Nonsense on Stilts

dear yulegoat 2023

2023-10-21T05:51:36Z

Hallo hallo, my dear Yuletide writer!

Thank you for writing for me! I am all sorts of excited to see what you come out with, and am sure it will be excellent and fabulous. Here are ways, however, to make it even more awesome.

Things Wot Delight Me and Make Me Roll Around: Unique or unexpected use of language, seductions, fiddly details, black humour, unconventional relationships, strong narrative voices, semi-colons, well-rounded depictions of queer characters, awkwardness, idiosyncratic dialogue with faithful character voices, UST, literary and historical references, worldbuilding, sneaky nods to canon, endings which are also beginnings, banter, ridiculous and genuinely joyful humour, happy endings that are worked for, sex being ridiculous and funny

Things Wot Harsh My Squee: Non-con/rape, poor spelling and grammar, characters behaving OOC-ly, or being dumb for purposes of the plot, generic modern AU’s (high school, coffee shop, etc)

For all of these, I'm fine with any rating, so go as gen or as filthy as pleases you!

( Read more... )

All of that said, if you already have a storm of ideas roiling around in your brain that have nothing to do with any of my rambling prompts, let them loose! There is nothing quite so lovely as getting a fic for Yuletide that is something you never knew you wanted, but once written, is Everything You Ever Needed in a Fic.

If you have any further inquiries, I should direct you over to peacockbluey, as we cohabitate in each other’s brains.

Thank you so much! I hope you have a marvellous time writing!

~Cully

comments

dear yulegoat 2022

2022-10-22T20:40:03Z

dear yulegoat

2021-10-23T02:56:44Z

Hallo hallo, my dear Yuletide writer!

Thank you for writing for me! I am all sorts of excited to see what you come out with, and am sure it will be excellent and fabulous. Here are ways, however, to make it even more awesome.

Things Wot Delight Me and Make Me Roll Around: Unique use of language, historical accuracy, seductions, fiddly details, black humour, endings which are also beginnings, unconventional relationships, strong narrative voices, semi-colons, well-rounded depictions of queer characters, awkwardness, idiosyncratic dialogue with faithful character voices, UST, literary and historical references, worldbuilding, sneaky nods to canon, endings which are also beginnings, banter, ridiculous and genuinely joyful humour, happy endings that are worked for, sex being ridiculous and funny

Things Wot Harsh My Squee: Non-con/rape, poor spelling and grammar, characters behaving OOC-ly, or being dumb for purposes of the plot, generic modern AU’s (high school, coffee shop, etc)

For all of these, I'm fine with any rating, so go as gen or as filthy as pleases you!

And now onto the prompts! I simply could not make the cut work without completely borking the formatting for the post, so, uh, not under the cut, here we go.

1. Dimension 20: Escape from the Bloodkeep

Galfast Hamhead is just a gardener; she didn't *mean* to become a personal thorn in the side of half the dark powers in Elna, but now that she has... she finds she rather enjoys it. (For someone used to thinking of herself as steady and simple and reliable, she's realised that she's got a chaotic side as well)

The ongoing adventures of Galfast post-canon, as she farcically and improbably ruins the plans of the PCs over and over again. That's the only rule: Galfast wins every time. You can bring in any number of the rest of the cast-- how does she end up in Markus's kingdom? No clue, but she managed it, and maybe she also manages to topple his entirely military operation over the course of a week.

If that isn't speaking to you, I'd also be totally into a look at-- what are the ongoing plans of the Forces of Evil? They've got a new Dark Lord, even if he is an infant; what does daily life for the six PCs look like now? They have a new philosophy of evil now! A new Boatman in Efink! I imagine there's probably a lot of initial enthusiasm for what Evil is going to look like post-Zaul'nazh that... is probably difficult to keep up.

I know most of the cast wasn't nominated, but my other faves are Lilith and Leiland, so I would love to see them pop up in particular. I am totally here for Markus/Leiland and Efink/Lilith, and my personal weird pairing, Galfast/Leiland as a humiliating hate!ship.

Notes: The first thing you have to know about me and Bloodkeep is that I am a massive Lord of the Rings fan. It was my first ever fandom, I'm a huge Tolkien nerd. And one of the reasons I love Bloodkeep so much is that it also SO CLEARLY comes from a place of huge Lord of the Rings nerdery; the specificity and nicheness of the references delights me every time. The names! The fact that a character exists who's an expy of Celebrimbor but also Gollum. I just. Amazing. Parodies that love what they're parodying are my favourite kind. All of which is to say, if you were able to bring some of that specificity of reference and affection for LotR into your fic, I would love that.

Galfast as the memetically improbable hero is a source of endless delight to me. The Forces of Evil as a mostly ineffectual workplace comedy also a source of endless delight to me. If you do decide to bring in other members of the cast, I would love it. (Specifically, I admit, if you wanted to write porn about Leiland and Markus or about Galfast stepping on Leiland's face and humiliating him, which he loves because he's a big old sub who just wants someone to tell him what to do but also hates because it's THAT WRETCHED HALFLING HE'S GOING TO MURDER HER, I would love it. But I know Leiland wasn't nommed, and he isn't the focus of this prompt, so this is just a little parenthetical aside).

All in all, if you can do me some ridiculous shenanigans (with perhaps just a touch of sincerity-- very much in the mode of the campaign itself) with solid character voices, I will be happy.

2. Peter Darling

What I would like to see here is a little bit of a fix-it fic. I recently read this book, and I loved it up until, like, the final fifth of the book after Hook remembers who he really is, etc, and it ends with them going home and waking up and being more or less wholly different characters and determining that yes, they can make a life in England even if it isn't perfect. Which is fine, and a certain kind of trans narrative, but the excitement in that relationship, for me, was the history and clash *as Hook and Pan*. The book spent all this time letting their relationship evolve into something really interesting, and then suddenly Hook is just a sad sensitive Englishman and, like... I don't have any reason to care about that man.

I would love to see what a version of the story looks like that privileges their chosen and lived identities as Hook and Pan and the relationship as we see it developed in the book, with that tense and fraught dynamic. Where yes, there are elements from their past lives that sneak in as part of the confused attraction, but only as part. I don't need it to be healthy or sweet; there are a lot of confused and conflicting elements there and I'd love to see how that plays out if they stay in Neverland. Am I a sucker for an oscillatingly-functional best enemies type relationships? One hundred percent I am. I'd love to see something that explores the joy they feel in clashing with each other, the sweet discomfort of the softer moments, how that is able to crystallise into something like a sustainable ongoing relationship.

I'm interested in the kind of trans narrative that spits in the face of accepting an imperfect reality and goes, no, I will make this for myself, even if that's a little fucked up. Hook and Pan as Established Figures in Neverland, the subversive pleasure of making yourself something bigger and grander than human, of refusing to be merely that.

Notes: I wanna stress here first of all that my experience of this book is very much a personal one that's tied up with my relationship to queerness, transness, and Peter Pan as an existing text about which I have a lot of feels. So if you loved everything about the book and how it ended, I'm glad! And I don't want you to feel like I'm trashing on it. It just wasn't what I personally wanted out of that narrative. On a similar note, I am almost wholly uninterested in Peter's Tragic Trans Backstory and the Darlings being awful, etc. It's a part of the character, but I'd rather you didn't dwell on it.

In addition to what I talked about in the prompt, I'm very here for Neverland itself as a character. I loved the fairy queen in the book, and I love the weird interplay of Neverland with the desires and expectations of the characters-- the times when it responds to their emotions or expectations... and the times when it fails to do that. The tension of it being a dream place and a real place at the same time, and the instances where it has its own desires and agency. I would love to potentially see more real people finding their way to Neverland so it isn't just Peter and Hook amid a cast of mostly fictional characters, and see how that changes things as well.

3. Nimona

There's not much Nimona fic out there, but a lot of what is there is focussed on Ballister and Goldenloin's relationship; I am more interested in Nimona herself. I want to know about Nimona's adventures after she leaves Ballister-- or before she finds him. Basically just... Nimona. Who else has she been, what other relationships is she able to forge, where has she been, where does she go? Does she come back to the Kingdom post-canon and reunite with Ballister? If so, what does that look like? How does she reconcile what she knows of herself with how Ballister sees her, and his refusal to think of her as a monster, even when she does monstrous things. CAN NIMONA BE THERAPISED. (Mostly I'm joking when I say that, but maybe not entirely???) Can be serious or cracky, or anywhere in between.

Notes: Honestly, I just love Nimona (the character) a lot. I have a lot of feelings about her. Gender and monstrousness and shapeshifting and adjslflsdjsh. She's one of those characters who's designed seemingly to hit all my favourite character buttons.

If you are not here for serious character exploration stuff, that is also totally cool. The comic is full of joy and silliness and absurdity and softness as much as it is the more serious stuff, and I love that too! If you want to write a story about Ballister scrambling after Nimona trying to prevent her from blowing stuff up, or the two of them otherwise having shenanigans together, that would also fill me with joy

4. Dimension 20: Mice & Murder

It occurred to me the first time Sylvester and Buckster were having their little thieves' cant tête-à-tête at the bar, but man, I would love some Sylvester/Buckster action. Sylvester's a slut, and Buckster's a born opportunist, and there's a level on which these two characters can connect which they can't with any of the other PCs. I love the dynamic they have of 'I respect your intelligence but hold almost everything else about you in contempt.' There's a magnetism there which I can imagine them both being thoroughly annoyed by, even as they're kind of into it. They're not exactly enemies or rivals, but everything is very bickery and bantery.

Could be during the events of the campaign or could be after; could be a one-off or a weird ongoing thing where they kind of dance around the chemistry that's apparently there??? Could be them ending up in the middle of another mystery, or could be a situation where Sylvester gets in the way of some of Buckster's less-than-legitimate business dealings and makes a smug annoyance of himself. Whatever the circumstance, I'd just love to see this weird ship get some love.

Notes: Insert Marge Simpson gif here: I just think they're neat! I don't have much to say here that I didn't say in the prompt. I just find their dynamic very interesting. Buckster the crass, undisguised capitalist with his affected down-home charm, and Sylvester who's genteel and cultured and sees himself as functioning apart from the system, even though he's just as much a part of it as Buckster. Both of them sly and intelligent, but Buckster who'd rather underplay his own smarts to use that against people, whereas Sylvester can't resist boasting and putting on a show with his. Buckster who's a blustering coward and Sylvester who has startling moments of bravery. And of course, the complexity of both of their individual relationships with Daisy. Yeah, just throw the two of them in a blender together and see what happens!

~~~~~~~~~

All of that said, if you already have a storm of ideas roiling around in your brain that have nothing to do with any of my rambling prompts, let them loose! There is nothing quite so lovely as getting a fic for Yuletide that is something you never knew you wanted, but once written, is Everything You Ever Needed in a Fic.

If you have any further inquiries, I should direct you over to peacockbluey, as we cohabitate in each other’s brains.

Thank you so much! I hope you have a marvellous time writing!

~Cully

comments

dear yulegoat!

2020-10-22T22:57:16Z

Hello, dearest darlingest Yuletide writer of fabulosity!

Are you excited for Yuletide? You should be. I am excited for Yuletide. A pre-emptive thanks for putting yourself out there to write me something, as is tradition. I am all sorts of excited to see what you come out with, and am sure it will be excellent and fabulous. Here are ways, however, to make it even more awesome.

Things Wot Delight Me and Make Me Roll Around: Unique use of language and obscure/archaic words, historical accuracy, seductions, fiddly details, black humour, endings which are also beginnings, unconventional relationships, strong narrative voices, semi-colons, realistic and well-rounded depictions of queer characters, awkwardness, realistic and idiosyncratic dialogue, UST, literary and historical references, worldbuilding, sneaky nods to canon, endings which are also beginnings, snark, banter, ridiculous and genuinely joyful humour, happy endings that are worked for, sex being ridiculous and funny

Things Wot Harsh My Squee: Non-con/rape, poor spelling and grammar, characters behaving OOC-ly, or being dumb for purposes of the plot, generic modern AU’s (high school, coffee shop, etc)

( Read more... )

comments

culumacilinte @ 2018-07-02T18:50:00

2018-12-18T00:48:13Z

And the other answers for @agarlandoffreshlycuttears!

O: How do you begin a story–with the plot, or the characters?

Characters, almost always, or setting– and in setting, the way that influences characters (a la AUs like Wild Above Rule or Art). Plot is something I struggle with and generally have to put in a fair amount of effort to figure out… how that works. If it works. What is plot. Bluey and I are currently working on a novel and OH BOY did that whole concept start with characters, and now we’re mostly at the point of going, oh shit, we know the character arcs, but what are they actually doing? We know they’re in France, okay, why are they actually in France that isn’t just ~political handwaving~.

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)

Primarily a gardener; the only fic I’ve ever actually outlined is Pea. Which I think is certainly not unrelated to the answer to the above question, in that plot is not something that comes easily to me. That being said, I often don’t write in order? I’ll skip around in scenes, writing bits here and there, the last scene, one in the middle, etc etc. So it’s not like it’s unfolding… as a road I’m following as I go, it’s more like I’m hopping around going, okay, there’s some bare dirt here, I think we need some plants here, let’s see what fits.

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culumacilinte @ 2018-11-09T18:47:00

2018-12-18T00:45:26Z

Anonymous:

Hello! I adore your writing and have an idea for you: in the GBBO time call bits, the werewolf(?) that chased Noel and the monkey he was playing badminton with was (Re-Wired) Julian.

agarlandoffreshlycuttears:

Firstly, thank you so much! I’m really pleased that you do (still amazed that anyone reads my fic let alone cares enough to tell me). But, you know, I have been thinking the same thing. The guy in the suit did seem tall? I am all over the idea of Julian sneakily appearing in things with Noel. Like, the desire to work together overcoming the fear – especially because it’s so low stakes.

In my mind, it’s because he can’t stop teasing him that his skits with Sandi aren’t up to scratch so Noel huffs at him to come up with his own then. Julian does and then they start spitballing ideas of how Julian can appear to play all these characters they come up with. Also, it’s a nice role reversal of Julian being the ‘baddie’ for once.

The other reason is that it would give me such joy to think about Julian interacting with the others. Julian and Paul would delight me. But then Ash mentioned how amazing Prue would be with him and I just… GIVE IT TO ME.

Thanks for stopping by!

Iiiiiiiiiii love everything about this. It did definitely occur to me that those little sketches, so *clearly* a contribution from Noel, are really just a continuation of the yeti love story from Arctic Boosh. Noel playing with (in whatever sense :P) big furry monsters, because they just get on! Or being chased by big furry monsters– just look at Pelt the Rabbit for that one. And playing badminton with a monkey is not so different from playing table tennis with a gorilla. It is a *continuing* theme, one that he visited so much in the Boosh that it really tickled me to see it pop up in Bake Off.

And considering all that, in the Re-Wired ‘verse, of *course* he’d ask Julian to fill that role. ‘It wouldn’t be *right* for it to be anyone else, c’mon, Ju! And no-one’ll know it’s you, you’ll be ~safe.’ With a fond and piss-taking poke at Julian’s ribs. I *adore* the idea of the two of them spitballing ideas together, and you can just imagine Sandi’s wry, twinkly look when Noel comes back with some of these ideas for bits, all fond and amused.

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culumacilinte @ 2018-06-07T18:41:00

2018-12-18T00:39:58Z

agarlandoffreshlycuttears:

Okay then. I wish you would write a fic where various Noelian characters have to meet and interact. Any reason.

Ahhhhhhhh I DO LOVE conceits like this, I really do. It’s a thing I’ve noticed that it tends to be more popular to take Vince and have him meet other iterations of them? Obviously there’s your fantastic fic, there’s Connie’s Falling and In Love, there’s all those various Vince/Dan Ashcroft or Vince/Richmond fics out there– but we don’t get a whole lot of Howard meeting other versions of them– either of himself or other Noel characters.

So how much fun would it be to have a fic that focusses more on that, on Howard’s interactions with all these not!Vinces– and indeed, not!Howards, and how much that would blow his mind. Also, because it is me, I would figure out some way to justify porn with Howard and other Julians. Because goddamnit the world deserves Julian/Julian porn, even if Julians are always more self-loathing than Noel characters and perforce slightly more difficult to manage that with.

But oh my god, pls to be imagining Howard/Julie B with Howard somehow ending up off his tits at a rave, and how much he absolutely would buy the kind of pretentious new age nonsense Julie B spouts. Because Howard always buys it until he realises that the person in question is a dick, or is getting in the way of something he wants (see radio!Howard’s disdain for Rudi), at which point he suddenly wises up to the fact that it’s a load of rubbish. But Julie B is neither of those things, he’s just a weird (confusingly handsome???) doppelganger who right now is speaking the truths of the universe and Howard absolutely wants to get in on that and be closer to him.

Also, naturally, there would have to be Howard/Jones at some point, because I genuinely think they would be great friends and could bond over their weird music, and that Jones would be good for Howard in quite a few respects. Like, Howard/Julie B is cracky, but Howard/Jones I actually ship, in a pre-Howince kind of way.

ALSO ALSO oh my god, imagine Howard meeting Maurice, imagine how sad that would be. Soooooooo much awkward discomfort between the two of them, all twitchy and seeing too much of their own faults in the other one and just wanting to look away. But if Howard gets the chance to leaf through one of the Grubbs books, just stroking his fingertips over the gloss of one of the illustrated pages and murmuring that ‘Vince would like these.’ Because he would; all fantastical but dark, too, in a way that Vince doesn’t like to talk about, but it’s there in his stories too, or it used to be. And, ‘Would you– d’you have any others of these just like, lying around? I can pay you, I’d just– like to show my friend.’

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culumacilinte @ 2018-07-12T18:40:00

2018-12-18T00:38:24Z

(on a photoset of Julian as Maurice in S1 of Flowers)

piddleswicke:

poursomesugarzombie:
Maurice | Flowers | s1e1
For some reason, this particular set made me desperately keen to find some older!Boosh. Middle-aged but still spangly Vince home from the shops and climbing into Howard’s lap like a cat would (this is my spot, deal with it) and pressning his face into Howard’s neck.

#OH DEAR YOU#omg#this is all i want in my life#PLEASE????#i can’t cope#vince breathing him in#loving the way he smells#and howard all relaxed into himself at last#in his chunky knit#and long wild hair#that vince keeps threatening to cut but never does#because he kind of loves it#loves running his fingers through it#and IMAGINE him kicking howard’s glasses because you know he’s never going to admit he needs some of his own#and them snuggled up by the fire#howard reading to vince#has he finally relaxed enough to write?#is vince illustrating them?#I MUST KNOW#god i love this (via @agarlandoffreshlycuttears)

CAN I JUST SCREAM FOR A BIT ABOUT HOW MIDDLE-AGED HOWINCE IS MY EVERYTHING. And yesssss, YES, how, for all Vince is the one we think of as being obsessed with his Look (and fair enough, he is), Howard also absolutely projects *everything* about his insecurities through his clothes and appearance.

There’s Julian’s ruminations on why he shaves to play Howard, of course; that the moustache is symbolic of that kind of self-conscious, insecure pomposity, that Howard cares *way too much* to just let his beard grow—but also the shift in his fashion from S2 to S3, where he suddenly acquires this sort of uniform for himself because he’s so miserable and insecure, he can’t even let himself be weird with fashion the way he was in S2. He probably even knows that he doesn’t look good in most of it, but it’s better to intentionally not look good in a way that’s supposed to have Class and Character and Isn’t About Looking Good, Vince, than to accidentally not look good when he was actually trying to. His hair, too, suddenly all horribly parted and slicked down, all of it just screaming of overcompensating and trying for personal control.

ALL OF WHICH IS TO SAY, when middle-aged Howard hits that point of learning to relax and give many fewer fucks and be actually confident in himself? When he starts letting his curls go wild and his whiskers grow out and starts pairing truly weird clothes together, horrible clashing patterns that he’s perfectly content in. Actually wearing jeans again because he’s not desperate to prove how Classy he is by constantly being in corduroys and nice trousers. Starts not trying to hide how big he is, wearing big chunky cardigans and jumpers that Vince *adores* cuddling into (and also goes crosseyed at how big and broad they make Howard look). And the way that now he actually looks like he belongs in his tweedy jackets and elbow patches, just wearing them instead of desperately broadcasting to everyone that LOOK AT HIS TWEED AND ELBOW PATCHES HE IS SO SOPHISTICATED.

And Howard gets there before Vince does, of course; Vince manages to put off his mid-life crisis far longer than Howard does, and that’s a whole other deal.

But GOD, yes, Vince nicking Howard’s reading glasses, the two of them writing and illustrating books together. I always imagine that finally they’d have a little bit of musical success once they’re both finally, like, in their fifties, once they’re—you know what. I WROTE ABOUT THIS IN A HEADCANON ONCE.

Aha! There we go– Howince ageing headcanons. Check ‘em!

Wrote it three years ago, but I stand by it all! No sense in my just repeating myself. But YES MIDDLE-AGED HOWINCE.

comments

old gregg as vince's dark shadow

2018-12-18T00:36:52Z

clamshellbra:

agarlandoffreshlycuttears:
culumacilinte:
culumacilinte:
So I was watching The Legend of Old Gregg with @peacockbluey the other night, and we got to talking about how Old Gregg SO CLEARLY, in addition to being, you know, a clear example of Noel’s repeating anxieties and fascinations with his own identity re. gender and not feeling entirely human, functions as this dark shadow of Vince. We never see Vince and Gregg in the same scene, unlike Noel’s other villain characters.
And I started thinking how much I would love to see a fic that explores that more literally? Takes the magical realism of the Boosh and dials it right up. That thing of how everything seems to go right for Vince, that he has this near-magical influence on the world around him, the ability to unconsciously make the world adjust itself for him. And Gregg… just manifesting as part of that, the world adjusting itself around all these desires and the wildness that Vince suppresses. They need to take a form, and that form is Old Gregg.
And it’s not something he’s aware of, that ability, other than that he’s good at charming people, but I looooooooove the idea of exploring that more literally and explicitly, that the world *does* bend itself around Vince to a certain extent. Usually in smaller ways, not things that are noticeably supernatural, charming fish out of the water aside, but Vince’s crush on Howard is SO MASSIVE, he’s so possessive of him, and he does repress all those darker emotions. And if we’re taking the jungle childhood as literal (which you all know I like to do), by S2 he’s started repressing that as well, forgetting that feral, wild side of himself. And it’s all just so much, all of that, that the world has to respond to it somehow… and it does so with Old Gregg.
Old Gregg who not only is a physical manifestation of Vince’s confusing gender and his intense desire for Howard, but also those aspects of himself that Vince tries to ignore and pretend aren’t there. His avoidance of negative, unpleasant emotions and vulnerability. Because Gregg is just all of that *so* loudly. Both dangerous– violent and possessive– and intensely vulnerable, and he doesn’t see any reason to hide any of that.
And then I was thinking about, oh my god, in that context, what would a meeting between Vince and Gregg even look like??? Like. WOULD VINCE KNOW that’s what Gregg was? Would Gregg have some kind of sense that Vince is familiar? Would Vince figure it out? What would he *do* with that knowledge?? I do not know, but I do know that I am SUPER INTO this concept. It also is pinging my weird thing for Vince/Gregg, in a fascinatingly weird metaphysical magical realist pseudo-selfcesty way, and I am super into that too.
Rebagelling for the next day crowd, because pls somebody yell about Old Gregg with me
CULLLLLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. I have so many thoughts and feeling and thoughts and feeling and thoughts that I don’t know what to do with them all.
My whole brain has lit up like a light bulb at this. It’s FASCINATING. I think, having had a whole day of thinking about it, that perhaps Vince wouldn’t know, but Gregg would. I think he might sense it; he seems closer to that pure magical realm. So, while he might not know what it means he knows that somehow Vince is him. He’s also Old Gregg, but he also appears to have stolen Old Gregg’s life, not just his man. That’s going to be interesting to see.
For one thing, does he shift gears from trying to get Howard to trying to get rid of Vince? Like, Single White Female him so he can finally have all the things that have been denied to him?
As for a meeting, I suspect that given what’s gone down with Howard (and I always take the deleted scene of Pencil case Girl being Gregg as canon because it’s delicious) that Vince is going to instantly hate him anyway. But, that coupled with Gregg potentially knowing? It’s going to be vicious. I was also thinking about that gif set @peacockbluey reblogged with Vince and Kodiak. We don’t see Vince enact all that much violence, but it’s certainly clear that he doesn’t need all that much provocation to go there. That’d be a hell of a showdown however it plays out because those boys fight nasty and even if it was just for Howard it would be bad, but if it was for essentially Vince’s soul? (It could of course be made into a wider plot point about the dark realm being pulled into this one and Gregg is a vanguard of it and they need to shut it off and send them back)
Naboo is going to have be the one to explain what’s happening - or maybe they need Kirk involved because this seems like the sort of shit he’d know a lot about. That’s going to hit him like a tonne of bricks.
It’s the aftermath that I’m super interested in. Do we see Old Gregg redeemed? Is that even possible at this point? How is Vince going to work on his impulse to just repress everything? What’s Howard going to make all of this (you know he’s been caught up in this like a damsel in distress … again.)
I’m going on too long here. I shall shut up, but let me tell you, this is just the TIP of the iceberg of my current thoughts. MY GOD, you’re a genius.
This is great. I love the idea of having to consult Kirk, since he’s set up as such a connoisseur of that which make normal minds go absolutely mad. Like, has he seen this happen before, and would he know what one is supposed to do upon being confronted by a Personification?
I know I like the idea of Howard having to confront that maybe he’s been ignoring signs from Vince, signs than go deeper than discovering a new aspect of your sexuality from a life-saving rooftop kiss. Ignoring signals for that long while maintaining a relationship equals ignoring things about *yourself* and Howard’s not great at admitting that, either.
I really like how deep this whole affair can cut, I like the idea that Gregg *can’t* be re-integrated, that Vince *is* if not incomplete, Different. He was one being S1 through S2 and then at some point in there he shifts because his longing reached event horizon. And then, you know, how complete is Old Gregg? And just what is happening to Vince’s feelings for Howard now? Does he notice the shift, is something missing?

Cully: Bless you Lola for reblogging this, because I have had MORE THOUGHTS since I initially posted this, because of course I have, so now I am going to yell about those!

I also love the idea of bringing Kirk into it, like, yes, A+, utelise those under-utelised shamans. (And also imagine how much Vince would *die* at anyone on the Board of Shaman getting a look at those deep psychological issues of his that even *he* doesn’t like to look at, NO-ONE SHOULD BE ABLE TO SEE THOSE)

And the question of how that confrontation is going to go! I absolutely agree that in the context of Howard, there is no way that isn’t going to end in a catfight. And even Howard aside, if Gregg is in part a manifestation of those darker, more violent urges in Vince, I can see him bringing that out in Vince as well. But I also loooooooove them finding those weird unexpected similarities, which is probably where this idea came from in the first place.

But also just, THE WEIRD METAPHYSICAL SHIT, I die over that. I’ve got this image of them meeting, and Vince doesn’t know it, doesn’t know what Gregg is, and nor does Old Gregg, really, but he can *sense* it, that there’s something there. And Gregg getting all up in his space, that unnervingly blank intense stare and the way he moves, all still and then bouncy, jerky. Eyes narrowing and nearly *scenting* Vince, leaning in, ‘You’re Old Gregg, but you ain’t Old Gregg, who are you?’

The amazing weird tension of that moment, balancing the *draw* they’d both feel, even while Vince is also kind of horrified and repulsed and Gregg is violently jealous. But SO FASCINATED

And then, of course, the question of how does that all get resolved? Because as @peacockbluey pointed out, the whole point of a Shadow story is that ultimately the Shadow has to be integrated somehow, so, right, how does that work out? Is a redemption for Gregg possible in this kind of scenario?

What I imagine is that yes, there would be no re-integration at the end, if for no other reason than that as I see it, it’s not as if Old Gregg is literally some errant part of Vince that’s split off and made his own way out into the world, that Vince is now lacking something because Old Gregg has taken those qualities into himself. Rather, I see Gregg as like… the negative space to Vince’s positive space. The nature of Vince’s magic is such that all these powerful emotions and the wild, dark aspects of himself which he represses leave an *imprint* on the universe, a hole that the universe has to contort itself around and give a shell of flesh until suddenly there’s a whole 'nother person there, and that person is Old Gregg.

So the ultimate result is that… Old Gregg already *is* his own person now, however he started out, and what then is required is just… recognition, an acceptance of that, the catharsis he needs to be able to live separately. And more, you know, healthily. Whatever that involves.

Me being me, I just want to make it a sex thing, because I’m a perv, but it is SO GOOD and weird and tense and amazing in my head. Like, imagine it as kind of… almost like the weird, trippy, ritual sex scenes I vaguely remember from Mists of Avalon. Where the edge of danger is there and it’s *wild*, atavistic, but not animal and violent the way I would normally imagine any kind of Vince/Gregg encounter to go (Lola, you know my thoughts in that regard). Where it’s like… this is them both accepting the weird metaphysical nature of what’s going on here, and Vince… almost apologising? Weirdly? Because… it’s kind of his fault Old Gregg is as fucked up as he is. Almost gentle. And *fascinated*, that fascination given reign now outside of the revulsion and animosity of before. That this is the moment of Vince accepting that he can’t just repress and ignore all this shit… by giving that to Gregg. Even if he doesn’t quite realise that’s what he’s doing in so many words

BUT THEN, after all of that… we’re left with Howard and Vince having to confront everything that’s been dragged out into the light. Which, yes, YES, means self-examination not only for Vince, but for Howard as well, because as you say, having been ignoring those signs from Vince for so long means that he’s missed a lot about himself too. And also having to deal with the fact that the fish monster who kidnapped him (twice now!!) and threatened him with marriage and all sorts of other less savoury things… is an aspect of Vince?? And Vince has *magic powers*?? What does that even mean for what Vince wants?? And Vince just feeling like he’s had all his entrails torn out and exposed to the air, terrified, probably, that Howard will think he’s a monster now too, and how is he supposed to deal with working on not repressing all this stuff while also dealing with *that*. There is sooooooooo much ripe potential for incredibly difficult conversations, and I love it.

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culumacilinte @ 2018-03-18T15:35:00

2018-12-06T21:33:51Z

culumacilinte:

agarlandoffreshlycuttears:
sweetlychaoticpeanut:
MAY I JUST ASK
WHAT DOES VINCE CALL HOWARD AND WHAT DOES HOWARD CALL VINCE. IS HOWARD A MORE ‘sweetheart’ KIND OF DUDE, WOULD VINCE OPT FOR love’? I DONT KNOW BUT I NEED TO KNOW. ANYONE THAT CAN TELL ME WINS MY LOVE AND RESPECT.
Ah, yes, an excellent and fair question. And thanks for the @ @bforbeatrice! But, for me, it’s a bit like this:
Howard tries them all out, he is desperate to find the right one. My love, mon cheri, darling, sweetheart, honey, gorgeous and once, honeybun. They all only last a couple of weeks tops, because they tend to stick in Howard’s throat, awkward and strange. But he wants to say them. He feels bad about not having been able to express his love through words for so long, he wants to do it now. He wants everyone, and especially Vince, to know how he feels. Vince finds them all equally mortifying and pleasant. The ones that stick are ‘my love’ and less frequently ‘darling’. But, there’s always Little Man, which secretly Vince prefers anyway.
For Vince it’s always just ‘Howard’. But that’s because, to Vince, ‘Howard’ has always meant all of those things anyway. I’m not sure if you’ve ever really listened to the multitude of ways that Vince can say his name, but if you listen carefully you can hear it plain as day. “Oi, Howard, can I have the last biscuit?” is “Darling, can I have the last biscuit?” And “Night Howard” is “Night my love.” Howard, once he was looking for it, could hear it and it made him blush with a fierce sort of love and embarrassment that he’d never noticed before. But, he hears it now, and he tries to make sure that he says it back, in his own way.
THESE ARE ALL GOOD THOUGHTS, and I have some of my own to add! Weirdly, I can always imagine Howard calling Vince ‘babe’ and ‘baby’. This starts ironically, jokingly, accompanied by Howard’s fingerguns and tongue-clicks and ‘that’s right, baby’, and evolves into being used without any irony at all, in the way these things accidentally do. Little man is always the ultimate, though; the first pet name Howard gave him, back before either of them understood the nature of their connection. It’s even better now, with all of that attached. And it’s *his*. Anyone can be baby or darling or sweetheart; Vince is Howard’s little man.
I also imagine there’s something of a quest involved for the right word to *refer* to Vince. He starts off with boyfriend, that being an easy default, but he always sort of suspects it’s a bit frivolous and doesn’t adequately capture the full *depth* of what Vince is to him, and certainly as they get older, that feeling only increases. I also imagine that as they get older, Vince is forced by dint of no longer just being effortlessly and naturally androgynous to actually *think* about his gender feels and eventually articulate some of them to Howard, upon which Howard immediately decides that well, *clearly* ‘boyfriend’ is no longer acceptable. Lover feels like a bit too much information, paramour is pretentious and laboured even for Howard, partner and significant other feel soulless and clinical, but eventually he settles on *companion*. Because Vince is, his companion in all things, and it does feel a bit pleasingly old-fashioned, like Howard’s a poet and Vince his scandalous live-in lover.
At first, Vince laughs at him for this. ‘Companion? Wot, like Doctor Who? Get off, if either of us is the time travelling alien, you know it’s me. You’re the human I saved from a dull life of beige and smooth jazz.’ But it does make him smile, it’s thrilling and comfortable both at once.
And for Vince, I imagine a lot of that reticence towards pet names for Howard comes out of his wild squeamishness of actual expressions of romance. Vince spends so long being terrified by that kind of emotional vulnerability, not *looking* for a romantic connection and spooking like a startled deer when it gets sprung on him. ‘Darlin’ and ‘love’ and ‘sweetheart’ are for cheeky flirting with girls at clubs that doesn’t really mean anything; load them down with romantic meaning and they suddenly feel both inadequate and utterly squirmy. Vince communicates romantic feeling through actions, and it takes him a very long time of being with Howard, I think, to actually get to the place where it doesn’t feel scary to say it out loud.

Bluey: OH MAN, I love these thoughts. I agree with both Beth and Cully, but especially about Vince just not using pet names for Howard. He’s fine using those sorts of breezy terms casually, for people he has no/little emotional connection to, because that’s just being polite; it doesn’t mean anything. Doesn’t reveal anything. But about Howard, once they’re together, especially? No no no, those are way too emotionally revealing to use. There’s too much feeling there; romantic gestures like that make him go red and want to go hide in a hole because they’re so revealing. They make him feel excruciatingly exposed, and yet they also simultaneously feel cheesy and inadequate.

Occasionally, he’ll use an alliterative, teasing term (“Yeah, cool your boots there, Jazzy Giraffe!”) to express affection, but for the most part, his pet name for Howard IS Howard. It’s all in how he says it, full of warmth and fondness and appreciation. It just takes a while for Howard to learn to hear it there.

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culumacilinte @ 2018-03-22T15:33:00

2018-12-06T21:31:53Z

Anonymous:

Just wondering, do you think Vince's forest godfather Bryan Ferry would approve Howard as Vince's boyfriend? What if Howince snogs in the forest and Ferry just passing by?

Ahaha, I love this idea!

I always think of Bryan Ferry as someone who is well-intentioned, but ultimately not exactly the best or most attentive guardian. Picking up lost children because they need someone to pick them up, but too aloof and otherwise occupied to fully provide what they need, or protect them from danger. Ironically, he was probably a better father figure to his other adopted animal children than human child Vince, just because… young animals don’t need as much emotionally supportive parenting as young humans do. (Young humans need A LOT. Young humans who are small and sensitive and just don’t understand why they don’t fit in anywhere need even more). Contact once Vince leaves the jungle is probably pretty sporadic, apart from the occasional letter, and from what we see of him in the show, he is not exactly the most tactful person.

All that being said, he does want what’s best for Vince! And I reckon he’d be pleased to see Vince happy, even if he might seem a trifle insultingly surprised that *Howard* is the one Vince ultimately went with, rather than someone a little more rock’n’roll. If they ever had a chance to talk about it, I imagine Vince would big Howard up endlessly to Bryan; ‘You should hear him on his synths and things back home, yeah? Well weird and experimental, he’s like Eno! Only, you know, jazzier. Fastest fingers in Yorkshire on the guitar, he’s got a plaque from the mayor. He’s a proper musical genius, multi-instrumentalist and all; I’m just there to design the costumes and pull shapes, really, but Howard’s got the goods.’

As far as him happening upon them just snogging in the forest, all I can imagine is him sort of ~leaping onscreen going, ‘Vince! My child! You have grown up!’ And Vince is delighted to see him, while Howard BLUSHES FURIOUSLY because oh my god he is a grown man he thought he was too old to be caught snogging by his boyfriend’s dad. Or… sort of dad. Parental figure. Whatever.

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culumacilinte @ 2018-04-15T15:32:00

2018-12-06T21:30:43Z

(on a gifset of Noel and Julian as the zookeepers George and Alan from Unnatural Acts)

I looooooooooove that we get to see some of the origins of Howard and Vince in this, what changes and what stays the same, it’s fascinating. Julian so much more blinky and sort of– like the character doesn’t believe his own hype as much as Howard eventually will. And Noel so much more *bolshy*, proper provocative little chav, all rough around the edges, delivering those lines like it’s not just affectionate teasing, but like he actually wants to provoke a fight. But then the body language! Noel still sitting that way he does, all femme and folded up into himself, legs and arms crossed. And Julian just looking so stiff and awkward and straight up and down in his chair, like he hasn’t learned how to slump yet. These little underbaked comedy foetuses.

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culumacilinte @ 2018-12-06T15:31:00

2018-12-06T21:29:29Z

I Thought You Were My Boyfriend, by The Magnetic Fields

ANOTHER INSTALLMENT in the ‘why is every Magnetic Fields song the most Howince thing to have ever Howinced’ series!

Because THIS SONG. This is a S3 song if I have ever heard one, this is Vince after their schism during The Nightmare of Miky Joe, feeling like he’s just never gonna be good enough for Howard, if Howard wants to reject him for an imaginary arsehole, if he hates Vince’s company so much that he’ll reject him even when there are literally no other options, then fine, fine, Vince doesn’t need him either.

And just throwing himself into demonstrating SO LOUDLY why he doesn’t need Howard, look at all these other people he’s got, if Howard doesn’t want him, THAT’S TOTALLY FINE. All passive-aggressively trying on cooler and more fabulous new friends, less happy and more risk-taking in an effort to make Howard get it, guilt him into snapping, admitting that he does care about Vince, coming to Vince’s rescue. All bitter and ironic, so frustrated with Howard’s mixed signals and with his own inability to not care about what Howard thinks.

I just hope you’re happy
Stringing me along
While you’re stringing
I’m here singing
This, my saddest song
I wish I could see you
I wish I could sleep
Should I freak out? Should I seek out
Someone I could keep?
I thought I was just the guy
For you and it would never end
I thought we were supposed to be
Like glue
I thought you were my boyfriend
I thought you were my boyfriend
Love or not I’ve always got
Ten guys on whom I can depend
And if you’re not mine
One less is nine; get wise
I thought you were my boyfriend
I thought you were my boyfriend
I wanted you tonight
I walked around alot
Wishing you were here
To keep me from sleeping
With anyone who might
Want me, or even not
Some guys have a beer
And they’ll do anything
Anything
Anything…

IT’S SO PERFECT AND AWFUL, these two idiots and their inability to communicate

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culumacilinte @ 2018-04-18T15:29:00

2018-12-06T21:27:51Z

(on a gif of Vince throwing animal feed at Howard from Electro)

#Vince’s reaction to jazz here is actually fascinating #Howard’s teasing about it genuinely strikes a nerve #Vince does fear jazz #because he doesn’t enjoy or understand it #it’s intimidating and makes him feel stupid #hits him right in the insecurities #and it’s easier to mock it and say he’s allergic #than it is to admit it makes him feel small and bad about himself (via @peacockbluey)

ALL OF THIS THOUGH, it’s so accurate. Even with S1 Vince, whose self-esteem is healthier than it will grow to be, that’s a perpetual insecurity, the feeling that he’s not really smart in the way jazz seems to demand. He’s not intellectual, and he’s absolutely bought into the bullshit gatekeeping that people build up around jazz. And so not gettingit just makes him feel like he’s too thick to, can’t understand it like Howard does. And Howard, of course, has no clue that he’s hitting a genuine sore spot, that Vince does fear jazz, it makes him feel stupid and small, so he just continues to poke and tease.

On a less intellectual note, can we all just take a moment to appreciate the way his twinky little pink t-shirt rides up in the back when he tosses that seed? The soft little curve of his hip in the back and the fucking *dimple*. BABY VINCE HAS BACK DIMPLES. Fucking delicious.

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culumacilinte @ 2018-04-26T15:28:00

2018-12-06T21:26:42Z

(on a gif of the kiss from the end of Live at Brixton)

#i’ve seen this a lot #like A LOT #but i’d not seen that Julian goes in for another kiss #after noel pulls back #HE’S SO INTO IT #his hands on Noel’s arse #are just liiiiiifting him up #just getting a little of friction going #helped by the little lift of noel’s leg there #gahhhhhhhh(via @agarlandoffreshlycuttears)

THIS IS ONE OF THE THINGS I LOVE about this kiss, that Noel/Gregg is the first one to actually realise that they’re suddenly being watched, to pull away and react and laugh; it takes Julian/Howard a moment to catch up, and so when Noel pulls away he tries to follow him with his mouth. Like, no, come back, keep going, I don’t want to stop. Now whether that’s an acting choice (which, admittedly, is totally something I can see for Howard, awkward and virginal but going from zero to a hundred in terms of enthusiasm in NO TIME AT ALL) or just Julian wanting to continue snogging Noel, well. (I haven’t spent time thinking about how soft and eager his lips would be, reaching like that, trying to follow for another kiss, not at all)

Also YES the way Julian’s just *lifting* Noel up into him, that little leg pop that gets his thigh right up against Julian’s crotch, oof. And Noel’s massive, massive delight in that second gif, laughing and grinning. Julian’s in character there, or at least trying to be; Noel is just… himself there, bashful but UTTERLY TICKLED, delighted at the idea of several thousand people ~catching him and Julian at it, before he slips back into being Gregg to comedically brag about it.

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culumacilinte @ 2018-04-26T15:27:00

2018-12-06T21:25:27Z

Anonymous:

It's funny that someone bought up favorite radio series moments the other day bc I've been relistening to them and one thing I CAN'T get over is the beginning of the mutants episode where it is just Howard and Vince chatting to each other, bantering about with soothing psychedelic music playing in the background. You can just hear the fondness in every word they say and I'm so happy they left in all the giggling. The whole thing feels strikingly intimate and adorable every time I hear it.

agarlandoffreshlycuttears:

Oh GOD, yes. That was the scene I didn’t do a good job of explaining about the rice. I really feel like this is an insight into how Noelian are with each other? Just, lots of teasing and jokes, but also, you can so clearly hear how DELIGHTED they are when they get a laugh out of the other one. I love how you can hear them searching for the right word combo that’s going to get a laugh and how Vince keeps trying to bring the conversation back to the point.
How much do I love that Julian chose those takes for the edit? A lot. It fills my bloody heart to be honest with you. The radio series gives me a lot of feels for a whole host of reasons. But this scene is a big part of why.

THAT SCENE IN MUTANTS, how much do I adore it with all my heart? Also how much do I always just imagine it as them getting high on their lunch break, just smoking up in the Keeper’s Hut, lying on cushions on the floor with sitar music going on in the background. All that giggling and circling around to try and get back to the point. It really is wonderfully intimate, and very chill, in a way that we don’t that often get to see Howard and Vince.

(Also, Beth, you are going to kill me with all these reminders that Julian is the one who did all the editing for the radio show and MADE THOSE CHOICES *falls over*)

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culumacilinte @ 2018-05-12T15:23:00

2018-12-06T21:21:34Z

turn-to-silver-glass:

Brought to you by ~~popular demand~~ literally no demand at all, here’s a cute little chubby Vince enjoying his soft belly. Because I believe in creating the self-indulgent, poorly drawn content that you want to see in the world.

I LOVE ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS. I love chubby!Vince, and I love the idea of a Vince who eventually gets to a place where he’s secure and content in his body and its fundamental worth, and not obsessed with shitty fad diets to stay skinny and trendy. Able to enjoy it when he gets a little older and just naturally his metabolism slows down and he starts getting that chub. No longer ashamed, just enjoying the softness and the squish, still showing his body off as much as he ever did in little t-shirts and tight trousers.

And just. HE’S SO CUTE AND CONTENT, just lounging on Howard. His little belly and tits and thighs and the fact that you can see that sort of lower belly/upper pubic area chub under his skinnies. Just soooooooooo happy and satisfied and lying there just idly petting his tummy (because soft tummies are excellent, trufax). And just imagine how Howard would quietly marvel, looking down at him like that, how *proud* he would be of Vince getting to that point.

I am also now definitely now just imagining, because I am currently full of pasta myself, CHUBBY VINCE TAKING AFTER-DINNER NAPS with Howard. Like a big squishy cat. That just becoming a tradition, curling up on the settee after dinner to whatever Howard wants to watch and Vince will just nap through it. Howard’s big old hand just splayed over Vince’s soft belly, just giving him pets as he naps, and Vince just basking and smiling in that warm, dozy half-sleep, shifting into the touch, just loving it. And ahhhhhhhhhh, imagine Howard reaching down to just pop the button on Vince’s skinnies just to make him a little more comfortable, because all curled up like that, the waistband is digging in, and that can’t be good for napping. Just a little familiar thing, so domestic and comfortable together.

Also pls to imagine alllllllllll the belly kisses from Howard. Or spooning, with him just getting a handful of Vince’s belly to tug him more firmly against him. Or how unexpectedly wonderful it is when Vince is the big spoon now, with the softness of his belly and tits pressed against Howard’s back.

… Also definitely tickle fights and bellies just *vibrating* and jiggling with laughter.

Just. I AM ALWAYS ALL OVER soft Vince, and there should be more of him. Thank you for bringing this content into the world.

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culumacilinte @ 2017-10-22T15:22:00

2018-12-06T21:20:23Z

Anonymous:

Every single fic that mentions Noel's teeth says they're crooked. To my eyes, they're not crooked enough to warrant mentioning. Is this a US-vs-UK teeth standards thing? Fic writers grasping for things to describe about his face..? It's so widespread, I'm really trying to understand it.

Hi Nonny! What an interesting question! And not one I’ve ever given much thought to, I’ll admit, before this moment. His two front teeth are slightly crooked, in that they sort of lean together towards the tips in a vaguely rodenty way, but I definitely agree with you that they’re not remarkably so, and not something I would probably notice about him were he just some guy I happened to meet. I don’t think it’s a cultural thing? I have honestly never noticed a difference in general teeth hygiene in my time spent in both countries, despite the stereotypes.

I would say it’s a combination of a couple things? The first two are physical and actually about Noel; he does have a slight overbite, which emphasises those front two teeth, and he also has a way of letting his lips part and his mouth be slightly open in a sort of diamond shape when his face is relaxed or he’s being thoughtful, which also draws attention to the teeth. So even if they weren’t already slightly crooked, those things would help to create that illusion.

The other, I suspect, is our fandom tendency– and I see this especially in Boosh fandom– because we study Noel and Julian and their bodies in such specific detail, people tend to focus on and lavish attention on what I’ll call quirky imperfections. We love the things that make them interesting but also human, so it’s Noel’s crooked teeth or hairy arms or little tits, etc etc. And those aspects become fascinating to us and also… things that feel affectionate to notice, I think? Because you have to be spending a lot of time looking at him and studying him with appreciation to notice them, and to feel affectionate towards him for them to become attractive and endearing and not just neutral. So I would speculate that if you’ve got a fic where Noel is being seen through Julian’s gaze, mentioning things like his crooked teeth is a kind of shorthand way to imply– Julian loves Noel, he’s spent a lot of time watching Noel, he notices all these little things about him.

JUST SOME THOUGHTS. More thoughts than I thought I was capable of having about Noel’s teeth in fandom.

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culumacilinte @ 2017-11-15T15:19:00

2018-12-06T21:17:55Z

(on a gifset of Old Gregg and Howard from The Legend of Old Gregg)

It amazes me sometimes how genuinely unrecognisable as himself Noel is in some of his Boosh monster makeups. S1!Hitcher is one of them, where his whole bone structure seems to change, and his eyes seem to get smaller, but there are moments where Old Gregg is as well. And that always slightly takes me by surprise? Perhaps because when playing him live, Noel falls into that character so easily, has so much fun being Gregg, using the character to allow himself that comfort (and to allow himself to be all over Julian), perhaps because Old Gregg’s downstairs mixup is so clearly an exploration of one of those recurring fascinations of Noel’s, and so feels very personal, very him.

But look at that! It’s only in the third gif, I’d say, that he’s immediately even recognisable as himself. The expressions, the way he holds his face– his eyes and the set of his mouth, all wide and held back as if on clothespegs– it’s all different. I just fine it fascinating. Some of it’s the makeup, sure, but most of it is his acting, which he always underplays his own skill at. But for a man with such distinctive features to be rendered so entirely different with basically just a coat of paint? Shit is amazing. I love it. And I think it speaks, too, to that ease with which he inhabits Gregg. The body languages comes out of that very naturally.

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culumacilinte @ 2017-12-17T15:18:00

2018-12-06T21:16:41Z

A request by the smashing @agarlandoffreshlycuttears, here’s some DVD commentary for Overground! Beth requested a couple, and this was fucking fun, so expect those as well! You’re getting a lot of commentary here, because Overground was the first time I’d ever written anything properly from Julian’s perspective, so it took me forever, and there was a *lot* of me going, oh fuck, Julian’s doing his silent inscrutable Julian thing BUT I HAVE TO FIGURE OUT what’s going on behind that. I made lots of notes for myself during the writing process

~~~~~~~~~

( Read more... )

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culumacilinte @ 2017-12-02T16:51:00

2018-12-04T22:49:14Z

agarlandoffreshlycuttears:

annashake:
why is everything so small ugh
WHAT THE HELL? The shirt! But his face is bald!! and cheekbones! and HAIR. Also NOEL IS SO TINY NEXT TO JULIAN AND I CRY

Also, can we take a moment to consider Howard and Vince looking like this? Please?

LET US PLEASE CONSIDER THIS YES.

It’s a thing, probably mostly just because there is very little footage of their early stage shows, and even the radio show is less accessible than the TV shows, that people take Vince and Howard as we see them in S1 and work backwards from there. Which is, you know, totally logical and also mostly what I do when writing kid or teenage Howince. BUT SOMETIMES I REALLY LIKE TO THINK about those early half-formed iterations of Howard and Vince, both of them sooooooooo tiny and skinny and pointy and lanky, both of them.

Thinking about Howard who sometimes exhibits the blustery boasting we know from him later, much more of a genuine authority figure over Vince as he is in the radio show, BUT ALSO has all of young Julian’s bouncy, manic, frenetic energy. Thinking about that one live show clip of him where he’s practically humping up against Vince’s leg, begging him to tell the audience he’s a good boy, tell ‘em about him, get ‘em all juiced up! A young Howard who vacillates like that, that wildly eager (AND SUPER SUBBY LET’S NOT LIE HERE) desire to be validated, to be told he’s good, he’s got things to show off, and that quite sharp, authoritative gruffness. And it is sharp, he’s sharp all over, all raw edges.

And then Vince! Little tiny dreamy-faced Vince, who’s as like to mellowly laugh at Howard and mock him as scamper to do what he says. But who also, in those moments, has the authority. When Howard is full of nervous bouncing energy, entreating Vince to big him up, it’s tiny skinny twinky Vince who holds the power there, who can grin that chill, cool grin and go yeah, he knows how to people more than Howard does, let him spin you a story, you’re gonna love this guy.

There’s less difference in Vince than there is in Howard, I think, because Vince hangs onto his innocence longer, but it’s noticeable in these early versions of Howard that he isn’t nearly as cynical as he’ll become, even in S1; he’s not worn down or defeated, and indeed he’s a little wild and unpredictable. You can imagine this version of Howard going out with Vince, doing fucking poppers and E at a hip 90′s London club and making poor decisions, and both of them ending up having to run home holding hands at four in the morning. And they’re both much more explicitly sexual, too! Where in the Live at Brixton show, Vince meets a yeti and has a beautiful serene dance with them, in Arctic Boosh, Howard has what he conceives of as a love affair with her, and Vince straight up just goes, yeah, nah, we fucked.

And both of them all over each other physically, knocking into each other and rubbing up against each other, chasing each other around, like all the angles where their puzzle-piece parts fit together are still new enough that they haven’t yet worn down into a comfortable equilibrium, like they’re constantly generating energy together because of that.

I AM JUST FASCINATED BY THESE VERSIONS OF BABY HOWINCE

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culumacilinte @ 2017-12-08T16:47:00

2018-12-04T22:45:53Z

More DVD commentary for @agarlandoffreshlycuttears! This time from the closing scene of Wild Above Rule or Art. I feel slightly like I should have had more to say here? Because I have ALL SORTS OF DAEMON FEELS, but I hope this suffices

~~~~~~~~~

‘We’re sorry, we’re sorry, we didn’t mean it, we didn’t think, don’t leave us, don’t leave us, please.’

(The formatting of this fic was a weird thing, bouncing all over the place both temporally and between universes. The POV had also switched around between Vince and Howard and the narrator—I don’t know who the narrator is, incidentally, but they definitely have a voice and are a character in and of themselves, because I wanted the fic to have that fairytale quality. Almost JM Barrie, the way he’ll pause to wryly address the audience in Peter Pan. ANYWAY. So there wasn’t really any pattern there as far as that formatting, but I knew that I wanted to take the opening scene and play it back, but this time from Howard’s perspective, as bookends. The way the fic opens, it teases at TV canon and then goes, wait, no, here’s a different take on that. I wanted the symmetry of ending on that same scene because now, after reading the rest of the fic, you understand *why* those changes are significant. You get the full emotional context of them)

A few automatic steps back, like some strange impulse to give them space or privacy, and Howard is… frozen. He doesn’t know what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t that. Don’t leave us? Why would Vince be worried about Howard leaving? Vince is the one with a million friends, a hundred shinier and newer and more exciting things than Howard pulling him forever away from their shared little life. And Slightly– well, they haven’t been mute, precisely, lately, but they haven’t spoken, like this, independent of Vince, the way they used to. And it is independent of Vince; he’s vaguely aware, out of the corner of his eye, of Vince shrinking against the grimy brick of the wall, huddling into his magnificent cape like he could possibly hide in it. But only vaguely; his attention is transfixed by the two dæmons on the ground.

(The classic, tragic S3 misunderstanding here; they both think the other one is growing away from them, and they react in precisely the wrong ways, only reinforcing the other one’s belief. But here, too, in this universe, you get this moment of Howard noticing that Slightly’s behavior *is* independent of Vince, and the weirdness of that. I love the daemon!verse because they are both terrible with their emotions, but in different ways? Vince tries to just completely shut himself off from his negative emotions, pretend they don’t exist, they don’t matter, but with a daemon, that ends up manifesting as a… disconnect. And there shouldn’t *be* a disconnect there, that’s fundamentally wrong)

Mathilde twitches herself around, a tiny movement that brings her over and on top of Slightly, one paw very delicately pressing down on their tailfeathers, pinning them to the ground, and Slightly doesn’t even try to resist. They’re breathing hard, little breast rising and falling with panicked rapidity, and the elbow joints of their wings flick and flex in a way that isn’t even a little about trying to escape or fly away. Mathilde looks down at them with her eyes– dark gold, something amber and warm in the depths of the brown– as narrowed as a rabbit’s can be, and Howard swallows hard.

(AND THEN THIS. That move of Mathilde’s, just a tiny little movement, but it’s so significant, and… really what it is is Howard putting a move on Vince. Just like he’d always blustered about back at the zoo. And isn’t that just ironic. Howard is always going to be a little bit more emotionally daring than Vince, just a little, and that comes out here, with Mathilde daring to make that move, very delicately pin Slightly down, demand an explanation, because they don’t *get it*, and it’s hurting all of them. She gets quite authoritative, too, as this scene goes on, which I love— “’Why do you need our attention?’ Mathilde’s voice comes quiet and intense”—because that is the kind of thing Howard aspires to. Despite his disappointment in her being a rabbit, she still has that in her. AND THEN SLIGHTLY, poor Slightly who is just—absolutely sharing in the panic attack Vince is having right now)

Because that’s the thing; Vince isn’t just Vince, just like Howard isn’t just Howard. And Mathilde feels, has felt, Howard’s sorrow and confusion and anger and bitterness at Vince, but looking down at his tiny bright soul pinned under her paw, she feels something else, and that’s something Howard hasn’t lately felt towards Vince nearly as often as he used to. It’s intimate, sheltering; a tender, warm urge to wrap herself around Slightly and stubbornly protect them from the world. From themself. From Vince. It dawns on Howard, hazy as sodium-lamps in a thick London night, that he might not be the only one, lately, who gets in his own way.

(First of all, I love the phrase ‘It dawns on Howard, hazy as sodium-lamps in a thick London night’, I am totally unabashedly pleased with the poetry of that. Second: THERE WE GO THERE’S THE MOMENT. I love the daemon!verse for lots of reasons, but *this* is the thing; when the characters have daemons, they’re forced to externalize their issues much more than they do in canon, and that means that EVEN HOWARD, wildly oblivious Howard, can have that moment and go, ohhhhhhhhh. And Slightly is quick and flashy and fabulous, yes, but also *intensely* fragile (yay for incredibly heavy-handed symbolism)).

He exhales a wobbly breath, and one of Mathilde’s long ears flicks at him in silent affirmation, and then she bends to rub her face all along the length of Slightly’s body, warm pressure for several of Howard’s heartbeats– many, many more of Slightly’s, whose racing hummingbird heart he can sense more than actually feel, through his connection with Mathilde. And then she pulls back fractionally, and sets to grooming Slightly’s breast feathers, her little tongue mussing them back against the grain, damp and warm.

From against the wall, Vince makes a strangled noise that sounds like a sob.

(MATHILDE GROOMING SLIGHTLY. This is the thing with both of them, of course, but I think especially Vince, is that he’s desperate to be cared for, but far too proud to ask. *Especially* S3!Vince. Younger versions of him would wheedle a sick day out of a hangover and plead for Howard to make him toast and orange juice, or aggressively cuddle into Howard and not give him any room to protest. By S3, as we know, Vince is proud, and terrified of rejection, and it’s better to pretend never to need care than it is to be denied it. And Howard might not be great at always seeing when it’s needed, but he has a very daddish side to him that fusses and wants to take care, and here, Mathilde’s taking that opportunity, because very plainly, Slightly needs it. And poor Vince over there trying to hide in his cape feeling that like a punch in the chest. He wants that so badly, but it’s been so long, and it’s *good*, but it also *hurts*, it’s so much it’s overwhelming.)

‘Mathilde…’ Howard tries, but she ignores him, her attention squarely on the hummingbird still pinned under her paw

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culumacilinte @ 2018-02-28T16:44:00

2018-12-04T22:42:50Z

Anonymous:

If you don’t mind writing it out, I’d like to see your thoughts about the Vince Noir electro poof line. I always love your tags and want to know more 💖

one-warm-line:

agarlandoffreshlycuttears:
Hey there,
Well, this is a hard one for me. A bit like with Noel’s gender stuff, I don’t want to talk for him. But, I personally relate to it because of my initial reaction to it. I thought, ‘huh, they’re saying Vince is gay’ which is weird because we know he likes women. So I dismissed it. But then I thought, ‘Oh, they mean he’s flamboyant and a bit shallow and frivolous, it’s a joke to compare him to Howard and all the things they think he is.’ I was like… that’s fine (a bit homophobic?? maybe but fine). I thought those things because there’s no other sexualities right? He’s gay or straight… which hahahahahaahaha. I was young and confused. So, now I’m always startled because I wonder if they’re acknowledging Vince as bi (or queer in some form). I’m not sure about that, because of what Noel’s said about himself, but I can sure as hell headcanon that and I sure as fuck will. I have thoughts on that too.
For Noel, I can only talk to what he’s said, which basically seemed to be him kind of apologetically saying he isn’t gay. I have been told there’s an interview where he says he tried sex with men but ‘it didn’t work out’… make of that what you will (can anyone link me to that because I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it). To me, this reads as classic bisexuality and him not being sure (as with gender stuff) of the vocabulary to articulate it. But, I don’t him and there’s always the chance I’m massively projecting… But it means a lot to me because I feel for him. You cannot be what you cannot see and I just… Oh Noel.
Then to my Noelian thoughts. This is like, peak Noelian for me. They were SO happy. So flirty and in love. I just… I always feel like they included this line as like a hint about that? Not that they wanted people to know exactly. More that how they felt about each other was bleeding onto the stage. Noel was feeling more queer and he wanted people (Julian?!) to know that. They write it together, so other than the above joke, I always think everything means something. So, yeah, I think this is when something happened (I don’t mean anything physical necessarily). But… that’s a long headcanon thing you can read about in Re-Wired if you wanna know more (or ask me questions).
Anyway, I have a lot of thoughts and they all hurt my heart a bit. As ever, please let me know your thoughts, peeps.
Thanks for stopping by and I LOVE that you read and enjoy my tags.
This is the only interview I can think of off the top of my head where Noel mentions sex with men: Alan Carr’s Chatty Man in 2009, wherein Noel is wearing what appears to be a pleather trashbag and Julian is described as “a gay magnet”.
This conversation happens towards the end:
Alan: “Now I’ve heard that…you kissed a man once.”
Noel: “Did I say that?”
Alan: “Yes! and then you said you didn’t want to take it any further. Do you find you get men hitting on you?”
Noel: “Sometimes men get a bit - oh is it a man? Is it a woman? I’m not sure if I care. And you know I’m not - I’m not sort of really against stuff - I will get off with a man, if I’m drunk…just not sure…”
Alan: “Second base? Over the bra? Under the bra?”
Noel: “I don’t mind a feel up. Just not sure I wanna…you know…” [makes hand motion]

But I’d LOVE to know where the quote Alan mentions about not wanting to take it any further came from, it’d be interesting to see the context.

Iiiiiiiiiii have a lot of thoughts about the way Noel talks about his sexuality. And similarly, I don’t want to speculate, but the vaguely apologetic way he always talks about not knowing if he’s up for a bumming, he’s not sure if he wants, etc etc, allllllllways makes me think that he might very well have been on the receiving end of arsehole gay guys who thought he was an easy twinky bottom and then gave him shit when he was uncomfortable and didn’t want that, about not being *really* queer or queer *enough*. Which is the sort of thing that would put you off exploring further if you *were* curious, because well clearly you’re not *really* bisexual if you don’t want these specific things. And that combined with being of a generation where bisexuality was much less openly discussed, where the perception was much more black and white, gay or straight might very well produce a confused, slightly apologetic, I like a snog and a feel up and I’m madly in love with my best friend but I don’t think I want anything else (or at least I certainly don’t from drunk randos at parties) so clearly I’m just slightly defectively straight.

… You know, I said I didn’t want to speculate, but I definitely did just speculate, whoops.

Lemme just say that I’m very glad he’s with Birdy, who *is* much more educated about these things and has the vocabulary where he doesn’t always necessarily.

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culumacilinte @ 2017-02-27T15:40:00

2018-12-04T21:38:14Z

peacockbluey:

2, 9, 27, 41, 48

2. Have you ever been deeply in love?

She asks, as though I am not ARSE OVER TIT IN LOVE with you at this very moment, you goof

*whispers* Srsly tho, I am so in love with this lady. I have never been in love before, and it is strange and overwhelming and also THE MOST AMAZING. What a feeling.

9. What’s the most important part of a relationship?

I am not actually sure whether this is asking after the most important thing to make a relationship work, or, like… the best bit of the relationship? I will attempt to answer both! It feels like such a cliché to say communication? But seriously, communication. An environment where you’re not afraid to talk about things or bring things up, even if they’re potentially difficult or scary, or it feels like you’d be ruining a mood, just makes– *everything* so much better. Not just the Srs Bsns, but everything! The silliness, the sex, the bouncing ideas around and conversation. It’s like being able to breathe. And it feels… confident. Having that comfortable open communication means that you feel able to take things on, to go places together, and that is awesome.

As far as the latter interpretation of that question? HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO ANSWER THAT I ASK YOU. There are too many amazing bits!

27. If you could go back in time and give yourself one piece of advice about dating what would it be?

Hmm. In high school, certainly I would tell myself that being single was no reflection on myself, that it had nothing to do with me that my friends were constantly dating and I never was. In general, I’d tell myself—not to make decisions based on the assumption that feelings are *going* to develop if they’re not already there. Even if I think it’s ~logical~ that I should develop romantic or sexual feelings for someone; that is not actually how that works. You can be flattered by attention, you can love someone as a friend, but that doesn’t mean that you should assume anything else *will* develop. You end up trying to force those feelings, and nothing good comes out of that.

41. What’s your imagination of a “perfect date”?

Wellllllll we came pretty close to one, didn’t we, with our day at the aquarium, followed by delicious gelato and a gooooooorgeous dinner out and getting squiffy on fancy cocktails. That was a pretty excellent date. I think a day out hiking somewhere gorgeous and secluded, and you could laugh at me while I climb and clamber all over everything that’s climb-or-clamberable and a cool lake where we could go skinny dipping and then dry off in a comfortably warm breeze would be a marvellous date. Or one day when we finally get to go see IAMX together, and can get just FUCKED UP on the energy of their shows. That’d be pretty great. Or, ooh, there’s a really good used bookstore I’m gonna have to take you to in Minneapolis, we can have a fun date there. Ooh! There’s a tapas and tequila place right next door; we can do margaritas and then go explore the bookstore. DATE. IT’S GONNA HAPPEN

48. What’s your favorite love song?

*grins* You know, Stephin Merrett says he doesn’t understand why people play The Book of Love at weddings, but the thing I love about it is that it… is romantic because it subverts all the usual romance tropes. It dismisses the trappings of love as old and boring and dumb (except sometimes, sometimes transcendental), the charts and facts and figures of how you’re supposed to go, and it’s a little silly and tongue-in-cheek, but ultimately it’s about—‘I love it when you read/sing to me, you could read/sing me anything’. It’s that sheer *joy* in being with the other person, the comfort and ease in that. And I love that. That rings really, really true to me. It makes my heart ache in a good way.

And you know how I feel about Might Tell You Tonight. For the phrase ‘burrow like a sparrow’ if nothing else.

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culumacilinte @ 2017-02-28T15:39:00

2018-12-04T21:36:56Z

doctorparmak:

Happy to hear your thoughts on Howard!

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life (probably turned up to actual love of my lifein the case of howard b, because OH GOD SHE IS MY FAVOURITE STARRY CHILD)
hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang
hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff (I am always torn about both Howard and Vince when it comes to Hogwarts houses, but I’ll land in Hufflepuff here, with a little lean towards Slytherin as the secondary)
best quality: FASTEST FINGERS IN LEEDS. Also the fact that when it really matters– he’s gonna be there. And he is a soft sensitive creature down in his soul.
worst quality: His pretentiousness, probably, because it’s all rooted in a DESPERATE DESIRE TO BE IMPORTANT AND SUCCESSFUL in whatever way he’s decided matters most this week, and as a result, incredibly shallow. Probably the only thing he actually has genuine knowledge to back up his pretensions about is jazz. That pretentiousness is also probably the driving force behind a lot of the times when he lashes out at Vince.
ship them with: Viiiiiiiiince. The ultimate ship. I do also enjoy a little Howard/Old Gregg, but not in a shippy way.
brotp them with: Howard doesn’t have any proper bros, and he needs some! Leroy. I have a very particular mental picture of Leroy, even though the show gives us nothing about him, but I like to imagine that he and Howard do genuinely get on, in a taking-the-piss, occasionally stealing each others’ clothes but still genuinely supportive way. Also Vince’s Brain Secretary? In a way where I totally want to see them shag, but mostly have cute actually-talking-about-things friendshiptiems
needs to stay away from: Villainous and/or supernatural creatures and people who want to sexually assault him?
misc. thoughts: I find the evolution of Howard from the radio show to the tv series really interesting? That a lot of what becomes pure bluster in the tv series… doesn’t seem to be in the radio show? He is genuinely more worldly, more in control, and also much snappier and grouchier; he gets toned down a fair bit between that and series one. And I have a lot of fondness for grouchy radio Howard.

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