#[i missed queue very much]

[tomatoart]

my take on the tropical summer miku!

[breezypunk]

A beat up car, great company, and no definitive destination. just the open road and the wind in their hair. ♥

[arachnidiots]

semi hiatus notice !

june 27 - july 24

this has been more or less already in effect for three weeks i just haven’t had the time or energy to coherently make a post about it so here we are! i’m currently taking a summer intensive program which is eating up my days and nights with studying and work and, while i love it, it leaves me with little time and capacity to be here and be writing as much as i’d love to be. for the duration of the program i won’t be around much or checking the dash (although every now and then you might seem in your notifications anyways). i love you all very much & i am sending everyone lots of love constantly. you can always reach my via discord (you’re more than welcome to ask for it if you don’t have it) but replies might be slow there. take care of yourselves and be kind to each other out there! with care, birdie

[crossbackpoke-check]

Dysprosium, Mary Soon Lee

dysprosium, AN 66, is a silvery-white rare earth metal. its name is derived from the greek dysprositos, meaning “hard to get at”, owing to the difficulty in separating and isolating this rare earth element. dysprosium is used to measure neutron flux, to fuel reactors, and to activate phosphors. terfenol-d is a magnetorestrictive alloy, meaning that it changes shape when a magnetic field is applied, and is used to manufacture underwater acoustic systems.

jason “robo” robertson, dallas stars #21 for @simmyfrobby’s nhl periodic table poems <3

[instantinternetcrush]

tonight i am thinking about how you’d play with my hair til i fell asleep in your arms. remembering doing the same to you.

i say it all the time but i keep replaying every moment in my mind on a loop. every movie night, every bad joke you laughed at anyway, every eye roll and sleepy morning the late night conversations and the last time i ever hugged you.

i miss our dog. i miss the kind of frivolous impulsivity we brought out in each other. silly adventures with my most fun friends and my favorite person. when we got our dog, our Draco, it was another random wonderful thing. the way you looked at me when i told you i’d take him home.

i thought about sending you an ill advised late night message, something-something i had a best friend and now i don’t. i haven’t felt this alone since i was a scared little kid.

that probably isn’t healthy. probably a bad omen. but my mind keeps going back to that night you fought my ex, before he was my ex, for my honor. you always told me i deserved better than anyone here could give. that fucking tic tac toe game.

someone once told me that you and me were always gonna be playing secret mental 4d chess light yagami & l lawliet style until we either fucked or killed each other. i had already won at that point- you told me as much.

i remember when we had that conversation. you and me were in our own little world sitting across from each other and locked in the best pokemon game i’d had in months. that tiny picnic table was crowded like the last supper. we had 13 people not including ourselves. we’d arranged the whole hang out so we could play cards in the dark and drink cheap brandy.

i was about two turns away from winning the game when you looked me in the eye and told me that i’d officially and entirely beaten you. i asked if you meant the card game and you said no. i laughed and we put the cards away anyway.

we were close again so quickly. all it took was a 16 hour phone call in february and a premonition.

when i moved back i was so terrified id be entirely and wholly alone, but there you were. i hadn’t even told you i was coming back yet. but you were waiting. you’d made the rest of them wait too. i didn’t spend a day alone that i didn’t want to.

even now, it’s like you’ve got a sixth sense for when i’m feeling especially and overwhelmingly alone. you still care and still check on me even though we broke everything and you should hate me for it.

i wonder what weird red string-christmas lights up on the wall-twin flame fate tied us together like that. if i occupy a similar spot in the back of your mind to the niche i let you stay in.

i’m sure someday we’ll see each other somewhere as inconsequential as a grocery store, or out and about on halloween. it’s a small town after all. we can’t pretend to avoid each other forever.

i miss you, too.

[schnaf]

22 days until ode's 22nd birthday

day 15 - rock, paper, scissors

[soaps-mohawk]

This is 1000% irrelevant so ignore it if it pisses you off (sorry if it does!) but I'm finally dyeing my hair neon pink after many many years without it and I'm excited as fUCK

I can't imagine being in your universe and just... Not having tattoos or piercings or fun hair. Obvs being at an institute for the formative years of your life, don't really know what you're missing. But every time I put myself in readers shoes like that I start twitching 😂 I couldn't live if I knew any better

You're making me miss my purple hair 😭

Yeah, it would suck going to an institute and missing out on so many things happening in the world. Of course they know a bit, but they're very isolated still and don't really have much freedom to dye their hair or get tattoos or piercings.

Of course that can come later depending on their alpha, but yeah. There definitely is some catching up after leaving an institute.

[front-facing-pokemon]

[when-we-drive-away-in-secret]

alright, so this is a question about netflix series which i've recently watched and now i'm suffering from asoue brainrot. there is an obscure moment in the penultimate peril (s3ep6) where frank locks olaf in the closet before the trial, and just as frank is about to close the door, olaf says, "one last thing", as if intending to say something. what do you think he wanted to add? is it something that is maybe more clear in the books?

OKAY so after rewatching that scene (several times) and rereading the corresponding scene in the book, I now feel at least partially equipped to answer this question! (But please bear with me because my research did send me on a bit of a tangent)

So first off, I don't think dealing with the book scene will be of too much help here (although not entirely unhelpful, either), because, as much as I love the netflix adaptation—and I do wholeheartedly adore it—it changes so much that the comparable scene is functionally unrecognisable in several key aspects. The main one being the lack of hostility towards to Baudelaires—Olaf is solidly isolated and supposedly running out of options at this point in the show, whereas his mentality in the books is entirely different because things appear to be going much more his way. He has a crowd at his back and the Baudelaires are seen as far more guilty, which doesn't really translate into the show!verse at all.

So, if we're looking at the show from a more isolated standpoint, I had to consider the possibility that it was a deliberate "what if" moment, without having anything else planned to say, purely for the purpose of getting in the Baudelaires' heads. However, I do feel like the most likely answer is that Olaf did in fact believe he would be heard out, so that's what we'll be assuming from here on out.

The fact that the Denouement in question calls him "buddy" and yet treats him roughly could have made him believe that this is Ernest playing the long con—pretending to be an ally to the others because they were outnumbered at the time, or simply for his own ends. However, he could also genuinely believe that it's Frank, and that he'd be heard out because it's the "noble" thing to do—VFD and the general society in the snicketverse is routinely governed by politeness over logic, and so cutting him off is simply impolite, so he may have believed he'd be able to talk his way out of being locked up. The use of "buddy" could be a generic, positive moniker used by Frank, or a genuine sentiment expressed by Ernest; the rough shake of his arm could be simply how Ernest behaves on any given day, or genuine righteous anger from Frank—just as it's impossible for us as the audience to be sure, Olaf has to try and figure this out in mere moments.

Regardless of what he thought would happen or who he thought he was talking to, though, I have to believe that whatever he was going to say would have been targeted more at the Baudelaires than the Denouement currently getting in his way, so it would likely have been an extension of what he'd already said, and what he'd go on to say at key moments for the remainder of the series—another attack on the Baudelaire parents, a critique of VFD's intentions, or something equally ambiguous to sow the seeds of mistrust in the minds of the children. Despite his general demeanour, he is actually a terrifyingly capable villain, and the human embodiment of the "either I'm god, or truth is relative" soundbite. If he's allowed to talk for long enough, he can convince just about anyone of anything (which is exactly what happens when he takes the stand during the trial), and I wouldn't be surprised if he was expecting to be allowed to run his mouth until both the adults are on his side.

What I think is a very interesting point to consider, though, is one useful comparison from the books—the number of the room he's sent to. As we all know, the rooms in the Hotel Denouement are arranged according to the Dewey Decimal System, and people are categorised above just as the records are categorised below. In the book, the Baudelaires are confined to room 121, and Olaf is locked in room 165 to await their trial. In the Dewey Decimal System, 121 refers to Epistemology—the theory of knowledge. A quote taken from the wikipedia page for epistemology reads:

Epistemology asks questions such as: "What is knowledge?", "How is knowledge acquired?", and "What do people know?"

Having the Baudelaires placed here shows that they aren't sure what people know about them, or what will be revealed at the trial, or what will happen to them (as clearly illustrated by the their conversation at the end of chapter ten). Olaf, however, is placed in room 165: Fallacies and Sources of Error. This could imply that he's in the wrong, but perhaps more likely foreshadows that other people are wrong about him. He will not go to prison, he will not be convicted, and, perhaps most crucially, he is not as completely evil as the Baudelaires believe. He has done terrible things, and he is a terrible person, but—as discussed during The End—they are wrong about the most crucial of his evil deeds (to them). Because he didn't kill their parents. He represents everything that VFD pretends it isn't, but at this point the Baudelaires believe (and have been told) that he is the complete antithesis of what the Volunteers represent—and so, he is categorised as a source of error.

However, in the show, both parties are placed in entirely different rooms, and therefore entirely different categorisations. The Baudelaires are placed in room 342: Constitutional and Administitive Law. This is a choice I absolutely adore, because at this point in the narrative they are quite literally trapped in bureaucracy. They fail because the system is rigged, and they are literally imprisoned by the law—not in the sense that they have already been convicted, but in the sense that they will be no matter what they do. If they stay, the High Court will pronounce them guilty. But, when they run, they're supposedly only proving their own guilt—damned if they don't, and damned if they do.

Olaf's is perhaps the more interesting change, though, because he's no longer seen as a source of error—despite the claims he makes about the Baudelaire parents and VFD immediately before being locked up (once again implying that he isn't lying to them, just using convenient truths). And it carries through to the trial, because he uses the truth (albeit a very deliberately and pointedly edited version) to make the Baudelaires seem just as guilty as he is. In the show, he's placed in room 170: Ethics (moral philosophy). And he is given the chance to talk at the trial, and talk he does. He twists the truth, spins it so that the Baudelaires seem guilty, but that is the exact point of moral debate! He trolley-problemed his way into screwing with the Baudelaires' heads, not because he needed to (he knew he was never getting convicted, because he knew who was on the High Court), but to prove a goddamn point. Yes, he's done terrible things, but did anyone think to ask him why? Of course, to us, the reader, the viewer, the third party observer, it doesn't matter. Because at a certain point, actions speak for themselves. Reasons can explain, but not necessarily excuse—that is the reasonable stance to take, and no matter his reasons, the explanation will never be an excuse for him.

But he's an actor. That's why Klaus calls him up to the stand in the trial, because he knows he'll want to talk in front of an audience, and can't imagine any way he wouldn't incriminate himself. And despite the Baudelaires' personal opinions of his ability, we've seen time and time again that he must be a good actor, because people always believe his performances. And as any good actor could tell you, it's crucial to be able to read your audience. If you want the best reaction, then you need to work out, as quickly as humanly possible, how they'll respond, and play up or tone down your performance accordingly. And he's spent so much time with VFD, with the Baudelaires, that he knows just what to say. He knows that, regardless of their reasons, they will feel guilty—in both the book and the show, they question if they're not just as bad as him! They did what they did to survive, and they genuinely worry that they're the same as the murderous, fortune-hungry beast that's been hunting them through their grief and fear. And he knows that. He wants to get in their heads, maybe just for fun, but mostly to get them to come to him. And the worst part is that it bloody works! They end up escaping with him, burning the hotel and potentially letting him out into the world, turning away from the good-hearted people trying to help them because if they can't trust anyone to be on their side, at least they can trust him not to be.

All this to say that, looking at his character, the writing of the show and the way the events unfold, while I can't give you a verbatim quote of what I think he would have said, I will say this: I wholeheartedly believe it would have been a short, targeted line to the Baudelaires, attacking them, their belief system, their very moral character. Because he didn't know he'd be allowed to speak at the trial—remember, it was only Klaus' fear and paranoia that put him on the stand in the first place—and as far as he knew, that could have been his last chance to ensure they'd come to him. He wasn't sure his previous words had been enough, and we all know he has a flair for the dramatic. Think back to one of the most chilling moments of the entire series, both in the book and show, at the end of the Bad Beginning. When the lights go out and he makes his escape, the Baudelaires would have still lived in fear of him, knowing he was on the loose, but that wasn't enough. He risked capture, risked losing his window of escape, all to torment Violet one last time; to plant that final seed of paranoia and fear into her mind, to whisper threats in the dark. And I have no doubt that, had he been given the chance, that is precisely what he would have done here.

By cutting him off, the Denouement gave the Baudelaires hope; hope that it might be different, hope that people wouldn't listen to him this time. But after all they'd been through, they couldn't risk not letting him talk—everyone always listens to him, in the end, and they had to make sure that everyone would finally believe them instead. And that very act of cutting him off, of not letting him give that final threat, is perhaps what sealed their fates. If Olaf's threat was fresh in their minds, they might have been too fearful to address him. If, like in the books, he'd eluded to his acquaintance with the High Court, they might have known what would happen. But he didn't get the chance, and neither did they.

[diurnalcritters]

Day 527

[tea-of-destiny]

*voice of a guy who all but disappeared over the last month because he's already got too much to do* you know what would be fun? if i did some kind of month-long drawing challenge during this end part of the year

[lacunafiction]

Physically, I'm at my desk getting ready for the week ahead

Saw this ask a notification and my mind immediately went straight for "JR desk scene". Thats where my head is at.

JRdeskscenejrdeskscenejrdeskscenejrdeskscenejrdeskscenejrdeskscenejrdeskscenejrdeskscenejrdeskscenejrdeskscene

Oh thank goodness, it wasn't just me. 😂 (Context: here.)

I only see a preview of asks in my notifications before I check the inbox, so it was: "Physically, I'm at my desk getting ready for the..."

So, naturally, I was like:

Before reading the rest of the ask to see it was less spicy, more wholesome about R, lol. Yes, I have received quite a few asks about the desk scene along with others based on my tags/reblogs. You all pay attention to every detail, which is really great for TFS's story. 💚

Thank you for the fun ask!

[unexpectedbrickattack]

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[that-spider-fan-over-there]

*dusting off this old blog* Well it's been a while, isn't it?

[rpmemes-galore]

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[woozi]

hello caratblr <33 would you know which networks, update blogs, and tags are still active?