#all the cool kids write meta at four in the morning

[agentravensong]

who wants to hear a new story idea i just came up with this morning? no one? cool, let's do it.

inspiration-wise, it's a kind of more meta take on the stories of choice-based "interactive drama" horror games like the quarry - not meta in the sense that the characters become aware they're literally in a video game (this story idea isn't meant to be a game; would probably work best as a tv show tbh), but in a more indirect sense. it would also be better written /lh

the premise is we have a group of young adults who were all in high school together, and the youngest of them has now just graduated from college. to celebrate, they organize a meet-up with all their friends at a camp in the woods where they all spent a weekend as high schoolers, as a "let's reconnect and see how far we've come" sort of thing.

now, all the characters have slightly different memories of what happened that weekend those years ago, as they discover when they first arrive for the reunion and start reminiscing. they've even had nightmares - some more frequently and more harrowing than others - of terrible things that happened there. but none of them* believe those nightmare versions with supernatural elements to be true (because otherwise why the hell would they go back?). * except for potentially a character one or a couple who decide to risk going back to see what the truth actually was and/or to settle unfinished business

unfortunately for them, it's not long into their reunion when they start finding hints of a supernatural horror haunting the woods, and those "false" memories start resurfacing. the truth they eventually uncover is that, as teens, they not only lived through a quarry or until dawn -like scenario in these cursed woods, but they were also trapped in a time loop.

you see, the forest is home not only to [insert monster type here, still working that out, will take suggestions], but also some guardian spirits, who used their powers to guide the teens and rewind the events to try and minimize their suffering (they're, essentially, player analogs). the spirits ultimately saved the kids by taking on the curse of the forest in their steads, and were able to lock away their traumatic memories in the process. unfortunately, because of that choice, the spirits have grown weak in the intervening years, and the amount they'll be able to help the characters now is much more limited. this time, the humans are, for the most part, on their own.

with their four-to-eight years of additional life experience (will work out the specifics later), and their sporadic memories of how things went last time (blurring the lines between past and present), can our protagonists succeed in not only re-surviving the horrors of the woods, but also ending the curse for good? will their weathered bonds with each other get them through, or will they unravel from the stress, time apart, and unearthing of secrets both old and new?

and are the forest spirits truly the noble protectors they appear to be, or are they concealing ulterior motives of their own? after all, does every person stop playing these games once they get a good ending... or do some of them go back to see just how badly things can go?

all questions that could or could not be answered, in this story i will probably never write.

some bonus fun stuff:

i figure the characters would all have been fairly trope-y as teens, for the sake of creating a contrasting with their (slightly) more grown-up, developed selves. i would have to do more research for this, cause i'm not typically a consumer of this genre

potentially, one or two of the teens actually got left behind in the past (either having died with the spirits unable to save them and/or having in the intervening years become a grizzled survivor type). the other protags, of course, don't know this, with their memories telling them the lost souls simply stopped being in contact shortly after the trip. lots of angst potential for when they learn just how wrong they were.

as mentioned above, i'm not sure what type of monster would be most fitting for this story. i like the idea of it being a type that can infect humans such that they turn, ala werewolves or vampires, for the purpose of having at least of the protags having gotten infected in the past and not knowing until it resurfaces at the reunion. plus then the monsters hunting the group could be other humans who have gotten trapped like this and suffered a less fortunate fate. could also be the case with the spirits, regardless of the rest of this.

that's all i have for now. very up to hear what anyone else thinks of this concept :)

#do i dare tag this with the things it's inspired by? #...fuck it. #the quarry #until dawn #let me know if i should throw any content warning tags on this #narrative nonsense

[ghostmartyr]

Immiii where do you think pieck is in the middle of all this?

-clears throat-

I do believe it’s time for another edition of “Immi why are you like this it was a simple question about canon not your fanfic version of canon.”

In a sec, anyway. An actual straightforward answer is I believe she’s going to be focusing on locating Historia. …Yes, fine, fanfic canon and canon have reached critical congruence.

Right now, there are, realistically, three people who have the power to change the course this bullet train of disaster is on. Eren and Zeke, who are the lead conductors, and Historia. Eren has the Founding Titan inside of him. Zeke has his own Titan and royal blood. Historia has royal blood.

If Eren avoids Zeke, the Founding Titan has no power. All sides have been shown having an interest in that power. Yelena, the driving element of establishing the Yeagerists and their trump card of the wine, is enamored with the Founding Titan. All of the Yeagerists follow Eren because he possesses it. Eren’s stated objective is finding Zeke.

Floch knows enough about the wine to understand and support the loss of a few MPs. It’s enough of a bonus that even if it is part of their mutual enemies’ plan, it’s worth working with. That would suggest plans for a revolution, and a base plan that’s stable enough that there’s no point worrying in what the enemy’s after, because they’re invincible.

With most stories, that is the kind of arrogance that is going to fall flat on its face, but really, there is nothing that disputes that. The Founding Titan is the be all, end all. Whoever is in control of it wins. There is no greater plot power in this world.

The Yeagerists want Eren, specifically, to have the Founding Titan. They don’t want it in the hands of the current government.

Eren wants to find Zeke.

Zeke wants to see Eren.

Unless Levi versus thirty mindless titans counts as an active threat against Zeke freeing himself, there is absolutely nothing standing in the way of that happening.

Marley’s primary military strength comes from Titans. It’s something they’re making active strides to outgrow, but it is still a current problem. They can’t fight Paradis alone. That’s why they have an alliance with other countries of the world. However, Marley’s reason for moving is not about destroying Paradis at the moment. It’s about deconstructing Zeke’s plan.

They don’t actually know what that is. What they do know is that the Founding Titan is outside the hands of the royal family, and the current Queen has a bloodline sworn to passively sitting by.

Willy Tybur tells a nice story about Karl Fritz’s vow keeping Paradis from being an active threat, and Eren’s possession of the Founding Titan being the true danger of the world.

He’s not wrong. He leaves out or doesn’t know a few key points about the Founding Titan needing royalty to function at all, but he’s not wrong. Eren having the Founding Titan is much worse than a slave to Karl Fritz’s will taking it on.

Paradis wants Historia to nom Zeke.

Marley wants Zeke’s plans to fail.

Zeke’s plans involve using his brother, the Founding Titan.

Which is only a threat out of the Reiss family line.

If you were to give Marley a bullet point list of easy ways to derail the rumbling, returning the Founding Titan to the one person who can’t use it makes a lot of sense. Willy, the unifying voice for the world, even pins all the blame on Eren while championing the royal family’s peaceful ideals.

No one in Marley would object to Zeke dying at this point, but what would be really great is if the Queen, permanently bound to nonviolent use of the Founding Titan, could nom Eren for them.

Gotta have the Queen for that.

Marley doesn’t have many options for a strike force operation. Knocking down gates means nothing, and they don’t have an endless supply of mindless titans anymore. They need to identify specific, important targets that can best derail Zeke’s plans.

Eren’s the most obvious.

Zeke himself is also obvious.

Both are insanely dangerous.

Paradis’ Queen is another obvious mark.

Not remotely dangerous, in comparison.

Pieck’s reading a newspaper. She knows that Eren is on the outs with his own people. She knows there’s a civil war potentially brewing; her whole life is war, she can probably smell it.

Military heads scrambling and making mistakes, a rogue demon running wild… Paradis might destroy itself if they leave it alone. It’s a poor bit of luck that says leaving it alone to self-destruct doesn’t solve the greater problem of the Founding Titan’s legion.

Add in a missing Queen who could be used to completely eliminate the threat of the Founding Titan?

Time for a house call.

From a story perspective, Historia’s absence is sort of exciting. Zeke’s only alive right now because Historia is conveniently unable to nom him. Historia has stated a willingness to nom him, but in a few months; a timeline Marley doesn’t want Zeke to have because they trust him to move lightning fast.

Historia’s current status has helped Zeke more than it’s helped Paradis. If she weren’t pregnant, he would have died the second the MPs could sign the order. With Zeke dead, the wine is meaningless, and Eren can only use the Founding Titan by cooperating with the technical rightful ruler of Paradis.

It’s fun. Her existence of the moment assists Zeke immensely, but her existence is also essential to the only plan Paradis has to make things stop sliding sideways.

If she happens to fall out of the MPs circle of protection, Paradis has no plan. All they can do is watch as Eren and Zeke do whatever the fuck tickles their fancy.

Which, luckily for them, isn’t what Pieck wants (unless you get Inception-levels-deep into how far Zeke’s spiderweb goes).

Paradis is completely powerless against the united front of Zeke and Eren, and there are no wrenches in sight to stop their domination. They even have a Reiner safety valve; if he tries to go after them, Gabi is going to have him paralyzed.

If nothing changes, Zeke and Eren will meet, and nothing about their combined actions suggest anything but violence will follow.

Something’s probably going to change.

In the category of plot magic, only one other person has the class bonus to mess with that, and Pieck’s current mission is all about messing with Zeke’s plan.

But back to the topic of fanfic canon.

Taking, for a moment, the idea that it’s possible to transfer a Titan without death as an actual, seriously considered possibility, one of the things I’ve daydreamed about for a while is Historia waking up Annie.

All this chaos happening, no one looking her way, she and Armin have a history of being allowed to look alike, Armin visits Annie… The Reiss cavern plus a Reiss touch equals magic. It is not inconceivable that Historia could wake her up. If the transfer theory is accurate, that could put Historia in the same class as Zeke: a royal-blooded Titan.

Additionally, the Female Titan, as Annie, has a scream that can affect titans.

That’s without royal blood backing it.

If stopping Zeke is the goal, offering up a counter-screamer doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. That could also, theoretically, put something of a block between the Founding Titan’s screams reaching the walls. Together, Eren and Zeke might be able to make some noise, but if another royal voice is objecting, interesting stuff might start happening.

And maybe that’s all a bit silly and fanficcy, but Eren and Zeke are unstoppable if they meet. Something needs to change those circumstances. Reiner’s out thanks to Gabi. Galliard’s muscle and not much else, unless you want to capitalize on the memories of Ymir he’s picked up, which would also bring us back to Historia.

Pieck’s inside the walls. She’s exactly right.

There’s an ace on hold that could be her ace right now.

Suddenly, no Boring Invincible (maybe????) Heroes.

So yeah. Those are the thoughts.

All my thoughts these days are, “give Historia something to do that isn’t nonsense.” I’m growing a distressing number of not-quite-aus. I’m going to be heartbroken when canon kills them, shouting about how my fave is not actually the main character.

Regardless, Pieck going after Historia isn’t a bad tactical decision from where she’s sitting. So there’s my bet.

Give me something to enjoy, canon. That’s all I ask.

Thanks for the ask, sorry I went all me on it.

#attack on asks #all the cool kids write meta at four in the morning #tl;dr #shingeki no spoilers #SnK spoilers #spoilers #SnK 112 #sort of but not really #the organization just helps

[adultswim2021]

Welcome to Eltingville: “Bring Me the Head of Boba Fett” | February 26, 2002 - 4:00 AM | Special

Lots of personal baggage to unpack on this one, so please forgive what will surely read as a personal blog post:

Welcome to Eltingville was the first of Adult Swim’s “failed pilots” which aired as a special. It’s failed in the sense that it didn’t get picked up, presumably for being too expensive. It originally aired as a stealth premiere at 4:00AM on Monday night/Tuesday morning, I’m assuming to fulfill a contractual agreement. It had a “for real” advertised premiere on March 3rd, which is what you’ll find cited on various web sources.

It’s time I confess something here: I didn’t like this show the first time around. The early 2000s was a time when “nerd” culture was being clumsily embraced as a novelty. People suddenly started gravitating towards movies and shows about nerds, all usually portrayed in a cutesy and toothless way. Yes, I was too blinded by my own shunning of this trend to realize that this show was the antithesis of that. And yes, I was unfamiliar with the original comics that these were based on, which probably would have blown my mind if I was aware of them in the 90s. Hell, I would have shunned a Dan Pussey cartoon if I weren’t already in love with Dan Clowes comics.

Was it all overblown in my own head? Well, I can only come up with two examples to illustrate my distaste for “nerds stuff”, so yes, it probably was. First, Super Nerds, which was a 2000 pilot staring Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn as two nerds who worked at a comic book store. I was sold on it by a friend as being the best sitcom he’d ever seen in his life. I also loved Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn. But good lord, did I hate that show, a lot. The more mainstream example is the Comedy Central show Beat the Geeks, a trivia game show where normal people compete against experts (or geeks) in certain fields (usually popular culture related). The promos showed the geeks in question strutting around and ironically looking cool and triumphant. These promos were so profoundly unfunny to me that I found it insane and offensive when the whole “geek” angle seemed to hook other members of my family. “there’s this game show where guys have to compete... against GEEKS! haw haw!” I can still hear my dad’s voice echo in my head. I still hate it!

I also didn’t relate to traditionally geeky things, like superhero comics, science fiction/fantasy, etc. I hated all of that stuff, and I still mostly do (did I go through a multiple year phase in my early 30s where I tried to force myself to like super hero comics? Yes! I did! It didn’t particularly take). I am absolutely a comedy nerd, though, which is a much MUCH lonelier pursuit.

Hell, the comedy nerd isn’t even an archetype on TV shows; Freaks and Geeks came fairly close, but those guys also liked sci-fi and role-playing games and stuff. Square Pegs also had a comedy nerd character. There was that episode of Undeclared where Martin Starr is boring the rest of the cast by trying to explain that Freddy Got Fingered was an intelligent anti-comedy (the closest I’ve ever seen myself be portrayed on screen). All of these shows lasted one season, making the comedy nerd character the most potent poison since (NOTE TO SELF: google FAMOUS FICTIONAL POISONS, please pick a cool non-nerdy one [leave note-to-self in write-up if coming up with one is impossible {will come off as intentional meta-humor (everyone will love this)}]).

Welcome to Eltingville is about four friends who have created The Eltingville Comc Book, Science-Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Role-Playing Club. They’ve presumably been together for a long time when this episode starts, and we see the dynamics of the club right away, the main thing being the constant petty bickering that quickly becomes violent and destructive. They’re all gigantic jerks who presumably only hang with each other because nobody else will. The main conflict of this show has to do with Bill, the Stan of the group, and Josh, the Cartman, who eventually come to blows over a rare Boba Fett doll-- I mean, figure. The first half of the show is a pretty good introduction to the would-be-series, with the guys playing a D&D style role-playing game and then getting into a full-fledged fist-fight over a VHS compilation of nude scenes that turns out to be a recording of the Hair Bear Bunch. The second half is an adaptation of the comic story “Bring Me The Head of Boba Fett”. Had I thought of it I might have read the entire run of Eltingville Club comics before reviewing this. Unfortunately it was a bit of an afterthought so I just read the first two stories, including the Boba Fett one. For the record, I own the Eltingville book, and definitely read and loved the two-issue series that serves as the ending of the Eltingville comics. It’s all those comics in the middle I still need to get to.

The show is very funny and it looks beautiful. According to the few interviews that I’ve found regarding the show (including a page of text found in the Eltingville book, which precedes a section showing off some of the character design sheets), there really wasn’t much reason given for the show not getting picked up. The show definitely looked better than anything else on Adult Swim, so the whole “too expensive” thing seems like as good an assumption as any. Apparently Dorkin spread himself too thin working on this, attempting to design/draw every little thing seen on screen. I actually wondered that while watching the show, because his art style is faithfully preserved here, which is great! The episode ends the same way the comic story does, with Bill & Josh in a trivia-off, competing over the buying rights for a 12 inch Boba Fett action figure at their local comic shop. With every rewatch of this show I confront one basic thing about myself, and it’s how much of the trivia I’ve picked up since the last rewatch. Bill & Josh’s trivia-off is a flurry of questions regarding all kinds of geek garbage, and the few years between viewings of this results in me knowing a few more answers. But, I have the internet, and can usually get hold of a movie or TV show or comic book almost instantly. It’s important to not lose sight that these kids (especially in the comics) are either high-school or college-aged and they learned all of this shit in an era when the internet wasn’t as ubiquitous as it is today. The original comic is set firmly in 1994, and when there’s a dispute over a question Josh runs home to get a large Godzilla reference book to prove that he’s correct. This changed in the pilot to Josh losing on a technicality with a slip-of-the-tongue; attributing a famous catchphrase to a fellow club-member who had adopted it for himself (the comic actually SEEMS to set this up, but doesn’t go in that direction at all, which is weird when you read it AFTER watching this special. I think that means the cartoon improved on that idea).

Wikipedia makes no mention of this stealth broadcast. It would SEEM to make more sense that it aired Monday morning following late night Sunday, but Adult Swim ended at 1AM back in these days, making early Monday morning still technically “out of bounds”. In fact, I very nearly “corrected” the air date to reflect this, but a quick google search for “Welcome to Eltingville” + “4AM” yielded this message board thread where we can see in real time that early Tuesday morning is indeed correct. So, if you’re ever arguing over a 12 inch Boba Fett feel free to uses this trivia in your trivia off.

#adult swim #welcome to eltingville #adultswim2021

[sincerelyreidburke]

Ok wait so that stupid post about me wanting to marry the insanely cool Reid Burke actually makes me want to know: how does Reid's life play out? We know he becomes a comedian and goes to Sp*ncer's wedding, but what else?

I was in such a Reid mood the night you sent this ask that I almost wound up answering it straightaway, despite it not being the designated drama club day of Monday. In the end, I had to eat dinner that night, and decided I wanted to write the ask fill when I could actually pay full attention to it— so we’ve waited until now to address this topic.

Here’s the post that sparked this ask. I was going on and on about the forthcoming drama club fic on ao3 (which, by the way, new chapter or possibly chapters tonight), and I wound up shitposting about how I love Reid. Via agreed.

And now we’re here! So in the spirit of it being Monday (not evening, but still Monday), I am going to tell you about Reid’s post-college future. For the curious mind.

You’re right, Via— Reid becomes a comedian, and yes, he does go to Sp*ncer’s wedding for the sole and deliberate purpose of wanting to tell fake stories and get free food. By the way, here’s a fun post about the dynamic between Reid and Spencer, which you will see in more depth in the future chapters of the drama club fic.

Also, this was pointed out to me quite a little bit ago in the comments on the first fic with the drama club characters, but the naming of two characters who interact a lot as Spencer and Reid respectively is apparently a Criminal Minds reference. I don’t actually watch that show. But I thought you should know I’m not doing this on purpose.

Anyway, Reid’s future. Let’s talk details.

- He graduates with honors from Kiersey because he deserves it and I love him. His major is a double, in history and theatre. That’s a weird double major, and screams ‘struggling to find a job’, but who cares. Let him live. And before you roast me for roasting humanities students, I’m a double major in history and religion, so I’m in the exact same boat as Reid and his brethren.

- Before I even talk about Reid after graduation, I want to talk about Reid’s love life, because it becomes relevant when talking about his future. He has the same girlfriend from his freshman year at Kiersey all the way up until they graduate. This makes it sound like they break up when they graduate. They don’t. I was just trying to illustrate that they date the whole time.

- Bri, Reid’s girlfriend, is featured very briefly in this ficlet (which now doubles as the drama club fic prologue on ao3). I think I also had Reid talk about Bri in the drama club ask game awhile back, because there was a question for everybody about whether you’re in a relationship.

- From Missouri with a major Midwestern accent to prove it, Bri (her full name is Brianna) is an art student through and through. She probably knew Lardo, although Lardo was two years ahead of her. Her focus is in ceramics, but she also studies art history, so her future is not only in selling her own art but also in working in a museum/gallery.

- That’s important for you to know with respect to Reid only because I am now going to reveal to you that, even though they are both from the Midwest (Reid is from Wisconsin), Reid and Bri move to New York (City) after graduation. Bri secures a job at the MET because I want her to prosper in her artist ways, while also selling her art on the side, and Reid...

- Oh, Reid. :)

- Alright. The first thing of many things. Reid and Bri have literally no money. They’re in serious student debt, and their apartment is so small that their bedroom is also their kitchen is also their living room, and it’s also not even a clean/nice apartment, so basically: living is rough.

- Why do they do it? For the love of the struggle... nah, because they’re starving artists and this was sort of always their plan.

- It’s true, and always has been, that Reid wants to be a stand-up comedian. Through his time at college, Reid does open mics and even goes off-campus for really small shows at clubs in Boston or Providence or wherever he has to drive to get onstage for ten minutes. Actually, bold of me to assume Reid has a car on campus. Correction. He will Uber. Or get somebody to drive him. I’d say Jhiron, because they’re best friends, but Jhiron is from Philadelphia and also definitely doesn’t have a car on campus.

- So, like, whatever. Maybe someone else who lives in their senior apartment has a car. Or maybe Reid goes through increasingly ridiculous public transit adventures just to get to some random comedy club in, like, Hartford, Connecticut. The point is that he does all of this, because it’s what he loves to do, and it’s his dream.

- Here’s the thing about a dream, especially a dream in the arts. That shit is difficult to achieve. When you enter the real world, even if people all your life have told you that you’re good at whatever your hobby is, odds are you’re not that special.

- Reid knows this. He may be a smartass, and he puts forth this boisterous persona, but Reid is an incredibly humble person. He knows he isn’t special, and that if he wants to achieve his dream, it’s going to be hard. Why am I getting the one song about having a dream from Tangled stuck in my head right now. Don’t let me imagine the guys in the drama club doing a re-enactment of that scene.

- All of this tangential material (though I’m bold to assume this entire post isn’t incredibly tangential) is to tell you that Reid gets to New York after graduation and immediately commences The Struggle of a performance artist trying to make it big.

- As you can imagine, this is a long and arduous process which is only rewarding some of the time. He does, by the way, work a few day jobs (a lot of food-service and minimum wage stuff) while he spends his nights trying to do the comedy stuff.

- Factors against Reid include: the fact that he’s barely squeaking by financially, the sheer probability of having actual success in such a difficult industry to crack, the fact that Bri’s parents think he’s a loser who is never going to get a real job...........

- One time he literally tries to break up with her because he thinks he’s dragging her down, and Bri is like, no. :)

Reid at 3am, feeling sorry for himself after getting home from a club where his set fell flat and it was awful: I’m breaking up with you because you deserve a better life than this—

Bri: No

Reid: ???

Bri: Go to bed and we’ll talk about this in the morning :)

Reid: But we’re breaking up?

Bri: No we’re not :)

*In the morning*

Reid: (wakes up and immediately panics because he tried to break up with Bri last night and how could he be so stupid????)

Bri in the kitchen already drinking her coffee: So are you done?

- Anyway. Reid does the whole struggling/starving artist thing for a couple of years. To his credit, he refuses to give up entirely, even when it gets really difficult. He’s working pretty much 24/7 and it’s a grind.

- Because this is my party and I love him, though, he does eventually get his big break. I want him to work for SNL, actually. I feel like that’s how he really starts getting started. From there, he builds an actual career, and he starts getting noticed, and, well. That’s that.

- He and Bri get married right around the same time he gets that job. They’ve been engaged for, like, three or four years.

- Reid is really good at making people laugh and he’s really gracious about the fact that he gets to do that to make a living. :’)

- Other things: yes, he goes to Spencer’s wedding, which takes place after his big break, because Spencer invites him because he’s famous and Spencer wants clout.

- “Spencer sucks major ass. Why does Reid bother going to his wedding?” Because Reid knows he sucks, and Reid likes to cause problems on purpose. [Insert goose emoji if there was such a thing.]

- By the way, Reid never intends to (and doesn’t) ruin Spencer’s wedding. He just refuses to allow the clout-chasing occur that drove Spencer to invite him in the first place.

- I’ve never actually planned out specifically the idea of Reid and Bri having kids, but I know without a doubt that they would have them. I just haven’t named them, or thought of how many they would have. It’s likely 3 or 4. Reid would be a really good dad. Why am I about to cry right now?

Okay, so for the moment, I hope this satisfies your want for future Reid content. This is so peripheral and meta that I feel very annoying for posting it at all, but in my defense, I was asked. And thank you, Via, for asking, because I’ll use any excuse to talk about the insanely cool Reid Burke.

The ask box is open for anything anyone’s heart desires, no matter how peripheral!

#the insanely cool reid burke #kiersey drama club

[twilightknight17]

Forgetting to buy more SP patches before taking on the final boss was probably a mistake.

Forgetting to sell the items I can’t take into NG+ for cash that I can take into NG+ was probably a mistake.

Forgetting to get Arsene out of Lockdown so that I can record his awesome new stats for NG+ was probably a mistake.

In my defense, I was really excited. I wonder if the game will let me make a side trip while I’m out...buying flowers. Because that is what it has come to.

Buying flowers.

Shinya is a terrible brat and wasn’t in Akihabara at ALL until the day before the deadline. Thanks, Shinya. There goes my max confidants. Blugh. At least I got some other things done. Got the award for the maid cafe, so I don’t have to go back except once to open the Twins field trip. I still suck at batting even with third eye. But I am a champ at fishing, it only took me like five trips to the fishing pond to catch the Guardian! I could have done it in less if I’d figured out how to manage my bait properly sooner.

Smile, Akira, we’re awesome! ...still not even halfway to enough fish points for the award, though. :/

I am also awesome at the crane game in Akihabara, and by that I mean I am persistent and have enough yen that it doesn’t matter how many tries it takes.

Ryuji truly knows the way to my heart. <3 I missed two episodes of Featherman; one I forgot to check the TV, and the other I was laughing so hard at the title that I forgot to write it down. But I know where they are, so it’s something else for NG+. ^_^

So I romanced Sumire, and I’m...slightly off-put. Only slightly. Not because of her, but once again, because of the writing. Sumire is cute, but the game is singling her out as “special” again.

She is the only one who confesses to you, and you explicitly have the option to turn her down, rather than the implications of a confession that you can shoot down indirectly (Haru’s, Makoto’s, Futaba’s), or the absolute fucking galaxy-brain leap of logic that is Ann’s dialogue choices. X’D

If you ignore that, though, they’re stupidly cute. Akira’s a little shit, as usual. Sumire asks you to “look at her”, based on her whole confidant thing of realizing that having someone you care about watching you makes you want to do better.

And so Akira looks.

And looks closer.

Dorks. XDDD

They’re sweet. Not my favorite romance route; that still goes to Haru. I think in the end I still prefer Akira adding another member to his army of younger siblings. He’s gotta be better than Yu. XDDD

So I got Kasumi’s rank 10 and literally the next day was February 2nd, and I spent the afternoon getting her third-tier persona. So I didn’t even get to see...Vanadis? in battle. Vanadis matches a little too well to Arsene for my tastes, and Ella is pretty, but I’m not sure how I feel about it looking kind of bride-ish when Maruki’s running around in a wedding tux.

.

Anyway...what do we do the night before the meeting that will decide everything?

We make curry and we pretend everything isn’t about to go to hell.

.

So, Maruki. Let’s chat.

Does no one die in your world? Or move away? What if someone’s dream is to move abroad, and someone else’s dream is for that person to stay with them forever? If what we saw in your Palace is any indication, both of them would be tortured into accepting new dreams where they wouldn’t hurt each other. Dreams that you deemed acceptable. And that’s why you’re wrong.

So you’re giving up your happiness to make sure everyone else is happy? Why can’t you just use your powers to make her remember you, without the trauma? Are you not all-powerful?

Or are you running away from the person that reminds you how helpless you used to be? You’re not moving on, you’re dwelling, and using it as an excuse to be terrible. For all of your kindness, you know Akira is a threat. And benevolent or not, you’re being manipulative. You’re using Goro against him. You’re hoping that he makes the decision you didn’t, and chooses the person he cares about over the reality he wants.

Every time he says something like this, I feel exactly the way he says he didn’t want me to. Newsflash, asshole, that’s exactly what it seems like. If we break your reality, you’re heavily implying he won’t be here afterwards. And you’re gambling that it will be too much pain for Akira to bear, because you know how important they are to each other.

Goro, meanwhile, is both perfectly determined and perfectly stupid.

“Don’t tell me you think dangling my life before us is going to have any impact on our decision.”

Goro. Honey. Do you really think he cares so little that he wouldn’t hesitate for just a moment?

Akira practically throws the calling card at Maruki before he leaves, which I think sums up his feelings pretty well.

I appreciate that Morgana understands that this is something between them.

Goro doesn’t want to be controlled or manipulated ever again. Which... I get it. He’s never had a chance to have full control of his own life. But that doesn’t mean Akira isn’t going to be upset by the idea of him dying. Again.

Two out of three dialogue options are basically “hang on one fucking second,  your life matters to me.”

“Don’t oversimplify this.”

“Oh, but it IS simple. Do you think I’d be happy with this? Being shown mercy now of all times? I don’t want to be pitied-- this isn’t something I’m debating with you! Your indecisiveness is essentially a betrayal of my wishes.”

It’s not pity, you stubborn, idiot boy. ...and I hate that you see it as a betrayal.

Maruki is...very confident. And very kind. And part of the reason he upsets me is because he isn’t wrong, in many cases. But he uses that to justify imposing his will on everyone.

And being kind doesn’t mean that you are free from sin. You can be kind and still be manipulative. And selfish. In the end, that’s what separates him and Akira. Akira, despite all of his hesitation, refuses to be selfish. Even when he has every right to be. He will not hurt someone else to prevent himself from being hurt.

He will not hurt Goro by refusing to fight Maruki, even if it will rip his own heart to pieces.

Oh, I like you. At first glance, the silhouette was very similar to one of Mordred’s original pieces of concept art, though, and I was ready to Yell before I looked closer. XD

And so, at 11:30pm, having completely forgotten the several things I needed to have done before the meeting with Maruki, we head in to steal the Treasure.

This man needs to stop. How dare he know how much I love Cool Stairs?

I find it very concerning that the core of Eden is a writhing mess of tentacles. The metaphorical worm in the apple? X’D We were so close to getting Nyarlathotep, but Azathoth is suitably intimidating. And I appreciate that he’s using the same concepts as the Thieves: his will to rebel against what he sees as an unfair reality, and removing his mask to summon his distorted persona. Thanks for validating all of my headcanon meta about Adachi and Palaces all in one go.

But...

I can’t do this. What the fuck are you wearing?

At least Azathoth is cool.

Somehow I managed to bring exactly the right team to get consistent four-person baton passes for the whole first round. That one was about half an hour.

...the second round was an hour and fifteen minutes because holy shit this thing was a tank and had entirely too many arms and really needed to stop healing.

The torch is very pretty, at least.

And then before we can completely book it out of there, he steals the torch back and literally forces his second awakening so he can keep going. And at that point...what is he even hoping to accomplish? What is he going to do? Are you really willing to kill us to maintain this illusion?

The answer is apparently yes because it was a surprisingly poetic battle as each teammate in turn got a chance to fling themselves in the way and stop it from crushing Joker to death with it’s big giant hand.

And THEN he goes even further and validates some canon meta and me all at once by fusing with his own persona in a continuing last-ditch effort to... I really think he’s trying to kill us. I think he’s that far gone. Or at least his persona is. Because after the fusion, it’s specifically called “Adam Kadmon”, not Maruki. The persona is in control. It’s canon that if you try to summon something stronger than you, it can overtake and possess you. I know Maruki seemed to willingly give up control, but it’s also possible that forcing his second awakening like that left him with a persona that was entirely too strong for him.

(Nevermind that him being that strong in the first place is kind of ridiculous. That’s a discussion for after the final credits. I’m just hyped that someone fusing with their persona was a thing that actually happened!)

He’s so big. Where’s Satanael so I can fuse with him and we can have a megazord fight in Collapsing Ideal Tokyo? XD

The kids up the Holy Shit Quotient by a mile by catching the giant fist all together so that Joker can deal the final blow.

And what a final blow it is.

I really like this, because I don’t know if it was deliberate, but I read it as a callback to Daybreakers. Which came out before the game, iirc, so the first real piece of content. It’s just on a bigger, grander scale.

Everything comes full-circle in the end.

I really like the Mona helicopter. XD I just wish it was a little bigger, because poor Goro squished into the bottom. And poor Akira not managing to make it into the helicopter.

And this asshole WILL NOT STAY DOWN.

What is the point of punching it out on top of the collapsing Palace? Are you trying to kill us both? Do you just want to keep going until neither of us can stand? Dude.

And of course Akira won’t let him die. I think the upsetting thing about this, though, is really that you don’t get the chance to say a proper goodbye to Goro. Or anyone, really, but mostly Goro. The Palace crumbles, Akira wakes up in jail, the Thieves wake up the next morning after fighting all night, and Goro is...gone.

At least the Thieves seem properly sad this time. Even if it’s only for one scene.

Lavenza calls it “ironic” that “your wish for other’s happiness prevailed over your own.” I just call it unfair. Once again, hasn’t he done enough? At least he was only technically in jail for nine days from his perspective, but that must have been a whiplash of an adjustment.

Out of jail, Sojiro acknowledges he was Terrible at the beginning of the year, it’s 2:30am, time to do Valentines and then go to bed before the final walkaround.

And then Valentines passes. I spent it with Sumire. They’re cute.

And then it was February 15th and all the rest of the girls gave me chocolate?? It was just a constant ambush of being given chocolate all day?

And then it was March 3rd, and the Thieves are all splitting up and moving away? Are we sure this isn’t Scramble’s timeline? I get it, narratively, they’re taking the opportunities to move forward that Maruki’s reality would have denied them, but it still hurts.

And then it was March 13th and I still can’t save and now it’s 3am and apparently we get to play out White Day and Sojiro is giving me advice for the perfect date because captain idiot here forgot to plan anything and what heckin’ restaurant is getting this flustered that just mentioning Sojiro’s name is enough to get a table when they’re fully booked and---

Now it’s the 14th and I have to go buy flowers for my dinner date and I have finally been given control and saved and I am free.

Now next time I play I have to see if I can go sell my leftover items, because I’ve got a couple-hundred-thousand yen worth, and also rescue Arsene from prison. X’D

More thoughts on Maruki and everything after I see the ending, most likely.

#Li plays P5R #long post #the Longest Post #2.5 hour boss fight O_o #last time I spent that long on a boss it made me so mad I put the game in question down for six months

[westallenfun]

We made it.

WestAllen secret santa gift

From: @irisxdanvers

For: @babyish14

Note: This AU is based mostly off of canon from seasons 1-4 with very minor things from s5 and 6. Nora never showed up and Crisis isn’t coming are the only two major changes that I can think of off the top of my head. Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy! I loved writing this for you <3 It’s not my best work given it’s my first thing after a very rough case of writers block but I think it’s decent. Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays!  –  Your secret Santa, Celeste. ;)

It was without a doubt one of the coldest nights in Central City. There’s always a good portion of the year where the  loft’s heater works overtime because it’s so cold outside and the snow is slowly stacking up over the hours causing white sheets to form over the ground.

Barry and Iris are cuddled up under the comforter in their heated apartment. His arms sinks around her stomach laid carefully over Iris’s newly bump, which had recently ‘popped’ given she was nearly six months pregnant with twins.

She started to shift – uncomfortably – around four thirty for the third time that night. The twins were constantly moving and kicking which made each night more uncomfortable as the days go by. “Iris. Are you Okay?” Barry murmured in a sleepily tone after the fifth or sixth time she shifted.

“No. Your children won’t stop kicking.” She whined as she felt another jab in her side. “Ooh really?! Which one is it?”

“Barry.

He planted a small kiss on her cheek, “I can’t help it Iris. It still hasn’t hit me that we’re having twins.”  Iris shifted to face Barry as she recalled the moment that she told him they were having a baby (which later turned out to be two). He had peppered her in kisses and hugged her so tight (but not tight enough to hurt her).

“I know. But it’s not comfortable at all. In fact, I have to pee now.” She turned over to get up out of the bed. Iris made it halfway across their bedroom before Barry called out for her, “Hey Iris?”

“Yeah?”

“I know it’s like early morning buuut…”

“Buuut?”

“Happy Anniversary.” He said with the biggest sleepiest smile in which she returned back to him once she remembered today was their second anniversary. “Happy anniversary you dork.”

—-

After about an hour of giggles and cuddles the pair fell back asleep for what felt like hours. Barry reawakened once the golden light started to beam through their bedroom. He carefully crawled out of bed and decided to make Iris a nice breakfast that way she had something nice to wake up to. He always tried to do something special during the holidays and anniversaries for Iris especially now with her carrying his children.

It was two more hours give or take before Iris made her way downstairs. “What smells sooo good but also very nauseating?” She mumbled as she made her way to Barry. “It’s your anniversary spread. You got pancakes, fruit, scrambled eggs, bagels and cream cheese— since I know you’ve been craving that a lot lately. And finally, since you can’t consume your usual amounts of coffee I made your favorite kind of tea. But is it too much? I don’t want to make you sick and oh god did I make you sick? should I get your tums? Ice? Or-“

“Babe. Deep breathes remember. “ She giggled. “This looks soo delicious and if it taste anything like last year’s then I’m sure it is. I’m just feeling a little nauseous this morning that’s all.” She gave him a quick peck on the cheek “I love you.”

“I love you.”

“Now, what’s on the list of things to do today? I’m surprised Caitlin and Cisco haven’t called. It’s nearly ten.”

“Oh, they won’t be calling today since we are off duty.”

Iris nearly choked on her tea, “When was the last time you took a day off?”

“That isn’t what is important. What’s important is that we have a weekend off to enjoy ourselves without no interruptions.”

“Every time we try to go forty-eight hours uninterrupted we always get interrupted.”

“It’s our second anniversary Iris. Last year we didn’t get to celebrate that much because we were both in over our heads with work and then all the Cicada business. This year I wanna celebrate. Plus, I already called Cisco and he agreed to take over for the weekend and Kamilla said she would proofread your articles for you.”

Iris debated in her head whether or not this was going to go well. She didn’t want to be pessimistic on her anniversary but luck has never been on their side. After looking at Barry giving her his usual puppy eyes she caved. “Soo where are we going then?”

With a very wide grin he responded, “Back to finish our first honeymoon of course!”

~~

With the weird way of time zones, it was actually around 6:30pm when they arrived and boy was Bali a major contrast compared to Central City. The sun was starting to set, the weather was nice and toasty, and there was brief waves of wind that balanced out with the heat. The air even smelled nice and crisp.  It was heaven-like for Barry and Iris.

When they walked into their beach house there were candles and rose petals everywhere. Iris stopped in the middle of the room to soak it all up. It reminded her so much of their first engagement. The way the candles lit up the room  and flower petals lied across the ground.  It was breath takingly beautiful.

It wasn’t a lie that things had shifted a bit between Barry and Iris. Yes, of course they were still very much in love but they hadn’t had much private quality time between JUST them in what felt like forever so this was nice. Even if it was only a weekend, escaping from reality was something she didn’t know she needed so badly. And this was only the beginning.

“You did all of this?”

“I might’ve made some arrangements.”

Iris turned around to face Barry before she put her arms around his neck. “You are…” She leaned into a quick soft kiss. “So sweet.” She smiled again before giving him another kiss.

“Only for you.” He smiled. “C’mon, I know you didn’t get eat much before we left.”

~~

Iris busted out into a sweet giggle while attempting to take a drink of her water. “Barry we are not naming our kids Don and Dawn. That is just…no. Totally not happening.”

“It’s cute!” He protested.

“Is it though?”

“I think so and I don’t see you coming up with anything better.” He sassed while popping a blueberry in his mouth.

Iris missed this. She missed being able to just laugh and admire what a goof her husband was. She missed having no interruptions every hour of the day. And as much as she loves her life with Barry now, there is always these moments that remind her of the secret wish she once had. She used to wish things could be like this all the time. Just her, and her family. No flashing, No evil meta’s, and definitely no end of the world crisis that seems to happen once a year. So, as she sat there laughing with her extremely dorky husband who is terrible at naming children she couldn’t help to think ‘what if..’

After their laughs settle down back into a quiet moment Iris spoke, “Well, actually I did have a name suggestion for our little girl.”

“Oh yeah? What do you have in mind?”

“Nora.” Barry shot his head up quickly, “Seriously? Like…after-“

“Your mom? Yeah. I was thinking the other night and I don’t know; Nora West-Allen has a nice ring to it.” She answered with a wide grin. “It’s just a suggestion though, I didn’t know how you would feel about it.”

He just had that wide smile, the same smile that always aroused butterflies in her stomach like she was a teenage girl.

Barry slid their small blanket with their food on it over to the side before scooting closer to Iris. “I love it.” He whispered before pulling her into a soft but intense kiss, she started to move her lips and he followed. It was supposed to be a quick kiss but it quickly turned into a more sensual one. Iris felt another (painful) jab in her side that caused her to pull apart.

“What’s wrong?” He questioned as a brief wave of panic washed over him.  Iris licked her lips as she looked down at her bump. “I think baby boy is trying to tell us we forgot about him. He just kicked the hell of out my side.” She giggled.

The short moment of panic was quickly turned into excitement as he leaned down towards her bump. “Hey little one, we didn’t forget about you. But if it’s between me and you, you would’ve already had a name.”

Iris rolled her eyes playfully before she felt another kick. Barry jolted up at Iris with a huge cheeky smile. “I felt that one!”

“Yeah?”

“They do that all the time?”

“More than you could believe.” She said as she felt the other pair of feet kick slightly. Ever since Iris hit twenty-one weeks the babies had been kicking and moving around nonstop with a few hours in the afternoon of peace. Her doctor said it was very normal for them to be so active at this point in her pregnancy and that as the weeks go by they will most likely continue to kick, jab, etc. “They’re sooo active. Definitely your kids, they never stop fidgeting especially during the night.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Iris just shot him a familiar look. “You move and fidget all the time Barr. I won’t be surprised if they come running out the womb at this point” She joked.

~

They decided to spend the remaining hours of the day  walking up and down the coast hand in hand as the air started to cool down and the sun finished setting. Although it had only been so many hours for them, Barry and Iris were enjoying their time away. Just being able to joke and laugh around without a care in the world was so peaceful.

It also allowed them to open up some private conversation about things they would usually have to discuss over comms, such as their current living situation (or really just Iris telling Barry they didn’t have enough space in their lovely loft to raise two kids and that at some point they were going to have to move) and then to have the space just to reflect on how far they’ve come. Iris especially loves to talk about how they started off as best friends and through everything they had went through they still ended up where they were. It nice.

A part of them wished it could be like this forever. But until reality was to set back in they were enjoying their second wedding anniversary.

Once Iris’s feet started to get tired they decided to head in and call it a night. They had some silly debates about what type of movies to watch (Barry wanted star wars but Iris refused) until they fell asleep and somehow they ended up on some random channel with some random plot they weren’t even paying attention to. It didn’t matter to them though because at the end of the day as long as they were with each other, nothing else really mattered.

~Will be extended and beta’d before posted to A03.

#the flash #westallen #westallen secret santa #submission

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 218: Purse Pilferage and Mouse Murder

Previously on BnHA: Kacchan and Deku sparred in an attempt to draw out Deku’s mysterious new power once again, but to no avail. In a brief flashback, the OFA Scooby Squad (now including Bakugou!) discussed Deku’s recent visions and his multiple quirks. Kacchan pointed out that it was very similar to All for One’s power, which seems to be weighing on Deku’s mind some. That evening at the fanfic dorms, Shouto approached Deku asking if he had been hiding a second quirk. Deku assured him that the new quirk surprised him as much as everyone else, and fibbed that it was probably derived from his original quirk. Meanwhile the U.A. faculty accepted Shinsou into the hero course, and Aizawa acted all weird and cagey about someone from his past named “Shirakumo.” Later, Monoma met with Aizawa, Mirio, Deku, and Eri at the teachers’ dorms and unsuccessfully attempted to copy Eri’s quirk. Eri apologized for being so troublesome, and the others assured her that she wasn’t and Deku told her that even seemingly dangerous quirks can be used for good. It wasn’t lost on him that this applied to his own powers as well, and he resolved to keep working to master OFA.

Today on BnHA: Early one December morn, the kids of 1-A gather in their common room to watch some TV while they wait to hear if Bakugou and Todoroki passed their provisional license retest. The news is reporting on a company called Detnerat which has recently entered the hero equipment business. Their CEO is some Joker-looking dude who’s apparently a big fan of AFO’s old nemesis Destro of Meta Liberation Army fame. Destro’s book has recently been republished and is making the discussion rounds. DetCEO discusses it with his cute lil mouse subordinate Miyashita, but Miyashita isn’t really a fan. This proves unfortunate for Miyashita, as DetCEO is all “that’s too bad, guess I’m just gonna have to snap your neck then.” Like, for real though. Anyway so then DetCEO heads to a secret meeting of like-minded individuals who are apparently Destro’s descendants and are seeking to make his goals a reality. We then segue to a group of purse-snatchers led by someone who I really thought was Shirakumo for a hot minute, ngl. He’s not, though. Anyway so they’re wreaking some havoc and stealing people’s shit -- that is, until two good boys who just earned their provisional licenses after three months of hard work show up to spoil their fun.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 225, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

HOLY SHIT

BABY WE GOT OURSELVES SOME MOTHERFUCKING SNOW IN THE FANFIC DORMS!!!

holy shit. and it’s the weekend! ARE WE GONNA HAVE SOME ANTICSSSS YES PLEASE I REALLY NEED THIS SO BAD RIGHT NOW YOU HAVE NO IDEA

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

KIRISHIMA WHY ARE YOU TAKING YOUR CLOTHES OFF

I hope they get a ton! I WANT SNOWBALL FIGHTS AND SNOW FORTS AND TODOROKI TO LET IT GOOOOOO LET IT GOOOOOOO

ahh but apparently he and Bakugou are away right now

wow they even got that class on Sundays now, huh

also, who did Sero borrow the tankoubon from? because more likely than not it was Bakugou since I can’t even picture Shouto reading manga (unless he borrowed some volumes from Deku, maybe). so that means Bakugou is (a) a big ol’ manga-reading nerd who brought his manga to school with him, and (b) sharing with friends. both of which make me so, so happy

(ETA: Viz translated this as “I want to borrow the next volume of this manga from Todoroki,” but as far as I can tell, in the RAW version he doesn’t specify who he borrowed it from. I think Caleb Cook just doesn’t think Bakugou is capable of sharing. give him some credit, Caleb Cook.)

Deku says they should be back around six, and Iida says it’s apparently the last day of their provisional class!

OHMYGOSH. hold up. so that means that their re-test is in like a week, no? holy shit. oh my god I’m so hypppppped ahhhhhh

SDLFKHASLDFKJLK HOLY SHIT

IT’S TODAY!?!??

YOU CAN DO IT KIDS I BELIEVE IN YOU. YOU GOT THIS

KACCHAN ARE YOU READY TO OFFICIALLY BECOME KACCHAN THE HERO

(ETA: maybe we’ll actually get Kacchan’s hero name before I grow old. maybe.)

SDFKASLDHK AND LOOK AT THIS SETUP!? AHHHHHH PLEASE DON’T CUT AWAY FROM THIS. OH MY GOD

but snow antics though. oh my god I’m so torn lsdkjlk

anyways of fucking course we cut away, and I don’t really mind because I love cozy 1-A snow day dorm antics also. plus everyone is gossiping about Todo and Baku, and Satou is baking a cake like the Princess Peach he is

Kami is playfully lamenting the fact that he’s about to lose the one leg-up he had on those two, and flipping on the news

oh shit are we gonna get some Plot

I guess so. what is this

Detnerat?? is that a portmanteau of something? an acronym? or another Star Wars reference I failed to pick up on??

(ETA: yeah so it’s the word “talented” spelled backwards. except with an r instead of an l.)

so the news is showing some people with mutant quirks, including a four-armed lady, a jello child, and a walrus with a bowler hat

and the narration is talking about how people like this used to be a minority but now “their era arrived”

interesting. I guess there’s pretty much no such thing as “one size fits all” anymore these days huh. so does that mean there’s been a shift back to custom-made tailored items?

this pointy nose guy is extremely theatrical

calm down buddy

so he says his company has come all this way while building products that meet the needs of each of their customers individually

this is cool and all but I’m trying to figure out why this new arc is opening with an infomercial

I’m expecting things all right, but I think it’s a little too early to say if they’ll be great

and now we’re cutting to this guy’s office, where his employee is concluding his presentation. apparently he was showing his boss the finished commercial

and now they’re discussing the thus-far lukewarm reception to their recent announcement

(ETA: holy shit. famous last words. fuckin’ jinxed it Miyashita.)

are you guys... good guys? bad guys? how is this related to the plot?? a new arc all about stock holdings and market shares. Iida did you write this arc

so pointy nose says that they’ve been doing this on a much larger scale for a long time already, so he’s confident they’ll be successful

oh shit

it only just occurred to me that he used the word “superpowers” instead of quirks

AND LOOK AT THIS SHIT

IT’S THAT BOOK. THE ONE THAT WAS PROBABLY WRITTEN BY DESTRO OMG

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

IT WAS DESTRO. CALLED IT WOOP WOOP

Mishiwhatsa says he read the book too but “it’s a load of crap if you ask me”

he says that what the army was doing was nothing but terrorism at the expense of innocent people, and yet Destro “had the gall” to act like he was in the right

hot damn this guy really was Magneto. are we going full-on X-Men in this arc. I want the works. I want fucking sentinels and everything oh god please

oh shit I’m starting to worry about ol’ Mishi here

MIYASHITA, RUN

OH SHIT

IS HE GOING TO SNAP HIS FUCKING NECK!?? HOLY SHIT!??

holy fucking shitballs oh christ

this dude is straight up murdering his best employee, Nezu’s cousin, all because he didn’t agree with his favorite book!?

...

holy shit

fuck. I’m speechless

okay. okay shit. well. uh. Detnerat, huh

you have my attention, plot

hooooooooooly shit

holy shit holy shit holy shit

okay. calm down, self. let’s jot down some thoughts real quick

okay so one, that one shot of that guy with his hand on his hat has a decided Ian McKellen vibe to it. I’m telling you guys. X-Men references all over the damn place in this arc

two, the word “supremacy” was used. meaning this wasn’t just a “quirk rights” group, this was a quirk supremacist group. or is a quirk supremacist group, I should say. these people believe themselves to be the future of humankind. they don’t want liberation, they want control. and assuming we continue to follow the X-Men parallels here, they also believe themselves to be superior to those without superpowers and they’re looking to assert their authority over them

they clearly believe the current laws restricting the usage of quirks are a form of oppression and persecution and are looking to eradicate them

this seems like exactly the type of philosophy the League of Villains would be eager to spread, and I wouldn’t be surprised if another team-up is in the works here

lastly, if these guys are now in the business of making hero equipment, whoever buys from them had better be really careful, as I can easily see some sort of Iron Man 2 plotline going down in which there’s a secret command built into the coding of the new equipment which will sabotage its users once activated. or if you’d rather think of it in Star Wars terms rather than MCU, call it an “order 66” ploy

(ETA: well I partly called this one. still up in the air honestly, who knows.)

also: friendly reminder that Bakugou’s gauntlets were recently destroyed and he’s gonna be needing new ones! (:

so having said all that, let’s see how this pans out!

and right away, the prediction about them teaming up with the League is panning out. waste no time, huh

so Hooknose is telling him to do so at once

oh shit hold up

WELL I SURE GOT THAT BACKWARDS NOW DIDN’T I

lol oh shit. I totally forgot that AFO was the one who bombed the Army’s HQ all those decades and possibly centuries ago. I can’t believe these guys still remember that and know how AFO was connected to boot

also, is there a Rorschach thing going on here? I wonder if it’s a reference to the psychologist or to the comic book character from Watchmen. I’m betting the latter given the way they’re using the inkblots as masks, and also because this is a manga based on superhero comics after all

(ETA: yeah, Rorschach, Joker, and Magneto... drawing on a lot of classic villains and anti-heroes in this arc.)

ah so now we’re getting details on their new bid to enter the hero market

HOLD UP

WHAT THE FUCK THIS GUY LOOKS AWFULLY FUCKING FAMILIAR

IS THIS SHIRAKUMO??? AIZAWA WERE YOU NOT CONTENT WITH THE STRIKING SIMILARITY YOU ALREADY BORE TO KAKASHI? HAD TO GO AND ADD THE OLD FRIEND TURNED EVIL BACKSTORY TOO?? OR WHAT

given that this guy seems to have some sort of cloud-based power (look at what he’s riding! and now the people he just harassed and stole from are describing it as “carbonated water”), and kumo means “cloud”...

(ETA: nope, this is just good ol’ Soda Sam. Carbonation Carl.)

okay and now we’re cutting to a conversation between two as-yet-unknown parties that seem to be witnessing this robbery from a distance, and deciding whether or not to intervene

for a moment I entertained the idea that this might be Kacchan and Shouto with their hot-off-the-presses licenses, possibly talking to All Might? but none of this dialogue seems to have that Kacchan flair, and it also doesn’t make much sense for them to have attended the lesson accompanied by All Might and no one else. Aizawa’s been pretty good about making sure there’s always at least one other fighting pro accompanying them

so now this group of merry bandits is celebrating their new haul

OH SHITTTTTTT

ODDS OF THIS BEING BAKUGOU AND SHOUTO JUST SHOT WAAAAAAAAAY WAY UP OH MY GOD?!

OH MY GOD IT WAS EXACTLY WHAT I THOUGHT?!

I SHOULD STOP DOUBTING MYSELF AND HORIKOSHI’S PROPENSITY FOR GIVING ME EXACTLY WHAT I WANT ALL OF THE TIME

motherfucker. you just know Kacchan spent that entire cab ride with his nose pressed to the window trying to sense danger and keeping his fingers crossed something like this would happen

(ETA: him and Shouto both, since the dialogue suggests it was Shouto that spotted it first! so basically one of them stationed at each window with All Might sandwiched in between wondering if he’s even going to survive this trip. the answer is yes, All Might, but not without it becoming Eventful.)

also, 30 minutes or 30 seconds, it hardly matters All Might. you know these two spent the last three months anticipating this moment every single minute of every day. they’re gonna go do reckless hero shit, All Might. THEY’RE JUST GONNA

oh my godddddddd

TodoBaku fighting against Aizawa’s possible friend-turned-villain in the snowwwwww having JUST EARNED THE SHIT OUT OF THEIR NEW LICENSES HELL YEAHHHHHHHHH

and it appears Kacchan does have a gauntlet. goddammit. make that propensity for giving me almost exactly what I want, most of the time

anyways, I don’t really care! life is good. life is fucking amazing, fam

#bnha #boku no hero academia #bakugou katsuki #todoroki shouto #redestro #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #poor miyashita just kept on digging himself in deeper didn't he #'hey boss you sure are bald' #'and our business is very much not booming' #'oh hey what's that book you've got there' #'oh is that the one by destro?' #'lol I flippin' hate that guy' #'he's just the worst isn't he?' #'why no I don't have any friends or family or anyone who would miss me or notice my sudden disappearance in any capacity' #'why do you ask' #'boss?' #'...'

[sneek-m]

Top 10 J artists to get into j music?

I was going to answer this with a more definitive list that includes your Utada Hikarus and your Shiina Ringos, but I thought it would be more fun for the both of us if I talked about Japanese names that I wish to see more writing on. It was hard for me to think of 10, so here are 6.

The Komuro Family* (Ryoko Shinohara, Tomomi Kahara, hitomi, Ami Suzuki, globe)

I would preface this by saying Tetsuya Komuro is far from a decent human being. But apart from that fact, I also think people gloss over his work because he’s so embedded in the narrative of what was happening in Japanese pop music during the ‘90s to the point his ubiquity can seem like a banal concern. Sure, it admittedly sounds very of-the-time as his go-to styles of Eurobeat and rave music get more and more outdated. (TRF and Marc Panther of Globe do not age well in the slightest.) The singers are amateur by nature as well. But all that said, most of his singles endure as many tell melancholy stories of the city that reflect the bitterness of that decade. I would love to see a more in-depth observations of the recurring themes of TK singles because I think there a lot worth exploring.

Start with: “Itoshisato Setsunasato Kokorozuyosato” (Ryoko Shinohara, 1995); “I’m Proud” (Tomomi Kahara, 1996); “Departures” (globe, 1996); “Sexy” (hitomi, 1996); “All Night Long” (Ami Suzuki, 1998)

*Namie Amuro is part of the Komuro Family as the producer worked on all her music released during that decade, such as “Body Feels Exit” and “Can You Celebrate?” But a quick Google search of “best J-pop” should bring you to her name as well as countless fans, including me, open to share just how much she meant to J-pop and Japanese culture, so I didn’t mention her.

SPEED

I wouldn’t exactly say SPEED is an idol group, more a pop unit, but the girl group definitely reached the masses like one. The four debuted when they were in middle school, inspiring children and teens of the late ‘90s to idolize them: members of Perfume once recounted a time in Actor’s School, Hiroshima’s version of the Okinawa school where SPEED came from, when classmates would pretend to be SPEED and fight over who would be the group’s main star Hiro, or Hiroko Shimabukuro. Their youth really inspires the music too, a gutsy, R&B-influenced pop music that got by a lot on the girls’ energy.

Start with: “Body and Soul” (1996)

Aya Matsuura

For a long time, I thought Aya Matsuura, or Ayaya for those who grew up with her music, was in Morning Musume. But after watching her TV appearances, it was obvious she was far more made to be a solo star. Debuted when she was 15, the Hello Project idol carried herself with this charming ditziness but also a solid awareness of her as a star. Hello Pro’s main producer Tsunku would draw that quality out of her with every release, and it only became more blown-out as the years went by.

Start with: “Momoiro Kataomoi” (2002)

BoA

BoA is still killing it. Just check out her recent K-pop stuff. But as K-pop grows, it’s always worth anyone’s time to go back and check out the icons of the past generations. (Something I should do more myself as well.) Now, I’m way more familiar with her Japanese releases when it comes to old BoA. Her first five albums are all great; the first two, Listen to My Heart and Valenti, may be of-the-time, but if you can get through that quirk, they each got some hits. The difference between her Japanese releases and Korean ones are more obvious with her releases last year, Watashi Konomamade Iinokana and Woman, the former record an A&R mess that really disappointed me. But from 2002 to 2007 at least, she made a lot of simply cool Japanese R&B.

Start with: “Listen to My Heart” (2002)

Dempagumi, Inc.

I’ve only recently got into Dempagumi, Inc. and it admittedly was bit of a deliberate choice not to engage with them for so long. My first impression of Dempa felt similar to seeing Kyary Pamyu Pamyu when she first went viral, which is to say not fun at all. Imagine all the icky stereotypes of Japan, the nonsense sourced from the kawaii and otaku subcultures, just blatantly splattered as pop art. Best believe it didn’t suit well for a Japanese person who wanted foreigners to see their culture as something much deeper than those associations.

But the more and more I familiarized myself to modern J-pop, it intrigued me to see that Japanese pop culture has been so booming and well established to the point that it can produce media and art with an intense self-awareness to some of that very identity. I eventually got into Kyary Pamyu Pamyu by embracing her projected weirdness as cultural pride, and the punkish energy that Dempa puts forth to their creation feels infectious in a similar way that can also feel subversive.

Dempa’s music, especially their early ones, that double down on its idiosyncrasies can feel deliriously meta: the group’s second album, 2015’s WWDD, felt somewhat uncomfortable for me knowing just how much Dempa understood the relationship between idol and otaku. But it presents such a fascinating line of conversation, with idols speaking on idol culture. Outsiders like to observe the weird surface when there’s something much more complex happening beneath it, and I wish other people would elaborate more on it.

Start with: “Chururi Chururira” (2014)

Aimyon

There’s so much buzz around Aimyon right now, you’d be hard-pressed not to hear her name mentioned in J-pop news. But again, the mainstream can be glossed over in favor of the underground or at least lesser known music acts and movements. Which is a completely fine phenomenon! Solely relying on the Oricon as a source of Japanese music would not yield many interesting results. That said, I always remain loud about people glossing over the mainstream because Japanese pop deserves to be represented as it is, middle-of-the-road as it is cool and fascinating.

Japanese pop is not just one sound or movement. The acoustic-pop earnestness of Aimyon sounds uniquely Japanese as a bunch of vocaloid tunes or Enon Kawatani’s finger-twiddling jazz-rock side projects or the backpacker-rap tradition of Sushiboys or the genre-mashing whisper-rap of DAOKO or any typical anime theme song. All I’m saying is I want a media coverage culture that puts critical attention to all of these equally, not one over the other. And I think if you’re gonna praise Perfume, or whomever, there should be an equally approached article on Aimyon, a name who is quickly becoming popular music for the Japanese youth.

Anyway, I like Aimyon. It’s such nice pop-rock for people who frequently dream about being loved with their entire conception of romance built upon what they see in pop media like teen rom-coms and love songs such as Aimyon’s. Her lyrics reach for something more poetic, which adds a sense of cool and maturity that the kids can look up to. Her public persona definitely reflects that, though she reveals herself to be a funny, ditzy weirdo pretty quick. Yeah, she doesn’t play with a very novel sound, but does it always have to be novel to be so moving?

Start with: “Marigold” (2018)

[roastyoualive-archive]

Meta meme: What was school like when he was younger? Was he bullied? An outcast? Was it hard to control his powers when he was younger as opposed to now?

send me a topic to write a meta about my muse on || ALWAYS Accepting

Well, now, that depends on what you mean by ‘when he was younger’. He was in third grade when his dad got arrested. But, before that, Warren was really a different person. He was never hugely outgoing, was never really an extrovert, but he was definitely- lighter. Not as weighed down by the world.

Happier.

When Warren first went to school, he attended Bayshore Public. It was a small but nice primary school not too far from the Peaces’ house on Pinegrove. He’d made a few friends in Sunny Hills (the daycare/pre-school he went to) who also attended Bayshore, so that helped. Some of them were even in his class! And his teacher was really nice, too. Mrs. Amanda Jenkins, an older woman who had done a lot of travelling in her youth. When she taught geography, she brought in little trinkets and souvenirs from all over the world for the kids to see, and she had ‘community projects’ where she’d get the kids to help with local fundraisers to build a well for a small village overseas. When she got a letter about and photograph of the well from the organisation she was working with, she showed it to the class and used it to show them not only how connected everyone was, but also how little good things can add up to a really big, really important good thing. 

By the end of that first year, Warren already had two best friends at Bayshore. Their names were Grant McGraw and Sam White. Grant and Warren had gone to Sunny Hills together, and had been friends for ‘ages’, as they’d put it (’maybe even forever!’). Sam hadn’t gone to Sunny Hills, but he HAD run up to Warren on the Bayshore playground, tapped his shoulder, and yelled ‘TAG - you’re it!’ before bounding away, and, well- They were little kids. That’s all it took. Grant, Warren, and Sam almost always shared a mat during Listening Time. They’d compete to see who could build the biggest block towers (Grant usually won) and debate over which truck was best (Warren usually voted for the red one, because it had the biggest and shiniest wheels. The other two agreed this was a very valid point) and how many LEGOs it would take to build a real rocket ship like the ones at NASA (Sam thought maybe twenty boxes, but only if it was Star Wars LEGOs). Sometimes, they’d go over to each others’ houses on the weekends. He always had to let Mama and Papa know early if he was going to have friends over. 

See, just like his dad, Warren got his powers very young. (Penny didn’t, and she was oddly grateful she’d had to wait for adolescence.) Baron and Penny knew they could mitigate Warren’s powers when they were around, but also knew they weren’t always going to be right there. So, ever since he’d first shown his powers, they’d drilled into his head that they were a secret. ‘Don’t use your powers in public’ was drilled into his head along with ‘don’t get in the car with strangers’ and ‘don’t run off where we can’t see you’. They’d explained as well that if people knew what he could do, they might have to move to a new house and a new school, and Warren didn’t like that idea, so he kept it under wraps. Every day after school, or after going out with his friends, Baron or Penny (whoever was closest when they got home) would ask him if he kept their secret. Whenever he said yes, he’d get a sticker, a treat, to stay up a bit later, or even a family movie night (Disney movies, usually). To help with this, when they had a moment, Baron would take Warren into the fireproof garage and let him use his powers as much as he wanted - even give him some pointers. He knew how awful it was to keep fire bottled up, and didn’t want that for Warren, so insisted he get some sort of outlet for it. Penny thought it was a great idea, as long as it was safe and supervised. They’d play games, experiment, or just burn as much energy as they could, to help naturally curb Warren’s desire to power up outside of home. So, thankfully, none of Warren’s friends knew, not even Grant and Sam. 

Of course, those two weren’t his only friends - just his best friends. There was also Lacy Chai - his future coworker, and the granddaughter of his future bosses (she helped him get the job). He stuck up for her once when she was being picked on, and that was that. They briefly got teased for ‘dating’, but that didn’t last long. Kids moved on. Mindy Fenter had the best coloured pencils, so everyone wanted to be her friend. She had a crush on Grant, and so let Sam and Warren use her colours too so he’d like her better. Ben Olsen was another Sunny Hills alumnus, and sometimes he and Warren traded snacks. Andy Walker was the funniest kid in class, so everyone liked him, and sometimes he’d play tag and keep-away and four-square with Sam and Warren and Grant. Jessie Sanderson was the best at monkey bars, and a few times she gave the three of them tips on how to do it better and the best ways to climb up to the very top - the part the grown-ups said they weren’t supposed to be on, but never really stopped them from sitting there once they got up. Grant’s older sister, Gina, would make them sandwiches when they were at Grant’s house and she was really nice, and Grant and Gina’s oldest brother Graham would set up games on his N64 and let the three of them play if they promised to be careful, so Warren considered them friends, too. But, not everyone was that nice. There was a bully in their year. His name was Ulysses Harper. He was the tallest in the class, but Warren was almost the same height as him (and ended up being taller, in later years), so for the most part, Ulysses left him alone. Besides, it’s easier to go after solo targets, and the Three Amigos were basically inseparable. (Interesting fact, Ulysses would go on to work as an [unpowered] petty thief for the Battalion, under the command of Saul Springfield, before staying a brief stint in juvie, re-inventing himself as a life coach and motivational speaker, and getting a teaching degree. He returned to Bayshore to teach fifth grade, and was known by all of the kids as one of the nicest teachers in school.)

I like to think that, in a world where Baron wasn’t arrested, it would have continued on like that. The three of them: Side, by side. … By side. They would’ve stayed best friends all throughout elementary school. They’d learn how to skateboard together, be on the same soccer teams over summer, and spend so much time at Livewire Arcade they’d be on a first-name basis with the owner (Vince Upton). They’d have snowball fights in winter and cram like sardines so they could all fit on one lift on the school ski trips (and almost get stuck at least once, almost fall off at least twice). They’d graduate together and be in at least five pictures in the end-of-year slideshow, cheesing it up like the doofuses young kids are supposed to be. They’d all go to Trinity Prep for middle school; Grant was technically outside of school limits, but he begged his parents enough to fill out the paperwork for it, and Gina (who was taking a few years off to help save up for college) agreed to drive him there in the morning, since it was on the way to her job, anyways. The three of them would have a sleepover at Sam’s to celebrate this (he had the biggest basement). Grant and Sam would convince Warren to audition for school plays, and Grant and Warren would convince Sam to go to football try-outs, and Sam and Warren would make sure to actually listen to announcements when Grant became the student council rep. (Another sleepover at Casa de Sam to celebrate this; his parents weren’t surprised anymore when Sam walked in with the other two trailing behind. None of their parents were.) Every Halloween, they’d go out together - coordinated costumes in later years - and pool their candy; Gifts were exchanged every Christmas, cards every Valentines’, and their parents had swapped so many recipes at Thanksgiving that nobody could remember who made what, most years. At one of Grant’s family Christmas parties, a Chipmunks special would come on, and the boys would manage to untie one of the helium balloons and laugh themselves to tears while their parents had wine and talked about whatever boring stuff grown-ups bothered with. Sam and Grant would be disappointed at Warren not going to the same high school as them, but offer a mixture of congratulations and ‘O most learned Lord Warren of Peacefordshire!’ jokes about him going to some fancy ‘private school’, and, of course, they’d agree to hang out over the summer and weekends. Sam and Grant would go to the Lantern to pester him (He’d still work there, just not as often), they’d get together in Warren’s back yard (the biggest of the three) or the park behind Bayshore to play rugby (Sam was best at it, so Grant enlisted Graham - studying to be a gym teacher - for help, and eventually they got enough local kids in to make an unofficial ‘team’), and for a week every summer they’d drive up to Grant’s folks’ cottage to just hang out. It’d be during one of these week-long getaways that Warren would reveal his powers to his friends. They were only upset that he’d waited so long to tell them, and thought it was SO COOL that their best friend was a SUPERHERO, and also, WOW, the fire thing really made your dog’s name make sense (’So THAT’S where ‘Matchstick’ came from! Can’t believe we never figured it out.’ ‘... Yeah, because ‘super powers’ is the obvious conclusion.’). It was also during one of these stays that Sam and Warren would share their first kiss. Grant was a little awkward about being a third wheel, but got over it before that trip was even over. He’d say to Warren, ‘Hey, Sam’s my brother. Don’t hurt him.’ And before Warren could respond turn and say to Sam, ‘Hey, Warren’s my brother. Don’t–’ ‘He’s a superhero, Grantwell, how the hell do I-’ ‘You know what I mean, Sammy!’ and then it’d dissolve into a wrestling match-turned-water fight when the super soakers get brought out. Sam and Warren would take a brief (amicable) break from dating during senior year, but would get together again after only a week or two when they figured they didn’t need to see who else was out there and experimenting wasn’t for them. They’d have a graduation party at Grant’s new place (now HE had the bigger downstairs, Sammy! / That’s dirty, Grantwell / Guys shut UP my mom is RIGHT THERE / Oh sh– Hi, Mrs. P!) and crash on the couch/floor/wherever they felt like. They’d do donuts in the now-vacant parking lot of Livewire when Baron and Penny buy Warren a car as his grad gift and do rock-paper-scissors to decide who got to pick the radio station, next. They’d see every High School Musical movie when it came out without knowing why they enjoyed them so much. Warren would go off to university, as would the others, but they’d stay in contact, and whenever he had time off, he’d be back at Maxville with them. They’d help each other study for tests and surprise the others by driving up to their respective dorms with food (’Pizza delivery!’ ‘This is the weirdest damn pizza I’ve ever seen.’ ‘Shut up, Warhead, I did my best.’ ‘It’s a salad.’ ‘… A pizza’s a kind of salad.’ ‘You’re such a moron. C’mon in.’ ‘Apologize to the pizza first.’). Sam and Grant would buy tickets to Warren’s graduation. (He returned the favour and attended both of theirs, too. They all have three graduation photos on their dressers, each with the three of them in a different school and an only slightly different pose.) When it became legal, Warren and Sam would get married. Nobody would be surprised. Penny would cry, Baron would make a speech that was, quite frankly, much less threatening than people would expect from a former supervillain, Grant would be best man and use all of the vocational skills he learned in middle school to make the best speech he could and pretend he wasn’t getting misty-eyed, just a little drunk. He’d fool nobody. Grant would marry a girl he met at college, Francisca ‘Fran’ Lowell-McGraw, and they’d have two daughters: Ginger (’Ginny’) and Clementine (’Clem’), both of whom would be absolutely spoiled by Uncles Warren and Sam. They’d be walking home from the gym one night when Grant suddenly remembers and lets them know that, hey, guess who’s Clem’s teacher this year? Ulysses! … The one we went to school with– Yes, I’m sure, how many guys named ‘Ulysses’ do you know? And then they’d get in contact with him. He’d apologize for being a jerk when they were kids, they’d tell him dude, that was like, thirty years ago, it’s cool, and they’d all go for drinks at Callahan’s, the bar that had opened in the same spot Livewire used to be. Dr. Warren Peace, practicing psychologist, would get a call to go deal with ‘some problems’ that Grant McGraw, local radio host, and Sam Peace, foreman of a construction crew, would have rehearsed excuses for (’Oh, man. Did the office server shut down AGAIN?’ ‘You really gotta get an IT guy on that, babe.’) before he ducked out to let the vigilante super Hellraiser make an appearance and keep Maxville safe. He’d live a pretty normal life for a super, and he’d be happy. 

But, as we all know, that didn’t happen. Baron didn’t get to retire. Warren’s life was far from normal. And Warren wasn’t happy. 

Baron was arrested just before Warren’s seventh birthday. Literally, the day before. It took a bit of time for it all to sink in. What do you mean, Dad’s not coming home? Dad always comes home! He’s probably just at work, or on another business trip, like the one he went on last year with Uncle Saul, or- Or maybe he’s getting a really BIG present and it’s just taking a while to get here! He’ll be back, Mama. Just you wait. 

And wait Warren did. 

Every day, by the door. He’d bring his snacks there, books, toys, anything to while the hours away. He just had to be there when Dad got home. Didn’t want to miss it. And that started cutting in to after-school hang-outs with his friends. Nah, he can’t go to Sam’s pool party, sorry, guys. It’s okay, though, ‘cause he’s not that good a swimmer, anyway. He doesn’t wanna go to Grant’s tree-house for ghost stories. He doesn’t wanna go play tag. He doesn’t even want to be in school, and it was getting hard to focus when he was there. He just wants his Dad back. So he waits. It was about two weeks before it started to sink in that Baron was Gone. Another week and a half before Warren fully realized it. He didn’t really understand why at the time. Sure, people tried to explain it to him, but it didn’t make sense. They kept telling him dad was a bad person, and that wasn’t true. They were lying. Dad had always been a good dad. A great dad, even. And he always came home. But not this time.

Losing a parent is hard. It’s even worse when you’re young. Warren was a mess of emotions as he struggled with his father’s arrest. Anger, confusion, fear, grief, maybe even some guilt. He didn’t know how to explain or communicate any of this, though. He was seven. And kids can be cruel. When Ulysses smelled blood in the water, he pounced. Boys aren’t supposed to cry, Warren. What are you, some kind of wimp? A sissy? A baby? Why don’t you go crying home to mommy and daddy, huh? … That was the first time Warren got into a fight. It was also the first time Ulysses Harper, age seven, had the fear of God put into him. Nobody had been around to see it. Ulysses had been class bully for two years, now, and had long since learned to make sure the grown-ups were away before picking his victims. So nobody could really explain how those burns got on his shoulders. Most people just assumed that Warren had to have shoved Ulysses into one of the heaters. Penny knew better, of course, and had plenty of time to talk to Warren about it, seeing as he got suspended for a few days. He protested this. It wasn’t his fault! He hadn’t started it, and he hadn’t meant to-! Penny did the best she could to hear him out, but have a serious talk about proper use of powers. Warren was only half-listening. There was too little notice to book a sitter for the days he was out of school, so he spent most of the time sulking behind his mom’s desk while she was at work. Not much to do there except read (which he normally liked, but wasn’t in the mood for), colour (which he couldn’t focus on), or think. He had a lot to think about. He thought about how unfair the punishment was. He thought about how much he was starting to hate school. He thought about how much he missed his dad. … He thought a lot about his dad. Everyone seemed convinced he was a bad person. Warren didn’t think he was bad. In fact, he’d been Warren’s hero. Warren had wanted to be just like him when he grew up. … Did that make him a bad person, too? Penny tried to assure him that it didn’t, but everybody else seemed to think so. He could tell. 

It was obvious, after all, especially at school, when he finally went back. Teachers were a bit more tight-lipped around him. Kids gave him a wider berth. Grant and Sam were unsure of how to handle it. They noticed the change in their friend, of course. They were children, and kids are often much smarter than we tend to give them credit for. But they were only in second grade. They didn’t know words like ‘trauma’ and ‘depression’. Nobody had thought they’d need to. They were only in second grade. They didn’t know why Warren was so upset. They tried to talk to him a few times. Even tried to invite him to play with them. But he didn’t do much talking in return, and even snapped at them, once. (Felt awful for it immediately after, but the damage was done). Parents were less inclined to invite him to their houses after news of the Ulysses incident spread. Though he never got up in Warren’s face again, Ulysses was in fact guilty of contributing to the whispers that circulated the lunch hall. It was these whispers - and the stares - that made Warren not want to eat with the other kids. He’d usually spend lunch hiding in the library or the washrooms. He never let anyone see him cry again. When people started getting louder in their jeers, he’d turn on them until they learned to keep their words hidden away behind his back. He still heard them. Everyone knew what they said about Warren Peace. That kid was trouble. Dangerous. Good-for-nothing. He’d end up in juvie someday, if he was lucky. What a shame. His poor mother. 

The thing about hearing that sort of thing often enough is, eventually, you start to believe it, yourself. So, Warren did. Penny tried to convince him otherwise. She told him she loved him, and not to listen to them, that she was proud of who he was and how strong he was being and that no matter what anybody said, he was a good person. That didn’t stop him from blaming himself when they lost the house. He’d given away their secret, after all. 

Moving around so much didn’t help things, any. The shelters and apartments he and Penny ended up into were usually in less-than-nice areas of town and brought with them a lot of noise and chaos. School became the only ‘peace’ he got. So, even if people tried so socialize with him (they didn’t), he wouldn’t want any part of it. He wanted to have some time to breathe, and read, and sleep during breaks. Even if people wanted to invite him over or hang out after school (they didn’t), he wouldn’t be able to have them at his place, and he didn’t really have the transportation to get around, any more. When he got involved with the school lunch programs, new whispers got thrown in. He was the Poor Kid, now. People started turning their noses up at him. One kid - Jack Osgood, who’d transferred to Bayshore in fifth grade - thought it would be hilarious to knock his lunch tray out of his hands. Warren, who had never said a word to Jack, had hardly even looked at him, but who had been looking forwards to that ham sandwich and Minute Maid (meat and juice are expensive), punched him in the jaw so hard Jack fell into Becky Lowell, and then the lunch room was chaos. Warren got another detention. He didn’t get another lunch. The teachers didn’t care who started it or why. They never did. Warren had learned pretty early that he had to deal with this stuff, himself. Trying to get help from the faculty only ever made things worse. So, he explained what happened to his mom, when she finally showed up, and only really felt bad for disappointing her. Well, and for making Becky spill her fruit punch. No, he hadn’t wanted to get into a fight with Jack. He didn’t want to hurt anyone. He just wanted to be left alone. ... And his sandwich. Of course, teachers didn’t see it, that way. Neither did the other kids. Safe to say, Warren had just ruined his chances of making any friends at Bayshore. At least people did leave him alone, after that. Jack had a bruise for more than a week that reminded people why that was a good idea. Warren didn’t care. They’d be graduating soon, anyways. (Nobody signed his year book. Not even Mr. Richards, the homeroom teacher. Warren threw it in the recycling on the way home.)

When he was twelve, Lacy got him a job at the Paper Lantern. Warren’s still not sure what possessed her to reach out to him. They weren’t exactly friends. She was a bubbly socialite, on the mathlete and cheer squads. He was the guy nobody wanted to be anywhere near, and he couldn’t afford extra-curriculars. In reality, Lacy felt bad for him. She didn’t think he was as bad as people said. She still remembered when he stuck his neck out for her way back in first grade. Sure, she didn’t get what he was going through, but she wanted to help, so she offered him a job. Warren was twelve, and had spent the last five years learning how to best live off food stamps and minimal cash. He’d seen how stressed mom was. ... He felt like a lot of that was his fault. So, of course he took her up on the offer. She made a case to her grandparents, and he was hired as a dishwasher. It wasn’t much, but it was something, and about all he could do at that age. He’d also realized that he’d probably never get into college without a scholarship. They’d never be able to afford it. Not in a million years. And he’d decided long ago what he wanted to do with his life. He wanted to be a psychologist, and he wanted to help people. You need a degree for that. So, when Warren wasn’t at school, he was working (Up to forty hours a week, by the time he’s a teenager). When he wasn’t working, he’d be studying. Sometimes, he’d even bring his books to the ‘Lantern, and be reading while he was up to his elbows in soap suds and dirty flatware. The people at the local library knew him well, but, that was about it as far as new relationships. A schedule like that doesn’t leave a lot of time for socializing. 

Warren graduated Bayshore without much fanfare. He moved on to Trinity Prep middle school. ‘Go, Titans’. By this point, Warren was growing his hair out. He was wearing his typical darker colour scheme. Black was easier to keep clean, and didn’t catch soot and smoke stains as easily. Black was also always in ready supply at the second-hand stores. And, as a bonus, it reinforced an image that kept people at bay. Sam went to Trinity, too, but he and Warren hadn’t really spoken in years. (Grant ended up going to Our Lady of Providence, a Catholic middle school. His family wasn’t religious, but, hey, it was closer and had a better computer sciences program, which is what his parents wanted him to go into, so.) In a way, Warren was glad for the new school. Not as many people knew him, here. Not as many people cared. Warren appreciated the isolation. The breathing room. Work was busy. He and his mom still hadn’t found an apartment that stuck (but they were getting close). He didn’t mean to keep setting off the fire alarms. He got better with his powers as the years went by. It was a struggle, though. Yes, Penny was an elemental, too, but she did water and wind (mainly water), not fire. He had to figure a lot of things out for himself. They’d always thought Baron would be the one to teach his son how to control his pyrokinesis, but, of course, he wasn’t around to do that, any more. And the older Warren got, the more he was starting to learn why that was. It was really-- Polarizing for him, if that’s the word I’m looking for. Now, I could write a doctoral thesis on Warren’s feelings about his dad, and how weird it is for him and how it probably would have been better, almost, if Baron had been a horrible father and made Warren hate him from the get-go, but this is about Warren’s school life and (lack of) friends, so I’ll just say it became even more of a touchy subject than before. 

One of the many things Trinity had that Bayshore didn’t was Career Day. 

Warren had been dreading it since it had first been announced. He knew Mom wouldn’t be able to take time off to come in. And, Dad? Warren hadn’t seen him in almost six years. It’d be a damn miracle if he turned up for it. Probably a federal crime, too. So he didn’t bother telling Mom about it. He didn’t want her feeling guilty about it - she had enough to worry about. He managed to slip away when everyone else was filing into class after the first break, and snuck off campus. For the next hour, he wandered idly around the neighbourhood. Nobody tried to stop him. He was always tall for his age and old for his youth, and that - combined with his perpetual scowl - made people pay him no mind. A typical delinquent. Of course he wasn’t in school. Best keep your distance. He returned to school about an hour later, and when the teacher (Josephine LaRose) asked where he was, he shrugged and told her he’d just not been feeling well. As always, the other kids started to talk. Some of them said he’d ditched to smoke, others to sell drugs. And his parents hadn’t shown up! Oh, the rumours that flew, then. In any other setting than a public school, they could’ve been called slander. Nobody ever said anything to his face, though. Gossip had spread from some of the Bayshore alumni, and as gossip tended to do, it had been embellished and enhanced until the other kids were terrified of Warren. They didn’t want to end up drinking their burgers through a straw like Jack Osgood, after all. (Jack, for the record, had never needed to liquefy his food. He was totally fine over at Westwood Middle School, and barely remembered ever meeting Warren Peace.) So Warren only heard whispers in passing. Usually, a glare and a ‘what was that?’ was enough to shut them up. He didn’t really care if they were talking about him. Let them talk. He was used to it. But nobody knew his father like he did (and, given that these kids weren’t in the super community, they didn’t know him at all) and heaven help anyone he caught speaking ill of his mother. She had enough to deal with without some snot-nosed punk speculating about how she earned a living. He didn’t regret scaring those kids, nor did he care about the lectures he got as a result. Leave him alone, leave her alone, and he’d leave them alone. He thought it was fair. Honestly, if it wasn’t for his 4.0 average (which all of the teachers were sure had to be a mistake) making the school’s test scores look good, they probably would have expelled him. It wasn’t even that he got into that many fights - he didn’t, not really. You could count the number of actual physical altercations he got into on one hand and have fingers left over. He was never disruptive in class. Never talked back to the teachers (or really talked at all, if he didn’t have to). Always turned in his homework completed and on time. But- He was a bad kid. Just look at him. He’s Trouble, capital T, and the sooner he got out of that school, the better for everyone else. 

And he did get out. 

He graduated Trinity Prep and skipped the convocation. Went to work, instead. Rent Day was coming up. After a lot of moving around, eventually, a letter would arrive telling him he got into an exclusive high school, but- We’ve all seen how that worked out for him, so, for now, I’ll end this here.

#personifiedchaosx #;school gossip (ａｓｋｓ) #;extinguished (ｏｕｔ ｏｆ ｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒ) #;student record (ｈｅａｄｃａｎｏｎｓ) #thank you!!!! ;w; #bullying tw // #violence tw // #ask to tag

[omfgtrump]

All Is Well in the Lands of I

Actually, in the world of I, things are anything but well; but then again, we have been living in an alternative reality for three years. (Thank you Kellyanne Conway for your service!)

Impeachment

The Don has been impeached on two counts:  shaking down a foreign government for his own political gain, and obstructing congress’s attempt to investigate this action.

Iran

Though it technically does not merit an impeachable offense under the constitution, here are two more actions that indicate he should be removed from office:

Number One: Assassinating a foreign leader with ersatz intel.

Number two (has two parts):

After taking out Suleimani, The Don thought it appropriate to tweet a picture of the American flag. That’s the equivalent of a 5 year old shoving an ice cream cone in another kid’s face and strutting away with a shit eating grin on his face.

After Iran bombed two U.S. military bases in Iraq, The Don thought it appropriate to tweet:

All is well! Missiles launched from Iran at two military bases located in Iraq. Assessment of casualties & damages taking place now. So far, so good! We have the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world, by far! I will be making a statement tomorrow morning.

The dangerous child running our country thought it made sense to tell America that all was well, even though Americans felt we were on the brink of war.

  This is classic Don. Don’t worry about a thing because The Great Ditherer of Oz has everything under control. I am the deal maker who will bring home the bacon. Oops, forgot to mention that I went bankrupt 7 times.

Here’s how well we are:

Iran has cast off nuclear curbs so that it is now potentially within five months of having enough fuel for a nuclear warhead, down from almost 15 years when Trump took office.

United States forces may be pushed out of Iraq, allowing Suleimani to achieve in death one of his foremost goals in life.

American forces in Syria may be difficult to support without the military presence in Iraq, so some or all of them might pull out as well, another strategic victory for Iran.

The military campaign against ISIS is on hold, giving terrorists a chance to regroup.

Iran’s regime, which had been threatened by enormous protests at home and in Iraq, has been rescued by Trump’s actions. Iranians have rallied around the flag, and the Iraqi narrative has changed overnight from the bullying of Iranians to the bullying of Americans.

Instead of bringing troops home, Trump has had to deploy more to the Middle East at huge cost.

Iran shot down a plane with 173 passengers (many of them Iranians) because someone thought it was a U.S. response to the Iranians missile attack on the U.S. compound in Iraq.

  A recent poll shows that by a 2-1 margin Americans feel that the action in Iran has made us less safe.

To watch the spineless Republicans twist in the wind and perform feats of contortionist wonderment to defend this dangerous immoral man defies credulity.

The Republicans know there is no intel to justify the attack. Mike Lee and Rand Paul went on record for all to see. The other Republicans were in the same room.

This is what Lee had to say:

“It was probably the worst briefing I’ve seen at least on a military issue in the nine years I’ve served in the United States Senate. He went on: “I find it insulting and demeaning…They had to leave after 75 minutes while they’re in the process of telling us that we need to be good little boys and girls and run along and not debate this in public,” Lee said. “I find that absolutely insane. I think it’s unacceptable.”

In an homage to the famous Chinese story Roshomon, where there are 7 accounts of the same event, the administration shifted its story. The issue at hand was whether there was any evidence that clearly showed that Suleimani was preparing to take actions against the U.S. that represented an imminent threat. Here’s my take on a conversation to come up with a story.

Aide 1- I think we should focus on the I in imminent

Aide 2- No that’s not very convincing. How about we go with the Im.

Aide 1-That could work but In might be better as it is in the middle of the word imminent and might be camouflage better.

Aide 2- I see a clear problem with that version, so what about we go with Ent.

Aide 1-That’s really clever. But I think I have even a better one. How about Eminem?

Aide 2-That’s nuts. He’s a rap star.

Aide-1  Yeah, we can see he did it. He hates Trump and our supporters know it.

Aide 2-Well, we could go with that but what about M&Ms?

Aide 1-Now that’s cool. Regular or Peanuts?

Aide 2- I’d go with peanuts because you have to be pretty nutty to do what the president did.

Aide 1-Say that again.

Aide 2- So we’re going with the Peanut M&Ms?

Aide 1-Absolutely! Let’s write it up and present it to Pompeo so they can have it ready for the briefing.

(Fox News in background. Two Aides look up and see The Don being interviewed by Laura Ingraham.)

The Don: “Laura, four American embassies were going to be attacked.”

Aide 1-Fuck, there goes the M&M theory.

Aide 2-We could just go with the “nut” part.

Aide1-That sounds good bu wait the president just tweeted that killing Suleimani “doesn’t really matter because of his horrible past.”

Aide 2-Now that’s what they call a drop the mike moment.

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#IFTTT #WordPress #trump #politics #potus #capital hill #washington dc #white house #america #usa

[garden-ghoul]

two blogs, part 9

“I haven’t actually checked so I don’t know if it’s part 9 or not. but I swear fellowship was shorter.”

THE FORBIDDEN POOL

Frodo woke to find Faramir bending over him. For a second old fears seized him and he sat up and shrank away.

`There is nothing to fear,' said Faramir.

'Is it morning already? ' said Frodo yawning.

In my head this looks like a really badly acted thing where every time the camera cuts back to Frodo he has an expression totally unrelated to the one he had last time you saw him. Like [shot of Frodo, terrified] “no it’s okay” [shot of Frodo nonchalantly yawning, sitting up again for some reason even though he sat up in the last shot] What I’m saying is that this weird disjointed narration is great. Urgh I did a whole paragraph and we’re four sentences in.

Yeah anyway Faramir just wants to show Frodo how pretty the moon is. And ask him something. Frodo’s dating sim experience is BACK with a vengeance. There’s a bunch of weirdly romantic shots of Frodo and Faramir standing silently next to each other in the moonlight above the secret waterfall, which I want you to imagine rendered in the style of Revolutionary Girl Utena. After that Faramir points down at Gollum and is like “look Frodo who is that guy?”

“Well,” says Frodo, “he’s fishing.”

Nevertheless if he ever tells anyone where the secret base is dudes could die, so Frodo, to stop Gollum from getting shot, goes down to talk to him. Smeagol is singing a cute song about how eating lots of fish will make him strong enough to throttle everyone.

Only one true shot, and Frodo would be rid of the miserable voice for ever. But no, Gollum had a claim on him now. The servant has a claim on the master for service, even service in fear.

Sorry but “the servant has claim on the master” is Really Good and I got gay. This is probably an unethical thing to be gay about, but, like, whatever. Anyway Smeagol doesn’t want to come with, he wants to finish eating his fish even after Frodo tells him he is about to get murdered. Frodo has to threaten him to get him to come ::( And he also understands that Gollum will think he’s being betrayed, and there’s no way around it. But things seem to get mostly sorted out. Gollum has safe passage in Gondor as long as he’s with Frodo. Faramir’s heart breaks for Frodo, though. He wishes, as we all do, that he could spare Frodo this awful errand and his awful travelling companion.

‘Would you have me come to Gondor with this Thing,’ said Frodo, ‘the Thing that drove your brother mad with desire? What spell would it work in Minas Tirith? Shall there be two cities of Minas Morgul, grinning at each other across a dead land filled with rottenness?’

YO. And Faramir’s parting words... “If ever beyond hope you return to the lands of the living and we retell our tales, sitting by a wall in the sun, laughing at old grief, you shall tell me then.” Wargh. He’s so gentle and gay. But now it’s time for Frodo to make the

JOURNEY TO THE CROSSROADS

Faramir gives our hobbits some food and also... enchanted walking sticks?? Cool as hell. “A virtue has been set upon them,” he says, which I assume means they’re enchanted. I didn’t know Gondor still knew magic.

So they go on their way for a couple days and have a rest due west of Minas Morgul. My favorite thing about this passage is that Gollum can smell what time of day it is. We rest in a holly forest for a while, which is just an image I love. But it must be very uncomfortable, because even fallen holly leaves are very sharp. ALSO we see the very last hopeful thing on this journey: a headless (defiled) statue of some Gondorian king... but with flowers growing on the severed head like a crown.

'They cannot conquer for ever!' said Frodo. And then suddenly the brief glimpse was gone. The Sun dipped and vanished, and as if at the shuttering of a lamp, black night fell.

Since that was a short one, I still have time tonight to take you up

THE STAIRS OF CIRITH UNGOL

All was dark about it, earth and sky, but it was lit with light. Not the imprisoned moonlight welling through the marble walls of Minas Ithil long ago, Tower of the Moon, fair and radiant in the hollow of the hills. Paler indeed than the moon ailing in some slow eclipse was the light of it now, wavering and blowing like a noisome exhalation of decay, a corpse-light, a light that illuminated nothing. In the walls and tower windows showed, like countless black holes looking inward into emptiness...

Windows like a thousand eyes turned inward! Doors that hinge on time itself! The fourth tower of Inverness!!! Honestly please reply if you’ve listened to that, it was probably extremely formative for me. I love ZBS it’s so fucking weird. Anyway there’s some more description of how gross Minas Morgul is, and Frodo gets enchanted by the Fourth Tower and has to be pulled away. Then they start up the stairway. Okay so... who made this? No way someone carved a stairway into the mountain to visit Shelob. So what was up there before she was?

Frodo is so tired, so very tired. This is largely the Ring’s doing. It’s trying to stall him out in the open so he’ll be seen by the Nazgul. Indeed, the witch-king rides out of Minas Morgul with an army in response to a hilariously over-the-top five-hundred-foot-high signal, possibly meant for intimidation. I feel like I remember Pippin and Gandalf seeing this from the upper storeys of Minas Tirith and being like “aw fuck.”

'The storm has burst at last,' Frodo thought. `This great array of spears and swords is going to Osgiliath. Will Faramir get across in time? And who can now hold the fords when the King of the Nine Riders comes? And other armies will come. I am too late. All is lost. I tarried on the way. All is lost. Even if my errand is performed, no one will ever know. There will be no one I can tell. It will be in vain.' Overcome with weakness he wept. And still the host of Morgul crossed the bridge.

Sammmmee. Faramir is Going To Die at Osgiliath. AND STILL THE HOST OF MORGUL CROSSED THE BRIDGE. Ugh this imagery is SUPER GOOD. Frodo is strengthened a little once the army passes; he shoves Galadriel’s star-vial under his shirt. C-cute. Now we climb the stairs. Yes, and now more stairs. The path to Minas Morgul, the “wraith-road” glows like a glow-worm. Yesss. The hobbits have what they are secretly thinking of as their Last Meal, just a little before the tunnel. Sam wonders if they’ll be able to find water; orcs drink, don’t they? Frodo replies that what they drink is “not for us.” Implying that the water in Mordor is unsafe and it’s only safe to drink alcohol! And then Sam delivers some superb story-telling meta:

‘The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo, I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting. But that's not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually - their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn't. And if they had, we shouldn't know, because they'd have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on - and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end.’

Hell. Makes me want to write epic quests. Doesn’t that make you want to write epic quests? Sam also notes that the tale of Beren and Luthien continues with them now, as they still have the light with them of the Silmaril she stole. Same story, same light, different darkness. Ain’t that just the way. Also still fuck dark = bad, light = good, that’s bad meta. Sam and Frodo keep talking about the stories people will tell about them. A little protected space in Cirith Ungol. This is the part of the story kids won’t want to hear, says Frodo.

Frodo goes to sleep with his head in Sam’s lap. Smeagol comes back from whatever errand he’s been on and sees them together, and remembers long ago when he had people who would touch him like that. He reaches out to softly touch Frodo’s knee... and Sam wakes up and starts shouting at him. I am so fucking sad, you guys. Sam and Smeagol are the WORST for each other, Frodo needs both of them but together they just.. destroy everything... let Smeagol get hugs... [weeping] please let him hug

#Tune in tomorrow for the last two chapters! #blog of the rings #this made me look up a quote from moon over morocco that has haunted me my entire life #and guess what my misremembered version was way more interesting and poignant than the original #although the acting was really what sold it

[njawaidofficial]

'Ten Days in the Valley' Series Premiere Breakdown

http://styleveryday.com/2017/10/02/ten-days-in-the-valley-series-premiere-breakdown/

'Ten Days in the Valley' Series Premiere Breakdown

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from Sunday’s series premiere of Ten Days in the Valley, “Day 1: Fade in.”]

The jury is still out on whether Jane Sadler (Kyra Sedgwick) is a “good” mother, but at least viewers can now rest assured that her daughter is alive and well — wherever she is — thanks to the final shot of the episode.

The pilot of the ABC drama Ten Days in the Valley set up a season-long arc in which Jane, a TV showrunner, has her world turned upside down when her daughter is kidnapped in the middle of the night, kicking off a mystery involving a complex world of secretive characters. As the first episode made clear, everyone from the assistant (Emily Kinney) to the ex-husband (Kick Gurry) are potential suspects as the clock ticks down in the hunt to find Lake (Abigail Pniowsky), and law officials — led by John Bird (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and Jane’s sister Ali (Erika Christensen) try to piece together what happened that night.

Over the course of the 10-episode first season the mystery of who took the child and why remains front-and-center as Jane also attempts to manage running a successful cop drama and hide a fairly large secret of her own, all while dealing with people questioning her abilities as a mother because she was out writing in her shed at the time of her daughter’s disappearance.

The premise of season one stemmed from creator and showrunner Tassie Cameron following a recurring nightmare she had about her own eight-year-old daughter being kidnapped in the middle of the night while she was working.

THR caught up with Cameron, who most recently served as showrunner on Canadian cop drama Rookie Blue to break down the inherent mom guilt that comes from juggling a career and family, the dangers of writing a show that might be too meta for some audiences, and how the series could potentially evolve into a second season down the line. 

This show was originally shopped as a cable series, why did it land on ABC?

I didn’t have a real agenda; I had imagined that it would probably fit more comfortably into cable but then when ABC had such a passion for it and they seemed to get it so much that they were willing to green-light it to series without making a pilot, it was very convincing. I have a really positive relationship with ABC and the fact that they sort of specialize in strong, complicated female heroes felt like a good fit.

Demi Moore was originally attached but then Kyra Sedgwick replaced her when it landed at ABC. How did Jane’s character change as a result?

When I first write something, I never think of an actor in that part, I just think of the character. I would have been thrilled to work with Demi, too. They do have a different kind of energy. But when I sat down with Kyra, I realized I could use a lot of the stuff she was bringing in terms of ideas and the backstory… I always tailor-make the part a little bit for the actor that I’m working with. In this case, I would say primarily in Jane’s backstory, we kind of made it together.

What else did Kyra bring to the show as a producer?

She was invaluable in a bunch of different ways. She had great ideas about where the script should go and she was very enthusiastic about pushing some more of the unusual elements of the script, like the show within the show. Then in terms of the backstory of the character, we decided that Jane was going to come from this investigative journalist background in San Francisco. Kyra was also incredible with casting. She would go to many of the sessions with our shortlists and she had very, very strong instincts on cast.

Was it important to you to hire an equal mix of male and female directors?

Yes, very. It was really, really important to me — we have four female directors out of 10. I would have done 10 out of 10 if we could have booked them, although that’s kind of a silly thing to say because having quotas isn’t really the way to do it. But it was very important to me to try and have as many female directors as possible. Also diverse directors; we had three or four diverse directors too.

How did you land on 10 as the episode number?

Because that’s the number of episodes I like to watch. I like shows with six, seven, eight, nine, 10 episodes, those limited runs where you get into it and you’re not trying to commit for 22 or 15 or even 13. I like a mystery to be contained.

Speaking of a contained mystery, what’s the pacing involved here? How does this mystery unfold?

There’s a little bit of suspects dropping off as we realize that their secret either does or doesn’t connect to the main mystery, but the main players stay in play throughout the season. There are a number of reversals throughout.

You’ve said the mystery will be resolved by season’s end, so how does that open the door for a second season?

Once you see where the season goes, you’ll see how many different elements we’ve uncovered and revealed and explored and touched on that could lead very organically to a second season. The primal mystery of the season will be solved and be solved in ways that at times that are going to surprise people, I hope. But there’s a lot of hanging chapters at the end of it in terms of the people that Jane has met and the enemies that she’s made and the corruption she’s revealed and that kind of thing.

At that point, does the show turn away from its origins of working mom guilt and a missing child?

I think so, although that guilt is really, really who Jane is. Part of her whole identity is built around that sense of being conflicted and torn. It won’t ever go away; the conflict between Jane’s professional life and her personal life will always be at the heart of the series.

Is she a good mother?

That’s a funny question. They asked that at the TCA panel and all my fierce colleagues were like, “Who asked that? Would anybody ask a father or a male character if he’s a good father?” Is Jane a good mother? Yes, I think she is, but I don’t want to tell people that. She is a passionate, adoring mother and you’ll see the lengths to which she’ll go to in order to protect her daughter. But this is a show about that; that being a mother whether you’re a good one or a bad one doesn’t change who you are. You’re still yourself for good or for bad. Therein lays the drama and the mystery.

Hollywood series with meta elements like this don’t always perform well, so what kinds of notes did you get on that setup?

Everybody was quite nervous about that part of it, as was I. I kept thinking, “This is dumb, I shouldn’t do this. I know these things don’t work very well sometimes.” But honestly, I was writing it for myself so I didn’t worry. I made a list, this little manifesto that I pinned up to my pin board and I said, “Break all your rules, including writing about journalists, writing about the industry itself and being scared that people are going to confuse you with your main character. Don’t be afraid to make your main character female and really flawed.” I set out to break all these rules that I’ve made for myself just to see what I was made of as a writer.

How does the valley factor in as a character?

I wanted to explore L.A. as the setting for a number of reasons. First of all, as a Canadian foreigner I find L.A. so weird and beautiful and surreal and spooky sometimes. To use a foreigner’s eye on that city in a story set in the world of entertainment I thought would be really interesting for me as a writer and creator. It was going to be a shorthand to who Jane is and what she’s doing in a way that you wouldn’t want to have to explain if she were from Toronto. It’s not the same shorthand. Second of all, the title came to me pretty early on. I always imagined her living on the valley side of Laurel Cannon and its whole Joni Mitchell, ’70s mystique. And then lastly, it just kept reminding me of that psalm, “Though I walk through the valley through the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” It was kind of a mix of things.

How similar is your writing shed to Jane’s?

It is not dissimilar to the one on the show. I light a candle — that exact brand of candle, Tevo red currant — before I write. It’s very, very specific. I don’t have a cool Bob Dylan poster in my shed. Hers is a more cluttered environment. I don’t like having a lot of art around, I like it to be pretty sparse. But it’s not dissimilar.

Given the other real-life inspirations behind the show, are you concerned about any blowback from Jane’s drug habit?

I haven’t heard any reactions about it; we’ll see how people feel about it. I was nervous to have her do that, but she needed a secret that she didn’t want to reveal to her ex and to her sister and to the police. She needed a profound, real secret and that seemed like a believable one to me. I don’t [use drugs] but we all have our bad habits. There are some very pure writers who write in the morning with their cup of green tea and then there are other writers who write very late at night and they mix it with junk food or online shopping. Everybody has their thing and but yeah, it happens. For sure it does.

Do you have any words or reassurances for mothers watching this who will have a hard time seeing another child in peril situation?

It’s hard for me to watch too, and it’s hard for me to write which is why you see the child’s face in the first episode. We follow the daughter throughout the season as well. I would turn it off if I felt like there was a chance that this kid was going to be found in a dumpster, dead somewhere. I would not watch this show. I can assure you that is not my intention. My intention is to show that the child is alive and kind of well enough throughout the season. It’s much more a whodunit, why-dun-it than a horror show about grief and loss.

Ten Days in the Valley airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on ABC.

Thoughts? Sound off in the comments below.

Twitter: @amber_dowling

#Breakdown #Days #Premiere #Series #Ten #Valley

#Breakdown #Days #Premiere #Series #Ten #Valley

[rebeccahpedersen]

Happy Birthday TRB: Toronto Realty Blog Is 10-Years-Old!

TorontoRealtyBlog

I guess many of you can relate to the thought, “Oh My God, I can’t believe it’s been ten years,” when it comes to your kids who seem to “grow up so fast.”

Well, for the longest time, Toronto Realty Blog was my baby.

And for the life of me, I can’t believe the blog is officially ten years old.

It seems like a lifetime ago that I decided to shake up the real estate industry and start posting (gasp!) opinions on real estate, rather than following the army of robotic salespeople who refused to do anything different.  I was a rough go at first, but after ten years, I think we’re here to stay…

Go ahead and tell me if you’re one of the very few long-time-readers, who can remember reading TRB in 2007, 2008, or 2009.

My very first post was July 1st, 2007, although to be completely honest, I put up the blog on July 14th, and back-dated a bunch of posts to make the site seem like it had already been up a while.

It was somewhat pointless, since nobody was reading anyways.

My, times have changed.

In 2017, my average blog post is 1,927 words.

Back in 2007, I was told that blog posts “should” be about 200-400 words.

And when friends of mine read my first handful of blogs, I remember them saying, “It’s cool and all, but it’s just too damn long.”

I suppose I don’t take constructive criticism easily, since I decided to set out to make them longer, not shorter.

A young agent in my office told me, no word of a lie, that when she started at Bosley last year, she started reading my blog, from the beginning.

That’s well over 2,000 blog posts, and for the love of God, I don’t know where she found the time.

It took her six months, but she literally read every single post I have ever written.

She made four observations, having read an average of over 300 posts per month:

1) Your posts have become MUCH longer. 2) You are far more cynical today. 3) You go on a lot less rants now. 4) You have an insane use of ellipses…

#3 is a bit odd to me, since my entire life is a complete rant, but I digress…

So not having read anything that I wrote ten years ago, in quite some time, I decided to go back and read the very first blog post from July 1st, 2007, and I’ll share it with you guys now:

  Condo BUST?  I Don’t Think So! July 1st, 2007

If ever there were an indication that the condo market isn’t “about to implode” as many media sources and your roommate with absolutely no knowledge of real estate whatsoever, have speculated, it was last week with the launch of 83 Redpath.

The Benvenuto Group’s new 21-storey condominium project east of Yonge/Eglinton sold out in only two days, with about 200 units turning over. Buyers were literally lined up outside, and several buyers even slept over the night before, I kid you not. This is how badly some people wanted to live in 83 Redpath starting in 2010, or, how good an investment some buyers think this condominium project will be.

A few weeks ago, Menkes Developments launched The Four Seasons Private Residences in Yorkville which even at $600 per square foot sold over 70 units the first weekend. Even more impressive, is that over 10 of those units were purchased by Registered Real Estate Salespersons. When the people who know the most about the real estate industry are investing in its future, that is an excellent sign that the condo market is healthy.

People often ask me “don’t you think there are too many condos in Toronto?” The answer to that question is “yes and no.” There are too many crummy condos in Toronto, and not enough good ones.

For example, next time you drive along the Gardiner Expressway near Skydome, and you see all those horrible condos they’ve built—those are the crummy ones. The buildings are all 50-storey monsters with no character, oddly layed-out units, and the worst part is that the view is of….another condo! There is no surrounding infrastructure, unless you count Subway and the drycleaners…just in case you get meatball sub on your new suitcoat.

I just purchased a unit at 230 King Street in a modest 16-storey building. The unit contains a 450 square foot outdoor patio. There are only six of these units in my building. Likewise, I sold my brother and his fiancée a unit at 168 King with a 330 square foot patio. There are only four of those units in his building.

I think buying a generic, cookie-cutter unit on the 38th floor of 12 Yonge Street is a bad investment, and yes, I think there are too many of those condos and perhaps they won’t keep their value. But there aren’t nearly enough good condos in happening areas with character, functionality, and that certain extra quality like a sweet patio.

Take my optimism with a grain of salt perhaps, as I sell real estate for a living. But keep in mind that I have purchased two condos so far this year, and there are still six months left…

    I know what you’re thinking – that’s it?

How entirely unsatisfied would you be if your morning TRB read was only 449 words, like that piece of crap above.

But that’s how things were ten years ago!

And I’m reading this now laughing at the idea that $600/sqft was a lot for a condo at Four Seasons, since the average price per square foot is now around $1,500, give or take.

But a lot changes in ten years, as each of us can attest to, personally and professionally.

And the best part about that blog?  A “plant” comment from one of my friends, who helped me start the site:

I don’t know that it was meant to be serious, but knowing my friend’s sense of humour, I still laugh when reading it.

I posted a long history of TRB when I hit my 1500th blog post over two years ago, so if you’re interested in the blog’s humble beginnings, have a look at that link, and I’ll save the rest of you from reading the story a second time…

And yes, I suppose I do use a lot of ellipses.  But my writing style has always been conversational in nature, as I feel like I’m speaking to an audience.  And so often in life, we get bored of listening to each other, change topics, or don’t finish thoughts, which results in a natural trailing off…

In any event, (a phrase I’m told I also over-use), I figured I’d have some fun with the TRB 10th anniversary, so here’s what I’m proposing:

Starting this Monday, every weekday for ten straight days, I’ll post a question relating to the blog’s history on Facebook and Instagram.

The first person who can successfully answer the question gets a $100 Home Depot Gift Card.

Every weekday, for ten days, starting on Monday, July 17th.

I’ll post the #TRB10 trivia question between 12pm and 1pm when hopefully many of you are sipping Booster Juice’s on a picnic bench, and may the best man or woman win.

In the meantime, I welcome suggestions for new features as we move into Decade #2 here at TRB.

I’d love to revive my “What If The Whole World Worked The Same Way As The Toronto Real Estate Industry,” since that was about the most fun I’ve had in my 13 years in the business.  But oh, the time it takes!  And this 8-month-old child is already killing my golf game, just imagine trying to revive that series???

Some people have asked me to include more active listings on my blog, and while I do feature the house/condo/loft of the week, which are hand-picked from the rubble of what MLS has to offer, others have suggested I install a “widget” for the whole monty – all the listings out there.  But I wonder, isn’t that what MLS is for?  Or if that’s too slow for your liking, then Zolo, Zoocasa, or whatever other better mouse-traps have popped up?

And here I thought the attraction to TRB was my honest, overly-cynical, mildly-right-wing thoughts and opinions on real estate and just about anything else that pops into my insane mind…

Folks, I’m open to suggestion.

But I promise to continue bestowing upon you a 2,000 word essay Mon/Wed/Fri, and 25-minute video every Thursday, until the day I die and/or make it to the Senior PGA Tour.

And what I’d love more than anything, if you guys could please do me one favour, is for the regular readers to post below: what year did you start reading TRB?

I know most of the regular commenters will partake, but what about the rest of you?

Sidebar here for a moment – I ran into somebody at the gym last week who said, “You’re David, right?  I read your blog!”  I asked him what I ask everybody who tells me they read my blog: “Do you comment?”

His eyes widened with a slight tinker of fear and he waved both hands across his chest and said, “Oh no, no, no.  I can’t get into that mix.”

So to all you “regulars” on here – you scare the crap out of people.

But to the whole lot of you, thank you for your readership, comments and interractions with each-other, and continued support on TRB.

I’m looking forward to the #TRB10 trivia next week.

Have a fantastic weekend!

  The post Happy Birthday TRB: Toronto Realty Blog Is 10-Years-Old! appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.

Originated from http://ift.tt/2uZcdda

[rebeccahpedersen]

Happy Birthday TRB: Toronto Realty Blog Is 10-Years-Old!

TorontoRealtyBlog

I guess many of you can relate to the thought, “Oh My God, I can’t believe it’s been ten years,” when it comes to your kids who seem to “grow up so fast.”

Well, for the longest time, Toronto Realty Blog was my baby.

And for the life of me, I can’t believe the blog is officially ten years old.

It seems like a lifetime ago that I decided to shake up the real estate industry and start posting (gasp!) opinions on real estate, rather than following the army of robotic salespeople who refused to do anything different.  I was a rough go at first, but after ten years, I think we’re here to stay…

Go ahead and tell me if you’re one of the very few long-time-readers, who can remember reading TRB in 2007, 2008, or 2009.

My very first post was July 1st, 2007, although to be completely honest, I put up the blog on July 14th, and back-dated a bunch of posts to make the site seem like it had already been up a while.

It was somewhat pointless, since nobody was reading anyways.

My, times have changed.

In 2017, my average blog post is 1,927 words.

Back in 2007, I was told that blog posts “should” be about 200-400 words.

And when friends of mine read my first handful of blogs, I remember them saying, “It’s cool and all, but it’s just too damn long.”

I suppose I don’t take constructive criticism easily, since I decided to set out to make them longer, not shorter.

A young agent in my office told me, no word of a lie, that when she started at Bosley last year, she started reading my blog, from the beginning.

That’s well over 2,000 blog posts, and for the love of God, I don’t know where she found the time.

It took her six months, but she literally read every single post I have ever written.

She made four observations, having read an average of over 300 posts per month:

1) Your posts have become MUCH longer. 2) You are far more cynical today. 3) You go on a lot less rants now. 4) You have an insane use of ellipses…

#3 is a bit odd to me, since my entire life is a complete rant, but I digress…

So not having read anything that I wrote ten years ago, in quite some time, I decided to go back and read the very first blog post from July 1st, 2007, and I’ll share it with you guys now:

  Condo BUST?  I Don’t Think So! July 1st, 2007

If ever there were an indication that the condo market isn’t “about to implode” as many media sources and your roommate with absolutely no knowledge of real estate whatsoever, have speculated, it was last week with the launch of 83 Redpath.

The Benvenuto Group’s new 21-storey condominium project east of Yonge/Eglinton sold out in only two days, with about 200 units turning over. Buyers were literally lined up outside, and several buyers even slept over the night before, I kid you not. This is how badly some people wanted to live in 83 Redpath starting in 2010, or, how good an investment some buyers think this condominium project will be.

A few weeks ago, Menkes Developments launched The Four Seasons Private Residences in Yorkville which even at $600 per square foot sold over 70 units the first weekend. Even more impressive, is that over 10 of those units were purchased by Registered Real Estate Salespersons. When the people who know the most about the real estate industry are investing in its future, that is an excellent sign that the condo market is healthy.

People often ask me “don’t you think there are too many condos in Toronto?” The answer to that question is “yes and no.” There are too many crummy condos in Toronto, and not enough good ones.

For example, next time you drive along the Gardiner Expressway near Skydome, and you see all those horrible condos they’ve built—those are the crummy ones. The buildings are all 50-storey monsters with no character, oddly layed-out units, and the worst part is that the view is of….another condo! There is no surrounding infrastructure, unless you count Subway and the drycleaners…just in case you get meatball sub on your new suitcoat.

I just purchased a unit at 230 King Street in a modest 16-storey building. The unit contains a 450 square foot outdoor patio. There are only six of these units in my building. Likewise, I sold my brother and his fiancée a unit at 168 King with a 330 square foot patio. There are only four of those units in his building.

I think buying a generic, cookie-cutter unit on the 38th floor of 12 Yonge Street is a bad investment, and yes, I think there are too many of those condos and perhaps they won’t keep their value. But there aren’t nearly enough good condos in happening areas with character, functionality, and that certain extra quality like a sweet patio.

Take my optimism with a grain of salt perhaps, as I sell real estate for a living. But keep in mind that I have purchased two condos so far this year, and there are still six months left…

    I know what you’re thinking – that’s it?

How entirely unsatisfied would you be if your morning TRB read was only 449 words, like that piece of crap above.

But that’s how things were ten years ago!

And I’m reading this now laughing at the idea that $600/sqft was a lot for a condo at Four Seasons, since the average price per square foot is now around $1,500, give or take.

But a lot changes in ten years, as each of us can attest to, personally and professionally.

And the best part about that blog?  A “plant” comment from one of my friends, who helped me start the site:

I don’t know that it was meant to be serious, but knowing my friend’s sense of humour, I still laugh when reading it.

I posted a long history of TRB when I hit my 1500th blog post over two years ago, so if you’re interested in the blog’s humble beginnings, have a look at that link, and I’ll save the rest of you from reading the story a second time…

And yes, I suppose I do use a lot of ellipses.  But my writing style has always been conversational in nature, as I feel like I’m speaking to an audience.  And so often in life, we get bored of listening to each other, change topics, or don’t finish thoughts, which results in a natural trailing off…

In any event, (a phrase I’m told I also over-use), I figured I’d have some fun with the TRB 10th anniversary, so here’s what I’m proposing:

Starting this Monday, every weekday for ten straight days, I’ll post a question relating to the blog’s history on Facebook and Instagram.

The first person who can successfully answer the question gets a $100 Home Depot Gift Card.

Every weekday, for ten days, starting on Monday, July 17th.

I’ll post the #TRB10 trivia question between 12pm and 1pm when hopefully many of you are sipping Booster Juice’s on a picnic bench, and may the best man or woman win.

In the meantime, I welcome suggestions for new features as we move into Decade #2 here at TRB.

I’d love to revive my “What If The Whole World Worked The Same Way As The Toronto Real Estate Industry,” since that was about the most fun I’ve had in my 13 years in the business.  But oh, the time it takes!  And this 8-month-old child is already killing my golf game, just imagine trying to revive that series???

Some people have asked me to include more active listings on my blog, and while I do feature the house/condo/loft of the week, which are hand-picked from the rubble of what MLS has to offer, others have suggested I install a “widget” for the whole monty – all the listings out there.  But I wonder, isn’t that what MLS is for?  Or if that’s too slow for your liking, then Zolo, Zoocasa, or whatever other better mouse-traps have popped up?

And here I thought the attraction to TRB was my honest, overly-cynical, mildly-right-wing thoughts and opinions on real estate and just about anything else that pops into my insane mind…

Folks, I’m open to suggestion.

But I promise to continue bestowing upon you a 2,000 word essay Mon/Wed/Fri, and 25-minute video every Thursday, until the day I die and/or make it to the Senior PGA Tour.

And what I’d love more than anything, if you guys could please do me one favour, is for the regular readers to post below: what year did you start reading TRB?

I know most of the regular commenters will partake, but what about the rest of you?

Sidebar here for a moment – I ran into somebody at the gym last week who said, “You’re David, right?  I read your blog!”  I asked him what I ask everybody who tells me they read my blog: “Do you comment?”

His eyes widened with a slight tinker of fear and he waved both hands across his chest and said, “Oh no, no, no.  I can’t get into that mix.”

So to all you “regulars” on here – you scare the crap out of people.

But to the whole lot of you, thank you for your readership, comments and interractions with each-other, and continued support on TRB.

I’m looking forward to the #TRB10 trivia next week.

Have a fantastic weekend!

  The post Happy Birthday TRB: Toronto Realty Blog Is 10-Years-Old! appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.

Originated from http://ift.tt/2uZcdda