How Precious It Is To Lightly Hold My Cat's Paw And Feel Her Gently Squeeze Back

Hey look, it’s my new favorite Loki fantheory! Haha, this is perfect :) 

I don’t do drugs.

Patreon | Ko-fi | Instagram

Olaf, Bertrand, Poison Darts

Before Olaf ever officially met Bertrand, he had heard stories about him.  Bertrand’s chaperone thought he was an amazing, model apprentice. But that chaperone also ranked last out of all 52 VFD chaperones. Who coincidentally was also Olaf’s nemesis Snicket’s chaperone, and that was where things got interesting.

Someone who Lemony Snicket was unfavorably compared to? Olaf hadn’t even met this guy, but he decided that he’s going to like him.

When they finally met for the first time, Olaf discovered that Bertrand was quite unlike the usual VFD theater teens he encountered. Bertrand wasn’t much a literature guy, nor was he invested in poetry or theater. He didn’t quote classics in everyday life (not even wrongly or sarcastically or anything) like the rest of them.  (Perhaps that was how he got assigned to lowest ranking chaperone, Olaf thought.)

Despite his differences with the theater teens of VFD, they all turned out to like Bertrand a lot.  He was pleasant and easygoing and because of his interests were different from them, they didn’t feel the need to compete with him.  But the best thing was, he was great at building sets and props – everything the theater people needed on stage – and every fancy, overly dramatic equipment they probably didn’t need off-stage but he was nice enough to make for them anyway.  (One day, the working wings of a dragonfly costume might turn out surprisingly useful for an actress, but that was another story.)

And Olaf liked him too, just like all of them. Bertrand was the only person who wouldn’t tear his Al Funcoot plays apart, and as much as it was fun bickering with Beatrice or R about the literary references in his plays, it was great to have someone who he could spend time with that didn’t care about all those and would be glad to help make the props for the play.  (Although he did have to fight the other theater majors for his time – as if Beatrice’s bat-styled hot air balloon or Esme’s martini glass dress was more important than his demands.)

And perhaps that was why Bertrand’s part in his parents’ murder came as the most surprising of them all.  After being friends – if he could call them that – with Beatrice for so many years since their childhood, he’d known, grudgingly that she was capable of a lot of things. Mostly in the name of drama, but sometimes for things more sinister too. He’d seen her darker sides that sometimes he wondered if Snicket realized. And Kit – she followed VFD’s orders in a way nobody else could, she planned coldblooded schemes in the name of necessary evil better than anyone else. (It probably said something about their relationship that he wasn’t that surprised when his girlfriend played a part in his parents’ murder.)  But Olaf never expected it from Bertrand.

Bertrand, who got along with everyone, who was always helpful, who didn’t argue much but not in a Jerome kind of way.

He’d long known ago he shouldn’t trust actors, but perhaps the biggest lesson was to not trust the polite and practical engineers either.

In retrospect, maybe he should have known. After all, Bertrand was the one with the craftiest hands out of them all. And if he could make theater props for them, who knew what else he was able to make?

A handy little device for aiming poison darts, as it turned out.

So my mom and I picked back up watching A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix the other day, and for the most part, I really do like it and I agree it’s a highly faithful adaptation of the books (though admittedly it’s been a while since I read them, but from what I recall, the series is doing quite well). 

But one thing did bother me: their Lemony Snicket is not at all like I pictured him. No hate to Kronk; Kronk is doing a great job being the Lemony Snicket that he is. But like I said, he’s just not at all how I saw the character as I was reading him. 

For one thing, given that his name is “Lemon-y”, I pictured him as blonde, perhaps strikingly so. For another thing, I just got the sense that book Lemony was a touch more shy and awkward, and I pictured him as a rather wiry kind of guy--not completely scrawny, thin but tough. That is to say, less strong-shouldered than Kronk. And recently, after a bit of thought, I realized that the Lemony I was picturing as I read looked more or less like a young Tom Petty.

I could just see Tom, fedora nestled on his soft blonde hair, hanging about libraries looking for clues regarding missing sugar bowls and odd, question-mark shaped creatures, penning lengthy coded love letters to a woman who regrettably cannot marry him, and watching grimly from the shadows as a number of dismaying tragedies befall that woman’s orphaned children. He has the perfect lemon-y hair, a suitably wiry frame, and just the right amount of quirky awkwardness in his smile, I believe. 

(To clarify, I don’t think Tom’s deep, Southern speaking voice would necessarily suit Lemony, just his physical appearance, so this is just for the sake of visualization.)

And so, I present to you, young Tom Petty as Lemony Snicket. Well, really just a series of photos where he looks how I would picture Lemony as looking; I haven’t edited them or anything, just arranged them. 

Anyways, young Tom Petty is just generally adorable and full of subtle swag. It’s always fun to look at pictures of him.  

Image sources below the cut. 

picture sources, in order:  1http://www.theuncool.com/tag/tom-petty-the-heartbreakers/ 2 https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/544724517406734973/ 3 https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/tom-petty-1950-2017/2/ 4 https://www.biography.com/people/tom-petty-201299 5 https://www.listal.com/tom-petty-%26-the-heartbreakers 6 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0965382/mediaviewer/rm3324321792 7 https://www.elmodulor.com/el-modulor-ep08-tom-petty-nacio-en-florida-pero-le-dio-sonido-a-california/

So Gerard’s Quarantine Coloring Book got me thinking, and I’ve had these lyrics stuck in my head a lot lately (what with the quarantine and everything), so I made my own little doodly coloring page with them. 

In the spirit of the Quarantine Coloring Book, feel free to color it and post your own colored versions of it if you’d like! (Though of course I’d appreciate credit for the drawing part of it if you do post it :) And please tag me so I can see it!)

“And we’ll love again, we’ll laugh again, we’ll cry again, and we’ll dance again” 

~My Chemical Romance, I Never Told You What I Do For a Living

Ooo I love it! It really has that ‘calm moment in the midst of storms’ vibe, like I feel the tranquility of the moment but also the tinge of melancholy that comes from the constant danger of being a Killjoy. It has a soft bittersweetness.

Anyways, future me here, just combing back through my drafts for anything with a Christmas vibe. I spotted the Christmas lights (and, once I increased my screen brightness, Poison’s sweater). So, have some Christmas Killjoys :) 

FINISHED FINALLY Gee and Frank as Party Poison and Fun Ghoul at the California desert

And again, on the eve of opening night for A Year with Frog and Toad, I find a second Frog and Toad related post, which, yet again, corresponds directly with a song from this show I’m in. 

Either the number of Frog and Toad things I’m running across on tumblr tonight is a sign, or this is some kind of Baader-Meinhof phenomenon specific to being in a certain show... Is there a theatrical version of that? Or maybe Baader-Meinhof isn’t the right term because I didn’t just learn about Frog and Toad, but it’s like that thing where one suddenly sees a thing everywhere just when it’s relevant. Is it a different type of cognitive bias, perhaps? Does anyone know the correct term for being in a play and then seeing things relevant to that play just before the show opens?

Like, I haven’t noticed any Frog and Toad-related content since I joined tumblr in November and the night before we open, I see two things. It’s crazy. Well, I guess I’ll call it good luck? 

But yeah, this one’s Frog’s solo. A very sweet little song. 

i just think this is so important and i think this is the greatest life lesson you could learn in your childhood, or at any age (from Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel)

I figured I’d go ahead and reblog the updated version, because it is rather relieving to see the inside looking recognizable, though damaged. 

(Also, I ramble about guilt regarding what I do & don’t reblog after the cut.)

Of course, people are also posting now about other important fires in culturally significant buildings that have happened recently and asking why this one is getting all the attention; and, of course, as bad things happening in the world right now go, there are doubtless a great many of them doing more immediate harm to people. Obviously, humans are more important than buildings. In short, it’s making me feel guilty that this is basically the first news story I’ve shared on my tumblr, and there are probably more significant things I should’ve reblogged in the past. I mean, I’m pretty sure I still have things about the recent floods not far from us in the midwest sitting in my drafts somewhere. The fact is that typically I take a long time to process a post, because I am the sort of person who takes a long time to think through what I want to say--and then I probably say too much, but I still always feel like I’m never saying everything I mean to or would like to. 

In short, I am not the blog to follow for timely commentary on things, because I take weeks to process the average post. The first Notre Dame post I shared just struck an ideal storm of coincidences for me to have the time and motivation to post it in a timely manner. When there are other terrible things going on in the world that it seems I should be posting about, know that if I have heard about them, then I likely care about them and am praying about them. There are just always so many things. This is why my prayers so often escalate to “bless everyone, God, because everyone is dealing with something or another that is troubling them in some way, and everyone needs you”. I know I really should be more specific in my prayers, but it’s also true that everyone needs God, and the more I hear about the problems of the world, the more people I feel the need to pray for, and so that’s where I wind up. 

Since my first ‘in short’ didn’t work, I’ll try one again: in short, I see these things and I care about them, and I’m sorry if my reblogging isn’t always balanced towards the most important human disasters. This is foremost a multi-fandom blog, and maybe I shouldn’t have dabbled in news at all, but this one just struck me for a moment.

Sorry this post devolved more into my guilt about all the things I don’t reblog rather than an update on Notre Dam. 

notre dame is burning.

this is ok.

it has happened before. it will happen again. it has been lost before. it will be lost again. and again. and again. and again. art and architecture are transient, and temporary, and 850 years may seem like a lot to the individual, who will live maybe 100 if they are very lucky and very healthy, but even the pyramids at saqqara have only existed for about 6000 years and that’s still not all that much, if you consider the grand scheme of things.

yes, this is terrible. as someone who is deeply religious and literally a professional historian with a focus on art and architecture, this is terrible. im mourning. im gutted. im horrified and upset and miserable. but.

it’s not over.

victor hugo wrote hunchback because notre dame du paris was in the process of collapsing and falling apart, and revitalized the entire world’s focus and love for this church, and that was not even 200 years ago. it led to it being renovated.

the roof has fallen in. the scars of fires are on its buttresses. the rose window has fallen out. the beams and piers have collapsed. the spire has toppled. the stones have suffered, and will suffer again, but it is not gone.

renovation work is essential. sometimes things collapse and burn and break and have to come back. it’s not a terrorist attack, it’s renovation, an accident, but we have so much evidence, history, carefully documented everything on one of the most studied places in the world.

it’s not the end.

Aaaah the feeeeeels, the beautiful, complicated feels. 

Looking forward to these two living happily ever after and occasionally making empty murder threats against one another whilst being clearly in love... 

You paid Hugo Strange to save me? Why? What was I supposed to do? Let you die?

Oh hey look it’s that part of 12′s regeneration speech I quoted on one of those phone cases I just did :) 

(13′s episodes are still pay-per-episode on Amazon Prime but I’m very much looking forward to meeting her once they become free!)

Doctor, I let you go.

No hate to Star Wars, but Earth is a really awesome planet and this is a super cool post! :) 

Oh, and speaking of pink lakes, this reminds me of Lake Hillier in Australia (image source: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lake-hillier) 

And also, I know people get all excited about Hoia Baciu forest because it’s supposedly haunted and an alien sighting hotspot or whatever, but just aesthetically, I think the curvy trees would be a neat look for a far-off planet. (image source: https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/109706/hoia-baciu-forest-beyond-the-legend-explores-one-of-transylvanias-greatest-mysteries/)

(image source: http://lilianausvat.blogspot.com/2015/03/hoia-baciu-forest.html#.XB3An9MrKXQ) 

And speaking of funky looking forests, did I mention the rainbow eucalyptus forest in the Philippines?  (image source: https://matadornetwork.com/trips/75-places-so-colorful-its-hard-to-believe-theyre-real-pics/)

(image source: https://www.elitereaders.com/rainbow-eucalyptus-tree-philippines/) (*note: I have not read or verified image sources; these are just from whence I got the pictures.)

Yeah, sci fi in general could do well to take more advantage of these things. Like, I know filming in quarries is a time-honored Doctor Who tradition, and I’m not suggesting an end to that. Welsh quarries are neat, too :) But the world is full of a great many fantastic sights. 

why are star wars planets more boring than earth and our solar system like sure we’ve seen desert, snow, diff types of forest, beach, lava, rain, but like… 

rainbow mountains (peru)

red soil (canada/PEI)

rings (saturn’s if they were on earth) 

bioluminescent waves

northern lights (canada)

salt flats (bolivia, where they filmed crait but did NOTHING COOL WITH IT except red dust?? like??? come ON)

and cool fauna like the touch me not or like, you know, the venus flytrap.. and don’t get me started on BUGS like… we have bugs cooler than sw aliens

BASICALLY like???? come on star wars you had one (1) job where are the cool alien species