#its kind of wild tagging Mike in something

[sleepis4theweak]

This has also been finished for literal months... I just got frustrated trying to do the lighting and gave up on it for a bit whoops :)

@3mutantsinatrenchcoat AND @mikebeanz ITS OUR CHILDREN

#I SAID I WOULD DRAW THEM AND I DID #its kind of wild tagging Mike in something #I never tag mike in anything because I know he will see no matter what #Mike is everywhere... #I LOVE YOU MIKE #(Mike idk if you ever read my tags but just so u know you get mentioned in maybe too many of them... ILY /p) #<3 <3 <3 #tmnt #rottmnt #milkshake the turtle #tmnt foodie au #cowtail the cow #rottmnt oc #sleepy art

[shoutatthe-devil]

Dandelions | E.M.

KICKSTART MY HEART PT. 1

Masterlist | AO3

She was the kind of person who you never saw without a book in her hand. Eddie didn’t think he had ever seen her talk to anyone for longer than a gentle hello, but he had seen her hundreds of times sitting at the edges of any room or facility in Hawkins High with her nose buried in some crusty paperback. She was pretty; hair shorter than acceptable, ignoring any bullying she got for almost looking like a boy, light make up except for heavily exaggerated eyeliner with different patterns worked in every day, loose blue jeans covered with embroidery and a series of blouses that looked like those to be seen in the pages of Oscar Wilde or Thomas Hardy.

Eddie had never spoken to her, never even gotten her name, but every major memory he had at Hawkins High had her in the corner of his eye. He had her gentle smile emblazoned in the back of his mind and the feeling of warmth from when he had been sat next to her in a chemistry class one year carefully engraved in his muscle memory.

So no, he’d never spoken to her, but he knew her. She had captured his attention. Unlike everything else in his life, Eddie kept that attention subtle. He had a feeling that she wouldn’t be the kind of girl to appreciate grand gestures and loud proclamations.

“You’re staring at her again,” Mike said through a mouthful of sandwich. “It’s kinda creepy, Eddie.”

Eddie’s eyes snapped over to the younger boy. “Staring at who? I’m not staring.”

“Y/n Y/l/n,” Mike sighed as if the weight of the world was somehow on his shoulders. Little shit. “You’ve been obsessed with her all year.”

“Which one’s she?” Eddie questioned, hope beginning to fill him at the prospect of finally getting to learn your name.

“Seriously?” Lucas joined the conversation. “You’ve been obsessing over her and you don’t even know her name?”

“She’s the one with the dandelions on her jeans,” Mike tag-teamed in with Lucas. “Y’know, a bit weird, always reading.”

“Don’t call her weird,” Lucas snapped at his friend before Eddie got the chance to. “She’s not weird.”

“Objectively, she is,” Mike countered. “I mean, obviously I love her, but she’s always been a bit strange.”

“Like we’re not,” Lucas grumbled.

Eddie’s mind was reeling at the new information. “Wait, you guys know her? How do you guys know her?”

Mike sighed again. “She was always around when we were kids,” he said. “Used to be Dustin’s babysitter. He was super protective of her, so she always got invited to all of our DnD games and stuff. Plus, the parents loved her, so she ended up having dinner whenever the rest of us were around.”

“She plays DnD?” A great smile spread across Eddie’s face at the prospect.

“Oh, absolutely,” Lucas smirked. “Absolutely crushes at it, too. Although, half the time when she played, we wouldn’t even end up battling anything, because she always thought a way around it.”

“Super creative, and always talking her way out of things,” Mike added. “Honestly it got kind of annoying.”

“If you’re going to do anything about your little crush, though, I’ve got to warn you,” Lucas said, “don’t say anything that’ll make her think you think you’re better than her. She’s real competitive, and she absolutely is smarter than you. She won’t say anything up front, but test her too much and she’ll work out some way or another to make you take it back.”

Eddie zoned the two out as they started bickering about something or another. He began to rearrange all of his thoughts about her to fit with these new details. He had to admit, it intrigued him; he never would have gotten any of that just from observing her. And that she knew the kids, that she babysat Dustin…

“Hey, wait,” Eddie burst out, stopping the kids’ argument in its tracks. “Where is Henderson, anyway?”

“He was asking his science teacher about something,” Mike answered. “It’ll probably take a while, but he should be here soon.”

At that, they all saw Dustin start jogging into the cafeteria, clearly excited by whatever it was he was planning. Not looking where he was going, he bumped right into Jason Carver. Eddie winced as Jason turned to the younger boy.

“Hey, watch where you’re going, little nerd,” Jason scowled menacingly.

“Sorry, but you were in the way, and I was just-” Dustin rushed out all at once. Jason grabbed the front of his shirt.

“I was in the way, was I?” Eddie could see Dustin gulp from across the cafeteria. "Well listen here, toothless-”

“Hey!” an unfamiliar voice spoke up. It seemed light, like a fairy’s, but it was loud. The entire cafeteria quietened down, and Eddie was shocked to see that the voice came from Y/n.

“Leave him alone, Carver.” Y/n’s voice was unshaking. Eddie wouldn’t have realised that he had never seen her talk to anyone based on the way she was acting.

Jason turned to look at her, his hand still gripping onto Dustin. “Oh yeah?” he chuckled. “Or what? What are you going to do about it, Y/l/n?”

Eddie saw your shoulders rise and fall in a silent sigh before you slammed your book shut with a bang. He gasped and people started murmuring as she pulled out her chair and used it to climb up onto the cafeteria table. Eddie had done that exact thing a hundred times before, but you… you were almost elegant as you silently walked all the way down the length of the table to reach Jason, leant down to look him in the eyes with one hand in your pocket and the other curled around your reading material.

“You may not have noticed, Jason,” you began, making direct eye contact with the jock, “because I prefer to observe than to be an absolute jackass, but we grew up together. I was here for everything, all those awkward stages, when you were the shortest in the class, when you were trying to grow in that pre-teen moustache. And, well, I’ve certainly heard enough from the girls around here about Little Jason and his,” you looked down, grimacing, before looking into his eyes again, “limitations.”

Jason tried valiantly to hold eye contact with you and keep his posture arrogant, but Eddie could tell he was beginning to feel very uncomfortable. Everyone could.

You continued. “And I know exactly what to say to destroy you. I know you. I know that you are a pathetic little boy,” you leaned in closer with each word, “who can’t help himself from picking on the weakest and who wouldn’t be passing half his classes if this school’s faculty didn’t care so much about,” you paused and looked at Eddie. His chest grew warm. “Tossing balls into laundry baskets.”

“You- “Jason protested, but you cut him off.

“As for what I’ll do… Have you ever read War and Peace, Carver?” You held out the book you were still clutching so that Jason could read the title. He shook his head. “It’s quite long, and it can get slow in parts, but I’d recommend it. The best thing about it though, is that it’s heavy enough that if you fuck with Dustin again, I will smash your goddamn teeth in so far back that they will lodge into whatever walnut it is you call a brain.”

You jumped down off the table in front of him, gently grasped his hand and pried it off of Dustin’s shirt. “You alright, Dusty?”

Dustin nodded. “Yeah, thanks Y/n.”

You smiled and ruffled his hair before looking up at everyone. “What are you all staring at?”

And just like that, everyone went back to their lunches and their conversations. You walked back over to your seat, leaving Jason Carver behind you, and began to read again. Eddie was still looking at you when Dustin sat down next to him.

“Did you guys see that?” Dustin asked his friends loudly. “So badass.”

Mike and Lucas agreed as Dustin looked over at Eddie. “Dude, are you okay?”

Eddie took a shaky breath. “One day,” he said lowly, “one day I’m going to marry that woman.”

#eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #stranger things #eddie x reader #stranger things season 4 #stranger things s4 #stranger things x reader #dustin henderson #mike wheeler #lucas sinclair #jason carver #anti jason carver #eddie munson fic #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson imagine #stranger things fic #eddie munson x reader fic #stranger things x reader fic #stranger things fluff

[talkingandwatching]

So I watched the fnaf movie yall this was crazy

Hello everyone, I'm literally on my way home from the movie theater while I'm writing this post (might be a couple of days to publish it because I have no attention spam) because I watched the Five night's at Freddy's movie and yall, this was wild.

Before I get into it, I wanna complain that the guys in the front seat talked nonstop, like, all the time while we watched this movie so I wanna tell everyone, if youre the kind of person who does this crap, please stop, its very annoying.

I never once had the chance to feel like I literally cant talk about a movie, not because of the spoilers but because I literally cannot find the words to describe what I just saw, not because it was shocking or anything but because there is almost nothing to talk about. But what kind of "movie critic" would I be if I didn't at least try?

I think the main reason why I cant say anything is because I can barely comprehend the fact that this is a real movie that I watched in theaters, I think it will take about 3-5 business days for me to finally settle this information down.

This is the part where I start talking about the movie and it will probably have spoilers, so read it at your own risk.

Even before watching the movie I realised that it will be a real challenge to figure the lore out, since okay, we got Mike as a main character, I thought then it supposedly Michael Afton right? But his sister was called Abby and not Elizabeth and I knew Mike is interacting with William Afton (and I knew its William because it was Matthew Lillard in the trailer and everyone knew Matthew Lillard will play William Afton, the internet went crazy for over a week), but somehow he doesnt suspects its his dad? Also Vanessa is in this movie? And I had even more questions and let me tell you, none of them was answered by the movie.

The movie starts with our main character Mike (played by Josh Hutcherson), who works as a security guard in a mall, but beats the shit out of a random man because he thought he's kidnapping a kid but the kid was actually his son, then he gets fired, so a guy, supposedly his boss called Steve Raglar (played by Matthew Lillard) offers him a security guard job at an abandoned restaurant called Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, but Mike rejects it, saying he cant do night, then we find out why. He has sleep problems because he dreams about the same thing over and over again, which is the memory when he witnessed his little brother, Garret being kidnapped. This memory haunts him and he's also the legal guard of his little sister, Abby. Abby is a weird kid, she has invisible friends that only she can see and she's also very antisocial in school, which worries both the teachers and Mike's & Abby's aunt that want to take full custody over Abby because she doesnt think Mike is a suitable guard for her (neither does Mike thinks he's suitable for this but yk, he doesnt want Abby to live there because they both hate their aunt). After this, Mike changes his mind about the security guard job and calls Steve. So the job starts and boy o boy, what the fuck is going on in this movie-

First of all, I was very excited when I saw that Matpat got a cameo as a waiter, I audibly gasped when I saw him on the movie screen, what makes this even funnier is that I literally told my boyfriend who sat next to me that Matpat would probably get a seizure from this movie's storyline (also something that I havent paid attention to in the theater is that his name tag says "Ness", someone on youtube pointed that out and this makes the cameo 100x more ironic, if you know, you know), I think he deserved it 100% and I was pretty sad Markiplier at the end didn't make it into the cameo because of Iron Lung.

I gotta admit, I fell into the flaw that I thought the story will be a part of the main things that happen in the game and thats why some aspects of the movie left me very very confused. For example, we found out Vanessa is the daughter of William Afton. The fans speculated that there might be some sort of relation between them after Security Breach came out, but I dont remember if anyone thought he's her father, only maybe her grandfather or something. Just so you know, in this movie, Mike and William are not related (or at least doesnt look like they are) and my boyfriend had the idea that this movie might be about Mike Schmidt, which is a very og character in the fnaf games/community, who in this story, isnt Michael Afton, this could explain why his sister is called Abby and not Elizabeth either.

Speaking of Abby, she also left me a bit confused. We found out that her imagined and invisible friends are actually the ghost children that haunt the robots and she can communicate with them through her drawings. I was left a bit dissapointed that they didn't explain how this works exactly, especially because I personally liked the aspect that the robots arent malicious and that theyre still just traumatized children who were manipulated.

Of course, nobody was suprised by the fact that William who said he was Steve, was the villain and oh boy, Matthew Lillard KILLED it as William Afton. As someone, who's childhood wasnt just FNAF but also Scooby Doo, this man is literally the face of many many childhoods, including mine. He didn't get enough screentime AT ALL, even though I dont really mind, because its nice that Afton wasnt the main focus of the story, but Matthew was so good, so talented that I wanted more and more.

Josh Hutcherson as Mike was also awesome in this role, he's relatable, he's flawed yet a very sympathetic character and you cant help but root for him.

These two were the stars of this movie, however Piper Rubio as Abby was also pleasant in my opinion, I thought her character was sweet and lovable and I hated how the guys on the front row were mocking everything she said. Elizabeth Lail as Vanessa was also.. okay? I didn't like Vanessa's presence in the movie at all, because it was very confusing, but she was pretty okay in the role. The ghost children werent that good in my opinion, the acting was very small and Garret's actor had only one face through the entire movie, he didn't have any dialouge either.

Speaking of dialouge, I didn't like it at all. It felt like someone trying to grasp and mimic how people talk to each other, some dialouges were almost ridiculous and NO, if you havent watched the movie but still read my blog post, no, the phrase "Together we're fnaf" does not appear in the movie sadly.

In conclusion, did I dislike this movie? No. Not at all.

In fact, I enjoyed this movie very much. I was a bit of than a casual fan of this game franchise since 2016 and it was a great experience to dress up with my boyfriend and watch the Five night's at Freddy's movie, because we were and are both fans of this game. The bad habit everyone fell into is that we were fixated on the "lore accuracy" and missed the fact that this is more than probably a spinoff, using lore from the books instead of the games.

It was really nice to see this movie and I dont think anyone who wasnt a fan of this game growing up will watch and/or appreciate this movie because its like Barbie but for weird kids and I think its flop among critics is just the Mario movie all over again, where the fans are praising the movie and its story to the roof but the critics just sat into a cactus or something.

Anyways, I'm curious what you guys think of the movie, let me know if you had any opinions and until next time, see ya.

#fnaf #five nights at freddy's #fnaf movie #movie criticism #movie critic

[starsarefire824]

Heeey moot! Just woke up! Even though I'm late, I just wanted to say that you deserve to write whatever tf you want and I'm sorry some peeps were harassing you about The Pact. I don't think folks know how hard it is to not only write, but then to post it for others to see. So, for them to criticize you when it's just a fun fic that they can ignore or filter out (tags on ao3 are meant to be used geez) its wild to me. You're doing something very unique with the characters and including a lot of different subgroups of the queer community splendidly while keeping them flawed like real teens - all in 1 fic. As a demi ace myself, I was so happy to see you incorporate that in your fic respectively and a lot of my queer Sex Ed came from detailed, researched fics bc even though my parents and school system talked to me about sex, there was nothing for the queer kids, let alone ace kids to get guidance on. So, for fic readers/writers like me, using fics to explore sexuality was a godsend.

Can't help but also think it's the biphobia kicking in again, specifically for characters like Mike. No one has a problem hc Max as bi even though it seems like lumax is clearly endgame over elmax or elumax, but when it comes to Mike being bi it's like the world is ending despite it clearly being byler endgame. I personally ship all hcs of Mike's sexuality cuz only Robin and Will have been confirmed queer. Everyone else in ST to me is undisclosed until stated straight or queer. But again that's me.

Also love your poly rep cuz my sib is poly and so were some of my grandma's cousins from 1950s-now. So, again, all or most sexualities explored in fics is a must, regardless if you ship it. I've always been a polypartycule shipper and enjoy how you include all party members and mention Duzie sometimes cuz too many times I found fics/hcs excluding the fact Dustin has a stable relationship with Suzie in favor of just highlighting byler and elumax as the romantic ones of the party.

Sorry for the rant but I had to let it out. I hated scrolling through my feed and seeing that post you made of folks getting heated over fiction like you're gonna convince the Duffers to change the whole script. Anyways I hope my support is felt. This is still me typing in a sleep daze and yeah. I'll continue reading your work cuz I enjoy good writers first and foremost and omg lol you made it having some harrassers cuz the greatest books were on the banned book list. Not saying you deserve the irrational hate, but that's how I'm framing it - this is giving "banned book energy" just cuz The Pact is exploring romantic madwheeler when no one cares about byclair or henderhop or henclair (despite folks labeling El as a lesbian). Anyways, you do you moot be blessed out here

Hello deer moot!!!! <33

Thanks so much for the positive vibes!!! I truly appreciate it. I guess I was just feeling a little let down that a select few people made it so far into a fic and then were angry about the way things were going and/or felt the need for me to tell them the ending. At first it didn't bother me, but after answering the same questions 1,000 times and trying to sort of reassure everyone it got to a point of being exhausting! I want to talk about the fic, but I don't really want to have to defend my writing/story/ship choices every chapter. It's kind of exhausting and was bringing me down a little bit. But anyway, enough about that.

I am SO GLAD that you are like...really vibing with some of the choices in that story? Especially with your unique pov being demi ace and having poly family. I think that fanfiction can be a very important tool for a lot of teen when it comes to exploring sex, especially if it's not a cis het-normative type or even just....dealing with sex from a young person's pov and all of the obstacles that everyone faces in that regard. Also, I think it can just open up a conversation or make a person think about things that maybe they might not of before etc etc. Or! They can just enjoy those scenes for the writing/good time. I'm here for all of it.

I'm not sure if it's a biphobia thing? It honestly hadn't occurred to me, but you may possibly be right. I know a lot of people headcanon Mike as gay, which I fully support. I wouldn't be surprised if that is the case. I think if Byler happens in canon, he'll be unlabeled. BUT I do like to write Mike as bi, I personally think that there were feelings for El at some point. I personally headcanon him as a bi-romantic, and sexually leaning towards men. But that's just me....

But anyway, as that pertains to madwheeler, I also really enjoy the bi for bi Max and Mike dynamic, specifically because it's fun to write, and secondly it's another thing to add to their already similar personalities. And yea. I agree... unless a character's sexuality is specifically stated like El and Will's, there is room for exploration for most characters and that's what fanfic and art is for.

I do think there is this strange thought process regarding bi characters, that if they have a relationship with a person of the opposite sex it's like they're not "queer enough" for other people. Like it's somehow lesser than if Mike has a relationship with a woman, even though he already, in canon, is well, with a woman. And that people tend to forget that people are still bi, still queer, even if they are in the most outwardly straight presenting relationship, cause let's face it....you can't really help who you're attracted to and who you fall in love with. it just is.

And when it comes to the madwheeler in this fic, I am fully aware it is one of the least popular ships out there, but again, that is one of the reasons I wanted to explore it. And a a bi, poly person my self it was really interesting putting these characters in a dynamic where they were both involved with people of differing genders and orientations. It gives you a lot to work with when it comes to having things to write about! シ

And as you said, it also allows for some messy, realistic teenage angst! Which I am always a fan of! ;)

Anyway, thank you for the rant. I appreciate it so much, and am honestly still blown away by the positive responses to this story. Even if it's not everyone's cup of tea!

#anon asks #dear moot <3

[xtoyourgravex]

myspace survey 001 - taken from one of my top 8 bitches @popularmxnster

and in honor of this, have chosen Bo Sinclair from House of Wax to answer.

1. Do you believe in ghosts?

No

2. Do you think possession is real?

No

3. Do you know someone who was ever possessed by a demon?

No?

4. Do you even believe in demons?

Those I believe in.

5. Have you ever contacted a ghost on an Ouija board?

No

6. If you have, did the ghost tell you its name?

N/A

7. Do you believe in vampires?

It would be wild to think that they are real. But kind of cool...

8. Do you believe in mermaids?

No.

9. Have you ever seen a fairy?

No

10. Do you believe n fairies?

No

11. Weirdest thing you have ever witnessed?

The way flesh can fall from a body.

12. Have you ever seen a ghost?

No

13. Have you ever played in a graveyard?

Yes

14. Have you made a pact with the devil?

I have not

15. Do you wish you knew how?

No

16. Do you believe in raising the dead?

No 

17. What do you thnk of people who call themselves vampires?

They actors or certifiably insane

18. What do you think of people who dress in all black everyday?

If that’s what they wanna wear, have at it

19. Do you dress in all black?

Sometimes

20. Do you think UFO's are real?

I’ve seen one so yeah

21. Do you think aliens are real?

Yeah. to think we’re the only “intelligent” life in the universe is dumb as fuck

22. What about loch ness monster?

nah

23. How about the jersey devil?

The fuck is that

24. Have you ever seen a monster?

Yes

25. Do you believe in reincarnation?

No

26. What do you think happens when you die?

You rot or are preserved. 

27. Would you want to become a ghost?

No

28. Do you want to see a ghost?

No

29. Have you ever felt the presence of evil?

No comment

30. Have you ever seen something move by itself?

No

31. Have you ever moved something with your mind?

No???

32. Did you ever play Maryworth? If yes, what happened?

The fuck is that

33. What do you think of Ghost Hunters?

Why is that capitalized. People who hunt for ghosts are full of shit. The real monsters you’re afraid of are right under your nose and fully human.

34. What about Paranormal State?

there’s a state called paranormal? or is that some kinda college?

35. Have you ever seen a Booth Brothers documentary?

No?

36. Best scary movie you have ever seen?

Not a movie, but Alfred Hitchcock had a show and there was an episode called Wax Works. It’s billed as scary, but it was the best thing I’ve ever seen.

37. Freddy or Jason?

Freddy

38. Jason or Mike Myers?

Jason

39. Have you ever walked in woods alone at night?

The whole town’s surrounded by woods so yeah?

tagging: literally everyone on the dash, copy and repost with your answers!

#HE BUILT THIS HOUSE OF WAX * BO SINCLAIR

[thekillerssluts]

DIY Magazine, October 2020.

Interview TALKING ‘BOUT MY GENERATION: WILL BUTLER

Talking to Will Butler is a bit like trying to have a conversation with a human magpie. Hugely enthusiastic and with a constant giggle on the go (“I have a nervous laugh, so I laugh at more things than I should…”), the 37-year-old has a tendency to veer off down strange tangents, taking your original point but then getting distracted or excited by some other new, shiny train of thought in a different direction.

You can tell he’s smart - not just booksmart, but the kind of smart where you can practically see the cogs turning at 100mph. “I love knowledge for its own sake,” he professes at one point. “I believe in it to a fault. I think it’s worth knowing all this shit, for no other reason than just knowing that it’s true.” And it’s this attitude that’s filled the three years since ‘Everything Now’ - he and his Arcade Fire bandmates’ society-skewering fifth LP.

In that time, amid world tours and festival headlines, Will has had two more children - twins - and went to Harvard to study a masters in public policy. He also found time to record ‘Generations’ - a second solo effort that takes the brilliantly all-over-the-place nature of 2015’s ‘Policy’ and hones it into something that’s more pointed, though still clearly fuelled by the same curious mind. Or as he puts it: “The first [album] it’s like, ‘I’m at the market! There’s some eggplants! Oh there’s a nice sausage guy! And OK cool I’ll get some of those and these!’ But then ‘Generations’ was much more like, ‘I’ve been storing these bones in my freezer for two years and now we’re gonna boil this down to make the pure essence of the beast’.”

Like most debuts from artists splintering off from their main projects, ‘Policy’ had been born from accumulating a collection of material that didn’t fit with his band. Unlike most, Will had just been nominated for an Oscar (for his soundtrack to Joaquin Phoenix film Her) before its release, “so that was a confidence boost,” he notes amiably. Conversely, the essence of ‘Generations’’ particular beast seems a far more targeted one - one intrinsically linked with the intense political conversations the musician had found himself wrangling with during his recent studies.

“I always want whatever I’m making to emerge out of what I’m living and for it to help me understand how I’m living better, so going to policy school was certainly part of that artistic project as well as the ‘what do we fucking do?’ project,” he explains. “I jokingly say that I was radicalised at Harvard, which is basically true. I was in a mid-career programme, so there were 25-year-old geniuses but also people in their middle age who’d worked in the UN in Pakistan or the government in Mexico. They had this whole perspective of how fucked everything is across the whole globe so it was… educational.

As such, his second brims with a sense of palpable unease for a society that’s not only crumbling before our eyes right now, but has been doing so intermittently for decades and centuries. The twinkling, finger-clicking patter of ‘Close My Eyes’ belies the all-too-timely despair beneath it (“The photograph is new / But I seen that same headline, and I got to dance to keep from crying”), Randy Newman-esque closer ‘Fine’ digs right back to “George Washington and all his slaves,” while ‘Not Gonna Die’, he explains, was written in direct response to the November 2015 Bataclan shootings.“All these things hit different people in different ways, but that was so close to home,” he says. “It was Christmas after that and I was shopping in Manhattan; I walked into Sephora and it was super crowded and I thought, there’s a lot of people in here, where would I go [if something like that happened]? And I got so mad. It fucking worked. You made me scared. I’m not gonna die in Sephora on 5th Avenue but you made me think about it, you fucking pieces of shit.“Mike Pence was writing about it before he was running for Vice President, like, ‘We need to make sure we don’t have any immigrants come in because the immigrants can do this to us here’. And it’s like, I’m not gonna be killed by a woman fleeing violence in Guatemala!! The terrorists and the people saying ‘Be afraid!’: what you’re doing is working, and I AM afraid, and fuck you.”

Perhaps most interestingly, however, ‘Generations’ doesn’t just point the finger outwards, it also poses questions of the singer’s own inherent part in it all. “A big chunk of this record is asking: What’s my place in American history? What’s my place in America’s present?” he explained in a previous statement about the album. “Both in general, but also extremely particularly: me as Will Butler, rich person, white person, Mormon, Yankee, parent, musician. What do I do? What can I do?”

“It’s basically like, ‘My God, how did we get here?’ - that Talking Heads line,” he continues now. “The record is at times literally a conversation with people arguing back and forth, and there’s a lot of questions raised and the answers aren’t answers - you just end the conversation in a different spot. There’s something to that process of discussing and coming to some sort of revelation only to find out what’s lacking there, and then you move onto the next conversation and find out what’s lacking there. I was pleased that the material felt cyclical and of a piece, and you feel like you’re in a different spot than you were at the beginning.”

Because yes, his latest might not provide all the answers - “This is a musical work and I don’t know what the end notes are,” he admits - but ‘Generations’ does emphasise the importance of asking the questions and having the conversations, both with the world and with yourself. And if you can have them over an album of musically explorative, rich and often perversely funny new offerings? All the better.

Next, he’ll return to the fold to begin work on Arcade Fire’s sixth opus. Writing for that had originally started in New Orleans before the pandemic hit, but the band “don’t have the file management down to really do it at a distance,” he chuckles. “Win and Régine are always demoing and working, and I’ve done a little. We always work on a record for about a year and a half and we’re not off that pace yet, we’re still weirdly on track…”

You can bet by the time that record lands, he’ll have chalked up a handful of other accomplishments to his name, too; lord only knows the political battleground of the coming weeks will give him enough food for thought. And in the inquisitive mind of Will Butler, thought and curiosity are clearly the most nourishing tools of all. “You can write a love song that’s super true, but can you write a history song that also is? And if it comes out right and there’s some value in it, then what does that mean?” he muses. “It’s about just trying different angles to express something true.”

‘Generations’ is out now via Merge.

Butler’s Bits

‘Generations’ is undoubtedly an album rooted in politics and society - this much we know. But it’s also a record that digs into the musician’s relationship with other parts of the human experience…

HUMOUR “It’s a coping mechanism and it’s also a worldview. There’s not exactly a cabaret scene in New York but the comedy here is quite musical and there’s a lot of comedians that interact with people in interesting ways. They’re a bit younger than me - I’m the oldest millennial - but there’s something in that spirit that feels relevant.”

RELIGION “I grew up Mormon and I’m still ethnically Mormon. It’s like The Smiths song, ‘Meet Me At The Cemetery Gates’ - ‘Keats and Yeats are on your side, and Wilde is on mine’, you lose, haha. I’m sure Yeats is such a fucking asshole but that’s my heritage. The classic lineage of the Western canon is how I grew up.”

ADULTHOOD “I have three kids now, and it doesn’t make me worry about the future so much as it’s made me learn so much about humanity watching them - watching how it all goes into the ‘this is what humans are’ mill. On ‘Policy’, the protagonists are a motley crew of rag-tag whatevers, whereas this is much more a coming of age novel - not like a teenager becoming an adult, but an adult becoming a worse adult…”

As featured in the October 2020 issue of DIY, out now.

#Arcade Fire #will butler #generations #interview #the HOT Butler

[softest-cinnamon-roll]

reddie + 50 💕💕💕

50. There’s a statue of our school’s founder in the quad on campus and as a joke, I’ve been dressing them up in sweaters and dresses and you’re the journalist determined to find this prankster.

* * * * *

Eddie adjusted the strap of his bag on his shoulder as he walked onto Yale’s Campus after Winter Break. After spending two weeks with his mother, he couldn’t wait to get back into his regular routine and meet up with his friends. Eddie had forgotten just how much of a pain she was, and even though New Haven, Connetticut wasn’t that far from Derry, Maine it was still far enough for him.

“Eddie! You’re back!” The voice of his close friend Mike called from behind him. Eddie turned around just as MIke reached him, pulling him into a tight hug. “Happy New Year, did you have a nice Winter Break?” Mike’s smile was unusually large, which screamed to Eddie that something exciting had happened to Mike over the two weeks they were seperated.

He shrugged, stepping back as they both fell into step with one another, walking further into the campus. “It was alright, mom was her usual self and I spent most of it in my room, writing.” He cocked his head to the side. “What about you? You’re smiling very brightly right now, did something happen?”

Mike blushed and that basically confirmed it to Eddie, “Okay, fine. I keep forgetting that you have an eye for that kind of thing. Nothing gets past Eddie Kaspbrak.” He bit down on his lip. “So you know how I decided to stay on campus this year, as my parents were on that couples cruise?” Eddie nodded his head. “Well, Stan Uris, from my History class also stayed behind and we...got talking. We went on a few dates and uh, now we’re dating.”

“Mike, that’s amazing!” Eddie grinned, pulling his friend into another tight hug. Eddie knew Stan Uris, he was in his English Lit class and he was presentable, kind and very friendly. He was also friends with Yale’s resident ‘jokester’, Richie Tozier. Richie Tozier lived in the same dorm block as Eddie, and ever since they met had been nothing but a total flirt towards him. Yeah, he was hot, but Eddie really didn’t want to be another notch on his bedpost. “I’m so happy for you.”

They turned the corner into the main area of the campus, only to stop short as their eyes cast upon the statue of one of Yale’s Founders; Abraham Pierson. His statue was surrounded by students, which was the first weird thing since everyone avoided it, but it soon became clear why they were focusing now. The statue was wearing a dress, a pink frilly dress. Eddie blinked a few times, looking at all the students videoing the mess of their founders statue.

“Seriously? Is it just me or do you find this really disrespective?” Eddie asked Mike, feeling him nod next to him. Before he could say anything else about the matter, they were joined by Stan and none other than Richie Tozier. “Hi Stan, Richie. Good Winter Break?” Stan moved to Mike’s side immediately, while Richie inched closer to Eddie.

“I had a great time off, Eds. What about you?” Richie asked, raising an eyebrow at him and Eddie hated the way it made his stomach flutter. “What do you think of the statue? I mean you are the president of the university newspaper, I’m guessing you’re going to do your best to find the culprit?”

Eddie crossed his arms, “I’m guessing you had nothing to do with this? Considering you’re being so cool about it?” He asked and Richie broke into a wide smirk, moving closer to Eddie and he had to try his best not to blush.

“I’m not going to give away the game, Eds,” Richie whispered into his ear before pulling back and winking right at him. “You gotta put those journalist skills to good use and figure it out for yourself!” He took a step away from Eddie, that stupid smile still on his face until he turned his back to him and walked towards the student rec building.

Why did Richie make Eddie’s blood boil and at the same time want him to pull him into his arms and kiss him senseless? He let out a breath and reached into his bag, pulling out his notepad before walking through the crowd towards the statue. He looked around it, making notes of the type of dress that was used, as well as the fact that the tag was still on. It was clearly bought on the cheap, and the makeup used on the face on the statue was clearly borrowed. By the time he was done, Mike and Stan had gone and he packed up his evidence, heading inside to begin putting his story together.

A few weeks passed and every few days, Eddie would update the paper with new evidence in regards to the prankster who was violating the Founders Statue. The dress wasn’t just a one off, but in fact something that happened every night. Eddie tried to catch the culprit in the act, but they would change up their schedule so he was always too late by the time he arrived. However, Eddie was pretty confident that he knew who the perpetrator was.

Richie. It was Richie.

He figured it out the day he stopped by at Stan and Richie’s apartment to see Mike. Richie had red spray paint sitting on the counter as well as a feather boa and the following morning the statue was covered in red spray paint and adorning a feather boa on its head. Yet, Eddie wasn’t ready to expose him yet, as the whole running around each other was starting to be way too much fun.

“Eds, hey wait up!” Richie called out to him as he walked to his final class of the day. It was Friday and Eddie was looking forward to heading back to his dorm and getting into his pyjamas. He turned around, a rare smile on his face when he was chatting with Richie. “Hey, what are you doing tonight?”

That took Eddie by surprise and he raised his eyebrows, “Uh, I don’t have any plans...why?” He asked, holding his books closer to his chest. His heart was racing a little faster than it was a minute ago, and he was smiling just a little wider.

Richie ran a hand through his hair, a nervous smile on his face, something that Eddie had never seen in relation to Richie before. “I was wondering, and you have every right to say no, but would you want to maybe get dinner with me tonight?” He was looking down at the ground until he had finished the question and he looked up to meet Eddie’s eyes, hopeful.

“You want to take me out to dinner?” Eddie asked, tilting his head to the side as he stepped a little closer to Richie. He was hoping that it would make Richie a little less nervous and he smiled softly as Richie nodded his head. “Sure, pick me up at seven.”

The expression on Richie’s face changed from nervous to elated, “Really? You want to go out with me tonight? At seven?” He moved his hand down, brushing his fingers against Eddie’s softly. It took Eddie by surprise, as he had never seen Richie be so...careful around him before. It was cute and endearing if Eddie had to be honest. In fact, it only made Eddie want to kiss Richie all the more.

He smirked and nodded his head, stepping completely into Richie’s space and setting his hands on his shoulders. Richie was significantly taller than Eddie, therefore he had to push up on his toes so they were face to face. “You better not be late, Tozier.” He bit down on his lip before pulling out one of Richie’s moves, moving his lips to his ear. “Oh, and I know it was you vandalising the statue.”

Richie let out a squeaky sound, leaning back a little with worry in his eyes. “Are you-”

“Just don’t be late,” Eddie grinned, leaning up and pressing a kiss to Richie’s cheek before stepping back and walking towards his final class of the day.

His Friday was suddenly looking a little more exciting.

* * * * * 

Tags permanently

@bi-bi-richie @bovaque @derrylosers @eds-trashmouth @eduardoandale @girasol-eddie @halfway-happy353 @inthebreadbinwrites @isaacslaheys @its-stranger-than-you-think @jem-carstairs-is-perfection @lifesucksheres20bucks @loserslibrary @losers-gotta-stick-together @madidraw @mars-14 @marsisaplanetyall @moonlightrichie @njess04 @no-she-wasnt-reddie @oldguybones @overcastedhills @pink-psychic @purplepoisonedgem @rebecca-the-queen  @reddie-to-cryy @reddiesetandgo @richietoaster @richietoizer @roobarrtrashmouth @rreddies @s-onora @s-s-georgie  @sedanleystanley @sloppybitchreddie @spirited-marvel @stellarbisexual @studpuffin @that-weird-girls-blog @thegoshdiddlydangdoor @thejadeazalea @thorn-harvester-ven @tinyarmedtrex @tozier-boy @tozierking @toziesque @trashmouthtozierr @twoidiotsinl0ve @violetreddie @wilding-throught-thehallways @xandertheundead 

#reddie #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #writing tag

[teriwrites]

I’ve-Been-Neglecting-My-Tags Tag Game

So basically, I’ve been dead to the world for awhile, and instead of individually going back and making posts for tag games I’ve neglected, I decided to just compile them into one bigger post! 

Meet the WIP Tag

So @cecilsstorycorner​ tagged me like two months ago and I’m pretty sure I straight up did not process it. But I found it now, and it looks really fun! Thanks for the tag! I’m going to pull out Castle on the Hill for this because it’s been awhile so this can be like a mini reintroduction.

Title: Castle on the Hill 

Logline (1-3 sentence premise): In the early 1960s, a group of young German students face the struggles of university life - finding ambition, relationships, discovering identity, surviving finals, and coming to terms with their nation’s dark past as they look to its future.

Favorite theme explored: There’s kind of a lot going on under the surface, but I think one of the biggest is recognizing internalized biases and understanding the importance of how personal context shades perspective.

A character I’m proud of and why: It’d be easy to say Klaus because he’s one of those characters that just basically writes himself, but I’ll always have a soft spot for Josef. He was the first character I created for the story, and he arguably undergoes the most intense change from start to finish.

That characters tag: yeah, so... if you just search ‘josef’ on my blog he’ll show up. Technically I think I made tags for the Lads, but it didn’t really stick. 

Link to a piece/excerpt/post that I’m proud of: So this is a little old but it sums up the group dynamic pretty well. This one has more focus on Josef and Klaus. 

Any additional info I want people to know/am proud of: I haven’t posted about it in awhile since I’ve been a little more active in other projects, but I’m still working on it! I need a bit of an overhaul on some of the broad strokes (re: basically I’m working on having a little more structure to the plot) but it’s still kicking.

Manuscript Search Tag

Thank you @regan-wickworre for tagging me in this, sorry that it took like a month to respond to! I’m going to use Beneath Alder Creek because that’s the last large project I’ve worked on.

My words: eyes, friend, chance, fear, desire

Eyes

He was standing several paces back, half-hidden by a wide tree trunk, but there was no disguising the wide-set eyes staring at her incredulously.

Friend

“Would you like a ride home, Miss Pewitt?” Leslie asked amicably, as though the two had been longtime friends and not mere acquaintances with an unfortunate history.

Chance

Still looking away, Winnie raised the pin between her forefinger and her thumb. “You’ve been skittish ever since you saw this at Pryderi’s estate. I might not be the most worldly woman, but I’m smart enough to recognize that stabbing my own guide might delay my chance to find my brother.”

Fear

“He left. He’s afraid of the Evenfall Vault and he left,” she said evenly, hoping it would mask the fear gripping at her chest.

Desire

“Do tell.” There was a dullness to her tone, like she had heard of Enid’s offerings before and was merely amusing her, but Queen Ceridwen examined Winnie and Taliesin with interest. Winnie didn’t dare look over at him, in case she couldn’t resist the wild desire to laugh.

Words I’m leaving: accept, voice, near, resent, silence

Tag Game: This or That (Fantasy Edition)

Thank you @medeaes for the tag!

spell or curse ∙ abandoned mansion or haunted cemetery ∙ vampire slayer or ghost hunter ∙ phoenix or griffin ∙ wrist bite or neck bite ∙ fairy godmother or evil stepmother ∙ herbs or potion ∙ ghost or wraith ∙ dragon scales or werewolf claws ∙ druid or mage ∙ elf or hobbit ∙ divination or necromancy ∙ wand magic or hand magic ∙ centaur or unicorn ∙ dark fairytale or disney-style fairytale ∙ sword or bow & arrow ∙ siren or water nymph ∙ garlic or silver ∙ talking animal or walking tree ∙ demon trap or crossroads pact ∙ enchanted fairy forest or mermaid lagoon

Heads Up, Seven Up

Thank you for tagging me, @em-dashes and @akindofmagictoo!

(I can’t do the last seven because I just finished something and it’d spoil the whole thing, but here are a random seven)

“You have new merchandise, Ms. Kim,” Mike pointed out as he dug through his pockets. “I didn’t even know there were spells for maintaining battery life.”

“Yeah, well, some companies intentionally provide weak batteries to make you replace your phone after a couple years. This cheats seems the lesser of the two evils.” I rested my elbows on the top of the register as I watched Mike stack the contents of his pockets onto the countertop. Books, empty potion bottles, a pair of gloves. After withdrawing a black notebook with an engraved monogram and a full-sized human skull, he finally pulled out his wallet.

I had to ask him what spell he used to get that kind of pocket space. 

I’m just gonna start tagging people, and you can respond with whichever tag game you want!

@booksnotbookies @rhikasa @tate-lin @parafoxicalk @absolute-nonsense-scribblings @de-profundis-ad-astra and @riaisntwriting and literally anybody else who wants to!

#no pressure to participate of course! #tag games #writing #my writing

[aion-rsa]

How the Cyberpunk 2077 Soundtrack Found Its Dystopian Sound in a Soviet-Era Synthesizer

https://ift.tt/2Knk6oM

CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 is arguably the the biggest video game release of 2020, transporting players to a gritty sci-fi world full of bio-augmented criminals and lowlives. True to its name, the game explores some pretty deep concepts about cyberspace and what life might be like in a futuristic transhuman society where technological advancements have turned us less human and more machine. So it’s no surprise that the game’s score often sounds like something recovered from the year 2077 and brought back to our time. At its very best, the soundtrack elevates this grim dystopia.

In the wake of Cyberpunk 2077‘s massive launch, Den of Geek spoke with the trio of composers behind the game’s score: Marcin Przybylowicz (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt), P.T. Adamczyk (Gwent: The Witcher Card Game), and Paul Leonard-Morgan (Dredd). The three composers discussed the soundtrack’s conception and revealed the unconventional methods they used to create the score’s unique, ominous sound.

The Cyberpunk 2077 Original Score, which contains two discs-worth of the game’s enormous pool of music, is available now to buy and stream. As players have discovered in the week since the game’s launch, the score isn’t exactly the pulsating, adrenaline-fueled synth barrage some might be expecting from a cyberpunk title. It’s largely ambient, with ominous layers of otherworldly bass bellows, tribal beats that sound both futuristic and primal, and melancholic wades through placid synth soundscapes. There are definitely bangers on the tracklist, but what stands out is that many of the pieces almost feel introspective. 

“You’re dealing with a complex story, and there’s [a vast] number of characters in Cyberpunk,” Adamczyk explains. “Finding a theme or an idea or a motif and being confident in it…that’s really difficult because there are so many different things happening in the story, and you could score it a thousand different ways. And they all would be good enough. But the question remains, ‘What is the essence?’”

Przybylowicz was the first of the three composers to start work on the score for Cyberpunk 2077 very early in the game’s production. In laying the foundations for what the game’s music would sound like (the elusive “essence” Adamczyk speaks of), he set out to create something unique, though he was also committed to honoring the source material that the game is steeped in.

“We were trying to find out how our take on Cyberpunk would differ from other bits of culture,” says Marcin of the initial creative process. “We must never forget that our game is not a game that is simply set in a yberpunk universe. Our game is Cyberpunk 2077, which means that it’s based on a very well described and very lore-heavy, already existing universe, Cyberpunk 2020 by Mike Pondsmith. So that means there is a ton of source material, tons of creative work that has already been done before. So we needed to reach out to these books and see if we could pinpoint anything that would remain useful for us after we move the events from 2020 to 2077. Then we started to formulate how that would translate to the game’s sonic palette.”

The original tabletop game paints a picture of an alternate future in which corruption reigns and oppressive megacorporations wage war on each other, as the denizens of gang-infested, urban sprawls like Night City struggle to survive on the streets. Humans and machines intertwine via cybernetic enhancements, and this unholy merging of flesh and technology is represented vividly in the game’s score, which often employs the use of synth that sounds both metallic and organic.

The majority of electronic music is created from a widely-available database of preset sounds built into a computer or synth. To create Cyberpunk 2077’s unique sonic identity, the composers eschewed convention and took a more experimental approach, using a slew of odd machines to create bespoke sounds that give the score its ethereal edge.

“What we’ve done is ridiculous,” Leonard-Morgan explains. “It hasn’t been done before. We’ve composed with virtually no software at all. It’s all external gear. So it’s all weird and wacky synthesizers, all weird modular synths, always stuff which you then had to record the audio and process that around. You can never recreate the sounds again.”

The trio used rare, long out-of-production machines, took their already unique built-in sounds, and manipulated them further to compose the game’s music. The result is a tapestry of interconnected compositions that have a dark, Frankenstein’s-monster bizarreness to them, and one of the most prominent and peculiar synths you’ll hear in the mix has a curious background of its own.

“P.T. and I own our own Soviet-made Polivokses. Mine’s from 1982,” Przybylowicz says. “My Polivoks still has a price tag: 800 Rubles, which is, I think by today’s standards, 10 bucks. It’s a duophonic synthesizer similar to the Moog Sub 37, which is a very famous duophonic unit. I heard a story that during the Cold War, blueprints [of the Moog Sub 37] were stolen by Soviet agents in order to obtain something that they could copy [to build their own synthesizer]. Supposedly they were trying to make an exact copy, but you know, something always goes wrong on the production lines–they ended up with a machine that is truly, remarkably ugly-sounding. Yet still sounds like nothing else.”

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Another strange machine in the trio’s fleet of synths is the Folktek Mescaline, an infernal-looking mess of jet-black panels, spiraling bronze detailing, and a scattered arrangement of inputs, knobs, buttons, and switches. It looks so intimidating and unapproachable that it’s no wonder the trio harnessed its power in their compositions.

“All three of us own Folktek Mescalines,” Przybylowicz says. “It’s a small modular system that allows you to basically do anything. It doesn’t come with a very good manual. It doesn’t feature keyboards. It doesn’t feature any self-explanatory indications of what’s doing what. So it’s all based on experimentation.”

Adamczyk elaborates, “You can’t really decide, ‘I’m just going to play an A minor chord’ on a Mescaline. Getting an A minor chord is a real pain in the ass because you have to pretty much tune the machine to that specific chord. You have to try to find your way with these instruments and try to somehow find a musical way of using them. Half of the time, you have no idea what you’re doing.”

The game boasts around eight hours of music that, amazingly, is virtually all in the key of A minor to allow the different compositions to flow seamlessly in and out of each other as the player transitions between different encounters and scenarios.

“Games are like living organisms,” Przybylowicz explains. “It’s dependent on the player’s actions, even if we’re talking about the most linear scripted games. Ours obviously is nothing like that. It’s a full-fledged, open-world RPG with multiple branching lines in the narrative arc. So obviously it’s even more difficult [to compose for], but I think in a sense it’s almost liberating to work on a thing that changes so many times during even a single playthrough, you know?”

Cyberpunk 2077 had fans practically salivating in the days leading to its release date. It’s not only the next chapter of a long-beloved sci-fi franchise, but CD Projekt RED’s follow-up to the all-time classic The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which is, to put it mildly, a tough act to follow. The composers feel the magnitude of the moment, though they remain unshakable, confident in the work they’ve put forward.

“Working on a game of such a big scale, ambition and quality and fan base…I think it naturally adds to the pressure,” says Przybylowicz. “So the bigger the hype gets, the bigger the expectations are getting, and the bigger the pressure gets. I think it’s at least in some parts a natural process of this profession, when you get to work on a project of this reputation.”

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

“It doesn’t matter for me whether it’s a one million dollar film, a hundred million dollar film, a billion-dollar game, or whatever,” Leonard-Morgan adds. “The point is it’s all about the creative process. That’s the part that I really, really enjoy. And I think as soon as you start letting external forces come into your head, that’s where I start to kind of…Self-doubt is the wrong phrase. But you start second-guessing, and second guessing is just the worst thing you can do as a composer.”

You can listen to the score below:

Cyberpunk 2077 is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Google Stadia.

The post How the Cyberpunk 2077 Soundtrack Found Its Dystopian Sound in a Soviet-Era Synthesizer appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3an3h8A

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[bleakcreek]

POSITIVITY TIME!!!!!!!

so @youdidinthedark has challenged people to send people messages, dms, or just post directly on the dash (like i’m doing!) to let people know if they have made your fandom experience a brighter, happier one, and i personally thing that’s an amazing idea!

the first person i want to acknowledge — and yeah, this kind of goes without saying — is kim @youdidinthedark herself. it’s wild to think that we didn’t start talking til october because she has RAPIDLY become my closest friend in the fandom. kim is a bright spot of light on my dash and in my life in general and i don’t think a day has passed since we started talking where we haven’t spoken. ilu, kim.  💞💞

erika @linksugiecookerneal and nicole @sparkle-fingers have also been amazing friends to me. our friendship was forged by a series of unforgettable journeys. first to randl live in birmingham, then to BCC and buies creek in NC, and soon, we’ll be meeting up again in vidcon. (also, erika might come bother me between now and then, since she only lives an hour away.) you guys have been amazing friends, and the memories we’ve made — and have yet to make! — will be something i cherish forever. 

max @linksbabyblues, lexis @35yrsmorerhink, em @soho-x, elizabeth @captainsourwolf​, v @mythicalpurgatory​, morgan @chronicallyilltrashcan​, and everyone else in the Roller Rhink server! there’s a lot of you and tagging all of your would be really difficultbut y’all really do brighten my day every day. 

annie @jupitercrash​, for being a force of aggressive positivity in the mythical society discord. the server is a better place for you being active there, and you are a constant blessing to talk to, whether it’s on tumblr or discord. 

sarajane @freudsghost​, even though you’re new to the fandom, you’re an absolute ray of sunshine here! your art is GORGEOUS, and i’m so very happy you decided to join us!

mike @its-mike-kapufty​, appa @apparentlynotreallyfinnish​, mick @sass-and-panache​, you are three of the kindest people i’ve ever met, and you’ve written some of my favorite fics here. please never stop being the wonderful people that you are. 💙

and last, but not least, i want to thank em @ssodangdark​ for being the first person to follow me on this blog, and the first person to welcome me into the fandom. it’s been 10 months since i showed up here, bright eyed and fresh faced, and i knew LITERALLY NO ONE, but i remember you were so friendly and welcoming when i had no idea how long i was going to stay in this fandom.

💙💙💙 thank all of you, truly, for being your mythical best.💙💙💙 

#positivity #hope all these @s work bc sometimes they break #and i'm sorry if i missed anyone #i would literally mention everyone i follow if i coudld #*could

[fatechica]

dance with me (make me sway) - A 2-Year Celebration

It occurred to me a few weeks ago that I was coming up on my two year anniversary in the Mileven fandom - two years to the day since I posted the first chapter of “love you like a love song” - and, when I realized it, I wanted to commemorate it.

The last two years have been an amazing, wild ride. I’ve become a part of a fandom in ways I never have before, I’ve made friends who I know will be with me the rest of my life, and I’ve been happier than I think I may have ever been before, my life fulfilled and enriched in ways I never imagined.

To say that becoming part of the Stranger Things fandom was one of the best things that I’ve ever done would be the biggest understatement ever. You all make my life better and I’m glad to be part of one of the most wonderful groups of people I’ve ever had the privilege of being part of.

To thank you all for letting me be part of this crazy ride, this is for you. This is to all the people who’ve become my friends over the past couple of years, those who have come and gone, those who are still here, and those who are yet to come.

To that end, there are a relative handful of people I wanted to tag: @formerlyjannafaye @milevens @el-borealis @milesfairchild @dustinhendrsn @stevehharrington @elshopper @elhoppers @martygalwrites @dustinsteves @mikewheeler @summer-in-hawkins @serendipitousrambles @milevenhearteyes @elizabthturner @girls-are-weird @thief-and-dragonfly @maplestreet @lovelysheree

I know I’m missing someone, but you all are people I call amongst my closest friends, people I’m proud to say I know and love. Thank you for making all of this something I could never, ever regret.

To that end, I’ve written something I’ve been wanting to write for a while, something that encapsulates so many of my feelings.

(and, for the gc ladies, i’ve written my mileven dancing fic. you check me off the list, now, and you’re welcome.)

Every day feels like he’s living a dream, one he never wants to wake up from. He knows it’s not a dream, though. It took too much hard work to get here – too much blood and sweat and tears, too much back and forth, coming together before being pulled apart, repeating this what felt like over and over again. 

But they’re here now – they made it – and he never has to dream ever again. Because, every day, he wakes up to his dream. Because, every day, he wakes up and goes about his day and comes home to his wife. 

Because every day, Mike comes home to El.

It’s not perfect. Nothing is, after all. Both Mike and El are headstrong, passionate individuals and sometimes things get heated, intense in the wrong way. But the love they feel for each other smooths out all those speed bumps and, more often than not, helps them channel their stronger impulses into something positive. It helps them love each other just that much more, helps them love each other each and every day. 

There’s nothing special about today except that every day Mike spends with El is special, each one better than the last. Each time, he thinks this is it, I can’t be any more in love with her than I am right now. And every. single. day. he falls just that much more in love with El, falls in love with her all over again. 

It’s almost never something big that makes him realize this – the way she smiles at him when he greets her after he gets home, the way she laces her fingers through his as they head up to bed at the end of the evening, the way she laughs and talks and just exists with him. 

Tonight, it’s the way she’s standing at the sink while she does the dishes. He cooked tonight, so by the agreement they came to when they moved in together several years ago, it’s her turn to do the dishes. 

El’s standing at the sink, weight mostly resting on one leg, hair up in a loose bun with wisps falling to frame her face and neck. She’s wearing a loose sweater, neckline slipping down to expose the smooth curve of one shoulder, and a pair of leggings that skim tight to the lines of her legs. One bare foot is firmly planted on the ground, while the other is propped against it, heel resting on her ankle, foot arched almost sensually. 

But, the thing that Mike notices most of all as he walks into the kitchen, the last of the dinner dishes in hand, is the way El is swaying to the music that’s playing. 

El always has the music playing while she does the dishes and today is no exception. Today’s selection is from the local Oldies radio station, airwaves filling the kitchen with the sounds of Big Band and jazz and the Rat Pack. 

The rich sounds of Frank Sinatra are starting to fade out, Mike recognizing the final notes of “Fly Me To The Moon”, as he sets the last couple plates on the counter next to El. Her proximity calls to him with its sweet, siren’s song and Mike’s barely able to set the dishes down before his arms are reaching for her, sliding around her waist as he pulls her to him, body molding to hers. He buries his face against her neck and breathes in the sweet scent of her. The feel of her skin against his is the one of the greatest rushes known to man and he’s like a drug addict, forever chasing the high that he can only get from her. 

El leans back against him, back curving to mirror the lean of his body. “Hi,” she breathes just loud enough to be heard over the running water. 

The feel of El in his arms is the cure for pretty much everything, even if nothing is wrong, and Mike finds himself burrowing deeper into her, holding her tight. He never wants to let her go. “Hi,” he murmurs against El’s neck, head rotating so he can press a lingering kiss on the skin right beneath her jaw.

El shivers at the press of his lips and Mike tries to hold back the grin that threatens to creep onto his face. She’s so responsive – always has been – and it makes him a little eager, impatient, to eventually move upstairs to their bedroom. All things in due time, he thinks as El breathes in deeply. “I’m trying to do the dishes,” she says in weak admonishment. 

“I can see that,” Mike says, losing the battle against keeping the grin off his face. “Don’t let me interrupt.”

El’s breath leaves her in a huffed sigh. “You’re gonna, anyway,” she mumbles. 

That pulls a laugh from him, low and husky, and Mike starts to sway with the music that surrounds them, emanating from the old radio perched on the windowsill above the sink. “You know me too well,” Mike says, still barely above a murmur. 

“Well, it’s only been 11 years,” El says with a barely contained snort. 

“Hmm, good point,” Mike says as he nuzzles into her neck, breathing her in deep, lungs filling with the lingering scent of her perfume, mixing potently with the remaining hints of her shampoo and something that is just so fundamentally El, soft and addicting. He’s been trying for years to figure out what it is and he knows he’s going to spend the rest of his life trying to crack that particular mystery (it doesn’t matter if he succeeds – not at all. All that matters is that she’s here for him to try and solve it.).

The song on the radio changes, starting with a simple piano intro, and Mike’s heart skips a beat as he recognizes the song. His arms untangle from around El’s waist, hands sliding to her hips to pull her away from the sink, soft need filling every inch of him. 

El lets him pull her away from the sink, but not without a soft whine in the process. “Mike, the dishes.”

“They’re not going anywhere,” Mike rasps, a chuckle in his voice. “Dance with me.” 

El sighs, but he knows he has her as she takes his hand, the other sliding up to curve over his shoulder. “Mike,” she admonishes, but it lacks true strength. This isn’t the first time Mike’s done this and it certainly won’t be the last. 

El’s hand in his is warm and wet from the water still trickling into the sink, a little slippery from the dish soap, but Mike thinks it’s perfect as Elvis’ voice begins to croon from the radio. “Wise men say only fools rush in, but I can’t help falling in love with you….”

The look in El’s eyes is warm and rich, amber-flecked irises darting back and forth as her gaze dances across his face. Her cheeks are gently flushed, suffusing the light tan of her skin with the prettiest pink Mike’s ever seen, and her perfect, richly full lips are curved in an enticing smile. God, Mike doesn’t know how he got so lucky. He wonders this every day and he’s never been able to figure it out. The only thing he can chalk it up to is the only streak of luck he’s ever had in his entire life. 

(he doesn’t know this, not really, but it’s not luck. el knows it’s because he was the first person who never judged her, the first person who gave her a home and a name and a place to belong, the only person who’s ever really understood her. it’s a gift she can never, ever repay and she will spend the rest of her life making sure he knows how much she loves him for the simple, yet overwhelming kindness he’s given her.)

But, for the moment, there’s just them, the warm light of their kitchen, and the dulcet, crooning tones of Elvis’ “Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” as they sway back and forth in the middle of their kitchen. El’s warm in his arms, smiling up at him like he’s all she’ll ever need, and Mike’s heart resumes its daily attempt to beat its way out of his chest. The feel of her in his arms is everything, more than he could have ever imagined, more than he ever could have hoped for, and he will forever be grateful to have her in his life, to have her with him.

“Take my hand, take my whole life too,” comes the voice from the radio and Mike can’t help but be hyper aware of El’s hand in his, the smooth metal of her wedding band digging into where their fingers are interlaced, a poignant reminder of the promise they made to each other, ‘til death do they part, as long as they both shall live – the way it’s been since he first found her in the rain, even if he didn’t know it at the time. 

He’s leaning towards her before he’s even fully aware that he’s doing it, drawn to her like a moth to a flame, unable to care that he’s permanently and irreversibly caught in her gravity well with no exit velocity. But it’s ok because El’s leaning up towards him, their lips meeting in a gentle kiss that sets his whole soul aflame. Her lips are soft against his, soft and lush and full, like heaven against his. Her kiss is the only one Mike’s ever known and he never wants to know any other for the rest of his life. 

The sound of El’s whimpering gasp as he kisses her sends a warm shiver down his spine, heat pooling low in his belly, and Mike kisses El that much harder, the eternal love and desire he feels for her needing an outlet, one his mouth is more than eager to provide. She kisses him back, lips soft yet firm against his, and Mike’s soul just soars. Every time he kisses her is a little like the first time, pulse racing and skin thrumming, and Mike realizes, as he has every day of his life, that El is the only person for him, the only one he wants for as long as he lives. 

And he’ll never, ever regret it. 

They stand there, kissing in the kitchen as they sway to the radio, bodies pressed against each other like they were meant to fit together. Soon, El will shut off the water and take both of Mike’s hands in hers before guiding him towards the stairs, dishes forgotten as they get swept up in each other. 

But, right now, there’s just them, the gentle music that surrounds them, and the overwhelming love they share for each other. 

For the moment, in this endless moment full of nothing but the love they share for each other, it’s enough. 

And it always, always will be. 

#stranger things #mileven #my fic #i love you all #so very very much #this is the smallest token of my affection #i will never feel worthy of being a part of such a wonderful group of people #maybe someday i will be

[midnight-watch-committee]

Story 1: what happened to Sheridan

Journalism, second period of the day, 9:34 in the morning., June 22nd, 2018.

There was a tv on in the class room, we always had the news on in there to help us, "a free cheat sheet if you use it right" as Mr. Haddison would call it. Every now and again people would be mildly interested in what was happening: law suits, politics, and murder for the morbid. A sudden gasp escaped from the girl next to me. Her name was Beth and if you saw her, you’d probably expect her to be a computer club kid. A headband kept her bright orange hair that almost looked fake from falling into her rounded, golden framed glasses, she was the youngest person in this room by about five minutes and she made sure you knew when you walked in, her sporadic and adventure seeking personality was as wild as the bright stickers on her laptop and pins on her shirt which told you every fandom she was in. She tapped me quickly on the shoulder, which was met by a cold “I’m busy,” but her insistent tapping eventually made me cave, as I looked up to what was shocking her, I realized why she gasped so loudly. “How do you lose an entire town?!” I said, or rather screamed. My friend Mikey quickly covered my mouth, expecting me to scream more about something or other, but I was more in shock than anything.  Mikey slowly moved his hand off my mouth and wiped it on his letterman jacket, “Could you be any louder?” he asks sarcastically, which I feel tempted to test but decide against it. Sheridan, Wyoming...”it was just there five minutes ago”, according to one of the people interviewed, a man who left town to grab a prescription from a nearby pharmacy. “Hey, Mike, how far is that” I asked. “Not crazy far-Juni, do you have another stupid idea?” he answered, already knowing what I was gonna say, “Just one...” I respond. “Dumb ideas? Like what, going to the crater formerly known as Sheridan? Juni, it’s gone, I’m sure the police are-” Beth started before getting shot a “shut the fuck up” look from Mikey. “What are the cops gonna do? IT’S GONE! If they plan on arresting us for looking at a hole in the ground, I’m sure a court will easily rule in our favor.” I spit out. “Jeez, fine! If you two are going, I’m tagging along to make sure you idiots don’t get hurt.” Beth said whipping out her phone “What time should I expect Mr. Can’t drive for shit to show up?” Mikey let out a chuckle. Not his “I found that funny” chuckle but a forced one, the kind you do when your sister tells a really bad joke but your mom shot you a look. “8:30, ditch the pink, we’re trespassing and we can’t repeat the O’Reily house incident.” She gave me a thumbs up, punched it into her phone and went back to her work.

The Vallen residence, 8:20 at night.

I looked in the mirror one last time, my jet-black hair an absolute mess but not like I’d ever bother fixing it. I decided to settle on a blue baseball cap to hide the rat’s nest. A black sleeveless jacket and torn blue jeans were my only real protection from anyone spotting my pale ass from a mile away. I checked the film on my grandfather’s, well mine now, camera. I gently trailed my finger over the weird markings that surround the outside of the camera. I heard my phone go off from the other room and darted over to it, slipping it in my jacket pocket and making a break for the door, pulling up my black face mask and hoping in the back of Mikey’s dark red pickup truck. He had some cheerleader girl up front with him and they clearly seemed to be taking a while so I gave the roof a few rough slaps. He rolled his window down and snapped “How many times do I have to say stop doing that before you fucking stop?” I rolled my eyes and laid down as we pulled off. I shot Beth a text letting her know we were on our way and took a nap for the 30 minuets it took to get to her place, she hopped in and checked to make sure I was still alive, trying to keep me awake so I was ready to do my job. I was the group photographer, Mike was the muscle and Beth was our pretty face who got everyone’s attention, I’d do more up-front stuff if it wasn’t for my social anxiety so for now that goes to Beth. “Did you check the film?” she asked, to which I nodded. “Good, good...how do I look?” I crack a smile and give her the trademark Beth Thumbs up ™, curving my thumb slightly to copy hers. She rolled her eyes and made sure her recorder was still working. There was something about the way the light hit her and the look in her eyes that left me stunned. Click! I snapped a quick picture of her and waved the film around, checking it. Perfect. I slipped it into my jacket pocket hoping she didn’t see me take it as the truck comes up on what was Sheridan.

Sheridan, Wyoming 8:50 at night.

We slowed to a halt a few inches away from the crater. “God, does he want us to get stuck in there?” I mumbled to Beth before hoping out, tapped on the window and gestured for him to back up. The vehicle rolled back and just as quickly as he reversed, he slammed down on the breaks, most likely giving poor Beth a major concussion. Mikey got out from the front, telling Sherri or Cherri or Cherry or whatever her name was to wait there, Beth started her audio recorder and we started our search. We walked around the perimeter of Former Sheridan, snapping photos of weird shaped rocks that seemed placed by something to hold the dirt back from reaching the middle and flowers that were left in the crater by those who thought everyone there was dead already, sitting in between all those flowers were four glowing blue rocks. “We should go in.” I blurt out, “I mean, when have we ever been scared to go into something? We’ve been in hospitals during outbreaks for Christ's sake!” Beth and Mikey look at each other, have a quick whisper debate that seems to end in Beth winning and sends Mikey back to the truck to grab some climbing equipment and set it up at the spot we were standing near. Beth offered me the rope and I accepted, sliding down all the way to the bottom of the crater, about 15 feet deep. “what the- HEY GUYS GET DOWN HERE!” I shouted, and started snapping pictures of a hole dug into the side of the crater...no, dug is wrong. There were bite marks on the outside of the hole. As if provoked by my camera, a gray, eight legged, slimy, insect shaped...CREATURE came charging out. It’s lack of eyes was amplified by it snarling, four toothed jaw. If you took of the tail of a scorpion and made it the size of a small building, you’d have this thing. The creature started stomping around the crater screeching. Legs brought up dust, chomping it up in the air. “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!” Beth screamed down into the hole and honestly, I didn’t know. I snapped a few more quick photos and broke for the rope, not wanting to be down there any longer. On my way up, I noticed the writing on the outside of the camera glowing, now readable as “Midnight watch committee.” As whatever the fuck that was screeched after us, we hoped in the truck and booked it, leaving cheer girl in wonder as to what we saw down there but we didn’t even have the sanity in that moment to describe it,.

Vallen residence, Midnight.

This thing was like something right out of some old country children’s tale. “Wait a minute...” I thought to myself, I flung open every filing cabinet in the attic, trying to find the old book my grandfather use to read to me from. My mom always hated it and time and time again told him to not read it to me, but he never listened. “The world’s a scary place,” he would say “nothing wrong with teaching her what to expect.” After maybe the 500th cabinet filled with pitch blackness, my hands bumped into the large leather-bound book. I blew the dust off it, remembering the last time I had ever had this read to me was when my mom was still alive. As if like magic, I open the book up to a random page and saw exactly what I was looking for, “The Earth Eater.” My jaw dropped reading everything in there, all the lives it had taken...but what really threw me off was...the book mentioned Sheridan’s disappearance. Did the author know? Was this some kind of joke? I set the book down on my Grandfather’s dark colored oak desk and went to bed, my mind still racing.

Bus ride from Vallen residence to Big Horn high school, 6:15, June 23rd, 2018

It was a cold early morning, but if you were up then, even in the pitch blackness, you would’ve seen the way the ground exploded near us as the Earth Eater rose from the ground, sending the bus flying. It felt like everything happened so quickly yet so slowly at the same time. I got sent flying into the seat next to me, like many others, and hit my arm against the seat hard enough to hear a loud cracking sound. It felt like every single nerve in my body dedicated itself to making me feel nothing but pain in my arm at that moment, as I tried to move it, I realized just how badly it had truly broken. The creature charged toward the bus, its none existent eyes locked on me I imagine, and for one last desperate attempt to make a story out of this, I pointed my camera at it the best I could through a window. A soft Click! Filled the air, followed by a vrrr as the camera pushed out a Polaroid, by the time the photo had made it to me, Earth Eater was gone, back to maybe one day return from whence it went, or maybe not at all.

#writing #story #surrelsim #short story #midnight watch committee #horror #lgbtq

[reddieao3feed]

The One With the Loser's Club

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2CuOd6k

by mckentoz

In which, Eddie Kaspbrak has an identity crisis at the worst possible time, Mike just can't seem to catch a break, Stan is a photographer for a conspiracy magazine, Ben is deeply in love with Bev, Richie is pretending to be something he's not, Bill just wants to go on one successful date, and Bev keeps getting yelled at by old white ladies. Being twenty-something is a wild time, but they can figure it out together.

A friends!au

Words: 6054, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: IT (Movies - Muschietti)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, M/M

Characters: Ben Hanscom, Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak, Beverly Marsh, Stanley Uris, Pennywise (IT), Mike Hanlon, Bill Denbrough

Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier, Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough/Beverly Marsh (past)

Additional Tags: Pennywise (IT) Being an Asshole, but not as a inter-dimensional all-powerful evil clown, just like Richie's boss, Friends!AU, Richie is Chandler, Eddie is Monica, but like if monica was the one to have ran away from the wedding, stan is joey, but just because he lives with richie, mike is ross, not because i think mike is in anyway like ross, but because i wanted mike to be a paleontologist, and to have been related to eddie at one point, Ross sucks, mike is baby, bev is phoebe, ben is mike but like if mike was a part of the group, bill is rachel vaguely, also i havent wrote it yet but i think im going to make henry bowers gunther, we shall see, also! its the 90s so thats fun, Internalized Homophobia, :(, Period-Typical Homophobia, :((, Homophobia, :(((, Sonia Kaspbrak's A+ Parenting, :((((, i promise my kids will not be sad all the time, richie but with 90s slang is a kind of power unseen in modern times

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2CuOd6k

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #reddie #it (2017) #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak

[rorykillmore]

and this one is for @mikexxwheeler who asked for something with mike and villanelle, who were a BLAST to go back and write for since it’s been a while since we rped them together

merry christmas jace!!!  consistently our friendship is one of the things that brightens up my life the most, and i wanted to tell you how much i appreciate you just... reaching out to me and maintaining that even during the times when we’re not actively writing together or anything. even if it’s just one of our silly memes or a joke about whatever crazy thing a politician did recently (or linking the star wars holiday special in its entirety, which of course we then proceed to drop everything and watch.) it always just. instantly lifts my mood to get a message from you, and being friends with you is one of the things i’ve treasured most over the years. as carrie fisher would say... [weird emotional musical number set to the tune of the star wars theme]

She’s not the kind of person who drops ‘what’s the worst that could happen?’ into her internal monologue without actually preparing for the worst that could happen. She isn’t stupid.

“Are you sure you do not want to be seeing Star Wars, or something boys your age should like?” Villanelle asks conversationally as she and Mike wait in the concessions line outside the movie theater. “Apparently there’s a new one out.”

“Yeah, but I heard it sucks,” Mike tells her with thinly veiled disdain. “They made the main character, like, the granddaughter of Palpatine, or something.”

“Which one is Palpatine?” asks Villanelle, who hasn’t seen a Star Wars movie since she was about twelve.  “Wait -- is he -- ?”

Mike nods grimly, and Villanelle throws back her head and cackles in abject disgust. 

“It’s not funny. It’s gross.”

“It is really gross. I’m laughing as a coping mechanism.”  Shaking off any unwanted thoughts of crusty old men fucking, Villanelle squints down at the ticket she’s holding.  “So what is this movie we’re seeing? ‘Demons’?”

“Yeah, it’s a re-release of an old one. A horror movie, I think. It actually came out in like, 1985, I think, so I just missed it.”

Villanelle cocks her head thoughtfully to one side. “The horror movies that came out in the 80′s were the best. They were so campy and stupid.”

Mike laughs.  “Yeah, I figured it’d be fun.”   And then his smirk turns into a more genuine smile.  “Thanks for coming with me.”

Villanelle shrugs and takes a sip of her soda.  “This is what friends do, right?”

It isn’t as rhetorical a question as it sounds, but Villanelle is pretty sure of the answer, at least. Movie nights are nice, normal things that people do. Even she isn’t compelled to mess this up too badly in the course of only a couple of hours. So her aside, what could possibly go wrong?

They enter the theater together, snacks and drinks in hand, and Villanelle barely pays attention to the woman in the shiny silver mask who hisses “Ow!” as she accidentally cuts the side of her face.

---

Really, it’s no wonder that Mike barely had to bribe her to tag along. Villanelle likes movies. She’s always liked movies. And this one is the perfect combination of campy and gory, so she is comfortably enjoying herself right up until the scene where one of their characters cuts their face on a weird looking demon mask -- and proceeds to begin to turn into a demon themselves.

“You know, this is basically just a zombie movie,” Villanelle leans over to murmur to Mike. “They probably just called it ‘Demons’ because Italians are so Catholic.”

But Mike is busy frowning at the screen, surprisingly unimpressed by the gnarly display of body horror taking place in front of him.  “Wasn’t there a lady out in the lobby who cut her face on a mask like that?”

“Was there?” Villanelle raises her eyebrows in surprise. She does vaguely remember it now that Mike has brought it up, but she shrugs. “Probably just part of the immersive experience.”

Teenagers. So easily spooked by movies like these.

“Hey. What the hell happened to Rosemary?” A guy in the row in front of them growls, stoking the fires of Mike’s unease.

“I’m pretty sure that was where she was sitting, too. She’s missing!”

It is a slightly... strange coincidence, but Villanelle only twists around in her seat briefly to make sure they’re not attracting any attention.  “She probably just went to the bathroom. Relax.”

“Go check.”

“What?”

“Villanelle, if we’re about to get stuck in the middle of a demonic apocalypse, we’d better get a jump on it.”

Villanelle grimaces in irritation, but reminds herself that Mike has survived the odd supernatural possibly-apocalyptic scenario on occasion before. She needs a refill, anyway. “Fine. But you are coming with me.”

“I can’t go into the girls’ restroom,” Mike protests.

“You can wait outside. Just in case I get turned into a demon, and it’s up to you to warn the rest of the world.” Villanelle gets up and starts inching her way out of the aisle without waiting for an answer. It isn’t long before she hears Mike shuffling behind her, following as she knew he would, ever incapable of resisting a taste of adventure even if it is under completely ridiculous circumstances. 

Villanelle never would have imagined she’d have anything in common with Mike Wheeler, of all people.  But sometimes she thinks he’s been through so much that at the end of the day - even if he hasn’t yet admitted it to himself - he wouldn’t ever be able to settle for a normal life again either. So in that way, they are the same.

“Arm yourself,” Villanelle tells him as they reach the lobby, only half-joking. She gets a flat look in return, but then Mike does pick up a broom a janitor left propped up against the side of the wall, raising his eyebrows at her as if to say ‘happy?’

Villanelle gives him a cheeky little thumbs up before she steps into the women’s restroom.  There is no need for her to arm herself, because - as always - she has come prepared, a knife strapped to her ankle, a tiny hand-sized pistol tucked into her jacket lining.

(She’s not the kind of person who drops ‘what’s the worst that could happen?’ into her internal monologue without actually preparing for the worst that could happen. She isn’t stupid.)

But when she steps into restroom, everything seems calm, almost to her vague disappointment. What has she become, if she is very nearly craving the unlikely possibility of demonic mass hysteria? She misses the good old, simple days. When she was content to get her adrenaline rush by slashing a few throats, and never stretched her imagination unreasonable lengths beyond that.

There is a woman standing in front of one of the sink mirrors. Villanelle assumes she must be Rosemary, if the way she is dabbing at her face is any indication. The cut on the side of her cheek looks normal, and Villanelle decides she’ll just get a quick closer look before delivering the all-clear to Mike.

“Do you need a band-aid for that?” Villanelle asks, sidling up and quickly slipping into Girl Talk Mode.  “I think I have one in my purse...”

“That’d be great,” Rosemary says with a relieved smile, and now that Villanelle is closer she notices... there’s an unusual amount of blood dripping down her jaw, for a wound that seems comparatively shallow.   “It’s weird, I just can’t get it to stop bleeding.”

Fortunately, Villanelle hadn’t been bluffing, and really does have a bandage in her purse. She fishes it out and offers it to the other woman, watching closely as Rosemary uses it to cover the wound and...

...Within seconds, it bleeds right through.

Okay. That is definitely not normal.

“Mike?” Villanelle calls back out into the lobby.  “I thiiink we have a problem.”

“What’s happening?” Mike calls back to her, but Villanelle doesn’t answer him right away.  She’s too busy watching in growing, morbid fascination and disgust as the wound starts to pulse and throb, like there is something under Rosemary’s skin burrowing its way to the surface to get out.

“Mike,” she calls more insistently. 

“What! I can’t come in there!”

“Oh my god, it’s not like there is a force field, or something --” But Villanelle’s retort breaks off into a horrified shriek as the wound on the side of Rosemary’s face explodes.

“Villanelle!” 

This time, throwing all caution to the winds and evidently deciding that his dignity is not as important as Villanelle’s life, Mike comes rushing into the restroom just as Villanelle is flattening herself against the wall to avoid the worst of the oozing... pus... no, she does not want to even describe it internally.

“What’s happening to her?! Is she --” 

Rosemary’s screams turn feral, and Villanelle has to interrupt Mike’s question to pull him out of the way as she slashes at him with... are those claws?

“It’s the movie! I fucking told you it was just like the movie!”  Mike shouts. Rosemary rounds on them again with wild, animalistic yellow eyes, and Mike... promptly smacks her right in the face with the broom handle.  Her neck snaps back at an unnatural angle.

“Ha!” Villanelle laughs, recovering in the midst of all this chaos. “Nice hit.”

“Thanks. Wait, I mean -- what do we do?!” 

“Run?” Villanelle guesses, unsure if there is any way to actually kill this thing. Rosemary’s seems to be snapping her neck back to its normal position, and neither of them stayed in the theater long enough to know if the demons had any significant weaknesses. 

Mike spares a moment to shoot her a frantic look.  “But she’ll get out and spread the virus to other people!”

That sounds like their problem, Villanelle wants to say, although she supposes she can easily enough see how a supernatural pandemic might eventually become her problem as well.

Rosemary lets out an unearthly snarl and lunges forward again. It is not so much the threat of being scratched and turned, or at least dismembered, that makes Villanelle react (although that alone is obviously enough) -- as does the sight of her wide, gaping jaws. And all that slimy pus stuff she’s drooling everywhere.

“That is fucking disgusting,” Villanelle tells her, before pulling out her pistol and firing three close range shots into the woman’s head.

It... works. Effectively. As one might expect.

Rosemary stumbles back and falls into a pool of her own blood, twitching unpleasantly in what seems to be a round of dying spasms. Villanelle fires one more head shot, just to make sure.

“O-okay. I think you got her.” Mike sounds slightly shaken, and it’s only then that she remembers that she just brutally shot a person right in front of him. Then again, she is not really sure Rosemary counted as a ‘person’ at time time. Never the less, Villanelle lowers her gun and turns so that she’s at least half-obscuring Mike’s view of the body.

“That was kind of easy.”  She scrunches her nose up a bit.

Mike takes another steadying breath, but he’s doing a better job of composing himself than she might have expected.  “...Yeah. Uh. I think we maybe just... prevented an apocalypse?”

Villanelle considers that for a couple of seconds. It almost feels kind of anticlimactic. “Huh,” she finally says with a shrug.  “Guess I will add it to my resume. Stop it at patient zero, that’s what I always say.” Or what she would always say, if she’d ever been involved in any humanity-threatening spread of disease before now.

“Is now a good time to say ‘I told you so?’” Mike quips in return, and Villanelle gives him a passive-aggressive (but also sort of playful) shoulder check as she passes on her way to the restroom’s exit.

“I guess we call the police. And they can call in Hazmat people to clean up the body, or something.” Already, she’s kind of wondering how exactly they’re going to explain the weird, meta experience of watching a movie and then having that movie repeat itself in real life. Then again, it’s probably par for the course for the cops around here, by now.

“Wait,” Mike says suddenly.  “What about the mask?”

Ah. He’s right, she realizes, following his gaze over to the lobby display where the mask still sits. The apparent source of the virus, if the movie lore holds up.

“Well, we have gotten this far by being genre savvy, so I don’t think we should have it over to the police,” she muses.

“Yeah, no way.  One of them’ll cut themselves while they’re joking around, or something, and infect the whole police station. Always happens.”

“So... we keep it?” Villanelle tries to run through some other, smarter possibilities in her head.  “Burn it? Bury it? Throw it into a volcano? We could do that. There’s one out in the Prehistoric Wilds.”

Mike starts to grin, and Villanelle squints at him suspiciously.  “What is so funny?”

“Nothing,” he says, shaking his head.  “Just... the volcano thing. It’s just like in Lord of the Rings.”

Villanelle pulls up short as their very first conversation comes ebbing back to her. Unexpectedly, what accompanies it is a trace of amused warmth. And she grins back at him briefly.  “Guess we’ve come full circle.”

“We really have.”

Villanelle makes a note to get out of there before he remembers to make a communism joke. 

#im not going to spoil what the concept of this fic actually is but when you read it #ask yourself: how could i not? #fic #christmas gifts #OH ALSO I ALMOST FORGOT #body horror cw #?????

[arionwind]

that hatemail made me sad so im gonna give you something to infodump about, which edition of dnd do you like the best? right now i basically only play 3.5 because i heard iffy things about 4 and 5 is so new that its a lot harder to find pdfs for the low low price of piracy compared to 3.5 but if 5th edition has any genuinely good mechanics overhauls comparatively i might consider giving it a try?

I was expecting the hate mail, I am fine. Sorry for upsetting you though! And to other followers who may be upset, the “hate mail” tag catches all the anon hate I publish for my own amusement.

As for the question … That’s a tough one. That also got more bloated than I expected again, so under the cut.

I think 3.5 is a mechanical mess with an accumulation over years of bad and worse ideas and Pathfinder 1e refined the base classes and mechanical assumptions in ways that make the whole thing much more playable. But at the same time, because they could only use OGL content, some of my favourite options had to be omitted. It’s petty, but the lack of the Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil, Geometer, Spellfire Adept, and all the hybrid PrCs make it a bit harder for me to have the same kind of fun I did with 3.5.

Even then though, for all I miss those nostalgia options, Pathfinder gives enough options to base classes and enough benefits for taking them all the way to 20 that PrCs are basically unnecessary unless they enable a hyperspecific concept that is worth losing baseline utility for. And while there’s likewise some feat chains from 3.5 that I enjoyed a lot (like tactical feats specifically I miss a lot) there’s enough flexibility in PF1e to satisfy me and a much healthier suite of support materials for running it than 3/3.5 ever had outside of the now-defunct RPGA. In an ideal world I’d rebalance and port over some of my favourite options from 3.5 and just play PF1e for all my D&D needs. I’ve even got half-fleshed out conversions for some of the PrCs and feat chains I love dearly that in all liklihood I’ll never get to use (who is ever going to want to run me through a FR game that allows either Spellfire or the more broken Shadow Magic/Ruathar tricks? No one sane, that’s who.)

As for 5th edition’s mechanical overhauls … it’s gonna depend on what you want from your D&D. If you want a tactical battle sim and are happy roleplaying with minimal dice involvement the more social/exploration-y things, I’d honestly say to use 4e. It got a lot of hate for being a wild departure from 3.5, and it was, but I have yet to see another game do the granular tactical battle-mat fighting tabletop thing more than half as well as 4e did it. The balance was immaculate at every level and rewarded picking and sticking to roles and using teamwork in a way no other edition of D&D has before or since, even counting the spin-offs like Pathfinder.

I’m less familiar with 5e and honestly have no interest in spending money on it as long as Wizards is still pretending Mike Mearls didn’t enable some of the worst actors in the industry. But from what I’ve heard and what little I’ve seen it’s closer to 3.5 than 4e was, but with harshly flattened numeric curves. You’re not going to run into that 3.5 issue where if the warrior doesn’t constantly keep her armor and weapon upgraded to the max she is gonna be a chump, because ACs just don’t hit the 40s like they fairly easily can in 3.5. Spellcasting also seems to be rebalanced some, so while there’s still the issue of a control wizard trivializing encounters with the right tricks you’re not going to have a fifth level wizard putting out as much melee damage as the barbarian with a 1st level spell anymore either.

Whether or not this is a good thing is going to depend on your playstyle and preferences. There’s a lot less overwhelming character options and notably fewer trap builds that seem good at first blush but fall apart in actual play (though there are some). But that also means there’s a lot less room for weird combinations that can enable things like a halfling barbarian dual-wielding two swords the size of ranch houses.

Maybe you want that! I know that if I played Garbanzo (the aforementioned halfling from my 3.5 days) at some tables that wanted a more serious game I’d get kicked out. Personally if I want a grittier down-to-earth and low magic game of D&D I am gonna pitch Iron Heroes instead. But admittedly that may overcorrect and be too low magic, in which case 5e is probably a good fit?

I guess what I am trying to get at is that 5e (and 4e) does what it tries to do well. It just doesn’t try to do all the same things 3.5 did, and depending on what you did or didn’t like about 3.5 it might not be the right fit.

#tabletop #and now I am gonna go look over my old iron gods materials #one day I do need to get a bookshelf though #and bring all my 3.5 stuff up from Maryland #all-women-kick-ass

[scige-alt]

YOUR ALIAS & NICKNAMES — james bt usually its spelled JAMES bt irl i’ve been called jimbo and jam and jammies and jimjam n w/e endearing terms bc i am precious

AGE — 20

TIMEZONE — est

PREFERRED PRONOUNS — she/they bt the she is more out of convenience fr others n also nothing bothers me

MBTI — istp i share this with bri and also my character viktor bt ive also gotten infp before i think which is almost the complete opposite so! take tht as u will

HP HOUSE — oh wait i actually know this i took a fckn quiz hold on. ok i took this fucker right here and i got burned gryffindor primary, model hufflepuff primary, gryffindor secondary, n model hufflepuff secondary which boils down 2 ... i dont know

ARE YOU A STUDENT? WHAT DO YOU STUDY? — technically yes but i havent taken a class in a year bt i used to be a social work major n then i was gna switch to english n then i wanted to do environmental / coastal / marine biology / science bt then i realized i cant do math so idk

ARE YOU ENJOYING IT? — i was :/

LINKS TO OTHER ACCOUNTS & SOCIAL MEDIA — i dont like being perceived bt my twitter is @fauxcherub and my pinterest is @offbrandsodapop / big tid and im too lazy 2 link them so im sry bt also my rph is @svrgcnts​ n my theme is unfinished ignore it

DISCORD USER — sniff#3644 i think

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FICTION GENRE? — i like modern fantasy / urban fantasy just like. modern magic. modern. bt mostly fr books. fr like films n tv shows i dont know i binge watch gossip girl and eat several oranges

TOP FIVE FAVOURITE FILMS — i ...... dont know .... pride n prejudice, austin powers, halloweentown n co’, the princess bride, the princess diaries or ella enchanted

A BOOK YOU FEEL “CHANGED” YOU? — i read the darkest minds when i was a freshmen in high school and it was the first book that ever made me cry and i think it unlocked the part of me that genuinely feels emotion because ever since i read it i cry multiple times a week to every single day at like. everything. so. its not even a revolutionary book i just really liked it

A MOVIE YOU THINK ABOUT OFTEN? — probably pride n prejudice i wont lie but also if something stars mike myers chances r that its on my mind

WHAT IS YOUR SIGN? — aquarius sun, aquarius moon, cancer rising

ARE YOU INTO ASTROLOGY? — not 2 the point where i hate u if ur a gemini i just think its fun 2 b like ‘haha i do that’

WHAT PLATFORMS HAVE YOU ROLEPLAYED ON? — facebook n club penguin

WHAT OTHER HOBBIES DO YOU HAVE? — im a shell of a person.

HAVE ANY PETS? IF SO, TALK ABOUT THEM! — harley n bodhi i love them and so do u harley is a pit mix maybe possibly idk? and bodhi’s a shiba and theyre opposites. harley is so nice. bodhi is an asshole. i love them so much

IS THERE A TV SHOW YOU RECOMMEND A LOT? — i rly liked fleabag but schitt’s creek mostly. i also liked the politician but i want to punt ryan murphy so. i think the haunting of hill house is also a good show

ANY SHOWS YOU LIKE SOME MIGHT BE SURPRISED TO HEAR THAT YOU DO? — i think im too predictable bt if anybody wants to tell me the answer to this please do

WHAT WAS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ? WOULD YOU RECOMMEND IT? — god i think i was reading strange the dreamer by laini taylor or smth like that bt ya i was enjoying it even though i stopped halfway thru and havent picked it up in a year

CURRENTLY READING? — i cant read

LAST FILM? REC IT? — the joker and no.

THREE MOVIES YOU NEED TO WATCH — practical magic bt i told myself i wouldnt watch it until i do my replies, perks of being a wallflower, n uuuhhh beautiful boy (thank u neen)

WHAT MOVIE DO YOU THINK YOU’VE SEEN THE MOST TIMES? — austin powers or halloweentown or shrek i wont lie its probably shrek yeah its shrek

WHAT ALWAYS PUTS YOU IN A GOOD MOOD? — the gc usually :/

WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE MUSICIAN / BAND? LIST IF THERE ARE MORE THAN ONE. — lady lamb bt im mad at her bc she hasnt toured to florida and all i want is to see her live bt im really feeling bay faction lately bt also mcr bc im emo but im kind of a few songs frm every artist type of person n not like entire discographies except fr the bands ive just listed

WILD NIGHT OUT OR QUIET NIGHT IN? — house parties r cool bt i like 2 be. in bed most of the time

ANY PHOBIAS? — none tht i can recall atm bt i have a lot of anxieties in general :/

DO YOU LIKE BUGS? — depends on the bug ...

BIRDS? — mostly no but ig it depends on the bird ... i like them frm afar bt their talons scare me

ARE YOU A CAT OR DOG PERSON? BOTH? — im v allergic to cats bt i want a cat so mf badly. but also ig im a dog person bc ive. always owned a dog

BIGGEST PET PEEVE? — like. not being self aware. passive aggression. the rpc

FAVOURITE THING ABOUT THE RPC? — this is a trick question

TOP TEN FAVE FCS TO USE? — dev patel, avan jogia, natalia dyer, bill skarsgard, medalion rahimi, naomi scott, ella purnell, freya mavor, liana liberato, sky ferreira.

FIVE YOU LIKE WRITING AGAINST? — i dnt rly focus on the fcs of other muses so i dnt think i can answer this. austin butler.

FAVOURITE TYPE OF FOOD? — mexican food i would eat it everyday if i could

WORST FOOD? — i think sushi is gross

DO YOU PLAY VIDEOGAMES? IF SO, WHAT ONES AND ON WHAT PLATFORM DO YOU PREFER? — not frequently. i like the bioshock like. series. universe. bt i like point n click adventures a lot ... deponia is my favorite game series theres like four of them n ive finished them in 8 consecutive hours each. i only use pc

ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE WITH THE TAG? — im so sleepy

LASTLY, HOW DID YOU FIND US? — drama SJNKDFMG

#huntingtontask #huntingtontask001 #ok brain doesnt work anymore goodnight