#the castaways

[thegikitiki]

The Castaways: where the bikini has an eye on your stomach so it can watch you spend $6 a day living your best 1960s Miami Beach fantasy. "America's Most FUNderful Resort-Motel" is the kind of tagline that makes you cringe, but for $6 you get access to SIX Olympic-sized pools (because one wasn't enough), 1250 free chaise lounges (nobody's counting), and dancing until 5 AM at the "Wreck Bar", a name that either promises wild times or warns of structural instability. The fact that they have parking for 800 cars but only 540 rooms suggests either a lot of people are crashing on the lawn or someone's doing some shady side business.

Source: Playboy, September 1968.

[stone-cold-groove]

TV Guide magazine - June 1966.

[angel-does-artisting]

Some people like beach episodes, I like ball/fancy party episodes.

[screwzara]

Faction Relations - The Anthropophagi

Sub Faction: Limaia Town

The false town made by The Anthropophagi as a decoy to their actual home. The Town has grown into more than just a trick however and into a fully functioning sub faction.

Limaia Town is fairly ordinary, with the inhabitants of the True Town aiding them.

Though the yown is aware of their parent faction, they willing choose to remain quiet. Limaia Town & True Town are extremely close and loyal to each other for these reasons.

Operation Ichor, Gardenview(faction), The Merchant Order, Ruin Corp. & Zodiac belongs to @slumbrr-r

Overseas Commandment belongs to @collectingsorrows444

The Mechanists belongs to @eventide-paradox

The Castaways belongs to @ihatebeingoriginal

The Field belongs to @haruhikiomori

Vinization belongs to @modcroissant

The Wild Riders belongs to @tickytheclock

The Sanctuary belongs to @bobacake7

First few faction relations are done :D

[dk-thrive]

You know that feeling when you read a good book, and you’re totally transported to the world within those pages? Your imagination has travelled there – and yet your body is not fooled: it knows you haven’t left the sofa.

— Lucy Clarke, The Castaways (Atlantic Crime, January 6, 2026)

[just-some-castaways]

Little Ghost

I think there's a little ghost in the library. Sometimes, I go in search of my favorite book and it's missing from the shelf, the books to either side toppled to fill its place. Sometimes, I forget to see to my tea and scone, and when I do, the scone is missing pieces and the tea cup is nearly empty.

I heard a little ghost in the library. It was right before sundown, when I settled down with a mug of tea and C.S. Lewis's "Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe." I heard a little whisper, just behind my ear around page three, 'Go slower,' it pleaded, 'You read too fast.'

I shared some tea with a little ghost in the library. She likes apple-spice, lemon, and raspberry, but never orange or Earl Grey. Though I found she prefers hot cocoa when I set out several options, and returned later to see the results. Her favorite snacks seem to be sliced apples with peanut-butter, jellybeans, and most kinds of crackers, except for multi grain.

I met a little ghost in the library. She never let me see her, I'm quite sure it was intentional. Such a shy little thing, always flitting about, just out of sight. But tonight, part way through "The Silver Chair," I caught a glimpse of ruddy brown hair and a set of inquisitive blue eyes peeking over the coffee table at me as I read aloud. In a moment she was gone, but I knew she meant for me to see her, I'd tried so many times before.

I spoke with a little ghost in the library. When we'd reached the end of The Chronicles of Narnia, I pondered aloud what novel to begin next. A timid voice piped up, "The Wild Robot." I smiled, nodding approvingly, "The Wild Robot it is."

I saw a little ghost in the library. We'd shared many stories together, countless cups of tea and cocoa, and several grocery trips of the snacking variety. But last night, she scampered out from the shadows, shuffling along on her knees, eyes locked on mine. "I like your stories." She whispered, petite form huddled in a bundle of purple just out of reach, "Your voice is nice." I smiled, warmth blooming in my chest at the approval of this whisper of a girl. "Thank you," I replied, nodding politely, "Yours is quite lovely as well." She hid her face behind her hands, messy brown hair falling forward like a curtain and she tucked in her skirt covered knees. "And you are always welcome, in my little treasure trove of tales, Little Ghost." -

(Authors: Nate, Maddie, and a Little "Ghost") 10/2/2024

[cantsayidont]

Another year, another round of dubious television:

THE CASTAWAYS (2023): Disappointing five-part mystery-thriller, based on a Lucy Clarke novel, starring Céline Buckens as Erin Holme, a young woman whose older sister Lori (Sheridan Smith) is lost and presumed dead after the disappearance of a small commercial airliner bound for Fiji — a flight Erin was supposed to be on. Although the authorities have given up the search, Erin stubbornly refuses to let it go, particularly after she learns that someone has recently used her sister's credit card in Fiji. The miniseries starts off on a promising note, but as the mystery unfolds, the plot, like boys who go to Jupiter, gets more stupider: Too many plot developments strain credulity, and too much hinges on characters behaving in ways that don't make any sense. The show's treatment of its characters of color is also appalling, and while the story hinges on the relationship between Erin and Lori, it's ultimately hard to care about either sister even before the ending, which is a real eye-roller.

THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR (2023): The wages of sin are melodrama in this uneven, annoyingly reactionary miniseries about a young interracial couple, schoolteacher Evie (Eleanor Tomlinson) and newspaper reporter Pete (Alfred Enoch), whose flirtation with their sexy swinger neighbors — hot bisexual yoga instructor Becka (Jessica De Gouw) and her very rectangular motorcycle cop husband Danny (Sam Heughan) — sets them on the road to ruin. There are occasional flashes of what could have been a decent modern relationship drama, but it's burdened by too many extraneous plot elements (with what feels like 10 episodes worth of plot crammed awkwardly into six), a really distasteful subplot about a creepy older man (Hugh Dennis) stalking Becka, and the story's reluctance to engage with the uncomfortable racist implications of Evie's attraction to Danny and growing disdain for her Black husband. Surprisingly, Becka ends up being the most sympathetic character, perhaps because she's the only one with no ulterior motives (she's just horny and frustrated), and the only one who behaves like a grownup when things go sideways. That makes it that much more disheartening that the narrative spends a lot of time punishing Becka for her reluctance to accept a life of staid suburban monogamy — and that the story eventually throws all credibility to the wind with a misguided action-thriller finale.