He’s a Friend™️

Gonna post something cringe 👍 I was thinking about all day yesterday and I posted it in the group chat but bwaah I'll put it here too

so here's how I think the Ishimondos would interact with the Welcome Home cast

Firstly, Mondo would fucking love Barnaby so much. He is not immune to big fluffy doggi. And I think he'd jive with his chill, friendly attitude. Taka meanwhile would definitely get caught on the other end of Barnaby's punchlines and he would not appreciate it. He's a very easy target.

Mondo would also like Wally but in more of an "holy shit a little guy, must protect" sorta way. He asks Wally how he does his hair and Wally says it's always like that.

Taka and Frank are autism-to-autism communication. Could listen to each other infodump about politics and bugs respectively for hours. Also, both of them relate to the need for things to be "just so" and trying to maintain that order among the colorful personalities around them. They're so similar that Mondo finds it kinda off-putting.

Poppy and Taka get along great. I think he would help her a lot with cooking while maintaining such proper safety procedures that she's downright impressed and her anxiety is kept to a minimum, which is pretty rare. Does that thing with making star-shaped riceballs but with fuckin. bird seed. he would definitely still eat it too.

Neither of them would like Sally Starlet, I'm afraid. she's way too self-important for both of them to handle. She would definitely call Mondo "biker" as a sign of disrespect like how she calls Eddie "mailman." She actually is interested in Kiyotaka because he's clearly a very skilled orator, so she sees potential in him as a thespian.

Julie would steal Mondo's bike and ride it around the neighborhood for one of her games, giving just about everyone else a heart attack but ESPECIALLY Mondo. Her antics are the only ones that get him yelling like he usually does.

I feel like they'd both get along well with Eddie, Eddie's just a very easy guy to get along with. Kiyotaka would respect his work ethic and be very "Thank you for your service! 🫡" about it, and Eddie finds it a bit odd if endearing. Eddie would almost get hit by the above-mentioned bike tho.

If they went to Howdy's Place you'd bet your ass they wouldn't be able to buy shit. When they find out that the currency is jokes Kiyotaka tries to tell one and he gets fucking. banned for life. this is the "it'd be hard to sleep with a corpse in your bathroom" guy after all. he'd probably say the darkest shit ever that would make his jaded cop dad chuckle but would send this caterpillar puppet into an emotional crisis.

Finally, last but not least is Home himself. Kiyotaka would find a sentient house incredibly fascinating, I think. He'd probably ask Wally a lot of questions about it that Wally doesn't really know how to answer (or he keeps getting cut off by everyone else's antics before he can say it). Mondo meanwhile would find it creepy as fuck.

howdy there! if you'd like to pop off about any of the latin american counties' (especially república dominicana) dance styles that sure would be nifty! also, im curious, what type of dance do you do?

hell yeah!! omg i fuckin love this bc i feel so much of lh are dancers in some aspect... also I’m a social ballroom dancer (so I do pretty much all of the “ballroom dances” from waltz to salsa) although I dabbled in contemporary and know way way way too many kpop dance routines. Anyways. have this big rant, let’s get into it!!

firstly I regret to say that I don’t know much about rd I just haven’t seen much content of him >:( I do know he is an absolute rascal tho and I fuckin love that. I feel he really loves getting Hyped as fuck and he can throw down when it comes to dancing... the merengue originated in the rd and it’s such a spunky, lively dance that has a kind of marching feel? so I just know he’s sassy as fuck busting it out on the dance floor. the other famous partner dance originating there is the bachata which is SUPER sexy and romantic... I think he’s WAY too good at it and nobody expects it from him lmao. he seems like more of a guy who dances around the kitchen to the radio while his food is cooking than A Ballroom Dancer, but in those rare moments when he does dance with a partner IT SMACKS!!

a character I have VERY strong ballroom feelings about is cuba. he’s such a sweetheart oml and I get kinda gentle giant vibes from him? like I bet he’s the most expressive, fluid dancer and you kinda swoon watching him. so so so many partner dances originated in cuba (cuban bolero, rhumba, mambo, cha cha, and influencing salsa, to name a few. also we actually call hip rotation aka ass movement “cuban motion” in ballroom.) anyways, I think he has a kind of smoothness you wouldn’t expect at first, and he loves a good slow rhumba. king of partner dances, he probably coaches a salsa group too. super patient and friendly, he will often partner with dance noobs and make sure they are having fun, and so he’s a really good lead. conclusion I Love Him :’)

let’s talk about argentina and the tango. please. he is SO CONFIDENT POSSIBLY THE SEXIEST LEAD EVER. argentine tango is super free-flowing, sexy, dynamic, just... a wonderful dance. he’s super proud of it and also kind of a wild lead. like such a showoff, he’s doing all those crazy spins and maneuvers and dips and it’s all very bold lol. he also probably only has one or two people he’ll dance with; for him it’s alllll about the connection and the passion. swoon!

BRAZIL ok brazil is another dancing-around-the-kitchen type of dude to me... idk I think he just gets a lot of joy from music and moving to it and singing and dancing and all that. not usually a partner dance kinda guy, he’s just doing his own thing. samba music/dance ofc is super important to him and he loves to just Vibe to it. not even doing “steps” or “moves” or anything, just dancing to the music, having his moment ya know? idk I would die for him

anyways i could go on these are just the ppl who immediately came to mind... if yall have any other specific characters to request let me know I love this shit

Plant of the week: English Ivy

This weeks plant of the week is a bit different from the previous ones since it is not edible. However, it is still rather useful. This weeks plant is english ivy. English ivy was initial brought over from Europe as an ornamental plant, providing ground cover for gardens. It also tends to climb up houses and fences giving homes that “cottagecore” look. However, English ivy spreads very rampantly and so it has become naturalized in most of the United states. English ivy produces purple blacks to orange colored berries in the winter, providing impromptu food for birds. Flowers bloom from late summer to late autumn. Although ivy doesn’t seem to bother larger trees, it will choke out younger and smaller trees. Unlike poison ivy, English ivy dose not irritate the skin. So, other than making your home look like an abandoned cottage and occasionally becoming an annoyance for home owners who like boring homes (gottem), what is English ivy good for? Well I’ll tell you. English ivy can be turned into liquid soap. Yes that’s right, by boiling some English ivy leaves you can makes liquid soap that you can use for your dishes and clothes. And environmentally friendly alternative to your standard store bought chemicals. This is because English ivy contains 5% to 8% of saponin which is a natural cleaning agent, great at removing grease and grime. Especially from clothing. All you need to make is English ivy leaves and water. Just boil you leaves and strain the liquid into a bottle (maybe you can reuse some of you old detergent bottles or a mason jar). Now, English ivy dose look a bit like poison ivy so be careful when picking it. Id say a good indicator would be the leaves. English ivy leaves look like there separate leaves, however it is only one leaf. It also has white streaks on its leaves. They are also darker than poison ivy leaves. As always, remember to extensively research the plants you plan to forage, don’t over exhaust a patch, and most importantly to have fun and stay safe. Please do not climb a tree to get these leaves, the grow just as abundantly on the ground.

After notes: howdy, sorry if todays post reads a bit clunky my mind was feeling a bit foggy. Thinking about a lot of stuff. The rest of my seeds came this weekend so I’ll be sure to talk about those soon. Also y’all really like that tosd, huh? Well im happy you did, i was pretty excited myself when i found him (probably a her tho).

( robert sheehan, cis man ) hey ! have you seen “IVAN” ANDERSON around ? HE works as a SNOWBOARD INSTRUCTOR ( KIDS ) at big bear resort, but they must be off their shift by now. well, if you do see them can you let me know ? they’re 27 years old & they’ve been working here for THREE YEARS. they tend to be +GREGARIOUS & +CREATIVE, but can also be -IRRESPONSIBLE & -CAPRICIOUS. the other employees have labeled them THE ICARIAN. thanks a lot ! ( an air of dream continuing to cling to this place, meteor showers and falling stars, the duality of being human ) 

me ? being pretentious and playing with production notes from death of a salesman in ivan’s aesthetics ? just as likely as you think ! howdy howdy howdy ! i’m jude ( 20, est, she/her ) and i ! am really pumped to be here it looks so warm ! anyway !

TRIGGERS: mental illness (schizophrenia, mention of depression), suicide, drugs

so ivan is kind of a spin-off of a muse i’ve tried to play a few times before ( every time i’ve tried,,,, the rp has died i think the longest i played him was for ~2 weeks which tbh is decent in our current rp climate ) and, personality wise, he is always:

aquarius sun, leo moon, gemini rising

esfp

4w3

has a tattoo of catherine zeta-jones on his calf after meeting her and deciding she’s the greatest human to ever exist.

(tabbed bullet) over here tho?? he also has a portrait tattoo of jamie lee curtis on his bicep bc he loves her more than anyone ever

seems friendly, but you don’t want to actually go up and shake his hand because you think he’d somehow like...... put a tadpole in yours.

(tabbed bullet) has no history of putting tadpoles in people’s hands, but could.

a failed musician because he’s dumb and doesn’t realize that glam rock, especially when done solo, isn’t really a thing anymore. 

backstory wise:

actually named william shaffer.

born to a single mother. said mother was afflicted with schizophrenia. of course, that doesn’t mean she had any less love to offer him and his older brother ! however, as she got older, it did begin sending her to mental hospitals more and more often, leaving ivan’s older brother to be his primary caretaker.

but schizophrenia has a genetic potential. while not large when it comes to parents -> children, ivan’s brother was in the very lucky population and inherited his mother’s disorder ! we love inheritance !

now both ivan and his brother were terrified. ivan’s brother ? clear reason ! ivan ? having looked up the statistics, because we do love the internet, he found that, while still considered unlikely, siblings had a higher chance of inheriting it because ! very similar genetic makeup !

so when he was 19, he decided to informally change his name and change his entire being before any disposition had the chance to. he basically forced himself to become more outgoing, express more of his eccentricities –– basically he created an alter ego and pulled a “fake-it-til-you-make-it”

it was during this time that he began attempting a music career. he took inspiration from david bowie’s ideas of forming different personas for each album and attempted to write songs tailored to different personalities... 

he had a very brief taste of success after the informal, ( self ) release ( because what label... ) of his first album. however, soon after, his brother, still frightened of wasting away, fatally shot himself.

that quickly changed ivan’s career trajectory. thrown into a deep depression and also coming to the realization that he would now be the sole provider for his mother’s care, he gave up on his music. the dream had been just in reach, alas...

having a criminal background, it wasn’t the easiest to find work... even though the crimes mainly consisted of doing things such as stealing chickens. while crimes such as those could easily be overlooked, the few they had on record of drug possession hurt his potential.

so off season, he works a couple of jobs with terrible pay. he bags groceries during the day and pulls a larry daley at night ( see: is the night guard of a local museum )

that being said, he thanks GOD when winter comes around. he gets to do something fun and interact with people who actually think his eccentricity is fun ( see: children ). having been born in colorado, he was already adept at snowboarding and skiing, so naturally...

tl;dr: sad dumb boi who is a grocer by day and larry daley by night.

i’m not super good at wanted connections, but a few i can come up with (italicized = ‘pls’):

childhood/high school friends – he’s lived in colorado his entire life, so !

people he met in new york – he took a brief venture to the concrete jungle where dreams are made of when he was trying to get his career up and running

fan(s?) – i mean... he was very briefly famous. probably not radio-play famous, but at least spotify recommendation famous for sure! tried to pull off glam rock if ur muse is into that.

good influence – someone’s gotta do it!

bad influence – he’s a bad influence on your muse / he and your muse egg each other on –– not necessarily at capacity, but....... i have so many of these y’all

confidant – not super open, but there is SOMETHING ABOUT THIS  MUSE. can be mutual. –– roman

fwb – why not!

exes – on good terms or bad terms. again, lived in colorado his entire life with a brief new york foray. can be any gender (but age should be looked at when deciding when they dated since a lot of the muses here are a good many years younger than ivan)

they matched on tinder and texted a lot but never met up and now they accidentally have and “this is awkward i started to think you were a catfish i was about to email nev and max” –– aylie

roommates who wreak havoc

probably!! others!! i j got real general!! but i’m totally open to just brainstorming too or j going with the flow!!

This is the last one I promise, but while I’m on this Steven universe the movie kick I’m just really blown away at the level of detail and influence Rebecca sugar puts in everything she makes. This is a person who has grown up loving animation from day one and boy howdy does it show!!!

The movie opens with that very obvious nod to classic Disney. The overture, the credits, and then the perfectly placed storybook on a bed of satin that comes straight out of Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. Rebecca herself has said that Steven’s story is heavily inspired by the story of briar rose and the three fairies, and rebecca continues to set up all the tell tale signs of a Disney movie as the movie progresses. We have talks of this being everyone’s happily ever after, just like how any good Disney movie ends. We start in a fairytale disguised as sci fi world (there’s royalty and magic powers and knights, in the same vein as how Star Wars is a fantasy story where the sword is simply replaced with a light saber. This entire post is inspired by garnet’s line in “happily ever after” where she sings — “you’re just in time for my favorite part of the story/once upon a time a sapphire came to earth with her ruby soldier” because the movie is fully aware of its place as a fairytale!!). Sugar is very intentionally setting up a Disney movie — one she is entirely prepared to turn on its head come the first call to action in the form of Spinel.

I, like every other su fan, love “other friends,” for a LOT of reasons. One being that spinel, again, like a lot of people have pointed out, jumps onto the screen as this demented hyperactive steamboat willie. It’s the Mickey mouse we would get if, say, he had been tossed aside and forgotten for some 6,000 years only to return hell bent on revenge. She sways like she’s a looney tune, talks like she’s Betty boop, and, especially when she gets rebooted, looks painfully like Mickey mouse, down to the bun placement, shoes, and gloves.

In steven’s new world, one where modern animation, ideas, and stories take center stage, there is no room for spinel anymore. Every part of her animation clues in the audience to the fact that she’s an absolute relic, and she knows it. “Other friends” not only perfectly addresses this idea, but does so while, intentionally or not, taking ques directly from “friend like me” from another classic (tho admittedly more recent), Disney film, Aladdin. I can’t say I know that much about music, so I can’t pinpoint exactly the similarities, but I couldn’t get the idea out of my head, as spinel and genie are both characters that enter the story to turn the plot on its head, introducing themselves through a mirage of fast-paced action, pop culture references, and jazzy showtune numbers about friendship. Again, sugar is twisting Disney’s storybook narrative, as the genie here (spinel) is plucked from her “10,000” years of solitude with less of a friendly demeanor and a crick in the neck, and more of an unmitigated desire for murder. (Rebecca has said that spinel’s appearance has to do with that anime trope of a new character entering a show and automatically becoming the most important character, but is that not what genie does also?)

As the movie progresses of course spinel changes. Now she looks more like the animation we’re used to on the show, more pearl-like with sharp corners and a long slim torso. (I’ve seen people make references to her looking like Jenny from My Life as a Teenage Robot and listen. Rebecca’s 90s/early 2000s animation references are also heavily influential in her work. And My Life as a Teenage Robot is a show that is essentially a love letter to classic b movie sci fi right down to the 50’s inspired Jetson’s aesthetic. Steven universe is completely about these references and this aesthetic, especially when it comes to the look and feel of homeworld, but that’s a different post for a different time!). The point is, she’s becoming someone now inspired by more modern animation, and through this she’s allowed to finally, at the very end, grow and change.

“There’s no such thing as happily ever after,” Steven says at the end. Rebecca sugar is inspired by Disney, she sets out to make a movie with all the elements of a classic Disney fairytale, but in the end she’s actively twisting the story. But that’s not a bad thing. Unlike every other “dark” Disney/fairytale parody, this is actually an optimistic ending. In animation, in storytelling, and in the show, we’ve grown out of the past. Animation isn’t what it was when steamboat Willie was around anymore, but we don’t have to leave what we love in the past, either. It can grow and change, and will continue to grow and change, to survive. Art can only move forward if it wants to change. A story never really ends. Etc and so on.