#and apparently ??? he got a special edition recently ???

[camelspit]

OH MY GOD ?!?!

#so. for those of you who dont know. #my first ever real fandom was warrior cats #and i used to have. a strange obsession with river ripple/star #he was like my first blorbo ever #and apparently ??? he got a special edition recently ??? #oh my godddddddd #losing my mind. freaking out. #little me wouldve lost their absolute mind if she had heard this #would be running to books a million in a heartbeat #although. from what ive seen online apparently the book isnt that good. #still. this is wild. #not ashamed to admit i was a graywing/riverripple truther

[yuikomorii]

Happy Birthday, Ayato! ❤️

// Today is the golden boy’s birthday!! Sweet and spicy visual god, you are the reason of my unattainablly high standards… and also of my questionable financial decisions, lol.

This looks more like an Ayayui shrine than an individual Ayato one, but I couldn’t fit all the items in one pic, therefore I chose the ones that were the easiest to find in my room. :”)

Nevertheless… I did try to prepare a SCENARIO too! I used my nsfw edit as the cg, although I didn’t show everything. The romantic part is really cheesy and cringe, but if you’re into fluff, you will like that. 💕💕

~Operation: Ayato-kun’s birthday~

Yui: ( Haa… it feels as if there’s no ending to these anymore… )

( I woke up earlier today, hoping to finish all these exercises, yet I really can’t bring myself to understand how to solve them at all…! )

( My mind is completely in a whole different place right now. Today is Ayato-kun’s birthday after all. )

( Unfortunately, all the assignments kept me so busy this week that I wasn’t even able to bake a cake for him… )

( However, it’s still not too late for that, right? )

( Once I’m done with this page, I will definitely try my best to prepare it as soon as po—)

Reiji: Komori Yui, are you slacking again?

Yui: …!

R-Reiji-san!

( Oh no, he picked up my notebook! )

Reiji: Good grief, there are mistakes everywhere! Do I need to remind you that you are not permitted to bring disgrace upon the Sakamaki family as long as you reside under this mansion's roof?

Yui: Uuh… I-I’m really sorry, Reiji-san. I promise I’ll—

Reiji: Silence. I recently received your report card as well, and I must admit that I’m not pleased with your performance in the slightest. I was expecting such indifference from my brothers, but it’s rather disheartening for a human girl not to care about her education.

Yui: Y-You got it wrong! It’s not like I don’t care about school, but… simply put, the teachers have been giving us much too many tasks lately, and I find them quite difficult to solve, which stresses me out a little, to be honest.

Reiji: Hmph, excuses. I find it incomprehensible how such simple exercises cause you mental difficulties.

Nevertheless, I shall teach you then. Even if it requires the whole day to achieve that.

Yui: You will? Woah, thank you so much, Re— W-Wait, no! We can’t do that today!

Reiji: Pardon? Are you rejecting my offer to tutor you?

Yui: No, no! Not at all! It’s just that today is Ayato-kun’s birthday, and well… I would obviously want to celebrate it with him.

Reiji: Denied.

Yui: Eh—?

Reiji: You truly are a fool. Vampires show no interest in the day of their birth. Now, take a sit.

Yui: …

( I know Reiji-san is not in the wrong, but… I really do want to celebrate Ayato-kun’s birthday. That day may not be special to him but it’s so special to me. )

( Am I being selfish, I wonder…? )

*Timeskip*

Reiji: It appears that you’re finally able to understand how to solve this exercise. The next ones are similar to it, therefore there shouldn’t be any obstacles.

Yui: Yes, I see…

( I appreciate Reiji-san’s help, yet too many hours have passed by and baking a cake from scratch is not possible anymore… )

Place: Living room

Yui: ( Hmm… apparently I still have enough pocket money to buy a cake. I know a self-made one would have been more meaningful, but I really couldn’t… )

Kanato: Yui-san, are you spacing out?

Yui: Eh—? Ah, Kanato-kun, I didn’t see you there. I’m fine, but I’m a bit in a hurry, so… see y— Kya!

( He grabbed my wrist! )

Kanato: You’re going to buy a cake for my brother, aren’t you?

Yui: Uhh… well yes, I mean, it’s his birthday after all.

Kanato: My birthday was yesterday and I didn’t see you get any cake for me, nor for Laito. Teddy thinks you forgot about us. Tell me, Yui-san, is that true?

Yui: T-that’s not it!

Kanato: So you’re going to buy a cake for me as well after all? I might forgive you if you do that.

Yui: ( What did I get myself into…! I’m sure Kanato-kun will throw a tantrum if I say “no”. )

But… I don’t think I got enough money for two cakes.

Kanato: Please don’t worry about that, Yui-san, I know my ways. Or what, are you doubting me now?

Yui: …!

— shakes head —

Kanato: Good, now let’s go.

Place: Demon World Cake shop

Yui: Woah, I’ve never seen such big cakes before!

Kanato: Please don’t shout. Your looks already make you resemble a servant, you don’t have to act like one as well.

Yui: ( Hey, that’s mean! )

Cake shop owner: Welcome, how can I help you?

Yui: We’re searching for a birthday cake, but uhm… one a bit smaller than the ones displayed here, if possible.

Cake shop owner: Any flavor you got in mind?

Yui: ( Speaking of flavor, I don’t think Ayato-kun has ever told me anything about his favorite. He would probably say Takoyaki but a Takoyaki cake… that doesn’t feel right. )

I think he likes straw—

Kanato: Raspberry!

Cake shop owner: Wonderful! We just finished a raspberry cake a few minutes ago!

— brings cake —

Yui: ( It truly looks delicious…! Besides, it’s red as well, which is Ayato-kun’s favorite color, so I believe he would truly like this one! )

Kanato: Alright, we’ll take it!

Place: Mansion

Yui: Phew, I’m glad the cake didn’t get crushed on the way.

Kanato: It’s time to eat!

Yui: Wha—! No, Kanato-kun, you can’t!

Kanato: Excuse me, but who do you think you are? This is my cake, therefore I’m allowed to eat it whenever I want!

Yui: W-Well, don’t you want to wait for Ayato-kun too? This way, you two will be able to eat it together like bro—!!

(He pushed me in the cake!?)

Kanato-kun, why did you do this!?

Kanato: You ruined the cake!

Yui: Me!? But Kanato-kun was the one who pushed me there!

Kanato: Teddy says you’re annoying, and I agree. Now how will you fix your mistakes?

Yui: ( I can barely see anything…! )

Kanato: Fufu, look at her Teddy! She’s full of cake from head to toe! Now, let’s give it a taste che—

Yui: You can’t!

— moves cake away from him —

Kanato: I can!

— moves cake back —

Yui: No!

— moves cake away —

Kanato: Hmph, just give up already, will you!?

— pushes her away —

Yui: Wait, no—!!!

???: Oi, what the—!

— cake falls on them —

Kanato: Noooo, the cake!!!! Ngh, this is no fun anymore!

Yui: Uuh… Why is the floor so soft…?

Ayato: ‘Cause it’s not the floor, you idiot.

Yui: Ah! A-Ayato-kun!

Uhh… Happy birthday…~?

Ayato: Geez, c’mere, you’re an even bigger mess.

— picks her up —

Place: Bathroom

Yui: ( This is so embarrassing…! )

Ayato: Haa… You’re finally not covered in cake anymore.

Yui: I… I’m sorry…

Ayato: Huh? What are you apologizing for? I’m not mad that you dropped that cake on me.

Yui: That’s not the only thing I’m sorry about…

If it weren’t for my carelessness, you would have gotten a nice birthday, but now… you don’t even have a cake anymore.

( Ah, I’m feeling as if I’m about to cry right now… )

Ayato: Hey, c’mon that’s not worth the tears. I’m a vampire, remember? I don’t care about my birthday, so there’s no need to worry about such stuff.

Yui: Maybe you don’t care about it but… I do. I know that I’m about to sound selfish, but your birthday is very special to me. It represents the day you were born and I… I simply can’t imagine not celebrating it.

Ayato-kun is important to me, therefore that automatically makes his birthday important to me too.

Ayato: You klutz…

— hugs her —

Yui: W-Wha—! Ayato-kun…!

Ayato: Seriously, are all humans really that sentimental? Or does this only apply to cute girls like you?

Yui: …!

(He… he called me cute! )

— blushes —

Ayato: The day’s still not over, y’know? There’s still time to celebrate it if you’re really that obsessed with it.

Yui: …! So, are you really okay with that?

Ayato: Yeah? If I weren’t, I would have told you, idiot. On top of that, it’s not like I got anything better to do anyway.

Now tell me, Chichinashi, what exactly do you have in store for today?

Yui: Hm… uhm… nothing comes to my mind at the moment, but for now… I can’t say I mind spending time like this with Ayato-kun.

Ayato: Heh~? You suddenly don’t mind being in my arms while naked?

Yui: P-Phrasing it like that…!

Ayato: Well, if that’s the case, then… you wouldn’t mind if I sucked your blood either, right?

Yui: Go ahead.

Ayato: Hah? No talking back? Are you really that easy to convince today? Or, could it be that you finally admit enjoying the pleasure these fangs give you?

Yui: It’s not only about your fangs, Ayato-kun. I really like you as a whole.

I wasn’t even able to find a gift for you, therefore giving you my blood is the least I can do.

Ayato: Heh, I see… I don’t need your blood as a gift though.

Yui: You don’t…?

Ayato: Nope, ‘cause I already got the best gift ever.

Yui: Is that so?

( Did someone already give him something for his birthday? If that’s the case, then who could it be? )

( Ah… I guess I’m just overthinking, but now I’m really curious. )

Ayato: You really wanna know, don’t you? It’s already written on your face.

Are you getting jealous~?

Yui: T-That’s…—!

Ayato: Pfft, you really did get jealous, huh?

Yui: ( Ugh… he’s making fun of me now! )

Ayato: Anyway, there’s no need to. After all, the best gift I’ve ever gotten…

It’s you, Yui.

— Smooch —

The end

#diabolik lovers #ayato sakamaki #sakamaki ayato #Yui komori #komori yui #dialovers #admin #my edit #(I hope I wrote Reiji and Kanato well) #(they were fun to write at least)

[monstersandmaw]

First time romancing Astarion, and I'm all aboard the ace-spec interpretation of Astarion that I've seen floating around. As someone who's ace, I definitely resonated with him in this scene anyway. That hug reaction from Astarion. Oof.

And the fact that if you also romance Halsin, one of the dialogue options Astarion can give you is to say something like: 'it's not because... we haven't... in a while... is it?'... My heart cracked painfully at that, I'm not going to lie. I have spoken almost exactly that sentence before, worrying that just kissing and physical affection is not enough for someone who's not ace. To have that validated by Astarion was really special for me.

(aka, I really didn't get to know Astarion very well in my first playthrough because he didn't approve of my absolute doormat of a Tav (Kaerlyn the drow) and I didn't spend much time with him, but now with my sassy monk...? I get it. I totally get why you all love Astarion so much).

EDIT: additional dialogue from Raphael talking about Cazador indicates that it might be linked to vampirism (my own headcanon for vampires anyway is they can't get aroused without having fed recently, not just BG3 vamps, but in general)

[some poly-ace-astarion thoughts under the cut too]

I'm not 100% convinced that Astarion is really ok with the consensual poly situation in-game, because he famously doesn't say what he actually wants and is the king of manipulating others, especially in sexual situations (e.g. what Cazador sent him out to do, and how). I'm not sure if I'll reload a save and just have Halsin as a friend...

The dialogue when you check in with Astarion before the Halsin scene is... strained? Odd??? Maybe it's just me over-analysing it. He sounded strained though - his tone high pitched and more grandiose than he'd been in previous cut-scenes, where he was more softly-spoken. It sounded more like early-game Astarion to me...

Also, my dialogue options may have been totally randomised the next time I approached Astarion after a steamy night with Halsin, but they sounded kind of strained there too, and I got the 'I can never say no to you' one, which set my ace people-pleaser alarm bells ringing...

As someone who's poly-romantic but asexual, I can project/imagine here that Astarion has come to care for Tav a lot (more than he ever expected, for sure), and he genuinely wants Tav to be happy. He trusts Tav enough to know that Tav respects his autonomy and right to decide things for himself, and values Astarion for who he is, so Astarion is intellectually/conceptually happy for Tav to get something from Halsin that Astarion is not providing (sex), but perhaps emotionally that additional fact and dynamic is harder to deal with.

That could totally be me projecting though, because that's how I'd react if my husband (not ace) and I (ace) were in that situation (we've discussed it between us, actually XD). Feelings of guilt and inadequacy around sex itself are apparently very common with us ace folks, even in very healthy and happy relationships.

Anyway, that turned into a ramble I didn't intend on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I'm not looking to start any discourse about this though. If you don't see Astarion that way, or had a different experience and interpretation, that's all totally valid and I'm not trying to invalidate it in anyway.

#my two cents on ace-spectrum astarion #astarion #ace astarion #ace spectrum astarion #halsin x astarion x tav #my headcanons are gonna be a lot more nuanced than the game allows i think... #ace #asexuality #bg3

[dragon-ball-meta]

I’m sorry but who is Iyoku? Also is Toriyama not able to switch who’s working on the manga given his status as creator?

Akio Iyoku. He's a former Editor-in-Chief for V-Jump and Saikyo Jump. He's at least partly responsible for Toriyama really coming back out of retirement to write new material, he helped adapt the Episode of Bardock special from the Heroes manga into an OVA, he helped edit Battle of Gods, I believe, was a Producer on the Broly movie and is Executive Producing Daima as well as running the "Dragon Ball Room", basically the brain trust of planning for the future of Dragon Ball He recently stepped down from his role at Shueisha and formed a company called Capsule Corporation Tokyo, and is trying to more or less get the rights to oversee most everything but the manga at this point, which... does not speak well of his feelings at that company. (Supposedly, it's also due to investors apparently pressuring Shueisha to more or less downplay DB in favor of One Piece since they feel that the reason an "old" show is competing with the current #1 seller is because Shueisha is mishandling it. This is reportedly part of why Super Hero was given significantly LESS promotion than Film Red received.) As for DB... It's hard to articulate the situation with the rights and control of the series. The rights are technically split between three companies: Toriyama's Bird Studio, Shueisha (which technically owns the manga), and Toei (which owns the anime). Those companies will often defer to him more since he's the creator and all, but they can, will, and do greenlight things without his permission or input, it's not really a necessity. And given Toriyama's got a rather non-argumentative nature, at least in public, and seems to shy away from drama, I don't think he's about to go storming into Shueisha's HQ and demand they fire him because he dislikes one thing or another regardless.

[spurgie-cousin]

Yes do tell the story of the ring! We are a bit behind in Holland (sister wives-wise lol) but from what I've heard Christine told a story about Meri and now Meri is pissed?

Yea so Christine recently told this story in one of the "one on one" episodes (I wish they'd just call them Tell Alls but w/e) and Meri got mad because she said it wasn't a story she wanted to be public. But people realized afterward that this story had also been told by the lady who catfished Meri and Janelle, who mentioned it in an interview before Christine so.........idk if she just didn't know about that or she just needed to take some of her anger out on Christine or what.

Here's what happened: So when Kody and Meri first got legally married, they exchanged rings as one does and Meri got Kody a gold band with maybe some diamonds in it? And he wore it for years, even after he married Janelle and Christine, it just kind of functioned as his all-inclusive wedding band and he and Meri considered it to be a special symbol of their relationship.

So this next part is the version told by Christine and Meri and disputed by Robyn: Apparently around the time Kody was getting ready to marry Robyn, he just stopped wearing the ring all of a sudden, and when Meri noticed she understandably was like "hey where the hell is my ring" to which he said, "oh, I melted it down and saved the gold and the diamonds". Robyn says this happened waaaaay after before (i had to edit that my bad) she came into the picture though (spoiler alert, you can see Kody wearing the ring in the first episodes of the show while he's dating her so. She's lying.)

Christine says he told her that he did this because he "didn't want to feel like Meri had any power over him" anymore (which ??????). Another way Meri phrased it was that he didn't want to feel like she had any "claim" on him, and that was all the detail they went into. But according to Janelle, he used the gold and diamonds to make rings to give to some of his daughters, idk for what occasion. All of this was seven years before Meri's catfishing incident btw, and she insinuated that it really contributed to her feeling lonely in her family.

So Meri was obviously extremely hurt by that because he didn't ask her or even warn her he was doing this, and each wife had their little special things with Kody and that one was hers. After that they started the Claddagh ring tradition where Kody wore one and so did all the wives, but according to Christine at some point before she left Kody stopped wearing the Claddagh ring and he and Robyn went out and designed a new one? So he wore that for a while, and then most recently he and Robyn were out shopping and he saw some ring with a horse on it and now he wears that one, which he's explicitly said is only a symbol of him and Robyn's commitment.

I think a big reason Meri got mad is that before Christine told the story, she and the interviewer (Suki) were talking about the aforementioned stupid horse ring and laughing at it, and Meri for some reason took that as Christine laughing at her (imo she wasn't at all). Christine was already being asked questions about rings and probably though the story was fair game since it's been told before.

Anyway, I just think Meri was really embarrassed/hurt and didn't know what to do with all of it. And honestly, for me, it's hard to fault her for that because what a fucking awful, humiliating, belittling thing to do to someone who's supposed to be your spouse.....just from the stories we know about, Kody has treated her like absolute garbage and I think any sane person would have a hard time knowing how to deal with that.

I'll post the video though so you guys can see for yourselves and let me know what you think.

#the stories about kody and meri just keep getting worse #he went back and forth for years between treating her like the only person that mattered in the world and someone who didn't mean anything #to him. so like it makes sense to me now why she stayed because she probably thought this is just how he is and one day he'll like me again #but god he was so awful to her. #sister wives #kody brown #meri brown #christine brown #robyn brown

[duhragonball]

Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return! (2008)

2008 marked the fortieth anniversary of the manga anthology Weekly Shonen Jump.  To commemorate the occasion, Toei produced two anime shorts, which would be presented during the Jump Super Anime Tour.  One of these was One Piece: Romance Dawn Story, and the other was Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return.

With respect to One Piece, I think the Dragon Ball special was a much bigger deal, as this was the first new anime from the franchise since Dragon Ball GT signed off in 1997.  Today, it’s kind of easy to overlook, because we have four new movies, 131 episodes of Dragon Ball Super, and however many chapters of the DBS manga.  But in 2008, it was pretty much understood that Dragon Ball had ended and would not return.  So even a one-off special like this was pretty historic. 

In the fall of 2008, Shonen Jump put the special on their website, and I remember having to install a special browser to watch it.  I thought I had downloaded the episode as well, but this afternoon I went looking through my files and apparently I only got the browser.  I guess that might still work after all this time, except they took down the OAV in 2009. The only official release was in 2013, when it was included as a bonus feature of a limited edition of the Battle of Gods DVD.  So it’s on track to become another “lost movie”, like “Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans”. 

You can track down Return on YouTube, but I couldn’t find a very good upload of the video.  A lot of fans tried to dub it themselves, probably  because there was never a proper English localization.  The only version I found with English subtitles was a “remastered” version, and from what I can tell, they just slapped their shitty watermark in the corner and did a horizontal flip of the footage to avoid a copyright strike.   So when I started this liveblog, I assumed this OAV was already in my collection, but it turned out to be the hardest one to arrange. 

There was also a 2009 manga adaptation of this anime, so maybe that version is easier to find than this special, but I sure hope they just put all this stuff out there where people can buy it.  Anyway, let’s take a look at what we’ve got.

So, in case you’re not familiar with this OAV, this is the one with Tarble, Vegeta’s brother.  I’m pretty sure he hasn’t appeared anywhere else since, unless you count his inclusion in the roster of Raging Blast 2, and some other video games.  He was also mentioned during Battle of Gods and the recent Broly film, but mostly this was done just to remind the audience that they didn’t forget about him.  In Battle of Gods, Vegeta says that he has no idea how to find or contact Tarble, and I suspect this means that we may never see him again.  Then again, I never expected Dragon Ball to return before 2008, and here we are.

This OAV also set the stage for a lot of what was done with the characters in Super.  Goku’s got the same farmer’s outfit here that we see him wear in Super, and he mentions that Mr. Satan recently gave him some money, which is depiced in DBS Episode 1. 

Continuity-wise, this takes place two years after the defeat of Kid Buu.  As I recall, Battle of Gods was supposed to be set four years after the defeat of Kid Buu, to give you an idea. 

So during that two-year peacetime, Chi-Chi has gotten Goku to start a radish farm, while Mr. Satan has built a new hotel.  The grand opening will take place soon, but he wants to hold a private party there the day before, and invite everyone from the Buu Saga to celebrate their victory. 

This greatly embarrasses Videl, so she calls Gohan to tell him about it.  Mr. Satan got all the credit for defeating Buu, but that isn’t true at all.  So she thinks his ego has gotten out of control. 

Also, there’s this cute sequence in the background as Satan and Buu give their dog a bath.  First they shove him down the hall, then Buu carries him back the other way, with suds all over him. 

That night, Gohan tells the rest of the family that they’ve been invited.  Goku and Chi-Chi aren’t interested, but Gohan casually brings up how it’s all-you-can-eat, and suddenly Goku’s on board.  The weird thing is that Gohan seems extremely relieved about this, and even thinks “Now Videl won’t yell at me.”  I don’t understand where he would have gotten that idea.  Videl just seemed frustrated about her dad’s extravagance.  I never got the sense that she wanted or needed Goku to come to this party, or that she would have been upset with Gohan if he couldn’t convince his dad to attend. 

Anyway, I just really like this shot of the four of them sitting at the table.  We never got to see this sort of thing in DBZ, but now we can.  It’s nice.

The next day, Videl arrives to pick them up, and Roshi immediately gawks at Chi-Chi’s boobs, so she hits him in the face with a frying pan. 

They get to the hotel, and Goku greets Buu’s pet dog.  He’s called “Bay” in the subtitles, and the name “Bee” seems to be official, as it gets used throughout the dub, but the weird thing I discovered in 2019 was that the dog never gets named throughout the entire Japanese script for the anime.  So I’m not sure when the name was finally introduced.  Maybe it was in the manga, but if that’s the case, you’d think it would have been used in the anime as well.  Or maybe it was one of those things they put in the guidebooks or whatever.

I just always liked this interaction with the two of them, where Goku greets Bee like a fellow veteran of the Kid Buu Saga, even though Bee was just a frightened puppy on the Sacred World of the Kais.  But he fought as hard as the others.  He borked and borked and then Kid Buu finally dropped dead, so I call that a win.

So one really weird thing about this special is how Mr. Satan somehow got Kibitoshin and the Elder Supreme Kai to show up for this.  Also King Kai, Bubbles, and Gregory are in attendance, they’re all dead.  I’m pretty sure this is the first and only time we ever see King Kai in the mortal plane.  Maybe this was why Gohan thought it was so important to get Goku to come to this thing.  Goku’s the only one who could get in touch with some of these characters, so without his help, Mr. Satan’s party would have been a very small affair.

Then the press shows up, despite Mr. Satan’s best efforts to keep this private.  They just want to know the name of the hotel, and it soon gets revealed as “The Mr. Satan World-Saving Defeat of Majin Buu Super Gorgeous Hotel.”  Try saying that three times fast. 

Satan seems mortified to have the name revealed, like he’s ashamed of it or something, but they were going to reveal this tomorrow anyway, so I don’t understand his reaction.  Then the media seem really pleased with the name, and he embraces it.  I don’t understand this whole plotline.

So, first of all, no one in the general public should even remember the name “Majin Buu”.  That’s because Goku used the Dragon Balls to wipe their memories of Majin Buu, so that Fat Buu could live among them without causing a panic.  They remember the Buu crisis, and that a terrible monster killed them all, but they don’t remember what the monster’s name was, or that it looked exactly like the big pink dude Mr. Satan hangs out with all the time. 

So I get Videl’s embarrassment, because it resembles her feelings in DBZ Episode 289.  As she put it, everyone believes her father saved the world from something, but no one knows what it was.   Also, it was during the Buu Saga that she learned her dad never beat Cell either, so I think she’s still coping with the fact that her dad’s business empire is all based on lies. 

However, Dragon Team takes the whole thing in stride, because they’ve known the truth all along, and they never resented Satan about it before.  Now, they like the guy, because he really did help them out with Majin Buu.  And now that he knows the truth about them, he’s been extremely humble around them, albeit privately.  I mean, the fact that he’s throwing this party in their honor kind of sums it up, doesn’t it?  He’s opening a hotel that commemorates “his” victory over Buu, but the day before, he invites the gang over to celebrate the true heroes of that struggle. 

And it’s kind of an awkward balance for Mr. Satan, made even more awkward when the press unexpectedly show up and he has to play both roles at once, but I don’t get how the hotel is an example of Satan’s ego getting out of control. 

Also, why a hotel?  This sounds like a museum or a monument would make more sense, but maybe hotels have a different significance in Japanese culture?  It’s also kind of weird how this is like Mr. Satan’s project.  You’d think that someone else would build the hotel and he would simply get royalties for attaching his name and likeness to it. 

Anyway, just before the gang can start eating, a pair of Saiyan Attack Balls land on Earth, and everyone senses a powerful ki.  It’s someone new, and that someone heads straight for the party, and Vegeta recognizes him as Tarble, his younger brother. 

Why have we never heard of this guy before?  Because Tarble had the same origin story as Goku.  During the rule of the Vegeta dynasty, Saiyan babies were tested for battle potential, and those determined to be unfit were launched into space to defenseless planets, where they could grow up and conquer in relative safety.  And say what you will about King Vegeta III, but he was no hypocrite, as he followed that policy with his own son, sending Tarble to some other planet because his test scores weren’t up to snuff. 

And this always illustrated the nonsense behind the Saiyans’ attempts to breed better warriors.  The whole idea was to remove the weakest specimens from their own population, and devote the best training and resources to the strongest, so that they could produce even stronger generations in the future.   Except Goku had extremely low test scores, and yet he wound up becoming the Legendary Super Saiyan.  Meanwhile, Vegeta and Tarble are brothers, yet one of them tested well and the other one didn’t, which sort of exposes the notion of Saiyan power is hereditary.

Anyway, Tarble grew up on some remote world, and apparently he became its defender instead of conquering it.  Then some new threat appeared, and it was too much for him.  So he went looking for help, and a Namekian once told him that Vegeta went to Earth after Frieza’s downfall.  So he’s here to ask Vegeta to save his adopted world. 

Vegeta finds it unseemly for Tarble to ask others to handle his problems, but he’s in the mood for a fight, so he’s down to clown.  But several other guests at the party want to fight, and Goku points out that they can’t all just gang up on the enemy, so he proposes a lottery.   They all teleport back to his house, where they can pull radishes out of his farm.  The one with the longest radish gets to fight.

Goten seems to have the game won, but then Trunks’ radish turns out to be like 100 feet long, so he gets the nod.

At this point, Tarble’s companion wishes Trunks good luck, and Vegeta finally asks who that is.  Turns out, it’s Tarble’s wife, Gure. 

Roshi makes some dumb remark about Saiyans always choosing strange wives, so Chi-Chi and Bulma beat the shit out of him with cookware. 

So they go back to the hotel just in time to meet Tarble’s enemies, who have followed him here.  Vegeta recognizes them as Frieza’s men, Abo and Cado, who were once on par with the Ginyu Force.  Tarble says they were away during Frieza’s downfall, and since that time they have gone into business for themselves, and they’ve become as powerful as Frieza himself. 

So you have to assume that Tarble must be pretty strong himself by now, if these guys came to his planet and he managed to put up any sort of resistance, right?  I mean, he didn’t know about Super Saiyans, but if Abo and Cado are as strong as Frieza, then Tarble must be at least as strong as Vegeta was on Namek, right? 

Anyway, since there are two bad guys, Goku finagles Goten into this contest to even things up. 

Also, Oolong is dressed up like a sexy maid, and serving coffee and sandwiches to the spectators.  That seems like a long way to go for a bit, but Oolong’s a shapeshifter, so maybe he can just will himself to have different outfits on. 

Oh, I didn’t notice Puar’s doing the same bit.  So why wouldn’t they both use their shape shifting powers to look like actual maids?  I mean, if that’s what they’re going for, right?

The four combatants fight evenly at first, but we know Trunks and Goten aren’t even trying that hard because they’re still in base form.  This is just the beginning.  And see, this all makes sense, because none of the main cast is sweating Abo and Cado for a second.  Tarble is afraid of these guys, but everyone else knows they’re just jobbers, fit only for a little practice with the boys. 

Then Abo and Cado use some sort of multiform technique to turn the tables.  Goten and Trunks are stymied...

... until Gohan offers to coach them.   He tells Trunks which way to hit, and tells Gohan to use his ki senses to figure out which one of the multiforms is real.

Wait... I just figured that out.  It seemed strange to me that Gohan would give each one different advice, but maybe that’s the idea.  So it looks like Abo and Cado are doing the multiform technique just like Krillin and Piccolo did against Nappa back in the day.  However, that technique produces three copies of a fighter’s body.  There is no “real” one because they’re all real. 

However, the advice about closing your eyes and using ki senses sounds very reasonable for countering the Afterimage technique which produces illusions.  So what if Abo and Cado are actually using both tricks at the same time, switching back and forth to confuse their opponents?  Pretty tricky.  Well, not really, since Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, and Piccolo all seem to see through it very easily, but it’s tricky enough to confuse Goten and Trunks.

Then Abo and Cado combine into a single, purple alien.  This form is known as “Abocado” although Goten and Trunks are the only ones who call him that, so maybe they made it up on the spot.  I think we all know what’s coming next...

Fusion!  Wait, they fucked it up.  Well, they haven’t had to do this in a while.

There we go.  I think this OAV is the first indication that characters can de-fuse and re-fuse quickly like this.  In the Buu Saga, Gotenks didn’t know how to separate, other than just waiting for the thirty-minute time limit to expire.  But maybe Goku showed him how.  And maybe it’s possible for Goten and Trunks to re-fuse without the rest period.  Originally, there was a cooldown period for the Fusion Dance, but that seems to have gone out the window in later works, such as this one.

So Gotenks uses the Wolf Fang Fist on Abocado, then follows up with the Volleyball Fist, which was Tien’s signature move in the 22nd Budokai.  This is kind of special, because Tien’s not even in this OAV.  His voice actor, Hirotaka Suzoki, had died of lung cancer in 2006, and so Tien wasn’t included in this production, to honor his memory.  And so the Volleyball Fist is kind of the only reference to Tien we get in this thing. 

And then Gotenks turns Super Saiyan to finish with the Dynamite Rolling Thunder Punch, which is one from his own personal moveset.  See, he started as base Goten and Trunks, then they fused, then Super Saiyan.   The fight escalated as it went on, and the different forms followed that progression.  That alone makes this little side-story better than every episode of GT.

But Abocado doesn’t go down so easily, and he starts shooting his big finishing blast.  Gotenks blocks it, but it wrecks the hotel, and the other Z-Fighters have to bust out their own signature moves to protect the civilians.  Goku and Vegeta finally step in, but Goku distracts Vegeta and teleports ahead...

Where he delivers a Kamehameha and big punch to put Abocado down for the count.  Not sure why he’s blue here. 

When it’s over, Vegeta complains about Goku distracting him in order to steal the win.  Goku’s like “Yeah, that was kind of inconsiderate of me, Vegeta.  Remember that time you broke every bone in my body and beat up my son?”

So the battle’s over, but Mr. Satan’s new hotel is destroyed.  Videl tells him he should take this as a lesson in humility, which seems to sink in, until Goku suggests that he use the Dragon Balls to ask Shenron to restore the place.  Videl scolds him again and that seem to talk him out of it. 

Also, Launch has been here the whole time, but she never says or does anything.  Just stating that for the record.

So they go back to eating, because I guess the food wasn’t damaged in the battle.  Gure is shocked-- shocked I say-- to see Saiyans eating lots of food.  Does Tarble just never eat in front of her?  That seems kind of like a strange way to live. 

Maybe Gure is finally realizing that this was what happened to her prize racehorse, Marmalade Thunder.  She didn’t escape from the stable that night after all.  It was Tarble.   It was Tarble all along. 

“This is a good spread, Kakarot, but you know what would make it even better?”

“I dunno, a racehorse?”

“Hell yeah.”

Also Abo and Cado have turned good and are joining the party.  I guess they just love radishes so they’re gonna eat all of those. 

Then Goku eats Vegeta’s sushi, and he takes some of Goku’s pork in retaliation, so they both turn Super Saiyan and look like they’re about to throw down.  But that’ll have to wait for some other anniversary special, I guess.

This special is about “an evil menace that failed to register in public memory.”  As the narrator points out, Abo and Cado might have been a big honkin’ deal, if they had shown up years earlier.   But they didn’t, and so they turned out to be a one-shot affair. 

And that’s it.  I’ll close out by noting that the opening credits for this OAV feature all new animation with Goten and Trunks worked into the classic DBZ opening. 

And the end credits feature a new song, “Orange Hero”, which features scenes of various characters just chilling out.  I like this one of the Son Family with Satan and Videl. 

So that’s it.  The special wasn’t too big a deal in terms of its plot.  The whole point was to introduce a threat that would only be dangerous enough to justify a lot of fun callbacks. Still, it added some new lore to the franchise, and it set the tone for everything that came after. 

#dragon ball #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #yo! son goku and his friends return! #goku #goten #trunks #tarble #gure #abo #cado #gotenks #mr satan #i don't want to tag the other characters there's too many of 'em

[ladyfenring]

Thank you @lord-aldhelm for the tag! 💜

How many works do you have on AO3?

132!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

Apparently it's 1,585,653.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently just TLK, but every now and then HotD or whatever period drama I'm currently watching will catch my fancy.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

gonna be honest, every time this question comes up on an ask meme it makes me cringe a bit, because 3 of them i don't feel are remotely worthy of the honor and I think I just posted at the right time. anyway they're all GoT/asoiaf fics.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I always try to, unless the comment is like, idk, annoying or completely incomprehensible.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Oh man. I've written a lot of angsty endings...I think I'm just going to go with the most recent, which is The House That Godwin Built.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

also going with the most recent here since there are too many to choose from, too tempting not to touch

8. Do you get hate on fics?

yeah 🥲

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

All kinds babeyyyyyy

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I have written exactly one crossover as a dumb joke and it was where Steve Harrington was Jean-Ralphio and Mona-Lisa Saperstein's biological father

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

It used to happen a lot but not so much anymore

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

A few times! It's a really nice feeling :)

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

@itslaurenmae and I co-wrote Stolen Sweets together!

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

eadith x eardwulf aka flowers in mercia i am so deeply unwell about this ship i made up in my head but also it's real I'm so Pepe Silvia about it

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I started this Barkskins fic literal years ago that went into the loup-garou thing that is CONSTANTLY coming up in the narrative but tbh i had no idea where to take it after "yeah they're werewolves" so I feel like. I shall never finish it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, I say, perhaps overconfidently. I attribute it to my theatre background but I'm always reading and, for that matter, writing dialogue with a voice in mind. I also speak a lot of the dialogue out loud to myself to make sure it sounds right, which is why I now live alone. I also know my basic editing (spelling, grammar, punctuation, tenses, etc) is almost always in good shape.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I am SO BAD at writing descriptions, it's something I'm actively working on. Action scenes are also something I struggle with, my eyes glaze over those scenes in books and television, and if you've ever read my fics, you'll notice I like to pull a GRRM and knock out my characters whenever possible.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

If it's not necessary to the plot, why confuse the reader when you can just as easily say, "He said to the woman in sunglasses, this time in Russian..." or, "He didn't understand the two men, who sounded as though they were speaking in French..." Unless that dialogue is relevant to the plot, I guess I just don't see the need.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I'm pretty sure it was Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

The House That Godwin Built will always have a special place in my heart 💜

tagging @ivarthebadbitch, @stannisfactions, @wildwren, @wexpyke, @abnerkrill, @skatingthinandice, and anyone else who wants to play!

#i'm sorry i've literally blanked on all my beautiful moots who write fanfiction i do this every time and yet i learn nothing #cue me scrolling frantically through my activity feed

[londonspirit]

Our Flag Means Death is special. From creating a surrealist version of the Golden Age of Piracy, to centering a later-in-life coming-out story, to including people or many races, gender identities, abilities, and cool freaking hairstyles, to moving production for season two from LA to New Zealand in order to highlight the beauty of the land, Lord of the Rings-Style, and build a majority Kiwi crew. It’s makes our pop cultural heart swell to see a production being so intentional with its decisions.

But nowhere is that intentionality more apparent than in OFMD’s music. More than just fun, jokey needledrops, each song in Season One acts as a counterpoint to the action, adding emotion and depth to what becomes a surprising queer love story. A lot of the credit for the show’s unique tone can go to Music Supervisor Maggie Phillips and her team. Leah Schnelbach recently got to speak with Maggie about baroque pop, “The Beautiful Ones”, making “the non-obvious choice”, and—the long-awaited SEASON TWO.

Season two debuts on Max in the U.S. on October 5, and Neon on October 6 and is coming soon to Sky Open in New Zealand.

(This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.)

How do you start? Do you get the script and let you mind wander, or do you pick a period and do a deep dive on songs from a period?

Maggie Phillips: It depends on the project. For [OFMD] I got the scripts—at least the first four or five—so I had enough to have a sense of the love story, and the themes. I made thematic playlists. Sometimes I do character driven playlists. But across the board it starts with scripts and playlists. Then I send the playlist to the director or showrunner and we start a back and forth. And this one, same, except that I’d worked with David Jenkins before on People of Earth, so I knew his taste already, and it’s very similar to mine, which is very melodic, we both like baroque pop, we both like a lot of classical elements in our music and in our pop.

And he’s very encouraging of me to—I realized when we worked on People of Earth—he pushed me to go weird. Some people have me rein it back, but he pushed me to go even further. So, I just start a general playlist, thematically driven, mostly romantic. We wanted to play up the romance in the first season, so a lot of romantic music and songs, pop songs about unrequited love, pining, heartbreak, heart-loss, it’s been a long time since I started these – longing, leaving behind a part of your life and moving on to another part, transition…and then another part was just like, ocean life! And the sea! I made a lot of playlists and sent them over to David, and what actually happens—sometimes we’ll pull from the general playlist. I work closely with the editors on specific scenes and send over specific playlists for each scene that we were listening for. I’d make playlists of 500 songs, and then listen to that for each moment—mostly end credits in Season One—and then send playlists over for spots. But that’s how it starts, and that’s the fun part.

That’s about twenty-five percent of my job. The rest is clearing songs and tracking rights and dealing with budgets, and blah blah blah. (laughs)

One of my favorites is Moondog. How did Moondog… happen?

MP: That’s a song that I’ve had, I love that song. His music is very avant garde, there’s only a handful of his songs that I thought could be synch-able. Even that one, I had saved on a playlist years ago, and hadn’t pitched it to anyone. It hadn’t worked in any moment, this I did not put on the general playlist, i tried specifically for the end of the pilot, and I almost didn’t send it because I thought, there’s no way they’ll go for this. And luckily the editor, the editor is sometimes the middleman, they’ll try out the stuff and show it to David. They’re in the rooms with David more than I am. So like sometimes I’ll send my stuff out to editors and not know which one they’re going to show. I’ll send them 15-20 songs, and they’ll show the director or showrunner three to five choices. But Hilda [Rasula], the editor of the pilot was very collaborative and communicative, and she responded and said which ones she liked and would try, and I knew this was one of them, so I was excited. There was a handful of songs that I loved for that pilot, but this one was one of my top favorites, and she said she was going to show it, but I still didn’t think this was going to be the one they’d pick.

Sometimes I’ll get an email saying we’re putting on [one of the choices], but I didn’t get it for this one, so I got to watch the pilot like an audience member not knowing which song they selected—I immediately knew it from the first note, and was like, “Oh they went with Moondog!” And then I got to watch and see how it works.

It worked beautifully.

MP: That was a really hard spot to nail, and that song is perfect because it’s melancholy and wistful, but there’s also hope. It hits both notes, and he just left his—you have to gloss over that so you can still love Stede, but he left his fuckin’ family. He’s having this intense mid-life crisis and he does what some people dream of, which is starting over, but most people don’t do, you know? I think we hit both notes with that song. And we wanted to hit the humanity on all those characters, we see Jim, we see a few characters in that montage. And the humanity of all of them being in the boat at sea all alone…

Heading out!

MP: Yeah! For the adventure of their lifetimes! (laughs)

It was perfect, I thought. I know from other interviews with you that you had a 300-song playlist for season one, were you able to use any for this season?

MP: For season two? Yes. I definitely we still… we still haven’t scratched the tip of the iceberg like there’s so many songs I have for this show… and there’s only so many songs in the show. There are fifteen in season one and even fewer in season two, and we only have eight episodes to work with. We use one in Episode 1: “Strawberry Letter 23”, the Shuggie Otis. We used one in the trailer, “The Beautiful Ones” by Prince…

That was uhhh pretty great!

MP: That was one of the first songs—I think the first song that David and I spoke about for the show?

Oh! Like, before season one started?

MP: Yeah, even before we spoke about “The Chain”—I can’t remember if “Beautiful Ones” came from David or me? But we talked about Prince and we both bonded on the fact that we loved that song specifically. That literally was the first song I had in my head for the whole show. I think in season one the estate was off-limits because it was soon after his passing, but then by season two his music was licensable again. I’ve been doing this for almost 18 years, and it’s the first time [I’ve licensed his music]. And he’s one of my top ten artists of all time.

When we posted the trailer, I’m pretty sure the tweet I wrote was just screaming about “Beautiful Ones”, I was so excited.

MP: My Instagram post I did like a purple heart, I made my own Prince purple heart background, and put the trailer on top of a ton of purple hearts, and I put a crown on top of one of them. Just the teenage glee of ohmygod, we got a Prince song!

Were there any songs that were absolute no, whether because they were overused, or they just didn’t fit?

MP: There’s one from season one and one from season two, and the one from season one is “Perfect Day”, for the reason you just said. I think it’s been overused, that was one I didn’t pitch, but I kept trying to beat it—it’s an amazing song. There’s a reason it’s been used a bazillion times, cause it’s a perfect song, right? I tried so hard to beat it, and I think I did, to be honest, but there’s an inherent familiarity and comfort when you hear a song you know, and I think that helps that scene. And David was just in love with it, and I understand why, and I’m sure it was very satisfying for the audience.

The one from season two—it’s a Kate Bush. I had advised against it, but, this one I don’t think we could beat it. I had used it myself, “This Woman’s Work”, in Handmaid’s Tale. It wasn’t a song I pitched. I pitched “Running Up that Hill”—which then was in Stranger Things—I pitched that for an end of an episode in Handmaid’s Tale, and the showrunner didn’t want to use that one, but it made him remember “This Woman’s Work”, and he put it into a very controversial scene, for fans of The Handmaid’s Tale—some people hate it, and some people loved it. So, I of course read all the backlash online about using song, and people have strong opinions about it. [OFMD] was right after the Stranger Things TikTok phenomenon, and I thought “We’re gonna look like we’re copycats”, but David was like… “I don’t care.” (laughs) he said, “People have a short attention span when it comes to music and TV”, and he’s right. And it was a Taika [Waititi, OFMD’s Blackbeard/executive producer/sometimes director) song, Taika really wanted that song, he’d wanted to use that song for many years. Then I saw it cut into the episode, and I think they transformed the song. They re-contextualized it and made it their own, even so the lyrics have different meaning than I’ve ever heard listening to it previously. They clearly had a vision, and it gave me chills to watch it.

I’m excited to see how it’s used in this context.

MP: And that’s what I love about my job, you put song and image together and they both change, and in this instance it was really powerful. But I mean, I always, unless it’s a show that doesn’t care about overusing, I always tell David if I have a reaction or an opinion, and one of the things I’ll react to is if a song’s been overused, or feels uninspired—but this one felt inspired once it was cut in.

I feel like this show is so off-kilter, and it’s always surprising. So the other one that I absolutely love was the use of the Beach Boys for the Blackbeard reveal. How did you jump to that? To me that’s their meet-cute, but it’s not actually cute.

MP: No, it’s demonic/angelic, weird vocals…I had tried to use that song in a different tv show, and we got denied actually, because it was a violent scene, so I had that song on a bunch of playlists. I love that song. I think that was one that was on my general playlist. And when I’m trying out music what I do for these scenes is I’ll do a brainstorm playlist where I’ll throw on a whole bunch of songs without knowing what’s going to work and without thinking about it, just like “That’s worth trying, that’s worth trying”—I call it my kitchen sink approach—I try not to overthink what I throw onto that playlist and then I just play those songs against picture, because you never know what’s gonna click, and that’s where you get the non-obvious choices, or like, the counterpoint choices, because you don’t know until you put them together how they’re going to play off each other. And so that was one that when I tested I was like, “Oh fuck, this is beautiful.” Then I sent it to the editor, and fingers crossed that they’ll have the same reaction. I try not to color…like I don’t say in my emails which ones are my favorite, because I want them to have an unbiased reaction. But that one worked, and everyone fell in love with it.

That one, well, they’re all my favorite, but that one might be my favorite favorite. It’s such a good contrast! Stede’s almost dead, Blackbeard’s covered in gore, and then there’s these angelic voices.

MP: Right? They’re saving each other. The relationship is that they’re each others’ saviors, right? I feel like that moment, that song sort of captures that.

But without being too sappy, it’s not a song I ever hear anywhere, so it’s startling. Bigger question: I know for The Dropout you did mid-‘00s indie, because it’s a period piece, horrifyingly, that’s becoming a period piece.

MP: I know right? That made me feel old, those were songs that felt like just the other day?

Yeah (laughter) but for this, obviously it’s the Golden Age of Piracy, but it’s also kind of a surrealist fantasy did you have in mind an era, like “Oh I’m going to use a lot of ‘60s pop to create a thematic contrast”? Or more hodge-podge?

MP: It was more hodgepodge-y, and then David and I both like baroque pop, we both love a harpsichord, and that style’s heyday was ‘60s and ‘70s, and that’s where my sensibility—I love music from that time period. There’s psychedelic rock, and there’s just so much cool stuff that happened back then. It has a timeless classic feel, and then there’s yacht rock happening.

I’m a sucker for yacht rock.

MP: I am too! And it fits the whole fantastical/dude/extreme-mid-life crisis. I hate to call it Dad Music, but there’s an element of that. And not that I think this is a male-driven show, but there is a lot of male energy, and it’s these two dudes’ love story, mostly. But the whole fantasy of escaping your normal existence and going off to live as a pirate has that whole dude-dad-driven energy. So that music works. But I think it if I look at my playlist, it was maybe half ‘60s-‘70s, and half more modern stuff, and that’s just the stuff that was working. For me, the way I listen for music is very emotional and gutteral it’s not as much thinking and making it logical and setting rules, it’s more just what feels right, and the we just kind of ran with it. With The Dropout we wanted a hard timestamp. I was given rules from the outset, and with Dropout, I loved working on it, but it was one of the easier shows I’ve worked on because we had those clear delineations. This song needs to be from these couple years, and it needs to have been a radio hit, there’s only so many songs you can choose from, but when you’re doing a show like Our Flag and there’s no rules at all…

Did you set any boundaries for yourself?

MP: The only boundaries I set was… stuff I hadn’t heard before. I wanted to honor the off-beat weird tone. This is something I’ve never seen before. There’s almost no comparable show. I wanted to honor that with music that was new and different.

The only show that feels similar to me is People of Earth.

MP: I loved that show so much. Not enough people watched that show.

It was so clearly ahead of its time.

MP: There’s been enough TV shows that are weird, people have… it lives in some sort of niche. But when People of Earth came out there hadn’t been enough of those kinds of shows.

Did you come into season two with a different approach at all, or was it more of a flow from Season One?

MP: The only thing that was different is that we get to dive into more of the characters, and we wanted to flesh them out a little bit. We picked a lane that was successful, and we want to stay in it. There’s so much I haven’t done yet [from the first playlist] I hope we get a third season.

Do you have a moment from a movie or TV show that is the perfect music cue for you?

MP: I like really understated music supervisions, like Succession or Roma—it’s such a beautiful movie, very understated, and there’s no score actually. The sound design is so beautiful. You don’t need music, they played up all the soundscape to score it. And there are songs, but they’re very diegetic, just like, on the radio, very elegant and quiet. I like a reserved, economical hand. Or if they make me laugh with their musical choices, like a bold unexpected choice that makes me giggle.

#maggie phillips #our flag means death season 2 #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #spoiler #our flag means death #ofmd #music #music spoilers

[0ctobre]

Saw the post about your novel getting published. Congrats! Mind sharing your querying stats/process?

Thank you!

Where I'm from (Québec), authors send their full manuscripts directly to publishing houses without using literary agents as an intermediary.

I wrote and edited the novel from January to early June 2023, then let it sit about a month before doing a final editing pass. In late July, I sent queries to five "big" publishers.

I got one "not what we're currently looking to publish" rejection a month later, then another in October, then, in November, an "interesting, but we don't publish YA" one encouraging me to seek publishing houses specialized in youth literature.

With that in mind, I did a second round of queries (8, I believe) and got an offer a month later for a two books deal (I pitched it as a standalone with sequel potential, and the publisher wanted a duology).

The query in question (translated from French):

Dear (...),

I am excited to present my first novel, Luminescence, complete at 70,000 words. It is a standalone with sequel potential that combines mystery and some light speculative elements in an otherwise contemporary world, and is aimed at a young adult public.

Florence, seventeen, can see the future, but only through her own eyes. With her gift, she investigates the recent disappearance of a classmate who pretended to have telepathic abilities.

When her father dies of an apparent suicide, she knows thanks to her visions that he was in fact murdered, without being able to prove it. Forced to move in with her estranged mother and her new family, she throws herself into her investigations, unraveling the secrets of her father and the origins of her power.

As teenagers keep disappearing, she finds the help of others like her, and together, they realize that each of the missing teens also had psychic powers. Racing against the clock, they must try to solve the case before one of them is next.

(Bio)

Thank you for your time and consideration!

#asks #querying #writing

[pharawee]

It's 7 July and as promised, Harikarn Solution (the production company behind Chains of Heart - you might know them better as Maximon Solution but they recently rebranded) posted the first part of the Chains of Heart special ep script.

I guess that means that the special ep really won't happen and that's it for the series.

Which is sad because (as you probably know by now lmao) I love Chains of Heart to bits and I'm not ready to let this series go (luckily there's still Love Puzzle and Art Adore En).

Anyway, the plan was to translate the script word by word but I don't really have the time for that right now (maybe I'll do it later if there's interest? I already have the raw translations and "only" need to edit them) but here's the gist of the script so far:

It's been two years since the events of the series. Sai and Dr Chanyeol got married exactly one year ago and everyone (that is: Sai, Chanyeol, Hin, Phayu & Ken) are meeting up. Ken arrives and immediately Sai and Hin go in for a hug. They want to know how he's been doing because they haven't seen him since the wedding. Apparently, he's lost weight and he's still dwelling on what happened.

Everyone gets drunk. Everyone except for Sai, that is, because Sai is pregnant.

Phayu and Hin are apparently still doing it like bunnies every single day. Phayu says Hin has gained weight. How charming.

Everyone calls Din Lue now because they've accepted that the old Din has basically died - for better or for worse. Still, they'd like to see him again. Sai and Ken especially. Ken says that their fate is and will always be entwined.

Late at night, Ken goes to sleep alone in his room. He's sad and tipsy and he misses Lue but eventually he manages to fall asleep.

A man enters his bedroom (the script identifies him as Lue but we're not supposed to see him directly). Much like in episode 1 he caresses Ken's face. Ken opens his eyes but he's not really fully awake and he's crying. The blurry figure in front of him takes his hand and gives him a ring. Crying and begging for Lue, Ken falls back asleep. The man/Lue kisses Ken's forehead and leaves.

The next morning, Ken wakes up thinking he's had a dream (apparently he's had many of these during the past 2 years) until he discovers the ring. He immediately knows that it was Lue who came to him last night, and he finally decides to go looking for him.

He wakes the others. Phayu and Hin are still groggy. Hin accidentally slaps Phayu's face. They argue and pout. How charming.

Ken and Sai talk alone outside and Sai promises Ken to help. She too wants to see Lue again.

And that's it for part 1 (of three - if Harikarn decides to post the whole script).

#jane watches stuff #chains of heart #chains of heart the series #afaik this is a lot different from the novel #which is nice #they made so many meaningful changes #that all worked out so well #(all things considered) #(and minus the script editing ehhhh) #i'd have loved to seen this filmed 😭 #oh well i'm ready for their next project #i really like their production values

[pendragonthegreat]

dj machale at creature feature weekend!

yesterday i went to gettysburg, pa to creature feature weekend to see dj machale! this was a horror convention so he was there for ayaotd, but he seemed happy to talk about his books with me! following under the cut is a very long summary of all that happened, enjoy reading (or just look at the pictures if you want)

i got two books from my collection signed: my german merchant of death, and my special edition raven rise. he told me a little about both of these books:

on german tmod, he first asked if i was german but i explained i'm just a collector of his books, and i love the cover art for this one... he told me that it's one of his favorites too! i'm really happy to hear that and to have it signed since it's the source of the icon i use most places, including here on tumblr.

he seemed really surprised to see the special edition raven rise, saying he hadn't seen one in a really long time. i had always wondered about this book, and he explained that it was a kind of promotional tool sent to bookstores and libraries before the ninth book came out. he also said that it's basically an ARC, which surprised me because i thought it was just a special dust jacket, and that the actual book was the same as any other raven rise. but i'll have to compare it with another copy to see. will update

he said while signing raven rise, "i'll sign this the way i sign all pendragons" and of course wrote hobey ho... :]

(he also seemed to remember me from the zoom call i had with him back in may after i reminded him!)

after we talked about the books i brought, i mentioned that i watched flight 29 down at his recommendation and he seemed really excited to talk about that show! he told me about how the show was originally only made with 2 seasons, and it wasn't until after high school musical came out (and corbin bleu became more popular) that dj was asked to finish the story and they made the movie. i found this super interesting! then he told me about how he recently went to see corbin in new york, as he's currently starring in little shop of horrors off broadway. he even showed me a picture of them together yayy

after i got those autographs i waited around until his panel, which was mostly about ayaotd. a lot of it was even stuff i've heard before in interviews, but it was still a lot of fun for me! he also mentioned tower of terror. huge for me. and after the panel he played a really corny 90's music video from one of the vhs releases of ayaotd which was really fun to see :)

then was my photo op! this was super fast but i was really hoping to show him my sylo dog tags (i'm wearing them in the pic but not the right way around lol) and he was really shocked to see these too! at first he thought it was from f29d because apparently there were also dog tags made for that show.

then we talked about sylo and he seemed excited to talk about that too! he asked me how i liked the ending and we talked about the movie that never got made and it was soo fun but really fast and in fact the photographer had to cut us off to get to the next person. lol

here's our picture!

this could have been the end but i kept thinking like... it's not against the rules to just get in line at the autograph table again... so i did that.

i was kind of worried he'd be sick of me atp but i think he was pleased to see me again? lol idk. still i tried to make this interaction short so other ppl could talk to him so i just showed him the picture we took earlier (he was really unhappy with the background so i promised i'd tell everyone he didn't pick it lolll) then i asked him if he's working on anything right now and he told me he's still working on getting the paper trail (his next book) out, and he's pitching a horror movie right now that may or may not get made. i got one of the ayaotd prints signed and then i told him i'd be looking forward to his future work and thanked him profusely for his time... and he thanked me for coming... and that was it. okay thanks for reading

#(spins around really fast) #pendrabbles #dj

[chaotic-aro-incarnate]

10 BL BOYS I WILL THROW HANDS FOR

Was tagged by @scarefox for this (technically my main blog but I post my bl stuff on here lol) and am very excited

I imprint on characters like nobody's business so this is a list made for me

EDIT changed the gifs because apparently the way I did it didn't properly link to the creators (only on desktop at least). should be properly credited now

In no particular order

1) Sound (My School President)

Starting the trend of lonely queer teenagers that I get a little too attached to, it's of course Sound. Like I was already a fan of Sound and intrigued by the concept of SoundWin (at the time people didn't know it was going to be the main secondary ship) but when the medal scene happened and Sound gave this so sad ans soft "oh no" look I was gone. That is my son and I WILL fight anyone and everyone for him

2) Nuengdiao (Never Let Me Go)

Another lonely queer teenager I decided to protect. I loved Never Let Me Go so much and Nueng was my special little babygirl and then Our Skyy 2 came out and it was like oh...... I will kill for him. Look I love Nueng and he did nothing wrong and also that scene where he's forcing Palm to put the gun to his head while screaming at him to shoot him leaves rent free in my mind. He's so traumatized and lonely and he's like 18 I would do anything for him especially throw hands

3) Typhoon (Star in My Mind)

Fun fact! I had to stop watching Star in My Mind because I got so unreasonably attached to Typhoon that I couldn't bear the thought of him not getting a happy ending. I wanted him to end up with Dao so bad because it would make him happy and I knew that if I kept watching they would either break his heart OR show that he's actually not that great of a guy, both which were unbearable to me. So I simply cut my losses and live in the fantasy that he got everything he ever wanted.

4) Bai Lang (My Tooth Your Love)

One of those "he just like me fr fr" characters who I would do anything for. He's my specialist little boy and I love him so dearly. Here's to having your trauma swag bewitch the local hot autistic dentist body and soul.

5) Han Ying (Word of Honor)

Talk about my specialest boy. Ying'er is my guy through and through. He deserved so much better and in every WoH fic I have written (they are all still in drafts) he lives and is happy no matter what. He IS my sweet cheese, my rotten solider, my good time boy. I will continue writing him getting railed to the high heavens by Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing like he deserves. He is incapable of being anything other but the goodest boy possible and I will die on this hill

6) Boston (Only Friends)

He is the worst. I would move mountains for him. Enough said.

7) Pluem (Ghost Host Ghost House)

Look this man has been going through it AND he manages to be the like the most flirtatious and romantic guy around? Give me your secrets sir. Also say the word king and I'll do it. This show broke me on so many levels but a lot of those levels were tied to anytime I saw him break down

8) Ye Huo/Fire (Guardian)

A recent (and somewhat obscure) pull as I am currently watching Guardian and was just exposed to his character today but he is my guy and I will defend him to the death. The only weaker point for me than a lonely gay teenager is a self appointed older sibling who sacrifices everything for their younger siblings. I was really like man this guy is an asshole for so long but then the truth of how he was saving the boys at the fighting ring came out and I was like oh no that's my son now and I need him to live and be happy. I have not finished his arc yet so I am scared that it'll be a tragedy BUT he is my wonderful son all the same and I will throw hands for him in an instant

9) That (Manner of Death)

The return of troubled teenagers I need to adopt and protect against all costs. I WILL fight anyone for him even though he's like a rebellious teenager who does crime and I am a strange looking college student who he would not respect but it's the thought that counts

10) Mark/Village Head Ma (Love Tractor)

Why is there a random white man living in rural South Korea? I don't know!!! They never address what he's doing there. But I literally love this man. There's a reason I made him to be my pfp for bl-bracket. Seriously he's the best and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. Best character ever written. In my heart he's got the spirit of Quincey Morris form Dracula in the long tradition of just having a random American man in your story with no explanation

Tagging others!!!!! @saturnskyline @non-binarypal7 @supernovasimplicity @vegussy and anyoen else who wants to!!

There's been so many of these types of challenges/tag things lately that I have not kept track of who has or hasn't done which ones so sorry if you've already done something similar

#fun fact when looking up gifs i kept running into polls for bl bracket #and getting annoyed for filling up the search results #and then remembering that's me lmao

[sammysshadowself]

Post 1, 10/31/23 - 11/15/23

Hey! My name is Sam (or Sammy,) and I'm 17. I wanted to start a sort of daily/weekly journal about my life and what I'm doing, mainly because one of my other friends did the same thing and i thought that was cool :0. I was attending a public school in Virginia for my whole life but, recently, I had to move up northwest to Washington with my uncle, Jack. I transferred schools (I'm not saying where I'm going to school, obviously.) I'm mainly typing here as a sort of blog/schedule. I have some things I need to get off of my mind. Stuff about moving, new friends, and my new school. More specifically, a dream I had both before and after moving here. I was in a carriage, sitting on a wood bench that was facing the horses. In front of me, between the horses, was a cloaked man. To his left was a large cage with a tarp over it. I could hear a faint growling coming from it. The man spoke, "Welcome to the Velvet Room. My name is Igor." There was something familiar about the wooden carriage. I look to my left and right and there were only stars. The universe was around me, existing in the carriage. I remember that he gave me a fortune telling session with Tarot cards. He drew The Fool, The Chariot, and The Moon. "The fool shall use their natural drive to uncover a large secret." I took another look at the carriage I was in and then I heard a bell ring. "Our time is up. We will meet again." I heard that same ringing transition into the sound of my alarm. I don't often have dreams, let alone dreams as vivid as this one. Anyone able to tell what this is or what it means? I've researched Tarot to know what the cards meant. The Fool seemed to represent openness and a new journey, the chariot being drive and enervation, and the moon being secrecy and introspection.

The second dream saw me in the "Velvet Room" again. This dream happened after I moved in with Uncle Jack. "Igor" welcomed me back in his same cheery, almost light and playful voice. "It appears the fool has started their adventure, their leap of faith." The universe around the carriage twinkled, responding to his words, almost affirming them. I recognized one planet amongst the stars around us: Saturn and its many rings. "The next time we meet will be on your own accord." The cage stopped growling and I awoke to the same bell to alarm transition. Any answers are appreciated. But enuf about cryptic dream talk The past 15 days have just been me getting settled into my new life. I've been talking to my therapist about the move. Recently, she's been more open about herself and her personal thoughts too, almost like we're friends and not a mentally ill teenager and their doctor.

Uncle Jack got me my own small apartment. He works for some sort of construction company that specializes in homes and apartments. They also do repairs. In other words, he's like a repair wizard. That being said, the only reason I'm able to have this three-bedroom apartment is because it was deemed "unlivable" by the landlord. It's not unlivable, just nowhere near pretty or polished enough to rent. Apparently, Uncle Jack has a good bond with the owner of the complex. It's pretty dope having not just my own room but my own apartment. Uncle Jack also visits me once a day to ask how I'm holding up and whatnot.

On top of that, there's this kid named Axel who runs the gardening club at school. He is a cool guy and I like gardening too so we got along pretty well. And he's also HELLA good at gardening, especially with such a shabby school greenhouse to work with. He's like some sort of damn magician. The only other person in the gardening club is his boyfriend, Alan. It's a small club and I lowkey feel like I'm third wheeling. Then again, they make me feel welcome.

EDIT: I'm writing this on the 14th of November 2023. Apparently, our principal, Dr. Lindus, plans to cut funding to a LOT of different programs and clubs. This also includes the gardening club, the GSA, the drama department, and more. This will be decided on the 30th of November for sure, but like, what a shitty thing to do??

I met my homeroom teacher, Mr. Conquer (not his actual name but that's what everyone calls him? Idk) and I went home. From that day out, I just attended class as normal and got well acquainted. I'm not used to city life whatsoever (i'm from the western tip of Virginia) so this is like an entirely different setting. I can literally WALK to school that's so cool.

Anywho, hi guys :D I don't know how many people I'm going to reach. Hopefully i reach a witch or psychic who can interoperate my dream for me because I am genuinely at a loss. Thanx for tuning in! See ya soon.

#creative writing #persona #interactive fiction #writeblr #blog

[thatsalrightprettymama]

Thank you @jolovesfandoms for tagging me in this!

I love how small and interactive this community is at the moment, and I thought it could be fun to just sort of get to know everybody a little better!

[credit to @dances-and-dolly-dresses for suggesting a fandom tag game recently]

Were you an Austin, Baz or Elvis fan before seeing the movie? How about after? I was an Elvis fan before the movie, I grew up listening to his music due to all the people in my family that are fans.

What is/are your favorite look(s) that Austin sports in the film?

I swear that man serves every minute of that film! My top three would have to be: The Black Lace shirt and White Squirrel pants (The Ferris Wheel look), The Leather Jumpsuit (68 Special), and The Burgundy Vegas Suit.

Most memorable scene or line?

I forgot this the first time lol. The whole 68 special, but really the scene we're Colonel and Elvis are in the trailer.

What are your top 3 favorite songs on the soundtrack?

Trouble, Fever, Vegas

How many times have you seen the film in theaters?

Twice, something happened that prevented me from seeing it a 3rd time in theatres.

What kind of fan content do you like to create/consume? (fics, gifs, ect)

I like to consume fics, gifs, and edits. Basically everything and anything related to Austin, Elvis, or the film lol. As for creating I like to create fics/imagines even though working full time and being a full time student doesn't give too much time to work on it lol. I've got 4 WIPS for Elvis/Austin at the moment I'm working on lol.

Wherabouts in the world are you from? (be as general or as specific as you're comfortable with)

I'm from East Tennessee, born and raised.

Are you active in other fandoms? If so, which one(s)?

This is a sideblog, so it'll probably only have Austin/Elvis stuff, but I am active in other fandoms on my main blog.

Marvel, Doctor Who, Succession, BTS, Peaky Blinders, DC, and some more.

List 3 fun facts about yourself/your interests.

I like to collect vinyls, I currently have 98 records in my collection. They range from Peggy Lee to Kendrick Lamar.

Yungblud bought me a drink. I like to say it like that, but I was at a private show he did in my hometown, and he bought everyone a drink at the bar.

The only thing I can apparently win in life are concert tickets. I've been to 5 concerts that I won entry to. Yungblud, Matt Maeson, Collective Soul, The Avertt Brothers, and Quacker City Nighthawks.

[Feel free to tag others or just jump in and participate. Just copy, paste and reblog. Let’s get to know some of the awesome Austin/Elvis fans and creators here on Tumblr]

(To those I've tagged: If you already did this, sorry for tagging you in it again lol. )

@vanillasweetness @graziellla @venus-haze @giabelia @lovincherries @kpopgalaxy28

#Elvis 2022 #Elvis #Austin Butler #Tag Game

[popculturebuffet]

Quick Thoughts: Scott Adams Does It Again, More Removals, ReBoot and Halloween Schedule

Hello all you happy ghouls and goblins. It's almost spooky season so that means it's time for the most haunting thing of all.. an old man yelling at the world in a comic strip. Also my halloween schedule

Halloween Schedule:

I've decided to shift in how I reveal my review schedule. I used to keep it on the blog but the combination of how long it takes to edit when this has to change frequently (as I don't book most comission slots in advance), and the fact Tumblr has made it so hard to access that even Kev, my most loyal reader, barely uses it, i'm just going to put them out here every month. As always schedule slippage and what not may apply.

October: 10/2: Garfield's Halloween Monthly Muppets: Muppets Haunted Mansion The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals 10/9: Watchmen: Two Riders Approaching Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes The Owl House: Thanks to Them 10/16: More Than Meets The Eye #2 Paranorman Mission HIll: One Bang for Two Brothers 10/23: Evil Dead 2: Beyond Dead by Dawn Emma Patreon Scooby Doo Poll Winner!

As you can see this year's halloween is less focused but as a result is giving you more spooky goodness for your buck with an all time classic halloween special, the start of a look at the spooktacular hatchetfield series (moved up to concide with Starkid's ongoing campign to hopefully drum up some numbers for stretch goals), more Evil Dead as we take a look at two of Ash's comics, the LONG delayed fan voted on look at paranorman and another poll this time for SCOOBY DOOBY DOO! I watched every movie with my good friend @jess-the-vampire and now you fine folks get to pick from the ones my patreons and jess pick out for you. Poll will be forthcoming.

In non horror news, we have the begining of the end for Owl House, my annual look at mission hill for the keviversary, and more transformers and watchmen. Pretty spooky huh folks?

Scott Adams VS the Environment

So yeah for those who didn't know, and i'm sad to inform you, Scott Adams who created the comic strip Dilbert and highly influenced a medium I love, comic strips.. ended up becoming, or maybe always was and just got more obvious with it in the trump era right wing maga loving douchecanoe. I already disowned him and got rid of all my dilbert when previously the man tried to use a school shooting to promote his side hustle. It's very sad to me a strip I genuinely used to love is now dead to me because it's creator is such a dick.

That being said I can still get some laughs from his behaviors as this morning I read an article. Apparently in recent dilbert strips Scotty talked about ESG's, essentially a way to get corporations to stop being captain planet villians and start being captain planet. Understadanbly being rightwing talking points given shape, form and a popular comic strip, Scott Adams thinks this is stupid and ranted about it in his comic strip

Yeah not only is that as far as I can tell not how they work, and an unfunny shot at necessary diversity, but the second strip is just baffling. Apparently Scott introduced a black man who identifies as white, which is not only very much not a thing, but also clearly designed with the same good faith arguging as my dad saying he could marry his cat if gay marriage passed. It's dumb

But the article, which I highly recommend, shows it SOMEHOW gets dumber. Yest shooting himself in the foot on gay sterotyping, gender queer sterotyping, trans sterotyping and just plain being a decent human wasn't enough. No he also encourages employees to send their employers these strips. The article even mentions wanting to see that because it'd be geninely funnier than either of these

I have my own two cents: Since when has ANY boss ever listened to a dilbert strip. Scott himself pre going off a cliff while yelling MAGA!, menteioned in a collection how bosses would ask employees to take strips down. Big Corpos aren't going to listen to the right thing for GOOD reasons. WHy would they listen to their employees? "Oh wow the guy who draws dilbert is mad at us better get rid of these tax breaks for doing the bare minimum of basic human decency so we don't offend the mighty Scott Adams"

Scott Adams fall is just.. pathetic at this stage. It's shame he's sunk this low but boy is it fun to watch

HBO Max and Netflix remove shows

Whelp SOMEHOW HBO Max isn't done, as it's removing both Tigtone and Lazer Wulf. Both shows I hadn't seen and really wasn't intrested in, but both shows that don't deserve this. It appears nothing is safe. The only possibly GOOD news is that CN shows are popping up on hulu as of late, meaning we MIGHT see some of the abandoned shows pop up elsewhere and they MIGHT be pivoting from Tax Writeoff to just selling their ip's for parts, which isn't GREAT, but it's still better as it least it means Close Enough might land eleswhere along with everything else they threw away.

Netflix is also getting in on it, removing one their first originals and a show I forgot existed and will probably again, Hemlock Grove. Hopefully this isn't the same nonsense and this trend dosen't continue. I mean I wouldn't be sad if I couldn't watch Rake the forgotten Will Arnett comedy you didn't know existed about a guy who gives adivce to people, but it's still weird to just throw out content you've already invested in at best and terrible at worst. It's not AS bad as HBO Max because unlike HBO Max netflix might NEED the tax writeoff as it tries to rebalance books and makes incresingly sketchy decisions, but it's still not great and I HOPE other streamers don't pick up on this.

Reboot early thoughts

Finally because this coudln't get any weirder, my thoughts on the recent Hulu sitcom Reboot which aired it's first three episodes this week. Which is a WEIRD model, as you'd think two would be enough.

Reboot is a sitcom starring the wonderful Rachel Bloom of Crazy Ex Girlfriend, a show I haven't watched but do know for it's charming musical numbers. LIke this one!

... why HAVEN'T I watched this through.

Anyways reboot follows Hannah, an indie darling whose latest film has given her the clout to do whatever she wants, so she pitches to Hulu a reboot of the old sitcom step right up about a couple marrying and dealing with both their precious son and the boys father.

So naturally they get everyone else back on board: Reed Sterling, played to pretentious perfectoin by Kegan Micheal Key whose finally found his second wind after a few failed shows post his best friend and former comedy partner becoming one of the greatest horror directors ever, a theater trained actor who left the show in a huff and now returns assured that original series creator Gordon is coming nowhere near it and leaving his equally pretentious girlfriend in new york, Clay Barber, the formerly drugged out mess, now a burnt out barely functioning but entirely jolly and likeable wreck of a man played by Johnny Knoxville being amazingly deadpan, Bree Marie Jensen played by a beautifulyl unhinged judy greer clearly channeling Cheryl, a primia donna actress turned duchess and Reed's ex with the chemistry naturally still being there, and Zack, a goofy awkward former child star who spent the rest of his career in awful teen films for what i'm assuming is disney channel. Naturally he's played by former Disney Channel star Calumn Worthy, who was on the terrible disney sitcom austin and ally which I reviewed. In the review I mentioned this show and that Calumn would likely do better. And I was right he was capable.. and suprised tha the ended up stealing the whole goddman show from a buffet of far more seasoned comedy actors. Don't get me wrong, EVERYONE here is great from Reed's up his own ass smuggery, to Bree frequently mockign reed to Clay freaked out talking about his Zack's mom gave him an orange slice after sex and called him a good boy and telling Zack not to punch him in the nose as "my septum's hanging on by a thread'

It's Calum who steals the show as he talks about "How cool is it we're all adults who have had sex?" has to constantly remind people who is is and awkardly treis to bond with Clay after Clay sleeps with his mom twice. Worthy is game to not only make fun of his own history but be the charming awkward goofus this series needs. Zack tends to have the best lines.

Of course this being hollywood, Gordon naturally comes back and Hannah nearly quits, as does Sterling. He ends up relenting on it as they ALL need this: Sterling hasn't worked a paid gig in a year (and it was for a hemroid commerical), Bree needs the gig as her divorce was under "kettle law" thus meaning she barely got anything, Clay need sit becaues "bad stuff finds me" when he's not working, and Zack needs it because shockingly teen movies don't like actors who need hairplugs playing teens. Weird given Disney hired a 30 year old once to play a 16 year old. Maybe it was a policy change

So they beg Hannah to come back, allowing the cast to maintain some dignity while still getting the money. That's when we get the big twist of episode 1 and the one that realy makes the show: Gordon, played by the legendary Paul Reiser playing peek douchebag, is Hannah's dad from the marriage before the one he based Step Right Up on and is introducing a new child in the pilot as the long lost child of Reed's character/Gordon's Self Insert to retake the story.

So now we get botht he intresting story of a father trying to come to terms with the crap he did while still being a huge old school douche, his daughter trying not to throttle him, and the rest of the crew dealing with all their shit including an inexperinced reality star gordon hires fresh off fuck buddy mountain (which if it wans't a show before this certainly will be now) , Reed and Bree's sexual tension and as I mentioned Clay nailing Zack's mom who creepily attends al lher sons performances. The cast has great chemistry, the jokes are high and this is set to be one of the best comedis of the season. Go check it out. And thanks for reading.

#team starkid #reboot #scott adams #hbo max #netflix #Youtube

[dilfbatman]

dil ik ur in ur kpop era but if i wanted to get into dc where would i start i don’t trust what the men online are telling me

AUR FIRST OF ALL I’M SO EXCITED FOR YOU TO GET INTO DC!!!!! it has one of my top two dilf’s of all time in it <3 (bruce & toji heyyyyyy) and MFNFNFNFNND kpop era i fear bts have a hold on me that’s stronger than anything i felt before… ANYWAYS

honestly the way i got into dc at first wasn’t through comics but actually tv shows & movies! “young justice”, “justice league action”, “lego batman”, “under the red hood” were some of the first few pieces of media i consumed of dc and they were actually pretty decent! i found myself getting really into them and wanting to know more!

& this is where i really got into fanart & edits & ultimately COMICS! i found masterlists of some of my fav dc characters that people have made which give comics in order + best comics to read! i’ll link some at the end of this for some of my fav characters but i do wanna warn you that for me PERSONALLY comics don’t hit like mangas do so if you’re used to mangas, comics can be a bit :/ either cause of the writing, pacing, terrible storylines & retcons but i digress bc some of them are still fun & cute! ALSO READ COMICS ON readcomiconline.to! it’s a free site and has ALL your fav characters & their comics <3

if you find yourself really getting into a character i recommend finding reading lists bc they are the EASIEST & most comprehensive way of learning abt your favs! for ex: “jason todd reading list”, “dick grayson reading list”, “supersons reading list”, “batfam reading list” & batman… batman is a special one bc his lore is SO extensive dear LORD 😭 i like dan mora’s urban legends run, jorge jimenez had a cute run w supersons, & there’s apparently a WEBTOON of bat family! i haven’t read it bc i got into anime/kpop but my moots really love it!

here’s a comprehensive masterlist of many dc characters: https://comraderecs.tumblr.com/post/18865609991/dc-comic-recommendations

- jason todd (MY HOLY GRAIL): https://dailyjasontodd.tumblr.com/comics

- dick grayson: https://dickgreyson.tumblr.com/post/181828849357/this-list-is-by-no-means-extensive-or-exhaustive

- damian wayne: https://yicruz48.tumblr.com/post/622909569337819136/it-was-a-genuine-question-i-havent-read-a-lot-of

- supersons: https://wonderstrevors.tumblr.com/post/179575583272/the-super-sons-is-the-name-of-the-duo-conformed-by

- batfamily (really comprehensive!): https://hood-ex.tumblr.com/post/172730736323/how-does-one-get-in-to-the-nightwingbatkids

- conner kent: https://stephbrown.tumblr.com/post/175552866201/the-death-and-return-of-superman-1992-1993

- duke thomas: https://batfamilydaily.tumblr.com/post/167779386458/who-is-he-duke-thomas-is-a-vigilante-and-a-member

- bruce wayne: ok so. for bruce specifically since his lore is so incredibly huge dating back decades it’s intimidating to get started for him but if you want you could totally start from the beginning but i found myself just reading from whatever posts i found interesting on @why-i-love-comics (for ex: ghostmaker & batman comic, tomasi’s run, jorge jimenez’s run, dan mora’s urban legends run etc…) also this reading list is really decent so here you go as well! https://uncannycarrot.tumblr.com/post/655621762721136640/so-i-recently-got-back-into-the-batman-fandom

this is gonna sound silly but at the end of the day you get into dc & comics themselves bc they’re FUN! <3 while i personally have many gripes w dc i also loved it so much & still do! at the core of batman & the whole batfam there IS genuine love & a genuine want for family! they’re good people wanting to do good things for the betterment of the world no matter what their moral code is - i love them a lot they’re very dear 2 me! <333 i Hope you have fun reading/watching and if you have any questions PLEASE feel free to ask! :D

(also if you ever want bts/manga recs you know where 2 find me <3 a heehee a giggle) gonna add bts gifs just cause i want to hehe love you mwah

#asks #anaya tag #i didn’t add a lot of other characters bc these were the main ones that i read from 😭 #the way i didn’t add any girls here sorry Women 😑 was in my meninist era reading dc comics 🙏🏼 i Am the problem #also #me at any moment: how do i make this about bts #anyways. assigned you jimin & taehyung stan… you give me vmin energy <3 #please don’t look at jungkook tho or else imma Kill myself . thank you #also sorry if this is unhelpful i really haven’t read comics in AGES nor watched batman related things except for The Batman which was GREAT #but legit. i do Hope you have fun! there are issues w every media but there’s also pluses! i Hope you find more pluses <3 #HAVE FUN BESTIE MWAHHHHHHHHHHHH #off 2 armytwt rn we’re screaming abt the new dvd that came out <33333333333 if you ever get in your kpop era lemme know!