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apparitionism · 1 year

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Confection

For the holiday this year I offer you a culinary AU I’ve been thinking about for basically forever but only now started to write down. It’ll be in parts, as I chip away in the spare minutes, with littler bits of story at a time, as when I first ventured contributions to this surpassingly wonderful fandom, years ago. I miss those long-gone Bering-and-Wells days: the speed, the inventiveness that so many brought to bear... anyway, however many parts this ends up being, it’s all just for fun. (And maybe a little ontological inquiry. Also just for fun.)

In any case, on this random Sunday, I wish everyone their preferred form(s) of activity and/or rest, as appropriate. Good feelings. Whatever it is we’re here for.

Confection

“Cutthroat.”

So says the talking head on screen in response to the offscreen question, “Describe your style in the kitchen in one word, Chef Helena Wells.”

****

“Chef Myka Bering, describe your style in the kitchen in one word.”

“One word? That’s a challenge. Diligent? I’m really diligent. Or, no: focused. I definitely think ‘focused’ is more descriptive.”

Senior Producer Claudia Donovan, upon viewing this footage, had said to the editor sitting next to her, “Can you cut that to ‘focused’ and make it sound decisive?” But then she let herself have a second thought. “You know what? Leave it all in. Compare and contrast.”

Cutthroat Wells first, indecisively diligent and/or focused Bering second... the third competitor’s response had been, in retrospect, hilarious. Claudia did appreciate how radically his pronouncement had failed to match his performance: “Awesome,” Walter Sykes had described himself, with no sense of irony whatsoever. He’d been cast as a sacrificial lamb in the first place, but Claudia still snorted at the completely useless dudebro swagger.

The fourth chef, Artie Nielsen, had been brusque rather than bro, but with no less swagger. “Classic,” he’d said, like the idea of anybody even asking the question was a “don’t you know who I am” insult. The editor angled a glance at Claudia and said, “You were real with him about what show he was on, right?”

“The old-school thing sets up the B plot,” Claudia told her. “He’s known all three judges for decades.”

“Don’t you think the A’s a lot more fun?” the editor said. She clicked quick on the Wells “cutthroat” clip—and Claudia had never in her life heard such an all-facts no-swagger saying of a word—followed by a bit of the Bering: “I definitely think,” Chef Myka said, as if in answer to the editor’s question.

“I definitely think,” Claudia echoed decisively.

****

“The name of our show,” Steve Jinks explains, as he does every week at the start of the program proper, after the contestants have described their styles, “is ‘This Without That.’ What this means, contestants, is that in each of three rounds, you will be asked to prepare a classic dish... but without its defining ingredient.”

****

“You gotta do it,” Pete Lattimer had said. “Because it’d be so cool. Gottagottagotta.”

Myka was leaning against the at-last-closed-for-the-night door of the restaurant where they both worked—Myka as sous chef, Pete grilling and frying—and she wanted to ignore him, for her fatigue weighted her such that she could barely convince her spine to support her head. Forcing that head to lift, accompanied by actually working her jaw, felt well beyond possible.

And she would have ignored him, but she was the idiot who’d made the mistake of telling him about “it”: a producer from “This Without That,” the wildly popular cooking competition show, had called to express interest in having her compete next month (next month being August) for their Christmas championship, to air in December.

Having been that idiot, she couldn’t ignore him, but she was regretting the telling, so now she said, “No I don’t. I don’t ‘gotta’ do anything.”

“But you wanna.”

“I don’t ‘wanna’ do anything either. And as for this, I don’t want to do it.”

First, television. Second, a competition. Third, a Christmas competition. In August. She didn’t want to. In fact she’d rather have gnawed off her knife hand than do it. But then Pete moved from “gotta” and “wanna” (Myka hated those pseudo-word elisions) to “hafta,” adding “for the restaurant”—the one they planned to partner to open someday, when they had saved enough money and/or could talk investors into believing in them—and Myka gave in. “I’ll try,” she told him, and she meant she’d try not to tank her upcoming interview with the producer, Claudia Donovan. She told him that too... but for integrity’s sake, she added, “I hate the whole idea of that show. ‘This Without That.’ It seems so dumb.”

He waved a hand at her, but slowly, showing that he was tired too. “Little piece of non-tanking advice: don’t say that to this producer. Besides, a hugeity-huge-huge audience loves it, which means it’s smart. Say that instead.”

That, she did ignore. “Smart? It’s insipid.” Mimicking Steve Jinks, the show’s host, she quoted his dismissal of each round’s losing contestant: “Unfortunately, this competition will continue without you.”

“I knew you watched it,” Pete crowed.

Ugh. “Once.” She didn’t tell him why. “But it bothered me.”

“Bothered you because you knew you could do better at making a thing without its major thing, right? Say that’s why.” He added, “And by the way, I know you could too. So you should say it twice.”

His faith was sweet, but she told him the truth: “No. It bothered me ontologically.” She didn’t expect him to understand, but she tried to explain anyway. “Beef Wellington without the beef, for example, like they did in the one I saw. That’s just... Something Else Wellington. And then at the end, the judges pick whose Something Else Wellington they like best. The beef part—the constitutive element!—falls by the wayside. The thing itself doesn’t even matter anymore.”

Pete shook his head. “It’s like you don’t understand games. Something Else Wellington is the whole idea. If it isn’t Something Else Wellington, then it isn’t Beef Wellington without the beef. You’re just ticked that the judges don’t spend all their tasting time splitting ontological hairs about how close to beef that Something Else really is. Or isn’t. Whichever way makes you happier, but it doesn’t matter, because that isn’t what they’re there to do.”

Myka hadn’t known he would—could—come up with “splitting ontological hairs.” That was another point in favor of her trying not to tank.

Also (and she’d been thinking about this since the call from Claudia Donovan): her parents. They were reasons that were maybe (okay, probably) on par with “for the restaurant,” because if she could she impress them by being on television... she really did hate the clichéd nature both of their objections to her career—their dismay that she wasn’t “using that brain”—and of her response, a heels-dug-in “I’ll show you.” These several years on, they hadn’t yet acknowledged being shown. Maybe television would be the charm. Maybe if they could switch a channel and discover Myka there, doing what she did... maybe that would finally do that work of showing.

Pete said, “They judge based on creativity, too—how out-there a Something Else idea you come up with. Imagination what? Plus you gotta do it fast. Thinking on your feet, right? Don’t you love all that?”

As adept as Pete could be at saying the wrong thing, he was also, sometimes, exceptional at saying the right thing. “Using my brain?” she queried, just to make sure.

He nodded, and Myka was pretty sure it was because he knew the history: the family, the pain points. She’d inflicted versions of it on him so many times. “Think it’s a smart idea now?” he asked, at his most canny.

Show them not only by being on television, doing what she did, but also by “using that brain” on television. To do what she did. To do it better than other people. To at last, in the end, show them. “Maybe,” she hedged, but her overriding thought was Yes, yes, at long last yes.

Not for one instant did it occur to her that she might not win.

****

Claudia had started on TWT in the casting department, over two years ago. Even though evaluating potential talent wasn’t technically her job anymore, she did like to tinker. Particularly if she sensed a good story brewing.

When Myka Bering walked in—no, she loped in, her legs looking about as long as Claudia was tall—Claudia really hoped the good-story pings she’d been sensing were real radar.

There was truly no time like the right-now to see what was what, so Claudia said, first thing after introductions: “Just FYI, Helena Wells is already locked as a cheftestant on this one. I hear you know each other.”

Myka, who’d been settling into the chair across from Claudia’s desk, froze.

So far so good, Claudia thought. But then she thought again, as she observed Myka’s dart of eyes, followed by a small-but-visible twist of neck, both signaling obvious discomfort: No... so far so spectacular.

TBC

#bering and wells #Warehouse 13 #fanfic #Confection #AU week #holiday (but not yet Gift Exchange)#I find it unbelievable that 2022 is coming to a close #also unbelievable is how long so many people have maintained themselves on high alert #I among them #so maybe a silly AU #featuring some silly people #will help close this year and begin the next one #in a relaxing and/or mind-numbing way #also I've been writing Christmas stories for this fandom since 2014 #and I see no point in stopping now #regardless of who cares at this point #FYI this will bonk around among the cooking show as it unfolds on TV #and what happened before filming #and what happened during #and then after #so I hope they can make those jumps and distinctions make sense #anyway it's all about the reveals #which in this case probably won't be overly revelatory #PS you get a point if you know how H's opening line is related to Goncharov

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bluewinnerangel · 2 years

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Some of Harry's quotes about work vs private life in British GQ (2013) and Rolling Stone (2022)

2013: Are you getting more used to being this famous? "I don't think you can ever get used to being this famous. I've learnt how to keep things separate or at a distance. I've nothing to hide. But seeing this as work, like a job, means I can take a step back. It's me right now in front of you and in the papers but it's not all of me. If you give yourself entirely to the business, you'd end up going mad. And I'm not mad. Not yet."

2022: "When I’m working, I work really hard, and I think I’m really professional. Then when I’m not, I’m not. I’d like to think I’m open, and probably quite stubborn, too, and willing to be vulnerable. I can be selfish sometimes, but I’d like to think that I’m a caring person. I’ve never talked about my life away from work publicly and found that it’s benefited me positively. There’s always going to be a version of a narrative, and I think I just decided I wasn’t going to spend the time trying to correct it or redirect it in some way. Sometimes people say, ‘You’ve only publicly been with women,’ and I don’t think I’ve publicly been with anyone. If someone takes a picture of you with someone, it doesn’t mean you’re choosing to have a public relationship or something."

2013: So you're not bisexual? "Bisexual? Me? I don't think so. I'm pretty sure I'm not."

2022: "I think everyone, including myself, has your own journey with figuring out sexuality and getting more comfortable with it."

2013: Do these rumours feel at all intrusive? "Some of them are funny. Some of them are ridiculous. Some of them are annoying. I don't want to be one of those people that complains about the rumours. I never like it when a celebrity goes on Twitter and says, "This isn't true!" It is what it is, I tend not to do that."

2022: Styles is not the most online person — he uses Instagram to look at plants and architecture posts, has never had the TikTok app, and calls Twitter "a shitstorm of people trying to be awful to people".

2013: "The only time it gets really annoying is that if you get into a relationship and you get into a place where you really like someone and then things are being written in the papers that affect them and how they see you. Then it can get annoying."

2022: "[about toxic corners of the internet and their treatment of people closest to him] That obviously doesn’t make me feel good. Other people blur the lines for you. Can you imagine going on a second date with someone and being like, ‘OK, there’s this corner of the thing, and they’re going to say this, and it’s going to be really crazy, and they’re going to be really mean, and it’s not real…. But anyway, what do you want to eat? It’s obviously a difficult feeling to feel like being close to me means you’re at the ransom of a corner of Twitter or something. I just wanted to sing. I didn’t want to get into it if I was going to hurt people like that."

#because theyre both the same and a grown version of it but also jsut very much the same.#saddened things havent changed (or arguable for the worst)#but also perhaps highlight how these 2022 quotes are placed in an holivia context while sons been feeling this way for over a decade and #has less to do with the examples given in the text and more with the long history of both him and his partner having to see this stuff #from both angles. and even tho they might be used to it by now as theyre in the same boat (hue) of course this is still a lingering thought #and i mean there are still a lot of corners right now that have the Anyone But Louis mentality. and the other way around as well.#like i dont necessarily need to think its about that to make it make sense. i just felt like. in this context of seeing his 2013 thoughts #these words are coming from somewhere and yes it could be hes genuinely feeling this way about other people in his life and yes that might #include being bothered by people being extremely toxic towards olivia sure why not but fact is hes lived through this since early 1d days #(seriously tho does anyone think hes talking about o here like)#i dont think the 2013 was shitting on larries [it was actually in the context of him dating grimshaw what was the ship name there again]#i dont think it is now.

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pepsitwist · 1 year

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i’ve got another 20 mins left in 2022 so i’ll get sappy rq. i’ve really, truly, genuinely enjoyed being on here w y’all this year. i joined wrestling tumblr near the end of 2021, so i’ve had this blog a little over a year now, and i’m really grateful i made it and joined you guys on here. thank you for looking at my silly little posts, thank you for thirsting abt wrestlers w me, thank you for sticking around and being generally welcoming to a new face around here. it’s been a really fun year enjoying wrestling with you guys, and i’m excited to do it more in 2023 💕💕

#as much as i enjoy talking abt wrestling w my family. it’s very different on here with you guys #i feel a lot safer to enjoy it how i WANT to enjoy it on here #i don’t have to make myself quiet on here. i don’t have to make myself smaller or downplay anything about how i feel #and i know i joke around a lot. i poke fun and i complain and i say hater stuff but genuinely #i have a lot of fun on here. i love coming on here and seeing what y’all have to say. i love spilling the most ridiculous posts on here #i love going from in depth analysis of storytelling and character motivations to incoherent abhorrent thirsting with u guys #so. yeah! i’m having a lot of fun. and you guys are all pretty damn cool #i don’t really talk with many people on here. i think i dm with like. two people.#but that doesn’t mean i don’t really like you guys and enjoy your posts and think you’re super cool #i’m not good with conversations or holding friendships like that one on one but im happy to be here #if you ever want to dm me they’re always open tho!! don’t take that as me saying i don’t wanna talk akskdnfn i just. don’t usually text 1st #okay. i’ll stop now but!! real sappy abt y’all. thanks for making 2022 fun

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solarisgod · 4 months

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i'm curious to know how long do you guys have your original series? i love the passion and dedication you all put into this story. can't wait for more of it!

Hiya, Anonstar, thank ya so much for your compliment! Means a whole world to us!!! Ahhh, so we have Antineon Hieraeon since January 22, 2022! Although we didn't really have a strong clear idea of where we wanted the series and universe to be like until October 20, we revamped the series and created the first four characters of Antineon Hieraeon: Micah Xenowake, Adoniram Bloodburn, Sweetsilence, and Steelstorm. Warlock Moonglade, Bluebreak, Angelparadox, and Devileye a week later. Antigods and the Metaeide and Saints were the first three lore pieces we thought of.

I think about this text, like, a lot. I can't believe it's been almost a year now since we wrote this and soon, we'll be reaching to the second anniversary of this series. We did try to bring our series ( the " beta version " as we were still fixing and finalizing our lores and characters ) with the Starwake System in late October to early November before we went on hiatus and returned to the rpc in early April 2023 with a more fleshed out storyline and universe. It's been an amazing journey and we're most grateful for those who're still here with us and the Starwake System and ANHA. ♡

#ANONYMOUS #///#//#/#𓁹 ༑ ࿐ྂ ⩇⩇ : ⩇⩇ ⚠︎ [ 𝙴𝚇𝙸(𝚂)𝚃 : 𝙶𝙾𝙳 ] * ‹ SAVED . ›#𓁹 ༑ ࿐ྂ ⩇⩇ : ⩇⩇ ⚠︎ [ 𝙴𝚇𝙸(𝚂)𝚃 : 𝙶𝙾𝙳 ] * ‹ ANSWERS . ›#𓁹 ༑ ࿐ྂ ⩇⩇ : ⩇⩇ ⚠︎ [ 𝙴𝚇𝙸(𝚂)𝚃 : 𝙶𝙾𝙳 ] * ‹ OOC . ›#[ maaannnnnnn this is legit insane reflecting on this ]#[ like this year we have definitely done A LOT with this series and universe of course ]#[ this is our third experience of attempting to create a whole original universe and project ]#[ the first being in summer 2019 based on astronomy and astrology and just the whole outer space itself called Our Today Tomorrow Forever ]#[ then the second in around winter 2021 called Let There Be Darkness ]#[ about this pair of PI Angel and Demon investigating the missing sun and they had seven days ]#[ to figure out who / what took the sun before Earth dies and each day humanity gets worst ]#[ to be honest ANHA's very first version was in July 2021 but the premise and setting were limiting ]#[ in terms of plot and storytelling potentials so it really took a lot of time until January 22 2022 it changed so much yet ]#[ still hold similar themes and tropes but ' the 2021 version ' doesn't count ]#[ anyways we're just extremely beyond happy and proud with how far we've come with ANHA ]#[ and we're just as much excited to do more with it over the time! it's gonna be so much more amazing!!! ]#[ thank you so so so much for being here still and enjoying it so much!!! <3 <3 <3 ]

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nighthawkes · 2 years

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I thought there was something to idea of the TMZ reporter being a cyclops who calls himself Nobody and gets killed in an act of hubris, but actually him getting told by Em Haywood, “Your loss, nobody.” and the fact that he’s an heir to the Muybridge name whose personhood is reduced to the status of a camera is way more narratively powerful

#in the vein of the cyclops thing i had a note about him being #someone who lives on the razor's edge of what is and isn't witnessed leaving you storyless #re: the other cyclops not understanding Polyphemus or addressing his injuries/coming to his call #nope 2022 #i am grasping at straws here #but in the theater without knowing his name this was all i could think about #obviously the most important thing here is that he's an heir to the muybridge name #and i'm obsessed with that commentary on heritage and spectacle and the cheapening/exploitivity of what it means to be a filmmaker (kind of)#it was fun playing around with the idea of him being a combo of Polyphemus and Odysseus though

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lunar-lair · 1 year

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so i have two (2) submas poems for you on this fine day. they are both in the exact same vein but the first works with the interpretation that ingo is truth and emmet is ideals and the other is vice versa. enjoy :)

---

They are black.

And white.

And yin, and yang, and fire, and electricity.

Alone they are all color,

Or the lack of it.

Together, they are all and none,

Everything and nothing.

Grey, mixed together by the gods.

Mixed together by the legends.

Mixed together by the princes.

Mixed together by the boys themselves.

Grey, mixed.

They should have never been black and white again.

They never thought they could be.

They thought the gods the legends the princes their very own small learning fire-red and electric-yellow hands would hold it, hold it firm and steady and tight til the day their bones rotted in the earth.

They are black.

And white.

And god,

They are not grey.

The god,

What have you done?

What has your kin wrought?

Wrought law breaking undefinable, a curse neverending.

They are black.

And white.

And yin and yang and one and the other and they are alone.

There should have been no such thing as alone for the two of them.

One without the other is a terror they never thought they would face.

A dancer without their feet.

One without the other is a singer without their voice.

A piano without its bench.

A musician with no instrument.

A conductor with no train.

A trainer, with no Pokemon to care for.

Things that are easy to lose, things they never thought could compare to them, and yet and yet and yet.

Worthless, useless, missing missing missing.

The singer is without their voice.

The dancer is without their feet.

The bird is without its nest.

The musician is without their instrument.

The fire is without its electricity, staticky and bright. The electricity is without its fire, solid and warm. The grey has been impossibly, irrevocably, intrinsically torn, torn at the seams by a vengeful god, a vengeful world, one that wishes to defy all law. They are without their voice and their feet and their piano and their bench and their backyard tree and their lantern and bird and they are torn terrified

Frozen.

They are frozen.

Rotting slowly in the frigid cold of their separation, frostbitten and decomposing, burning and broken and alive.

Tears fall and turn to ice.

One dragon.

Two, and a hollow shell.

Grey, and the wretched mechanisms used to cleave it apart again.

Grey, and the horrible day it faded away.

Grey, and the horrible day one became everything. Everything they'd known, everything they'd remembered, every ideal they'd held.

Grey, and the horrible day one became nothing. Nothing of what he'd ever known, remembering nothing, knowing only the truth of this empty world around him.

The hollow third rests in the air. In their minds, on heavy shoulders, in ice grey eyes.

It is rotting them from the inside out.

Ice. Ice fire cannot melt, ice electricity cannot break.

The ice that rests betwixt their ribs. The ice that burns behind their eyes.

Omnipresent. Ever reminding of the other of themselves of the other. Ever wailing of the grey and its horrid misplacement, in the crevice of time, in the crevice of space, and truth and ideals and the chaos god, the Almighty himself.

The Almighty himself, who made them grey. The Almighty himself, who made them everything and nothing yet again. The Almighty himself, the bastard, the betrayer, the summoner of ice, forever and always and now and then.

Almighty Sinnoh, what have you done?

Arceus, what have you wrought?

Grey, never again.

They are black.

And white.

That is forever their binding fate.

---

the god has torn them apart.

the god,

and his devil,

and his right hand men.

grey, wrenched impossibly into two.