#(and with such a full house in the main arc there's really no room for the likes of darcy and jane and that kid from IM3 and such)

[gumnut-logic]

Water ran down the glass windows.

The thing was that it wasn’t raining, it was just all condensation caused by horribly hot weather and their sudden lack of air conditioning.

“I don’t know if I can take this anymore.” Alan flopped dramatically on the lounge.

Gordon rolled his eyes. “You could go down to the hangars. It’s much cooler down there.”

“No way. Virgil and Brains would snag me to help them and I barely have enough energy to breeeeathe.”

“A bit dramatic there, little bro. Go for a swim. We have an entire pool and Pacific Ocean.”

“Pool’s in the sun and the ocean is full of things that want to eat me. You’ve proven that multiple times.”

Gordon groaned. “Fine. Sit your lazy ass there. I”m going to go find Virgil to see if he needs any help.”

“He’s cool. Got Brains and Scott as his slaves.” A pause. “Maybe I’ll go keep John company.”

Gordon dismissed him with a hand as he strode from the room.

The villa was not itself today. The entire air conditioning network had burnt out, plunging the house into relying on the weather. Which was failing them miserably. Due to the effects of climate change sometimes the tropics weren’t as fun as they could be and today was one of those. Gordon’s shirt was soaked with sweat.

He knew where he would find Virgil and his work crew. When they had initially split up - Gordon to take Grandma down to Aotearoa and Virgil to tackle the issue at its root – his brother had already been grumbling.

The profanity from the control room was not a good sign.

They had a massive network of temperature control mechanisms on the Island. If one thing was an identifier of a civilisation, it was its ability to manipulate temperature. Tracy Island needed all the controls. Habitability was only a small part of the equation. Heat controls for launching Thunderbirds was a major thing, airflow to the hangars and more hidden areas of the complex was another. And somehow all of them were down for the count.

The hangars were definitely warmer than usual - more to do with residual heat from machinery and humidity than the sunny 38C day outside.

He ran into Scott in the main doorway. His expression wasn’t a good one, but it lit up at the sight of Gordon.

“Grandma, okay?”

“Set her up in the house. She’s stress baking.”

“Oh.” There was so much to be said after that statement. “I can see why you didn’t stay.”

Gordon shrugged and grinned. “What can I say? I’m a survivor.” He peered into the room. “How’s Virg?”

Scott sighed. “Not happy. Still hasn’t found the source of the problem. Not even backups are behaving. Has to be systemic. But first step is to get minimal service running so we can launch. Brains is working on it.”

Gordon stared at his brother. Launching One or Three without heat dissipation was very much not a good idea. Two, they could get away with. There was a reason she didn’t launch inside the facility like the rest of them. She was the safety factor.

But without One and Three their ability to respond to a situation was not great.

But a sudden crash and yelp inside the room had both brothers moving, all other thought discarded.

They entered to chaos. Virgil was huddled on the other side of the room, a bright and raw arc of electricity bouncing from point to point in front of him. The lights had blown and the only illumination was the eerie blue white lightning.

“Virgil!”

Electricity danced around the room.

Scott’s arm held Gordon back.

“Thunderbird Five, kill all the power on the Island!”

John didn’t say a word, the command in Scott’s voice requiring immediate action.

Everything fell into darkness.

John’s voice was eerily calm in the sudden silence. “All switches thrown. All generators disconnected from the grid and winding down.”

Smoke and ozone tangled in Gordon’s nostrils. “Virgil?” Down here it really was pitch black when the lighting was out.

Beside him Scott was scrambling around in the darkness, likely looking for the emergency kit in this room. That covered, Gordon was going for Virgil. “Virgil? Answer me.”

The groan that answered him was wonderful.

The room was suddenly flooded with light and Gordon jumped, for a split second fearing the lightning had come back. But Scott had found the kit and the torch inside it.

They both beelined for Virgil who was still on the floor.

“Virgil, talk to me.”

Their brother turned his head to look up at them, and Gordon was convinced Scott could make anything happen just by issuing a command.

But Virgil didn’t speak. He opened his mouth but then looked back down at his hands.

Gordon’s eyes followed.

Oh, hell.

Scott was already moving, the emergency kit in his hands opening as he dropped down beside their brother. The torch was handed to Gordon and the mediscanner lit up the room.

Moments later, Scott was spraying burn foam all over Virgil’s hands.

Scott caught him as he slid sideways into his arms, his relief a physical thing.

“Thank you.” It was rough and more breath than voice. “‘xploded in my face. Wasn’t supposed to be live.” Virgil groaned and dropped his head against Scott’s shoulder.

A pair of lights bobbed into the room revealing Brains with Alan panting beside him. “What happened?” His eyes widened when he saw Virgil.

“Brains, don’t touch it. Keep away.” Virgil flopped one injured hand as if to swipe the engineer away from the console, but flinched. Scott caught his wrist and gently brought it back together with the other injured limb. “C’mon, let’s get you up to the infirmary.”

Gordon jumped in to help get his big brother of the floor.

Virgil’s groan hurt.

But they got him up and moving.

Unfortunately, the infirmary was quite a distance without the elevator network.

Behind them he could hear Brains talking with John a mile a minute. No doubt they would work out exactly what happened.

Alan was hovering behind him.

“Allie, go get a hoverchair.” Gordon didn’t need to repeat himself. No doubt his little brother was just happy to do something.

Helping Virgil out into the main hangars brought them all into the natural light from the massive skylight high up in the cavern. His brother straightened a little more as if he was a plant or something. “It wasn’t supposed to be live.”

“Don’t worry about that now, Virg. Brains will work out what happened.”

“No, you’re not getting it. My hands were on the console, not inside it.”

Scott stared at Virgil a moment. “Noted. John and Brains have it in hand.”

Virgil shook his head as if in denial, but groaned and closed his eyes.

Gordon gripped him a little tighter, his fingers fisting in flannel as his brother wavered. “They’ll work it out. You need treatment and rest.”

The swear word Virgil hissed was ever so appropriate.

-o-o-o-

[eliotquillon]

i actually really like the snappy pacing of s4 (even if i’m not overly crazy about the whole Fellow Finding Reality Show arc) and i honestly think it benefited from the shortened episode count BUT that said. so curious about what s4 might have been like if the writers strike hadn’t necessitated cutting it short. i think the overall shape of it would’ve been the same (house’s head/wilson’s heart are just too good) but here’s a list of stuff i think we would’ve seen/i would’ve liked to have seen if s4 had had a full 24 episodes:

-i think we probably would’ve gotten a lot more chase and cameron (and specifically Chameron Relationship Moments). this is based on the fact that a) we do get more of those in s5, when the episode count goes back to normal, b) we got so much build-up with them in the second half of s3 (i am not immune to punching the air when cameron shows up at chase's apartment in the s3 finale) that it does feel a bit weird that we barely see them together, and c) cameron especially does get a few moments of trying to prove she's the Best House Whisperer this season combined with the documentary episode of her making chase watch her chant 'i am not in love with house :)' in the mirror and i think there would've been more made of that if there'd been more episodes

-AMBER. i think we would've gotten a hell of a lot more amber + that her and wilson would've been together longer. i also think we would've seen a lot more of house and amber which imo is the main downside of this season being so short - house's head seems to allude to him having a crush on her by the time of the crash? or like. at least respecting her as a person which is more than you can say for most people. and i think a longer episode count would've allowed us to see more of that and/or let that simmer and fester for longer. anyway. amber in any capacity. send tweet.

-call me crazy but i think we would've seen more cole. i know we already get a disproportionate amount of focus/info on him given that he's never heard from or mentioned again after house fires him but part of me wonders if this is because he was supposed to have come back in another guest role at the tail end of the season and then that got cut but the rest of his stuff remained. would've been cool to lock him and cameron in a room together since she essentially goaded him into violence and all. maybe i just have too much faith in the writers for this one

-call me crazy again but a part of me wonders if this might have been The Huddy season. both because i read somewhere that lisa edelstein apparently had a sign saying that shippers should support the strike if they wanted more huddy (#based, always support a picket line) but also because like. the huddy slowburn is ridiculously long. by the time they got together i wasn’t even rooting for them anymore i was just ready for the arc to be over (and to be clear: i really like huddy). this is really speculative territory because obviously it wouldve had a massive knock on effect on later seasons (most of s5 and s6 gets knocked over by this) but like at the very least i think they probably would’ve kissed by the end of a full-length s4.

-i think it would’ve taken a bit longer for foreman to rejoin the team/he would’ve been a bit more of a stinker about it. emphasis on ‘bit’; i actually like how quick it is he regresses back to the fellowship/how fast he immediately resorts to malpractice at mercy (now there’s a spinoff title) but i think he probably would’ve stuck it out for another episode longer. maybe one and a half.

-absolutely we would’ve had a comedic subplot in some random episode about people trying to guess thirteen’s real name/their reaction to it. iirc the first time we heard her Actual name said Out Loud is with cuddy yelling at her over air bubble guy in house’s head. if there’d been time i just know there would’ve been a moment about this. that said i do find the canon reveal really fucking funny because for a moment when i first watched that episode i was like ‘who the FUCK is dr hadley’ which was probably the intended experience lmfaooo

-i think we might have gotten a few more sown seeds about house’s worsening addiction / mental health problems that obviously end up coming to a head in the final episodes of s5. nothing super big, but just a hint or two that something is Brewing.

-old fraud (henry) probably would’ve come back for an episode as house’s PA. or he gets hired as cuddy’s assistant (we know she runs through them like water) and house feels betrayed and there’s a silly prank war about it or whatever. hey for someone who doesn’t like the finding fellows arc i keep mentioning the discarded fellows a lot

-i know chase’s sister is a crazy s8 retcon (compels me tho) but can you guys please hold my hand where i imagine a world where there’s a subplot with him and cameron having a blowout argument where he reveals her existence to her and cameron tries to force him to reconcile with her. Ok you can stop holding it now i recognise that this is pure copium and never would’ve happened since we don’t find out about this sister until 4 fucking seasons later but it was a nice idea right

-this would’ve been a great season for a requisite Musical Episode. we get a lot of fun one-offs in s5 and 6 (lucas’s failed spinoff launch, 5 to 9, wilson) and this is the season with the documentary episode (that doubles as both the Meta Episode and the Noir Episode) so like. the writers were already armed and ready with their long-running cable show special episode notebooks. there probably would’ve been a ‘you can’t always get what you want’ fakeout. i’m not a fan of musical episodes and so would’ve hated every moment of it but i am a person of the people.

[physalian]

What No One Tells You About Writing 8— “Anyone can write a book”

Yes. But actually no. I say “writing is easy” in that it doesn’t take a degree and textbook learning to understand. You can get an English or lit degree if you want, but writing is incredibly subjective. It’s not even like an art degree that has you study different mediums and historical styles. “Writing is easy” in that it’s about feeling, and instinct, and a little bit of common sense. Anyone can do it in that it doesn’t take financial investment to start. Steal a tchotchke pen and paper from a hotel room—you’ve got all the tools you need. I have a communications degree and 9 years of experience, and I'm about to publish my first supernatural fantasy novel.

Writing is not easy, however, if any of the following applies to you:

You want to make enough money to do this full time

You want to appeal to mass audiences

You want to be a NYT bestseller**** or get an adaptation

You want to be regarded as the best of your generation and fill bookstore shelves

1. It takes a healthy dose of self-awareness and a reality check

 I beta’d for an author who thought that he was comparable to GRRM, the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, because both have adult themes in their book and if GRRM can do it, why can’t he? The sheer vastness of the divide between ASOIAF and this awful, awful manuscript wasn’t worth putting into words for the amount I was being paid, though I tried.

Yes, you can write whatever you want. Yes, you can write to please yourself and stroke your ego. You can write the hammiest wish-fulfillment author insert that you desire. But you can’t expect anyone else to want to read or pay money for it. It’s great to have confidence as an author and envision your success, but starting right off the bat with “everyone will love this book because I’m really smart and I love this book” is only going to leave you bitter and penniless.

2. You might be an expert in your given field, doesn’t automatically make you an expert at storycrafting

I really, truly want the above godawful toe wart of a human (who tried to justify pedophilia in his book with the Israel-Palestine conflict) to stop featuring in my writing advice, but I know he’s not the only person out there who thinks like this. You might have a doctorate in engineering, medicine, political science, chemistry, physics, history, paleontology—any field you want. That does not mean you can successfully translate your expertise into a well-crafted and compelling narrative. It means you can write a college textbook lecturing your readers for 300 pages. Heck, if you can't explain what you do like I'm 5 years old, then you're not an expert in your field.

Elements of good storytelling include well-rounded characters, solid pacing, compelling themes and motifs, an engaging main conflict and character arcs and edge-of-your-seat action, romance, debates, and arguments. It’s so much more than “I’m going to write a textbook, but have my character tell it to you, and everyone will love it”.

They won’t.

3. “I’m gonna be a millionaire like JKR”

The frustrating thing about making money writing is that at the end of the day, you are still selling a product. Which means that it doesn’t matter how amazing you think it is, if it’s not what sells. The Fifty Shades series is hardly a poetic epic with deep, meaningful characters and themes, but it sold. It got adaptations. Why? Because it was a product people wanted and its writing style appeals to mass audiences who aren’t entertained by fluffy, antiquated prose. I hated the Divergent books. They soullessly and shamelessly fed off the success of Hunger Games. But they sold because “teen dystopia HP houses” was what audiences craved and what Hollywood was pushing to make movies out of.

Personally I don’t have any nostalgia for Harry Potter and I both wish I did so I could have one more beloved series and fandom to participate in, but also am glad I don’t because of JKR. HP is chock full of plot holes and “fuck it we’ll do it live” worldbuilding and so many concepts that look cool on paper until you really start thinking about it.

JKR didn’t make a million dollars because she wrote the greatest fantasy series. JKR made a million dollars because she wrote a book that sells every goddamn piece of lore for $15.99 or more and collects on all those sweet, sweet royalties. She understood that she’s selling a product, not just a story, selling everything from Slytherin ties and wizarding robes to golden snitches, sorting hats, wands, chocolate frogs, and every other prop seen in the movies.

You sure can chase trends and I’m sure Divergent is somebody’s favorite book and you can hock chocolate frogs. Everyone’s writing goals are different.

4. “But GRRM did it” (or, adhering to genre expectations)

Circling back to this one. Once again, you can write whatever you want, no one is stopping you. However, books are products and if what’s in the summary and on the cover isn’t what’s on the pages, you’re going to upset and annoy your readers. For example, if I slap a chiseled six-pack of man meat on my book cover with flowy calligraphy for the title that reads something like Sex and Pink Champagne and my summary is all about how protagonist girl gets the adonis of her dreams, you’re not going to be happy if, 200 pages in, the plot detours and Mr. Sexy fucks off to sell NFTs.

It doesn’t meet genre expectations.

GoT kicks off with incest and child defenestration. It tells you *exactly* what you’re getting into immediately. You can subvert plot expectations all you want. You can subvert tropes and archetypes and throw in all kinds of twists and turns. But if you’re writing a YA novel and 100 pages in after campfire songs and the power of friendship, Protagonist gets assaulted in a 7-11 parking lot because you wanted to be ~edgy~ you’re going to piss off your readers.

Take Mulan for example. It has a dramatic tonal shift so powerful, the musical stops being a musical because it’s traumatized. Mulan doesn’t drop in the grizzled and horrifying wasteland of a battlefield with thousands of dead soldiers in an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It’s already a war movie, the possibility is already there.

If you want to write adult content, then write a book for audiences who are prepared for and want to read adult content. Otherwise you’re setting yourself up for failure.

5. “Okay but it’s not entertaining”

Your first job as an author is to entertain (your second is to do it responsibly imo). There’s millions of books out there—why should someone read yours? Whether that’s entertainment through a feel-good romance or a gut-wrenching tragedy, you need to keep convincing your readers to stay invested in the story, otherwise they can and will put it down to read something else. No one is obligated to read your book to the end.

So, yeah your protagonist might have all the elements of your own personal tragedies and it sure is meaningful to you, but the way you wrote it is incredibly boring and no one will care. It might be the most brilliant heist plot ever conceived, but you focused on all the wrong elements, the pacing is whack, and your protagonist is annoying, so no one will read it.

Very few individual elements can be good enough to carry the entire manuscript and the likelihood of an author being really good at one thing and awful at the rest is slim. Readers can quit a book over the most arbitrary reasons. Do you want to die on a hill of “I’m not changing my annoying protagonist, I’m right and they will see”? They won’t. The arguments authors get into with me over how I hated their protagonist or I told them which parts were boring and dragged because I “didn’t understand the story” are pointless. If it’s boring or confusing or annoying, no one will read it.

6. First Drafts are drafts for a reason

Actually writing is less than half the time and effort spent on getting a book to publication. Probably less than a quarter. The rest of that time is spent editing and rewriting. Some first drafts will be better than others, not arguing that, but your first run through your story has a non-zero chance of needing revisions, even for something as small as typos and punctuation.

You have to edit for pacing and tonal shifts, erroneous details and entire scenes, character inconsistencies and goals. You have to make sure your conversations flow believably, that you hit every talking point that scene requires. You have to make sure your character’s motivations don’t create plot holes and that they’re always on track like a real person and not a creation of your imagination. You have to make sure your action scenes and sex scenes are legible and as thrilling for a reader as they are for you. You have to make sure your worldbuilding is consistent and logical and easy to understand.

Some people outline heavily before starting page one. Some people have a sticky note of “beginning middle end” and run off that. Some have whole folders of different documents to keep track of all their elements. Everyone’s writing process is different, but it is a process, not a one-and-done. It requires revisions, seeking feedback, implementing that feedback, and more revisions until it’s as good as it can be.

Yes, you need to edit. No, you’re not the writing god who penned perfection on your first try. Maybe a piece of your story is perfect on the first draft, but not the whole thing from start to finish. It’s okay that your story isn’t what you thought it would be when you started, and it’s no failing of you as a writer to need edits or even massive changes. It happens to everyone.

7. “Writing is easy, thus it’s not a real job”

Really the notion that creatives are lesser than corporate business people solving problems that their business created. But specifically for writing, the idea that it’s just putting words on a page, thus it’s easy and anyone can do it, so it’s not impressive or deserving of praise and you really need a real job (you probably will because writing doesn’t make much money for most people, but that’s just how it shakes out).

I know ENNS won’t appeal to everyone. I know there will be people who hate my characters, who don’t understand them or don’t agree with their philosophies or find my writing trite and too lean and not ~immersive~. I know there’ll be homophobes out there who won’t even read it but hear about it and make assumptions and will leave me crap reviews. I know it’s not the greatest supernatural fantasy novel ever written.

I’m not in it to make money or get a movie deal and see my merch all over the shelves and get my own theme park. I write so that even one reader might see themselves in my characters and know they’re not alone. So that even one reader has one of my characters as their favorite and that character motivates them to do the Thing or keep moving forward or be brave enough to finally do whatever they’ve been too afraid to attempt before. I want to help people, even if at the end of the day, my writing only helps myself.

Yes I need supplemental income (who doesn’t these days). It’s the way of the world. But I’m doing what I love in my free time and it is a real job because it takes work, and it might not have monetary value but its value to me is priceless.

[realchemistry]

Everything that went right and wrong with 9-1-1 season 7 (according to me, duh!)

Let me start by saying that I enjoyed the season a lot, but that doesn't mean that it was flawless and I thought the finale didn't deliver. So, this is me pointing out what I did and didn't like and why, and how I wish it'd happened instead.

Also: it's a short and somewhat rushed season due to the writers' strike, this I know. You know who else knew? TPTB. So, nope, it’s not a valid excuse for any of its shortcomings. If they tried to bite off more than they could chew, that's on them.

Everyone knows that having a three-episode arc for the honeymoon was a bad choice, it was clear because the episodes dragged due to it and the Bathena drama made no sense. Let's say they had to keep up with the tradition and that it's a huge budget deal to build those sets so they had to milk them for all they were worth. Fine. It could've still been made more interesting, but wrong choices were made. I didn't appreciate the whole pirates taking over thing, and the season ended with the cartel, which... why do you want to have POCs being the bad guys so badly?

So, let's go by the assumption that having a three episode arc for Bathena's honeymoon was the only choice possible, fine... but didn't Madney deserve a lot of attention as well considering they got freaking married? Why was that not a two-parter? Why not have a first part with cases and some fun bachelor/bachelorette shenanigans, and have Chim disappearing be the cliffhanger? Why not dedicate a big chunk of the second part to that, like they did, and then actually give the wedding some breathing room? Sure, it mirrored their kiss after the whole Doug debacle but these are two main characters who got married. It's a drama show but the drama gets old if there are no bright moments in between.

The inclusion of Amir was interesting because of what it brought up in Bobby. Plus, the actor was clearly great and he was such a big deal that he, well, he was given A LOT of screentime. This made me mad because the show, as previously mentioned, was short on time as it was. Having a new character come in and have such a huge role would make sense if we were talking about a full season. As it was, his presence meant that some of our regulars were pushed to the background. Their storylines suffered for it, and while the show usually does this, it's sorta okay when screentime is divvied up between the regular cast. When it's an outsider... well, I have some issues with that. Like, we literally know more about Amir than we do about Ravi at this point. Also: Amir was clearly an amazing person and he was wronged time and time again. Athena got to play solo-cop as it's her thing, and we're supposed to think she was being heroic instead of downright wrong and abusing her power? If I were Amir, I'd sue her and I'd burn their house down for real (not really, but you know what I mean). They put this man through hell. Sure, Bobby saved him... which felt such a white savior redemption thing. And I know the show and the character said otherwise, but it still felt awful and then it just got worse. In any case, they could’ve made this story play out with more nuances instead of devoting so much of a short season to it to the detriment of our stable cast. 

Buck had an amazing start of the season, finding himself and his truth and sharing it with his family. The fact that they had him entering the dating scene with a character like T*mmy... I didn't like that. Any random person would've been better. But, also, I don't wanna be that person but this is my blog so I'm gonna be: Oliver clearly hasn't been enjoying the latest interactions between these characters to the point where their scenes, few as they are, are actually hard to watch. The last one was literally the most cringe inducing moment of TV I've ever witnessed. Instead of Buck exploring himself, we have him reacting to the odd, negative and out of place comments that T*mmy keeps throwing his way. It's just weird and not at all the happy story Oliver was hoping for, so I get him. I hope this gets better next season, with BT being bones and Buck being able to thrive instead of falling back into a revamped awful dating life.

On the other hand, this season was the Buddiest of them all. Well, I mean, it had the most hints of it actually happening at some point. When Buck talked about there being underlying sexual tension in the premiere, it was just ashslgjñhjsdñgjsñdg. They were comparing Chris's interactions with girl friends and boy friends but we all know that wasn't all that was. We had Eddie talking about how much growth Buck had done from being a playboy, which funnily enough he never got to meet, to the person he's today. Another great indicator were the whole 100th/101st episodes, with Buck clearly wanting to get Eddie's attention due to jealousy, which everybody could see, and the ~reveal that the episode was from Buck’s POV which was also incredible because that man is so in love it’s just insane. But, even most importantly maybe, was Maddie's scene with Buck... It was a mirror of her calling him out on his guy crush on Eddie from season 2, with the circled with a heart around it, but the next episode it got real. To me, her words and her face spoke volumes: first she couldn’t believe Buck was with Eddie’s friend, then she told him he might not be sure of his own feelings and finally that if there’s something he needs to tell Eddie, he will, just in his own time. That was NOT about Buck being bisexual, it was Maddie reading right what Buck was reading wrong: how Buck had been jealous because of the way he feels about Eddie and how he was putting his feelings for Eddie into somebody else. Someone safe for the time being, all things considered. That's a thread waiting to be pulled when the right time comes if I ever saw one! I've been giddy just thinking about it ever since, tbh. We also had a Buddie scene in pretty much every episode, and I absolutely adored them in the bachelor party because they were so in sync, as they were all season long actually. The parallel of Eddie asking for Buck’s help at the end was nice as just that, but the story... I’ll rant about it later. I love that Oliver has been pushing the Buddie agenda harder than ever, so I'm hoping he's talking Ryan's ear off about it and that they'll demand it from Tim soon enough.

Onto Eddie, the problem with the whole Kim thing actually starts because they killed Shannon in the first place. They should've never done that, I've always thought this way. She was a great character and seeing Eddie co-parent with his ex would've been great storytelling, he could've still had a breakdown due to divorcing her or even her dating again or whatever. Besides the insanity of Kim going back to his house after learning the truth, the fact that Eddie broke down and caved in was understandable. I actually thought that was pretty well done. The problem was all that followed. We don't care about Marisol because the show never made us care about her, so her part in all of this is completely irrelevant.

As for Chris, I honestly have SO many issues with his reaction. Him being confused would only be right, but being that mad with Eddie? I honestly feel like I'm missing something because the two of them have developed such a strong relationship that it feels like Chris's reaction was totally OOC. Why wouldn't Chris want to know Eddie's side of the story? Why would he want to leave his dad and his house? Why would he want to leave the state? Why would he want to go live with his grandparents? Sure, he has a good relationship with them at this point, but we can only gather that by... imagining it, for the most part. How long since they been around? Why not mention that they were visiting or that Chris was with them when he was away to set the stage? It honestly feels like it was all improvised and they wanted to leave Eddie without Chris and this was all they could come up with. There were other ways that could've actually made more sense to get to this place, but they chose to do it in a way that's both hurtful to the characters and to their progression throughout the seasons. Make it make sense!!! There's also the fact that the finale script was all written under the assumption that Eddie and Kim were kissing when Chris showed up. That didn't actually make the cut. This is clearly a consequence of rushed scripts and filming schedules, and while we can interpret every scene saying they kissed as an exaggeration or simply a wrong interpretation of the situation, it actually made me very mad. Having characters rehash what happened the episode before so the people who missed it can catch up is normal but I hate it with my whole heart. Those people can go to hell, but if they're gonna spend time of the finale doing that, the least they could do is make the facts fact. Sure, Eddie was going insane and he said it was hard to explain but everyone in-show very much believed that Eddie kissed Kim. This is upsetting because of the exact reason why that kiss was cut, as said by Ryan in an interview this week.

On top of this, Chris is 13 years old. Eddie letting him go is not it. Eddie has every right to tell him he's staying whether he likes it or not because he's his father and he gets to decide where he lives. The show tried to make the whole thing come out as noble but I thought it was bullshit. From what we know about Eddie, he wouldn't just let him go: he would either tell Chris to stay put or go with him. The fact that, again, they clearly wanted to have Eddie alone for whatever reason, and they couldn't find a better way to pull it off... that's just bad on TPTB's part.

Hen and Karen were put through hell once more for no reason. Why can't the big obstacle for them be simply getting through Mara? Why do they have to get to a good place only for it to be ripped away? Don't say it's drama tv, I don't care, people on screen deserve happiness, damn it! They most of all, tbh, and the fact that Denny was so upset just made it 5464641636469 worse. Then we had Madney helping out, which was lovely but completely unrealistic from a legal pov and also... why can't HenRen just get what they want without a het couple's intervention? So Ortiz has enough power to get Mara away from them but she didn't know that the people wanting to foster her were part of the 118 even though she had something to do with Gerrard being reinstated? I know this is what Tim implied on his socials to explain why someone as shitty as Gerrard would be taken back by the firehouse... which, I don't know if that even makes sense? Does she have the kind of power to do any of this?

A lot of questions now:

Why was a random woman given so many precious minutes of the finale just so Athena could have a car to go after an innocent man? Why does she keep getting away with asking for personal favors, recklessly involving Maddie too? Why wouldn't the editor of the episode give us a frame at least of Buddie by Bobbie's hospital bed? This made me particularly mad because it actually looked like Oliver and Ryan were not there filming (though we knew they were), and that's why they kept showing their backs. Maybe they had lines, maybe not, but a few seconds while Chim, Hen and Maddie talked would've been nice... since it clearly seemed like nobody was particularly perturbed by Bobbie's state. I'm sorry but I can't fear for his life when his wife is away trying to get revenge and his team are just... there. Also, why are him, Athena, the aforementioned neighbor and Amir allowed to just walk into a house that suffered that much fire damage? Wouldn't the structure be compromised? Plus, Athena and Bobbie kinda were awful to Amir, first killing his wife and then accusing him and all, so why would he want to talk about anything with Bobbie, nevermind say he's earned his family? He was wronged so badly, he didn't owe them a thing, it's honestly ridiculous. Then Bobby came back so fast... but he had quit before and forgot about it? The Gerrard reveal was actually not something I hated because I love a good shake up. I bet he'll last three episodes at most. We know this isn't gonna be good exactly, and it makes zero sense, but a change in dynamics is always refreshing and could put some things into perspective. I hated when Buddie weren't partnered, but I ADORED the way Hen was weirded the fuck out by the closeness she is not used to having with Chim while on the field, so I can't wait for some of it.

Things I wanna see:

More May, more Ravi, Eddie’s sisters. More Buddie. No dating people to fill up time for either of them. Eddie’s gay/demi awakening (I swear, if this is not where his story is going, it will all feel like such a waste, much like during his previous breakdown). Chris and Mara going back home soon. Gerrard and Ortiz getting what they deserve.

This is so long it's insane, if you've read it, I thank you. If I think of anything I forgot, I'll add it later. If you have anything to contribute, please do. I'm around and I'd love to discuss this show and all its intricacies.

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2024-07-29

Undisclosed reasons

Listening: Protodome does cute chiptune jazzy stuff. It's good room-filling music

Reading: among other things, rereading a significant chunk of Questionable Content. I dunk on QC a lot so I'm not going to here. It's a comic I care about a lot and that I read because I like it, even if it no wait not doing that. Yeah despite the enormous revolving cast it manages to be pretty well plotted on an arc-to-arc scale even if between arcs there is almost no continuity.

I haven't reread much of QC in a long time and I don't think at all since I moved out on my own which makes it stand out as a very different kind of thing. While I had friends through high school and university, we didn't exactly hang out, whereas I do occasionally just have a random friend over at my apartment or find myself hanging out on an odd weekend.

Watching: Nothing really, bleh.

Making: Got the core features of LuaLED up and running! If I don't lose focus for weeks at a time again it should actually be a useful product soon!

Revived a couple laptops that have been between operating systems and kicking around the house. Currently typing this on the ARM tablet because it's finally in a position to be used like a normal computer. It's a little slow but it handles my normal tasks great, I was using it to flip through photos and read QC.

Speaking of Photos, went out to take photos around Nuselsky Most (keyboard isn't set up for accents sorry) near Vysehrad. It's a pretty dead area at street level but there's a huge concrete bridge crossing the valley that adds some texture, I've been trying to come up with interesting photographic assignments to improve my architectural photography and I figured trying to capture something that high up was going to be interesting. That was only yesterday so it'll be a moment until I dump those photos out and get some up here.

Playing: Paradise Killer! Paradise Killer is mostly pretty good. The main gimmick of Paradise Killer is the extremely hands-off investigation system. You have an assistant computer that tracks all your relevant facts, categorizes them a little, and helps you see whether you've exhausted all your dialogue options with someone, but you really do just have to dig around the island looking for clues or you can end up in a situation where you just never find a particular clue.

The fact that it tracks loose-ends for you does soften this somewhat, if you've still got a ton of loose ends it tells you where to tug, and I think getting rid of that might have made the game more interesting but it's a good accommodation towards playing it over more than three days like I did.

Because of how the investigation is structured, you have to really put in the legwork to find out the full story, it's very easy to feel like you've probably got everything on lock with a couple odd ends but then you find a new clue and suddenly the whole shape of the case changes.

There's also the aspect of mechanical friction. The game is really does not make anything go quickly. Menus are intentionally clunky, interfaces are slow and full of animations and confirmations that can't easily be tabbed through, fast travel is involved and costly and requires planning in advance, resources are plentiful but ultimately limited and if you're not careful you absolutely can spend yourself to empty. It's a little bit of internal commentary on what you might do if you have to design a place where you can live forever.

I think if you like mystery games, or catchy city pop, it's a good game to check out.

Tools and Equipment: You can dramatically increase the fineness of a rough mushroom chop by whacking them with your palm or the flat of a blade and then chopping.

[funkyyusername]

mcsm headcanons cuz im actually mental rn get it out of my head (btw these headcanons are with red clip jesse in mind hello)

- olivia and axel have been friends since like actual birth

- i like to believe jesse became friends with those two later in life, like either middle school or high school age

- in my head jesse was friends with rueben first

- like rueben was jesse’s first friend

- also in my head shes like actually terrible when it comes to talking to people

- like she has no idea how

- and rueben was her first friend bc she felt it was easier talking to a pig than people

- and also also in my head she was completely overwhelmed when she had become the towns hero

- bro had to thug out the fame

- i love my autistic queen jesse minecraft (im not projecting trust)

- oh oh also jesse’s full name is jessica but she always hated how feminine it sounded so she has just always gone by jesse

- anyway back to treehouse trio (olivia axel and jesse)

- sometime in their teen years they TRIED to make a band together

- axel could play drums and olivia could play piano

- jesse couldn’t play an instrument though so they all decided she would sing and do tambourine

- and rueben would play the damn triangle

- see it wasn’t that jesse wasn’t a bad singer she’s like pretty decent at singing

- it’s just they didn’t keep in mine that jesse and axel were both playing instruments that are supposed to keep the beat of a song (and also technically rueben too)

- i swear there are real names to those types of instruments i’m just blanking out on what they’re called

- so they ended up drowning olivia’s piano playing

- and it just sounded awful

- it lasted a week

- petra plays guitar

- she taught jesse how to play guitar which worked like slightly

- jesse can now successfully play three cords on the guitar!

- i think the treehouse trio met petra late teenage years

- this is also around the time they met the ocelots

- jesse and aiden are bitter exes HELLO

- i like to think jesse and aiden dated for a year before jesse broke things off bc aiden was lowkey highkey controlling

- aiden went from being like “omg no i need u pls” to “WHATEVER FINE I HATE U U STUPID BITCH” real quick

- also i like to think maya had a tiny crush on olivia but is so bad at flirting that olivia thought maya was bullying her

- so olivia lowkey beefing with maya

- lukas use to do mayas hair a LOT so now lukas is like the master of styling hair

- very quick on the ocelots i think all of them have also been friends since like actual childhood

- their teenage rebellion phase was wildd they should have been put behind bars

- “alright ocelots let’s absolutely grief this house” type shit

- anyway back on treehouse trio i care for them deeply

- axel. haha. he had tiny crush. on jesse

- bro was NOT happy when jesse and aiden started dated

- he gotten over jesse by the time she broke it off with aiden but omg bro was CHEERING

- i really really like to think that the treehouse trio have like this friendship necklace they all wear

- nothing fancy just some scrapes of iron on a chain wrapped around their neck

- rueben has one too :)

- jesse was like “i don’t wanna do that without rueben” and they were like “i support u queen”

- i think jeese and olivia have the same hair type

- well actually i think olivia’s curls are tighter but they are almost identical

- so olivia and jesse always did each others hair :)

- um some small stuff on the order of the stone rq

- ellegaard and soren HAD to have had SOMETHING

- wether it was like they were a thing or soren had a thing for her SOMETHING

- there’s actually a mcsm ost called “redstone baby” which i THINK plays when u first go into sorens enderman prep room

- it actually has some lyrics too its kinda sweet

- anyway enough about them lets go into main game events

- i like to think the main gang are all around 20-21 years old during the witherstorm arc

- order of oldest to youngest: petra, olivia, axel, jesse, lukas

- petra and olivia are both 21 and axel is about to turn 21

- have i made it clear jesse kinda a dork

- its not just male jesse guys like girls be dorky have you guys even READ dork diaries

- uh anyway so jesse prob never actually went out to fight monsters until that night she went out looking for rueben

- which is why she has the wooden sword

- i feel like she also prob used that wooden sword to fight off false alarms

- you cannot tell me jesse had not at least hit axel once with that sword when he would jumpscare her

- so ya jesse a weak fighter

- funny she goes from never fighting to the goddamn witherstorm

- she copied a lot of her fighting style from petra when she first had to go fight mobs

- throughout the game and also definitely after the witherstorm jesse develops her own form of fighting

- olivia DEFINITELY had a thing for ellegaard

- my girl was LEZZING out

- maybe not like actual full blown crush but she definitely had like this celebrity “do anything for u” crush on ellegaard

- soren is weak in my heart

- like emotionally yeah but also physically he weak as shit

- jesse only passed out from sorens punch cuz one, soren put his whole into that punch and two, jesse too is also weak as balls

- wind could blow her away

- did i mention shes vegan

- not that that has anything to do with her strength

- that f-bomb jesse threw at the witherstorm definitely effed her up

- in my run she used magnus’ armor which i am convinced saved her ass from some actual physical damage from the bomb

- but the bomb definitely did something to her

- she had tinnitus for weeks

- also i think she went deaf in one ear after that

- she kinda just raw dogged it for the witherstorm arc but i think olivia definitely made her earrings aids after

- or at least whatever earring aids would be in that universe idk if minecraft is different whatever

- rueben.

- my sweet baby boy rueben

- before we talk about the impacts of rueben’s death i wanna talk about how i believed jesse met rueben

- jesse was probs pretty young she met rueben

- it was confirmed that jesse found rueben near a waterfall so lets build on that

- i mentioned earlier that jesse pre-witherstorm never went out at night

- i lied she went out this one time and had gotten herself lost

- scared and confused jesse decided to wait out the night in a small cave with a waterfall nearby

- maybe even a cave behind a waterfall

- lucky mcsm came out pre-drowns so i don’t have to worry about that!

- jesse got lowkey highkey jumpscared by rueben

- rueben prob sneaked his way in the waterfall after losting his parents (rueben is a literal child guys where his pig parents at)

- rueben and jesse bonded over both being lost and scared and they waited out the night together

- and so now they besties

- were besties

- reuben’s death hit jesse, hard

- i don’t think she full blown cried when rueben first despawned, but she def was silently crying

- the night the witherstorm had died the whole town had thrown a party

- jesse didn’t show up to the party

- she made her way back to the treehouse and just laid down there

- thats when she started to cry

- like full blown crying

- she was found by axel and olivia later that night

- they all stayed in the treehouse that night

- jesse cried herself to sleep

- she never really got over rueben’s death

- for awhile she’d break down just looking at a pig

- that’s actually why she started going on adventure in the first place

- to distract herself from rueben

- i think the treehouse trio were the main contributors to rueben’s memorial

- jesse never wanted to be a hero guys

- anywayyy uh not much on the portal arc sorry guys

- portal takes a year after the witherstorm

- ivor and jesse have definitely bonded a lot since then

- i know damn well jesse and ivor yap buddies

- they yap under the stars about literally nothing and everything at the same time it’s crazy

- let it be know DAMN well when pama mentioned rueben something in jesse snapped

- like not obviously but it definitely repeated in jesse’s mine repeatedly

- i don’t even know if jesse had time to fully recover from pama’s remark

- if i remember correctly it was like pama’s world IMMEDIATELY to goddamn hypixel land

- but jesse def was fumbling a bit bc of like pama’s remark

- but then whats-his-face brought human rueben to taunt jesse and failed and that made jesse giggle for a bit

- but yeah after jesse got home jesse broke down again

- really thinking about pama’s remark on rueben

- “failed to save rueben” goddamn

- jesse was comforted by petra though

- wow i did not talk much about lukas sorry lukas fans

- anyway enough about lukas season 2 admin arc

- fuckass admins i haven’t gotten to replay it yet so my memories on this are fuzzy

- hi did i ever re-mention the friendship necklaces the treehouse trio had

- they NEVER took it off even after every single thing

- they tucked in behind their armor but it was always still there

- rueben’s necklace is at his memorial too don’t worry its not JUST the pork chop

- jesse is so vegan..

- uh admin arc is like 3 years after portal arc

- so everyone would be 25-26ish?? idk count my math

- radar is 21 though

- this means rader was 16 years old during the witherstorm arc

- do u guys remember his bitchass tattoo

- he def got a tattoo of the witherstorm on a drunken whim one day that he definitely regretted until he became thug

- jesse likes radar

- to jesse radar reminds her of who she used to be, which is sweet to jesse

- if not a little bit jealous-ing

- guys stella has the biggest fattest crush on jesse no one even lie to me

- “oh jesse my RIVAL my ARCH NEMESIS oh how i HATE her so much hehehehe time to start roleplaying as her teehee!”

- stella definitely wanted jesse

- did jesse want her back..maybe

- jesse has two hands and they’re for petra and stella

- maybe though i need to replay the games and see

- this will definitely get updated once i replay season 2

- sweet god there is something wrong with me

[lipeg]

Jaune: Sun has done much to damage both

Jaune had arrived early in the morning at the hospital where Blake and Yang were staying.

He was here as the Jaune Arc and not as the chief of police of Vacuo.

All Faunus were afraid to look at him, for he was the descendant of the devil of Faunus legends.

When Jaune arrived at the hospital.

It took him a while to find Yang and Blake because he had stopped to help people with his semblante of healing and unlocking people's auras.

Yang: When I find that monkey, I'm going to cut off his tail

Jaune: Yang, I have to remember that you are in front of an authority, I can put you in jail

Jaune sat in a chair.

Yang and Blake were in bed.

There were a lot of other people around her who were receiving medical treatment.

Because the world is in a desperate situation.

Jaune looked at the two guys and saw that they were almost 100%. As they were hunters, they were priorities.

Jaune: Okay, Blake starts talking

Blake: Speak? Say what?

Jaune crossed his arms.

Jaune: I talked to Neptune, he revealed to me that you and Sun have been through a lot together, you even traveled together when you escaped from Beacon.

Blake:I really have no idea why he did that, jealousy maybe?

Jaune: Our 🙄 I was so jealous when I saw you two kissing~

Jaune: Blake, please, Sun must have had a reason to do that, a man just doesn't hit a woman just because she's a lesbian. There must be a reason, and you know what it is, Blake

Blake looked away.

She was nervous.

Jaune let out a sigh.

Jaune: Come in soon

Blake turned pale.

She thought that Sun would enter through that door, but the person who entered was not Sun

It was Robyn Hill... Wait, this is still bad.

Before Blake could do anything.

His right arm was bound with a chain that was made of aura.

Blake: He can create aura weapons

Robyn was standing between Blake and Yang's bed.

Blake: you can't force me

Jaune: Yes, yes I can, I have studied the laws of Vacuo. And right now you're not helping Blake, I'm a 65-year-old man, do you think I'm that stupid?

Random doctor: You are 65 years old!

Jaune turned to the doctor.

Jaune: Aura does wonderful things

Jaune stood up.

He pulled a super necklace out of his pocket and took Blake's left hand, he put a large amount of necklace, and then he took Robyn's hand and glued both of their hands together.

Blake hadn't escaped.

Jaune returned to his chair.

Jaune: Then Blake started talking

Jaune bitterly regretted it.

Blake is not a girl with problems.

She was trouble in girl form.

He was not supposed to improve Robyn's semblante.

She revealed too much. Something he doesn't need to know.

Robyn wanted to get out as soon as possible when Blake told her about.... His hobbies

Everyone stopped to watch this soap opera, or rather everyone who was in the room.

Jaune: Let me see if I understood. Have you ever had a boyfriend who was 100% anti-human, where you both had a little tense relation, but... full of sexual tension...

Jaune stopped breathing.

Jaune: Instead of sitting down and having a conversation with him, you ran away to the Beacon, he was one of The White Fang leaders, who was one of the main people responsible for Baecon's attack and he was responsible for cutting off Yang's arm!

Jaune pointed at Yang's missing arm.

Jaune: You left without telling your team to go after the White Fang and detail that you did not take Yang to the hospital, you left her bleeding on the floor without her arm!

Random man: What a crazy thing

Jaune: You faced your ex-boyfriend and almost died! If Yang hadn't arrived on the scene

Blake: You forget the breaking into my house part

Jaune: This is the least important part! It was a miracle, Yang, it seems like you weren't dead! To add fuel to this fire, you discovered that your ex-boyfriend was an SDC slave.... This relationship is not toxic, it sucks! The guy was enslaved, he literally has a slave mark on his eye, how do you not want this guy to hate human?

Elderly lady: He really is right

Jaune: What is incredible to me is the fact that Sun was willing to be of help to you. He accepted all of this even though you treated him badly

Blake: I didn't treat him badly, Jaune.

Jaune: I didn't find another word.

Jaune coughed.

A child handed him a glasswater.

Jaune drank water and returned the glass.

Jaune: Thanks

Jaune: This story between the two of you starts off all wrong. You abandoned your team without giving a single warning, he followed you to your home, where the two of you face the remnants of the white fangs. Your house was attacked, your parents were almost killed, and in the end you kiss him

Yang: Sun looks like he is being chased

Random doctor 2: I wouldn't say he's being persecuted, of all the stories I've heard from my friends, the most common is when a stalker sees that his or her target is having a hard time, this is the perfect opportunity for a kidnapping. He's a fool in love.

Jaune: You gave him a kiss! It's the same thing as putting a billboard on your head and saying you have a chance with me, Sun! Not even my sister did that!

Jaune's blood pressure began to rise.

Jaune: It looks like hell came out of the mind of a 16-year-old teenager. Bringing two troubled teenagers together to become a couple

Yang: Jaune, you sound like an old man complaining

Jaune: I am old Yang, I have more important things to do, and the discussion of your sexuality or Blake's sexuality is not on my list

Blake: So you saying what the Sun is correct

Jaune: Don't put those words in my mouth

Jaune: I'm not saying that what the Sun did was right, but what you did was not right either. You rubbed it in the face of the man who was trying to win you over, that you are happy, etc, etc. Did you have to exaggerate that, Blake?

Blake looked away.

Jaune stood up and put his right hand on Blake's face.

He began to heal Blake.

The wounds that were caused by the Sun began to fade away.

The necklace that kept Blake and Robyn together. It was also undone.

Robyn, now free, the first thing she would do is clean her hand because of the Blake's hobby.

He did the same thing to Yang. But he was able to give back Yang's lost arm.

His work here was done.

Jaune: Now Blake, for the love of Jesus Christ, never do that to anyone again. Now I have to find Sun and make him apologize for what he did

Blake: Who Jesus Chris?

Jaune: Someone who would be the last person you would choose to follow because of your lifestyle

Jaune walked to the door.

Aura chain fell apart.

Jaune: Blake

Suddenly, Blake's animal instincts began to alert her to danger.

When she looked at Jaune.

Jaune was about to leave, his back to Blake.

Jaune had turned his head a little.

Blake had a glimpse of one of his eyes, and that eye was the source of her sense of dread.

Jaune's eye had changed, this eye became like her father's eye when he released his animal side. The difference was that his eye seemed to have electricity, the eye color changed to a much darker blue.

That was the eye of the diabolos Diogron Sabertooth.

They were the same eyes described in the legends.

Blue eyes as deep as the ocean, his eyes radiated lightning.

Jaune: If I find out that you're going to disobey again, I'm going to throw you in and you're never going to get out

Out of fear, Blake nodded his head.

Jaune: Good

Jaune left the room, Blake fell out of bed.

Yang was worried about his girlfriend's safety.

She will have to think of a way to deal with Jaune's new trick.

Elderly lady: Oh my gods, it was great entertainment in between, it would make an excellent piece of theater. It's a shame that my beloved Rogério is no longer here, I would love to give him a blowjob now after this show

Relative of the old woman: Grandma!

Elderly lady: * laughter * Oh darling I may be old but I'm still very good at what I do

[homestuckreplay]

*chuckles* john's in danger

(page 236-241)

So, Rose's area has meteorites too. This comic has the chance to do the funniest possible thing, which would be having John's countdown end in some other disaster, while the meteor strike is its own unrelated thing.

There's a couple really suspicious things in today's update. One is Rose putting her laptop onto the grimoire - it's only a few inches of elevation but there's a lot of attention drawn to it in the above very ominous panel (p.238). The other is the lab wifi network #0413 being mysteriously unsecured, almost like it was specifically set up for Rose to connect to. Are these two things connected? By putting the laptop on the grimoire is Rose making some kind of accidental warlock pact? (Or on purpose warlock pact, judging by the look on her face). And what is the lab doing with all these really powerful wifi signals, anyway? Are they doing a lot of long distance communication that needs a good signal, like, I don't know, talking to aliens? What are the 'leavings', 'scraps', and 'detritus' on Rose's desktop? What shady stuff is she up to on the computer??

For a full 28 pages (213-241) John has been not only homestuck but roomstuck, and something feels poetic about the barrier of the door being not only opened, but entirely removed. It makes me wonder if something could happen to break down the more complex boundaries keeping him homestuck (something like, I don't know, a meteor). Seeing John in his room on p.240-241 is giving me complex emotions. He's clearly spent the last minute and a half doing nothing besides kissing his posters (I bet he kissed McConaughey when we weren't looking) and trying to accept death despite the terror.

If we accept that John's bedroom door opens outwards (weird, but there's no evidence against it) then there truly is nothing he can do. Narratively it's interesting to leave the main character completely powerless and at the whims of intermittent internet signals - if this was the ending it would be really unsatisfying, but if this is setting John up for a character arc, it works great. This time he gets to yell and bash his keyboard and wait for Rose to tell him what to do, and in a few hundred pages time, it'll be so satisfying when we see John save himself.

Unrelated and from a few days ago, but I want to give a huge shoutout to p.208. Dad walking down those tiny stairs is really unintentionally funny, and it's a cool panel that shows the chaos this house has suddenly become.

[violivs]

NMTDaily: And So It Begins

- Beatrice’s first vlog! What an opening line, I love it lol. I remembered the hand wave on “hello, people of the Internet” having a wider arc across the screen than it actually does, funny enough! Glad I didn’t specify the wide wave when I referenced this line in MARRIED, the fic I posted on the 25th.

- “I’m not too old for Halloween”, girl after my own heart!

- Always thought it was interesting that Bea’s mother is American. I wonder how/why they decided that. It’s the kind of super specific detail that makes Bea feel so real, because who would make that up? It’s also interesting that it means Bea and Ben’s families are both somewhat international. Another parallel for them, another thing they have in common.

- I bet the Aunties’ wedding was the cutest thing ever, imagine Hero and Leo standing up with them! That’s probably the last time all of the Dukes were together before the story starts.

- I’m surprised Bea’s parents moved because her dad got a promotion. I would have assumed her mom did, because we get the impression of her as the high-powered businesswoman. But good for Bea’s dad. Is it canon that he’s a university professor? (Promotion = tenure?) Or did I make that up for fanfic and/or confuse him with Ben’s parents being professors in canon? Listening for that. Maybe Bea’s dad was actually also a business person all along and that’s how her parents met. Who knows.

- Bea says Australia like I say Indiana, lol (no hate to anyone from Indiana though! Just another of those inborn rivalries with the neighbor, like the Oz/NZ one.)

- “A great science program” I forgot Bea was a science person!

- I always loved the set decoration in this room, I remember it’s Hero’s room, and it’s so artsy and cozy and pretty. Love the wall art.

- “Leo and I are in charge of the house for the next six months” Excuse me, does this series really only take place over six months? Well, it ends in the first week of November, so that’s seven full months. I think it felt like it lasted a whole year when it was airing though. Time slowed down during a certain arc for sure.

- “in-joke with myself!” Classic. I kind of love that the text on screen saying “good one Beatrice” is Bea talking to herself again in-world, but out-of-world it’s kind of the Candle Wasters talking, interacting both with their own main character and with the audience. Meta.

- “Sorry my life is so boring” are like, THE famous last words for an LIW protagonist. Honey, you got a big storm coming!

- I was always so incredibly impressed with Beatrice’s independence, her comfort with leaving her parents and essentially being on her own before she even finished high school. I was alone in a college dorm hours away from home when I first watched this, second semester of freshman year if I’m not mistaken, and I could barely believe I’d managed it. I couldn’t imagine doing that any earlier than I had. I thought she was so brave and cool. I think Bea actually shows more hesitation and nervousness than I realized she did in this episode, both because she’s not used to vlogging yet and because being in a new place is nerve-wracking, but I still think she’s so brave.

- It’s so interesting that in a reversal of the play, it’s our Beatrice who comes from away to Messina to start the story, instead of Benedick and the other men returning from war. Of course, we’ll see how the boys’ arrival on the scene is modernized soon enough!

- Harriett does such a great job making you care about Bea and like her right from the start. You just want to keep listening to her talk. I can’t wait to do just that over the next seven months.

- The Benedict Cumberbatch crush is a stroke of genius, but what are the odds that there happens to be a super famous guy named Benedict that you can reference who is at peak relevance in the exact year your MAAN modernization premieres? Truly, this series as it exists could only have happened in 2014. It was the perfect time and the perfect people. What luck.

- Oh, this is the wider arc hand wave I was remembering! It’s just at the end of the video and not the beginning. Funny!

- Covering the camera with her hand and ducking out of frame at the end of her first video is a direct parallel to what Bea and Hero do in their final NMTD video, sliding out of frame and all. Love that.

- I can’t believe how much there is to talk about even with these early episodes. These posts are gonna get so long they’ll have to go under a cut for the later episodes!

💖🦩🥭

[jackoshadows]

"You," Ned said, kissing her lightly on the brow, "will marry a king and rule his castle, and your sons will be knights and princes and lords and, yes, perhaps even a High Septon."-  Eddard, AGoT

He rose and dressed in darkness, as Mormont's raven muttered across the room. "Corn," the bird said, and, "King," and, "Snow, Jon Snow, Jon Snow." That was queer. The bird had never said his full name before, as best Jon could recall. - Jon, ADwD

Contrary to general fandom assumptions about Arya Stark, marriage and marriage proposals show up several times with respect to Arya Stark of Winterfell. The betrothal and marriage of Arya Stark in the story (for Arya herself or for her proxies) highlights and emphasizes on Arya Stark as a Key to the North and Winterfell and her bond with Jon Snow.

The first time a marriage is seriously considered for Arya Stark is when Catelyn betroths Arya to Elmar Frey, the 22nd son of Walder Frey, in return for the use of a bridge. Elmar being a 22nd son meant that there is no land or title in it for Arya Stark and Robb would have to settle his sister and her husband in the North.

More importantly though, for Needleheart purposes, what’s interesting is that Elmar Frey is rumored to be Black Walder’s son and hence a bastard.

So Arya is betrothed to a bastard, has a friendship and the beginnings of a possible romance with another bastard Gendry. Arya rejects her betrothal to Elmar (‘I hope your princess dies’) and thinks that Gendry is no longer part of her pack because he wants to stay with the Brotherhood. Given GRRM’s love for the rule of three, there’s one bastard waiting at the Wall for her who just ended up dying for her and thinks her home is wherever he is.

Weddings are a big part of the Northern plot in ADwD and Arya Stark is involved in every single one of them! Thinking about it, she really is the Key to the North in every sense of the word considering how much she is essential to the plot and character arcs of several of our main characters in the North.

The first wedding that occurs is that of Jeyne Poole masquerading as Arya Stark and Ramsay Bolton, in order to give legitimacy to Ramsay being Lord of Winterfell and Roose holding the North as Warden of the North. This sets off a cascade of events in the North, with some houses and the mountain clans allying and marching with Stannis Baratheon in order to save Ned’s precious little girl Arya Stark and overthrow house Bolton once and for all.

Word is send to the Wall of the impending wedding and sets off another cascade of events with Jon Snow, conflicted between keeping to his oaths and wanting to save Arya. In the process, Jon refers to Arya as his heart a couple of times and his arc here embodies GRRM’s oft mentioned ‘The Human heart in conflict with itself as the only story worth telling’.  Melisandre convinces him to send the King Beyond the Wall to rescue Arya, which leads to the infamous Pink Letter and Jon’s decision to attack Winterfell and the current Warden of the North, in effect destroying the neutrality of the Night’s Watch.

The second wedding is that of ‘ a girl in grey’ fleeing a marriage - Melisandre assures Jon it’s Arya fleeing Ramsay Bolton and heading to the Wall.

“The heart is all that matters. Do not despair, Lord Snow. Despair is a weapon of the enemy, whose name may not be spoken. Your sister is not lost to you.” “I have no sister.” The words were knives. What do you know of my heart, priestess? What do you know of my sister? Melisandre seemed amused. “What is her name, this little sister that you do not have?” “Arya.” His voice was hoarse. “My half-sister, truly …” “… for you are bastard born. I had not forgotten. I have seen your sister in my fires, fleeing from this marriage they have made for her. Coming here, to you. A girl in grey on a dying horse, I have seen it plain as day. It has not happened yet, but it will.” - Jon, ADwD

It turns out that the fleeing girl in grey is not Arya after all and that Melisandre has mistaken Alys Karstark for Arya Stark because they are similar in looks (Alys has the long face and brown hair, with blue-grey eyes. The Karstarks descended from a branch of House Stark). Jon quickly turns marriage broker and arranges a wedding for Alys with dancing and food - a bright and hopeful event in comparison to Jeyne/fake Arya’s wedding to Ramsay Bolton. Jon compares Alys’ smile and bravery to that of Arya’s, refers to his heart again and calls her a ‘Winter’s Lady’.

And finally, Stannis Baratheon sends word to Jon at the wall, and informs him that he intends to marry off Arya Stark to one of his Lords or a Northern Lord presumably after winning over Winterfell and killing Ramsay Bolton.

We are five thousand strong as I write, our numbers swelling every day. And word has come to us that Roose Bolton moves toward Winterfell with all his power, there to wed his bastard to your half sister. He must not be allowed to restore the castle to its former strength. We march against him. Arnolf Karstark and Mors Umber will join us. I will save your sister if I can, and find a better match for her than Ramsay Snow. You and your brothers must hold the Wall until I can return. - Jon, ADwD

Worried about Arya being used as a marriage pawn, Jon ironically wants to send her to Braavos, free of political entanglements.

Nor was he about to turn her over to Stannis or Melisandre. The king would only want to marry her to one of his own men, Horpe or Massey or Godry Giantslayer, and the gods alone knew what use the red woman might want to make of her. - Jon, aDwD

[Something to note here is that Jon has no qualms in brokering a marriage for Alys Karstark for political gain and yet does not want the same for Arya. And yes, Arya is much younger than Alys and still Catelyn was betrothing Arya to Elmar Frey way back in AGoT, when Arya is 9. Jon wants none of that for an even older Arya]

Something else to consider is that all of Arya’s betrothals and weddings - fake or otherwise - has her in the North. Her marriage to Elmar Frey would have seen her settled in the North on land given by Ned/Robb Stark. Stannis wants to reward his Lords with land/castles/titles in the North by marriage to Arya Stark. Fake Arya Stark marries the Lord of Winterfell to give legitimacy to the Bolton rule over the North. And the ‘girl in grey’ who Jon assumed to be Arya ends up marrying a Thenn from beyond the Wall and creating a new house at Karhold in the North.

So, betrothals and weddings surrounding Arya Stark greatly influence the plot in the North and drives Jon Snow’s story at the Wall. And while all this is happening Arya herself has no idea of any of this! She is unaware of her betrothal to Elmar, unaware of Ramsay’s marriage to ‘Arya’, unaware of Jon trying to save a ‘girl in grey’, unaware of Stannis wanting to marry her to one of his lords. Arya really has no idea how important she is to the North and how at this point a version of Arya Stark has married or come close to marriage.

And as always, with the rule of three, maybe the third wedding will be that of the real, grown up Arya Stark and this time the real Arya Stark will have agency and get to choose her partner, someone she loves, has always loved and wants to marry, a future full of hope and rebirth. A Dream of Spring.

[craetor]

L analysis / theory-ish

in the year of our lord 2022 because things don't make the bittest of logic & I'm here to serve autism conversation meme aka INTJ-to-INTJ bluetooth connection, telling tumblr, once more, of Him. But fr yes here's another analysis of canon content hear me out

.

Recently I've come across the Death Note Short Stories books and with it, these panels.

It seems odd how often L would state, just as bluntly: "I am justice", "L is justice", as if taking pride in some kind of double standard.

One could argue that this was his main goal during his early years (considering he might have felt somewhat high and mighty after preventing WW3), but that would mean L let go of the fact he initially wanted to use his intellect to benifit a larger good later on. Except... As recent as the beginning of the Death Note timeline, during the case of the LABB, a certain lightheartedness about his all-around approach was rather apparent, i.e. whenever he asked Misora if B "was cool", which anyhow quickly plummeted as his ideology came into question. It's inexplicitly stated that his motive for spending time on his work at all, especially on an extremely uncomfortable case as the one of a vengeful successor, or, you know, the ones involving crying survivors that reportedly haunt him daily, is following a code of "kindness", or perhaps even 'goodness' or 'justice'.

Was L forging the truth in the panels above to arise a response that would've been harder to get through full transparency? Giving the kids of Wammy's House a motif of casualness for what it means to step into L's footsteps is nothing but a making sure his successor is capable enough to have fun with it (be enough like him to use their anonymity in 'unfair', yet sufficient ways, enabling them to reach their goal with all the brattiness their smarts will grant them) and quelling the work towards a too high goal if they're not on board with doing well for themselves in face of The Burden (because, wouldn't you know, that was basically all this meeting was anyway. See end of this post for context).

I really thought it was odd for L to undermine the work he takes pride in.

In L Change The World (book one), L's literal dying duty is to save the world. It can't be ignored that it's s spin-off, but it can't be ignored that it'd be silly if the main goal of the book would be out of character. If it was his hobby, as he said, and his goals were selfish, he could've just set up in a comfy place somewhere, get his bearings, uncaring for the future of his successors (literally what he did care for in the panels shown above. This gathering is from the time he knew he might be killed by Kira soon) and watch the world crumble, but instead he went to, yes do what he loved, but fulfill a duty he felt he had. The unnecessary pain throughout the plot really can't be described as anything but passion and a sense of destiny. His ways aren't morally white, but they're well-meaning and genuine. Often arguably self-sacraficing.

It's more believable that L is splaying a facet he sees in his work & mentality. Being a detective is always bound to some sort of irony, to choose to call it 'righteous', and the measures necessary to reach a goal in such field. L recognizes this well and has no need to hide it, especially towards a room of potential proteges that will soon have to deal with that same irony by literally becoming him in the eye of the public. This actually arises the question if Near truly understands L's ways at this point. Short Stories could have served as Near's arc to understanding L's emotional side that, in the end, brought about his downfall and, for the lack of it, Near's victory. The announcement Near makes, addressing Cheap-Kira (which I adore btw) doesn't befit L at all. Yes, the new Kira has killed many (enough to warrant L's attention at the very least) and it's an honor thing for Near to go after them as L, but it's too experimental. It serves as a provocation and lure, but nothing deeply authentic. At this point the new Kira hadn't challanged L whatsoever, so the 'disinterest' thing just seems like Near shooting into the dark, less quiet & undercover than L really loved to go about things, mostly to evaluate how to go after certain cases in the first place & already semi solve them before even going public with it, at most prepping a provocation like this if something can't be clearly deduced by observing present events alone. (Read tags for fix-it-type criticism of this specifically)

Structure edit: 10.7.2023

[ablizmal]

I JUST FIGURED IT OUT. the parallels and juxtaposition between the pairs of light+misa vs L+juliette.

something i see heavily in both light and misa —one of the only things they have in common, you could say— is that they both adhere to societal expectations. like… to an excessive extent. you know? they both cling onto it for a semblance of normalcy, to capture that feeling of “i belong, i belong, i belong.”

it’s their crutch. in a life full of alienation (for light, not finding meaning in anything, for misa, the immense loneliness and lack of a social life), at the very least they can have this. although they experience alienation, at least they’re not experiencing total isolation— or worse, ostracization, being disapproved of by others.

(that last sentence would be such an eye opening sentence for someone to analyze if english isn’t their first language… /positive)

getting back on topic, light is a VERY repressed person. in the fucking cherry cola universe (aka death note including my s/i), he’s gay but is so deep in the closet he’s not even AWARE he’s in a closet, it’s all he’s ever known.

besides this (or maybe alongside it???), he’s flamboyant. he really, really is, but in canon, we don’t get to see this as much, which i interpret being due to light adhering to everyone’s expectations of him. idk if this specific facet of toxic gender roles is also prevalent in japan, but i can see light, at a certain age (somewhere from 10-12 years old), noticing adults discomfort at his theatrics and stopping immediately. (he’s kind of a daddy’s boy tbh…)

misa, too, is repressed. you KNOW she would love stuff like horror movies, gothic bands, screamo, metal, and the likes, but she doesn’t. the only interests she has that we’re aware of in canon is the occult and fashion. this is for sure due to the writer of death note’s inherent misogyny in every female character he writes, but if you employ some ingenuity (like me (⟡⸝⸝U_U) *ੈ ‧₊˚ .), you can view misa’s lack of characterization as a foreboding sign that misa isn’t okay.

misa doesn’t have any friends. we know this.

her modeling coworkers aside, the only friend we hear misa talk about is her occult friend, and she never mentions her again past the video tape arc. (yeah, that’s what i’ll call misa’s introduction chapters. why not? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

this coupled with her parents being murdered… misa is desperate for any sort of approval from others. i mean think about it— outside of her modeling career, she doesn’t interact with anyone! she has a room full of personal items (plushes, posters, furniture, etc), which can be completely normal, but for the sake of my headcanons, has accumulated so much from her spending loads of time by herself, in her house, alone. this is the main setting she’s in. of COURSE she’s gonna get bored with the minimalism of it and add her own personal touches!

one of the few forms of self expression she allows herself to have is her fashion, but there’s a well known subculture for that fashion in japan (harajuku, but i’m pretty sure misa’s is gothic harajuku specifically). so, to sum it up— misa has a group of people who understand her fashion sense, therefore she belongs somewhere.

(note: i am NOT insinuating that misa only wears gothic fashion to fit in somewhere. that’s a stupid af take and it just doesn’t fit misa’s vibes to be perfectly honest. what i am saying, however, is that misa freely expresses her unconventional fashion sense because she knows there are others like her. that’s all. (this is likely one of the only unconventional groups of people she’s knowledgeable about.))

i’d even say that misa is highly intelligent, given how she gathered credible evidence that higuchi is the new kira in the yotsuba arc, but she intentionally hides it. why, you ask?

because she knows she’ll be undermined by men, and she seeks approval over anything, she’s substituting it for human connection, so she just… tucks it away. (fuck, maybe she believes that her intellect will be undermined by everyone as a result of the murderer of her parents never being convicted despite her testimonies…)

there’s also a Whole Other Instance (slash personal interpretation) i could bring up here, but i’ll just make that its own post, because this one is already WAY longer than i ever thought it was gonna be.

and we’re only halfway there, boys…

touching upon the thesis of this now pseudo-essay, L and juliette are unconventional. and they don’t care lol.

it’s well known that L doesn’t give a particular shit about how he comes across to others. like the dude’s rich, he could buy whatever clothes he wants, but he chooses to wear his usual clothes because of sensory issues he wants to. his hair is messy and he doesn’t need to comb it because of how short it is, he sits in that gargoyle pose, and he doesn’t hold back on using his deferential vocabulary when the situation permits it.

before the kira case, he would solve cases from a dark room. sounds fine enough… until you hear that there is no furniture in this room and his PC setup is on the floor. 😭

L also is either unaware of social cues or doesn’t care about them, or doesn’t care enough to learn about them, leading to scenes such as:

or him dropping loaded comments like they aren’t as massive as they are.

he admits with no hesitance that he can be childish when it comes to competition. childish… he’s using an insulting word for what it is at its core— a word to describe certain attributes. (he is quite literally ignoring what the conventional intent of the word is.)

likewise, even around the taskforce, he persists in his typical demeanor, what with his stare that bores into your soul, or slunking around in public, hunched over, his appearance coming off as ghoulish with his pale skin and shadowed eyes. (i’m not saying this as a negative, btw, i love his haunting aura,,, 💗∀💗)

and juliette?? juliette embraces the unconventional with every fiber of her being. as long as she’s alive, she will always endorse the unconventional so long as it’s harmless (because what’s wrong with it if it’s not hurting anyone?). they hate the word “normal” being used for non-universal experiences. having a certain blood pressure is normal. there is no such thing as a “normal” hairstyle, that comes down to personal preference.

she LOATHES the enforcement of conformity. it pisses them off to the point that they go out of their way to be even MORE unconventional, as a way of telling closeminded’s, “fuck OFF, there is nothing wrong with us, with people like me, and if you do have a problem with me, then you can kiss my heels, cause they’re landing in your face anyways!”

when it won’t come with bullshit consequences (like being treated unfairly at their job for being open about her genderqueerness :/), she doesn’t bite their tongue. they speak their mind if they hear someone spewing the most terrible of things, whether covertly or not, which is what makes juliette the only person to come to heads with light time and time again. (let’s face it, light is the type of person to get away with saying microagressions, and since he believes he’s right, he drops them way too often. and no one SAYS anything about it because “no no, light does mean it like ~that!~ he’s so RESPECTFUL and KIND :(((((((((((”)

she isn’t afraid to express her joy and wonder, even at the smallest of things. they know they can be ridiculed and judged for it, but they also recognize the importance of small joys, and that significance outweighs ANY judgement that may be hurled her way.

that’s kind of juliette’s whole thing, actually. if anyone judges her for her unconventionality, she says “so? what are you gonna do about it? gonna go into my brain and rewrite everything about me? huh?” jdksjdksjdkajxjs, she can get VERY snarky about this, but they are proving a point, which is “BITCH, who asked?”

light: …you sure do have a unique laugh, juliette.¹

juliette: well, Boy Genius,² what’s a normal laugh then? huh? what is the typical pattern emerging from instinct which creates the phenomenon known as a laugh? present me with evidence. write me about all your findings, since you’re apparently so knowledgeable about this topic. (mockingly tilts head) it shouldn’t be so hard!~ (❀ ˶ ⁍̴̛ ◡ ⁍̴̛˶)

1) just one of light’s MANY casual insults that he can justify away due to plausible deniability.

2) yes, like jimmy neutron. (FUN FACT, i just found out by creating this exchange (and subsequently checking to see if juliette making this reference is possible in ~2003, given the manga’s timeline) that the jimmy neutron series first aired in 2002. i would’ve sworn from vibes alone that it started in 2007, but eh, “the more you know,” amiright??)

(how the fuck do i even get back on topic after that tonal shift)

to summarize,

light and misa are both people who care heavily about what other people think of them. they conform to what’s expected of them, even if that means closing themselves off from potential happiness.

whereas L and juliette are so authentic. okay, well, maybe L isn’t authentic around prime suspect, light yagami, but!! in all the time he’s known light, he still continued to eat sweets and only sweets, y’know?? if it won’t hinder him solving the kira case, L shows up as himself, odd quirks and all (🥰).

L and juliette have discovered the secrets of the universe, that secret being “i am cringe, but i am free.” (✿ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)

but it’s not so cut and dry as that, as they have varying degrees… no, different ways that this presents itself.

misa is more likely to be swayed if in the right environment (like how she had a friend who engaged in the occult).

L doesn’t care what others think about him. he is SO uncaring, in fact, that he doesn’t feel the need to explain his behavior.

but light and juliette… they’re in leagues of their own.

light has NO identity beyond what others expect of him. this is one of the reason why he’s depressed at the beginning of the series. he’s become everything everyone’s ever wanted— for his family, he’s the perfect son and brother. for his classmates, he’s the perfect student, the perfect friend, is TOTAL boyfriend material (apparently???¿? i can’t see it lmao).

yet it’s meaningless. everything that’s supposed to be fun, like spending time with friends, going out, karaoke, hobbies, playing games, sports, academics, dating… it’s meaningless to light. it’s too predictable, he’s too smart for it, really… so it’s not his fault. it’s not his fault it’s not entertaining to him! it just so happens that he’s better, and more intelligent, than everyone else.

to cope with his alienation, he shoves himself onto a pedestal, eventually diminishing and forgetting the whole point of such human activities. he spits in the face of humanity.

he’s above it all.

but juliette embraces human life. she loves the humans, and sees the inherent worth in the human experience! she condones recreational activities such as singing, dancing, playing, relaxing. they believe that our connections with others is what makes life worth it, even if it’s connections so complex and distant that you can’t even witness them (think of produce at your local supermarket. they wouldn’t be there if the farmers who grew them didn’t exist).

juliette supports self expression above all else, whether that’s through emotions, music, writing, art… any creative means, really! it’s also why she’s so vehement about presenting the way you want through fashion, or socially, through words (heyo, genderqueer nation (⌐ᗜᴗᗜ)).

i mean, this song is one of juliette’s anthems:

these beliefs run deep in their bones. she wouldn’t be the same person without them.

in this way, light is the antithesis to juliette. light is the one who lies about himself to others the most. juliette sticks true to themself as much as she can and HATES conformity SO much that she actively spites people who wish to enforce it.

which is why they are at each other’s throats (mostly) through words.

if misa is more easily swayed, then light stands firm in his need to be acceptable to others.

if L is quiet, but content, with his eccentricities, then juliette is loud and open about hers.

[drainbangle]

Hey, I was just reading up on your OT2 X Persona au and I am LOVING it so far! Mind giving some more details even if it’s just some small facts?

Thank you so much!! And yeah, I got a bunch— warning for full-game spoilers of course:

Temenos uses a cane due to an accident he had when he was a child. He can walk/run/etc. without it on some days, but even then he carries it on hand just in case— albeit, in parts since he uses a foldable one. In the cognitive world, he uses his staff as a walking aid.

Since most of Castti's belongings (including her spare clothes) were lost, she has to buy new ones. I think a lot of her early fits tend to be really plain, but become more consistent and distinct as the year goes on.

Some characters' availability vary depending on things such as weather and physical condition. Castti is unavailable on rainy days due to (what she does not initially recognize as) trauma, and Temenos is unavailable during the daytime on heat waves due to chronic pain flaring up.

Many more HC's under the cut due to length.

Crick's dominant hand is permanently injured after the events of when SH would take place in the timeline. Besides visceral function manipulation for damage sustained to his abdominal area, he also has to undergo treatment for peripheral neuropathy in his right/dominant hand.

Osvald's arc in the main story involves ensuring Elena's safety and regaining custody of her (listen we got only a year of story we're speedrunning legal stuff here sometimes), so his SL involves re-establishing their relationship as a family and healing.

Ori is the most active on social media due to her occupation as a journalist. She often gets early access to things such as shows and celebrity events as a result, along with the latest news for what's going on in the city.

Hikari's texts are the most formal with proper punctuation and everything. Osvald's are the classic illegible dad texts.

Everyone's housing situations

Temenos and Osvald room together at Temenos' place due to circumstances. While they tend to operate on very differing levels of talkativeness versus not, they've definitely had long nights of debate on their shared interests— primarily, history. They also have periods of just long silence doing whatever in the same room before going "hey I have an idea about that one thing—" or similar. 

Ochette and Agnea both live at New Delsta University's dorms. While Ochette isn't a student there specifically, she stays in the dorms as part of her internship. IDT they're roommates atm, but they definitely live on the same floor. Due to both shared proximity and a passion for exercise, they also go work out together.

Note about NDU's campus: I named it after NYU, and while I don't go there things like its dorms are based loosely off of it. The dorms Ochette and Agnea stay at are probably *does a cursory NYU dorms search* based on Carlyle Court??

Castti's apartment was close to a small clinic she was apparently chief physician of; however, it was lost to a bizarre disaster (read: Trousseau turning against the rest of the group with his Persona). When she goes to inquire about who she was, all that she's able to recover is a matching wedding band of her own— which she wears on a necklace chain underneath her scrubs. It was Malaya's.

CW: Abuse. Hikari chooses to leave his home after Mugen takes over their father's position, as Mugen mistreated him even before this happened, often verbally and sometimes physically abusing him. While this is pretty much an open secret, Hikari still had some protection due to their father being around. But with him comatose (and later, straight up dead) Hikari does not feel safe staying there. He does have a good amount of funds to start though, so he buys his own place. IDT it's super fancy but it's still a huge step up from even Temenos' place, which is probably pretty decent considering he's an established lawyer and all.

Throné has to find a new place to stay after choosing to leave the snakes. She finds herself rooming with Hikari, as his place is so spacious he definitely has room for a roomie.

Partitio found a place of his own relatively quickly after coming to town, and it's pretty decent.

Ori joins the team near the end of the year after she's revealed as a Moonshade Order member, but backs out of helping them bring back Vide. Because she doesn't want to be found by its still-living members, she crashes with Ochette and Agnea.

Crick shares an apartment with Ort, who is also an assistant prosecuting attorney. …I'm going to be honest I didn't realize that this would be the case when making Crick a lawyer, and now I've made the one guy with the surname Edgeworth a prosecutor. 

[hostilemuppet]

What were your favorite plot lines other than the egg one?

Ohoho... my absolute favourite part of the dream amp was the character awesamdude, my favourite plotline was anything he was involved in! As I mentioned before he was a big part of the egg arc, and what happened to him in there effected everything else about him (a fact which people who hated sam REFUSED to acknowledge 🙃). He was by far the most interesting and compelling character in the entire server to me and every story he touched turned to gold. If I said everything he ever did we'd be here all day so im gonna give a basic rundown on SOME key events (not necessarily in chronogical order but what I think will make the most sense to someone who has no idea wtf I'm talking about):

Sam, along with badboyhalo and antfrost (and later skeppy) form the badlands, a faction that is "neutral" on the current war and aims to play both sides so they can eventually swoop in and gain complete control. Despite this, they mostly just got into mild mischief, and I think of them more as Saturday cartoon villains. They were the best of friends

Sam (insane with redstone, possibly the best on the server) is hired by dream to build a prison, but isn't told who the prisoner will be. Hes told to make it inescapable, and he succeeds. Every attempt Sam makes towards having the prison be at all humane is shit down by dream, under the guise of "safety concerns"

The disc war ends, and dream loses and is put in the prison he commissioned. Sam becomes the warden. He sacrifices his humanity to keep the servers #1 threat in captivity

Sam still finds the time to befriend Tommy, dreams main victim, and really starts to feel close to him. He builds for him, bc thats what Sam does when he feels close to someone. He builds. He buds and gives them pumpkin pie

Badboyhalo discovers the egg. Sam watches as the people closest to him succumb to an eldritch horror that he was always terrified of, even when the others said it was cool or pretty. He did his best to save them, but he's only one man... all he can do is stay their friends, even if they're acting weird

Sam is imprisoned in a tiny cage above the egg by who he thought were his friends. It was an IRL 14 hours but said by Sam to be a lot longer, I think he said at least 32 hours. The egg took and dissolved his things, his armour. His flesh started falling off. He has to eat it to stop himself from starving to death. The first machines he built on the server were so he could make pumpkin pie, to give to people, and he was being starved. He was rescued by Tommy and puffy, who didn't take him seriously, even when he gave no reaction to standing on hot magma or when he nearly drowned on the swim back. They brought him back to his base (his secret base. Hidden. So no one could hurt him, or his dog) which was now full of the eggs vines. Puffy cleared it out, but Sam said to leave a little. Its not hurting anyone when its this small. He asked them to mine a hole in the wall, so he can sit there in the dark with his dog. They left him there. He did not have a pickaxe

Tommy visits dream in prison. There is a security breach. Tommy has to stay in the cell. He begs to come out, and Sam REALLY wants to let him out, but he can't. If he lets Tommy out, he could let dream out. If dream gets out, everyone else on the server will die. Every player, every pet, every building will be gone. Sam can't let that happen, no matter how much it hurts. He lives by the trolly problem. The needs of the many outweigh the needs if the few. He leaves Tommy in there

Dream kills tommy

Sam builds a house on an island, far away. At first, it looks peaceful. He has a small cabin, a couple animals, its cute.

Quackity encourages sam to let him kill dream, now that Tommy's dead. He works sam up into a frenzy, gets him excited about doing to dream what he did to Tommy, the torture, the MURDER. Sam reveals to quackity there's more to his "vacation home"; he has a storage room for his armour and weapons, because he can't go without.nlt after everything

Sam chickens out. He can't let quackity kill dream. Dream is the only one who can bring people back to life, ots the whole reason they put him in prison in the first place! If they kill him now, it'll all be for nothing... its not what Tommy would want. But Tommy is fucking dead.

Dream revives tommy

Quackity encourages sam to let him torture dream, until he gives up the secrets to resurrection. Sam agrees. This is one of the aspects of sams character used to paint him as irredeemable by dream apologists who conveniently forget that later its established that dream did the exact same thing to get the secret to resurrection in the first place

Quackity encourages sam to put technoblade in prison. Sam agrees, because at this point he'd do basically anything quackity says, for just a crumb of approval, for anyone who sees sam as anything less than a monster

Technoblade breaks out of prison, then comes back for dream because he doesn't know the long list of dreams crimes. During the prison break, sam takes ranboo hostage, since ranboo and dream worked together (ranboo set off tnt and caused the initial security breach that lead to Tommy's death). Dream doesn't react. Sam calls his bluff, and kills ranboo. Dream doesn't care

Techno, tubbo and eret decide they hate sam and need to bring him to justice. Only techno deserved to be mad, even if he should have focused on quackity. Tubbo was mad because sam kidnapped his son, even though Michael was already kidnapped and sam just used him as leverage for ranboo, while the original kidnappers got off scot free. Eret has a history of betraying her allies. And is trying to prove she's one of the good ones again by joining them in taking down the current target

They show up to sams holiday home,, his depression Island. They lock him in the prison. The same cell. He didn't even put up a fight. The whole time, theyre laughing and joking about him starving to death

He does starve. Hes weak, and hanging on by a thread, but dream comes back. And he sees his former captor is trapped here. He torments sam for a week, giving him tiny scraps of food but not enough. He tells sam he let him out if he gives him the keys to the prison. Sam agrees. Dream kills him, his first life lost

And I'm gonna be honest besties. Thats around the time the server started to fall apart. I know sam did one final story stream, but I haven't watched it, bc everyone I know says it was completely out of nowhere and sucked balls

There's a lot i didnt get to go into, like his relationships with hannah ponk and foolish (ponk was his boyfriend. Foolish was also his boyfriend. There was a love triangle that brought out the worst in both Sam and ponk) but ill be honest my arm really hurts from typing. Maybe ill clarify later

[thesorcerersapprentice]

Happy STS! How tidy (or not) is your character's home environment? Share a snippet about it if you like 💜

Thank you, @winterandwords! If you're not familiar with Winter, one of the most talented and prolific writers on tumblr, please check out their "Writeblr Intro" for a full run-down of all their amazing projects!

This is a really great question for The Sorcerer's Apprentice because the main characters' tendency towards tidiness (or lack thereof) is a crucial indicator of where they are in their life, what their goals are, and the current state of their alchemical gifts (sorcery or alchemy is the primary magic system in the novel).

✦ ALTALUNA: On the one hand, Atlaluna, the sorcerer's apprentice herself, prefers to live in a minimalist environment: white walls, little-to-no clutter, avant-garde lights with customizable modulating colour for the vibes, etc. This isn't because she values tidiness per se; it's more that her high sensibility to sensory stimuli (which makes her an extremely talented sorcerer-in-training), also makes her susceptible to sensory overwhelm. Her need for a sparse, organized environment is, therefore, an indicator of her acute abilities and the challenges she faces. The fact that she has literally never been able to live in a space that adheres to these requirements speaks volumes to the level of adversity she has encountered over the course of her life: first, in her cramped six-people-to-a-room living space back at home; then, in her overly cluttered single-bedroom in Valeriano's mansion. In fact, the day she's finally able to control her living space will starkly mark the end of her (first) arc.

✦ VALERIANO: This brings us to Valeriano, the sorcerer. Contrary to Altaluna, Valeriano's a messy maximalist, a compulsive collector. Think Brambly Hedge... from hell; a cottage core for demons, if you will; stuffed animals in various horrifying poses, carpets layered upon carpets layered upon carpets, tables overflowing with trinkets, an infinitude of ticking contraptions, walls of every colour, paintings depicting torture set alongside pastoral landscapes, etc, etc. The important thing to note is that Valeriano wasn't always this way. Like Altaluna, he once preferred sparse environments, only over-decorating specific rooms in his home as 'stage sets' to further his political, social and economic goals. However, with age, his eyesight and hearing have deteriorated significantly; by the time The Sorcerer's Apprentice begins, he barely notices the chaos, or if he notices it, he doesn't notice it enough to be overwhelmed. This doesn't mean that his gifts have been lessened, by any means. Only that his methods of access have changed slightly (more on this in an upcoming post on the magic system, maybe). Finally, it's important to note that Valeriano's living space is cluttered because he's looking for something; a great majority of the objects littered around the house are his failed attempts to find it.

[arsenussy]

Yes, i'm gonna have to ask for you to pretty please infodump about your persona 5 oc cause i'm obsessed-he's so freaking awesome and your artstyle is gorgeous i just have to know more <3

AAAAAA omg thank you so much!!!!! sorry it's taken me so long, life and all that

okay so. i can't remember what all i have said about him so, you get everything. his name is Akabane Haruto (last, first) (or as my phone wants to keep autocorrecting to, Alabama Naruto) and they’re a 3rd year at Shujin. his persona is Mercutio, and his arcana is The Vagabond which i just sorta made up cause why not

this is long i’m putting the rest under a break

as for more specific and personal info; its kinda depressing but i promise it gets better his whole character is built around themes of isolation, feeling directionless, lack of sense of center or even self, the feeling that you're just kinda floating through life with no substance or impact. existing without interacting a constant gnawing whole where "you" are meant to be inside Haruto wasn't always so husk-like though, of course he was actually a very loud energetic colorful kid he was a lot and they got a lot of flak for their... general manner of existing. too loud, too hyper, too odd, too different, too much so they pretty quickly learned to just stop being that way. kinda turn everything off and he became this reflective thing that would latch onto the expectations of others and spit it back out slowly losing touch with any personality he once had they were pretty popular for a while. kinda. hopped between friend groups, seeming to fit in just about anywhere. but it all had no substance. they were connections but no real relationships. so he formed this pattern of making "friends" and like joining groups and then ghosting seemingly randomly and moving on to the next group leaving everything behind in the dust. scared of getting too close where people may see how nothing he actually is inside and it didn't take long for his peers to recognize the pattern so they got a reputation for being just this super wishy washy ingenuine dude that will lead people on but doesn't actually give a shit so Haruto stops doing that all together and just. kinda keeps to himself. goes full loner mode. and he feels like just a warm body in a room. and he truly feels like theres nothing to him. no substance or skill or talent or unique traits or any traits really he is boring and he is empty and thats just how his life will be. even though in reality they're really just so repressed they don't even REALIZE they are. and then his arc would be about like. reconnecting with who he actually is. finding himself, who they once were, who they've become. finding a center, or at least a path to it. being their own person after trying to be as palatable as possible for so long. making friends. also with other weirdos where he can just. BE. and eventually the world will gain saturation again . which is why the whole metaverse outfit is so striking i think its an incredibly colorful and extravagant get-up. a macaw inspires venetian carnival costume. nothing about that is bland or empty or muted. its bold and bright and in your face and EXTRA and thats who Haruto IS he's just FORGOTTEN and the macaw aspect also still ties in with his tendency to just sorta mirror others. parrot stuff. cause that is still also a facet of Haruto and then the persona mercutio, the character from romeo and juilet (it's been a while since ive dived into romeo and juliet bare with me) he's outside of the two main houses in the story which allows him to mingle and wander. he's just got so much PERSONALITY, y'know? his emotions are one of the things that drives the plot. he's confident and unafraid to just go and let his voice and opinions and personality be heard for LENGTHS of time

i probably have more info and fun facts and whatnot hiding somewhere in my brain, but alas it is almost midnight and i can no longer think so i will leave it at this for now