#since it's apparently late 2000s anime night over here

[candidateofloyalty]

Haruhi comes out as agender and Tamaki goes "well fine, I will simply have to be the boyfriend and the girlfriend in this relationship." It still takes him several years to realize he's also not cis.

[1000sandwiches]

Tue, Feb 6, 2024

Lately I have become extremely nostalgic for the Web 1.0 era of the internet. It started with me looking at archived Usenet posts via Google Groups, but has turned into me spending hours on the Wayback Machine looking up sites I used to haunt back in the 90s and early 2000s. Stuff like The Gaming Intelligence Agency (which is still up somehow), Elfwood, Toriyama's World, or various rabbit holes from the Anime Web Turnpike. I really miss the days everyone had their own website (I had several if you're wondering. A Flame of Recca fan site, for example). I want to be one of the cool kids and join Neocities in hopes it'll give me a similar vibe, but I haven't done HTML in years and feel a bit intimidated by it. So for now maybe a Tumblr diary will do. So that's what this is, a rambling online diary like the kind I kept as a teenager. It seemed cheaper than therapy.

Rambling about being a new parent and venting about my in-laws below. It's not particularly interesting. Next time I'll just write about video games I'm playing, probably.

I became a dad in November 2023. My emotions and mental health have been sort of all over the place since the day we checked into the hospital. I had always wanted a family of my own, and my wife and I both felt we would regret not having at least one child. I have a lot of insecurities about being a first time father at my age. I'm 38 now, and I just keep thinking about how I'll be 43 when my son is 5, and worry I won't be able to keep up with him. But here we are.

My wife was induced and spent 30 hours in labor before the doctor finally gave us the option for a C-Section. She didn't even hesitate to say yes, honestly just relieved to get it over with. The operation went fine, but apparently I am a lightweight when it comes to gore. Seeing my partner's blood and guts all over the surgeons had my anxiety screaming. Also, no one will ever believe me, but during the surgery the anesthesiologist, Bob, was playing on his phone. All of a sudden an ad for homemade marinara started playing, and the whole room stopped to stare at him. Surgeons still covered in bloody bits. Bob just mumbled "bad timing" and turned the volume down. What an absolute legend. I love you, Bob!

The experience of holding our son for the first time was just as powerful as I had always heard. So many different feelings washed over me all at once. I'd never even held a baby before then. Seeing my son being held up against my significant other's head made me cry.

Unfortunately, I am a peon at a public library, and my wife works retail, so neither of us are great breadwinners. Oops. Sorry, baby! So now we have super fun medical bills while we also figure out a budget. Currently we are living with my in-laws. Having to adjust to both our newborn and their family routine has been a challenge for us both.

Some days are great. Others are hard. Especially in the first month, where some nights the baby would just scream his head off for hours. I knew I hated loud noises, but I never realized how triggering a baby's cry could be. I'm not suicidal, but I've spent several nights imagining a scenario where I'd jump into my car and driving off a cliff. This has gotten better recently as he now does fairly good job of sleeping through the night. It's a lot easier to be patient with his crying when we are not exhausted.

My wife had a few struggles with post-partum depression. The week after giving birth, her hormones were all over the place and she had frequent panic attacks. One morning she woke up, walked into the living room and saw our son, only to then throw up. She is over this now thankfully, and has put a lot of energy into figuring out how to be a mom. I'm very proud of her.

The In-laws are a huge help, but there are pros and cons to their assistance. There are times where my wife and I really need to learn how to deal with our son's tantrums by ourselves, but the grandparents will insist on taking him. I appreciate the help, but I worry about not being able to handle him myself. In fairness, I might struggle to get him down for an hour, but Grandma can get him to sleep on five minutes. It's like dark magic for grandparents, I swear.

I am also prone to feeling like a burden on the family. I notice a lot of little corrections. Stupid things like say I take some chips from the cupboard and I know I'll put them back in a moment. I might decide to leave the door open for a moment, but Grandma walks in and immediately shuts the cupboard. Other times I might leave a light on which Grandma turns off while I'm still using. I also feel like every interaction I have with my son is being judged. If he's crying and I set him down for a few minutes, someone feels the need to swoop in and take him from me. It's like leaving him be in his bassinet while he's awake his frowned upon.

My In-Laws also have a family culture where everyone hangs out in the living room together all day. This is completely new to me, and I'd rather be alone in my room most of the time. It doesn't help that they are a family that keeps their television on all day and I get very sick of hearing the news cycle repeat over and over. This recently had consequences when Grandpa came home from work sick, and apparently keeping the baby in another room, away from the sick guy, was never even considered.

As you might expect, our baby got sick. I was pissed. I just couldn't believe that I would come home from work to find grandpa coughing just a few feet away from him, and no one thought to keep them separated. Our son then passed his cold onto the rest of the household (not covid or flu, as several of us have tested negative).

So that brings us to now. A week after getting sick, I am still having issues with sinus drainage along with aches and pains. Our son is doing better, and you can't even tell my wife was ever sick. I'm very jealous. I should probably take a few moments to proof read all this, but I've already been typing on my phone for an hour and feel silly about posting this at all.

[captain-emmajones]

let the cat out of the bag

Set during the missing year and expands until somewhere during season 3 B.

Pirates don’t have pets. Hell, Captain Hook -- terror of the High Seas -- does not have pets. So what happens when a devilish black kitten jumps aboard the Jolly Roger once Hook has taken it back from Blackbeard?

I asked @carpedzem what she would like to read, and this is what she came up with. Hopefully it will make you, and others, happy! (Oh, and all mistakes are mine!)

Fluff - 2000 words - Ao3

Tagging some friends who might enjoy this: @itsfabianadocarmo @killiansprincss @thisonesatellite @ohmightydevviepuu @profdanglaisstuff @snowbellewells​ @elizabeethan​

Happy Sunday and happy reading!! 

At first, he believes they’re rats. He isn’t pleased about it.

“Mr Smee, I seem to recall I asked you to make sure there weren't any living creatures aboard this ship.”

He isn’t quite sure why, but Smee flushes a bright pink and starts stammering.

“...And I did, Captain, I did b-but --”

Killian Jones is a man of many things, but one of patience he isn’t.

“-- but what, Mr Smee? I don’t think it is that arduous to take care of such matters.” His words come out like sharp, drawn blades and threaten to slash his first mate’s round cheeks. “But if it is, I’ll make sure to ease you of this task.”

And he clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth for good measure.

“I -- I will do everything I can, Captain.”

A smirk. “Let’s just hope that is enough, Mr Smee.”

.

But the thing is, it doesn’t bloody stop. The vermin keeps pestering him.  

Hook wakes up to open doors, cannot stroll down the deck of the Jolly Roger without seeing a shadow run along with him, until, until --

“Now, what are you doing here?”

The troublemaker stands on top of his bed, on all fours, green eyes sparkling in the orange light of this late afternoon and seems quite ready to roar at his very face.

A petulant meow answers him.

.

“MISTER SMEE.”

He is furious, of course. Smee, however, thinks -- maybe, all things considered -- the plank isn’t so bad.

“I can explain every-everything, Captain…”

“I want none of your explanations, Mr Smee. I want you to get rid of this .”

A very indignant meow echoes on the ship.

“It must have gotten on the ship when we took it back from Blackbeard, Captain, and I hadn’t noticed for a while but then I could hardly throw him in the waters…”

A deep, guttural groan.

“As soon as we reach port, this thing is out of my ship. Have I made myself clear, Mr Smee?”

“A-abundantly clear, Captain.”

.

When he goes back to his cabin that night, stomach full and mind lulled by rhum, he doesn’t exactly expect to see the small nuisance lying comfortably on his bed, very much at ease indeed.

The thing is staring at him with its big, green eyes, and Hook frowns.

“Those are my quarters. Get out.”

Another impish meow answers him. If it could, Hook is convinced it would raise an eyebrow at him.

Another sigh of discontent. “I said get out of my bed. Now.” And as he stretches his hand to push the kitten out-of-the-way, it simply raises his head and meets its palm in approval.

Hook’s eyes widen. “Do you think I’m that easily charmed?” And as if to assert that yes, most absolutely, he is that easily charmed, the small cat purrs against his hand and licks his skin.

And Hook suddenly wonders why the hell he is letting this happen.

Clearing his throat, his hand closes over the small, black body and drops it onto the floor.

“There, and do not come to bother me anymore.”

A meow echoes in the night.

.

He wakes up to something fluffy tingling against his cheek and that alone rings an alarm in his head and causes his eyes to shoot open.

“What the hell…” but the end of his sentence dies as the small vermin stares at him, and seems to s m i l e  at him.

Hook groans. “Get out of here,” he mumbles, and pushes the kitten to the side.

And he does not want to ponder over how gently he actually urged the cat to disappear nor does he want to think about the little, warm bubble swelling comfortably inside his chest (next to the big bubble of annoyance, of course).

.

The cat has been on the ship with them for two weeks when they finally reach port and can get rid of him. In the meantime, he has settled his quarters in Hook’s room.

“I see the kitten is quite fond of you, Captain?”

“Do you want to find out if the bloody plank is fond of you, Mr Smee?”

“N-no, of course, Captain, no.”

To prevent him from sleeping in his bed, Hook settled an old bed cover in the farthest corner of his room -- since the bloody thing won’t be kept out of it anyway.

“There, and don’t you move, you devil.”

He starts to call it that , in his head, the kitten: devil. It suits him well. And it makes it sound more pirate-worthy than kitten anyway.

He doesn’t utter the words aloud. Would rather walk the bloody plank himself. Pirates don’t have pets.

“Since I can’t trust you to take care of vermines on this ship, I’ll get rid of the bloody thing myself.”

And as his crew pillages and plunders a nearby village, Hook ventures out of his ship, the little devil gesticulating down in his satchel.

He isn’t even jealous of the lost opportunity. He hasn’t felt like pillaging and plundering in a while, now. Not since he left Storybrooke, not since the red-headed mermaid visited him and he --

Hook sighs and sits down, near the port, on a bench. His legs feel heavy as stone. He takes out of his satchel his flask of rum, and the little devil, and puts both of them down next to him.

“Don’t move,” he hisses but the small thing instead decides to stretch at his leisure in front of his nose.

“You’re one for mutiny, aren’t you?”

A cheerful meow answers him. And Hook’s lips curve up, just the slightest bit, before he catches himself and frowns furiously.

“I’m going to leave you here, you understand that?”

But the bloody thing apparently cares little for his words, and proceeds instead to climb up his lap and settles himself comfortably against Hook’s stomach.

It is his stomach’s turn to do a weird leaping thing then, as he squares his jaws and bites the interior of his mouth.

There’s been so much loss, hasn’t it? Perhaps he is allowed a little company. Perhaps the journey doesn’t have to be this hard, perhaps he does not have to suffer until the ends of time.

“You don’t want to leave me, do you?”

Other, human, green eyes linger behind Killian’s eyelids, savagely tear his heart apart, because she left.

A meow echoes in the night, and Hook’s fingers reluctantly find the warm, black fur and sieve through it.

“You are one bloody hell of a devil, you know that?”

.

Pirates may not have pets, but lonely souls do need company, don’t they?

When Hook strides back to the ship that night, and frees the small thing on the lower deck, Smee, at least, has the decency of keeping his mouth shut.

“Make one comment, Mr Smee, and you walk the bloody plank.”

“Y-yes, Captain.”

.

Sharing his quarters has a lot of cons, if you’d ask Hook.

Such as cleaning his clothes of the devil’s hair, or making sure the small thing has enough to eat and drink, or waking up to it stretched across his bloody face.

But mostly, Hook does think the company is enjoyable. His partner does not speak, purrs at best, and seems to have some supernatural inkling for knowing when his Captain is feeling a bit...aloof, to put it like that.

Hook’s convinced the bloody thing is actually magic, but that he won’t ever tell no living soul.

.

When he gives up the Jolly Roger, Hook finds two green eyes staring at him.

“I cannot take you with me to Emma, you understand? I don’t even know if animals survive portals.”

A meow answers him, and for the first time Hook thinks it is full of grief.

Something stings, in Hook’s chest, as he waves goodbye to his crew and drops the cat into Smee’s arms.

“I’ll take care of him, Captain.”

“I know you will.”

And when Hook turns back, walks away, he ignores as well as he can this strange, new kind of itching rattling his insides.

.

Back in Storybrooke, Hook figures just to what extent Mr Smee is not a man for subtlety.

He basically throws the damn demon into his arms, on the docks, where everyone can bloody see them.

“What the hell are you doing, Mr Smee?”

Hook does not acknowledge the joy that swirls around his legs as the small thing purrs against him.

“Giving you back what is yours. I can’t take it any longer, he is insufferable.”

And Hook is ready to attack right back, as the demon nibbles his fingers with a cheerful fervor, but then the worst happens.

Emma.

Emma is striding towards him, with Henry, and he has a bloody kitten in his arms.

“Didn’t know you were one to have pets…” she attacks right then, Smee long gone, and the small devil very much settled in the crook of his arm.

Hook gulps down, almost frozen. Later, he’ll wonder why he did not put him down. That would have saved him some embarrassment.

“It’s not what you think, Swan.”

“Isn’t it?” she smirks, and then -- because things can always get worse -- she bends down towards the little devil and scratches between his ears.

But then she is smiling that very rare smile and Hook starts to think perhaps the little devil isn’t such a nuisance anymore.

“What’s his name?” she asks, and the things purrs , goddamn purrs under her touch, and Hook feels utterly betrayed.

“It doesn’t have a name,” he echoes right back, mock-indignant.

She raises her eyes towards him, quirks one eyebrow. It has a terrible effect on Hook’s heart rate.

“Come on, don’t lie. All pets have names.”

“No. Not this one. Actually, it’s not a pet.”

“Oh yeah, then what is it?”

The devil purrs.

“It's merely an animal that got lost on my ship during the missing year, is all.”

Emma’s smirking, again. And Hook isn’t blushing.

“Let's call you Sparrow, then.”

Something revolts inside Hook. It isn’t his name.

“Sparrow? And why the bloody hell is that?”

“Because Captain Jack Sparrow” echoes Henry on reaching them, giving up his video game to devote his attention to the small cat.

Bloody hell.

.

As things turn out, Emma never lets him live it down and everyone in Storybrooke knows Captain Hook’s cat, Sparrow, lives with him at Granny’s.

“I have a no-pet-policy, Hook, but for your pretty eyes I’ll make an exception.”

Hook swallows down a list of elaborate insults and plasters a smile on his face. “Why, thank you, Granny.”

One night, however, the bloody thing isn’t to be found in his room and Captain Hook does not worry about cats but he does stare out his window impatiently, trying to get a glimpse of a black furry tail -- not that he’d admit it.

But then something quite unlikely happens. Someone knocks on the door while he’s showering.

A towel around his hips, Hook opens to find Emma Swan in her pajamas, Sparrow comfortable between her arms.

If Hook’s heart skips multiple beats, it does please him to see Emma’s eyes widen and her cheeks flush as she takes in his state of undress.

“I’m-- I’m…” she begins, has a very hard time coming up with words, it seems, and then exhales sharply: “I found your cat in my room. Under my bed. Which is why it took me so long to find him, actually.”

Hook smirks. “That’s a plausible excuse for visiting me at night, Swan, but next time don’t stand on ceremony.”

She turns even redder, if that is possible, and that sight alone is priceless.

“Right,” she begins, smiling, “There you go.” And she gently drops the little devil between his arms, her touch sending electric trails all over his skin.

Hook gulps down as he notices how close they’ve gotten and he is tempted to bend down but that would be too much, wouldn’t it?

Instead he smiles, swallows down, and watches as she gazes back and forth between his eyes and his lips.

“Thank you, Swan,” he finally exhales and he watches as she seems to come to her senses, bites her lips and backs away.

“No problem. ‘Night, Hook.”

“Goodnight, Emma.”

When he closes the door behind him, Sparrow is standing on his bed, green eyes open.

“I’ll admit that was quite a good idea, thank you mate.”

A meow of contentment answers him, as if to say: but you are most welcome.

[awhilesince]

Monday, 2 August 1830 (travel journals)

5 25/..

11 1/4

ready in 3 /4 hour – saw them all off at 6 20/.. – then went to the barracks near an hour there 88 in 1 stable 28 young in another – fed every 2 hours – ordinary allowance per day 8 lbs. [pounds] avoine 12 fourrage 15 straw (paille) besides sonde (mashes)? at noon – 1 very strong large norman (gray) 3000/. others 1500/. to 2000/. price – all stalons – some as colts bought at 400/. from 15 to 50 mares allowed them per annum – several crosses between this Country breed and barbes – some English horses – the man said they got thicker in the neck by the climate 8 of the horses aux caux – some sent every year – one a very fine gray sent because he coughed a little and they were afraid of his wind – some Turkish horses some de Limoges and some Norman, and some pure breed of the Pyrennees Gray or dark bay pretty little clean legged animals 1 man to 4 horses – all apparently very gentle all done by kindness – the manège not so fine as I expected –

drizzling rain from 6 25/.. – thick no view – back at 7 1/2 wished to be off in an hour – no horses till 2 – breakfast – went to my banker – all business at a stand – choice whether to take 25/. or not – yes! for £50 circular –

appalling news from Paris paid the bill here for us all – always give 6/. to the servants find Jean gives 2/50 more for the servants – so it seems we give altogether 8/50.! Sat writing journal and to my aunt till 2 –

off at 2 6/.. – Tarbes really a nice little town – 3 churches – the cathedral a small poorish concern, nor much of transepts near side aisles at all – the church I was in this morning (St. Anne’s) a poor little place, but almost as good as the cathedral – the steeple that seems to have belonged to a tolerably good church is merely part of what is left and now filled with forage for the cavallery – neat barracks (saw them this morning) built for them very lately – I have been more comfortable at Tarbes than anywhere – have nowhere had so good a room –

drizzling rain Till from 6 25/.. to after 12 – then began to clear a little and on leaving Tarbes fair and streets dry and atmosphere clear enough to leave the mountains pretty distinct – quite a farce to compare them with the alps – Tarbes seems placed at the foot of a wide Extended circular gently rising rich fertile plain stretching out obliquely on the right into a sort of isthmus or neck

the high pyrennees sweeping about 1/5 of the circle left Towards the front – and below them a low range of hill extending all round to the neck closed in by a low range quite in the distance the low range in front covered with wood – the other parts yellow with corn stubble (harvest everywhere since before Bordeaux got in) or ploughed land; or wooded or green under vine cultivation – the lands here seem no where more than 4 feet English at most – look like filons, threads – great deal of bled de Turquie – just out of Tarbes pass thro’ orchards of peach trees oppressed with vines –

Fahrenheit 74° at 2 40/.. and quite cool and pleasant – the dust just agreeably laid – the church of Ibos high squary mass (left) a fine object – 1 small tower – the houses of the town not seen till one mounts the hill – and seems a large one had been taken down as low as the roof of the nave –

at 2 began to feel a little indigestion pain and now at 2 3/4 feel it more was it the mutton last night – I never by any chance touch meat without feeling it, and have it not when I stick to my vegetables! –

as we reach the wooded range of hill 3 traverses up it, get out – walk to the top of the hill and 1/2 way over the ridge in 20 minutes and got a good heating in spite of the fine cool hair for the man urged his horses up as fast as he could without stopping and it was hardish work to get much before him –

mountain side wooded chesnuts – near the top heather – top brackens which completely subdue the heather and merely a bit here and there to be seen thro’ it – a few black sheep (hill and heather always make good mutton) and a few horses, i.e. mares and foals – a little scattered generally straw thatched? village – small enclosures – hedges full of thorn and sloe and wild roses hedge row trees – chiefly oak – a few chesnuts gravelled road – fine oaks each side the road and straw thatched and some blue slated neat farm houses here and there vines, a few peaches and much maize –

picturesque straw thatched cottages – women with their red capulets bound with black spinning with a distaff under their arm and the bobbin Twirling against their aprons – beautifully green pastures – fine chesnut Timber as well as oak, hiding the picturesque cottages –

how I enjoy this – I might be – could fancy myself in England save for the capulets, and odd little low narrow waggons and bells and clumsy gear of my 3 abreast carriage horses –

another village – fête here too and dancing to a fiddle and clarionet – peaches and nectarines in the hedges – have no where seen hedge cut and laid – always or buckheaded rather short or clipped – great many pollard oaks, particularly in hedge rows – these pollard oaks form capital hedges for shelter – wherever not cultivated the top of this ridge covered with bracken, and right look up pretty little valley – mountain-top valley evidently small green enclosures by hedges –

road mended with pretty well broken boulder of mountain (primitive?) limestone – dark coloured, veined with quartz? have only seen one patch of oats – standing and another in swathe nothing but maize and a few potatoes –

at 3 55/.. neat white washed hotel des voyageurs a few little accacias and platannes round it and shearing (a man and woman) a good plot of oats – a man and woman courting by the roadside he putting his hand into her right pocket hole and another pair walk amorously set me wrong between three and four which ended in incurring cross about four

about 1/4 hour on the top of the hill and at 1 1/4 very fine view descend into the beautifully wooded rich charming vale of Pau? sprinkled in all directions with towns villages and pretty thatched white washed cottages and farms – water would make it lovely quite – ‘route bordée et ombragée de bois touffus (pollard oaks) – de chênes and châtaigniers all along – the at 1st thro’ a forest and very beautiful Itineraire Midi page 70 says ‘ou est Toujours dans les riches et fertiles plaines de Tarbes’ – these ‘bois touffus’ pollard oaks are really beautifully and thickly umbrageous – should not have dreamt they could look so well – pollard from a thick trunk perhaps 10 feet high from the ground – small enclosures – pretty low hedges – small dun cows picturesque straw thatched or blue slated white washed cottages – charming (very small dun oxen dragged the little waggons and carts on the Top, the plateaus of the hill – pigs lying and feeding under the oaks –

at 4 29/.. good post house in the very picturesque scattered one long street (trees and gardens between the neat houses) village of Les Bordes-d’Expoey red-dun cows with bells and regular dun mare with one young mule and a brown mare with ditto – green champs Elysée of oaks at this end of the village under which herds pigs lying and feeding – Lombardy poplars – Charming the women here with white bound with black capulets and black aprons and spinning as they walk – lock under the left arm and spinning with left hand and twirling the spindle with right hand – said George 10 sols de payé – oui – said the postillion ce quelque chosée pagata –

off in 8 minutes – all the walling done with boulder stones in a cement chiefly blue slated cottages – vines creeping high in the trees – wood côteau – low line of hills right – higher range wooded at bottom heather at top (right) – groves, as it were of pollard oaks – why pollard? postillion from here whip slung round his shoulder with a large worsted tassel as the german postillions sling their bugle horn – the men wear Ayrshire caps – white with red tassel at the top – or one postillion as have observed before wellington blue without tassel –

I enjoy today’s drive exceedingly –

Long straight road before me from Bordes d’Expoey the hedge row trees generally pollard oaks forming sort of avenue all along – all the women spinning but have only once seen some women heckling short line – woman astride white black bound capulet and white handkerchief and blue coarse linen? small white spotted gown with her long petticoats covering even her toes – I think she had her knees much stuck forming a hump on each side not ungraceful under the petticoat and certainly not looking masculine –

so many people afloat on the road near all the villages must be a general fête? – quite in the basses Pyrenées now – left the high pyrennees on descending the hill into the beautiful valley of Bordes d’Expouey or does mist hide everything (left)? at a little distance (right) a low nicely wooded fertile range which wheels round towards the front of me but soon wears itself out –

a great many of the country waggons on the road – most of them drawn by 2 little dun oxen and 2 little horses wrapped up in linen sheets white first the leaders – the road all along quite gay and in places thronged with waggons and people –

the women that ride have their petticoat slit open fore and aft I see and thus it so covers gracefully will covers the whole leg and foot – get prints of all this and the waggons at Pau – pass malle poste at 5 3/4 – strange to find common sense only among the Pyrennees – where else do the women ride astride! where else do they not torture their horses and themselves by a position equally dangerous to the one leg unnatural and uncomfortable to both? –

at 5 3/4 a little drizzling rain begins – Fahrenheit still 73° – all alive in Pau a fair or fête or what? a fair? enter by long small boulder stone paved street (paved or boulder-stoned as at Tarbes) – desperate to walk on in thin shoes – a sort of gateway (2 posts) spacious street – of splashed dirty white good 3 story houses – full of people carts and business –

at Hotel de France Pau at 6 – heard all the news from Lady Stuart – dinner wrote to my aunt not directed at 7 1/2 – came to my room at 10 20/.. – Fahrenheit 74° at 11

left margin:

Fahrenheit 73° at 4 1/4 p.m.

reference number: SH:7/ML/TR/5/0027 - 0031

[morrigansmuses]

3 Golden Rules.

On Ethical disappointments. 

I was raised to be tolerant. To consider the views and opinions of others, to keep and open mind. I was a social outsider (homeschooled due to racism in the local school.) I vowed I wouldn’t ever exclude people for being different to me or having different values. I was desperate to make and keep friends. More than anything.

I was 15 in the late 1990s. Lonely as hell. I decided that I would befriend absolutely anyone who would have me. Essentially anyone who wouldn’t beat me up on sight for being foreign.

I decided that I had 3 and only 3 dealbreakers in terms of friendship.

RULE 1. They couldn’t be cruel to animals.

RULE 2. They coudn’t sexually abuse children.

RULE 3 They couldn’t be a card carrying Nazi.

If anyone in my life did any of those things I couldn’t associate with them anymore. But barring that I would try to accept them as individuals. 

Thats a pretty low bar right? I mean how could anyone fail to meet those insanely low standards?

See back then I didn’t know that shades of grey existed. I knew in theory that we were all imperfect beings, but I didn’t know what that meant yet in reality.

So I began to make friends. With normal kids. Actually probably nicer than average kids because they were sweet and sensitive enough to accept me for who I was when no one else would.

So the first hurdle I came across was that some of these people I was friends with enjoyed hunting. They would say for meat. I get that. Better than factory farming right? less cruel, less wasteful.

“You shouldn’t eat meat unless you’re willing to kill it yourself” They’d say virtuously.  

But then I saw them in action. Delighting in the act of killing in a way that I knew wasn’t healthy. Laughing at the kid goat’s head bursting in a shower of gore or the way an animal screamed upon being shot. Killing more than they needed… That’s an impulse I don’t believe humans should engender in themselves.

But it was for food. Right? So I overlooked it and silenced the voice in my heart.

One day my best friend shot a stray cat with his bb gun just for the laugh. It didn’t kill the cat or anything but the animal yelped and ran away. I was so upset and shocked that I burst into tears and it all came pouring out. Was he training himself to become a sociopath? I asked him.

He apologised. He never did anything like it again. He was very kind to animals, especially cats, ever since and doesn’t hunt them anymore for any reason.

I forgave.

That’s the first time I remember compromising a core value. It was like a tooth being pulled from my 15 year old head. 

I don’t regret it.

We’re still best friends. 

The second hurdle that started to crack my young heart was the undeniable fact that in the early 2000s almost every guy I knew in his early 20s had a girlfriend between that ages of 12 and 15. NEVER OLDER. I can’t stress this enough. They would vomit in disgust at the thought of a crone of 18 or 19. They were also VERY vocal about their desire and right to have sex with children after a few drinks. By the time I was 20 I knew I had aged out of the 20s dating pool. I wasn’t attracted to older men. 

No matter. I’m asexual and prefer platonic relationships anyway.

To this day I’ve never had a romantic relationship with a man. Because once I realised that Rule 2 wasn’t one any of them could keep, the trust was broken.

It wasn’t only men either. My closest girlfriend was a 26 year old substitute teacher who fucked one of her 15 year old students on a drunk night out once…

So they both had fun and boys that age are up for anything right? I mean. He probably still boasts about it today…

Right?

Plus… She was all I had. Like the only one I had at the time. I was so scared of losing her.

I turned a blind eye and ear. I tolerated. I didn’t have to approve of their teenage girlfriends did I? After all there were so many of them that if I cut them out of my life I’d have no friends ever again. Because the whole of society looked like them…

Thats the truth.

People in my extended family have dated 17 or 18 year old girls and encouraged them to drop out of school to have their children. People I love have done that.

I once knew a handsome, intelligent and charming man. He was dating a family member for a few months. He often defended the right of adult men to date teens. “Girls mature more quickly than boys.” He’d argue. Everyone would agree. After all hadn’t my great grandmother been 12 years old when she met my great grandfather and married him on her 16th birthday (with parental permission)? He was in his 20s. Just a boy himself surely? “We all know what children boys in their 20s are right?” Said my Mother… Whom I love very much.

Excuses were made.

Years later I discovered the the handsome, intelligent and charming man had been raping a 6 year old the entire time we’d known him. He is still wanted by the police today.

My father tells that when he was a boy of 18 back in the 70s he had kicked an older German man, a respected family friend, out of his car because the man had asked him to pull over, he had something important to tell him. When he did so, the man said that the Holocaust was a myth. An exaggeration, a Zionist hoax.

My Father was dating my mother at the time. She’s Jewish. So is his uncle, a Holocaust survivor.

He yelled at the man not to talk shit and made him walk home.

I am not my father.

The first time a Holocaust denier (a respected local businessman) voiced their opinion to me I froze. Then laughed. Surely he must be kidding... I argued briefly before realising that he’d made up his mind.

My well meaning people said I’d made a mistake. It was my job, they said, to change his mind. To educate him. Otherwise how would he learn?

I didn’t speak to him again but I still nod at him in the street because he employs a few of my friends and I wouldn’t want to make things awkward for them.

And also I don’t want him to yell at me. 

I have worked with Holocaust survivors and have survivors in my immediate family and I still nod in the street at a Holocaust Denier because we are raised to be polite aren’t we? Let’s not make a scene. 

We’re mature adults.

Aren’t we?

People are starting to turn weirder than they used to be. Politically.

My Leftist friends are in a secret facebook group... Strenuously defending China’s Uyghur genocide because Communism can do no wrong… And at the same time saying all the Israelis need to be killed for what they’ve done to the Palestinians. One suggests a biological weapon tailored to Jews.

My Centrist friends are suggesting we “Hang up democracy for a while” in order to combat global warming and welcome a global police state and stop “kicking off” about our rights all the time. “Maybe we need a jackboot up the arse” one of them says.

And the ones that aren’t on the Left?

My facebook feed these days is getting awfully full of Rothschild memes.

“We own every bank in the world and funded both sides of every war since Waterloo.” They say, next to a grinning caricature of Jacob de Rothschild. Reminiscent of a Nazi cartoon of a “Rat Jew.”

Even a hedge fund billionaire prick doesn’t deserve that, does he?

I don’t comment. What’s the point? They’ve watched all the youtube and don’t read history books on principal.

My Brother is getting into Qanon. So is my Sister in Law.

She follows the medical teachings of a man who thinks the Jews invented Chemotherapy to kill the Germans after the war. Apparently he is becoming more and more popular.

Eccentrics.

Thats all.

I’m half Jewish. Like My Brother.

One of the Survivors I know said that 3 weeks after the Nazi propaganda came into the school he attended, he was in Bergen Belsen and half his family was dead.

His neighbour was jealous because his father had 2 more cows than he did.

I hear Marine Le Pen is neck and neck with Macron to win France.

A good friend of mine said it's because by 2030 Muslims will outnumber white people in Europe. He won’t read the articles I send him. But he sure sends me a lot of YouTubes.

I ignore them because I don’t want to hate him. Maybe he ignores my articles for the same reason.

Hey 15 year old me…. You, skinny thing with the ethics, the braces and black eyeliner…

Those compromises I made were made out of love... And also fear. 

Please stop looking at me like that little girl.

“It’s true” writes my friend. They’re trying to breed us out. It’s all an elite Zionist plot.”

I close Whatsapp.

Here I go again I guess…

[thetravelerwrites]

The Freeloader (SFW)

The third place prize for my 2000 follower giveaway is finally here! For @shekissesturians​, a woman with a sheep ranch encounters a creature who wants to take advantage of the "free room and board." Please reblog and leave feedback!

The Traveler's Masterlist

It was the panpipes that tipped you off.

You owned a sheep farm on the outskirts of a small town. You supplied the local craft shop with wool for spinning and stuffing and felting, doing much of the work by yourself. You had roughly ten sheep or so in various colors; more than that and you would have had to hire on a farmhand, and you didn’t think you could afford that.

It was shearing season, and you had Maxine in your lap, shearing the last little bit near her neck, when you heard the sound of pipes playing. You looked up with a start, shooing Maxine off you and throwing the tarp over the wool so that the wind didn’t blow any of it away. Maxine scuttled off to join the flock, and you noticed a fluffy white butt behind the apple tree.

Weird. You’d thought you’d sheared all your fluffy butts. You counted and, sure enough, there were eleven butts, ten sheared ones and one still-fluffy one at the far end of the pasture. Confused, you got up and walked out to see this new fellow.

“Hey, you,” You called. “How did you get over the fence? What are you doing in here, eh?”

The pipe music stopped. “The apples,” A voice replied, smooth and deep. “They’re delicious. I couldn’t help myself. And who could say no to dinner and a song?”

The voice made you stop in your tracks. “Who are you? Come out here! You’re trespassing.”

The butt emerged, attached to the upper body of a young man, handsome and smiling. His body and hair was as white as the wool on his legs, and his eyes were a piercing blue. The top of his curling brown horns just reached the middle of your chest.

“Well, hello,” He said, taking on a sultry tone, looking you up and down. “I didn’t realize the owner of this bed and breakfast was so attractive.”

“This isn’t a bed and breakfast!” You replied, a little annoyed.

“Isn’t it?” He waved a hand at the sheep.

“This is a farm,” You retorted, your hands on your hips. “And you’re not an animal. So get out of here.”

“Actually, I... um…”  He suddenly sounded a little embarrassed. “I could use some help.”

“What do you mean?” You asked.

“Well…” He turned and showed you the left side of his rump, which he had been hiding, and revealed that the wool on that side was covered in thick, goopy black paint. “It won’t wash out. I’ve tried. I saw you shearing the sheep when I was walking down the road and thought you might give me a hand.”

“Oh,” You said, your tone changing. “Yeah, of course. Come with me toward the house, I’ll get the shears.”

“Many thanks,” He said. “My name is Calixtus, but my friends call me Cal.”

“So, which should I call you, then?”

“That’s totally up to you, darling,” He said, a smirk in his voice.

“Hey now,” You said sternly. “I’m just doing you a favor. Don’t get comfortable.”

“Anything you say,” He said.

Back at the house, you asked him to step up onto the shearing platform you’d built to be easier on your back, and he obliged.

“Do you want me to just get the paint out, or a full shear?” You asked him.

“Hmm…” He hummed, thinking. “I haven’t been nude since I was a babe. How about full service?” He grinned.

You made a sour face at him that said you were rather unimpressed with his antics. “Just stand still.”

“Watch the bits, lass,” He said, chuckling.

You rolled your eyes and got to work, starting at his waist, were the wool began to sprout from his smooth skin, and sheared down in gentle streaks.

“How did this happen, anyway?” You asked him. “This is a lot of paint.”

“Wooed the wrong lady,” He replied jovially. “Wasn’t fond of satyrs, apparently. It happens from time to time. Though I think this was a little uncalled for.”

You snorted. “I doubt that.”

“Come now, you barely know me,” He said, feigning offense.

“Yeah, and in the twenty minutes I’ve known you, you’ve hit on me at least six times.”

“Only six?” He chuckled. “I’m slipping.”

You scoff. “You know, guys like you are why satyrs have a bad reputation.”

“I do have redeeming qualities,” He said.

“Like what?”

“You need those sheep in their pen for the night, eh?”

“Well, yeah,” You said, confused.

He turned his upper half and whistled sharply. “Fall in, lads!” He shouted. To your immense surprise, all of the sheep formed a line in the yard.

“To bed, then!”

One by one, the sheep walked into the pen, no muss, no fuss. Cal raised his arm and made a motion with his fingers, and the gate of the pen closed and latched itself. He turned back to you with a smug look on his face.

Your jaw dropped and your head rocked back. “I’m not going to lie, that was really impressive.”

“See? I’m useful. I’m a really good cook, too. Let me make you dinner, to thank you for taking pity on this poor stranger.”

You narrowed your eyes at him, and he smiled back innocently, showing all of his pearly teeth.

“Fine,” You said. “But you be on your best behavior, you got me?”

“I’ll be as pure as fallen snow,” He assured you, his hands up in assent. “I’ll only make passes at you during dessert.”

You shook your head and led him inside.

After telling you he did feel rather naked without his wool, you found a skirt for him to wear that both covered him and complimented his skin--he was rather partial to the floral print--he made you a sumptuous dinner. When he wasn’t trying to hit on you, he was actually a sparkling conversationalist and had a lot of interesting stories. Despite yourself, you found him rather engaging and even rather attractive.

Now you were wondering if he might like to stay the night, being as late as it was. So much for not being a bed and breakfast. Maybe it could be a home instead.

Since my work is no longer searchable, please do me a favor and reblog this story if you enjoyed it. Help me reach a wider audience! To help me continue creating, please consider buying me a Kofi, becoming a Patron, or donating directly to my PayPal!

Thanks for reading!

My Masterlist

The Exophilia Creator’s Masterlist

[yue-muffin]

Time Raiders (2016)

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3

In my quest to consume the entirety of the DMBJ franchise available in English, I have decided to start with the non-canon movie because at least this one has an ending, unlike the train wreck that is Reboot/Chongqi’s pacing. I will probably be bitter about that for all eternity, but I digress. I heard good things about the movie from the bird app, and as I am a Pingxie shipper at heart, I decided to finally watch this one.

P A R T O N E

The cut-in animation to the title was gorgeous, I do so love the qilin in every adaptation. It’s particularly striking here with the gold outline and geometric, maze-like lines. It looks like the cards at the very beginning were being arranged in the image of this qilin.

My first reaction upon seeing white people in a dmbj adaptation is: oh no, the English, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear perfect English that matches the actor’s lips! What a miracle, haha. I remember The Lost Tomb 2 being the worst for how many lines had to be in English, sob.

These look so cool. I see we start off with a good old “seeking immortality” antagonist, and an obsessed collector who has dedicated his whole life to this apparently. As usual, he is a scumbag threatening the locals.

The old guy’s accented English is also better than TLT2, ha. The breathy/nasal quality is not at all uncommon. I don’t know what language the locals speak though.

Me, immediately: Zhang Qiling already??

I know he appears in rather early in TLT1, TLT2, and Reboot/Chongqi, but he’s so often mysteriously absent or stuck behind a gate (or in Reboot’s case, put on a bus) that I got excited, ok.

My favorite Zhang Qilings are the cold-looking pretty boy types in terms of my mental image of the character, but this one is also very easy on the eyes and as usual, unfazed in the face of danger coming at him with a knife. This is the only series in which I’m not bothered by the constant cast change between adaptations (unlike Ever Night), I suppose since it’s been this way from the start.

I’m interested in seeing how the backstories differ from canon. It’s actually rather interesting that this is pretty much an official AU, like that’s kind of wild as a concept. I’m used to the late 1990s/early 2000s anime adding new characters and changing plot points and endings everywhere, but Time Raiders takes it a step further.

Zhang Qiling being an ultra-competent badass who doesn’t even need a weapon to take the bad guys down never changes, no matter the universe. He steamrolls everyone, no questions asked.

Did he- he break the blade with his bare hands hahaha. Oh, yup, and a Zhang Qiling with a weapon is even more dangerous. I see those severed fingers. Such a good fight scene and we’re not even 5 minutes into the movie.

I love how he could have simply fired the arrow while he was still on the statue, then jumped down, but he had to be Extra and fire while he was jumping off haha.

It- the divine piece was right there?? By “beneath the statue” I would have thought it would at least be under it, not in a convenient little slot on the side of the altar area haha. So Zhang Qiling’s mission is to destroy the divine piece(s)? To, um, save the world apparently.

WHO ARE YOU? What an excellent question to ask a Zhang Qiling (and that staring into the mirror shot, too.)… I wonder if this one even knows - it’s possible he doesn’t have his signature amnesia here.

Wait- a gate? I think it’s in a cave or something in the novels, but gates have significance in DMBJ. The cinematography is really nice in these mountain shots. I know nothing about film, but I like the shots in the snowy mountains.

This Zhang Qiling knows and practices martial arts on screen! You would think he’d pull some moves normally, but in the drama-adaptations he tends to just beat people up as efficiently as possible. Sometimes with his sword. Other times he just fights ‘em. I have to admit Jing Boran looks excellent going through some forms. He nailed the force and power underlying every movement, then exploding outward with a strike. I do like the impression it leaves.

I, on the other hand, am an absolute noodle and look ridiculous when I do martial arts.

What in the world is happening in this flashback scene with the weird CGI qilin. Ah, it’s when he received his tattoo. That was super dramatic.

Wushanju is looking real edgy with the heavy iron gate on the interior, haha.

He is puzzling (ha!) over those cards so intensely you’d think it was a thousand piece puzzle instead haha. You’re almost there! Just a few more to finish the qilin!

Aw, is this our Wu Xie? Haha his facial hair is- hm. But I love his voice it’s so soft. Really fits that “Mr. Naive” vibe.

Is that. Is that the author of the series. I found out that he makes cameos in almost all (if not all of) the adaptations!

NO. ONLY I CAN FINISH THE PUZZLE. HANDS OFF BUDDY.

Why are there so many pigeons in here. Who let them inside.

A writer, who came to hear his story and turn it into a novel- HA yup it’s the author.

“This should be a story about me and him.”

Ahh I’m loving it already. DMBJ is the ultimate bromance story. Fair warning, I do ship Pingxie so my shipper goggles will be on throughout the movie. But even without shipping, you do have to admit the series is a bromance underneath all the mystery – between the Iron Triangle, between Wu Xie and Xiaoge.

This Wu Xie is a photographer and that is sort of adorable. Already there’s a theme emerging of needing to record events and telling stories. Interesting that he wants to turn his memories into a novel to record his experiences, because otherwise he’s afraid those memories might turn into a mere story in his own head. Wu Xie, that’s a worrying mindset.

Those ancient mask things always make me crack up, I don’t know why.

Ooh, background about Wu Xie’s birth into the Wu family. I’ve never read up to the part in the books where they go into his place in the family in detail. To be fair, his grandfather had three sons and only one of them had any kids – and Wu Xie is his parents’ only child. So, he becomes the only one who can really carry on the family legacy. Aw, I really like seeing his extended family present though! In the dramas we only ever get either his Second or Third Uncle, and he rarely ever mentions his parents even though they’re alive.

And there’s his namesake! The origin of his nickname, and the irony once the story gets into the Sha Hai timeline.

Wu Xie was a bit of a rascal as a kid, haha. To be fair he has a pretty sharp tongue in the novels and is mostly a pure cinnamon roll in the early dramas.

Little Wu Xie in a suit is so adorable. Nooo kid don’t go into locked up abandoned places. He’s already so adventurous haha. Seems that it’s not actually abandoned judging by all the lights on, but.

UH. MASKED MAN BEHIND YOU. I think he wants that item back. This is why you don’t go into abandoned places, kid. He definitely does not learn his lesson though. Also why are you still holding onto that thing, just drop it, I think he wants it back.

Haha he kept one of the coins.

WOAH. Every month someone in your family dies?? That’s uh- sort of traumatic. Also that would be a really good first line for a novel…Just saying. I do love the singing though.

Oh, the Nine Families exist in this universe too! They even give a quick explanation about the ranking system.

Oh yeah, I love how Wu Xie is such a nerd for all this knowledge of ancient texts and tombs. And YES HE FINALLY DOCUMENTS STUFF FOR ONCE.

Uncle Three looked dead for a moment there, scared the shit out of me too.

VAMPIRE MOTHS? Oh I hate bugs I would not be okay lol. WHOOPS. You guys are really good at reading ancient texts on the fly lol.

That’s the mask he has in the beginning of the film, isn’t it. NO DON’T TOUCH THINGS IN TOMBS. AHHH. So you just put it on your face?? Well that was a stupidly simple way to open the door. I’m guessing the creator didn’t care if anyone opened it.

This guy just severed his own arm, ok…and how many years later is his hand still clinging to it? UH. THIS IS WHY YOU DON’T TOUCH THINGS IN TOMBS. Then he proceeds to steal the box thing.

Ah the white dude again. I am so happy there is GOOD ENGLISH though haha.

Oh, hi Zhang Qiling. Just hanging out on a rooftop I see.

He looks so melancholy. Someone give him a hug! This adaptation makes him more human, less stoic robotic superhuman, I noticed. You rarely see him eat or drink anything in the other adaptations, but here he’s just chilling on a rooftop having some drinks haha. It’s ok. I love all the Zhang Qilings.

WHAT THE HELL, LIGHTNING? What the hell is this high tech machinery haha. Eight days? Coincidentally eight days after sitting in a tomb for how many years.

That is a very Extra bookcase to hold a book that apparently has ALL the secrets.

WOW that is a fancy notebook. It looks so beat up in the other versions haha. In this one, it even gets its own hidden shelf in a giant portable bookshelf!

The props for this franchise are so cool and detailed. I always wish they would show more of the creative process in the BTS, I’m such a nerd for that stuff. The Longest Day in Chang’an was pretty good at that, which is half of my enjoyment of that show haha!

I’m also still pleasantly surprised they bothered to incorporate other languages. I’m not sure what the Snake Lady and the old man in the beginning were speaking, but at least the English is good.

I can’t believe they worked in a steampunk chastity belt this movie went all out, huh. Also with these weirdly high tech structures and lightning and moving tomb structures.

And all the pieces start coming together! So that’s why it’s believed they hold the secret to immortality. What a steampunk-looking key.

Is that a writing desk??

Oh, they’re getting a team together to go tomb raiding! Ha, forget money! You may or may not end up dying on this adventure, so who cares about money, right.

He’s so cute standing there with his camera. Look at the little smile as he watches everything going on!

It’s a desk and a storage container?? Oh, there are ~qualifications~ to going on tomb raiding. Makes sense. That is the oddest looking sword.

Must appreciate Zhang Qiling’s fingers in every adaptation. They look very strong and steady here. Let’s not talk about the slooow trailing across the handle.

Wow did you really just throw sand in his face. Have we not learned not to mess with Zhang Qiling after he trounced that first guy who attacked him. I love the fight scenes so much after the bore-fest that was Reboot/Chongqi’s second half of Season 1.

Super pretty, but why did it cause him to stop and stare in the middle of the fight?

This is like a Final Fantasy sword haha. Also I think you should stop while you’re ahead, why did you think a table would stop this dude. (Hey, it’s Da Kui! He was in the novel but not TLT1.).

It’s HERE. Their first meeting. How did he know the coin was on that cord? It wasn’t visible, I don’t think. But uh. That was a hilarious move on his part, he is so Extra?? He just casually flicks the necklace off with his big-ass sword and it drops into his hand. Then casually goes “oh, here, you dropped this” as if he wasn’t the one responsible for it coming off in the first place!!

HERE IT COMES. The unnecessarily long eye contact. Pingxie in every adaptation needs a Staring Into Your Eyes scene.

Real smooth.

Ahh this Wu Xie is such a cutie. He’s like a puppy.

WHAT. Third Uncle, I can’t believe you let him tag along so easily haha. In the beginning he was scolding Wu Xie to never get involved in tomb business, then what happens? They’re going tomb raiding!!

Next Up: to the tomb we go! This can’t end badly or anything what are you talking about.

[bigprettygothgf]

kayla bigprettygothgf’s halloween recommendation list

I know it’s a little late into October to publish this, and I had wanted to get this out at the start of the month, other things just got in the way of my time. But, I finished it anyway.

I’ve divided this into two parts - First, movies that are available on the big three streaming services - Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu. Second, movies that are not available on those services and you’ll have to get via… other means. All in all there’s over 70 films here.

Summaries are either written by me or lifted from letterboxd. Because I’m lazy.

It probably goes without saying that almost all of these come with a CW for violence. Violence will only be mentioned specifically in CWs in more extreme cases.

If I’ve missed any applicable content warnings here, please message me about it! it’s been a while since I’ve seen many of these movies and it’s likely there’s some details I’ve forgotten.

Full list under the cut.

Available on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or Hulu

  -Annihilation (2018)

A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don’t apply.

   -Genres: Alien invasion, body horror, sci-fi horror

   -Content warnings: Death of a lesbian character 

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu

-Apostle (2018)

Netflix original horror tends to be very hit or miss, more often than not a catastrophic miss. While not without its flaws, Apostle is fortunately one of the better releases to the service, offering a very The Wicker Man (1973)-esque story about a man who travels to a remote island in search of his sister who has been kidnapped by a cult.

   -Genres: Cult horror, historical period horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Netflix

-As Above, So Below (2014)

While the dialogue in the film borders on unintentional comedy at times, As Above, So Below is a surprisingly decent found footage flick about a team of explorers delving into the Paris catacombs. 

   -Genres: Found footage, horror thriller

   -Content warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Netflix

-The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2017)

Father and son coroners receive a mysterious unidentified corpse with no apparent cause of death. As they attempt to examine the young “Jane Doe,” they discover increasingly bizarre clues that hold the key to her terrifying secrets.

   -Genres: Supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Netflix

-Blade (1998)

When Blade’s mother was bitten by a vampire during pregnancy, she did not know that she gave her son a special gift while dying—all the good vampire attributes in combination with the best human skills. Blade and his mentor battle an evil vampire rebel who plans to take over the outdated vampire council, capture Blade and resurrect a voracious blood god.

   -Genres: Superhero, vampire horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Hulu

-Candyman (1992)

The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster’s myth.

   -Genres: Psychological horror, slasher, supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: Animal death, R-slur

   -Available on: Netflix

-Cloverfield (2008)

Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives.

   -Genres: Disaster, found footage, monster, sci-fi horror

   -Content warnings: One of the lead characters, Hud, is played by accused sexual abuser T.J. Miller

   -Available on: Hulu

-Constantine (2005)

By all accounts, Constantine is a bad adaption of its source material, taking far too many creative liberties and making many unnecessary changes from the Hellblazer comic. However, despite that, the film is a fun and decent movie in its own right, and worth a watch regardless of whether or not you’re familiar with the comic it’s based on.

   -Genres: Dark fantasy, superhero, supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: Suicide

   -Available on: Hulu

-Creep (2014)

Aaron answers an online ad and drives to a stranger's house to film him for the day. The man claims to want to make a movie for his unborn child, but his requests become more bizarre as the day goes along.

   -Genres: Found footage, horror thriller

   -Content warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Netflix

-Creep 2 (2017)

A video artist who craves shocking stories realizes she has made a mistake when she meets a serial killer in a cabin.

   -Genres: Found footage, horror thriller

   -Content warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Netflix

-The Crow (1994)

Exactly one year after young rock guitarist Eric Draven and his fiancée are brutally killed by a ruthless gang of criminals, Draven – watched over by a hypnotic crow – returns from the grave to exact revenge.

   -Genres: Dark fantasy, superhero

   -Content warnings: Sexual assault

   -Available on: Netflix

-Event Horizon (1997)

A film that could have been great had it not been marred by interference from Paramount, Event Horizon is still a decent entry into the sci-fi horror genre, even if just for the great scenery-chewing by Sam Neill. It’s just a shame that we’ll probably never see a fully uncensored version.

   -Genres: Sci-fi horror, supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu

-The Evil Dead (1981)

Bruce Campbell & friends take a trip out to a cabin in the woods. Hilarity ensues.

   -Genres: Dark fantasy, supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: The infamous tree rape scene

   -Available on: Hulu

-Evil Dead II (1987)

Bruce Campbell & friend takes a trip out to a cabin in the woods. Even more hilarity ensues.

   -Genres: Dark fantasy, horror comedy

   -Content warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Hulu

-The Exorcist III (1990)

Despite the title, The Exorcist III has very little to do with the original Exorcist film, only given connections to it due to studio imposition. Fortunately, this is a rare case where studio interference didn’t actually negatively affect the film itself much at all, and I strongly recommend it, even if you haven’t seen the original.

   -Genres: Supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: Ableism

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video

-Gerald’s Game (2017)

When her husband’s sex game goes wrong, Jessie (who is handcuffed to a bed in a remote lake house) faces warped visions, dark secrets and a dire choice.

   -Genres: Psychological horror

   -Content warnings: CSA, graphic degloving

   -Available on: Netflix

-Ginger Snaps (2000)

The story of two outcast sisters, Ginger and Brigitte, in the mindless suburban town of Bailey Downs. On the night of Ginger’s first period, she is savagely attacked by a wild creature. Ginger’s wounds miraculously heal but something is not quite right. Now Brigitte must save her sister and save herself.

   -Genres: Supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: Animal death

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video

-Green Room (2015)

A punk rock band becomes trapped in a secluded venue after finding a scene of violence. For what they saw, the band themselves become targets of violence from a gang of white power skinheads, who want to eliminate all evidence of the crime.

   -Genres: Horror thriller

   -Content warnings: Nazism, racism, N-slurs

   -Available on: Netflix

-Hellraiser (1987)

An unfaithful wife encounters the zombie of her dead lover while the demonic cenobites are pursuing him after he escaped their sadomasochistic underworld.

   -Genres: Supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu

-Hereditary (2018)

When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter’s family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry.

   -Genres: Drama, supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: Animal death, child death

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video

-The Invitation (2015)

Will and his new girlfriend Kira are invited to a dinner with old friends at the house of Will’s ex Eden and her new partner David. Although the evening appears to be relaxed, Will soon gets a creeping suspicion that their charming host David is up to something.

   -Genres: Cult horror, horror thriller

   -Content warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Netflix

-Lake Mungo (2010)

One of my personal favorite films in the horror genre, the underappreciated Lake Mungo - creatively presented in a faux-documentary style - is an eerie look at the difficulty of moving on from family loss.

   -Genres: Found footage, pseudo-documentary, psychological horror

   -Content warnings: CSA

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video

-Mother! (2017)

I hesitated adding this one because to be frank I do not care much for it and Darren Aronofsky, while a talented filmmaker, is a bit of a self-aggrandizing prick and this film demonstrates his pretentiousness more so than any of his past work. But, even so, there’s some legitimately great material here, particularly in the third act when everything goes to shit. If you can look past the extremely heavy-handed bible metaphors and clumsy environmental message, you may get something out of it.

   -Genres: Psychological horror, thriller

   -Content warnings: Misogynistic violence, graphic baby death

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu

-Nightbreed (1990)

A troubled young man is drawn to a mythical place called Midian where a variety of monsters are hiding from humanity.

   -Genres: Dark fantasy

   -Content warnings: Eye trauma, F-slur

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video

-Night of the Living Dead (1968)

A group of people try to survive an attack of bloodthirsty zombies while trapped in a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse.

   -Genres: Zombie horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video (Public domain, so you should have no trouble finding it elsewhere.)

-Possum (2018)

Long stretches of not much happening are made up for by some truly horrifying puppet sequences which are among the creepiest things I saw in any 2018 film.

   -Genres: Drama, psychological horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video

-Pumpkinhead (1988)

A man conjures up a gigantic vengeance demon called Pumpkinhead to destroy the teenagers who accidentally killed his son.

   -Genres: Dark fantasy, supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: Child death

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu*

*Audio is slightly out of sync on both streams.

-A Quiet Place (2018)

A family is forced to live in silence while hiding from creatures that hunt by sound.

   -Genres: Alien invasion, sci-fi horror 

   -Content warnings: Child death

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu

-The Return of the Living Dead (1986)

When a bumbling pair of employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to re-animate as they go on a rampage seeking their favorite food: brains!

   -Genres: Horror comedy, zombie horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video

-The Ritual (2017)

A group of college friends reunite for a trip to the forest, but encounter a menacing presence in the woods that’s stalking them.

   -Genres: Cult horror, supernatural horror 

   -Content warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Netflix

-Saw (2004)

Obsessed with teaching his victims the value of life, a deranged, sadistic serial killer abducts the morally wayward. Once captured, they must face impossible choices in a horrific game of survival. The victims must fight to win their lives back, or die trying.

   -Genres: Horror thriller

   -Content warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Hulu

-Saw II (2005)

When a new murder victim is discovered with all the signs of Jigsaw’s hand, Detective Eric Matthews begins a full investigation and apprehends Jigsaw with little effort. But for Jigsaw, getting caught is just another part of his plan. Eight more of his victims are already fighting for their lives and now it’s time for Matthews to join the game.

   -Genres: Horror thriller

   -Content warnings: Needles

   -Available on: Hulu

-Scream (1996)

A killer known as Ghostface begins killing off teenagers, and as the body count begins to rise, one girl and her friends find themselves contemplating the ‘rules’ of horror films as they find themselves living in a real-life one.

   -Genres: Slasher

   -Content warnings: Rape mention

   -Available on: Netflix

-Society (1989)

Containing what I consider to be the greatest special effects Screaming Mad George ever did, Society is a story about the son of a rich Beverly Hills family feeling like he doesn’t quite fit in. If you like body horror, 80s practical effects, and satire about the west coast upper class, I can not recommend this hidden gem enough. Another of my personal favorites.

   -Genres: Black comedy, body horror, satire

   -Content warnings: Incest and really gross body horror. In general if you’re averse to sex and nudity you may wanna steer clear.

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video

-Suspiria (2018)

I can’t think of many films I hold such a high opinion on that I was initially ready to hate. When I found out that the Call Me by Your Name director would be behind a remake of Dario Argento’s 1977 classic Suspiria, I rolled my eyes. When official photos started to roll in indicating the film would be gory and desaturated in contrast to the original’s surreal usage of exaggerated colors, I decided I wasn’t touching it with a ten foot pole. Fast forward about a year later, and I eventually decide to give the film a chance. Low and behold, not only do I list it as a top film of 2018, I actually, genuinely like it more than the original. While there’s much to be said about the style and color palette of the original film, I find the remake’s radically different tone and style to be still, in a difficult to describe way, faithful to the 1977 original. But most importantly, the film stands on its own as a visceral, nightmarish, violent, and disturbing experience I still haven't stopped thinking about nearly a year later.

   -Genres: Body horror, cult horror, supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: Suicide, very graphic gore

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video

-The Terminator (1984)

In the post-apocalyptic future, reigning tyrannical supercomputers teleport a cyborg assassin known as the “Terminator” back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, whose unborn son is destined to lead insurgents against 21st century mechanical hegemony. Meanwhile, the human-resistance movement dispatches a lone warrior to safeguard Sarah.

   -Genres: Science fiction, thriller

   -Content warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, YouTube

-They Look Like People (2016)

While held back slightly by its low budget, They Look Like People is one of the best looks at mental illness I’ve seen in a film, especially a horror film, and I’d easily recommend it to anyone tired of the demonization of mental illness in the horror genre.

   -Genres: Psychological horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Amazon Prime Video

-Train to Busan (2016)

Martial law is declared when a mysterious viral outbreak pushes Korea into a state of emergency. Those on an express train to Busan, a city that has successfully fended off the viral outbreak, must fight for their own survival.

   -Genres: Thriller, zombie horror

   -Content Warnings: N/A

   -Available on: Netflix

-Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil (2010)

Two hillbillies are suspected of being killers by a group of paranoid college kids camping near the duo’s West Virginian cabin. As the body count climbs, so does the fear and confusion as the college kids try to seek revenge against the pair.

   -Genres: Horror comedy, slasher

   -Content Warnings: Rape mention

   -Available on: Netflix

-The Witch (2015)

In 1630s New England, William and Katherine lead a devout Christian life with five children, homesteading on the edge of an impassable wilderness, exiled from their settlement when William defies the local church. When their newborn son vanishes and crops mysteriously fail, the family turns on one another.

   -Genres: Religious horror, supernatural horror

   -Content Warnings: Abuse, animal death, child death, implied CSA

   -Available on: Netflix

Not Available on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or Hulu

-Alien (1979)

During its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew discovers a chamber containing thousands of eggs on the planet, a creature inside one of the eggs attacks an explorer. The entire crew is unaware of the impending nightmare set to descend upon them when the alien parasite planted inside its unfortunate host is birthed.

   -Genres: Sci-fi horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-Aliens (1986)

When Ripley’s lifepod is found by a salvage crew over 50 years later, she finds that terra-formers are on the very planet they found the alien species. When the company sends a family of colonists out to investigate her story—all contact is lost with the planet and colonists. They enlist Ripley and the colonial marines to return and search for answers.

   -Genres: Sci-fi action, sci-fi horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-Altered States (1980)

A research scientist explores the boundaries and frontiers of consciousness. Using sensory deprivation and hallucinogenic mixtures from native American shamans, he explores these altered states of consciousness and finds that memory, time, and perhaps reality itself are states of mind.

   -Genres: Sci-fi horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-AM1200 (2008)

A fantastic little horror short film. Officially on Vimeo.

   -Genres: Eldritch horror

   -Content warnings: Suicide

-Army of Darkness (1992)

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that Army of Darkness isn’t as good as Evil Dead II. They’re full of shit and this movie fucking rules.

   -Genres: Dark fantasy, horror comedy

   -Content warnings: N/A

-Basket Case (1982)

A young man carrying a big basket that contains his deformed Siamese-twin brother seeks vengeance on the doctors who separated them against their will.

   -Genres: Body horror, horror comedy, slasher

   -Content warnings: Attempted rape

-Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010)

Deep within the mysterious Arboria Institute, a disturbed girl is held captive by a doctor in search of inner peace. Her mind controlled by a sinister technology. Silently, she waits for her next session with deranged therapist Dr. Barry Nyle. If she hopes to escape, she must journey through the darkest reaches of The Institute, but Nyle wonʼt easily part with his most gifted and dangerous creation.

   -Genres: Sci-fi horror 

   -Content warnings: N/A

-The Blair Witch Project (1999)

In October of 1994 three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, while shooting a documentary. A year later their footage was found.

   -Genres: Found footage, supernatural horror 

   -Content warnings: N/A

-The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

Five college friends spend the weekend at a remote cabin in the woods, where they get more than they bargained for. Together, they must discover the truth behind the cabin in the woods.

   -Genres: Black comedy, eldritch horror, horror comedy, satire

   -Content warnings: N/A

-Christine (1983)

Geeky student Arnie Cunningham falls for Christine, a rusty 1958 Plymouth Fury, and becomes obsessed with restoring the classic automobile to her former glory. As the car changes, so does Arnie, whose newfound confidence turns to arrogance behind the wheel of his exotic beauty. Arnie’s girlfriend Leigh and best friend Dennis reach out to him, only to be met by a Fury like no other.

   -Genres: Horror thriller, supernaturally horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-Donnie Darko (2001)

After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.

   -Genres: Drama, psychological thriller

   -Content warnings: References to CSA

-The Fly (1986)

When Seth Brundle makes a huge scientific and technological breakthrough in teleportation, he decides to test it on himself. Unbeknownst to him, a common housefly manages to get inside the device and the two become one.

   -Genres: Body horror, sci-fi horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-From Beyond (1986)

A group of scientists have developed the Resonator, a machine which allows whoever is within range to see beyond normal perceptible reality. But when the experiment succeeds, they are immediately attacked by terrible life forms.

   -Genres: Body horror, sci-fi horror

   -Content warnings: Sexual assault

-Get Out (2017)

Chris and his girlfriend Rose go upstate to visit her parents for the weekend. At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.

   -Genres: Horror thriller, psychological horror, satire

   -Content warnings: N/A

-Grave Encounters (2011)

I’ll admit that this found footage pseudo-reality show film isn’t all that good, but if you’re like me and you’re a slut for all those dumb Ghost Hunters-type TV shows, this should be right up your alley.

   -Genres: Found footage, supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: Ableism

-Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)

I’m just going to quote my best friend Lars @dracenines:

there is so much shit in this movie that makes no goddamn sense at all but it's so damn fun that i can't help but love it anyways

   -Genres: Supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-The House of the Devil (2009)

In the 1980s, college student Samantha Hughes takes a strange babysitting job that coincides with a full lunar eclipse. She slowly realizes her clients harbor a terrifying secret.

   -Genres: Cult horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

With the disappearance of hack horror writer Sutter Cane, all Hell is breaking loose…literally! Author Cane, it seems, has a knack for description that really brings his evil creepy-crawlies to life. Insurance investigator John Trent is sent to investigate Cane’s mysterious vanishing act and ends up in the sleepy little East Coast town of Hobb’s End.

   -Genres: Supernatural horror, eldritch horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-It Follows (2014)

For 19-year-old Jay, fall should be about school, boys and weekends out at the lake. But a seemingly innocent physical encounter turns sour and gives her the inescapable sense that someone, or something, is following her. Faced with this burden, Jay and her teenage friends must find a way to escape the horror that seems to be only a few steps behind.

   -Genres: Psychological horror, supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: Sexual assault

-Jacob’s Ladder (1990)

A traumatized Vietnam war veteran finds out that his post-war life isn’t what he believes it to be when he’s attacked by horned creatures in the subway.

   -Genres: Drama, psychological horror, religious horror, thriller

   -Content warnings: N/A

-Jennifer’s Body (2009)

A newly possessed cheerleader turns into a killer who specializes in offing her male classmates.

   -Genres: Black comedy, supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-The Keep (1983)

A great seemingly forgotten horror film that was unfortunately never able to be fully finished due to the death of the special effects supervisor early in post-production, and much more to the film’s determent, heavy studio interference, resulting in shoddy sound design and over 100 minutes cut from the movie. Despite this, I still enjoy this film quite a bit, particularly for its fantastic atmosphere and excellent soundtrack by Tangerine Dream.

   -Genres: Supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: Nazis

-The Lost Boys (1987)

A mother and her two teenage sons move to a seemingly nice and quiet small coastal California town yet soon find out that it’s overrun by bike gangs and vampires. A couple of teenage friends take it upon themselves to hunt down the vampires that they suspect of a few mysterious murders and restore peace and calm to their town.

   -Genres: Horror comedy, supernatural horror, vampire horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-Marebito (2004)

A fear-obsessed freelance cameraman investigates an urban legend involving mysterious spirits that haunt the subways of Tokyo.

   -Genres: Supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: Eye trauma

-The Others (2001)

Grace is a religious woman who lives in an old house kept dark because her two children, Anne and Nicholas, have a rare sensitivity to light. When the family begins to suspect the house is haunted, Grace fights to protect her children at any cost in the face of strange events and disturbing visions.

   -Genres: Drama, gothic horror, psychological horror, supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-Prince of Darkness (1987)

A research team finds a mysterious cylinder in a deserted church. If opened, it could mean the end of the world.

   -Genres: Supernatural horror, zombie horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-Resident Evil (2002)

Look, this movie is not great, it doesn’t follow the games, I know. But it’s a guilty pleasure and Milla Jovovitch awakens homosexual feelings in me. Just don’t bother with the sequels. Or do bother with them. Honestly, you could do a lot worse with your time.

   -Genres: Action horror, sci-fi horror, zombie horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-Sinister (2012)

Found footage helps a true-crime novelist realize how and why a family was murdered in his new home, though his discoveries put his entire family in the path of a supernatural entity.

   -Genres: Mystery, supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: Child death

-Spring (2014)

Sci-fi horror romance film about a shapeshifting monster girl. That’s all I need to tell you.

   -Genres: Romance, sci-fi horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-Suspiria (1977)

From the moment she arrives in Freiberg, Germany, to attend the prestigious Tanz Academy, American ballet-dancer Suzy Bannion senses that something horribly evil lurks within the walls of the age-old institution.

   -Genres: Gothic horror, supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014)

One of my favorite found footage films and and a great example of how much potential the genre holds when handled by a director who seems to actually give a shit. To top that off, it features a lesbian lead character who doesn’t die. It’s really that easy!

   -Genres: Found footage, supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Five friends visiting their grandfather’s house in the country are hunted and terrorized by a chain-saw wielding killer and his family of grave-robbing cannibals.

   -Genres: Slasher

   -Content warnings: Ableism

-The Thing (1982)

Scientists in the Antarctic are confronted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of the people it kills.

   -Genres: Alien invasion, body horror, sci-fi horror

   -Content warnings: Animal death

-Trick ’r Treat (2007)

Four interwoven stories that occur on Halloween: an everyday high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer; a college virgin might have just met the one guy for her; a group of teenagers pull a mean prank; a bitter old recluse receives an uninvited guest.

   -Genres: Anthology, black comedy, supernatural horror 

   -Content warnings: Child death

-Us (2019)

Husband and wife Gabe and Adelaide Wilson take their kids to their beach house expecting to unplug and unwind with friends. But as night descends, their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some shocking visitors arrive uninvited.

   -Genres: Cult horror, sci-fi horror, supernatural horror 

   -Content warnings: Child death

-V/H/S (2012)

When a group of misfits is hired by an unknown third party to burglarize a desolate house and acquire a rare VHS tape, they discover more found footage than they bargained for.

   -Genres: Anthology, found footage, supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: Sexual assault

-V/H/S/2 (2013)

While there’s less good to be found in the sequel than in the previous installment, the segment featured in V/H/S/2 titled Safe Haven is easily the best in the entire series and has quickly become one of my favorite horror short films of all time. It alone makes V/H/S/2 a worthwhile watch.

   -Genres: Alien invasion, anthology, cult horror, found footage, sci-fi horror, supernatural horror, zombie horror

   -Content warnings: References to CSA, eye trauma

-Videodrome (1983)

As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn is desperate for new programming to attract viewers. When he happens upon “Videodrome,” a TV show dedicated to gratuitous torture and punishment, Max sees a potential hit and broadcasts the show on his channel. However, after his girlfriend auditions for the show and never returns, Max investigates the truth behind Videodrome and discovers that the graphic violence may not be as fake as he thought.

   -Genres: Body horror, sci-fi horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-The Void (2016)

Cloaked, cult-like figures trap a police officer, patients and staffers inside a hospital that is a gateway to evil.

   -Genres: Cult horror, eldritch horror, supernatural horror

   -Content warnings: N/A

-What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

Vampire housemates try to cope with the complexities of modern life and show a newly turned hipster some of the perks of being undead.

   -Genres: Horror comedy, pseudo-documentary

   -Content warnings: One F-slur

[mayonakazkrazy]

Soooooooo I wanna talk about an Animated Movie

One night recently, I may have been watching a show that started giving me too many... ‘too real life’ vibes, when what i needed in the moment was ‘taking a break to mentally and emotionally recharge’ time. SOOOO to redirect my overstimulated brain I changed over to a ‘safe’ non threatening movie, Monster House.

Spoilers below the cut in a sort of review as well as some random details that i noticed that make me go ‘... well that got real fast...’ and one tangent/character dive i been wanting to get into toward the end.

Also fair warning about my run on sentences... they’re not going anywhere

Monster House is... a CG movie that oddly enough gives off Claymation vibes... at least to me from certain style design choices. I honestly feel that sort of works in it’s favor since the CG of the mid 2000s was.... terrifying if care wasn’t take in the process. Not good if you want you film to be taken seriously, buuut this movie manages to tow the line because a) it IS supposed to be at least a little scary to kids... haunted house? and b) even though the characters take things seriously enough the writing itself doesn’t try TOO hard to pretend it’s more than it is.

As it stands, the movie is Ok - in the best possible vein of ok. Not some epic, groundbreaking thing but I think it warrants being on people’s list of fun movies to play on Halloween. Visually interesting and funny, you can tell that the people who made the movie at least had fun working on it; and cared more about the project than some other kids’ movies that get put out purely for the easy cash grab via paint by numbers. (I found out that this movie was nominated for Best Animated Feature apparently?! like... i like this movie but... i don’t know, i’ll have to see what other movies came out that year cuz while i like it i’d like to reiterate that i don’t know if it’s BEST (animated/kids) movie of the year material...)

I can honestly say that it was at the Start if not ahead of the ‘remember the 80s?’ fad in movies. Again, not to the film’s discredit. It’s less concerned with smacking you over the head with ‘EIGHTIES!’ and is more set in the time period to make things more plausible. Ya got kids running around unattended for hours without parental guidance, and a number of other 80′s tropes that are, easily ignored at worse and make story elements more believable at best. I mean... .when ELSE would you believe that kids could run around basically unattended for HOURS just before Halloween....hell one kid ACTUALLY STEALS an amount of cold medicine that would have you on MULTIPLE investigative lists even 15 years ago. And NOT just because “the parents are just bad parents”... there’s arguably only one ACTUALLY bad parent in the film who’s only mentioned off-hand but i’ll talk about in a little bit. The rest are parents with semi justifiable reasons for either not believing their respective kid about the haunted house or not thinking they’re NOT unattended (ie. someone’s supposed to be babysitting one of these kids but SURPRISE! she’s in the “selfish teen is a disinterested babysitter spending more time talking to or about boys than ACTUALLY doing the job she’s paid to do” trope)

TLDR on that paragraph, this movie spends so little time being WE”RE THE 80′S! that i wasn’t even sure WHEN it was supposed to take place if it wasn’t for the lack of iPhones and the stationwagons all over.

ANYWAY. some details that tend to stand out to me with this movie tend to be the things that we just get to hear about briefly and are arguably meant to encourage conversation if someone NEEDS to know more about it rather than just getting EVERYTHING explained for no good reason. So enjoy me conversing with myself here.

First up, Chowders family life is kind of sad. Like i said earlier there’s only one or two parents to the three main characters of the movie that people would likely consider ACTUALLY bad. 

The lead’s, DJ’s, parents go out of town at the start of the movie and could reasonably be expected to think that their kid was being watched by the babysitter (see trope rant above). 

The mother of the token female character (Jenny) is Maaayyybe a bad parent but that is to be argued as we only have a few reasons to believe so and some can be explained by the aforementioned 80′s era lack of parental awareness. All we really know is that, this girl is walking around selling candy on her own, gets nearly eaten by the Monster House, and when she calls her mother to tell her about it, the mom doesn’t believe her as no parent ever does about monsters. Sooooo while she does get points off for her kid not even having someone with her during the candy selling, we also don’t hear from or about her again for the rest of the movie until just, coming to pick her up at the end. She get’s a *shrug* on the scale of good or bad parenthood.

Then there’s our secondary male character, Chowder The Dumb One Comic Relief. He’s the one with arguably the most complicated family that we get any insight to. and it’s pretty much just from his off-handed comments on it and a single snipet of a phone call we get to overhear. Literally, what you are about to read, my brain managed to over think from these freakin context clues... SO, it WOULD be SUPER easy to miss what we get about this family and just chalk it up to ‘OH those kids movie parents and their rampant absenteeism and DEATH’ but no. Chowder’s family life is... a little sad if i’m honest. we only hear about 2 calls regarding these kids and their parents. One is when Jenny calls her mom to try to tell on the House for eating her and the other is when Chowder’s dad calls looking for his son. NOW, Chowder himself tells DJ (and the audience) that his Dad is working at a Pharmacy the night Chowder goes over to DJ’s house and nearly gets himself eaten by the Monster House. The boys end up spending the entire night after that, watching the house to see if anybody or anything else gets attacked. Chowder’s dad doesn’t call DJ’s house to find out where his kid is until morning, so we’re lead to believe that his lack of knowledge about the boys’ impromtu sleep-over because he works the graveyard shift (or at least late enough that he would assume Chowder’s in bed until waking the next morning). 

The somewhat sad part comes with the second bit of information we get from Chowder after he tells DJ that his dad is at work that evening and it’s, “Mom is at the movies with her personal trainer”. 0.o ooooooh the scandal... i mean, yeah in general cheating spouses isn’t exactly the most uncommon occurance....anywhere. but isn’t it just a little sad that part of the reason that this is not only the reason that Chowder is home alone (making it SUPER easy for him to just leave when DJ calls). But she’s also apparently gone long enough to ALSO be out so late as to not notice that her kid is GONE all night. Looking at it nowadays just... reminds ya WHY there were ads in the 90′s asking parents where their kids were at 10pm.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE

well not about the cheating Chowder’s mom part.

More like the WHOLE thing that got me wanting to type about Monster House in the first place.

A sad story with more potential doom than maybe even the film intended.

YOU SEE

A major plot twist of the movie is WHO is possessing the house. DJ and crew initially believe to be the someone they kind of know - the house’s owner, Mr. Horace Nebbercracker. At first glance, Nebbercracker is obsessively protective of his house, literally the first scene of the film is him SCREAMING in a little girl’s face and confiscating her tricycle when she accidentally ends up on his lawn (again, where are her parents?). He’s literally Mr. “Get off my lawn”.

So it’s not difficult to imagine that he’s the one haunting the place when the house seems to come life immediately after his sudden heart attack. (PS. WTF to the writers cause we AND THE TWO TEENAGED LEADS see the heart attack happen real time and the boys may have even contributed to it!! THERAPY FOR EVERYONE) Especially since Dj’s babysitter invites over her.....boyfriend? maybe. who reaffirms that Mr. Nebbercracker has been screaming at kids and confiscating toys for YEARS. yeah, super easy to see this dude sticking around after death and continuing his time honored tradition of AGGRESSIVELY dealing with trespassers. Only now as a house that WILL eat you just for stepping on the grass.

So as you may have already guessed, this later gets proved to NOT be the case. As Horace ends up returning in the climax alive and well (enough to sneak out of the hospital and steal an ambulance LIKE A BOSS).

Throughout the course of the movie, we and the kids find out that this creepy old man once had a wife but not only is she not around, rumor has it that he ATE her. for some reason. When the kids go into the house to try to ‘kill’ it and stop the house from eating people, they find a bunch of old pictures inside that at least confirm there was a wife at some point. When they end up in the basement among the piles and piles of stuff that’s landed in the yard over the years, the ALSO find a shrine to Mrs. Nebbercracker. Which is also her final resting place (a spot where she was apparently covered completely with cement).

DJ puts 2 and 2 together pretty quick when Mr. Nebbercracker returns and starts trying to calm the house. Mrs. Constance Nebbercracker is the one haunting the place, not Horace. That’s when we unlock Horace’s Tragic Back Story:

Sometime in the 1930′s Horace (a former demolition man) fell in love with Constance. Constance was being exploited as an “attraction” at a circus/freak-show at the time (during the height of just being abnormally tall, short, or obese made you a relevant ‘freak’). This place made her sleep OUTSIDE IN A CAGE and you know people were happily entertaining themselves by throwing things at her and laughing at both her weight  ‘freakishness’ and helplessness.

So to follow a simple love story, the sweet skinny boy sneaks her away, his feelings are reciprocated, and the two start their life together. They’ve gotten to that nice, building their own house stage when everything goes terribly wrong.

For me, this is sort of the start of my opinion that... things for the Nebbercrackers weren’t likely to go well anyway. Like we got the impression from their wedding photos that they managed to have SOME normalcy in their honeymoon phase but when we see the beginnings of the house, Horace is JUST THEN taking apart the cage/cart that Constance was kept in. i’m presuming he was originally gonna use the various parts in the house but dear christ that means that not much time may have past between leaving the circus (guess they at least didn’t care enough about her ‘as property’ to keep the couple on the run?) to getting married and going on a vacation to buying the land and beginning construction.

That said, the mid-twentieth century isn’t exactly known for it’s forwardness on mental health, and oooooohhhhh boy, if this poor couple aint a fitting example that “and they lived happily ever after” doesn’t happen often. Halloween happens to come around and kids get up to their traditional mischief by, what else? Egging what little of the Nebbercracker house existed at the time. 

(Disclaimer i am an expert in nothing so i may get somethings wrong here but this IS just me hashing out an idea i have) When we first see Constance, we see someone actually throwing food and trash at her while she’s “on display”. And when we see her at the skeleton of the Nebbercracker house, she get VISIBLY upset at the children throwing things at the house, she seeks out her husband telling him that those monsters ‘are attacking [their] house and they’re hurting [her]’. In my mind, she and Horace likely haven’t really dealt with her trauma from the circus. Yes Horace removed her from the bad situation and stopped the trauma, but as of good ole 1935, i doubt they really talked about it much, let alone saw a therapist. Both likely just trying to power forward INTO their future.

Horace’s confusion when Constance becomes triggered by the children throwing things and laughing like assholes shows us that he likely hadn’t seen or had to deal with a situation like this before. He does try to get her to focus on him and remind her that she’s with him and not back at the circus, so maybe he’s had to reassure her (like after a nightmare or maybe he got small panics when in more crowded areas - thus the house that’s likely on the edge of town since they don’t have close neighbors). But the course of events indicates that he’d never seen such a STRONG episode from her. 

Perhaps she’d just finally gotten comfortable with being truly free since they could build their own home and so the perceived ‘attack’ on her home became an attack to her safety and happiness. When she goes to her husband, her savior, and (in her eyes) he doesn’t fix it/ he doesn’t get the chance to. When that egg hit HER BODY. it was game over.

Constance tried to take matters into her own hands, remove the ‘threat’ herself.... with the axe Horace was holding. Now it’s a kids movie so no children come even close to getting hurt, but one could take this to mean that, if constance had lived, she may have only gotten more violent as time went on if she didn’t get the help she needed... help Horace may not have been able to give or get for her.

We’ll never know since the way you get a haunted house is... pretty obvious. In a desparate attempt to stop Constance from likely maiming some kids or hurting herself, Horace causes constance to fall into their uncovered basement. As she falls, she tries to grab the cement mixer for stability and ends up dumping the load on top of herself in the basement (making for a VERY creepy site for a shrine). Horace’s guilt compels him to finish the house and he stays there.

Now such a violent, angry moment right before death MEANS THAT SOMETHIN’S GETTING HAUNTED. SO Constance’s spirit possesses the house and begins “defending” itself from the people of the growing town that happen to get too close. ESPECIALLY on Halloween... ya know one of the nights where EVERYBODY goes out and willingly approaches people’s front doors.

Throughout the rest of the flashback we Mr. Nebbercracker trying to keep people away with more and more desperation. Likely because DJ and Chowder haven’t witnessed the first of Constance’s victims. As the movie’s climax pics up we see how Horace talks to the house, trying to placate the angry spirit by taking care of the house and trying to be the first responder when someone enters the lawn before Constance gets to use HER WAY.

From here, Horace’s relationship with the House begins to look...pretty abusive actually. When he gets back home from the hospital he’s grumpy to the kids, but then we see him pause, he’s apprehensive as he turns to get back to the house. From the expressions the house is given and the way Mr Nebbercracker responds, it’s TELLING him to get HOME NOW. He’s timid, and fearful, and the kids begin to get the idea that if he goes into the house now, he may not come out again. And when the house LITERALLY GETS UP AND STARTS CHASING PEOPLE, he’s desperate. He tries soothing her, he tries to redirect her away from the targets of her anger - the kids. 

Can you just imagine the 45 years leading up to this? Horace having to isolate himself from the whole town until it’s just him and this angry house under the pretext of “IF YOU DO NOT DEFEND HOUSE THEN THE HOUSE WILL DO IT”. He even get’s the heart breaking line of “then i’ll have nobody”. Like so many victims that feel they CAN’T leave their homes. I like to imagine that the house is PRIMARILY motivated by the rage and fear that was driving Constance in her final moments but like... what if she hadn’t? Even if she didn’t kill those kids from 45 years ago, would they have been able to get her the help she needed? Like so many back in those days, Constance and Horace likely would’ve only had the option to self medicate or get her institutionalized (ie. Imprisoned again). Would that have devolved into Constance manipulating Horace with things like “i won’t make it without you” and similar tactics. Would have maybe gone the other way? with Constance still not technically being free because Horace would (intentionally or unintentionally) encourage her dependence on him... 

Anyway, when pleading to the house to just leave the children alone fails, he makes the decision to stop her. with dynamite from his Demo days. 

Constance does not take this well.

From there we get the exciting confrontation where the main characters destroy the house WITHOUT the self-sacrifice that Mr. Nebbercracker may have been planning. We even get a nice little moment where constance’s spirit (unattached to the destroyed house) get’s to move on after a quick goodbye to Horace. And now we get our kids movie happy ending with DJ, Chowder, and Jenny helping Mr. Nebbercracker begin redistributing the pile of toys still in what’s left of the basement to trick-or-treaters and the living things that the house ate somehow climb out of whatever pocket dimension they were trapped in. Nobody seems to question why Nebbercracker’s house is just a crater now....and that this old man that left the hospital without a discharge is now homeless....

Buuuuuuuut i’ve been typing for like 2 hours now. I still have thoughts about other side characters and maybe more exploring the dynamics of technically being in a relationship with a haunted house. buuuuut i need to sleep.

Stay nerdy fellow overthinkers.

[nightowlgazette]

Bela Lugosi Is (Un)Dead

Los Angeles is the home of entertainment, the beach, and even some specters that haunt some places that might make you feel like you’re in a classic horror movie. The place is known as the “City of Angels” might be filled to the brim with the ghosts of ages past. Especially those who have once graced the silver screen or even your TV screen at home. 

Today, the city is best known for the bright lights, big stars, and the Walk of Fame that pays homage to many who have made a name for themselves in entertainment. But is there a spirit of some celebrity hanging around their star?

We may not be able to answer that question definitively, but what we can do is point you to the places that might.

With that, join us as we take a look at the Top 10 Most Haunted Places in Los Angeles.

10. Hollywood Forever Cemetery

First on the list is the cemetery that is the final resting place of many celebrities. With names like Mal Blanc, Fay Wray, Gary Golden and more, a stroll can quickly turn into a game of “you name it, they’re probably here”.

One of the known hauntings that most visitors have recounted was the sound of a woman crying by the lake that is located on the grounds of the cemetery. Some have said that the woman may have been that of Virginia Rappe. Rappe was a silent film actress who passed away in 1921. Her death was said to be linked to a fellow film actor named Fatty Arbuckle. While Arbuckle was cleared in the connection of her death, some historians beg to differ.

Many visitors have often found figures and apparitions milling around the cemetery grounds, with most of them wearing clothing from the periods of when they were still alive. So it may not be unusual to see a specter dressed like they were from the 1950s.

9. Hollywood Pantages Theatre

When charmed businessman Howard Hughes owned the infamous Pantages Theatre, he built a door that connected his office directly to one of the theater balconies, where he would go to think in the dark. Hughes’s ghost is a notorious workaholic, and is said to be seen in his former office on the second floor.

According to legend, during the restoration in 2000, people said they saw a man stepping off the balcony, walking along the scaffolding, and standing over a worker to inspect his work. When the guy turned to ask the man what he wanted, the figure vanished.

The Pantages is also host to a female presence who died during a show in 1932. Apparently, during a cast recording, microphones were set up in the theater and they heard someone singing in the mic when no one was on stage. Some say the woman who died was an aspiring singer who’s living out her unrealized dreams of performing at the Pantages.

8. The Culver Studios

The studio complex where such legendary Tinseltown films as Gone with the Wind and Raging Bull were filmed was built in 1918 by silent movie pioneer Thomas Ince. Ince died in 1924, after falling ill on newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst’s yacht during a star-studded cruise and dinner, celebrating Ince’s 42nd birthday. While the official cause of death was listed as heart failure, legend has it that Ince was actually shot and killed by a jealous Hearst, who was supposedly aiming at (and missed) Charlie Chaplin, who had eyes for Hearst’s mistress Marion Davies. Some say Ince’s ghost still shows up for work at his beloved former studio, and can be seen and heard walking through walls and criticizing management.

7. The Queen Mary

Famous for its Halloween event, Dark Harbor, but the Queen Mary in Long Beach is certifiably haunted according to the countless visitors who claim to hear voices and rattling chains during tours and overnight stays. The Queen Mary certainly has a past that’s ripe for modern-day hauntings. She started life as a luxury liner, setting forth on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, in 1937, and hosting everyone from Bob Hope to Winston Churchill. But when WWII began, the Queen Mary was drafted into service as a ferry ship, carrying thousands of troops into battle areas. The fancy lady was stripped of her chic facade, painted a camo grey and dubbed the “Grey Ghost.” After years of service in war, and at her majesty’s whim, the Queen Mary was eventually sold to a tour operator and sent to retirement in Long Beach, where she’s been a floating hotel and event spot since 1967. According to the late psychic and ghost hunter, Peter James, who led tours around the Queen Mary, almost all areas of the ship including the second class pool deck and engine room 13 are known to be haunted.

6. The Haunter Forest and Cobb Estate

Avid hikers will recognize this spot as the Sam Merrill trailhead, “a quiet refuge from people and wild life forever”—so reads the dedication on the cobblestone gate of the Cobb Estate. But to ghost hunters, it’s the Haunted Forest.

The sparse forest didn’t seem so haunted until the 1950s, when the Marx Brothers purchased the land and temporarily saved the dilapidated mansion from destruction—in the process turning it into a favorite haunt for squatters and ne’er-do-wells.

Today, you’re more likely to find curious teens at night wandering around what’s left of the house’s foundation; though ghost sightings are non-specific, many report ghostly noises on the surviving staircase and the feeling that they’re being watched in the dimly lit forest.

5. Griffith Park Old Zoo

A lot of people who may have heard or seen spirits will describe them as a man, woman, or child. But not every spirit might be of human form. The Old Zoo located in Griffith Park might be such a place where the spirits of even unhappy captive animals may be heard or possibly seen at night. By the daytime, it’s a really popular picnic area where friends and family can hang out and enjoy the day.

This was the first-ever zoo to be established in Los Angeles. And it was home to many lions, bears, monkeys, and several other animals. If you want to check out a place at night they might not be a walk in the park for the faint-hearted, this could be something to check out.

4. “The Entity” House

The Entity House might just look like some ordinary house located smack dab in the middle of suburban Los Angeles. But the home is known for having a story that was published into a book (and later adapted into a horror film that earned the house its name). The house was believed to the be sight of a series of hauntings with one victim recalling so many stories of each haunted happening.

While the story of “The Entity” may seem to live on forever in books and movies, the home may still have a story of its own to tell of things never been told. Are there spirits still haunting the home? What other stories that have yet to be heard that may have never been revealed in either the book or film adaptation? We will discuss the history of the home and the stories that have given it the reputation of being one of the most haunted places in all of Los Angeles.

3. Beverly Hills Bermuda Triangle

Even in the trendy neighborhood of Beverly Hills, there’s always a place that has some kind of strange presence. This part of 90210 is no stranger to some weird things. Billionaire and aviation enthusiast Howard Hughes was said to have crashed into a few homes in the neighborhood. Fortunately, Hughes survived the crash. 

However, this area was also the site of a couple of high-profile homicides. One of them was the murder of Bugsy Siegel in 1947. Nearly sixty years later, a Hollywood publicist named Ronni Chasen was shot while driving in her car. She later died shortly afterward when she collided into a light pole as she attempted to flee the scene.

Over the years, some celebrities who came across this part of LA often found themselves in weird, if not, near-death situations. One such case was when musician Jan Berry of the 1960s group Jan and Dean was nearly killed in a car crash while driving and turning a sharp curve.

2. Hotel Roosevelt

Legend has it that the ghost of Marilyn Monroe still haunts her old stomping grounds. Until a few years ago, there was a famous mirror in the lobby where people would take pictures and claim they could see Marilyn’s reflection above them. The full-length mirror that once hung in Monroe’s poolside suite, and then in the lobby where it has since been removed. On the ninth floor, you can hear the late actor Montgomery Clift—who lived in suite 928 for three months while filming From Here to Eternity—practicing on his trumpet. During their stay, many guests have asked the hotel staff to tell the guest in the next room to stop playing in the middle of the night, only for the room to turn out to be vacat. What’s more? Lights and faucets are known to turn on and off on their own and the switchboard gets calls from vacant rooms.

1. Bela Lugosi’s Apartment

Bela Lugosi was another one of the acting greats in the horror film genre. For those that don’t know, his famous role was Dracula. It was known that Lugosi would always visit his favorite cigar shop every day on Hollywood Boulevard. When he died, the mortician could not have told a crazy story like the one of what happened while driving Lugosi’s body to the funeral home.

The funeral procession was supposed to go towards the cemetery in Culver City. However, the horses that were carrying the coffin had started to fight the driver. The driver wanted the horses to go right, however, the horses drew the hearse to the left. The horses went through oncoming traffic and down the boulevard. Turns out, Lugosi had gone daily to buy cigars and read the newspaper on Hollywood Boulevard. The horses stopped right in front of the shop that he frequented. 

Some have said that Lugosi’s spirit may have played a role in that apparent incident. Possibly as a way to say goodbye to the place that he called home for much of his acting career. But ultimately,  no one would ever be able to explain what really happened.

Eliot Wilde, journalist and writer for Night Owl and host of Night Owl FM

[a-fanatic-fangirl-requests]

About the Fangirl~ (200 Follower Celebration)

Since I got asked more about myself for the 200 follower celebration, here are some questions and answers about my life!

How long have you been writing and what inspired you to start?

Hmm, I'd say it was in 8th grade when I got my first phone. I typed up a really bad Sasuke fanfiction. I had first gotten into anime/manga in 5th grade, and had been reading it regularly since then, so the stories and characters have inspired me I'd say. Plus, when I discovered that people actually wrote stories about characters and published online, that's definitely where I got the inspiration too.

And as a side note, part of my degree is an English major with a writing emphasis, specifically in creative writing. Mainly because I can write what I want and other people can't disagree with it like they could with research or essays lol

Who are your favourite writers?

Hmm, that's a hard one. But I'm going to list the ones that don't have anything to do with anime/manga.

Pat Barker is a great British writer that was introduced to me in a class. Her books write from the perspective of those in history that haven't had a voice. Right now, I'm reading her book "The Silence of the Girls" that depicts the lives of the captured women of Troy by Agamemnon’s army in the Trojan War (from a fictional standpoint)

Rumi is more of a poet, but still a writer. He has many many works that even if you don’t like poetry, there will be one that speaks to you.

There are so many more, but, let’s go with that~

Who are your favourite anime characters and which anime is your favourite?

Why is this cursed question something I have to answer >.< lol I'll start off by saying I'm not a huge fan of girls/women in anime because they feel so forced it's painful. So if there is a girl I like, its because she has had good character development or she doesn't roll over at the whims of those around her.

I love Makoto Tachibana from Free! Iwatobi Swim Club. I'm so soft for him its unreal. I may have bought a 1/8 figure of him and hope I can get another one soon >.>

And, of course, Sesshomaru, Sasuke, and Sebastian are my top three probably.They all start with ‘s’ now that I notice that....

+Anima is such an underrated manga, I wish it would have been popular enough to have been made into an anime.

Yotsuba&! is another great one! If I feel sad, I read that one and I just cheer right on up~

I’ll add more as I think of them!

What do you do on your free time apart from writing?

I play video games and I stream them from time to time. Lately, I've been obsessed with Animal Crossing: New Horizons like the rest of the internet. But I'd say I prefer the more anime style games like Rune Factory and Persona.

I’ve also gotten into crocheting recently. Still very very basic stuff, but it’s quite calming~

What would be your number 1 destination holiday?

Japan. C'mon, let's be real here~ I'm a big history buff too, like, I will cry in a museum that has something super old because I just love it so much or crying at history being destroyed. So specifically, I'd probably want to go to Kyoto.

What kind of music do you like?

I prefer electronic type music, specifically Chill. Otherwise early 2000s pop music and the Black Panther OST (so specific, I know lol)

Do you dance, draw or design?

I danced from 3rd grade to 7th grade, and did tap, cecchetti, jazz, broadway, and hip hop. Tap was my favorite though :3 I can draw, but I can't draw well. I drew a really good horse head one time. Never drew well again afterwards it seems~ I enjoy designing, especially in games like Stardew Valley or The Sims to name a few. My hyperfocus comes in handy for those types of things. I enjoy video production and editing too. I just wish my current job gave me more freedom in that department, especially without a deadline.

What type of genre do you prefer writing/reading?

I like writing fluff, because I'm a hopeless romantic, and I enjoy writing angst (if you couldn't tell) because I apparently like to have emotional pain for my characters? But I enjoy reading angst and, ahem, *fun* stuff too >///>

That doesn't mean I don't enjoy writing any other genre, I just sometimes have to be in the right headspace for it.

Do you have any pets?

I do! My cat just turned 16 last week, I've had him since 1st grade. His name is Coco Fluff (I was in first grade, shut up) but I call him something that is hard to spell phonetically because it's not really a name? I call him Foos Boos. That's the best I can do with that name....

Are you an early birdie or a night owl?

Definitely a night owl. One of my jobs has me be to work at around 4am some days and I just want to bang my head on the wall. Its far easier for me to stay up late than get up early.

What gives you inspiration?

Mmm, probably my own messed up life, the experiences from others, and situations in stories I read. I kinda pull ideas and inspiration from many mediums that helps me write.

But what gets me motivated is a great story idea, or knowing that people are reading and liking my stuff tbh. It's relieving to hear what someone thinks about my writing, especially since I don't feel like its good sometimes. But I try my best!

That's all the questions for now 🤗 I'll let you know if more pop up!

Bonus: here is my old man of a cat

[michams]

VIXX “Scentist” analysis based on “Perfume”, by P. Suskind PART I  - The MV (1/2)

“Scentist” is definitely one of my favorite songs/ music videos/ concepts in kpop so last year, when I got to know it was based on a book, I went after and read it. Since then I’ve been wanting to share an analysis focused on more direct references to Suskind’s story.

In “PART I” I’ll be giving my thoughts on how the Music Video is related to the book. Since it turned out quite long, there will be two posts.

Some considerations i. This analysis does not really explain the story in the MV itself, since it has a lot more factors involving stuff (apparently) specifically made for Vixx. There are many interesting theories posted by other Starlights though.

ii. I didn’t originally read the book in English, so I’m using my own translations – which can differ from other editions.

iii. This is somewhat a personal interpretation; one could read the same book and have different opinions. Feel free to tell me your thoughts about it  :^)

iv. As referred before, English is not my first language. Feel free to let me know about any mistakes.

v. Mind that this analysis contains SPOILERS of the book.

vi. This post makes reference to sensitive subjects (such as violence), like the book itself.

The structure of the analysis I decided to follow the plot of the book rather than the sequence shown in the music video and I divided the whole analysis in parts.

The book “In the XVIII century France, Jean-Baptist Grenouille is a young man with a sublime gift – an absolute ability to perceive odors. He doesn’t have any smell himself. Obsessed with capturing scents, one day he smells an fragrance that will take him into a disturbing search for the world’s most powerful perfume – one capable of dominating people’s hearts.”

The novel is divided into four parts: in the first post (1/2) I will talk about the 1st and 2nd, and in the second (2/2) about 3rd and 4th.

                                                          * * * FIRST PART In the first part of the novel, we get to follow Grenouille’s birth and youth. When he was born, he almost died, however he was found out and taken care of by different people before being sent away to a sort of orphanage. As a kid, he went through many illnesses and accidents, which left many scars – but he was very resistant.

The boy had a late and slow development process. By this time he was conscious of his outstanding ability for smelling and began to build his inner aromas library, combining them to create new ones. He mostly shut himself from the world and avoided interaction.

[Image 01 - 0:56 sec]  This can be a representation of the young Grenouille, lost in his thoughts and imagination regarding what he smells.

[Image 01.2 - 1:36 min] The lenses some members use are the color in which the boy’s eyes are described: a tone between grey and opal-blue.

When he was 8 years old and the convent ceases from sending money, he was exchanged at a tannery. He was supposed to do the heavy work and quietly subordinates himself to his boss’ orders.

[Image 02 - 0:39 sec]  I associate this to the unique way Grenouille had to view the outside world, always on the look for the finest, undetectable smells.

“He is very greedy and takes in any sort of smell; he wished to posses all kinds the world had to offer.”

In a night of celebration, during a firework show, he felt a really soft aroma – one he had never sensed before and superior to anything he had ever known. He felt an urge in his heart to posses that scent. He is confused when he’s led to a girl, since he didn’t think a human could smell to anything good. He ends up killing her, only worrying about not missing the scent.

[Image 03 - 1:41 min]  I like to associate this scene to the night he first feels that special scent. Leo is seen with his eyes closed, which relates to both Grenouille conducting himself in the dark and being pulled by the scent, allured by that sensation.

“This is when he understands his fate is to be the greatest perfumer of all times.”

When delivering suede, he meets an old traditionalist Italian perfumer – who had  great knowledge, but not much natural talent – and tells him he wishes to be his apprentice. He proves his ability by making a perfume. At first, the man was horrified by his non-methodical ways but is suddenly dumbstruck by the smell. Grenouille frenetically created many scents everyday. This is when he learns appropriate methods to work, how to use formulas and the first techniques for isolating essences.

[Image 04 - 0:51 sec] This would represent Grenouille making perfumes by measuring the ingredients, noting and starting to view them as formulas.

[Image 05 - 0:52 sec] [Image 06 - 0:32 sec]  The images showing flowers in a sort of liquid makes reference to the process of extracting their essences.

[Image 07 - 0:55 sec] [Image 08 - 0:27 sec]  Here, Hongbin watches and waits as the drops of essence (usually oils) get collected.

[Image 09 - 0:34 sec]  I associate this scene to the fragrances Grenouille creates combining mentally the smells he knows; Hongbin and Hyuk would be the representation of his work in a kind of “inner laboratory”.

He began tracing a scheme on how he would use that knowledge in the near future plans. He starts experimenting. However, when failing to obtain essences from objects and other unusual materials, he stopped and fell deadly ill. Only after being told there are other methods, he recovers. They get to an agreement so that he would be permitted to go. With his title of auxiliary and new skills, he begins a new journey.

[Image 10 - 1:13 min]  Although I was confused by the car, I generally associate it with Grenouille’s journey and travelling (which will keep on in the future, as we will see); at this point, it would represent him leaving the city.

                                                          * * * SECOND PART This is the period when Grenouille’s seclusion takes place. The farther he walked from Paris the better he felt and his nose became more sensible the more he got used to nature. It became unbearable to have any kind of human smell around him, it was disgusting. He began walking only at night. He goes to the most isolated place in the kingdom, the peak of a 2000 meters mountain. He finds a faint stream of water, small animals and plants to feed himself with, as well as a cave; at its bottom, there were a tight place he felt had never been touched by a living being – he laid there and only left for basic needs. He would get lost for days in his inner empire, filled with the smells in his memory.

[Image 11 - 0:05 sec] [Image 12 - 1:38 min]  This would be the moment Grenouille finds and enters the cave.

[Image 13 - 0:04 sec]  I associate this with Grenouille reaching the bottom of the cave and feeling at ease by setting in that place.

He fell into a deep sleep (almost as if hibernating), and created whole settings making use of smells of the things he wanted to be a part of his perfect kingdom, where he reigned supreme. He felt home in his purple castle.

[Image 14 - 0:25 sec] [Image 15 - 0:46 sec] [Image 16 - 0:46 sec]  This represents Jean-Baptist during his sleep inside the cave, dreaming of his kingdom and palace.

[Image 17 - 2:30 min]  Here, the boy representing Grenouille appears again, this time wearing his crown, as he rules his inner kingdom built of smells.

In his purple salon, resting on a sofa, he asks imaginary servers to bring him volumes from his scents library and bottles of the finest smells to drink. As he did so, he was delighted by pleasure and peace. He drinks the girl’s aroma for last. Drunk, he falls asleep.

[Image 18 - 1:21 min]  Serving as a background throughout the MV, Ken stands in front of the scents storage, which Grenouille savors as drinks by bringing them back from his memory.

[Image 19 - 1:18 min] [Image 20 - 2:09 min]  The representation of the aroma drinks being served.

[Image 21 - 2:25 min]  N, as Grenouille, appreciating one of the memories (possibly the girl’s scent, judging by his reaction).

The outer world was completely hostile to him. He stayed like this for 7 years. However, one day a catastrophe happened in his fantasy. While sleeping in the salon, slowly, a cloud of smell began to take over the place. It was his own smell, but the boy gets desperate finding out he couldn’t feel a thing.

[Image 22 - 1:38 min]  This could a be representation of Grenouille observing and reflecting over the mist taking over his fantasy.

He screamed terribly, destroying the walls of his kingdom. Even scared by the uncertainty of not being able to smell something, when he is sure there’s no odor, he puts his clothes rags on and leaves.

[Image 23 - 0:52 sec]  The crashing glass could represent the destruction of the palace when Grenouille is taken by the fear of not smelling himself. (Note: I also considered whether this scene was related to Grenouille’s frustration when he fails to obtain the essences, during his period working for the perfurmer, specially taking to account the sequence it’s shown along in the MV).

[Image 24 - 2:46 min]  I associate this to Grenouille once again considering going out of the cave into the outside world, as Hyuk is seen bathed by exterior light.

Grenouille looked terrible; he tells people he had been robbed and kidnapped, being kept captive for 7 years in a cave. He is then taken to to a Marquis who dedicated his life to science and led a study on the relation between the proximity to earth and vital energy. He is invited to the Marquis’ castle and showed off to the academic community in Montpellier. Grenouille was fed and groomed. It was the first time he was addressed as monsieur and the first time he saw himself in a mirror.

[Image 25 - 1:26 min]  Grenouille sees himself in the mirror. We can associate this to the impression he causes in himself; somehow a boy looking at a man, with many hidden goals deep inside. He describes the image as a “(…) figure disguised as a person (...)” - he thinks all that was because of the clothes and makeup (rather than the Marquis curing him or a change of character).

Making use of some excuses, he gets to use the laboratory of a local perfumery and makes a fragrance to spray himself with and smell “like a human”. Walking around to test its effectiveness, for the first time, people finally noticed his presence (in a very natural way).

“He understood he could overcome what he just did and create a perfume able to make people love him, fall on their knees for him without knowing the reason why. He wanted to dominate their hearts. The omnipotent God of aroma.”

References used:  - Book: Perfume, the story of a murderer; by P. Suskind (2007 ed., Editora Record). - 빅스(VIXX) - '향 (Scentist)' Official M/V (YouTube). - Film:  Perfume, the story of a murderer (2006).

To be continued...here!

[outhereontheprairie]

Ruso, North Dakota

Tiny Ruso, ND is allllmost a ghost town! But thankfully other people have found this place interesting enough that I have some info about it to draw from! From several sources! Yay! Let’s get going and jump into this tiny town on the verge of becoming a certifiable ghost town. 

So, according to Wikipedia Ruso was founded in 1906 and incorporated in 1909. It was either named for the first two letters in the words “SOth RUssia” which was where many of the settlers came from, or after a Russian word meaning “South of us.” At the 2010 census only 4 people lived in town - and that was 9 years ago. That makes Ruso the least populated incorporated place in North Dakota. 

Let’s check out this cool stone barn that caught my eye right away! 

Turns out, according to this source, that it’s the old jail and later blacksmith shop! 

This article shed a lot of light on Ruso. To summarize - two people lived here in winter and four in summer (as of early 2018). They had a mayor. He was mayor for 30+ years. He used to be a rural mail carrier and moved to Ruso in 1956 - before my own dad was even born. He spent the winter in a bigger small town but as soon as summer came he always went back to Ruso. He loved it. And in the article he said “If I ever leave I’m sure that will be the end.” And he was almost right.

That article also said that there were grocery stores and meat market in Ruso way back in the day. Like, the 20s. And, just after incorporating, the town had over 100 people and a doctor and a newspaper! Lots of towns didn’t have those things back then. Also a repair shop, a grain elevator (or 5, according to another source), a park, a place to leave horses, and later a place where someone built 14 foot fishing boats! And according to another source this town was on a railroad line so there was a depot and everything too, and a cream station, and a gas station and mechanic shop. This town had everything! 

And the park? Now it’s a slough, apparently - although on maps it’s still the official city park. But back in the 30s, according to a woman interviewed in the article, they used to play down there because it was so dry. When the rains came back and the slough filled back in it would freeze in winter and they’d use it as a skating rink! 

The little bit of taxes people pay go to two street lights, sewage, and garbage pickup. They can’t afford snow removal. Ouch! No wonder two people live there in winter. 

Sadly, a follow up article soon appeared announcing the death of the mayor who kept the town going for so long. He was still mayor at the time - all 3 residents voted for him. 100% turnout. Now that the mayor is gone, there aren’t enough people to fill the city council (3 people are needed - the town now only has 2 full time residents). That means the city probably won’t be a city for long.

This looks to be an old house. I have no info about this one. 

Happily, another follow up article came out last summer with good news for Ruso! It said that the town was supposed to get a 100% population increase! From 2 to 4. And they’re appointing a new mayor! Yay! So there is hope for Ruso after all. 

Anyway, you can see there’s a big field in the middle of town here. According to this website there used to be a baseball diamond there where they would have games. 

And I’m thinking that this used to be the school. 

It seems someone may be turning it into a house? I hope it gets more love in the future, it’s looking kind of shabby. Such a cool building though! 

A comment by “Vivian” on this website describes the school and more: “I was born in 1925 and grew up in Ruso. My parents and many of my family are buried in the Ruso cemetery. The school was large enough to accommodate 2 years of high school when I was growing up. There was a big bell that was rung to signal the start of a school day. We kids would take turns ringing it. It was great fun as the bell was so big, you would pull down on the rope and be pulled up into the air by the return swing of the bell. You could hear the bell all over the county. We lived a few miles away, so usually my brothers and I walked to school. Sometimes we would take one of the horses though. And in the winter sometimes Dad would bring us in the cutter sleigh. In the winter Mom would make ice cream and we would bury it in the snow bank to eat at recess. Growing up there was an experience. We cooked & heated the house with a wood stove. We had kerosene lamps & candles for lighting and there was no indoor plumbing. Mom did the wash once a week, boiling water on the stove and washing everything using a washboard and soap. The clothes were hung out on a line to dry – in the winter she’d bring the frozen garments in to finish off drying by the stove. Bath time was once a week too & followed the same process – boil the water on the stove & use it to scrub yourself while sitting in a big washtub in the kitchen.”

Down the overgrown street and around a corner is the old Lutheran church!

And someone has moved in, at least around the church. They’ve brought animals and lots of junk but hey, it’s lived in! 

Thanks to street view you can see what this place looked like in 2008. You can see the outhouses and junk and a big scrapped bus that says “Huntley Project Red Devils” - that made me go back to my MT days because Huntley Project is in MT! 

Back to present day, a donkey! 

And another donkey! And look in the background it looks like someone is growing flowers. 

Again, according to this article, the Lutheran church closed in 1997 for good. It never did have running water - only an outhouse. Sadly, the basement of the church was used to house chickens and then a dog got in there and killed 80. The “city” passed a law that said no vicious dogs allowed in town. 

Before the church closed they went out in a classic way - a lutefisk dinner. One of the ladies interviewed in the article said: “That was about the last activity...We had a snowstorm before the supper. What a mess. There was no water at the church. All I got done was hauling water in and carrying water out. We made it but that’s the last supper we had.”

Going back to the 2008 street view shots - here it is before anyone moved in. 

And there’s that bus again. On this website there was a comment from David Seaman that had some information about it: “according to my ex-father in law from velva the bus has been there since the late 80s early 90s it had broken down between ruso and velva and was left and never repaired or retrieved and was towed by some local farmer to its current resting place. i have no way of verifying this but he’s been in velva all his life since 43 so i would imagine its probly right along the lines of what happened.”

And this comment from the same website by someone named Lisa had alot of insight about Ruso: “My mom was the last postmaster at Ruso’s post office, which was located in what was the old bank building (also a residence). The post office closed sometime in the 2000s. The sign that the author speaks of that mentions 1981 was in commemoration of Ruso’s 75th Anniversary Celebration. It is a shame that the church grounds are in the shape that they are in now – it’s not necessarily the fault of the few residents (most of whom have no connection to the church), but rather the person who purchased the property and is using it as a junkyard. My great-grandfather was a carpenter and helped build the church and the furnishings inside. I remember going to bridal and baby showers and anniversary celebrations in the church basement as a young girl. I also remember softball games being played in the baseball diamond. The stone building across from the baseball diamond was the old jail. Both of my grandfathers and many other relatives attended school in Ruso. My grandmother worked in the bar that Deputy Sheriff Bob speaks of and I remember hearing about the fire. Ruso used to have 5 grain elevators in its heyday. I often wish I could timetravel and visit Ruso during its height! The Ruso Record newspaper is available for viewing on microfilm at the State Archives in Bismarck and has a lot of interesting information from the busy days of the town.”

Heading back around to the “main part” of town. 

I believe that, according to this article, Ruso’s two full time residents live here. I think this is the bank/post office that they are remodeling. 

Beside the bank there used to be a gas station. It burned down many years ago - 1980, according to a comment from this website. “Mike Pflipsen owned the gas station and mechanic shop next to the Post office. The sign that is referred to was in front of his gas station and the post was part of his filling station area. He also owned the property where the ball diamond is on. Mike ran the gas station for many years and was a bachelor his whole life. In 1980 his gas station burned down while he was sleeping inside. Somehow he was able to get out and he lived with my father, Hubert Pflipsen of Max, until he went into the Nursing home in Garrison. I have since purchased the lots from him and visit Ruso every year when I come back to ND.”

Street view 2008:

An interesting comment by Bob Roggenbuck from this website about the bar in Ruso which either was in this building or one nearby. “I was a deputy sheriff in McLean County in 1977 -1978 working out of Garrison when I and another deputy stopped in Russo at the bar on a bar check, we went on to Butte and were called back to Russo, because the bar was on fire. It burned to the ground that night as we watched and could not believe that less than a hour earlier we were in there visiting we the people in the bar. It was rebuilt, but the place was never the same. It is so sad to see the town in the shape it is now.”

Further down the road is this place. Someone mowed a path to it. So I walked down.

Well this place has seen better days!

I spy a water heater...and a lot of junk.

Further down the bath continued into the trees and it was kind of magical. All overgrown and green.

Looking across from this house, an old building and an old garage. 

Here’s the storefront. No idea what it used to be.

And the garage.

Think there’s anything in there?

Looking back toward the occupied home in town.

I’m guessing this used to be someone’s house, long abandoned now.

I was delighted with all the information I was able to find on Ruso! What a delightful little town in such a beautiful area of ND! 

On my way out I stopped for this photo. The sunset and angle of the receding storm clouds made this thistle glow.

So pretty!

And to see me out of Ruso - this pretty hawk. It was still partially raining when I got this photo so it’s not great. But he sat still for me for a moment!

Ruso, you are so neat little town! I hope you can maintain your population or even grow so you never become unincorporated!

[dcarevu]

Batman TAS: Heart of Steel (Part 1)

“I do wish you wouldn’t be so rough with your toys, Master Bruce.”

Episode: 38 Robin: No Writers: Brynne Stephens (Brynne Chandler) Director: Kevin Altieri Animator: Sunrise Airdate: November 16, 1992 Grade: A

Mixing the world of Batman TAS with heavy science fiction elements, particularly those related to computers, could have equated a heavily dated disaster. Even Batman’s bat-computer rubs me the wrong way sometimes, it sometimes seems out of place. I don’t think the decade helped much. I am not nostalgic at all for the computers of the 90’s and early 2000’s. They were a pain in the ass and they were ugly. Batman’s computer may be super advanced, but it was still a 90’s vision. Compare this to the futuristic world of The Jetsons. The Jetsons certainly had advanced technology, but it was also contained to what we already understood about technology. Because of that, it has not aged unnoticeably despite some aspects of that future still being a ways off from today. In many cases, we simply found different ways to advance, and things like the smart phone or the tablet were hugely instrumental in determining the way our technology would wander come the late-2000’s.

Heart of Steel isn’t set in the future, though, and this helps. Sure, the show was meant to be as timeless as possible, and therefore should somewhat translate to our modern times… Right? Ehh… I don’t think that “timeless” necessarily needs to mean that. The purposely dated aspects of the show (such as black and white TV’s) are now not much more retro than some of the technology and ideas featured in this episode. Eventually we will be at a place where the space between black and white TV’s and the Internet will be significantly smaller than the space between the Internet and present-day. Because of this technology in this episode seems less 90’s, and more like it fits in with the show’s atmosphere, blending together elements of the past and present. What do you get when you put together archaic technology with present-day technology? Something kinda in the middle. So we have weird, hybrid-era computers, black and white TV’s, and many other things that mostly existed decades apart, and it works. It’s all like a stew. A good story aids as well, and what Heart of Steel delivers is pretty interesting, incredibly creepy, and cunningly suspenseful.

When the episode starts, right off the bat, we can see that it’s unusually dirty-looking. The Blu Ray release features no such quirk, but goodness gracious, how did this much film-dirt pollute so many of the frames? Char thought it only added to the look, and I definitely won’t argue that. But a little film dirt goes a long way for me. When it’s looking this grubby, to the point where it could be god damn snowing, I see it as a little bit of a problem. Nothing I can’t look past, though. While we’re on the topic of animation, Sunrise is back, a lesser-used studio who, so far, as done a sufficient job, but not much beyond that. They have a style that I don’t recognize until I know it’s them. Hindsight bias? Maybe. But they’re kinda in between Dong Yang’s best work and Akom’s standard-to-best. They typically have some really weird shots every episode, and we get one here that is displayed down below in the section for screengrabs. They did a damn fine job at animating the suitcase robot, which was certainly not something you have to practice drawing every day, and the more dramatic scenes that popped up near the end. They were also able to give us an absolutely gorgeous Barbara and Randa. I have to call special attention to Randa’s design. Apparently she was modeled after Marilyn Monroe, and it shows. Char and I both briefly discussed how attractive she is. Too bad she’s a big ol’ bitch, right? At least Barbara is adorable inside and out.

So we start at Wayne Enterprises, and this mysterious blonde woman (who turns out to be Randa) leaves a suitcase inside, leaving immediately afterward. A guard picks it up and starts messing with it, which seems a little stupid. I mean, god, that scenario has “bomb” written all over it. The guard gets the suitcase open, and it seems ordinary, so he leaves it for the night in case anyone decides to come back for it the next day. Big mistake, because once the suitcase is alone, it grows metallic limbs, a robotic eyeball, and starts scurrying around the building, making its way up to a vault containing some microchips. The microchips are one piece to the puzzle of free-thinking AI, so obviously they are incredibly valuable. The guard and Bruce Wayne take notice on their way out, and after an action sequence between security and the spindly, little robot, Batman follows it to a car being driven by the blonde lady we saw earlier. Unfortunately she is able to stop Batman from following, ending the action for the night.

After talking to Lucius Fox and Commissioner Gordon (who has Barbara with him, her first appearance), Bruce visits a place called Cybertron Industries. Optimus Prime is nowhere to be seen, but a guy named Karl Rossum is running the company, and has a sweet, delicious southern accent. Seriously, this guy’s voice is really good. Like many of the mainstays, it exudes so much character and sounds incredibly natural at the same time. Rossum shows Bruce around, introducing him to some of his mechanical inventions, and then shows him his masterpiece, a giant computer named HARDAC (Holographic, Analytical, Reciprocating, Digital Computer). Oh, and his assistant, who has her hair covered up so that the audience doesn’t recognize her as the same woman who left the suitcase. It is pretty obvious that this is her, though, and when Rossum refuses to reveal the purpose of HARDAC, this whole operation gets even fishier. Hell, when Commissioner Gordon earlier mentioned that the only team (that’s not Wayne Enterprises) researching this type of AI was Cybertron, we might as well have taken it as, “So Karl Rossum is the villain.” I don’t actually remember if he is the villain or not, it’s been too long since I’ve seen the episode, but I’m going to remain suspicious. I do remember another big detail, though, and I’m going to avoid mentioning it for the sake of spoilers. You’re welcome.

Bruce Wayne convinces Rossum’s assistant (Randa) to go on a date with him in order to squeeze information out of her. “Well… Squeeze might not be the best word.” as Bruce put it. I couldn’t even believe I heard that. Huge innuendo! But after leaving, Randa makes her way to a section in Rossum’s lab where she begins an incriminating conversation with HARDAC, and a machine spits out a copy of Commissioner Gordon, naked as a jaybird. This copy makes its way to his house, along with Randa, and takes his place, unbeknownst to Barbara. She can tell something is different with him, though, as he won’t talk to her like he normally does, he stops calling her “Princess”, and he nastily swats her stuffed bear onto the floor, despite the real Gordon seemingly being more attached to it than Barbara is. It’s a very startling moment, actually, and it jumped Char. It made me audibly gasp, and it also made me a little sad. You don’t mistreat stuffed animals like that, you monster!

At the same time, Randa and Bruce are on their date at Wayne Manor. Bruce has to leave for a little while in the middle of it, due to an information theft at Wayne Industries, and while he’s gone, Randa communicates with HARDAC again, seemingly with the aid of an earpiece. Because the information stolen was actually decoy information, HARDAC instructs her to search the house, and she happens to stumble across the Batcave in the search. This makes for the first major time anyone has figured out that Bruce and Batman are the same exact person (Hugo Strange’s efforts didn’t amount to anything), and it ends up being much more dramatic. During the search, Alfred is put unconscious, and when Bruce finally gets back, things are quiet. Randa is nowhere to be seen, and Alfred doesn’t seem to recall what happened. Is this the real Alfred? I can’t recall. He seems to act pretty normal, but he also has no idea what is going on. He could have hit his head, but it leaves me concerned. Another element to the story that I cannot remember from several years back. Batman heads down to the Batcave to investigate, but his computer starts going absolutely haywire. Some mechanical arms from above grab him, and drag him up, ending the episode. The techno-freak-out is just as frightening as the bear-swat from earlier with “Gordon”, and it makes for a great end to the episode. In general, the episode picks up as we get closer and closer to the end. The beginning is B-material, and the end is A-material easily. Because of this, I eventually went with an A, succumbing to the peer pressure supplied by Char (that’s a joke). We’ll look at Part 2 soon (the post for Perchance to Dream may be up first), where we’ll hopefully get a thrilling conclusion. So far, the second parts of the two-parters have been inferior, with the hard exception being Feat of Clay.

Some various moments of the suitcase robot. The eyeball is the one thing that adds a little bit of camp, so they could have done without that. Wouldn’t a little seeing sensor work a bit better? 

The guard fiddling with the key while Bruce patiently waits. Clearly this is here to show the imperfect qualities of man when compared to machine (being totally serious here, without any sarcasm).

And here’s our Sunrise weirdness of the episode. What the hell am I looking at? 

Batman is looking a little husky, but overall it’s a good drawing. Better than that scary monstrosity above it.

Also a decent looking fire. The key is to avoid too many (if any) black lines if you don’t have the chops to really make them look awesome. 

Batman whips out his binoculars for a second to get a better look at the rocket (filled with the microchips) that leaves the suitcase. It’s quick.

Being a Wayne-owned building, Batman has a few secrets hidden around.

Actually, here’s another one I forgot to add earlier. Clever! 

No one pours anything into a bag like this, the shit will spill all over the place. 

Okay, I need one of these in my trunk for tail-gaters. 

More Sunrise weirdness. We can see through the wave, and there’s no Batman. When the wave comes back down, he’s there again. 

Nice water running over Batman’s costume.

Followed by a gross face that we hold on for a few frames. 

Here we see Alfred dusting Batman’s computer system, but Char at first thought that he was playing with a ball. I thought that was so amusing I had to include it. 

As Batman and Alfred discuss AI, we get this detailed shot of Alfred’s mop. I don’t get it. 

BARBARA!!! 

I love Jim and this bear. He takes it to the airport every time he picks up Barbara. “Well, he knows the way better than I.” That’s adorable. 

As Jim leaves, he realizes that Bruce is still holding onto it. He then says, “Barbara forgot her bear.”

Barbara’s first appearance is a strong one, since we have already gotten to know Gordon. She feels like an extension of him.

A little bit Jetsons, and that’s not the color I would have chosen, but a cute robot.

This one is my favorite. It makes music (that sounded like some sort of brass instrument). 

This big red button is for making cappuccinos. Brilliant. 

I’m sorry, but this looked like the worst foot-rub ever. 

This is HARDCAC. Jesus, how much did that run you, buddy? I’d spend more than double what’s in my bank account for a Macintosh laptop.

Seeing the construction of the Gordonbot was eerie. Before we see the face, we have no idea who it’s supposed to look like, so it leaves us in a bit of suspense. Also, HARDAC refers to this as the next duplicate. That has to mean there are others already out there.

Total 2001 vibes. HARDAC has a great voice. 

Isn’t she beautiful? I can see the Monroe-influence. I wonder why, though?

Really disturbing as Gordon answers the door, seeing himself cloaked in shadow. The stuff of nightmares. Basically a futuristic version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. 

The sound it makes too is so violent when you’re not expecting it. 

I feel like this scene represents that space that is suddenly between them. There is one point where the Gordonbot says, “I said I’m fine.” in a really aggressive tone that gives me the willies. Replacements/copies of humans are such a scary concept. 

A really well-composed screengrab. Could be an album cover. 

So is the Batcave entrance behind the clock, or behind this bookshelf..? Not both, there’s only one staircase. Inconsistencies! 

Oddly-proportioned Batman. 

So, why exactly does Batman keep his work files on his Batcave computer? Although I suppose this files this secretive, it’s not a bad plan. Until we run into situations like this, anyway!

Char’s grade: A Next time: Heart of Steel (Part 2)

Full episode list here!

[taffysannotatedsonichu]

How the Pokémon Came Into Our Pokeballs

INTRO

How the Pokémon Came Into Our PokéBalls. 10/30/99 (Intro.)

For my English class in late September of this year, I had to write my own myth. So, I figured "Why not make a myth about how Pokémon came to be."

My English teacher thought that it was a great story. So did my mom and a few other people. Since it was so good, I thought I'd feature it on this website. Click Here to read my story. Enjoy. :)

PAGE 1

9/22/99 Page 1. Some people say that the Pokémon came from the sky in a giant rock known as the Moon Stone. Others say that they originated from the depths of nature's elements. But, they are all not true... this is the true story.

A long, long time ago in the heavens above, there were such powerful gods as Zeus, Maheo, and many more. But, it all started with a rookie god, known as...Mewchu. He had thepower to help provide for the animals, plants, minerals, and to keep track of the seven natural powers of the universe: Fire, Grass, Lightning, Water, Fighting, Psychic, and the power of the Colorless Star.

Mewchu made sure that the animals and plants were fed from natures natures good foods. He made sure that nature's minerals, such as rocks, dirt from the ground, and the mucky messes were used for their purpose.

One day, Mewchu said to himself, "There must be a way to allow the animals, small and big, to do these tough chores, so that I may be able to be a little clean." Then, he thought, "Why not give some of the natural powers to a new type of creature." So, he went down to earth with the power to absorb the natural powers of earth, and share it. So, he stood... in the middle of the Pacific, surrounded by islands of seven and water.

He decided to start with making a powerful animal to assist him in his great task. Then, he found a weird creature on an island. It was mostly white, blue eyes, short arms, big feet, and a long tail with a pink fpsy tip. Mewchu has never seen such an animal, so he absorbed the power of Psychic from the stars, gave the creature a gentle rub on its back, and picked it up. And Mewchu said to the creature, "You, rare creature, have received the supernatural power of the Psychics from the stars above us. But you would need a name for you will be my assistant to make a new type of elemental creatures. I shall call you...Mew." And the Mew jumped for joy, then set him down with some wise words. "Mew," Mewchu said, "I want you to pick some animals that are here now, and share with them the Psychic power. For I would not be able to, because I may only share each elemental power only one time for one creature or more. I trust that you can share this power, while I handle the other six elemental powers." Then he set the Mew down, on its island and it went on its way.

PAGE 2

Mewchu decided to start with the power of grass, so he rubbed the grass of another island's ground, and he waved his hand over the trees. A triceratops began to lose its horns, and it turned into a creature called Bulbasaur. A caterpillar lost its fuzz; it grew a little bigger; it turned green, and it got the name of Caterpie. Another caterpillar's fur only shortened; it grew a small horn; it grew a little, like the Caterpie did; it turned orange, and it became a Weedle. A rattlesnake turned purple, and grew a single yellow stripe; it became an Ekans. A rat grew small horns, turned blue, and became a Nidoran (female). And, another rat grew bigger horns, turned pink, and became a Nidoran (male). A bat's legs turned to two tails as thin as a blade of grass, its ears grew bigger, and it became a Zubat. A tiny bush sprouted out of the ground, grew eyes,and became an Oddish. A fuzzy bush grew two teeth like a vampire; it became a Venonat. A bell-shaped palm shrunk; it became a Bellsprout. A mud puddle grew into a Grimer. Six eggs bounced and said, "Exeggcute." A puff of smoke became solid, and mentioned, "Koffing." A bunch of vines gathered around another Oddish, it was Tangela. A dragonfly grew, and said, "Scyther." The rocks got a body of armor, and said, "Pinser."

Then Mewchu dipped his hand into the firey volcano of another island, pulled it out, and waved his hand over the volcano. Many animals were below. A baby tyrannosaurus got fire on its tail, and yelled, "Charrrrmander!" A fox's tail split into six. Maybe, it's now a Vulpix. A dog turned orange, and growled, "Growwwllithe!" A pony got burned, and neighed. A chunk of ash was revived and turned into a Magmar. And, a big bird flew out the volcano, it was a Moltres.

Mewchu then dipped his hand in the ocean's waters, and gave another wave over another island with a big lake in the middle. A baby turtle and a squirrel on an island joined together to make a Squirtle. A fat duck turned yellow with a headache; it became a Psyduck. A tadpole got bigger with a swirl on its belly, a Poliwag came to be. A jellyfish's arms shrunk into two. It was then a Tentacool. A Slowpoke was formed when a baby hippopotamus grew a tail. A seal turned white, and grew a horn on its head; it was Seel. A shell opened up, and stuck out a tongue, hello Shellder. A Krabby came when a crab got crowned. A seahorse started to spit oil, a fish grew a horn on its head, and starfish grew a jewel. Here were a Horsea, a Goldeen, and a Staryu. A crown from a treasure grew onto a hard-shell fish; here was a Magikarp. A rare lochness monster grew a spiked shell on its back; it became a Lapras. A fossil was revived; it was an Omanyte. Out of an arctic ice berg, an Articuno broke out.

PAGE 3

Meanwhile, Mew shared its Psychic power with a Psyduck, and a Slowpoke. When Mew shared it with a rat, it fell asleep, and grew into an Abra. When Mew came across the body of a dead lizard, it summoned its spirit, and shared some "Gastly" secrets with it. Later, Mew met an anteater; Mew put it to sleep, and the anteater became a Drowzee. Mew found two monkeys, with an evolution. One turned into a Mr. Mime, and the other became a Jynx. Later in the night, Mew gave birth, and the baby Mew looked different. The new Mew gave its mother a psychic attack, and thrown it up a tree. Suddenly, the new Mew grew to the size that of a man with many years, It was a Mewtwo.

Meanwhile, Mewchu found a barren island with sand and rocks. He punched it, and out of the ground came the fighting and ground type creatures: Sandshrew, Diglett, Mankey, Machop, Geodude, Onix, Cubone, Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, Rhyhorn, and a Kabuto.

Then Mewchu summoned a thunderstorm, and lightning struck another island. The lightning hit a little mouse, and the mouse grew into a Pikachu. Metallic minerals rose out of the ground of a small area of the island, and it formed to make a Magnemite. A coconut was struck with a piece of the metallic material carrying some of the electric power; the coconut turned metallic; it became a Voltorb. A wild cat was struck, and it became an Electabuzz. And out of the thunderous clouds came a Zapdos.

   And finally, Mewchu planted a transparent star in the middle of the other island. And from the star came the Colorless creatures: Pidgey, Rattata, Spearow, Clefairy, Jigglypuff, Meowth, Farfetch'd, Doduo, Lickitung, Chansey, Tauros, Eevee, Porygon, and Dratini.     Before Mewchu bid farewell, he waved his hand over all seven islands, and most of the creatures evolved into more powerful creatures. And, then He shouted out, "May these creatures be helpful to the earth, and may they use their abilities wisely." Then, he said with a tear of joy, "Farewell,... Pokémon." And Mewchu flew back into the heavens.

The End.

This piece of prose was written by Chris during September of 1999, as an assignment for his twelfth grade English class, and is believed to be the earliest surviving piece of prose (though Bionic the character predates this by three years, his prose story wasn’t written until 2000). Tasked to come up with his own myth for his own mythology, Chris created an origin legend for the original 151 Pokemon. Apparently it got a solid grade (to be fair, its juvenile premise aside, this is one of Chris’s most grammatically correct works I’ve seen.) It was quickly uploaded to CWC’s Pokesite 2, where the Christorical community found it, and can be found here if you’re interested in reading it against a bright yellow backdrop. Despite the title, the story is not a history on the origin of Pokeballs, nor is it an explanation about how any specific Pokemon entered any specific Balls.

The cover, shown above, is an uncentered collage of pictures of Pokemon surrounding Chris’s name and title. I believe these pictures are from the N64 spinoff Pokemon Snap, where your job was to take photos of Pokemon in their natural habitats (this explains why they’re strangely, often poorly, framed - Chris took these himself.) From left to right, top to bottom, they are Charizard, Dragonite, two Starmies, Scyther, two Bulbasaurs, a flock of Charmanders, two Pikachus, Mew, Moltres, Zapdos, Articuno, two Dratinis, Magmar, three Jigglypuffs, Porygon, two more pictures of Mew, and one last Pikachu for the road. For some reason, those Starmies have a weird purple, yellow, and green color scheme that they never have anywhere in the game (normally they’re purple, gold, and red, and the at this point unreleased in the west shiny form is blue, red, and dark blue). Maybe Chris’s printer was running low on ink?

Chris’s first sentence seems to refer to one episode of the anime wherein Clefairys and Clefables are seen worshiping a giant Moon Stone, which in the games is what they use to evolve, and a scientist travelling with Ash and team theorizes that all Clefairy and their evolutionary relatives came on the giant Moon Stone meteorite from space. This is apparently the case for the Clefairy family (at least in the anime, the games are a bit more coy about stating whether or not they’re actually from space), as later they are shown operating spacecrafts. But never is it suggested that all Pokemon came from space at one point, especially not on the giant Moon Stone, at the time only the Clefairy family, Staryu and Starmie, and sometimes Mew had been said to be extraterrestrial in origin.

Chris invokes Zeus, the Greek thunder and sky god who also served as head god, and Maheo, the Cheyenne creator deity responsible for the earth. I imagine that these were the examples Chris’s English teacher gave him for creator gods, though Zeus really wasn’t much of a creator god so much as its current ruler (he was of the third generation of Greek gods).

Chris sets out an OC as the creator of the Pokemon universe - Mewchu. Obviously this is meant to tie in to what was at the time considered the highest of Pokemon Mew, but the -chu suffix implies some sort of close connection to the Pikachu family that’s never really expanded upon. Notably, about eight years after Chris made this, Mew’s role as top Pokemon was superseded by Arceus, who has something of a similar origin story to this Mewchu - at the beginning, Arceus was the only being in the void of nothingness, until he decided to create Dialga, thus creating time, and Palkia, thus creating space, and Giratina, thus creating antimatter. After creating the Lake Trio of Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit, knowledge, willpower, and emotion respectively, Arceus disappeared, his job for the time completed. Notably, Mewchu’s design is never explained, so Chris’s creativity is limited to the name alone.

The elemental division in this story seems to draw solely on the elemental system of the TCG game, which uses an abridged system of types, which at the time consisted of just seven, Fire, Grass, Water, Lightning (or Electric), Fighting, Psychic, and Colorless (their term for Normal), while the reference to the Clefairy story and the Pokemon saying their names (which they don’t do in the video games or the card game) would imply that there are some anime influences in this story as well.

Apparently Mewchu did not create the earth, all he was in charge of was watching a bunch of animals that some other god created. In fact, in this story, Pokemon were created from real world animals. It is, of course, delightfully in character for Chris to have Mewchu create the 151 original species of Pokemon purely to help him do chores. These seven islands Chris mentions seem to be Chris’s inventions; it’s tempting to compare these islands to the Seven Grapefruit Islands from the Orange Islands arc of the anime but the episode that took place there had been released in Japan but not in the US so unless Chris was really paying attention to the Japanese releases of the anime it couldn’t have been an inspiration.

Mewchu’s first creation is Mew, the Pokemon considered the genetic predecessor of all other Pokemon, at least the original 151. While Mewchu is the master of all seven elements, Mew is only competent at one by Chris’s standards and is apparently only responsible for the Psychic-Type (by the standards of the TCG, which also includes the video games’s Ghost-Types) Pokemon.

The first Pokemon to be created are the Grass-Types (and Bug-Types and Poison-Types since those count as Grass-Types in the TCG), possibly referring to the first Pokemon in the Pokedex being Bulbasaur, who is the first listed here. Mewchu rubs the plant life of one of the seven islands and everything on the island begins mutating. Unlike God, Jesus, and The Bear, who tasked Adam and Eve to name the animals of the Garden of Eden, Mewchu makes the animals name themselves. Scyther is supposed to be a mantis, by the way, not a dragonfly.

To create Fire-Type Pokemon, Mewchu drenches animals in lava and sets them on fire. I guess that’s one way to make Fire-Type animals.

Another island is drowned underneath a tidal wave by Mewchu and the only survivors are those beasts that can instantly adapt (or Chris’s worded the first sentence poorly). Apparently Mewchu also caused some sort of oil spill because it says that Horsea began spitting oil (Horsea’s Pokedex entries mention it shooting ink like a squid, but ink is not oil.)

Next, Mew takes care of its singular duty, creating the Psychic- (and Ghost-) Types. Let it be known that despite the name Psyduck is in fact not Psychic-Type. After creating all the other Psychic-Types, Mew has a random baby (omitted is the sequence where Mew was on Maury trying to figure out who the father was. It was probably Slowpoke.) Said baby attacks its mother immediately after birth, and one of the two ends up getting thrown up a tree (easily this is the most confusing sentence in the piece). If we were to assume that this was Mew attempting to destroy her violent son Mewtwo, it might have been a reference to the birth of Hephaestus, who was deemed so hideous by his mother Hera that she threw him off Mount Olympus, crippling him, but this deep mythological cut is unlikely. Either way this child instantly grows into the canonically man-made Mewtwo. For whatever reason, Chris attributes all of the canonically man-made Pokemon, Mewtwo, Porygon, and the fossils revived by man Kabuto, Omanyte, and Aerodactyl to Mewchu and its little helper.

The Fighting- (and Ground- and Rock-) Types are passed over in a handwave, not even getting specific origins. It’s possible that since many of the Gen I Fighting-Types were humanoid (the Machop line, the Hitmons), Chris didn’t want to imply that any Pokemon were once humans.

In a similarly violent fashion as the Fire-Types, the Electric-Types are electrocuted to transform them into magical beings. Chris also offers an alternate take on the origins of the Voltorb - instead of being a Pokeball that somehow came to life, it was instead a coconut that came to life. Why then it sports the colors and patterns of a Pokeball is left unclear.

Lastly, Mewchu creates the Colorless (read: Normal-Type plus Dratini) Pokemon similarly to the Fighting-Types - in a long list. After giving some Pokemon a crash course on evolving, presumably finishing the complete 151, Mewchu scurried off. Whatever happened to Mewchu in the millennia afterward is left unknown. Did Mewchu create the rest of the Pokemon, the ones that didn’t exist when Chris wrote this? Did Mewchu cease to be? We’ll never know. I’d love it if Chris revisited this story this fall around its twentieth anniversary, have it be fifteen pages full of Pokemon origins. “And then, Mewchu and Mew got super high and said ‘you know what would be super cool? Flying Nazca Lines.’ and then they created Sigilyph.”

[stylinbreeze60]

My “WIPs”

Thanks @sugaandyams. I don't get tagged too often, so thank you!

“The Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous.”

Oh my goodness. I had stuffed saved in all different places. I’ll start with the folders that contained fics that are incomplete. Welp, here I go!

Great Galactic War - this folder is the dump for my Haikyuu space/war AU, one of three or four fics I may focus on writing in the near future (first chapter is already published); the folder has very little atm, but I have about two dozen different scenes on my phone that aren't saved on PC

Kenma Project - the dump for my actively ongoing Haikyuu next gen captain war AU. I have a file in here further titled Ennoshita chapter. I wonder what that’s about? ;)

Three Kings - the dump for my Haikyuu samurai AU starring Hinata and Noya, the second possible fic I may commit to writing (first 2 chapters already published); there’s a chapter outline (which is dated because I’ve updated it in my head so much), and there are notes and many chapter tidbits on my phone too

Vice - the dump for a canonverse Haikyuu fic that was borne from a desire to write more Nekoma, so I subjected them to debilitating angst. There’s a rough chapter outline in here, and there are a couple of chapter drafts saved as emails on my phone. It’s the third fic that I might commit my time to (first 2 chapters, starring poor Inuoka, already published)

March of Justice - this folder was the dump for my aborted One Piece/My Hero Academia crossover, in which a couple of One Piece villains travel to the BnHA universe to conquer it

And here’s the rest I found. Some of these are just notes on fanciful ideas I had for a day and then never revisited. Others were never intended to see the light of day whatsoever

Abe dake ga Inai Machi - Oofuri-Erased - oh goodness. I had to stare at that title for a while to figure out what was wrong with it. An Oofuri/Big Windup fanfic that I didn’t play with for very long, but I was surprised to find I actually wrote the first chapter. Like Boku Dake ga Inai Machi (Erased), there’s a murder and then Abe finds himself transported back to the start of the Oofuri series, 10 months earlier. I reread some of this first chapter, and by my standards, it’s awful

Ace of Diamond - scandal fanfic - one of the ones never intended to see the light of day. It’s just notes. Basically Seidou pulls off its own Black Sox scandal and gets nailed, with some drama over whether Eijun is actually guilty

Ace of Iron / Ace of Swords - a Diamond no Ace samurai AU, mostly notes but also including drafts of a first chapter. It grew so huge there was no chance I could ever write it as a fanfic, so I actually converted it into an original story idea that I may do something with some day

Big Windup - cheating ploy disaster - this one is just notes and also never intended to see the light of day. An Oofuri idea in which Nishiura’s defeated rivals suspect them of cheating and kidnap the club boys to force them to confess. It goes even more downhill. (I’m very glad that, since discovering Haikyuu, I now conceive fanfics I actually want to write.)

Day of the Countercoup - I had to dig to find this one cos I knew it existed, but it wasn't a file. It was a tab in an Excel doc I used for my Haikyuu political AU, Coup d’Etat. It’s notes for an aborted sequel (Coup d’Etat’s original title was “Night of the Coup,” hence this contrasting title) that I scrapped soon after starting work on it. So glad too! Coup d’Etat got its due, and that AUverse shall be left to itself now

Haikyu - Gospel of Shouyou - oh goodness. I’m not gonna explain this one. Me experimenting, not intended to see the light of day

Haikyu - Nightmare from Heaven - this one may be the fourth candidate for continuation as a long-term fic but is currently unpublished. A war/occupation fic in which Miyagi Prefecture is conquered during a contemporary World War III, and the Karasuno boys must now live under foreign military occupation. The first chapter and part of the second were written, and I've got several notes on my phone and PC about subsequent chapters. Thank goodness tensions in that part of the world have simmered down since I devised it

Life Hereafter - Chapter 6.5 alternate ending - oh no. Life Hereafter is my darkest and most sensitive fic, published only on FFN, written to process a RL tragedy I was distantly affected by. I struggled with the ending of Chapter 6, which covered Tsukki and Yamaguchi’s coping with the canonverse tragedy. One draft (called “6.5″ in case I ever wanted to publish it, but I likely never will) featured Tsukki, seeking solace and desperately wanting to console Yamaguchi, giving in to poor judgment and kissing him. Only to then learn Yamaguchi doesn't have the same feelings back. Topping off their hurt with this was far too cruel and painful, and even before I started typing it, I knew I wouldn’t actually publish it. Rereading the draft even now made me feel uncomfortable which is why I kept it because it’s perhaps the best friendship-ruining moment I’ve ever written

Oofuri fanfic - Sakura Conspiracy - I thought I wrote a chapter 1 draft too, but this is an outline for a WWII Oofuri AU in which Nishiura, after winning Koshien in the late 20s or early 30s, moves on to military and political careers, one of their former teammates dies under suspicious circumstances, and Mihashi fears one of his old teammates may be responsible. The story stretches from 1937 to 1945

I'm actually surprised I found no notes on my Haikyuu mafia AU idea. I guess I never actually transcribed any, even though the plot is substantially complete in my head!

These four are all notes for gigantic crossovers:

Periods of World fanfic - This was an experiment, in which each century from 2000 BC to 2000 AD was listed out, a different part of the world selected for each century, and then a different anime or manga assigned to each part of the world. The idea was to write a chapter set in that century in that area starring those characters. The last chapter, for the new millennium, would have covered all parts of the world. The file is dated 2013. It never became more than this list

Periods of World fanfic 2 - and so it seems I tried again! This file is dated 2014 and shows just a teeny bit more dedication, with the 20th century further subdivided into decades, then every year from 2000-2009, and then every six months for 2010-2014. There are some different anime choices than the 2013 version. Never went anywhere with it, never gonna

Reborn epic crossover anime tribute layout - yes, that’s the literal filename. This is from my days as a Katekyo Hitman Reborn fan, and I don't even recognize most of the character names anymore. Apparently the villains of Reborn travel to seven other anime universes to kidnap major characters to sacrifice them as part of some weird magic scheme that I can’t properly decipher now

Random multi-anime WWII fanfic plan - yes, that’s also the literal filename. This is an outline for a 50-chapter crossover set before and during World War II, where the main characters of Naruto are Russian, One Piece are British, Bleach are French, Katekyo Hitman Reborn are German, Blue Exorcist are Italian, Fairy Tail are Japanese, and Ed and Al from FMA are American. The plot is emotionally devastating, doesn’t pull the punches on all sorts of WWII-related triggers, and frequently and cruelly denies catharsis.

To be perfectly honest though, rereading it, I swear this is the best story I have ever invented! It has a heartrending blend of tragedy, poignant poetic justice, subplot causality, and social commentary and contains few of the traps I sometimes fall into like cheap shock and subplots going nowhere. I really wish I could do something with this narrative now

And I’ll count the hefty handful of TV scripts I’ve written in an effort to practice and hone my scriptwriting skills. All but the last one of these are hypothetical new seasons of real anime:

Blue Exorcist s2 - 1 episode. My attempt to write the Impure King arc, years before they actually produced the Impure King arc. This was not my best work

Noragami: God’s Secret - 2 episodes for a manga-based Season 3. These were pretty decent imo

Oofuri/Big Windup: The Coming of Fall - 17 episodes. I got really into this one. A speculative season 3 assuming three cours (imo we probably won’t be blessed with that many episodes if season 3 comes), covering everything up until the end of the fall tournament. The first 13 episodes covered the story up to chapter 84 minus the Kasukabe match, followed by an OVA (ep 13.5), and then I was working on the Kasukabe match told in hindsight before planning to continue with the big game of the fall prelims. The third cour would have covered the fall tournament itself

Mekakucity Actors XX - 4 episodes. My own idea for a season 2/alternate ending. Because I was very conflicted with how the anime ended

School Babysitters - this was an original episode idea for Gakuen Babysitters that I enjoyed writing very much but turned out too long (40 pages) and features the babies turning into insects. I wouldn't mind publishing it somewhere actually!

I am going to tag @wire-pudding and @kemoiunder! Anyone else who reads this and wants to explore the abyss that is non-started WIPs, be my guest too!