I once saw an eye opening breakdown of how different navigating an urban or suburban area is for a child that's half an adult's height, how much less they can see due to the height and configuration of the environment. The presentation was about safety, how a child might find an environment not designed for them dangerous, but it also made me think about how we all must have memories about 'normal' places that are stored from that alternate perspective:
distances are twice as far
the point of view is too short to see over obscuring barriers, making even mundane environments maze-like
features or conveniences we don't use as children are alien
we are often skipped without logic between destinations as adults 'take us places' without telling us why
Many environments have few to no ways for children to interact with them so they seem barren,
environments that children DO interact with (jungle gyms, play structures, gardens or parks, swimming pools, etc.) are extremely vivid to the exclusion of their surroundings,
Some environments are seen only from the seat of a car and are viewed quickly and in a mass sample without context (unfamiliar neighbourhoods, streets with houses, stores on avenues you never will visit yourself)
rooms are much taller and more empty because we measure space in reference to ourselves and we're physically smaller
When unsupervised, children must pay attention to areas that guardians would have carried them or led them through, calling attention to many of these features even more
Uncertainty about intentions of adult people/entities with more agency than you in these spaces, outside of routines familiar to children
these map 1:1 to emotions conveyed by the Backrooms. Many people remember being a much smaller, more confused explorer.
34 notes
·
View notes
anime would be also awesome at making changes that aren't a complete diversion of the characters. like they could make dracula explicitly bite jonathan instead of implicitly, give him the ability to summon the dead as ghouls to hinder the heroes in his escape, they could give mina more than the psychic ability after her baptism, make renfield and john have a closer bond, make van helsing have backstory with dracula… but still keep the majority especially parts that get cut off, like the marriage, berserker, jonathan's corruption arc, all the character quirks like john's phonograph love and uncoolness around ladies…
EXACTLY! Keep the core parts of the book, and add stuff to round them! A lot of these sound really awesome, specifically giving Van Helsing a good backstory after the little bits that we read in the book in the format of flashbacks, and making Mina's transformation more ominous through her appearance. The scene sequences that could capture the dread and the terror of many moments in the book like Lucy's last entry, Mina's reunion with Jonathan, Mina and Jonathan working on the investigation, or Van Helsing's first appearance, so many moments that need the drama that animation could give.
Imagine poor Lucy alone in her room terrified and agitated, the wind at full force entering through her broken window giving her room a dark blue hue, her mother laying dead on her bed with a single hand outside of the sheet. Lucy locked the door yet something keeps knocking, and she keeps thinking she doesn't know what to do until her eyes catch her diary on the floor. One thought simply repeats in her mind... "Write", she throws herself to grab the diary, and her pencil while the knocking on the door gets more aggressive by the second. Lucy then hides behind her bed, and immediately starts to write her last letter to the world. She starts writing, writing, and writing while her hand trembles, we see Lucy struggle and cross out words yet even if her face is wet with tears her determination is unbreakable. There is no knocking anymore, but now someone is trying to force the door open, and Lucy just keeps writing. I imagine at the end of her letter when she writes her name she does the most dramatic hand action to write and sign her full name one last time, in bold jet black. Then the door finally clicks open... Lucy quickly rips the page off and hides it, she grabs her mother's hand and stars to pray and cry silently, and the angle of the scene goes slowly from her to the now open door to reveal a completely dark background save for two blood red eyes that look directly into the "camera".
It would be so good.
On the other hand... let's say that I'm not too fond on the idea that Renfield and Jack need a "closer bond" because I think that Jack was one of the core factors that pushed Renfield to wrongly give his service to Dracula. My humble opinion is that the best thing that Seward could have done for Renfield before his death was to finally let him go. Just let him leave the asylum since it was clear that Renfield got tired of suffering under Seward's "care".
Said treatment made Renfield seek another person who could give him a semblance of power over something, over anything really, and Dracula was right there to manipulate him and use him. Seward got so deep in his own ableist perspective of Renfield that he didn't notice all the signals around him. Renfield was so traumatized thanks to his time in the asylum that while he was in his death bed he begged Seward to take away the restraining jacket, not knowing that Dracula paralyzed him. The way Jack pushed Renfield to a breaking point again and again was horrible.
I think what a good adaptation would do is give Renfield a happy ending where he keeps on living, away from the asylum and Seward, with a new page to start his life again. If they want to portray his death to be accurate to the book, at least give Renfield a more humane and dignified death than leaving him alone to slowly die in pain.
... wow, que setimientos tan fuertes, mira esos párrafos.
It's 1:33 AM btw.
24 notes
·
View notes
F**k it, Dude. Let's go bowling.
Femme excursion #16 - 11 days of boymode left
Do you remember when you were a kid, and you were waiting for Christmas to arrive with wild expectation? That feeling of excitement, when you were so charged up and buzzing that you couldnt get to sleep the night before, and then when you finally did you woke up so early your parents shouted at you to go back to bed? But the presents were there, waiting for you under the tree, hidden within their brightly colored shrouds. You hoped and prayed there'd be something you'd love - but would it really turn out to be the case? There were big, promising boxes, but there were also things that felt like they might be socks off your aunt - again. But maybe the boxes would be enough. So finally the all clear sounded and you sprinted downstairs in your pajamas to find Santa had brought you… what?
I've been feeling a bit like a kid with Christmas approaching of late. Two of my favorite people, a lovely couple I met years ago by chance on a plane, were coming to visit, and they knew I was trans and were completely cool with it. Unicorns in human form. I should add that they're both entirely straight and cisgender, but 100% accepting. How on earth did I luck out meeting them? So take a bow, Tadahiko and Mina. You're absolute stars, and I love that you're in my life.
We'd decided to meet up at one of those large entertainment complexes that Japan does so well. Games, bowling, billiards, darts, karaoke etc. all under one roof. It was a blazing hot day, and they'd already gone inside by the time I arrived, so Eva braved the sun (long skirts are hot! But it was too adorable not to wear) and rolled into the entrance heated and nervous. I mean, they knew what I was becoming, but seeing it is a different matter 😏 But Eva was looking cute, and they were firm allies. It went beautifully. Surprise, compliments, learning, and acceptance. All a girl could possibly want from friends. But they've got a 10 year-old kid, and I'm not going to lie I was a little worried about how he'd react. But my friends had talked to him a lot about what was going on, and he was super sweet. Although the little scamp did continually keep saying I looked like his dad's mistress, which was absolutely hilarious. 😂
So, introductions out of the way. Friends engaged and understanding. But I was still standing in an absolutely packed entertainment complex on a Sunday, surrounded by hundreds of people who didn't know me. Gulp. Eva's confident, but still… 😱
First up was bowling. I like bowling, and used to go a lot with my best friend. Anyway, all the lanes were full, which meant I was on show every time I stepped up. So naturally I went and picked myself a bright pink Kitty Chan bowling ball so I didn't stand out 👧🏻🎳 I'd trimmed all the nails on my right hand which hurt my soul 😥 (maybe it'll come in handy if I get lucky, haha) and I kicked off with a strike, but then over the next two rolls DISASTER struck! Oh my God, it was awful. Broken thumbnail. Too damned long. 😭😭😭 So I trimmed it back, found a different Kitty Chan ball with bigger holes (what do you mean your bowling alley doesn't have a selection?) and got back to work, but the damage was done. Eva came second. 😥
But nobody in the bowling alley was clocking me. We were on a central lane and I was keeping tabs on the surrounding conversations, and visually on distant patrons, and nothing was going on. Oh, I'm sure they were interested in the foreign part, but nothing else. I saw none of the "WTF is going on here?" so familiar to all of us when we're getting scrutinized. Eva is blending in beautifully. So I'm on the lanes, long skirt and all, just doing my thing and enjoying it. I got back into my stride for the second game and won it by a mile, making bowling yet another sport that transwomen will probably be banned from for being just too damned good 🙄 I'm so sorry 😥
Then it's time for lunch. Off to the kaiten sushi! Damn, I haven't been for sushi in ages. In we go, mask on, mask off, Eva's passing like a mad thing, apparently. Ah, that was a nice meal. Fun conversation, lovely friends, great food. What more could you ask for?
Karaoke, that's what. Now you have to understand something about Eva. Osaka is the home of karaoke, and karaoke is kind of my thing. I've been to karaoke boxes with friends in the past for eight hour sessions, and by the time 5am rolled by it was only Eva still standing, belting away. Give me a mic and I'm happy. In fact, I suspect if I do end up in a trans-friendly bar here at some point, their karaoke machine will be how I leave with company. 😉 Of course they have scoring on the machines here, and in all the countless times I've taken friends to karaoke I've never lost, although admittedly I did have a tie once with a woman who'd been trained as a singer. 😥 Anyway, Eva can hold a tune, so off we went for a three hour extravaganza. But before we went in I did have a moment of panic: they wanted us to register as members with ID - i.e. my Japanese driver's license. Oops. Luckily it only needed one member for the group, and we'd been there before so my friends were still in the system, but it did cause a bit of worry. 😐 I mean, you look at me, and you look at the license picture, and it's a definite nope. Anyway, off we went, and it was as fun as always. I'd taken my meds to show them, which proved a good idea. Lots of interest in what I was doing and how. God, they're lovely people. So we had a good sing, and enjoyed some karaoke box desserts and snacks, and a great time was had by all.
And if you want to know what Eva's current favorite song to sing is, it's Hanamizuki (search ハナミズキ 一青窈 on YouTube). People do not expect a foreigner to sing it like Eva haha. If they ban transwomen from karaoke as an event then that's it, I'm rioting. 😋
Then it was on to… darts? God, darts in Japan are awful. I like darts, but they've got to be pointy metal things that'll put your eye out. In Japan they have an aversion to anything pointy, so they're these hideous plastic-nosed things that suuuuuuck. But the young kid wanted to try them, so off we went. It's like throwing winged bananas at the stupid holey plastic dartboards. I do hope this nonsense hasn't spread across the world while I wasn't looking. Anyway, I did that, and patrons were coming in and out nearby, and Eva was just blending in again. Damn it felt wonderful, just existing as myself. 😊
Then Eva did something new and important.
The toilets in this place were very much binary gendered, so with my female friend keeping watch it was the first time in the ladies for Eva. My God, it's full of stars! 😲 Actually, it was pretty normal, but I think they had better decor? But I can't ever go back into the gents to compare haha 😁 But it did feel wonderful for my gender identity to go in there, and although it was such a minor thing it made me stupidly happy. 😊
Finally it was off to the game center for some video game fun, which was where the day kind of fell apart. All the games we wanted to play (like an Initial D racing one) were being camped out by (let's be honest here) otaku types, including one guy whose shirt was so sweaty I would have paid not to sit down in the same seat after him 😐 So the video games were a no-go, although we did see some more gamers filming themselves on a rhythm game desperate to get a perfect score on camera. Failed 😋. They were good, though. Anyway, apparently all the obsessive arcade gamer types lurk there on a Sunday. Who knew?
Then the day was over, and it was time to leave. Six hours together with my amazing friends, totally open, just acceptance and love. And no clocking issues, or anything really. What a wonderful, life-affirming day.
Eva is kicking her transition's ass. If I can keep going like this, in a few months I'm going to look amazing. But even now it's remarkable what's going on. I no longer feel nervous or apprehensive going out, and in fact the only times I do are when I'm coming back home and nearing people who know me. But as we know the clock is ticking on that one, and I've got to be honest it still worries me a little. But hey, I guess a little worry never hurt anyone. 😏
I left the entertainment complex with a lighter heart and really feeling the love off my friends. On the way home I called in at a supermarket to buy some stuff and I wasn't even thinking about my trans self. Quick check in the mirror? Cute. Off we go. A day without problems, and full of wonder and happiness.
Possibly one of my best days ever. 😊
Love you all, and I hope we can eventually exist in a world where we never have to worry about showing our true selves, and where love and happiness is the default, not a rarity.
Eva ❤
6 notes
·
View notes