#which often involves david. so this happened. i guess

[seagullcharmer]

there's a lot of opportunities (if there aren't, you can make them)

#my art #rusty lake #rusty lake paradise #david eilander #rl mr rabbit #pet shop boys #i don't know what to say for this. i've had opportunities stuck in my head the past couple days and finally watched the vid #and the inspiration struck me. partly because i had also just been scrolling tumblr and saw gaith rb a bunch of his art #which often involves david. so this happened. i guess #i miss my boy.........

[ingravinoveritas]

Something I’ve noticed that interests me is how David & Georgia & Michael refer to Michael as “David’s other wife.” They use ‘partners’ occassionally, but most of the time it’s “other wife,” which reads as feminine and a possessive

Anna (is that her name? She’s so nonessential I forget) is never mentioned & it’s always in the context of a female David “owns,” yet secondary, underneath. It could be interpreted as something silly & innocent but I just think the positoning and delineation is very specific and interesting in the dominance + stability in whatever dynamic they have

Hi there! Oh, yes, this is something I have also noticed and talked about previously on my blog. I agree with you that the positioning/delineation is specific and done for a reason (calling Michael "other wife" instead of David's "husband," for instance).

What's really interesting to me, though, is how many times Michael has done it himself. The first instance was even before the whole "other wife" thing happened, which was on a breakfast show that he and David were interviewed on during the GO season 1 press tour. Georgia was pregnant with Birdie at the time, and the host mentioned that there was "another one on the way," to which Michael said this:

And while I mentioned in my timeline Georgia initially calling Michael David's "other wife" in 2021, what I didn't include was a screenshot of Michael's response, which is just as notable:

So for those who have not seen the movie, Love, Actually is a a very British romcom from 2003. Emma Thompson plays a character who is married to Alan Rickman's character, and he subsequently cheats on his wife with another woman, his secretary.

What makes Michael's tweet above so interesting, however, is that Michael chose to identify with the main spouse, rather than the side piece/mistress. The suggestion here is that Michael views his relationship with David as something deep and meaningful, rather than a cheap affair. He sees himself in a place of prominence in David's life, rather than relegated to the back burner (can we say "Nobody puts Michael in a corner?" I think we can...).

I think for some time now, Georgia has known and seen the place that Michael has in David's life, and setting up these boundaries/demarcations has likely been part of multiple conversations over the last few years (between her and David, and between David and Michael, though I am guessing Michael and Georgia haven't spoken directly very often). If Michael and David did start to become involved during the GO season 1 press tour (which is when Michael said that they got "very, very close"), it would make sense for things to be laid out then, before Georgia started slowly "testing the waters" on social media in 2020 and then more so later on in 2021.

Taking all of this together--"mother," "other wife"--I think there is a deliberateness to this because it reflects the emotional need that David fills in Michael. That is, it seems as if he doesn't feel like he "belongs" to someone, and for Michael, being taken care of is as important as him taking care of others. We've seen Michael be protective/possessive of David in the past, but letting himself be "owned" speaks to a level of vulnerability that he allows himself to have with David that he doesn't have with anyone else, and it shows exactly who Michael belongs to (and vice-versa).

So yes, those are my thoughts on the aforementioned dynamic between Michael, David, and Georgia, and all that it may imply. I do agree that it is very interesting, and it will remain interesting as we see all of this continue to play out...

#cloud-based-and-rainpilled #reply post #michael sheen #welsh seduction machine #david tennant #soft scottish hipster gigolo #also: 'nonessential' #this made me laugh damn it #where is the lie though #throuples are totally cool now #or 'V-style' as I understand it #there's teasing the fandom and then there's whatever these two are doing #truth disguised as a joke #ineffable lovers #discourse

[wellspokenrambler]

Rambler @ PAX East 2024

Hi folks! I just got back from PAX East over the weekend and, while I didn't really take part in the Expo Hall besides a couple of stalls, I did go to a decent number of panels - and thought it was worth writing up my thoughts on each of them. The only thing I love more than playing video games is hearing people talk about video games!

(I didn't take notes while I was there so this will be certainly more of a "vibes"-based assessment and why each one appealed to me personally, so apologies if you came here looking for a more objective description of each panel! I'll put links to the VOD of each panel where available)

Panels and thoughts below the read-more (it's long as heck! get ready):

Metroid: A Community Retrospective and Look Toward the Future

Having only played Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Metroid: Dread in my time, I wouldn't call myself a hardcore fan - but they are both games I've really enjoyed, and Samus Aran's pivotal positioning as a female character in video gaming history is always fascinating to me, so I had to check this one out.

It's so surreal to see the ways that a community like this had to adapt to long "dry spells" without any official new material for their fandom, and the joy that follows when something like Dread comes along to reaffirm their love for it. I don't know that I learned anything new from this panel myself, but it was still heartening to hear the panellists' clear passion for the games, and it does make me want to dip my toes into other Metroids (at the very least, the other two Prime games!)

Unlocking the Positive Potential of Gaming for Kids and Teens

I hadn't originally planned to go to this one, but met two of the panellists (Dr. David Bickham and Sam Schamm, MA) while eating brunch by the food trucks, and hearing them briefly discuss the subject matter fascinated me enough that I decided to pop along to it.

This was a deeply insightful panel on the ways that gaming can meaningfully help young people and foster their learning, agency, critical thinking, and other useful life skills - as well as thoughts on how to help them through the risks associated with gaming such as toxic multiplayer communities or, for want of a better word, the addictive potential of gaming. Having previously worked in a job which involved helping teenagers make informed decisions about their futures myself, it meant a lot to me to see serious academic thought being given to the subject given how prevalent gaming is as part of a child's social life these days. Excellent panel!

Mental Health and Gaming - Creating a Safe Space for Yourself and Others

While a difficult topic, I am nevertheless glad that I went to this panel as it covered the way that streamers and other "community figures" can navigate the creation of a safe space in the form of their community while also maintaining effective boundaries within that space. Of particular interest to me was reframing some of the language that often gets used in this context e.g. "trauma-dumping" and unpacking our own biases when dealing with uncomfortable situations.

If I had any minor criticisms of the panel, it would be that some of the suggestions occasionally felt like they veered a little too far into the side of... I guess trying to fix the lives of strangers? Now, in the interests of fairness I shall state my own biases that lead to this feeling, because it is not that I do not care about what happens to people: it is precisely because I've had to manage my own proclivity towards hyper-empathy in the past that I tend to take a step back from my emotions on that regard these days. Caring is good, but caring to the point of self-destruction helps no-one, and that to me feeds into what the panel was saying about boundary maintenance.

My own community is a small handful of regulars and a couple of hundred followers so this has not been something I need to worry about yet, but the panel has hopefully given me some tools with which to manage those situations if they ever arise, and for that I am thankful.

How Our Favorite Characters Have Real World Impacts on Us: A Look into Fictional Characters and ParaSocial Relationships

FASCINATING panel. I originally went to this because of my memories of being in the Gorillaz fandom and the weird and wonderful (and sometimes ugly) ways people interacted with the idea of the fictional band members in that space... But the conversation proved to cover a broad spectrum both of what constitutes a parasocial relationship AND what constitutes a fictional character; the panellists made the case that the personas of content creators and streamers themselves counted as fictional characters, and I think they are absolutely bang-on with that.

From my end as a Z-list Player of Games Online, even I am presenting a more polished version of myself there than I would have in the rest of my life - it's not "not me", but it's certainly not all of me, and that is enough to make "Well-Spoken Rambler" a somewhat distinct entity from the person who portrays them.

The inclusion of internet personalities into their definition ALSO meant, however, that at the Q&A I got to name-drop one of my favourite journal articles that I've read this year: The one-and-a-half sided parasocial relationship: The curious case of live streaming. This article holds deeply interesting connotations to me because of what it implies about the "half" of the one-and-a-half... which is that of course, behind the fiction of a "creator" is the person who creates, and that person is just as capable of developing fictionalised ideas of the people in their community (though with a more removed and likely self-aware perspective on it). The panellists had heard of the article and mentioned it was on their to-read list, but agreed it tied in well with the themes of the panel!

(... And yet the reason I was able to re-find the article so quickly is because I had linked it to a creator in a Patreon Direct Message a couple months ago because I thought it would be interesting to them... The irony is not lost on me. More on that later.)

Debate Club with Mari and PeeGTV

This was just a fun old time! I wasn't familiar with Mari or PG before watching this panel, but they have such a fun rapport here that I want to try and watch them more regularly now that I know of them. Jenna Stoeber acted as a firm but fair adjudicator of the panel - and I am definitely not just saying that because she is a recent convert to the Rambler channel and was pleasant and kind when we bumped into each other on the expo floor. She did a great job letting both sides of the debate (Millennial horror vs Gen Z horror) shine. If you listen closely around the 34 minute mark, you may hear a familiar little British voice raise a point about how you can't judge a horror by its synopsis!

Thinking Differently Together: Neurodivergence & Gaming

Folks... I am so so glad that there is a much greater emphasis on self-advocacy these days than there used to be. Look! Look at all those ND creators talking about their experiences and being listened to!! Look how it has a VOD so I can just link it and you can all see it too!!! Conversations like this one in a major event like PAX are a hopeful sign to me that progress is being fought for and won.

Only minor critiques for this one are:

could have used some discussion about more than just the usual ADHD/autism bracket that is discussed when it comes to neurodiversity (but then I think that about most ND discussions)

would personally have liked some chat about accessibility concerns while creating/streaming and neurodivergent (e.g. personally had to tweak my lighting because it was overstimulating me while I streamed)

Otherwise great panel!

Bridging the Gender Gap (13+)

Another great panel for encouraging diversity in the games industry - I appreciated the intersectionality of this one as well as the honest discussions about the ways in which things still need to be made *considerably* better throughout all corners of gaming. The panel also discusses actionable steps which could be taken to improve on these issues.

Surprised at myself for not having much to say about this one! I just think the panellists did a really good and succinct job at talking about the subject.

A Hunter's Dream: Bloodborne and Transness

I enjoyed this panel a whole lot - Having watched a playthrough of Bloodborne last year, hearing two trans women discussing the different trans allegories and interpretation of the characters and themes and lore of the game felt absolutely correct, even if it wasn't "canon".

If one was being pedantic one could call this the least polished of the panels I went to, but I honestly don't think that matters tremendously because both panellists were so utterly sincere about what they were covering that it carried the panel. You could easily tell just how much the subject matter meant to the two and it in turn meant a lot to me that they were willing to share it with a bunch of strangers as we were.

And then...

Um, Actually: The Panel

Hoooooo boy.

So remember earlier when I mentioned the irony of using Patreon DMs to grab an article about nonstandard parasocial interactions?

[ID: a meme image of Morpheus from the Matrix saying "What if I told you the guy I sent that article to is at a PAX East panel"]

So of course the panel for the Dropout show Um, Actually was being hosted by its two new presenters, Ify Nwadiwe and Brian David Gilbert:

Ify had been a wonderful host so far, and I really enjoy his work in general (especially his stint recently on Very Important People), so I was looking forward to meeting him.

...And then there's Brian, who has been streaming on Twitch for just under the past four years and who in that time has been subject to hundreds of my fun facts, insightful commentaries, and helpful actions (which he very much appreciated). That, alongside regularly taking part in Patreon livestreams, has led to a strange situation where I would not consider us friends, but we... don't not know each other? but we also don't know each other? Which is why the "one-and-a-half-sided" description in that article and the panel about parasocialness appealed to me (and why I sent the article to him too).

So of course when this panel got announced I wasn't gonna miss it. I really enjoyed what I've seen of Ify's hosting and Brian's fact-finding so far, and I wasn't gonna miss the chance to see the two chat about it - nor to potentially meet the guy who helped me raise £500 for ASAN last year.

But, turns out I wasn't the only one enthused by the panel, because it was Absolutely Rammed, like, an hour and a half before the panel started. I got lucky in that I managed to end up somewhere in the middle of the pack and got into the panel at all, but good grief did it remind me how I don't do well in crowds (even well-managed crowds, thank you PAX Enforcers xx).

It caused me to reflect a lot on the perceived casualness with which I interacted with Brian on Twitch versus the material reality of the level of interest from a LOT of people which he manages. It's the kind of thing which makes me wish to never become famous, because I don't know that I'd have it in me to manage that level of attention from everyone - even the very occasional instance of people recognising me online FROM Brian's streams and acting like it's a big deal always throws me off a bit (this has happened to me several times, I'm not even kidding!)

But then of course the Enforcers got us all in neatly and sweetly, and the panel was a delight! It was fun to hear Ify and Brian (and Jenna!!) talk about working on the show and the kinds of things they enjoyed putting in and what to expect next - such as another new season after the current one, as it deserves.

There was also a live session of Um, Actually questions which was at the time enjoyable, but since then numerous allegations of cheating and defamation have come to light against one of the participants, Gabe Hicks, and it is disheartening that something as grievous as this could have been going on that very weekend. I hope that justice and reparations can be made for the people affected by this, and I am going to move on out of courtesy to those involved.

After the panel, a meet-and-greet line formed for both Ify and Brian outside of the theatre and I was able to join it - it also felt important to me that I follow the proper procedures and not assume any privileges, since I know full well how that kind of thing can read and wanted to put my best foot forward, so to speak.

The play-by-play of our eventual meeting is as follows:

I greeted Ify first on purpose to let him know that he was doing a great job as the new Um, Actually host and I liked him in VIP

I then went to greet Brian, but at that point he had very blatantly already cottoned onto who I was and seemed very enthusiastic that I was there. I didn't feel any sense of star-struckedness, it was more like that sense of when you talk to someone online and then meet them in person - surreal, but not stressful.

Jenna took that moment to gently interrupt so she could rendezvous with the two men before the line ended - seemingly because of our vague familiarity and prior assumption of goodwill on our parts

I made sure to pass along some greetings from a few Discord servers formed around Brian's Twitch streams I was in, which Brian appreciated, and gave him a small gift which I brought with me - a small bottle of vivid iridescent nail polish (Ciaté London's "Forbidden Fruit", sadly out of production now), since nail painting and structural colour is somewhat of a shared interest of ours

Brian made sure to specifically compliment me on my shirt, to which I admitted the reason I wore it was because I knew Brian was the only person there who would appreciate it fully: it was from a game of Tee KO we played on Patreon at the end of 2022, which Brian won using a VERY existential t-shirt illustrated by myself:

(sidenote, after repeated success with these silly skeletons in subsequent games of Tee KO, I am very close to just selling my own legally-distinct skeleton shirt if I ever have a merch page)

Finally, I asked if we three could cap off the meeting with a video'd selfie, to which they graciously obliged me:

Having filmed what can only be described as a Cannes-worthy masterpiece, I said my goodbyes to them and made my way to the next panel...

The PAX Panel Show

...Which was just in the same theatre as the last panel, and with Jenna hosting and Brian on the panel. What a glorious event! I am so sad this one didn't get recorded - a truly deranged set of questions, including Portmantoad (guessing which video games have had their names spliced together based on the description of the resulting fusion), Ornstein and Sullivan (guessing whether a named character was from a Fromsoft game or from an opera), and a whole bunch of real-world questions about farming?? Joke's on all these city-slicker panellists, I grew up on a smallholding! So I was... actually no better at those farm questions than them. I can't tell you about industrial farming practices, but I can tell you how to hold a chicken! (gently, like a big hamburger).

After the panel, I approached Jenna one last time at the con and suggested that, given the inherent strangeness of our interactions (wherein we have become Twitch mutuals but still at best distant acquaintances) it would be funny if we took a selfie but made out like she was "the fan". She saw the funny side of it:

[ID: a tweet by Well-Spoken Rambler @wellspokentweet reading "Always a pleasure to meet a fan, @the_jenna", below which is a selfie featuring Well-Spoken Rambler and Jenna Stoeber. A reply from Jenna beneath this reads "HONORED TO MEET YOU, BIG FAN <3" in all-caps.]

Play What You Don't Know with DesiQuest

This was my last panel of PAX, and a bit of a last-minute wildcard! After relaying the above events to my good friend Hamish, he told me that his friend Omar would be doing a panel the following day, and that I should go and see it. And I am very glad I did!

It was really heartening to learn that a podcast like DesiQuest exists - a D&D actual play featuring an all-South-Asian cast and touching on the disparate cultures and themes that connect with them and their audience. As someone who is of Sri Lankan descent but without the cultural upbringing, it's something that appeals to me personally as another way to try and reconnect with that heritage. Definitely catching up on this one over the week!

I also got to say hi to Omar from Hamish, and it was a nice bonding moment cut short by my having to BOOK IT to a water taxi and conclude my time in Boston for good.

...

Phew!

Well, thanks for reading all of that if you did! It was a weekend that was at once fun, interesting, and thought-provoking. I still don't consider myself someone who seeks out big events, but being much more free and able to take part in those kinds of things now is super refreshing and I hope at some point (though not in the immediate future, boy was that expensive) I will be able to go again! Or at least do other events like that. Possibly something a bit quieter, but conventions don't usually run in flavours of "quiet", haha. Perhaps next time I'll bring business cards to recklessly self-promote better with.

See you around!

-Rambler

#pax east 2024

[mariacallous]

If you were asked to guess which prestigious film-making duo had spent their career scratching around desperately for cash, trying to wriggle out of paying their cast and crew, ping-ponging between lovers, and having such blood-curdling bust-ups that their neighbours called the police, it might be some time before “Merchant Ivory” sprang to mind. But a new warts-and-all documentary about the Indian producer Ismail Merchant and the US director James Ivory makes it clear that the simmering passions in their films, such as the EM Forster trilogy of A Room With a View, Maurice and Howards End, were nothing compared to the scalding, volatile ones behind the camera.

From their initial meeting in New York in 1961 to Merchant’s death during surgery in 2005, the pair were as inseparable as their brand name, with its absence of any hyphen or ampersand, might suggest. Their output was always more eclectic than they got credit for. They began with a clutch of insightful Indian-set dramas including Shakespeare-Wallah, their 1965 study of a troupe of travelling actors, featuring a young, pixieish Felicity Kendal. From there, they moved on to Savages, a satire on civilisation and primitivism, and The Wild Party, a skewering of 1920s Hollywood excess that pipped Damien Chazelle’s Babylon to the post by nearly half a century.

It was in the 1980s and early 1990s, though, that Merchant Ivory became box-office titans, cornering the market in plush dramas about repressed Brits in period dress. Those literary adaptations launched the careers of Hugh Grant, Helena Bonham Carter, Rupert Graves and Julian Sands, and helped make stars of Emma Thompson and Daniel Day-Lewis. Most were scripted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who had been with them, on and off, since their 1963 debut The Householder; she even lived in the same apartment building in midtown New York. Many were scored by Richard Robbins, who was romantically involved with Merchant while also holding a candle for Bonham Carter. These films restored the costume drama to the position it had occupied during David Lean’s heyday. The roaring trade in Jane Austen adaptations might never have happened without them. You could even blame Merchant Ivory for Bridgerton.

Though the pictures were uniformly pretty, making them was often ugly. Money was always scarce. Asked where he would find the cash for the next movie, Merchant replied: “Wherever it is now.” After Jenny Beavan and John Bright won an Academy Award for the costumes in A Room With a View, he said:“I got you your Oscar. Why do I need to pay you?” As Ivory was painstakingly composing each shot, Merchant’s familiar, booming battle cry would ring out: “Shoot, Jim, shoot!”

Heat and Dust, starring Julie Christie, was especially fraught. Only 30 or 40% of the budget was in place by the time the cameras started rolling in India in 1982; Merchant would rise at dawn to steal the telegrams from the actors’ hotels so they didn’t know their agents were urging them to down tools. Interviewees in the documentary concede that the producer was a “conman” with a “bazaar mentality”. But he was also an incorrigible charmer who dispensed flattery by the bucketload, threw lavish picnics, and wangled entrées to magnificent temples and palaces. “You never went to bed without dreaming of ways to kill him,” says one friend, the journalist Anna Kythreotis. “But you couldn’t not love him.”

Stephen Soucy, who directed the documentary, doesn’t soft-pedal how wretched those sets could be. “Every film was a struggle,” he tells me. “People were not having a good time. Thompson had a huge fight with Ismail on Howards End because she’d been working for 13 days in a row, and he tried to cancel her weekend off. Gwyneth Paltrow hated every minute of making Jefferson in Paris. Hated it! Laura Linney was miserable on The City of Your Final Destination because the whole thing was a shitshow. But you watch the films and you see no sense of that.”

Soucy’s movie features archive TV clips of the duo bickering even in the midst of promoting a film. “Oh, they were authentic all right,” he says. “They clashed a lot.”The authenticity extended to their sexuality. The subject was not discussed publicly until after Ivory won an Oscar for writing Call Me By Your Name: “You have to remember that Ismail was an Indian citizen living in Bombay, with a deeply conservative Muslim family,” Ivory told me in 2018. But the pair were open to those who knew them. “I never had a sense of guilt,” Ivory says, pointing out that the crew on The Householder referred to him and Merchant as “Jack and Jill”.

Soucy had already begun filming his documentary when Ivory published a frank, fragmentary memoir, Solid Ivory, which dwells in phallocentric detail on his lovers before and during his relationship with Merchant, including the novelist Bruce Chatwin. It was that book which emboldened Soucy to ask questions on screen – including about “the crazy, complicated triangle of Jim, Ismail and Dick [Robbins]” – that he might not otherwise have broached.

The documentary is most valuable, though, in making a case for Ivory as an underrated advocate for gay representation. The Remains of the Day, adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s Booker-winning novel about a repressed butler, may be the duo’s masterpiece, but it was their gay love story Maurice that was their riskiest undertaking. Set in the early 20th century, its release in 1987 could scarcely have been timelier: it was the height of the Aids crisis, and only a few months before the Conservative government’s homophobic Section 28 became law.

“Ismail wasn’t as driven as Jim to make Maurice,” explains Soucy. “And Ruth was too busy to write it. But Jim’s dogged determination won the day. They’d had this global blockbuster with A Room With a View, and he knew it could be now or never. People would pull aside Paul Bradley, the associate producer, and say: ‘Why are they doing Maurice when they could be making anything?’ I give Jim so much credit for having the vision and tenacity to make sure the film got made.”

Merchant Ivory don’t usually figure in surveys of queer cinema, though they are part of its ecosystem, and not only because of Maurice. Ron Peck, who made the gay classic Nighthawks, was a crew member on The Bostonians. Andrew Haigh, director of All of Us Strangers, landed his first industry job as a poorly paid assistant in Merchant’s Soho office in the late 1990s; in Haigh’s 2011 breakthrough film Weekend, one character admits to freeze-framing the naked swimming scene in A Room With a View to enjoy “Rupert Graves’s juddering cock”. Merchant even offered a role in Savages to Holly Woodlawn, the transgender star of Andy Warhol’s Trash, only for her to decline because the fee was so low.

The position of Merchant Ivory at the pinnacle of British cinema couldn’t last for ever. Following the success of The Remains of the Day, which was nominated for eight Oscars, the brand faltered and fizzled. Their films had already been dismissed by the director Alan Parker as representing “the Laura Ashley school” of cinema. Gary Sinyor spoofed their oeuvre in the splendid pastiche Stiff Upper Lips (originally titled Period!), while Eric Idle was plotting his own send-up called The Remains of the Piano. The culture had moved on.

There was still an appetite for upper-middle-class British repression, but only if it was funny: Richard Curtis drew on some of Merchant Ivory’s repertory company of actors (Grant, Thompson, Simon Callow) for a run of hits beginning with Four Weddings and a Funeral, which took the poshos out of period dress and plonked them into romcoms.

The team itself was splintering. Merchant had begun directing his own projects. When he and Ivory did collaborate, the results were often unwieldy, lacking the stabilising literary foundation of their best work. “Films like Jefferson in Paris and Surviving Picasso didn’t come from these character-driven novels like Forster, James or Ishiguro,” notes Soucy. “Jefferson and Picasso were not figures that audiences warmed to.” Four years after Merchant’s death, Ivory’s solo project The City of Your Final Destination became mired in lawsuits, including one from Anthony Hopkins for unpaid earnings.

Soucy’s film, though, is a reminder of their glory days. It may also stoke interest in the movies among young queer audiences whose only connection to Ivory, now 95, is through Call Me By Your Name. “People walk up to Jim in the street to shake his hand and thank him for Maurice,” says Soucy. “But I also wanted to include the more dysfunctional side of how they were made. Hopefully it will be inspiring to young film-makers to see that great work can come out of chaos.”

[kingedmundsroyalmurder]

Now that Eric has no need to court Kilmeny anymore -- for she has agreed to marry him -- he immediately is ready to give up teaching. We are, what, a week and change into the school year? We knew Eric didn't like teaching, but even still. Why did he even agree to stay on for the year? He could just as easily have said no to the trustees and just stayed in Lindsay on his own dime. He has money and the Williamsons definitely like him enough to let him keep boarding with them even if he's not teaching. Also:

True, he had “signed papers” to teach the school for a year; but he knew that the trustees would let him off if he procured a suitable substitute.

Scare quotes: alive and well in 1910.

Kilmeny has agreed to get married in the spring. She continues her streak of being able to actually stand up to Eric by refusing to marry him immediately. This is a good sign for the future, if she's able to continue sticking up for herself and forcing him to accept her refusals. Or she'll get tired of arguing every tiny little thing with him. Who's to say.

Anyway, her stated reason is that she has literally seen, what, six people in her entire life and needs to get used to people gradually before jumping into marriage. (Sidenote: has anyone actually told her who Eric actually is? The Gordons know who his dad is and what his future career is going to be -- have they told her what will be expected of her as his wife?) The Gordons also want her to stay the winter:

“But we want to keep her with us for another winter yet,” explained Thomas Gordon patiently. “We are going to miss her terrible when she does go, Master. She has never been away from us for a day—she is all the brightness there is in our lives. It is very kind of you to say that she can come home whenever she likes, but there will be a great difference. She will belong to your world and not to ours. That is for the best—and we wouldn’t have it otherwise. But let us keep her as our own for this one winter yet.”

The fairy is leaving fairyland and even if she comes back she will forever be changed. Also even setting aside the metaphors, she's never left her family! Of course they're going to miss her! PEI is still at this point somewhat hard to get to from the mainland. There's like trains and boats and stuff involved. They will not see her often.

Eric also doesn't want Kilmeny to go to boarding school. I think Eric should back off and let Kilmeny do what she wants to do.

So Eric writes to his dad and tells him the full story. Instead of replying, Mr. Marshall just up and shows up in Lindsay to interrogate his son. Like David Baker, Mr. Marshall thinks Eric has fully taken leave of his senses. Which, on the one hand, Eric is 24 and behaving wildly out of character. On the other, Eric's line has always been, 'I will know when I have met The One and I will not be swayed from her when it happens.' He is, in fact, behaving exactly as he had always said he would. If you're going to insist that your heart lead the way, your family can't be surprised when your heart picks someone who doesn't come with a pedigree.

Mr. Marshall is genuinely angry though, and basically tells Eric that if he doesn't approve of Kilmeny then Eric's choices are to give her up or be disowned. If Kilmeny is not the second coming of the late Mrs. Marshall then it's all over for both of them.

For the love of god stop tethering Kilmeny to the legacies of people's dead mothers!

So they go to meet Kilmeny, who is very conveniently in full fairy queen glory:

Kilmeny was reading on the bench under the lilac trees when they reached the orchard. She stood up and came shyly forward to meet them, guessing who the tall, white-haired old gentleman with Eric must be. As she approached Eric saw with a thrill of exultation that she had never looked lovelier. She wore a dress of her favourite blue, simply and quaintly made, as all her gowns were, revealing the perfect lines of her lithe, slender figure. Her glossy black hair was wound about her head in a braided coronet, against which a spray of wild asters shone like pale purple stars. Her face was flushed delicately with excitement. She looked like a young princess, crowned with a ruddy splash of sunlight that fell through the old trees.

And, of course, she is beautiful and graceful and dainty and wins Mr. Marshall's approval without even a word. Looks are all that matter when it comes to picking a wife. Kilmeny is beautiful and non-disabled and what else could you possibly want?

The end!

#kilmeny of the orchard #kilmeny readalong #That was quite the ride #Thanks for coming along everyone!

[tangent101]

Sacrifice Chloe vs. Sacrifice Arcadia Bay

Originally I was going to post this in response to someone else's comments on which endings they enjoyed for LiS. I decided that honestly, the person doesn't need to have me ranting on about this topic as it's long been talked about... but I didn't want to let it just go to waste. So... it's become its own unique post.

It's undoubtedly not a surprise to folk who've seen my LiS post that I always Sacrifice Arcadia Bay. In fact, I've only ever watched the Sacrifice Chloe ending on YouTube. A huge part of that is I play from Max's point of view and I honestly cannot see Max accepting Chloe's death after everything she went through. The only reason she would go back in time is to sacrifice herself so that Chloe and everyone else could live. And from a thematic aspect, if Max's time travel abilities caused the Storm then only with Max's death will there not be a Storm. But I know some folk feel otherwise.

No doubt a big part of my "issues" with the ending come from the... sense of moral superiority the Sacrifice Chloe folk swing about, as if deliberately allowing a girl to die is a noble thing. Oddly enough, the Sacrifice Chloe folk kind of shut up after LiS2 Chapter 5, when it was discovered that three years after being arrested for Chloe's death, Nathan was likely to be getting out of jail (which means he's winning an appeal, and also that anything involving Rachel was hidden or considered contaminated evidence and thus justice doesn't happen).

I have a suspicion that if Nathan and Jefferson had not been shown being arrested or we saw a newspaper headline about Nathan being "vindicated for defending his life against Chloe" then this sense of "superiority" for Sacrifice Chloe would never have come about. But that's just me.

However, there is also another aspect to this and how often I come to the defense of saving Chloe... and that's the misogyny voiced toward both Chloe and Max. I have had arguments from folks who just... went to town attacking my saving Chloe and insisting that I was a horrible person. Inevitably it would come out that they hated Chloe. One person actually admitted that they hated Max, and deliberately made choices to make Max suffer. And to a man, they were all for killing off Chloe, having Max be with Warren, and fuck everything else under the guise of moral superiority. After all, they didn't kill an entire town of people! Hahaha, so much more superior than those Chloe lovers who are mass murderers!

They defended David and got offended when people called Joyce on abuse as they liked their little enabler and said Chloe was bad and deserved to die. And then? They moved on. They had other targets to hate on, rather than some girl who they killed in one playthrough and fuck the other content.

Ah well. I saw clips on the game, and then my spouse (before we even moved in together) urged me to play the game rather than just watch it... and I fell in love. I'm just weird that way, I guess. And I look at the game through Max's eyes. I choose things I think she'd do. Just because it's fun being Max.

#max caulfield #life is strange #sacrifice chloe #sacrifice max #sacrifice arcadia bay #life is strange meta

[mercutiotakethewheel]

Slice of Life and Love

For @femmefangirl​ who prompted: Just some fluff. I need happy Sapphics. (The fic did end up kind of angsty ngl, but I promise the sapphics are still very much deliriously happy together).

Fandom: Grishaverse

Pairing: Zoyalina

Rating: T

Wordcount: 2604

Summary: Zoya's birthday is coming up. And considering the amount of espionage it took to figure that one out, Alina wasn't all that surprised at the detective work planning her party involved. When it comes to the cake, though, it turns out the smartest girlfriend in the world prizes will not be rolling in. 

ao3 link

Oftentimes, being with Zoya was like pulling teeth. Not in a bad way, per se. She knew what she was getting into when she started dating her. She liked that about her. Enjoyed the challenge, even. Saints’ knew not-for-the-faint-of-heart and tough-nut-to-crack might as well be the text on either side of her calling card.

It was almost like a game. If Alina wanted something from her, and she knew it wasn’t something she’d admit free-of-charge, she either paid the toll, waited her out, or tricked her way past. If it was knowledge she was after, that often meant playing detective about it. Her favorite color? A predictable blue and the result of playing the most purposefully obtuse, obnoxious detective in all of Ravka. What did she want to do with their day off? Guess until she struck gold. What was the title of that book she wanted? Should’ve noted when she asked about it, dumbass. Now it was up to her to casually walk by the store with her and watch her eyes as they went. Then race in before she could buy it for herself. Flowers, food, etc.

So, when her birthday rolled around, which in it of itself took drastic, ethically dubious measures to find the date of (i.e., asking Genya), Alina felt prepared to play it the same old way.

It was supposed to be a surprise, afterall. Wasn’t like she could risk asking her about it anyway.

Unfortunately, Genya also didn’t seem to be a person she could ask. At least as far as cake flavors went.

Apparently, Little Palace birthday cakes had in the past come in the standard plain yellow, wherein they rarely made it far without having heads shoved into them. Also, apparently, Zoya had a reputation for leaving amid the birthday singing before anyone brave or stupid enough could try to shove her own head into the cake.

So, Alina made the executive decision to throw a private, just the two of them kind of affair.

Gifts she already had figured out. Blue wrapping paper. The Song was a given. Decorations obtained from a stash in the Grand Palace with the rest made herself.

Which brought her again to the cake.

Zoya didn’t care much for chocolate. She liked it, but mostly enjoyed it flavored with something else. Vanilla was in much the same situation. Toffee seemed like an option, but then again Alina had never really heard of toffee flavored cake. After adopting the ice box, and the subsequent excitement over ice cream, she knew Zoya favored strawberry ice cream.

But as far as fruits went, she preferred citrus. To the point of no competition. Her tea was always lemony. Her breakfast always came with an orange and if they happened to walk under the fruit trees, an orange was what she was sure to pick up.

So. Orange-glaze it was.

Alina grinned to herself triumphantly, swerving towards the kitchens.

Let the smartest girlfriend in the world prizes trickle in.

~

When it came to dragging Zoya into doing things, there were two sure fire methods. The first was wheedling. Which worked well and good for the average Oh no, the trees look so scary tonight, won’t you hold my hand variety of situations. And which, theoretically, if she was in David’s habit of making and testing hypotheses, followed that if she claimed there was a big hairy, scary spider in their room, would land her in their room for her surprise party.

But Alina was not afraid of spiders. Which was, stupidly, common knowledge.

So things fell to the more straightforward method.

Demands.

“Put this on,” Alina said, tossing a blue silk blind fold into Zoya’s lap.

Turns out bossy women liked it when other women were also bossy. Who knew?

Zoya raised her eyebrow, smirking, as she dropped the report she was working through. She raised a tsking finger. “In the middle of the war room?”

“No, not like that,” she rolled her eyes. “Just put it on.”

Zoya rolled her eyes back, but did as she said. “What are you up to now?” she groused.

“It’s a surprise,” she said, reaching down to pull her up from her chair. She couldn’t help the beginnings of an excited grin from blossoming across her face. Giggling lightly to herself, she threaded her arm into the crook of her elbow and pulled her forward.

“You know, now it really sounds like we’re—”

“Hush, come on,” Alina said, pulling her away from one set of heavy wooden doors, recently painted over along with the interior of the last general’s quarters, and towards another.

White with gold trim, though they’d been talking about re-painting it into something that more suited both their tastes.

Pulling on the handle, she swung the door open with one hand, unthreading her arm to gently push her through the doorway. Following shortly behind, she shut the door behind them, watching Zoya as she reached up for the knot of her blind fold.

“No,” she whined, rushing forward. “Let me.”

Stepping forward, she rocked on to her toes, briefly cupping the warm brown skin of her cheek before pecking her softly on the mouth. Reaching up, she made short work of the knot, ignoring it all together to pull it up and over her head.

“Surprise,” she said, still breathing her girlfriend’s air. “Happy Birthday!”

“Who told you it was my birthday?”

Alina scowled, repeating herself louder. “Happy Birthday, Zoya.”

The birthday girl in question crossed her arms, cocking her kefta-clad hip. “And a very happy un-birthday to you.”

Flipping her off with a shake of her head, Alina pulled a chair out for her. She gestured for her to sit, which she did, plopping down as dramatically as possible. Her hand, though, darted up to squeeze hers, still holding onto the chair-back.

Smiling to herself, she dropped a kiss onto her hair and turned around to grab the stiff-papered hat she’d made her off their desk. She plopped it onto her head, pulling the string around her cloud of black hair and chin.

Zoya scowled, but the angry storm goddess affect was somewhat ruined by the equal opposite squished-down circus clown effect the conical hat provided.

Cackling to herself, she darted off to take care of the cake.

Three-tiered and glistening with white-icing dribbling down the sides, it looked as good as she hoped it might taste. Which it would. The kitchen-staff had never failed her before. Picking up a silver knife, she pushed it into the center of the cake, watching the icing crack and the sponge strain downwards against the pressure before the tension gave and the knife sank into plush orange.

“So,” Zoya started, “how was your day?”

“Good,” Alina shrugged. Then snorted. “Be better if Kuwei would quit trying to set Baghra’s old hut on fire and if the other students would try a little harder too. Oh,” she added, pulling the knife free to wave it around in the air for a brief moment, “and if you and Nikolai would stop bickering through our whole meetings.”

“Poor baby,” she snarked back. “Probably wouldn’t have to bicker with him if you all would just back me up for once.”

“You know how Nikolai is,” Alina shrugged. “I don’t see anything wrong with him taking a little more time before making a decision like that.”

“He’s the king, Alina,” and she could hear the exasperation in her voice. “Sooner he gets married, sooner he pops out a kid. And the sooner he does that, sooner the succession line will be stabilized and people will be less tempted to poke around about his parentage.”

“Hmm,” she said, plating one thick slice, soft yellow flesh laying on its side. Moving that one out of the way, she started on the next slice.

“Besides,” Zoya groused. “I think he does it out of pettiness. Still bitter I stole his first betrothed.”

“Make it up to him. Find him a new bride.”

“I’m trying.”

Chuckling, she dropped her second slice onto a plate. With a retort on her tongue, she scooped up both plates in her arms and turned around, cake jiggling slightly as she went.

Finally facing her, Alina had a front row seat to the way she instantly froze upon catching sight of the cake, mouth straightening into a thin, hard line.

“What?” Alina asked, following her gaze down. “Should I have gotten something else instead?” Rats, she thought. Guessed wrong.

Looking back up, she considered offering to go snatch some pastries instead. She was still frozen, though. Completely still, hands white knuckled around her chair arms.

Alina blinked. Deer in headlights was decidedly not a Zoya trademarked theatric.

No, much more along the lines of an expression she’d seen once or twice on her face and never much wanted to see again. Shit.

Dropping the plates back on the desk, Alina approached her, laying her hand, hopefully comfortingly, on her arm. “What is it?” she asked. “You really don’t like it?”

This, at least, seemed to break whatever stupor she was in. “Of course I fucking like it,” she said, voice angry and brittle, swiping moisture away from her eyes. Her head was turnt, face concealed by her hand, half-shrunken into her kefta.

Alina felt her heart drop into stomach. “Oh, baby,” she muttered, crouching down beside her. “What’s wrong?”

She shook her head. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s obviously not.”

“Leave it alone,” she snapped, pulling her arm out of her hold, curling up in the far corner of her seat.

“Ok,” Alina said, blinking, standing back up. “We don’t have to talk about it, obviously. Not if you don’t want to.” Backing up from her seat, she leaned against the table instead, crossing her arms behind her back. “I’m sorry though, if—”

“My mother used to make me this cake.” Zoya blurted out, and she felt her mouth snap closed. Mother? Alina had never heard anything about a mother before. “Ok. Are you happy?” She looked at her and away, jaw clenched. She crossed her arms.

“Oh,” she said, slowly. Frankly, she’d been under the impression her mother was dead. Like hers. Or had given her up when she’d presented as Grisha or something. Sure, she’d heard about her aunt, met her flowers. The niece’s too. But no mother. Or father, for that matter. “Ok,” she nodded, “no cake, then.”

“No,” Zoya said, waving her hand in the clearing the air motion. “Let’s eat the fucking cake.”

Alina raised her eyebrow.

“Please,” she huffed. As if that was the point.

She looked at her for a long hard moment, but did, indeed, turn back to grab the cake. Handing over the plate, she watched Zoya just stare at it for one long hard moment, nostrils flared, death-gripping her fork. Before she stabbed into it with a violent thwunk, tearing off a chunk of sponge. She shoved into her mouth, chewing fast and angry and barely giving herself enough time before she tore off the next chunk.

Alina reached for her own slice, slowly cutting into it. Brining a bite to her mouth, eyes still on Zoya, she was barely able to hold back a moan. Bad timing, obviously, but the cooks really had outdone themselves.

Zoya’s eyes darted up, pausing, roiling storm blue eyes pinning her into place. “Delicious, right?” She looked away. “It was always my favorite.”

“Right,” Alina said, waiting for more.

Zoya shrugged. “She used to make it for me. Not very often, but on special occasions, this is always what she made.”

“Like your birthday?”

“No,” she said. “Whenever I did something good. When I’d made her happy, made her forget for a second what a disappointment everything’d turned out to be. Meant I was good, and I was her perfect, pretty girl, and that things were okay right now. Meant I was okay.”

She shrugged again.

“Zo,” she murmured, setting down the cake. Getting up, she perched on the chair arm instead, opening her arms up. An offering, if she wanted it.

Dropping her own piece, Zoya wrapped her arms around her, sniffling into her stomach. She wrapped her own around her, squeezing her shoulder.

“You’re always good, Zoya. Perfect, even.” Pulling her head back, she looked at her, vehement. “You’re always doing things that are good. That’s just how your heart is, Zo.”

“Shut up, Starkov,” she muttered, hiding her face back in the folds of her coat.

Alina rolled her eyes. “None of that,” she said, dropping a kiss on her forehead.

“The only time I was ever good for my mother, she was sending me away,” she growled, muffled by thick blue fabric. “Nearly pulled it off, too. Proud mother of a child bride.” Saints, Alina mouthed, absently rubbing her back. “Liliyana had to intervene. And what does madraya do? Nothing. Just sat there and watched.” She chuckled mirthlessly. “That’s when my powers showed.

“Course, then Liliyana took me here. And she got the pretty penny out of it. Not her. So, ha.”

“Oh, milaya. I’m sorry.”

“Eh. Whatever. I ended up okay, didn’t I?” She pulled back, drying her eyes out. “Besides, it's not your fault.”

Alina tilted her head, squinting. “Eh, this kind of is,” she said, nodding to her stupid, stupid idea.

“No, it’s nice to have it, really. I haven’t in a really long time.” She scooped up her hand, lacing their fingers together. “I really do like it, you know,” she said, looking at her out of the corner of her eye. “Thank you. Really.”

Alina half-smiled, playing with her fingers. She nodded.

“Most parties involve presents,” she said, clearing her throat. Coyly sniffing, she added, “In case you didn’t know.”

Snorting, Alina nudged her. “Ok, ok. Tell me you know I love you first?”

Zoya sent her a dead-pan, exasperated look. “Yeah, yeah,” she said. “I love you too.”

“Good,” she said, sliding off of the green-and-gold embroidered arm. Walking off to where she’d stashed the gifts, admittedly messily wrapped, she pulled them out from behind the sofa, picking them up by the ribbon.

“Come here,” Zoya said from behind her, grinning shakily when she turned around. Eyes still slightly bloodshot. She patted her thigh.

“I think it’s supposed to go the other way,” Alina teased.

“Please, I’m the birthday girl,” She said, raising her chin haughtily. “It goes however I want it to go.”

Barking out a laugh, Alina acquiesced, dropping herself and the gifts into Zoya’s lap. Fluttering her lashes at her, she wrapped an arm around her shoulders and handed her the first gift. A small box, coated in pastel-paper and uneven creases.

Holding it up to her ear, Zoya shook it lightly. “Ooo,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows. “What could it possibly be?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you find out?”

She did so, slicing at the adhesive with her fingernail. Undoing one side, she slid out the white box and popped it open, revealing a silver chain with an engraved lightning bolt on the end.

Biting her lip, Alina watched for her reaction.

Smiling, Zoya handed her the chain, reaching behind her head to hold her hair up for her.

Grinning, Alina took it from her, securing the clasp at the back of her head. Cupping her cheek, she went in for a kiss.

Zoya seized her kefta, hauling her against her. Her other arm snaked against her waist as she kissed back with all the fervidity of an angry wasp.

All for all, it was a pretty good birthday party. Or, at least a pretty good first shot at one.

#grishaverse #shadow and bone #grishapairexchange #zoyalina #alina starkov #zoya nazyalensky #fic #childhood trauma #including the shitty parent kind #but other than that see the ao3 link for the additional tags

[scrapyardboyfriends]

it is wild seeing how little some characters have been on the show so far this year. i don't know if this is because of cast size or whatever, but they used to be able to balance it out better. vinny has only had 19 apperances this year which is very little especially in comparison to his past couple of years. it's like they don't know that to do with him after liv's death. and then you have characters like victoria who have only been on 15 episodes, while jacob and david have been on 23 eps so far and half of the year is almost up. it gets to the point where i wonder why some characters even exist if the writers aren't going to give them any screentime or ever focus on them. it's also frustrating because many of these characters with very limited screentime have potential but they're often just background characters.

So I looked up everyone's episode counts and I kind of surprised me that the highest was still only in about half of the episodes this year so far. I think we're at around 100 episodes because they seemingly stopped counting Thursdays as 2 episodes now that it's a full hour. So Charity, with 54, has been in just over half with Caleb right behind her with 50. And then you've got someone like Moira who feels like she was in a lot more, in only 28, whereas someone like Dawn who has 25 or Manpreet with 26 feel like they've barely been in the show this year. I guess it depends on who has had an actual story or who's just been floating around, supporting other stories. Like Arthur and Marshall are only in 28/26 episodes but they've had an actual story so I feel like they've been in it more (or at least more meaningfully) than say Sam with 27 episodes.

But yeah those "under 20" people, Vic and Vinny and Billy and Dan and Ethan (what happened to Ethan?) definitely fall into the category of the producers having no clue what to do with them. And the low 20s people too: Manpreet, Dawn, Jacob, David, Nate, Lydia, Eric etc. At least Jimmy and Belle have story now with Tom although I still cannot understand what they're doing with Tom's story because, while I'm glad it doesn't seem like he has some secret dark agenda, it also kind of feels like they just brought him back to react to past storylines that happened in his absence or before his time. It's very strange. But maybe it will get them all screen time. Who knows.

I don't know if it is the cast size that's preventing people from getting more screen time, or just them not knowing what to do with them. I'm sure it's a bit of both. That and just not showing work places or every day life or just generally not showing people unless they're very specifically involved in a story. It does seem like a problem they need to solve for. I can definitely think of several characters you could cull: Wendy, Nate, Will, David, Jacob, Dan, Amelia, Suzy, Chloe (although they complicated that with Rueben being Mack's kid). Naomi's already leaving but Ethan barely exists and I know they're bringing in Charles' mom now but as much as I thought they all had potential when they first arrived, they really haven't done much with them and I wouldn't mind just starting over there either. But as much as maybe they need to get rid of characters to bring more balance, I'd also kind of want to get rid of that lot and then bring in some new, better characters. Get someone new to take over the shop. Meet that family that supposedly took over Wiley's farm. I just feel like the show needs an injection of some actual life in it and you know...Wendy and Liam's affair isn't really doing that, nor whatever they're maybe doing with Bear and Mandy (*shudders*).

Charity - 54 Caleb - 50

Marlon - 49 Nicky - 48 Paddy - 46 Chas - 44 Bernice - 44 Gabby - 44 Rhona - 44 Mack - 43 Mandy - 41 Cain - 40 Naomi - 40

Kim - 37 Leyla - 37 Bob - 36 Amy - 36 Nicola - 35 Bear - 35 Noah - 34 Chloe - 33 Laurel - 33 Mary - 32 Will - 31 Charles - 31 Liam - 30 Wendy - 30 Brenda - 30

Moira - 28 Amelia - 28 Arthur - 28 Sam - 27 Cathy - 27 Jai - 26 Marshall - 26 Matty - 26 Manpreet - 26 Dawn - 25 Nate - 24 Belle - 23 David - 23 Jacob - 23 April - 23 Lydia - 22 Jimmy - 21 Eric - 21 Suzy - 21 Sarah - 20

Vinny - 19 Samson - 19 Kyle - 18 Heath - 17 Ethan - 16 Victoria - 15 Billy - 14 Rodney - 12 Tom - 11 Rishi - 11 Dan - 11

Zak - 8 Ryan - 6 Elliot - 5 Angelica - 3

#emmerdale complaints corner

[inaaontheskyways]

You guys might’ve seen these names float around here and there occasionally, so I thought that it’d be nice to officially introduce y’all to some of the other central characters of my Spiralverse canon! (Also, I’ve simply too many pretty MBs to not share, lol!)

Sevastjan Earlydawn, Katitzi: the heroes of the 4th arc! They actually came about simply b/c I wasn’t sure how to make the Ravenwood ensemble go to Lemuria and beyond w/o it feeling like it’d be somewhat forced, so I had to conclude that it’d just be better to use a new set of characters! I’ve also never played the 4th arc since my I’m still several levels below the max cap, pfffft, so a lot of what I did for these 2 is made up from the top of my head! Specifically in that it deals with Sevastjan, a guardsman under the W.C. Forces, finding himself getting caught up in the drama of a strange woman named Kalpana, who implores for his help in looking for a lost program that holds all her powers and memories, and the only thing that she can remember is that she serves a group of mysterious beings called the Old Ones! they also got a pretty tragic romance going on though, but shhhh, we don’t talk about that-

Meresamun Timekeeper, Xatirə: the heroes of the 5 B.O.X.E.S event! Meresamun specifically was actually supposed to be a part of the Ravenwood ensemble, but I also couldn’t find a proper way to put her in a meaningful role for any of the first 3 arcs, so I thought that it’d be much better to give her a storyline all on her own! So I took the 5 B.O.X.E.S event and reimagined it to fit her characterization and development, in which a time-traveler by the name of Xatirə, enlists her help in fixing the rifts of the timeline or else the whole Spiral would collapse in on itself, especially with her coming from an ancient lineage of powerful chronomancers!

Luretta Bellamine, Daniel Rothman, & Trini Moonforge: the protagonists of what I like to call the Resistance arc! They’re specifically inspired by the Fort Elena dungeon you do in Port Regal, seeing as, just like with the last 2 quests, I couldn’t think of a good way to get the Shatterhands over there when I changed a lot of the 1st El Dorado arc to make it fit them! So these 3 are here to fill that gap, as well as cover the Resistance side of things in the storyline, since they play such an integral role in Valencia part 2, and I just think that aspect is plain fascinating! The basic gist involves Luretta, a ballet dancer who’s also a Resistance spy, enlisting the help of 2 pirates, the underground fighter David and the freelance handyman Tiena, with breaking into Fort Elena and freeing all the political prisoners there, so that they can assist the Resistance in their plans to bring down the Armada regime!

Vontae Emmed, Iina Parker, & Airam Zavalia: my idea of what I guess you can refer to as the Young Hero(s) would be like! I’ve always been intrigued by Hero101 and what it was preparing to be like before it ultimately got scrapped, so I wanted to come up with something that’ll make it fit nicely into my Spiralverse canon, hence these 3 and the world they come from called Heroica! Since it was never confirmed what sort of concrete plot was intended for Hero101, I decided to make one up myself and have these 3 investigate a nefarious drug trafficking scheme, in which the streets of Nexus City have been plagued with a drug that causes people to lose their powers!

Haydée Spellmender: my token Sorcerer! She’s a Ravenwood alumni who’s very sweet and spunky, and often records things in her journal to sate her curious nature! She also has dreams of becoming a successful archaeologist just like her parents, so she works as an intern for the Gravulum Order in order to both refine her skills and make connections with other explorers! Though, it’s also what leads her to be involved with all sorts of bizarre happenings across Wizard City, from reversing the effects on students who’ve been cursed by book pages, to exploring the underwater streets of Crab Alley!

Nona: my one and only Stellarmancer! He’s a bit of an edgy sad boi(tm) as he has a loooot of angst surrounding his miserable time of being a servant for the Umbra Legion, and it only gets worse when he realizes that Old Cob, whom he thought was his friend who understood his feelings, only used him as a pawn to revive both his form and his powers. So the only way for him to atone for his mistakes is to travel across the Spiral and hunt down all the other shadow magicks that were released alongside Old Cob, desperately wanting to show that he’s changed and will no longer remain naïve to other people’s intentions towards him.

Lereia: my clockwork hitch-hiker! But don’t worry y’all, they aren’t as evil as the rest of their kind, in fact, they’re actually a very courteous and lovely person even in their aloofness, and most of the trouble they get into is just due to their whimsy and curiosity! It’s just that they were handmade by Kane to resemble a Certain clockwork prince, but they actually never knew that about themself as they woke up right after the Armada’s fall! And since they aren’t sure as to why they exist or how they should live, aside from their main objective of “giving love,” they decided that their best course of action is to travel around the Spiral and gather as much information about it as they possibly can!

#wizard101 #pirate101 #wizard101 oc #pirate101 oc #wizard nerds #pirate menaces #we just vibing #moodboards

[ingravinoveritas]

u know michael has spoken out against people bashing/speculating about his relationship and anna multiple times right? even blocking some “fans” for doing so

Hello, Anon. I'm guessing this is in response to this Anon, which I answered recently.

I'd first like to clarify one point, which is that I don't consider what I wrote to be "bashing" Michael's relationship. I've noticed that people seem to characterize any commentary that isn't enthusiastic, over-the-top praise as "bashing," which in turn leaves no room for nuanced conversation, which is what I was trying to do with that post, by responding to a question that I felt I could answer.

Second, there are only two instances I am aware of involving Michael speaking out about or blocking people for talking about his relationship with AL. One occurred four years ago and sounds as if he was under tremendous pressure/had no other choice. The other took place three years ago, and what I think often gets overlooked is that this was during lockdown, when Michael was already not in the best frame of mind. It was a time I seem to keep seeing folks on Twitter refer to as "feral Michael" (such as the incident where he had an interaction with a fan over the bees in his house), but that I think is more accurately described as "unhinged."

The distinction between the two is that "feral Michael" is the Michael who was on the GO press tour making cheeky comments about Aziraphale and Crowley and brazenly flirting with David and basically being the world's biggest Ineffable Husbands shipper. "Unhinged" Michael was the side of him we saw during the pandemic, and the very difficult time we were all having. He was clearly, visibly depressed and struggling (it was especially noticeable during the second season of Staged), and it was frustrating to see everyone ignore that, and seemingly still ignoring it three years later.

That being said, aside from the above mentioned incidents, I'm having a difficult time recalling Michael ever speaking about his relationship with Anna, let alone defending it. He's talked about her during paid interviews, where the interviewer prompts him to do so (such as in the PR pieces that were published in the Australian media ahead of him appearing in Amadeus a few months ago, and this interview promoting LTTC at the end of 2021), but he has not and does not bring her up unprompted. (Again, in sharp contrast to how he constantly brings up David in multiple interviews without the interviewer even saying a word.)

There were also multiple opportunities for Michael to talk about AL publicly on social media over the past few years, and yet he's seemingly chosen not to do that. He didn't promote LTTC with her (and in fact if you look at their tweets promoting the film side-by-side, there is a stark difference). He didn't mention her or their appearance together in that one episode of Sandman, and he didn't at all promote Staged 3, which was released with almost no advanced notice in November of last year and has barely been talked about since.

I have to admit something, Anon: I am disappointed. You could have come in here and said you disagreed with me, and that would've been absolutely fine. I'm always open to hearing other opinions and people who don't agree with me, and we could have had a discussion and shared opinions in a constructive way. But when you come in here without any receipts and make comments that sound a lot like barely veiled threats, I know that your aim is to intimidate and shut me down, because you want me to stop talking.

I believe that Michael is welcome to cultivate his online space, and so are we all. My intention is to keep a respectful dialogue going because I don't believe shutting people down is the answer. I'd love for you to be a part of that, Anon...but if you don't happen to like what I am writing, it costs nothing at all just to block me and move on.

#anonymous #reply post #michael sheen #welsh seduction machine #the fact that i even gotta respond to this #i can't even with this nonsense #i'd rather look like a 'bad' fan and talk about the reality of the situation #than look like a 'good' fan by ignoring it #and it also blows my mind that the stans can't see the sadness in Michael's eyes #and would rather pretend that everything is fine instead #anna lundberg #discourse

[transmissionsfromthebattlefield]

Jimmy Bell’s Still In Town

I type to you from the comfort of my brand new dorm room. I’ll get into the real nitty gritty of why exactly I had to switch rooms when it’s further behind me, but I’m glad to be here. I moved in on Saturday, which involved three trips across the Stopher-Johnson bridge and resulted in veg-out levels of exhaustion. It was a worthwhile exhaustion nonetheless.

Instead of a house warming party, I did what I often do on weekend nights and indulged in music written by old men. But instead of expressing my wackjob musical taste in headphone-induced isolation, I did it in a room of other people. 15-60-75, The Numbers Band, have been playing the area for fifty three years, and this was the first time they played in Kent after I got here where I wasn’t gallivanting home on break. Besides, it was at the Kent Stage, which I’ve never been to, and it’s a much more relevant-to-me first show there than, say, Ace Frehley or Crash Test Dummies.

Knowing the Numbers’ first album, I was well aware of the group’s sound - an angsty and passionate strain of the blues-meets-jazz-meets something else entirely, with the right lick of dissonance that pinpoints their origin smack dab in the middle of the Rust Belt. There isn’t much to do in Akron, so I guess the primary solution is to make music or do drugs (or both). It’s so Pere Ubu, so “Navvy” at times, how it leaps and squelches and swells up in a big ball of noise assaulting your frail ears. I know there’s some interview where David Thomas is like, “Jimmy Bell is the ONLY GOOD SOUNDING ALBUM EVER RECORDED.” Which is a large overstatement, but it is a really good sounding album.

Their live sound reflects that to this day. The noise was crisp and loud. Every member was talented and tight. It was pretty damn stunning. Bob Kidney is a great band leader, and a hilarious one at that. Lots of great banter. A few guests came up for songs peppered throughout the night, like Chris Butler of the Waitresses and Tin Huey (seen wielding possibly the coolest bass I’ve seen since the Steinberger below)! Everyone sitting around me was older, and the woman beside me was asking me how the heck I knew who they were. (She was impressed.) Lots of name drops in the fragments of conversations that poked my head during intermission. It felt like a good ol’ time, one of many, with lots of invisible lines darting across the room like yarn strings on a bulletin board. Aside from being the youngest person in the room, I might’ve been the only person in the room who was seeing the Numbers for the first time.

It’s surreal acknowledging that there’s been this tiny scene here that’s been happening since practically the sixties but has not expanded far past its zip code, resulting in all the cool old people from back in the day being connected to everybody else and living within an approximate 50 mile radius of each other. It’s kind of fascinating, honestly, being in a vortex so rooted in its geography and persistent obscurity. My perspective as a current student definitely helps feed some fascination in it for me. In my cultural anthropology class, we’ve discussed the processes of field work - participant observation, cultural relativism, historical particularism. In Music as a World Phenomenon, I’ve read many mentions of the contributions of ethnomusicologists documenting music traditions across the globe. Does the shadow of the Goodyear Blimp fall differently than that of the steel sky birds worshiped by some remote island communities? Are all those “Punk 45” compilations less important than the “world music” CDs that hipster David Byrne fans buy to prove that they’re not only into African sounds when white guys do them? It really does feel like I’ve encountered some hidden anomaly that has somehow withstood JB’s becoming shit-kickin’ country/get crunk Brewhouse, gentrification, and things getting caught on fire. In a documentary we were shown in anthropology class, a group of linguistic historians arrived at a remote ex-Soviet village to document its language and were told, if only you’d come five years earlier, because many of that language’s most versatile speakers had died off. It’s like I’ve ended up mingling among the last great hurrah of a cultural phenom microcosm by complete accident; maybe I could’ve come at a time when the esplanade didn’t exist, but I'm here anyways with mental pen and paper. And I’m the only person of my generation who gives a crap. I’m one of the only people who gives a crap at all, really. But I guess it’s worthwhile that there’s somebody that gives a crap.

Nevertheless, 15-60-75 continue to chug away with great vigor, tucked away safe from the spotlights of the nebulous festering “classic rock” stadium blob. I do kind of love how you can see Terry Hynde, Chrissie’s brother, be extremely awesome on the saxophone for twenty dollars plus ticket fee, though. In 2023, can you beat that?

Okay, back to listening to “High Heels Are Dangerous” on repeat.

#blog #music #concerts #OHIO #Akron sound #15-60-75 #The Numbers Band #Kent Stage #my photos #concert photography #random anthropological analysis hour with Sophia #ethnomusicology of the Rust Belt

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Was doing Staged a big decision, because it’s so personal and set in your homes? Georgia Tennant: We’d always been a very private couple. Staged was everything we’d never normally say yes to. Suddenly, our entire house is on TV and so is a version of the relationship we’d always kept private. But that’s the way to do it, I guess. Go to the other extreme. Just rip off the Band-Aid.

Anna Lundberg: Michael decided pretty quickly that we weren’t going to move around the house at all. All you see is the fireplace in our kitchen.

GT: We have five children, so it was just about which room was available.

AL: But it’s not the real us. It’s not a documentary.

GT: Although some people think it is.

Which fictional parts of the show do people mistake for reality? GT: People think I’m really a novelist because “Georgia” writes a novel in Staged. They’ve asked where they can buy my book. I should probably just write one now because I’ve done the marketing already.

AL: People worry about our elderly neighbour, who gets hospitalised in the show. She doesn’t actually exist in real life but people have approached Michael in Tesco’s, asking if she’s OK.

Michael and David squabble about who’s billed first in Staged. Does that reflect real life? AL: With Good Omens, Michael’s name was first for the US market and David’s was first for the British market. So those scenes riffed on that.

Should we call you Georgia and Anna, or Anna and Georgia? GT: Either. We’re super-laidback about these things.

AL: Unlike certain people.

How well did you know each other before Staged? GT: We barely knew each other. We’ve now forged a friendship by working on the show together.

AL: We’d met once, for about 20 minutes. We were both pregnant at the time – we had babies a month apart – so that was pretty much all we talked about.

Did you tidy up before filming? AL: We just had to keep one corner relatively tidy.

GT: I’m quite a tidy person, but I didn’t want to be one of those annoying Instagram people with perfect lives. So strangely, I had to add a bit of mess… dot a few toys around in the background. I didn’t want to be one of those insufferable people – even though, inherently, I am one of those people.

Was there much photobombing by children or pets? AL: In the first series, Lyra was still at an age where we could put her in a baby bouncer. Now that’s not working at all. She’s just everywhere. Me and Michael don’t have many scenes together in series two, because one of us is usually Lyra-wrangling.

GT: Our children aren’t remotely interested. They’re so unimpressed by us. There’s one scene where Doris, our five-year-old, comes in to fetch her iPad. She doesn’t even bother to glance at what we’re doing.

How was lockdown for you both? AL: I feel bad saying it, but it was actually good for us. We were lucky enough to be in a big house with a garden. For the first time since we met, we were in one place. We could just focus on Lyra . To see her grow over six months was incredible. She helped us keep a steady routine, too.

GT: Ours was similar. We never spend huge chunks of time together, so it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. At least until David’s career goes to shit and he’s just sat at home. The flipside was the bleakness. Being in London, there were harrowing days when everything was silent but you’d just hear sirens going past, as a reminder that something awful was going on. So I veered between “This is wonderful” and “This is the worst thing that ever happened.”

And then there was home schooling… GT: Which was genuinely the worst thing that ever happened.

You’ve spent a lot of time on video calls, clearly. What are your top Zooming tips? GT: Raise your camera to eye level by balancing your laptop on a stack of books. And invest in a ring light.

AL: That’s why you look so much better. We just have our sad kitchen light overhead, which makes us look like one massive shiny forehead.

GT: Also, always have a good mug on the go [raises her cuppa to the camera and it’s a Michael Sheen mug]. Someone pranked David on the job he’s shooting at the moment by putting a Michael Sheen mug in his trailer. He brought it home and now I use it every morning. I’m magically drawn to drinking out of Michael.

There’s a running gag in series one about the copious empties in Michael’s recycling. Did you lean into lockdown boozing in real life? AL: Not really. We eased off when I was pregnant and after Lyra was born. We’d just have a glass of wine with dinner.

GT: Yes, definitely. I often reach for a glass of red in the show, which was basically just an excuse to continue drinking while we were filming: “I think my character would have wine and cake in this scene.” The time we started drinking would creep slightly earlier. “We’ve finished home schooling, it’s only 4pm, but hey…” We’ve scaled it back to just weekends now.

How did you go about creating your characters with the writer Simon Evans? AL: He based the dynamic between David and Michael on a podcast they did together. Our characters evolved as we went along.

GT: I was really kind and understanding in the first draft. I was like “I don’t want to play this, it’s no fun.” From the first few tweaks I made, Simon caught onto the vibe, took that and ran with it.

Did you struggle to keep a straight face at times? AL: Yes, especially the scenes with all four of us, when David and Michael start improvising.

GT: I was just drunk, so I have no recollection.

AL: Scenes with all four of us were normally filmed in the evening, because that’s when we could be child-free. Usually there was alcohol involved, which is a lot more fun.

GT: There’s a long scene in series two where we’re having a drink. During each take, we had to finish the glass. By the end, we were all properly gone. I was rewatching it yesterday and I was so pissed.

What else can you tell us about series two? GT: Everyone’s in limbo. Just as we think things are getting back to normal, we have to take three steps back again. Everyone’s dealing with that differently, shall we say.

AL: In series one, we were all in the same situation. By series two, we’re at different stages and in different emotional places.

GT: Hollywood comes calling, but things are never as simple as they seem.

There were some surprise big-name cameos in series one, with Samuel L Jackson and Dame Judi Dench suddenly Zooming in. Who can we expect this time around? AL: We can’t name names, but they’re very exciting.

GT: Because series one did so well, and there’s such goodwill towards the show, we’ve managed to get some extraordinary people involved. This show came from playing around just to pass the time in lockdown. It felt like a GCSE end-of-term project. So suddenly, when someone says: “Samuel L Jackson’s in”, it’s like: “What the fuck’s just happened?”

AL: It took things to the next level, which was a bit scary.

GT: It suddenly felt like: “Some people might actually watch this.”

How are David and Michael’s hair and beard situations this time? AL: We were in a toyshop the other day and Lyra walked up to these Harry Potter figurines, pointed at Hagrid and said: “Daddy!” So that explains where we’re at. After eight months of lockdown, it was quite full-on.

GT: David had a bob at one point. Turns out he’s got annoyingly excellent hair. Quite jealous. He’s also grown a slightly unpleasant moustache.

Is David still wearing his stinky hoodie? GT: I bought him that as a gift. It’s actually Paul Smith loungewear. In lockdown, he was living in it. It’s pretty classy, but he does manage to make it look quite shit.

---

Omg the mug’s origins :D

‘GT: Also, always have a good mug on the go [raises her cuppa to the camera and it’s a Michael Sheen mug]. Someone pranked David on the job he’s shooting at the moment by putting a Michael Sheen mug in his trailer. He brought it home and now I use it every morning. I’m magically drawn to drinking out of Michael. ‘

#staged #georgia tennant #anna lundberg #david tennant #michael sheen #staged season 2 #staged interview #david's michael mug

[quietmyfearswith]

kinktober day 1 — somnophilia

kink — somnophilia  pairing —david kern x fem!reader warnings — MINORS DNI, somnophilia (in my head it’s consensual and a usual occurrence since david always sleeps late at night), dirty talk word count —842 words taglist —

main masterlist | kinktober masterlist

“Come to bed now, David,” Her voice reached the writer’s ears faintly as she called for him from where she comfortably laid in bed. “Hold on, love,” He called out from the study desk he had put on the opposite side of the bedroom’s wall. Standing up from where she was laying down, she made her way to his desk and pouted as she looked over at him with crossed arms, “I miss laying in bed with you, love.” Looking up from the computer screen, he then smirked at how she was pouting.

“I know, I miss laying in bed with you too,” He pointed to the current page he was working on that was only filled with two short paragraphs, “But only a few more pages before I lay beside you okay, love?” Sighing, she nods understandably and kisses his forehead before greeting him goodnight, “Goodnight, David. Don’t tire yourself too much, okay”

Silently nodding, David’s brow furrowed once more as he busied himself in continuing his story which involved two lovers who find themselves framed for a robbery they didn’t commit. After an hour spent in writing, he took his blurry and blinking eyes as a sign of exhaustion and saved his recent progress — which thankfully led to five whole pages being written — and shut off his computer.

As he walked towards their shared bedroom, he was surprised to see her completely naked — with the exception of the white, thin sheets that covered her torso — as she peacefully lay down. She is probably punishing me, he thought to himself as he felt his cock harden at the sight of her flaunting her bewitching assets. As he walked on over to where she lay, he sat down and gently caressed her ankles, “Love? Love, are you waking up?”

When there was no response, David thought that it was high time he gave her the attention she deserved. Removing the thin cloth from her frame was rewarding as it granted him full access to her body that he familiarized himself with over the course of a year. As he was removing his clothes while he stared at every inch of her skin, images of the differents ways in which he could please her flooded his brain — exciting him even further of what’s to come.

Once he had removed all of his clothes, the bed dipped as he knelt down and parted her legs. “Oh schatz, I’m sorry I haven’t been paying attention to you.” The pad of his thumb rubbed her clit which throbbed after a few hard rubs. A small moan escaped from her mouth which made the writer feel cocky; his other thumb wiped the precum of his tip before sliding in her pussy, which immediately was hugged tightly by her already damp walls.

“It seems like you are more than eager already,” He observed with the way his thumb struggled to slither out of her cunt, “Good thing I’m more than ready to soothe that need.” He quickly slid his cock inside her wet pussy, causing him to exhale sharply once he felt her walls close in on his cock, “Fuck schatz, you’re so tight; I guess that’s what happens when I don’t fuck you as often as I’d like to.”

With his hands clawing on her thighs, he dragged his cock in and out of her harshly as he took in her face that wrinkled in pleasure. “You must think this is all a dream, schatz,” He thought out loud with a grunt as he felt the tip of his cock graze her sweet spot repeatedly, “I cannot wait for you to wake up and see how wet you have become.” He swipes some of her juices that creeped their way onto the base of his cock and licked it off his finger, “Perhaps my tongue and fingers will wake you up instead huh?”

Cock throbbing and heart thumping, David panted loudly as he felt her wet walls grip his cock like a vice and covered his cock with her sweet juices, “I am cumming now, schatz. Take all of my cum and keep it in your pretty pussy.”

Every time he thrust in her pussy, an additional stripe of cum added to the collection that was already in her pussy. His nimble fingers pulled and twisted on her nipples as he slowly rammed his cock in her, relishing in the wet sounds that their combined juices made. “David?” She sleepily questioned after feeling a tug on her chest, after a few blinks she was surprised to see him towering over her with his half erected cock still very much planted deep inside her.

“Hello schatz, I noticed how much you needed my cock and saw to it I satisfied your needs,” Bashfully her hand grabbed for his wrist and sucked on his thumb as she batted her eyelashes at him, causing the writer to smirk, “And looks like you still have an itch that needs to be scratched.”

#david kern x reader #david kern x fem!reader #daniel bruhl x reader #daniel bruhl x fem!reader #daniel brühl x reader #daniel brühl x fem!reader #quiet kinktober

[maxwell-grant]

Cass wouldn’t even begrudingly tolerate [the Black Bat], because she’s even less lenient than Bruce on killing and far more willing to throw down.' - THANK YOU for remembering that.

Cass is my favorite Batfam member, the only one really that I have an active interest in reading about. I'd be incredibly ignorant to not bring bring up such a crucial aspect of her characterization. And even if I didn't personally care for her, well, last thing I'd want is to be another source of frustration for Cass fans. Lord knows there's enough of those to go around.

mousebrass also asked: On that note, how do you imagine a meeting between Cass and the Shadow going?

Fair warning: This one took me 6 hours to write, and it became a hell of a lot longer than I imagined. I liked Cass a lot, but I never quite realized I had this many feelings regarding her until I was tasked with writing this, and a lot of things clicked for me regarding my plans for The Shadow thanks to this ask. @mousebrass, thank you. I mean it. I think I may have found something here I've spent years looking for. Hope you enjoy the post.

I'm thankful that this scenario is only really taking place in a hypothetical fanon where both characters can get a fair shot, because I wouldn't trust DC with this premise. I don't trust DC with either of them as is.

There's a lot of ways that this crossover could go on about taking place naturally, initially because Cass is already connected to some of Batman's pulpier elements, due to her connections to Lady Shiva and the League of Assassins, and one could connect Cass to Myra Reldon (who really should just be race swapped if ever brought back so she can stand out as the cool character she is, without the yellowface gimmick holding her back). There's two things I think are crucial to making the most of this idea, and the first of which has to do with the subject of killing. I usually don't like to come up with hypothetical team-ups for The Shadow that focus too much on the fact that he kills, because it's far from the most significant aspect of his character to focus on, much of it is written from a wrong understanding of the character, and it never amounts to anything other than perfunctory. But here, not only is it completely unavoidable to discuss, here there is actually a very, very substantial grounding as to why this has to be such a big part of the story.

The first and foremost thing that's gotta be established to everyone reading that doesn't know already is this: Cassandra Cain, more so than Batman, more so than any other DCU hero, has a tolerance towards murder lower than zero, and this is completely non-negotiable. She will throw herself on the path of an assault rifle to stop men trying to kill her from accidentally killing each other. The defining moment of her incredibly grim backstory is that she was trained from birth to be the world's greatest murderer, and her first kill traumatized her so badly that she has pivoted as far away from that as possible. I stress a lot that the Shadow should not be written as the trigger-happy maniac comics made him into and that the pulp version killed mostly to defend himself and others, generally left criminals to the police if possible, offered plenty of second-chances, had stories dedicated to the rehabilitation of criminals and so on, but none of this would matter to Cass.

Cass has literally chosen suicide over the prospect of living with murder on her hands time and time again, and The Shadow kills. When he kills, he does so without remorse, with unshakeable certainty. He hates death, he doesn't want lives to be at risk in the first place. But people will die if he doesn't do anything, and what he can do, what he exists to do, is turn the tools of evil against evil, and murder is the oldest tool of evil there is. He doesn't kill because a war scarred him, he doesn't kill because he's got a demon in his soul, he doesn't kill because he's mentally off balance, he doesn't kill because he's evil or sadistic or arrogant or anything of the sort. He kills because the men he fights chose death when they sought to harm innocents and fire guns at him. He kills because he is Death itself.

Regardless of how compassionate he is or can be, regardless of the fact that he's motivated by a desire to protect people, regardless of how justified he is, he is still dropping corpses and laughing maniacally doing so. Cass's real arch-enemy isn't Shiva or David Cain, it's Death, it's the thing that she's fundamentally most opposed to. And guess what The Shadow gets compared to often enough? Literally the very first line of the very first book where we get to see him, this is how we are introduced to him:

So the premise here is that we are taking a character who is defined by her fundamental opposition to death with every fiber of her being, who understands death on a level no other human being does, who is traumatized and hard-wired to detest death at all costs and to choose suicide over it, and asking her to team up with The Grim Reaper.

Even if he received the most abject lesson conceivable on the sheer wrongness of murder, even if he does put down the guns around Cass out of respect for her, he cannot protect his agents and others if he cannot shoot or kill those who try to harm them, and the protection of the agents is absolutely non-negotiable and not at all something he's willing to fuck around with by trying out gadget kung fu superhero alternatives. The Shadow has chosen to throw his life away for their sake time and time again, and no matter how appaling or disgusting Cass finds his deeds, even if he concedes that she's right and should be right on all accounts and that he is fundamentally a monster who has no right to judge others, he would not concede on his mission and he would make it very clear she would have to put him down violently to stop him from protecting others this way, and death has not stopped him before.

And to be upfront in case there's anyone who doubts it, Cass would kick The Shadow's ass, if they had to fight. She is the strongest fighter in the DCU, she lives and breathes fighting and combat in a way no one else does. And The Shadow's not one of those characters who is supposed to be invincible and the best at everything all the time always, he can and does lose fights and scrapes to people far less adept at it than Cass. He's a great fighter, obviously, he hauls bigger men than him through doors and was disabling people with Vulcan neck pinches decades before Spock, and he would definitely have an edge in other areas, but he's out of his league here. Frankly, I don't see The Shadow raising a finger against Cass unless she's been brainwashed into killing people by bad writing. Not because she's a woman, that doesn't really stop him from dealing with evil. But because, for one, she's practically a child compared to him age-wise. Two, he'd obviously know beforehand of her capabilities and how futile it would be to fight or even provoke her. And three, the Shadow's whole thing is knowing. The Shadow Knows and all that. Knowing comes with understanding.

He'd understand very quickly that there is no way someone this young could grow so quickly into the world's greatest fighter without horrific treatment that no one should ever be subjected to. He'd see the movements too practiced and quick, the self-control, the strength and speed far beyond even the trained warriors he's seen, the places where she's been scarred and is good at covering it up. Assuming he doesn't already know about her life story, any meeting between the two would lead to him very quickly figuring out that there's something much deeper about her opposition to killing than just moral reservations, something deeper than Bruce's own gun trauma.

Denny O'Neil's 2nd Batman and Shadow story was about The Shadow secretly helping Bruce overcome gun trauma, and Bruce rejecting The Shadow's intentions to hand him a gun. And to make it clear, people tend to assume that The Shadow only helps people for utilitarian reasons, which is not true as I've tried to demonstrate many times now. I don't want to convey that he would want to help Cass overcome her trauma just so she could be more efficient or something, absolutely no, he'd help her because he helps people in any way he can. I think a story with The Shadow and Cass might involve a similar premise, The Shadow understanding that she has been traumatized very deeply by death and refuses to accept it on any terms, trying to help her overcome it, only to learn that she does not want to "learn" anything she doesn't already know, that she has weaponized her trauma into a source of strength, and wishes nothing more than to help others with it.

And here's where we get to the part that allows the two to be on less antagonistic terms, because one thing that also very strongly defines Cass, at least the Cass I like reading most, is her stubborn, almost desperate need to believe in the best of people, that people can and will change for the better. Like The Shadow, her strength too is knowing, it's perception, the things that she knows about people that words cannot convey. Just as there are many things The Shadow would grow to understand about her that others would not, there would be many things that The Shadow would not be able to conceal from her. Things that no one but her would figure out. Things that, despite her age and lack of experience compared to him, he would have to defer to her knowledge on, which reverses the usual dynamic The Shadow has with people. And perhaps one aspect of that reversal, it's that maybe it's she who winds up secretly manipulating The Shadow into overcoming a deeper issue.

Cass's perspective on killing is shaped not just through trauma, but from a painfully intimate understanding of not just what happens to someone at the time of death, but the cost of murder upon the human soul, the ways it warps people into things they never should have been. Killing is a deeply, deeply serious matter, much more so than fiction seems ever willing to go into. Of course we suspend disbelief for fiction, there's nothing wrong with that, but if a story starts asking questions, starts poking holes into fantasies, they should not be disregarded.

And so it begs a question: How has it affected The Shadow? Is he really as remorseless as he appears to be? Is the fact that he's only killing evil people really of that much use? What's the cost of living as someone who has to know so much about so much evil in so many hearts? Knowledge never comes without price, and knowing evil is his tagline. When he enlists Harry Vincent, he makes it very clear that he has lost lives as he has saved them. From when is that regret coming from? What lives did he lose then? Is he saving people by damning his soul or merely prolonging the inevitable by piling corpses on another end of the scale?

If there's a character that could meaningfully start bringing these questions forth, who could ever truly get The Shadow to stop and reveal things to the audience he never would otherwise, maybe Cass could be that character. A girl who was raised to be a monster, who is treated as a monster and an aberration in-universe (and even outside of it), and turned that into a strength she uses to help others, who cares about everyone and refuses to let others be dehumanized as she was. Who better to know what lurks in the Shadow's heart?

Sometimes when I get an ask, I bullshit my way through infodump walls of text until I can structure it into something vaguely resembling a point. And sometimes, and I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes I get a very, very clear word on my mind related to it before I start writing, that almost seems to be a beacon pointing where I need to get to, and I work my way into getting there. Once you sent me an ask about crossing over The Shadow with Cassandra Cain, the word that came to mind the very second was Language.

It's an interesting relation the two have with language. Language is of course a very substantial part of Cass's character, who does not process language and linguistic development the way most people do, and instead reads body language to the point of superpower. Many stories revolve around Cass's relation to the concept of language, the help she may require from others in getting around things beyond her upbringing, and ways in which she has mastered beyond anyone's scope. Though she is mute, language is her power, what makes her what she is, and she is someone that Batman freely admits could kick his ass if she ever felt like it.

For The Shadow, language is also his power. He speaks all languages and connects allies all over the world, he is an expert ventriloquist, he is able to project his voice beyond what's physically possible, he can imitate voices perfectly to the point of being able to conduct group conversations single-handedly well enough to fool even the people whose voices he's imitating, much of his presence and terror and manipulation are done through his voice, arguably the very reason he exists in the first place is entirely because a radio actor's voice performance was so good and captivating that it tricked people into thinking the character was a real star and not just a glorified narrator. The man you cannot see, but only hear, the perfect hero for radio. And then of course the laugh, which I have a whole separate post on and which, in many ways, acts as a substitute for language in the novels. He uses the laugh so often as a substitute for statements or words, even to himself, that it's pretty much his own personal language. And language is at the core of how he deals with people, as he knows the right language to use to manipulate and move and help them. He knows what to promise, what to reveal, what to omit. He knows what to say, how to say it, when to say it. Language is the strings by which he puppeteers the world around him (and he can talk to animals, at least of one kind).

The Shadow and Cassandra Cain have mastered two different types of Language as throughly as anyone can possibly master them. The Shadow can talk a group of hardened criminals into killing themselves, Cassandra can punch a heart into stopping without killing it. The Shadow echoes his voice "through everywhere and nowhere at once" to whip crowds of thugs into frenzies, Cassandra outraces missiles and was tanking bullets as a child. The Shadow can lie and usurp lives so masterfully to fool even the families of those he's passing off as, Cassandra is a living lie detector who gleams inner conversations from miniscule reactions. The Shadow can speak every language known, Cassandra is the greatest master of the world's most universal language other than music. The two are supposedly human, but every now and then, something comes along to call that into question because of the things they can achieve. They cannot hide secrets from each other the way they do to everyone else. They are driven by a deep desire to help others, to make something out of the circumstances of their lives. To weaponize that which dictates they should be evil and monstrous into a relentless force of good.

Language is the root of understanding. And if nothing else, as impossible as a conciliation of their approaches to crimefighting may be, I think there could be an unique understanding between the two. Perhaps, and this is a bit crazier a concept but one that seems to be where I might have been heading towards all along, even Cassandra Cain finding a calling away from the frayed dynamics of the Batfamily, away from the Bat's looming presence, to become The Shadow's successor, swearing to uphold a mission of justice through non-lethal tactics while he stays on the backseat guiding her. If The Shadow could trust the safety of his agents and the protection of the innocent at the hands of someone as capable and selfless and good-natured as Cassandra, I think he'd be all too happy to be able to trust someone in such a manner, to no longer be the Master of Darkness, but instead to serve the next generation that's weaponized darkness without submerging in it. To achieve, and perhaps return, to his strongest, highest self: A disembodied voice heard, but not seen. Once again the narrator, not the star.

It's a concept I've thought about very extensively for the years I've been a Shadow fan, but now it occurs to me that, if I had to appoint a successor of The Shadow, someone who could take up the mission but shine on their own right, even improve it with the right guidance and circumstances, it would be Cassandra Cain. The Orphan, The Shadow of the Batgirl. Daughter of the greatest assassins, meant to be the world's most lethal murderer, instead pivoted to being one of it's greatest heroes, but never allowed to shine as she should. But in the darker, less restrictive and wilder world of pulp heroes, in The Shadow's world, a beacon would shine all the harder. Perfect strengths attached to perfect opposites, joined together for a greater good, unstoppable after together having weaponized that which most take for granted: the power of language to move worlds.

#replies tag #pulp heroes #comic books #the shadow #cassandra cain #batgirl #i always had a feeling that a successor to the shadow should not be modeled on batman but someone within that range #i never quite found a character i would be happy with taking that role or a similar role #aw shit i just talked myself into a new favorite character #that just so happens to be another character brimming with potential that's denied them by corporate overlords #who could have seen that coming

[theyreonlynoodlesmike]

It’s Just a Movie: Part 15 (Poly!Lost Boys x reader) fic

<- Previous Chapter Next Chapter ->

Warnings: angst, depression, blood mention

Word Count: 2081

(( This chapter is mainly just exposition cause I actually want to finish this story and not lose mojo for it!! Hope you guys enjoy!! ))

Nightly visits to the boardwalk never seemed to get boring, even if it’s what you had been doing for months. With the boys, your boys, you could never be bored. Time passed like grains of sand in an hourglass, each day slipping out of your fingers and down to the bottom. As the summer months got closer, the less you felt like going home. 

Of course, you had your days, and your phases. Something would happen, usually small, and you’d find yourself reaching for your phone. You had stopped bringing it with you to the boardwalk, finding that you couldn’t take it out on the boardwalk and it wasn’t like you could use it much anyways. And sometimes that was it. You’d remind yourself that you hadn’t brought it with you, that you had no use for it, and that was it. But not always. There were days, days that didn’t start occurring until after you’d been there for over three months, where that realization would encircle your heart like a cruel fist. It’d squeeze, and you would suddenly feel out of place. Wrong. Lost. 

Those moments racked through you, and there was hardly much you could do to stop the aftermath the first time it happened. Sobs would escape your mouth before you could stop them, and the boys had been just as taken aback as you were. They had, unfortunately, seen you cry before. But that had been from their own actions. Your sudden break, sudden sorrow, had been confusing to all of them. Though, of course, there were a couple of them who were more vocal than the others. You were lucky that you hadn’t left the cave yet. You had cried for nearly hours, with the boys trying in various ways to get you to stop until they finally just let you let it out.

When you were finally able to explain, you found that they understood more than you thought they would. It was then that you reminded yourself that they were lost too.

You had been lying in your bed with David besides you. They were taking turns trying to cheer you up before, but there was something about the blonde that comforted you just a tad bit more than the others. Perhaps it was that he wasn’t telling you it was going to get better. Or trying to make you laugh. Or trying to cheer you up at all. He was simply there, smoking in your room no matter if you asked him not to. You were laying your head on his chest, which was silent under your ear. After an hour of silence, David decided to speak.

“We all went through, well, something similar.” He said suddenly, and you lifted your head. Confusion was evident on your face, and you said an audible, 

“Huh?” David blew the smoke towards the ceiling and shook his head, gesturing to you.

“Your- whatever it was. I guess your denial stage is over.” He said, and you sat up. Denial? For some reason, David was the best at flaring your temper, and his words did exactly that. You had been dating all of them for two months at that point, and David knew what anger looked like on your face fairly well by then.

“Denial?” You echoed, and you watched as the blonde took another drag. In the past months that you’d been dating them, you’d learned to read all of them fairly well too, and you could tell David wished he hadn’t said anything. As annoying as he could be, you found that he just liked getting on your nerves. Not getting into actual fights. He sat up as well, but he leaned back against the mountain of pillows that the boys had collected for you.

“Denial. You were telling yourself that this wasn’t really happening. That you weren’t really staying here.” He said, and you couldn’t believe that he had the nerve to bring this up again. You scoffed, shaking your head as you moved away from him. Now, some things made sense. Why he’d dropped the topic so many months before. He knew you couldn’t control it, and he chose to chalk up your reluctance as denial. You couldn’t believe him, and you had half a mind to tell him to get out before he was reaching for your hand. “I’m saying this because we went through it too, y/n. We all had to mourn our old lives.” He said, and you stared at him in a whirlwind of confusion and anger. But there was something about what he’d said that struck you. It never occurred to you that the boys had anything to leave behind. Sure, you had read the prequel script, but there wasn’t anything solid. Anything that had made it to the screen. You shook your head.

“But I’m not- I’m not like you. I’m not a vampire. And I’m not- We don’t know if I’m staying forever.” You said, and he stared at you. You watched the way his eyes changed. How just the tiniest bit of disappointment had crept into them. In the two months since you’d started dating, David had become more affectionate. You weren’t surprised when he reached out to cup your cheek, and you let him. Even if your anger was still brewing. 

“I know.” You could tell that he wanted to say more. Hell, it was rare that he was ever this quiet, and now you almost wished that he would monologue at you. But, whatever he wanted to say, it seemed he had decided you weren’t ready for it yet. Or that he didn’t want the fight that would follow it. Instead, he held out his arms and said, “C’mere.” It was a small command, and you narrowed your eyes at him before you sighed and gave in. You crawled back into his arms, tucking your head under his chin as his arms wrapped around you. Neither of you spoke of the topic anymore, even if his words had caused a new flurry of thoughts inside your head. 

You’d been depressed for a few weeks afterwards. Angry and irritable. And, sometimes, just the tad bit resentful of the four. But, you quickly reminded yourself that this wasn’t their fault, and those feelings dissolved as time moved on and the wound began to heal. There were other moments when the wound would reopen, just as painful and wrenching as the first time that you realized you may be stuck there for good, but those times became fewer and farther in-between until the approaching summer brought on a whole new wave of something else. Excitement. Anxiety. Doubt. 

And the closer it got, the more difficult it became to ignore your situation. It was finally a week in late March that you asked David what he had in mind for when you met Star, and it had taken all of the boys by surprise. It wasn’t that you hadn’t been planning for the summer, but none of them had dared to discuss any plans that involved factoring you into it. And when you asked, you couldn’t help but notice how it had pleased your boyfriends. Even if they did their best to hide it, though some were better than others. It was growing increasingly difficult to pay attention to David’s ideas when Paul kept kissing down your neck, and Marko wasn’t helping either. He was holding your hand, and if you dared to look in his direction then he would take that as an opportunity to lean in and steal a quick press of your lips. And if you didn’t? Well, he would simply nuzzle your cheek instead. Finally, after a glare from David, you had settled to sit in Dwayne’s lap. Even then, the brunette kept squeezing your waist every so often, and you swore that you could feel him smiling, just ever so slightly, into your hair.

By the time June arrived, acceptance was inevitable. It was officially summer, and there you were. Still in sunny Santa Carla. Not that you got to see the sun that often. But you had been in their world for seven months, and your world seemed like a thing of the past. And as your nerves for the upcoming events grew, you could hardly spare a thought for your home. 

There was no clear indicator as to when the Emersons would arrive, and you didn’t have the internet to research. The best you could do once summer arrived was wait. You weren’t the only one that this was proving difficult for, and certain boys seemed ready to pull their hair out when a hint of what was to arrive finally came. Max, no matter how well the boys hid you, had asked if the boys had started seeing anyone. He assured that he hadn’t actually seen you, but he’d said he could rather smell you. Apparently, a feminine scent was hanging off of all of them. The boys did their best to dodge the topic, and dodge mentioning you. The five of you were worrying about how you were going to cover your tracks when you finally caught sight of a curly haired brunette just at the turn of the month. 

The five of you had been on the boardwalk together, going on one of your weekly group dates. Dwayne had his arm around you, even if Paul was trying his best to snatch you out from under him. Your breath had hitched when you saw her. You had to admit. She was gorgeous, even if the sight of her made you feel like you were going to faint. Or throw up. Or both. It was Dwayne that called your name before he asked,

“You okay?” And you quickly looked up at the brunette. You looked ahead, pointing with your eyes, at the barefooted and red lipped girl floating through the crowd. When the others saw her, it sobered any fun that they’d been having. It was time. You’d all been discussing it for literal months, and now it was time to put that plan into action. You reached out for the boy besides you, your hand tangling into Pauls’, and you gave it a hard squeeze. The thought repeated in your mind. It was time. 

You didn’t know if it was anxiety or adrenaline, but the night seemed to pass by in a blur. You remembered David approaching her, the drive back to the cave, and now you were sitting on the couch with the girl, Star, sitting besides you. You felt a similar feeling as to the first time you met the boys. Disbelief. Surprise. A strange feeling that this couldn’t be real, even if the past seven months made it obvious that it was. 

You didn’t expect to get along with her, but it came as a welcome surprise. Stars face had a way of lighting up as she laughed, and it was helped with how much Paul joked with her from his spot on the wall. Both you and Dwayne smiled, Dwayne’s arm wrapped around the back of your seat on the couch. Marko stood besides David’s chair, egging Paul’s joke on further while David sat in his chair, smoked, and laughed at their banter. You were having a good time, even if what was going to happen soon itched at the back of your mind. Even if you knew the events of the future, it was hard to imagine, at least right now, that Star would be alright with betraying them. Even if you had just met, you had to admit that she fit into the group almost a little too well. And you tried to not let jealousy crowd your thoughts, even if it was David's flirting that had gotten her to come to the cave. You reminded yourself that she ended up with Michael. Whatever she thought of your boys now, it'd change the second she saw Michael. If not the second she turned.

When David finally offered her the bottle, you almost felt bad. Almost wanted to stop it. You even went as far as flicking your gaze to David's. But you couldn’t change what needed to be done. Not when she was the one who reeled in Michael. Not when Max was starting to become suspicious. Not when the boys' lives were at stake. That's exactly what David's eyes told you. So, you watched as Star drank the blood.

#the lost boys #the lost boys dwayne #the lost boys david #the lost boys paul #the lost boys marko #marko the lost boys #david the lost boys #paul the lost boys #dwayne the lost boys #The Lost Boys 1987 #the lost boys x reader #the lost boys imagines

[crazybutgood]

Drarry Tag Game

(Answer any questions you’d like and ignore the rest!)

Thank you for tag @goblinmatriarch ! Sorry this is late 😅 Life is... not good. Anyway, here's mine:

When did you get into Drarry?

Oh I don't remember the exact year but I think it was like 2015-2016 ish maybe? it's especially unclear cos I joined HP fandom after I discovered Dramione, so that was my first ship, until I happened across a Drarry fic. So I'm not sure when exactly that happened

Which drarry fic hooked you?

Again, I don't remember which was my first one but the first one I absolutely loved and got me even more in love with Drarry and still remains my go-to fave today is All Our Secrets Laid Bare.

Top 3 favourite Drarry fics

Just three?! Noo omg ok ok I'm just going to say the last 3 non-anon ones that I read for the first time + 1 bonus I just re-read that I love and can't help including:

Young Love by @teacup-tai

Criminal by @the-sinking-ship

unrequired love by thedoomofvalyria

A Sense of Scale by @fantalf with art by @dragontamerdame

Why can't you quit them?

I just love them ok 😭 I like reading them being happy and in love with each other, in all sorts of universes in different stories. That's literally it 😅 There's a lot of great meta discussion and hcs and other sorts of descriptions why they're a great ship too and I agree with all that, but also I just love their love

Would you rather be friends with Harry or Draco?

I feel like I would rather be their therapist, as @phd-mama has pointed out too, and I totally agree

Who breaks your heart more often?

Ohh this is a tough one, because it really depends on the story, but I feel like it's Draco

Ideal career for Harry? Draco?

For Harry probably Quidditch player or coach at Hogwarts. Or just any job that involves teaching or caring for kids. For Draco hm perhaps a professor or a writer. Or a healer

Harry and Draco are being sent to a desert island for a week with plenty of food and water. Each is allowed to bring three additional items (no wands). What do they bring?

Omg @goblinmatriarch I love your answer 😂 I do agree Draco would bring some practical book for first aid and survival, his broomstick, and I'd say sunscreen

I also agree Harry would bring a snitch and broomstick, and I'd also say he'd bring any portable music player (probably 2 for battery purposes? Sorry if this doesn't make sense lol)

Favourite non-drarry HP character?

Ahhh ok Hermione has forever been my favourite. I also love Luna

If you had to pick one, enemies to lovers or (enemies to) friends to lovers?

Friends to lovers

Would you rather read a fic that made you laugh or one that made you cry?

I MEAN,, I like reading fics that are heartfelt and with soft feels and those make me cry, so those that make me happy-cry I guess! I do like fics that make me laugh too

Three songs that scream drarry to you (feel free to include drarry-est lyrics)

Ahh ok I've made whole-ass playlists for them, but the songs are not in English, sorry 😅

Favourite authors outside of fic?

Neil Gaiman, P. G. Wodehouse, Sylvia Plath, Oscar Wilde, Ruskin Bond, Jodi Picoult, Mitch Albom, Markus Zusak, Lisa Gardner, Simon Kernick, David Baldacci, Derek Landy, Danielle Lim, Sophie Kinsella

Tagging those I've mentioned above + @curlyy-hair-dont-care @pennygalleon @andithiel @orange-peony @corvuscrowned @whataboutmyfries @textrovert-01 if you'd like, and anyone else who'd like to do this!

#tagged #tag game #drarry #im v sleep deprived sorry