "Prequelle". Neither record companies, artists, voters, nor even our writers who conduct interviews for this series of articles have any idea what placement an album has received. Interviews are often done well in advance and we simply don't want placements to leak and become public long before publication.

No Ghost album has ever been on the list before. The idea is actually to end the day with the "Prequelle" talk, but when Tobias Forge suddenly starts with a funny little comment that this album is probably the one that those who have voted think is Ghost's worst or least popular album, I just have to take the opportunity to ask the question: Do you think that "Prequelle" is Ghost's worst album?

No, absolutely not, he says and laughs. If I'm going to be completely pragmatic, I'd say: "How many songs do we actually play from that record?" There are songs that work damn well live and sit where they should. So it's a pretty strong album.

But is this what you are basing it on? "Prequelle" was released after Ghost had become really big so it can't be compared to "Opus Eponymous" and "Infestissumam" which you don't play many songs from. I mean, no matter what kind of record you had released when "Prequelle" came out, you would still have played many songs from it and they would have worked precisely because Ghost's songs nowadays are moulded more to the arena format.

I don't know how to answer that, it's difficult. If the album had been different, it would have been. If I'm going to talk somehow both artistically and practically, I know that for every record we have become exponentially bigger. "Prequelle" was definitely no exception, but it also took us a big step forward and upwards and we became bigger and broader. To the extent that when we introduce old songs in the live set, you notice that there are elements on albums one and two that make some songs more difficult to play. Not technically, we can play the songs, but they don't work in quite the same way as the later songs, which means that there is a slight favouritism.

I asked the original question about whether you think it's Ghost's worst album only because you directly said that this means it's the least popular one.

I'm just so full of myself I assumed all the other albums are also in the top 200, which may actually be incorrect. This might be the best album and the others aren't even there, haha.

It wasn't long after "Prequelle" was released that you were self-critical of the album in interviews, saying that it was too ballad-heavy and a bit too soft. I haven't noticed that before, you being so self-critical shortly after the release.

Yes, but I still feel that way. If, as an artist, I am only going to look at the work with the criticism that one can feel towards one's own work, I think that if things had been different or if I had more time, I might have wished that I had managed to get maybe two more hard songs. Maybe one more hard song would have fit on the album and another harder song might have phased out one of the ballads. Now five years after the album came out, I know that the two ballads ("Pro Memoria" and "Life Eternal"), which I may not think are bad, are one too many. But I know that many of the people who like the band like both of them, so it's kind of a useless argument.

Who sets the length of an album? Have you set a limit, that it can't be longer than this and have no more songs than that?

No, but it must fit on an LP disc and there is a physical limit. I think the absolute pain threshold is 46 minutes and that's 23 minutes on each side. Now maybe Mikkey Dee (co-owner of Spinroad Vinyl Factory) will raise his hand here: "But I can make it longer!" And it's maybe 48 minutes, I don't know, but I do know that when a disc starts getting so full that you start getting close to the sticker, it starts to sound bad. Especially nowadays, because recordings today are so very maximalist in scope. It's one thing if you record 60s music with drums, a guitar and bass where the sound is cleaner and finer or if you play acoustic stuff with just vocals. Bob Dylan records could have eight songs on each side and it worked all the way through. But this kind of fairly compact music doesn't work well. Not only am I a militant vinyl advocate, I think we should respect the fact that most artists don't manage to create more than 45 minutes of good music on a regular basis. A lot of famous double records are not that good. I don't think the Rolling Stones "Exile On Main St" is very good. It might as well have been on one disc. And if I'm actually going to turn it into something completely mundane, I'd say that I think it's irresponsible to sit and make records with twelve songs if it results in the record being 63 minutes long and you automatically have to make a double record. It's pretty wasteful.

When you said that it's irresponsible, I thought you were going to say that it's irresponsible to print a double vinyl because of the environmental destruction that it entails.

Of course, if we're going to be completely straightforward and not do anything that harms nature, we shouldn't even release any records, so I say this with reservation. But with that in mind and for the sake of art, I think more people should embrace the actual given format that has been the most prevalent in rock history. There is a reason why a film is usually one hour and 30 minutes. You can’t take any more. There's a certain dramaturgical structure and there’s a certain comfort in it. Then the CDs came along they screwed that up, and suddenly there weren't two sides anymore but it started one way and ended another. Now that the CD is no longer important and we've gone back to vinyl, creators should follow suit and start embracing the physical rules.

Are there songs that have been rounded off just because you thought „I have to round off here, because if I continue, it won't fit on the vinyl disc"?

We actually had that problem on the last album. „Watcher In The Sky” ended the A-side and the outro is much longer on the CD and digitally. Two minutes longer I think. Much, much, much longer. It's long, noisy and has all these dives. It's a very chaotic soundscape. You get the feeling that it goes on and on, and on the vinyl it's just the beginning of an outro and then it drops almost immediately. I think that was a huge mistake.

So the overall sound quality was more important than vinyl buyers getting everything? Because you could have pressed the vinyl and it would have fit, but you would have had to compromise the sound quality.

Yes, exactly. You can get the song to just keep going until the vinyl simply runs out. Then it just starts spinning in the middle, depending on what kind of record player you have. But the problem then, if you want to anticipate events at a creative stage, is that people today buy and listen to vinyl records and are sensitive. It's quite common for people to complain that the record is broken. I don't just mean our records, but people complain a lot about the presses. If you make ten songs, it's therefore stupid to have a too thick soundscape towards the end of song number five and song number ten. If you want to be really good and old school, that's where you put a piano ballad because it's an easier sound to handle so far into the record. This is what I think about when I make records. But clearly sometimes I miscalculate.

This must cut right through the record collector Tobias Forge's whole body and soul, that "Watcher In The Sky” is shortened by two minutes on the vinyl of all versions.

Well... I don't toss and turn and wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it anymore. But when it happened, I was livid. Luckily it was just an outro. It would have been worse if it had continued with some kind of narrative into the next song. Now I can't remember in my head how long "Prequelle" is, but if I'd had to go back in time and just re-construct it, the re-construction wouldn't have had much to do with the existing material, I would have just wanted to add a scene. And it's not a scene that's missing, it's just for the sake of balance. It became asymmetrical in a way that bothers me a bit.

You've talked about this before, but it was before "Prequelle" that you really started to talk a lot about how you were thinking about what kind of new songs might suit the live show. Can you get stuck in that mindset, thinking more about what songs are needed live right now rather than creating an album that will last 30 years?

Hmm... (long pause)... The reason I'm sitting here thinking is because I'm trying to come up with examples of other bands that I think might have gone through something similar. I’m looking for examples to the answer I'm about to formulate and that is that: yes, I think there comes a point in the career when most bands make a record because they simply feel they need to… Because what we're talking about is that when you go from playing in small smoky clubs in front of an already inveterate audience that already understands the perhaps a little more chewy expression, that experience can change if you start playing in front of a larger and especially a different type of audience. When a different type of audience comes and you play in a different format, you discover that this song doesn't work very well, it doesn't sound very good and it's difficult to get the sound right. Then there's usually a record or two or three during your career when this transition happens where you start filling in with songs that work better live. Look at Piece of mind", "Powerslave" and "Somewhere in time". There's a reason why Iron Maiden didn't play a lot of the first two albums there and then, because it was easier to play the new songs. You get to that point somewhere in your career and it's very difficult to say when it is - there's no given rule and there are artists who continue to release relevant records and have an amazing ability to release new records and just play the whole new record. Well, now Iron Maiden does that and tests their audience a little bit in that way, but then they will always compensate by doing like a "best of" set the following year so everything is forgiven. Now we're in the middle of the "Impera" period here and have a very strong set, but I'm starting to feel that now that I'm about to start writing a new album, it feels like it's not really on my agenda to write three more albums that will change the live setlist ten years ahead. I think we already have the blueprint for what is Ghost's setlist, especially if you include the entire catalogue. After a while, each new record you make becomes a little less important. It's really hard to know when that point comes, but the truth is that new records don't matter in the same way. Slayer didn't have to release "Divine Intervention”. They definitely didn't have to release "Diabolus In Musica". I didn't care about it and I just wanted to hear the old stuff. If they had just come up and played "Reign In Blood" I would have been soooo happy. And that's the way it is with most bands. Nobody would be sad if the Rolling Stones came up and didn't play anything from "Emotional Rescue". And that's just the way it is. In the future, I can see a scenario where there is probably a basis to possibly build up an alternative setlist. There are so many songs that we do not play and that I have nothing against - I love them too! But it would almost be easier to build up a completely alternative setlist and run a show with only the odd songs. There are so many songs now. There's no reason not to build on that. But when I want to make a new record, it's irresponsible for me not to consider that there might have to be some songs that are a bit more direct. But it doesn't hurt me if we have more songs that we don't play live. I don't know if this answers your question...

I would actually like to ask exactly the same question again, because I wonder if you yourself feel that you get stuck during the making of the record. You said that you would have liked to include another hard song because "Prequelle" doesn't have the balance that you would have liked to have in retrospect.

Exactly, but the explanation for that has more to do with my mental capacity there and then. I simply couldn't cope. I felt that I had probably maxed out… It was probably about as much as I could do that year. That's the simple explanation. To get another song that would have fit and that would have fulfilled this requirement that I now in retrospect would have wished I had, it would have required something that I did not have there and then. The only thing that could have made it easier is if I had more time. It is difficult to reason about it, you see.

I was in the studio for a few days during the recording and it's one of the few times in all these years that I've done interviews where someone has started crying during an interview. It was quite obvious that everything that had happened with the split of the band affected you.

Yes. Of course. It did.

Is "Prequelle" a difficult album to listen to for you? Can you sit and listen to it all the way through? 

Well, at the moment I have to do that from time to time, and listen to all the records, because we're just about to start rehearsing again and then I sometimes have to go back and just listen to the record to go: "Fuck, is that really how I sing?" Especially when we start rehearsing, I can be a bit like: "Damn, who changed this bit?” Then I usually sit down and it hits me: "Oh, it's me who has changed my song!" You simply do that over the years, you start singing it in a slightly different way. So sometimes I have to go back and listen, but it’s more practical. I don't think it's fun to listen them. I do it until they are finished. I listen over and over and over again and really try to listen with all the imaginary ears and all the imaginary perspectives you can have. "How would I have listened to this if I had heard it from this perspective?" Just to get as "objective" a perspective as I can until I'm satisfied, but then it's like „No, I don't want to hear this anymore". But I have to say that I think "Prequelle" is a very tolerable disc despite everything that interfered with the process. Therapeutically, it works quite well considering that we are still playing at least half of the album. For every artist there are songs that you want to play, and there are songs that you don’t want to play because they feel too personal. I don't feel that way about this one, it's more like: "Ah hell, they're part of the setlist and people like it and it sounds good. So that's what we're doing."

On a personal level, was Tom Dalgety the perfect producer for you, the way you were feeling at the time? Tom feels like the kindest, sweetest producer you can meet. He wasn't the kind of producer who pushed you very much, it was more of a nice atmosphere between you.

Yes, really, and it would have been different if Klas Åhlund, who is more confrontational, had been in the room. Now Klas and I are great mates, so it would certainly have been very therapeutic also, but it would have been a different process. If an artist comes in who is in such bad shape that they can't make a record, or a band where the main songwriter has just left them, then a Bob Ezrin goes in and says: "If you don't make the record, I'll make the record myself.” And he goes and makes Kiss "Destroyer" or Alice Cooper records. I'm not saying they didn't make them, just that you hear that Bob Ezrin made "Beth". It's a type of producer that's very different from a lot of other producers who maybe act a little bit more like buddies and cheerleaders and make the atmosphere good. Bob Ezrin doesn't care so much about the atmosphere in the room. Klas is somewhere in between, I would say. Given the condition I was in during "Prequelle", the result could probably have been different if Klas had come in. Ironically, there was actually talk of him doing it, but he didn't have the time and we'll never know how it would have turned out. I only know that it would have been different, but right there and then Tom was fantastic. I know that a lot of bands like to work with him because he is technically brilliant. He's really good at those typical sounds that people like: cool drums, guitar, bass, tone and clarity. He is also very "happy go lucky", a nice guy who sits and jokes all the time. Even if he has a bad day, it doesn't affect anyone else, which is convenient.

Let me compare it to when a writer contacts me after an interview and says "that was such a nice interview". For me, "nice" is not something positive in such a work situation and the result is often better when there is a little friction.

Mmm, and that is more Klas. There is more friction and more confrontation. And I was much better equipped for that at "Meliora" and later at "Impera". I felt better and was simply stronger. There wasn't the same survival instinct as on "Prequelle". If I think back, not about how the album turned out and how I have to live with it, but if I think back to the situation I was in, I was very anxious all the time. Even though I'm happy with the result, I wouldn't want to go through the recording again, even though Tom was great. Because it's hard to work when you're under attack. I realised that now when I made "Impera", when it was no longer like that. You are much more comfortable, it doesn't feel the same, you are more mature, you make better decisions, you are more controlled or dare to be uncontrolled. When things are this serious, you can end up in a freeze mode. Maybe that's also why there wasn't another song. The song that I miss doesn't exist because I simply squeezed out everything I had. If I had been in a different emotional state, I might have been more comfortable working out something at the last second from bits and pieces. But I felt that I really just wanted to get it done, deliver it, get back out on tour and start over again.

When you described being more mature during "Impera" you sounded like a 70-year-old, kind of like all the Aerosmith-like bands that have been fighting all their lives and now that they're in their 70s they say "we're soooo mature,” haha.

I think with all artists, especially when they're required to work in a group, there are many recordings that have been a collision with a wall because you're expected to function in a context all the time, whatever and whenever. But you do change and from one year to a few years down the line there can be a huge difference in a person's drive, hunger and priorities in life. Whether you have the same band structure as I do or whether you play in Metallica, people come in one state and they may end up in another, because you have different priorities at different times. It's unfortunately against the whole rock myth. I think that's the biggest problem for bands and businesses, that you always have this idea that if you just get to a certain stage - not just monetarily or career-wise, but you get to a certain stage of fun - then we've reached the status quo. But that is never the case! Never! There’s always something. Even in the best moments when everything is working, the band is awesome, everyone is working well, the crew is awesome, everyone is laughing, it's just a party all the time mentally, you have the world's best tour manager, everything is flowing and the tickets are selling, there will always be someone who doesn't like it and then has to break away and want to do their thing because it's no longer fun. It's usually somewhere in the lead-up to a stage where it's interesting and then once you've achieved it, it all becomes a bit boring. Just like in a relationship some people may eventually think, "well, that's a bit boring, I have to go out and do something else".

Since I was in the studio when you were laying down guitars on "Witch Image", my heart beats a little extra for that song and I thought it would be a great live song, but you've barely played it (at the time of writing it's Ghost's forty-fourth most played song live).

We did it during the "Prequelle" tour, or "A Pale Tour Named Death" as it was called. Then we did quite a few "an evening with" concerts, for better or worse. The advantage was that if you were a big fan of the band we actually played a lot of songs and actually a lot of the first albums, like "Idolatrine" - or "Witch Image". We did a set, a break and then a whole other set. That was a bit of a taste of what I was talking about earlier: doing a slightly larger set and then a slightly smaller one. You just shouldn't do it on the same night because it gets a bit stale. We played for two hours and 30 minutes or something and that wasn’t a good idea, haha. At least we did "Witch Image", but it has fallen behind a bit and it doesn't mean that we will never play it again, just that we don't do it right now. What I've been happy about is that there has been a feeling for the records that we've made recently, "Prequelle" and "Impera", that people still want to hear the new stuff. We haven't gotten to that stage that I talked about earlier when it doesn't matter anymore. Then it's very fun to try to find a new way to perform the songs, not technically, but suddenly a song like "Witch Image" might fulfill a very nice purpose between a completely new song and another song.

Let me speculate: in 30 years, I think "Rats" will be considered the great hard rock song, "Dance Macabre" the great hit and "Life Eternal" the great ballad. What do you think? Will this in the future be seen as the three big songs of the album?

Yes, that makes sense, I think. I understand that an instrumental song automatically ends up in the wake of a "best of" collection, in the sense that you do one in 30 years. I realise it's not a hit but the instrumental "Miasma" is a big part of our live show. It's strong and feels like such a keeper. Now we don't play "Life Eternal" very often actually, but it was very well received. For some reason people like to get married to it, I don’t know why, hehe. It's nice but it's also a bit like U2’s „I still haven't found what I'm looking for" and you don't use that one at a wedding. But people like it and I guess interpret it differently to me. It’s also a song that I don't think is fun to play live.

And why not?

Because I find it hard to play ballads. Physically, they don't feel the same as rock songs. I miss the "dunka dunka". Now everyone who plays music today knows what I mean - sorry, readers who don't play music - and it's that there's a small problem with having in-ear monitors. This means that you have to reach a certain frequency of beats in order to feel the music, unlike when you played at clubs with only a guitar amp behind you. You felt every single note you made and it just went through your body. Nowadays, I think it's sometimes hard when you play slow songs, because you have to trust that it sounds good, whereas when you play a rock song, you feel that it sounds good.

Does it also apply to "He Is” which is such a huge ballad, not least live?

Well, just the intro and then it gets going quite quickly and suddenly becomes a hard and rather fast-paced song. The classic ballad concept has always been that you play so-called edge beats to make it sound soft, while "He Is” is actually a rather hard-played song considering that it is a ballad. Once the drums come in – boom, boom – it's got AC/DC bite to it. It has a rock feel to it that "Life Eternal" doesn't really have. As I said, I don't think that "Life Eternal" is a lot of fun to perform, but that doesn't mean that it isn't quite good to listen to. It’s just that when I play "Dance Macabre" or "Mummy Dust" I feel that I can express myself physically more in line with what the text says and what it means.

[mtkay13]

WenZhou x Memes! and, of course, some thoughts. More memes below + explanations! (Very Long Post)

You know other men?

The first one above was based on a famous "you know other men?" meme, that Bichen suggested we take part in (in the TYK community). I wanted to make ZZS smile at WKX's antics because it makes him laugh, ofc, and because he's quite fond of that wife act WKX enjoys playing so much.

The Barbie meme

Interestingly enough, this one has sparked quite a bunch of discussions online. When we had talked about making the meme for TYK!WenZhou, both Moose (@butleronice) and I thought that having ZZS as the serious one felt a bit strange. I feel like TYK!ZZS as I know him is rather goofy and would be more likely to make fun of the situation and the authorities that he doesn't take seriously.

WKX, besides in ZZS' presence, in the book, tends to act very cold and not necessarily civil--especially if you think those would be Jianghu authorities. Not saying the reverse wouldn't work, of course! But for my conception of the characters, it felt off. However--on twitter, we both received more comments than necessary saying: "This should be the opposite." "WKX should be the fun one--", etc. I have to confess that this left me worried regarding ZZS' reputation, considering that more often than not, when I make him to be the goofier, more stupid looking one, I get surprised reactions. I wonder what exactly has given him these... serious, un-fun vibes for many people.

The way I see it, in the book, ZZS is quite fun, overly civil and polite in a fake-smiley way, gets himself in absurd situations and WKX comments on him as being ridiculous and goofy. Of course, in ZZS' presence, WKX himself acts in a very extra way, but overall, in the book, WKX is quite closed-off and cold towards others, and doesn't give those vibes of being fun, extra or goofy to me. (I won't lie, I do blame the first and most popular translations for that, as they make ZZS quite stiff in the dialogs and I feel like this doesn't help...) I don't think it's a problem if people see them differently, though! But it was upsetting to see how some people did (quite rudely in some case) allow themselves to tell us how wrong we were, especially considering the time and care we both put in our decision to characterise them this way (and work on their expressions).

I recommend going to check Moose's version on her twitter as well (@butleronduty)!!

Equal strength

This one was based on a meme posted by Choco (@kwehxing) on twitter; about how this dialog would be fun for WenZhou.

I, once again, considered that yeah, maybe the default would have WKX turn any situation into a reason to fuck--but at the same time, I wondered: is it really his style? Isn't he having plenty of situations in which he can bring that up, already? I like to read ZZS as having a certain competence kink, and I think he gets off of sparring and feeling WKX's strength. I thought it fun to imagine him getting really worked up from sparring and using that as an excuse to demand fucking because OBVIOUSLY what else. I guess that to me, this is a reflection of how his mind is working.

The Tintin parody

My friend Angel brought a tintin parody comic from the @tintinades account on twitter and instagram. Here is the original. I thought it could be really fun to adapt it for WenZhou with a little twist at the end. Of course, mastering qinggong, WenZhou probably don't really need the ropes--although I think that ZCL isn't able to safely cross the road yet which is why they wanted to make a way. However, WKX clearly got distracted and went on ahead, hehe.

The distracted BF

This one was suggested by Bichen again--a classic, which worked really well and was actually quite funny when using Hoboxu.

He wants to order

This was the first meme I ever drew for WenZhou, following the "he/she wants to order" pattern. Pretty self-explanatory!

[rinnie-marylin]

Saw this meme and i HAD to draw tobecky with it.

I'm aboutta yap about every single detail so buckle up!

I tried to make it a stained glass type of artstyle. Although the colors do kinda burn my eyes but i guess that's the beauty of it?

Also i don't want nobody telling me a star is not similar to the sun in terms of mythical... astrology or whatever yall call it, the sun IS a star😤

I made them COMPLETE polar opposites of each other.

Like how the shades of the bg colors are opposite. How the people worship the star due to it's benefits. While the moon is lonely, and looks down on the robots he made as friends, while the star never had to look down, she knows people are there to support her.

The star is wearing more ancient clothes compared to the moon, which is more modern, because the sun is older than the moon and has been worshipped far longer.

The sun has messier glass shards because becky can't draw for shit lol (a.k.a, she isn't that creative so it would be funny and accurate to make her card messy)

Meanwhile tobey's card is more organized and sophisticated. Usually stained glass art has organized glass shards but sometimes their locations are messy for the purpose of focusing on the story or meaning.

I originally didn't intend for the sun's card to be so bright but i guess that's the whole point of the sun, it's beautiful but if you look it too long you'll hurt your eyes. So imma keep it this way.

This is a small detail i'm pretty no one noticed or even bothered to notice. The shield behind becky (meant to reoresent her iconic star insignia, with her body sprawled out like a star) is actually flipped upside down behind tobey in his card to truly represent how flipped and different their moral standards are.

This is also slightly based off of the wordgirl lore and backstories of tobey and becky in the fading facade which is one of my fav wordgirl fanfics! I liked the idea of tobey being the prince of britannica, a rival planet to lexicon. and for tobecky's story to have a romeo and juliet mix to it. So tobey's clothes here are what i think royal britannica princes wear. That's why it's so fancy.

Here's the original template btw

[theamityelf]

For my last ask I think it would be funny if it was all the different soulmate ways so makoto is going through a bunch of stuff and is also maybe trying to hide it and if you include Izuru it could be something he finds interesting about makoto as maybe no else has had so many soulmates

(previous post re:Makoto and his class)

(original Makoto soulmates post)

Oh my gosh, then I definitely think Makoto would be shy about showing skin.

He walks into Hope's Peak discreetly checking the timer on the back of his hand, which is now down to less than three hours until he meets one of his soulmates. On the back of the opposite arm, there's a sentence he's had memorized for years now: "So, we arrived at the same time!" It's hidden by his sleeve. He has the image of a microphone on the back of his neck, hidden by his hood. The image of a Yoshi (or Galaga sprite) on his bicep, hidden by his sleeve. The image of a half-peeled orange right beneath his collarbone– or maybe there used to be a half-peeled orange there, but now it's just an oddly-shaped scar. That change happened within the last year.

He can't see colors (and he's been told his shoes don't match his hoodie?). Last night, he had a dream that he was a girl named Kyoko, meeting her dad for the first time. This morning, he saw through Junko's eyes while she was getting dressed, and he's barely stopped blushing about it.

He's trying to live in the moment and appreciate the amazing place and all the amazing people, but in truth, he's pretty stressed about how he's going to explain his situation to anyone. Based on his timer and the glimpses he's seen of Junko's letter, he's going to meet at least two of his soulmates here. He's never heard of anyone having as many soulmates as he apparently has. When someone turns out to have two or three soulmates, it's considered unusual and potentially problematic, but usually they meet at different points in life. One in youth, one in old age. Something like that. But two at the same school?

"So, we arrived at the same time!"

Three?!

Makoto turns to see the person who just reached the gymnasium door at the same time as him.

"Nice to see someone else who appreciates the value of punctuality," the tidy young man commends.

Makoto clears his throat. "Uh, yeah. I guess I was just...worried about being late."

And the young man's expression changes to one of astonishment, because as expected, he has Makoto's first words to him on his arm, too. The timer on his other wrist still says a little over two hours, and he can suddenly feel Junko looking through his eyes.

Makoto levels with his new...friend. "Listen, I'm really glad to meet you, and we should definitely have a conversation about this, but maybe not...right now? Can we talk at lunch, maybe?"

The guy remains astonished for a second before he recovers with an affirming, "Of course! School comes first. If we're in the same class, might it be prudent to introduce ourselves?"

And Makoto smiles. "Yeah. I'd like that."

His first in-person soulmate is Kiyotaka Ishimaru. Taka.

As more of their classmates start arriving, Makoto feels more and more of a complicated mix of excitement and anxiety. He introduces himself to a well-dressed, bespectacled guy named Byakuya, and the second they make eye contact, Makoto can suddenly see in color. Byakuya's expression of snobby disinterest drops into one of ill-disguised shock, and Makoto hasn't explained the situation to Taka yet, his timer says he has like an hour and a half until he meets another soulmate, Junko isn't even here yet, and now he has to get used to colors!

And wow, his shoes really don't match his hoodie.

He definitely needs to explain things to Taka and Byakuya before Junko gets here, because despite never having met her in person, he knows that she's a lot. And he'd hate for anyone to learn that he has multiple soulmates from anyone but him.

"Well?" Byakuya says, having returned to snobby disinterest. "Tell me your name already so we can be done with these ridiculous introductions."

Okay, rude. But that's fine. "I'm Makoto Naegi. I'm the Ultimate Lucky Student, and...I hate to tell you this bluntly, but I think I kind of need to hurry, so..." He draws in a breath. "I have multiple soulmates...here. Kind of...a few...here."

Byakuya loses his facade of indifference, looking at Makoto again with narrowed eyes. "Excuse me?"

"I know, we should definitely discuss this, but I need to tell Taka, too, before he finds out in a worse way."

And Makoto runs off and explains the situation to Taka (WHOA! Taka's eye color! He is going to have to get used to eye colors.), who is surprised and maybe (almost definitely) disappointed, but he's very polite about it. Makoto promises that they'll talk again at lunch.

He checks his timer again. An hour and twenty minutes.

"Hey."

He pulls his sleeve down to cover the timer, looking up to see who's addressed him, and Oh, you've got to be kidding me. Kyoko?! From his dreams?!

"Makoto, right?"

"Y-Yeah. Kyoko?"

She doesn't say yes or nod or anything. "How many?"

"Huh?"

"How many do you have? I saw the timer on your wrist, and your reaction to Togami. Ishimaru keeps glancing at you. How many do you have?" At least she doesn't seem upset. Though she has completely busted him.

"I don't...know, for sure. I have a few soulmate marks, I just saw color for the first time, I share dreams with you and see through someone else's eyes occasionally, Taka's first words to me are on my arm..."

"Is that your talent? Are you some kind of soulmate anomaly?"

"Oh, no. I'm here as the Ultimate Lucky Student."

"I don't know that I would consider your situation here a lucky one. If breaking things to Togami and Ishimaru has you this nervous–"

He sees a flash of the school from outside and knows that Junko is here.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," he says, with forced optimism. "I mean, once I explain the situation to everyone, I'm sure we can all get past how weird this is. I'm glad to finally meet you, Kyoko."

"Hm. Don't worry; I'm not here to socialize anyway."

She slips away before he can say anything else, and then he hears the door open, and Junko's here!

[sukioyakio]

‘ɪᴅɪᴏᴛ’

paring: Gojo x femreader

an: this one is a short one,but I hope y’all like it.And pls forgive me for the grammar mistakes.This is just a thought I have. Wordcount: 879

You have never thought that you’ll will end up with him.The one that you despise when you first started jujitsu kaisen,you hated how carefree he was,you hated the way he smiled so much,you hated how he didn’t care about anyone opinion,you hated those godly beautiful sky blue eyes,you hated how he was touchy,you hated that he would put himself on the line for others,and you hated that he hadn’t changed that much even after all these years,making jokes,laughing around,Being a menace to the higher up.

But now it seems that the hatred you felt towards him only grew into something you didn’t think you had for him.You actually fell in love with him.And then one mission is all it took for him to confess to you,and for you to be the biggest embarrassment and saying yes.

Now your Gojo Satoru girlfriend,and also a teacher who takes and loves your job seriously.If your students were to describe you and his relationship together it was rather chaotic but funny to watch you guys,since your the complete opposite of him. Your uptight,serious,quiet,sarcastic at times,never smiles at all,But calm and gentle with others;has a honest heart,never makes your students go into danger/dangerous situations alone.Is never carefree with stuff and your students know that yet love how calm you are. While Gojo is the total opposite of that he is friendly,unserious about stuff,Talk-ive,make a few sarcastic comments about his students,Smiles a lot,is very active,but cares for his students,Has a unfliter attitude,And a good heart.Has a great sense of humor. He does put his students in dangerous situations to watch them (yea sure).He carefree about his job and doesn’t care.

You heard one of your students say,’I guess opposite really do attract’ and it made your heart warm at the fact.

And the difference between you two is a lot.But Hey you both love each other in your way.And So today was a day you both had a day off. So what you both did was just Sit down on your boyfriend large couch and watch movie together for a while.

You boyfriend being his clingy self is laying down his head on your laps as he wrapped around his arms your thighs like a baby,which it doesn’t bother you anymore but it would in the early stages.

you silently shift your seat.Your hand were already on his white angle like locks,smoothing his locks, scratching his scalp softly and gently. Your eyes watching whatever movie Gojo had pick on,you thought he was asleep until whatever actor that was on made a little joke cause him to snicker at that.

You aren’t the one to tell him affections words towards Gojo,your the type that show actions are more powerful than words.

But as of lately,your haven’t been on top of it since you been called constantly by the higher up to go on multiple missions.

The silence wrap around you like a warm blanket yet hanging suspension.

“You know..-“You spoke quietly and as you see him turn his head back to see your face.Your expression holding on a serious look.

You breathe in and out before continuing your words.

-I'll always. .. love you, right?" You say with content and passion,your voice coming a bit low then you originally expected. Gojo was now leaning up from your laps,with a huge smile on his soft pinks lips. Now sitting down next to you,with his face closed up to you,your cheeks began to roll in a red blush as you try to keep it together. Even all this time your still shy and quiet as you hear Gojo laugh rambling out of his mouth as he hugs you deeply making you unbalanced on your position causing you to fall onto the couch with his body weight trapping you in his embrace.

"I don't blame you. I'm pretty spectacular." He says with his ironic cocky voice,As he intoxicated blue eyes stare into your eyes,with that handsome smirk on his lips.He was really god favorite.

It took you a minute before you realize what he said,making you grumble. “urgh,I was seriously about what I said Gojo” You said with a moody pout. As you roll your eyes from remembering his cocky voice.

“I meant what I said Baby,You have a spectacular guy right in front of you;Loving the sight he looking at,the way you are so gently yet so commanding in a good type of way,the way you worry about me when I do mission is adorable,I love that when your flustered you start to hide your red face from me.” He spoke in a dreamy voice lanced with seriousness,As his eyes stares down slightly at your lips then at your eyes.

You gulped down,as your face felt warm and hot.You were gonna cover your face with your hand but he stop you from doing that as he leaned against your forehead and whisper with a soft chuckle.

“did I say I love you,because I do” he says with a smile as you lips slightly turn up from his own smile.As he kiss you passionately as you let him lead the way.

Your face is red completely,but you whisper against his lips. “idiot”

And he smirk off before smashing his lips against your and making you completely forgot about the movie.

This was not pro-read by me,but pls check out on ‘Use me then’

I hope y’all have a wonderful day and weekend.

[toodleoorblx]

**SPOILERS AHEAD BEWARE**

Agatha All Along just came out, heres what I think about it.

So, starting off with the cinematic factors of it, I loved it. it was exactly what I was expecting, nothing less. I was very surprised with the plot though. It was so so funny, I had watched it with one of my friends and she loved it as well. Props to all who were apart of Agatha all along. The references of witchy movies, like the trap door and Snow White? I loved that Easter egg, I probably sound crazy but I swear it’s there.

I loved how dramatic Agatha was, her sarcasm, her impaticnce, her wickedness, spot on, even her haterd for Wanda. Agatha has lots of emotions, as much as I can tell. She just conceals them so much. She looks conflicted and angry when she sees Rio, she seems playful and antagonizing with Jen, laid back with Lilia, dismissive with Alice, impatient with Ms. Davis, and genuinely irritated and annoyed with Teen. She seems much more open on the show, less… distant and cruel? Maybe it’s the many many fics I’ve read that’s clouding my judgement but I was surprised to say the least. But it wasn’t a bad one. I love Agatha in this, there’s so much to tell about her her life, and I’m hyped to find out what’s up.

(Side note, one of my predictions was right! Rio's magic is in fact not something that can be taken. That was one of the few predictions I had made, and I'm so glad that that little detail was right.)

And Rio?! Oh my goodness, she's just as cryptc and lore filled as I imagined her. Her harshness with an underlined gentleness is killing me! And her licking Agatha’s hand better? Oh my that had me in a chokehold, so many golden ideas portrayed beautifully. And I have reason to believe that Agatha sacrificed Nicholas. The first sign is the childhood bedroom from episode one, Agnes being upset about it, two, the jab that Jen made, and three, when Rio mentioned the Darkhold, and its darkness, theres definitely some lore there, and I think it’s something that Agatha caused. Also does anyone have any clues as to what Rio says when she makes her dramatic exits? I only know some Spanish, but I’m not fluent 😭

Anywho, let’s talk about Teen. So when I first saw him I was fairly surprised. I didn’t expect him to try and steal something, nor did I know that it was an illusion of some sort? Maybe? Whatever it was, I know that Teen is not to be underestimated. He has some powerful qualities, even if it’s not as flashy as Agatha or Wanda’s. I love his perkiness and how he’s just happy to be there, even if it is as Agatha’s ‘pet’.

My next victim is Lilia. I had originally thought that she couldn’t use her magic or, predictions freely, only when vision came. But I was happily wrong. I don’t think she can use it whenever though. I love her style as well, such a level of grace and colorfulness really brings her character together. Patti did a fantastic job of portraying someone as kooky as Lilia.

Now we have Jen. I knew that they had some history because if something Kathryn had said on an interview, but I don’t think it was a lot. But clearly something went down to make Jen have a level of hatred towards her. But besides that, I get aesthetic, the pinks, the candles, the jewelry? It’s all so beautiful, I especially loved the septum piercing. It was a cute touch. Anyways, moving on from that, Agatha had mentioned that Jennifer is magic bound because of some curse? I wonder what that’s about. Over all, I adore Jen’s personality, I love how she knows what she’s worth and that she seems to always know what to say. She’s very confident of herself which is something I live to see. And I can see how Jen’s sarcasm and Agatha’s sarcasm may clash from time to time.

Moving on, we have Alice to discuss. Now I have written a little about how I portrayed her in my fic Natural Order, and I think I got her pretty well. I surprised myself I’m gonna be honest. I was half expecting her to be the exact opposite, but that’s a happy accident I guess. Anywho, I love her style as well, I wish we got to see more if the ship she had formally worked at, it was such a cozy and spooky place, I wouldn’t mind working there myself. The designers outdid themselves truly. Alice is very dismissive, and is always one step ahead, I love that about her (so far). She seems to be pretty laid back, while also being very vigilant as well.

Lastly, but certainly not least, Ms. Davis. I find her absolutely darling, she was so sweet and I had a good laugh when she came on screen. I love her obliviousness and utter happiness to be included, similar to Teen in that way. I hope she sticks around, u trying so, there’s not a bone in my body that doesn’t like her, she’s such a good ‘temporary’ addition to the coven.

The Salem seven seem to be like… the witch police? Maybe? I’m excited to see more of them.

Honorable mention: Senor Scratchy serving as always.🫡

A little treat I took:

(Also, height difference??!!! Loved that shot.)

[whyareyouhere66]

Hello hello could you possibly write a Benny rodriguez thing where reader is considered odd and ppl spread runouts about them bc they don’t talk to no one and Benny has an awkward encounter with them but realizes they aren’t bad just shy so starts hanging around them more and then his friends find out and try telling him about the rumors but he defends them sorry it’s long 😭

But of course- sorry I didn’t get to this earlier, thanks for the request!

Benny Rodriguez x GN Reader - “Rumors”

Warnings: people spreading rumors, none beside that 

-

Y/n L/n; quiet, distant, aloof. 

Benny Rodriguez; athletic, funny, outgoing.

The saying “opposites attract” has been heard by most, but not necessarily believed by all. 

In this case, the possibility of the slightest interactions between these two was limited. 

Benny has heard, seen of their “odd behavior.” Living in a small town and yet not talking to anyone lead to rumors, whispers spreading around as to what was actually going on inside their head. 

“I hear they once beat a kid so hard, his nose indented into his face”

“That’s not possible, man”

“Yknow one time I saw them talking to a tree… it was freaky, man”

“Y’think they’ve…?”

“I bet they…?”

“I once saw…”

They didn’t have to be original, that was the least of their problems. People believed it nonetheless.

Benny was one of them, admittedly. Today as he walks down the sidewalk, baseball mitt in hand and wearing his classic “babe Ruth” jersey, the boy makes his way towards the drug store under the promise of getting his friends some sodas.

The a/c welcomes him into the building, it had to be at least 80 something degrees. He takes the blue baseball cap off from his head, flapping it around in front of his face as he walks through the aisles, glass doors to the fridges at the very back of the store. 

He looks down, rummaging through his pockets for the change he’d left in there. 

“70,71…” he counts, shuffling through dimes and nickels as he turns the corner into the next aisle- the shadow of another figure catching his eyes.

“Aw man..” 

Y/n stands in front of a freezer door, grabbing a box of popsicles from inside the cold shelves. They could feel someone staring at them, already having heard the sounds of change getting thrown around. Awkwardly, they turn their head to see who it’d been.

Benny, tensed up himself, notices how their body freezes upon seeing him. Their arm was still in the freezer, his own bent in front of him with the money. They stare at eachother in a painful silence for a minute, the otherwise social boy unsure what to say. 

Should he even say anything at all? The chances they’d reply to him were slim, but he wasn’t sure how else to escape without seeming rude.

“Hey.” 

That was a start.

The blunt greeting seemed to shake Y/n from their “caught in headlights” moment, as their eyes slowly relax again and their hand retracts from the freezer. 

“Hi.” They reply, shutting the door and facing him- a much more welcoming response than Benny had anticipated. 

He wasn’t entirely sure what opted him to continue that conversation, perhaps the curiosity he’d felt towards them after all the mean rumors had spread to him. Maybe he felt accomplished to get them to face him, a bit selfish but it had to be considered progress. 

He looks over his shoulder to meet their eyes as he rummages through packs of cola, seeing their shy expression through the glass of the door.

“They’re always glaring at people too, sounds pretty mean to me…”

Benny narrows his eyes. This didn’t seem like a glare. 

“It’s pretty hot out there, some popsicles are smart.” He says, nodding at the box held in their hands. They glance down at the colorful box, nodding. 

“Yeah, I guess so.” 

The short responses would’ve convinced others of the rumors, off to complain about how dry and distant they were. But Benny watched them shuffle closer to him every time he said something else, shoulders slowly dropping and knuckles regaining their color. 

Anytime he threw another question their way, their voice became more clear and answers became longer.

“You staying inside today? It’s real nice outside.”

“Yeah, I guess so. Are you gonna go play baseball, with the others?”

He was surprised, unaware they paid enough attention to even know who “the others” were.

“Yeah, down at the sandlot.” 

“That’s cool,”

He nods, smiling.

“I bet it’s cause their voice is all ugly and raspy- maybe that’s why”

“Maybe they just don’t have one at all.”

The conversation stretches out until the two find themselves walking down the sidewalk, now open box of popsicles in Y/n’s hands as they each enjoy the cold refresher. Benny holds the pack of soda by the handle, doing most of the talking as Y/n adds on shortly.

“You play any sports?” 

“Not really, interesting to watch though”

“What about music- you’ve gotta like some band or something” 

“I mean…”

He doesn’t even realize he’d walked the wrong way until they speak up again, claiming they’d reached their street. 

He watches them walk up the steps to their door, and just as they go to open it they turn to him again. 

“I’ll see you later, Benny” they say shyly with a small wave, turning around and disappearing into the house. 

He stands there for a minute, staring at the door. 

A moment later, a triumphant smile breaks out onto his face. 

“Oh, man, I couldn’t have been more wrong…”

****

After Y/n and Benny split that faithful day in the heat, Benny wandered back to the Sandlot deep in thought. He had extra time, after going the opposite way from the store too caught up in conversation to have noticed a thing.

Y/n was sweet, a bit quiet, but they didn’t glare at him the way others had described.

Instead, they smiled at him. It was such a pretty smile, going to waste from lack of use. 

Their voice wasn’t “ugly” either, he found himself drawn to it after going so long without it. There was such a contrast, he noticed, their comfortable and simple company compared to the roudy, chaotic company given by his friends.

Maybe that was why he walked himself to their door the next day, he was intrigued.

When Y/n opened the door and saw him smiling  widely, looking surprised yet also a bit relieved, they couldn’t help but smile as well.

It made him come back, reeling him in like a fish on a hook. He walked himself to their door again the next day.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Fast forward a month or so, Benny and the boys trudging down to the old dugout with sweat dripping off their forehead. There was once again a pack of cola waiting for them there, curtesy of Benny, not a second to waste before Squints and Ham are tearing into it. 

The sweaty boys lounge around the hot, likely rotting old bench. Benny takes a swig of the sweet, icy cola and listens as conversation breaks out between the boys.

“Schools starting up in like 3 week…”

“Oh man, don’t even start with that…”

Benny tunes himself out of the conversation, leaning his head against a wooden post and closing his eyes as the heat consumes him.

“Oh yeah, let’s not forget Y/n!!”

“The old tree-witch?”

“Yeah yeah, be careful Bertram or they may put another spell on you-“

Benny’s eyes snap open, head whipping around at the laughing idiots.

The coke was just refreshing enough to recharge their shit-talk-drive, the target having switched from cranky-old Ms. Beverly to the teen which Benny had grown attatched to.

“What do you guys know, huh?” He glared, catching his friends attention. Yeah yeah looks at him confused. 

“What do you mean, Benny man?”

He rolls his eyes. “Have you guys even talked to them? Like, an actual conversation?” He sasses, a short awkward laugh coming from Ham.

“Woah, dude, we’re just joking around-“

  This further annoys the teen, clenching his fists out of annoyance at the immaturity of his friends.

“Man, don’t even.” 

With that the boy stands up, bottle in hand as he drops his mitt onto the ground. 

Kenny watches him stand up, shaking his head knowingly. 

“You’re just upset cause we’re talking shit about your little ‘lover, huh Benny?” He calls out, Benny’s muscles tensing. 

He looks over his shoulder, glaring at Kenny harshly. He wasn’t entirely sure how he could’ve known, though he wasn’t surprised that Kenny was the one out of them all to figure it out first.  Kenny hadn’t entirely meant for it to sound so douche-like, but it was too late as Benny yelled at him to shut his trap. The boy knew of the rumors as well, and wasn’t entirely sure how the kids who started them in the first place would react. He didn’t want Benny caught up in that, but hell the boy was stubborn.

The black-haired teen felt his friends all staring at him confused waiting for someone to elaborate. Neither did.

Behind Benny defensive and confused calls are thrown his way, him brushing them off and angrily taking another swig from the soda.

He grumbles to himself the whole way, angrily marching down streets until he’s on the familiar walkway up to Y/n’s porch, now empty bottle swinging from his hands. 

A few loud knocks on the door, before their face pops up to let him in. 

“Hey, I thought you were at baseball?” They ask curiously, stepping to the side. 

He shrugs, brushing off the confused look on their face as he lets himself into the house. 

“Eh, the guys were being idiots, I left a bit early.” He responds loosely, taking off the baseball cap and wiping spare sweat from his forehead. Y/n, albeit used to any rumors or whispers about them, didn’t need to know exactly what it was the other boys down at the sandlot had said. 

After weeks of not hearing a word of their existence thought perhaps it had died down, the kids from school finding better things to do through the summer break to distract from the various storylines they’d created about Y/n in their head.  

Though, maybe that was foolish. Kids were cruel, ignoring the truth any chance given.

Y/n takes a spot on the couch, watching Benny curiously as he approaches them. He brought his thoughts away from the topic, deciding to instead focus more on them. 

He settles into the cushion beside them, resting his elbows onto his knees and turning his head towards them.

“Hey.”

They look at him for a moment.

“Hi.”

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I wonder how would Trey Clover and Idia Shroud interact? If they are assigned together for an egg parenting project for a weekend that is.

I’m not sure if you’re the same Anon who sent this before and just missed the original response, but I’ve already replied to this question! You can read my jumbled thoughts here.

It’s kind of funny looking back on it now, since the recent list of Top 100 anime men (as picked by yumejoshi) has listed both Trey and Idia as picks from 2020 to 2023, a distinction held by no other TWST character. Trey I can easily see as a househusband and caretaker (even if he’s looking after an egg instead of an actual child), but Idia… It’s most likely that his partner would have to be the one taking care of him 😂 since bro’s forgetting to eat properly and fails to get adequate sleep all the time, plus he complains about how inefficient normal tasks like cooking are… I’d trust him to fix my computer, but maybe not so much with taking care of a child, much less an egg. Ortho doesn’t count here, he doesn’t require the same kind of maintenance as a living organism/j

In any case, it’s interesting to see how two very different characters are deeply beloved in the JP fandom. Trey and Idia are pretty opposite in terms of their dynamics in a “coupled” setting but I guess that adds to their unique charms ^^

[akalikai]

TMAGP EP 22 REACTION (SPOILERS)

"So you just ran away" Lena sweetie my live what else was she meant to do (to be fair, Gwen didn't have to provoke ink5oul)

"Watching figure" yeah OK definitely some Eye creature of sorts I'm rly thinking it's like...The Beholding as a creature or an old archivist

THIS IS SO FUCKING FUNNY "presumably you didn't get any contact details from them?" "I guess it's slipped my mind as I was fleeing the SUPERNATURAL PSYCHOPATHS!" also Lena I don't think that you were gonna get any contact details regardless that bitch don't seem like they got a phone

Lena genuinely cares about her employees but also she hates paperwork (polar opposite of Elias)

Okay here's the thing right. I kind of get Gwen. She wasn't briefed on how to handle a situation like that, like what was she MEANT to do??? I would be pissed off if shit like that happened and no one gave me any warning (again, though, Gwen also has a tendency to naturally be a bit bitchy so that probably made it worse)

WAIT. HOLD ON MRS. KELLEY?? AM I READING INTO THINGS TOO MUCH OR. GUYS IS LENA MARRIED????

YO GUYS GRANDPA IS BACK

Oh shit okay so they are kind of recreating or continuing Newton's original experiments, seeing as they mentioned an experiment on Canis (which I believe means "dog"). It seems to have been expanded to apes (Hominidae), bunnies (Leoporidae), and old world monkeys (Cercopithecidae). And it seems this researcher is having strange side effects when it comes to his subjects.

"Herr Schmidt" I'm assuming this is German?

Hm, being told to use silver which again is like. Seeming to be a theme. I'm not sure but in the Newton episode, was there silver as well?

Okay for clarification, it seems like "Zeitgeist" is an invisible agent, force, or daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history. Einthoven was a Dutch medical doctor and physiologist and he created the first ECG.

Woahhh hold on. So they're talking about severing a bundle of nerves to make it seem like two animals in one body because it messes with sense of self? This kind of makes me think a little of ink5ouls, the way they seemed scared sometimes of what they were becoming and then like. You know. Scary monster let's chase down Gwen and tattoo her against her will.

Hmm okay so this telegraph seems to be directly responding to the researcher's question, not the patient himself. Like it seems like it's Telegraph -> Herr Schmidt's reaction and not Herr Schmidt's thoughts -> Telegraph reaction.

OH. OK. HERR SCHMIDT IS DEAD NOW.

Damn Ursula is awesome she could immediately understand what was happening.

Oh boy. Oh this gonna be bad. Sam is going to find out that Alice was messing with his computer and Sam does NOT seem like the type to be chill with that.

Hm okay so the severing of the nerves might have worked? And perhaps it was like there were 2 people in Herr Schmidt's body? And from what I can tell, they want so badly to get out that they basically BURST out if his head in the deformity from the back of his head? It still doesn't answer WHAT or WHO these two voices are.

Also it makes sense that Augustus is giving something like this because like...pretty sure he's stuck in the computer, probably with jonmartin and they all want out.

Aw man :(((

OH BOY. "You're trying to control me. Again." I wonder if this is referencing their relationship and why they broke up. I can see it, I do think that Alice has a tendency to be controlling out of need to keep everyone around her safe which is pretty different, but I'm on Sam's side here. Taking away his ability to choose just...isn't great.

Yeahhhh Alice seems to have definitely been hoping to rekindle what they might have had but I think the issue seems that she hoped SAM had changed from before while the reason they broke up was because Sam couldn't be with Alice anymore since he felt like she was too controlling. And now that Sam seems to be having a genuine connection with Celia where he feels comfortable and happy, Alice seems jealous.

SHUT THE FUCK UP. OH MY GOD WHAT WHAT WHAT HOLY FUCK HIH WHAT AKDVAKDHWJT E

JONATHAN SIMS AND MARTIN BLACKWOOD????

HEY GUYS WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK HWIAHAOWVEBE RHAJDVAIBDKWBR E

I JUST SCREAMED "OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD" WHAT YOU WHAT HUH WHAT

AND THE FACT THAT CELIA MENTIONED THEM BOTH SPECIFICALLY TOGETHER LIKE HELLO???? GUYS IM. WHAT.

I'm sorry shut up this is all I'm gonna be talking about for the next month what the HELL

[captainvastolation]

Looked around AO3 and said “why the hell hasn’t anybody written Michael helping Gerry dye his hair??” and my first fic was born. 21k later, we finally got to the original inspiration.

“Fucking hell,” he sighed to himself and crouched to rummage around in the cabinets. He swatted at Michael’s legs to get it to lift them out of the way, and it obliged with a pointed look.

“What are you doing now?” It peered down at him from behind its knees. It had curled up into a tight fold on the counter much like it had on the couch the first time it had showed up at his flat. Gerry found the effect quite funny, actually. How it could go from something so large and imposing into such a relatively small ball was beyond him.

He rummaged around blindly, pushing past old, rough towels and half-used but long-forgotten tubes of toothpaste before his fingers brushed against what he was hoping for: the smooth edge of a little box he’d stolen from the chemist a few months ago, probably whenever he did his hair last.

In a few practiced motions, the various chemicals were in a small plastic bottle, and he shook it hard with his thumb over the top. His free hand riffled through the instructions and other nonsense in the box. What, no shit plastic gloves? It wasn’t that he cared if the dye stained his skin some, but he’d done his hair before without any precautions, and the deep bluish stains on his hands and nail beds took eons to fade. It almost made it look like his hands were unevenly rotting, and it was something he’d done his best to avoid since. He set the bottle back down to properly search through the few drawers under the sink. Hadn’t he had gloves at some point?

Ah, yes. The empty box laughed at him in his hand. Gerry of the past really enjoyed making things difficult for Gerry of the future. Presently, he was vexed with himself.

Michael’s question lingered unanswered as he chewed the piercing scar inside his lip. He glanced up at it, and its eyebrows still raised as if asking again what the hell he was up to. He sighed deeply and leaned back against the opposite wall.

“I need to do my damn hair, but I’m out of gloves, and since I get the cheap stuff it stains like hell. And I hate dealing with majorly stained hands for weeks.” He took another swig from the bottle of whiskey. It was nearly empty. “Guess I’ll just try to do it fast and scrub my hands while it’s processing.”

“I did not realize I was interrupting your regularly-scheduled grooming day,” it said with a giggle. It bounced in its bizarre echoes around the small space, but he found that he was pretty unphased by it at this point. Or maybe he was just still recovering from looking at it in the mirror and didn’t notice the additional headache.

“Oh, piss off. Guess I’m having uh, one of those…” he snapped his fingers a few times searching for the word. “Self care days! Yeah, that’s what rich white women call it. Why not.”

“Self care day?” It tittered back at him.

“Yeah, it’s when you do shit for yourself so you want to die a little less, or something like that.” He found a hair tie in the depths of another drawer and pulled the top part of his hair up into a tight bun. He grimaced slightly at the sight of it. Preppy did not suit him.

He focused on the task at hand, tracing the sectioned part with the nozzle, rubbing it into his scalp, moving to the next little section. He hadn’t realized until he put it up just how long his hair had gotten. Tilting his head to the side, a section spilled around to the front. It was damn near to his shoulder blades. Might not have enough dye. Shit. It was a problem for later. He’d already started; no stopping now.

As he continued working around the back of his head, he stopped to stretch his neck and shoulders. Twisting around to try to cover his scalp evenly was wearing on him, especially as the tipsiness settled into a comfortable drunk. Already paused, he tipped back the bottle and finished it off. Tasted like shit and burned going down. Between the burn in his throat and the sharp smell of hair dye, he reveled in the familiar discomforts.

He tried to turn his head in the mirror to see where he might have left off. He was trying to use his hands as little as possible at this point, since it would hardly be seen anyway. Michael’s soft laugh wrapped around him again, and he shot it a glance.

“Can I help you? You’re the one loitering in my flat watching me do this.”

“Oh, does someone not enjoy being observed? How curious,” it replied casually. “I find it funny that the Little Watcher has no eyes in the back of his head to see what he is doing.”

Gerry snorted and raised a middle finger to it, equally casual. He saw the first dark splotch sinking into the whorls of his fingerprint. Dammit.

It broke into a full laugh like he hadn’t heard before. It was a true belly laugh, with its head tipped back and its eyes closed. Its shoulders and chest shook with the force of it, and the sound deeper and fuller than its usual creeping giggles, washing over him in waves from every direction. Try as he might to keep a stern face, the unfettered joy was contagious. He had to set down the dye bottle and use both hands to hold onto the counter as he joined in. It was beyond ridiculous, every part of this. But dammit, for the first time in a long time, he was actually having fun.

“Christ, alright,” he finally said, carefully wiping the tears from his eyes with the knuckles that were least likely to have dye on them. “You have to let me actually do this in a timely manner, otherwise it’s gonna look even worse than usual.” He gingerly tapped a finger along the part to find where he had left off and was rewarded with glob of dye on his finger when he pulled it back. What a fucking pain. The acrid smell of the chemicals was getting to be overwhelming. He regretted finishing off the bottle already.

He stopped again to roll his shoulders and stretch his neck, sighing deeply through the familiar ritual. Push the parts that hurt, see how much more they could take, carry on.

“Gerard?” Michael asked into the quiet that had settled over them.

“Hmm?” He didn’t look up, still stretching his neck.

“Do you need help?”

Gerry’s attention snapped up to it. “Nah, I’ve done this forever. Just getting too old for my bullshit, I suppose.” He studied its face. No shit eating grin, no mischievous quirk of an eyebrow. Its eyes flitted through a series of barely-there pastels in an almost opalescent glow. “Besides, I don’t need you going all Scissorhands on me,” he joked gesturing at its hands folded in its lap.

It chuckled and held them up for him to see. “Mr. Scissorhands, I am not.” Like in Bristol, the fingers had lost their sharp edges, and the proportions were shockingly normal. He chewed on the inside of his lip. “Friends,” its voice caught slightly on the word. “Friends help each other, yes?”

[swordsonnet]

okay i lied, i am going to be talking spoilers (because i have no self-control, and i've seen other people share spoilers in the magnus protocol tag, so i assume it's fine?). assorted rambling thoughts on the premiere under the cut:

-ngl "rusty quill presents... the magnus protocol" made me so emotional

-ah yes, a civil service data entry job that has you working night shifts for no discernible reason. that's not ominous at all

-i love the new characters already! they all have such interesting personalities and relationships with each other, can't wait to see how they'll be developed in further episodes. colin is probably my favourite so far, we stan a grumpy IT guy

-speaking of colin, i'm glad we've got a scottish character this time! i love TMA to bits, but it had a lamentable lack of scottish accents

-alice is so much fun as well! i love how jonny described her as a "tumblr shitposter par excellence"

-sam is such a sweet guy, but i'm sure he'll be introduced to The Horrors™ soon enough... although maybe he already was! he seemed to be familiar with the magnus institute, and just like the trailer, this episode also hinted at something traumatic in his past that led him to join the OIAR. probably something to do with those dubiously ethical child psychology experiments...

-i hadn't even considered what OIAR would sound like spoken out loud, and it's so awkward lmao. really doesn't roll off the tongue

-i kinda ship alice and gwen now tbh. i'm getting prime "workplace nemeses to lovers" vibes from them

-okay, let's address the thing everyone's probably thinking about: i'm not sure how to feel about jon and martin's - sorry, chester and neil's - involvement in protocol. (i mean, it's not 100% confirmed that it is jon and martin, but it seems pretty likely.) like i've said before, i would have preferred to keep the ambiguity of their original ending, but on the other hand, this could be shaping up to be a really interesting plotline. plus, y'know, i've gotten pretty emotionally attached to these characters (*gestures vaguely at my ao3*), so i wouldn't be opposed to seeing them again!

-i guess the guy alice nicknamed augustus is going to be jonah magnus, then? that idea is just so funny to me. imagine being trapped in a computer with your boyfriend (who stabbed you) and your evil boss (whom you stabbed)

-i really like the vibe of the new "statements"! i particularly enjoyed the forum entries, i always appreciate the use of unique formats to tell a story. it reminds me a little of analogue horror, though of course it's the exact opposite of analogue - you could call it digital horror, i suppose? anyway, much as i loved the more traditional horror story structure of the TMA statements, i think it's super exciting that they're branching out and trying new things with protocol. looking forward to see what else they'll come up with!

[czolgosz]

my (hopefully comprehensive) leon czolgosz rpf compendium

full books:

the bradys and the anarchist queen; or, running down the "reds" (1902): short dime novel; has a bunch of slightly changed names so they can't get sued for libel i guess; the portrayal of anarchists as evil is so exaggerated that it's mostly just funny; more seriously, warning for earnest anti-black racism

with claw and fang: a fact story with a chicago setting (1911): a dubious response to the anarcho-egoist/proto-fascist book might is right (1896); leon czolgosz's name is nikola golzosch and he has different things going on from real life; bizarre & very christian; also warning for earnest anti-black racism

assassins (1991): the musical. we all know this one.

the anarchist (2001): the daniel a. coleman one, which is in fact the original The Anarchist; from the perspective of a psychiatrist who sort of befriends leon czolgosz in prison and is pushed left by his experiences with anarchists & his suffragist girlfriend; boring!; i have made most of a pdf of it 🫡 wait a bit

death of riley (2002): an aspiring detective investigates the murder of her employer (another detective) and meets bohemians and anarchists who are involved in the murder and the investigation alike in varying ways; leon czolgosz is canonically gay if you care; on z-library

the temple of music (2004): a wild ride, but still mostly coherent; has a bunch of different pov characters, only one of which is fictional; the writing is really not bad, and it was pretty emotionally evocative for me; probably has the most leon czolgosz scenes; speaking of which, he is in the midst of a mental breakdown for most of the book; on anna's archive

the anarchist (2009): the john smolens one; about some people trying to capture leon czolgosz and failing, and then getting involved in another anarchist domestic terrorism plot afterwards; probably has the second most leon czolgosz scenes; on z-library

a moment in the sun (2011): i haven't read this yet, as you all know; about the turn of the century in general; on z-library

the fifth assassin (2013): leon czolgosz never actually shows up, but there is some fiction narrative surrounding him; all the assassinations are connected, someone is repeating them all, and there's about to be a new fifth one; the protagonist aims to catch this assassin; on z-library

assassin of shadows (2019): some detectives uncover the conspiracy surrounding the mckinley assassination; on z-library

a gilded lady (2020): i never actually read it apart from the one very short leon czolgosz scene and don't really know what it's about; on z-library

very short things:

"interview with an assassin" (1901): a description of an interview in which leon czolgosz is a devout christian and explains his actions accordingly; written in opposition to christian proselytisation which had increased due to the assassination

"the last guest" (1901): about a woman contemplating leon czolgosz's execution; his corpse shows up but that's really it

"czolgosz heard from" (1901): excerpts from a letter leon czolgosz sent from hell

"oklahoma fish story" (1903): john wilkes booth, charles guiteau, and leon czolgosz are hanging out together in oklahoma

"the scar his ring made" (2010): short story by a high schooler about paweł czołgosz being abusive; starts on page 85

"very short dorian gray x leon czolgosz fic" (2022): need i say more

"reason" (2024): genderbent, one-sided leon (leona) czolgosz x emma (emmett) goldman

tv show episodes (which i haven't seen):

reaper s1 ep6 "leon" (2007): leon czolgosz escapes hell and some people are trying to make him go back; apparently the least accurate portrayal ever (it does not sound like they were trying anyway)

murdoch mysteries s7 ep15 "the spy who came up to the cold" (2014): the opening scene is the mckinley assassination; about a possible conspiracy around the assassination

[amerricanartwork]

Y’know, I have a funny story with the ship between Innocence and Pebbles.

@eggobuggo , my sister, was playing The Sims and made the iterators in her own humanised forms, including her version of Innocence and Wind, along with Moon, Pebbles, NSH and Suns, all with their own personalities and stuff. She set up a generic apartment, put the gang in, and just had fun making them do silly shenanigans together, while I sit and watched her play.

In particular, we headcanon NSH, Pebbles and Innocence as Gen 3s, the newer modes, and so she made them into teenagers, which, with a DLC, have a whole new host of features that are not in the base game. This includes getting crushes (which weirdly enough, young adults and adults cannot get).

But anyway, one day, later into the game (the gang basically all were in the high end of the friendship scale with each other), the notif board popped up that Innocence had gotten a crush on Pebbles. Unfortunately for her, NSH and Pebs were already being all flirty with each other (Ragequit is where it’s at for us), making Pebble basically keep her in the friendzone. Ngl, my heart went out to her :,) Especially so, because they were all sharing a room. (space was tight)

After that, I began thinking about it in context of it in-universe, and ngl, I came to quite liking it as a ship, especially since I see Innocence to be less… asshole-ish (?), I guess, than what the general fandom makes her out to be (I mean it’s understandable, we only see her to leak the pic of Pebbles condition and that’s it.). To me and Eggo, she’s much nicer unless you really piss her off, which then, her more cynical and gossipy side of her comes out. She was actually more of on the friends side with Pebble before the shit went down.

At the time, I thought “dang, it’s a shame I won’t be seeing anything of it since she’s so obscure.”. This was a couple months before I began seeing art of them on the main tag.

Soooo… I guess I’m somewhat of an og Milkshake (as is the fandom name) shipper???

Just, seeing you and others make art about them is almost surreal in a way, since the only reason I really considered them as a ship was cuz of a random event in a life sim game lol.

Also @eggobuggo, I hope you don’t mind me sharing the story. :)

Wow, that seems like quite the story! And I do agree, after witnessing something like that in a totally different game it must be pretty surreal to see the ship gaining popularity in the actual RW fandom now too! It's nice to get another seal of approval from an original Milkshake shipper!

For me, it's also a bit strange because it's something I've considered for a really long time as a lingering "oh, wouldn't it be cool if I could make this work?" idea. The obscurity and lack of content for UI to draw inspiration from, both canon and fanon, definitely added to these feelings and the difficulty of imagining a working portrayal of the ship, hence I've only recently felt confident enough about the relationship and UI as a character to act on it. So after Pura coined the ship name and made a lot more art of it, then other artists started expressing approval and even drawing it themselves, it almost feels like I'm watching the ship enter the mainstream (Tumblr) fandom consciousness in real time, which is honestly pretty cool, especially since it feels like I had a hand in it with that initial ask! And even if I wasn't the very first to consider it, I'll definitely continue supporting this ship!

For some other thoughts though, I totally agree on Innocence not being mean in reality, though for me she's not mean or gossipy at all and more so has a kind-of opposite major flaw that tends to cause bad things unintentionally. As much as I can understand interpreting the character as a genuinely mean person, I thought it'd be interesting to imagine that her leaking the rot simply caused others to perceive her as mean, not that she's that way in reality. After all, I don't think we ever see direct dialogue from Innocence in canon, and the only evidence I can find of her being mean is Wind's speculation on her motivations. I also took inspiration from @shkika's Innocence, but I just wanted to see if I could take those ideas further to create my own unique interpretation.

Also, it's actually pretty coincidental you're telling me this too, because in regards to what I've come up for my Milkshake portrayal, Innocence having an unrequited crush on Pebbles for a really long time is actually really important for both plot and character arc reasons! I've been developing my own take on the classic worm-off-the-string iterator AU idea with @hail-strom for like the past week or so and the ship as of now plays a decent role in that, but the unrequited crush acts as subtle, yet major context for Innocence's actions throughout, which in turn slowly influence Pebbles especially as he starts to reciprocate those feelings (much to his alarm)!

Anyway, thanks for sharing that with me, and thanks for giving me a chance to ramble about this ship more! I'm honestly so happy to see it growing, and all support counts!

[xxmia0wm4yh3mxx]

GLOOZE

(Chapter: 4)

___________________________________________

I really love making these its so fun to write these characters even if im bad at writing :3

I can't wait for chapter five!!!

(Also plz leave comments it makes me happy)

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The Boy stormed out of Able's office after a long and boring lecture about "proper classroom etiquette" and "Treating others how you want to be treated" So stupid... He's definitely never going back to school again

Enock: Hi...

Enock was timidly waiting for The Boy outside

The Boy: What?

Enock: Umm... I- um.. I wanted to- umm...

The Boy: Ugh, Spit it out man!

Enock: Umm.... I thought you were really funny... and... I wanted to give you something...

Enock nervously, he gives him a folded piece of paper, The Boy rolled his eye and grabbed the paper from him

He unfolded the paper and saw a drawing in crayon of him with small angel wings and a halo, it was simple and scratchly drawn in green pen, the drawing itself looked a bit strange, the eye was drawn in a realistically oval shape contrasted to the boy's cartoony circled shaped one, He gazed at the image, examining every doodle surrounding the Strange depiction of the Boy, He could feel his Eye start to water

He started tearing up

Enock: I-I did I do something wrong?? Is it the Artstyle??

The Boy: No... its fine... thanks dude...

Enock: do... do you... wanna play?

The Boy: Uh... sure!

Later, Enock took the boy to a long hall in the circus, unlike the Brightly colored circus, it was cute and pastel, calming yet fun, Doors where placed along side of the pastel walls each having the face and name of the pals on them, on the end of the hallway, right was a Orange colored door in a wacky shape, Enock's picture and Name on it as well as stickers and glitter plastered all over it

Enock: dishes myoom!! I decorated it with pretty stuff! Cool right? Qwerty said it was childish but my mom and dad really likes it!!

The Boy: Wah- Huh- um cool

Enock opened the door and led The Boy inside

It was a spacious room with striped walls and decorated with Drawings, photos and random decor, plushies and toys were everywhere, a small doghouse was sitting against a wall with balloon dog (giraffe?) Was sleeping peacefully, in the corner was a small twin sized bed ridden with plushies and colorful pillows, opposite to the door he entered was a out of place fancy looking door with stickers spread across it to make it blend in more, it was probably just a closet or something

The Boy was utterly entranced by the room like it was a world forged from his wildest dreams

The Boy: sick room dude!!

Enock: really? Forgor to clean it today

Enock: Hey! You wanna see something cool?? I always wanted to show it to someone

The Boy: Okay, hit it

He sit down on the floor

Enock: Okay, here it goes...

Immediately, Enock's body started to morph, he rapidly grew five new pairs of arms and legs, his torso split and his head went into the new cavity, he started levitating in the air

Enock: Guess wha I am!!

The Boy was equal parts gobsmacked and terrified, and a bit impressed

Enock: look Ima Sunshine!!

The Boy: Cool!!

Enock remorphed into his original form

Enock: Really? Everyone says its creepy

The Boy: Its totally awesome man!! What else can you do?

Enock: well... I can do this!!

Enock in Qwerty's voice: My Name is Qwerty and I'm reaaaallly boring and I talk in a boring voice like thiiiissssss

The Boy laughed, And Enock made alot of random cartoon noise in response

The Boy: thats so awesome!!! I bet you can pull a @#$% ton of pranks with that!

Enock: Nah, well, sumtimes, but I usually just make music!

The Boy: You make music too?! What do you sing about?

Enock: usually about things I like, my family, dinosaurs, sometimes death on occasions, food i like, or just random things I like!

The Boy: I always wanted to make music, I can't though, But If I could I would sing about how cool I am! Or maybe about something about dragons

Enock: I love Dragons!! My favorite are the rainbow ones!!

The Boy: I like the Big ones who have GIANT horns and Wings!!!

Enock: Golly! If I had Wings I'd fly just like my dad! And why I could visit Ms. Sun and Moon everyday!!

Enock and The Boy rambled with eachother, topics changing in a second, Enock started flailing his arms and legs and the boy bobbed his head back and forth

Enock: -Ms. Queenie is always in her garden, I like it there! Its really pretty, But she dosent like me in there she says always I step in the flowers, so I have to stare at the flowers from atleast five feet away, Marigolds are my favorite to look at, they're really, really pretty! And its my favorite color!! It also a symbolism of Death! I like death! He sure seems Lika swell guy!! He has a skull for a head lika cally-vara!! I've never had a cally-vara before, My mommy says all that sugar isn't good for me, But I really, really want to! She says I havta eat more veggies, but I don't like veggies at all! There gross, slimy, and green... Oh sorry! I didn't it like that!-

The Boy: No I totally get it! I hate veggies! They're totally gross, And I love gross things! Like, mud and swamps and green moldy cheese and bugs and barf and other stuff! But I don't like Adults, they don't like gross stuff and yell at me when I do things, I hate them!

Enock: I like some adults actually, Like momma and papa and miss sun and moon and miss Ragatha and Miss Gangle and mister miss Zooble and Mister Kinger and Queenie, I don't like Mister Jax though, He's mean to me, each is way I think Patchricia is mean to me, I'm happy my parents are nice, they're the best! My dad is super cool and Can make anything and my mom is super smart! I'm happy I have them And not other Adults, well Ms. Moon and Sun could be my parents, Miss Moon already Likes my mom and Dad and- Hey, Are you Okay?

The Boy was silent, he stopped bobbing his head and had a uncomfortable expression, they just stared at eachother awkwardly for a bit

Enock: Did... Did I ruin it?

The Boy was Still silent and looking at the ground, Enock could sense he was upset, he tired to think of something to cheer him up, and then he got a idea

Enock: Yanna see my house?? Its really cool and fun!!

The Boy: Isn't the Circus You're house?

Enock: No, nota Circus, My dad's manor!

Enock unzips one of his plushies and Grabs a key inside of it, he Goes up to the door opposite from the door they entered and unlocks it

The Boy rolled his eye Enock and the Boy stepped out of His room, Enock took his hand and guided him through the dark halls illuminated by candles sparked with crimson flames

The Boy: Oh Great, I great see your boring bourgeois house

The Boys Jaw drops when he steps out of the halls and sees a long hall draped in vibrant red, long marble pillers accented with gold stretched to ceiling, the ceiling was covered with an artistic mural of the heavens, diamond chandeliers hanged down like willow branches, Sunshine shined through the tallest stained glass windows he had ever seen, a long red velvet carpet spread out before the two childern rolling out farther than the boy could see, it looked like he stepped out of the mortal plane and into some kind of Valhalla

Enock: see? Its pretty isn't it?? This is only wonuva halls though, the actual rooms are much cooler

The Boy was silent, Astonished and completely overwhelmed by the sublime halls of the manor, Enock poked him to get a response

Enock: 大丈夫?

The Boy snapped out of his daze

The Boy: Wah- Huh- Uh.. I mean yeah its cool or whatever I guess...

The Boy tried to keep a cool and uninterested demeanor but Enock could sense he was impressed

Enock: Heyawunna seemy favorite places?

The Boy nodded his head and Enock Eagerly tugged him through the hall, Enock turned left and entered a twisted hall, it looked like it was melted and refrozen again, Enock stopped at a abstract door

Enock stepped aside urging The Boy to Open the door, The boy rolled his eye and pushed the door open, Enock then shoved him into the room

The Boy: Hey!-

Inside of falling on his face like he thought he would, he floated in the air like he was in outer space, floating furniture was scattered across the room, Enock jumped in to join the slimy boy

Enock: Dishestha Gravy Room!!

The Boy: Woah!- uh, Don't you mean Gravity?

The Boy awkwardly turned his body to face him, his jelly body hard to move in zero gravity, Enock Pushed away a full gravy boat the was floating towards him

Enock: Uhh yeah!

Enock: I like this room alot, Its really fun to pretend your flying or in space, I useto bring Qwerty in here, but they don't like it very much, But now you can play with me!! Tag!!

Enock poked his eye and flung himself from a floating table

The Boy: Hey!!

The Boy thrusted himself foward towards Enock, propelling himself like a fish in the water, Enock pushed himself against the wall dodging The Boys attempt to Tag him, they continued to play with eachother, Jumping from Floating furniture and bouncing off walls, after a while, They exited the Gravity room so they could explore more of the manor

Enock: C'mon!! I wanna show you more!!

They sprinted across the mansion, sliding down spiral stair railings and swinging from from antique chandeliers like a Jungle gym, they jumped from room to room, exploring the wacky wonders of the palace, They snacked on the walls and furniture in the candy room, explored in the Giant room, playing with the giant toys, and running from a giant soccer ball rolling towards them, bounced through the bouncey room and walked through an aquarium tunnel that was big enough to fit a blue whale, They Boy was especially estatic at seeing all the Different kinds of sharks

Enock: C'mon Greenie!! I haven't showed you the Safari Room Yet!!

The Boy: Im Coming Man! I'm still getting used to my Body!

The Two boys were running through the halls, Enock zipped past the rooms, The Boy barely being able to keep up with him with his gelatinous form, The Boy reached a fork in the road between two entrances, The right entrance emitted a soft glow, Curiously, he went right

He entered a large foyer, its colors where split down the middle, on the Side The Boy was on was bright warm red and on the opposite side in front of him was a soft blue manor, he slowly squirmed his way to the boy side

Enock: STOP!!! そこへ行かないで!!

Enock grabbed The boy and placed him on the red side of the manor

Enock: where not allowed to go on that side! My Uncle is kinda weird about his part of the house, Its boring there anyway so I don't like going there anyways, Qwertys allowed on my dads side because My dad is alot more fun than my Uncle, and also I think that My dad likes Qwerty more than My Uncle likes me, Momma says I'm being silly and that he loves me but I'm not really sure because he never wants to play with me and looks at me funny when I talk and-

Enock turned to see the boy staring up at the giant family painting placed between the red and blue side, He had a strange strange expression that Enock couldn't really identify

Enock: Hey... you al'ght?

The Boy: Im Fine....

Enock: No you're not, I can tell you're sad-

The Boy: I said Im FINE!!

Enock jumped back at the Boy's yelling, The Boy looked back at the Ground awkwardly, Enock could tell he was upset, he hated when his friends were sad, he had do to something, anything but stay here where he was upset

Enock: You... You Wanna go Play with The other Pals?

The Boy: ......

in the grounds the Pals are hanging out and play with eachother, Patchricia and Niku are playing tic-tac-toe together, Princessa and Princely are identifying bugs with eachother and was quietly Qwerty is reading a book

Patchricia: AH! I win again!

Niku: How do you keep beating me?? Are you playing a trick or something??

Patchricia: Nope, Guess im just naturally skilled!

Enock walked to join them, The boy trailing behind him

Enock: おはようございます、皆さん!!!

All of pals let out a audible groan

Qwerty: Enock, it is 4:05 pm, it is not morning anymore

Enock: I-I knew That!!

Enock twiddled his hands nervously before turning to the boy

Enock: So umm... Whattawanna play?

The Boy: I dunno, I'm done for anything

Enock: OH! OH! Can we play play space cowboys?? I never get to play that game!

The Boy: Uhhh.... Okay, sounds cool

Enock and the Boy were having a pretend standoff, using sticks as Laser pistols

Enock: This Spaceship ain't big enough for the both of us!!

The Boy: oh Yeah?? Well you know is big enough for the spaceship?

Enock: Who??

The Boy: YOUR MOM!!

They Boy let out a war cry and charged towards him, followed by Enock making a High pitched Screech while sprinting towards the boy, The crashed into eachother and thudded on the ground, they got off the ground and chased eachother, giggling while doing so

The Other Pals gave them passing looks, trying to ignore the loud racket the two boys where making

Enock: You're time is up Space Criminal! You can't out run the law!!

The Boy spinned around

The Boy: Well I can Out laser the Law, with this SICK @#$ HELL RAILGUN!

The boy positioned his hands to look like he was holding an invisible gun

Enock: WAIT, WAIT, WAIT! PAUSE, PAUSE! Who know what would be cooler than a pretend railgun??

The Boy cocked his head

Enock: a REAL Railgun! I can manifest it!

The Boy: You can Do that?!

Enock: Yeah!! JusHolon, I neda focus...

Enock took a deep breath and closed his eyes, he held his hands close together leaving a small space between them, The Boy watched as Enock's body strain and jitter

The Boy stared at him confused on what he was doing exactly, His confusion quickly turned to amazement when he saw a low polygon shape glitching into existence forming between his hands

The Boy: Dude!! That is Sick!!

Enock strained his body harder, beads of sweat trickling down his tooth face, he gritted his teeth together forcing all his mind power into his craft, the random pile of polygons glitched and flickered until it took on a rectangular shape, it flashed random colors it and started lighting up like a lantern, Qwerty Looked up from their book

Qwerty: ENOCK!-

In a split, A loud boom erupted throughout the the grounds, The pals were thrown violently, their screams lost amidst the chaos. Debris rained down, scattering in every direction, while dust and smoke stained the air

Slowly, they all got up, racked by the explosion and covered in dirt and smoke

Patchricia: Is everyone okay?..

Niku: ...No...

Enock crawled out of a small crater created by his attempt at creation

Enock: ugh... ....Cheesy rice...

Patchricia: ENOCK!!

Patchricia ran up to Enock, Rage filled her Cotten body

Patchricia: WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT ENOCK?! DO YOU REALISE SOMEONE COULD'VE HURT?? OR KILLED??

Enock Shrinked into himself, stroking the tendrils that dangled from his head to calm himself from the shaking panic that spread through his body

Enock: I... I didn't...

His breath hitched, tears welling up in his eyes, Niku waddled up to the Two, limping due to the pieces they lost

Niku: its not his Fault Patchy, He- He didn't know

Patchricia: I KNOW, he never means to mess things up, but he keeps doing things he KNOWS are Stupid!!

Patchricia: Maybe He should pay more Attention to the Real world instead of playing pretend all day and babbling about Skeletons and zombies like a He's a Stupid Baby!!

Tears streamed down Enock's face his voice hitching between sharp breaths

Enock: ...I'm... I'm notta dumb baby...

The Boy reformed his shape form from his compact shape and stood between Enock and Patchricia

The Boy: HEY! HE'S NOTTA DUMB BABY! HE ONLY WANTED TO HAVE FUN!!

Patchricia: Well That FUN Could've killed us!!

The Boy rolled his eye at what seemed to him as hysterical complaining

The Boy: You're Just Jealous that he's Funner, cooler and Awesomer than a Uptight, Bratty, STUPID B#$%@ LIKE YOU!

All the Pals gasped, mouths agaped, Patchricia stomped her foot on the ground and pinned her crinkly ears back, her teeth gritted and snarled at him, The boy was completely unfazed with the angry bunny and continued to stare her down

Qwerty walks inbetween them

Qwerty: Cease this behavior immediately, both of you are acting in an immature manner, Patchricia, your reaction was inappropriate and resulted in Enock becoming upset, When You are aware of his sensitivity to shouting

Patchricia thumped her foot repeatedly before slowing down

Patchricia: Yeah... I guess you're right... sorry...

Patchricia rubbed her arm awkwardly, And Qwerty turned to Face The Boy

Qwerty: I understand you are new and unfamiliar with our procedures, but your behavior was inappropriate, You should not have enabled Patchricia's unprofessional conduct, Additionally, Enock has made a dangerous mistake that he has repeated multiple times and must face appropriate consequences for his-

The Boy: Im not taking rules from a Guy in a PINK TUTU!

Qwerty: My wardrobe is not my choice, Please return to the subject at-

The Boy: Enock didn't do anything wrong! He just wanted to play!! Somthing YOU are Cleary above!

The Boy shoved Qwerty and they fell to the ground

The Boy: You think You're so smart but they're an Stupid kid like the rest of us!

The Boy: You're just trying to compensate for the fact that Enock is a Gazillion times more personality than you do! I mean just because you're an NPC dosent mean you have to act like One!

The boy grabbed Enocks arm

The Boy: C'mon Ennie, we're to cool for these LOSERS

The Boy Took Enock back Inside the circus, Enock was still teary eyed

Enock: No one... no one ever stood up for me like that... Thank you...

Enock Smiled warmly at the Boy, The Boy looked puzzled at Enock's expression, But slimed regardless

The Boy: Uh.. Um.. Thanks, I guess...

The Boy: Do You... Do ya wanna hang out more?-

A Loud warping rang through the Tent, indicating that the portal reopened

Enock: Mama!!

Enock ran off to the main area of the Circus,

The Boy followed and observed the Pals greeting their parents, Hugging them, telling them about their day, he saw Caine lift Enock off the Ground and spun him around Playfully and hugged him tightly

The Boy felt a Sting run through his body as he watched the Pals with there parents, he was overcome with a feeling of bitter resentment For the other kids, Kids, Like they were even kids, they weren't kids, they weren't even people, they were nothing but machines with preprogrammed responses, they didn't have feelings or thoughts, they were nothing but AIs, and to think he made a real friend...

Enock hugged his mother tightly, savoring each second with her

Enock: Oh! Oh! Mommy! Guess what?!

Pomni: what is it Ennie?

Enock: No, You havta guess!

Pomni: You... um... You taught Bananer a new trick?

Enock: Noooooooooooo

Enock Swayed side to side, his eyes glistening with Happiness, Caine floated down to Enock's height, Hanging upside-down

Caine: Well what is it Son?

Enock: I Made a New friend today!! A real friend!! And I wanna him to you!!

Enock Grabbed his mom's arm and dragged to where The Boy was, But he was gone

Caine: Oh! Is this another one of your invisible friends!

Enock: Huh- Wuh- No, he was right here and... Um... Nevermind momma...

In The manor, Pomni was washing the dishes that was generated every evening, Enock was telling his mom about all things he did with his friend

Enock: -And than we walked through the Fishy tunnel thing, He really liked the Sharks! Especially the Big ones with Sharp teeth!

Pomni: Wow, its sounds like you had a alot fun today!

Enock: Yeah, he also says alot of funny things I don get...

Enock: Hey momma?

Pomni: Yes Enock?

Enock: Whats a NPC?

Pomni felt her body freeze

Enock: Mamma? Whats wrong?

Pomni: ...Where did you learn that word?

Enock: My Friend said it to Qwerty today, Whats wrong mommy?

Pomni: NOTHING! N-nothing is wrong! Why would anything be wrong?? Haha!! I- Uh- I need to go talk to your Father

Enock watched as his mother ran off down the halls, He could tell She was lying to him, he could always tell

END OF CHAPTER 4