Blue Christie

- guy at work "Yes, and -" ing the bit me and my coworker were doing where we pretended to be owners of a fantasy medieval tavern not minimum wage retail staff

- at the gay club when Die Young by Kesha came on and two hundred people, all dancing and drinking separately, jumped up and down to make the "- beat of the drums *STOMP STOMP*" as loud as possible

- person who watched me stomp round the beach singing a made up song about breakfast foods to name a cat after and suggested more breakfast foods that would be good cat names

- guy who started a dance off with everyone across the road while waiting for the lights to change

Right, I'm a writer...

Waffle House is one of the few chains in America that’s open 24/7/365, and where you can get both breakfast and lunch/dinner options at any time (I have had so many Breakfast Cheeseburgers at Waffle Houses). The food is really good, and people eat there at all times of the day or night, but it’s particularly popular as a late-night post-drinking spot because it’s all that’s open and it’s the kind of food that tastes especially good when you’re hammered.

Part of Waffle House Protocol is that all the servers and cooks greet every single customer as they come through the door. It sounds lame, but I’ve never been to a Waffle House where that greeting didn’t feel completely heartfelt. My mom is a health nut who could barely find anything on the menu she was willing to eat and yet she describes the Christmas Day lunch we had there one year as one of the nicest meals she’s ever had because everyone was so warm and welcoming. That sense of camaraderie gets turned up to 11, of course, at 2 a.m. when everyone’s shitfaced.

The jukeboxes have Waffle-House-themed songs on them (once you have heard “Raisins in my Toast” you will be earwormed forever) and there is an arcane system of hash brown ordering: scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, topped, diced, peppered, and/or capped. The hot sauce bottles say “Casa de Waffle.” 

Once, in Oxford (UK), my husband and I walked past a kebab van very late one night and he said “why do I smell Waffle House”

The location of most Waffle Houses means there’s some… classism that tends to get tied up with Anti-Waffle House Discourse, which is probably lending itself, in part, to this being such a fraught topic. (I’m looking at a map and apparently I was born and raised right in the middle of the Peak Waffle House Density Zone)

I often talk about reality checking and going along with it when helping someone deal with delusions, but I felt as if I didn’t really make it clear to what I meant when I said it.

The value of the advice above depends ENTIRELY on the delusion. Let's look at a common delusion: microchips in your head.

Level 1: What if. "What if it"s in there? I think I can feel it. You know they put them in when X."

At this level, the advice above works. It is a distressing but not dangerous delusion.

Level 2: You gotta listen. "No you gotta listen, it's in there!"

At level 2, the person in the delusion is fixating on it. They are sure of it. You will likely not be able to talk them out of it by questioning it. You have 2 viable options: refuse to discuss it or pivot the conversation. Example "there was a good movie about that." As soon as they are talking about a movie and not their delusion, you can branch to other movies with the same actors or directors, or just a movie they like. But, as the post above says: don't ADD to the delusion. If you can't pull off a pivot, that's ok. Stick to refusing to discuss it.

Level 3: Danger. Example: "I've gotta get the chip out!"

If they are talking about removing things, stopping someone from doing something, or are no longer engaging with you (ie talking to themselves): get help. Call an ambulance. Unless there is a weapon or serious and present danger of them attacking someone, avoid bringing in the police. They are usually not equipped to deal with psychosis. Tell the operator that your friend is breathing, but not responsive and needs an ambulance. Do NOT say "crazy", "psychotic" or "delusional" to the emergency operator. These have wildly different colloquial meanings and can result in the police being sent, which again, is usually unhelpful.

Most importantly, there is no one-size-fits-all solution or plan for psychosis. Do try to talk to your friend about it when they are calm and let them direct you on how best to handle their specific situation.

She’s a Darklord now too

Also they are 100% drawn to be placed at Condemned Darklord’s sides. 

Ok, First of all, Dorothy Gale is played by a young Fairuza Balk.

These pictures do not do justice to the raw Traumatized Child energy she brings to this role.

A bit of plot: Dorothy Gale won’t sleep. She’s always talking about Emerald Cities and Talking Scarecrows and Ruby Slippers. At her wit’s end, Aunt Em decides to commit her to the sanitarium for electroshock therapy.

Disney made this.

This is where one of the core Uncanny elements of the film first appears; this movie does not share continuity with the 1939 Judy Garland film.

It is a much more faithful adaptation of L.F. Baum’s Books, but despite being a sequel both objectively and canonically, it really just pretends the ‘39 film doesn’t exist.

They land in a desert that turns people to stone called the Deadly Desert. They get food from a Lunch Pail Tree. The chicken can talk. The Scarecrow is King of Oz, allegedly.

But, like,

Here’s her house from the first movie.

The one that landed on a witch? Right smack dab in the middle of a whole dang Munchkin Village?

There was literally a whole song and dance!

Where did the Munchkins go, you might ask?

Well, while Dorothy was away,

There was an Apocalypse.

OZ HAS FALLEN

And this is where we meet the nightmarish Eldritch spawn of Roller Disco and David Bowie:

I don’t-

What is-

This is one of the Good Guys

He’s just a guy. Like, really, very much, Just A Guy of a character. His entire personality, such as it is, is comprised of

His quest to find his Mom (we’ll get back to that) and

Commenting on his lifelessness. For example, when faced with death, he comments calmly that he won’t miss eating or sleeping, since he does neither.

His mom ends up being this girl:

I LIVE TO PLEASE

Ahem. Sorry. Anyway.

So. I mentioned an Apocalypse.

Behold! The citizenry of Oz!

They have been turned to stone by the evil Nome King! Why, you ask?

For stealing his Emeralds, of course!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I forgot to introduce The Army of Oz, affectionately referred to as Tik-Tok!

This guy

That’s… apparently the whole army?

He’s spring-wound. Has 3 winding keys: one for moving, one for talking, and one for thinking. At one point his thinking gears wind down while his action and talking gears are still tight and he creates a lot of trouble. He has a… spin attack…

Wait, you glossed over a vitally important detail. See those headless Oz statues above ? Well, they tie in to the HEAD-SWAPPING PRINCESS who, IIRC, TOOK HER EXTRA HEADS FROM OZZIANS. She murdered people, either explicitly or implicitly, for fashion reasons, in A Disney Children's Movie.