#teenage playwright

[just-gonna-write]

i finished writing the first draft of my play!

as of right now it’s called branwen, and it’s about a witch named branwen bobbit living in a world that hates witches. one night, a ritual she’s doing goes wrong and everyone in town finds out there’s a witch, and sets out to kill her. it’s about branwen’s struggles to act for herself or for other people, and sticking to her morals vs self salvation.

i’m going to edit soon and begin the second draft, so please stay tuned! id love if people followed this process with me. if you’d like to watch this story evolve over time, feel free to follow me :)

[rebelichor]

@poeticphoenix | X

Xemos' commanding voice echoed through the cafeteria. "Get back here."

"No!" a smaller voice replied without skipping a beat. Ariadne sounded far too confident for someone so short. Like she knew something that her mother didn't, and she thought herself incredibly clever when she captured the gloved hand of a familiar soldier.

Never mind Genesis was talking to others. It didn't phase the tot in the slightest, who looked at each face like the nosy little one she was.

She glanced back and startled a little, eyebrows shot up somewhere under her fringe. Her mother was marching towards them looking tired and inconvenienced with Vergil in tow. "Up?" she asked of Genesis, little arms opened up to him, as if he might be able to scoop her up and rescue her from being told off.

[cillianmesoftlyyy]

Like A Good Neighbor... | Cillian Murphy x fem!Reader

Summary| She grew up next-door to Cillian Murphy and he was her first sexual awakening. When her dad hosts a promiscuous book club meeting, she decides she's waited long enough.

Warnings| Mentions of Lolita and plays heavily on Lolita-core and daddy-kinks. Large age-gap, dubious consent, p in v sex, stalking, smut. Please read with caution!

It Probably Matters- Interpol 🎶

Born Too Late- The Poni-Tails 🎵

The Perfect Girl- Mareux 🎶

word count: 3082k

Minors do not interact! Does not reflect Cillian Murphy as an actual person- this is pure imagination and projection. Don’t interact if you find mentions of “Lolita” upsetting.

She could see through the parted curtains in his kitchen window that he was home. He was at the sink washing dishes with a towel thrown over one shoulder. His tight black shirt showed the curve of muscles in his upper arms as he scrubbed the pan. She was the girl-next-door type, helplessly petite and needy. She was nineteen and finally getting the stereotypical sex-drive that teenagers were criticized for. She was always horny now, and it felt like an unwavering flaw or weakness that placed her at odds wherever she went. 

Her daddy issues obviously didn’t help the matter… or maybe it was because she was a scorpio.  

She lived alone with her delusional father, who was an Irish author and playwright. He taught literature at the local university and loved expensive liquor. She was going to university for free because her father worked there, but she also stayed at home, trapped in her sexually repressed childhood bedroom. She stayed out of her father’s way when he was home but whenever he hosted “book-club” at their house, she found herself sneaking down the stairs to chat (flirt) with her father’s friends. The “book-club” was for the men in the neighborhood, to give them a social circle of their own, keep them from joining scary alt-right reddit pages by establishing connections with the men around them, something like that she imagined. 

Cillian Murphy was part of this “book-club” that met once a month in her father’s house. He was a middle-aged actor with an A-list repertoire, and yet, he still socialized with the regular neighborhood men, as if he wasn’t acting out some of the books they read each month. 

He was also a bachelor and hideously attractive. She met him when she was much younger, still in highschool and convinced that she would be an actress but discovered quickly that she was more of an artist. He’d given her short acting lessons, reading recommendations, and advice whenever she asked. He was like a second father, a better father than her actual father ever could be. He was the first person she masturbated about. She learned at an early age that she could spy on him from her bedroom window. She watched him read at night on his sofa, she watched him take home other women and fuck them on the couch when he was too horny to take them to bed, and she’d watched him masturbate to porn he projected on his small flatscreen tv. His taste in porn was pretty vanilla and it bored her, but she liked watching him touch himself, indulge himself. It was a serious turn-on. 

And the cherry on top was the book they’d read for that month: Lo-fucking-lita. 

She imagined that he got off to reading about a girl and an older man, that he fisted himself after he read at night, and that he thought of her when he did it. She was his Lo-fucking-lita. She had purposefully avoided the meeting that night, staying upstairs in her bedroom while the men discussed “literature” (Lolita). She wanted them to worry that she would come downstairs any minute while they were discussing such a nasty, disturbing topic. She wanted them to speak haltingly and glance up at her bedroom, she wanted Cillian to think about her and how dirty it was that they had read such a book, all the while she was upstairs. She took a long shower and washed her hair with fragrant shampoo. She moisturized her legs and dabbed her neck with perfume. She changed into her pajamas (underwear, a big t-shirt she’d swiped from Cillian’s house during a neighborhood get-together and she’d ruined her dress with salsa). She let her hair air-dry and rolled on her socks. She heard the men begin to leave, somewhat intoxicated, and watched as Cillian cleaned up his dishes left in his sink. 

When he went back into his bedroom, she flew into action. She put on her slippers and sneaked down the staircase to the first floor. Her father was in the recliner, asleep, so she crept past and closed the side door behind her as she left. She walked the few feet separating the two houses and knocked lightly on Cillian’s door. She knocked again. And eventually, Cillian emerged from his bedroom in boxers and the same tight black shirt. He raised his eyebrow as he opened the door and let her in. 

“What’s wrong?” He asked, worried. He glanced over at her house. 

“Nothing, I just need some advice and my dad’s asleep.” She rolled her eyes and he nodded. 

“Yeah, yeah. Come in.” He waved her inside and locked the door behind them. She dragged a finger along the fabric of the couch, searching its surface for evidence of what she’d seen from her bedroom window. 

“This place has changed so much since I was a kid.” She observed (lying of course). 

“Yeh, I’ve tried to update everything, some remodeling.” He nodded. “So, what kind of advice do you need?” He sighed and leaned against the kitchen counter beside her. 

“Mmhm. Fatherly advice.” She shrugged. 

“Oh, so is this about a boy then?” He laughed and rubbed his eyes. 

“I don’t know how much help I can be. Boy’s your age are so much different than how I was.” He shook his head and rested it against his palm. 

“I know, that’s the problem.”

“Mhm?” 

“I don’t know. It’s embarrassing.” She laughed and crossed her arms across her breasts. He looked down at her shirt and pointed. 

“Hey, isn’t that my shirt?” 

“Mmhm no, it's mine.” She lied and pulled down the front hem to inspect the words “Yoko Ono” on the front. 

“I swear I have one just like that.” He walked off to his bedroom and she followed, a skip in her step. He opened his dresser and rummaged through the stack of neatly folded shirts. His clothes smelled like fabric softener and men’s deodorant. He didn’t find it and she gasped. 

“Oh my god, you’re right. I just remembered that you lent this to me when I was here years ago and spilled salsa or something on my dress!” She slapped a hand across her forehead and he nodded slowly. 

“Wow, that was so long ago. I’d completely forgotten.” 

“Here, you can have it back.” She said slowly and watched his eyes widen as she slipped it over her head and handed it to him. Her bare breasts shook from the movement and she smiled. “What?” She asked innocently. He looked away but it was too late, he’d already taken her in, his eyes lingering on her full breasts, waist, and wide hips. 

“What are you doing?” He hissed as if someone could hear and turned away from her. 

“Returning your shirt.” She answered nonchalantly and fixed her wedgie, letting the material snap back against her butt. 

“You can’t do that, Y/N. It isn’t appropriate.” His face reddened as he clutched the shirt in his fist. 

“You don’t like this?” She pouted. 

“Of course not. You’re young enough to be my daughter, I-” He spoke quickly. 

“I think you like it, Cillian.” She interrupted him and trailed a finger down his clothed back. 

“Why?” He sputtered innocently. 

“Because… you’re still holding my shirt.” She pointed to the shirt still in his hands. 

“Christ!” He covered his eyes and tossed the shirt onto the bed. She crawled onto the duvet, her knees sinking into the plush material. 

“If I put on the shirt, will you still give me the advice I needed?” She sat down on her knees and licked her lips. He sighed and nodded into his hands. 

“Yeh, yeh I guess so. Just put the shirt on.” 

When she had the shirt back on, she leaned up against the headboard. “Ok, you’re good.” 

He opened his eyes and exhaled loudly. “Alright, what is it?” His eyes were wildly dark and hungry but he used his acting talent to hide it. She saw right through his performance, namely because his erection grew inside his boxers. 

“It's more of a question than advice, really,” she started. 

“Ok.” He nodded, exhaling again. 

“What did you think of Lolita?” She shifted back into a sitting pose in front of him. “I wasn’t able to stop by during the meeting, so, I want to know.” 

“Fuck, Y/N. Why do I have the feeling that this isn’t what you’re really asking me?” He shook his head. 

“No, you’re right. What I really want to know, I guess, is did you masturbate while you read it? Did it turn you on when you thought about her? Did you touch yourself and think of fucking a younger girl like her,.... Or like me?” She rose onto her knees and breathed against his wide lips. “Would you be Humbert Humbert mhm?” She reached down and played gently with his erection. He withheld his moan, closing his eyes to show how they rolled to the back of his head. 

“Y/N, you can’t ask me things like that.” He protested, but didn’t push her away. 

“I’m sorry. Let me rephrase: Have you ever thought about fucking me?” She traced her tongue around his lips, her hands prodding his erection. 

“No.” He whispered unconfidently and she smiled.

“What’s this then?” She reached down into his boxers and took out his penis, running her hands along the length. He said nothing, fighting his internal desire to stay and come as she stroked him. 

“We-we can’t.” He opened his eyes abruptly and stepped away, still very much hard. 

“Yes, we can.” She reached for him and he reluctantly stepped forward again. “I’ve been thinking about you. I can’t stop thinking about you, Cillian. I get so wet when I think of you and my pussy throbs, I have to touch myself.” She whined softly.

He looked down at her lips and breathed shakily.  

“I think that you think about me too, don’t you?” She rose slowly on her knees and kissed him softly, her lips barely resting on his. She reached down to the hem of his shirt and pulled it up and over his head. 

“Touch me, please.” She whimpered and he looked down at her shirt, his hands shaking as they snaked up her chest. 

“If your father found out…” 

“I’m 19. I can make my own decisions.” She kissed him and sucked on his top lip. He moaned against her. 

“Fuck…” He grunted and gave in, abandoning his pitiful battle to deny her. He tugged off her shirt and pushed her back on the bed. 

“Do you want me to say that I’m a virgin? Does it turn you on to think that I’m a virgin?” She smiled and licked her lips seductively. 

“No, don’t say that, Y/N.” He pushed her farther onto the bed and climbed on top of her. 

“Well what do you want me to say, old man?” She laughed and wiggled beneath his weight. 

“Tell me that you want me.” His voice came out as a growl, as he held her down on the bed, his hands stretched out against her’s over her head. 

“Ooooo,” she purred against his lips, “I want you sooo bad, Cillian! Is that what you want?” She licked his lips childishly and rubbed the inside of her thigh up his leg. 

“Fuck, don’t do this, love. I don’t like it when you tease me.” He exhaled against her cheek, his nose running over her soft, plump cheekbones. His erection pressed against the seam of his boxers and he rubbed his crotch against her panties. He could feel how wet she was through the two layers of fabric. 

“I’m sorry, Cilian.” She pouted, her breasts bounced briefly against her open ribcage and he lowered his mouth to swirl his tongue around her nipple. She hummed in pleasure, squeezing her thighs around Cillian to keep him between her. He chuckled. 

“See, I don’t need you to tell me that you want me, I can already tell, but what I want is for you to beg me, practically fuck me by yourself because you so desperately need to feel me inside you.” He kneeled above her and placed his hand on her navel, his thumb teasing the fabric of her waistband. She blushed and wiggled again, her clit throbbing. His thigh was positioned right up against her sex, he looked down and chuckled. 

“I can feel your heartbeat through your cunt, darling.” His hand slid further down into her panties, brushing against the hair at her entrance. “It’s beating so fast, darling. Are you scared?” He pouted and cupped her cunt in his hand, gently. “Are you scared of me fucking you?” He rubbed her clit in small circles, his erection grew harder and she bit her lip. 

“No, I want you to make me feel good.” She raised her chin defiantly and he smiled. 

“Good girl.” He leaned over her and whispered in her ear, “call me daddy.” 

“Mhmm, please daddy.” She started to shake with need as he rubbed her clit. She sat up and forced him down on the bed, straddling him on her knees. He ran his hands up her warm thighs as she moved her hips back and forth against his erection. 

“Have you thought about me as much as I’ve thought about you?” She asked him between kisses.

“God, yes.” He groaned back and moved his hands up to the soft flesh of her stomach beneath her ribcage. 

“I’ve been so fucking horny, daddy.” She moaned dramatically and smiled when he closed his eyes and groaned, thrusting up into her underwear. “I see you when you fuck those women on your couch. I know they aren’t pleasing you like I could, daddy. I touch myself when you fuck them, it gets me so wet thinking of you inside me. I want to make you cum, daddy.” She slithered down his chest and licked the outside of his boxer shorts. He watched her, his pupils shot. 

“You have, eh?” He asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“Uh huh.” She mewed and pulled down the waistband of his underwear, exposing his large dick. She spat on it, a long string of drool dripping from her mouth. “I think you’re gonna be too big for me, daddy.” She licked the tip of his cock and he threw his head back, his mouth agape.

“Fucking hell. Look at what you’re doing to me and I haven’t even felt your fucking pussy yet.” He groaned and grabbed a fistfull of her hair, twirling it around his knuckles. She smiled and took him in her mouth, swirling her tongue around his shaft before pushing him down her throat. He moaned breathlessly and panted. She cupped his balls and hummed against his cock, drooling all over him. He pulled on her hair and his panting got quicker as he closed his eyes.

“Fuck, baby. Fuck… ah FUCK!” He cried as she went faster and squeezed at the base of his cock. “You’re such a good fucking girl. Come here.” He ordered and opened his arms to take her. She released him from her mouth and sat on his lap, facing him. 

“Sit on it.” He whispered and twirled a strand of her hair between his fingers. She gasped quietly as his other hand pulled her underwear to the side and directed her to sit on his erect cock. She raised herself up slightly before going back down on him. He slid roughly into her, his girth a little too large. 

“Fuck, daddy!” She cried and her hands steadied herself on his navel. 

“I know, I know, baby. You’re just so tight, yeh?” He pouted and moaned as she wiggled on him. “Take you time, darling. I love being inside you.” He whispered and kissed her roughly, surrounding her in his arms. He pulled her closer to his chest and pushed himself up further inside her and she squealed. She cried out as he started to move in and out of her. 

“Ahh yeah! Oh, please fuck me!” She moaned against his shoulder. 

“Fuck, I love it when you plead me like that. You’re so fucking desperate.” He groaned and sped up, hitting the base of her uterus each time. Her walls swallowed him and squeezed him. It felt so good she couldn’t speak, she could only cry out with each hard thrust. He held her on his lap and he flipped them over and hovered above her. He pulled out and pulled down her panties impatiently and tossed them to the foot of his bed. He took one of her legs and put it over his freckled shoulder. 

“You’re going to take me like a good girl, understand?” He stayed inside her but didn’t move as he looked down at her red face. She nodded eagerly. 

“Yes, daddy.”

“Good girl.” He smiled and started thrusting deeply and quickly but with experienced skill. He looked up as he chased his orgasm, his brows furrowed as he moaned. She gripped his throat gently, encouraging him to fuck her faster. 

“Are you going to come, daddy?” She cried and he nodded. 

“Yeah, fuck yeah. I’m gonna fill you up. You and your little pussy.” He panted and looked down as his cock went in and out harshly against her cunt. He removed the leg from his shoulder and took a pillow from the bed. 

“Lift up your ass.” He ordered and she did as he asked, moaning against the pressure of his stiff cock. He put the pillow under her ass and pulled her hips right against his. He barely pulled out as he fucked her fast and hard. His balls slapped her loudly and she covered her mouth to keep from screaming. 

“That’s it, that’s it. Fuck yes!” He yelled as his movements spasmed. She felt him cum inside her, his hot cum spilling between his cock and her walls. She cried out as she organsmed and shook with each wave of lingering pleasure. Cillian slowly took out his cock and looked down at the cum spilling out of her. 

“That was so good, daddy.” She smiled breathlessly and he chucked. 

“You were so good, love. You were such a good girl for me. So grown up.” He teased her and kissed her, his hands finding the handles of her hips. “You’re such a fucking pillow princess.” He laughed and went back to kissing her. 

[mediumgayitalian]

“Can I come over tomorrow?”

Nico’s hands still on the stubborn pillowcase. “To…my cabin?”

“Yes.”

“Um.” He resumes, sliding slowly away from Will’s wide round eyes, stuffing the puffy square of feathers into its fabric prison. The ghost of geese past are not happy with him. He is their prince. They will submit. “Yeah? You could all those other times, too.”

“Yeah, but I want to come over.”

“Yes,” Nico agrees, wondering if this is perhaps one of those moments Kayla warned him about. Has it reached day five of Will not sleeping? He doesn’t think so. He was napping when Nico came into the infirmary this morning to help with the tidying he promised to do. At least he was drooling enough that Nico hopes he was sleeping. “You mentioned.”

“So I can?”

“Yes, Will.”

Maybe it’s just an American thing. Nico has been noticing some Moments lately. He’s not sure if all teenagers have unanimously decided on some code they’d like to speak in during the few months he was busy defeating his great grandmother, or if maybe he’s finally stuck around long enough to notice, but nobody says what they mean, nowadays.

(He has gathered, thus far, that ‘on fleek’ is a synonym for ‘aflame’, although ‘yeet’ continues to evade him. Perhaps because Cecil and Lou appear to have indulged in the sick delight of replacing their every word with the term with the sole purpose to Confuse. Or perhaps, as Will has so indicated, they have each endured one concussion to many and are beyond any hope.)

“Sick!” That one Nico knows, at least. “I’ll come by after my morning shift? Connor got cursed by the Hypnos, Hecate, and Aphrodite cabins this morning so I have to do brain surgery before he forgets how to feel genuine human connection again, but I’ll be done by noon. Probably. I mean, Connor has a thick skull, genuinely I mean, which is why his lobotomy has been delayed so many times, but so long as I —”

It has been under Nico’s notice lately that Will eyes, genuinely, sparkle. He has read the cliche time and time again and rolled his eyes almost every time: diamonds sparkle. Water sparkles. Snow sparkles. Eyes reflect, and sometimes glow with reflection. They do not sparkle. To claim a set of eyes are sparkling is to profess to the world and all capable of registering your words that you are a brainless idiot who cannot dredge up from the depths of your mind, the most barren and bereft back corners, a single unique or clever comparison; a minutely original way to describe excitement or animation.

And yet.

Will is indeed very animated, and very excited about very many things, and it shows on his face; in the wideness of his grins, the springing mass of his curls, the stilted and flailing gilt of his languid limbs. It also shows, perhaps most obviously, in his genuinely magnificent eyes — Nico has seen the Logan Sapphire. He has touched the precious thing with reverent hands, stared in awe as it thrust out the light shine upon it like the golden ichor of Ouranous swirling with the sweet saltwater to birth Love Incarnate. He knows glittering, he knows gleaming, shimmering and shining and twinkling.

Will’s eyes sparkle, like the very tip of a mountaintop, like the crackling ends of a flame, like dewdrops on spider silk. It is transfixing. It is alluring.

“—ico. Nico! Hello-o?”

It is also a trap.

“Sounds great,” Nico says loudly, voice like cold soda over vanilla ice cream. He clears his throat, twice, to no avail. His vision begins to blur as the heat pouring off of his face warps the air. “Um. See you then?”

Will nods, or at least Nico hopes he does. His curls bounce, anyway. They are hard to miss. They remind Nico tangentially of how laughter sounds, unimpeded by shame; how the shimmering satin of a ribbon would curl and bend under the smooth slide of the scissor’s blade.

(His father’s circuit of jesters often included poets playwrights. They also doubled as Nico’s babysitters. Surely no lasting consequences, that.)

“Yes!” He flashes a smile, then, and it becomes imperative to note that his eyes squint at the force of it, and his slightly-too-big teeth brush his bottom lip, and he has, in fact, on each cheek, a dimple.

Now, Will is often and even frequently called Apollo Junior by just about every living soul in camp, up to and including Immortal Camp Director And Horse, Chiron; and uproariously once even Mr D, God of Wine. Allegedly, as taunted by Kayla, even by Will’s own mother. The golden hair and unfortunate habit of winking and legs for days do most definitely create an image.

Nico, however, contrarian he be, must deny: he has seen Apollo. Apollo is beautiful and golden and charming, but Will is not quite his spitting image. Will, more aptly, is the son of the Sun. He glows; the glare of his smile leaves impressions behind in the cells one’s eyes, the glide of his limbs is almost dragging, languid. To look at him is to commit yourself to blinding. To seek so desperately the solace of the light as to ignore the unsettling sting of the burn.

“I can’t wait!”

As a blissful cloud moving in front of the solar system’s brightest star saves your eyes the eternal fate of darkness, Will’s duty so saves Nico from an eternity of shadow. He returns, humming softly and horribly, to his work, sifting through folders and updating patient files, and Nico exhales the breath setting foundations in his lungs, slumping forward in fervent relief. A melancholic reprieve from the summer rays, if only for a moment.

He waves goodbye, or at least he hopes that he does, rushing out the infirmary doors and tripping down the rickety porch steps.

“Hurrying somewhere, Nicholas Claus?” drawls Mr. D, throwing darts a perilously balanced apple atop the horns of a satyr bleating in morse code.

“That was not even an attempt,” responds Nico, and hurries away before he can be dolphinized. Dolphinified? Made into a bottle-nosed beast. (Why bottle? Of all comparisons to make, who decided bottles were the utmost separate object to which the snout of the slippery beasts should be named? Oh, wait, drunk people. Bottles. Okay. Mystery solved.)

He manages, in his heroic retreat across the common, not to destroy entire swathes of grass and plants, a feat for which the Muses could perhaps write epics about. Truly he is capable of the utmost restraint and self-control. He does raise several full sized wolf skeletons, but they seem primarily preoccupied with hunting down the the Stolls, so a win-win as far as Nico is concerned. Probably not for Connor, who is apparently cursed or concussed, he doesn’t remember exactly, but he has managed thus far with his startling amount of daily braincell loss so by statistic and happenstance he is bound to survive another incident.

“There has to be away to shut myself off,” Nico says, out loud to himself, proceeding the slam of his cabin door and the heavy breathing upon it. He turns to his altar. “You mentioned an off button, Father. I don’t suppose it has been successfully implemented.”

No answer comes forth. He indulges in a brief moment of self pity, wherein the Nico who lives in his brain clears his throat, digs around the messy confines of his mind to find an imaginary black hoodie, slips it on, digs around again for a dagger, and stabs himself, choking and twitching pitifully. Real Nico then walks with great purpose to the exact geological centre of the stone cabin.

“Okay,” he says again. He nods, once, narrowing his eyes in determination. The Nico in his brain opens one curious eyelid. (Does Will do psychiatric assessments?) “Okay, this is. Hm.”

It is not the first time they have been alone together, after all.

In the weeks following Gaea’s defeat and Will Solace’s nonstop, irritating persistence, Nico has been thrust in his proximity an incredible number of times. From his three day stay, during which he was simply so unconscious for so long his father was concerned enough to manifest onto the mortal plane and poke at his soul until he responded, to his unofficial indoctrination (ha) as a nurse, to camp clean-up efforts, to cabin renovation, to general life — they have become friends. Coworkers, at least. Together they make the camp a little more bearable for everyone in it, including Nico. It is rewarding work. It is illuminating work; Will is a good teacher, and he is funny, and he is good company (and he happens to have very long legs that he does not bother to cover up very often and Nico has eyes that do what they please). They have been in Nico’s cabin together several times over the last few weeks.

Never before has Will come over without some kind of stated purpose.

At least, not and absence he has made so obvious. True, the renovations took longer than expected, and the paint on the east wall is smudged from where Nico shoved Will, shrieking, off the stepstool, and they have perhaps, on occasion, used Nico’s illegal Wii when they were meant to be helping Annabeth make plans for Capture the Flag, but —

But.

Intent.

Is important.

It has been made abundantly clear to Nico over the summer that he has friends upon which he can rely. Reyna has made a point to Iris Message him at whatever Roman tryhard time she believes he should be awake, prompting an attempted murderous shadow travel that left him unconcious in Missouri and at the unfortunate end of many people’s shouting. And Will’s friends, who can perhaps at this point be called his friends also, have created a game entitled “How Many Grapes Can We Flick At Nico During Lunch Before He Goes Ballistic And Sends Us To Purgatory For A Little While” (four), which they are inclined and inspired to play every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Piper enjoys dragging him around to do Things. Jason is just around constantly. (Does he sleep? Nico should check on that properly.)

He had a point, somewhere. He’s sure he did.

It was maybe the impending anxiety attack, helpfully informs Brain Nico.

“Ah,” regular Nico replies, then grapples around for his least favourite pillow, slams it into his face, and screams at the top of his lungs for several minutes.

Brain Nico decides once again that commentary is the way.

I think we are an all powerful demigod of something, he muses. Dirt, maybe? Bad vibes? I can’t quite remember.

“The dead?” inquires regular Nico.

Do you think those years isolated in the Labyrinth perhaps situated us firmly on the shores of mentally unwell? responds he, blissfully unhelpful.

“I think that was Tartarus, actually,” says regular Nico, and promptly banishes his brain self to the deepest recesses of his mind, among memories of the taste of liquid fire and Calculus.

With the remaining, functioning (well.) part of his brain, he places both palms on the cool floor and attempts to focus.

Juicy Fruit It gets right to ya Juicy salt Hmmm Juicy Fruit, The taste the taste that’s —

For the love of all holy things, Nico begs his brain. It doesn’t work, but what ever really goes right in his life, so he pushes past the increasingly louder replays of eighties commercial jingles and maps out the ground below the cabin floor, pushes through the layers of underground.

Ah. Perfect.

He pulls up the very aptly placed skeleton of a cat, letting it scratch and sniff about his cabin before cautiously approaching him.

“You will be sure to tell it to me straight,” Nico says solemnly, holding out his hand. The cat bobs its nasal cavities in and out of Nico’s fingers and, apparently deciding him to be worthy of its attention, rams its skull against his knuckles. Nico snorts, running a fingernail along its cranial sutures and grinning as its purring echoes in his mind. “You seem very wise.”

The cat’s caudal vertebrae rattle in indignation, miffed at the mere idea that it could be anything other than wise. Nico is honestly quite impressed by its ability to glare without actual eyeballs, eyelids, or thought power.

“I am going to name you after my sister and pray that’s not weird,” Nico says. “I mean, I don’t think she would mind. You’re pretty cool, actually, and Hazel’s cool, kind of, so. Win win.”

Hazel the Cat seems unbothered by her christening, curling up in Nico’s lap. He runs his hand from cranial base to coccyx, finger dipping and bumping along the ridges of her spines, and settles against the cool floor, attempting to breathe evenly.

“It’s just.” He swallows. It takes a try or two, to work around the massive stone borrowed in his throat, and Hazel the Cat nips playfully at his fingers until his lungs settle again. “Before we had something to do, you know? We’d be cutting bandages, and he’d be all, hey, did you know bandages are mentioned in one of the first ever medical manuscripts and definitely predate it by many hundreds of years, and I would say I did, actually, I talked to the guy who made that clay tablet, and his eyes would get all wide and he’d be like no way, tell me everything, and then I would just talk forever.” Nico huffs. “We had something to talk about, you understand. Something to do.”

Nico tries to imagine what Hazel his Sister would say. Probably something along the lines of you are an impossible person, which is code for I have about as much luck as you do in this century, pal, the best I’ve got is hope for the best and remember adults no longer smack you for standing wrong. Which. Fair.

Hazel the Cat just purrs in his head again. It’s as encouraging as anything, he supposes.

“Am I supposed to have…conversation starters? He likes twizzlers and intentionally bad poetry. Maybe I could do something with that?”

Hazel the Cat shrugs at him.

“It’s not even — okay, it’s not just that, though. What is — how close is close enough in a casual setting? Or too close? How am I meant to greet him? Am I supposed to offer something? Make something? What do I do if there’s a lull in conversation? Or if it’s all lulls? Oh, gods, how much silence is socially appropriate —”

Hazel the Cat twists in his hold, meeting his eyes as if to say well I don’t think you’ll be struggling with that last one.

“Shush,” he tells her, but his mouth is twitching. “I’m just — I don’t want him to finally realize I’m weird. Or boring, gods. He’s such a hyper person, you know? He never stops. And I am supposed to entertain him! I think!”

This time he can actually hear his sister’s voice, in the back of his mind — you’re such a dummy. Ringed with fondness from the many times she’s said it to him, shoulders nudged carefully together, head knocked gently against his. You are weird and boring. Most people are.

“Ugh,” he sighs, tipping his head back until it rests against the mattress. “Friendship is hard work.”

Hazel the Cat swishes her tail, rattling the discs of bone like a rattlesnake. It’s a surprisingly soothing sound, like rain pinging softly against his window, or the flutter of the poplar trees outside of his father’s palace. Unconsciously he matches his breathing to it, slowing until it’s even, gentle, deep. His eyes, without any direction from his brain, drift until they blanket his hazy eyes, heavy as stone..

“S’not that serious,” he murmurs to himself, soothed under the weight of his feline friend. “S’just Will, I guess.” A beat. He smiles, slightly, a small, curling thing, mimicking the coiled heat in his belly. “It’s just Will.”

———

part two

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

Okay, I wanna talk about Fun and Games and the Anne and Mary plot.

First thing: the whole setup with Anne and Mary is a very one-to-one reference to the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, as many have already pointed out, but unless you've seen the play you might miss just how clear the reference is - there are lots of direct, kinda subtle references, from Anne kissing Stede to Mary throwing an axe at Anne's clock, but the main plot of this episode is so heavily rooted in what happens in the play that it's very worth talking about. "Fun and Games" is the title of the first act of the play.

A brief synopsis of the play, if you've never seen it. It will sound very familiar. The setup is an older couple having a younger couple (who mirror them in many ways, down to occupation) over at their house. George and Martha, the older couple, have a relationship that at first seems normal but quickly becomes obviously dysfunctional. They're passive-aggressive with each other, have all these little games they play with each other with rules obvious only to them, and frequently get into heated arguments and try to embarrass each other in front of their guests. Nick and Honey, the younger couple, are revealed as the play goes on to have some issues between them that could very easily lead to their marriage going the same way as George and Martha's, just fun and games because they can't handle actually talking like adults and accepting each other as they are. When George and Martha are forced to stop playing little games with each other, the play concludes with an open ending, and we as the audience are left to wonder if George and Martha will be able to actually talk through their emotions and problems without the impuse to avoid them that they've been leaning on for years.

The name of the play is a reference to Virginia Woolf, who was an author very invested in earnest exploration of a character's inner thoughts and feelings - playwright Edward Albee says that the play's title can be read, really, as "who's afraid of living life without false illusions?" and when Martha says she's "afraid of Virginia Woolf," that's what she means. The characters in the play constantly play games and create little illusions to hide from their real feelings and what happened in reality because it's too scary for them to be honest with themselves and with each other.

Anne and Mary are a cautionary tale for Ed and Stede, but it's not a simple "if you quit piracy you're going to get bored with each other and regret it." The cautionary tale is "if you refuse to talk with each other, if you refuse to actually address the reality of the situations you're in together, if you allow yourselves to become so bitter with each other because you would rather pretend you can get by with fun and games instead of acting like adults in a relationship, that is when you'll end up like Anne and Mary." It's notable that Mary mocks Ed and Stede for acting like teenage boys and not having an "adult" relationship, because she and Anne approach their relationship very childishly, snipping with each other, trying to get a rise out of each other, and refusing to actually talk, and when Ed and Stede are having an open, earnest, heartfelt conversation, they laugh and mock them for it.

And I think a lot of analyses of this episode miss that Anne and Mary broke free from the fun and games cycle at the end of the episode. When Anne set their shop on fire, she's burning the illusions they've been living with, too - their version of George and Martha's game is trying to "kill" each other, so scared of that final mystery, which of them is going to keel over first, that they have to make it into a game. The episode is not saying that it was a mistake for Anne and Mary to quit piracy and settle down. It's saying that their problem is refusing to actually talk to each other and communicate like adults, and when Anne commits to Mary over their shop, this symbol of the life they've become so bitter about and all the games they play to talk around their feelings with each other, they share a hug and we get the sense that their relationship is on the mend.

This episode is extremely well-crafted. It references the play without becoming overly derivative, but the central themes remain strong. It's a cautionary tale for Ed and Stede, but it's not a basic one, and it comes back at the end of the season when Ed panics and runs away to live an illusion of a fisherman instead of communicating with his boyfriend. Ed and Stede are not becoming Anne and Mary when they settle down together - it's the opposite, they're committing to what they want and living a life without illusions.

[chimaeraonwards]

Pendatang and why I think it's important for the fight against censorship

Malaysia's first fully crowd funded film is finally out and its free on YouTube!!!

(btw its fully subtitled in English, Malay, Chinese (Simplified), and Tamil for those who want it)

Pendatang by Kuman Pictures is set in a dystopian future where, due to racial extremism, Malaysia is fully segregated. Citizens live in their own areas based on their race and mixing between the races is punishable by 25 years in prison.

The story centers around a Malaysian Chinese family who is forced to relocate to a designated house by the authorities but they find a Malay girl hiding in their attic.

Anyone who is familiar with the Malaysian film scene would be wondering, "A Malaysian movie about race and inequality? How the fuck did this movie get through the censorship board?". Well, easy. They didn't even try.

In the name of keeping peace in the country, The Malaysian Film Censorship Board (Lembaga Penapis Filem - LPF) is notorious for censoring local movies to the point it loses its impact or keeping movies in a limbo for years. But films need LPF's approval to be able to release theatrically local cinemas.

The makers of Pendatang knew that this film wouldn't have made it past the censorship board or any other kinds of local governmental/commercial release or funding channel. So from the start, they set out to crowd fund this movie to release it for free online - where the LPF has no jurisdiction.

They managed to raise past their goal of RM300k (which is about slightly less than 100k USD). And one year later, they've kept their word - the movie is available on YouTube for free with no ads (making it a non-profit movie).

This is what the makers have to say about this move and what they hope it achieves:

So not only is it a badass move to bypass censorship and non-profit, its also a ground breaker and this opens up a whole new avenue for Malaysian filmmakers.

But it can't be that bad, can it? Well here are some films that weren't so lucky with the LPF.

Mentaga Terbang a story about a young girl's religious journey after her mother's passing to find out what happens after death. It was banned in Malaysia.

Tiger Stripes, the Cannes award winning teenage body horror film detailing a girl's journey with womanhood. It was so heavily cut by LPF that the filmmaker has disowned the censored version and has come out to say that essence was removed from the movie.

Spilt Gravy on Rice is a dark comedy based on a play of the same name. It is a story about a journalist who is close to death and decides to fix his family issues with his 5 kids who all have different mothers. The film was submitted for approval in 2012 and was forced to make changes (including an alternate ending) and was finally approved in 2020. Due to covid, the premiere was delayed till 2022. The original playwright, Jit Murad, passed earlier that year and never got to see his story in the big screen. You can find the film with its original ending on Netflix now.

This is why a movie like Pendatang is so important. Some suspect that Pendatang will be taken down or blocked by the government. I hope it won't.

Malaysian filmmakers want to share good stories that shouldn't be watered down. Malaysian voices want to be heard and shouldn't be unnecessarily filtered and censored.

[ladyloveandjustice]

My Favorite New Manga and Graphic Novels I Read in 2023

It's time to take a look at the comics and manga I read this year! I read  a whopping 78 manga and graphic novels in all. Here's a link to my Goodreads year in books (the manga is at the beginning, the novels start with Siren Queen) and my storygraph wrap up.

I also read 36 novels! If you want to see my favorites, check out my reviews here!

And finally, I've got the continuing manga series I've enjoyed this year here, so check that post out too!

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

This is a tale about a first-generation Vietnamese-American boy struggling with coming out to his mother. He connects with his mother through fairytales-- she uses them to express her journey as an immigrant, and he uses them to explore his queerness and identity as a Vietnamese kid growing up in America. It's an absolutely gorgeous book full of Trung Le Nguyen's signature stunning art. The fantastical, ethereal fairy tales are weaved beautifully into the lives of the characters. The book explores how fairy tales can form connection, can express culture, can tap deeply into something real and true, and can offer tragedy and catharsis. The protagonist uses fairy tales to write his own story, and the ending is lovely and moving.

Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles by Mark Russell and Mike Feehan

You may know Mark Russell from his darker, socially aware re-imagining of the Flintstones, which made quite a splash on Tumblr with this post. Well, I had pleasure of meeting him at a local convention, and I finally got his comic re-imagining of Snagglepuss, also of Hanna-Barbera. He re-imagines the titular pink puma as a closeted gay playwright in the 50's dealing with McCarthyism. It's as wild as it sounds,but also really digs into the politics of the time, the struggle of standing against oppression and how art fights through suppression and censorship. It's tragic, hopeful, poignant and full of historical references. I enjoyed it ! Definitely be cautious if you're deeply disturbed by homophobia and suicide.

The Summer Hikaru Died by Mokumokuren

A story about a teenage boy, Yoshiki, who realizes that his best friend and crush Hikaru has died and been replaced by a strange eldritch being who is imitating him. But, missing his loved one and desperate to cling to any piece of him, Yoshiki decides to keep on having a relationship with this mysterious entity. This book's horror is visceral and sublime, especially the bizarre, creepy, beautiful body horror involving the being who replaced Hikaru. It's an exploration of anxieties involving grief, relationships, and sexuality that hits just right, and the atmosphere layered with dread is top notch. I love me some messed up relationships and unknowable queer monsters, and this book delivers.

Chainsaw Man, Look Back and Goodbye Eri by Tatsuki Fujimoto

Chainsaw Man needs no introduction, but I did end up really enjoying the story of the doggy-devil boy hunting other devils. It got so tragic and intense at the end, with lots of great surreal horror imagery and darkly funny moments. I'm impressed it went so hard, though the random powers that kept piling up made what was happening hard to follow at times, especially in fights. I'm also enjoying the current weird arc starring a class-A disaster girl and the demon sharing her body.

Look Back

I really do enjoy how Fuijimoto writes messy pre-teen/teenage girls. They ring so true. The manga follows the fraught friendship between two girls as they create manga, exploring the struggle of art mixing with real relationships, and how someone keeps creating after tragedy. It's a little hard to follow at times (especially since I have to differentiate the leads based on hairstyle), but it's a good read.

Goodbye Eri

Probably my least favorite of the three, but it's a fun read- a weird ride that examines the thin line between fiction and reality in art and makes good use of Fujimoto's cinephile background and signature gaslight gatekeep girlboss characters.

Is Love the Answer? by Uta Isaki

The story follows a teenage girl, Chika, who has always struggled with not being attracted to anyone. When Chika enters college, she meets queer people all across the spectrum of asexuality, and starts exploring her own identity. As an ace, this is the best story about asexuality that I've read. It was a nuanced look at asexuality and queerness and all the variations. Chika's journey and how she found her community was moving and poignant. It's a honest, moving look at relationships and identity, and how complicated and hard to define both of those things can be. I loved the moments of Chika imagining herself as an alien to explore and cope, and how she bonded with people through magical girl shows and other geekery. My favorite new manga of the year, it really connected with me!

The Girl that Can’t Get a Girlfriend by Mieri Hiranishi

Oh girl, I've been there. This is a fun autobiographical comic about a butch4butch lesbian's struggles finding a partner in a word that favors butch/femme, and it's just an honest look at the messiness of loneliness and relationships. I also appreciate that crushing on Haruka in Sailor Moon and becoming a HaruMichi stan was the beginning the author's queer awakening because uh...same! She has taste, and is truly relatable.

Qualia the Purple: The Complete Manga Collection by Hisamitsu Ueo and Shirou Tsunashima

See my review of the light novel here for my general thoughts on the story, since it's adapted pretty faithfully. I do think the manga is overall the best experience though, because the illustrations break up the detailed explanations of quantum mechanics a bit, and it includes a bit of extra content that fleshes things out, especially withthe ending.

The Single Life: 60 year old lesbian who is single and living alone by Akiko Morishima

Just like it says on the tin, this focuses on a 60-year-old single lesbian. And definitely the shortest thing on here, since only one 30 page chapter is out.  It's a grounded story about a woman looking back on her journey to finding her identity, touching on sexism in the workplace and other challenges. It paints a portrait of a proudly gay elder who's still perfectly content being single and feels fulfilled by the life she had rather than regretting past relationships. I definitely want to see more.

Daemons of the Shadow Realm by Hiromu Arakawa

Arakawa's latest, the story is about a boy who lives in a small village with his little sister is imprisoned and has to carry out a mysterious duty...but then the village is attacked, supernatural daemons awaken, and everything he knows might be wrong. I'm enjoying this fun romp so far! It delivers an really nice plot twist right out the gate (and an excellent subversion of the usual shonen "must-protect-my-saintly-sister" narratives). It boasts Arakawa's usual fun cast and interesting world (and cool ladies). There's some slight tone and pacing issues in the first part- there's so much time spent explaining mechanics the lead doesn't really get to react to his life turning upside down. But it starts smoothing out by the second volume. I'm excited to see what's next!

Superman: Space Age by Mark Russell and Michael Allred

This is a retelling of Superman set throughout the late fifties to early eighties that has Superman interact with the political and social upheaval of the time and question his own role in things. It explored the Superman mythos through a lot of cool new angles, and has a good Lois (why yes she would break Watergate) which is how I always measure a Superman adaptation. My one complaint is, while I liked some of the things it did with Batman, the ending with the Joker was pretty weak. The ending of the overall comic will also be bizarre for anyone not uses to how weird comics can get, but I think I dug it.

#DRCL by Shin'ichi Sakamoto

A manga retelling of Dracula that focuses on Mina as the protagonist and imagines the characters at an English prep school. It adds a lot of  diversity to the characters  and has exquisite, evocative art. I'm curious where it will go and what it  intends to do with all it's changes (especially Lucy), because right now it's mostly vibes and creepiness and the direction isn't clear.

[jgroffdaily]

Jonathan is interviewed by Richard Lawson at Vanity Fair, with the interview also available as a podcast.

There are additional questions asked in the podcast about the state of theatre and crowds after Covid, shows he has seen recently (including OH Mary!, Mary Jane and Illinoise), the differences between working in film, television and theatre, and the legacy of working with David Fincher.

In conversation with VF’s Richard Lawson, Groff talks Merrily as well as his childhood in rural Pennsylvania and his Tony-nominated performance as Melchior Gabor in Spring Awakening. Rather than joining Lea Michele, his Spring Awakening costar and bestie, on Ryan Murphy’s Glee, Groff opted to stay in the theater world. “I really felt like I didn’t want to sign on to be a singing teenager again for another seven years, which I had just done for two years in Spring Awakening,” he tells Lawson.

As you’ve navigated a very dynamic career, how have you found managing the art and the commerce?

I’ve been really lucky in that when I moved to New York, I just wanted to act. I was not looking for money. I mean, I waited tables and I kept cash under my bed and all of that when I first moved to New York. But as time went on, I was lucky enough to get those few jobs that allowed me to live and allowed me to listen to my artistic appetite over a monetary need. Even the jobs that have blessedly made me money in my life, I never took for that primary purpose. Every job that I’ve taken has been an artistic curiosity primarily. So I’ve been really lucky in that regard.

Are you saying that you didn’t do the off-Broadway Little Shop of Horrors for the money?

[Laughs] It’s funny that you bring up off Broadway, because there was this moment after Spring Awakening where I had left—I had left the show after doing it for two years. I was 23, and Ryan Murphy had told Lea Michele and I that he had written this show Glee for the two of us, and would we be interested in doing that? I really felt like I didn’t want to sign on to be a singing teenager again for another seven years, which I had just done for two years in Spring Awakening. I was 23, and I really wanted to act. I love singing, but doing that felt like more of the same as opposed to something that would be an opportunity for artistic growth. And that next year, I did three off-Broadway plays.

When I came out the other end of that experience, I understood the truly life-changing power of doing great material. Spring Awakening changed me from the inside out as a person. I came out of that experience feeling like, Ooh, I want to keep doing this. I want to keep stretching and growing and challenging myself as an actor. So, Hair and Glee came up as opportunities, but I went to Playwrights Horizons and the Public Theater and did plays there for the next year.

[boleynecklace]

fuck it christian and satine headcanons (post-canon / satine lives!au adjacent) because i am silly and crazy and free

obviously they’re both on the same level of being ridiculously and helplessly affectionate with each other. their biggest love language besides words of affirmation is TOUCH. 

satine likes being an early riser, particularly because it gives her more time to spend with christian before they start going on with their day (him with the writing, her with the acting and dance rehearsals) 

but there are times where she’s knocked out a little longer than him and he wakes ahead of her and whenever it happens, he just gladly gazes at how beautiful she is even when she’s asleep and he’d try waking her up with kisses

their favourite non sexual activity, that isn’t holding each other or being in one’s arms would be reading or singing out lines to each other. or christian cracking up a corny joke (but satine still laughs at it anyway) although there have been instances in which this leads to more than one way or another…

she loves it when he takes her to sit on his lap everytime he’s sat with his typewriter trying to sort out the next scene in his story. sometimes it distracts him from getting work done but it pays off in the end as she’s a great and constant support for him.

and although they try the hardest to be professional when rehearsing for the shows, they still opt to sneak in between breaks just so they could have a talk for a minute (or let’s face it. so they could just kiss each other for that entire time) 

when it gets to a point where they can see a future with each other that involves marriage, christian gets quite nervous at first before he proposes. he never had a problem saying i love you to satine nearly 24/7 but for him to ask her if she would gladly spend their lives together and take the next step was something that felt nerve wrecking

he proposes on the night before they leave france. it happens after satine comes back from a last night out with zidler and the rest of their friends, she walks into his garrett with candle lights surrounding his room. little does she know he’s secretly found a way to get a ring for her, and it’s a small heart shaped diamond ring. satine bursts into tears when he asks her the question, immediately saying yes and they spend the entire night wrapped in each other’s arms, making love in between the sheets.

shortly after the success of spectacular spectacular, they set out a few more shows but they do leave paris to start anew and head off to london, and there christian takes a part time job as a book printer whilst meeting ends to continue his own work as a playwright / writer and satine sings at a local café whilst also trying to land acting gigs.

they also venture into england so christian could introduce satine to his family, as his fianceé. christian’s father not too long before they both arrive receives a letter from him, telling the entire story of his stay in paris, the moulin rouge, and satine. his father is adamant and intrigued at first, but eventually eases off his assumptions and reception towards satine and their relationship when he meets and gets to know her. 

christian’s got two teenage sisters, named emily and charlotte. like him they are both fond of writing and poetry, but lean more towards being musically inclined with the piano and violin. satine forms a great bond with the girls, as if they are the sisters she never had and they treat her as such too. 

christian and satine reside in one of his family’s estates, in a house not too far from central london. their home being a wedding gift from his father. 

their first big argument had to do with their wedding plans, some frustrations arose when trying to send out invitations to paris and where their friends could stay and satine worried about who will make it or not plus christian’s own deals in making proper amends with his father. they are able to get things over with and most often whenever bits of squabbling occur, it just leads them to getting entangled in the sheets with each other in the end. 

their wedding goes smoothly and in the way they want it to be, simple but stunning that’s intimate in the best way possible. satine wears the white dress from spectacular spectacular again, as a way to honor one of the greatest nights of their lives.

satine and christian adopt two cats as company in their home, also so satine’s little bird wouldn’t feel so alone, a white one named marié and a black one named louis.

satine finds out she’s pregnant two months into their marriage. she panics at first, thinking her illness had returned but suddenly realises the symptoms were drastic. when she tells christian the news that she’s with child he sweeps her off her feet and cries happily, as he never knew the day would come that he would get to have a family with someone he loved.

their firstborn is a girl, whom they name celine. she has satine’s red hair and the first few months of them being parents had them very hands on, but this stage of life gave christian even more inspiration for his writing, and satine the motivation to work harder in her acting. 

together they both become a force of a team. satine lands her first big acting showcase in a production of shakespeare’s richard iii, she plays anne neville in it and her performance is praised by many, while christian’s original play about a missing orphan who turns out to be a long lost princess gets picked up with rave reviews 

since they both have way too much fun in the bedroom loool, a year and a half after they have celine, satine falls pregnant again. her and christian are ecstatic to have one more addition in their family, and months later they have another healthy baby girl that they name theresé, this makes christian so delighted as she shares his dark haired features

when the two babies are a little older, satine and christian decide to visit paris again after a long time, and they do so on their 5th wedding anniversary. it's a first family outing for all of them outside of work duties and it's a very happy one <3

and because they really can’t stop at two, satine realises she’s with child for another time after they get back from the trip. pregnancy was something she didn’t thorougly enjoy as much, but being a mother was as much as work of love and devotion to her the way her career does. 

satine goes into labor while christian is at work for one of his plays and at the same time, finds out he’s been invited to hold a private show for the queen. such things happening all at once that he couldn’t believe the life he had looked for in paris all those years ago eventually lead to this.

they have a girl once again and christian is just so over the moon over it, and just like their eldest, the girl inherits her mother’s red hair. they name her margaret blanche after his mother and after satine’s mother. 

[just-gonna-write]

if i posted the first draft of branwen, would people want to read it? i would post each scene one at a time so any given post wouldn’t be too long

keep in mind, it’s a first draft! it needs to be lengthened, and the characters are a little fuzzy as of right now bc i didn’t do tons of planning before i began writing

[sparklyshakespeare]

Do you have any Shakespeare opinions (popular or unpopular) that you would like to share? I would love to hear them!!

OOOO GOSH hm well overall i think people need to be a lot less precious about shakespeare and take it a lot less seriously not in a like “maybe the wallpaper is just yellow” way but in a “no form of theatre is inherently more meaningful or sophisticated than any other” way!! so tired of people acting like “shakespeare acting” is somehow more difficult or brilliant or valid than “musical theatre acting” babe acting is acting!!!

1. i think brutalism and minimalism in terms of set design is FAR too overdone and honestly it’s a really uninteresting choice. it’s getting to the point where it feels like the nudist theatre movement of the 90s. like your show isn’t ✨✨super subversive and groundbreaking✨✨ just because you don’t have a set same way your play, 90s playwrights, was not super subversive and groundbreaking just because you had people get naked onstage

2. written lyrics should always be set to modern/easily recognizable songs

3. this is a GIVEN but like EVERYYYYY single one of Shakespeare’s works should be played as an IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE. if you’re doing Shakespeare and there’s a fourth wall you’re doing it wrong

4. this is more of a general complaint but i HAAAAATEEEE method acting/directing!! ew ew ew!!

5. more sapphics in Shakespeare always.

6. national theatre’s 2019 midsummer is like the only version of midsummer forever to me. it’s brilliant. PLEASE watch it!!!!

7. STOP trying to justify why don john is Like That. i’ve seen productions that make him a woman to try and explain it away with like all the other characters being misogynistic to him?? i’ve seen productions that have his actor play him as very very gay (which like he is but anyways) to try and explain it away with like all the other characters being homophobic to him???? you’re just making EVERY OTHER character unlikable!! the point of don john is he is a messy messy person who lives for drama and is just kind of awful. as is his right. you don’t need to try and other him to justify that

8. role doubling as a plot device always

9. i think it’s time to start reinterpreting the way that we view horatio. i am NOT saying that hamlet and horatio aren’t in love that is a well established fact that is fabulous and sparkly!! i AM saying that i’m tired of seeing the exact same version of horatio in every single production of hamlet i see. we all have SUCH a set view of who that characters is that i think it’s become a little bit tooooo set in stone - i want to see a different interpretation of horatio!! make him mean!! make him dumb!! make him angry!! make him fabulous!!

10. more fem edmunds (🏳️‍🌈)

11. if you are going to do guns in shakespeare…you need to be really careful about the way you do it or else it’s going to look incredibly stupid

12. cast all of the hamlet teens as actual teenage actors.

[fanonical]

I feel this is a good time to disclose that I don’t know what homestuck is so that you can induct me and also talk about it at length so that others may be similarly inducted.

Thank you in advance/you’re welcome xox

hahaha i actually do this a lot, i should probably find one of my “how to read/understand Homestuck” posts and bring it back to reblog every time somebody asks about it

Homestuck is an interactive webcomic & experimental hypertext, told mostly through epistolary chatlogs. In short, this means that Homestuck is told mostly through images and text (like most comics) but that sometimes — even often — the panels are have sound effects, music, playable sequences etc. facilitated through Shockwave Flash (the same now-retired software that used to let you play browser games during class if you’re the same generation as me :P). Also, as mentioned, most of the dialogue is delivered through chat logs between internet friends, and they’re incredibly faithfully written — Homestuck is the comic for internet friends to read together.

I just spent a long time talking about what Homestuck IS but not what it’s about — this is because as a whopping 8,000-page epic told using over a million words Homestuck is actually about a lot of things and its genre, setting, and even main characters shift quite drastically throughout the comic. Also, because Homestuck is a meta-narrative, its story is often about itself, which gets a little tricky to understand & explain; one of the big conflicts of Homestuck is the concept of retaining fictional relevancy (some characters even know when they are and aren’t the main character, and it vexes them, for example).

Overall, the first “main plot” you’re going to contend with is the adventure of four teenaged internet friends playing a special videogame together and discovering their destinies to embark on a quest to save all of reality.

TIPS:

1. Don’t let the 8,000 pages, 1 million words thing get to you. It breezes by a lot faster than you’d think when you get into it. Plus, single-panel-pages & long playwright style dialogs inflate how big it looks a lot; a lot those one million words are probably the narrative stating a character’s name to show they’re talking.

2. Read the Unofficial Homestuck Collection. There is an official Homestuck website; as of February 2024 it’s still considered pretty broken & the Unofficial Collection is considered unbeatable. It’s even author approved.

3. A lot of people give up because they don’t “get it” and they think they’re missing something. They aren’t, it’s just a little obtuse and doesn’t explain everything in a clear way intentionally sometimes. The comic will trick you, lie to you, tell you things intentionally out of order, make up meta bullshit a joke, intentionally draw stuff badly, etc etc. It’s a trial through fire. You can overcome it, and if you do, Homestuck is for you & it has a bounty of creative spoils for you.

4. People also give up assuming it isn’t queer because characters don’t immediately say “oh wow im gay” in the first thirty seconds. Well, these characters are realistically portrayed teenagers. You’re gonna have to wait, and that’s what makes it so good.

Good luck. You’re gonna need it.

[hpowellsmith]

Hello there! I've been wanting to replay the older Baldur's Gate games, and was searching around for mlm NPC romance mods. I saw yours mentioned and found your site with some googling, but it seems the place they were hosted at is gone now (Spellhold Studios). I was wondering if you still have the mods available somewhere? Either way, I hope you have a great day!

OK, this has made go down a modding-community rabbit hole! I hadn't done anything with our Baldur's Gate 2 mods, or looked at them really, since 2015 and I really appreciate it because they're something that brought my wife and I a ton of joy, and they were the first interactive narratives I made.

Links, descriptions, and comments below because it is Long:

I got in touch with folks on the Gibberlings3 forum which is, wonderfully, still going strong, and have given permission for Faren and Nathaniel to be uploaded to the Spellhold Studios GitHub (which has a bunch of other mods too - do check out Adrian, Isra, and Ninde in particular!) to the team maintaining it. That may be a little while as some of the team are ill right now, but once I hear that it's done, I'll post about it here; I've also been pointed to some links where the mods were mirrored. Note that I haven't tested these myself on a current BG2 install, but it is easy to uninstall WeiDU mods if there's a problem.

Faren is a bisexual True Neutral fighter/thief (I can't remember if he's dual-classed or multi-classed) who's easygoing, down-to-earth, and up for partying, with a bit of a checkered past - his adventuring party died in one of the dungeons you can visit in BG2, and since then he's been picking up dodgy jobs, feeling a bit adrift, and trying to get his life back on track. That's where the PC comes in! You can befriend him or romance him (starting with either a casual or more committed tone, then committing further if you want to), and he has a personal quest in which a shady figure from his past wants him to do one last job. He was our third mod, and we'd developed our skills with writing and scope a lot by then. When I play BG2, I play with Faren! You can currently download Faren here. It's the version updated in 2015 with more banters with modded NPCs and the Enhanced Edition characters; there may be compatibility issues installing it with other newer mods but do give it a try.

I found The Luxley Family, which was our second mod, on the GitHub here. From a cursory (rusty) glance it looks like it should be compatible with Enhanced Edition, but the storyline is only for Shadows of Amn and doesn't continue into Throne of Bhaal. Sebastian and Andrei (Chaotic Neutral bard with a custom kit and Lawful Neutral monk respectively) are members of a mysterious, reclusive family who are under a curse. Sebastian's a worldly playwright who's showing his polite but moody teenage cousin Andrei the sights when they bump into the PC. They aren't romanceable, but you can have a fling with Sebastian, who's bisexual, if you let/help him mess up his life sufficiently.

Nathaniel is a Lawful Good gay fighter with a lot of feelings. He was our first mod and I am really proud of the impact he had on a lot of people and even other games back in the day, but if you play, go in expecting a LOT of feelings good and bad, relationship drama, and angst! (There's something very sad about the fact that as teens we could not imagine a D&D setting without homophobia back then; the idea of a knightly order thinking well of gay people just didn't cross our minds. it's extraordinary how much better a lot of things are now, including the queerness in D&D streams, books, and of course Baldur's Gate 3. Interestingly, we didn't include homophobia in the Luxley Family or Faren and I don't remember how conscious that was; maybe we'd become more hopeful by then.) You can download an outdated version of Nathaniel here but I don't think it will be compatible with Enhanced Edition.

Thank you so much for messaging! I didn't realise they weren't able to be downloaded anymore and I am really keen for digital art to be preserved (as well as players getting to smooch hot guys, of course).

(Digression - my wife and I have a couple of almost-finished mods on our computer: a lesbian cleric of Talos which she wrote, and a bi Valygar romance that I wrote. And, if it's among two computers' ago worth of external hard drive storage, the ending for the Luxley Family story. Who knows, maybe one day...)

[josefavomjaaga]

Arnault meets Bonaparte in Milan

Antoine-Vincent Arnault was a poet and playwright during the napoleonic era and a great admirer of Napoleon. He even wanted to accompany the French army to Egypt. In his "Souvenirs d'un sexagénaire" he also is one of Josephine's most malicious detractors. A lot of the Hippolyte Charles stories seem to come from him.

The scene below is taken from Volume 3 of his memoirs and takes place in 1797. Arnault has gone to Milan and attends a reception organised by the commanding general in the Palazzo Serbelloni.

In the salon I entered were, with Mme Bonaparte, Mme Visconti, Mme Léopold Berthier, since Countess de Lasalle, and Mme Yvan.

I do not know if and how this Madame Yvan is related to Napoleon's surgeon. I'm just here for the next two sentences:

Next to these ladies, on the sofa that lined the room, Eugène de Beauharnais was joking and laughing like a page; of all the men present, he alone was seated. Beyond the archway that marked the entrance to the gallery was the general.

All around him, but at a distance, stood the senior officers, the heads of the army administrations, the magistrates of the city, and also some ministers of the Italian governments, all on their feet like him. [...] Bonaparte did not attempt to rise to the level of the others; he had already been spared the trouble. None of those with whom he conversed seemed taller than he. Berthier, Kilmaine, Clarke, Villemanzy, even Augereau, waited in silence for him to speak to them, a favour they did not all obtain that evening. Never has headquarters looked more like a court. It was what the Tuileries have been ever since.

I just love the description; you can really feel the anxious atmosphere in that hall. Everybody, while pretending to be unfazed, has their eyes on the general, hopes to be noticed by him, talked to by him, does not dare to sit down as long as he doesn't, really already treating him like a monarch - and then there's one teenager who has his priorities down: there are neglected ladies in the room!

Eugène: What's up with you people anyway? That's only my new stepdad! - But go ahead, general, do whatever it is you're doing, I totally have you covered here.

[denimbex1986]

'David Tennant bounds into the room, friendly, super articulate and energetic.

The actor and Doctor Who favourite, regularly voted the best Doctor by fans, is set to appear once again as the Time Lord in the forthcoming 60th anniversary specials.

The ongoing actors' strike prevents him from talking about those (Doctor Who is now a BBC/Disney co-production and US actors' union Sag-Aftra has been on strike since July).

But we're together, in a room full of books and leftover croissants - clearly actors need sustenance - to talk about Shakespeare, a playwright Tennant calls a "genius" who "had a particular sense of what it is to be a human" and expresses it "in a way no one else really does".

Tennant, who is an associate artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company, is steeped in the Bard. One critic described his Hamlet, which aired on the BBC in 2009, as "theatrical history in the making".

He excelled as Romeo and Richard II and, when we met, had just finished his first day of rehearsals for an already sold out run of Macbeth at London's Donmar Warehouse.

He's no-nonsense about the superstition of only referring to this most atmospheric work as the "Scottish play". Tennant freely uses the word "Macbeth".

But he admits to terrible nerves ahead of the show - however successful you are, it never gets any better, he says.

Renowned actors have been in his shoes; famously Lord Olivier was Macbeth to Vivien Leigh's Lady Macbeth in 1955, Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench had their turn in 1976 and Sir Antony Sher and Dame Harriet Walter in 1999.

For Tennant, Shakespearean roles are like "Olympic events for an actor".

"The idea that you're being invited to stand next to these greats and sort of challenge yourself, test yourself against them and see if you've got something new to bring to that… that's part of what's exciting about it."

West Lothian-born Tennant "always wanted to be an actor" (his childhood obsession with Doctor Who had a big part to play in that) and from the way people talked about the plays, "I knew there was something magical about Shakespeare."

But that didn't mean he was immediately hooked when introduced to Macbeth at school - although he's at pains to praise his teacher.

He says the plays were written to be performed and it's "a shame that the first experience of Shakespeare is sitting in a classroom, trying to mouth these words that don't sit in your mouth and don't necessarily make a lot of sense to you at the age of 14".

"That's why a lot of people fall out of love with Shakespeare before they've really had a chance to fall in love."

Tennant fell in love when TAG, a Glasgow theatre company, brought As You Like It to his school's assembly hall. "I didn't necessarily understand every word and some of it felt perhaps a little unnatural and foreign to me". But the teenage Tennant was transported "because it was live and it was happening".

Now his head is brimful of a play that opens with three witches plotting and takes us on a journey of murder and guilt. Tennant says Shakespeare's take is "incredibly modern".

"The way he expresses Macbeth's fear of never sleeping, the torture of being in the restless ecstasy of never being able to close your eyes."

Even for Tennant, though, Shakespeare needs decoding. He tells me, when he opens one of the plays, he "100%" puts the modern translation next to the old. He deciphers the language so theatre audiences don't have to.

"If we're doing our job halfway properly, you shouldn't have to worry about understanding every syllable. You will be transported by it."

There can, though, be layers of meaning that still surprise you 10 weeks into a run, he says. "Usually on a wet Wednesday afternoon matinee, you'll suddenly go 'oh, that's what that line means.'"

Macbeth is one of 18 Shakespeare plays that would have disappeared if, seven years after his death, the actors John Heminges and Henry Condell hadn't published their friend's greatest plays in the First Folio.

That book was the first time the plays had been put together.

Before then, only 18 had been printed, in small paperback editions known as quartos.

The First Folio was registered for publication on 8 November 1623.

There were 750 copies made. Without it, we could have lost all the unprinted plays, around half of Shakespeare's works, including not just Macbeth but Julius Caesar, The Tempest, As You Like It and Twelfth Night.

Four hundred years on, 235 original First Folios are known to survive - 150 are in the US, and about 50 in the UK and Ireland.

The BBC is running a huge amount of content to mark the 400th anniversary. The celebratory season will include the 2018 adaptation of King Lear starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, Shakespeare Live! from the RSC, and a semi-fictionalised comic drama on Radio 4 about the creation of the First Folio.

Tennant says: "The reason that those plays are still performed around the world and the reason that Shakespeare is the cultural colossus that he is, is because that book was published."...

For Tennant, Shakespeare is "weirdly modern" because he captures how complicated it is to be human.

"He writes about the moment he was in, which seems to, by dint of his genius, also be the moment we are in."

Tennant is one of the UK's most exciting actors, known to wider audiences not just for Doctor Who and Broadchurch, but his film role as Barty Crouch Junior in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

But you get the sense that there's even more magic, for Tennant, in performing Shakespeare.

It's why he is celebrating the anniversary of the First Folio, that book that was the first step in creating a legacy for the greatest playwright in the English speaking world.'

[thebigbookfanboy]

Random Kaplan family headcanons (P1 of ?)

~~~~

Jeff and Rebecca met at the age of twenty-five. Rebecca's brother and Jeff's sister were put together by a matchmaker and decided to try and introduce the two families.

All of their sons are named after playwrights (William Shakespeare=William (Billy) Kaplan, Eugene O'Neill=Eugene (Gene) Kaplan, Samuel Beckett=Beckett Kaplan)

Billy is the oldest (nineteen), Gene is the middle child (seventeen), and Beckett is the youngest (fourteen).

Gene and Beckett are also mutants, but Eugene doesn't use his powers, and Beckett's haven't activated yet.

Jeff and Rebecca legally adopted Tommy when he was seventeen

Jeff has undiagnosed Autism. He and Rebecca agreed not to get a professional diagnosis.

Beckett is Autistic and has ADHD, Gene has dyslexia and Billy has dyspraxia and have all been diagnosed.

Gene is obsessed with dreams and sleep (like, he wants to study it at university and stuff)

Tommy likes arts and crafts and often makes bookmarks and gives them to friends as gifts. He doesn't like using hot glue guns, though.

Jeff knits to relieve stress and to keep his hands steady.

Gene does knitting and crochet, and Beckett does embroidery.

Rebecca calls herself Dr. Rebecca Oure-Klum (her maiden name) to her patients. And Jeff just tells them to call him Jeff.

Billy, Beckett, and Gene used to have a massive Minecraft world that they played on together, but now only Beckett plays on it.

Gene goes to a private boarding school for high achieving students.

Everyone at Beckett's school avoids him because of Billy and the John Kessler thing.

Beckett posts superhero fanfiction online (but never includes The Young Avengers because to him, that's weird). Jeff and Rebecca support it because they think fanfiction and fanart are healthy ways for teenagers to explore gender, sexuality and creativity; they do not read them, though, Gene does and occasionally does fanart for Beckett's fics, but keep them on the down low.

Gene has a crush on Marvel Girl (Jean Grey, not Rachel). Beckett has a crush on Iceman, Spider-Man, and Human Torch.

Jeff and Rebecca made a swear jar for English swears, a swear jar for Yiddish swears, a swear jar for Hebrew swears, and a swear jar for made up language swears. They have over 5,000 dollars in them.

Gene once got Northstars autograph. He also once got Jean-Paul Beaubier's autograph. So far, he's the only person to have figured out his identity by himself.

They live next door to William and Madeline Drake.

The reason Gene and Becket weren’t home when Mother took over is because they were both on multiday field trips to Xaviers School for Gifted Youngsters.

Gene cries when dogs die in movies. A Dogs Journey broke him.

Like Billy, Jeff sleep talks. A lot. Mainly about the structure of a heart and different heart conditions. Often about Rebecca.