E.K.'s Journal of Stuff

First of all, the reason I even decided to watch it in the first place was because I finally sent my Bachelor's thesis to go get printed and decided to reward myself by watching a movie. So I did what any sane 21st century person does and booted up a VPN to see what's on Tubi. Scrolled a bit and saw it there and I was just like, yeah, I feel like watching a cult classic. Let's see what you've got, Richard Kelly.

Good god, dude. I don't know where to even start.

Well, let's start with the funny bits. Ashley Tisdale and Jerry Trainor are in this movie for like a scene. And I instantly clocked both of them. I genuinely love it when that happens, especially when it's for small roles. "Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion!" Also, just. The fucking Smurfette rant, dude. One of the character moments of all time, I mean that genuinely.

Which brings me to my next point: Donnie is just a fucking kid oh my god. Jake Gyllenhaal is just a bit too old for the role, but by the end I bought into it, I bought into the idea that this is an actual dipshit teenager. But he's a dipshit teenager who cares, man, and he's frustrated because of all the condescending amoral fuckfaces that run things. That's not even getting into how he's severely mentally ill. Like okay, I guess the whole thing with Frank and the end of the world was real in a way, but even before all that he struggles to find meaning in his life to the point of extreme distress. In fact, I imagine this preventing the end of the world scheme wouldn't have worked with someone ''sane''. The whole plot is like a suicidal person's power fantasy. Ask me how I know.

Anyway, I love this character. I cried when he died but also... it was kind of beautiful in a way. IDK I think I'm gonna need 5-10 years to figure out how to articulate it properly.

The film itself struck me as very Lynchian. Not just in the sense of surreal things happening in middle America (though that's part of it) but also for the heart at the center of it? Like, it's certainly got that 2000s edge to it, without dropping any f-slurs or anything, but at it's core it cares, just like Donnie cares and like Drew Barrymore's character cares about actually teaching her students something and how his family cares even if they can't articulate it. It's empathetic to its characters, it tries to understand them and their struggles and tries to get you to understand too. It's really not something I expected from this type of movie.

But also. This is probably already a viral social media post somewhere, but you know when you watch a popular thing and suddenly you see its fingerprints in so many other things you've seen? Yeah, this movie is definitely that. I was primarily thinking of Dark, the German Netflix show I was obsessed with at the end of high school/beginning of uni. One or both of  Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese (creators of that show) saw this and were like "Okay wait, I want to do something like this but dig deep into the dysfunctional aspects and also into the time travel. And it needs to be set in Germany." And to be clear, I don't mean this as a diss towards those creators, I mean this in the sense that I recognize how someone could derive the concepts they did from this movie, speaking as an artist myself. It's actually a bit hard to articulate what exactly I'm seeing, becuase it's not even the big stuff like the time travel or the specific way it plays out (altho, the ending where the main character has to die for everyone else's happiness definitely makes me go hmmmm) I mean specific scenes and characters have a certain vibe to them, even if they ultimately develop differently in each piece of media.

muccamukk

1. Grab the nearest book
2. Turn to page 126
3. The 6th full sentence is your life in 2026

Nearest book is Scum Villain's Self-Saving System vol. 2 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. My prediction is:

The name alone tells you that it's something super dangerous, right?!

That's uh. That's slightly ominous XD At least it's a clearly distinguished danger!

Happy Yuletide, lovely gifter! I'm EK_Braveman or just E.K. This is my first time participating in this exchange, so I'm very excited to see what people come up with for my precious small fandoms. I'm not super picky about what I get, at least I think so, though I do have my preferences. I have a bunch of prompts and likes, that are moreso there to give you an idea of what I'm looking for, rather than a strict must. I hope this letter can give you some inspiration!

Treats are welcome!

General Likes:

• Whump
• Hurt/Comfort
• Missing Scenes
• Canon Divergence
• Plurality/Multiple Systems
• Character/Relationship Exploration
• Queer characters of all kinds
• Dominant women (both in a sexual sense and personality-wise)

• Beastiality. Stuff involving anthropomorphic creatures is fine, anything involving an animal isn't;
• Pregnancy;
• Fetishes related to bodily waste;
• Ageplay/Infantilization Kink;
• Boss/subordiante relationships;
• Omegaverse;
• Cheating/Infidelity;
• Incest;
• BDSM World AU;
• Harm to animals, children (under 13s) or beings who look like such. References to it happening in the past are ok.
• Body horror from a character's POV. If A finds B's body scary, but B doesn't have an issue with it, that's ok; it's only a DNW if B is shown as suffering from it.
• Major Character Death, unless it occured in canon.

Monster Train

Characters: Heph, Herzal, Fel

Prompt: AFAIK there isn't any definitive proof Fel is Heph's mother but there aren't many other characters it can be, but even if she isn't, I'm still fascinated by what their relationship might be like. It's clear from canon texts that Fel and Herzal were close, leading to Fel siding with Heaven to feel like a very personal sort of betrayal. Heph clearly admires her father and is following in his footsteps. So, where would that leave Heph and Fel? Furthermore, I'm interested in Heph's past; did she always know Hell as a frozen over wasteland or did she experience its warmth as a child? Was she ever close to Fel? There's just so much potential with these characters!

W.I.T.C.H. (Comics)

Characters: Cedric, Orube

I've been a Cedrube shipper since Orube first set foot in that old bookstore and if you've read the comic, you'll know I've been heartbroken about that ship for a decade! So, I would like to have my heart mended through the power of fanfic! Obviously my preference is Cedric/Orube, but if you're more comfortable with writing a platonic relationship, I'm ok with that too!

Prompts/Likes:

• AU where Cedric is brought back to life or never died in the first place.
  
  • For the former: How does he get brought back? What trials must Orube go through for him?
  • For both: How do they reconcile with the fact that Cedric was working against Orube and W.I.T.C.H.?
• Missing scenes of Orube and Cedric hanging out and bonding like normal friends do. Bonus points if they get super personal and open up about ✨trauma✨
• Either AU or missing scenes: Cedric and Orube figuring out weird Earth stuff together and laughing about how weird humans are.
• I like headcanons/AUs of Orube being a bit more cat-like and likewise for Cedric and his snakiness, so I think integrating traits like that would be fun.
• Yuleporn specific: that last thing but used for kinky purposes.

Chonny's Charming Chaos Compendium

Characters: Any

Prompts/Likes:

• The psychological repercussions of the Shooting Incident on Heart and/or Mind
• Soul being awful to Heart and/or Mind
• Heart and Mind reconciling
• Heart, Mind and/or Soul trying to front in an emergency
• If you like socialc1mb's Cacophany AU, you're in luck, cause I do too! Feel free to use elements from that!
• I don't have strong feelings on the idea of the personalities dating one another, so write them however you feel fits best.

Shining Nikki

Characters: Nikki, Player, Lilith, Leonid

Prompts/Likes:

• Nikki/Leonid, Player & Lilith & Nikki
• I like the aspect of the game where the player is also a character the other characters talk to. You can get quite meta and existential with this, which I just find cool. I even accept readerfic :3 (with caveats!)
• I looooove Lilith! I'd like to see more of her manipulations and mindfuckery. If Nikki or the Player gets dragged into it, that's even better!
• I'm also interested in a Dark!Nikki AU. Maybe she took "aren't you tired of being nice? don't you just wanna go apeshit?" to heart and tries to beat the villains at their own game. Does it lead to her downfall or to a bittersweet victory? How do her friends react? Does she even care what they think anymore? Much to think about!
• Yuleporn specific: Nikki domming Leonid. I just think he would make a cute sub <3
  

Leif & Thorn:

Characters: Kallie Neineikura, Kiki Neineikura

Prompt: I'm very interested in something exploring these particular characters' relationship to plurality and to each other. How did they come to understand each other like they do in canon? Obviously, they get annoyed at each other, but how do they handle their issues in daily life? Also, this is a bit more out there, but what if one of them was the host rather than Atarangi?

DNW clarification: Because the Neineikuras to refer to each other as family, I do consider romantic relationships between them incest and thus fall under my general DNW for that.
 

The Most Popular Girls in School:

Characters: Brittnay, Saison

Brittnay's (one-sided?) hatred for Saison has always come off as kind of gay to me, like she's always 5 seconds away from hatefucking her. Saison on the other hand seemed so dedicated to being Brittnay's friend, despite how much Brit hates her, and I don't think it's simple stupidity on Saison's part. As such, I prefer Brittnay/Saison fic, but if you want to write them as a &-ship I have ideas for that as well!

Prompts:

• The non-sexual equivalent of hatefucking. So, Brittnay angrily making out with Saison, who's really into it.
• Yuleporn specific: actual hatefucking lol. With Saison beong totally into it and consenting, please!
• One of them realizing their feelings for the other. If it's a romantic fic, obv the love is reciprocated, BUT if you want to write a platonic fic, I think it would be interesting to see how the target of affection reacts regardless. I prefer a humorous approach to the latter.
• Brittnay somehow finding out about Saison's real heirtage. Shenanigans ensue.

-★-

If you read the whole thing, thank you so much! Happy writing! :D

• I still have some fanart I wanted to finish for sunshine_challenge but dunno when that'll materialize since I'm so burnt out.


• I wanted to do a blackout of my card for comment_bingo but that also seems like it's not going to happen. Yeah, I have a month or something, but I dunno. Oh well, two verticals is two verticals!


• I'm going to continue my TVD/VPD liveblog once I'm in the mood to watch stuff again. I assure you, however, the show has not left my thoughts and I've been playing Anberlin's Enjoy the Silence for like a week now, in anticipation of being free to watch my 2000s CW teen vampire show in peace. I did, in fact, want to spin around a big mansion in my underwear, creepy vampire optional.


• Exchanges are back in my life, woo! I already signed up for trickortreatex, and I'm planning on signing up for femslashex, seasonsofdrabbles, and the big one yuletide. Also, I picked up a pinch hit for an exchange I hadn't signed up for, but that's a secret. ;)