Your middle name is cutie pie
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E3 was this week, the summit of all things video games. I didn’t tune in while it was happening, just watched the reactions roll across twitter and then looked up the trailers for the games I was interested in after the fact. I don’t play a lot of video games, but the ones I play I play HARD. For example, I have played the Mass Effect trilogy maybe 4 times through–and each of those games is a 60-80 hour time commitment.
The things I’m most looking forward to are Mass Effect Andromeda (as you might expect), Uncharted 4, and the Fullbright game Tacoma. I’m honestly probably the most excited for Tacoma at this point, because I adored Fullbright’s previous game Gone Home, wherein you explore an empty house and piece together where its inhabitant have gone. In Tacoma, as I understand it, you’re doing much the same thing, only in a space station. I cannot wait.
Notable Breakfast
Scallion & cheese omelet and red plums.
Dog Thing
Watching How to Train Your Dragon 2 on the biggest of screens.
Mixed Media
There’s been a new episode of Steven Universe every night this week, so my brain has been full of Steven Universe. I tried to think at one point what my reaction would have been if you’d told 10-year-old me twenty years ago that this incredible show would exist but I had to wait two decades for it. What would I have done? Invented time-travel, probably.
Steven Universe is a cartoon about a boy who is half-Crystal Gem (a race of aliens) and half-human. He is sweet and funny and full of wonderment, about both his heritage as a Gem and about normal, every day stuff, like Cookie Cat ice cream sandwiches. The incredible thing about the show is that, as much as it’s about Steven, it’s also about the Crystal Gems who are raising him–Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl. The Gems as a race are non-binary, but all of them appear to be female, and use female pronouns, and it’s honestly maybe the best and most interesting female representation on television.
Additionally, you’ve got Steven’s best friend Connie Maheswaran, who is smart and curious and has gotten more and more active with the Gems the longer the show has gone. (Connie is my favourite.)
I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t mention the setting, and SU is set in a tiny beach town, gorgeous and pastel. The Gems live in a charming shack built into the side of a broken goddess statue, which, incidentally, is also where I would live, if I had my pick of anywhere.
Steven Universe was created by Rebecca Sugar, and it is astonishingly the first show produced by Cartoon Network to be created by a woman. Sugar is a talented songwriter, and SU is full of music. Every single one of the voice actors can sing, and many have backgrounds in musical theatre. It is charming and funny and subversive, and everyone should be watching it.
Also: I listened to Courtney Barnett’s album Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit a whole bunch. And here are words I never thought I’d write: Hilary Duff’s new album is great. I’ve been playing the visual novel game Starfighter: Eclipse some, and it is sexy fun.
I Read Comics for a Living
Alex & Ada #15 brought Sarah Vaughn and Jonathon Luna’s beautiful android romance to a close, and I did not predict where it would go, but I loved every minute of it. It’s not often that a comic makes me cry, and I let out a terrible, gulping, gasping hiccup on the last page and lost it for a bit. It’s incredible to think that this was Sarah’s first comic–I cannot wait to see more from her. In the meantime, I will be eagerly awaiting every new issue of Fresh Romance, which features an ongoing, Sarah-written comic set in Regency-era England.
Also good:
Giant Days #4 Giant Days continues to reward my initial enthusiasm about it, and I am so glad. In fact, it’s been selling so way that Boom! has upped the issue count on it from 6 to 12! In #4, we see Daisy celebrate her birthday in slightly reckless fashion, fall a little bit in love with a character who isn’t a woodland creature, and finally learn why Susan so hates McGraw. This book makes me laugh out loud, and that ain’t no exaggeration.
TMNT Casey & April #1 Despite my ongoing love for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I haven’t kept up much with the comics. So I don’t really know why April O’Neil and Casey Jones are on a road trip into the desert, but they are, and in the end I found I didn’t really need the context. This comic is written by Mariko Tamaki, author of This One Summer, the best book that came out last year, and illustrated by Irene Koh, and it is fun and cute and I love it.
Black Canary #1 This is one of DC’s new books, and so far it is the one I like best. Written by Benden Fletcher (also a writer on Batgirl and Gotham Academy, both of which are great) and drawn by Annie Wu (who had a stellar run on Hawkeye last year), it spins Dinah Lance away from the Green Arrow or Batgirl context we usually see her in, sets her up with a band, and sends them on the road. It’s a whole new story, with brand new elements, and I just love it a lot. DC put out a digital-only prequel story you can check out here.
Ms Marvel #16 This issue is part of the “Last Days” stuff Marvel is doing, showing different characters in the run up to Secret Wars. I’m so glad they chose to do one of these for Ms Marvel, because Kamala is all about being the hero on the street, protecting Jersey City, and here we get to see that community banding together in crisis in a truly excellent way.
Anxiety Pyjamas
Topshop Star Print Chambray Pyjamas
These are also available in a more traditional style and I love them both equally.
Fics I Shouted About
Untitled by obroech Teen Wolf, Sterek, Human AU. Derek is a novelist who is having trouble writing, Stiles writes him an angry letter.
stalk the clouds in the sky by Watermelon Wolves Teen Wolf, Sterek, Werewolves are Known AU. Derek and his sisters are cops, Stiles keep stumbling over bodies. This was so cute.
I Only Have Eyes for You by halekingsourwolf Teen Wolf, Sterek, Buffy AU. HKSW is doing a whole series of Teen Wolf fics based on episodes of Buffy and Angel, and they’ve all been great, but this one is my fave. Stiles & Derek get possessed by brokenhearted ghosts.
the valley in my soul by seren_ccd Primeval, Jess/Becker. Jess & Becker get trapped far in the prehistoric past. I’m not sure what sent me down a Primeval fic rabbit hole (Jurassic World, maybe?) but I still love this pairing.
Lastly
Go watch some Steven Universe!
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