#(no offense. I get it.) but let’s put things into perspective here

[crustyfloor]

The way Till looked genuinely pissed off because of Ivan but he’s not mean about it. Just thinking. The fact that he didn’t just say fuck off right then and there when Ivan asked him for a kiss, but he instead worked around it, as if after realizing Ivan was actually serious he said this as an attempt to pacify Ivan. because even though we get the irony here, it does look like Till trying to ‘let him down easy.’

Even his internal dialogue is harsh, but he doesn’t voice it.

And when Ivan starts whining and getting in his space again, Till doesn’t bother pressing it and just lets Ivan sulk, as if he’s simply handling a pouty child. Like he’s used to it and just letting it be, it doesn’t mean he liked it but Till really wasn’t trying to hurt Ivan.

(even more unsurprising how no punches were thrown, again. Till can only be provoked into acting that way, had this been Ivan’s perspective I’m sure this situation would have looked a lot more narrow-minded)

[satan-lovesfags]

The only thing I can say with certainty is that if I don't find the right reading material and the right people to learn to do the whole manifestation thing, I don't know where I'll end up.

The tags are not for anyone but me and thank god nobody else will see this. Yeehaw

[mysteryshoptls]

SSR Leona Kingscholar - Platinum Jacket Vignette

"Happy 100th Anniversary"

[Land of Dawning – National Museum of Art]

Leona: Who'd've thought I'd get to lay my eyes on paintings that I've only ever seen in artbooks like this…?

Leona: That's the Land of Dawning's National Museum of Art, for ya. This'll probably be good for perusing.

???: Heey, the King of Beasts's got a great lookin' mug in this painting.

Floyd: I wonder what's goin' on? Oh hey, Sea Lion-senpai, you tell me.

Leona: Huh? Why should I have to explain anything to you?

Floyd: 'Cause you're right here. But hey, if you don't know nothin' about it, that's cool too?

Leona: Tch… Fine, whatever, just don't start something annoying. You better get lost after this.

Leona: In order for him to establish his ideal nation, he required cooperation from the hyenas…

Leona: Once he came to that conclusion, he himself went to where the hyenas lived in order to negotiate with them.

Leona: There, he spoke at length as to how he could best utilize their strengths and abilities. This painting depicts that scene.

Floyd: Uh-huh. 'N so, what'd the hyenas do? They just went along with what the King of Beasts said without causin' a fuss?

Leona: The hyenas were already pretty hated. And the king was offering a trusted position directly under him.

Leona: It was a tremendous boon for the hyenas, from their perspective. So, of course they took him up on his offer.

Leona: He didn't let what society thought of them sway him, instead he gave jobs to each hyena as what suited their individual abilities…

Leona: This single moment shows just how accomplished the King of Beasts was as a ruler.

Floyd: You think so? I know I wouldn't like having someone sizin' me up and choosing what I gotta do～

Leona: It's the same with sports, ain't it?

Leona: Imagine having a good shooter stuck on defense, or a spindly guy on offense…

Leona: If the team goes along with a coach that gives asinine directions like that, they'd lose even the easiest of matches.

Leona: That goes for both you all in the basketball club, as well as us in the Spelldrive club.

Leona: Anyone can be useful, even if they don't have the constitution or strength.

Leona: For example, if you got a guy who's got nimble fingers, you just gotta put 'em where they can steal the ball or disc from the opponent.

Leona: Then, you use someone who can stay in control of game and send them towards the goal.

Leona: There's no need to have everyone rushing around the field. Any number of tactics can be used to score goals.

Floyd: I get what you're sayin, sure, but whaddya do if your teammates don't listen to what you say?

Floyd: See, I don’t like doin' anything if it's boring, y'know. There's tons of times I get bored in the middle of a basketball game, too.

Leona: Heheh. What, they not giving you any rewards over there in the basketball club?

Floyd: Eh, you saying the Spelldrive club gets somethin' for winning?

Leona: That's right. We get the finest reward one could ask for:

Leona: Victory.

Leona: Our club runs on the merit system. Anyone who can't show their worth during a match gets dropped from the starting team…

Leona: But with just a bit of effort, anyone can get their chance in the spotlight and even find their names on the lips of people outside this academy.

Leona: Plus, this school throws a lot of support towards the Spelldrive team, so even certain grades can be overlooked from time to time.

Leona: Essentially that means each one of our victories matter much more than any of the other athletic clubs' wins.

Floyd: Hmmm… I thought you guys in the Spelldrive club were a bunch of try-hards, so I didn't think I'd like it, but I'm likin' the sound of that merit system.

Floyd: Maybe I'll join the Spelldrive club too. Don'tcha think I'd be great at it?

Leona: No way, absolutely not. …Also, how long you plannin' on following me? I'm already done explaining things, hurry up and leave me alone, already.

[Land of Dawning – National Museum of Art]

Floyd: Mmkay, next. What's this painting?

Leona: [sigh]… This painting's showing the Thorn Fairy's men all celebrating their master's endeavors.

Floyd: They're, what… dancing around a green fire? Looks kinda like a campfire! Bet they're havin' fun～

Leona: True, they look pretty carefree. Seems like the Thorn Fairy's subordinates don't mind doin' menial tasks.

Floyd: Menial tasks…? Oh, right, there's a ton of cleanup to do after making a fire, or something like that, huh.

Leona: An astute observation, little merling. I'd expect nothing less from someone so naïve in the intricacies of fire.

Leona: Here on the surface, even the smallest flame can grow into a blaze with a little mismanagement.

Leona: Especially in places where the air is dryer… like where I come from in the Sunset Savanna.

Leona: It's not that bad during the rainy season, but there's gotta be extra caution thrown to the wind during dry season. As a precaution, we've enacted regular fire drills.

Floyd: Uh-huuuh. Didja do those fire drills too, Sea Lion-senpai?

Leona: Yeah. Like I said, fire can be a matter of life or death in my country. That's why those fire drills are essential services.

Leona: It's a pain, but the royal family's gotta do it, to set a good example for our people.

Leona: Since a majority of the country get together to observe, it's basically just another huge traditional event at this point.

Leona: Although… Let's just say there's been times that I've had other things on my plate that I completely forgot to take part.

Floyd: Mhhmm… And so, what all do ya do during those drills?

Leona: To be perfectly frank, it's basically getting practice in with handling water. A buncha people'll hold onto a large hose and put out a huge fire in real time.

Floyd: Wow, that's lamer than I thought. Doesn't sound like much fun to just watch happen.

Leona: Oh, not at all. It's not so bad if you're just there to watch it go down.

Floyd: Eh, whyzzat?

Leona: Because they get to witness the glorious scene of the royal family being tossed around by a giant hose.

Leona: You might think that'll invigorate the gathered public, seeing how willing we are to risk their life for the country…

Leona: But if you ask me, I think there's something more to it.

Leona: People can see them in regal attire caked in dirt, and their miserable faces all swollen from the smoke in their eyes…

Leona: They can even see those well-groomed manes completely sopping wet and pathetic. I bet it bring a gleam of joy to them all, heh.

Floyd: Heh, Sea Lion-senpai, I see right through you. You say you'd sometimes forget, but you def haven't been takin' part in it for a while, haven'tcha?

Leona: Well now, who can say?

[Land of Dawning – National Museum of Art]

Floyd: Hey, I think this is a painting of when the Sorcerer of the Sands got his hands on a magic lamp.

Floyd: He looks like he's havin' the time of his life. Most of the Sorcerer's paintings are of him lookin' real smart and proper, so this one's kinda cool and different.

Leona: This tale is of one where he finally achieved his heart's desire after a long and difficult journey. No wonder he'd be ecstatic.

Floyd: You mean he worked super hard for that single lamp? Bet all the trouble he went through to get there was fun, at least.

Floyd: It's boring if you can just easily snag something you want. The more you want something, the more it's worth tryin' to get it.

Leona: Makes sense to me. So what, when I saw you slackin' off the other day, that was you trying your darndest to get class credit, or something?

Floyd: You're one to talk. 'Specially since you skip class waaaay more than I do.

Floyd: Wait, so you were in the botanical garden then too, huh. You shoulda said something, we coulda been skiving buddies～

Leona: Unlike you, I ain't all that impressed with conversation. I was taking a snooze in the tree shade.

Leona: I'd just found a good place to get some shut-eye, I ain't looking to waste time on idle prattle.

Leona: I prefer a quieter, cooler, more comfortable place…

Leona: Now, that would be a place worth sleepin' in.

Floyd: Ahah, that's some stuff to be picky about when you're just plannin' on sleeping there.

Leona: I ain't asking for much. At the very least, all I need is for you to not be there.

Leona: Trying to sleep somewhere noisy'll affect my sleep quality.

Floyd: What, you saying there's different types of sleep, now? Doesn't seem like where or how ya sleep really changes anything to me.

Leona: I am much more of a delicate being than you are, is all. If the quality of my sleep ain't pristine, then it'll slow down my thinking processes.

Leona: I ain't gonna be happy if I can't be quick on my feet and some conniving sneak tries to get the better of me.

Leona: At the very least, I make sure to increase the quality of sleep I can get in my room by taking precautions.

Floyd: Huh, like what?

Leona: I'd roll out a rug under my bed, for one. Even just doin' that'll keep the noise coming from the floor below to a minimum.

Leona: You got all the freshmen, four to a room. There's fighting and arguing over their personal space almost on a daily basis.

Leona: And it wouldn't do 'em any good if I were to intervene on their behalf every time they got in a tussle, right?

Leona: That's why I try a buncha different things to help keep the volume down. It's for all our sakes.

Floyd: You say it's for your underclassmen, but you're just doin' it to get some nappin' in.

Leona: Oh me, oh my. How absolutely wretched that you cannot even see just how loving and kind of an upperclassman I am.

Floyd: Uh-huh, sure… Anyway, I'm gettin' bored lookin' at all these paintings. I think I'll go look around elsewhere.

[Floyd leaves]

Leona: Yeah, yeah, get outta my sight already. Geez, his attention turns on a dime. Whatever, I guess I'll also… Hm?

Leona: This artwork depicts the scene where the King of Lions introduces his newly born cub to his people. Well now, what an absolutely cheerful looking spectacle.

Leona: When their belief in a future filled with hope is suddenly overtaken by despair…

Leona: I feel like I would be able to say this from the bottom of my heart: …Long live the king.

Requested by @farfalla049 and @sakurakudo.

[big-ass-magnet]

Stosh snapped to attention. "Dis iz Mizz Agatha Clay, who smells verra nize, but tinks der Baron iz kippink uz like dose poncy useless Lackya." He thought for a moment. "Sir," he added. The general stared at Agatha through narrowed eyes. "She sees dot, does she?" He stared for another moment and then closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "Thank you, Stosh, I vill talk to her. Beck to hyu post."

-Agatha H and the Airship City, chapter 6

She sees that. Not, she thinks that.

Hundreds and hundreds of years of being Europa's boogeymen, being the hand picked army of the Heterodynes, and now they're just another one of the Baron's rescues. Still dangerous, still feared, but here because they have to be, not because they want to be.

I put both the book quote and the comic panel, because of the difference in Stosh's line:

"thinks the Baron is keeping us like [the] Lakya"

vs

"thinks we are like [the] Lakya"

Very similar, but the latter implies offense at the comparison with the Lakya themselves; while the former is focused on the comparison with the Lakya's situation.

On some level, I think the Jӓgers are aware that their situations are very similar, which is why Agatha's statement bothers Stosh so much. I don't think the Jӓgers and the Lakya would get along in any situation, for the same reason they don't get along with Boris, but I think they wouldn't loathe each other to the same degree.

[I wonder if the Lakya hate the Jӓgers because the Jӓgers started it, or if they see themselves in the Jӓgers, too. They were more powerful than you ever were, and yet this is what they are now and what they will be, forever. What does that mean for you? The Baron does say they are starting to get restless.]

But I think it's more subconcious for the average Jӓger (Jӓgers are more clever than they act, but not...super duper introspective, on the whole).

The generals on the other hand...

She sees that, does she?

The generals are very aware of their situation.

They never expected the Heterodynes to return! They never thought they would have to deal with this! They never thought they would have to look the Heterodyne in the face and have them know that the Jӓgers weren't strong enough.

From Khrizhan's perspective, the boss is (possibly) back and she has very quickly picked up on the situation, on how low you had to sink in the name of survival. Not to mention, she's a total unknown. Came out of nowhere. Is she like her father? Is she like the old Heterodynes?

Do you think the generals ever wondered, ever worried, that if Bill and Barry came back and saw Klaus had taken the Jӓger problem off their hands--Maybe the boys would have been just fine with that?

If this new Heterodyne doesn't know them, if this is her impression of them...is she going to want them? If she's like the old Heterodynes, would she want an army that isn't strong enough to defend itself, let alone her? If she's like her father, would she want an army of men who have done the things they've done?

He knows what she sees. What's she going to think?

[accio-victuuri]

I’m sharing this here cause i have seen it going around with people i follow on Wb and the things they say is so true! I’ve been seeing this movie blogger since Hidden Blade came out and they have always been fair with their evaluation of Yibo. The whole post is on their account 鬽影縫匠 and i’m only putting here ones that directly pertain to WYB. 🤍 I found myself nodding along while reading their thoughts and i know a lot of people who follow me on here will too.

I almost laughed out loud at a blog post about the “Nomination List for Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Rooster Award". I chose two representative blog posts to share my views on "Best Supporting Actor" and several candidates:

[ Blog Post One ] Wang Yibo and Li Xuejian appeared in the nominations at the same time. This is the most magical joke in Chinese movies...

This is a highly offensive and targeted blog post, and the meaning between the lines is that "Wang Yibo is not worthy of being on the same list as Li Xuejian" , as for why, I didn’t say it, anyway, it’s just not worthy... Looking at the bright side, this blogger may feel that Wang Yibo is young and has a short acting career, and it’s not enough to compete with a drama actor like Li Xuejian, but he ignored an important question: This is not a PK between Wang Yibo and Mr. Li Xuejian, but Mr. Ye in "Hidden Blade" and Ji Chang in "Fengshen Part 1" competing on the same stage. The two characters, Mr. Ye and Ji Chang, play an important role in their respective works. They have their own lives and personalities. Who can portray the character more closely and whose performance is more convincing? Who plays a more critical role, and whose role is more important. Putting them on the same candidate list is not only not a joke, but also the embodiment of the Golden Rooster Award's spirit of "only recognizing the work and not holding any prejudices." If you still think this nomination is a joke, then examine whether there is a mountain of prejudice in your heart.

[Blog post 2] It seems that in the future, when making movies, you need to bring a lot of traffic, not only to earn box office, but also to be nominated...

This is a view that seems to concern the country and the people, but is actually dirty to the core. This prejudice is more serious than the previous one, and can even be said to have affected the development of Chinese films. This must be cleared up. Let’s not talk about the Golden Rooster Awards, which have professional judges who strictly control the threshold. Let’s talk about “traffic”: When we talk about “traffic”, what exactly are we talking about? It’s nothing more than the huge fan appeal that he brings with him, and the real money that this appeal can turn into. This is an actor’s own attribute, and he can’t get rid of it, because of his background. They are still actors. They cannot call others actors when we need box office to revitalize the Chinese film market. When we are done throwing it away, we call them "traffic" and spit twice. Such moral quality is worrying. Besides, since 10-15, "traffic has harmed movies" After that, most of today's young actors work very hard and fight hard. Those "traffic" who cried when their hands were broken have long been eliminated.

We must look at today's young actors from a developmental perspective. Chinese movies need fresh blood and call for the emergence of young actors. Don’t let public opinion stop the future of Chinese cinema. Taking a step back, today's veteran actors were once handsome men and beauties when they were young, but there was no such thing as "traffic" at that time. Today's young actors may have a higher starting point, but the path that the veteran actors have traveled has led them to leave, and it will be more difficult for them. The pressure they have to face is many times that of the veteran actors back then. Relax, the film industry is a field of survival of the fittest, and those who are not good will eventually be eliminated. Let us take a longer view and see who will be at the top ten years from now.

[About the nomination list] Except for Jinba’s performance (Back to Tibet), which I didn’t have the opportunity to see, I have watched all the other four’s works, and all of them more than twice. I was deeply impressed by each actor’s performance. The supporting actor award is a difficult one to judge in this year's Golden Rooster... Personally, I prefer Mr. Ye played by Wang Yibo and Qin Hui played by Lei Jiayin. Since Mr. Ye is Wang Yibo's first important big screen role, the scenes are sufficient and unexpected. The degree of completion, through his portrayal and interpretation, Mr. Ye is a completely gripping and fresh character

[elisedonut]

thinking about that royalty Flintley au

Where Marcus is like a troll prince and kidnaps Percy because he just sees him and is smitten

ive thought about this on and off for like a year but here are some random thoughts

I think the first time Marcus sees him he is no where near where he's supposed to be like their marching for battle or something and get turned around or something like that and just coming to a river and there he is the most beautiful man he's ever seen (his second in command thinks he's insane btw). On their way back he intentionally finds the stream again and follows it until he sees Percy again.

And once he makes it home immediately talks to his parents about beginning the courting processes

in my head its a similar thing of mistaken courting like a shell for a mate but this time it's Marcus misunderstanding things and thinking hes doing such a good job courting this pretty common boy who may or may not be an elf(it switches back and forth between being a legit elf and just compared to one in my head)

Marcus is leaving him gifts for months before attempting to take him away which in this case is custom in his kingdom

leaving enough food for his family every week or so for months and leaving pretty but practical things where Percy can find them (weapons clothes stuff of that nature) To show that he can provide for him but staying hidden because part of it is showing your a good enough warrior not to get caught. Getting caught leaving gifts means your not good enough.

And Percy keeps accepting these things or at least seeming too from Marcus' perspective because obviously if you can't find the owner of something in the woods well that means it's yours now right?

The first time Marcus leaves food for him though it fails big time though because he starts with already prepared things that make the Weasleys skeptical about it for obvious reasons(of the is that even safe to eat kind of variety) which Marcus then interprets as Percy taking offense to the notion that he cant like hunt for himself and such and so leads to Marcus instead leaving like living animals instead like a full fish net still set up in the water right where Percy typically fishes

anyway

so then after a few months of this Marcus actually nabs him and is a little pissed that his family didn't put up much of a fight because they should have known this was about to happen and just letting Percy go off on his own still is pretty disrespectful to him in his opinion because from Marcus' pov that comes across like they don't care who he marries and like yeah he's the Prince but in theory they don't know that

but they don't know that but they also don't realize that all the weird luck happening recently had been a courting ritual (or maybe they do but guessed wrong on the person being courted??)

So yeah Percy is pissed at being kidnapped but cant just leave because the King and Queen would rather him be dead then let him from there perspective back out of their marriage so he's kinda stuck

and that's all i got

it works out in the end because they just like get to know one another and stuff idk but its a fun concept imo!

[unolvrs]

When you first write your story and that story has your OC in it OR it's a self-insert, which POV do you usually use? Second or Third pov? And how do you write your story so delicately, you write their emotions and feelings so well and I'm trying to study how you write that kind of story, just like this one

(I'm very very sorry for not asking permission and reposting this narrative even tho it's no excuse of me trying to mimick or study your writing style T^T please delete this immediately or send a message to me to delete this if you find this offensive to your writing)

Mikado's name means 'emperor'—his green eyes are the symbols of the bloodline in his veins. The strongest Zen'in always have eyes so sickeningly green it is almost poisonous. (At first, it was a bad omen. The last one who had eyes this green was the son of the Family Head's older brother. He does not know what happened to him nor does he want to know, but his esteemed mother sometimes curses his name, and it is the only time he hears his, in a way, uncle's name.) Mikado is the emperor and accompanying him is what makes the emperor an 'emperor'; Mikoto written as 'decree', and Mikuji as the fortune slip of the gods. Everybody knows that an emperor cannot have a stable reign unless

OH THANK YOU SO MUCH 🥹💗 i’m gonna cry right now, literally falling to my knees and sobbing.

i primarily use third POV definitely—that, or second pov. i’ve tried first POV which i believe is the hardest, btw. because it’s kind of complicated coming up with that delicate way of writing that i prefer without making it too much. (i will forever be envious of vladimir nabokov, my idol in prose writing.)

and omg, it’s totally okay to grab some excerpts to study it as long as you have good intentions! i definitely don’t mind that, and thank you so much for thinking it good enough to crack open and study! i might sob. so i'll use the excerpt as a basis for your question!

so first line:

Mikado's name means 'emperor'—his green eyes are the symbols of the bloodline in his veins. The strongest Zen'in always have eyes so sickeningly green it is almost poisonous.

it's the introduction to the character and usually, people get this sense of intimacy when names are involved, especially when you go to the etymology of it. so just like that, the reader gets an immediate sense of connection with the character, or the build-up to it. and in addition to this, mikado's existence, as we eventually find out through that one paragraph, is heavily intertwined with his name.

elaborating more on his appearance and his connection with the family, brings more depth too. here, you play on familiarity and history. you know what they say about how you shouldn't give names to things you don't want to get attached to? it's like that, in a way. learning how important mikado's name is and how putting in the subtle pressure on the family line which is the first thing that comes in mikado's introduction immediately shows how much this is important to him.

so there's one and two things you know about him now: his name and what he holds the highest.

At first, it was a bad omen. The last one who had eyes this green was the son of the Family Head's older brother.

now, writing third person while maintaining the centralized perspective and the emotional tone. just write like it's someone talking, simple as that. i didn't use excessively fancy words here but there are subtle indicators that we're still in mikado's perspective.

first, the usage of this, not that. a normal third person perspective without a centralized character as the voice, would normally say: "The last one who had eyes [that] green was the son of the Family Head's older brother." using this instead of that, implies closeness and lets you know that it's mikado's eyes that mikado is talking about, not that it's mikado's eyes that the narrator is talking about.

using that, puts distance. this, closes the distance.

He does not know what happened to him nor does he want to know, but his esteemed mother sometimes curses his name, and it is the only time he hears his, in a way, uncle's name.)

He does not know what happened to him nor does he want to know, but his esteemed mother sometimes curses his name, and it is the only time he hears his, in a way, uncle's name.)

just like what i said previously, write like it's someone talking and in this case, it's a bit of an ongoing and almost too long sentence. it resembles a thought more than an descriptor. it's basically how you format your punctuations.

(He does not know what happened to him nor does he want to know) is grouped and this thought is straight, before it pauses and continues to: (but his esteemed mother sometimes curses his name) then: (and it is the only time he hears his, in a way, uncle's name). the grouping of the clauses guides you into the flow of his thought.

it offers a line then introduces a contradiction. mikado thinks this, but then, he thinks that.

then comes his specific way of addressing the people around him. instead of a normal third person narrative structure which would say "his mother", he adds "his esteemed mother". this quickly shows distance, the overformality. immediately, it shows that there's some tension; it makes you think if it's out of reverence or just distance. and of course, his perspective towards his uncle.

Mikado is the emperor and accompanying him is what makes the emperor an 'emperor'; Mikoto written as 'decree', and Mikuji as the fortune slip of the gods. Everybody knows that an emperor cannot have a stable reign unless he is accompanied by his title and the approval of the gods.

and then the repetition! i never get sick of saying this but SUBTLE! REPETITION! or just outright repetition.

this elaborates more to what makes him him, the essence of his personality which is his siblings—his whole life. but this is more character-specific as it adds a layer of intimacy since his siblings' names are associated to him. so here, you're given another personal fact, an intimate detail, an elaboration to how important family is to him.

so how do you write something 'delicately', especially in third person?

using simple words and grouping the clauses with intention, making it look like a thought more than a normal descriptor.

choose what to share and what not to share just yet, thus planning the flow of the narrative

focus on little details! this, thats, his, hers, theirs, etc. colors, what they're wearing, the twitch of their fingers, the tucking of a lock behind their ear, a shine in their eyes, the tilt of their lips, how the tip of their curves so softly they almost don't look like they could cut through skin—things like that!

ask yourself: what makes you get close to someone? is it finding out their names? what colors they like? what clothes they're wearing? how they write their letters and their alphabets? do they put a slash on their 7 or do they keep it plain? human things like that offer a delicate and intimate approach!

it boils down to yourself, making your writing human! i hope this helped :)

[separatist-apologist]

You’re right, it is rough for us new folks. It’s frustrating trying to navigate when so many people spew hate towards each other.

I’m getting so tired of seeing “If you believe ___, then you have no reading comprehension.” Even from people whose opinions I agree with.

It’s gotten better as I’ve blocked people/filtered tags, but back when I first got here, it was awful.

I'm putting all my opinions under a cut just because it was long, and not because it was triggering

I think, from my perspective, it's two separate things. On the one hand, the obsession with canon, whether people want to admit it or not, stems from this belief that all the shippers they personally hate will HAVE to leave once we get book confirmation.

Which, of course, explains the sizable Azris/Neris community. That's how that works.

It always gets dressed up "well I just want the "bad" shippers to go" without admitting they want EVERYONE to leave, AND that their aggressive behavior only punishes the people who are trying to ship and let ship outside of the bullshit. The people in love with fighting won't leave, they'll simply rebrand into an anti account.

And secondly, this belief that it's SooOOOOoOOOOooOOOooo obvious what the next book is about from an author who retcons her own world building book to book and has done so since the inception of this series. Which like, to some degree, is the one thing everyone agrees on, but only conditionally and only when it suits them.

So canon becomes a convenient, inconsistently applied weapon in which some folks can beat others over the head with to shove their very specific interpretation of the books onto others- this happens even IN the ship (see: I'm, apparently, not really an elucien and I owe that one redditor who claimed I "sometimes" wrote elucien and was a feysand/gwynriel an apology LMAO). I've watched people within the ship itself fight smaller, newer accounts because their vision doesn't align with what often what amounts to a fanon interpretation ANYWAY.

Ultimately, none of this would be any of my business (and its not lost on me I was vaguing people instead of just calling them out directly), except for the amount of people who routinely slide into my DMs talking about how nervous they are to interact, how other people have come after them with sharp teeth for the crime of different head canons/ship preferences. I take that personally, I guess, because I remember being new and nervous and like, people were mostly very welcoming and kind.

This is everyones hobby, and it's both not serious, not life threatening, or worth a lot of the vitriol that happens day to day. I wish folks would consider the question, "who cares?" when it's not offensive or harmful.

[friendlylocaloracle]

Sometimes I find it hard to work with people's emotions and tend to badly judge them. Do you have any advice for dealing with that?

i have been editing the same three paragraphs for, like, half an hour. maybe longer.

i don't really think that the question as posed is really the question that needs answering. because, like, yeah; i have advice for that. and if i were satisfied with the smart-ass answer, i'd be a smug bastard and no one should ask me anything. but, uh, that leaves me in a pinch. the most notable thing here is that there's nothing for me to give perspective on. this is purely a mechanical problem. i just happen to be open, and i guess if you squint i might look like a mechanic, but i'm not interested in solving problems, i'm interested in helping people, and on their terms. to that end, there is almost nothing for me to work with here. if you told me that this was AI generated and i was getting pranked, i'd believe you. as a first question, this one's brutal. so i'm going to try and draw blood from a stone.

let me first rephrase this into something i can work with. "i'm bad with people. help!" it's not really a question, but the original wasn't either. this is an advice blog, so of course there's advice. i don't even think it's a bad thing to come without a question and just want some perspective. perspective's, like, kind of my thing! but i think that would require putting more of yourself forward than you're willing to.

rephrasing the question also means that i can poke at the old one.

let's get something straight. "people's emotions" are not independent of themselves. they are themselves. emotions are properties of existence. you do not have people without emotions. yet a whole lot of people seem to think that emotions are just generically bad--especially men, and especially especially philosophers. obviously you don't want to have something bad, and thus you need a solution to emotions. but the proposed "solution" is effectively just suppression. suppression does not rid you of emotions, it merely displaces them. they're still there, you can pretend like you're not being influenced by them, but you've really just pushed them out of your perception. it distances you from yourself, and in doing so you lose understanding of both yourself and others.

this is why you're bad with people.

you're not the only one. emotional suppression is quite possibly humanity's biggest failed experiment. for my part, i find something almost existentially offensive about the concept itself. you've just decided to be less of a person. it sounds like both a shitty way to exist and a shitty thing to exist around. like you're not fully in tune with yourself and so you're partially out of your own control. it's certainly convenient for you, right: you save yourself a lot of pesky decision making time thinking about how or why you are or anything is in favor of constructing a facsimile of the world out of facts and logic. in return you become someone who only partially exists and whose lack of understanding causes your interactions to effectively involve inflicting yourself on others. ben shapiro must be miserable.

so there's your answer. emotional suppression. stop doing it.

...and now at this point i kinda want to wrap this post up. this has kind of been a big fuckin post. had the whole grand "so there's your answer". but there's, like, a little bit of cleanup i want to do first.

this has wound up being a lot about how i think about things. for a blog based on offering my perspective, that's probably a good thing. but as the person who has to write this blog, i don't really want to have to do this again. drawing blood from a stone is, in fact, very hard.

second: i feel like there's a lot of wack shit i said in here. like, the kind of wack shit that people read and go "oh whoa that's some wack shit, please tell me more about your wack shit". if you're a person and you're thinking that: first, hi, thanks for reading, it's nice that this matters; second, like, i miiiight make more posts about them if i get comfy on here, but i feel like the q/a setting just works for me since it's more like i'm just having a conversation with someone. if i keep getting questions i'll probably keep saying more wack shit anyway.

last, earlier up there, i used the word "men". now, maybe you haven't noticed, but everyone is mega uptight about gender these days. it's the emotional suppression. the official position of this blog is that gender is stupid. i don't care. you shouldn't either. if you saw "men" up there and thought i meant you, personally: i didn't. because i don't care. collectives be what they be, and as long as we're in here talking they just exist out there for reference. and if you're not in some group, that doesn't mean you're free. in fact, if you think that group membership does mean you're free, it probably makes you one of those uptight people. it's just us in here.

[falciesystemessays]

Hey, I was negative on FE Fates earlier, so let me make up for that by saying some things I genuinely really like about it from a game design perspective. There's a lot of little improvements that seem conscious of ways FE games past haven't lived up to their full potential, and Fates does some very clever things to fix these issues.

Aching Blood

Odin's personal skill is kind of amazing. What it does is it boosts his critical chance by 10% when he's using an upgraded weapon with a name at least 12 characters long (or 8 kanji characters in the Japanese version). The effect is pretty small, but it directly rewards two behaviors that players might not otherwise do. It encourages them to forge their weapons, something plenty of players don't do in a lot of FE, and it encourages them to actually use the naming feature, getting creative and putting their own personal touch on the gameplay. Personally I love calling bronze weapons stuff like the Wusslance because of their low risk and low reward.

2. Ore

Speaking of weapon forging, the decision to make it use a separate currency from gold is kind of brilliant. I remember back in the Awakening days, a friend told me that forging was useless and a waste of money. Was it true? I don't know, but I can see how someone would think that. Because the thing about forging in Awakening (and most other FEs with forging for that matter) is that it costs money you could be spending on something else. Why would you use that mechanic if there are much clearer alternatives? In Fates, the currency for forging weapons isn't used for anything else, so you have no reason not to forge weapons. Now given, they do also cost another version of the same weapon. But I'd rather have one strong Wussbow than two middling Bronze Bows. I can make that choice.

3. Proactive Skills

Fire Emblem has a bit of a skill issue. Ranting about random activation skills is outside the scope of this post, basically they're fun, but their inconsistency means you can't plan around them. (Ask me about Miracle.) But my ire here actually lies with two skills in FE Awakening: Outdoor Fighter and Indoor Fighter. These give a +10% boost to accuracy and evasion depending on what terrain you're on. I kind of really don't like these skills, because they affect basically nothing about how you actually use the character. Most levels are either entirely indoor, or entirely outdoor. They affect whether it's worth using that character in a given map, but once the preparation phase is over you basically don't consider it. In my opinion, gaining a new skill should mean gaining a new way to engage with the combat, and not just provide an improvement to the thing you were going to do anyway. Fates understands this, at least in part. Outdoor and Indoor Fighter were replaced with Elbow Room and Natural Cover. The former gives a +3 attack boost on terrain with no special effects, and the latter gives a +3 defense on terrain *with* special effects. This fundamentally changes the way you engage with the game. With Cavaliers, it gives you a choice: Do you take the defensive boosts of cover, or the offensive boosts of open field? With Knights, it encourages you to find a place to fortify yourself, and even gives you a reason to stay on tiles with negative effects. I genuinely appreciate design choices like this, and i only wish Fates committed more.

[grahamfolgersdeliciousnotebooks]

One More First Kiss - Chapter 2

There were a lot of instances, really, that could be considered their "first kiss."

For Day 2 of @jonmartinweek, I'm back with Chapter 2 of One More First Kiss, continuing on with the prompt of "first kiss" from day 1. This chapter features some good old-fashioned Martin-bandages-Jon's-wounds content, plus another thing that might be considered their first kiss, depending on your perspective. Check it out on AO3, or read below:

Content warnings for this chapter: -blood/injury -brief mention of gun violence

Jon wasn’t that hurt. Yes, his throat was still bleeding, and yes, the burn on his hand was still in pretty rough shape, but he wasn’t truly hurt. All things considered, he was in better shape than he had any right to be.

Martin seemed to disagree.

He was silent while he cleaned the wound. Jon kept his head tilted back to expose his bleeding throat, and Martin’s face was only inches away, so it was hard to get a good look at his expression. From the glances Jon was able to get, though, it looked grave. His brow was creased in intense concentration, and his mouth was a thin, flat line. When he pressed a bit too hard and Jon hissed in pain, he finally opened it to whisper, “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Jon said, though speaking only made the pain in his throat worse. “Thank you for doing this. You didn’t need to – I-I could have handled it myself, b-but–”

“No offense, Jon,” Martin said, “but it really doesn’t seem like you have things handled right now.”

That was probably a fair point, but Jon couldn’t bring himself to concede it. The only thing he could think to say in his defense was, “Hey, I survived this long.”

“Just barely.” Martin rubbed, more carefully this time, at the blood on his neck. “What happened, Jon?”

Jon swallowed, his adam’s apple bobbing beneath Martin’s hand.

He couldn’t answer. He wasn’t that hurt – he knew that – but two hours ago he’d been certain he was about to die, and he could still smell the hot-metal-gunpowder-blood scent on his clothes, as sharp as the moment Daisy had fired the gun, and he knew he couldn’t describe it all to Martin here, now, without falling apart. Instead he stiffened his upper lip as much as he could and whispered, “It doesn’t matter.”

Martin sighed. He set down the wet towel he’d been using to clean the wound, and rummaged through the first aid kit for a bandage, keeping his head low and his eyes down. Jon got the impression Martin was angry with him. No, not angry – disappointed. Jon could practically hear the words, I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed coming from Martin’s mouth.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t– It’s– I’m not–” Martin started, fumbling for his words. “Look, you don’t have to talk about it. I get it. But it matters, alright? It matters to me.”

Jon wanted to protest – though exactly what part, he couldn’t say – but heard Martin mutter, so softly it was barely audible, “You matter to me,” and the words died on his lips.

Martin set a hand on Jon’s chin, tilting his head back even further, and inspected the wound one last time. Then he tilted it back down again, and Jon suddenly found himself looking at Martin head-on, faces only inches apart. He caught Martin’s eyes, and Martin held his gaze.

“Just try? To take care of yourself?” he asked, and Jon was powerless to argue. Martin finally broke their eye contact to find the bandage and fix it in place. “I know it’s– A lot of it’s out of your control, and God knows you don’t need me guilting you about it, but–” He massaged his thumbs over the gauze tape, starting from the center and pressing out toward the edges, smoothing it out. “I just worry.”

He took his hands away from Jon’s throat and let them hover uncertainly in the air between them, as though he wasn’t sure where else he was allowed to put them.

“I’ll do my best,” Jon said, though he knew his best wasn’t much at all.

Martin’s eyes flicked downward and caught on Jon’s injured hand.

“When was the last time you changed that bandage?”

“Um,” Jon said, turning his own gaze guiltily to the bandage in question. “Never? I-I’ve only had the burn since monday.”

Martin puffed a whistling sigh out through his cheeks. “Eventful week, I guess.”

“Very.”

“Right. Well. Probably a good idea to clean and re-dress the wound.” He reached out carefully and took Jon’s hand in one of his own. “Can I?”

Jon nodded, and let himself be guided to the breakroom sink. Martin peeled away the layers of hastily-wrapped gauze from Jon’s hand and inspected the wound. His fingertips were calloused, but he touched Jon gently, barely grazing his palm, careful at all times to avoid the burn. He turned Jon’s hand this way and that with feather-light touches, taking it all in. Then he turned on the sink.

He fiddled with the temperature a bit before he pulled Jon’s hand under the water. Once again he turned it carefully, making sure to clean every corner of the burn. When he was satisfied, he turned off the taps and grabbed the hand towel from where it hung off the handle of the fridge.

“This might sting,” he whispered as he pressed the rough cloth against the burn. Jon gritted his teeth against the pain and did his best not to let his discomfort show. It must have, though, because Martin grabbed his forearm, above the burn, and gave it a reassuring squeeze. 

“I’m guessing you don’t want to explain how this happened either?” he asked as he dug around for more gauze.

“I shook hands with…” How to summarize Jude Perry. He didn’t think Martin would have ever encountered her in a statement. “...With a woman made of candle wax.”

“That’ll do it, I guess.”

Martin wound a long bandage around and around Jon’s palm until the burn disappeared entirely beneath the sterile white gauze.

“Not the greatest display of my self-preservation instincts, but, well…”

“Yeah, I know,” Martin said. “You survived.”

“I really am sorry, Martin, I–”

“You don’t need to apologize to me– it’s your hand–”

“No, I mean… I’m sorry I left the way I did. If I could have explained, or reached out, but… I-I couldn’t be sure if the police were watching you.”

“Probably a good instinct,” Martin admitted. “That detective – Daisy – she seemed pretty suspicious of me from the beginning." He loosened the bandages slightly, giving the burn room to breathe. "Not sure what I’d have done if I actually knew something.”

Jon frowned. He didn’t have a particularly high opinion of Daisy’s interrogation methods, and his stomach twisted with guilt at the thought of Martin being subjected to them. Martin caught his expression and started stammering.

“Not that I– I mean, I wouldn’t have turned you in, I’d never–”

“I know, Martin.”

“–No matter what! I couldn’t betray your trust like that.”

“I know, Martin,” Jon repeated. “Next time I get framed for murder, I’ll be sure to confide in you.”

“Don’t joke about that,” Martin said. “Your luck is too bad; you’ll jinx yourself.”

Jon laughed. Martin taped the gauze into place. “There,” he whispered, almost too softly for Jon to hear.

He stared down at his handiwork for a long second. He was still cradling Jon’s hand with an aching sense of caution, holding it like it was something fragile and delicate and dear. Then, as Jon stared on in wonder, he lifted it up and pressed Jon’s knuckle to his lips in a brief, reverent, kiss.

“Martin?”

Martin’s face reddened instantly. 

“I’m sorry, I– I-I don’t know why I did that.”

 “It’s fine, it’s– You– It’s fine.” Jon felt his own face growing several degrees warmer. “B-But I should probably–” he gestured behind him to the Archives at large. “Lots of work to catch up on.”

“Right,” Martin squeaked. He fixed his eyes on his hands and firmly away from Jon’s as he got started on packing up the first aid kit.

“Thank you for the first aid, Martin,” Jon said as stiffly as he could. “I– I truly appreciate it.”

“Right. Any time.”

Then Jon turned on his heel and fled the break room, leaving Martin flustered and red-faced in his wake.

[polyhexian]

I like how the eventually AU gives Camila the opportunity to get another adult's perspective on Luz and the Boiling Isles during the human realm stay. Like, no offense to the kids, but when you're a parent and you're trying to determine if your child is in an okay situation, you're going to put a bit more value on the insights of a fellow adult than those of a bunch of teenagers. Let alone when the situation is that your kid had a secret summer-long stay in another dimension.

So I'm imagining one of the rare moments they get to talk when there's no kids around cuz they're all out trying to build a portal door or something, and it's like

Camila: I've just been so worried about Luz, she's always had trouble fitting in, she's never had any real friends, her teachers don't like her, it's hard for her to focus on things she's not interested in and she has trouble applying herself, I know she's smart but her grades are all over the place, she'd rather think about her fantasy worlds instead of do anything to engage with or prepare for living in the real one - except it turns out she's found a REAL fantasy world? And I'm not sure if that makes things better or worse.

Jasper: Uh, your daughter has made several very close friends and is generally accepted by the entire student body, she rediscovered an ancient type of magic usage that everyone forgot about ages ago, her teachers love her, she successfully convinced her principal to LET students study multiple tracks despite wild magic having been forbidden for fifty years, she's handled every adventure and scrape she's ever gotten into beautifully, she routinely surprises and impresses her mentor Eda the Owl Lady who was up until recently one of the most powerful people on the Isles, she broke Amity free of her parents' toxic influence and successfully deprogrammed my son out of a cult, she's friendly and creative and brilliant and everyone who knows her is extremely grateful to have her in their life.

Camila: …

Jasper: …

Both: Are we talking about the same kid?

Which is GREAT

what I love so much about Luz is how much she blossomed in this world and how much her old one stunted her. Makes me crazy that she finished human high school for whatever reason before moving permanently to the isles. I like to think Camila would see that her daughter belonged where she was happy, that the right place for her was, as much as it hurt, not here. And she would rather her be happy than be with her. Obviously she still sees her all the time but like. Luz is herself, all the way, without apology, in the world she found, and she is loved there and understood there. I think vee and Luz make such awesome- foils? Parallels? In that way. Both were brought up in these worlds that suffocated them and stepped into a place where they blossomed, where they could be genuinely truly happy. Vee had only lived in the human realm a few months when the rest of the crew showed up but she'd already fully adapted to human realm stuff! The same way Luz immediately just adapted to everything witchy. Amity and Willow panic at the sight of an alarm clock. Vee is already so familiar with this world she knows how fire extinguishers work, what human food is supposed to taste like, how to speak Spanish and use a cell phone and alarm clocks. The way Luz is like oh NO teenagers but vee just happily sits down and talks to them. These people are like her. They aren't like Luz. Luz is an outsider in the world she was born in and so was vee and it is so much better for them both that they found somewhere they could actually BE.

Anyway yeah lol this timeline Camila can really get the full perspective on how incredibly well Luz has done. From Camila's perspective her daughter ran away from home and when she came back she was wounded, traumatized and seriously depressed. She didn't see how genuinely happy and at peace Luz was there. She is totally reasonable in suspecting this place was Bad For Her.

But while Luz is unwilling to talk too much because she's depressed and all the kids have limited perspectives and probably aren't comfortable talking about luz to her mom anyway- jasper can fully be like yeah no dude you have no idea. She's a bright star people flock to. She's so confident and happy and optimistic and kind. She literally deprogrammed my child soldier son and rescued him from a cult. Won't lie to you ma'am, your daughter has put her life at risk many times and many people have tried to kill her- but they all failed because she is so strong and so loved that he is never alone. Luz is legitimately a hero.

What a wild thing to hear about your child. Both the danger she has been in but also... How much she has flourished within that danger. Your fifteen year old daughter's passion is in saving people from shark attacks or something. It's not just that she's happy, it's that she's strong, fulfilled, passionate, she's filled with a LIFE she never was before.

[ballinandcantgetup452]

I Genuinely Do Not Know if Gege Akutami is a Good Action Writer

Don't get me wrong, when Gege works, he REALLY works. The cursed energy power system by ITSELF is proof that Gege is bare minimum a genius when it comes to worldbuilding. But, I don't think that Gege Akutami knows how to write a story with a big cast using that system.

I'm specifically referring to how Gege has a really bad habit of benching people that are too powerful. Now, this isn't entirely a bad thing that Gege does. When he benched Gojo, it made narrative and thematic sense. I'm considering Gojo to be the exception to this problem that Gege has. But, let's look at every character that Gege has benched for what I could see to be no other reason than they were too strong in order of most to least justified.

Fumihiko Takaba: This one is definitely the least offensive benching on this list. I can imagine that Comedian is a very tough CT to choreograph in a group setting while keeping your overall serious tone. The Shinjuku Showdown for just about its entire runtime feels tense. Comedian is not only an overpowered CT, but it's also a tonally overpowering CT. You can write Comedian to be scary if you have no idea how it works; but, that's still making the Shinjuku Showdown all about Takaba and not Sukuna like Gege intended. So, having Takaba being on the Sukuna Squad would be a lot of work on Gege to properly balance. You were going to have to bench him in some way. I'm fine with him being in charge of taking down Kenjaku. That fight was probably my favorite fight in all of JJK, and, it makes complete sense as to how and why he got benched.

Nobara Kugisaki: While I'm ecstatic that Nobara's alive, it does kind of hurt the story in retrospect, even if her return was properly built up. If Gege had simply killed Nobara, then I wouldn't be putting her on this list. Because sure, Nobara had a technique that would've allowed her to damage the soul from a distance-something that proved to be INTEGRAL during Shinjuku-so killing her could make the Shinjuku Showdown a whole lot harder, but her death meant a lot to the cast. It deeply affected Yuji and caused him to grow even more as a character. So, I was willing to let it slide. But, the fact that Gege kept her alive is proof that he knew that he had made her too powerful and he wanted to use her for later. If he had built this up more instead of one passive "well she might be alive" comment, I wouldn't be complaining. However, here we are.

Hiromi Higuruma: This one is definitely the most egregious in my opinion. The fact that he is alive significantly hurts this story in retrospect. I wouldn't even be making this list in general if he was alive. Something to keep in mind is that I'm trying to look at this story from both a powerscaling and a narrative perspective. So I get why Gege killed him. Anybody with an insta-kill weapon has to be dealt with in some shape way or form. And, once again, killing him gave Yuji more motivation. I honestly don't even get why Gege did it this time with the knowledge that there isn't going to be a JJK2. Keeping Higuruma alive exclusively hurts the story. Especially because he had already mainly served his narrative purpose in the Culling Games.

I know that this is a pretty small list. However, keep in mind, this all happened in one arc. At the very end. So, it overall hurts the package. In making this list, I have gotten to thinking about it, and, I don't think that Gege is a bad writer. I think that he does phenomenal with smaller casts. I genuinely believe that Hidden Inventory is one of the best arcs in the series. I just think that Gege got a little too ambitious and he couldn't wrap things up in time because of mangaka fatigue so he got sloppy at the very end.

[fuckingpajamas]

Homesick Chapter 24 teaser

We are officially one chapter away from getting a glimpse of our villain and I am so incredibly excited to reveal them.

We’ve gotten some new interactions with Homesick and it has rejuvinated me to push and finish this chapter- so here’s the first few paragraphs of chapter 24 to tide you over!

HOMESICK CHAPTER 24 TEASER:

John followed Butcher to the car, sliding into the backseat and draping back over the headrest. He took a second to remove the glasses and hat, setting them onto his lap. As sunlight began to spill into the car, it became more obvious by the eyes sunken and dark and the ragged sigh that followed just how exhausted both parents were.

Once MM entered the car a silence settled over them, John being the first to speak to ease the tension.

"I think we all deserve a vacation when this is over."

Maybe he could finally take his family to the beach like they'd talked about. Anywhere would be better than this, he thought. He had to remind himself that as long as they were together, it would be okay.

"Think you may be right about that." Butcher numbly replied as he flopped down into the seat.

"I'll take two first class tickets to Hawaii for me and my little girl as payment after this. Please and thank you." MM gave a quick glance through his rear view mirror back to Homelander as he started the car, leaving up to him to decide if he was kidding or not.

The joke about Hawaii didn’t go unnoticed, Homelander tossing out something about fulfilling that promise. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t afford it tenfold. Despite his usually rigid and hostile attitude, William and his friends seemed to have the proper grit of personality to wear him down. The man who ate breakfast with them wasn’t the same man who wore the Homelander suit and for that? John was grateful. It was nice to finally be just. . . John.

Even when MM would glare back at John or comment on something he’d done in the past, he couldn’t take offense, instead yielding and allowing himself to smile or shrug it off. He was a terrible person and they all knew it. But at least he could find solace in the fact that none of this group started out *good*. They found it. Together.

"Did the weird wanker that Monique was seein' back off at all?... Tim? Todd? Something fucking godawful like that." He asked, making a face of disgust toward MM who was already preemptively scowling at the question.

"Todd. Yeah. He went off the deep end once his favorite superhero suddenly, miraculously eased up off the rhetoric. Monique finally started seeing the red flags." There was another pointed look back at Homelander as they turned to get onto the main highway again. MM had a lot of mixed feelings about all of this, but he was a pretty difficult man to read. He looked back to Billy briefly before turning his eyes on the road, tapping the steering wheel in his meticulously habitual way. "I'm just glad the guy isn't around my kid anymore, even if the two of us never work things out."

"For once, I think I get what you mean," Butcher pulled the lever on the old car to let the seat flop backwards at a slight incline. He went pulling an arm up behind his head and trying to get comfortable enough to sleep. He flipped his sunglasses down over his eyes to block the light out. He needed to rest. Though it was hard not to listen to MM talk about his kid and not think of Ryan, wherever he was.

"Having kids puts shit into perspective real quick. That's the only reason I agreed to do any of this in the first place.-- I've seen up close how having a kid can change people." MM shrugged and kept his eyes on the road, but that was clearly directed at both of them.

"Not that I can 'andle anymore therapy today but... I'm glad you came. Despite all the shit I put you through,you still showed up for Ryan's sake." Billy cracked an eye open to look horizontally up at the blonde in the back seat.-- "And I *did* put him through *a lot* of shit."

“He sure did.” MM cleared his throat and graciously grazed past the invitation to list his grievances. Butcher had put him through a lot. “Still. You're welcome, William.”. It was loving, no matter how condescending it sounded.

[foundationsofdecay]

So let's play

In Sundowning, we get a lot of references to Sleep and Vessel's relationship being like a game they play. It's violent, sure, it has its highs and lows and winning and losing seasons, but even though the most hardcore sports fan may insist their preferred sport is more than just a game... maybe it can eclipse multiple roles, but that doesn't mean that it isn't still a game to be played at the end of the day. It's something both teams are knowingly and willingly engaged in.

Blood Sport, of course, is the most obvious example of this in Sundowning. Rolling the numbers, playing with chance, playing over and over despite knowing you're never going to be the winning team at the end of the season, those are all very prominent aspects to that song. Take Aim is debatable, depending on if you wanted to stretch that to an archery or sharpshooting perspective, though the image of Vessel with the arrow on his head can be a compelling one. In Give, we have talk of fighting fair, a relationship that's like open warfare but uses similar language to war games. More explicitly we see this in Sugar - "you play your twisted little game", "you must be crazy if you think that I will give up the game".

Here's the thing, though: forgive me if I'm mistaken, but I don't think we get a single lyric in a single track on TPWBYT that could be described in this manner. None at all. The absolute closest thing I can think of is vague references to warfare again in something like Missing Limbs - "my polite offenses won't last for very long", for example - but the idea that this is some kind of sport they're engaged in has long since vanished, and it's dubious whether or not he's even referring to Sleep so much as the heavens brought up in the previous verse.

Then again, TPWBYT is pretty unique in its tone and language, or at least marks a major departure from what was established in Sundowning.

Yet, even the two singles dividing those two albums don't use this language. In something like Jaws you can find references to play, but these are far more one-sided. Being "caged and always provoked by prey left unattended" is partly a rather impotent cry and partly an invocation of the image of a child pouring salt over a slug or pulling legs off of beetles. In this game, only one person in truly playing, and what kind of game is that, really?

Given that, what about TMBTE? Were the singles and album after Sundowning a momentary pause, a change in perspective on their interaction based on the broader concept that comes back into the previous focus when we reach the third album?

Well... no. You can see last vestiges of it in something like Chokehold's "you keep me sharp and test my worth in blood", but the duality that was once there is completely gone, just like we saw in Jaws, here more akin to dog fights than anything. You get references to hunting in Aqua Regia, but not of the competitive type either. Perhaps if you framed it in the sense of a game of life and death, but there's an animal quality to that, the result of a force of nature rather than something they willingly and knowingly engaged in like in Sugar.

So, what is it, then? Is Blood Sport the last time we ever see their relationship in that light, or at least the last direct acknowledgement of it? Blood Sport is in and of itself an introspective piece, reading more as internal monologue than dialogue. Though, as said at the outset, even though it's an admission of loss that doesn't necessarily mean the game is going to suddenly end. What, then? Did the game actually end there, or did it stop feeling like a game and more like an obligation? If you didn't call the game, you have to decide: will you save yourself the trouble and refuse to put up a fight, or keep fighting anyways? Do you end it now, or do you let it drag out until the end?

[olderthannetfic]

Discourse about that show, The Idol, is so frustrating because it boils down to violent sex icky and this is misogynistic. The director is a creep because he just wants to film women just being pornographically sexy.

I'm sorry but his shit is aimed at adults. I don't care. Be more concerned about abuse of power on the sets*, which there is a concern from his previous show Euphoria. Some actors did come forward to say they felt pressured to get naked or show parts of their bodies they didn't want to show. The Idol doesn't seem to be having that issue so far. We'll see when it's done airing and time passes but in the meantime, it seems like Lily-Rose, the leading actress empty eyes and hard nipples first, is going above her workload to say she felt fine on set. I like her, she seems like a nice and positive person in general.

I don't even care about the show that much. I do not doubt at all that you missed that this show was a thing because when teasers and trailers dropped it was met with a resounding "This is gonna be fucking miiiid". The thing is try hard...shock? People are saying it's supposed to be satire? A parody? I don't believe that because they used shock marketing. All their promotion is about it being "transgressive". And it worked somehow. Media people hopped on it being sooo offensive and basically "torture porn" and that's why it's bad when it's really just boring and shallow and maybe gross(if you think cum is shocking and gross that is, which the show and offended audiences seem to think so). They picked things that sounded edgy but invoked nothing. It's not visceral enough to be "torture porn" if the point is so to see our leading star get fucked and get fucked up. But there's only like 1 ep out.

I can go on but let's end it here. There's so much to talk about the reaction to this show and the show itself yet it feels like it makes the most boring conversation. It's a bizarre feeling I'm having. The inanity of this overblown controversy is not lost on me. How do you "Think of the Children" with only adults involved. Clutching pearls for who? For what? It can't be for giving a fuck about safety on set because that's an afterthought with most people. It's objectifying and misogynistic! Hun, if you've watched straight porn it's nothing you haven't seen before. In fact, it's less satisfying. It's a boring try hard sex show. I'm a liar, I said I would shut the fuck up. Bye.

*I know about the woman writer/director ousted because they didn't like the script going in a female-perspective direction and I don't know how exactly to feel about that. One hand, not a good vibe. The other, it's his production. Letting go a writer for not following your artistic vision is not uncommon. The reason just gives you the ick. Funny how they can't come close to putting that amount of sleaze into the actual show that they claim it to be. This is not getting into the apparent hellish production cycle which I wish was more in the spotlight. It was an on the fly disorganized mess from beginning to end.

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