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cherryfennec · 7 months

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On the topic of Power-Ups, let's talk Fire Flower (personal headcanons under cut)!

The Fire Flower is one of, if not, the most known Power-Up from what I've seen. Even though I'm quite a fan of it myself I'll admit I never thought too much about it. So after giving it a good thought here's what I got:

General headcanons;

Fire Flowers are very adaptable plants, however they naturally originate from the Darklands, which so happen to be where they grow the most. The heat eminating from the magma is perfect for them to thrive during the initial stages. Since wielding fire isn't too rare of an ability for Koopas (more specifically some of the subspecies of Koopas) they're mostly perceived as weeds, so it's not much of an issue if someone plucks them. Unless you're an outsider. Something might be considered useless but it's a problem if the enemy wants to exploit it. Because of this a bunch of the main fields will have patrols just in case a mustachioed human, or two, happen to be sent to collect a supply. They usually consist of Fire Bros who protect and even tend to the flowers. Rumours say that with some luck it's possible for a normal Koopa to inherit fire abilities after being exposed to a Fire Flower for extended periods of time but it hasn't been scientifically confirmed.

The Fire Flower is a multiple use Power-Up. Once activated it lends it's energy to a single user, then proceeds to hibernate and slowly regain heat overtime. The process can be sped up exponentially by placing the flower near a heat source like lava or a fireplace.

Mario and Luigi specific headcanons;

It took some time for the brothers to initially get hang of releasing energy without overdoing it. It's easier to ignite something, rather than put it out. Eventually with some guidance from friendly koopas they managed to become respectable fire users. That is until the events of Superstar Saga happened.

For Mario, getting the Firebrand only enhanced his abilities. Focusing energy became very easy, a second nature even. Shaping fire, directing it, managing it's temperature. Easy peasy for a guy like him! It wasn't a suprise that the Fire Flower quickly became his favourite to use soon after. When used with the technique he can truly show off his mastery over the element!

Luigi however... got it rough. The Thunderhand, notable for giving it's user affinity for manipulating electricy, drastically reverted his progress. These two elements just unfortunately don't mix. The fire he started to produce was unpredictable and unstable. There was no guarantee if it'll fly in the right direction nor how much power it'll pack. He's been practicing ever since to not accidentally go overboard.

Mario's fire tips and tricks aren't helping too much but at least he's trying.

Some of the stuff I said here could change with me adding details in the future but right now this is the general idea. It might not be completely original but the thought of making this seemed fun. Thank you to whoever read this, I hope the blocks of text were understandable!

In conclusion the Fire Flower is one of the more reliable, common and useful Power-Ups. Getting a good amount of them can be a hassle but in the long run it's worth it, especially if they're used to make your own farm. It's uses can range from warming up the house to battling evil. Mario is the "fire master" of the group and Luigi, with the peculiar way magic reacts to him, is a walking proof of the statement: "elements don't mix".

Few bonus headcanons!

#super mario #mario #luigi #mario bros #myart #smb #mydesigns

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absolutebl · 4 months

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TOP 10 BL Trends of 2023

This is just me with my analysis hat on.

1. 2023 = the year EVERYONE went outside their lanes

Everything went topsy-turvy this year in BL.

For example, Korea gave us agonized yearning and outright queerness (The 8th Sense, The New Employee) while Japan served up soft office workers and tender family (Our Dining Table).

The BL world went askew for a while, especially in the spring of 2023.

Not that we still didn’t still get Korea’s soft angsty bubbles or Japan’s “what are you doing and why does it hurt?” kink-fests. But there were quite a few BLs that made us chronic watchers sit up in confusion and wonder if Korea was dabbling in Taiwan’s territory or Japan in Thailand’s. Then they fudged the kisses and we were like... okay, back in familiar territory.

In contrast, Thailand stayed course-correcting for the damage they’ve done in the past with tropes (2022) and self referential meta criticism (2021), but also almost aggressively returned to their BL roots after last year’s series of shockers. Certainly, they are reexamining those roots, transplanting some, aerating others. But they really went back to classic Thai university and high school BL and pulps in a big way in 2023.

Taiwan is always difficult to gage because they produce so few but they seem to have stuck with what they do best with no deviation while producing more this year than they have in ages. I’m happy for that, why change a good thing? But there is a tiny part of me that really wants them to hit it out of the part with a quality piece soon. For me, We Best Love still reigns supreme, but I would really like the HIStory franchise to give us that level but longer - like a happy version of Your Name Engraved Herein. I think Taiwan has the chops to give us something as good as The 8th Sense or Old Fashion Cupcake but in their style, and I would like to see them exercise their talent for good rather than just profit.

I know, what a very odd thing for me to say. But if any BL is going to break into the mainstream American market, I genuinely think it’s most likely come from Taiwan.

Vietnam and the Philippines are falling behind, in general. They just didn’t bring out very many shows in 2023, and what the brought out tended to fub the endings. This is forgivable in Japan (because of their style and quality) but not what watchers want in the lower production value propositions. In other words, if you do a pulp, you can’t mess up the ending (by romance standards). that doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon.

2. The Office Romance Dominated

After years of Thailand serving us an endless (and slightly bland) buffet of university (and a few high school) BLs, this year Korea was basically like...

Ofiice. We like the Office. It’s cheap to film we can use grown up actors, acting (mostly) their actual age.

And yeah... it totally worked.

To be fair, Japan has always given us office live action yaoi from the beginning (they had the source material) but this year everyone else, including Thailand, seriously started playing in this setting.

3. Boys Danced with Boys

The darling @heretherebedork was a big fan of this one, and I rather like it myself. Prior to this boys dancing together was very very rare in BL, but this year we got way more than our fair share. It was lovely.

Never Let me Go

My School President

Bed Friend

The Day I Loved You

Step by Step

Be Mine Superstar

Tie the Not

Dangerous Romance

I think there were a few more. These are the ones I remembered to write down.

4. Getting (even more) Meta With Tropes

BL has been getting more and more meta over the past few years but this year they really focused in on tropes specifically. Calling out their own biggest and most favorite tropes in a massive way, especially Thailand and especially GMMTV.

Like they tunneled in on damaging tropes with Bad Buddy and the like over the past 2 years, and now they are just having fun with us.

I mean they just started the dancing trope and already they are calling it out? That’s like rapid-fire regurgitated meta there, GMMTV.

5. Cameos are the norm now

Taiwan has always loved cameos but in the past the other countries have been show and steady with only one or two a year. (Unless Japan does a parody.)

This year Korea got in on the game.

Korea rarely starts trends but they do adopt smaller and lesser known existing ones and make them super popular.

This year they did that with cameo couple appearances, even borrowing a few of Thailand’s pairs (TutorYim and MaxNat traveled north). They did it so much I stopped tracking. Love Class 2, Why R U?, and Jun & Jun were the heaviest hitters.

Taiwan, of course, came back swinging. Kiseki was the gum-ball machine of pair cameos. (In Taiwan mafia = gay.)

6. We are entering the cross pollination age

The number of remakes picked up or started this year was startling, not just countries revisiting their own content (Thailand, Japan) but countries revisiting OTHER countries stuff.

Lemme explain...

Korea has started remaking Thai content (Why R U?) alongside cameo'ing Thai pairs.

Thailand is doing Korean IP (My Dear Gagster Oppa) and has 2 Chinese ones slated for next year.

GMMTV acquired a lot of Japanese IP (Cherry Magic, Ossen, and My Love Mix Up) - and then had problems distributing it.

This is probably the most surprising trend for me. Especially the Japanese stuff. I would have thought these properties well outside of Thailand's price range (even GMMTV's) not to mention Japan’s legendary IP issues (I swear I typed this pout before the pulled TayNew’s excellent Cherry Magic).

Also why not option some of the older popular manga instead? Bet that's much cheeper. (I did see a NEW Thai translation of Finder into Thai, which is 90s yaoi, so I have my fingers crossed on that front.)

I shouldn't be too surprised.

Thailand is running out of y-novel content. Their publication industry is just not robust enough (I was just talking to a friend about this at length recently). But I didn't think they had the funds to option, especially from Japan.

Perhaps the option deals are for peanuts?

7. Korea got cheeky

I’m not sure quite how else to put this.

After finally figuring out boys can kiss, Korea started to do not just higher heat but playful higher heat, with more aggressive word play and linguistic innuendo, like they are entering their racy rom-com teenage years (Why R U? Love Class 2 and Jun & Jun in particular.)

I guess: Welcome to your BL teens, Korea?

It’s cute of them. I am very much enjoying it.

And now that comedy is warming them up, we get to see them play with actual queer burgeoning physicality in shows like The 8th Sense.

It’s nice. I like seeing Korea stretch its wings. They still stick to their bubble, but that bubble seems to be expanding.

8. The Amnesia Trope is back

And I, for one, would prefer to forget about it.

9. BL got trendy

I’m not quite sure how to articulate this category but basically we started seeing a lot of “modern” romance trends out of the west (like a/b/o) show up in our BL. Not a ton and sometimes quite small, but there has a been a steady rise of things like: no seme/uke, femme gay, out gay, condom use, messy gay.

We also got an increasing range of sub genre frameworks (like mafia, office setting) that’s moved BL pretty firmly (even in Thailand) out of school and into the workplace, whether actual working is involved or not.

It’s not to the point where it feels like we get more non-school BL than school BL (if I include all countries in this assessment).

Japan, in classic Japanese fashion, quietly started moving in the opposite direction. It’s what they do.

10. The Vampires are coming

This is an announcement trend, which I don’t usually report on but it’s so CLEAR.

So last year we had a spate of announcements of possible Omegaverse (2 from China, 1 from Japan, 1 from Thailand - the only one that’s happened).

This year we got 5 Vampire (or vampire-esk) Thai BLs announced including one from GMMTV.

Whether all 5 will actually get made is unlikely, but having had (basically) none prior to this (Kissable Lips), I’m pretty confident that we will get at least 2 of them. And I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one other country made one as well. (Side eyes Taiwan with interest.)

Final thoughts

It feels like we are also seeing a decline in BL (both by quantity and quality) from Vietnam and the Philippines. As you all know, I don’t track or really watch either of these two very closely. But it feels like, now, no one else is either.

I think we have likely seen the BL heyday already in both places and their industries are now on the decline.

We might be witnessing a thinning in the players in the BL field.

FYI we had approximately

136 BLs in 2023

Previous Years

2022: 117

2021: 95

2020: 62

2019: 40

2018: 30

2017: 44 (China’s last gasp)

2016: 27

2015: 17 (50% micro)

2014: 17 (50% micro)

And that’s it! Let me know in the comments if you’ve spotted any additional trends you want to call out.

Last year, 2022′s trend report

2021′s Trend report

Last Year’s Stats & Predictions

(source)

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muzaktomyears · 6 months

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The man who was there the day the Beatles broke up

Mal Evans was the Fab Four’s roadie, fixer and friend. Paul McCartney confided in him when the band split, while John Lennon relied on him to guard his life. A new book tells his story

The Beatles’ lingering tensions finally caught up to them during a meeting among John, Paul and George at 3 Savile Row on September 10 1969. As Mal and Neil [Aspinall, who ran the Beatles’ company Apple Corps] observed, John took particular issue with what he perceived as Paul’s megalomania, saying that, “If you look back on the Beatles albums, good or bad or whatever you think of ’em, you’ll find that most times if anybody has got extra time it’s you! For no other reason than you worked it like that.” For Mal, the conversation must have been pure agony. He idolised Paul, who bore the brunt of the meeting’s vitriol.

In his own defence, Paul protested that he had “tried to allow space on albums for John’s songs, only to find that John hadn’t written any”.

With the idea of recording a new album seemingly off the table, John suggested that they produce a Christmas single instead. After all, he reasoned, their annual holiday fan club record would be due before long. When this idea was met with silence and indifference, John soberly concluded, “I guess that’s the end of the Beatles.”

As horrible as the experience must have been for Mal, panic hadn’t set in just yet. During the past 15 months, Ringo and George had quit the band at various times, only to be coaxed back. But ten days later it all spilled out again at a meeting at Apple. Mal and Allen Klein (their manager after the death of Brian Epstein) were there, along with Yoko, Neil and the boys. For his part, George was on speakerphone from Cheshire, where he was visiting his ailing mother. The topic at hand was a new agreement with Capitol, which Klein was understandably eager to ink.

As Mal observed, Paul began to enumerate the group’s upcoming opportunities, including a series of intimate gigs and a possible television special. In each instance, John said, “No, no, no,” before telling Paul, “Well, I think you’re daft.” Eventually, he blurted out that he wanted a “divorce”. “What do you mean?” a stunned Paul asked. “The group’s over,” John replied. “I’m leaving.”

At this point, Paul recalled, “Everyone blanched except John, who coloured a little, and said, ‘It’s rather exciting. It’s like I remember telling Cynthia I wanted a divorce.’ ”

Afterwards, Mal and Paul returned to McCartney’s home, where they retreated to the garden, still trying to process what had transpired. Paul remained hopeful that John might change his mind, that the Beatles would continue unabated. But Mal knew better. As with George, Mal had reasoned that “all of them had left the group at one time or another, starting with Ringo’’. But when “John came into the office and said, ‘The marriage is over! I want a divorce,’ that was the final thing. That’s what really got to Paul, you know, because I took Paul home and I ended up in the garden crying my eyes out.”

That night with Lennon and Phil Spector in 1973, when happiness was not a warm gun

Mal took great pleasure in spending long hours in John’s company, enjoying the Beatle’s undivided attention, as opposed to sharing him with Paul, George and Ringo. “It was fascinating,” said Mal, who by this point was living in LA and writing his own songs, “because John was talking to me like I was a songwriter, and that was incredible. For the first time, John and I really communicated, whereas, when it was the four of them, John was always the hardest to talk to. I always thought that when John stopped insulting me, we had fallen out as friends.” But, he added, referring to John’s teasing, “The more he likes you, the more he takes the mickey out of you.”

Yet, as Mal soon discovered, working with John during this period would prove to be a chore — incomparable, in fact, to their touring years together, when the Beatles were often confined to the relative safety of a hotel suite. When he was in LA, John could often be found at the Sunset Strip’s Rainbow Bar and Grill, which had emerged as his de facto headquarters [during a period of heavy drinking which Lennon ironically referred to as the Lost Weekend but actually lasted 18 months.] With musicians like John, Harry (Nilsson), Ringo, Keith Moon, Alice Cooper and Micky Dolenz adopting the Rainbow as their regular watering hole, they had taken to calling themselves the Hollywood Vampires, a nickname that evoked the night hours they spent guzzling hooch in the bar’s loft space.

On one of his most harrowing evenings in Los Angeles, Mal had accompanied John and Phil Spector to the Rainbow. At one point, John walked Phil to his car, assuring Mal that he would return shortly. “About a half hour goes by, and I start worrying and go outside looking for John — no sign,” Mal later wrote. “I’d lost track of a Beatle for a day. What had happened, I found out the following evening, was that when he’d seen Phil off, a few hippie fans of his took him in tow, and John, who had just moved into a flat, couldn’t remember the address, nor his or my phone numbers. [John] eventually turn[ed] up, but not before I’d had a few irate words from Yoko, who phoned me from New York shouting, ‘I thought you were John’s bodyguard — why don’t you guard his body?’ ”

At a loss for words, Mal admitted that “I never really thought of myself as a bodyguard to anybody, but I suppose over the years that had been part of the gig. Anyway, they were all grown up, with very strong minds of their own as to what they wanted to do, and I certainly didn’t expect them to hold themselves accountable to me.”

That December, as work on Back to Mono proceeded, John and Phil shifted their project to the Record Plant West. The change of recording studios had everything to do with John’s and Phil’s antics having gotten them evicted from their previous studio, A&M. At one point, Nilsson and Moon, in a drunken stupor, had urinated onto the recording console, leaving the electronics in an ungodly mess.

Things began innocently enough after John and Phil completed their December 11 session at the Record Plant West, where they took a pass at Chuck Berry’s You Can’t Catch Me. As Mal looked on, the two men, drunk to the gills, were horsing around the Las Vegas Room. In a nod to the early days of Beatlemania when the Beatles would climb on Mal when they heard they were at the top of the charts, John decided to hop onto Mal’s back for a piggyback ride. Unfortunately, Phil opted to get in on the act, too. Mal’s physical dexterity in late 1973 was a far cry from that of the early 1960s, and he had difficulty sustaining the weight of two men atop his aching back. As always, Mal observed, “Phil goes a little too far,” and in the ensuing ruckus, “he karate-chopped me on the nose, my spectacles went flying, and I got tears in my eyes I can tell you. I turned around with a real temper and told Phil, ‘Don’t ever lay another finger on me, man.’ ”

And that’s when Phil, “maybe to re-establish himself in his own eyes”, Mal thought, pulled out a handgun. To the roadie’s surprise, the producer “fired it off under our noses, deafening us both, the bullet ricocheting around the room and landing between my feet”.

John was understandably incensed, exclaiming to Phil, “If you’re gonna kill me, kill me, but don’t take away my hearing — it’s me living!”

Until that moment, Mal and John had believed that Spector’s handgun was a toy. At one point earlier in the evening, Phil had cocked the trigger and aimed the weapon at John’s head. As a result of the incident in the Las Vegas Room, “John’s fear of guns generally was doubled.” For his part, Mal vowed to stay clear of Phil. He would attend the recording sessions in deference to John, but that was it.

In nearly the same instant that Mal decided to banish Phil from his world forever, he and John were hustled off to [co-founder of the Record Plant] Gary Kellgren’s house for a lavish going-away party in honour of Mal, who was preparing to make his return to Sunbury. For the occasion, Phil had arranged for Mal to receive “a beautiful large cake, which must have measured four feet by three feet, so nicely decorated with a large bottle of Napoleon brandy, [and] a lot of comic figures like Superman and Batman,” Mal wrote. The sumptuous dessert was inscribed, “To Mal, my pal, love, Philip.”

As it turned out, the madcap producer’s greatest gift to Mal that night came in the form of his absence. “Phil, to show the most understanding side of his nature, did not come to the party,” said Mal. “He knew if he had, he’d be outrageous and spoil it for me. But he set it up and didn’t come — a true mark of affection from a friend.”

The party came to a sudden close, though, when John, having grown blind drunk, planted a telephone into the sticky remains of the cake.

Meet the Beatles: four days in Mal’s life with the moptops

Paul (1962) In July 1962, Mal and his family attended the celebration of the “Wavertree Mystery”, an annual event held to commemorate the anonymous donation of a local playground back in 1895. Mal later recalled that, “Lil and I were proudly pushing Gary in his pram when she turned to me and said, ‘There’s a weird guy over there — keeps staring at us. Now he looks like a real Cavernite to me.’ On turning, I was to see Paul standing there, unshaven, with a denim jacket thrown over his shoulder and chewing on a toffee apple.” After engaging in the niceties of introducing his wife to the scruffy musician, Mal took Paul for a jaunt. “We spent the rest of the day together,” Mal wrote, “Paul and I daring each other to go on things like the parachute drop and other displays that took nerve, neither of us accepting the challenge.” At one point, they stopped in front of an automobile exhibition. Paul announced to Mal that “one of these days I’m going to own one of those cars’’, pointing to one very humble saloon-type car.

George (1962) After shows at the Cavern, Mal would introduce his wife Lily to the rest of the band. “On one occasion,” Mal recalled, “Lil and I bought the fish and chips for the group and ourselves, as they could only muster enough money between them to pay for the teas.” Although she had her misgivings about Mal’s involvement in their lives, she enjoyed getting to know the bandmates. “After gigs,” she later recalled, “George would come back to our house for bacon and eggs. He sometimes came back before Mal to keep me company. I’d be washing baby clothes and nappies or ironing. I liked him the best.” Lily fondly remembered the time she pushed the bangs from Harrison’s face, saying, “Let’s see what it looks like with your hair back. I like that better.” But George wasn’t having it. He combed his hair forward, telling her, “That’s the way I have to wear it; it’s the Beatle cut.”

Ringo (1965) Driving up the M1, Mal and Ringo stopped at a roadside café for lunch. “We were sitting at the counter,” Mal recalled, “and the chap next to me had obviously been trying to make up his mind whether it really was Ringo with me. Suddenly, he turned to me and said, ‘I don’t care if it is him or not.’ Ringo nearly choked with laughter as I teased the fellow, saying, ‘No, it’s not him. But it gets terribly embarrassing taking him anywhere because everybody mistakes him for Ringo!’”

John (1964) John held no illusions about the Beatles’ behaviour, later admitting that, “We were bastards. You can’t be anything else in such a pressurised situation, and we took it out on Neil and Mal. They took a lot of shit from us because we were in such a shitty position. It was hard work and somebody had to take it. Those things are left out, about what bastards we were. F***ing big bastards, that’s what the Beatles were. You have to be a bastard to make it, and that’s a fact. And the Beatles were the biggest bastards on earth. We were the Caesars. Who’s going to knock us when there’s a million pounds to be made, all the handouts, the bribery, the police, and the hype?”

During a flight to Massachusetts for the September 12 show at the Boston Garden, Mal’s long-standing feelings of intimidation around John came to a head. Sitting at the rear of the plane, he broke down in tears, telling a reporter that “John got kind of cross with me — just said I should go f*** off. No reason, ya know. But I love the man. John is a powerful force. Sometimes he’s rough, if you know what I mean, man. But there’s no greater person that I know.” In many ways, it was as if Mal’s lack of self-confidence, a key aspect of his persona for the balance of his life, had returned with a vengeance. Later John approached Mal and embraced him.

Extracted from Living the Beatles Legend by Kenneth Womack (Mudlark £25), published on November 14.

(source)

#another article in today's times!#mal evans #kenneth womack #the beatles #john lennon #phil spector #paul mccartney #george harrison #ringo starr

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joezy27 · 10 months

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"How To Write HAWKEYE" by Matt Fraction

My process for Hawkeye isn’t like anything else I’ve ever used for writing, and it’s sort of involved. For a lot of reasons—none of which have to do with the how of anything, let alone the how of writing comics—my approach with this book, I decided early on, would be completely different than anything I’d ever done before. I’ll get into some of the why and how here, but, from that decision, everything about writing Hawkeye kept getting weirder.

About a year before I started on Hawkeye, I started to experiment with writing in a method called Marvel Style or Plot Style. It’s called Marvel Style because Stan Lee came up with it when he was the only writer at Marvel and had to produce eight books a month. Stan started to write in a way that leaned very heavily on his artists rather than requiring him to produce the screenplaylike scripts most of us think of as full scripts or just, y’know, scripts.

Art by David Aja

Here’s an example of a full script I gave to my dad:

PAGE ONE 1.1 A SWEATY GUY gets out of a car. GUY We’re here. 1.2 The guy walks to a house, nervous, peering over his shoulder as he goes. GUY Ha ha. 1.3 He walks up to the front porch almost on tiptoes. GUY ha. 1.4 CLOSE: Still nervous, still on edge, he adjusts his tie. Blood under his fingernails. Uh-oh. NO DIALOGUE 1.5 FROM BEHIND: As he pokes his finger into the doorbell, we see, with his other hand, he’s got a gun held behind his back. SFX Ding dong

Note: SFX means Sound Effects

And so on. Now that took me as long to type as it took you to read, but you get the gist: dramatic beats and certain visual moments are isolated and chosen because they transmit the narrative and dramatic story flow to an artist who chooses his shots (or might take my suggestions if there are any) accordingly and crafts a sequence of images, keeping in mind moment, frame, image, flow. Isolated dialogue runs below to allow the artist to understand how much space to allot for words, and that’s it. McCloud-101 stuff, right?

But Marvel Style for David [Aja, the artist on Hawkeye] looks something more like this:

PAGE ONE Okay, David, on this page, a little car pulls up to a little suburban house and NERVOUS MAN gets out half-laughing to himself. He skulks to the front door, maybe adjusts his tie. He’ll have, like, blood under his fingernails. He looks over his shoulder, knocks. Then the last image on the page needs to be: we see he’s got a GUN BEHIND HIS BACK. “We’re here,” he’ll say, at some point, to no one in particular. And maybe giggle on his way to the door. NERVOUS KILLER CREEP here to WREAK HAVOC, David. Okay.

And I’ll move on to page two. My scripts are super informal. Nobody, but your artist and letterer are gonna read it, so why not make it fun for them to read?

I chose to write Hawkeye for David like this for several reasons. First, my favorite pages from our time on Iron Fist, which was written Full Script-style, always came when he’d politely and respectfully diverge from what was scripted for him, make something magical, then find his way back to where he was expected to be. So I’d start writing more and more vaguely for him, to give him more and more freedom, and he always crushed it. By “crushed it,” I mean he made a great page that made me look smarter than I am. Second, and I mean no disrespect to any of David’s other collaborators, many of whom I’m a fan, but I never liked David’s work more than I did on Iron Fist. And they were all doing full script for him. So, y’know—maybe a lightbulb went off. Third, writing Marvel Style scares the living crap out of me. It is the antithesis of what we teach ourselves as writers. It requires trust and sharing and believing in your partner—and he’s a partner, not an artist here, just check the credits page—and trusting in the collaboration above all else. And it’s easy to see how slippery a slope Marvel Style can be to get to “PAGES SEVEN THROUGH NINE: They fight.”

Art by David Aja

I started experimenting with Marvel Style because it scared me, and when I get scared, I get exhilarated. These things, this job, it’s the best, but it can grind you down. It crushes your wrists and warps your spine and dries your eyes and smooths down your teeth and grows your gut. Excitement and danger, though meager compared to what, say, a firefighter might encounter, is important in your work.

Also, I thought it could save me time. I thought I could do half my work on layaway, basically; that I could crank out a plot in three or four days and script a few weeks later, in one or two days. I mean, it worked for Stan, right? And he and his partners—partners—only created the dang Marvel Universe. Lastly, it’s [Marvel Comics’s former editor-in-chief and current chief creative officer] Joe Quesada’s fault.

Let me digress here for a second: Joe da Q is a great guy. Great artist, great boss, great dad, great guy. And I love talking to him about the art of the art, because he’s been around and has some stories and a head full of great thoughts about it all and … and you do it for about a minute and a half and you realize exactly how Joe earned everything he earned and you couldn’t be happier. Anyway, one night Joe is winding Mr. Brian Michael Bendis up at BarCon. BarCon is the “con” that happens in the bar of the guest hotel of whatever con you’re at, literally, every single night, of every single convention, ever. Anyway, so Joe is claiming much of Marvel’s now-decades-long dominance over comics came from the inescapable visual firepower of our founding fathers, that Marvel’s visual style is as much a key to its successes as the radioactive spider. And if you doubt it, just look at how the key moments in the company’s history were written: Marvel Style. Brian howled in outrage, “That’s not writing, that’s cheap, that’s lazy. When you cede control of choice of moment to someone else, you’re just mad-libbing …” It went on and on. Joe poking, Brian exploding, and Joe giggling with glee.

Joe Quesada loves his family, the Mets, the Beatles, Marvel, and winding Bendis up, in that order.

I realized though, as I listened to them play-fight, that it was making me nervous. Just to think about Marvel Style. Just to pretend I’d even try it, even on a short story made me, sweartagod, nervous. So many of my favorite comics were done by singular cartoonists—Eisner, Hernandez, Brown, Clowes, Chaykin. And the more I thought about it, how could I ever hope to write the thing those guys did for themselves? You can’t. A writer could never coax American Flagg! out of Chaykin—unless they gave him a Marvel Style script and treated him like a partner as invested in the storytelling as the writer.

So I knew I had to try it.

This comic has been written in a giant scramble. All out of order. Not by design but … but because Team Hawkeye does nothing the easy way.

I know a big part of Brian’s lessons here is that the only way you need to find is your way. That your way is the right way and anything else is an obstacle but … but please, god, don’t do it like this. This is how I know how to do Hawkeye.

My initial pitch for Hawkeye ended up being published as issues 4 and 5. It’s our first two-part storyline and is very different than the issues on either side; international travel, glamorous and exotic casinos, international cabals of evil. Clint-as-Bond, where he’s in a tux more than a supersuit. Marvel said okay—remember, we just needed like nine of these—but I pulled out because it wasn’t right. When I sat down to write it, it wasn’t right, and I had to leave. I had a story, not a book, and so I stopped.

Then one night I thought about Jim Rockford and The Avengers—the UK ones I mean—for whatever reason, and found my book.

So I had to repitch. I got it, luckily, but everyone thought I was nuts. Anyway.

I was going to write Marvel Style for David. It was going to be all done-in-one, or sometimes two, issue stories. It was going to be about what Hawkeye did when he wasn’t being an Avenger because, when I got the book, Clint Barton was everywhere and I didn’t want to step on toes. Give me him on his day off, I figured. It was going to be street-level, real-world kind of stories, in, of course, the Mighty Marvel Manner. I would try to counteract the banal everyday stuff with a complicated structure that would reward close-reads. So yeah, there might be an issue that’s about Clint trying to buy tape, but it’s going to start with a car chase, cut back two days, then cut forward again, and on and on. And he would have a kind of mentee/partner in a young girl named Kate. It’s a double act.

So then I wrote the first issue. And I sent it in, and my editor said what I felt and suspected: “This is a second issue.” And he was right. It was as much about Kate as Clint, and it’s Clint’s book, so back to the drawing board.

Then I wrote what became issue 1. So, psychically, the order of Hawkeye to me goes 4, 5, 2, 1. Physically, in terms of what was actually typed and invoiced, Hawkeye was 2, 1, then 4 and 5—because those were for a guest artist—then 3, then 6. It can wreck your head if you have more than just that to do, let me tell you.

Art by David Aja

HAWKEYE ISSUE 6

Issue 6 was a breakthrough for a lot of reasons. First off, though, at this point, there were five other issues and they were all written out of order and it was hard for me to keep track of what was happening when and where.

I knew 6 was our December issue, and I always wanted to write a story with Christmas as a backdrop, so I locked in to making it a holiday issue. And I wanted to do a story about Clint wanting to hook up his DVR, but things kept getting in his way. Somehow those two strands tied together in my head.

I wasn’t kidding earlier when I said this job kills your hands and your wrists. Add to that I’m an art school dropout who misses his sketchbooks and I’ve, from the start, always started my comics writing in cheap little notebooks. Partly to get away from typing, partly because I love the feeling of graphite dragging across the page, partly because I’ve thought out and problem-solved in sketchbooks my whole life.

I wish I knew how I made the following intuitive leap, but I think that’s just it—like so much about my writing, Hawkeye especially, is all intuitive. I took pieces of paper and folded them in half. Across the top, I wrote the issue number and title. Down the left, I numbered 1 through 20 to represent each of the twenty pages of the first five issues, and then I wrote in a short sentence or phrase about what happened on each of those pages. I needed to, at a glance, be able to see how I was pacing things. And if I want to check, oh, how many pages that fight scene was on page 3, I could just consult my mockups and move on. I could just carry them around in the back of the notebook, lay ’em all out in front of me, and see six months at once. Perfect.

For whatever reason, I have continued to write like this for Hawkeye. I’ll lay out the last few issues and the next few issues, even if all I have is the cover idea and title (if I’ve got the title I have a vague sense of what the story will be), and look at how they all flow in and out of one another. Here’s the mockup for issue 6.

I randomly gave myself six days to tell this story in. (There’s a DJ Shadow track called “Six Days” that director Wong Kar Wai shot a video for, and I like the song and the video and I like the sound of “six days” as an increment of time. It comes up in my work a lot I’ve noticed.) Now, at some point in the writing, I realized everybody in the real world has to endure the holidays together, so I thought, “Great, we’ll find out what day our book comes out and make that the day the book starts on, and then bip and bop around the real days of the month.” But at that point, it had started on a Thursday or whatever, so I had to rework it all, and I kept getting confused.

As I pecked through the list, things got complicated. Look in those margins and you can see me losing the real time aspect of it, the actual days and how they all fit. So I had to get linear for my own sanity, if nothing else.

Here’s me boiling down the six days just so I could keep track—but once you tie a comic down like that with a nonlinear chronology, suddenly this all gets important. Well, was the fight at night? Okay, so then the next morning he has to be here, and beat up. But if … well, wait, he needs to be there, too. So maybe the fight was really the night previous, like, at 12:01 a.m., and it’s really been closer to forty-eight hours since, and…

Anyway, it was weirdly algebraic. You’ll see, in the script, how I added time even to help David and Matt Hollingsworth, our genius colorist, in their staging.

With my little half-sheet done, it was time for me to write my take on Marvel Style for David.

My Marvel Style scripts are really, if I’m being honest, about 15 percent less full than a typical full script. There’s dialogue sometimes. And if there’s, say, six little paragraphs on a page, you can tell how many panels a page I’m thinking about. But it’s as Marvel Style as I get. It works for us, though. For example, using the page as a kind of Advent calendar—to use an Advent calendar as a design device, came entirely from David. As I said—I trust in him to be as invested in storytelling as I am, and he produces things I’d never think of, let alone know how to explain in a script for someone to draw.

Notes for Haweye #6

ART PROCESS From my script, David produces thumbnails—and they are the most laborious thumbnails you can imagine. All of David’s heavy lifting is done here. These things are tiny little bursts of science. Not that his mark making isn’t important, but his thinking is paramount to all of it and you can see it all in the layouts. It’s his half-sheet, if you will. Hardest work goes there.

Art by David Aja

So I take the layouts and do a dialogue pass the best I can. Scenes can grow or change or transmute from what I’d written, or I can give notes and add things or take away. It’s great—as long as I can tell what’s happening, I mean. Which isn’t always.

So then David enlarges the pages with his own dummy lettering pass. By “dummy lettering pass,” I mean he actually letters the book roughly, but completely, so I can see where things need trimming and he can see how the words work in the frame. He sends this back and I tighten up my script accordingly.

Once David’s art gets the editorial okay from editor Steve Wacker, it goes back to David and colorist Matt Hollingsworth who have been, in the background, talking about the color schema for the issue. In a book where time shifts so hard and weird, color is one of the primary keys to helping orient the reader. Our readers are smart; they always get it. A big part of the why is Matt, doing subtle, almost invisible little things to keep you going with us. I could talk about this more at length, but it’s not my place to; let me just say, there is tremendous storytelling happening with our book’s colors.

Art by David Aja

Then I adjust the lettering until poor Chris Eliopoulos (letterer on Hawkeye) wants to murder me and the book has to be sent to press. Wait two weeks and, voilà!

We must be doing something right.

Hawkeye script by Matt Fraction, art by David Aja

HAWKEYE - The Fraction & Aja Creative Process

Words for Pictures - The Art and Business of Writing Comics and Graphic Novels (2014)

#Hawkeye #Clint Barton #Kate Bishop #Matt Fraction #David Aja #Matt Hollingsworth #Chris Eliopoulos #Marvel Comics #Words for Pictures

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sgiandubh · 4 months

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This what I mean 👇🏻

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/3518505943900484/

Dear (returning) Bitchy Anon,

I wrote this answer yesterday, but I am posting it today, because I did not want to give you any satisfaction. Your coming back in here proves there is not an ounce of humanity left in you: just a #silly obsession for an actress who does not even know or care you exist. I promise you she doesn't. Confidently so.

But then, onwards to your 'evidence'.

You thought you would give me the creeps on Christmas Day with a controversial picture allegedly taken at the Weinstein (yes, that Weinstein!) and Netflix Golden Globes afterparty, on January 8, 2017?

No, seriously now: you actually did?

Crikey. As we say in Romanian (and yes, it is very rude, but also dementedly funny): mi se umple fundul de lacrimi/my arse is in tears. Perhaps the equivalent of I don't give a flying fuck, btw.

If you did read me before posting your laughable shite, and I think you did, you should know by now how I usually work, at least for those things I choose to make public (the rest is none of your business, I am afraid). You found this pic on Pinterest, originating from a Tumblr blog: @clairebeauchampfan. Since this person started blogging one year later than the moment this picture was taken, she probably found it chez Contemplating Outlander. You know, that pseudo-social scientist-cum-shrink, who thinks people are machines and adds a shitload of footnotes to her rantings, because she truly believes it makes her biased crap more credible (it doesn't, and this comes from an academic researcher: it is legit pathetic). So Claire Beauchamp Fan shared it and forgive me, but I did not bother finding her post, I just looked for her source (*urv's fetish):

This took me to CO's really nasty blog and you could have spared me that ordeal, Anon: it's literally akin to severe constipation. And then, onwards to Instagram:

A further search revealed she was wearing a Romanian designer (Maria Lucia Hohan) dress and Amrapali earrings. And then, I read the comments on that Insta post. Maybe you'd read them too, they are enlightening - for someone who's 'been around since 2015', people are rather confused about his real status in her life, don't you think?

But Internet is really forever, no matter how you try to hide your trash, Anon. Here is a copy of O'Callaghan's post which was, indeed, deleted: maybe *urv was too insistent? It wouldn't surprise me:

She should have won the Golden Globe in 2017, that's true. And it was S, not McIdiot, the one who told the Internet she should have won all those prizes, if memory serves. How odd McIdiot is never mentioned in that particular post (y'all would have paraded it for YEARS, if it were so) - but household staff, no matter how promoted, never really is. And before you screech, tell all the damn truth Anon, and put this pic in its right context:

How odd the 'successful music producer and entrepreneur' (he is not successful, nor a music producer and much less an entrepreneur) was not tagged, by someone who is active in the industry, who clearly knows C and who attended that Golden Globes gala!

Just a last word on that pic. C was obviously smiling and talking animatedly with O'Callaghan and then McIdiot (who looks malnourished - but hey, humble beginnings, eh?) got dragged in the middle, for the convenient pic. I sometimes wonder what kind of social life you people have and sadly, I have to say - next to 0, for some of you. I never fuck the dozens of men with whom I do have similar 'just because' pics, interrupting my conversation in the middle of an event.

Also, check this very warm & fuzzy pic with one prominent member of her own, personal and very, very gay Circle of Trust. Because I am sorry, but what straight man wears lipstick, as McIdiot clearly does (and no, it's not because they were smooching in the lavatories, what are you, 14?):

She looks happy, doesn't she?

I mean: really, honey. Get a Real Life and stop trying to persuade me with ye olde Pinterest pics you clearly are completely clueless about, ok?

And before you open your mouth to vomit CO's trash again, please carefully do your homework about McIdiot. But as carefully as I did. Then you can talk, share your interesting findings. Merry Christmas and....

#anon #fandom #shitshow

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merakiui · 1 year

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OMG with your caption of "milkshakes at monstros lounge is about to taste 10x better with Jades secret ingredient" made me have a brain rot.

IMAGEN FXCKING FLOYD DRINK IT AND NOW WANTS IT STRAIGHT FROM THE SOURCE 😭 in that fic you said that we were first passed to Floyd but he was too bothered so we got handed to Jade. So imagen he somehow find out and now wants us in the same position that we are with Jade but with HIM.

Or Azul is also a degenerate so taking a book from Jade we go back to working for him tasting his potions that for some reason also made us lactate..

OR SOME OF OUR FRIENDS SEE/HEAR WHAT GOING ON OR MAYBE WE TELL THEM AND THEY TRY TO "help" US BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH WE WHERE ALREADY MILKED IT STARTED TO FILL UP MORE TO AN UNCOMFORTABLE LEVEL AND THEM BEING OUR BFF AND "totally not weird or have feelings for us" CONVINCE US TO LET THEM HIM. While it's either but them sucking or playing with our nipples with a bowl under to not make a mess 🤞☺️💕

OH AND IMAGEN THEY FIGURE OUT THAT THE REASON THE MILKSHAKES TASTE BETTER IS BECAUSE OF THIS AND OUR BFF STARTS USING THE MILK THEY GOT OUR FOR US FOR THEMSELVES 🤭 now they self proclaimed themself our lil helpers (or milker).

Now we can also have multiple BFF and they all help us at the same time too to get all that fullness out of us 🥰

-Yours truly, the annon that you awakened their lactation kink onces again 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩

YES YES AAAAAAA OTL

(cw: yandere, brief nsfw mentions, unhealthy behaviors/relationship, lactation, female reader, brief mentions of pregnancy)

Floyd and Azul are so incredibly fake. T-T they only want you when you start producing milk. Most fake fans ever, switching up like that… Floyd complains about how lucky Jade is, and Jade has to tell him that it was Floyd who wanted nothing to do with you in the beginning. He’s merely looking after you as you’re now his contractual obligation, though he would be lying if he said he wasn’t attached to you. He’s become rather enthralled. Jade has written the potion recipe down, even perfected it after some more trial and error (which you were more than happy to assist with) and so now he has a potion that’ll have you lactating for at most a full day. <3

Floyd’s too impatient to fill bottles and jars up, so he’ll just pull your shirt open and tug your bra up and take it straight from the source with his greedy mouth. I like to think Jade watches the both of you so fondly, so happy that his favorite people are getting along well even if you’re squirming and telling Floyd to be more gentle, to slow down, to put his teeth away.

Azul goes absolutely insane when he learns of that potion. You can’t tell me he also wouldn’t have the biggest lactation kink ever. It ties in nicely with the breeding kink. Jade has him sample some dishes made from your milk, along with a glass of your milk, and he’s easily able to tell there are notable differences. He asks if this is goat’s milk rather than cow’s and Jade smiles deceptively and says he’ll show Azul who to thank for the delicious ingredients. He brings Azul to you, where you’re currently trying to deal with your swollen, leaky tits while Floyd is doing everything he can to try to steal at least one sip. If only you could see the dollar signs in his eyes… Oh, you’re so marketable! He could definitely capitalize on this.

Now that Azul knows of this, it’s over for you. But before he decides to sell your milk or use it for Mostro Lounge dishes, he wants to touch and squeeze and fondle you. I imagine he just stares at you for the longest time because his brain is short-circuiting trying to remind himself that you aren’t pregnant; this is just the result of magic. You aren’t pregnant or filled with eggs, but you could be. You’re not pregnant. He’s never fucked you before. But what if… Azul milks you once and out of sheer instinct he places his hand over your belly and mumbles something about how he can’t wait to be a father. (pathetic tako delusions…)

Imagine they give you the potion so often that you start to lactate on your own, if only a little. Magic definitely has more of an effect on your body because you can’t use it or sense it like mages can, so it’s definitely possible it might do something to you internally. Imagine being with Ace and Deuce and you leak through your shirt and you’re so embarrassed trying to explain what’s happening and Ace is poking fun as usual, while Deuce is in shock like, “Milk comes from women?!?!?!?! The store-bought milk I drink,,,,,, came from a woman????” Deuce already had a lot of respect for you, but now he is a million times more respectful because it can’t be easy filling all those milk bottles. (Deuce, never change. You are a sweetheart.)

Ace will want to sample directly from you. He teases you a lot, squeezing your breasts just to watch the wet patches on your shirt become larger and more noticeable. Deuce thinks that the two of them should bring you to someone who can help. Ace supposes that’s fine, but before that he needs a taste. Be a good best friend and let him taste you. There’s nothing weird about it. Best friends help each other out all the time. Ace and Deuce bring you to Trey because he’s responsible and oh-so-wise, and Trey also has this moment where he just stares at you, mouth slightly agape, before he has to clear his throat and quickly act normal and relaxed and calm and level-headed. Did I mention how relaxed he is? You cannot lactate around Trey. He will want to use your milk in the sweets he bakes (Riddle’s strawberry tarts are about to be so delicious), but he’ll also want you against the counter while he fucks you against it, pretending the both of you are married and he’s knocked you up and you’re lactating in preparation of the baby. He’s so not normal about this; he’s so down bad.

The brain cell duo bring you to Housewarden Riddle and he is overcome with so many emotions. Riddle is so flustered and he snaps at Ace and Deuce to cover you while he figures out what to do next. But you know Che’nya’s probably lurking around, and if you happen to be outside and a pair of invisible hands grope you and you’re suppressing moans while milk trails down your tits…… Riddle is fighting a losing battle here. He has never been so,,,, conflicted. So acutely aware of the female form. So immersed in how you sound when Che’nya’s teasing you. Riddle wants you and your milk so bad, but he has to be polite and respectful. He will help you and after the fact he will not think about it again. He will not lie awake at night, staring into the darkness and wondering how it might feel to drink directly from your breasts. For once the Octavinelle trio have done something good, even if this good thing is the byproduct of dubious behavior.

Ruggie learns of this and you know he’s going to want in. Let him have a taste, won’t you? He couldn’t get breakfast because he was running all around for Leona. He’s parched! Likewise, Leona probably hears of it from Ruggie or he catches the gossip from his dorm members and now he’s demanding Ruggie to bring you to him. Leona’s much more composed about the entire thing. He’ll tease you a little with a cocky smirk, asking if you like being in the spotlight like this, if you like his hands on you, if you like being milked and treated like a commodity by some (Octavinelle). Leona actually handles you very gently when he milks you. He respects women and their bodies, so he doesn’t want to hurt you or cause you any discomfort. Sometimes he thinks you’re pregnant (which could also be another reason why he’s oddly sweet to you), but he quickly reminds himself that that wouldn’t be possible because if you were pregnant it would be with his child and his child only. If you point out his behaviors, he’ll gruffly tell you you’re delusional and that he’s not doing this for your sake. It’s just his means of having access to a little snack when Ruggie’s taking forever to bring him his lunch.

Though Malleus can’t sense life within your belly, sometimes he’ll think you really are pregnant when he sees you lactating and he thinks of how pleasing it would be to raise little ones with you. He visits every night, not only to see you and spend time with you, but to help should you be kept awake desperately trying to milk yourself empty. Malleus is also gentle when handling you, his voice so soft and fond when he speaks to you, praising you and calling you all manners of endearments to show you that you should not be self-deprecating or disgusted with yourself. He thinks you are absolutely perfect; this is nothing to be ashamed of, nor does it make you unsightly in any way. He’s probably kissed you while his hands were cupping your breasts. There’s something so intimate in kissing while he’s touching such a special, sacred place. Every day the temptation to sweep you off your feet and away to Briar Valley consumes him. He could build such a happy family with you. Lilia certainly encourages it.

#twisted chit chat #yandere twst #tw: lactation #slight n/sfw

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cuubism · 2 years

Text

actor hob, and pretentious asshole film director dream

[ this got so long and so weird and specific i'm so sorry ]

so hob is an everyman actor. a good actor, charismatic, funny, fan favorite, but not the type that gets cast in highbrow art films. mostly he does like romcoms, mid-budget action movies, feel-good family films, etc etc. and he's totally cool with that, he's good at what he does, and people enjoy those films, anyway. he might be getting a bit bored though, a bit stagnant. might be thinking it's time for some reinvention. and there might be a certain director whose ridiculous and nonsensical but dreamy films he's particularly enamored with...

dream makes REALLY pretentious art films. the types that get studied in graduate level film classes and have fifty different academic papers with fifty different theses trying to puzzle them out. dream is a master of themes and images and subtle construction. he is also a COMPLETE asshole and impossible to work with, an auteur in the most stereotypical way possible, he writes and directs, he micromanages all his projects, he asserts his vision and god help anyone who goes against it. nobody can handle him, nobody can STAND him, and the only reason he still gets funding for these projects is because they win awards, so many awards, and the studios want to ride on the coattails of those awards. but it's getting to the point where even his most ride-or-die producers are ready to give up.

right off the back of dream's most recent bafta, a rather naive Big Exec approaches him to direct the next installment of his Big Superhero Franchise. dream is immediately like fuck off with that bullshit but the exec pleads with him that the franchise is flagging and they really need something new to spice it up. plus the pay will be enough for dream to finance like 10 of his own ridiculous art films without having to rely on producers for money. and dream really is about to get cut off for being a complete insufferable asshole so he takes the gig. it kind of feels like prison though.

anyway, he gets to work trying to make this shitty boring film at least marginally less shitty and boring. he doesn't have a lot of leeway -- a lot of the story is locked in, half the cast is set from prior installments etc. dream immediately regrets taking this job, he'd rather die in actual prison than work on this mindnumbing piece of trash. it feels like it's taking an eternity and who could possibly stand an eternity of this???

well. enter hob, whose agent managed to snag him a 2nd-lead sort of role in this thing. it's not QUITE the reinvention he was going for but the pay and exposure are really good -- and even if they weren't, the moment hob saw that dream was attached he was immediately on board.

cue dream tearing his fucking hair out and basically being a complete menace and diva on set -- no that wasn't good, yes we have to do a 57th take, oh my god this dialogue is horrible give me that shitty script i'm writing my own thing, what do you mean the plot is linear???, wait there are how many cgi aliens????? i'm going to kill myself -- and Hob, pretty much Just Happy To Be There as always, takes one look at this beautiful dramatic emo asshole and is like oh. yes. i don't know what i'm saying yes to, but i'm saying yes. just immediately enamored with this bitch against all logic, he's like i've seen all your films i know how your mind works you brilliant nihilistic mess of a person. i'm on board. let's go.

first scene that hob's in dream is once again ranting about the atrocious script, which he did not write and is hardly allowed to change -- or, every change he makes is too weird and the studio keeps nixing it. everyone keeps sighing and being like oh my god can we please just shoot i wanna go home, meanwhile hob's like alright then. let's workshop it. and dream's just like. what. you aren't just gonna tell me to shut up? and hob's like no, youre right, this script is trash, but i know you're just going to write something really weird and psychedelic that they won't let you shoot. and dream's like you dare to speak to me that way??? and hob just puts his hands on his hips and is like listen, i actually know more about this sort of general audience family film thing than you do, mister arthouse, so are you going to work with me or not? and dream's just like what... is happening... because usually people who try to 'handle' him either just cave to his every demand like wimps, or just fight him on everything to 'prove' that they're in control, and hob is just kind of... not doing either of those? anyway dream doesn't know what to do with him.

so they workshop it. turns out hob actually DOES know how these sort of general audience all-follow-the-same-three-act-structure films work and how to improve things within those confines, and also he understands what like, normal people like, you know, casual feel good movies, not everything has to be a mindbender, jesus. so they bounce ideas off each other for like 3 hours until they finally get something that's okay enough that dream no longer wants to fling himself into the sun. meanwhile everyone on set is staring at them like 👀. then dream is like come back to my trailer we are rewriting the other 116 pages of this script right NOW. what else is hob supposed to do but follow.

then hob becomes the designated Dream Handler on set. dream starts using him as his barometer for what 'normal people' would like because he does not understand that at all. ("hob, will 'people' accept this?" "well considering youre spinning the camera around on a string i'm gonna go out on a limb and say no"). dream becomes kind of obsessed with him because his life is so like, normal, and he's okay with it?? he doesn't find existence to be an insufferable prison from which there is no escape?? and hob is like aw i know you're such a tortured artistic soul *pats him on the head*. plus, hob is actually a good actor, and he's able to put a lot of heart into even this mediocre big budget film, and kind of forces dream to confront the idea that there's more than one good type of story. that different stories serve different purposes and a straightforward happy story is okay, actually.

(and that the problem is the corporatization of the storytelling, not the story itself)

anyway the movie ends up being pretty good, dream still kind of hates it because he wasn't given full artistic license but he has to grudgingly admit that it has at least some merit. after the premiere hob is like (cheekily) so you gonna direct the sequel? and dream is like i did not write that to have a sequel. and hob's like it has a cliffhanger? and dream's like so???? and hob's like well theyre definitely gonna make a sequel. and dream's like i hate this planet. also no i'm not going to make the sequel. i'm going to fuck off to the woods and make a movie about teeth. do you want to star in it? and hob's like you're so fucking weird i'm obsessed with you i'm going to kiss you now.

so yeah, that.

#dreamling #the sandman #just chuckin aus into the void cuz who knows if i'll ever actually write them #sorry this au became insane XD #it got SO much longer and more meandering than i was aiming for i just wanted to write a little 2 paragraph summary LOL #then it grew several legs #long post #anyway dream doesn't have a 'full name' in this btw he just directs under Dream like he's beyonce or something 😂#you can think of dream as sort of like ingmar bergman or luis bunuel #and hob is like. mark ruffalo. so you can try to imagine that dynamic if you wish XD #sort of inspired by the way art film directors keep getting roped into directing marvel and disney films for some reason??#my writing

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pommpuriinn · 13 days

Text

(｡•̀ᴗ-)✧﹐txt﹕🎤﹒ʬʬ DEJA VU ERA HIGHLIGHTS

𐙚 synopsis 𐙚 - little Joohyung highlights that stuck with moas during the promotion period of ‘Deja Vu’ along with Joohyung’s styling during the promotions.

𐙚 author’s note 𐙚 - I plan on writing for the little fan meetings they have after music banks and fansigns/fancalls. Hope you enjoy :3

𐙚 Deja Vu 𐙚

𐙚 I’ll See You There Tomorrow 𐙚

✧ let’s start with some negative things that happened during the promotion period. The number one thing was that knetizens didn’t like how much skin Joohyung was showing with all of her stage outfits

✧ Joohyung didn’t have a safety undergarment for her chest area. Knetizens were saying how inappropriate it was and that her stylist “should’ve known better”. Joohyung shut those knetizens up by posting many photos of herself in those “revealing” outfits with the caption ‘I love being me🥰’

✧ another controversy was Joohyung’s tattoos and how their staff didn’t cover them up with tape. As everyone knows when idols have tattoos and they go on music shows they have to cover them up with body tape, but for Joohyung she didn’t want to and the staff just let it slide plus the music bank staff didn’t mind it either

✧ how many lines Joohyung got for txt’s title track ‘Deja Vu’. Even though Joohyung wrote the song and mostly produced the song she got one second lines, only ad-lids, and the only time you fully hear Joohyung’s line is towards the end of the song. This cause a division online with some moas. One side was mad at bighit for only giving their genius idol so little lines for the title track even though she created the masterpiece. The another side was fine with the little lines because Joohyung gets the dance break and the iconic kick

✧ the final thing is Joohyung got no solo variety show appearances. Throughout all of txt’s career Joohyung hasn’t gotten any solo variety shows appearances. This is also a debate if Joohyung even wants to go by herself or just rather stick with going with her members instead

✧ aside from all the negativity there was a lot of good things that happened during the promotional time. Even thought some people didn’t like the styling for dumb reasons many actually really liked all of Joohyung’s outfits. Many started recreating and posing tiktoks about getting the ‘Joohyung look’

✧ Joohyung’s stylist wasn’t the only one getting praise Joohyung’s makeup artist was getting praise for using gems and glitter as tears (ex: 1, 2, 3) since the song is a more emotional and the makeup artist want to emulate pretty tears in her art

✧ Joohyung’s stage presence and acting during every single performance shocked everyone. Joohyung expressed the sad emotions of the song beautifully that it even got the locals talking about how they never seen someone acting so well, while singing and dancing not looking tried or missing a beat. Because of all the big twitter accounts talking about Joohyung and sharing her fancams along with trending, Hybe did get some exciting emails from movie/shows production teams

✧ speaking of singing, Joohyung vocals were a big topic online. Joohyung was praised for her raw vocals even though she had little lines she made sure to sing them along with her ad-lids. Moas that went in person to the music shows said that ‘Joohyung unnie was always louder than the back track!’. During the encore stages Joohyung would give extra ad-lids and little highs notes that were considered but not made into the final production of ‘Deja Vu’

✧ another viral moment while performing their title track was towards the end of the inkigayo stage after the dance break/kick Joohyung was able to shed a tear while singing passionately. The camera man deserves a rise because he zoomed in just in time to capture the viral moment. Online many moas in ‘awe’ and rightfully so bragging about their idol, and the other moas were making jokes;

‘ why is she singing like she just got divorced and got separated from her kids😭’

‘ did members not want to cuddle backstage 💀’

‘ she just wiped her tear, smiled, and wave then just walked off stage like nothing happened she was like 😢😐🤗🚶🏻‍♀️’

✧ the two members who constantly don’t think they’re cute have been proved wrong again. Both Joohyung and Taehyun had sharp eyes during their end pose, and once the staff yelled ‘cut’ their eyes instantly went big and sparkling. Once again proving everyone right, they are the cutest

✧ Joohyung performing’ISYTT’ just causing heart attacks because of her mischievous and flirty actions towards the camera

✧ articles having the headlines saying ‘Gen Z ‘it’ siblings strike again with a new trend’ the article was talking about how Yeonjun and Joohyung kept on showing the top of underwear (ex) especially in the ‘ISYTT’ performances

✧ during this era Joohyung was more on the quiet side, but she was very unintentionally cute. There was many clips of Joohyung just being in her own world zoning out, members taking care of her, and treating her like the maknae

#div cr yu-nari #txt 6th member #txt additional member #kpop added member #kpop additional member #kpop female addition #txt female member #txt female addition #kpop female oc

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franzis-frantic-thoughts · 2 years

Text

I got a message on one of my various social media platforms, that asked for anonymity, but also said I’m free to use the information.

I dithered for a while on whether to post this or not. But this person sent me this info, because they were worried the information remaining secret would cause more hurt / disappointment. So I’ve decided to make this post after all.

I’m not posting screenshots and I’m not going to copy/paste the message verbatim. Paraphrased, these are some things I just read:

Rusty Quill has run out of money.

They overpromised and now can't keep up.

The hiatus was not to avoid crunch, but because they couldn’t pay their staff.

“A lot of” staff is currently going unpaid because of bad financial management from RQ. People’s income is actively suffering.

Shows that were on hiatus are being pulled.

TMA2 is a desperate attempt to bring in some money in order to cover debts and bail out already ongoing productions.

Anon is worried that RQ is overpromising yet again.

RQ is not being honest with “the world”, whether that means “its fans”, or also its staff, is up to you. However, saying the hiatus is for staff’s welfare is a downright lie and Anon wants this to be known, even if RQ is probably unhappy with this information being publicly known.

Anon has pointed out that they want people to be aware of the facts before throwing money at TMA2 - money that will be used to bail out bad financial decisions, rather than producing good new content for a show they love.

Anon fully acknowledges that remaining anonymous makes them less trustworthy, but they don’t want to get anyone into trouble. (Neither do I. This is my mudslinging, by the way. Treat me like a rabid fan and ignore me if you’d rather not be involved in all this drama. Which is very fair and valid of you.)

Part of my response was the following:

I wish you, Anon, all the best for your personal and professional future. Please take care of yourself first and foremost. No company - not even one founded and run by friends - is worth working yourself to the ground for.

By the way: Personally, I’m really happy to see everyone’s tags on the reblogs I’m currently getting. Some people have said really nice things about RQ shows and the respective people behind them.

But please make sure that your love and support goes to the people who need it, not to me. And make sure it goes not just to people whose voices you know, but also those working behind the scenes.

#rusty quill #tma #tma2 #tma 2 #rqg #stl #cmv #trice forgotten #C&M #THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE TAGGED C&M #NOT ANOTHER LETTER & M

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bp-zb1fics · 1 year

Note

i know a lot of people don’t ask for him but i really want to see something for hui. i know everybody says he’s “old” and stuff but he’s just soo fine. I’m requesting a long spicy and suggestive one shot of him with fem!reader. I’m fine with smut aswell. You don’t have to do it if you aren’t comfortable. thank you for your time!

Me and you under

pairing: hui x reader

pronouns: none used but reader is slightly fem-coded (calling hui oppa)

genre: heavily suggestive/smut, fluff sprinklings

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT PLEASE!!!

tw/tags: teasing, light d/s dynamics, oppa kink, kisses, making out, oral (reader receiving), fingering, non-explicit description of sex, lots of noises

wc: 1383

summary: everyone knows hoetaek is sweet on you but only you know how sweet he can be when the doors are closed.

a/n this took a little longer to write than expected because my condition hasn't been good but tysm anon for requesting! As a casual fan of pentagon, I can definitely agree that hui is a fine, fine man. Happy reading!

To most people, Hoetaek was a perfect sweetheart.

Your doting boyfriend sported pea coats that always almost ended up draped over your shoulders with coos of “Aish, my jagi needs to bring a warmer jacket next time.” (Spoiler: you never do). And his wire-rimmed glasses that would constantly slip off his nose, leaving you to fuss and push them back up for him.

He didn’t even need to be prompted to do aegyo to cheer you up or get you to smile. Seriously, this grown man. But you loved him for it. You couldn’t ask for a better boyfriend.

Because Hoetaek was the perfect sweetheart and completely soft for you but in the privacy of your bedroom, in moments when he felt a little restless, when you got a little needy, he became someone else entirely.

“Ah, ah, ah don’t be shy with me now.” He murmured.

His voice, which you absolutely adored, would drop just a little lower and take on a sing-songy quality that had you hooked on every word.

The first few buttons of his shirt have come loose, courtesy of yours truly, and you’re treated to the way the veins on his neck become prominent, how his adam’s apple bobs, his collarbones sharp and chest heaving slightly. You feel a little crazy, wanting to reach up and touch. But you can’t.

“You’ll behave for me right?” His breath ghosts against your ear, dragging his lips against these sensitive shell ever so lightly.

You inhale sharply and nod. He chuckles, keeping you pinned against the mattress. Hoetaek wasn’t particularly physically imposing but there was a certain glint in his eyes that made you feel small in all the right ways.

“Words, jagi.” You both know he isn’t asking. It’s a demand, quiet and firm and boiling hot in your stomach.

Hoetaek can play the game for hours. And it doesn’t help at all that the way he looks at you leaves you breathless, words almost like air when you manage to produce some.

“Yes,” you exhale shakily as the look in his eyes grows darker.

Then he smiles, not the cotton-candy sweet kind that you get from him on a regular day, no. It’s almost too sweet, saccharine and sharp around the edges.

He leans forward, soft and deadly like a viper about to strike and coos condescendingly.

“Let’s try that again, shall we jagi? Will. You. Behave. For. Me?”

Each word he drags out, voice hitting you like a mallet wrapped in plush cloth, tender and dull but impactful. You can’t control how your breath hitches.

“Yes, yes.” Every limb goes pliant as he looms over you.

Hoetaek firmly grasps your chin so that you’re forced to look at his face as he presses further.

“Yes, what jagi?”

He watches as you weigh it out in your mind, letting the game drag out longer and giving into him. Well, he’s feeling a little impatient today.

Without warning, he drags a knee up, stopping short between the apex of your thighs. You get a little frantic but don’t buck down to meet it. Good. He’s not really in the mood to punish you today.

Rather he continues to hold your chin, letting his thumb drag over your lips.

“Say it,” he says almost like he’s taunting you. “You’re not getting anything till you say it. Address me properly, jagi.”

You look at him through your eyelashes, eyes just a little wet as you let your lips form the words.

“Yes oppa”

Hoetaek brings his knee all the way up, relishing in the way you gasp as he grinds it in. His hand abandons your chin to bury fingers into your hair while the other grips at your side, stroking teasingly over your hip bone.

“That’s right, jagi. Very good.”

He presses his body closer and you can feel him, hot and heavy and firm against you. His lips latch onto your neck, tongue trailing heat up and down your skin. You whimper.

You feel him smile against your skin. Kisses are pressed against spots that have you shivering. Hands encircle your wrists and press them firmly to the sheets. Finally, he claims your lips, your mind going completely blank. He tastes like a sweet addiction, melting into your bones and pulling them apart.

When he pulls away, you can’t help but whine, his eyes dance playfully but the glint remains. You know what you need to do.

“Oppa please.”

He soothes your pleas with soft lips, the corners quirking upwards as he pulls his knee away and you whine again. Hands squeeze your wrists once more as if warning them to stay in place before they move downwards to spread your thighs.

Your clothes fall to the floor, leaving you bare save for one of his oversized sweaters. He presses a kiss on your hip before mouth going lower and lower until his breath is warm against the place where you want his mouth the most, quiet, needy noises escaping you.

He can’t help but run a few fingers between your thighs. You’re wet and messy and wanting for him. A few strokes has you keening, trying your best not to jerk forward. You can only watch as he pops those fingers into his mouth, staring at you hungrily as he hums around them.

You can only spread your legs further as if to entice him to take his fill. He doesn’t react, warm, wet fingers coming to tease where you’re most sensitive.

“Now tell oppa where you want him, hmm?”

He stifles a laugh when you look at him incredulously before your cheeks tint even more and you quietly say it.

“Hmmm, I didn’t quite hear that, jagi.”

You say it again, louder and just a little more frantic in your desperation.

“Want oppa’s mouth on my…”

That’ll have to do for now, Hoetaek decides, unable to summon enough patience to wait for you to ask for it exactly how he wants it. You’re too tempting, all pliant and nearly bare beneath him.

The strangled sound you make still manages to echo through the whole room as he puts his mouth on you.

His tongue is criminal, lapping over places that blur your vision and leaving you wanting more. Your hips can’t stay still anymore, twitching nearly uncontrollably in a valiant effort to not suffocate him. Sometimes he stills, just humming and sending vibrations up your spine that drive you mad. His fingers sink into you, one, two, three, your eyes wet with tears as ecstasy begins to take hold.

Before you know it, you’re hovering in a haze of pleasure, creeping your way towards sweet, sweet release. The sounds that he rips out of you grow frantic, nearly begging. He knows your body well, much to your satisfaction and despair. There are some days where Hoetaek nearly tortures you, bringing you to the tipping point and drawing you back before you can fall over.

Luckily today is not one of those days. He finishes you off and you yell, his mouth flooded by your sweetness, smearing it over his lips and chin as he works you through. Your legs are shaky with exertion but you still call out for him to take his own pleasure.

Hoetaek won’t lie and say that he didn’t tremble a little as he sinks into you, watching in awe as you throw your head back and call out for him. He’s the desperate one now, torn between dragging it out while you’re sensitive or chasing his end after having his pants grow tortuously tight while he pleasured you. The latter prevails after you look at him with wet eyes, legs wrapping around his waist and pulling him into you.

His own groans are almost musical, pitch rising as he spills himself. Hoetaek is always so gentle with you in the aftermath. Hands guiding you into the shower to rinse off, a soft towel to wipe you clean.

Moments like this are your favourite, resting your head against his chest as he hums something softly while carding fingers through your hair. Skin against skin, you’ve never felt closer. Before you know it, you’re drifting off, his voice a soft echo at the back of your mind, letting you know how much he loves you.

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ninemelodies · 5 months

Text

two worlds apart

written for doctordonna week 23 day one: fire/glow also on ao3

“Couldn’t you have picked a cooler time to visit?” Donna complains. “Even my eyelids are sweating, Doctor.”

Behind her, the Doctor scoffs. “You’re the one who asked to see fireflies!” He steps out of the TARDIS, still clothed in his suit jacket and coat. He pulls the door closed behind him and turns to face Donna. With his hands on his hips, he begins a rather impressive imitation of Donna's voice. “Doctor, that last three planets you picked have been rubbish, it’s my turn to pick! I want to go see fireflies, a lot of fireflies, like that song.” He drops the accent and gestures to the landscape around them. “So here we are, in the middle of a field in the middle of summer because fireflies are most active during the summer. Which also reminds me - you really need to stop consuming media from your future.”

“Those planets were rubbish! We nearly got arrested! Three times!” Donna defends, and then, in a flash of childish annoyance, she sticks her tongue out at him. The Doctor returns the gesture.

When she had first told the Doctor what she wanted to do, he had spent 30 minutes trying to convince Donna to go to some planet where there were literal fire flies. As in, flies that set themselves on fire when they died. Donna had found it a bit morbid and knew, with their luck, that a trip to that planet was likely to end with one or both of them missing their eyebrows. And now he wanted to try and warn her about spoilers? Traveling with him was one big spoiler!

“Like I'm going to go home and copy down the entirety of a song to claim as my own before the original artist can make it.” Donna rolls her eyes. “I can promise you I'm not that talented. And besides, it’s not like I'd be getting rid of The Beatles or anything.”

“That did happen once…” the Doctor mutters, but before Donna can ask him to explain, he’s already moving on. “Come on,” he says and begins trudging through the ankle high grass. “I know a good spot.”

“It better be worth it,” Donna threatens, but there’s no real heat behind her words. She follows behind him. Despite her complaints about the heat, the Doctor has taken her to a rather beautiful field. There are wildflowers blooming everywhere and the air is alive with the sounds of nature. Every step they take sends grasshoppers and other tiny green bugs scattering. If it wasn’t so bloody hot, Donna could imagine herself spending a lot of time here.

They haven’t traveled far before the Doctor stops. There is a clearing in the field where the grass has been mostly flattened and nothing too prickly grows. The Doctor pauses and digs around in his coat pocket for a moment before he produces a blue and white checkered picnic blanket. He lays it out on the ground and then steps back. “Ladies first,” he says as he bows low and gestures to the blanket.

“So you're finally recognizing my lady-like qualities, hm?” Donna asks. She settles cross-legged on the blanket and fans herself with her hand.

��Oh,” the Doctor says, like he’s been reminded of something. He reaches a hand in his coat pocket and then continues reaching, until his arm up to his elbow is hidden from view. He digs around for a minute before he frowns and pulls back a bit. “Hang on.” Using his other hand, he reaches over and pulls the pocket open further. He digs for just a moment longer before he pulls his hand out with a triumphant noise. In his hand is a small bottle of sunscreen and a bottle of water.

He tosses the sunscreen to Donna before settling onto the blanket. “The sun should be going down soon, but..” the Doctor trails off with a shrug that Donna takes to mean ‘better safe than sorry.’ He's not wrong, Donna burns very easily.

She catches the sunscreen and begins smearing a thin layer over all her exposed skin. When she’s done, she hands the sunscreen back to the Doctor and takes the bottle of water. It feels like ice in her hand. “How is this still cold?” Donna hasn’t seen the Doctor near any kind of fridge or cooling station in several days.

“What,” the Doctor says, “are your pockets not thermoregulated?”

“No!”

“Would you like them to be?” he asks, like it’s a casual thing to have pockets that are climate controlled. Donna gives him a look and he raises his hands in surrender. “It's just an option! I can update them on the TARDIS, if you want.”

Donna is positive she doesn’t want the Doctor doing anything to her pockets. “I think I’ll keep them as they are, spaceman.” The Doctor’s experiments tended to always have some kind of unintended effect, like boiling an egg from several paces away. Knowing him, he’d accidentally make a black hole in her trousers or something equally ridiculous.

The Doctor shrugs. “Suit yourself.” In the calm that follows, the Doctor goes digging through his pockets again and produces two sandwiches, one cucumber and cream cheese (Donna's favorite) and the other peanut butter and banana (the Doctor’s favorite), a whole banana, a variety pack of crisps, and another bottle of water. “Asked the TARDIS to make some snacks,” he explains as he arranges the food on the blanket.

She snags a packet of spicy crisps and the cucumber sandwich. The sandwich, much like the water bottle, is still at the perfect temperature despite being in the Doctor’s pockets for who knows how long. Donna decides she’s probably better off not thinking too hard about it being a pocket sandwich and takes a bite.

Across from her, the Doctor starts with the banana and quickly demolishes it before moving onto his sandwich. He's got a large mouthful of peanut butter and bread when Donna speaks.

“So where are we?”

The Doctor smacks loudly and swallows the bite of sandwich in his mouth before speaking, “We’re in Re:America, sometime around the oh…” he sticks a finger in his mouth and then pulls it out to hold up like he’s testing the wind. “23rd century? Ooooh,” he sounds excited now. “It's Independence Day! We’re in for a treat!”

Donna frowns at him. “You brought me here and you didn’t even know what day it was?”

“That's what you’re questioning?” the Doctor asks with a raised eyebrow. “You said you wanted to see fireflies, Re:America has the largest population of native fireflies in all of history,” he explains. “I set the time coordinates to bring us here in the summer, but I didn’t specify a day.” He takes another large bite of his sandwich.

In all honesty, Donna isn’t sure if the Doctor is just incredibly bad at navigating or if the TARDIS just decides to drop them off wherever she thinks they’re needed. Given the way the Doctor likes to smack the console with that rubber mallet, Donna has a feeling the TARDIS is a little more obstinate than she will ever know.

The sun is just starting to set when Donna finishes her sandwich and crisps. She puts the trash in her normal, not dimensionally altered pockets, and lays on her back on the blanket. The sky above her is painted in shades of orange and purple. They still have a few minutes before dark, so Donna asks, “Re:America?”

She hears the Doctor huff out a laugh before he shifts and lays down next to her. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees him settle with his arms crossed behind his head.

“Re:America was created in response to rising capitalistic ideas in America that were oppressing the working class,” he explains. “The common people didn’t like the way they were being treated so they carved out a section of central America, around Kansas,” he wiggles his hand in a so-so gesture, “Nebraska area and created their own government and economic system.”

“So…Re:America like re: in an email?”

The Doctor turns his head to grin at her. “Donna Noble, you are amazing. That’s exactly it. Re:America was named because it was literally a response to the increasingly harsh atmosphere in America.” He turns back to look up at the sky. “Unfortunately, Re:America will only last for another 50 years or so before it gets dissolved back into the rest of the United States. The impact is astounding, though. New laws for protection of workers, a revised economic system that lifts millions out of poverty and the nations of the world begin to come together and space travel becomes a priority. This is where the First Great and Bountiful Human Empire starts before it spreads out amongst the stars. Isn’t it brilliant?”

Donna hums in agreement, but quickly gets distracted by the first flicker of light above them. For a minute there is nothing, and then suddenly there are hundreds of fireflies all around them. They twinkle like stars and Donna can’t help but laugh. She turns to look over at the Doctor and finds him staring at her with a soft smile on his face.

“Well?” he asks. “Worth it?”

“It's beautiful,” Donna says. “I've seen them before, in the country when I was young, but it was never like this. This is amazing.”

The Doctor shifts and pulls a hand out from behind his head. He sticks it up in the air and the fireflies dance around it. A few land, blink for a moment, and then take off again. Eventually, as the fireflies scatter off to places outside of their clearing, the Doctor begins to point out constellations and stars in the sky. There are a couple stars that Donna’s never heard of, and the Doctor explains that their light only began to reach the Earth long after the 21st century.

Now that the sun has gone down, the night is beginning to cool off, and, with the soothing sound of the Doctor speaking lowly beside her, Donna begins to doze off. She’s comfortable and she’s safe and she’s almost asleep when a bright light and a loud boom shatters the night.

Beside her, the Doctor jerks and his description of the far-off Treyas Galaxy cuts off. Before Donna can truly process what happened, the Doctor is hovering over her, ready to shield her from any other explosion or debris.

Another bang sounds and the sky lights up again in a shower of blue sparks. It’s fireworks, Donna realizes. Someone is setting off fireworks, very close by, judging by how loud they are. She can hear the tell-tale whistle as another is launched.

Above her, the Doctor is wide eyed and pale in the brief flashes of light. She can’t say for sure what the explosions are reminding him of, but she can take a guess. Gramps had that same look whenever fireworks went off. It was the look of a man haunted by war.

Without hesitation, Donna rests her hands gently on the Doctor’s cheeks. She keeps her touch light, so he can pull away if he wants. “Hey,” she says, softly, in the silence between fireworks. “It's Independence Day. You said so earlier. They’re fireworks. We’re okay.”

The Doctor blinks once, twice, and Donna watches as the panic fades from his eyes. He draws in a ragged breath, and Donna suddenly realizes that in his alarm, the Doctor had stopped breathing. She shifts her fingers down, just slightly, and can feel his pulse racing under her fingertips.

“You alright?” she asks.

Instead of answering her, he rolls away and settles back into his original position, like nothing had happened. Before he can tuck his hand back under his head, Donna grabs it and shifts closer to him so their sides are pressed together. She squeezes it gently.

“Doctor?” she calls, and this time he turns to look at her. “Do you want to go back to the TARDIS?”

He shakes his head. “No, it’s alright.” He squeezes her hand in return and turns back to the sky as another firework explodes into a shower of brightly colored purple sparks above them.

She continues watching him for another few moments. With each deep breath he takes, more of the tension leaks from his shoulders and his face smoothes out. His pulse still seems high, but he’s calmer now, more aware of himself and the situation. He flinches slightly with each mortar that explodes above them. She suspects that he had known about the firework show, given his mention of a treat earlier, but had been startled when the first one lit up the sky unexpectedly.

Satisfied that the Doctor isn’t going to vibrate out of his skin with anxiety, Donna turns back to the sky. “It's okay, you know.” She's not looking at the Doctor now, but she can tell he’s listening by the way he stills in his fidgeting. “It happens to Gramps too, when the council starts up a firework show he isn’t prepared for.”

The Doctor doesn’t answer her, but he shifts impossibly closer and begins explaining the mechanics behind these fireworks and how, in the early 22nd century, scientists discovered they could engineer the gunpowder to burn in impossible colors and form extremely intricate patterns.

She listens closely, oohing and aahing like a child when a particularly complex pattern or pretty color lights up the sky. She remembers the Doctor finishing his explanation and going quiet beside her. She remembers the Doctor’s hand in hers and then, the next thing she knows, she’s being carried, gently.

Donna stirs, confused at the situation, but the Doctor shushes her. “You fell asleep,” he whispers. “We’re going back to the TARDIS now. Go back to sleep.” And his voice is so soft, Donna can’t help but do just that.

The next morning, she wakes in her bed in the TARDIS. She’s still in her clothes from the night before and she’s sticky with sunscreen and sweat. Donna showers and then finds the Doctor in the console room, fiddling with a button that has been sticking on their last couple trips and is making landings rougher than usual.

He looks up as she enters and grins at her. “So!” he says as he abandons the button to circle the console and stand in front of her. “Where to today?”

“Surprise me,” Donna says.

The Doctor laughs with glee, flips a lever and with a familiar wheezing noise, they’re off.

#doctor who #donna noble #10th doctor #my fics #doctordonna week 23

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holdmecloser-gandydancer · 6 months

Text

So uh, it's @taznovembercelebration time yet again! I wanted to at least get one out so when i pulled Celebrity AU, i had a pretty perfect opening (because the au that lives in mine and Hali's head is constantly rotating like a chicken in my mind)

---

“So that neighbor guy.” Lup states, nary a preamble in the same square mile. She’s perched on the counter, supervising while Taako scrambles a half-dozen eggs. It’s entirely too early or perhaps too late for food, guess it just depends on your perspective. But, far be it from either of them to ever ask for someone else’s perspective.

“He’s certainly a neighbor,” Taako says. He’s not willing to take whatever bait it is that Lup’s dangling. He pokes at the eggs with a spatula and sprinkles a hefty pinch of salt on top, mixing as he goes.

“He was remarkably kind, given how obnoxious the party was. And his pajamas were awfully cute.”

Taako fakes a gasp. “Lup, I thought you’re with a very dashing Apple store employee! How quickly your eyes wander.” He hasn’t thought about whatshisname (Kravitz Queen in apartment 22F) since the party he so rudely intruded on. And then fell asleep at. Right at Taako’s own kitchen table.

She groans and rolls her eyes. “Taako, you’re being purposefully obtuse.”

“I’ve been told I’m quite acutie.”

“Awful, I want a new brother.”

“Sorry, no returns,” he says gleefully. He shuts the burner off and grabs two plates from the cupboard, evenly distributing the eggs across them. “Like. I dunno, Lup, what do you want me to say? He’s cute, sure, but I thought I wasn’t supposed to be pursuing new relationships right now.” That’s what all the doctors at Hollybrook suggested, anyway. He’d rolled his eyes when he first heard that, but as the months have progressed, it’s been a nice break.

“I’m not saying you need to get married or anything, I’m just saying he’s cute and nice and a musician. Simply stating facts,” she says around a bite of scrambled eggs. “I’m supposed to be on set today, the director apparently has a bold new vision and needs some more cash to make it happen. You wanna come?”

He mulls it over for a moment. “Anyone cool? Last one you produced had that shitbag Jerre whatshisnuts and he was so smarmy at the premiere and I think if I ever saw him again I’d deck him.”

“No Mr. Whatshisnuts, scout’s honor,” Lup says, giving him a faux-serious two-fingered salute.

Taako snorts and rolls his eyes. “We were never scouts, goofus. But, nah. I’m going to sit this one out. Probably do some journaling and go to bed.”

“Okay, call me if you need me. I’ll be back this afternoon, probably. Maybe we can get dinner tonight?”

He nods. “Sounds good, be safe. Love you.”

“Love you!”

—

“—And rather than scripting this out, we feel that this sequence is going to be shown best through a kind of dream ballet scene that’ll last for about seven minutes,” The director excitedly explains to Lup. She’s trying hard to focus, she really is, but her phone seems intent on boring a hole through her leg. She sneaks a quick glance to see that she’s missed a fourth call from Lucretia. That’s never good.

“Hey, Todd, love this idea you’ve got going on. My publicist is like, blowing up my phone so let’s regroup in half an hour, okay? Okay!” She says as she extricates herself from the conversation.

“Luce, what’s up?” Lup asks, just managing to catch this fifth call.

“I thought Taako was off Twitter for now,” Lucretia says, sounding exasperated.

“Uh. Well he was while he was in Hollybrook but you said it’d be cool for him to reconnect with the fans now.”

“Remind me not to have any more stupid ideas.”

“Is it bad?” Lup hasn’t been on the damn app since the last premiere. She usually lets Lucretia handle her social media except for her Letterboxd.

“Not bad just…thirsty?”

Lup does her best not to laugh. Well. She makes some attempt to not laugh. “Thirsty?”

Lucretia sighs. “It started off fine, just him tweeting about this musician, but a few fan accounts started stirring the pot and. Well. I guess he’s ‘down horrendously for that kravitz guy’ as @taacocat69420 so eloquently put it.”

“God he’s a mess,” she says fondly. “I think it’ll be fine though. Kravitz is cool. Hope this gets him some extra streams or something.”

—

Kravitz stirs at eleven. He’s a little surprised that his alarm never went off, though a quick glance at his lockscreen lends some light to why. His notifications are atrocious. Good atrocious, it just looks like the whole internet threw up in them maybe. When he finally traces the source of why, he starts to get dressed. Best not to make another pajama clad impression.

#rip (reeses in pieces)#taz balance #taz november celebration #taz nc #taako #lup #kravitz #celebrity twins au #i just. he's a mess what can i say?#reese writes

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esther-dot · 7 months

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or that she can singlehandedly Elizabeth the first it…

Sansa could do it, if she really wanted, but the historical Elizabeth did not have an easy time with her decision. She had dozens of suitors and was even on the cusp of betrothal a couple of times. Her privy council nearly lost their minds in fear of her dying without an heir. They were so desperate that for a moment they were willing to accept Robert Dudley as a husband, which was a terrible choice for a number of reasons.

My point is, Elizabeth remains, 500 years later still the only (adult) British sovereign who never married. Her personal and historical circumstances were unique, and have never been repeated. She was an outlier, the exception, not the rule.

Sansa knows her duty is to produce an heir, and I doubt George wrote all that motherhood foreshadowing for nothing.

(about this ask)

!!! And the Starks don’t have a great record here. Think about the previous generation. Rickard and his heir die, then that happens to the canon generation with Ned and Robb, and they’ve lost the other boys too...I mean, the heir issue is just not something that can be dismissed. Especially when the North has suffered so and Winterfell has been taken...there's such recent reminders of how precarious it all is. It wouldn't be reasonable for the Northern Lords ignore the issue.

I don't know what D&D were thinking with the Elizabeth I stuff other than, they had just killed off the two other queens, one in a way that would infuriate fans, so it's possible they thought that framing Sansa that way would help counter what they had to know was coming for them? Right after the show ended some of us speculated that we got a scrambled eggs version of events and that Sansa was to be QitN much earlier.

I have a few hangups when it comes to resolving the Northern succession crisis because it isn’t clear to me which path answers all the issues.

Considering Jon's repressed desire for Winterfell, I don't think he'd ever be able to take it, not after Robb's death and while trueborn Starks lived. Some have suggested that the show's version of he's KitN and Sansa is LoW is the compromise, but if we're basing KitN on Robb's Will, I don't see how the Lords accept and push for him to be king regardless, if he's refusing to inherit? That’s what the will was for.

This is where Jonnel/Sansa comes in and I've said before, Jonsa could be the contrast where the marriage where, rather than taking from the girl, it’s actually the way to give her home back to her/rectify a wrong. And I don't want to dismiss the precariousness of the situation and that Jon (at Sansa's urging) might go along with inheriting or being KitN in order to unite the North and prepare for war, but the guilt. And also, that works in the specific scenario, what of the overall issue of girls being passed over? Is Martin merely pointing it out or will he offer a sign of progress ie the Northern Lords opting for Sansa to inherit or be queen? I mean, Jon will have lots of rumors floating around him post rez, not sure that he could be a unifying force? And the idea of a bastard rising up to lead them...idk.

That brings me to the bastard issue! How society looks at bastards is obviously horribly unfair to the kids, so is Martin gonna progress the North on this issue by them rallying behind Jon or will it be Sansa having a child who may or may not be legitimate but is her heir? As in, she’s still married to Tyrion, will the North say fuck it and have Jon and Sansa marry under their own religion or if R+L=J isn’t widely known yet or Jon is controversial in the North, they secretly marry and Sansa “legitimizes” her child later and that progresses the issue?

#dot chat #historical parallels #asoiaf speculation #jonsa #book jon

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yandere-fics · 8 months

Text

♡ NSFW Headcanons ♡

♡ The City Version ♡

(It's not my best work but it's decent, lol.)

Content Warnings: Overstimulation, afab genitals(I don't know a better way to phrase this), fingering, oral(Reader receiving and giving), scissoring, exhibitionism?(sort of, not really), two dicks(dragon dicks lol), hallucinogens?.

♡ Theanna is a pleasure dom all the way, she literally does not care about reciprocation at all. Just lay down on the couch in her office as she makes you fall apart on her fingers over and over and over again. ♡

♡ She eats you out so much that her breath probably smells like pussy, eww. That's a joke, she has breath mints and brushes her teeth, but still she does it very often. Probably has had papers and her desk ruined cause she was just so eager to get her mouth on you that she didn't care. ♡

♡ She does NOT do quickies, if she can't have you for hours then she don't want it, she'd much rather have you wait in her room for when she can have you. She says that but she'll also spend the whole day irritated because she hasn't had her fill yet. ♡

♡ She probably has sex with her clothes on like a freak lol. Sorry but being the crown princess requires lots of layers of official suits and fancy clothing which takes awhile to put on correctly(she makes her darling dress her in the morning cause if any maid tries to look at her she might flip out). Anyways the point is she can't take any more time away from work than she already does with you. ♡

♡ Elisha is from a more modern world and has lots of funds so she can probably pay people to make custom toys for her darling with her knowledge of them in her world. The darlings of the kingdoms were unable to sleep well once the inventor started mass producing them. RIP. ♡

♡ Despite the great amount of toys she has for her darling though, it's not even her favorite method. She has them in case her darling really really likes them but she never takes them out because by the time it comes for them, the foreplay was too intense and so she just wants to get down to business. ♡

♡ She's a fan of quickies, traveling means you got to go quick with these things otherwise she'd barely get to touch her darling. But she would love to settle eventually and when it happens, she'll release all that pent up energy on her poor darling who might not walk right for weeks. ♡

♡ Elisha fucking loves scissoring, it's just so intimate but it's a bit harder to do when you're traveling unless you want to lay down on the fucking pine needles. She can't handle much though but if she had the ability to handle more then she'd do it all day. ♡

♡ Abigail isn't the most dominant, but she's certainly not submissive either. You might be able to dominate her occasionally under the right circumstances. ♡

♡ She's a romantic so she wants you two to be able to bask in each other's presence in the comfort of her manor. She needs it to be in her manor, will not even touch you or think about it when you two are out and about. Not even in her office. ♡

♡ That's what makes it so fun to initiate things with her in places like her office. Just sit on her lap, suck on her neck so softly and sweetly and she'll be putty. This is the only time you're going to get to dominate her because she just feels too shy and dirty to do what she might normally do. ♡

♡ She can't deny her Sweetheart but gods, this feels so wrong. She can't handle it. Go ahead and dominate her as much as you want during this time, but be warned, a switch will be flipped once she's somewhere she's comfortable in. ♡

♡ Will invite you back to her office more, may or may not have enjoyed how wrong it was to do it in a semi public place. Be warned though, the more you do it, the more confidence she gains to touch you in public places. You might have created a huge problem. ♡

♡ Veronia is a forest dragon which means she has two dicks, certain dragons have different parts and it varies by category of dragon. ♡

♡ For someone who is so patient and mostly stays away from you unless you want to be near her, she sure has some dirty fantasies. She keeps it hidden but she sort of wants to wreck you. In the softest, nicest way possible. Not that you'll ever know though because she holds herself back so well. ♡

♡ She's a huge fan of blowjobs. You obviously can't suck both at once, she wouldn't let you even if you tried cause she doesn't want to hurt you. But if you ever got down on your knees in front of her, she would explode. It's like her deepest fantasy. ♡

♡ Be warned she has stamina so it might take awhile but rest assure, she will reciprocate. ♡

♡ The only way to make her fully go feral is to beg for both of her phalluses at once, like beg her to break you apart while wrapping your legs around her waist(or at least trying to cause she's a gargantuan woman). Still her restraint is very high so you'll going to have to coax it out of her before you finally get what you crave. ♡

♡ Bitch has magic. Like Elisha she can make toys, but hers are a little bit special. She saw Elisha's design and went like 'fucking bet' and so hers might actually make you see heaven, mostly because there's a magical compound in it that might be hallucinogenic. Sorry dear, she'll have to make a new version of the toy that doesn't do that next time. ♡

♡ She's another pleasure dom and she loves using magic on you. She can do anything you want with her magic. She would experiment on you for weeks if it was possible without breaking you. ♡

♡ Still she's always eager to figure out which spell will make you cum the hardest, which ones make you writhe and squirm, which ones make you faint because you can't go any longer. She prefers the ones that make you get really loud. ♡

♡ All you have to do is ask and she'll find a way to make your fantasy come true, why else does she have this magical knowledge if it wasn't for pleasing her soulmate in every way possible. She doesn't even need to physically touch you anymore to make you fall apart, though she still enjoys the classics. ♡

#yandere oc #yandere lesbian #yandere x reader #yandere x y/n #yandere scenarios #my oc abigail #my oc veronia #my oc theanna #my oc elisha #my oc ainsley #yandere nsft

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formulatrash · 9 months

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What's your take on the hockey booktok thing? Since you mentioned it on twt

my initial take would be that all these people scare me so much I don't want to get into it but also people keep messaging me to be like did you know people ship carlando" off the back of it and yes. I did know that.

my understanding of what's happened on booktok, which I absorb any information about only twice a year during whatever version of this is blowing up at the time, is pretty limited. partly because I'm not on tiktok and partly because I can't read. but the crux of it seems to have come down to people writing disgustingly thirsty comments on a hockey player and his wife's posts, regardless of what they were about, somehow feeling empowered to be horny not just on main but in someone's face because of booktok.

that's, clearly, not remotely acceptable. if there are communities of people out there that thirst about me I don't know about them (although the cold tendrils of horror about the Wikifeet page have just gripped me and no, oh god, that isn't the phrase I should've used at all get me out of here) but there are loads of people who fucking hate my guts. that's like, fine, it's their own business; if they keep it on discord or whatever and away from me it doesn't do me any harm. lord knows, I have committed the act of hating and indeed being horny, sometimes simultaneously, when I was at a safe enough distance for none of the subjects to ever know.

this is a thing about fandom. if you post "Max Verstappen looks breedable" on here then he's extraordinarily unlikely to ever see it or probably know what it means. if you comment that on Kelly's instagram posts, even if you don't like her and even if that's for valid reasons, that's very different.

as I gather it, the booktok thing has exploded into RPF in general. which, I gotta say, RPF and sexually harassing a dude and his family are in fact very different things. one has a rich history, both as actual ways of telling history (Anthony and Cleopatra: RPF, Chernobyl: RPF, the god damn Gran Turismo movie is RPF about an uncomfortably large number of people I know IRL and to be fair it looks like it slaps I'm gonna see it) and as a longstanding artform. RPF's history of horny is even extremely longstanding, with obscene RPF being used by both the French and Russian revolutionaries to undermine the concept of royal divinity.

RPF is political because it involves an interpretation of real events and people. and the perspective from which that's written will always be political. RPF can, certainly, be feminist; there's quite a lot of retellings of classical stories that fit this. RPF can, also, be fucking weird horny shit. or terrible man takes. or incredible, tender, queer retellings; Kaz Rowe's graphic novel about real-life surrealist Claude Cahun is an obvious example of the latter. Pride, the film about the miners' strikes and the AIDS crisis, is another.

so yeah, it is a legitimate and recognised form of literature and art and also uhhhh. well. I mean the omegaverse is definitely recognised, legally, in court because of that one case but I don't know that even its fiercest enthusiasts would really be all that keen on describing it. not as like, literature or anything just I think most people would rather literally never have an IRL conversation about that. ever.

I'm not 1000% clear on how carlando got into this but clearly that's broken containment a long time ago anyway. when you had Sky doing love heart interviews 15 races into them being teammates or whatever, there was an obvious amount of gay chicken being played by the producers that frankly, as a queer person in motorsport, I'm a lot more comfortable with the fan version of.

no, obviously, I do not think they are dating - or want to think that tbh - but frequently-queer fans projecting the wish fulfilment of seeing a kinder and more representative world for their desires, in places hidden from the subjects, is a lot less weird than leering, laughed-at dating questions and milk baths. in an ideal world it wouldn't have to be a secret, yearned-for alternative because things would be safe and open enough for there to be real queer stories everywhere but that, unfortunately, is not the one we currently live in.

wish fulfilment and telling stories are not the same things, necessarily. sometimes you tell the stories to remind yourself it's ok to have wishes or to work out what those even are. I don't think there's anything necessarily harmful about what names the characters have in those, provided the line between reality and any real people's privacy is kept.

clearly, with the booktok thing, that's where things went extremely wrong. generally tiktok as a whole seems to have a very odd perception about other people's agency, whether it's pranking videos or like the girl who filmed people peeing at Spa. if you regard everyday people as content opportunities (spoiler: the law does not think this and particularly in the EU you cannot film people without their consent) then I guess it's easy to slide over to seeing an athlete as a target for what I suspect very few of the people doing it recognised as very unpleasant and invasive harassment.

there's nothing wrong with fancying athletes. there's nothing even wrong with sexualising them, provided you respect some boundaries and provided it's not part of the conditions of their working contracts. there's a lot of difference between there being a discord where, idk, people say Mitch Evans is hot (he is, although somewhat implausibly he genuinely does not know this) and sponsors for female tennis players wanting them to wear revealing outfits and stay skinny or teenage girls being encouraged into provocative photoshoots by people who promise them roles, etc. teenage male athletes being pressured into doing things they don't want to yet or maybe at all to prove they're men, queer athletes being forced to hide who they are or repress it entirely.

would it be a little bit odd to find RPF of yourself? yes. I won't lie, I would judge the characterisation. I already do judge that on the frankly very weird things people write about me. you have never seen RPF as strange as the narratives people will make up about you in the comments of an article about hydrogen and frankly those scare me a lot more than whether someone thinks I'd be assigned beta or whatever.

stumbling across something, rather than having explicit sexual fantasies forced into your face, especially on what's your own social media pages where people you know in real life can see them, is very different though. some people who engage with RPF cross lines, whether that's weird conspiracy stuff about girlfriends being faked or stalking people's friends accounts etc.

RPF doesn't inherently cross lines, even when it's public; there's a very interesting interview here with Jann Mardenborough and the guy who plays him in the Gran Turismo movie about, among other things, portraying a fatal crash he was involved in. clearly, Jann is not only aware of but is the executive producer of what's ultimately fiction about himself and there's an ownership there, of course. but some parts of the movie are made up, for sure.

obviously I'm like, the not-very-secret infiltrator here because clearly I am On Tumblr and know what AO3 is. I follow a bunch of people who write fanfic because they also make nice gifs of my favourite blorbos and I like to think we can all make peace with our own boundaries about that kinda thing. also I read every single Shane/Ryan fic in like 5 weeks and honestly, not going to apologise except to myself for persisting with a few that didn't pay off.

but like: you do not have to make RPF or any fandom activity unethical. the way you conduct yourself does that and some people step way out of line.

#misc asks

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