abpsionic

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kris and noelle discuss critically acclaimed fps game half dead 2, their missing siblings, and obscure human musicians like claude debussy

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No, you don't understand, the fact that "Terminals play music to lure machines" is even a theory, in universe, implies that Machines being capable of appreciating music is not just canon, it is a fact known and accepted by the humans who made them in the first place.

Please, listen to me, they put appreciation of art into their blood powered tools of war and it's the only reason why their self expression yet finds appreciation even after humanity's end.

Just, just be with me for this. V1s creator might have been into drum and base. Ultrakill OST might just be as canon as the graphic settings (see: Sentry codex entry).

V1 has a fucking "tunes to listen to at work" playlist, and a dedicated song for throwing hands with V2 on it. But it also has a Gabriel theme, and it's creator couldn't possibly have met him. And the songs are so fitting for the stages in general... omg

V1 has a fucking composer AI. It's creator made their super weapon, the "Supreme Machine" a fucking musician. V1 makes music it commits mass murder to. It made a music for Gabriel and V2. 2 songs with themes and motifs for each of its rivals.

Wait wait, fuck. Fuck, wait.

V1

Composed the god damn Requiem motif. It took a look at Lust and went "ahh, yes, a gut wrenching violin solo for this place". And then it put that motif into Order. Which means...

Which means V1 understands the tragedy of the Lust layer and King Minos. The mindles-ness of its carnage across Hell isn't total. It understands how sad it is enough to make art about it.

I need a moment.

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i call this a Happy Death

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Babes

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Davenep rarepare doodles & requests i did

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I was doing some studying, but then it turned into Eridan

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th expressions

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like to slap his bald head

reblog to slap his bald head

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The ULTRAKILL Office romance AU but it's animated by an idiot (me)

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IT'S REAAAAAL

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smokin in the park rn feeling 5 things rn

faded than a hoe

faded than a hoe

faded than a hoe

faded than a hoe

faded than a hoe

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Is Ax/Marco AniTV canon?

Seriously.  Was the last Animorphs episode a case of “we’re already cancelled, so let’s openly queer the protagonists”?  (See: Legend of Korra, The 100, Supernatural, Being Human, Gotham, The Owl House, Angel, etc.)

I was rewatching AniTV, and I’m starting to think they made Ax/Marco canon.  Most of that last episode is about the kids getting ready for a school dance.  There’s a whole sequence where Marco convinces Ax to morph a rabbit, so that he can have a cute pet to attract girls — only as soon as a girl starts talking to Marco, Ax starts freaking out and scares her away.  Later, lizard-morphed-Marco gets grabbed by a teacher and stuck in a cage, and starts yelling for his friends in thought-speak, but only Ax hears his cries.  He rushes out of the dance to rescue Marco, the school gym gets destroyed by yeerks (off-screen), and they relocate the dance to the mall.  The last shot of the show is all six of them slow-dancing: Tobias with Rachel, Jake with Cassie — and Marco with Ax.

[Image ID: Screenshot from AniTV showing 6 couples dancing in a room with a green floor, green tables, and gray chairs.  There are two couples of extras dancing in the background and one in the foreground, but the camera is focused on Tobias and Rachel (in a white jacket and a pink dress, respectively) while Jake and Cassie (in a black tuxedo and red dress) and Marco and Ax (in jeans and in a blue suit) dance on either side of them.  Marco and Ax are indicated with an orange circle.]

I’d always kind of dismissed that moment as being some combination of “pair the spares” and “lol so funniez when 2 boys together” (it is the 1990s, after all.)  However, on rewatching, several things stood out to me.

This is the last-ever episode of AniTV.  The one with yeerks in cell phones aired after, but was filmed before, and this ep was meant to be the finale.

It’s not just that Marco and Ax dance together; it’s that Marco sits down next to Ax (so close they’re touching), looks him in the eye, invites him to dance, holds his hand, and pulls their bodies together.  Not quite a silly friend dynamic.

They’re dancing in the same pose and manner as Rachel/Tobias and Cassie/Jake, both of whom are confirmed romantic couples.

The whole episode kinda has Ax/Marco undertones.  “Friend 1 tries to get various dates with Friend 2 as support, doesn’t realize until late in the story that Friend 2 was their love all along” is a classic teen-romance setup, and that’s basically Ax and Marco’s plot this episode.

It’s a weird choice to end the show on this note, given that this is Part 3 of a 3-part finale and yet the other two parts are about an animal-testing cosmetics company and a secret ex-controller group.  However, if the writers chose to have this be the focus of the last episode because it’s the last episode, arguably that makes more sense.

Just… this is more-romantic framing than I initially realized.

[Image ID: Screenshot from AniTV Marco (in a gray shirt) leaning close to Ax, who wears a powder-blue suit jacket and bright blue bow tie.  Marco is holding Ax’s hand in the foreground, and Ax’s other arm is wrapped around Marco’s shoulders.]

Anyway, I’ve never seen any of the creators comment to confirm or deny it, so I have no idea if that was authorial intent or not.  But this is more than Beauty and the Beast or Legend of Korra ever gave us, in scenes known to have the intent of depicting a canonical queer romance.  And it’s more than I ever realized we got, from an undeniably crappy show that might still have this little spark of bisexual hope at the end.

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ok i had to look up this scene because in remembering it out of context now i was like, did k. a. applegate really gift us all with a scene where tobias, a boy so insane his mental health improved dramatically when he got stuck as a red tailed hawk, eats roadkill because he's been having insane trauma dissociation visions of himself as prey every time he tries to hunt, and then almost dies of embarrassment because his girlfriend walks in on him eating roadkill and is so ashamed he flies away without saying anything in the hopes she'll think it was some other hawk? and like:

If only it had still been breathing. Stupid, isn't it? Drawing a line between prey that's alive, that you have to kill, and somehow pretending that's okay, that's right. And on the other hand, acting like something already dead is off-limits.

The truth is, I'd seen hawks eat roadkill. Older, weaker hawks. Unlucky hawks. It happens.

It just hadn't happened to me.

I circled lower. So fresh. I was so hungry. Such a stupid, meaningless distinction. My hunger argued with me. My hunger was convincing.

I dropped down, as suddenly as if I were going in for the kill. Maybe I wanted to pretend that's what I was doing.

I dropped down and landed on cracked blacktop. I looked around for cars. The street was empty.

Quickly, furtively, I ripped my beak into the raccoon's belly. And I began to feed.

Yes, it was still warm. I gobbled. I ripped and swallowed. Ripped and swallowed.

"Tobias?"

I snapped my head around, but I had already recognized the voice.

Rache? No! Oh, God, no! No.

She just stood there, schoolbooks under her arm. Rachel would be beautiful in the middle of mud slides and hailstorms. On a sweet, sunny day, she made my heart ache.

She looked at me. Embarrassed for me. Wanting to say something that would make it all right. Not knowing what to say. Hurting for me. Feeling my humiliation.

What could I do?

I flapped my wings, skimmed across the pavement, and finally soared into the air.

She might believe I was some other hawk. She might. Or at least she would pretend to.

A piece of raccoon liver was in my mouth. I swallowed it.

like... the child of dysfunction trauma of it all... the Gender of it all... the embodiment of it all.... the dissociation of it all (my hunger vs. me and my hunger is winning so my selfhood is losing)... the entire capital-C Concept of "teenage boy wants to die because his girlfriend catches him eating roadkill" like katherine your MIND... the way the narrative signature of tobias's voice is that he is constantly calling his own feelings stupid... the exquisite and instant massive Projection the second rachel comes on the scene... the way that even in the midst of this crisis of both survival and humiliation tobias can't stop thinking about how hot his sort-of girlfriend is.... what a character... what a series... we were literally so lucky for this

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finally got around to drawing her