Suburbia; Or The Sad, Quiet Horror Of Getting Everything You Ever Wanted

I'll take a quiet life
A handshake of carbon monoxide

And no alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
A shot from Safe (1995) of Carol White, played by Julianne Moore, in her suburban living room, holding a glass of milk. She is centered in frame, and stares blankly into camera
THE SUBURBS DREAM of violence. Asleep in their drowsy
villas, sheltered by benevolent shopping malls, they wait
patiently for the nightmares that will wake them into a
more passionate world.
A shot from Blue Velvet. A man lays, collapsed, on his lawn. His hose is still running; a dog has climbed on him to drink from it. A child with a lollypop wanders through the gate
And you may ask yourself, "How do I work this?"
And you may ask yourself,
"Where is that large automobile?"
And you may tell yourself,
"This is not my beautiful house"
And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful wife"
A shot from Little Shop of Horrors of a house on a white lawn against a blue sky. The scene has a sense of artificiality about it - the lighting is all wrong, the sky like a painted backdrop. Seymour and Audrey, in a suit and wedding dress respectively, stand in the doorframe.
I think the traditional preoccupations of cosmic horror are ultimately
charming and quaint in comparison to that endless atrophy
wouldn't it be a relief to gaze into the maw of an eldritch god once,
confirm the truth of existence, and lose your mind entirely?
At least that'd have a sense of resolution to it. At least then you
could stop pretending that everything was fine.
A shot from Vivarium. Rows and rows of identical green houses. On the roof the center one, arranged sheets spell out "HELP"
So we were lying in bed afterwards
And she asked me
What made me frightened
And I said...
I'm frightened of Belgian Chocolates
I'm frightened of potpourri
I'm frightened of James Dean posters
I'm, I'm frightened of 26" screens
I'm frightened of, of remote control
I'm frightened of endowment plans
I'm, I'm frightened of figurines
Ow!
I'm frightened of evenings in the Brincliffe Oaks
Searching for the...
Conversations
A shot from the Truman Show. Truman, played by Jim Carrey, climbs a set of stairs against a wall. Both the stairs and wall are painted like a blue sky with clouds.
Murray and I extended the range of our contemplative
walks. In town one day he went into small embarrassed
raptures over diagonal parking. There was a charm and a
native sense to the rows of slanted vehicles. This form of
parking was an indispensable part of the American
townscape, even when the cars were foreign-made. The
arrangement was not only practical but avoided
confrontation, the sexual assault motif of front-to-back
parking in teeming city streets.
Murray says it is possible to be homesick for a place
even when you are there.
Three panels from the comic Supergod. 

The first panel shows a dove flying above a home. 

The second, the dove crashing into the dome of the sky, revealed to be artificial. bubbles read: AN UNDERGROUND
AMERICAN SMALL-TOWN HEAVEN. THE KIND OF
PLACE AN ALL-AMERICAN DEADMAN WOULD HOPE AND PRAY TO FETCH UP IN.

The third panel, a white, middle-aged man stands in a pilot's uniform, drinking a beer. Bubbles read: I LIKE TO IMAGINE HIM THERE BY HIS LITTLE PICKET FENCE IN FRONT OF HIS LITTLE HOUSE, BREATHING IN THE AIR- CONDITIONING OF HIS LITTLE HEAVEN. NEVER QUESTIONING HIS EXISTING WITHOUT EATING, DRINKING OR SLEEPING, BECAUSE HE THINKS HE'S DEAD. PERHAPS HE THINKS OF THE DAY HE VISITED EARTH.
But I don't think so. But I think about it. And I think, well, I can't be. Because I'm like
you, I kinda look at the big long life ahead of me that stretches out forever and
disappears. And I get scared. And I think, "this can't be Heaven if I'm getting scared,
right?"
And then I think, "maybe I am in Heaven, and Heaven is scary."
A photograph of a 70s underground Cold War bunker in Las Vegas. It features an imitation of an outdoor suburban home, complete with painted backdrop and fake trees, cut off by the ceiling.
Ask yourself: is there something sinister in moralism?
And then answer: no. God is in his heaven. Everything is
normal on Earth.

suburbia; or the sad, quiet horror of getting everything you ever wanted

"No Surprises," Radiohead // Safe (1995) // Kingdom Come, J.G. Ballard // Blue Velvet (1986) // "Once in a Lifetime," Talking Heads // Little Shop of Horrors (1986) // Jon Ware on I Am In Eskew // Vivarium (2019) // "His 'n' Hers," Pulp // The Truman Show (1998) // White Noise, Don DeLillo // Supergod, Warren Ellis and Garrie Gastonny // 17776, Jon Bois // photograph of 1970s Las Vegas underground Cold War bunker // Disco Elysium, ZA/UM

More Posts from Ssmtskw and Others

1 year ago

WIP WEDNESDAY

Thank you to @leaves-of-laurelin @kiwiana-writes @orchidscript @ships-to-sail @ssmtskw @rockyroadkylers @sherryvalli and @heybuddy-drabbles for the WIP Wednesday tags.

I give you No Nut November,

Alex can feel his pulse in his finger tips. The heady way Henry is now gripping his waist is giving him all over body tingles that reverberate down through his toes. Henry leans into Alex’s space and the close proximity is doing unmentionable things to his nether regions that have not stayed south, but are starting to rise to the occasion of the northern pole. “I think we have played cat-and-mouse long enough Alexander. I know you know what you wish my vibrating dildo was named, something I call out in the dead of night, softly moaning, imagining it was something much more real I was sinking down on.” “Uhh,” is all Alex can get out, struck dumb by the image of Henry fucking himself on a dildo named after him.

Giving you the only snippet of this work until it’s posting at the end of this month as a part of a larger series, because it is a gift fic for @kiwiana-writes and I don’t want to spoil the surprise ;)

Well… with that, toodles for now!

Open tag, please I want to see your WIPs!! @adreamareads @alasse9 @cultofsappho @celaestis1 @celeritas2997 @indomitable-love @iboatedhere @kill8a @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @hey-holtzy @lem0nademouth @arand0mdutchgirl @nontoxic-writes @three-drink-amy @tintagel-or-cockleshells @affectionatelyrs @anincompletelist @cha-melodius @cricketnationrise @daisymae-12 @happiness-of-the-pursuit @read-and-write- @hypnostheory @myheartalivewrites @historicallysam @rmd-writes @smc-27 @sparklepocalypse @welcometololaland @zwiazdziarka @thinkof-england (and literally anyone else please I subsist on your little snippets)


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1 year ago

WIP Wednesday Word Search!

Thanks for the tag in this one, babies. @read-and-write- @firenati0n @songliili @kiwiana-writes @rockyroadkylers @gayrootvegetable and @hgejfmw-hgejhsf! 💗 Also: appreciation post for my friends who endlessly tag me in these games/challenges even though I'm not the most active and consistent person on this platform. I love you all.

RULES: use this generator to generate three random words (or however many you'd like to do!) and share the lines where they show up in your WIPs!

The words I got were acquaintance, monk, and challenge.

acquaintance - Exes to What? AU

There’s a bunch of classmates, celebrities, Nora posting a photo dump about their weekly Austen-binge with June popping in every so often in the slides. Pez in another outfit that never fails to fill Alex with awe; they’re the most stylish person he probably knows, and that’s saying something with his revolving door of acquaintances and friends. Ellen with her recent campaign publicity pictures. His dad doesn’t have instagram, but every now and then Oscar’s face shows up on news outlets as the current-seating senator of California. And then, unmistakably enough to Alex’s eyes, there’s also Henry.

monk - ATLA AU

Alex was already in the Avatar State, and finally looking around the room — littered with Fire Nation army uniforms and the remains of a monk who clearly meant something to Alex and June — it's not hard to understand why.

challenge - fake fratboy!Alex who's actually just an animal shelter volunteer AU

So Henry doesn't ask Alex where he goes or why he has new cuts on his hands or what he gets up to whenever he's not in school — only looks at him as if all the burning questions he wants to send Alex's way was his newfound telepathic skill. Does so in the next few days because he can't just let go of things like that, and ultimately only stops when Alex finally shoots back a quizzical look at him. He doesn't look angry, per se, but the littlest hint of a challenge does start resting on his eyebrows whenever he spares Henry a glance.

I combined both games so I'm not sure who to tag that hasn't done it yet but if you already did, take this as a round two I guess the word search is FUN. @blairwaldcrf @later-2-dae @dragonflylady77 @leojfitz @14carrotghoul @matherines @44whispers @movetoheavens @mudbloodpotter05 @happiness-of-the-pursuit @inexplicablymine @user-anakin @littlemisskittentoes


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1 year ago

Hello and welcome!

Replacing my pinned with a list of the stuff I've written for anyone checking my account out. Heh. Everything is sorted by fandom, and then word count! (And if there's something I should add to the tagging, please feel free to send me a message about it so I can make the edits.) Enjoy... hopefully!

RWRB

some part of me came alive - 10,979 words [college-ish AU, 5+1]

"Bye David." David's head snaps back to Alex's direction, eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly you'd think it wasn't even there. Alex, having just removed his glasses again as he yawns once more, doesn't see it. David takes a couple seconds before slightly shaking his head, like he's just imagining something and is now actively wiping the thought away. He opens the door before he responds. "Bye Alex."

(Or: The five times Alex unintentionally calls Henry by his dog’s name, and the one time he does it on purpose.)

Francesca - 10,189 words [graphic depictions and references of violence/abuse/injuries]

Once, in a much worse place before all of this; Alex had worked for someone with one side of his office overflowing with books. He'd read all sorts of things there: Anatomy, selected works in philosophy, Oliver Twist, war hero accounts, law. Anything he could get a hold of in the dark, really. Among those books were a bible. There's a passage there that stuck— something he'd only read past but had barraged into the walls of Alex's mind three years ago, Book of Jeremiah, chapter 17, verse 9: The heart is more deceitful than anything else and is desperate. Who can know it?

Love Songs in the Key of Liam - 8,152 words [Liam POV/centric, 5+1]

It's fucked. He's fucked — Liam, that is. There was no way this was going to work. Ever. What's the next worst thing to growing up closeted in a typically close-minded neighbourhood? Probably developing a crush on your best friend who lives in said neighbourhood. (Or: The five times love songs reminded Liam of his now estranged best friend, and the one time it reminded him of someone else.)

Terrible Things - 4,038 words [Hanahaki AU, hurt/no comfort]

"How long?" That, he can answer. "A year or so." He croaks out, not really wanting to strain himself any further.

water in my hands - 3,521 words [sickfic(?), has references to illness, hurt/no comfort]

It takes Alex a good amount of time to realise; sometimes love just isn't enough to keep the world going, even if he desperately wanted it to.

no question (he'll hold your heart if you let him) - 2,837 words [June POV/outsider POV, post-canon]

June doesn't think much about it at first, putting the box along the pile, but she belatedly realises what it is and gets an idea. A satisfied grin makes its way onto her lips when she finally finds it, an edition of Astrotalk that detailed star sign compatibilities. June doesn't open the magazine all the way to the Libra section, stopping short at someone else's instead. (Or: June finds a box that contained one of her teenage fixations and goes through it for old time's sake.)

Smoke Slow - 2,026 words [shotgun kissing oneshot basically]

“Hey.” Alex says, just for the sake of saying something, the silence between them wasn’t stifling but he didn’t want to risk their interaction coming to an end just because he’s not engaging enough. Henry gives him a sideways glance. “Teach me how to do that.”

“Do what?”

“That. The shotgun.” For a moment, Alex briefly considers how idiotic that probably sounded to Henry. It wasn’t a hard task to mimic, but Alex had long thrown out his composure out the fences of Pez’s house when Henry put the goddamn stick into his mouth. 

i'll be happy (just to have known you) - 1,855 words [hurt/no comfort]

Henry resigns himself to the reality that Alex—albeit distant and unattainable—still managed to break through his dismal world and grant him a light he never imagined was still possible to exist. This was enough. This was more than he'd ever expected for himself. It was the universe's way of extending an olive branch in response to the cards he'd been dealt with. He'd be stupid not to take it.

dreamy little you - 1,666 words [crack-ish AU, post-canon]

"Of course, love, but would you love yourself if you were a worm?" This visibly stumps Alex. If the way his mouth just opened for a rebuttal and coming up empty is anything to go by.

only got a hundred - currently at 4,008 words

An ongoing collection of 100-word drabbles written according to the Brownstone server's prompts.

Haikyuu

Ceilings (he thinks it's not real, it is) - 6,009 words [light angst and pining with a happy? ending]

“Yo, you sleepy?” Takahiro meant to say that no, he isn't. That Issei looks stupid with his hair messed up like that. That he should be asking Issei that, with the bags under his eyes speaking for themselves. Instead, what comes out is, “I miss you.” It would be so easy to take the opportunity now. But still, Takahiro is terrified of ruining things. Or: Takahiro has graduation blues, and Issei makes him feel better, but things don't just end there.

Bloom - 1,444 words [two-dialogue challenge oneshot, retrospective? angst/no comfort]

Matsukawa Issei is not much of a sentimental person, save for special occasions where he has no choice but to reminisce.

Cruel (what your mind can do for no reason) - 1,012 words [light angst/comfort, implications of dissociation]

Issei struggles through a bad mental health night, Takahiro breezes him through the tail end of it.

Shameless (US)

big guns out, shoot now - 3,257 words [first kiss oneshot]

It's kind of out of character for Ian, really, he's always careful about not blurting out or doing shit that tapped into his feelings on the brunette, around the very subject of his affections. Has been, in fact, for the last two years and counting. Not that it got any easier to maintain, there are always slip ups (Exhibit A: right here, right now), but that's solely his problem.

On the Off Chance - 5,780 words [soulmate AU, ongoing]

To say Ian was relieved when he hears Mickey confirm how he did not, in fact, get his soulmate mark just a couple days after coming of age would be a huge understatement. (Or: Soulmate marks only show up when the younger of the pair turns nineteen– which isn’t uncommon, to say the least.)


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1 year ago
A tumblr post, edited blackout-poetry style to read, "transwomen are women a woman is a woman".

transwomen are women a woman is a woman

Submitted by Anonymous

1 year ago

If it was possible to like work part time and afford a place on your own anywhere it would change everything like the lives that would flourish the art that would be getting made the ideas and love and beauty that would be expressed it would change the world and they don’t want that…. They do not want that at all

1 year ago

I love you polyamory. I love you, girlfriend. I love you boyfriend. I love you partner. I love you partner. I love you, partner. I love you, partner. I love you p--


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1 year ago

Six(ish) Sentence Sunday

Six(ish) Sentence Sunday

...yes this is another fucking new WIP, no I am not making good choices. At least the WIP tag/current doc name is really, really unsubtle.

It's also significantly more than six sentences, if that helps?

“Look, man.” Alex grips one wrist with his other hand and brings his arms behind his head as he leans back, t-shirt riding up and exposing a thin strip of what appear to be very firm abs, and Henry is suddenly very much regretting ticking ‘no’ on the part of the form that asked if he wanted to engage in reciprocal sexual contact. “I had to sign a whole NDA that didn’t have your name on it just to get access to the one that did—obviously I’m not asking so I can turn around and put your fetishes on blast on Twitter. But you’re doing this here, not back in the UK, which means—unless y’all are planning to recolonise us and I missed the news—this is gonna be a one-time thing, or at least not super regular. Right?”  The back of Henry’s neck warms up thinking about regular—about a standing appointment in his schedule, obfuscated as carefully as his therapy visits are in case of anyone snooping but there nonetheless, a stretch of next times promising Alex’s hands on him—but Alex has already identified the exact reason why that won’t happen. And besides, he’s yet to experience Alex’s hands on him this time. “Right.” Alex leans forward with a lazy, promising smirk that has heat pooling in Henry’s gut. “Which is why I want to make sure you get exactly what you need out of this time. You went to all this effort; might as well make it one to remember, sweetheart.”

Forever feeling feral for whatever y'all are up to, so tagging @affectionatelyrs @anchoredarchangel @anincompletelist @blairwaldcrf @celeritas2997 @cha-melodius @clottedcreamfudge @cricketnationrise @cultofsappho @daisymae-12 @dumbpeachjuice @firenati0n @getmehighonmagic @happiness-of-the-pursuit @heybuddy-drabbles @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @indestructibleheart @indomitable-love @inexplicablymine @leaves-of-laurelin @littlemisskittentoes @lizzie-bennetdarcy @matherines @myheartalivewrites @ninzied @notspecialbabe @orchidscript @rmd-writes @sherryvalli @ships-to-sail @smc-27 @sparklepocalypse @ssmtskw @stereopticons @tintagel-or-cockleshells @welcometololaland @whimsymanaged and, as always, anyone who wants to play! (If you take the open tag please tag me so I can see!!)


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1 year ago

An archivist found a long forgotten 8mm film reel in an old metal box, marked "Philippines 1942". Thinking it was lost WWII footage, he sent it in to be restored/digitized. When he got the footage back, he found puppies instead (via)

1 year ago

also, something something, ed telling those kids that he and stede aren't pirates but that actually they run an inn together was ed voicing his fantasy aloud bc he could write it off as a joke but when it came down to it he was too afraid of rejection to actually ask stede to run away with him because it went so ass-backwards last time so he just, ON A WHIM, decides to be a fisherman because it hurts less to assume that stede won't want to leave piracy for him than to ask and be rejected again, something about safe spaces and trauma and needing the space to heal and how they're both still acting on whims, something something

1 year ago

I’m all scratched up and I can still taste spray paint in my mouth and my husband almost fell out of a tree BUT THE GHOST SCULPTURES ARE FINISHED!

They’re finally finished and I’m so happy with them!!

I’m All Scratched Up And I Can Still Taste Spray Paint In My Mouth And My Husband Almost Fell Out Of
I’m All Scratched Up And I Can Still Taste Spray Paint In My Mouth And My Husband Almost Fell Out Of
I’m All Scratched Up And I Can Still Taste Spray Paint In My Mouth And My Husband Almost Fell Out Of
I’m All Scratched Up And I Can Still Taste Spray Paint In My Mouth And My Husband Almost Fell Out Of
I’m All Scratched Up And I Can Still Taste Spray Paint In My Mouth And My Husband Almost Fell Out Of
I’m All Scratched Up And I Can Still Taste Spray Paint In My Mouth And My Husband Almost Fell Out Of

Some progress shots:

I’m All Scratched Up And I Can Still Taste Spray Paint In My Mouth And My Husband Almost Fell Out Of
I’m All Scratched Up And I Can Still Taste Spray Paint In My Mouth And My Husband Almost Fell Out Of
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ssmtskw - Trace
Trace

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤao3: mttsn | they/he [+63] 22. ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ| lots of fandom-related rambling.ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

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