#some of the gif are out of order from the actual scene bc i wanted them to line up better ANYWAY...hot

[seasononesam]

3x11 // 4x09

[beaniegaebie]

i don't really have any solid conclusions about this yet but i noticed A Thing in a rewatch and i haven't found it mentioned elsewhere yet so here we go

(apologies for the appalling image quality you're about to see, i can't screenshot easily rn pls bear with)

OKAY so in the scene where crowley confronts gabriel about "shut up and die", something about the arrangement of book stacks caught my eye a little

the majority of the books are angled so that we mostly just see the page edges and not the spines clearly, EXCEPT for a particularly shiny and familiar colour combo right here-

but nothing too weird going on there, i thought, crowley coloured books in a bookshop so what? right up until i registered crowley's line when we get a closer look-

hhhhmmmmMMmmmm yes yes "everything just the way you wanted" huh, very interesting considering that we know how much thought goes into props huh

and for most of the shots we get of crowley in this position those freaking books are just quietly nestled right there in the corner-

look at that god damn framing i fuckin see you, you glorious bastards

so i paused to see if i could figure out what the hell was up with those fuckers and this is when i absolutely lost my mind, your honour

A and C you say?? in crowley colours???? framed like this?????? localised entirely within your kitchen???

anyway long story short they're two books from an Agatha Christie Crime Collection set (24 volumes, three stories per volume) and guess whats on the mfing front covers I'm-

(its a rant for another post but when paired with this other set of initials spotted in s2 i want to scream actually)

ANYWAY back to the books, through an absolutely unhinged comparison of the formatting of gold text blobs i reckon the two we have here are:

(on top) The Pale Horse; The Big Four, The Secret Adversary

(on bottom) 4:50 From Paddington, Lord Edgeware Dies, Murder in Mesopotamia

(I'm fairly confident but if anyone has a better image to confirm/correct this pls do)

now here is where I'll need a bunch of help from some Christie-heads out there bc I haven't read any of these and I've only seen the tv adaptation of one of them, so i dont know for sure if these are like A Clue, or A Cool Thing, or if I've just fully brainrotted myself into a fun lil corner here? wa-hoo

but here's some initial stuff that jumped out at me after skimming the basics:

(some of) the titles: Pale Horse/Big Four - death's horse ofc, the four horsemen mayb? the them+adam?? ; Mesopotamia is a very biblical choice bbz ; 4:50 From Paddington- azi likes trains i guess? idk that one's tenuous lmao ; honestly no idea with the other two but Secret Adversary feels a tad ominous

iirc Big Four just has kind of an unusual history, it was initially twelve short stories that she later compiled into one, and it was published fairly soon after christie's mysterious disappearance/reappearance

in Big Four, poirot fakes his death at one point and doesnt even let hastings in on it and I'm hoping sure its totally irrelevant to the ineffable bois

part of the Pale Horse story is a group of assassins that basically try to pass off all their murders as being actually caused by like ✨satanic powers✨ which is interesting

christie knew a fUCkton about poisonings thats why she wrote so many into her work and, while i don't believe the poison coffee theory myself, it sure is an interesting link with how cyanide is associated with almond smell/flavour and that metatron chooses almond syrup in particular

(ALSO random side note that is mostly meaningless but I've worked in a good few uk coffee shops and have never worked anywhere that stocks almond syrup; almond milk yes, hazelnut syrup yes, but never almond syrup...? prob just the places i worked though lmao)

EDIT forgotten point: I've seen some speculation that the bently's plate reading "CURTAIN" could be a reference to poirot's last story, along side that alternate scene of crowley ordering the sherry for "miss marple", its just one too many agatha christie references for my melted brain to handle and I'm SUS

so this is where i run out of idea steam and hand it over to you lot because i have no clue what this could mean, if it even means anything other than a cool set feature

is there something here actually or am i yelling into the void just for fun?

who knows, who cares!

[mixelation]

(a)sync rotating

so in attempts to not have this drag on forever, i think i'll have minato fall for tori relatively quickly. after she nearly kills him, i have part of a scene written where he tracks her down and

tori obviously noticed his body disappeared. she is HOPING he just teleported away to die of his injuries, but she does quickly realize she may have just pissed off THE most lethal ninja in history. and she no longer has the "i'm just an innocent, harmless civilian :)" disguise

she's like: oooooh no. oh fuck. and she goes into Seal Development Turbo Mode

when minato DOES show back up, they end up at a stale mate where she traps herself in a barrier

minato is like "well that HAS to have a time limit" and then he goes through all her stuff

she's in seal development Turbo Mode so she has a bunch of her notes out, which is both like phylogenies she copied because she's trying to figure out if chakras are more similar in more related taxa, but then also like "results f attempting to flash-fry a rat in project Flash Fry the Yellow Flash"

minato: wtf why do you keep trying to COOK me?

he ends up just leaving her because 1. he doesn't have clear orders from Konoha on this; it's mainly a personal research project, so he'll do what he wants (he is..... very bad about this). 2. he thinks she's interesting. 3. he gets her to explain wtf she's doing and she actually DOES have motives and logic he finds sympathetic: she's trying to get away from war, and even if she's selfish, she doesn't like ninja harassing civilians and she'll intervene when given the opportunity. 4. plus she's like

and this logic speaks to him. minato is "a good guy" in that he's a loyal friend and he largely respects the rules of society (harassing people bad! etc), but he's also basically never once been like "oh, murder of an enemy is too harsh a punishment!!" like yeah, if someone is threatening you or your comrade, you just kill them? duh???

so minato leaves her and has upgraded her in his brain from "interesting potential enemy" to "person i just think is neat." and he's not like I AM NOW IN LOVE but he IS like "i am bored all the time now, and i think having her attention would be fun and interesting and we could get along, so i'm going to try flirting" except she just GETS MAD AT HIM???? and jiraiya has a bunch of very bad suggestions

so minato goes and does his monthly Track Tori Down field trip (tori is always like HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS??? and will switch up her behavior to be weirder and less predictable, it's SO cute) and she's at a bar chatting up some other ninja. minato will NOT admit he is jealous but also, if she wanted to talk to a ninja, he's more famous, superior at every single ninja skill, nicer, smarter, more charming, AND better looking?!

@waffliesinyoface suggested Plasticity lore character Batta of Grass, so that's who Tori's target is. minato reflects on jiraiya's advice and is like FINE I WILL MAKE HER JEALOUS and saunters over and hits on Batta HIMSELF. obviously batta is more interested in talking to him than to tori and abandons her. except now.... now minato is talking to this random unimpressive ninja he doesn't care about and NOT the person who WANTED to see?

batta: (bragging about killing TWO ninja in one fight)

minato: (internal screaming) that's SO impressive (best most resilient fake smile)

and tori looks scandalized for like five minutes but now she's just smirking at him from across the bar. minato is silently begging her to bail him out.

not sure how the batta part of this ends (with him dying in some comical way, maybe?) but i want the fallout to be

tori is like "you are so fucking stupid, i was trying to get him to go kill some road bandits for me bc they're making travel basically impossible"

minato is like "whyyyyy didn't you just ask meeeeee i have been dropping SO MANY HINTS THAT I LIKE YOU"

tori is like "no, you treat EVERYONE like that. you just sat around for two hours treating batta like that even though you don't give a shit about him"

debating if she tells him he's met her TWICE before the boiling incident here, or if it's better to have another mirrored conversation later where instead of "minato why are being dumb" it's "tori why are you acting insane." kind of leaning toward the latter option maybe with them confronting the fact that tori WILL kill minato's allies and he doesn't want her to do that?

minato: ......you could minato: you could ask ME to clear out the bandits

he wants to show off so he takes her down the ENTIRE trade road and clears out every bandit, plus some ninja sitting around

tori IS incredibly blushy and flustered by this!! flirting successful :)

[super-paper]

The Villains' Pastime: Gourmet Food Highlights

Another day, another event focused on the LOV and their targeted psychic attacks on Skeptic's blood pressure (+ ReDestro's wallet)

The event starts with the gang fully embracing the freeloader lifestyle: lounging around and playing cards, ordering premium food on the PLF's dime, and doing absolutely nothing to actually help out with running the organization they violently took over like a week ago.

Everyone praises Tomura for being good at cards, with Compress and Twice wondering how he can be so good at reading others even though most of them are wearing masks. Jin then proceeds to shout out what his hand is, solving part of the mystery behind Tomura's undefeated winning streak in record time.

They want to play another game, but Tomura shoots them down bc it's close to noon and he's hungry. They agree to stop playing cards and get some lunch, and start talking about what sort of gourmet (read: expensive) foods they should try next. Tomura breezily talks about how nice it is to finally have money to burn (he's the worst ♥️), which inevitably summons Skeptic from the fourth ring of hell to bitch everyone out about wasting the PLF's precious funds.

"Thanks a bunch~" If Skeptic murks you in your sleep, you really only have yourself to blame Mister.

No one does "endearing in a criminally insane way" quite like Tomura. 😬

Trumpet senses that things are about to get ugly (or that skeptic is about five seconds away from a full blown hypertensive crisis) and intervenes, suggesting that they play a game of cards-- If Tomura wins, the PLF will foot the bill. If Skeptic wins, they either have to pay for their own lunch or just go hungry.

Tomura (quite predictably) says "fuck that" and tells Spinner just to go buy them lunch at a convenience store.

>be me >be stuck in a secret base hidden deep in the mountains >be literally miles away from civilization and the nearest town >tfw warp gate is doing ten-to-life and warp sludge is being gatekept by the world's most toxic Ivo Robotnik cosplayer 😔 >my boss, fully aware of all the above, orders me to walk to the nearest town and buy him a frozen burrito from a gas station >mfw

IS THIS YOUR MAN, SPINNER.

Tomura lightly bullying his friends and making unreasonable requests is nothing new, but this one strikes me as hilariously mean spirited even by his standards bc it’s also implied Tomura expects Spinner to foot the bill on top of all that:

BRO FALL IN LOVE WITH SOMEONE ELSE 😭

Trumpet eventually convinces Tomura that it would actually (read: obviously) be faster to just settle the issue with a game of cards-- Tomura finally gives in, and they settle on a game of blackjack.

Compress explains the rules of blackjack and offers to deal the cards-- Trumpet shuts this down immediately and says that HE will deal the cards, thank you very much:

As an aside, I love how utterly shameless they make Compress in these events lmao.

Tomura and Skeptic begin their game, and Tomura quickly makes it apparent that he approaches blackjack with the same suicidally reckless abandon as he does pretty much everything else:

Out of context MHA, eat your heart out.

Spinner, Compress, and Dabi all worry that Tomura has drawn too many cards and is gonna lose by default, but Jin and Himiko both express their faith in his abilities as an ill-gotten bread winner (<3)

Tomura and Skeptic both reveal their hands, and we hard cut to the aftermath where the LOV are gushing about all the high quality meat they bought on the PLF's dime while Skeptic seethes in the corner.

>Tomura

> making logical choices

well, there's your first mistake.

Trumpet tells Skeptic to stop being a hater and dig in, casually siding with the LOV now that they've won their premium beef:

Trumpet:

Like a true politician.

The lunch party continues until ReDestro enters the scene... gushing about some high quality meat he managed to get ahold of and asking the League if they'd like some hot pot. :) Skeptic realizes his life is a cosmic joke. The event ends.

Bonus Stuff:

This is starting to feel less like a case of the LOV simply liking sushi and more like a united effort to haze Dabi. Deserved, tbh.

Jin telling Himiko to eat her veggies and Compress fondly watching her eat her weight in meat......... they r SO cute wtf..................,😭

>I start joking about Tomura being the most rancid godawful tsundere in existence

>somewhere out there, apollo draws back his dodgeball arm

He sure complains a lot for someone who grumpily indulges their every whim, huh.

[muertawrites]

Damsel in Destruction (Eddie Munson x Reader)

Summary: Jason and one of his cult members attack you and Eddie as you escape from the Upside Down. You show him just how fed up with his shit you are. (Takes place after the scene where Eddie absolutely destroys it on his guitar. I’m taking creative liberties as to the context of that scene but I have a feeling I’m right.) 

Word Count: 2k 

Warnings: blood, mentions of bullying / physical abuse, harsh language, some slightly anti-religious phrasing

Author’s Note: y’all i’m on the verge of a total mental break. i got my heart ripped to pieces by someone i really cared about and probably could have loved, lost my job without warning because everyone i worked with was a backstabbing cunt, and lost a fundamental human right at the hands of my government. all in less than three months. so this is actually an eddie munson x me fic bc i want to express how totally unhinged i feel and still have someone love me for it. or honestly just to have someone love me period would be nice. i’m losing my fucking mind y’all. i’m gonna go drink myself into a stupor and apply for jobs i no longer feel passionate about and pray for a quick and painless death ✌

“Let's go. We gotta get back."

Eddie's rough, firm grip seized around your bicep and hauled you up off the forest floor, your own hand latching around his arm and clutching him as you stumbled upon standing. Your part of the work was done - Eddie had effectively shattered Vecna's ability to possess minds with the killer shredding of his guitar. Now you just had to meet up with the others without getting caught by the police, an angry mob, or the swarm of demabats and other horrendous beasts that Vecna had set loose upon the living world. Easy.

You jogged through the woods behind Eddie's trailer, hand clasped within his as you traversed roots and rocks and your own shaking legs. He pulled you along, almost ripping your arm out of its socket for his hurry; when you cried out, he slowed and wrapped an arm around you, pressing you into his side.

"Sorry," he murmured. "I'm worried about the kids."

You grinned, squeezing his waist.

"They're okay," you assured him. "They do this all the time."

You walked like that for another mile, tucked under Eddie's arm with his hand rubbing apologetic circles into your shoulder. Eventually, specks of light began to emerge on the horizon, poking through the trees - you were almost to Hawkins High.

Then something heavy collided with the back of your head, knocking you off your feet in a dizzy, blacked out haze.

"Get her," commanded a familiar, chilling voice from somewhere beyond your now blurred vision. "I'll control the animal."

"Don't fucking touch her," you heard Eddie snarl.

His words were followed by the sound of skin hitting skin, bone on bone. Something metal clattering to the ground. Shuffling, bodies struggling against each other, insults and slurs thrown back and forth. More blows.

A hand seized the nape of your neck, using the collar of your denim jacket to force you onto your feet. Your sight came back to you, head clearing enough to realize that the back of your skull was throbbing, and a leather-clad arm was wrapped around your throat. It wore the sleeve of a letterman jacket.

At least the angry mob was smaller than you expected it to be.

You started to thrash. Your hands flew to the arm at your neck, pulling and scratching, while your body slammed back forcefully into the chest of the boy holding you.

"Let go of me!" you shrieked, enraged. To your glee, he struggled to keep his grip on you.

"Shut her up," Jason ordered. "I'll deal with her next."

He stood several feet away, leaned menacingly over the trunk of a tree. Eddie's throat was crushed under his forearm, blood pouring from his nose and a gash in his eyebrow, his guitar shattered at his feet.

"Like hell you will," you muttered.

At your neck, your captor's sleeve had raised just enough to expose a length of skin; you bit down with all your might, teeth sinking in until you tasted blood. The boy howled in pain and flung you to the ground, spitting the words "crazy bitch" through his tears. You rolled, coming to a stop on your side.

Something was lodged beneath you. It stabbed into your hip, up the length of your torso, its pointed end poking your ribs. You reached underneath you, wrapping your fingers around it and finding it cold to the touch.

A crowbar. The same one that had probably knocked you out.

"What the fuck happened?" Jason shouted.

His crony didn't get a chance to respond. You sprung to your feet, swinging the blunt end of the crowbar into the boy's gut, doubling him over; you then slammed it down onto the back of his neck, effectively incapacitating him. He toppled with a groan, and you raised your eyes to find Jason turned around, staring at you in shock and ire. Eddie lay slumped against the base of the tree, stunned.

"Just fuck off, Jason," you warned. "You don't want to find out what your medicine tastes like."

He laughed, a condescending smile spreading across his waxen face.

"You're gonna hit me with that thing?" he teased. "I'm bigger than you, sweetheart. Don't get yourself hurt."

"Go ahead and hurt me," you retorted. "You'll just prove that you're the monster. Not Eddie."

He scowled, showing his teeth and contorting his mundanely handsome features into an ugly position. Your grip on the crowbar tightened.

"He's possessed by Satan!" Jason bellowed. "I am doing God's work by casting him from this community! From this earth! You... You little whore. Jezibel! You'll rot in hell. Both of you will!"

Fire rose in your chest, the seething burn of a hatred rooted so deep within you that it could never be removed. Jason had hurt you beyond repair; he'd brought you to tears with his words, mortified you in front of your peers, touched you like he owned you, made you believe in the self-loathing he'd inflicted on you every day since you were children. You still could feel his breath on your neck, his hand up your shirt, his laughter when you couldn't control your tears. All of it was horrifying; a nightmare you couldn't wake up from, a monster you couldn't escape because it had made itself a home your mind.

But none of it compared to the fury he sparked in hurting someone you loved.

You took a step forward, murder in your eyes.

"I am so. Fucking. Sick-"

You swung the crowbar at him; he dodged backward.

"-of your stuck up-"

Another swing; another dodge.

"-psychopathic-"

You swung again. He stumbled.

"-bullshit!"

You had him up against a tree, cornering him so he had nowhere to go. You seethed, knuckles white around the handle of the crowbar, shoulders heaving with your ragged breaths. He stared at you with wide, terrified eyes.

"Are you scared, Jason?" you taunted. "Nobody's ever fought back against you? Have they?"

You lunged, cackling when he flinched.

"I always knew you were a coward. Scaring the shit out of other people because you, yourself, are afraid. And of what? People who don't think, or act, or look like you? People who won't bend to your will? People who can see through all the weights you lift and punches you throw? People you can't control? Everyone knows that's why you hate Eddie so much. Because he never gave a single fuck what you or anyone else thought of him, and no amount of threats could make him fear you. And then you go and pull the oldest, slimiest white man trick in the good book and hide behind your religion; use it as an excuse to hurt the people who see you for exactly what you are. To the extent that you're willing to ruin their lives, even take them with your own disgusting hands. You are nothing but a sad, sniveling little roach, who's never known true friendship or respect in his life. It almost makes me feel bad for you."

You grinned maliciously, blood trickling between your teeth and dribbling down your chin. Jason visibly quivered when he realized it wasn't yours, but the boy's you had bit.

"Almost."

You thrust the crowbar upward under Jason's jaw, savoring the sickening, satisfying crunch of bone. Another swing, sent forward with every muscle in your body, and you cracked his nose, his skin splitting open and spurting blood down the front of his shirt. He let out an anguished sob, the sweetest noise you'd ever heard.

"Look at that!" your joyous holler echoed through the trees. "You can't even take a fucking hit."

You swung again, the sharp edge of the crowbar slashing open his cheek. He was thrown off balance; you brought the crowbar hard into his knees, not caring what damage you inflicted. As he crumpled, you beat him in the back, sending him down harder. He rolled over, crying out in agony, and you dipped the sharp end of the bar under his chin, tilting his head up to look at you; your booted foot pressed mercilessly into his chest, threatening to snap ribs.

"If you touch me, or anyone I care about ever again, it'll be me who destroys you. Not the wrath of your false god."

Jason whimpered in response. You spat in his face - one final blow - before dropping the crowbar and rushing back to Eddie, all of your rage forgotten at the sight of him bludgeoned and bleeding.

"Eddie..." you cooed, falling on your knees in front of him. "Oh, Eddie, your face..."

He silenced you by grabbing your face in his hands and kissing you, pressing you close with a ferocity you'd never witnessed in him beyond a D and D campaign. You closed your eyes and melted into him, opening your mouth so you could feel his tongue against your teeth. He tasted of blood; you snapped back to reality and pushed him away, concerned again for his well-being.

"Dude, that was the sexiest thing I've ever seen," Eddie gushed. His face was absolutely caked with blood, his teeth beaming white through black streaks as he grinned. "You were so fucking unhinged... Will you go out with me sometime?"

You chuckled, the sound leaving your chest in little more than a breath.

"Eddie, you're bleeding profusely," you reminded him. "And I think we're both concussed."

You removed the bandana from around his head, refastening it over his brow so it soaked up the blood and helped stop the bleeding. His knuckles were also split open from the force of punching Jason square in the jaw, so you covered them with a strip of fabric torn from the hem of your dress. He gazed at you dreamily, taking your hand in his once the makeshift bandage was adhered.

"You know I'm in love with you, right?" he confessed.

Your eyes met his reluctantly, heart jolting in your chest at hearing the words you've always wanted him to say.

"Ever since I met you, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you," he continued. "I think you're amazing. And you just saved my fucking life. You're the most fucking incredible person I've ever known and if I'm not buried beside you I'll die twice."

You laughed at his dramatics, one of the many things you adored about him. His hand raised to your face, his thumb swiping the blood from your chin. The way he looked at you was like slipping into a warm pool - safe, comfortable, freeing. If someone as dark and cynical as Eddie Munson could trust someone enough to love them openly, you knew you could bring yourself to do the same - and he was the one who deserved your love most.

"We can pick out headstones once we make it out of this," you promised him. "But right now, we've gotta get you to the school. You need stitches and a good cleaning up."

Eddie obliged, allowing you to ease him off the ground and drape his arm across your shoulders, leaning some of his weight on you. As you plodded your way across the school's parking lot, he stopped, turning to face you.

"Kiss me again," he pleaded.

"I would love nothing more," you told him, "but we have to get you inside."

"Please, baby, just kiss me again."

The pet name made you shiver, a lightheadedness overcoming you that had nothing to do with blunt force trauma.

"If we die tonight, I wanna die thinking about what it's like to kiss you."

You scoffed, the sound playful as a drunken smile curled across your face.

"We're not gonna die," you stated. "At least not if you just let me get you some fucking first aid."

"God, I love you..."

Eddie leaned in and kissed you again, wrapping his arms around you to pull you in close to him. You held him tightly as you molded your lips to his, swearing in defiance of Heaven itself that you would never let him go.

[thecameronchronicles]

For A Reason

TW: Dark!(ish) Rafe. Smut. Language. Spanking. Choking. Degrading Language. 

SUMMARY: As you try and help Sarah get the keys to get the cross out of Rafe’s grasp, the distraction you intended to be brings you to one of your own…

WORD COUNT: 2100

REQUESTED

Anonymous asked:

hii i have an idea... so maybe the reader is a pogue and she's working with sarah and evrrything to try and get the cross... and yk that scene where sarah tries to take the keys to the van where the cross is, can u make it so that while sarah is trying to find the keys, the reader has to distract rafe so she goes in his room and sits on his bed, and a few minutes later he opens the bathroom door and walks out shirtless (yk that scene in the show) and the reader is all flustered and  rambling about something random to try and make him forget about the keys, but he manhandles her on the bed and he's like i know you're trying to distract me but i'm gonna fuck you anyways and then it leads to rough sex & he keeps slapping, degrading and choking her bcs she's a pogue and everything 🥵

For A Reason

Your purpose was simple enough, even if the idea was supposed to make your skin crawl. You were intended to be a distraction to Rafe. It would be easy for the fact you knew he eyed you as more than one of Sarah’s new pogue friends. Despite the social barriers that would set you two apart at every turn, he didn’t need to accommodate the difference or amend the cruelty in the past in order to want what he did from you. The same ‘something’ that set his eyes in a blazing lust from across any room, even prior to the entire race for the gold and lately, the cross. And you and the remaining pogues knew it as well. Which was why you would be the one sent in to distract him while Sarah was in search of those dreaded keys. 

You had prepared an excuse to him about being upset at Sarah and feigning seeing his side to things as you knew stroking his ego and gaining his trust this way would be the only way to truly seduce Rafe Cameron. But as you had rehearsed the words a thousand times in your mind for when those intimidating blue eyes would rest onto you, you were confident in having him wrapped around your finger, until finding that door to the bathroom open and you were suddenly flustered. 

Although he had just emerged from the shower, his chest was dry from a thorough pat down prior to exiting the room now absent of all steam, his eyes fixating onto you with confusion and eventual disbelief as you were made flustered by the sight of him. And this was because you’d never seen him shirtless. It wasn’t as if you ran in the same circles, and the times in which you had seen him, he was wrapped beneath some polo or button up shirt that kept this concealed to you. Bronzed muscles concealing modesty behind a single towel wrapped tightly at his hips that sat just beside his navel. 

“Sarah’s not here.” He spoke in finality as your eyes flickered from the immediate rejection they’d taken to his torso and coming to an unsteady rest back at his own. 

“I know…” The sudden plan at hand would be reminded to you as the keys themselves were visible on the table beside the bed itself, your reason for being present to begin with. But you had accounted for everything but the way him moving closer to you would affect you. Running your fingers nervously through your hair, you licked your lips apart for some form of recalibration of your confidence, before looking back up to him once again. 

“I actually think I-I- just left something here last time I was, I was here and I..a sweater…It was a favorite and I just-” By the time you had corrected this rambling, he was between your legs, a hand on your thighs tracing gently, almost lovingly if possible, as your eyes darted to the door. 

“Actually, I think I remember it’s in John B’s car so…I’ll just-” He chucked his tongue to the side before an unkind grip to your hair pulled you to look up at him with force. 

“Yeah, you’re not going anywhere, Pogue.” With the sound of the title, you were forced into a lift onto the bed, his arms pinning you flat. 

“Think I don’t know why you’re here? Think I’m stupid, hmm?” He scoffed, looking to the direction of the keys. 

“Came to distract me? How do you think THAT is gonna pan out for you? Because I don’t like people who play games with me…and you’re not even that…” His eyes fell down your body, sweaty from the race made of the last endeavors with the pogues and clothes tight that left you accessible to him for a summer day’s weather. 

“Doesn’t matter…” You were pulled almost weightlessly onto your stomach, a grip to the back of your neck keeping you flat as he had straddled you from behind, leaving only grips into the comforter before you as you witnessed the towel discarded from within your peripheral vision. 

“I’ll still fuck you, even though you don’t deserve it…even though you came to try to distract me,” He scoffed, “And when I’m done…your ass is red and you’re dripping with me…THEN I’ll let you go back to your little friends and make sure they know exactly what happens when they send their…” He scoffed again, “Distraction…” Before you could even think of fighting him, you were removed from your shorts with his hand already wrapped in your hair while he lined himself up to you. 

“Bet you’re used to the boys from the cut being nice and sweet with you, yeah?” He chuckled, the remaining smirk heard as he spoke. 

“Well, sweetheart, I’m definitely not some pogue and you’re surely not on the cut anymore-” You were thrust in to, the gravity of the situation now weighing heavily on you as any forbidden desire or intrigue had had awoken in you was now existing as a means of guilt as you fought to move away from him. But any attempt would be futile as he was too strong and you were far too weak. 

“Clenching around me already,” he smacked your ass. “Dirty little poguie needing my cock so bad that you’ll take it any way I offer isn’t that right?” He asked, bent over you, deep enough to bring pain in contrast to pleasure. But as you continued to shuffle, he only found amusement in your attempts. 

“Try to deny it and yet you’re making it so easy to slip out of this tight little pussy…Making you nice and wet for me…Because I am taking what I want. What I deserve. Making me come is the least you can do with all the fucking trouble you’ve caused, yeah?” Another smack to your left cheek would send you into a gasp, your fingers wrapping tighter into the sheets, knuckles white, and being yet another reason that his smirk remained. 

“Could make you come so fast because you’ve never had a cock like mine…But you’re gonna work for it.” He turned you to face him, “Because the only face better than the one you're making now is gonna be the one you make when you realize you’ve lost. And if you think ANYTHING else…you're even dumber than I thought….” He penetrated himself into you once again. Only this time, you were set on your side, his arms pinning you in yet another inescapable positioning as your legs were divided as one sat at a rest at his shoulder and the other on your thigh to keep it flat.

“Look at you…already begging for it and it hasn’t even been five minutes…But you wanna come don’t you, you dirty little pogue slut…Clenching me…soaking me…making it so easy to fuck you just how I want…”

“Please…” You had uttered again, not sure if you were asking for more or less, but unable to say anything aside from this. And it wasn’t even as if you expected him to pity you or show you mercy as you knew better than this. But you had understood just how truly selfish and animalistic he was as he pounded into you this way, working up perspiration upon you both, as each brutal force seemed endless as your body was reliant on him completely. You were overtaken by that forbidden fantasy come to life, one you always had for the Kook prince who was weighing you down with his own ambitions. 

“God damn, your fucking joking with me right now! No way a pogue pussy feels THIS good. Only this good because of MY cock in it…” He lowered over you, forcing himself deeper into your walls, bottoming out and remaining set, as he spoke over your pained expression. 

“Tell me. Say it bitch, tell me just HOW good it is…”

“Rafe-” His hand came around your throat. 

“Doesn’t sound like an adjective there, now does it. I already know how deep I am…already know it’s making you wanna come…Feeling you getting wetter by the second…so fucking tell me before I have to send you back to them bleeding-” He scoffed. “Still might anyway…”

“Please, Rafe…” His grip tightened harder, making only desperate breaths and the shuffling of the sheets beneath you as the only sound until he spoke. 

“Not even your breathless begging is gonna make me take pity on you. You REALLY thought all it would take is for you to show up and I’d drop to my knees for you,” He released a grunt as he continued slow thrusts while keeping this weight over you, “I know you too well, pogue…been watching you long enough to know that you wouldn’t come here without a reason…” 

“Rafe-” You choked. 

“So THIS is your reason. You were supposed to distract me? Then fucking distract me! Make me come then, you little slut. God knows YOU need it…” Your eyes rolled as he smacked your ass again, a bitter sting amended by that of another thrust. 

“How are you gonna explain walking out of here unable to walk? Bruised neck and cum dripping down your thighs because you left your panties here-yeah, you’re not getting those back.” Your eyes widened in horror. 

“Don’t be so surprised. We both know I’m the reason they’ve always been so wet…Validated it when I took them off…And I feel it now. So you’re gonna fucking come right now so I can go faster. You are coming for ME, not for you-don’t get the wrong idea. You are here for ME. Isn’t that reason you came?” He forced himself into an ungodly pace, your body a simple outlet for him as you whimpered and pleaded beneath him, his grip only tightening between these heartless pistonings. 

“Oh, you’re so fucking close, you’re shaking…it’s so goddamn pathetic…” He gave a single chuckle. 

“But all those little desperations are making me…Fuck, I’m gonna come…” He suddenly felt deeper as you became tighter, contradicting each other’s movements as you were both pulled to that mutual high. 

“FUCK!” He exclaimed before dragging you to the edge of the bed, hair as this leverage before his cock was forced at the breathless parting of your lips. 

“I don’t want some dirty pogue cum on my cock. So clean it the hell off…” You obliged by his initial threatening guidance, expertly pulling him beyond your reflex. But as you attempted to bring him to another edge, he forced you back from your endeavors. 

“You don’t get to please me. Not after thinking I’m stupid enough to care about you more than a fuck. You came here for a reason…and I used you for it. So thanks for the distraction…” He tossed you in complete disregard as you covered yourself with your shorts, huddled against the bedside table.

“I’m giving you a minute to pull yourself together because I know how hard you just took it…but if you aren’t out of here after that, so help me God, I’ll send you back too battered to recognize who you are.” Your body was left in abandon, pleasantly numb from a series of silent releases he had pulled while garnering his own, your skin wearing the evidence of what you were sent here for, a reason all your own having been quelled as you collected yourself as much as possible, before returning to your Pogues, all none the wiser of your own secret ambitions having been met…

Taglist: @hopebaker @iovdrew @penny4yourthoughts @magnificantmermaid @pickingviolets @lovedetlost @trikigirl271 @maybankslover @slut4starkey @slvtherinseeker @obxiskewl @obxxrxfes @bluesongbird @slut-era @ailee-celeste @rafesbae @camilynn @bethoconnor @belcalis9503

[jenniferstit]

pac: killer femme fatale ♀

your deadly traits

77777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777 *+°

one

you operate at your best when you are surrounded by opulence. financial security matters quite a bit to you… you see financial security as the one true form of security in this life. in fact i actually see you as someone who will fight off any feelings you may have for someone, unless they can prove to bring a sense of security to your life. some may see you as a gold digger, but that’s not quite the energy i’m getting. it’s just that we all have non-negotiables in life and i see that for you, someone with no sense of financial stability is not something on which you are willing to compromise. you know your worth, you know what you bring to the table, and you evaluate what others can bring to you to in order to enhance your life. you are very dedicated to your cause, and you are patiently awaiting your counterpart to enter your life. i’m getting a visual of someone fully dressed in hair and makeup, uncomfortable tight clothes, jewelry, fragrance… everything, just sitting poised in bed waiting for a quality person to walk through the door. you have no problem turning people away and letting them know specifically why they are not for you… savage. you don’t mince words. i do see you as someone bored and unsatisfied with your options. boredom is not good for you… i see you as someone who could entertain options that you know don’t fit your standards just to tickle yourself, but the other person is kept in the dark abt simply being your temporary form of entertainment. i think Carmilla aka the Bloody Countess from Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is the perfect embodiment of this energy. she’s not just a vicious killer, she enjoys toying with her victims, promising them exactly what it is they’ve been searching their entire lives for… she uses their own desires to lead them directly to the most horrific of deaths. she relishes in the demise of humans & she feels it is within her destiny to treat humans as livestock because she is a vampiress, a superior being. she will do anything for her cause: to exercise power and authority over those she deems less worthy. she embodies the shadow traits of the energy i am picking up in this pile (of course in the most extreme way). however, Carmilla at her core, is a hurt woman. she feels like she dedicated everything to the success of vampire kind, only to be ruthlessly betrayed by the king of vampires himself. this betrayal plays a huge role in the portrayal of Carmilla’s bloodlust in this film. she undermines her own beliefs by betraying a vampire in this film, bc she was once betrayed by a vampire… she feels she is owed everything she wants bc of what was sacrificed. it’s this sense of entitlement that i would say is the most deadly thing abt the energy in this pile… be aware of this entitlement and don’t let it dictate the way you treat others.

two

you can’t let anything go. there is a petty, child-like energy here… eye for an eye. you take pleasure in coming out on top, always. i don’t think you can ever be wrong. moreover, i don’t think that you are ever satisfied. there’s a gluttonous energy here… like a kid in a candy store. you aren’t just satisfied with having candy, you have to take it from someone else, watch them cry and then eat it in front of them lol. emotionally, you are extremely volatile. when you are going through it, everyone around you is going through it bc you put them through hell. other people just don’t know how to deal with you. however, unlike the first pile there is a sense of self-awareness here. it’s like you have these breakthrough moments where you want to be better or you fantasize abt the idea of being more “normal” or balanced. it reminds me of that scene in Kill Bill where Gogo is talking to that boy in a seemingly normal, flirty, teenage interaction, but then she stabs him with her tanto, spilling his blood everywhere lol. that’s the thing, you love being chaotic, and it’s not a secret. some of you don’t know the definition of patience, and it shows. there is a certain amount of pleasure you derive from being a wild card. you embrace this as living your truth and you don’t want to change. your emotions will get the best of you every time, if you let them.

three

you have a strong amount of passion, it’s almost overwhelming. not many people can match your level of intensity, which is why you tend to be a loner. you fiercely chase after what you want, however your goals are always changing. your endgame doesn’t seem to be quite as defined as some may assume, you just try to make the best choices at that time, optimizing whatever situation you’re in. a lack of clear ambition can make room for deceit or manipulation. you would make a great second-in-command bc you are a go-getter, and other people would jump at the opportunity to use you to do their bidding. there’s an awakening happening for this group. you have yet to realize your full potential, especially when it comes to career. there are energies around you that look at you and see a wonderful opportunity, be careful whom you align yourself with, in any capacity, but i am getting a specific message abt romance/marriage. you awaken a certain amount of sexual and/or creative energy in others, i’m getting that you could possibly end up becoming someone’s muse. this pile’s energy is very concise, like a story that is still unwritten. this pile could be full of late bloomers. your time will come.

☆ more readings on tiktok ★

[payidaresque]

Gifmaking/general photoshopping tips and tricks for beginners (and not)

Hi all! Before we start, I��d like to tell that I’m no expert in any way and everyone should work they way they are comfortable with, these are just some things that I’ve collected over the years to make my life a little easier. And hopefully, yours too. There’s no particular order. I’ll try to keep this nice and short. Let’s get down the rabbit hole, weee! WARNING: IMAGE/GIF /TEXT HEAVY!

Tip #1: Use cropping presets Instead of typing dimensions by hand, use cropping presets for quick access. To do that, chose the Crop Tool, type in your dimensions, then go down the dropdown menu on the left and chose New Crop Preset. Tada! You saved your settings for further use. Here are some of mine

Tip #2: If available, work with video timeline instead of frame animation I personally think that it’s much handy and saves you from a lot of unnecessary clicks, plus you can do a lot of effects (such as text animating etc) without too much trouble. It all comes down to personal preference tho, of course. Here's super useful in-depth tutorial on how to make gifs with video timeline

Tip #3: When working with colors (especially very vibrant ones), convert your document from 8 bit to 16 bit first I bet many of you come across this issue: when you work with colors and using brush tool, the visible stripes may appear and ruin your whole image/gif. Like this:

It’s called color banding. Ugly, right? Without too much of technical terms banding happens when an image loses its colors after being digitized (e.g. screencaps, or basically anything that was captured using any capable device). Bad news is that you can’t fully fix it because you can’t restore what’s been lost for good (here’s a great and detailed walk-down on what banding is and how to fix it). But what you can do, is make it less visible. To do that, open your document, and before doing anything with it, go to image > mode > 16 bit. (32 bit is more advanced, i never use it because 16 bit is quite enough for my work) It adds more color depth (or should i say imitates it) to the document, so now when you work on your gifs, the color stripes won’t be as harsh. Another way to fix color banding is to add noise manually. But I prefer to switch image modes because photoshop does a better job at adding more natural kind of noise and it’s barely visible to the eye

Tip #4 (requires video timeline): when slowing down gifs, change the amount of FPS Sometimes when you slow gifs down they may look kind of choppy. A quick way to fix that is go to your video timeline, click on the three lines button, chose Set Timeline Frame Rate and change the number in the pop-up window. The higher the number, the smoother it will be, but don’t overdo it. I personally go from 60 to 120 FPS and see what looks best for my case. Some times it's barely noticeble, some times it can make a huge difference

Tip #5 There’s no quick solution to anything Well it’s not exactly a tip, more of an advice actually. I know many of us want our work come to life as fast as possible, preferably, exactly in a way how it was in our mind. But for better or for worse, nothing in this like works like that. So when you make gifs, remember that there’s no «universal» psd coloring, sharpening, blend mode, texture, etc that works exactly the same in every case. Bc every scene is different, the lighting is different, the original color grading is different. As soon as you get used to that, it won’t be a problem anymore. So don’t get scared or discouraged when something doesn’t happen in a matter of «poof» — it’s completely normal. Don’t be too hard on yourself, don’t rush things, take your time and don’t try to be «like that person who’s gifs I like very much». It’s wonderful to get inspired, but try and discover your own tools and ways to work, something that will make your work unique and maybe even becomes sort of your personal signature. Most of the things I did came out of pure experiments i liked the end result of

Tip #6: Discover the power of blend modes and opacity Don’t be scared to play around with the layers you use, they don’t have to be untouched, on the contrary, they should be modified in ways to achieve interesting results. For example: original gif with only sharpening applied (16 bit mode)

Colored with a whole bunch of Gradient Maps on different blend modes and opacity settings (also 16 bit mode. Not my best work but it pretty much illustrates the point)

Tip #7: Uncheck the «Delete cropped pixels» option in Crop Tool Sometimes when you do gifs, you often find yourself wanting to reposition them because you feel they’re not quite in the right place, but this happens It’s because this option is checked and Photoshop deletes everything what’s outside of canvas once applied. When it’s unchecked, it just hides those pixels away, so you can freely move your image around whenever you want (not the best example but you get the idea)

Tip #8: Use text boxes instead of individual text layers That’s pretty self-explanatory. It looks much, much better. Take your Text Tool, drag it across the document to create a box, then paste/type your text and you’re done! Here's a great and detailed guide on subtittles.

And that's about it folks! Have fun being creative :) And if you have any questions, don't hesitate to drop 'em in my askbox.

[kittick-art]

Wahoo, time for another Animatic Deep Dive!

I did this on twitter after my jeanmarco animatic came out last year, and I wanted to do something similar for the Royai animatic! This post will include HD stills from the animatic, as well as some nerdy insight into some shot choices and such, bc I need an outlet to geek out about it. Everything is under the ‘keep reading’ break! :]

Ok to start off, I wanted to show some behind-the-scenes stuff, including my first thumbnails I drew in my sketchbook, as well as part of the shot sheet that kept me organized (and sane) throughout the animatic.

Also, fun fact is that I'm primarily a 3D animator, so I used that knowledge to sculpt a rough version of Mustang's office for the final shot :]

Ok so now for actual stills...starting with one of my FAVORITE sequences to draw, which I have dubbed 'the scrolling bit.'

And a fun little composition tidbit about this sequence is that I tried to show the passage of time through Roy & Riza's placement in the shots. So in order, they progressively go from the right of the screen to the left. It was actually a really last-minute decision, bc originally I had two different shots (see below) which got scrapped in order to do that silly compositional thing. I think it was a worthy sacrifice because that drawing of Black Hayate on Mustang's head was just so fun to draw.

OKAY, now I want to move onto my favorite part of any animatic, which is the pretentious stuff about 'character placement' and "the deeper meaning." Blah blah, all that art-school kind of stuff that you'd hear in some film analysis class.

It's not intentional whatsoever, but I realized after the animatic was finished that Hawkeye is almost always on Mustang's righthand side, other than a select few times when he's the one supporting her. Feel free to look into that if you'd like, but just know it was not intentional and isn't consistent 100% of the time.

What was intentional, however, were these 4 shots, and specifically the placement of Mustang & Hawkeye within them:

These 2 sequences are meant to be direct parallels to each other, in everything including how Mustang turns to Hawkeye, and Hawkeye is already facing him. They were also my favorite shots to animate, especially with Riza coming out of her salute. Seeing them in the final animatic almost made me tear up, ngl. They're just so dang in love!

Finally, the last part that holds some artsy deeper meaning is a sequence I actually shared a long long time ago. I've dubbed it the 'spotlight section' bc idk how else to describe it.

Back when I teased this sequence, I alluded to some "deeper meaning" behind the use of red in the tags. And while the use of red is a pivotal thing throughout the entire animatic, it's most important here. It starts on Hawkeye's back, then transfers to Mustang's glove, and finally goes back to Hawkeye as her blood. Basically what I was trying to get at was something about consequences, and where flame alchemy has led them. In some way or another, Riza's decision to show Roy her tattoo ended up leading to her own (near) demise. So the red was supposed to show that transfer of consequence, if that makes sense.

ANYWAYS. Enough of me rambling. Thank you for reading if you somehow made it this far. All the love on this animatic - even since I first started teasing it back in November - has been insane to me. I still feel like I can't wrap my head around it. I'll leave you all with one last sketch from when I first started making the animatic. Have a good night, everyone!

[gorillaxyz]

HI PIPPA 👋👋 qhats your favourite spiderman comic... 🎤 ORR your fav spidey storyline

HI DAVIE omg....

I TALKED SO MUCH TL:DR: my fav spider man comic on its own is unmasked by doc ock & my fav spidey storyline is spider man no more

my insane person ranting is under the cut THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK the spider man autism has never left it just remains dormant... but for how long...

well... from classic tasm I LOVE SPIDER MAN IS NO MORE SO MUCH. when there was a hobie version of the one of the covers in atsv i actually screamed out loud in the cinema (i screamed the whole time though that movie was insane for me)

ALSO... MY FAV SPIDER MAN MOVIE OF ALL TIEM SPIDER MAN 2............. spider man is no more comes up in it PETER IS SO GOOD IN THAT MOVIE i literally tear up whenever i think abt him i love you sam raimi spider man until i die. the bit where he has the worst day ever WITH HIS ADORABLE STUPID GLASSES ON i dont want to talk abt peter but hes so cute i love him i need to see him Sorry hes ruined rhe post hang on

AND THE TRAIN SCENE IS IN SPIDER MAN 2 AS WELL sorry i lobe spider man 2 so much i need to rewatch it

his fucking hor dog 😭

UMMMMMMMM i also looooooVEEEE LOVE LOVE LOVE??????? the ultimate spider man spin off comic....... the name escapes me rn but ill get it in a sec.. where all the villains spidey had fucked over at that point were in prison.... AND THEY ALL ESCAPE and otto is literlaly so cute in it for NOOOOO REASON WHAT WAS THE REASON. not really an arc or comic or whatever but i love whenever 😭😭 otto is in a piece of spidey media and he sucks up to like the prison guards or whatever and they get a bit more lenient with him l OR hes let out of prison early on good behaviour 🤧♥️ ITS SOOO CUUUTTEEEEE and its been part of his character since like. the second issue he was ever in it is SO beautiful to me

the comic series i was talking abt was ULTIMATE SIX i need to reread it i think abt the wasp saying otto has gingivitis ALL THE TIME for some reason 😭

i also love LIKE EVERY SINGLE......... SPIDER MAN REVEALED!?!?!?! story line........ especially when through INSANE REASONS peter gets away with it and people are like oh ^_^ silly peter could never be spider man HE IS.. thats his secret

^ my fav moment this happened is the first time... when hes super sick and he goes off to save betty(? i think... i dont think it was some random woman LOL) from doc ock AND THE COVER OF THE COMIC. im insane about it actually its one of my fav comic covers EVER OF ALL TIME let me get it

UNMASKED BY DOCTOR OCTOPUS!!!!!!! i love it so muchh the little "look whos back!!" arrow. i could scream. STEVE DITKOS ART EUUUUHHHHHHHH i love you classic spider man comics

also IVE SAID SO MUCH HELP ME. but... also... sniffle... the concept of superior spider man just scratxhes my brain so perfectly... i havent read it yet bc im insane and i wanr ro readEVERY SPIDER MAN APPEARANCE IN COMICS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER like an insane person. but some day ill cave in. and i will read superior spider man. and i will either love ottos characterisation in it or ill hate it with a burning passion ♥️

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK... if you do read rhis far THANK YOU but if you dont its ok i udnerstand. im insane

[suchacomet]

do you know if the baseball scenes in a league of their own were done by the actresses or by professionals? i can't find articles about it and i'm kind of curious your opinion as a sports person (sorry, i only know you from your analysis posts about the baseball aspects of the series)

omg i’m flattered you think i’m qualified to answer this question… i’m no professional commentator or even really a super avid baseball fan—the most i follow sports is college softball and then i only watch the championships bc godDAMN do those girls know how to play but godDAMN do i not have time to follow a whole season of pro sports—but i’m happy to share my personal beliefs on this topic, which boil down to: a little bit of both, i think!

in a bunch of interviews the actors have talked about doing baseball training and learning to play baseball as part of their prep for shooting the show (for example this interview which also has the bit where kelly mccormack talks about now much fun she had shooting the bar scene w roberta colindrez ❤️). plus there are, obviously, moments where we see the actors playing—scenes that come to mind are jess’s jump + barehand catch and throw to first, max’s barehand catch in the last episode, and the splits catch that one of the other peaches does at tryouts.

but there’s no way they didn’t use stunt doubles, especially for scenes like the runner mowing down carson at home plate or any of the slides. and honestly, most of the pitches, throws, and hits are probably either stitched-together cuts of multiple takes or cgi to get the ball where it needs to go. from a filmmaking standpoint, it’s just impractical to do anything else—no producer wants to do thirty takes of a pitch until it actually is a strike, no actor wants to worry about hitting to center left vs center right when they should be focusing on staying in character and being present in the scene, no editor wants to sift through hours of takes that are unusable because the ball just isn’t where it’s supposed to be.

there are definitely moments where they spliced together a bad play to make it look like a good one. the best example i can think of is this stop from jess:

obviously i can’t be certain, and it could just be the angle of the shot playing tricks on me, but it wouldn’t surprise me if jess/kelly mccormack overshot her lunge in that first wide shot and missed the ball. i can’t quite put my finger on it but it just doesn’t look like she’s gonna catch the ball to me. they cut quick enough and well enough to the close-up where she does make the catch that the audience really doesn’t notice the cover-up (if there actually is one), so it works.

same with this pitch from max! i don’t see anything wrong with the form necessarily but i highly doubt that exact pitch matches the ball landing perfectly in carson’s glove in the next shot. the angle of the ball traveling in the first shot doesn’t match the one in the second shot. but again, with the editing and the fact that what we’re really focusing on in this shot is their faces, it doesn’t register as being faked

also there’s for sure “errors” in some gameplay—i’m at work so i don’t have the time or ability to get screenshots but i distinctly remember someone walking back from running through first on the inside of the baseline/within bounds and being like AUGH NO THEYRE GONNA TAG YOU OUT but no one reacting, and i’m sure if i really thought about it i could come up with more examples. but having been in an editing room many a time, i get having to sacrifice a little bit of continuity or being 100% error-free in order to prioritize the best performances or the pacing of the scene

i don’t think it takes away from the show at all to do this btw! this is a fictional baseball series, not a baseball game. molding the shape of the game and the plays to serve the narrative and reflect the characters is the name of the game. if i wanted to watch people actually play baseball, i’d turn on an mlb game, you know? the baseball serves the story, not the other way around, and if that means cheating pitches and catches then so be it. it’s all part of filmmaking.

all that being said, i DO think the training the actors did does show in the series! it makes them look confident and natural on the diamond. like look at this still of geena davis from the original movie:

i love this movie. i love this movie so much. but jesus christ that is one of the worst batting forms i’ve ever seen in my life. her elbows aren’t bent enough; her back elbow should be angled higher; the bat should be held at a lower angle; her hands should be tucked much closer to her head/cheek area; her stance is too narrow and she looks so off-balance that a breeze would knock her over; she’s got some weird torque going on in her hips and torso that i can’t figure out but it looks a) uncomfortable b) weak and c) like she’s scared of the ball.

compare that to shirley’s form. i love shirley’s form and her batting prep. she lines herself up properly to the plate. she looks back to check her back elbow is in the right place. she leans back into her stance. it’s still stiff like geena davis, but that comes from shirley’s character, not the actor’s lack of skill/familiarity with the sport. and honestly shirley’s whole at-bat ritual with the tapping and the shirt tug and all not only makes sense for her as a nervous, compulsive character, but is SOOOO accurate to baseball players. i had a routine like that (not as complex but the whole having to do the same thing before every swing is so real)

(you know i gotta include a lupe image here) with the angle here it’s hard to tell whether that pitch is actually a strike, but it doesn’t matter bc she looks confident and capable! in her face she looks like she’s putting force into the pitch and with the leg kick, the glove point, and the follow through, she’s believable as a star pitcher

i think that’s the value of training your actors. i don’t think everyone can be, or even should be a tom cruise-type do-all-their-own-stunts actor. to get an entire team’s worth of actors (multiplied a few times, if you went all out and also trained the minor character and all the extras from the other teams) to a professional ball-playing standard, it would take years of training and millions/billions of dollars that i’d rather the production team use elsewhere to make a compelling narrative with high production value. but having the actors do SOME baseball training really pays off in these moments where we feel like we’re actually seeing these women play ball, even when we really aren’t.

i remember watching the original movie and laughing at the characters’ forms. it broke suspension of disbelief for me and again, even though i love that movie, it’s so clear to me that the way the women look (read: pretty/palatable to a cishet male audience) was more important than making them look like ball players. like i said earlier, geena davis looks like a rookie who’s scared of being hit by the ball, which completely undercuts her whole character. in aloto the show, they look like ball players—they look like fucking stellar professional ball players

(credit to @ropoto and @hikarielizabethbloom for the gorgeous gifs!)

[airenyah]

on analyzing acting: ohm pawat as an example

attention: read my additions to this post first for some more context as it might help you understand a little better what i'm on about here...

ok so this post was born out of me wanting to give an example of what i mean by "actors perceiving something" bc you can see that really well in bad buddy ep 3 [3/4] in the music shop scene where they're hiding and pat smells pran. however, i realized i actually have a lot more to say on this moment and that i can also use it to try and showcase what i mean with "(having) thoughts"/"creating images" as well as what "directions" are supposed to be (i'm struggling the most with explaining directions in english lmao). i ended up having so much to say that it absolutely is worthy of its own post, so here it is

so this here is the moment in question that i'm going to analyze and i'm going to look at ohm specifically:

[sorry for the image quality of this gif, i had to compromise it in order to get the file size down]

before i say anything, here's a little disclaimer: obviously i have absolutely no idea what was going on in ohm's head in that moment when he was shooting that take. so whenever i make a mention of a specific sentence that the actor or the character could be thinking it will be my very own interpretation of what i personally am seeing or getting out of it. there are many thoughts and emotions one can read out of an actor's performance (often multiple at once!) and there are many ways of putting all of this into words. i will try to keep everything as technical as possible but sometimes i do need to say what i think is going on in the actor's/character's head in order to explain my point

ok so let's go and break down some of the acting things that ohm is doing here

[gif 1]

this is a wonderful example of an actor actually and actively perceiving something. at this point pat hasn't actively smelled pran yet, he hasn't reacted to that smell yet. in fact, up until this point pat is more focused on not being caught by chai. what ohm is doing here is showing us the process of going from "don't get caught" to "pran smells good af". and it starts right here. in order to do so, in order for this change of topic to work smoothly pat has to become aware of pran's smell first. and ohm is acting it out for us: he really is perceiving and noticing that smell as the actor and we can see the controls in his brain going "oh my nose is sensing something"

another thing i want to point out here is his "spielrichtung" (god i GOTTA figure out a word for this in english) aka this is where i talk about his "directions" even though it's difficult for me in english bc it sounds rather clunky. (for those who didn't read my original reblog where i talk about acting concepts: the literal translation of this german term is "direction of playing" or "direction of acting". this direction can refer to many things, such as where the focus is directed, or an action, a thought, etc...)

here in this moment ohm's directions are both downwards and very inwards. as in: his focus goes downwards to where the smell is entering his nose while his thoughts are very much directed inwards. this is a private moment for pat and ohm shows us this by acting towards the inside (ohm/pat is completely inside his own head in this moment) ("by acting towards the inside" – sorry, this sounds so clunky in english, i mean to say "indem er nach innen spielt")

alright, moving on. so in real life, once a person has perceived something and the brain has processed and determined it... what happens next? the person is going to react to it and have one or the other thought. in real life we go through a process of perceiving - processing - (re)acting and the same thing should happen in acting:

[gif 2]

first ohm showed us that pat has perceived something, now ohm shows us that whatever pat has perceived causes some thoughts/feelings inside of pat

(quick side-note on his directions: he's still very much inwards in his direction, the private moment in his head is continuing. and despite his eyes going to the side, the focus of his actions is still directed downwards because again, that's where the smell is)

(edit: i had my mom read this post and on the topic of directions in gif 2 she pointed out that you can actually split it up in three directions even: everything is happening on the inside, then you have the sensory direction that is going downwards because that's where the smell is, while he's sending his thoughts sideways)

i can't read minds, nor can i time travel so i have absolutely no idea what thought was crossing ohm's mind in that exact moment, but it has to be something along the lines of "i gotta smell that again". ohm/pat has perceived the smell, he considers it for a moment and whatever he's thinking here leads to the next moment where pat smells pran on purpose (note: i do love how his head is subconsciously moving slightly down towards the source of the smell again even before he's actively taken the decision to sniff pran):

[gif 3]

(edit: another thing that my mom said is that in gif 2 it's like his thoughts aren't quite focused yet, they're not quite formed, while in gif 3 his thoughts are very much focused. it's like his thoughts went from a subconscious level in gif 2 to a conscious level in gif 3. anatomically speaking you could even say that in gif 1 and 2 he percieves the smell emotionally and in gif 3 it goes over into a cognitive perception of the smell. because he percieves the smell subconsciously in the beginning and the very first thing that happens when you perceive a smell is that it goes to the emotional center of the brain. then the smell goes on to the cerebral cortex and only then you get the cognitive perception of the smell. ohm's performance here really is FLAWLESS. in the words of my mother, a trained nurse: "he plays that EXTREMELY WELL because you can analyze it anatomically even, and use his performance to showcase how the sense of smell works")

and now we have arrived at the point where pat is sniffing pran. what i really like about this is how subtle ohm portrays this. he doesn't stick his nose into nanon's back and we don't even see him breathe in. and yet we still know that pat is smelling pran here, all bc of ohm's body language where he moves his head down to the source of the smell and the thoughts that ohm is having in his head in that moment. you can just see that ohm is really and actively smelling something here. and by that i mean not only just the motion of him moving his head down, but rather that again he is actively perceiving a smell as his head is filled with thoughts (his thought process goes from something like "what was that smell" to "ok i'm smelling, i'm checking this out")

and now we're back to the point where we were earlier. once again our character is perceiving and processing something, our actor is acting it out for us and so what has to happen next? exactly, a reaction to the new information the character's brain has just processed:

[gif 4]

and again we can see that ohm's head was filled with actual thoughts in that moment (probably something along the lines of "wow he smells really good" or "oh what a nice smell". and it looks kind of unexpected to me, as if there's also some surprise coming with it along the lines of "oh i wasn't expecting to like his smell so much" or "i didn't think he would smell this nice")

i keep going on and on about thoughts, and it's because that was hammered into me by my fave monologue teacher. he kept going on about "getting your thoughts straight" and "having thoughts" ("die gedanken haben") and whenever we students had no idea what to do with our bodies he'd tell us that if we know exactly what we're thinking in that moment we shouldn't worry about our body because our body will follow our thoughts automatically. we can see that beautifully in gif 2 where an underlying thought (and i don't necessarily mean thought as in an actual thought or sentence inside the mind, but thought kind of in the sense of an emotion or feeling, if that makes sense), anyway in gif 2 there's an underlying thought along the lines of "this smell is good i want to get close to it i want to keep smelling it" and ohm's/pat's head is already moving slightly downwards towards the smell before ohm/pat has taken a conscious decision to take a purposeful sniff. the power of thought y'all. thought is a powerful tool when it comes to acting. and it's really obvious when an actor is in no-thoughts-head-empty mode. unfortunately i don't have an example of a thought-less actor on hand, or i would show you. ok, that's a lie, actually. i do have some examples, but they either don't work as a tumblr post (once again i wish i could do this one acting analysis project i did with my uni friend with online people as well) orrrr i don't want to share them publicly bc i don't wanna hurt anyone's feelings and i want to avoid angry anons in my ask box or getting into arguments with random internet users (i quite like my quiet, peaceful tumblr life where i'm a nobody, thanks)

okay, now back to bad buddy and ohm:

in the other post where i talk about acting i mention that while my monologue teacher would talk a lot about thoughts, my mother instead likes to talk about "creating images". my mom likes to think of it as a flipbook where you have individual pictures that make a moving image when going from one picture to the next at speed. personally i think you can also think of it as individual panels of a comic book that together tell a narrative arch. if we look at the first part from this perspective, as if if were a comic, we can see that ohm provides the audience with these clear images:

image 1: perceiving a smell, becoming aware of it, noticing it

image 2: reacting to that first whiff, something along the lines of "is this pran's smell? i gotta smell pran. for science. to see if that nice smell is him"

image 3: smelling on purpose, there is an aim to the action, it is motivated by thought and by what happened previously

image 4: another reaction to the perceived smell, this time it's a realization and/or a conclusion (the realization could be something like "oh i like the way pran smells" and the conclusion would be "yes what i sensed earlier was in fact pran's smell")

in full:

[gif 5]

it has only been three (3!!) seconds (yes i went and checked the duration of that clip on premiere pro) and ohm has already told us an entire story arc. god, i LOVE it when actors do actor things

alright, let's continue with part 2:

so now we get to the part where pran (nanon) comes in with an impatient "what now?" and pat (ohm) reacts

[gif 6]

since ohm is a good actor he once again presents us with that split second where we can see that he was actively listening to nanon's line, we get to see the moment where pat's brain is processing pran's comment and comes up with a reply. once again ohm is acting this all out for us. this is also what helps make it look like everything is spontaneous: as if the character didn't know pran was gonna say something and what he was gonna say, even though the actor, having memorized the script and likely having discussed it with his co-star and/or the director, definitely knew about it

now let's look at his directions again before we move on to the next gif: he's still in inwards-mode, but pran's line distracts him and snaps him away from the downward focus and now it's going to the side instead, towards nanon/pran

remember what happens after the processing? that's right, a (re)action. pat reacts to pran's comment with the action of saying "you smell good"

[gif 7]

what i find particularly interesting here are ohm's directions. before i sat down to gif these 10 seconds of scene i distinctively remembered ohm's spielrichtung (fuck it, i'm going with the german word bc "directions of playing" or "direction of acting" just doesn't sound right – quick german grammar lesson: spielrichtung = singular, just one single direction; spielrichtungen = plural, two or more directions) being very much towards the inside. and i had assumed that pran's comment would snap him out of it, that nanon's line would trigger a jump in his spielrichtung. but looking at it now? this... is not quite what i'm seeing. what i'm seeing instead is actually fascinating to me

you see, his actions and his line definitely have an outward focus, to the side where nanon is. however, it looks like that outward focus hasn't quite reached his eyes (it's in the way his eyes travel towards nanon, but they're not really focusing on anything in particular, he looks very distracted instead, as if his mind is somewhere else)

to reiterate: his words are traveling outwards while his eyes look like they're still in inwards-mode. outwards and inwards – two opposing sides. this creates conflict and it's exactly what makes me as a viewer sit up in curiosity and go "huh? what's this? what's going on here?" it fills me with a lot of questions about the character: why can't he snap out of it? did pran's smell really affect him this much? so much that his mind is still on it even when pran starts talking to him? why is it affecting him so much? what's going on inside him? aww does he have feelings? (yes. yes he does 🤭) it's these little subtle things that make me start caring about a character, that make me want to keep watching in order to find answers to my questions. (also! this would be an example of what i meant in the reblog from the other post when i talked about actor's showing conflicts that aren't in the plot/the script)

to be honest, i'd love to double check ohm's spielrichtungen during this line with my mom, but unfortunately it's gonna be another two weeks until i go home for semester break. because this is one of those moments where i realize that i still need to practice my acting analysis skills a lot, because to be quite honest i'm having a moment of is it just me or...? where i'm not entirely sure if i'm seeing this "right" (not that there's much of a right or wrong here...)

alright, moving on... once he finishes talking?

[gif 8]

right before ohm says his next line he falls back into inwards-mode again and once again we see that there are actual thoughts going through his head. what those thoughts are exactly i can't say, but to me it comes across as if pat is reflecting his statement of "you smell good", it looks like pat is lost in thought about pran smelling good (to be honest? at the end of the day it doesn't actually matter what ohm's exact thought process was, the important thing is that he had one at all, because now i as a viewer get to have fun with interpreting it)

and now we're finally coming to the end of the sequence i've decided to analyze. after a short moment of reflection pat adds "you smell so damn good" and goes to sniff pran one last time

[gif 9]

and what's ohm's acting choice here? this time he goes for an exaggerated sniff, he points his entire nose at pran and breathes in loudly (which we can't hear in a gif, of course, but we can definitely very clearly hear that sniff in the episode itself). and delights me very much because this sniff right here? in comparison to the ones in the beginning? is very much for show

the first two times pat/ohm smelled pran was very "quiet", rather small and subtle, and very much for himself. it was a private moment. this sniff now? it's loud, it's exaggerated, it's big with ohm bending his entire face down in order to almost shove his nose right into nanon's back. and of course he sniffs extra loudly, to make sure pran can hear it (and yes, i'm specifically referring to the character now, bc ofc nanon should hear the sniff, but more importantly pran should hear it bc pat is about to be a little shit to annoy him)

the reason why this big sniff delights me so much (especially with regard to how the scene continues after the excerpt that i have chosen for this analysis) goes away from the technical aspect of it and is much more about my own interpretation, but i'll tell you anyway: again, in the beginning it was a private moment, pat was smelling pran just for himself. but this causes him to fail to react to what pran just said about chai being gone now and that pat can get up. having that little story arc where pat notices pran's smell and goes to check it out causes pat to linger and that makes pran suspicious. pran more or less catches pat in his own private moment, and so pat turns sniffing pran into a full on show. "you smell good" he says, "do my laundry", he says. pat was nearly caught having feelings for pran (bc we all know this is why he's so affected by the smell) (fun fact: in german we have this idiom that goes "jemanden nicht riechen können" which translates to "not being able to smell someone". it means that you don't like someone and that's why you can't or rather don't want to smell this person. this idiom actually showcases how important the sense of smell is interpersonal relationships) pat was nearly caught and now he deflects. he gets annoying on purpose (by shoving his nose into pran's back and loudly insisting that he likes the smell) to keep pran from asking more questions, he jokingly demands that pran does his laundry bc obviously pat likes the smell of the detergent, it's definitely not the smell of pran that he likes, okay? yes, exactly, pat likes the detergent, not pran, and him sniffing pran definitely had a heterosexual reason and there were definitely no romantic feelings involved. that's the story pat is putting out into the world, that's the show he's pulling off here. ohm goes from quiet and inwards to loud and outwards (spielrichtungen!) and it just delights me because there is so much i can get out of it when it comes to my interpretation

alright, so i've now reached the end of my chosen excerpt and now that we've gone through the entire thing i just want to talk about one last thing: changes.

in the reblog of the other post i mention that when i analyze acting i look out for whether anything changes. (i didn't explicitly say it in that reblog, but it gets boring when an actor keeps doing the same thing over and over again). in the reblog specifically i take emotions as an example, but also make a note that changes can apply to things other than emotions as well. in this scene of bad buddy ohm provides us with a beautiful example of what changes look like when it comes to a specific action

in this 10 second excerpt that i have chosen, pat smells pran 3x in total:

do you see how each time the action of pat smelling pran is different? each time when pat smells pran it's motivated by a different thought, each time there's a different reason behind it:

the first time is all about pat noticing the smell in the first place, becoming aware of it at all. at this point it's rather accidental: pat never made a decision of "i'm going to smell pran now". no, it just happens. he percieves the smell on an emotional level. sniff one is all about the thought of "oh, i'm sensing a smell".

the second time is where the active decision to smell pran comes in. now he starts perceiving the smell on a cognitive level: this time pat is smelling pran on purpose, it's no longer accidental. pat has a reason to smell pran, he has a goal and it's to investigate that smell that he has just sensed. and as i've already said, he is in his own head and it's a private moment. his thoughts are kinda unfocused and he almost gets a little lost in these thoughts, in the smell. and it's a quiet, subtle action, he only slightly moves his head down to be a little closer to the source and get a better whiff, but that's it, no big loud breathing in, no exaggerated head bending. that sniff right here is for pat. that sniff is between pat and that smell, no one and nothing else. what ohm is doing here is creating a relation between pat and pran's smell

the third time the sniff also comes from an active decision. and again, it has a purpose behind it. this is also what happens in sniff no. 2, so in theory the same thing is happening twice, right? except no, bc the way ohm sniffs nanon for the 3rd time is completely different. while sniff no 2. was quiet and small, now sniff no. 3 is loud and big. it's exaggerated and it's for show. this sniff is no longer only between pat and pran's smell, no, now pran himself is involved too (whether pran likes it or not)

i've said it before and i'll say it again: i LOVE it when actors do actor things

alright, i really am done now. to be honest, i wish i had the time to go to my hometown and go through this whole analysis with my mom first before i post it. despite 3 full years of drama school and 2.5 years of intensely analyzing asian drama with my mom i still don't feel confident in the knowledge i've gained so far and i feel like i need someone with more experience to check my thoughts before i can go publish them for the whole internet to see. but i guess it's time for me to become a big girl that doesn't need to rely on her mommy's opinions. i guess it's because i feel like there is still so much more that i need to learn and there is so much more that i don't notice yet and so i'm afraid that what if what i'm saying is wrong? what if i'm talking bullshit here? but i guess it's time i trust the skills that i have gained so far. besides, when it comes to this there often isn't necessarily a right or wrong but rather a what do you see and how does that make you feel? so i'll go and post this anyway without having anyone look over it, because this is what i see right now at this point in time as i'm writing this. and if at some point in the future i realize i disagree i can always write an update (or another post)

all in all i had fun with this not so little analysis. and i hope you too had fun reading it <3

(edit: as you could already see from the previous edits, well, i actually did have my mom read this whole post at some point after all. she was very impressed and said my analysis is extremely well written. she had almost nothing to add. it's truly about time i start trusting my own skills fklslkkdlsf)

[that-thing-that-feeling]

I'm seeing people on twitter saying the duffers edited out the scene where Jonathan is taking pics of Steve and Nancy. I haven't watched S1 in quite a while so I don't remember enough about the scene to say whether they have or not. What do you think? Have they or do some people not remember the scene, think it was worse than that and are making stuff up to drag Jonathan? They are saying it's been done to make Jonathan look better and Steve to look bad.

No ST didn’t edit it; this tweet is completely wrong and look how many likes it has:

It would be helpful if people actually watched the show—however, there is something about that scene that could confuse someone if they didn’t watch it carefully. As someone who loves Jonathan but does not like this moment and has answered so many asks about him taking the pictures, I know that scene and the aftermath v well. P much all the replies on that tweet believe it and are like ‘omg they’re trying to fake redeem Jonathan by editing the scene’—uh no, the scene has always been bad for Jonathan and also the pic in question makes no narrative sense. It’s also bad enough for him without embellishing details about the scene, whether bc fans misremember or want to vilify Jonathan and make Steve a saint in s1--or both. 

To remind everyone of what happened in order (I’m borrowing my own gifs from old posts):

Jonathan goes out into the woods to look for clues of Will’s disappearance and take photos of the scene to see if the police missed anything:

He hears a girl scream and runs towards the scream thinking it could be related to Will or is someone in danger (it’s not; it’s just Steve, Nancy, Tommy, Carol, and Barb in the pool in Steve’s backyard). He should turn around there, but Jonathan is effectively thrown under the bus for an important plot point (that he ends up getting the demogorgon on film).

He takes pics of all of them in the pool enjoying life. That’s already a violation of privacy enough that he’s in the bushes taking their pictures, even if that wasn’t his original intent. The show makes it into that he isn’t used to interacting with people and uses photography both to hide and as a way to observe people as they really are. You get the sense when you’re watching it, though, that he feels like a total outsider, is going through it what with his brother missing, and sees this glimpse of normal teenage life he perhaps wishes he has (even if he says he doesn’t).

Honestly, Steve could have broken his camera just for him taking the pool pics. Instead, the show goes a step further; he takes this picture of Nancy in a contemplative moment in the striped shirt that he later explains he thought captured the real her (hmm):

People seem to forget, the scene then stays in Steve’s room with Stancy and does not cut to Jonathan for a bit. It shows Nancy taking her top off and Steve looking at her and having a moment. We don’t see Jonathan take a picture here (however, we find out later that he did).

It then shows Stancy beginning to kiss. At this point, as soon as they start to kiss, the scene cuts back to Jonathan finally putting his camera down (he never took pictures of them “hooking up” as that tweet says):

He then turns his camera and gaze away from Stancy and focuses on Barb; this is where he gets a critical pic and plot point (he inadvertently captures the demogorgon before it attacks Barb—Nancy will later notice this in the torn up pic, etc)

It’s only AFTER all of this, when he’s developing the pictures, that we find out that in addition to the ones we saw him take (the woods by where Will was taken, the pool, the pic of Nancy looking out the window, pics of Barb):

That he also actually did take an even worse pic of Nancy—one of her taking off her shirt in the scene that had stayed on stancy in Steve’s room:

So, yeah, you can still drag Jonathan for this. Only when you do so, don’t add he went to the woods to stalk Nancy (he didn’t), or that he took naked pics of them hooking up (he didn’t), or the Duffers have edited the scene to make him look better (they didn’t and he doesn’t look better!)

Also don’t say he didn’t apologize and it was never addressed. He apologizes here:

And the show again raises the scene in question when they’re fighting in the woods. He gets “redemption” by apologizing to her, having his camera taken away and learning how to interact with people not hidden behind a camera, he respects and is super careful with Nancy’s boundaries, and only then is he given the camera back—once he no longer would use it like this. In terms of if you forgive him or not, you can also ask why did the Duffers even think to put that extra photo in when it wasn’t necessary to the plot (again Steve could have broken his camera based on the pool pics alone or the shot of Nancy looking out the window). But don’t try to forget that both guys severely screwed up in s1 and the Duffers exhibited sexist writing towards Nancy. In a different violation of privacy, Steve climbs to her window, looks in without her knowing, and observes Jonathan and Nancy together:

He then essentially helps Tommy and Carol write “Nancy the slut Wheeler” on a movie marquee for the whole town to see. Like Jonathan apologizes, he realizes that was terrible and helps clean off the marquee. So, yeah, they both did something awful to Nancy in s1, but with Jonathan, there def was an apology and a long development of their relationship in s1 in which they learned how to trust and be there for each other. You also get scenes of Jonathan that continually invoke consent (like “is this okay?”), when he’s in her room in s1, etc. The trust that develops between them is deep and grows over multiple episodes of the show.

Tl; dr: no they didn’t edit the scene, it’s still up there on Netflix rn exactly like this. I am still curious if we can catch what they did edit in previous seasons, but it wasn’t this scene lol.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 1/24/2023

new england winter: very cute and picturesque until you actually have to live here

listening

psycada by abstract, the opening track off the album hiking lung. a brief instrumental that sounds like a hazy-cicada-shimmer summer. it is a blisteringly hot day where you don't really have to do anything but even though you're out on the porch swing under the deck with a freezy pop it's not doing much. the vocals remind me very much of The Dandy Warhols once the rest of the album slides into more of a garage/psych rock vibe. a sort of understated fuzzy im-lying-down-right-now quality. i think these vocals would be background instead of lead in a more energetic track.

the album has several good tracks for the "datacore" playlist, which is full of mellow medium-paced instrumentals bc if i am alone with my thoughts while i clean addresses i will die

-

reading

i have Bullet Train on hold at the library but tbqh this section is probably going to be me gloating over various crypto crashes for the forseeable future. Molly White of web3isgoinggreat.com reports on the Three Arrows Capital guys setting up a new venture to (checks notes):

Not only that [both partners currently on the run from their creditors], but the exchange plans to focus on claims trading — that is, the trading of claims held by creditors against debtors who are undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, like FTX, Celsius, BlockFi, or Mt. Gox (throwback!). The fact that 3AC was a major catalyst in kicking off the string of bankruptcies we saw throughout 2022 was not lost on observers, with Nic Carter of the Castle Island venture capital firm commenting that the endeavor "is akin to arsonists returning to the scene of the crime and offering to charge their victims for buckets of water".

mwah. very much glass houses since castle island is also on the verge of going under due to its almost total focus on blockchain infrastructure but GOD. what a sentence.

unpaywalled bloomberg article on the wayback machine here.

this is some of the dumbest fucking bullshit ive ever read and im so fucking happy i no longer have to care about this at a professional level.

-

watching

Bullet Train (2022, dir. Leitch) asks "what if you put a whole bunch of assassins all on the same high-speed train?"

this is the glass onion of action movies. now i do like a perfect little puzzlebox of a movie made by people who really love movies, but this flavor of film is so fuckin smug about itself. this movie wants you to know it took AP Lit. this movie is a long variation of the whedon effect/"well THAT happened!” effect, where characters react to payoffs with the barest and briefest of setups an hour before in the movie. 

the thing that made me have a good time is this movie was directed by the guy who directed Atomic Blonde, one of my top ten movies and one of the best action movies of the last decade. LOVE an ensemble of goons all introduced with their own setup/backstory scenes. this film is seventy percent tightly choreographed fights with improvised weapons in tight spaces.

i am a simple woman. i like a bloody, disheveled man.

-

playing

alternating very fun and very unpleasant times with my big strong boy in wolfenstein: the new order. now, i am a little bit like "wow, you find the nazi prison camp level unpleasant? how shocking!" at myself. i was not really paying attention to the global rise of fascism in 2014 when this game came out bc i was busy dropping out of college and having a mental breakdown, but the nazis in shooters i have played or watched since 2014, especially call of duty: wwii, seem defanged compared to wolfenstein.

i will probably have more and more coherent things to say once i play more of this game, bc i am just about to bust out of prison at about ~9.5 hours of playtime. apparently this is the halfway point? after the first enigma code i looked up what the other ones do, decided i don't care about other game modes, and have not been trying especially hard to be a completionist about each level/unlock all the perks by doing different kills. i am talking to everyone and looking at everything and reading all the posters, and it is interesting how such a fast-paced shooter is adapting so well to me walking around and taking my sweet fucking time at whatever difficulty level is one below the recommended difficulty level.

a note on the plot-bearing moldy concrete. like yeah mold will grow on most things, including concrete, and yeah i guess the moldy concrete will kill you slower than the nazis will, but even though i love how lived in and cozy the kreisau circle hideout feels, it gives me the heebie jeebies. mold is quite bad for you. please prioritize another railing over another couch. also what the fuck math is tekla doing here??? i could not get a clearer shot even on max settings sorry

GOD i loved the london nautilus moon exhibit. yes i WOULD like to dual wield shotguns shooting nazis while running up and around a giant moon model. level perfectly tailored for me. HOWEVER! i would rather be shot in the head quickly and cleanly instead of trying to maneuver an EXPERIMENTAL HELICOPTER through a bunch of tunnels in creepy and wet conditions. being shot in the head would, again, be a much much cleaner and quicker death than any potential helicopter crash over the water. i hate planes to begin with but holy fuck helicopters no FUCKING thanks (ign screenshot)

for such a power fantasy of a game there sure are a hell of a lot of stealth sections. no stealth game is ever going to hold up to dishonored but boy did i really want these sections to feel more like dishonored.

-

making

fussing around with a f/allout: new vegas courier six/veronica/christine riff on classic noir film The Big Sleep for femslash feb. it's fun to write six even bitchier than usual

“Did you want to be the detective or the lady?” Six asked.

“Both of them were pretty cold fish.” It was very stupid to wait when she could have this immediately. Veronica flipped the covers back on her way over. 

“Harsh words to throw at a woman, especially when she’s already in your bedroom.” Christine clutched at Six’s silk pajama lapels as she was tipped back up. Six’s other hand dropped to play with her dressing gown tie. 

“Now, baby, a fish is–” They were never ever going to let Six live that one down. 

“You know,” Six said with as much dignity as anyone groping her wife’s ass could have, “being shot in the head — twice! took all the memories of fish from my previous aquatic life as a Shi Town mermaid.”

[tori-artemis]

Post Edit:

Hey, thank you for tagging me @therese-lokidottir !! :)

Now let's see if I can do this in a non-messy way lol. So in no particular order:

Loki (of course, I mean - this is my Loki blog after all! XD)

Particularly from Thor: The Dark World, tho tbh I love almost every version of him (or at the very least I care about/feel bad for him, which basically sums up my feelings for TVA Loki.

Sansa Stark (tbh my girl deserved so much better both in the writing dept and in fandom bc she was constantly crapped on by fans for basically being a traumatized feminine 13 year girl - until of course the writers botched her whole character up by turning her into Lady Vengeance bc then everyone liked her like wtaf)

I mean don't get me wrong I love Lady Vengeance Sansa - just not at the expense of her more compassionate core. She should have had more scenes with Theon as Reek damnit - we should've seen her conflicted feelings of wanting to hate this man who betrayed her family and "killed her little brothers" (in her mind bc he didn't actually kill them) and yet undeniably feeling immense sympathy for him (bc that's her goddamn character David and Dan! She's not heartless and she's definitely not revenge-driven like Arya is - like she is literally the opposite of heartless you damn hacks!) Not to mention her ultimately relating to him - not only as Ramsay's victim but as a hostage herself being as she was held captive by the Lannisters while Theon was held captive by the Starks. Like she empathizes with Theon, in a way that none of the other characters do. And tbf the series does show this aspect of her character with Sophie Turner's wonderful performance but it would've been better if the writers hadn't tried to mess that all up with Sansa and Theon's earlier scenes. (I will never not be salty about the whole "if I could do what Ramsay did to you I would" - like GIRL NO YOU WOULDN'T!) And I'm not even going to touch what those hacks made her do in the last couple of seasons bc this rant is long enough and I don't have the patience to get into all that. Which leads me to -

THEON!!! Theon Theon Theon Theon Theo-

(I mean, um, Theon Greyjoy, ha ha. 😅)

Valkyrie (Brunhilde???)

(Still salty that we never found out her name! 😤)

Margaery Tyrell

Tbh I didn't know who else to put bc I had to pick a woman character (otherwise this list would've had too many men and therefore wouldn't be even) and I was running out of mcu ladies. (Look I know there are so many to choose from but unfortunately I haven't actually seen Black Widow or Black Panther/Wakanda Forever or Moon Knight so I don't feel I can actually use such great characters like Yelena Belova or Shuri or Okoye bc tbh I feel I haven't actually seen them at their best - or at all if we're talking about Yelena. And why am I like this??? Hel if I know, I have OCD so it's probably something to do with that.)

Anyway all this to say Margaery's underrated af and while some of the writing for her was kinda sus (woman who uses sex as manipulative tactic cliche) she was still salvaged by Natalie Dormier's awesome performance so yeah - I'm putting her on the list!

Peter Parker/Spiderman

Wanda Maximoff/Scarlett Witch (how the hell did I forget about her???)

Like I related to her way too hard in Wandavision to just leave her off the list...

Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow

(Oh hey look - I have an excuse to include my babygirl here! I haven't gotten around to gushing about this guy yet but don't worry - pretty soon this blog will be infested with posts of me just rambling about him and why he's my perfect poor little meow meow. :) )

Natasha Romanoff

(I was never a huge fan of hers but after Endgame I've grown to really love her. Plus she gives off protective big sister vibes.)

Honorable Mentions:

Black Noir from The Boys. He isn't on the list simply bc I haven't actually watched The Boys, only several scenes really. But it's wild bc I ended up tearing up when I saw Black Noir's/Irving's background, who he was, what had happened to him, why he behaved the way he behaved... like even without all of the context it's hard not to get emotional about his story, especially the conclusion - all I know is I will never be able to look at Buster Beaver (a cartoon mascot that's the Chuck E Cheese of The Boys verse) without tearing up. :'(

Ramsay Bolton (aka Ramsay Snow) from Game of Thrones.

The Joker from The Dark Knight.

Yelena Belova

Alicent Hightower from House of the Dragon.

Lord Eddard Stark (aka Ned) from Game of Thrones.

Jon Snow from Game of Thrones.

Robb Stark from Game of Thrones.

Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Princess Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Bruce Wayne (aka Batman) from Batman: The Animated Series, The Dark Knight nolanverse films, and The Batman (2022).

Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman) from The Batman (2022).

Terry McGuinness (aka Batman) from Batman Beyond.

Yara Greyjoy from Game of Thrones.

Oberyn Martell from Game of Thrones.

Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop.

The girls from Euphoria. Particularly Rue, but tbh I feel for all of them (yes even Cassie).

Princess Shuri, particularly from Wakanda Forever tho I already liked her even before then, I just love her more now.

Andrea Beaumont from Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.

Namor from Wakanda Forever.

Will Byers from Stranger Things.

Max from Stranger Things.

Lucas from Stranger Things.

Jonathan Byers from Stranger Things.

Robin from Stranger Things.

Eleven (aka El, Jane Hopper) from Stranger Things.

Eddie Munson from Stranger Things.

Hela - though I fully blame Galaxy (affectionate 🖤) for my growing love for her. Not that I didn't like her before but I'd never given her much thought... I read Galaxy's meta and fics.

Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones. She is quite possibly one the most vindictive bitchs (affectionate and derogatory) to ever grace mmm)

Thor

Steven Grant Rogers

James Buchanan Barnes (aka Bucky)

Sam Wilson

Link from The Legend of Zelda series.

Prince Nuada from Hellboy: The Golden Army

A-Train from The Boys

Kimiko from The Boys

Billy Butcher from The Boys

Guts

(I'm just going to put this right here and not elaborate any further...)

[darkpoisonouslove]

I posted 4,288 times in 2022

588 posts created (14%)

3,700 posts reblogged (86%)

I tagged 4,276 of my posts in 2022

#winx club - 776 posts

#once upon a time - 346 posts

#ouat - 346 posts

#fanart - 337 posts

#ask - 244 posts

#me af - 213 posts

#quote - 206 posts

#anon - 202 posts

#scooby doo - 201 posts

#writing - 174 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#“you should go to that place that you don't even want to think about and i'll come with you bc you have to do everything to find your girl”

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Daphne and Domino's Revival

I am so tired of all the complaining about Daphne being brought back to life that is going on in this fandom. Some of the takes I have seen are just fucking outrageous in how utterly wrong they are. And no, I don't like what they did with Daphne's resurrection but to complain that it was a wrong choice or one devoid of potential is incomprehensible to me. The fault lies elsewhere but I'll get to that, too.

60 notes - Posted March 2, 2022

#4

Griffin: Why do I keep you around?

Faragonda: Because the alternative would be developing a conscience of your own.

67 notes - Posted January 29, 2022

#3

Icy going "if your skirt shrinks any more, you'd be in trouble" @ Bloom in 3x05 sure sounds like she's mad because Bloom's short skirt is distracting her. Just saying.

80 notes - Posted April 22, 2022

#2

Someone had to pick out dragon eggs for Alicent's children and we know that Viserys doesn't care about them. He seemed excited about Aegon at first but even for the son he was expecting from Aemma he didn't pick a dragon egg himself. He left it to Rhaenyra. I can see him asking Alicent and Rhaenyra to pick one together in hopes that it will make Rhaenyra excited about having a sibling but she clearly wasn't thrilled at the prospect so in the end Alicent probably had to pick the dragon eggs for all of her children on her own, with help only from the dragon tamers. So Alicent, who's been scared of dragons all along, would have done her best to learn about dragons so that she can pick the perfect egg for each of her children. I am ✨emotion✨.

80 notes - Posted October 26, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I was watching The Scene in 1x07 again because I'm obsessed and it's so obvious that Viserys has no idea how to parent. The only way he can think of making his kids, his family, do what he wants is to throw around his title as king. He does it when he questions Aemond and he later does it when he's "appealing" to - actually ordering - everyone to get along. He's constantly trying to use his political power in a family matter because he's just so powerless in this situation otherwise. No one is listening to him.

117 notes - Posted October 26, 2022

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