#[ listen no one's immune to those effects. it's literally just-- it's also just humanity. IT'S SO INHERENTLY HUMAN. ]

[orchideae]

Okay but also, when I aim to return more actively; is it too early to slowly touch on Christmas threads, even if Genshin hasn't exactly indulged us with it? Liyue not celebrating Christmas (or something akin to it) makes perfect sense, of course, but with the concept of Fontaine being so incredibly European-inspired (alongside Mondstadt), it'd make sense to have something slightly akin to it? With my verse placing Yelan in there more commonly, I just think it'd be neat to introduce her to Fontainian Christmas-y traditions.

[suzukiblu]

d5 a9 for yj core four please?

“Help me,” Tim instructs, beckoning Cassie over to the mats, then amends–“Actually, no, help Kon. Keep his knees up for me. Maybe sit on his face, give him something to do with himself.” 

“Fuck,” Kon mutters, his face blazingly red. Cassie's too busy trying to reboot her brain to really say anything herself. 

“Mrgh,” is about the best she manages. 

“Can't he just, like, fly them up or whatever? TTK ‘em?” Bart asks, peering curiously over Tim's shoulder and down at Kon's already-spread thighs where he's laid out in front of the two of them, suit stripped off but still in his boots and gloves and jacket and all his belts and straps. That was also Tim's idea, along with what he wants Cassie to “help” Kon keep his knees up for. 

“I don't really think he's going to have the concentration,” Tim replies simply, and picks up the shiny, polished metal plug he has very clear intentions for. It's . . . not small. That's just how Cassie's gonna describe it right now. 

“Ohmygod,” Kon mumbles, and half-lifts his hands like he's about to cover his furiously blushing face. Cassie does have her Robin-issued orders, though, and they all agreed Tim was gonna be the one facilitating the scene tonight, so she moves forward to straddle it before he can. Kon makes a fervently appreciative but also fervently strangled noise and grabs onto her thighs instead. 

She leans forward down his body and grabs his thighs, hooking her hands behind his knees to pull them up as she settles herself down cunt-to-mouth with him. She’s the obvious choice to do this, given their comparative strength levels and the fact Tim and Bart literally couldn’t keep Kon from accidentally jerking out of their respective grips, but something about pulling a guy’s legs up for something like this is, well . . . 

Listen, Cassie is very much a person who considers literally any form of gender-based power plays to be ridiculous bullshit, but she isn’t gonna pretend she doesn’t have any thoughts about that kind of thing in the bedroom, alright? Or–well, training room, today, but that’s besides the point here. 

She is not immune to the effects of being the one making a man built like a brick factory spread his legs for the express purpose of taking a very, very big toy, that’s all. 

“Does it vibrate or anything?” she asks a little breathlessly as she glances down at the plug Tim’s still idly turning in his hand, because Kon's already kissing her cunt wet and eager and digging his fingers into her thighs. 

He is also, maybe, not immune to this situation. 

So that’s a thought to be thinking, definitely.

“What's it matter?” Bart asks, and taps the base of the plug with buzzing fingers and a smug grin. “I do.” 

“I don't really think standard human-oriented vibrators would keep up with a Kryptonian libido as well as a speedster could,” Tim muses conversationally, and Kon groans against Cassie’s lips and then licks in deep between them. She huffs, and rolls her hips a little; grinds down just a bit tighter against his mouth. “And Bart doesn't run out of batteries as easy as those do either.” 

“. . . so does that mean I get to prep him?” Bart asks speculatively, his eyes gleaming at the idea, and Kon chokes on another rough little groan. Cassie hisses through her teeth and reflexively tugs his knees up higher, pulling his thighs farther apart as she does to give Tim and Bart both an unobstructed view of and unobstructed access to everything Kon's got. 

“Sure, if you want,” Tim says mildly. “I just want to see how long he can wear it before he starts begging for Cassie to give him the strap again. That was fun to watch last time. Definitely worth having to replace the bed.” 

Cassie glances down at the plug again and bites her lip, but . . . 

“None of mine are anywhere near that big,” she reminds him, and Tim smiles back at her. 

“Actually you've got a bigger one now,” he informs her casually. “Took forever to get enough promethium for it, but it's definitely not human-oriented.” 

“Oh my god,” Kon groans again, the words muffled into Cassie's cunt while she's too busy burning alive to figure out any coherent words of her own. A shudder goes up his thighs under her hands, and her first instinct is to dig her fingers in and make him spread them even wider, enough that he definitely feels the stretch.

Kon whines.

“Oh,” Cassie croaks, and feels her cunt drip into his mouth.

“Grifing hell,” Bart mutters feelingly as he snatches up the lube with already-buzzing fingers and pops the lid too fast to track. Tim's eyes gleam as bright as the polished metal of the plug he's holding, or maybe as bright as that metal will gleam once it's all slicked-up and ready to make Kon beg for her to fuck him.

Or maybe as bright as promethium slicked up just the same way.

Probably none of them are immune to this situation, yeah, Cassie reflects, and exhales a little rougher.

"Color?" Tim checks reflexively, glancing down between Kon's trembling, held-open thighs with an appreciative heat in the back of his eyes, and Cassie doesn't know if a single one of them has ever said "green" so fast in their lives.

[alliehew]

okay I need to get these thoughts out, don’t mind me!

FW/IF Spoilers

I am an audiobook listener, pls be nice about misspellings/misremembered quotes ty

I want to indulge my fan madness as I am itching for Onyx Storm and need to get this out or I’ll chew my own arm off !

Alright, let’s just jump right in: Violet’s signet, Lilith’s pregnancy sickness, and the venin’s taunts

We know from folklore that three brothers (a dragon rider, a gryphon flier, and an average joe) are said to be behind the origin of veninism. Yeah, it’s folklore, but we thought venin and wyvern were too, so.

The venin have emphasized to Violet that she commands the skies, and she could harness ultimate power if she only learned how, and she’d be unstoppable, blah blah blah. Lilith also literally commands the skies through influencing the weather, and had a mysterious “fever” while pregnant with Violet. Lilith’s signet is already relevant to the three brothers parable/veninism, so that’s kind of what sparked this idea.

I’ve seen lots of fan theories about Lilith’s ~illness~ and I think they’re interesting. We’ve got: Lilith turned venin while pregnant, Lilith was attacked by a venin while pregnant, Lilith drained Violet, and variations of this.

I have a question! (fbaa fans wya).

If a venin had a child would they be part venin? Full venin? Are venin capable of having children? Are they only able to have kids under the wards, dimming their channeling abilities? Does Nolan have experience with trying to cure veninism (in Lilith)? Did Lilith turn, or nearly turn, venin while pregnant? Following that train of thought…

Violet’s signet is, at its core, harnessing energy from the environment and channeling it into lightning—Felix’s lessons elaborated on this. The venin, once again, refer to her as the commander of the skies (like one of the three brothers), and venin turn because they harness power from outside themselves. Violet’s signet is fundamentally so similar to veninism that I feel like she walks a thin line here.

It could be an illusory correlation, but Lilith’s mystery illness seems connected to all of this.

Andarna said she knew it was time to hatch when she heard of “the general’s daughter with the mind of a scribe and the heart of a rider” or something along those lines. Did Andarna (from her egg lol) hear about whatever tf happened to Lilith while pregnant? Or did she just know/sense Violet would be a powerful and worthy rider, and could also be instrumental in fighting the venin? Maybe because Violet is part venin/a venin born child/immune to becoming venin?? Some people have speculated that Violet could also be the child of a god, so maybe that’s the direction I should’ve been driving the last 300 miles, who knows.

It’s just an itch in my brain that Lilith and Violet command the skies, there was some mystery sickness that affected Violet in utero, and Violet’s signet can kill venin so effectively. The three brothers from the venin parable are mentioned often enough that I can’t drop the “commanding the skies” veninism thing. And there has to be more to the pregnancy illness, I mean it stole the color from Violet’s hair and weakened her joints for fuck’s sake. What kind of cold does that?? Again, I could be on the wrong track and it’s not related.

furthermore and additionally:

Lightning wielders—whose signet is one of the few that can kill venin—haven’t been seen for centuries. Did the last lightning wielder’s signet manifest because of the venin’s reign of terror? (I think that’s when the dragons started bonding humans? To fight the venin centuries ago?) Are lightning wielders born from venin intervention? Is this like Andarna’s reference to nature ensuring balance? Should I bump up my next therapy session and put down my phone?

Thank you for joining my descent into madness. I just had to get these thoughts out to prevent my brain’s liquification. That is all.

[hyperfixationtimego]

WHO LISTENS TO KAITO INFODUMPING ABOUT SPACE HEADCANONS!!!!!!! BECAUSE THE MANS DESERVES IT

Shuichi - OF COURSE SAIHARA LISTENS TO THIS SHIT BRO. THEY’RE SO IN LOVE AND EVERY TIME MOMOTA OPENS HIS MOUTH SHUICHI IS INSTANTLY LIKE 😍 yes tell me more……I am absolutely retaining this information………no don’t ask me questions just keep talking /j (I’m kidding he really does listen and find it very interesting!!! Constellations are his favorite 🥺) bruh straight up one of shuichi’s favorite things to do is sit down and watch his boyfriend pace around the room, excitedly stimming and raving over whatever space fact has him excited this week simply because he gets to Look™️ at Momota

Maki - says “do you wanna die” before he starts talking and then pretends not to listen but actually does. She also really likes sitting with him and listening to him, even if she doesn’t show it. Sometimes she’ll just spit random space facts she picked up from him in front of everyone and they’re all just like 🤡 hello??? Ms. Assassin????

Kokichi - he and Maki are 🤝 in this. Officially their stance on the matter is “if Momota doesn’t shut the fuck up right now I’ll sucker punch him.” but unofficially they are resting their heads in their hands and hanging on his every word. Like Kaito doesn’t typically come talk to Kokichi about space or anything, but whenever he does or Ouma overhears it it’s like O///////O

Kirumi - Mom said it’s my turn to listen to the astronaut himbo 😎 see what happens is she’ll be doing something and Kaito will find her and start chatting casually and then something will happen and Kaito will delve into Space Mode™️. Which automatically means Kirumi simply MUST stop what she’s doing and sit down to listen and engage in conversation. It’s not a request, per se, but………yes it is it absolutely is she is legally obligated to do this /pos

Gonta - THEY INFODUMP TO EACH OTHER!!!! THE CONCEPT OF “SPACE BUGS” IS SOMETHING THEY DISCUSS VERY OFTEN IT’S SUCH A FUN HYPOTHETICAL THEY LOVE IT

Korekiyo - even anthropologist man is not immune to the Luminary of the Stars’ charm because um everyone is in love with him actually??? Kaito is usually the only one to ever actively engage in Kiyo’s lectures aside from Shuichi, and they have a lot of fun discussing the history of space travel, as well as the effects it had on humanity. This is actually how they become friends!!!

Rantaro - they are comfortable just sitting and listening to any of their friends’ random hyperfixations, so hearing about space is pretty pog

Kaede - she engages very well in the conversation whenever she’s not bored by it!! Sometimes Kaito is a little too much for her, but she’s usually able to match his energy very well!!! :D she tends to go to Shuichi almost directly afterwards like “guess what Kaito told me today!” And he’s like “do tell 👀”

Ryoma - 🤝 with Rantaro on this one. he is just. he is just sitting there

Angie - SHE LOVES LISTENING TO HIM SO MUCH!!! WHENEVER HE TALKS ABOUT SPACE TO HER, SHE STARTS PAINTING GALAXIES AND THE NIGHT SKY AND UNIVERSES AND THEN SHE SHOWS THEM TO HIM AND HE STRAIGHT UP LOSES HIS MIND LIKE BRO??????? BRO

Tenko - doesn’t happen very often because she’d rather punch him than listen to him monologue for three hours, but whenever it does, she’s awed by the determination and admiration she sees in his expression. Like it’s one of those things where it’s obvious how much he loves it just by looking at his face and she’s fucking 🥺 over it

Miu - Miu’s secret is that she loves when people tell her things so the whole time, even though she’s insulting him, she’s fucking hanging on every word. Like literally she’s so happy that Kaito wants to share this with her it makes her feel so honored and excited and it motivates her to do some inventing while he’s talking so she can keep her hands busy!!! They’re friends hehe I love them

Himiko - they text!!!! Himiko’s not a fan of long winded verbal conversations, and Kaito understands that!!! It’s easer for her to simply read the giant walls of texts he leaves and respond to them that way hehe. Plus, whenever she’s about to fall asleep during a conversation, she just lets him know that she’s fine with him rambling while she sleeps so she has a nice little surprise to wake up to 😭

Kiibo - are u kidding???? Kiibo loves learning about new things!!! He’d be all over learning about what Kaito knows, and would be even more excited to find out why it’s so important to Kaito!!! They probably talk to each other and exchange ideas really easily!!!

Tsumugi - was honestly debating even putting this one in here but why not!!! She’s initially like why are you talking to me :D but when Kaito refuses to give up and just keeps infodumping she eventually starts to click it with her favorite manga and anime and things like that!! The way they talk about things is near indecipherable for any bystander, but it makes sense to them and that’s what matters!!!?

[bbnibini]

RAPHAEL, AVATAR OF BLUSHING HUMILITY (TO COUNTER PRIDE)

(ao3 vers.)

The third eldest (after Cain and before Uriel)

Looks like a playboy but is actually really really shy around girls (looks can be deceiving!)

Is the type who blushes when you compliment him. He lives up to his name after all.

Doesn’t like it when the attention is on him, and can only concentrate on his work when he is alone. He’s self-conscious like that.

His name means “It is God who has healed”. And again, lives up to his name since he acts as the main healer/doctor in Heaven. To accommodate with the modern times, he updates his medical knowledge every 10 years by studying medicine in the human world. Is a hard worker but knows his limits unlike a certain archangel (cough Michael).

He is also the protector of weddings and conjugal love so he often answers prayers from married couples. Raphael really values the sanctity of marriage and does his best to make married couples last. Due to this, he gets saddened, and sometimes even cries when a marriage united by God had been broken.

Has very high empathy and cries at the littlest things. The literal definition of a soft boi.

Suffers the brunt of Uriel’s antics due to the closeness of their lines of work from each other. If he complains he’s tired, 70% of the time, (post-snap)Uriel is the reason for his stress.

The remaining 30% is Gabriel’s doing.

Combined together and it’s Raphael’s living nightmare.

Really tries his best to contain the sexual deviant that is the Avatar of Chastity. (ironic)

Such attempts consist of him driving the said deviant away from the cherubs, Luke and Azrael. (Must protect the children!)

…and giving him the death stare when Uriel attempts to open his mouth in front of Michael when the latter asks for “suggestions”. (grandpa is tired already and doesn’t need the additional stress).

“Don’t have sex. Because you will get pregnant and DIE.” 

If he doesn’t do damage control, no one will. Michael is too busy, Cain is too doting and Seraphiel just…gave up. Azrael is only a few hundred years old. What if he learns from his brothers’ bad examples?

The disappointed and unappreciated(?) single mom of the group.

Likes brewing tea. Often brews tea to go with Luke’s sweets.

Is good friends with Simeon. Also not good with human technology outside of medicine like his friend(though not as bad as Simeon).

Keeps a stash of lollipops for his little patients and often gives some to Azrael after the young boy’s angel-of-death training with Michael. Since Azrael wouldn’t accept them without reason, he usually makes an excuse that the Avatar of Patience needs “a checkup every time after training”. He knows how harshly Azrael treats himself sometimes so he liked to at least cheer him up a little by giving him his favourite sweets.

A bit of a health nut, but since he has child patients, he often makes his concocted medicines a lot more palatable for their taste buds. He often mixes his herbs and concoctions in snacks and desserts to get children to drink their medication.

He also realised this is the best way for Seraphiel to finally eat the vegetables he hates so much. Of course, he does so without the Avatar of Temperance’s knowing.

The unofficial baker for the Virtues. Likes teaching Luke how to bake in his free time.

If you want to see something adorable, tell him “Great job!” or “I really appreciate you.”

Expect a human tomato with teary eyes, and overall just a sputtering mess.

Self-deprecation.exe

Rather than his angel form, he likes using his human form more. He’s especially fond of wearing labcoats. He thinks the clothes in the Celestial Realm are too flashy for him.

As long as you don’t pay attention to him, he’s easily one of the most powerful angels in Heaven. But due to his shyness, he’s usually content with standing by in the sidelines.

Is probably an otaku. Seraphiel briefly saw him holding out a weird looking glowing wand while chanting “Roo Rye-chin is bay” in his office once. Raphael avoided him for 3 days straight after the incident.

His mint green hair gets disheveled while working so he started tying it up. Azrael also gifted him with some hair pins to keep the hair out of the way and he liked it so much that he started growing his hair longer so he can use it everyday.

Had some beef with Asmodeus back in the day but they seem to have a neutral relationship now.

…Raphael has no idea why he always gets entangled with lascivious personalities either.

Illnesses do not always have to be physical. Raphael also pacifies those with troubled minds. If you pray to him when you have some mental ailments, or even anxieties, he would always offer an ear to listen. Oftentimes, he couldn’t help but absorb your negative energy, which he usually expresses through crying. Even so, if he knows listening to your prayers would ease even a bit of your pain, he will always be willing to help you.

Also the patron angel for the blind. These days, he couldn’t heal the blind while on incognito unlike the old days, so he instead helps researchers or doctors sometimes when treating blind or partially blind patients. He also does this in other fields of medicine. If he discovers a way to treat an illness and along with it, gains Michael’s approval to interfere with the humans, he will do so by offering information, or sometimes, he appears in researcher’s or doctor’s thoughts or dreams so they could take credit for the information themselves. If a medical discovery was discovered in serendipity, 90% of the time, it was due to Raphael’s interference.

He doesn’t have any preferences for food. He would be happy to eat anything as long as it’s healthy and filling.

Often goes foraging in the human world as an excuse to find rare herbs and plants he can use in his medicine.

His medical knowledge (especially potion making) often attracts the attention of witches. Since he has almost zero social skills especially  in dealing with the opposite sex, he uses Michael as a shield so he wouldn’t deal with them.

Michael’s office is a fortress in itself. Once you promise to help him out with his work, good luck getting out alive. (He doesn’t mind though. It’s a lot better than dealing with girls).

Probably bumped into Levi a few times when going to Ruri-themed events.

He tests the medicine he makes on himself before using it on his patients. Due to this, he is resistant, and even immune to some poisons.

If he coops himself up in his clinic for more than a week, he’s most likely in quarantine from whatever deadly side effect his experiment-of-the-month brought upon.

He has little regard for his own well-being, and often prioritises other people over himself. Despite his timidity and shyness, he is quite daring, perhaps even careless if the other party involved is himself.

[kinetic-elaboration]

June 17: 1x23 The Omega Glory

Watched the very uneven episode “The Omega Glory” today. Upon some reflection.. I think I have seen it? But I think my last rewatch ended abruptly after “By Any Other Name” so it might have been some time ago.

Anyway, it was... something. Decent, I might even say good, until the last 10-15 minutes and then it just went off a cliff? That’s how I’d summarize it.

Sulu, my beloved. I’ve missed you.

Kirk knows where all the ships are. I mean, obviously, but I love to hear it.

Phasers on heavy stun huh?

It’s so weird to be on a different ship. That looks like the same ship. It’s so empty and haunted looking.

With creepy crystal remains of bodies everywhere.

“These white crystals... are the crew.”

Something was thirsty!! Perhaps... a water vampire? Perhaps... a former McCoy girlfriend?

(Honestly having watched the whole ep...they could have expanded this intro longer. It was creepy and mysterious. Then cut the last act.)

Oh no, they’ve been infected and now must quarantine. Sort of. I guess.

...Oh no, is this Vietnam? Again?

“Our old enemy, Vietnam.”

My mother suggested the disease might be communism and I don’t think that metaphor tracks through the whole episode but you know what.. anything’s possible.

I don’t like this whole “you can’t leave the planet or you’ll get sick and die” thing. Too familiar.

"I may never be able to leave this planet but I have a worse problem: a colleague may be breaking a rule."

Says the man who has frequently violated a directive that has never been referred to as Prime before.

Kirk is getting very mumbly. That’s his serious voice.... bu it’s also his Denny Crane voice lol.

Like bio warfare in the 90s? TOS really thought the 90s was going to be the dark ages, didn’t it?

Only 90s kids remember...

Spock bursting in with a wounded man, just bringing the drama, as he does.

He’s not even listening to McCoy. Rude.

Spock absolutely 100% would have killed Captain Tracey on instinct as soon as Kirk is threatened.

Sulu’s in command? I love Captain Sulu but where is Scotty?

Kirk is so good. Clever, strong, smart. Knows all the regulations.

Tracey’s so dumb. “They’ve eradicated disease and live for hundreds of years!” Man, have you considered that they are...aliens? And their life spans are simply.... naturally longer than human life spans? And even if you could isolate the serum, it might not work on humans?

And his master plan is to isolate their immunity and bottle it for profit. It’s our old enemy... capitalism and the exploitation of intellectual property.

A fight scene!

“The pointy-eared one stays.”

Another fight scene!

Spock is watching all of this, and you know what, I feel like he’s not upset about it. It’s just like Pre-Reform Vulcan. Perhaps some... Amok Time flashbacks? “Damn, I wish that was me.”

Peanut gallery Spock.

“I wish you could teach me that.” / “I have tried.” Omg where is my scene of Spock trying to teach Kirk the nerve pinch?

And then that look Kirk gives him.

I don’t get the point of this scene but it amuses me that as soon as McCoy sees the pretty girl, he feels better.

A post-apocalyptic alien world... a very interesting concept. Like you could do a lot with that idea imo.

“That’s our worship word [freedom too.” Umm.... questionable.

Damn bitch, that was cold. Just knocking him out like that.

Damn yankee.

...Yankee and Communist dammit.

McCoy’s not even surprised to see Kirk and Spock out of jail.

Nature created a natural counterbalance to the biological disease. Where is OUR natural counterbalance, I ask?

McCoy sounds extra Southern rn. It’s all the stress.

I really don’t think Shatner gets enough credit for his subtlety. His face when McCoy explains the whole situation...

Oh he's mad now. "You've hurt Spock for nothing! Oh yeah and also killed thousands but MOSTLY THE SPOCK THING!”

Whereas Tracey really doesn’t seem to care about anything but war for its own sake. He knows now that his master plan for immortality was nothing the whole time...but he still needs to call those Yangs.

In other words, another once-reputable figure of authority now gone mad.

Kirk’s voice is so casual when he’s talking to Uhura and Sulu, you feel like he’s gotta have something up his sleeve. He can never hide when he’s really upset about something.

...Apparently what he had up his sleeve was his crew knowing regulations and then another full body tackle. Fight scene 3!

"My need for attention is vital.” Same, Spock.

This is a very attenuated and unbelievable connection Kirk is making but he’s Kirk so I’ll assume it makes sense that he’s putting it all together so fast.

Alternate Universe: Vietnam canon-divergence lol.

For anyone keeping track, this is right about the point where the episode goes off the rails.

YOU’RE A ROMANTIC, JIM. Well he’s right about that at least and he should say it.

Oh no, an American flag.

Cloud William, chief and the son of chiefs. That’s continuity of government for you.

(Also pretty hilarious that this society is supposedly So American with our exact flag and Constitution and everything... but they’re not a democracy.)

I really don’t want to believe that “under God” is still in the pledge 200 years from now.

"You're confusing the stars with heaven." Kirk thinks he's being called an angel.

The absolute mishmash of meaningless, referent-free words here. America. Native Americans. Communists. The flag, the Constitution. God. Angels. Devils. What???

Like how can they both be flag worshippers AND...believers in God? Who is their God? Alien George Washington?

So rude to call Spock Kirk’s “servant.” That’s his space husband!

Is that a literal picture of Spock as a demon in their.. Bible?

I can’t even follow this anymore.

“You command him.” I mean...yes, that’s how the military works.

“He has no heart.” Wow, rude.

“His heart is different!” I stan one (1) Southern Doctor.

I feel like Spock is just... not having this at all. His face loos like he’s thinking what I’m thinking.

Oh no is that the CONSTITUTION??!

“Kill his servant” wow Tracey is obsessed with Spock, isn’t he? I guess everyone in the Fleet knows about them and their special relationship.

Spock is even amused by the knife at his throat. His eyes say "I am distressed--but fascinated!"

A FOURTH fight scene? And here I thought Kirk was going to recite the Constitution.

“I’m open to suggestions.” He’s just as worried about Kirk as McCoy is, bu the doesn’t show it.

...Yep, he’s being telepathic again. Not really in line with his usual telepathy but okay. Alien magic is flexible.

Okay I have a JD and I can confidently say there is nothing about good defeating evil in the Constitution.

And now this alien guy is immediately ready to make himself a ��slave.” That seems problematic. What happened to the holy word “Freedom”?

Wow, Kirk's in a bad mood. "You can't pronounce your own holy words worth shit."

“This is only for the eyes of a Chief,” he says and Kirk just pushes him away.

Spock literally turns Tracey around for Kirk’s big final speech like “Listen up, bitch, my boyfriend’s talking.”

Is this the 4th of July episode?? Feels like there should be canons and fireworks going off behind him rn.

Idk, the words of the Constitution can't be so unique and unprecedented if a WHOLE OTHER ALIEN CIVILIZATION just came up with them, too, on their own, like monkeys typing Hamlet. (Given the timelines here... they probably did it first too lol.)

"Liberty and freedom need to be more than just words." Like what does that even mean in this context? Sounds nice but it’s very hard to put into the context of all the rest of this.

“And uh be nice to the Kohms,” after most of them (?) were probably just killed.

I really was into this until the last 10-15 minutes and I think there were under-explored concepts that could have taken the fever dream of whatever that bizarre-o fever dream at the end was. The abandoned ship. The leftovers of bio warfare. The whole weird and under-explained concept of immunity. The tragedy that so much was destroyed,, including but not limited to the whole Exeter crew, for no reason. What happened to Tracey to so destroy him--was it just greed? What about the “Prime” Directive? Is it important or not. They just leave at the end after (as Spock pointed out) doing quite a bit of their own meddling, even though meddling is allegedly the worst. Also, we know almost nothing about the Kohms at all. The “American” society clearly wasn’t democratic. Were the Kohms literally Communist?

I’m willing to accept a certain degree of alternate Earth scenarios--like Miri (though imo that was not a necessary component of that story) or Bread and Circuses, but this was too much. TOO unbelievable. And frankly unnecessary. You could do an allegory for alternate-Vietnam, and it would be just as clear but even more effective. There wouldn’t be any distraction in the form of “what the fuck is that flag doing here?”

There is a potentially incendiary concept here, which is the same one I thought of reading about actual COG plans--certain aspects of the Yanks’ culture survives, but with absolutely no meaning attached. They have a Constitution but they mispronounce all the words. They have this tattered flag but it has no other meaning. They’ve turned the symbols of the government into a religion, but they don’t practice any of the civil aspects of it--they have chiefs, not democratically appointed leaders, for example. Like, COG asks “what IS the country, and how do you make sure the country endures no matter what?” This was an opportunity to show the worst of that: the country continues to exist as symbology only--incredibly strong symbology, but only that--and all of the actual values that were supposed to be stored with that symbology have disappeared. Similarly, their hatred of their enemies endures. It’s lauded in the ep as their attempt to get “their land” back but what if it’s just war for its own sake, as Tracey seems to be engaging in? To tell that story, especially in the 60s, against the backdrop of Vietnam, and with the references to bio warfare and nuclear warfare, could be powerful. And I know TOS can work in metaphor and comparison. It doesn’t need to bring out a literal fucking flag.

Honestly, it was like they had one good, classic, sci fi story but it didn't fill 52 minutes so they tacked on the American Pride 4th of July Propaganda Extravaganza at the end.

It really felt like the lesson was “America good” lol.

I liked the concept of the post apocalyptic society in the aftermath of bio warfare as a cautionary tale for 1960s America, and I'd be up for crazed snake oil salesman Starfleet Captain (or...whatever his rank was) if it were a bit better explained. But the rest of it....

It also... could have been kinda incendiary with the idea that the Constitution and flag are religious symbols... I mean some people do treat them that way and I've always found that, first, blasphemous, and second, bizarre in such a hyper-Christian country. But I feel like instead of digging ito that, they just tempered it with "But also they're Christian, as you can tell by their drawing of devil!Spock, for some reason."

Idk, this story could have been complete with out the whole weird “Vietnam AU” back story or alternately it could have been a biting commentary about what defines America, and about whether or not our symbols might be more enduring--or even more important to people today??--than the laudable but more complex and difficult ideals that underpin the country’s founding. Are the words of the Constitution just gobbledy gook? They are if you don’t live by them, and America has always struggled to do that. It definitely would struggle even more in the aftermath of an apocalypse.

...I’m more annoyed now, thinking about the possible sci fi story that could have been...

Anyway next is an ep I’m fairly sure I haven’t  seen, so that should be fun.

[every-kirishima-eijirou]

The Beauty of Red Riot’s Origin Story: Episode 72 Analysis (LONG POST AHEAD)

Well, here we are! I’ve been waiting ages to watch this episode, and now, it’s finally done, and I am more than happy with how it turned out. I’ve seen it in both Japanese and English, back to back, and both Toshiki Masuda and Justin Cook knocked their performances out of the park, and the emotion conveyed in their voices only made our boy’s origin story that much more emotional. But WHY is it so emotional? What makes such a seemingly ordinary backstory have such an impact on a viewer? (Especially viewers like, you know, US). Well, this is the purpose of this lil analysis here, so let us explore how Kirishima’s backstory contributes so nicely to his character. (Disclaimer: Manga screencaps are not my translation).

Let’s start from the beginning:

This panel shows us what we already knew to begin with: Our boy Kirishima is good-natured, stands up for others, and has strong, manly convictions. Nothing special, really, and the revelation that he was like this long before he entered UA is a great foundation for his character. In that regard, he has a similar foundation to Deku, but what differs is their struggles. Now, we know Deku grew up without a quirk in a society where quirks have been thoroughly normalized, but what does Kirishima struggle with, if anything? Is that even possible, what with him being so outgoing and boisterous?

As it turns out: yes. It’s VERY possible. This is where we see that our Red Riot is not as infallible as we may have thought. Yes, Deku had a hard time growing up without a quirk, and while Kirishima was born with a quirk just like most others, he grew up being ashamed of it, which if you think about it is a lot worse in some ways. Quirks are hereditary, and for many people, including Kirishima, quirks are also an important part of one’s own identity. This can inspire feelings of depression and even envy towards people with “better” quirks, like Mina. In contrast with Kirishima’s more traditional view of heroism and chivalry, Mina has a flashy quirk and bubbly personality, which is really effective for diffusing the situation with the bullies. This is where Kirishima’s manliness fails him, and no, not because he got shown up by a girl (thank GOD for that). It’s because heroism in the “modern” age favors heroes who can provide entertainment. Someone who’d be right at home in, say, the idol industry (like Mina). According to his friends, Kirishima’s hardening quirk, which he sees as boring, would not fly in today’s society. Now, Kirishima doesn’t care so much about what his peers think of him, but he’s still ashamed of his quirk, so he trains to harden his body and spirit, both literally and figuratively: 

Also much like Deku, Kirishima has his own hero he looks up to: Crimson Riot. He serves as Kirishima’s main source of inspiration. It’s where he gets his hardline traditionalism from, and also how he copes with having a quirk he sees as “boring”. Again, this is where he and Deku differ. Deku looks up to All Might in a fanboyish sort of way, which inspired him to strive to be a hero as well. Kirishima, on the other hand, not only sees Crimson Riot as an inspiration to be heroic, but also because they have similar quirks. It’s only natural for a child who’s been conditioned be ashamed of something they can’t help. It’s something I can personally relate to as someone who struggled a lot with sexuality as a teenager, and something many others can surely relate to as well. This makes our boy an effective source of inspiration as well. 

However, no matter how hard he trains, both physically and mentally, Kirishima still can’t train himself to not feel fear. It’s only natural for ordinary people to feel fear. After all, fear was what kept humans alive back when they were just starting out. Still, this goes against all of Kirishima’s ideals of what being a hero means. Sure, he has no problem standing up to some regular school bullies, but unlike him, Mina didn’t hesitate to act when her friends were cornered by a 30-foot tall villain in the street. She’s a prime candidate for UA, so what chance does he have of getting in if he can’t stand up to a literal supervillain?

So, he gives up on his dreams of getting into UA. He didn’t act when it mattered. That was it for him. Even worse, the incident where Deku saved Bakugou from the slime monster made headlines. It was good that Horikoshi showed how this affected Kirishima, who was totally uninvolved, because it makes you think of what exactly that implies. After that incident, Deku was miraculously given a powerful quirk by All Might. Maybe if Kirishima were the protagonist, he would have been so lucky, but that’s not the case (more on this later). Despite this, Crimson Riot blesses Kirishima in a more indirect sense:

In his frustration, Kirishima throws a book against the wall, and coincidentally, this hologram-looking thing of Crimson Riot starts playing, and it’s exactly what he needs to hear. As he listens, Kirishima realizes that not even Crimson Riot is immune to fear, but he copes with it by telling himself that failing to save someone because you didn’t do anything is far worse than charging in and giving it your best shot. That way, he can live his life without regret, which is, from then on, what Kirishima strives to do. 

Finally, with a fresh motivation to get into his dream school, our boy pulls through (and gets 2nd place in the entrance exams!). To commemorate this, Kirishima dyes his hair and vows to leave his past behind him, and Red Riot as we know him today was born. 

This should surprise absolutely nobody, but Kirishima’s is my favorite backstory in the whole series, and to conclude this lil essay, I’m going to explain why. As I said before, his backstory is something a lot of people can resonate with. Feeling shame and self-doubt is something many people go through, and it’s prevalent with people who have conditioned themselves to feel ashamed of something beyond their control. Coming to terms with my bisexuality was a struggle for me, so I can definitely relate indirectly. 

This ties into the SYMpathy vs EMpathy argument. A lot of backstories in My Hero Academia, or even media in general, are tragic in a way that not everyone can relate to (not criticism, just observation). Let’s take Todoroki, for example: he was essentially quirk-bred by his father and was abused by him, being trained to the point of overexertion. On top of that, his mother gave him the scar over his left eye, and he has carried that trauma with him his whole life. Not everyone had such a toxic upbringing, but Todoroki sure did, and many people feel sorry for him. In other words, they sympathize. Kirishima, to contrast, had a much healthier upbringing, but has a lot of internalized self-esteem issues that everyone can relate to (or empathize with). While sympathy is the capacity to feel sorry for someone, empathy is the capacity to UNDERSTAND someone. Don’t get me wrong, tragedy is often a crucial element to a story’s narrative (if it’s done well), but it’s sometimes more cathartic for the viewer to see a character overcome more everyday struggles, especially if they can understand them on a fundamental level.

The last argument I will make goes back to what I was saying about Kirishima not being the protagonist, and I think if he WERE, his origin story would not be nearly as impactful. One might say that Kirishima embodies the more stereotypical “hot-blooded” shonen protagonist than Deku does, and I agree to some extent. However, it works better for him to be a supporting character. In most shonens (like Naruto), the protagonist’s backstory is established right away, and as such, the viewer always sees their character in the context of what they were like in the past (we get it STOP SHOWING US THE FUCKING SWING--) In Kirishima’s case, his backstory comes into play much later, and by that point, we are already so familiar with his Red Riot persona that the revelation that he wasn’t always so eager and optimistic hits that much harder, and seeing how it contrasts with Kirishima as we know him in the present feels more rewarding. Yes, we get to see bits and pieces of it early on, like when he feels inadequate after meeting Tetsutetsu and seeing that their quirks are nearly identical, but seeing those feelings fully presented in his backstory only serves to drive that home. In short, we see, at a glance, how far he’s come since then, instead of being forced to watch the whole process from start to finish, and it works really well. 

Another common trend among shonen protagonists, as I said before, is their tendency to be blessed with miraculous new abilities to make them special (and that includes Deku). Obviously, that didn’t happen with Kirishima. He had no pro-hero mentor to guide him, nor an all-powerful booster quirk to bolster his hardening abilities. He got to where he did through sheer perseverance and hard work, with only his idol’s words to keep pushing him forward. While Deku also had to work hard to get to where he is, fortune was on his side, and the fact that Kirishima pulled himself up by his bootstraps (so to speak) is, to me, a lot more admirable. 

And THAT, my friends, is the core of why Kirishima means so much to me as a character, and even if he doesn’t become the #1 hero in the story, he’s my personal #1 hero. So, on that note, thank you for all your support, and as always...Stay sturdy!

tl;dr I FUCKING LOVE KIRI SO MUCH YOU GUYS

[wormworker]

[ Image ID: Twitter thread by @LaurynIpsum, 7:25 PM, 17 Jan 21 :

In the same way that it isn't enough to not be racist, & that we need to be anti-racist - it isn't enough to not be ableist. We need to be anti-ableist.

We ALL need to fight for accessibility, even if we don't need it ourselves. We ALL need to call out ableism when we see it.

-

We ALL need to fight for access to healthcare, even those of us who are perfectly healthy.

This is something we ALL have to do as a society.

Not just the disabled and the chronically ill. And not just those of us who have loved ones who are disabled or have chronic illness.

Ableism is literally killing us.

Ableism is literally making the sick even sicker because of a lack of access to healthcare. And the stress of that, that stress literally damages the body.

Ableism is what results in easily preventable deaths from a lack of access to healthcare.

-

Ableism is why a man died from sepsis. All because he had an infected tooth that he couldn't afford to see a dentist for. He just needed that tooth pulled.

Ableism is why a boy died from rationing his insulin, not long after starting a gofundme in an attempt to pay for it.

Ableism is what has turned us into a society that resorts to gofundme to pay for medical bills. Keep in mind, not everyone makes their goals and not everyone is able to get the money in time, like the boy mentioned above. Many of those people die, just like that kid.

-

We seem to have this attitude that ableism won't ever effect us, which I find terribly perplexing. We act as if it's tragic that x person needs access to healthcare and they can't get it, but that doesn't effect me, so it's not at the top of my list.

I find this perplexing because as I said in a previous thread, we will all need it one day. We all grow old. We all grow frail. All our bodies eventually break down, because that's what the human body does as it ages.

There is no one among us who is immune to the effect of ableism.

-

But what can I, a single person, do?

Let's say you see a that a disability advocate is one of the writers/game designers in a wildly popular new @Wizards_DnD book. Let's say her dungeon is accessible with ramps & elevators, & she starts getting a lot of trolls and hate for that.

Looking at that debacle and going, well I would never do that - I'm not one of those creeps that's going troll her. That isn't enough.

What can you do? GET MAD. Fucking call it out. Publicly make a point of saying that the way @dreamwisp has been treated is fucking unacceptable.

It isn't enough to not be ableist. We all have to make it really fucking clear that ableism isn't welcome or tolerated. We have to make it clear that ableists, go right in the trash with the racists.

-

We also need to ask for more disabled and chronically ill characters in our media. Characters whose personalities and story lines don't revolve around them being sick or disabled. And push for disabled actors to play disabled characters. Just like we push for People of Color to play People of Color.

We need to push for characters that are disabled or ill, and that isn't some superpower. An ill character that doesn't die at the end so everyone can learn a lesson.

Normalize the day in day out benign reality.

Disability and illness that isn't a plot point or a plot device.

-

The other trope we need to avoid is the ill character that gets a diagnosis and they magically are better (*cough* House) or they get the diagnosis and that's the end of the story and we act like everything will be fine now.

It isn't just that you get better or you die.

A part of exposing society at large to the idea of chronic illness is to write it into our media. (And for the love of god consult people who actually have that illness.)

Because right now, a lot of people think it's either you get better or you die. And we need to change that.

-

What can you do?

Be VOCAL.

GET MAD.

Be an ally.

EDUCATE YOURSELF.

Support disabled/chronically ill creators. Listen to the disabled and chronically ill.

It WILL effect you personally one day.

Don't be the person who only cares once it effects you personally.

CARE NOW.

Fight NOW for universal access to healthcare.

Fight NOW like your life depends on it, because one day it will, if it doesn't already.

Fight NOW for accessibility.

Fight NOW because you'll likely need it one day.

Fight NOW and don't stop fighting until we get it.

/end image ID ]

___

source: twitter: @LaurynIpsum

[thelittleredheadedmusician]

some original nonsense

“I’m so glad I get to be here for this,” Eve practically flung herself onto the couch, bouncing slightly before settling. She’d just gotten dropped off after rehearsal and was miraculously still teeming with energy. 

Clara pursed her lips, an obvious attempt to cover up a smile. They’d spent the day helping Eli and Ann track down paperwork and somewhere between the borough hall and stopping at the deli for lunch had been seen by Oliver’s parents. Who forced him to introduce them to Clara and insisted she come for dinner. Ann managed to talk her way out of it by vague statements of “being with her family right now” that had the McNally’s cooing in understanding. Clara couldn’t manage the same without raising too many questions. At least not that quickly. 

So, she’d spent the evening at the farmhouse and then had herself talked into spending the night. The whole experience was odd, Clara settling somewhere between her true sharp self and the doe-eyed charming he’s seen her present herself as. Oliver had the sense that it was strange for her too and that Clara was navigating uncharted waters as she ate his mom’s chicken alfredo. 

But after dinner his parents retreated to the office that used to be the dining room, claiming to be going over paperwork but probably watching House Hunters or something. Leaving the living room to “the kids” which fit when Eve came barging in. 

“I was so worried you would be gone when I got home,” she told Clara, having latched on to the older girl a few days before. 

“I was somehow convinced to spend the night.” Clara narrowed her eyes, brows drawn low as she tried to puzzle out exactly how that had happened. It made her freckles scrunch up into an indistinguishable blur. 

Eve nodded sagely and began wrapping herself up in one of the afghans from over the back of the couch. “Yeah, they do that. It’s a weird quirk of being the ‘cool parents.’” Oliver knew by her tone that she was using air quotes but from the cocoon his sister had made herself it was hard to tell. 

Oliver finished tweaking the playlist he’d made, deciding to kill as many birds with one stone as possible, and pressed play. Rising from his crouch next to their entertainment center to go sit on the couch on Clara’s other side. The music began to play through the living room’s speakers and Eve giggled madly. 

Clara turned to give him the most suspicious look he’d ever seen, and that was saying a lot based on the past week’s events. “I know this song. Maybe. It sounds familiar.” 

Shaking his head, Oliver barely managed to contain his laughter. “Nope.”

The lyrics started and the look of baffled confusion that overcame Clara was the best thing he’d ever witnessed. She froze, shook her head slightly, narrowed her eyes, and then finally turned to him in betrayal. “When did this happen? I was just in Constantinople... When was I in Constantinople?” 

Eve squeaked, high and long as she inhaled. Unable to hold in her own laughter any longer. Oliver managed to remain silent though he was shaking and his stomach ached at the strain. 

“This isn’t funny,” Clara insisted. Her glare wasn’t that harsh though so Oliver didn’t relent. “Oliver!” she scolded. “It’s not funny!” 

“No, it’s hilarious,” he said between gasps of breath. “And it only gets better.” 

~

“Russia’s favorite love machine?” Clara looked like she was going to be sick. “I mean, I might have actually met Rasputin but honestly he was disgusting. And smelt terrible.” 

It was Oliver’s turn to look on in horror. “Of all the things you managed to miss, you met Rasputin?” 

“Possibly,” Clara said sheepishly. “It could’ve just been a drunk.” 

One day, Oliver would stop being shocked by things Clara said. But apparently not today. 

“Ok,” Eve interrupted, “but thoughts on the song?” 

“It’s... good?” 

The look of pure offense Eve gave her made Oliver want to whither and he was mostly immune at that point. Eve took a deep breath, seeming to recenter herself. “It’s a certified bop, Clara.” 

~

“Ok, I’m not an idiot. I know about the Battle of Waterloo. And I’ve read Les Misérables.” Clara was unimpressed by Abba. 

“You actually read Les Mis?” Eve clearly had her own priorities. 

Oliver might not really be into theater but Eve was and he managed to pick some things up. “Ok, hold on.” He tried to do some quick math, but just asking Clara would really be easier. “When did you just... stop following cultural events?” 

She shrugged. “I don’t know, some point after the second Great War?” 

Eve and Oliver shared a look, leaning forward so that they could do so. Eve’s expression said that either Oliver handle this or she would. And also, what the heck was he planning? 

“Ok, so World War II, not second Great War. Where did you even get that one?” he tried to be gentle. But honestly, what the heck?

Clara wrinkled her nose. “I’ve outlasted entire civilizations, Oliver,” she hissed. “Cut me some slack for forgetting some terms. English isn’t even my second or third language. And you people keep changing it.” 

Oliver lifted his hand in defense. “Ok, ok. Point taken. Still, did you not pay attention to the Broadway or West End theater scenes in the 1980s?” 

“No?” Clara turned to see if Eve might be any help. Her slightly manic look meant that probably not. 

“So, you didn’t know that Les Mis is a musical?” She gasped. 

Clara slowly shook her head. 

“Ollie!” Eve screeched, but he was already standing, going to shift through the many DVDs Eve had of various performances. 

~

“Bed,” their mom said, emerging from the office. Their dad had already headed upstairs sometime during One Day More and she was currently in her pajamas. 

Eve tilted her head up, shaking off the hand that Mom was combing through her hair. “But, it’s not over!” she whined. The drums of the finale refrain of Do You Hear the People Sing were starting up meaning that it would be over very shortly. 

“And you’ve seen it a million times and have school tomorrow. Bed,” she countered. 

“Clara’s never even seen Phantom!” Eve tried to counter, which they’d discovered when Eve began rambling about actors sometime during ABC Cafe. Oliver loved his sister, he hated that he knew the names of every song in Les Mis. 

“Clara can stay up and watch it with Oliver then. Or just visit another day,” Mom glanced to Oliver with an almost apologetic tilt to her smile. 

“I can come back,” Clara offered softly. The effect was immediate. Eve and his mom both had twin smiles of pure glee. Much like Ann a few years earlier, Oliver’s friend had been officially deemed another extension of the family. Well neither girl seemed to mind so far. 

Eve launched herself onto Clara in a hug, throwing her blankets to the floor and startling the blonde. Over Eve’s shoulder, he could see Clara’s pale eyes widen and it looked like she was trying very hard not to let her shock get the best of her. They’d managed to keep his parents in the dark about the whole “technically dead” bit but Eve passing right through Clara would kind of ruin the careful charade. 

“I’ll wait until next time for Phantom,” Oliver made it sound like a chore, but he knew Eve would be pissed not to be included. And the whole experience would be more enjoyable for Clara because the two girls had talked through the entirety of Les Mis about the characters and changes from the book. He was positive watching Phantom of the Opera would be the same. 

“You’re not a terrible human,” Eve said by way of thanks. 

Oliver shrugged and their mom rolled her eyes. She started ushering Eve towards the stairs as she said her goodnights. When it became clear that Eve was still occupied squeezing the unneeded air from Clara’s lungs, she gave up. “Don’t stay up too late you two. And Eve, your butt better be in bed by the time those credits stop.” 

Clara laughed and finally began to peel Eve’s arms off her. “You should listen to your mother,” she said kindly. 

“I’m going, I’m going.” 

“If you don’t leave now I will introduce Clara to Drunk Space Pirate without you,” Oliver threatened. 

Eve gasped and leapt to her feet. “You wouldn’t.” 

“I would.” 

The two stared each other down as Eve began backing towards the stairs, almost stumbling over the coffee table in the process. “I knew you like The Mechanisms.” 

Oliver smirked. “Space operas, Eve.” 

His sister huffed and ran upstairs. Clara started laughing softly. “What was that about?” 

“I’ll explain later. I think the novelty of being a ghost would be ruined if I became one too, which would happen if I explained without Eve.” 

“Your sister does seem capable of murder,” Clara agreed. 

“I feel like all the women in my life are?” 

“Yes.” 

Oliver started cracking up at that. Clara joined him. It felt cathartic in light of... everything. Then they remembered that the rest of the house had been going to sleep so they tried to hush each other. Only to laugh more. 

Finally, they sobered and Oliver went to go get his laptop. “Do you know literally anything about the band Nirvana?” 

Clara blinked. “Do you enjoy asking questions you know the answer to?” 

Barking a short laugh, Oliver came back over to sit next to her again. “Ok, fair. But I’m going to play an ironic critic of how people respond to the lead singer’s death for you now.” 

“Why?” Clara asked incredulously. 

“I really just want to see what someone so totally removed from the situation thinks of this song.” Oliver shrugged. 

“You are very strange.” 

“And you shouldn’t throw stones.”

[radreactions]

Hey this coronavirus stuff got you freaked out? I wonder which of the companions would be most worried about it

Not really? I mean, the worst thing about it for me is that I don't get to see the woman I've been crushing hella hard on at work 😂

Ada - She is primarily concerned about her friends' wellbeing. Of course, being a robot, she's immune to such human ailments but don't think for a second that she wouldn't take the risk seriously. In fact, she goes so far that she gets her chassis modified to be a one litre bullet proof tank full of hand sanitizer and a ballistic fibre, water proof rucksack with a whole four rolls of toilet paper. Four!

Cait - The only corona she's concerned about is the swill they pass off as pale lager - now that is the real problem with society.

Codsworth - He's like your paranoid grandparents: always reading the Publick Occurrences, can be found huddled next to the radio listening to DCR for the latest updates, and constantly nagging you about wearing gloves and a facemask. Constantly disinfecting everything in the house twice a day.

Curie - She takes it as her personal mission to construct a cure. After all, she successfully created one for the Vault 81 disease, surely she can do it for a mutated flu? In fact, she barely remembers to sleep until she finds one, a small part of her regretting that she's now effectively human and unable to go very long without needing to eat and sleep.

Dogmeat - With everyone being as gloomy as they are, fretting about the latest pandemic to haunt the wasteland, Dogmeat takes upon himself his own mission - to make as many people smile as he can! He does this by bounding around the settlement like a little puppy, jumping up and nuzzling into anyone brave enough to step outside. He even found a friend to play with, another dog just like him! At the amusement of everyone watching through the windows from self-quarantine, they play tug, chase each other around and...and...why is Sole yelling at him to get inside? Is it because his friend is unusually big and green and...oh.

Danse - He tries to stay away from Prydwen as much as he can. Sure Captain Cade is a good medic and their healthcare division is pretty solid, but being surrounded by hundreds of people in one metal flightdeck? No thanks. He'll take his chances in the power armour.

Deacon - The facemask stays on during sex 👌

Gage - Who gives a fuck about a cold? Let's get back to killing and pillaging. After all, something's gotta kill ya in the end.

Hancock - Another good thing about being a ghoul? In addition to his ruggedly handsome good looks and fantastic life expectancy, he's also discovered that he's actually immune to the 'rona. Who'd have thought? And if he takes advantage of the situation by relentlessly flirting with a flustered Curie who's still trying to find a cure, can you really blame him?

MacCready - He's a nervous wreck. After living through Little Lamplight - the place where he'd nearly died from a multitude of different sicknesses - this virus truly scares the shit of out him. Not only because he has himself and his relatively weak immune system to worry about, but he also has his freshly cured and still very fragile son to think about.

Maxson - He has full faith in Captain Cade and his staff to take care of the sick and injured alike. Scribe Neriah has already started testing potential vaccines on the molerats and so far, only one of them have exploded. He takes that as a good sign. During the last flu, Proctor Ingram was reporting bits of flesh in various places of the flight deck for days after the first round of attempted molerate inoculation. The smell was the worst.

Nick Valentine - Like Ada, he takes great care in ensuring that his friends practise safe hygiene. During the quarantine, he spends a day with Ellie, a day with Sole and a day with each of his other friends before rotating all over again until the quarantine is lifted. He knows what it's like to feel alone and hates the thought that they'd feel that way no matter what the circumstances are.

Old Longfellow - He always knew there were perks for going it solo, just as he always knew there were perk for drinking alcohol. Both could see him come out of this thing unscathed, but it's Sole and all their damn friends that he's worried about. They just had to be a damn social butterfly didn't they? Now they've got him risking his neck by bringing them all a bottle of whiskey to cheer 'em up.

Piper Wright - She feels like she's being torn in a multitude of directions. She needs to keep Nat safe and away from potential germs, but she can't just leave her locked in the house for however long this thing is going to last and she needs her printing press because at the same time, she has a duty to the people to report on this! Dr Sun has been her saving grace, informing her on proper hygiene and the official survival rates - essentially the real story of the corona virus and not hearsay scare mongering by people living in constant fear. Plus, she's having serious Power Noodle withdrawals.

Preston Garvey - This is by far the quietest time for the Minutemen ever. It's unnerving really, having patrols report back that literally nothing but mutated wildlife is out there. Not even the raiders want to risk falling ill, and for that, Preston feels just a bit guilty about feeling grateful for the virus. It means he can stop for a moment and proverbially catch his breath, deal with the recent losses and the whirlwind of the past few months. Lord knows he's been unsteady for a while now and once this thing blows over? The Commonwealth is going to need him in top shape more than ever.

X6-88 - He's suprised at how quickly the virus has spread. He was well aware of what it does to it's hosts. After all, he did read Bio Science's briefing before it officially broke out. But one thing that suprised him was that the eggheads were wrong in it completely wiping out the surface population. You see, the Institute constructed the virus to speed up their plans for the above world. It seemed the surface dwellers were much more resilient and proactive than the original directors of the Institute predicted and thus a highly contagious aggressive pathogen seemed like the best option as a last resort. Now though, he's not so sure. The above world - those who (unlike the Institute) are familiar with dealing with the spread of foreign sickness - seemed to have outplayed them once again with their strength and resilience. For that, he couldn't help but be impressed.

[cyprinodont]

i can't see your replies to these people (they probably deleted them?), but i can already tell that they're the type that want both to insist upon their right to do and think whatever they want, which is fine and well, but also to be *right* and never responsive to any actual evidence or argumentation. a lot more comfortable to write off things as "western" than offer up a solid critique of them. they're objectively stupid and gullible buy think theyre not because theyre anti status quo

I dont think Selfown is stupid or malicious I just think they have confused things. Its totally understandable to be skeptical of new medicines. Just like you dont buy a new model car, you wait until the kinks have been worked out in the design. Its understandable that people are afraid, especially because a lot of people dont have the knowledge and skills to separate real information and crackpots. They by default dont trust doctors, they listen to people who they trust who say things about living natural or not needing modern medicine.

But where they go dangerously wrong is in thinking that this is a private decision that only affects themselves. Actually especially when they started talking about how they dont trust WELL proven vaccines like chicken pox and spewing bullshit like "chicken pox is actually integral to brain development" and herd immunity bullshit. That stuff is obviously wrong and literally kills children. We have decades of data on vaccines like polio or the mumps and we KNOW, we KNOW that they are so so so much better than allowing children to get life threatening diseases. The statistics work out so well in our favor for most vaccines. You have to actually be some kind of radical primitivist to say that you want more children to die of preventable diseases, which is what would happen if we stopped vaccinating.

Their arguments about the downsides are entirely based in fear, basically. Fear of the "unnatural" it's a pretty common pathology these days, were so bombarded with things that we domt understand that some people think that the best response they can have is to just jettison everything they dont understand. I dont understand vaccines so therefore I'm afraid of them.

And the fact is that theres nothing wrong with those people. You cant convince them with facts because they dont have faith. They dont have faith in scientists. Which is what it is, science is a religion as much as any other. Personally I know enough science and scientists that I do have faith in them, I do truly believe that most people working in scientific fields are genuinely smart and good people who want to help the world. The problem is that anti vaxxers and people like selfown dont have that faith, they are inherently suspicious of scientists for many understandable reasons. Science needs to market itself just like any other religion, and it has not done a great job. It has been pretentious and patriarchal and even actively hostile to human life at times. It got us Zyklon B and nuclear weapons and assault rifles and the highway system and Google and Amazon and lots of other things that are anti-human. Doctors have tortured people and used human testing and ignored entire demographics of peoples subjective experiences (women, people of color) Ever since the first saw bones took someones tooth out with an arrowhead, doctors have caused immeasurable pain and saved peoples lives.

I had a lot of coffee but my main point is that all of that bullshit is just a smokescreen for the fact that vaccines are a simple statistical calculation: is the cure worse than the disease? If polio kills and maims people, and the polio vaccine reduces the number of people killed and maimed, it's just stupid NOT to use it even if there are some side effects. Like tylenol has side effects but when I have a headache, the fact that it stops my pain is worth more to me than a slight stomach ache. To Selfown and people like them, I dont understand WHY, but they have decided that the possible side effects are worse than children and people dying. That I cant explain, they have to explain that calculation for themselves. It almost seems to me to be an ego thing, they would prefer a dead child to a disabled one. Like the people who think vaccines "cause autism", even if it DID, isnt a living autistic child better than your child possibly dying and also infecting your neighbors child and them dying? Even if you hate vaccines and think they're terrible for evolution or whatever, is that worth literally watching children die in front of you? Or do you just think that you wont be the one whose child dies?

[queertheology]

7 Habits of Highly Effective Allies

You started down the road of being an ally for LGBT people and now you find yourself realizing that this is hard work, that you don’t have it all figured out, and that sometimes people still get upset with you. Fear not! I put together seven habits of highly effective allies which will help get you started and keep you going in the right direction. Whether you are brand new in your support of LGBTQ people or years in the making, you’ll learn something from this.

1) CONTINUE YOUR EDUCATION

There’s more to being an ally than saying “It’s not a sin to be queer.” Once you get there, keep going. Learn about the many needs of LGBTQ people: housing, employment, health care, immigration, education, safety. Meet with queer people that aren’t on billboards and in TV ads. Learn about the needs of homeless queer youth, of genderqueer people, of kids who are transitioning, of immigrant queers, of serodiscordant couples. This is a lifetime journey and you will be so much more effective when you embrace growth and learning all along the way, always refusing to stagnate.

2) PASS THE MIC

It’s great that you are willing to speak up for us. World changing in fact. Step one is to recognize that you, as a straight cisgender person, receive unearned benefits at the expense of LGBTQ people. It is easier for you to get into school, to be ordained, to get married, to immigrate, to seek medical attention, to be published, to be invited to speak at a conference. You need to know and recognize this. And then you need to do something about it. Refuse to speak on straight-only panels. Invite LGBT people along on your speaking gigs. Interview or guest post LGBT writers, theologians, businesspeople, actors, artists, and activists on your blog or website. Recommend or distribute resources created by queer people rather than answering the question yourself.

3) REMEMBER THAT OPPRESSION IS AN ONION

Even straight white males are not immune from marginalization. Perhaps you are Muslim. Maybe you are in recovery from drug or alcohol addiction. Or have spent time in jail. Or have a mental health condition. Or a physical disability. Maybe your body size is not the one idealized by our culture.

There are a variety of ways that straight men and women suffer marginalization: gender, race, skin color, ethnicity, religion, body size, physical and mental capacities, disease/carrier status, incarceration record… the list goes on. You don’t need to be perfect. In fact, recognizing the ways in which we are both oppressor and oppressed is a key step in a path toward liberation for all. Allow us to work in solidarity with you too. You don’t need to be our savior (and we don’t need to be yours). We can be in this together, as partners!

4) GET IN THE WAY

We can speak for and defend ourselves and still there are times when we want your help. It can be tiring to explain over and over again why we think it’s OK to be gay or why we need to transition. Help us when we are exhausted by taking over those conversations. Stand in the way–literally–when people denigrate us with their words. My good friend Sam Crowell spoke up when a man entered our church and started spewing anti-gay rhetoric. As someone who works in solidarity with LGBTQ people, it’s important that when push comes to shove, you’ll have our back, you’ll get in the way, you’ll act up. It may be uncomfortable, it might get you in trouble, that’s part of the package: welcome to our lives.

5) GET MESSY

Let’s be honest right up front: straight people will give you flack for being difficult and pushy, for always talking about “the gay thing,” and for being hypersensitive. And queer people will give you flack for not doing enough, for being too patient, for not doing it right. At some point, you might lose friends, family, money, or jobs. Jay Bakker lost almost all funding for his church, Revolution NYC. This is messy stuff. Embrace the mess, get messy.

Be willing to be uncomfortable. Be gracious and thankful when corrected. Allow yourself to let go of the comfort and safety that comes privilege. It’s messy work and it is also gratifying, life-giving, sacred work. And with a heaping of grace, we can all get through this.

6) ENGAGE IN OTHER SOLIDARITY WORK

Make sure that as you pursue freedom for LGBT people, you don’t throw other people under the bus. Don’t demonize unmarried people, polyamorous people, pagans, or feminists to help us gain rights. Don’t forget about queer people living under US military occupation, or indigenous queer people whose stolen lands we live on. Don’t ever say “They’re just like you, not like those people.” There’s enough room for everyone. Foster alliances and collaborations, rather than divisions.

7) LISTEN TO US

I saved the most important one for last so it will be fresh in your mind. This is absolutely crucial. Listen to us. Always. Without exception. If we tell you that what you said is hurtful or harmful, it is: apologize and stop it. If we tell you that your strategy is counterproductive, stop it. If we tell you that you’re doing a great job, believe us! If we tell you that your association with a person or organization undermines our trust in you, it does.

You might disagree, we might be at odds with your friends, it might be uncomfortable. If you want to work in solidarity with us, you need to trust us. This is about us, our needs, our safety, our liberation.

BONUS: FOCUS MORE ON WORKING IN SOLIDARITY RATHER THAN SELF-IDENTIFYING AS AN ALLY

Instead of self-identifying as an “ally” focus more on working in solidarity with LGBTQ people. Calling yourself an ally places the focus on yourself rather than on LGBTQ liberation. It also presumes that you are doing productive, useful work. Many straight people are (Jay Bakker and Onlielove Alston are excellent examples). If you are, we’ll tell you! Instead, focus on the work that needs to be done and on partnering with and following LGBTQ. We need to claim our lives, humanity, autonomy, and freedom. We absolutely want you along for the journey and at the same time we do not want you to (even accidentally) revictimize us by taking away our voices, agenda, and self-direction.

LEARN MORE ABOUT TRANSGENDER THEOLOGY

This fall, we’ll be hosting a course completely dedicated to transgender theology. The course will be geared both toward transgender Christians and to cisgender folks who want to learn from and better serve transgender folks. In addition to the lesson materials, there will be both open and closed discussion spaces.

There’s nothing like this out there, so we’re creating it.

Hop on the waitlist to make sure you get a spot (and snag some exclusive extras)

[dalekofchaos]

The Fireflies’ vaccine wouldn’t have worked or why Joel did the right thing

In the last part of The Last of Us, Joel kills all the fireflies and saves Ellie but by doing so he may have doomed humanity by ending the possibility of a cure being made, making the ending bittersweet and morally ambiguous. The thing is, Joel didn't really do anything wrong, and saving Ellie was the right choice, here are my reasons:

The doctors would remove Ellie's brain to try to create a vaccine, but that's not how vaccines works, a vaccine is a tamed version of a pathogen that "teaches" your body to defend against it, to do a vaccine you need to use the pathogen in small quantities or a modified version of it, Ellie is immune to it, you don't create vaccines from the immune system, that's called a serum, and it works differently, a serum is used when someone comes in contact with a disease and it contains a series of antibodies that fight the infection, but it doesn't make anyone immune. So what they were trying to do was pointless;

Even if the doctors know what they were doing, it was a wild shot a with no guarantee that it would work;

Even if a vaccine was successfully made they wouldn't save the world, the world was destroyed 20 years ago, society collapsed and was rebuilt again on a new way, and everyone already new how to deal with it, also the greatest threat were not even the cordyceps fungus anymore, it was the infected (that the vaccine couldn't do nothing about) and the crooked humans that walked the earth. Besides that, the fireflies had no way to distribute the vaccine worldwide, not even in a national level.

If you listen to the tapes in the Colorado segment, it pretty much confirms that Ellie is not unique and they wouldn’t be able to make a vaccine anyway. The doctor has practically lost his mind and Ellie is just his white whale. Ellie was not the first subject and she most likely wouldn’t have been the last. 

The doctor pretty much went against the common ethical code of all medical practitioners just for a CHANCE at a vaccine/cure.  

And wouldn't it take a lot of time to study her? A day to do all the tests is outright impossible. Just look at the corona vaccine. With all the tech the world has the biotechnologists are going to take more than a year to make a vac.

Vaccines for Fungal infections are nearly impossible and are a logistical nightmare.Even in today’s world,they can only be treated with antibiotics and anti-fungal medicine. They didn’t even bother with thoroughly researching Ellie’s blood and trying to extract the fungal specimen without killing her. The tests were blood samples and samples from the area where she was bit and then only cutting her brain open as THE LAST POSSIBLE USE for her, then when their step 1 was "lol just kill this incredibly rare specimen" I was shocked.

BTW, PS4 version actually removed a piece of paper that's available in all the other forms of the game. What is this piece of paper? Just the one that describes how they've tried this process dozens of times before and how they've NEVER gotten any useful info.

The Fireflies are terrorists. The Fireflies are terrorists, and not even competent ones. Here we go. We first hear of the Fireflies in credits, where they are taking credit for attacking the Federal Disaster Response Agency. Not a good start.The next time we start to see hints of them is through graffiti in the quarantine zone. What does this graffiti say? Fireflies will take it all back. That sounds great! Burn it all down. ...oh. That’s, uh, a little less great. Fucking die, pig. Um… Uh, that’s uh, not a great look here guys.And that goes on and on. The graffiti does not exactly inspire. All it does is get angry.Next time we see them, it’s when they literally bomb a checkpoint and supply truck, then begin firing wildly all over the place. This is straight terrorism. They don’t care if there is collateral damage, in fact, Joel gets injured in this scene.Then we meet Marlene, the so-called Queen Firefly. Injured and on the run, the military is slowly wiping them out. This leads to a line of dialogue that is absolutely hilarious. Marlene starts to preach about “We’ve been quiet. Been planning on leaving the city, but they need a scapegoat. They’ve been trying to rile us up. We’re trying to defend ourselves”Those are big words from someone who just bombed a checkpoint.This clearly shows us that Marlene cannot be trusted as a narrator. She has an agenda and is lying to Joel and possibly herself. And that despite how effective guerrilla tactics usually are, her group is still managing to get absolutely devastated. They are failing so badly that they have to recruit smugglers just to try to get Ellie out of the city.So begins the trek showing dead Fireflies at every turn. Downtown subway station? Dead Fireflies. The Capitol building? Dead Fireflies. Pittsburgh? Oh, let’s talk about Pittsburgh.Pittsburgh is a monument to Firefly failure. Pittsburgh was originally another Quarantine zone held together by FEDRA. So what happened here? Well, times got hard, and the Fireflies instigated a civil war or insurrection. This fighting lasted for months, with Fireflies lynching soldiers that they caught alone, burning soldiers alive after dousing them in gasoline, and FEDRA retaliating by executing Fireflies. FEDRA finally gave up and retreated from Pittsburgh, putting the Fireflies in control- and then it all fell apart. The people of Pittsburgh discover that the Fireflies had planned to move right into the space FEDRA had previously occupied. And so, after this was discovered, the Fireflies were driven out just like FEDRA had been. Only much faster, and with less fight. And now Pittsburgh is nothing but anarchy. People gunned down in the streets for nothing. Rooms full of bodies, clothes and shoes. Almost looks like after images of Dachau. Bravo, Fireflies. Excellent revolution.Next up, we meet Tommy, Joel’s brother, and disenfranchised Firefly. He worked for them for years, going all the way to Colorado for them. Somewhere along the way, he lost faith in them and left their cause. He doesn’t specify exactly why, but it seems he might have lost faith in their methods.Then we come to the University. This is where we really discover how incompetent the Fireflies actually are. One of the first notes you see at University is about a guy who is angry he got yelled at for falling asleep on guard duty. Real professionals. This same note indicates that while they’re still getting some supplies, it’s not enough for what’s needed, with gasoline being particularly short. The next note comes from a recording, telling us that they’re losing more guards, with the doctor clearly concerned about how much equipment and data will be lost if they have to move. The doctor even calls the Fireflies incompetent in this note. And then we have this genius.. That’s right. Bitten by his own lab monkey. Because he just had to set it free, rather than putting it down humanely. Brilliant work sir. Brilliant. He kills himself before turning though, but not before informing us that they hadn’t accomplished anything for over five years. And even that small breakthrough was ultimately a failure. And now the entire lab is compromised, and abandoned.And then there’s a long break from Fireflies until Salt Lake. Ellie, having just gone underwater, isn’t breathing. Joel attempts to perform CPR on her when our hero Firefly shows up, and knocks Joel unconscious. Ah, violence. The first solution. Willing to forgive it, since it strongly mirrors the scene with Sarah, only the Firefly is in the soldier’s shoes this time. But still. Military was gentler.And now for the hospital. The final failure of the Fireflies. This is where so many people are convinced that Joel screws the world by preventing a vaccine. But somehow, I just don’t think so. This is one last desperate bid by the Fireflies for control. How do they intend to do this? Comprehensive bloodwork? No. Vigorous testing with laboratory animals, like, oh, maybe monkeys? No, someone let all their monkeys go. Crack open her head and hope for the best? Hell yeah! Does the fact that they’ve lost their biologist concern them? Nah, it’ll be fine! Does the fact that this is the only time they’ve seen immunity to this degree even give them pause? Pfft, crack her open! Does the fact that there has never been a successful vaccine against fungus give them pause? PASS THAT SCALPEL! No need to think this over, let’s blow our whole load on this once in a lifetime lucky strike as fast as possible. No, I’ve never heard the story about the goose who laid the golden eggs, tell it to me after I finish butchering surgery. Even if we make this vaccine, how will we deploy it? You're thinking too hard, hand me the saw!This is just bad science. Done by bad scientists. Cheered on by fools. Fools who wanted to murder Joel after he made that long trip.And for people who insist on government and democracy, it’s funny how they didn’t risk telling Ellie their “plan” and just sedated her and rushed her to the table.

Even by SOME MIRACLE they managed to make a vaccine, the world ain't gonna automatically return to what it was. It's a dog eat dog world and that is the new normal. Infected, cannibals, more psychos like David and raiders are still there and it ain't going away soon or maybe ever. On top of that, mass production and distribution of a vaccine is an absolute logistical nightmare in a post apocalyptic world- they simply don't have enough resources for that. And who's to say The Fireflies wouldn't use it to as a bargaining tool to put everyone, willing or not, under their new rule? And even given all that, they debated killing Joel after he delivered Ellie. He did the job and the payment he received was getting knocked out and being marched outside of the safe zone AT GUNPOINT WITHOUT HIS WEAPONS AND SUPPLIES! The Fireflies broke their deal and fucked Joel over. Joel had ever right to kill them and save Ellie.

So I believe what Joel did in the end was the right thing, the fireflies was an extremist group that was willing to do anything not to save the world, but to prove their point, even kill an innocent girl under a delusional precept. 

[actuallylorelaigilmore]

3 things ask: 1, 6, 9, 12, 15, 19, 23.

1. 3 things you wish for

a ton of money in my savings account, because even now i still worry about the larger picture of my life, and where i’ll go or what i’ll do if/when i’m suddenly on my own one day. i want to be able to travel in my regular life (post-pandemic) and enjoy little vacations like the one i had last year, but i won’t feel safe to do that unless i also have a sizable amount still stashed away for the future...and i know that’s unrealistic given my fixed income but it’s a wish.

democratic control of the house, senate, and presidency in 2021. please for the love of whatever, if you live in the united states and haven’t voted yet, do that and vote blue. the world is literally burning down around my current home, and i’d just like to go a day without wondering if we’ll all survive the next four years.

the end of the pandemic. i’m really lucky, in that i don’t work and can stay safely home a lot of the time--and i’d much rather see as many people survive as possible than complain about how much fun is being taken away from me, so i can live without movie theaters and starbucks days until we’re through this. 

but when i try to list a third wish, too many of them are things i wish for ‘once the pandemic is over,’ so that has to be the larger wish. someday i’d like to date somebody i like, who likes me, even just for casual fun hangouts...but that requires being able to spend time with people. i very much want to have semi regular getaways, where i take my laptop to a hotel for a couple days and just exist alone for a bit, like a mini vacation--but hotels here are closed. i wish for mental stability and physical health and creative productivity, and all of those parts of my life are currently wrecked by the pandemic and its effects here. 

6. 3 characters that inspire you

there are so many that do, in so many ways. these are just the first three that come to mind.

stevie budd (schitts creek), because she turns a broken heart and a listless life into success and joy and family 

parker (leverage), because she has unique abilities she feels totally confident in and she gets better at her weaker areas, like people

sherlock holmes (elementary), because every time he describes his mind i feel seen, and he channels his struggles into healthier outlets and makes amends when he fucks up

9. 3 things you like doing on a rainy day

curling up under a blanket; making sure i’m near a window or under a skylight, so i can hear it; and napping. i used to sometimes like going out in it, because i occasionally miss having grown up in washington...but right now i wouldn’t cuz last year’s immune system crash means i’m wary of inviting a cold or pneumonia into my life (again).

12. 3 apps you use the most

two dots, happy color, and numberzilla on my tablet, because i only use it for games and those are my current favorites. on my phone, i think it’s the clock app (for the alarm), the text messenger, and the news app. i still really only have a phone to stay safe and connected when necessary--i prefer to use the internet and social media on my laptop, so i’m not on my phone much.

15. 3 quotes that have a special place in your life

“stay afraid, but do it anyway.” - carrie fisher   

“i write poetry, toby. that's how i enter the world.” - laura dern, as tabitha fortis on the west wing

“you love me. real or not real?” - mockingjay by suzanne collins

19. 3 animals you’d love to take care of in your house

my literal brain looks at this question and thinks, the taking care of part isn’t a part i ever love--it’s a part i submit to as a requirement for getting to enjoy the company of animals, but i never love it. 

if i try to be less literal, then my three picks are mellie, sebastian, and bailey, aka the three feral cats who come by our house for daily feedings and who are all sweethearts desperate for love who have valid reasons to be wary of indoor human life. i know realistically that we could never house them all, along with kinnie...but it’s still a dream i love, to be surrounded by cats again.

i think a turtle would be a great pet (that was my first pet wish as a kid and it’s never been achieved) but now that i’m such a cat person, i’d rather have a kitten any day than any other kind of animal, even the ones that sound fun.

23. 3 songs you listen to while cleaning

what i listen to while cleaning changes constantly, just like what i listen to in general. but my favorite songs to listen to while cleaning are usually also ones i love singing along to, so here’s three of those from recently: 

always and forever by lily kershaw 

thenineteenseventyfive by push baby (this one gave me my current blog title) 

sine from above by lady gaga & elton john

thank you for sending all these!! 💖💖

3 things asks

[tabletopjourneys]

Session 32 Notes

We continue our liberation of Perfection from Precambrian life-forms and send the last of the villagers to safety with Edea. 

Alt Title - Tremors 8: The D&D AU Part 2

@gher-bear​ @aradow​ @telurin​ @epimetala

On this day, we slaughter all the visible shriekers. Rana summons a dirt devil and she and Edea beat the bad guys together with the power of wind. Shrieker squad B tries out for the cheer team, but when their pyramid spectacle takes a tumble the in-fighting starts. Always knew Purple was a back-biting bitch. Literally. The Silver Scale Pack ultimately win the day because, news flash, Shriekers, this is a desert, not cheer camp! Unfortunately, we’ve now got two worms headed our way, attracted by all the noise. Will we be able to wait them out for a short rest? No checking that box yet! Ah well, at least Edea was able to windwalk the last three villagers, along with Pebbles, to mountain safety.  It’ll be up to the Silver Scale Pack to clear out the rest of these mother humpers in session 33. Come on fam, let’s bring this town back to perfection (all puns and references intended)!

(Read More Marker)

We get a surprise round on the 3 in front of us - Tarma-Diem deals 5dmg eldritch blast to yellow one.

It knew that came from up and screams at us. Tarma-Diem is deafened for one minute. Everyone else saves and is now immune.

Ixayl’anu breath weapons them, 1 saves, 2 don’t (5 and 11dmg)

They go hide under the awning between our building and the next, halfway to their 7 friends on the other side.

Edea casts stone skin on Ixayl’anu - resistance to nonmagical dmg - concentration up to an hour.

Phi listens close and shoots through tarp but misses.

Ixayl’anu rips a good portion of the cloth and can see where these creatures are running through.

She then jumps down between 2 poles and 2 shriekers, she gets kinda stuck though, flails with her weapon while trying to recover her landing, misses the one in front of her.

Red shrieker from group B has seen yellow, but none of group B see us.

Rana casts dust devil L3 in the middle of group B.

Red takes 14, next saves, takes 5dmg, neutral fails 11dmg, green saves 5dmg, pink crit fails gets thrown into wall 14dmg, purple 14dmg , slammed against another wall, orange 14dmg.

Rana reaches out and touches Phi’s boot (from where Phi is standing on the slightly higher platform of the roof) and gives her guidance.

Tarma-Diem shouts “Dust devil!” as a heads up (still can’t hear), but also knows Ixayl’anu is now on the ground alone so they shoot eb at one of hers - 3 dmg. It screams at them, they scream back.

One bites Ixayl’anu for 5dmg.

Yellow runs in to scream at the others, saves from dd, takes 6 dmg. The others turn toward it, and scream back at not full volume, chatter amongst themselves.

On their turn they start forming a cheerleader pyramid to get at those of us on the roof.

Mr. Yellow gets up top. Pink climbs up to go next.

Dust devil winds hit all but yellow: Bottom left saves (3 dmg), bottom middle crit fails, takes 7dmg, bottom right saves (3dmg), pink fails (takes 7dmg), green saves (3dmg).

Acrobatics checks: Orange fails, neutral saves, pink fails too. Neutral manages to hop onto purple out of range.

Edea casts wind wall along where the pyramid was.

Red rolls well and is safe, next big guy takes full damage, purple fails, little one on top of him fails. Wall comes 2 ft higher than basic roof, phi can shoot over this fine since it doesn’t quite come up to her higher point.

Phi shoots and misses, she does a perception check with her bonus action and rolls a 1.

Ixayl’anu attacks red-green 5dmg, 5dmg.

Rana moves dust devil into the pile, kicks up debris as a result, but windwall protects us from it. That was her bonus action. She tries to crack yellow across the face with shilllylala 3dmg.

Ixayl’anu has an aura up +2 saves for anyone within it + resistance to dmg from magic effects.

Tarma-Diem eldritch blasts the one on the roof for 23dmg.

Yellow bites them back for 7dmg.

Tarma-Diem: *growls in pain, turns that into growling* “You think that hurts mother fucker, try this!” *casts hellish rebuke and does 38 more dmg, killing it*.

The rest of the creatures are very confused about all this wind and debris and roll poorly to figure it out, one bites at the other (orange and pink forgot who did what to whom), red tries to move away. One of them tries to jump up over the windwall (neutral), purple is standing on blue trying to figure out the windwall. Green is aimless and moves toward the right wall. Neutral runs up the stairs and tries to bite Phi, does 6dmg.

Red takes 3dmg from the next dust devil round - orange 3dmg, pink 3dmg, green 3dmg, blue 6dmg, purple makes its acrobatics check, manages to stay up, reaches down and bites blue, purple also fails and takes 6dmg and deals some dmg to blue, but manages to stay up.

Edea smacks the one on phi with a stick, casts shelala

It shrieks and lets go of Phi.

Phi pulls out her daggers to stab the one on her. 14dmg total, disengage with bonus action.

Ixayl’anu attacks red-green and hits for 10dmg. She tries to run to face the whole group and the 2 from before. Red-blue hits her for 3dmg. Ixayl’anu then sees the windwall and decides to stay where she is.

Rana sees Ixayl’anu break out of the pack and tosses 7 healing at Ixayl’anu. Uses one of 3 charges on mantle of healing for 22 more points - total healing of 29. Rana moves the dust devil, trusting Tarma-Diem to take care of the shrieker in front of her.

Tarma-Diem misses with both eldritch blasts though, runs forward to slap it with shocking grasp and it does nothing but startle the guy, crackling over its thick hide. As it runs farther up the stairs to Phi’s former platform, Tarma-Diem rushes back to the other corner of the roof in the opposite direction. 1/7 charges used.

This arm wound man is fucking up theim aim, man lol

Little one recovers from shocking grasp incident, turns toward us, leaps off roof and onto rana - leaping bite attack misses, still manages to knock her over though, so on the ground ineffectually with each other.

Orange manages to see Ixayl’anu and gives a little scream as it heads toward her, but the others are busy and ignoring it. They’re all kinda mad at each other, anyway. Orange does 6dmg. Green tries to acrobatic its way up ones near the wall to get up it, it makes it. Attacks Tarma-Diem, but they side step out of the way.

Purple has blue by the neck still holding on. Pink tries to attack the dust devil, biting at the dusty air (He tried lol). Pink saves (7dmg), purple saves (7dmg), blue fails (15 dmg), purple finally fails acrobatic check in staying on blue as blue gets thrown into windwall so blue takes extra dmg - looks on death’s door.

Edea crit smacks the one on Rana, looks like it’s on death’s door too.

Phi stabs at green, hits with one for 20dmg. Then disengages to higher rooftop.

Ixayl’anu casts moonbeam on orange, red, purple, and blue.

Rana reaches into her pocket, grabs 3 stones, chucks magic stone right into its mouth (attack misses technically), but it just eats it (spicy meatball!). She tries to shalala next - 3dmg, shoves it off, uses her motion to get up. It is dead.

Tarma-Diem hits green with shocking grasp, but only makes it run away like before, no actual damage. They hit it in the ass on the way out though with two bolts of eldritch blast for 12dmg total.

Moonbeam dmg time: Red takes 12dmg, purple 6dmg, orange 12dmg, blue just dies, green 6dmg (to be fair I didn’t note what did this damage live, could’ve been dust devil but I’m pretty sure this is when most of them got out of range of that - also no notes about getting thrown around).

Green tries to bite Phi, 6dmg.

Every other shrieker heads toward Ixayl’anu, who starts cackling. Orange hits for 4dmg, purple hits for 4dmg, red-blue does 5dmg, red-green finally hits her for 6dmg.

Edea casts healing word on Ixayl’anu for 12 pts.

Phi stabs at green still attached to her leg, hits with sneak attack does 20dmg (which is absolutely hilarious in hind sight like who the hell hit green, man? Surely not the person its attached to, that blow came out of nowhere!). She gorily kills it, hematoma swells up because no open wound daggers, it coughs up blood though on her boot. Phi moves to left edge of building and acrobatics checks to other roof and easily makes it. Uses her bonus action to perception check 22. She sees and hears the very faint - half orc woman and human dude tootin and hollerin and cheering us on, Lee is looking concerned for us but also looking very excited. In the distance Phi sees some dust clouds, several hundred yards away - 2 dust clouds, past the npc’s/from that direction.

Phi yells about the dust clouds in the distance to the rest of us (Tarma-Diem still can’t hear)

Rana looks sees something that could be dust, could be haze.

Ixayl’anu slams into red-green for 12dmg. Misses next blow.

Edea drops windwall.

Rana thorn whips pink, slamming it into the side of the building 12 dmg total (+ some from slamming into wall).

Diem hops down on the ground and does 24 lightning bolt damage: red-blue 12 dmg, orange 24dmg (near death), red 12 dmg, purple 12 dmg, pink 24dmg (very near death). Ring is out of charges ‘til sunrise.

Moonbeam deals: 14dmg - purple 7dmg, red 7, pink 14 and dies, orange 14 and dies.

Redgreen and redblue ran at Tarma-Diem, redblue hit for 9dmg, after which Tarma-Diem misty escapes to the unoccupied rooftop behind them all (invisible): “Wait...I can hear now!” Red-green and red-blue forfeit the rest of their attacks, confused and snapping at the empty air where Tarma-Diem used to be.

Red goes after Ixie and misses. Purple takes 5dmg from winds.

Edea healing words Ixayl’anu for 8 healing. Edea doesn’t want to jump down though for the rest of the fight so passes on the rest of her turn.

Phi shoots purple for 21 damage, it dies.

Ixayl’anu swings at red for 9dmg, barely standing, 2nd hit 15dmg. Hacks him down, leaps over him and gets in range of the other 2. And gets bonus hp from the kill.

Rana perception checks on dust cloud, but still only sees general haze. She leaves dust devil up for being a good boy and moves to edge of roof, drops magic stone on red-blue, but misses. She backs up and thorn whips red-green 11dmg, 2 wall damage. 13 total. He is hanging just off the lip.

Tarma-Diem hits dangling one for 8 eldritch blast damage just before it falls - Tarma-Diem loses invisibility and growls out: “I really hope nobody said anything important because I was deaf for this entire fight.”

Phi: Why?

Red-green falls

Last two run after Ixayl’anu, deal 4 and 3 dmg - 7 total from both.

Edea tries to perceive off into the distance where Phi pointed.

Phi perceives again to see if it’s moved closer and gets 27, yep: “Worms headed our way, so we might wanna be quiet, I guess?”

The tremors cast looks in that direction but don’t see anything. Lee and Earl do hear the incoming though, Val doesn’t really have a clue.

Phi kills red-green with 20dmg.

Ixayl’anu attacks red-blue, misses, misses again.

Rana thorn whips red-blue for 13dmg. Bonus action magic stone for 7dmg. Perception 22 toward dust, it is much closer.

Tarma-Diem is apparently so distracted/nervous about more on the way, only cantrips left, everyone’s spells running low, and too hard to hit around Ixayl’anu below that they miss both of their next eldritch blasts and only get a 12 on perception to boot - don’t see anything.

Last shrieker tries to book it, Ixayl’anu misses her attack of opportunity. It gets pretty far out of town before Phi shoots it after an insight check to get sneak attack - nat 20, does 14dmg.

Diem finishes it off with both bursts of an eldritch blast, second one crits, it dies. (Aftermath of the battle)

Lee: Did ya’ll kill everything?!

Everyone else tries to shush her after all the noise they made.

Diem (message): Yeah, we got him, all the ones we could see, but there’s a worm headed this way from your guys’ direction.

Ixayl’anu: Diem did you leave the rope?

Diem: Oh, no, hang on. (they pull it back out of their pack and tell it to tie off nearby while Lee responds)

Lee: (message back) oh shit, I’ll go take a look. (sneaks to the other side of her roof while Ixayl’anu climbs up.

Rana does nature checks on the creatures: It’s warm blooded, wash of heat from its mouth even though it’s dead (when she opens it up). They stink really bad.

Edea will inspect the flaps on top of its head. “Hm...I think these are heat sensing organs like a pit viper, but I have no idea what it is, I’ve not seen one of these before, this is no normal creature.”

Rana perception checks the opposite direction from which we came but gets 16, doesn’t see much, looks like desert.

Tarma-Diem communicates back and forth with Lee about what we’ve learned so far, just in case we all have to deal with more.

We discuss possibly taking a short rest very quietly before fighting this worm, hopefully. We quietly settle in on our respective roofs.

Rana heals Tarma-Diem full and heals Phi for 6. Uses her pearl to regain a spell slot.

Edea has been watching the mountains where the rest of the town headed. “I think I should go and find those people, because the infestation we’ve seen here is quite a bit and I don’t trust that they’ve made it on their own.” She tells us she plans to windwalk the other villagers into the mountains with her.  Tarma-Diem: “You don’t think you’ll need back up in case something did go wrong?” *gets dirty look from Rana and ignores it. Edea:  “You can come with if you want to, or stay here and make sure things are good.”

Tarma-Diem (realizing maximum fire power is still needed right here): I think we’ll make sure everything’s dead so the townspeople can safely return.

Rana: Yeah we will secure the town and wait for you to come back.

Using message/Tarma-Diem as an intermediary we communicate this plan to Lee, Val, Earl, and Pebbles before Edea wind walks over to pick each of them up in turn, walking through the air, into the mountains. We are warned not to assume we’ll get short rest though, so no clicking it and rolling hit dice back.

Next session: Saturday the 6th, 4pm est

[theculturedmarxist]

Bryan Fogel’s “The Dissident” was too hot to handle.

The documentary about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist and political activist who was allegedly killed in 2018 on the orders of the Saudi Royal Family, was one of the hottest films at last year’s Sundance. It had glowing reviews, a ripped from the headlines subject, and a big-name director in Fogel, fresh off the Oscar-winning “Icarus,” a penetrating look at Russian doping that got the country banned from the Olympics.

And yet, Netflix, which had previously released “Icarus,” and other streaming services such as Apple and Amazon steered clear of “The Dissident.” Without any interested buyers, the film languished until last fall. That’s when Briarcliff Entertainment, an obscure distributor run by former Open Road CEO Tom Ortenberg, announced it would release the movie on-demand.

Fogel thinks the subject matter was too explosive for bigger companies, which have financial ties to Saudi Arabia or are looking to access the country’s massive population of well-to-do consumers. Using interviews with Khashoggi’s fiancee Hatice Cengiz, as well as friends and fellow activists, Fogel creates a damning portrait of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s apparent involvement in brutally silencing the writer and thinker and the country’s crackdown on free speech. Thanks to previously unreleased audio recordings, “The Dissident” draws a direct line between Khashoggi’s assassination at the Saudi embassy in Turkey and the Saudi government’s anger over his outspoken criticism of the country’s human rights abuses and mismanagement.

“The Dissident” is currently available on-demand, but its rather muted release isn’t the way Fogel had dreamed of provoking a larger conversation around Khashoggi’s murder. He spoke to Variety about the difficulty of making “The Dissident” and then getting it seen and why he thinks his new movie had the major streamers running scared.

Why did you want to make “The Dissident”?

After the success of “Icarus,” I felt a great burden and social responsibility to make a worthy follow-up. I was looking for a story regarding human rights, regarding freedom of speech, freedom of press, journalism. I also wanted a story that had real world implications that could create real world change through social action or political action.

As the investigation into the murder of Jamal unfolded, my ears perked up and I immediately started reading more about this man. I hadn’t heard of him, but I found out how trusted and regarded he was as a voice on the Middle East. He was also being presented in many media circles as a terrorist sympathizer or member of the Muslim Brotherhood or a friend of Bin Laden. This was not true. He was a moderate, who was fighting for free speech for his country and believed women should have rights. He believed Mohammed Bin Salman’s policies were putting the country on the wrong direction.

Was it difficult to get his friends and fiancee and family to speak to you?

It was very very difficult. This is where the accolades and recognition of “Icarus” and the Academy Award really changed the conversation. In those weeks following his death every journalist was after Hatice. As I approached her and other people, they were able to see my prior work. Hatice invited me about a month after his murder to come and meet with her in Istanbul. I didn’t bring a film crew. I spent the next five weeks there just building trust. It was a harrowing time in her life and I just kept explaining that I was not there for a day or a week or a month. I told her: if we do this, we’re going to go on this journey together. I promised that if she let me into her life, I was going to protect Jamal.

At the Sundance premiere, you challenged distributors to “…not be fearful and give this the global release that this deserves.” How did that turn out?

[Netflix CEO] Reed Hastings was there that day and so was Hillary Clinton. We had a standing ovation. People were wiping tears from their eyes as Hatice took the stage. It was the same scene at each one of our screenings. We were blessed with incredible reviews from all of the trades. In any normal circumstance, you’d think of course this film is going to be acquired and distributed. And yet not only was it not acquired and distributed, there was universal silence. Not a single offer. Not for one dollar or not 12 million dollars, which was what was paid for another documentary title at the festival. Nothing. It was literally as if nobody knew me. It was that startling and that shocking.

Six months later Tom Ortenberg and Briarcliff Entertainment stepped forward and said, hey we want to distribute this film. That’s wonderful. People will be able to rent this film on-demand. But what I wanted was for this film to be streaming into 200 million households around the world. I wanted people to have easy access to it. Instead we pieced together global distribution here and there.

Will this have a chilling effect on movies that want to tackle these kinds of controversial subjects?

This is a depressing and eye-opening moment that any filmmaker that wishes to tell a story like this needs to pay attention to. These global media conglomerates are aiding and abetting and silencing films that take on subject matter like this despite the fact their audiences want content like this. I was told that “Icarus” has had somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 million views. I don’t know if that’s accurate, but I know it was substantial. The decision not to acquire “The Dissident” had nothing to do with its critical reviews, had nothing to do with a global audience’s appetite to watch a docu-thriller, but had everything to do with business interests and politics and, who knows, perhaps pressure from the Saudi government. Netflix did remove Hasan Minhaj’s episode of “Patriot Act” [at the Saudi government’s request] in 2019 and defended that decision by saying, “we’re not a truth to power company. We’re an entertainment company.” It has been a struggle to get this film into the world and to shine a light on the human rights abuses that are happening in that kingdom. These companies, that have chosen not to distribute this film, in my opinion, are complicit.

Have you had conversations with these companies about why they didn’t want to release “The Dissident”? If so what has been their response?

It has been to not respond.

Is this about money? Are they wary of angering the Saudi Royal Family because they have money from Saudi Arabia or want to access their market?

My guess is both. Decisions are being made that it’s better to keep our doors open to Saudi business and Saudi money than it is to do anything to anger the kingdom. Netflix released a statement regarding Black Lives Matter that is in direct contrast to their statement regarding Hasan Minahaj. One stands behind truth to power and the other says we’re not a truth to power company, so it appears they are a truth to power company when it is convenient. But when their business doesn’t align with that or it might impact their subscriber growth, they’re not. The same can be said for all the streaming companies. In the film, there’s Jeff Bezos on the stage with Hatice. Jamal worked for Jeff Bezos [at the Washington Post, which Bezos owns]. So the same can be said of Amazon. I don’t want to point a finger at anyone because it’s all of them. This is a situation where business, subscriber growth, investment was more important than human rights. There’s got to be greater accountability. Not just on a business level, but on a political level. Trump vetoed the desire of both the House and the Senate to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for this crime. He continued to sell them weapons. He’s trying to get the Justice Department to grant Mohammed Bin Salman immunity from prosecution.

Would you still work for Netflix or the other streamers who declined to release “The Dissident”?

Listen, this is my career. This is my work. I’m sure that I will have other projects that might not take on subject matter like this and are not at odds with their business interests. When those projects come along, I will be glad to work with any of these companies. Look, I love Netflix. I really, really do. I’m so grateful to them because without Netflix, “Icarus” would not have become what it became. I’m not insulted by this. I’m not personally offended. I don’t view anything that is happening as personal. I just view it as business. I can understand it on a business level. I don’t agree with it, but I get it. I’m not mad. I’m disappointed.

What message do you want viewers will take away from the film?

There’s a hashtag #JusticeForJamal and the question has to become what does justice mean? We know that Mohammed Bin Salman will not stand trial for this murder. We know that the henchmen he sent are unlikely to truly stand trial. We have to look to the future. So what I hope people will take from the film is knowledge, because knowledge is power. Just like “Icarus” or “Blackfish” or “The Cove,” I hope this film has the ability to change hearts and minds. As more and more people come to “The Dissident,” I hope there’s a call to action. I hope that takes place on social media or through writing letters to congressmen or senators. The first thing I hope is people will spread the word. The second thing is I hope they will use the power of free speech that we have in this country and are so blessed to have to change the narrative. The Arab Spring happened because of Twitter, the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements took hold because of social media. We’ve seen that through combined action, change can come.

Disclosure: SRMG, a Saudi publishing and media company which is publicly traded, remains a minority investor in PMC, Variety’s parent company.