#dystopian Christmas scene

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The scene looked straight out of a dystopian holiday movie as two huge, silvery orbs hurtled toward people on one of the busiest streets of the British capital, propelled by howling wind and driving rain. Cars and bicycles swerved out of the way.

The orbs progressively shed their mirrored coating until a core of white remained, according to videos captured by onlookers and shared on social media.

While many assumed the orbs were giant Christmas baubles that had somehow come loose during Storm Claudio, which hit France and the United Kingdom this week, they were part of a temporary art installation set up in central London to promote a music duo’s new album.

The installation, named “Four World Set” and created by American artist Tom Shannon, was set up Sunday night and meant to be on display until Saturday on St. Giles’s Square, near Tottenham Court Road.

Online, the footage sparked reactions ranging from apparent joy to absolute disbelief, as some wrote songs and poems to orbs running amok.

#giant orbs #London #dystopian Christmas scene

[clowningaroundmars]

punkflower hcs bc i need to see more of them being cute teen boys together.... like, playful and creative and stuff

looong long wall of text under the cut (no nsfw)

♡ miles and hobie definitely exchange art often, even collabing on some punk zines and graffiti pieces occasionally. hobie also makes mixtapes on cassettes and slaps a million stickers on them just for his bf. miles appreciates the kind gesture but reminds hobie that he doesnt have a cassette player. "yet," hobie tells him with a wink :)

♡ miles draws a million little doodles for hobie on scrap paper, post it notes, hobie's gear, hobie himself. ofc hobie loves them all, esp when he gets to go home with his arms and chest covered in stars, cartoons, graffiti, and hearts

♡ miles is a lot more shy about dancing in public than hobie is, but whenever they manage to have any downtime at all hobie will wrap his arms around miles and sway them around. if music is playing anywhere, hobie will bop to it and get miles to join in

♡ hobie's love language? touch. any kind, anytime, anywhere, for any reason. words of affirmation come next

♡ miles' love language? quality time, and he's big on kissing. hobie isnt much of a kisser but loves his sunflower just the same, and does not complain at all when miles places little kisses on his hands, ears or his back

♡ sometimes hobie will be a lil mean to miles just as a flirty thing. just usual teenage boy stuff like kicking miles' sneakers, manspreading to get into his space if they're sitting anywhere together, using his height to bully miles into a corner away from everyone so they can flirt some more, crashing into miles on purpose just to be annoying

♡ anytime they get to go on multiverse missions together they somehow manage to get into the craziest shenanigans. breaking into a zoo to stop a villain from mutating the animals, saving a group of schoolkids on a field trip from a killer robot (?), one time hobie even drove a runaway car to stop it from crashing right into jamaica bay and miles was scarred for life

hobie tries to control the car as he haphazardly swerves it around pedestrians and barely manages to miss a group of elderly people.

miles clings onto his seat for dear life. "HOBIE!! you're gonna kill us man, where'd you get your license from!?" he yells.

hobie scoffs. "license?! i said i could drive, mate, i aint mention nuthin' 'bout no license!"

♡ hobie's universe is set in the 1970's and living in a dystopian police-state means it's too risky to bring back a phone with him, so he's often left out of spiderkid groupchats. miles still tries to keep him up to date on the latest memes and inside jokes though. they also have their own inside jokes too

♡ hobie wouldn't bring a smartphone with him anyways since he's so mistrusting of tech in general. video games, laptops, and "smart" tech mystify him, and smart watches? forget about it. when miles gets one for christmas one time, hobie clowned on his bf so hard the watch was never seen again

♡ that being said, they love exchanging music often so the only piece of technology hobie ever brings back to his dimension is an ancient half-busted ipod (it was probably rio's at one point) filled with music miles managed to download for him that week. spiderman-ing and living as a homeless teen means hobie doesn't get much time to explore genres outside of the UK punk scene and listening to brand new genres is often a trip! hobie finds out he loves drum n bass, grindcore, industrial techno, UK drill, deep house and 90's hip hop

♡ hobie gets miles to make him cool posters for whatever venue he plans on (or doesnt plan lbr) playing at every now and then

♡ rio LOVES hobie. hobie is the perfect gentleman (gentlespider?) around her and often tries to help her around the house when he can. miles... does not enjoy how much his mom favors his partner. jeff is also not so crazy about this smart-mouthed punk

♡ miles and hobie absolutely swap clothing as often as possible, with hobie "borrowing" miles' clothes more often. miles' parents keep commenting on how much of a rockero he looks with all the punk stuff and hobie never returns clothes without having altered them in some way (pins n bits everywhere, a mysterious rip or two here n there, pinned-up sleeves, etc)

♡ miles is absolutely horrible at cooking and feels left out when he sees hobie helping his mom in the kitchen. he desperately tries to learn, but it's a wonder how he hasnt sliced his fingers off yet trying to peel and cut platanos so they can make tostones

♡ for a person who's built like a lamppost, hobie is shockingly graceful with his movements. he always slips around a room like a cat and miles is so jealous of that. long gangly limbs should be a deterrent from moving like That and yet here he is, practically pirouetting around miles for fun

♡ which is a total TRIP when they go out swinging around a city. once the mask is on, every movement hobie makes is chaotic, frantic and unpredictable. spiderpunk and hobie are very different people sometimes

♡ rio often points out hobie's thinness as a typical hispanic mom does ("jóven, pero tu 'ta tan flaco, hobie honey come eat! i have leftovers here!") and miles also agrees that hobie could eat a lil more too. he is always sneaking bits of food into hobie's pockets or bags, saving fries and last slices for his partner. sometimes hobie brings home armfuls of tupperware filled with caribbean food back to his boat

♡ in return, hobie is like a magpie and brings back shiny gifts for them, some handmade stuff too. miles' drawers and nightstand are filled with jewelry, bottles, knickknacks, and other handmade accessories. his walls are filled with collages and zines hobie makes for him and rio bought frames for some of the pieces he makes her

♡ the first person to say "i love you" was miles, but by accident. after realizing it, he was nervous as hell worrying that hobie would clown him to death since he didnt seem like a big romantic. instead, hobie went nuts about it in his own hobie way, writing lyrics about miles' face when he said it, doodling them together more often, teasing miles about it often but lightheartedly. he flaunts miles' love whenever he can

♡ miles has a lethal puppydog face and he KNOWS it! one 🥺 look and hobie immediately folds and gives miles whatever he wants. but not before hemming and hawing about it first, playing up his hesitation just to make miles laugh

♡ speaking of laughter, hobie does Thee Most just to see his bf laugh or smile. he will always goof off in the bg, crack jokes every 2 secs and pretend to get hurt sometimes. hobie is naturally sarcastic and goofs off in general anyways but around miles he dials it up to 200

♡ hobie tries to get miles in on the whole anarchism thing but 1. the texts and manifestos from his dimension are different than miles' and 2. miles is a teen boy. he doesn't know anything about the theory of alienation or effective mutual aid and won't really care at the moment. "mm, you'll learn all 'bout it soon enough, though... eventually," hobie muses

♡ miles is not as big on pet names as hobie is. hobie has like 24984 nicknames for miles but miles mostly sticks to just calling his partner by his name. one day during history class tho a lightbulb moment happens, and when they meet up again miles is excited

"hobie!! guess what, i really got it this time. i have a nickname that i know you're gonna love!"

"spill," hobie says as he throws an arm over miles' shoulders.

"so you always call me sunflower all the time, right? and your name is ho... bee. get it? so i was thinkin' i'm gonna call you 'honey bee' now. y'know, you're not the only one who's got corny ass nicknames! it's good, right?"

hobie has to fight not to grin like a jackass

♡ hobie's sleep schedule is atrocious so whenever miles can manage it, he tries to wrestle his partner into any bed and tucks him in. hobie is touched that his sunflower cares so much about him ♡

♡ miles almost never gets permission to sleep over other friends' houses but on the rare occasions he does, he leaps into portals and goes to visit hobie in his dimension. his fave part of New London is hobie's boat, bc they set up a big hammock for them to lay in, feeling the sway of the boat and letting it lull them to sleep. not to mention that the boat itself is totally badass, and hobie more often than not encourages miles to cover it in graffiti

♡ hobie lowkey (but highkey) loves when miles gets a little bossy, forceful or stern. he loves ribbing miles about it (the "ill do it, but not cuz you told me to" line in mumbattan was a total joke from hobie btw LOL) and saying corny shit in response to a demand, but he loves seeing miles being confident and calling the shots every once in a while. it makes him proud

♡ if they can, miles and hobie try to gather up as much food as they can and take it over to the F.E.A.S.T. that's in hobie's dimension. miles meets hobie's "family" there and gets to know the community, which feels so much more tight-knit and welcoming than Visions. once miles gets over the major jarring differences between his world and hobie's, he finds he LOVES New London

♡ miles and hobie teach each other slang from their countries and time periods, you can't change my mind. miles walks around saying shit like "bloody 'ell" and "septic" all the time. the one time hobie said "deadass" completely unironically, all of the spiderkids DIED laughing

♡ miles learns that EVERY spider is a total dweeb in some way shape or form. even hobie! hobie's awkwardness comes out when theyre in big groups of people. hobie is oddly comfy with performing in front of crowds but when he's invited to parties and tries mingling, it's so... sooo awkward. miles secretly rejoices when he finds out hobie's weakness

♡ i'm an adhd hobie truther and i hc that miles buys hobie the weirdest fidget toys he can get his hands on. along with his switchblade, jewelry, and whatever he stole that day, hobie carries various different fidget toys in his vest to keep boredom at bay

♡ hobie definitely writes songs for miles but takes a very very very long time to actually admit it. miles finally finds out when one of hobie's songwriting notebooks falls open when hanging out in his boat, and hobie comes clean about it. with miles' encouragement tho, hobie makes the decision to add some of those songs into the usual setlist his band performs

♡ if miles ever has time, he tries to attend whatever gig hobie and his band has going on. he loves to see hobie perform on stage, his energy and stage presence is always electrifying

#mine #across the spiderverse #punkflower #miles morales #hobie brown #stupid ass tumblr posted my 1st draft completely randomly while i was in the middle of writing this #so uh if theres any mistakes its cuz i had to rewrite ALLLL of this in my notes app #hope yall enjoy tho ♡ #i am relatively new to this fandom.... kinda? well specifically punkflower #so if these hcs are basically fanon i wouldn't know lol i just skimmed the tag on tumblr recently #im going purely off of Vibes and movie/comic canon #ive seen some good takes in the tags as well and those inspired me too!! #so ye hehehe #these 2 are giving me brainworms my god i havent even written hcs for my other OTP #i should.... probably get started on that since i kinda had fun writing this! #and uh if theres mistakes you noticed at all i also wrote most of these while.... zooted as well. so. yeah lol #spiderverse

[elvenbeard]

◲ Omikuji ◱

V: "Okay, I told you mine, what's yours sayin'?"

Kerry: "Oh, next year's gonna be my year, baby. Every song's gonna go through the roof, gonna get so many new fans, money, fame... And it even says I'm gonna get laid this very night!"

V: "Uh-huh... does it also say 'draw the most specific fortune anyone's ever gotten'?"

Happy New Year from Vince and Kerry and me :3

I mentioned before that Vince isn't very religious or keen on traditions, not a big celebrator of Christmas either. There is one exception though, and that's going to the Shinto shrine on New Year's to draw a fortune. He always went there as a kid with his father, celebrating Hatsumōde, probably the only real bonding moments they ever had. So, when he later returns as an adult for the first time, it was a very bittersweet moment. Similarly, when Kerry lived in Tokyo still, I bet he also participated in this tradition with his family at least a few times, whenever he wasn't on tour or otherwise occupied.

So, back in Night City now, even better to make some new, happier memories together :D

I also made and alt-version (which was my original idea for this piece actually, but for reasons I changed it slightly XD), below the cut, which is more fitting for my personal timeline of events if this scene takes places on New Year's 2077/2078 :3

I hope you like either picture and thanks for reading all my ramblings <3 XD

He's fine, I promise!!! Or he will be, on the way to recovery xD I touched upon Vince getting some kind of treatment/surgery to deal with the Relic post-Sun-Ending in my fic and in some VP before, and at first I actually wanted to just post this version... but he looks so different with his iconic rattail gone, and I love drawing it, so yeah XD Two versions it is!

Also, since Omikuji vending machines are an actual thing, I think they probably have these in Night City as well... and despite all the wonders and horrors of our dystopian future, I like the idea that you still get your fortunes printed on old-fashioned paper so you can tie them on a tree or string if they're bad luck XD The good old clash between tradition and process I love so much about this world.

Good fortune for your 2024, with money, fame, and getting everything else fulfilled that you're into and hope for xDD

#cyberpunk 2077 #cp2077 #cyberpunk 2077 fanart #cp2077 fanart #cyberpunk fanart #cyberpunk kerry #cyberpunk v #male v cyberpunk #kerry eurodyne #kerry eurodyne x v #kerry x v #vincent ezaki #otp: to bad decisions #art by me #I think this is one of my favourite pieces of them I've ever made so far #really happy with their expressions and likenesses and yeah #also when I get around finally to modding clothes again... I wanna make neokitsch recolors for the kimono so badly xD

[invisibleicewands]

Michael Sheen: Prince Andrew, Port Talbot and why I quit Hollywood

When Michael Sheen had an idea for a dystopian TV series based in his home town of Port Talbot, in which riots erupt when the steel works close, he had no idea said works would actually close — a month before the show came to air. “Devastating,” he says, simply, of last month’s decision by Tata Steel to shut the plant’s two blast furnaces and put 2,800 jobs at risk.

��Those furnaces are part of our psyche,” he says. “When the Queen died we talked about how psychologically massive it was for the country because people couldn’t imagine life without her. The steel works are like that for Port Talbot.”

Sheen’s show — The Way — was never meant to be this serious. The BBC1 three-parter is directed by Sheen, was written by James Graham and has the montage king Adam Curtis on board as an executive producer. The plot revolves around a family who, when the steel works are closed by foreign investors, galvanise the town into a revolt that leads to the Welsh border being shut. Polemical, yes, but it has a lightness of touch. “A mix of sitcom and war film,” Sheen says, beaming.

But that was then. Now it has become the most febrile TV show since, well, Mr Bates vs the Post Office. “We wanted to get this out quickly,” Sheen says. With heavy surveillance, police clamping down on protesters and nods to Westminster abandoning parts of the country, the series could be thought of as a tad political. “The concern was if it was too close to an election the BBC would get nervous.”

I meet Sheen in London, where he is ensconced in the National Theatre rehearsing for his forthcoming starring role in Nye, a “fantasia” play based on the life of the NHS founder, Labour’s Aneurin “Nye” Bevan. He is dressed down, with stubble and messy hair, and is a terrific raconteur, with a lot to discuss. As well as The Way and Nye, this year the actor will also transform himself into Prince Andrew for a BBC adaptation of the Emily Maitlis Newsnight interview.

Sheen has played a rum bunch, from David Frost to Tony Blair and Chris Tarrant. And we will get to Bevan and Andrew, but first Wales, where Sheen, 55, was born in 1969 and, after a stint in Los Angeles, returned to a few years ago. He has settled outside Port Talbot with his partner, Anna Lundberg, a 30-year-old actress, and their two children. Sheen’s parents still live in the area, so the move was partly for family, but mostly to be a figurehead. The actor has been investing in local arts, charities and more, putting his money where his mouth is to such an extent that there is a mural of his face up on Forge Road.

“It’s home,” Sheen says, shrugging, when I ask why he abandoned his A-list life for southwest Wales. “I feel a deep connection to it.” The seed was sown in 2011 when he played Jesus in Port Talbot in an epic three-day staging of the Passion, starring many locals who were struggling with job cuts and the rising cost of living in their town. “Once you become aware of difficulties in the area you come from you don’t have to do anything,” he says, with a wry smile. “You can live somewhere else, visit family at Christmas and turn a blind eye to injustice. It doesn’t make you a bad person, but I’d seen something I couldn’t unsee. I had to apply myself, and I might not have the impact I’d like, but the one thing that I can say is that I’m doing stuff. I know I am — I’m paying for it!”

The Way is his latest idea to boost the area. The show, which was shot in Port Talbot last year, employed residents in front of and behind the camera. The extras in a scene in which fictional steel workers discuss possible strike action came from the works themselves. How strange they will feel watching it now. The director shakes his head. “It felt very present and crackling.”

One line in the show feels especially crucial: “The British don’t revolt, they grumble.” How revolutionary does Sheen think Britain is? “It happens in flare-ups,” he reasons. “You could say Brexit was a form of it and there is something in us that is frustrated and wants to vent. But these flare-ups get cracked down, so the idea of properly organised revolution is hard to imagine. Yet the more anger there is, the more fear about the cost of living crisis. Well, something’s got to give.”

I mention the Brecon Beacons. “Ah, yes, Bannau Brycheiniog,” Sheen says with a flourish. Last year he spearheaded the celebration of the renaming of the national park to Welsh, which led some to ponder whether Sheen might go further in the name of Welsh nationalism. Owen Williams, a member of the independence campaigners YesCymru, described him to me as “Nye Bevan via Che Guevara” and added that the actor might one day be head of state in an independent Wales.

Sheen bursts out laughing. “Right!” he booms. “Well, for a long time [the head of state] was either me or Huw Edwards, so I suppose that’s changed.” He laughs again. “Gosh. I don’t know what to say.” Has he, though, become a sort of icon for an independent Wales? “I’ve never actually spoken about independence,” he says. “The only thing I’ve said is that it’s worth a conversation. Talking about independence is a catalyst for other issues that need to be talked about. Shutting that conversation down is of no value at all. People say Wales couldn’t survive economically. Well, why not? And is that good? Is that a good reason to stay in the union?”

On a roll, he talks about how you can’t travel from north to south Wales by train without going into England because the rail network was set up to move stuff out of Wales, not round it. He mentions the collapse of local journalism and funding cuts to National Theatre Wales, and says these are the conversations he wants to have — but where in Wales are they taking place?

So, for Sheen, the discussion is about thinking of Wales as independent in identity, not necessarily as an independent state? “As a living entity,” he says, is how he wants people to think about his country. “It’s much more, for me, about exploring what that cultural identity of now is, rather than it being all about the past,” he says. “We had a great rugby team in the 1970s, but it’s not the 1970s anymore and, yes, male-voice choirs make us cry, but there are few left. Mines aren’t there either. All the things that are part of the cultural identity of Wales are to do with the past and, for me, it’s much more about exploring what is alive about Welsh identity now.”

You could easily forget that Sheen is an actor. He calls himself a “not for profit” thesp, meaning he funds social projects, from addiction to disability sports. “I juggle things more,” he says. “Also I have young kids again and I don’t want to be away much.”

Sheen has an empathetic face, a knack of making the difficult feel personable. And there are two big roles incoming — a relief to fans.

Which leads us to Prince Andrew. “Of course it does.” This year he plays the troubled duke in A Very Royal Scandal — a retelling of the Emily Maitlis fiasco with Ruth Wilson as the interviewer. Does the show go to Pizza Express in Woking? “No,” Sheen says, grinning. Why play the prince? He thinks about this a lot. “Inevitably you bring humanity to a character — that’s certainly what I try to do.” He pauses. “I don’t want people to say, ‘It was Sheen who got everybody behind Andrew again.’ But I also don’t want to do a hatchet job.”

So what is he trying to do? “Well, it is a story about privilege really,” he says. “And how easy it is for privilege to exploit. We’ve found a way of keeping the ambiguity, because, legally, you can’t show stuff that you cannot prove, but whether guilty or not, his privilege is a major factor in whatever exploitation was going on. Beyond the specifics of Andrew and Epstein, no matter who you are, privilege has the potential to exploit someone. For Andrew, it’s: ‘This girl is being brought to me and I don’t really care where she comes from, or how old she is, this is just what happens for people like me.’”

It must have been odd having the prince and Bevan — the worst and best of our ruling classes — in his head at the same time. What, if anything, links the men? “What is power and what can you do with it?” Sheen muses, which seems to speak to his position in Port Talbot too. Nye at the National portrays the Welsh politician on his deathbed, in an NHS hospital, moving through his memories while doped up on meds. Sheen wants the audience to think: “Is there a Bevan in politics now and, if not, why not?”

Which takes us back to The Way. At the start one rioter yells about wanting to “change everything” — he means politically, sociologically. However, assuming that changing everything is not possible, what is the one thing Sheen would change? “Something practical? Not ‘I want world peace’. I would create a people’s chamber as another branch of government — like the Lords, there’d be a House of People, representing their community. Our political system has become restrictive and nonrepresentational, so something to open that up would be good.”

The actor is a thousand miles from his old Hollywood life. “It’d take a lot for me to work in America again — my life is elsewhere.” It is in Port Talbot instead. “The last man on the battlefield” is how one MP describes the steel works in The Way, and Sheen is unsure what happens when that last man goes. “Some people say it’s to do with net zero aims,” he says about the closure. “Others blame Brexit. But, ultimately, the people of Port Talbot have been let down — and there is no easy answer about what comes next.”

#Michael Sheen #Times #Interview #Nye #The Way #A Very Royal Scandal

[justforbooks]

Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Japanese musician whose remarkably eclectic career straddled pop, experimentalism and Oscar-winning film composition, has died aged 71.

As a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra alongside Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto created joyous and progressive electronic pop in the late 1970s and early 1980s, alongside solo releases. He acted alongside David Bowie in the 1983 film Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence and composed its celebrated theme, the first in a series of film scores including Oscar-winning work in 1987 with David Byrne and Cong Su for Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor.

Sakamoto had twice been diagnosed with cancer. In 2014, he took a year off from music as he recovered from throat cancer, describing the illness as “the most harsh, physically painful time in my life”.

In January 2021, he announced he had been diagnosed with bowel cancer, saying: “From now on, I will be living alongside cancer. But, I am hoping to make music for a little while longer.”

He was born in Tokyo in 1952, and began taking piano lessons aged six, later attending Tokyo University of the Arts to study music. He trained on early synthesizers, and enthused by everything from Debussy to Kraftwerk, began working on various musical projects, including with Hosono and Takahashi. After Sakamoto released his 1978 solo debut, Thousand Knives – playing melodies that harked back to traditional Japanese music on electronic equipment – the trio realised their vision for a Japanese disco-pop group, Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO).

The group became a huge success in Japan – in 1980, two of their albums stayed at No 1 and No 2 in the charts for seven weeks, and they had seven Top 5 albums during their career. “Accidentally the three of us became very popular,” he remembered in 2018. “Walking the street in Tokyo, people pointed at me. I hated it.”

Their English-language lyrics helped them cross over into the US, where they appeared on the TV show Soul Train, and their electronic production influenced early hip-hop and electro scenes. Michael Jackson covered their song Behind the Mask and intended to include it on Thriller, but a royalties disagreement prevented it.

Their track Computer Game was also a Top 20 hit in the UK. YMO went on hiatus in 1984, though occasionally reunited for releases and reunion concerts.

Alongside YMO, Sakamoto continued releasing solo albums including 1980’s B-2 Unit, another influence on the robotically funky sound of electro that also foreshadowed other dance music styles. After focusing purely on solo work, he forged further connections in the west, collaborating with musicians including Iggy Pop, Robert Wyatt, Laurie Anderson, David Sylvian and more. Sylvian contributed Forbidden Colours, a vocal version of one of Sakamoto’s most famous works, the theme to second world war drama Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence. Sakamoto also starred in the film as a prisoner of war camp commander.

Following The Last Emperor (in which he also had an acting role), he collaborated with Bernardo Bertolucci again for The Last Buddha, and with Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence director Nagisa Oshima for Gohatto. He also scored two films by Brian De Palma (Snake Eyes and Femme Fatale), plus Wild Palms for Oliver Stone, High Heels for Pedro Almodóvar, the 1990 film adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale, and more. His 2015 score for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film The Revenant was nominated for Golden Globe, Bafta and Grammy awards. In 2019, he composed the music for an episode of dystopian TV drama series Black Mirror. He took no further acting roles, aside from appearing as a film director in Rain, a music video for Madonna.

Sakamoto released a steady schedule of solo releases throughout the 1990s and onwards, and wrote a piece for the opening ceremony of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. In 1999 he debuted the multimedia opera project Life, in collaboration with artist Shiro Takatani with contributions from Bertolucci, Pina Bausch and more. He and Takatani extended the concept into installation work from 2007 onwards.

Also in 2007, he began the ambitious Schola project, curating 17 compilations of global music ranging from composers such as Ravel and Beethoven to Japanese pop. It was released via his record label Commmons, set up in 2006, which has also released work by artists including Boredoms and OOIOO.

In 2002, he began a fruitful partnership with German musician Carsten Nicolai, who used his Alva Noto alias for four collaborative albums of minimalist electronica.

Sakamoto was also an environmental campaigner, opposing the use of nuclear power, and creating the forestry project More Trees to enable carbon offsetting.

In 1982, Sakamoto married Japanese pop musician Akiko Yano, a touring member of YMO and a successful solo artist in her own right. They split in 1992, and eventually filed for divorce in 2006. They had a daughter, pop singer Miu Sakamoto.

Since the early 1990s, Sakamoto has been in a relationship with Norika Sora. Their son Neo Sora contributed to a documentary, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda, directed by Stephen Nomura Schible in 2018.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

#JUST FOR BOOKS #Ryuichi Sakamoto #in memoriam

[persephoneflouwers]

Besties, you seem to be about fic recs lately, so… Do you have a list of fics you would love to see as movies/tv series?

Best fic request ever!

I don’t want to sound repetitive but I can’t not mention all the fics in my bookmarks (x) and actually the most famous ones. We had a teaser of TTS with adore you lol but it would make such a pretty movie. Escapade could be the best gay romcom of this century with the right director and screenwriter. Young&beautiful of course… Bloodsport is the perfect tv series Twitter would support like crazy (more movie-able than unbelievers in my head). Buuuut *clears her throat* here’s my list, based on absolutely zero competence to analyse critically any screen adaptation of books and fics, but these fics just have something I would love to be brought to life, little details and/or descriptions that just would work for me.

Fic I would love as movies

ferricadooza! by suspendrs: this is already a cult for me. Set in 1963, homosexuality is illegal in the UK, Louis owns a gay bar, and Harry’s an underground boxing champion with an unfortunate enemy.

Come as you are by stylinsoncity: this story was meant as a director cut or something. The setting, the dialogues, the characters are so good and very original (especially Louis!). I think it would make a great movie (and there’s a sequel too, so you’ll have the fan service too lol).

Love is a rebellious bird by 100percentsassy, gloria_andrews: They are Orchestra prodigies, who start with the wrong foot. Lots of angst and lots of music talk. 

Love after the end of the world by mercurial-madhouse ( @mercurial-madhouse ): a dystopian AU must be a movie. This one is the best I’ve read in fic form yet! 

No pressure, no diamonds by karamelised: is it even my fic rec post if i don’t mention this fic? Look, it’s just pure enterteinment at some point. Thieves, heigh tech heist, ex to lovers drama. I love it.

You and all of heaven’s of other wonders by devilinmybrain ( @thedevilinmybrain ): Harry is an angel. Like a real angel sent from heaven to protect Louis. And Harry loves humans... maybe a bit too much. Heaven can’t have that. 

Don’t want shelter by kingsofeverything ( @kingsofeverything ): Louis and Harry were childhood friends, but then something happens and they stopped talking. When Hurricane Nicole threatens the coast, they end up stuck together in their families' old vacation home that they co-own. During the storm, and in the months after, they’re both forced to reevaluate their history and what they mean to each other.

Cocaine for breakfast by guccikings:  Louis has drug addiction, sent away from his beloved party-scene to recover. There, he discovers that small towns have just as much access to drugs as London did, plus something even better that he just can't get enough of. That something is a boy with green eyes and bouncy curls named Harry Styles. this gave me skins vibe, a bit of beautiful boy now that I think about it. 

Like cranberries on a winter evening by  4ureyesonly28: no cause this would make such a perfect Christmas movie 🎄

On the edge by zanni_scaramouche: Louis is a figure skater and Harry is a Hockey player, they met at the Olympics. You’ll fall in love with them, the dynamics between them are just so cute and well described. Very unique setting too

Strangers Stars by shaylea: the safari fic. It’s probably the slowest slow burn I’ve ever read lmao but I think it would work as a movie. There are a lot of wild activities happening and obviously as a road trip the scenes would be full of incredible landscapes. Academy award for the photography incoming!

Drink and the devil had done the rest by fel:95: this is an Italian fic translated in English. Gay pirates cinematic universe? I’m ALL in.

Soft hands, fast feet, can’t lose by dolce_piccante: I think the world deserve a story where a quaterback falls in love with the boy from the ballet club. 

Wild and unruly by 100percentsassy, gloria_andrews: this fic makes my heart melt. The cowboy fic featuring Louis in the vest of  paralegal assigned to pressure him into selling his land and pregnant cows (i love cows so much).

Walk that mile by purpledaisy: the classic road trip. God, they’re both insufferable, yet so relatable 

Victorian boy by audreyhheart: I read this long time ago, but I think it would work as movie. As the title suggests, it’s an historical book. Beautiful dresses, galateo, horses and the prettiest landscapes. Louis is an aristocrat who acts like a dandy. Love him

Into the blue by zarah5: the scuba diving fic! this would be funnnn

Someone to fly home to by kingsofeverything: This authore works are sublime, so literally anything would do. Silver fox Louis!!!!! Ex to lovers!!!! but also angsty and romanticly mature.

mine would be you by crinckled-eyed-boo ( @crinkle-eyed-boo ): this is a tough one, tons of angst, jealousy that made my stomach churns. The drama of it all would make a good movie 100%

Nothing but you on my mind by nonsensedarling: Royal AU with a little bit of spice. 

If you read them and want to talk about, hit me up! 💖

#angie readers corner #fic rec #larry fic rec #fic as movies #is a producer consultant for movies or tv series lurking on tumblr? #i would pay with my own money for come as you are #and ferricadooza! #god how much i loved that fic #casella di posta numero 32

[ktsphere]

for the fic rec ask game! 4, 18, 30 :)

Wahoo I'm going into my bookmarks for this!!

I could not limit myself to one per category, sorry not sorry. Have 3 of each!

Fandom-wise, a lot of these are going to be Willbond-adjacent Turns out they're all Willbond adjacent

Ratings-wise, yeah, this is mostly explicit 😁

4. Recommend a fic for a rarepair!

The Re-Education of Alan Bigsby by dothewritething and Redangel228

Sequins (short film), Explicit, Alan/original male character, homophobia

This series is not complete but oh my god is it hot. Alan is the homophobic dad in the short film. He has probably under a minute of screen time, but he's played by Ben so ficcers gonna fic 😁 (also read everything else by these authors. Actually this holds for every fic I've recommended here.)

Party Lines by wreathed

The Thick of It, Explicit, Adam/Emma, canon-typical twattishsness, drunk hate sex

They hate each other. The characterisation here is perfect, and the bickering throughout is so funny. Also it's really hot.

Once Upon A Fuck by BurningManwich

Tooty's Wedding, Explicit, Tooty/Peter, first time

Smut giving us the story behind "I can't believe I only got to fuck you once."

18. Recommend something with your favorite trope.

One of my all-time favourite tropes is Only-One-Bed. Especially when they sleep together before they're actually together-together, and double-especially when it leads to Problems later.

adored (and adored 2) by hounds_of_love

BBC Ghosts, Explicit, Pat/Cap, Teachers AU

I'm always always going to recommend these (but I expect you've read them already!) (and go read hounds_of_love's entire back catalogue if you haven't)

It's enemies-to-lovers, but they're enemies for dumb-dumb reasons. Which is so fucking delicious. They're so petty. They're so stupid. I love them.

Christmas by xnumb_little_bugx

The Thick of It, Explicit, Adam/Fergus

It's idiots-to-lovers-to-idiots-to-lovers, and again there's only-one-bed. The carpark scene has no right being that hot.

he who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence by masterofgallifrey

BBC Ghosts, Not Rated (I'd rate it at least mature), Thomas/Cap

There is so much repression. I don't know what else to say.

30. Recommend an AU fic!

Land to Light On by sistermichael

BBC Ghosts, Mature, Cap/Havers, Academia AU

*It was bloody Torremolinos.*

It's a brilliant AU, with so much character (but also they're sharing a bed).

Purr-gatory by Ghibraryghat

BBC Ghosts, Teen, Gen, Cat AU

This is complete insanity but I love it so much.

Secure Beneath the Watchful Eyes by GroteskBurlesque

The Thick of It, Mature, Jamie/Malcolm, Dystopian AU

I haven't read this for a while (time for a reread?) but I remember this being sooo fucking intense. I think I cried. From the comment I left, I Did Not Put It Down.

#fic rec #kt.txt #lemme know if you read any and what you think! #ghosts #ttoi #tootys wedding #sequins

[blue-ravens]

David Ogden Stiers, Major Winchester on ‘M*A*S*H,’ Dies at 75

David Ogden Stiers, left, with Harry Morgan and William Christopher in a scene from “M*A*S*H.

By Anita Gates (04 March 2018)

David Ogden Stiers, the tall, balding, baritone-voiced actor who brought articulate, somewhat snobbish comic dignity to six seasons of the acclaimed television series “M*A*S*H,” died on Saturday at his home in Newport, Ore., a small coastal city southwest of Salem. He was 75.

His death was announced on Twitter by his agent, Mitchell K. Stubbs, who said the cause was bladder cancer.

Mr. Stiers joined the cast of “M*A*S*H” in 1977, when Larry Linville, who had played the pompous and inept Maj. Frank Burns, left the show. The series, a comedy-drama set in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War, required a foil for its raucous, irreverent, martini-guzzling leads, Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) and B.J. Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell), and Mr. Stiers’s imperious Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester III seemed to fit the bill.

Winchester’s upper-class Boston priggishness, however, turned out to be balanced by impressive medical skills, a heartfelt appreciation of the arts, real wit and a surprising level of compassionate humanity. Winchester was, unlike Frank Burns, a worthy adversary.

From the beginning, Mr. Stiers said, he felt confident about playing Winchester. “It’s just a matter of isolating the traits” from others in his own personality, he told The Salt Lake Tribune in 1977. But he confessed to one definite difference between himself and his aristocratic character. “Where he wears a smoking jacket to bed,” he suggested, “I often wear nothing but socks.”

The role earned Mr. Stiers two Emmy nominations (in 1981 and 1982). He was nominated a third time, in 1984, for his lead role in “The First Olympics: Athens in 1896,” a dramatic mini-series.

In a statement after his death, Loretta Swit, who played Maj. Margaret (Hot Lips) Houlihan on “M*A*S*H,” called Mr. Stiers “my sweet, dear shy friend,” adding, “Working with him was an adventure.”

Mr. Stiers, right, with Mike Farrell and Alan Alda on the set of “M*A*S*H” in 1980.

David Allen Ogden Stiers was born on Oct. 31, 1942, in Peoria, Ill., the son of Kenneth Stiers and the former Margaret Elizabeth Ogden. The family later moved to Eugene, Ore., where David graduated from high school.

After briefly attending the University of Oregon, he headed to California to pursue an acting career and worked with the Santa Clara Shakespeare Festival in California for seven years. In the late 1960s, he moved to New York to study drama at Juilliard.

There he became a member of John Houseman’s City Center Acting Company, making his Broadway debut with the company in 1973. He appeared in “The Three Sisters,” “The Beggar’s Opera” and three other plays, which ran in repertory.

He continued to appear on the New York stage in the 1970s and returned to Broadway later in his career, playing a beloved wartime general in the 2009-10 holiday run of “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.”

Mr. Stiers as Reverend Brock in the musical “Tenderloin” at City Center in 2000.

Mr. Stiers had made his film debut with a small role in Jack Nicholson’s counterculture classic “Drive, He Said” (1971). That year, his voice was heard as the announcer in George Lucas’s debut feature film, the dystopian sci-fi drama “THX 1138.”

Voice roles went on to become an important part of Mr. Stiers’s career. He was in the cast of about two dozen Disney animated films, including “Lilo & Stitch” (2002), as the villain Jumba Jookiba, and “Beauty and the Beast” (1991), in which he was the voice of Cogsworth, a strong-willed pendulum clock. That character, often described as “tightly wound” and “ticked off,” suggests to the Beast at one point that he woo his love with “flowers, chocolates, promises you don’t intend to keep.”

Other movie work included roles in “Oh, God!” (1977), “The Man With One Red Shoe” (1985), “The Accidental Tourist” (1988) and four Woody Allen films. (He was a peculiar hypnotist in Mr. Allen’s “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion.”) His last screen appearance was in “The Joneses Unplugged,” a 2017 television movie about technology overload.

Like his “M*A*S*H” character, Mr. Stiers was a devoted fan of classical music. He conducted frequently and was the resident conductor of the Newport Symphony Orchestra (formerly the Yaquina Chamber Orchestra) in Oregon.

He never married. Some reports have suggested that he is survived by a son from an early relationship.

In early 2009, at 66, Mr. Stiers announced that he was gay and “very proud to be so” in a blog interview that was reported by ABC News. His secrecy, he said, had been strictly about the fear that openness about his sexuality might affect his livelihood. Now he regretted that.

“I wish to spend my life’s twilight being just who I am,” he said.

#i've not been able to read it since 2018 and i kinda needed to cry over it again #and sorry to kick off october on a sad note but i wanted this preserved somewhere that wasn't behind a fucking nyt paywall #shoutout to 15ft who always has my back <3 #also thanks to finding this again i found a copy of 'tenderloin' cast recording on ebay so maybe i'll upload that later #i mean i'd like to unpack literally everything in this but tbh i just want to present this without comment and just let it be #david ogden stiers #mash #blue's post

[maddie-grove]

Little Book Review: General Fiction Round-Up (May-December 2022)

Maddaddam by Margaret Atwood (2013): In the final volume of Atwood's environmental dystopian trilogy (preceded by Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood), the survivors of a manmade eco-fascist plague, along with a population of genetically engineered humanoids, must try to make a life in the ruins. Atwood is one of my favorite authors and, while I generally prefer her non-speculative fiction, I really enjoyed the whole trilogy. She's really engaged with the ideas she explores (mostly related to GMOs and income inequality) and grounds them vividly in everyday life. I especially like the way the genetically engineered humanoids (the Crakers) process the world around them.

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (2019): In the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood tells the story of three women in the same universe: a Commander's daughter in Gilead, a daughter of Mayday operatives living in Toronto, and Aunt Lydia, first seen "training" Handmaids in The Handmaid's Tale. I liked The Handmaid's Tale in high school, but I can't say I came away wanting to know more about that world...yet, as it turns out, I totally did want to know more about the pastel horrors of an elite Gilead girlhood. The audiobook is also top-notch, with Ann Dowd, Ann Whitman, and Bryce Dallas Howard doing the three main POVs.

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link (2005): In nine "short" stories (many of them are quite long), Link writes about absurd things happening in mundane settings. Pretty Monsters, another short story collection of hers with some overlap, was one of my favorite books I read in 2014, but this time I wasn't feeling it. I'd already read the three best entries: "Stone Animals" (about a nebulously haunted house in a suburb of NYC), "Magic for Beginners" (about a mysterious TV show and a teen boy whose father is maybe trying to murder him via writing a novel), and "The Faery Handbag" (about a girl whose grandmother carries around an entire lost country in her purse). The others never really came together. I might have lost my taste for whimsy.

Dune by Frank Herbert (1965): In the very distant future, fifteen-year-old Paul Atreides has to move to a different planet for his father's work, and it only gets worse from there. I resisted reading Dune for the longest time because it sounded as dry as a desert planet where you have to reabsorb your own urine to survive. However, it fucks. I loved the layers of power dynamics and game-playing, especially in the scenes with Lady Jessica. Evil, horny Baron Harkonnen and his weirdly tragic nephew Feyd-Rautha were also great. I didn't like it so much after the time skip, though, and I think I'll give the sequels a pass.

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix (2021): Paranoid and reclusive after being targeted twice by Christmas-themed killers, Lynette Tarkington's social life consists of a support group for "final girls" (women who have survived grisly massacres that were adapted into horror movies). I never quite got on board with this one, for two major reasons. The first is that I was irrationally annoyed by the idea that horror movies were seemingly all one-to-one true crime stories in this universe. That's on me. The second is that Hendrix never managed to convince me that most of these women had ever had a significantly positive relationship with each other. This novel could've been a Toast article.

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix (2014): Amy, a cash-strapped and unhappy twenty-something working at an IKEA knockoff, is offered a transfer to a better store if she'll stay after-hours to investigate some strange recent happenings. This isn't my favorite Hendrix novel; however, it is the fucking scariest. The characterization isn't as rich as it is in most of his other novels--I would describe it as efficient--but the pacing is effectively brisk and the nature of the fake-IKEA haunting almost made me shit my pants.

We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix (2018): Kris Pulaski, once a guitarist/songwriter for up-and-coming heavy metal group Dürt Würk, now lives a life of resignation as a hotel night manager. Meanwhile, her ex-bandmate Terry Hunt is still a massively successful rock star after going nu-metal...and suddenly Kris has reason to believe that he did something truly sinister to make that happen. After My Best Friend's Exorcism, this is my favorite Hendrix novel. He's unusually moderate in putting his heroine through the mill, both in terms of physical peril and self-flagellation, and balances it with the joy she finds in her creative life. The otherworldly threat she faces is nicely chilling, and I loved the bittersweet ending.

Stranger Things: The Other Side by Jody Houser (2019): In this tie-in comic to Stranger Things, we see the first season from twelve-year-old Will Byers's point-of-view as he struggles to survive in the Upside Down. There's some good characterization of Will and a few cool visuals, but overall it's pretty inessential. The writing is kind of flat and sometimes awkward, and the art style is overall muddy and unappealing.

Mysterious Skin by Scott Heim (1995): Neil and Brian, two kids growing up in the same midsized Kansas town, both have life-altering traumatic experiences in the summer of 1981. Brian doesn't remember what happened, and comes to believe in the following years that he was abducted by aliens; Neil knows exactly what went on between him and his sexually predatory Little League coach, but that doesn't mean he understands it. Several years ago, I saw the 2004 movie version, which is amazing both as an adaptation and on its own terms: nuanced, well-paced, beautifully acted and shot, and faithful to all that's good in the source material. Unfortunately, this did slightly lessen the impact of the (also stellar) novel.

Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss (2018): In the early 1990s, working-class seventeen-year-old Silvie spends a summer holiday in a Northumberland village, reenacting Iron Age life with her churlish history buff father, her downtrodden mother, a pompous anthropology professor, and three of his students. It's promising to be more miserable than your average family camping trip, between the lack of modern tech/food and Silvie's father's domestic tyrannies, but are we getting into The Wicker Man territory? This is a tense, deliciously creepy, and lyrical little novella that I finished in one evening because it was so exciting.

Normal People by Sally Rooney (2018): Withdrawn rich girl Marianne, despised at home and at school, starts a no-strings-attached relationship with working-class Connell, who's handsome and bright but kind of a follower. Thus begins an on-again, off-again thing that will follow them through college and change them forever. I really liked this romance between two troubled yet essentially sensible and sweet college students, although it's a bit slow at times. I especially enjoyed the first time that Connell and Marianne's power dynamic flips; she's kind of an It Girl at university, while he's out of his depth.

Summerwater by Sarah Moss (2020): Several families "enjoy" a miserable summer holiday by a Scottish lake over the course of a rainy day. We get the perspectives of several vacationers--judgmental moms, crotchety old men, worried newlyweds, teenagers desperate for wifi and privacy, anxious little kids--with several dark hints that someone will meet a terrible fate. Moss's writing is pleasurable to read and often funny, but I needed a damn flow chart for these people.

The Brittanys by Brittany Ackerman (2021): Brittany, a Floridian high school freshman in 2004, navigates life in her gated community and her suburban high school, hanging out with her friends (most of whom are also named Brittany) and wearing low-rise jeans. Maybe I was unduly influenced by the author being named Brittany, but this novel reads like a bunch of fond adolescent memories with the occasional gesture at some larger meaning. It feels like the author couldn't decide between trying to do an emotional mid-oughts coming-of-age story (like Lady Bird) or a slice-of-life portrait of a certain type of high school experience (like Fast Times at Ridgemont High). The stakes aren't high enough for the first (the biggest through-line is that Brittany's BFF Brittany might be a lesbian but neither of them seems to know it) and the scope isn't wide enough for the second. I think the book would've been better off as, like, two short stories.

#little book review #maddaddam #the testaments #margaret atwood #magic for beginners #kelly link #dune #frank herbert #the final girl support group #horrorstör #we sold our souls #grady hendrix #stranger things: the other side #jody houser #mysterious skin #scott heim #ghost wall #summerwater #sarah moss #normal people #sally rooney #the brittanys #brittany ackerman

[ryan-shepard-writes]

Finished the rewrite of my prologue and thought I'd toss it into the universe. HERE is a link to the previous prologue. Sadly Tumblr hates me and got rid of certain things like Italics, so it looks a bit different than the doc I'm working on-- which I will gladly share if anyone is interested.

@athenixrose thought you might be interested jaidjwjdh

~

PROLOGUE: MISFORTUNE

Ryan sighed, staring at the old library computer monitor as it glared pointedly back with near-blinding artificial light. The screen wasn't blank—thankfully, writer's block wasn't the issue here. No, the current issue was editing. Editing, and the fact that no one else but he himself had even seen the screen's contents so far. He had no idea if it was any good. He had no idea if it was even palatable. But… he loved it. He wanted to make this work. He so desperately wanted to give this part of himself to the world.

“Well…” Ryan mumbled, scrolling up the hundreds of pages of his beloved monstrosity. “A very wise woman once said that the beginning was a very good place to start.”

It was rough— It was a first draft, after all. But… there was potential here. He knew there was. There had to be something, here among all these words and notations to himself and future beta readers…

And so he began to read.

~

~

~

~)O(~ Now, for the main event… ~)O(~

~

~

~

As with many stories, ours begins on a typical day. Dreary, but typical for a day on AltGaia in the P.C.E (Post Common Era). Outside, the air was thick, wet, and quite frankly smelled like rotten eggs. Typical, given the state of the atmosphere (of course the planet was in decline, what did you expect, a utopian romance?). Lilly Fierstele, from an old family, was blessed enough that, on this typical day, she awoke in her own bedroom, in her own home. Such a home was conveniently equipped with air filters, as was, of course, typical for someone of her upper-lower-class status. Though in meager amounts compared to our own time, she had soap, water, food, clothes, and other typical human things. Indeed, typically, Lilly had the fortune of being who she was, if nothing else. Typical of her lot in life, most of her family was long gone, but at least she was considerably comfortable as she looked after her family’s assets, until she was old enough to be blessed in marriage, have her own children, and then die herself. She was, typically, privileged in her own way, here in her gray house of bare essentials.

And yet, for such a typical, blessed day full of dystopian upper-lower-class privilege, Lilly did not have one thing. That one thing, was any idea why she was awoken in the dead of night by the frantic sounds of shrieking— that of both humans and tearing metal.

Gifted with a curious nature (typical of any modern or postmodern heroine. I wonder if I should have made her… sensible instead?) and lack of foresight (also quite typical. Her personality might be a little too much like a tree shaped christmas cookie.) she quickly got out of bed and made her way to the door, which remained in its typical, un-broken state. Thankfully, she found her own home to be quite alright, and deduced that the sound must be coming from outside. As sensible as any teenage girl woken up at three in the morning, our typically uppity lass put on the small half-mask that would shield her lungs from the worst of the sulfuric smell of the air, squared her scrawny little shoulders, and slapped the button that opened her door.

And immediately wished she hadn’t.

Before her stood a scene that could only come from a child’s nightmares. An exceptionally large, green, scale-covered humanoid was in the middle of her street, batting at a crowd of her neighbors with a tree— they, apparently having either more sense or time than her, had wandered out of their homes in their specialized anti-sulfur suits (Too specific? Fix in post.), rather than pajamas. The great creature's shoulders were as wide as the average cargo-hauling vehicle (quite big) and he would probably have to duck if he were standing in her house. His gravelly voice came out sounding eerily like metal grinding into stone, impatiently repeating the same phrase over and over.

"Bahg da ii Si’Endir!”

Typically enough, not to mention conveniently, Lilly was somewhat of a scholar. She'd spent many of her lonely days reading and studying, and therefore knew a handful of words from her old books that contained languages thought lost. This particular language was known as Etlun’ugi, or Earth Tongue (Needs a better translation). While she had no idea what this thing was, she could at least pick out two "words", or rather a conjoined phrase. Si’Endir, Girl Human. This thing apparently really wanted someone like her.

But alas, as she stood there patting herself on the back for decrypting a simple descriptive phrase, the giant green... "man" (Let’s call him Bob, shall we? Dosn’t matter if it’s corny, no one’s going to read this but me.) had noticed Lilly and ceased his caterwauling (I refuse to chill out with the thesaurus). Bob, seemingly a man of action, tossed his tree at the crowd, who had women he apparently wasn’t interested in, and turned in the girl’s direction. “Kalla!” Cried Bob, before barreling over in her direction.

Lilly could barely comprehend what was going on before she was suddenly being roughly dragged along. “Run, you idiot!” Said the boy—or maybe a man?—as he half carried her through the yard and down the road. “It’s hard for them to turn when they run in this form! His muscles restrict his movement!”

She had half a mind to comment that she really didn’t give a damn about why he couldn’t turn, but the other half of her weary mind was blank as she stared. Her new acquaintance wasn't any more human than Bob was.

He wore black pants, a sleeveless black shirt, and dark leather shoes that she could only describe as slippers. (But we aren’t so ignorant in the ways of footwear, so we’ll call them moccasins, which is indeed what they were.) His skin, she could tell from his wrist-guard covered arms and shoulders, as well as the hand which gripped her forearm like a vice, was a coppery tan. Atop his head, swiveling to catch the sounds of the night, were a pair of wolf’s ears the same color as his long, tied-back black hair, just as out of place on his otherwise human form as the dark and bushy tail that stuck through a slit in his pants. She couldn’t see his face from this angle but, typically enough, he was handsome. The unstrung bow in his other hand and the fully-loaded quiver hanging from his hips almost went unnoticed.

Almost.

Time slowed for our Lilly. Thanks to her precious books, she knew the creature that had put himself between her and a now-confused Bob. This was a Daekin. An animalistic faery-like creature, whose people had been living on this planet long before her own. Creatures that were powerful. Creatures so magical that, after inciting a war, had completely disappeared from the world. And, as was typical to the story being told thus far, a Wolf Daekin, called a Rorvan, was the strangest and most powerful kind of non-mythical Daekin.

“Rorvan.” She said, thinking this to be some kind of profound revelation. The man— twenty, she thought, he can’t be more than twenty, though he most certainly was at least as old as the dirt she stood on— flinched at the word but made no comment.

Instead, he watched as Bob turned, aimed deliberately, and began running towards them once again. The Rorvan, unphased, picked our heroine up with naught but an arm around her waist and neatly stepped from Bob’s path. It was almost like a dance, the movement was so outrageously casual. With a sigh, he set her down. “I was hoping to follow him and find out what a Slic’th would want, trying so hard to come back to this... place. Seems I found my answer.” he said, putting the wooden portion of his bow at his instep and stringing it in a fluid and practiced motion. Politely, as an afterthought, he glanced at her. “And what might your name be, human? I’m called Keir.”

The human eyed the weapon nervously— did he plan to fight something as large as Bob with that, or was it meant for her?— “My name is Lilly. Lilly Fierstele. Eighth of my name, nonsequential, Caretaker of the Fierstele-”

“Please do not start naming your entire bloodline. Your lives are so short that we’d be here all night, and honestly I do not have that kind of time, Miss Lilly. I ask because he very specifically appears to want you, and I’d like to know why.”

Our human could just stare blankly. Was this guy even real? She wanted to hope not. She'd made the mistake of assuming that even beasts had manners.

Quite suddenly, Bob stopped. He squared himself up, and then with more of his odd grunts, began yelling at them. His voice seemed stunted, as if it was a chore for him to get his stone-like body to make sound. Lilly could only make out a few words, Fitae, meaning Fate, Si'Endir, and Rorvan—and Rorvae, the plural form of the word. Keir seemed to take in his words, then chuckled. He talked quickly enough that even in a normal voice, Lilly had trouble keeping up. Bob vehemently repeated himself.

At the end, the Rorvan sighed. “Miss Lilly, apparently you are nothing but trouble. Our friend won’t back down... It seems he feels the need to keep you prisoner and take you to his people. I’m assuming you don’t want that to happen?”

Oddly enough, her mind decided that this moment above all others was too much. Promptly, her eyes closed and her body crumpled as she fell into a faint.

“Of all the...” Keir grumbled, barely catching her before she hit the ground, glancing at the crowd of humans that had grown larger and were beginning to shout. As far as he was concerned, this whole mission was a mess. Typical.

Bob, in their own tongue, had informed him that this particular human girl was important to a Slic’a'th'i prophecy. This girl needed to return with Bob. This human was special. This human was Fate touched, and would make the wolves regret every single transgression they ever made…

Blah, blah, blah.

Typical.

Faster than sight, Keir drew his bow and loosed arrows—arrows which Bob hadn't even realized the Rorvan had grabbed before they planted themselves into the scaled man's broad forehead. It was hard telling what the green giant thought. Probably something iconic and full of wisdom, like ‘wow, this guy is fast!’. Either way, Bob didn’t have long to think about it. As the momentum of 5 arrows to the face sent him reeling back, the scaled behemoth found himself dead long before he hit the ground.

Sorry Bob. But you probably deserved it… Maybe.

The human crowd could only gasp as Keir was suddenly crouched next to Lilly, bow unstrung once more. After a few seconds, most of them ran. Not that it mattered, they were obviously no concern to someone who could down a giant with nothing but a handful of arrows. (RIP Bob)

Keir sighed, struggling with himself. If he left the human here alone, someone not as friendly as him would probably show up again. If he took her home with him, it would spark controversy, and probably cause the Slic’a'th'i to merely change tactics. He hated politics. But his father had sent him to follow, get intel, and come home with news. Leaving her would be irresponsible, and he’d probably be sent back for her anyway. But a human in Daekin lands? His people saw humans in little better light than they saw cockroaches, as was typical of such different cultures. Humans had fought and tried to kill Daekin, all for some burning and doomed territory, and the general populace would probably not be in favor of harboring such a cursed creature. She would need to be constantly watched, protected, in even what he considered to be good and friendly company.

What an ironic little cliche.

Supporting her with one hand so she sat up, he put down his bow stave and gently lay his other on her neck, feeling his meager magic surge. He was taught this particular magic by his father, only just a day ago; it was a binding and tracking mark. Magic that was old, but effective, and left a physical mark on the body. Conveniently, unless he took it off, he would now forever know where she was and how she was feeling. Others would smell and sense him on her, now. To creatures who lived by magical laws and were kin to animals, this was as powerful a protection for her as a constant guard, and barely used any power on his part. To humans, though, it would probably be nothing more than a scandalous tattoo. Typical barbarians.

It was odd, though, how father had known...

Having resigned himself to his Fate, he picked the girl up and, to human eyes, vanished.

You get the feeling that you’re in for a wild ride.

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~)O(~ Other Side ~)O(~

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“I feel like the narrator’s a little obnoxious, but… that’s kind of the point, so I guess I’ll leave that for now…” the young man murmured, eyes flitting across the screen. “I think it’s decent, though, for a prologue? At least for a draft? Maybe later I’ll go and add more to it, but it seems like a good breaking point. So I guess the first chapter will just start h—

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Į̴̔̚D̷͕̀̽Ǐ̷̧̠̹̍̈́O̷͙̗̳͋͑T̴̻͖͘ͅ

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~)O(~ Far away, in the L̷̜̕ȋ̵̟c̴̱͛ḧ̴̪́’̶̫̔s̷̛̬ ̶̡̅W̴̦̃ǫ̴̾o̸͕͘d̶̩̓ ~)O(~

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The air was calm and uncommonly clear of fog or mist, replaced instead by dark shadows and a wayward breeze that stirred the typically cluttered forest floor. Slightly muggy air was held there, by trees that rose like skyscrapers to block out the light of whatever stars might dot the night sky. Instead, the forest seemed to be lit by ominously glowing patches of swamp, and the occasional firefly. The smells of late Summer flooded the senses of every creature in that dim place… unless, of course, you were standing too-near the cloaked figure that silently picked his way down a well-used game trail. Around him, the air was cold and flavorless, but thick with magic that concealed the identity of that wandering soul.

He traveled leisurely, with neither a weapon nor a sense of urgency that you might have had if you’d traveled this same path in the dead of night. And yet, not a single being of fur or feather allowed themselves to be caught in his path.

As though they instinctively avoided that chilling aura that surrounded him.

After a few more minutes of travel, he broke into a hidden clearing. The thin trail continued on, as did he, through a tiny meadow of white and purple lilies, leading to a low mound covered by the beautiful flowers. At the base, our odd figure stopped and knelt in respect… then removed his hood, allowing his wolf's ears to twitch as the light breeze hit them.

"It's been too long, mother. How are you doing? It's me, C̶r̵o̷w̷," he said to the grave, "I know I haven't been visiting as often as I should be, but it was getting harder to sneak through the line. Father's people took back the Rivend Fort, and we haven't reclaimed it quite yet… the bend in the river there makes it difficult for our people to cross unnoticed. I have a plan in place to come in from the other side, though. We'll retake it in due time…"

His voice trailed off into silence, falling into the gloom like a leaf to the ground. He seemed to contemplate what else to say, gently fingering a wilting flower.

After another moment, he gave a soft hum and continued. "Speaking of battles… this may be drawing to a close soon. Father has called a temporary truce, and I'm being asked back to the castle for… 'peaceful negotiations'..."

The breeze picked up for a split second, causing the flowers to shiver, and he chuckled. "I know. It's most certainly a trap, or some plot to try to trick me into submission, but I must go. It feels like something is changing... And it's been far too long since I've seen little Keir— though I suppose he won't be so little anymore. It's been almost twenty years since the night I left… the night you left, mother. And I'm stronger, now, even compared to how strong I was back then. Father won't be the one pulling the strings in this campaign for much longer. Keir and I will get through this with both our hides intact. You can count on it… mom."

He smiled as another breeze flitted through, standing amongst dancing flowers. Taking a deep breath, he held out his right hand as his eyes glowed silver. His cloak blew out, suddenly, as a rush of chilled air seemed to release from his frame.

"It's been too long since I've done this, and your flower garden is beginning to wilt… I'll fix that. You deserve to rest among something beautiful... Lunari, queen of the wolves."

Wisps of hazy mist flowed daintily from his outstretched palm, circling and caressing patches of flowers all throughout the beautiful graveyard. It covered everything, hiding the clearing from sight… then condensed, sinking into the ground with a hum of rain as the rejuvenated flowers glowed softly.

And like that, the cloaked figure was gone. But an ethereal sculpture of frosted ice replaced him; a white wolf, howling her song to an unseen sky.

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T̸̛̫̈h̶͙̖͑e̵̯̚͝r̸͔̣͛͗e̸̖͐̚.̷͖̆.̸̱̟͆͂.̷̝͝ ̸̛͍T̴̤͓̂h̸̭̟̔̄a̸͆̾͜t̵͓̓'̵̨͇̃̒ș̴̮̃ ̶̱̈́̉m̸͙̿͝ő̵͚r̸̛̫͎ĕ̸̜̝͒ ̴͍͋̋l̷̦̕ȉ̴̡̜̎k̵̘̭̈́e̶̙͑ ̴̂̔͜i̵̪̇ť̶͇́͜.̴̢̆

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—ere.”

#fate's crystal majesty #ideas #science fantasy #writeblr

[stickystarspectrumtroll-ocs]

This is Sedrick Sebastian Simon. Age somewhere between 19 and 23. I’m leaning towards 20. He’s an assassin or something. He’s very nice and has a very cheerful and friendly demeanor at just about all times, including while he’s killing people. He’ll be in the middle of a whole bunch of armed enemies and amiably tell them how he’s so sorry but he has to kill them, and they can drop their weapons and let him do it quickly or they can do this the bloodier way--and then when his enemies make it clear it’s gonna have to be the second one, he goes “I was kinda hoping you’d say that :-)” and whips out his own weapons and just goes HAM on them, dodging blades and bullets with insane skill and going absolutely nuts with his own, having the most inhumanly wide and completely unhinged grin on his face the whole time and tossing out quips and taunts and whoops of excitement and just so clearly enjoying himself so much. He’ll have a person tied to a chair and be talking to them in a polite and friendly tone, telling them it’s nothing personal, he just needs to put food on the table for his family, and killing people just so happens to be the best way he can do that, given he’s good at it and he enjoys it, and then he’ll end the speech with a cheerful “goodbye! ^v^ “ and happily put a bullet through their brains and splatter their blood.

This is Isabelle Simon. Age somewhere between 12 and 15. I’m leaning towards 14. She’s also very nice, and very cheerful and bubbly. She comes off very innocent. She’s a huge nerd. She does fricked up science experiments in her free time. She’ll be injecting weird chemicals into live rats, eager to see the results, and when the rats sprout huge bluish-greenish tentacles that start slapping weird goo all over the place and make horrifying noises, she only grows more and more excited, bouncing up and down with wide sparkling eyes and squeeing and quickly taking a bunch of notes and asking a bunch of questions. Think of that classic image of a mad scientist laughing maniacally against a background of lightning as they’re raising the dead or whatever, but instead of overtly sinister and unhinged, the laughter is brimming over with the most totally innocent absolute delight and genuinely sounds like a little kid on Christmas, even as the scene is hair-raising and grotesque and freaky as frick. That’s her. She probably makes cute-ish robots that help out around the house and can also annihilate you if you’re a threat to those that live there.

They live nearly underground in some hood in a possibly-dystopian city probably where non-humans (like them) are especially under threat particularly from those in power. They look out for each other and care for each other. They’re very protective of one another. They are each other’s favorite people in the world. They support each other in all their morally questionable endeavors without any qualms about what either of them is doing.

They’re not gonna be part of the OC squad and I probably won’t post about them a whole lot, but I love them and I will talk about them on occasion. 

#sedrick #isabelle #information dump

[ignitingwriting]

Igniting Writing ‘Return’ Contest 2022, Submission by Colette

Paradise I stumble out of the coach, my hand clutching the rail to steady myself. As I hop onto the ground, I can't hide my excitement and I’m sure Myriam, who is following behind me lugging my heavy bag, can feel it radiating off of me. I've been waiting a long while to return to this place and I haven't stopped nattering on about it to my friends for weeks. They're positively bored of my talk, but that's just because they haven't actually experienced it for themselves. Once everyone's off the coach (well not quite everyone - Jeremy's still at the back trying, and failing, to detach himself from the seatbelt), I gather my thoughts. Beaming, I look around at my friends who I've come to know and love. Most of them look bored, although I’m sure they're all secretly glad to be out of the house. One person stands out - Emmeline, with her beaming smile and rather fetching neon sun visor. I knew I could count on my best friend to lighten the mood and match my excitement. She's rallying the group, ushering them along and punching the air, ready for adventure. Myriam tugs at my sleeve, a silent reminder that we must get going. I nod to show her I've got the message, mutter a quick, "Wait here," and clamber back onto the coach to retrieve Jeremy, but it turns out he's already freed himself and is walking down the coach to greet me. "Finally mate, how long did it take you?" I ask him, but I smile and in return he chuckles, knowing that I'm only playing with him. All of us assembled, I wave my dazzling rainbow umbrella in the air like I've seen the tour guides do in London. Jack cries out, "Careful!" and I pretend to whack him with the umbrella, but he knows it's all in good heart and swats it away. The group assemble behind me, Emmeline by my side and Myriam bringing up the rear to make sure no one decides to make a quick run for it. There's a certain air about today, a frisson if you will. We walk slowly, savouring the moment. Emmeline and I link arms and someone in the group starts to whistle a little tune. By the time we've reached the little rickety old bridge that crosses a babbling brook, we're all humming along, quite content with life. Someone starts singing 'It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas' and in unison, we all shout "JE-RE-MY!", elongating each syllable. He's obsessed with the season and while I do like Christmas myself, we draw the line at singing crooners in June. The walk seems longer than I remember, although I know it's not far to go after the bridge. I look up in anticipation at finally seeing it again and I know Emmeline can feel it too. She squeezes my arm gently and I return the gesture, grateful for her company. "Alright everybody, we're nearly there!" I announce and the bubbling chatter dies down. Emmeline releases me and the group huddle around behind me. I take a step forward to push away the brambles that hide the clearing. No one follows and I'm grateful that they’ve allowed me to have my special moment. As I duck under the undergrowth, I'm nearly twitching with excitement. I look up, expecting to see the scene of my dreams and instead... I'm disappointed. Let down. Underwhelmed. Confused. Where once was luscious green grass, grand old sweeping willows swaying gently in the summer's breeze and little chirping crickets… there's emptiness. The only word that can describe this place now is brown. Dark, murky, muddy brown. The grass has died back, draining the woodland floor of colour, and in its place is a squelchy, unappealing bog. No longer do bluetits sit on the trees, singing their cheerful song. Instead, a large, pompous seagull screeches before dive bombing into the bog. It emerges, its beak trapped in the plastic rings that once held together beer cans, the only evidence of a long-forgotten late-night party. Where once bees would have sucked nectar from vibrant flowers to pollinate other nature reserves, faded crisp packets and charred cigarettes lie. It's a dystopian scene that I see before me. Where has the scene of those summer days spent frolicking in nature gone? The place where I first found my love of nature and nurtured that love every single day. Where I met my first best friend and we made daisy chains, sitting cross-legged in the lawn, promising that these chains were a sign of our ever-lasting friendship. Sitting on the dry-stone wall, face warm in the sunlight, where I shared my first kiss. This place is a place of firsts, but I never thought it would be a place of lasts. No longer will children play here, carefree and joyful, running through the meadow with their arms stretched wide. All of it, gone. And for what? I’m jolted out of my contemplation by the jarring sound of a sudden crack! I turn around, fighting my way through the clearing, to see Jeremy lying on the floor at an uncomfortable angle. "He’s just had a fall, it looks like he's broken his ankle," Myriam explains. I'm crestfallen. As if this day couldn’t get any worse! "Don’t worry about me, love, carry on," Jeremy struggles to sit upright but manages to tell me. "Was it all as you had remembered?" I try to keep my composure but emotion takes over me. I slump down on a nearby fallen tree and burst into tears, my sobbing rhythmical. Emmeline approaches, "Deep breaths, come on now. That will do you a world of good." I gulp in large vats of air and I ended up hiccupping. "Now what has brought this on, then?" my best friend asks. From behind me, I hear a voice. "Err, guys, I don't think it was supposed to look like this," Jack says and the others rush to see what he's pointing to. They probably think I'm silly, dragging them all this way to look at a rubbish heap, but I know that this used to look like paradise. I manage to strangle out a reply. "It didn't… it used to be so… beautiful. But now…" I take another large gulp of air, "it looks… horrible. Oh, what has happened?" Myriam's the one who speaks up. "I think it’s the effects of climate change. It's degraded the nature reserve and it looks like people have started using this area for, err, other activities. No wonder the animals don't want to live here anymore. Their home's been destroyed." "My heart's been destroyed," I mutter under my breath. Just then, Emmeline approaches me and looks deep into my eyes. I know that look - she's thinking of a plan. I shrug my shoulders as if to say, 'what?' Gently, she speaks to me, quietly so the others can't hear. "Well as I see it, you have two options. You can either give up and despair at what once was. Or you can put your mind to it, rally the others and we can restore the reserve to its former glory. And you've never been one to give up, have you?" A smile tugs at my lips in response to her words. Emmeline's right, of course. She always is. Taking a deep breath, I hoist myself up off the log and clear my throat. "Everyone!" I call. "Gather round, gather round." The group shuffle over, their faces a mix of disappointment and confusion. "Now, this nature reserve used to be brimming with wildlife. A safe haven for all who sought refuge. As you can see, that is no longer the case. But, after some wise words of encouragement, I have decided that we will, together, work to improve this area so it's brimming with beautiful nature. Who's with me?" At first, it's just Emmeline who responds, punching the air and shouting, "Yeah!" Then Myriam joins in and soon the whole group's whooping and clapping, eager to give back to the environment, to create a special place where nature reigns supreme. Elated, I grin. "Right then people, let's get to work! While we're walking back, I want you to be thinking of what part you can play in this project. On the coach back, we can share our ideas and come up with a plan of action." Jack heaves a dramatic sigh, mock-annoyed at the workload. Emmeline smiles, I think because she’s glad to see me back to my old self. We all start to troop off but hear, "Err, a little help here guys?" It's Jeremy - of course! How could we have forgotten about him? Jack picks him up by the shoulders, Myriam takes his feet and Emmeline does a grand old job at guiding them through the woods. I hang back and take in the sight of my beloved rag-tag group. With them on my team, I know that we can return this nature reserve back to what it once was, a paradise full of tweeting birds, chirping crickets and luscious grass. Together, we can do anything. One year later That was my gran, Lilith. I'm her granddaughter, Myriam, who, with the rest of her friends from the care home, took her to the nature reserve where she used to play as a child. She was never one to give up, my gran. That's why, since she peacefully died in her sleep eight months ago, a vase full of the first flowers we managed to grow on the nature reserve next to her bed, I've decided to carry on her legacy. Emmeline and I are co-leaders, organising the care home group to make sure we can finish what my gran started. And that's what we’re doing today. It will take many years for this nature reserve to return to its former glory, the paradise that my gran remembers, but today is the first sign of improvement. Gran had already planted many wildflowers in the first few months of the project, but today we start on the trees. All of the care home residents are here today, those who can helping with the tree-planting. While we hope to plant many trees in the reserve, there's one special tree that we will plant first. The willow tree, gran's favourite, right in the centre of the reserve where it can watch all the flowers and grasses spring up around it and the insects and birds gradually come back to inhabit it. Jack and Jeremy stumble along, carrying the sapling carefully. They place it in the ground and Emmeline uses her spade to pack soil around it, then gives it a water with the pillar-box red watering can her and my gran purchased together. Next goes the fence around the tree, to protect the vulnerable sapling from animals that might have a go at it. Finally, it's my turn. I take a deep breath and step forward, my hands gripping the plaque tightly. Everyone watches, in contemplative silence. With trembling fingers, I attach the plaque to the tree fence. I step back, checking that the plaque is level. Emmeline comes over to me, and squeezes me tight, whispering to me, "Well done. She would have been proud, love. I'm proud. In fact, we are all proud of you.” Afterwards, she turns towards the group, punching the air in her signature style and the celebrations begin, whooping and clapping, surrounded by the promise of what’s to come. I hang back before joining the celebrations, taking a moment to myself. Emmeline's right, gran would have been proud of me. My eyes find the plaque and I read the inscription: In loving memory of Lilith Rivers 1943-2021 Who inspired us to return this nature reserve back to paradise and knew the importance of valuing our natural world

#igniting writing #return #teen writers #writing for teens #creative writing #library #wokingham #writing group #writing club #writing challenge #writing competition #writing contest

[lamajaoscura]

#this latest season of Doctor Who is really getting out of hand

[denimbex1986]

'What’s All Of Us Strangers about?

In a desolate spot of London, Adam (Andrew Scott) has an encounter with his illusive neighbor Harry (Paul Mescal) which begins to impact his entire perspective on life. A Romantic relationship develops between the two however, Adam is met with recurring memories of his past drawing him back to the town and childhood home he grew up in, here his parents appear to still live there, as they were on the day they died, 30 years prior.

Director Andrew Haigh on his perspective of All Of Us Strangers

Haigh describes the film as a ‘spectral meditation on love and loneliness, and a deeply personal film, one infused with his own feelings about childhood, parents and relationships’ with Variety Fair (2023). This is evident in Haigh’s decision to use his childhome home as a set to build what I’d describe as an almost liminal feeling to significant moments in the film, highlighting the nostalgic undertones present throughout certain scenes. According to Haigh, not long before production began, he visited his childhood house, lived in by him and his family up until the age of around seven years old, finding that almost nothing had really changed.

“The owner agreed to let us film there, he hadn’t really decorated it in 30 years, so all these memories came flooding back. And then we used my old photos to make it look almost exactly as it had. It was so emotional for me, but it was also cathartic. It was a chance to re-approach my past.” — Haigh, A.

Paul Mescal takes on another ambitiously new film plot to his career

After the latest release starring Paul Mescal & Saoirse Ronan, FOE (2023) a dystopian, sci-fi infused drama, the decision to star alongside beloved actor Andrew Scott in a queer love story riddled with love, loss and anything else one experiences in-between, is an incredible deviation to his breakout role as Connell in the television adaptation of best selling novel normal people. However, according to director Andrew Haigh, he states the chemistry both between Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal was instantaneous on set and was a very easy choice when it came down to casting a film that requires a huge level of vulnerability, passion, understanding and honesty in its portrayal.

“There was chemistry between the two of them literally the second I saw them together,” Haigh said in an interview with Vanity Fair. And in terms of the sex scenes, “Both of them were pretty fearless. There was no sense of them being afraid of approaching those scenes. They knew how important they were.”

Andrew Scott, our Fleabag priest blesses us with his performance

What brought immediate attention to this film was undoubtedly the belief in Andrew Scott’s ability to understand and portray the complex nuances of falling in love, sexuality alongside nostalgia-driven grief. We’ve seen actor Andrew Scott’s diverse acting range in just one television series alone being the iconic Fleabag (2016–2019), co-starring as the love interest to writer and lead actress Phoebe-Wallace Bridgers as a priest with wit and his own vices.

Don’t have any interesting plans Christmas? Not to worry…

All of Us Strangers is set to be released in December 22nd, so prepare yourself for the influx of those who’ll also be spending their holiday season booking out cinema’s to be the first to witness what I predict to be a cult-classic that will impact the stories told in films to come in the next decade.'

#Andrew Scott #Paul Mescal #Andrew Haigh #All of Us Strangers #Fleabag #Phoebe Waller-Bridge #Foe #Saoirse Ronan

[andrewmoocow]

What You Never Knew About Fooly Falls (part of it just being stuff I just came up with)

Ian Ramirez gets his name from Ian Worrel, art director of Gravity Falls.

Jorgé's real name is Joseph, but everyone calls him Jorgé because that's what Pacifica called Soos back in the day.

The idea of Soos and Melody having seven kids came from the Mabel's Guide to Dating short, where Soos says he'd ideally have seven kids for each day of the week to love.

For the epilogue scene of Ride on Shooting Star, Stan Jr. is voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch (Ichigo Kurosaki, Adam Park, Izaya Orihara, Giyu Tomioka, Lelouch vi Britannia, Rossiu Adai) and Natsuki Hanae (Tanjiro Kamado, Ken Kaneki, Jaco the Galactic Patrolman, Cuphead, Tai Yagami, 9S), while the older version of Abby is voiced by Colleen Clinkenbeard (Erza Scarlet, Monkey D. Luffy, Princess Hibana, Marie Mjolnir, Riza Hawkeye, Momo Yaoyorozu) and Nana Mizuki (Ann Takamaki, Hinata Hyuga, Tamao Tamamura, Lan Fan, Michella Watch, Cheelai, Sana Sunomiya).

At some point prior to the beginning of Fooly Falls 2, Waddles unfortunately passed away from old age. He lived a pretty long life too, so Mabel made sure her precious piggy would be forever immortalized in a stuffed pig she made for Tyrone, which is where Waddles II came from.

I recently learned that according to Alex Hirsch in 2020, the 45th President of the United States in Gravity Falls was Old Man McGucket. Thus, I shall retcon my Donald Trump joke to be that Trump still became president after McGucket and Joe Biden but before Maki Kitaki, making him president between 2025 and 2029.

Dipper and Pacifica maintained a stable romance with each other throughout their teenage years until they were 18 years old, when Pacifica realized that Dipper still held a torch for Wendy and didn't hold it against him. Besides, she planned on dating Mabel just in case.

Ezra Chiu was the product of Candy experimenting on an anonymous sperm donation to effectively create her own super-soldier, as I revealed in A FLCL Christmas in Gravity Falls.

As I implied in Ride on Shooting Star, Haruko came from a broken home on her dystopian home planet of Wasprus, but it wasn't always that way. Wasprus was yet another planet enslaved by Medical Mechanica to do their bidding, and Haruko's mother Rihanna Raharu led the resistance against the company's top brass to free their home planet from MM's tyranny. Unfortunately, the rebellion failed and Rihanna was later killed by her drunken husband Reagan. All of this shall be further elaborated upon in Rick and Haruko.

Speaking of which, when Haruko was saved from Wasprus's destruction by Atomsk thanks to the timely intervention of Rick Sanchez, back when he was a member of the Flesh Curtains alongside Birdperson and Squanchy, that was when Haruko's obsession with Atomsk began developing. This, combined with Rick being as bad an influence on her as he would eventually become with Morty, would cause Haruko to betray Rick during an undercover mission as an officer of the Galactic Space Patrol Brotherhood. In the process, a Naked Focal Point sucks Haruko up and drops her off in Gravity Falls, where she would meet a younger version of Commander Amarao. The rest will be revealed soon.

Gwen is a skilled golf player, no doubt she was trained by her aunts Mabel and Pacifica, and also plays tennis with Arnold. She also shares her father's love of BABBA and has caught him singing Disco Girl only to start singing with him.

Much like Wendy before her, Leia also has her own friend group of rambunctious teenagers. We got Robbie V and Tambry's twin daughters Robin & Roxie Valentino, who are cheerleaders at Gravity Falls High School and the polar opposites of their parents, Clayton, a terse and aloof but easygoing cowboy-looking fellow, and Johnny, who is kind of the Thompson of the group except he has a bit more of a spine. Ezra fills the Robbie role of the group. Speaking of which.....

Tyrone and Ezra do not compete over Leia's feelings the same way Dipper and Robbie did over Wendy, I am too focused on wholesome found family dynamics to even consider a love triangle. Instead, I implied that Tyrone is Ezra's ultimate wingman.

In the era of the Fooly Falls 2 epilogue, Ford would eventually die of a heart attack at, you guessed it, 92 years old in 2045, just like Bill predicted. However, just like Stan, death isn't enough to keep Ford down and he lives on as a ghost watching over the other Pines.

Around that time, Abby would start taking home a few gold medals in high school gymnastics, while Stan Jr. would befriend a lonely & sullen boy named Masaki Aofuji, who claims he can see strange ghost-like creatures when no one else can. Junior believes him though since this is Gravity Falls we're talking about, and also relates to Masaki since he feels like he hasn't found what makes him special yet unlike his older siblings. However, things would soon change when Junior, Abby, and Masaki are taken by Harumi Araisho to the mysterious Tsuganei Tower to try and blow it up, prompting Tsukata Kanda to contact Dipper to stop their plans while a certain three-sided scourge of Gravity Falls plots to use Tsuganei Tower as a tool for revenge. (possible hints towards a FLCL Shoegaze adaptation starring Stan Jr. and Abby intensify)

Preston Northwest ultimately didn't care that Pacifica was marrying a girl, but he did take issue with the fact that she was marrying Mabel, whom Pacifica made life a living hell for, out of every girl in Gravity Falls. Pacifica didn't care however, since she had already cut most of her family out of her life aside from a few cousins she was neutral towards.

There is at least one autistic person among the next-gen characters, I just haven't really narrowed down who it could be. On one hand, Ezra gets incredibly flustered with Leia's advances on him and tries to hide it, but on the other hand, Gwen had trouble socializing or feeling anything for much of her life and even when she started feeling emotions again after getting rid of her old hat, she was still a lot more reserved than her brother and cousin. Or it's both of them. Yeah, it's both of them.

Speaking of Gwen, for the first few weeks after abandoning her hat and accepting her emotions, she was very physically affectionate with everyone. She hugged her family and friends so much, Tyrone started keeping track of how often Gwen gave hugs to feel the warmth she was robbed of for five years of her life. The highest he got was 618 before Gwen decided she gave enough hugs.

Much like how Mabel had Candy and Grenda as her people, Tyrone also has his own plucky duo of friends. They are Matthew, a boy genius who is never seen without a set of mechanical octopus arms sticking out of his backpack, and Joanie, a very masculine boy with a feminine voice.

During his adventures beyond the portal, Ford has made many powerful enemies and allies over the years. He engaged in a game of wits with Makima, had run-ins with the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Tenth Doctors, met Metron and sat in the Mobius Chair, resisted making a deal with Alastor, and many more.

Tyrone and Leia are gym buddies. They also got Haruko to come with them a few times.

While Gwen has more self-confidence than her father did at her age, there are still times where she gets pretty awkward. She gets the most nervous around a boy her age named Damian that she has a crush on.

Juan and Jorge are banned from playing dating simulators that could potentially become sentient and super-possessive of the player. Soos knows exactly how that feels from personal experience, though he was happy that was what allowed him to meet Melody.

During Haruko and Jinyu's travels, they ran into Commander Amarao at least once. Naturally, Amarao tried to resist admitting he still held a torch for Haruko and was super jealous of Dipper for managing to patch things up with her.

And finally, Stan Jr's legal name is Stanley Junior Ramirez. The name also came from a line in Not What He Seems when Soos is guarding the vending machine.

#gravity falls #flcl #fooly falls #fooly falls 2 ride on shooting star #rick and haruko

[clemelemelem]

santa claus is coming to town

so when i was in 6th grade, i wrote a christmas play called "santa claus is coming to town". it was supposed to be a comedy of some sort, but it was completely unhinged right from the start. it was a musical mostly made up of billie eilish music, christmas carols with the lyrics changed, and "confident" by demi lovato like 6 times. the premise of it was a dystopian future society in which santa claus was some sort of god/king/tyrant whatever. its protagonists were four siblings named little jane, little joe, little ann, and little partario. the "little" was an important part of their names. don't forget that. also little partario was some sort of eldritch squid thing for some reason.

anyway these children's cow gets sick and they need to go to the north pole to either beg santa to heal the cow or beg him for a new cow, it's pretty vague on which one. so their parents (who are named farmer ed and farmer's wife edna) just let them go. the oldest of them is 12, and they let these children go alone to the north pole. quality parenting. anyway they make it to the north pole in like a day, which is insane considering they canonically lived on a farm in iowa. they meet santa claus and mrs claus which seems pretty normal and then. i decided to give little jane a love interest.

his name was little john and he was santa's grea-great-whatever grandson and he was supposed to be super beautiful. he also had a brother named little jack, who was supposed to be ugly, and just thrown into the story for no reason. (but he does become relevant later on. just keep reading.) anyway little jane and little john fall in love with each other at first sight, but i decided i wanted it to be a slow burn so i waited about one (1) scene before giving them a dramatic scene where they confessed their love. but i made the burn only slightly slower by making it a confession of platonic love. then santa claus goes to war with the penguin lord, his enemy that has never been mentioned before. not even once. and all the children (save for little partario because he's not important. and little ann, sort of, because she is a battlefield nurse) have to go to war. my 12 year old ass really thought child soldiers was peak comedy.

anyway little jane and little john are flying a warplane and have a dramatic love confession scene to the song "i love you" by billie eilish and then the plane crashed and everyone died. except little jane. she was attacked by like 50 penguins and killed them all. reminder, SHE WAS 12. WHY WAS SHE SO STRONG.

they have a funeral for little john and little ann has a prophetic vision that penguins are attacking the palace. so everyone fights the penguins off and we meet the penguin lord for the first time. plot twist, he's santa's evil twin. about five seconds after he is first introduced, mrs claus kills him, and that's that. the war is over, and santa claus has one.

but it's not over yet!

mrs. claus decides she wants to be the queen/god/tyrant whatever and overthrows santa! while singing "confident" by demi lovato! because of course she is! everyone immediately converts to her religion, then because i got bored, to a new religion worshipping a roly poly. only little ann doesn't want to worship mrs. claus or the roly poly. she still wants to worship santa. so she runs away and becomes the main villain. if you read too much into it, you could interpret it as an anti-catholic allegory for the reformation, but in truth, it is just a dumb story i wrote when i was 12.

anyway, little joe and little jack get married. right out of the blue, with no foreshadowing or anything. they just got married. remember: they are 10. THEY ARE 10. WHY DID I WRITE THIS. WHY. then little jane sings the song "titanium" for no reason except i wanted more music. she should have sang "confident" by demi lovato. also, they cannibalize little partario as wedding food. so yeah, child marriage and cannibalism in the same scene. 6th grade me was not okay.

then a new evil penguin named snowflake decides to start a penguin uprising against the crown. and little ann decides to do the same, but with humans. then, out of nowhere, little jane decides she wants to be queen and has a singing battle with mrs claus to determine which of them should be queen. little jane wins, and now she's the queen of the world. yay. i guess.

flash forward 10 years. little jane is still the queen of the world, but she sucks at her job. humans and penguins are still fighting for independence. so everyone hates little jane. great job, little jane. (to make it worse, she even says she's doing a great job.) anyway, she gets overthrown in an elven coup, and flees the palace with little joe and little jack. they are 20 years old and have been married for half their lives. this keeps me awake at night.

they find little ann and she confesses she's a psychic. she sings some billie eilish while being edgy. then she reads little joe's mind and discovers that he cannibalized little partario. she decides she's going to get her revenge on him by sacrificing him to santa. (so far this story contains: world war, a cult, child soldiers, cannibalism, child marriage, and human sacrifice. wonder how many more fucked up things are in this story.)

anyway she sacrifices little jack during a dramatic scene where he sacrifices his life to save little joe. he escapes with little jane, and they find mrs claus just vibing in a bush for some reason. then they are magically transported to a cozy cottage where they bring santa claus back, forgive him, decide to live a quiet life, and are immediately found by little ann and her army. they kill little joe and little jane decides to fight little ann for the crown. 12 year old me had an excellent understanding of how monarchy works. obviously.

anyway little jane fights little ann and kills her, once again becoming queen, and that's where the play ends. it's not where it was supposed to end, because i never finished it. in all it was 3 acts and 56 google doc pages long. i'm sorry i brought this monstrosity into existence, very sorry i let other people know that it exists, and even more sorry that i'm probably going to be making more santa claus is coming to town content because i think it's hilarious.

#bad writing #childhood writing #i'm sorry this exists #christmas #mosquito