#transcript with watermark

[eternalstateofoctober]

— 𝔞𝔩𝔩 𝔦 𝔴𝔞𝔫𝔫𝔞 𝔟𝔢 𝔦𝔰 𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖞𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖆𝖙 𝖔𝖓𝖈𝖊 | AMC’s IWTV

also known as ”local woman is roused to learn editing to deliver everyone this fandom classic” (the video's synced better on desktop)

transcription/video description under the cut:

[video description: a fan video/edit of amc’s ”interview with the vampire” by tumblr user @eternalstateofoctober (me!!) set to a shortened version of lenka’s ”everything at once”. the video clips are cut to the rhythm of the song and its changing lyrics. the song is catchy and upbeat with a light, bouncy rhythm and a whimsical but also slightly melancholic vibe at times. it has a steady beat with repeating piano notes and some xylophone. the video clips are muted so only the song is playing, save for a few voiceover lines and sound effects.

(instrumental intro, repeating piano notes)

the théâtre des vampires orchestra starts playing and another member checks the projector. a watermark with the username @eternalstateofoctober flashes on screen and disappears at the same time as a projector light flickers.

🎵 as sly as a fox 🎵

two clips of daniel after the trial script reveal. first he tosses the script to louis, then he pushes his glasses up and casts a hard look at an off-screen armand.

🎵 as strong as an ox 🎵

armand uses the mind gift to make the coven fall asleep at the dinner table in 2x04, voiceover of him yelling ”enough!” angrily and banging the table. table settings clattering. then lestat using the mind gift at the trial to manipulate louis’ sentence. his left ear starts bleeding. VO lestat: ”banishment...”

🎵 as fast as a hare 🎵

louis sprints at daniel in ’73, making him stumble back.

🎵 as brave as a bear 🎵

clips of young daniel being tortured by armand. first he lifts his gaze, then there’s two clips of him being slammed down by armands powers. last clip is him closing his eyes while armand holds his face. VO of daniel’s grunts and whimpers.

🎵 as free as a bird 🎵

claudia on stage as baby lu mimes opening a window made of projections happily.

🎵 as neat as a word 🎵

claudia writes in her diary in season 1, the clip has a double exposure effect with her pen moving on the page.

🎵 as quiet as a mouse 🎵

a wide shot of the sewers the children of darkness inhabit.

🎵 as big as a house 🎵

establishing shot of the théâtre des vampires building. suddenly the screen flashes black and there’s a quick flickering shot of the talamasca logo on daniel’s laptop screen and a glitching sound effect.

🎵 as mean as a wolf 🎵

close-up of santiago on stage in 2x02, he looks right at the audience seductively.

🎵 as sharp as a tooth 🎵

shots of the vamps baring their fangs. lestat ripping the priests throat out in 1x01, claudia in madeleine’s shop, louis in ’73 showing off to daniel, armand hissing at lestat in 2x03.

🎵 as deep as a bite 🎵

extreme close-up of lestat biting louis at the altar.

🎵 as dark as the night 🎵

madeleine lights a candle that illuminates her face during a power outage. she’s watched from outside her shop window by a curious claudia.

🎵 as sweet as a song 🎵

young daniel embraces armand after armand has manipulated him to accept death. armand strokes his hair and there’s armand’s calm whisper as a voiceover: ”i’ll hold you…”

🎵 as right as a wrong 🎵

claudia’s real turning. lestat looks up from an off-screen louis who’s begging on his knees. in the second clip he’s kneeling next to claudia on the floor and lifting her upper body while louis’ back is still turned to them.

🎵 as long as a road 🎵

louis’ finger taps a spot on a map in the warzone.

🎵 as ugly as a toad 🎵

the vampire bruce cocking his head.

🎵 as pretty as a picture, hanging from a fixture 🎵

lestat’s portrait hangs on the wall in the théâtre’s green room in 2x02, jumpcut to it in flames in 2x08.

🎵 strong like a family 🎵

the de pointe du lac and frenière families pose for a portrait at grace’s wedding. the clip changes to the next with the camera’s flash going off.

🎵 strong as i wanna be 🎵

VO Madeleine: ”mais j'ai survécu.” (”but i survived” in french). shots of madeleine’s past, the trial by mob. extreme close-up of her crying face, the angry crowd surrounding her, her screaming while her hair is shorn. the segment ends with her throwing an iron through her shop window where a group of locals has just painted a swastika. sound effect of glass shattering.

🎵 bright as day, as light as play 🎵

madeleine’s vision of claudia as she’s turned. claudia in a yellow dress in madeleine’s shop, smiling to the camera—at madeleine—and turning to the mirror. the whole scene basks in warm, bright afternoon light.

🎵 as hard as nails 🎵

grace looks up at a slightly off-screen louis in 1x05, a hard, difficult look. they are at louis’ fake grave at night and grace is holding a funeral bouquet.

🎵 as grand as a whale 🎵

two clips after one another. first is louis being buried alive in 2x07, a silent scream as the rocks rush to cover his face. second one is his feet stepping onto the rocks in the penthouse’s sundial room. VO old daniel: ”where’s your coffin?”

(the music quiets and slows down slightly for the next line.)

🎵 as warm as the sun 🎵

close-up of claudia burning in the sun at the trial. she is turning into ash but still looks at an off-screen lestat.

🎵 as silly as fun 🎵

several clips in rapid succession. murder family laughing at a movie theatre, them dancing together—holding hands, claudia cheering riding the sidecar of a motorcycle in paris during the théâtre’s group hunting, armand smirking wearing malek’s glasses, vamp daniel’s tv interview, him laughing at the host.

🎵 as cool as a tree 🎵

real rashid steps slightly forward, hands clasped behind his back with a neutral expression.

🎵 as scary as the sea 🎵

two clips of armand in ’73. first his eyes shake as he slams daniel down with his powers in the background, then him turning slowly—eyes wide—to face daniel that’s sitting in front of him.

🎵 as hot as fire 🎵

three clips showing fire in the show. first: daciana throwing herself into the flames, second: armand’s fire gift, him looking at a flame in his hand, third: the théâtre’s fire starting behind louis as he looks into claudia’s mirror backstage. the mirror reads ”tweedily deedily dead”.

🎵 cold as ice 🎵

louis cuts off santiago’s head, louis smirking, looking down. VO: louis’ satisfied chuckle.

🎵 sweet as sugar and everything nice 🎵

VO louis and old daniel: ”would you like a sample?” ”i’m a savory man most days.” with first a clip of armand-as-rashid’s blissful expression as louis drinks from him at the dinner table in 1x05, then three clips of sweet treats: the strawberry dessert from 1x02 being set in front of daniel, daniel taking a bite of it, then young daniel sipping his grasshopper at mary’s. the clip ends with old daniel’s hand pushing his coffee cup forward, requesting a refill.

🎵 as old as time 🎵

armand stares at a painting depicting him in the louvre, eyes wide, brows slightly furrowed, head slightly turned.

🎵 as straight as a line 🎵

the recording on daniel’s laptop flatlining, him looking at armand, armand smiling warmly at him.

🎵 as royal as a queen 🎵

lestat basks in all his king raj mardi gras costume glory, he smiles widely up at the camera positioned above his head.

🎵 as buzzed as a bee 🎵

lestat on stage in 2x03, wiggling his shoulders, smiling playfully, flipping his coat tails up and bending over for the audience.

🎵 as stealth as a tiger 🎵

estelle and celeste spying on louis and claudia in paris.

🎵 smooth as a glider 🎵

armand floats up the louvre floors as louis and dreamstat take the stairs.

🎵 pure as a melody, pure as i wanna be 🎵

first, a shot of louis and paul dancing at grace’s wedding, smiling at each other. then, a close-up of paul sitting of the roof, turning to look at an off-screen louis as the screen slowly fades to black and another watermark appears. the voiceover is paul and louis’: ”i love you, louis.” ”i love you too, baby brother.”

/end video description]

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[the-conversation-pod]

Going High-Low with Taiwan

And we're back! It’s been awhile since we checked in on Taiwan, and the latest offerings have really run the gamut in terms of quality. Ben, NiNi, and Shan sat down to discuss the state of Taiwanese BL via two recent shows, Anti Reset and Unknown.

Timestamps

The timestamps will now correspond with chapters on Spotify for easier navigation.

00:00:00 - Welcome 00:01:15 - Intro 00:02:11 - Anti Reset and VBL 00:13:13 - Unknown the Series 00:20:16 Unknown: The Pseudo Incest Trope 00:27:53 Unknown: San Pang, Li Li, and Family in the Narrative 00:35:48 Unknown: The Ending Stumble 00:43:32 Unknown: Adapting the Da Ge Novel 00:46:15 Unknown: Final Thoughts and Ratings 00:51:53 - Whither Taiwanese BL?

The Conversation Transcripts!

Thanks to the continued efforts of @ginnymoonbeam as transcriber, and @lurkingshan as an editor and proofreader, we are able to bring you transcripts of the episodes.

We will endeavor to make the transcripts available when the episodes launch, and it is our goal to make them available for past episodes (Coming soon thanks to @wen-kexing-apologist). When transcripts are available, we will attach them to the episode post (like this one) and put the transcript behind a Read More cut to cut down on scrolling.

Please send our volunteers your thanks!

00:00:00 - Welcome

NiNi

Welcome to The Conversation About BL, aka The Brown Liquor Podcast.

Ben

And there it is. I’m Ben.

NiNi

I’m NiNi.

Ben

And we’re you’re drunk Caribbean uncle and auntie here sitting on the porch in the rocking chairs.

NiNi

Four times a year we pop in to talk about what’s going on in the BL world.

Ben

We shoot the shit about stories and all the drama going into them. I review from a queer media lens.

NiNi

And I review from a romance and drama lens.

Ben

So if you like cracked-out takes and really intense emotional analysis…

NiNi

If you like talking about artistry, industry, and the discourse…

Ben

And if you generally just love simping…

NiNi

There is a lot of simping on this podcast…

Ben

We are the show for you!

00:01:15 - Intro

Ben 

And we're back! This week we will be discussing the state of Taiwanese BL by highlighting two projects that recently finished for us. 

NiNi 

Shan is here with us. Say hi, Shan. 

Shan 

Hello people! 

NiNi 

Shan has to be here because y'all know I don't watch that much Taiwanese BL. [laughs]

Shan 

And I watch it all. 

Ben 

We're going to be talking about the sci-fi BL Anti Reset and we're going to be talking about the Priest adaptation Unknown the series, based on Priest’s novel Da Ge. 

NiNi 

I am unfamiliar with Anti Reset. I did not watch it. 

Ben 

NiNi: it's a Taiwanese BL. I don't like it! [Shan laughs] I didn't watch it. 

NiNi 

I did watch Unknown and I have thoughts about that. 

00:02:11 - Anti Reset and VBL

NiNi 

Maybe Shan, you could dig in here before we let Ben get into the recap on Anti Reset. 

Shan 

Anti Reset is part of a recent series of Taiwanese BLs that came from a company called VBL. Stay By My Side, You Are Mine, VIP Only, and then Anti Reset. This was a connected series, all these stories happened in the same universe. The characters did cameos in each other's shows and they all aired in the same time slot one right after the other, over the last several months. 

I was not particularly impressed with the quality of these shows and I thought that as the series went on, each show got a little bit worse. [laughs] By the time I was in VIP Only I had really lost interest in what these shows were doing. The stories were weak, the production values were low, they weren't really hitting the usual Taiwanese high watermarks for great casting, good couple chemistry, solid intimacy scenes… The things you can normally reliably count on Taiwan for, were not really showing up in these shows. 

So I was, had kind of already lost my faith in this series when Anti Reset started. I think I got two episodes into it and I just decided to just stop watching. It was givin’ me a weird vibe. I was like, “You know what? I don't know what this show is doing and I don't think I wanna find out.” 

That's where I think I should hand it off to Ben to talk more about what the show actually ended up doing.

Ben 

Oh, man. Trying to describe the premise of this show inherently gives it more credit than it deserves. [Shan and Ben laugh] The premise of the show is that Chu Yi Ping is some sort of humanities professor at a local college. His arm gets injured from pulling his shoulder and his uncle, who runs a experimental tech company, decides that to give him some assistance while he's recovering, they're going to send an experimental house assistant android to his house, which appears in the shape of a really hot guy named Ever 9. 

The show wants to go on to be this exploration about how misanthropy presents in people. How do you find humanity in artificial intelligences that are designed to befriend us? It wants to do this exploration of personhood—I don't think it does—and ends up fundamentally becoming a mail-order bride show that doesn't realize it is one. This show thinks it's doing deep analysis of AI personhood and romance, but it's not. It's just presenting things. It is kind of a mess and I ended up really not liking it. 

NiNi 

I'm a big sci-fi girl. I like these kinds of explorations of the human condition. It's what all the best sci-fi is about. So, basically what you're telling me is don't watch the show. [laughs]

Shan 

Ben, I feel like when I was observing discourse about this show, it did seem like it was working for some people, and I'm curious if you have thoughts about what parts of the show maybe did work better than others. 

Ben 

I think that if you found the leads attractive and you enjoyed the chemistry that the leads were going for—ignoring literally any of the context about what was going on around their interactions—you could enjoy that. But I don't think the show does a great job of addressing its own context. 

You've got this android living in your house who is doing your house chores and making your food for you, and otherwise taking care of you. So you basically have purchased a housewife. But then he decides he's in love with the housewife and wants to pursue the concept that the android has a personality and is capable of reciprocating his feelings and such. But they don't do a good job creating this crossover point where Ever 9 cares about Chu Yi Ping because of who Ever 9 is and not because of what Ever 9 was programmed to be. 

The issue, too, with Chu Yi Ping is he's got this fundamental misanthropy that isn't really addressed or challenged. What is it about Ever 9 that allows him to not hate him the way he hates other people? The fact that Ever 9 is programmed to put up with all of his shit all the time? That's kinda weird, particularly because they went for a multi-year separation at the end, and I'm like, he didn't grow from this. He's just a sad little weirdo the whole time. 

Shan 

They did a multi-year separation between… a man and a robot? 

Ben 

They did. 

NiNi 

I was about to say— [all laugh]

Shan

I mean! I’m like, what? But, like—, Did—, How—, But—, I—

NiNi

Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I have another related question. 

Ben 

Please, go on. [Ben and Shan laugh]

NiNi 

This is not a story about an AI achieving self-awareness or sentience or crossing the human-digital divide in some way. 

Ben 

It wants to be that. It really wants to be a story about Ever 9 exceeding his programming. They very much think there's, like, a Pinocchio thing going on with him. 

Shan 

He's still a robot. 

NiNi 

Even Pinocchio turned into a real boy at the end. 

Shan

Right, this is what I don't understand. 

NiNi 

So what is the point, then? If nothing actually changes about Ever 9. 

Ben 

This is one of the fundamental questions I've been asking about BL lately. [all laugh] And here we are again. 

Shan 

What is the point? [laughs]

NiNi 

This is the thing that people don't get about sci-fi a lot. Sci-fi is more philosophy than science. It's a lot more about humanity and the things that humanity does to each other and how humanity evolves than it is about the cool things that the science can do. And whenever I see sci-fi that does not understand that, you can tell. 

Shan 

I think—and I wonder how you feel about this, Ben—one of the tension points here may be trying to take a narrative like this and turn it into a straightforward romance between a person and an object. When I've seen stories with this conceit done well, the romance is maybe not the primary point, and it's more about, like NiNi is saying, the philosophical questions underpinning it. I think about something like Lars and the Real Girl, which is more about the nature of loneliness and the nature of grief and how a community can come together to support somebody in finding a way to be happy. But it's not about the actual romance between the person and the thing. It feels like maybe what's difficult here is they want to examine those things, but at the same time they just want this to be a standard BL where they're just executing romance tropes. Those things don't go together that well. 

Ben 

I agree. I feel like Chu Yi Ping’s misanthropy and disconnectedness from other people should have been the crux of the storytelling, and they were more focused on making the android say hyung and oppa instead. 

NiNi 

For me, if you're gonna do a robot story like this, maybe you actually put somebody else into the story who the main character then falls in love with. The main character is able to interact with the robot to actually, themselves, become a real boy. But somebody in the story has to become a real boy! [laughs] That's the whole—you know what I mean?

Shan 

There's a kdrama that I really love called I'm Not a Robot. And that is pretty much how they handled that. There's a robot, there's a real girl. And in the end, the romance is with the real girl, not the robot. [laughs] 

It just feels like they tried to do that sort of story, but also somehow make the robot the main person without having them actually achieve personhood, and that just doesn't really work. 

NiNi 

It's either that or take it dystopian. Take it in the opposite direction. But then I guess that's not a BL. 

Shan 

Right. So you can also take it in the real fucked up direction, but yeah, you have to commit and it sounds like they just tried to do it all in some kind of weird blend that didn't come together. 

NiNi 

So, I'm guessing this one's a chop, Ben. 

Ben 

Oh, it's 100% a chop. I think I ended up giving it a 5? This is a show that I do not recommend at all. If you just want to see pretty decently attractive Taiwanese actors kind of moon at each other a little bit and make out a little bit, by all means! Go in and have a great time. But that's what you're getting out of it, at most. It's not good sci-fi, and I don't like it. At all. 

Shan 

I'm feeling happy with my choices. I'm gonna not return and finish this one. I think I'm gonna let it lie. It sounds like it was the right choice to not finish it for me. 

Ben 

What did we get out of the VBL project? My only positive takeaway from it is, I'm really glad that they got some money together to continue making small budget Taiwanese BL. I don't want small budget Taiwanese BL to give up, but also, these were not the best offerings that we've gotten out of that. 

Shan 

They need some better scripts. 

Ben 

We gotta do better. I really did not want to be super harsh about VBL and a bunch of their projects but, they're kind of really frustrating in a lot of ways. Stay By My Side ends abruptly. You Are Mine does not do the boss-employee romance any real justice. VIP Only ended up being kinda boring and wasn't really satisfying in its conclusion. And this one just really did not understand the expectations of sci-fi storytelling.

When we looked at the descriptions of all these shows ahead of time, we were like, there's a lot of ways that they could fuck this up royally, but these would actually be pretty good, or at least interesting and compelling in some ways. But they weren't. There's some sort epilogue episode or some shit they're gonna be releasing?

Shan 

A little special to try to sell merch, I think. 

NiNi 

I mean, you gotta do what you gotta do. 

Shan

Yeaaaaah. 

Ben 

Not impressed, and we are moving on. 

NiNi 

You're not even gonna rate it? 

Ben 

Oh, I gave it a 5. 

NiNi 

5 for Anti Reset from The Conversation. 

Ben 

And the 5 is, the leads were actually pretty solid with each other. 

NiNi 

Wow, that is damning with the faintest of praise. 

[all laugh]

Ben 

It's not good, y’all. 

00:13:13 - Unknown the Series

NiNi

Let's leave that behind and move on to something that all of us actually watched and I think liked a little bit more. Moving on to Unknown the series. 

Ben, give us the rundown, what is Unknown the series about?

Ben

Unknown is a found family narrative that has to deal with the way these relationships change as people grow up. This brother and sister end up deciding to adopt a homeless kid who's in their neighborhood. Wei Qian is like a high schooler trying to take care of his little sister ‘cause their parents are dead, and they decide to also take care of this kid, Xiao Yuan. Xiao Yuan is appreciative of this and is glad to become a brother to this family. But as he grows and matures, he ends up developing deep affection for Wei Qian, and we spend the bulk of the story dealing with Xiao Yuan struggling with his feelings for Wei Qian, and how this impacts the community around them. 

Beyond the three siblings, we have their neighbor San Pang, whose family has opted to never raise the rent on the Wei siblings to make sure that they have a place to stay. Wei Qian spends much of his adolescence when he's not in school working for the local gang: complications ensue as a result of this. 

Shan, further thoughts?

Shan

Really, at its heart, this is a relationship change narrative. So, it's all about how this family decide to take each other as family and then as they grow up, some of the relationships start to shift and change, not only between Wei Qian and Wei Yuan, but also between Wei Li Li and San Pang. Wei Qian really takes his responsibilities as the older brother—but also the default patriarch of this family—very seriously. He is a caretaker, he is the person providing financially for the family. San Pang is his best friend, someone who's known him his whole life, who completely understands his devotion to his siblings and also loves them, as well, as an older brother figure. 

There are some other characters in the mix. Qian and San Pang end up going into business with a third partner, named Lao Xiong. There's also the local gang—the lead gangster is called Le—and then there's Doctor Lin, played by our beloved Sam Lin, who's also in the mix as a side character who comes in and out of the story. 

I don't know, NiNi, if you wanted to add anything about your overall impressions of what the story is tackling, the themes.

NiNi

I came into this one later than you guys did, so I was catching up on kind of a binge. And also the rhythms of Taiwanese BL and Taiwanese drama are a little harder for me, so it takes me a while to get into things emotionally. So I was doing a little bit of an uphill climb? I understood where the story was going and what they were trying to do. I didn't all the way feel it? There were points that I would hit, definitely a point at the end or near the end that I felt it, but going through the pockets of the story as it was happening, I didn't get the depth of feeling about this that I would get about a story. That's not necessarily to do with it being a Taiwanese story, ‘cause there's Taiwanese stories that I have that depth of feeling about. Just this one didn't hit me in the exact same way that I think it hit you guys.

Shan

I felt this story deeply. I was very emotionally connected to the characters, very, very invested in this story and really did love it. I have, unfortunately, some serious critiques [laughs] for the way that the story ended up, but really loved it along the way, was super invested. And part of that might come from my relative comfort with the tropes that were at play.

NiNi

It might be, because I'm an eldest sibling and I understand the feelings of responsibility and wanting to be somebody who takes care of your siblings and an example for them and to be strong for them and all of that. If there is any character that I really glommed onto, it was Wei Qian. But then what that left me with was a disconnect from some of his thought processes and actions later down in the story? There were things that I wanted to understand more that I didn't understand about the way that he was processing certain things. That's my thing. That's not a problem with the story, I think that's my reaction to the story.

Ben

I think in the early parts of the story I was really with everything that it was doing. I got Wei Qian’s whole deal fairly quickly. He's, like, 13 to 15 and his mom is dead. His dad is dead or not in the picture. And he's got a little sister that he has to take care of. And the neighbors are willing to help accommodate this but he's gotta get money some sort of way, so he ends up wrapped up with the local gang. I also got the way they would feel sympathy for another kid who's on the street struggling as well. I totally get them adopting someone else who seems like he's going through some shit the way they are too. 

I got the way Yuan’s thankfulness about being saved from the street and the way Wei Qian was willing to sacrifice himself for Yuan, and I totally get that turning into a kind of devotion that shifts over time, and mingles with his latent queerness. I was able to follow Yuan down that route. And I liked the way the show treated all of those developments really seriously. From Wei Qian having some sort of sexual related trauma and being really resistant to advances from women… And I also got the way that that sort of blew up in their faces when Yuan's feelings became known to them. 

I really enjoyed the early parts of the story. I think Ray Jiang directed this? Ray’s tendency to use longer shots of characters working in the space together worked really well for me here, and the actors had really good timing for me to get a strong sense of the dynamics between their characters. So I was really able to pull a lot of the expected emotional beats out of a lot of little things in this show early on.

00:20:16 Unknown: The Pseudo Incest Trope

Ben

I actually waited until like week six, I think, Shan, was when you told me it was time to start watching? I have deep qualms with the stepbrothers trope. I don't usually connect to it or enjoy it.

NiNi

I don't have an issue with the stepbrothers trope, but this didn't feel like stepbrothers to me. The relationship between Wei Qian and Yuan felt almost paternalistic, and that was, I think, deliberately something that Wei Qian did put that distance between them. I did not see how Wei Qian overcame that, he did it so deliberately and he reinforced it so deliberately over and over throughout the years, and I feel like the turn into romance didn't quite work for me?

Ben

Why do you think the stepbrothers taboo doesn't normally bother you the way it might for other people?

NiNi

It depends on how long they've been raised together. A lot of times when we're getting these stepbrothers trope stories, they're new stepbrothers or they haven't been stepbrothers for very long, or they were close to adults when their parents got together. And so it's… doesn't feel like a sibling relationship to me.

Ben

Shan, you've watched a lot of dramas.

Shan

Sure have.

Ben

What's your read of the stepbrother stuff?

Shan

I wanted to talk about accurate categorization here, because this is not actually a stepbrothers trope. The stepbrothers trope is very popular in yaoi manga, and consequently in BL. But Unknown is more, I think, accurately categorized as a pseudo incest story. And that goes beyond BL. That is actually quite popular [laughs] in Asian dramas more broadly, and also shows up quite a lot in het romance. And it's more about people who are coming together in some kind of family arrangement, and then the point of the trope is that the relationship changes over time and we follow that relationship change. 

There's this impression, I think, that people like it mostly because, “Ooh, it's so titillating. It's so taboo.” For folks who enjoy the pseudo incest trope—and I count myself one of them, I've watched a lot of these kinds of dramas—the appeal of it is that a relationship change narrative is really interesting. It's a lot of deep emotional stuff when you are talking about someone who's really important to you in one specific way, and then trying to transform that relationship to have them be important to you in a different way. That can feel really risky and really dangerous, to put at threat the relationship that you already have for the relationship that you now want. That is not a dynamic that is exclusive to the pseudo incest trope!

NiNi

It feels like an extension of friends to lovers.

Shan

Exactly.

NiNi

A higher risk, higher degree of difficulty friends to lovers.

Shan

Exactly right, NiNi. I also love the friend to lovers trope. I also like enemies to lovers, which is maybe not as deep, but still revolves around that relationship change. I think for a lot of people, that's the appeal. It's a higher stakes version of the friends to lovers trope. 

I think Unknown did a fantastic job with this trope… for the first three quarters of its story. Unfortunately, where it fell down was in the most important part, which is that relationship turn. We followed Yuan through his relationship turn. We saw his feelings for Qian change over time. We saw him try his best to cope with them alone. We saw when he could no longer do that and the feelings poured out of him and that caused a huge rupture. We saw him take time away. We saw his devotion stay strong through a separation and through many years apart. We saw him come back as an adult and decide to pursue the relationship he wanted because he was so certain that he still wanted it. We saw that whole process for Yuan. 

Where the show really dropped the ball is that we didn't see that same deep process happen for Wei Qian. We saw it start, we saw him learn about his younger brother's feelings for him and have an initial response of shock and anger and some revulsion. We saw him push Yuan away. We saw him miss him terribly and regret pushing him away. We saw him start to change the way he saw him when he came back as an adult, and start to get more comfortable with seeking him out as a partner instead of as a younger brother. And then we just saw an abrupt flipped switch, where suddenly he was comfortable not only being in a romance, but in a sexual relationship. And I think that's where they really dropped the ball, is in that transition at the end. And unfortunately, that was the most important part of the story. [laughs] So it's a pretty shitty place to drop the ball, show! 

But, this show did so many of my favorite things—found family, intergenerational family trauma, a serious relationship change narrative. These are like three of my most favorite things in drama. The characters were struggling through poverty, that's another big thing that I love to see depicted well in drama, and the show took it seriously. This show, it felt like, was almost made in a lab to, like, hook me in the heart. And I still have a lot of warm feelings about it and love it, even though it kind of let me down in the end. 

But I'm curious, Ben, to hear you reflect, because I know versions of this trope have caused trouble for you before. I feel like you did better with this than you maybe thought you would, Ben.

Ben

So as someone who has had slurs thrown at him with real intent, I am particularly sensitive to narratives that wanna play with taboo that reflects some of the worst disingenuous presumptions about how queer people behave. I don't always enjoy these sort of narratives where they wanna deal with family members coming of age and developing feelings for each other and then wanting to pursue them. I often struggle with stepsibling relationships in particular because their parents had a romance. I don't usually enjoy the discord that the stepbrothers relationship is introducing to the genuine attempt by their parents to blend their families. 

I don't think this show prickled that because they're more akin to orphans than stepsiblings. I'm less perturbed by orphans who use familial terms to establish closeness and present themselves as a unit to other people, wanting to change that down the road. Also, a smart thing the show did was they used three actors to play Yuan to reflect his growth and change over time, which was a very good choice for this kind of story.

00:27:53 Unknown: San Pang, Li Li, and Family in the Narrative

Shan

The other piece of this trope—the pseudo incest trope—that adds a layer, is that the taboo associated with incest does become part of the story. The external community and their other loved ones become an important part of the decision-making around the relationship change. You're gonna see other people being uncomfortable with the change in the relationship, so it adds this layer of complexity. 

Here, the most important and main stand-in for that, we have San Pang, who has been raised alongside them as their neighbor, who also sees himself as an older brother to Yuan and Li Li, who is the first person to catch on to Yuan’s feelings. He is the one who puts it together and sees the way Yuan’s feelings are changing, and he's the one who tells Qian. In the wake of his coming out to Qian—admitting that he is gay, but not saying who he likes—San Pang is the one who says, “I'm pretty sure you're the person he likes, bro,” and he tries to interfere. He goes to Yuan on his own and he says,”I am seeing this. I want you to understand that it's not something you can pursue. You're going to put so much stress on your brother if you let him find out.” 

There are some great scenes between San Pang and Yuan where they have really important conversations about why it's quote unquote wrong for him to feel this way about Qian, why San Pang feels so uncomfortable with it. He tries to intervene. It doesn't work, and then San Pang’s the one who helps Qian come up with a plan to send Yuan abroad. He was a very important part of that storyline. 

He also is a very important part of the storyline when Yuan comes back as an adult, because he, in those intervening years, has gone through his own journey of his changing feelings for somebody that he also considered a quasi-sibling, and has maybe mellowed out a little bit about what it would mean for the two of them to be together. He sees that the feelings are still there, sees how miserable Qian was when Yuan was gone, and he kind of changes his tune and says, “Maybe I was wrong to try to get in the way of this. Maybe this is the thing that will make you, my best friend in the world who I love, happy, and maybe that's right.” He was such a crucial character in this narrative and I just really loved the way the show used his character as a stand-in for what you would normally see happen with parents in a drama like this.

NiNi

He just wanted to protect everybody. He wants to protect them individually, he wants to protect their family unit. It's very sweet.

Ben

He's like the big cousin who also doesn't know what to do. Wei Qian is stuck with this role, having to care for his sister and the brother that they adopted. That takes a huge amount of personal fortitude to choose to do all of that. San Pang clearly sees this from a young age, and he's always trying to help the best he can. But he's just as young as them and it’s not like he brings any special knowledge to the table. He has these instincts that are grounded in the expected orthodoxy of a family unit, and he's trying to help them replicate that, because he earnestly believes that maybe these things can help them. 

Like, he recognizes that Wei Qian is alone with this huge responsibility he's carrying, and reasonably decides that maybe if he gets a partner who can appreciate that, the mental load on Wei Qian would be better. And as far as he knows, Wei Qian likes girls, so he tries to find women who might be interested in him. That doesn't go well. It's the same thing with always showing up at the clinic when Wei Qian gets the shit beat out of him with the gangster stuff. And even with Yuan, Yuan's feelings come up and he tries to help them, and even when they suggest sending Yuan away, they just wanted him to get some room from Wei Qian to maybe feel something for someone else. Yuan being gay was not their biggest concern. Yuan having feelings for Wei Qian was their primary concern. 

I joked, when he came back sassier and even gayer, that he clearly found his people [laughs] while was in New York. 

Shan

[laughs] Mmhmm. 

Ben

And I ended up really loving San Pang for that. Despite his reticence about Wei Qian, he ends up developing feelings for Li Li, and I think it's because they had those big fights where he was forced to reckon with the nature of these taboos and the orthodoxy they enforce, and whether or not they applied here or not. I feel like San Pang ending up in a relationship with Li Li is intentional by the narrative to draw that line and say, “If this is okay, why not this?”

Shan 

We should talk more about Li Li. One of the things I do credit this show with is caring about the whole family as a unit, and not only about the romance. Her involvement in the story and her relationship with her brothers was just a really important aspect to drive that point home. 

I loved Li Li as a character. She's the little sister that everybody takes care of, including Yuan. She's the one who let him in. When he first followed Wei Qian home, she claimed him as her brother first and brought him into the family. She has a very close but also very different relationship with each of her brothers. And we saw how those bonds held and shifted over time. And when their relationship changed and they decided to be together romantically, Li Li accepted it.

I think she always knew that their relationship was different. What was interesting, I think, and such a good choice, is that she never seemed to feel threatened by that. She was comfortable and secure, knowing that they both loved her. Even though their relationship could maybe sometimes crowd her out. 

Ben 

I really liked that moment in episode 11. We got this little breakdown from her about how nobody cares about Qian. She started to really process, as an adult now, that Wei Qian hid a lot of his suffering from them. 

I actually really like that Li Li got to do teenage rebellion. It says a lot about how effectively Wei Qian did his role as provider that she got to be a bratty teen. 

NiNi 

I feel like as a family story this hits me more than as a romance. Wei Qian’s relationship with both Yuan and Li Li feels parental more than sibling. Li Li and Yuan feel like siblings. 

Shan 

One of the interesting choices that I really appreciate in the story—in the early stages—is that while Wei Qian, I think, was trying to be a parental figure to both of them, Yuan never really accepted that, even when he was younger. And we saw that theme repeat throughout the show of Yuan saying, “You don't have to do it alone. I'm here to help you.” He always, always, always wanted to be a partner to Wei Qian. 

NiNi 

That is true, but this is coming from Yuan’s side. I absolutely see how Yuan made sure, maybe not even consciously, he wanted it to be clear where the boundaries were and the boundary was that, “We are family, we love each other, but you are not my parent, you are not my brother, you are somebody that I am partnered with. We are doing this together in this way.” Yuan always made that distinction. Wei Qian [laughs] is my problem here.

00:35:48 Unknown: The Ending Stumble

Shan 

We should get into where the show stumbled hard, because that's what it all comes down to, right? This big stumble in episode 11. 

NiNi 

Yeah, it just kind of sits over everything and it sits over my entire perception of the story now. I feel like I can't even think of the rest of the story without thinking about how it didn't take me where it needed to go at the end. Yuan comes back to Taiwan and it feels like for Wei Qian, maybe some things have changed, but he's doing a lot to not let this thing happen. And it doesn't feel like a thing that he's fighting against—’cause if it felt like something that he was fighting against, I feel like I could buy it. If it's something that his heart really desires, but his brain is telling him he can't do, like, that works, right? But it doesn't feel like that. 

I don't get where he got shaken. Like, I got the emotional shake. When Yuan gets kidnapped, ‘cause that's a thing that happens, you feel that fear that he had in that moment that he would lose Yuan. I understood why in that moment he would accept that he maybe had these emotions, these feelings that he needed to interrogate for Yuan, and they were churning him up inside, and they got broken out by this thing that happened that shook him. The emotional turn, totally believed. The turn where that goes romantic and sexual, that's the part that—it didn't carry me there. 

Shan 

I do agree with that last bit of what you said. I don't see it the same way as you in terms of not seeing the arc of his feelings starting to change. I think that was very clearly the arc of episodes 7 through 10 for Qian. During their separation, we saw how not functional, frankly, he was without Yuan around. He survived, he got through every day, but he was deeply unhappy. Everybody in his life could see it. He was regretful, he was missing him all the time. And punishing himself and withholding himself from talking to Yuan.

When Yuan came back, he started to interact with him differently. We saw the way that his physical awareness of him was different. We saw him start to seek him out more. We did see him start letting him in on some adult problem solving like he wouldn't have before. He still had his walls up, of course, he was still trying to consciously deny that he was willing to change their relationship in that way. But I do think the show took us through and showed us some very clear moments where his feelings were starting to shift and he was still fighting it. And then, of course, the kidnapping incident really shook him up. 

I think where the failure for me happened was in the moment where this suddenly turned into a sexual desire that we hadn't seen build, at all. And so that is the missing piece for me. They needed a couple more beats in the story there, between him coming to this emotional realization of his desire to keep Yuan next to him forever, and for that to then build into a sexual attraction that he was comfortable acting on. And I think that latter part is where they really dropped the ball. They have him literally say, “I'm not ready yet. I haven't figured out what I'm comfortable with yet.” And then like, literally two minutes later, he's like, “Fuck it, never mind.” And they're just going to town on each other. 

That didn't work for me at all. It was a very strange choice. It was a mistake. The show just really fumbled, and it sucks because they fumbled at the most important part of the story after building it so beautifully for ten weeks to just drop the ball that hard. It's a little bit baffling to me? 

Ben 

Episode 10 ends at the huge emotional turn for Wei Qian. And it was really frustrating for the show to conflate the emotional turn and the sexual turn and try and follow that immediately with the sex in the next episode. That was not the right choice. If the show had done the emotional turn and then spent at least half the episode dealing with this building sexual tension, that would have been interesting. 

The show was obsessed with staying on Yuan's perspective the whole time. It would have been totally fine if Yuan was crackling with sexual energy at the knowledge that Wei Qian had finally hit the emotional turn. But instead they really wanted to have reward sex and then focus on this stupid health scare plot. The problem is, the sex scene isn't good because there's no arc to it. Yuan has been ready to fuck this man for ten years and Wei Qian hasn't been ready to fuck anyone for, like, 15 years. 

They brought up this whole notion that part of Wei Qian's closed-off nature about sex is because his mom possibly abused him. And I just really did not enjoy the show rushing into this sudden sexual comfortability with Wei Qian after showing us that he did not have a good relationship with sex, and I feel like that needed to be resolved before those two were going to be able to have that sort of moment. As a result, the sex scene doesn't create much of an emotional arc, and the show knows this too, because they fucking fill it with stupid Yuan flashbacks. This should be about the change in Wei Qian, not the culmination of Yuan's feelings. 

Wei Qian's reticence about sex is not handled by the story, whether it be discovering queerness in himself or processing the sexual trauma from his mom or getting over whatever blocks about the kid you see as your brother wants to be with you. That part of it was missing when they had set up for it with the end of episode 10, where Wei Qian let down whatever big emotional barrier was between, “I need to protect Yuan,” versus, “I don't wanna be without Yuan.” They were prepped for it, totally, to go into that next area. And then they just didn't, and decided to make it about Wei Qian having a blood clot. 

NiNi 

All the pieces were actually there, they're just in the wrong order. There's a scene after the fact where they're doing this dating SIM game or whatever at work and Wei Qian is having these flashbacks to the sex scene. Why did they not let him have that moment as a fantasy moment before—

Shan 

Yes! 

NiNi

—rather than a flashback moment after? 

Ben 

That's what I also thought at the time. But you know how angry I get on this podcast [Ben and Shan laugh] about having to mentally rejigger the show [NiNi laughs] to make it fucking work. I will not!

Shan 

Besties! That's what they do in the book! That is exactly what they do in the book! [laughs]

Ben 

That's so fuckin’ aggravating. [laughs] I’m so fucking mad! 

Shan 

It’s so aggravating! All the things we're saying they should have done, they fucking did in the book! And I don't [claps hands together] know why the show didn't do it. I'm so mad! 

Ben 

She clappin’, yo, she mad. 

[all laugh]

00:43:32 Unknown: Adapting the Da Ge Novel

Shan 

We haven't talked too much yet about the novel, but I do wanna talk a little bit about some of the adaptation choices that were made here. This show is an adaptation of the novel Da Ge by Priest, who is a very well known danmei author. Other live action adaptations of her books include Word of Honor, Guardian, Justice in the Dark... several others, a lot of them have now been shelved or didn't get to finish airing because of the ban in China. So, it was extremely exciting for fans of her works to see a Taiwanese production take up an adaptation of one of her books, because we know that we're not gonna get good adaptations of danmei anymore out of China, because they are banning queer content and censoring it all to hell—even more than other countries. 

They made a lot of really smart adaptation choices in the way that they structured the show. The book is a lot more complex, in the way that most Priest novels are. There's a lot more characters, the plots are far more intricate, there's a lot more going on. There's an additional member of the family in the book. There's another best friend in the building. There are, like, three different gangs [laughs] instead of one. There's this whole corporate real estate plot that's tied to Wei Qian's work. It's a lot more complex. 

The show did, I think, a fantastic job of making choices to streamline the story, to make it simple enough to fit into a 12 episode arc while still retaining the core themes and the core relationships. And it also did some really great work around the cultural pieces. Mainland China has a lot more deep homophobia, fatphobia, some real weirdness around the way, in media, that sex and gay sex in particular get discussed, and this show really smoothed all of that out. 

Where they really blew it on the adaptation is at this end arc. You see all these aspects of Wei Qian's emotional journey that we are lamenting the show missed. I don't really understand why the show decided to ignore that material in favor of doing what it did instead. A lot of the stuff in the final arc was not in the book at all. If you are someone who loved this story and is disappointed in the ending, I just can't recommend highly enough that you read that book. 

Ben 

That's the theme of this episode. [laughs] If you enjoyed these shows, go do something else. 

Shan 

[laughs] Do something else! No, but do watch Unknown. I do love this show. I don't wanna say that you shouldn’t watch it, but you should go read the book too, ‘cause it'll fill in some pieces that we're missing here.

00:46:15 Unknown: Final Thoughts and Ratings

Ben 

I totally get NiNi maybe not being super connected to what was goin’ on, and if they had not fucked up episode 11, it just would have been an interesting conversation about, where does this gap form? But now we're bogged down in the fact that it's easy to point to the lack of payoff. I watched episode 12 this morning before we're recording this session. And I was like, “Okay, I guess this is fine.” [Shan laugh] This is meant to feel like, almost, epilogue. And I enjoyed the big family hand hold. But I really feel like they really failed at the final steps of the “Yuan and Wei Qian are now a couple” turn, which is really annoying because there were so many things that it did great. 

In the very final episode, there's this really great sequence when we learn that Li Li is pregnant and they have the reaction in the hallway and everybody's coming out of different doors that you don't expect. 

Shan 

That is the funniest scene. 

Ben 

Every time Wei Qian wanted to kill San Pang? [Shan laughs] Some of the best scenes in this show. Like, fucking Yuan sitting on the couch eatin’ his tomatoes, he was enjoying the chaos. We got this other woman who might be with Wei Qian, “I can take care of my brother.”

[Ben and Shan laugh] 

Shan 

He's like, “Don't you worry about it.” I did love those moments of Yuan being like, “Oh, I'm not the family problem now, ha!” [laughs] He's just like sitting back and enjoying it. 

Even at the end, I was frustrated with the last two episodes, but I still had a lot of affection for these characters and this family. This isn't an ending that completely ruined the show, for me. 

Ben 

Shan has a bat she holds called coulda been a 10 that she bashes sh— 

Shan

Yes! [laughs] 

Ben

—bashes shows with.

Shan 

Goddammit! One of the pieces of my frustration here is that this was on track to possibly be the best Taiwanese BL ever made. 

NiNi

Okay, so ratings. Shan, let's have you go first. What do you rate Unknown?

Shan

I gave it a 9. I had to take out my coulda been a 10 bat. 

I think that the narrative and the character work was so strong through the first 10 episodes that I can't take it lower than that. It's sticking with me. It's been a while since I finished the show, and I still think about it every single day. I think about these characters all the time, and that's not gonna go away just because the last couple episodes were a little bit disappointing for me.

NiNi

Ben, how about you?

Ben

Because I am in the business of recommending things—it's my whole shtick—this is an 8.5. It sits between “BL fans should watch this” and “People who like romance should watch this,” for me. I can't give it a 9 because I feel really strongly about the episode 11/12 caveats. But I don't wanna pretend that I didn't think that this cast did a really great job capturing the nuances of their dynamics. And even if they're let down a little bit by some of the direction and writing choices towards the end, I think that the family portion of this is so good, genuinely. So I do think this show is worth watching for people who enjoy the kinds of narratives the show wants to play with. We just need to understand that it stumbles at the end. 

NiNi?

NiNi

I'm having a hard time with this one because in my head this isn't a BL. If I had to put it into a category in my head, it would get slotted near to something like a Moonlight Chicken or 180 D. But it doesn't have the queer bona fides that either of those have. It feels like a family drama that had a romance in it that happened to be this kid falling in love with somebody who is taking care of him. But the idea of it being a central romance, I just didn't buy. So it was a difficult one for me to rate in terms of how I felt about it as a romance. 

In the end, I ended up at an 8 for the show. I think as a family drama, it's excellent. As a family drama, I would probably give it a 9.5 and as a romance, I would probably give it a 7, and so I wind up somewhere in the middle, which for me is an 8. I feel like it's a solid 8 show.

Ben

It's an 8.5 from The Conversation, recommended with specific reservations!

NiNi

You gotta get that .5 in. It's fine.

Shan

We gotta get it in. We gotta—

Ben

That's just how math works!

Shan

—gotta get it in.

NiNi

I know, I'm allowing you to have math. It was a good show.

Ben

It could have been an excellent show, but hmph!

Shan

So close to being one of my all time favorite dramas. It's fine, I'm just gonna go cry about it.

Ben

You were mad about it, because Shan wasn't even buggin’ me on a Saturday, like, “Go watch this show, Ben. Go watch it right now. Wake up, gay boy! Go watch the show so I can talk.”

[Ben and NiNi laugh]

Shan

Ben knew I didn't like the final episodes ‘cause I was not asking him if he watched them yet. [laugh] I was like, I don't wanna talk about it!

00:51:53 - Whither Taiwanese BL?

NiNi 

I want us to talk a little bit about where Taiwanese BL is and what's been happening with it lately and whether it is making the leap in the same ways that other countries appear to be making the leap lately. Whatever that leap is for them. 

I feel in some ways like Taiwanese BL has been a bit stagnant. 

Ben 

Taiwan is a super small country and… politically, they have been a little distracted for a few years! They're not in a position to do a ton more with BL right now. I don't think that we're gonna see a huge sudden surge from Taiwan. The best thing about Unknown is that Taiwan is not out of the game altogether, ‘cause I was real worried! The HIStory franchise is in ruins, and we hadn't really seen something of this production caliber in a while. 

Shan 

I'm with you, Ben. Honestly, when Unknown started airing, I was like, “Oh, thank God, Taiwan can still do it.” I have always been a fan of Taiwanese BLs, which might feel a little bit discordant because [laughs] I am someone who cares a lot about writing and storytelling and story is usually, honestly, the weakest part of Taiwanese BL. They usually don't have good writing. But, what I've always connected to in Taiwanese BLs is, I feel like they have a really good handle on relationship dynamics. They're really good at building characters that connect well with each other emotionally, physically—they've always done really good physical intimacy work in their shows, they usually cast really well for chemistry—and so usually in Taiwanese BLs, it's the characters and the character dynamics that hook me, more than the story. 

So I was really excited to see the high quality Taiwanese production that I knew had a good story underpinning it. I hope to see more. I personally had a great time with Kiseki: Dear To Me, but it is not exactly high art. [laughs] And this run of VBL shows was so bad that I was really losing faith. I had made a commitment that I was going to at least try watching every single Taiwanese BL that comes out. I'm still sticking with that, but I was starting to flag a little bit because some of these shows were so bad. 

So I was so thrilled to see that they still were doing productions of this caliber. And Unknown has been quite successful and got them a lot of positive attention, and so I'm hopeful that they'll be able to continue putting together productions like this, drawing actors of the caliber that they got for this show. I'm more hopeful because this show happened than I was certainly at the end of the year. 

Ben 

I will say the way that the Taiwanese actors talk about the work remains one of my favorite things. I be deep in these cast interviews, seein’ what they have to say about this work, and these Taiwanese boys have really nuanced and complex feelings about the work they're doing playing queer characters. I feel the respect and sometimes the duty they feel to get it right in the way they talk about their characters and the work they're doing. That's why I remain very friendly to… even [laughs] some of the jankiest Taiwanese BLs. These boys take playing queerness seriously. It's really warming for me to know that these guys understand that they're portraying queer people and that queer people will be affected by their portrayals. 

NiNi 

I think I just don't have the connection to Taiwanese drama. I'm coming at this from kdrama, through jdrama, through Thai drama. Taiwan’s the last place that I landed, and I think that I just haven't made the leap yet in terms of style and rhythms and all those other things. Mostly because I don't get to see a lot of it, there is not much. And I think that that definitely impacts how I feel about Taiwanese drama and Taiwanese BL. There are some I love—you know, I'm a staunch lover of HIStory 2: Right or Wrong. You know how I feel about Make Our Days Count. You know how I feel about We Best Love. But none of those, except maybe Right or Wrong, as Shan pointed out, has really stellar writing. 

Ben 

Why would you mention Make Our Days Count? I'm so mad all of a sudden! [laughs]

Shan 

No! Don't go there, Ben. Earmuffs!

NiNi 

We're never gonna get out of a Taiwanese BL conversation without it coming up. It just [laughs] isn’t gonna happen. 

Ben 

[volume raising] Wanna talk about endings for Taiwanese—

Shan

No!

Ben

—BLs?! [laughs]

Shan 

No, we do not! Stop. Pause. NiNi, continue your point. 

NiNi 

What have I done? [laughs] 

Yeah, I agree with Shan that the writing isn't great, and that's maybe one of the reasons that I haven't latched on to Taiwanese BL in the way that I have to others, because I am also a writing person. I can get behind a story for other reasons, and I have. I've gotten behind stories that were not written well because there was some other element of them that really grabbed me, and that's what has happened to me in the Taiwanese BLs that I have liked. But just generally, I don't gravitate in this direction, and there hasn't really been anything yet that makes me wanna gravitate more in this direction?

I recognise the strength of character development. I recognise the fantastic acting in a lotta instances, some of these guys are amazing actors. I just, it hasn't moved me in the kind of ways that I've been moved from other things. And it kinda makes me sad in some ways. I'm still looking for that Taiwanese BL that's gonna grab me by the throat. I haven't found that one yet. I'll keep looking. 

Shan 

It's hard, too, ‘cause like Ben said, it's such a small industry. We don't get that many Taiwanese BLs and we certainly don't get that many of quality. But, I've always really loved the approach to BL that Taiwan brings. 

Ben 

I really feel like when they make BL, somebody in the room is asking how gay people might feel about some of the choices they're making. 

Shan 

I'm gonna keep showing up for Taiwanese BL. I'm gonna keep watching them. I really hope that we get to see more productions of this caliber. I hope that we get to see them working from strong source material, so that the storytelling can really live up to what the casts are bringing. I'm excited to see what comes out next. 

NiNi 

Ray Jiang can stay, though, I like his directorial style. He keeps doing stuff and he hits on something that really pops? I feel like that's the one that's gonna grab me. If I wasn't terrified of what Lin Pei Yu was capable of after Kiseki. If I could get Lin Pei Yu at her best plus Ray Jiang at his best, with basically any of the actors I've ever seen in Taiwanese BL, maybe we'll get something that will grab me by the throat. 

Anyway, that is going to wrap us up on… what's the name of this episode? 

Shan 

Have we decided yet? Hmm. 

Ben 

The State of Taiwan, Taiwanese BL episode, whatever. 

NiNi 

Okay. That is going to wrap us up on our Taiwan episode. We out!

Thank you for being here, Shan. Say bye to the people. 

Shan 

Thank you for having me. Bye, people! 

NiNi 

Say bye to the people, Ben. 

Ben 

Peace.

[dystopicjumpsuit]

OC Sundays: Cerra Kilian GAR Datafile

Please click for better resolution bc Tumblr is Tumblr.

I've been waiting to share this until I had all posted all the chapters of Stars Beyond Number that could possibly be spoiled, but I'm finally ready to share Cerra's official GAR personnel file!

Transcript below the cut:

GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC

Personnel Datafile

Name: Kilian, Cerra Rank: Lieutenant, first class Identifying number: SO-3283627 Duty assignment: Supply officer, Ro-Ti-Mundi, Open Circle Fleet Status: AWOL

Service Record

Prior service: Corellian military defense force - 10 years [converted] Commendations: Senate medal of valor Qualifications: Close combat - armed; Close combat - unarmed; Marksmanship Medical record: Shrapnel - lateral and anterior thigh; Post-traumatic stress; Panic disorder Remarks: C.M.D.F. position converted following establishment of G.A.R. Assigned to 501st legion - V.C.S.D. Resolute. Awarded Senate medal of valor in recognition of heroic actions at Battle of Sullust. Transferred to V.C.S.D. Ro-Ti-Mundi following battle of Sullust. Reported absent without leave following battle of Coruscant. Current whereabouts unknown.

---

I used this picrew to make Cerra's ID holo. I didn't crop out the watermark, BTW; one of the transparent backgrounds they provide is watermark-free.

Ragu list:

@secondaryrealm @sev-on-kamino @spicy-clones @wings-and-beskar @523rdrebel @merkitty49 @anxiouspineapple99 @sinfulsalutations @arcsimper5 @starrylothcat @clio3kantarella @cloneloverrrrr @goblininawig @ladytano420 @arctrooper69 @wolffegirlsunite @sunshinesdaydream @mandos-mind-trick @littlemissmanga @stunkbiggu @starqueensthings @clonemedickix @marierg @idontgetanysleep @moonlightwarriorqueen @dudewhynotthis @sleepycreativewriter @tcwmatchmakingau @littlemissbshine @multi-fan-dom-madness @heavenseed76 @wizardofrozz @bobaprint @sweetcream-coldfoam @banksys-rat @skellymom @pickleprickle @trixie2023 @mythical-illustrator @dickarchivist @cw80831 @kimiheartblade

[nicks-block]

Clip of Schlatt leaving from Valkyrae's Mr .Beast vlog. This is after the people from the first few groups leave after the Squid Games Cookie challenge. Sorry for the watermark. Transcript under the cut!

Ludwig: Uh, we had 3 completions and Schlatt had the umbrella, and Schlatt?

Schlatt: What, you don't believe me?

Ludwig: Well, I think that he-

Mr. Beast: It's not that I don't believe you.

Ludwig: He kept saying he got it, but didn't want to show me it.

Mr. Beast: Oh, okay.

Schlatt: Nobody believed in me, man.

[Schlatt hands Mr. Beast and Ludwig his tin, closed, and goes back to his spot.]

Beast: No.

[People start to crowd around as Mr.Beast opens the tin.]

Marques Brownlee: There's no way.

[Everyone laughs and moves away.]

Mr. Beast: Oh, its um.

[The room starts telling Schlatt to go back in front to look at the tin.]

Ludwig: It's like incred- It's cartoon.

[Valkyrae laughs and the camera shows the cookie to be broken in at least 11 pieces. There's a lot of spit on the cookie. :( ]

Valkyrae: That's so gross.

Ludwig: It's cartoonish, bro. Its like in a million pieces.

Schlatt: I swear that was an umbrella, dude.

[Everyone laughs and a few pat his back.]

Ludwig: When he put- When he put the lid on, it was an umbrella!

[Cut to after Schlatt leaves.]

Mr. Beast: 33 of you remain.

[eldest-of-katts]

My comic for the technoblade gift exchange!

Yay! I finished it!

I didn’t mean for it to be eight pages, but I guess that’s how it turned out lol.

@technoblade-gift-exchange and @totallynotbat​ my giftee!

Unseen dialogue:

Hey, pig-me! You have GOT to teach me how to use a sword.

I thought you knew that already, you were the one piloting me around the whole time I used it.

Yeah, but clicking is WAY different from actually fighting with one. And besides, I just wanna look cool!

transcript and image IDs under the cut

Image 1: A comic page with two panels separated by a diagonal line. The top panel shows Techno’s cabin at night illuminated by the fire inside, his beacon, and the northern lights. The second panel shows Techno sitting inside and reading.

Image 2: Similar comic page. Top panel shows a door with phil’s hat hung up on a hook next to it. There is an impact bubble with the words “KNOCK KNOCK” inside. The bottom panel has the door open to show piglin dsmp!techno welcoming CC! Techno into the house with the stars visible from the door. Dialogue reads: CC!- “Halloooo... great to see you” DSMP!- “Hey, man. C’mon in”

Image 3: cc!Techno smiles at the viewer, he says “A LOT has changed since we last, Um, talked. The bottom panel shows Techno’s wheelchair set up in front of his computer, which is on a folding desk. He says “We got a new gaming setup.”

Image 4: This page is predominantly green and blue. The top panel shows CC! techno meeting up with Wilbur in his garden, and a dotted line shows that they’re six feet apart. CC!Techno says, “We met up with friends,” The bottom panel shows Techno’s youtube channel at 15million subs, “We payed for my siblings to go to college. We more than reached 10mil. Made Merch too,”

Image 5: CC!Techno sits turned away from the camera, clenching his fist. he says, “and... I Died.” The bottom panel shows C!Techno looking shocked and sad.

Image 6: C!Techno says, “I won’t pretend to know what death is like,” He is viewed in profile from the shoulders up, looking down. “But,” he says, “I HAVE been looking for a buddy,” He faces the camera, one eyebrow lifted in challenge with a half-smile on his face, “If you’re up for the challenge.”

Image 7: CC!Techno rolls up one sleeve to strike the one-arm-curled flex pose, he says “I’m MORE than ready.” The next panel is split into three. In the first, C!Techno puts on his cloak, in the second, CC!Techno puts on his merch hoodie, and in the third, they clasp their hands saying, “Let’s go”

Image 8: The entire page is black and red, not split into panels. The silhouettes of Techno and Techno are red on a black background and above them there is a white text bubble reading, “ON ANOTHER ADVENTURE”

All pages have the artist’s watermark, “EldestKatt 2023″ in the bottom right corner.

[riaaanna]

Queen Fanclub Convention 2023 Part 6: Greg Brooks (with Q&A re: Sotheby's)

📸 Ian Knight

I feel like I had to put that in the title to get anyone to even read past the first two sentences. 😂 It's down there, in a bit...!

Now, if you've ever listened to any Queen demos circulating around Youtube, you would've undoubtedly heard the iconic "Property of Queen Productions" watermarked across the audio. That would be the voice of Greg Brooks, Queen's official archivist.

Those rarity gems have been part of my journey in the Queen fandom since late 2018 so it was so surreal to be sitting in the room I've always imagined to be able to sit in and hear these demo recordings directly. (Although ngl, I always thought he'd be watermarking it live into a mic, but no such scene happened unfortunately lol). When the first "Property of Queen Productions" played in the room everyone cheered like greeting an old friend, which was so amusing.

Anyway no you're not going to hear those demos here, duh (but like y'know) so instead I will only list which ones were played:

Flick of the Wrist

Great King Rat (Take 1)

Nevermore

Nevermore (Take 5)

March of the Black Queen (Take 3-5)

Brighton Rock

I Go Crazy

Jealousy

Tie Your Mother Down (Brian's guide vocal)

After consulting with friends with more expertise in this I found out these aren't new and have been played at some point in the previous conventions. There are sites with a good list of these so you can probably look them up (and if you're looking at demos, beware of fake ones cause there are a lot out there!). Nevertheless it was a great experience to listen to them!

Aside from that he also brought some merchandise which are sold for MPT. The first being a Queen vinyl box - leftovers from the archives (on the left 📸 Ian Knight) and the second being this genius pun on a mug which I bought... Proper Tea of Queen Productions!

Greg took some questions between the demos and here is a transcript under the cut. A bulk of these talked about the extent of the lots auctioned at Sotheby's which he got to see as Queen's archivist, and there's some insight to Queen Productions Ltd (QPL)'s extent of "involvement" with the auction. I asked a question about it myself and I was happy with how much he was able to reveal.

Disclaimer: English is not my first language so there are parts that I marked as "indistinct" and the accuracy may not be 100%. This wouldn't be their fault for not pronouncing it clearly, it would be mine for not catching it properly. There are parts I omitted related to the demos cause they wouldn't make sense without listening to them anyway.

Jim Jenkins (J): Okay everybody! Right, this gentleman does not need any introduction. He’s Queen's archivist, he gets involved in everything to do with Queen and he's just done a big job at Sotheby’s. Queen's productions did get involved in Sotheby’s, people think not, but they did. Greg did a stellar work down at the auction house. So, he's going to play us some musical treats, let's bring him on, Greg Brooks! (applause)

Property of Queen Productions!

Greg Brooks (G): Hello everyone! Everything good? Right, I can tell you a few bits, I'll answer some questions and I can play some bits. I've bought mainly rarity outtakes, so from the original sessions, and the way that I've ordered them is starting for the first album, all the way up to, I think, The Game. I'll just play you a few things, I might ask you here and there which one you'd prefer to hear. But I'll start off with some early Queen, if that's alright with you guys. Good! And then, um...

Greg on audio: Property of Queen Productions.

Audience: (big cheers)

G: Oh, I started early there, sorry. (laughter) I wonder where that was coming from, sounded vaguely familiar. I'll start off with this, I'll play a few and I'll answer questions if you want, or I'll play a rarity if you prefer. Got that? Yeah. Okay, let me know if it's not loud enough, just by doing that (gestures hand pointing up) they'll know. So here we go then, I won't announce what it is, but I will tell you, these are all early backing tracks, early run-throughs, the whole band playing live in the studio, but invariably with no vocals. Sometimes there's a guide vocal, okay?

(Demo tape playing)

I was just thinking how nice it is after all this publicity with Sotheby's and Freddie's entire life being sold… it's nice to go back to the important stuff and just hear the music here, isn't it? (applause)

This is what it's all about, isn't it? All that stuff aside, all those possessions, the music and the voice. So, we'll carry on.

(Demo tape playing)

So, we have to mention the dreaded Sotheby's thing, or some people think it's dreaded. How many people managed to get a look? Quite a lot of people. The lyrics, I think, were fantastic. Did you see them all? Yeah. I mean, some of the Queen II stuff was mind-blowing, all those alternative lyrics. Anyway, we’ll carry on.

(Demo tape playing)

(indistinct) He was asking me is that – did they usually put the music down first? They always record the backing track first, they always get that rhythm track which we've been told many times, Brian and Roger always said that Freddie, John, Rog do the backing track and in that case because it's Fred's song he's directing from the piano you can even count in and you know he would be saying, you know, directing really and... because it's his song, in other songs it would be whoever's song it is. Invariably though Freddie directs from the piano and then they'll, Brian will come in and put his guitar and then the last thing will be – even the backing vocals go before the lead vocal so you can hear it, as you hear this stuff you can visualize what's going on.

So we thought we'd stop just for five just in case there’s any questions, I'm happy to take questions.

Question 1: Hi, Greg. I just want to say, so this would’ve been 50 years of the original album, have you suggested or proposed anything to celebrate it at all to the band?

G: Yes, we all – did you hear the question everyone? You need a bit more volume, or you alright? Turn up a bit there guys, if it's alright.

Because it's 50 years of Queen I, yes, some years ago it would have –  it's always about two or three years in advance. We got proposals to the band and the record company and we would have proposed something for Queen I but there isn't anything in the pipeline for the debut album. There's all kinds of discussions about all kinds of products but because of so much stuff going on in the last couple of years, I think the band just decided this year there wouldn't be a major product, as I understand it, and the record label.

So no, there isn't anything in the pipeline for this year, though there are, as there always are, some great things being discussed, some of them look quite certain to me that they're going to happen and they're really exciting, and I mean that.

So you know by that, I'm not talking about having random products, I'm talking about proper Queen. (audience cheers, possible implication that he referred to QAL products) No sniggering! (chuckles) When I talk about Queen I mean, well I regard as the Freddie and John years. So honestly, there's some great stuff in the pipeline and it will soon come around because we've done a lot of research and I'll continue for about three separate products and I have no idea which will come first.

Question 2 (me!): I want to ask more about the auction. Is that OK? I just want to ask, first, how did the communications between Queen Productions and the, I don’t know, Mary or the auction house come about? And second, if you're allowed to tell us if the band is getting anything. Thank you.

G: Well I got the gist.

Q2: Oh, sorry… (apologizing for my bad English or pronunciation, whatever…)

G: I wasn't, on my level as they say, I wasn't privy to anything that was happening on the top level. I was only interested in going along and seeing all the lyrics and the costumes just to see the extent of it. I think – I think, the band stayed out a bit more or less. It was really between Mary and the Sotheby's. I don't know a lot about that. All I know is, you know, it was a good idea for me as the archivist to know the full extent of all the lyrics.

And evidently Freddie kept the lyrics of everything he ever wrote, ever. So for those of you that went to Sotheby's you saw probably five percent of the lyrics. There was something like, I think it was five, six hundred sheets of paper and lots and lots of unreleased songs, unpublished songs, pre-Queen going right the way back to the mid-60s.

And everything he ever wrote for Queen, including many unpublished songs. I saw lyrics for songs that I had not even heard audio outtakes for. So whether he made demos at home, which aren't in the archive, I think that's plausible. But as you know there wasn't any of that. In the auction there was no audio recordings, just lyrics.

But he wrote something like nine or ten sheets of paper for every song he wrote. So you saw for the Bohemian Rhapsody lyrics, they were 15 sheets. And for A Day at the Races, one of my favorite albums, there was 10 or 12 sheets for every song. So if you were lucky enough to purchase that Day at the Races lot, I think it was something like 80 sheets of paper.

(jokingly) I think you bought that, didn’t you Jim? (laughter) I'm not supposed to say that. You got somebody to bid for you for the crown and the cloak as well. (laughter) See we should all have worked for (indistinct) when we had the chance. (laughter)

Question 3: (indistinct, asks something about how the exhibition was because he didn’t go.)

J: You missed out, it was amazing. You could see the costumes, and the lyrics.

Q3: My Question is, I’ve never ever been at the auction, what was it like?

G: Okay, what was it like? (gestures to someone else)That gentleman there would like to ask a question in a minute. That dubious bloke. (laughter) I should be more specific.

To answer your question, if you didn't get to Sotheby's, it was then basically recreating Freddie's house in their main five rooms. And they did a phenomenally brilliant job. So, not that I've ever been to Garden Lodge, but it was as near as you could be to walking into Garden Lodge, lounge, kitchen, all of his furniture, everything really. From his artwork to his lyrics, his costume, the tea sets, the teapots, the tablecloths, the chairs, the wardrobes, everything was there. And it was very evident what impeccable taste he had. And so you walk through and everything on display was extremely beautiful.

And it was very impressive and quite moving, you know, because if you could deal with the fact that you felt like you were intruding in somebody's personal space, which I felt it was a bit, should I really be here? Would he want people in? I don't know, not my call. But since it was public, I went a few times and just took it all in because it was so incredible. Does that answer your Question?

And sorry, just to add to that, the lyrics I asked to see on my own, because I knew that was going to be emotional, so I set myself down in the back room and went through all these lyrics. And for especially Queen II, all the lyrics that he wrote that he didn't use. So he was writing down “Oberon and Titania” and all those things he used. And then on another page was equally brilliant stuff that he didn't use. I took Jim, we sat and looked, didn't we, Jim? And it does bring a lump to your throat. You can't talk while you're looking because you realize you're looking at this man effectively working to perfect that song, you know, and he's working, working, working, working, and he's made every conceivable note you could make before he chooses the words that we all now know. It's really impressive, wasn't it, Jim?

J: Extremely. It was emotional.

G: Yeah. We all think Freddie is a genius, and I know that word is bandied about. I always knew he was a genius and a brilliant, brilliant musician. But the stuff he didn't use was as good, or better in some cases, than the words he did use. Anyway, next question.

Question 4: What's going on Greg? With the rise of AI, and John and Ringo (indistinct) the new Beatles music, will that open up the archives on lesser quality recordings to be reassessed by that?

G: Well, that's a very interesting question. I'm surprised you came up with that. (laughter) I always give him a hard time, I don't even know why, it's just because it's fun. (laughter) And he’s got, he takes it in good spirit. No, it's a good question, I thought about this AI, everybody knows what this AI is capable of now. We hear the Beatles and Freddie singing “The Long and Winding Road” and so on. (indistinct) (laughter)

As I was saying. What was I saying? Oh, there you are. You can hear Freddie singing “The Long and Winding Road”. And some of it is very convincing. You think, Christ, did he record that, really? And then you hear a dodgy bit, and you go, oh no, it's not. But it's only going to improve, isn't it? So there is going to come a time when you choose your artist, and you choose your song, and you want Freddie to sing an Elvis song, or Elvis to sing Somebody to Love, and it will be possible.

But I can only imagine where it's going when you think how brilliant it is at the moment. And it did occur to me the other day that if you can feed in all of Freddie's songs, all the backing tracks, sorry, just the vocal tracks without the music, you could effectively have him singing anything. And then I thought, if you ingest it into a computer, all the interviews he ever did, I wonder if it's conceivable for him to read his own book, which was (indistinct). That would be good, wouldn't it? You can have him reading anything, because it would sound like the real Freddie reading The War of the Worlds by H .G. Wells, or whatever. The possibilities are really endless, so I don't know where it's going.

But it's worrying, really, because next year I could be here playing Freddie singing The Best of Elvis, and it would sound very convincing. Okay, any more questions, or shall I crack on?

Question 5: While you were looking at the stuff at Sotheby's, did you think (indistinct) regarding to I Want it All (Greg’s upcoming book on Queen memorabilia collection), or have you got the stuff you now can add to it?

G: Well, the lyrics, for example, the thing that interests me most… There are lyrics in the I Want it All book, but I didn’t want to fill it – because it's not a lyrics book, so I thought what I'd do, I'd do it once and do it properly. So the album for which we have handwritten lyrics for every single song is The Works. And we also have lyrics for the B-side of Ga Ga, I Go Crazy, as well as Let Me in Your Heart Again. So there's a four-page pullout in the book showing all the lyrics for that album, that’s 12 sheets.

There's a couple of more elsewhere… but to answer your question, you would think that you would want all of the Somebody's Love and Champions and Bo Rhap lyrics in the book like I'm doing, but it would just be too much, so probably down the line there is a book there, obviously, whether it would be our book or Mary's book, who knows, but um… it would be nice to have some of the costumes featured, and I think when we come to do the live (I Want it All) book, volume 2, I'll look into that, because some of those beautiful early costumes would be a wonderful four-page, wouldn’t they, in a book.

So the short answer is yes, we will endeavour to show you all that stuff when we can in the coming years, you know, it'd be great, but at the moment it's too soon into the auction, after the auction.

Question 6: Yeah, just while we're talking about the audio lyrics and things, do you actually have the copy of the lyrics for the archive now or is that kind of lost into whoever bought the lyrics?

G: Um, good question again, I don't know how to answer that. (laughter) (indistinct, laughter)

I would think at some point in the future we will see the lyrics. I think one way or the other that they'll be seen. Yeah, because it would have been too upsetting to think that they've all gone to the corners of the earth never to be seen again. That is unlikely.

Question 7: Hi Greg, and one of the things we noticed, because we got pushed around the auction really quickly…

G: Did you?

Q7: Oh, like, people were like, move on, people can’t see, keep walking, so...

G: Did you go out and... Come back in again, though? You can do that.

Q7: No, we already queued. But one of the things we noticed is that on one of the Queen things they had was “Feel the Force”? And we were like, “is there a Freddie version of that that exists?”

G: Not that I can remember.

Q7: Yeah, it was really obscure on a track list, of all the things and then there was “Feel the Force”…?

G: It did occur to me that it must be the case that he had, in his archive, and still does, recordings of songs that we don't have in it, the Queen Archive. And I guess that's probably true of Brian, Roger and John that had their own home recordings. So it's conceivable that that track, for example, but we don't have it that I'm aware of.

But as I said, just to recap, there are lyrics for songs that he wrote that we do not have in the archive. So he must have the recordings, or she must.

Yep, okay Right, I'll play a bit of…

(Demo tape playing)

G: One thing – this “Property of Queen Productions”, quite irritating whoever it is that says that all the way through… (laughter) Just for those who don’t know, that was the band who insisted that we did that, so it would keep from these things from getting ripped off.

(Note: Greg is now promoting the merchandise he brought. I omitted this.)

(Demo tape playing)

J: Okay, ladies and gentlemen, Greg Brooks!

[dinofur]

UPDATED COMMISSION INFORMATION

Pricing transcript and TOS under the cut

PRICING

Base Prices

Sketch Head/Bust: $10 Half Body: $15 Full Body: $20

Lineart Head/Bust: $20 Half Body: $25 Full Body: $30

Flat Color Head/Bust: $25 Half Body: $35 Full Body: $40

Shaded Head/Bust: $30 Half Body: $40 Full Body: $45

Extras

Flat/Gradient Background: Free Simple Background: +$10 Detailed Background: +$30 Extra Characters: +100% Base Price Colored Lineart: +$5

DO DRAW

Humans

Furries

Ferals

Monsters

Mild or extreme gore

Fanart

DON'T DRAW

NSFW

Mecha

Hate speech

TOS

Full payment will be taken after an initial rough sketch of the art is completed and approved.

WIP images will be send throughout the process.

An image of a character’s base colors is required.

Versions with and without the watermark will be provided. The version without the watermark is intended for personal use such as TTRPG campaigns and should not be posted online.

You are free to edit the finished work as you please, so long as the edited version is not posted online.

Upon completion please provide an email I can send the finished file to.

If images of a character are not provided I will charge a $10 design fee.

I do not accept crypto and using my art for NFTs is strictly against my terms.

If you intend to use my art for commercial purposes I must be informed and will charge extra. This price will be discussed depending on what is being requested.

I reserve the right to refuse a commission for any reason.

[corvidscreams]

Commission Details

It’s about time I put my commission sheet up, so here we are. DM with any questions or requests.

Transcription and details under the cut

Pricing as follows:

Sketches: Head - $10 Waist Up - $20 Full Body - $35

Lineart: Head - $15 Waist Up - $35 Full Body - $50

Flat Colors: Head - $25 Waist Up - $50 Full Body - $75

Shaded: Head - $35 Waist Up - $65 Full Body - $90

Sketch Sheet - $75 - Includes 5-9 sketches of various cutoffs and poses and a discount on future commissions based on featured sketches.

Additions: Additional Characters add half price. Simple Backgrounds - $15 Complex Backgrounds - TBD by Comm Color Variations - $10+, increasing with complexity

Comms will include: - Final Renders at requested level and all previous levels. (Ex. Shaded comms will include Flats, Lineart, and sketches) - When applicable, Lines files will come with a transparent version. - Final renders with and without watermarks. - Commissions may be posted to tumblr with permission and watermark. (See ‘my comms’ tag)

I accept payment via Paypal and Venmo.

[volno]

Heya, I'm now available for art commissions, please dm me if you're interested or have any questions! Transcript under the cut:

Volno’s Digital Art Commissions Pricing + Info

General info All prices are listed in AUD, payments are to be done through PayPal. All WIP screenshots will be watermarked, payment is due upon completion of the work, unwatermarked full resolution images will not be sent until full payment has been received, no exceptions ever. Please DM me on Tumblr or Discord for all inquires!

Will Do: -Furries -Animals -Lewd art (ie, pin-ups/Erotica) -Light to medium Gore

Won’t do: -Mecha/complex machinery -Cityscapes -Sexually explicit art (ie, hardcore porn) -Content that promotes hate -Content that is illegal

Additional characters cost 50% of the base price, per additional character. Lewd art costs an additional 25% of the base price.

Discord: Volno Artstation: Artstation.com/volno

Paintings $120 Portrait $140 Bust $160 waist up $200 full body

Flat Colour $40 Portrait $50 Bust $80 waist up $100 full body

Sketch $25 Portrait $35 Bust $45 waist up $60 full body

[sarahlizziewrites]

A character intro that's a little different! Everyone say hello to Silas Chrissie, protagonist and titular character of Chrissie's of London.

Please feel free to ask me anything about him :) also, let me know if the format is too much - next, I am going to cover the other main characters of Chrissie's of London in the same format.

Here's a link to the picrew I used for the portrait - the watermark reads Brightgoat, sorry it got clipped!

Page Two - Loretta Cramps - can be found here

Page Three - Jacques de Éloïe - can be found here

[Image description and transcript: a vintage-style newspaper front page. The cover image is a portrait of a fair-haired man with a moustache, wearing a suit.

THE LONDON INQUIRER - Issue nr. 17. September 1923 - Weekly News

SILAS CHRISSIE - Businessman or Bounder?

The Inquirer has learned, from an anonymous insider source, of the latest societal indiscretions of the infamous hotelier. Mr Chrissie (full name: Silas Daniel Tarragon Chrissie, of 427 Strand, London) has been accused by his shareholders of gross mismanagement and neglect with regards to his management of his hotel. Placed in charge of the 'Jewel of the Strand' - the impressive hotel that local residents have described as 'an eyesore' and 'too bright' - upon his father's death in 1919, the unmarried Mr Chrissie has already garnered quite the reputation for impropriety and ruin. We ask the readers of the Inquirer to judge for themselves whether it is right and proper for Mr Chrissie, a veteran of the Great War, to allow rumours of inviting guests of multiple genders into his private quarters to persist uncommented upon. Moreover, we urge our gentle readers not to seek out any reports on the habits of Mr Chrissie - confirmed bachelor - lest they shock or disturb. Mr Chrissie's physician, when approached for comment, confirmed that Mr Chrissie is thirty-two years old, and five foot nine inches tall, but declined to comment on the businessman's physical or psychological health. Therefore, this author was unable to satisfy the question of whether Mr Chrissie is, in fact, in a fit state to manage his hotel. The public will be able to judge the state of the mogul's mental faculties for themselves at the hotel's 50th anniversary ball this Friday evening. Only time will reveal whether the tycoon's status in the top ten of London's Most Eligible Bachelors (as voted for by readers of the Inquirer) can withstand this latest scandal. More on page 2.]

Chrissie’s of London tag list (ask to be added or removed): @novel-emma, @tabswrites, @mrbexwrites

[supernovae-never-burn-alone]

— "COGITO ERGO SUM," POINE; I THINK, THEREFORE I AM.

So uhm. Bet you thought we forgot about this blog!! Haha!! No!! We are reminded every day that we haven't posted anything and it is hell !!!!

BUT. Anywho. We've been practicing voicing some characters lately, and ended up taking inspiration from I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, this in particular from the audio play. I swear we'll post refs... one day...... AENTROPUS HAS MULTIPLE SETS OF ARMS. I SWEAR. BUT I DIDNT WANNA EDIT THAT IN...

Anywho. Boy I sure wonder what Aentropus, the god of chaos, is referencing when it talks about chaos as a thing! It's sure a mystery and not at all a very thin metaphor for itself being fed up with being treated like a lesser being amongst its fellows! /s

Transcript below:

[A video featuring characters made in Gacha Life 2. In the top corner, there is a watermark crediting the author by two usernames: human-souls-buy-dopamine on tumblr and theatricallythrilling on YouTube.

A character (Aentropus) slides into view from the right of the screen, holding a hand up as if to chime in to some interaction. It doesn't have a human head, instead having a black sphere with a gradient around the edges. Its face is purely white outlines for the eyes and mouth, and it almost never seems to stop smiling a shark-tooth grin. Despite this, its frustration is evident. When it speaks, the dialog is written on screen in orange, using the stereofidelic font.

It starts off by saying "In case you've forgotten, my dearly detested," exaggerating the word 'in'. It looks strained to keep the smile up. At 'dearly detested,' it briefly moves off screen, and another character, Poine, moves in.

After Poine moves off-screen once again, and Aentropus back on-screen, it continues, saying "you cannot simply will chaos out of existence." It pauses at 'simply,' dragging on for a short moment and looking away as if considering what the right word would be. Near the end of the sentence, it crosses its arms, closing its eyes as if readying itself to continue speaking.

Aentropus continues, saying "You must either embrace it, or succumb to it." It says this as it is walking off-screen to the left, suddenly looking more serious than before. There is a brief pause between 'embrace it' and the word 'or' for dramatic effect. During this sequence, the instrumental beginning of the song Alien Blues fades in, providing music.

Two solid-color figures, Poine and Aentropus, fade in behind the subtitles around the second half of the sentence. Poine is a muted, light blue color, and Aentropus is a vivid orange. Aentropus emphasizes the previous point, saying "there is no in-between." Poine and Aentropus's sillhouettes fade out as it goes on.

It further elaborates, saying "You cannot ignore it, you cannot pretend that it does not exist, that it is not there—". The first statement is accompanied by Poine sliding into view from the bottom of the screen upwards, and the last is accompanied by Aentropus sliding in much the same, except from the top. They are glaring at eachother, Aentropus squinting heavily.

Both graphics as well as the caption fade out as there is a pause in both dialog and music. After the brief silence, Aentropus speaks once more, the captions being larger and now in the center of the screen.

It says "cogito ergo sum, Poine; I think, therefore I am." There are quotes around the latin, and the words appear as they are spoken. After the first four words, the rest appear individually (with the exception of "i am"), and the word 'therefore' is split into two syllables for dramatic effect. As it says "I think, therefore I am," Aentropus's tone becomes much more serious, and it becomes deeper and less accented. The text gradually begins to shake and become a brighter, reddish-orange.

The text fades out shortly afterward, followed by the first few lyrics of Alien Blues as the song resumes. The screen fades to black, and credits fade in before fading out again near the end. The music slowly goes to silence over time.

The credits attribute editing, voiceover, characters, and writing to The Theatrix System. The song used is credited, including the artist, Vundabar. It is noted that the video was inspired by AM's (in all caps) "cogito ergo sum" dialog in I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, clarifying in parentheses that it is specifically the audio play.

End transcript.]

[bandidodododo2]

warning!! implied death and a lil bit of blood, it definitely contrasts the normal tone of the blog so im warning it

ooc: i forgot to watermark if u steal this istg i spent like two hours on this

TRANSCRIPT OF VIDEO:

[ B stands in front of the camera, his full face in view. They are holding a grimer shake. They start the video by waving at the camera and saying "Hello Everyone!"

B then moves slightly to the side and stares at their milkshake with a smug expression "Grimer shake challenge? Accepted!" They then start drinking the shake.

A couple of seconds pass before B slowly takes it out of their mouth, hisfacial expression going blank. He stares forward as some purple begins to drip out of his mouth, and blinks, before jewel suddenly looks at the camera fearfully. The video goes black. ]

[museum-spaces]

I am having Thoughts about financial access in higher education.

So. quick announcement; I didn't get into Cyprus. Can't remember if I posted that here yet.

As a result of not getting into 3 out of 3 masters programs this year I signed up to be a non-degree student at a university out here. Its a slightly different application process and is open to me because I already have an undergraduate degree. So.. not an option for everyone. But here's the thing.

This is the only program that requires an official transcript for application and its not even a real program. It is, in fact, a non-program.

I have copies of my official transcripts. They are watermarked and on expensive paper and every graduate program I applied to, including the first time around in 2017, was fine with me uploading clear scans of those transcripts. Leicester even gave me one to keep when I graduated which Toronto didn't do. I spent a lot of time and money doing my Masters based off a Transcript I picked up after my convocation for 20 bucks, scanned, and uploaded. I then used that same 20 dollar piece of paper to apply to 6 other programs - 3 the time I got into Leicester and 4 in the last 6ish months. that's a pretty good deal right/

Well. for an official transcript too be 'official' it has to be in a sealed envelope and preferably one that I have never set my hands on - sent from one institution to the other. So. that's 20 canadian to Toronto and 20 UK to Leicester - which is about 50 Canadian today.

So I got 2 pieces of paper for about 70 dollars to complete an application that I also paid to complete -30ish- meaning my application for a non-degree program cost 100 dollars where as my application to Cyprus cost 0.

I can afford it, but how many people have the skills to succeed in schools but cannot apply them because of the ridiculous cost.

[bastardtrait]

I am so sorry for the ifunny.co watermark but this generation's entire plot is based off of this fucking image, the contents of which are more thrilling and romantic than any "Hollywood" """director""" has been able to churn out.

transcript:

A couple hours later

JAKOB [medium_chungus]: Heh. Killer match, dude. PLAYER [coffeejelly2980]: It's always a clean sweep when it's us two, isn't it? JAKOB [medium_chungus]: Of course. We're a good team. PLAYER [coffeejelly2980]: I can't say the same for the rest of our team... JAKOB [medium_chungus]: Meh. We only need each other.

JAKOB [medium_chungus]: Well, I'm headed to bed. See you tomorrow? PLAYER [coffeejelly2980]: Well, we'll see. Work has been kinda busy lately. JAKOB [medium_chungus]: Fuck work~ Come play with me! PLAYER [coffeejelly2980]: (chuckles) Do I not find enough time for you? JAKOB [medium_chungus]: I want aaaaall your attention...

Windslar

JAKOB [medium_chungus]: (voice-masked, through headset) I want aaaaall your attention... FINN [coffeejelly2980]: (chuckles) Well, you've already got it. (chuckles) But it is late. Time for bed for me. Goodnight! JAKOB [medium_chungus]: Goodnight~

[webarebares]

universities will be like "upload your OFFICIAL transcript" "oops but not the official digital file we can't open that one you have to print it and scan it" "the one you printed has a watermark try again" "oh now make it into a pdf" "ugh the pdf actually has to be under 1mb"