#A Little Bit of Attitude

[itty-bitty-sunshine]

Needed an excuse to draw sun in his natural habitat (unpaid babysitter).

[reading-tlt-help-me]

finally has gotten around to finish gtn act i and dude Harrow is 17.. Gideon keeps describing this satan incarnate super duper evil person then line drops something like she looks young and frail and shes actually short and emo and she teared up when she left her tomb of a planet what a loser

AND YOU WANT ME TO HATE HER????

THIS IS MY FIRST READ PLZ INTERACT WITH NO SPOILERS

[pwurrz]

quincy, sighing heavily: “alright, what’s going on? you’re making yakumo upset.”

dante, being even more blunt than usual: “what, like that’s a hard thing to do? he cries all the time anyways, most likely it wasn’t even my actions that upset him.”

quincy:

dante, suddenly hearing boss music: “…r-regardless of my intentions, my commentary was unnecessary and i probably hurt his feelings. i should.. apologize.. to him.”

quincy: “hm. good choice.”

[l3irdl3rain]

Kitten rehoming update for everyone.

Merry, Samwise, and Frodo are all spoken for. They’ll be going home as soon as they’re big enough. Pippin is still available. Lavender is tentatively spoken for as well.

Pancake had a meet and greet today. I asked Pancake very nicely to please put her best foot forward because she can be a little shy and sassy. She did not listen to my request and was very hissy. However, Lilly who was along just in case was very friendly and sweet. Lilly is now tentatively spoken for, and when I tried to convince them they should take both they laughed politely. Worth a try though.

[m4ndysk4nkovich]

it’s not a coincidence that season four, the season where debbie hits puberty, is the season where the fandom starts to gang up on her.

[lgbtlunaverse]

It's not that NMJ doesn't understand what going undercover means.

I think what some people get wrong about the nieyao conflict specifically in regards to the wen spy thing is that they assume nie mingjue doesn't believe in or understand that someone can do a morally wrong thing because it's in the interest of the greater good. And while I totally get why that's the conclusion people come to, because "it was wrong but necessary" is the key to SO many of Meng Yao's actions and Mingjue's refusal to accept that as a justification is at the heart of the nieyao conflict. But I... don't think it's that he doesn't understand or accept that it can be necessary to do something wrong. I think he knows that very well. It's just that he thinks that, even if it was necessary, you still have to face the consequences of that wrong action.

He, in fact, shows just that, and that he still applies that rule to himself, in the very chapter this conflict stands central.

Yes yes Evi talks about the "very well I'll kill myself after I kill you" quote, must be a day ending in y. Anyway. What nie mingjue is saying here is that he will do something wrong (killing meng yao, which is wrong becuase meng yao saved his life and he owes him a life debt) but which he considers to be necessary (Meng yao killed his men and worked for wen ruohan, which makes him a danger to the cultivation world) but that doesn't make the act less wrong and he must still face the consequences (since he owes him a life debt, that's death) hence: murder-suicide.

This also explains why, when he is eventually told meng yao was spying, he no longer wants to kill meng yao, but still doesn't trust him. If meng yao was a spy, he's not dangerous to other people, and killing him isn't necessary (he will be moved back into the "necessary" category in a few years time, but for now he's not) but he doesn't forgive him. Because on some level he still believes that, even if meng yao was doing it for a greater good, he still shouldn't fully escape the consequences of killing so many people for wen ruohan. It was still wrong.

It's not a personal philosophy I agree with, but I do think it's important to understand the nuanced difference between "you can never do something wrong for the greater good/ because you had no other choice" and "you can do something wrong for the greater good, and in fact it might be your moral obligation to, but this does not exempt you of consequences" because assuming the former might lead you to believe that Nie mingjue thinks all of his own actions (or ones he plans or tries to take) are right. When in fact, Nie Mingjue is quite willing to do the "wrong" thing if it's necessary, he just thinks those actions should be owned up to.

Its part of my larger read of his character as someone who is not so much taken with righteousness (like his reputation says) as he is with balance. With things being owned up to and paid back. Which is, I think, an important distinction to make.

If you have read my other post specifically about how I think meng yao very much considers his own actions to be wrong and finds himself to be morally accountable but doesn't think he should be punished for them, and think "hey wow it sounds like those are diametrically opposed worldviews on the nature of punishment" then congratulations! you win!!

[wernerherzogs]

no but the way buck's whole fiery attitude towards gerrard changed the moment he started giving buck some attention and praise... to be fair some of that can probably be chalked up to the fact that buck was most likely still agonizing whether he wanted to hurt him intentionally or not but girl you got ISSUES

[ducksoup17]

I cant believe these live in my house with me

[randomwriteronline]

"Hey," Lamush called out to the brick maker. The stranger turned to him, listening intently. "Are you a reincarnation of Mata Nui?"

Droopy eyes blinked, and the strange face tilted lightly.

"No, I do not think so," he replied to the Koniri.

"Alright, sorry to have bothered you."

"It was no trouble at all."

He watched, amused, as the Agori walked back to the small group of sheepish Matoran masons huddled just around the corner to relay the news, smiling to himself when they mumbled embarrassedly to one another; then he went back to the bricks, and discovered his hands were completely limp from the wrist downwards and flaring up something terrifying.

"Oh dear," he murmured, a little concerned but mostly somewhat peeved, and went to look for help.

-

"Excuse me," Kavne managed to whisper after almost five minutes of jittering in place completely overwhelmed by wrecking anxiety. He tried not to crumble into dust the second kind eyes turned to him, waiting for him to go on, and somehow mustered the strength to ask with the quietest breath he could: "Are you... The Great Spirit?"

The strange being helping him keep watch on the herd smiled sweetly: "I am afraid not," he said, sounding as though he was honestly sorry about that.

Kavne immediately tried to melt into the ground.

"Please, do not feel embarrassed," his companion reassured him with a gentle laugh in his voice, "It was a fair question."

The Fa-Matoran whined something incomprehensible in response, hands still covering his mask to hide away from the whole world - especially from the owner of the gentle, worn, warm palm caressing his back in a comforting manner.

-

Ixoma furrowed his expression hard as he stared.

The object of his attention sat down heavily, exhaling a shuddering breath as a painful sensation not too dissimilar from frostbite corroded the exact spots in which his legs met his hips.

"You're awfully weak for a being your size," the Ba-Matoran commented as he took up a few of the scrolls and tablets that the other definitely was not going to be able to put back in their rightful place for a while.

The stranger hummed: "Perhaps my size is the problem in and of itself," he mused, words still a bit pained: "My body has a history of fighting me, either way."

The shorter being tapped his foot against the ground.

"Are you Mata Nui?" he asked. Bluntness had always got him pretty far, so he saw no reason to run circles around the matter.

His interlocutor looked into his eyes: "As in, the Great Spirit?"

"Of course."

"No, I do not believe I am."

Oh well. It had been worth a try.

-

"You know, ever since I've heard of all that stuff you do around the city, the odd jobs and all - I've been wondering, are you an emissary of the Great Spirit?"

The stranger tilted his head in surprise: "I never considered such a thing," he admitted, seeming just as intrigued by the possibility.

Eykivik turned away from him to gently tap the left side of the rolling stairs she was perched on, and the other gently pushed it in that direction to let the Av-Matoran check on the large constellation slates other astrologers had just installed.

"Perhaps I have indeed been assigned a mission by the Great Spirit - although I do not know what that might be."

"Helping us, maybe," the Matoran proposed.

"I would rather believe I do that out of my own will."

"What's the difference?"

"I suppose there is none, in the grand scheme of things. But I hope I am the one who compels myself to be of help to those in need, and that I do not have to be compelled by Destiny in my stead."

She made a long, curious sound. Her sand green mask turned back to him, regarding him with curiosity.

"You're pretty well versed in Matoric theology," she noted.

He smiled, droopy eyes seeming proud: "Thank you," he replied, "It is a rather intriguing subject to study."

-

Kongu barely held himself back from sinking his hands into the dusty shoulders: "You can NOT keep doing this," he forced himself to say with at least the vaguest air of calm about himself, like he was not about to blow roughly three brain circuits all at once.

Mata Nui, laying down in his bed in the spitting image of politeness, smiled innocently.

"Stop that."

"I am only resting."

"You slygrin. Slygrinners plotscheme secretpranking surprises and leave crackbranched bogwalkers in their wake."

Mata Nui smiled a little wider.

"STOP that."

"Even ignoring the constant strain you're putting your very frail body through which in turn makes it break down all the time," Jaller began.

"Which we should not ignore," Nuparu interrupted him.

"-Which we should't ignore, that's true, but for the purposes of remaining focused on just one topic we will have to - do you remember why we agreed not to yell out for the whole planet to hear that you are, in fact, the actual living breathing Mata Nui, in the flesh and pistons?"

"And sand." his interlocutor added.

"And sand?"

"I do. I have been acting accordingly."

"You just told us you've had four separate occasions in which someone asked you if you're the Great Spirit," Hahli reminded him. "I don't think that's a good sign on how hidden you're keeping your actual identity."

"I can assure you I am not being recognized," he replied: "The only advantage to come of my lack of interaction with you is that my appearance, voice, and general quirks by which I could be recognized are not common knowledge."

"How come this keeps happening, then?"

He leaned his head back, with a tired motion: "I enjoy making myself useful... Perhaps this brings them to make educated guesses."

Jaller rubbed his temples to keep his composure, feeling a very unpleasant deja-vù sort of sensation that threatened to make him break out into a headache in much the same way Potori skin broke out in hives when exposed too long to the sun without any fleece to cover it: "The problem remains that if they keep making educated guesses, they will find out eventually."

"They will not."

"How are you so sure?" Nuparu glared.

"I know how to answer discreetly."

"So your master plan is to lie to their faces and hope you can keep it going as long as possible?"

"I do not lie."

Nuparu squinted, doubtful. Kongu crouched on his knees with a loud groan. Hahli banged her head against a wall a few times. Jaller gave up and simply laid on the ground.

Mata Nui seemed to be having fun.

Noticing he was more or less the only one not currently thinking of strangling their god at least a little bit, Hewkii clicked his tongue: "What do you mean by that, exactly?"

"I answer truthfully, if at times in a somewhat misleading manner."

That sounds familiar, they all thought.

In a very annoying way.

"Any examples?" the Stone Toa encouraged him.

"Firstly, of course, I am not a reincarnation of myself - not in the metempsichotic sense of the word, at least, nor do I think it quite applies in the physical sense, either." and he gestured vaguely at himself, as if to indicate the entirety of his latest, essentially hand-made form: "I would not call any of my previous bodies 'mine' as in 'intriscally intertwined with my self'."

Kongu grunted a short hum: "Fair enough."

"In a similar manner, I do not believe I am the Great Spirit."

"That's just a lie," Hahli interrupted him.

"It is not."

"Yes it is."

"I assure you otherwise."

"You are the Great Spirit," Jaller argued, voice muffled as he did not raise his head from the ground. "Your name literally translates to Great Spirit. What you're doing is called lying."

"My name literally translates to Big Face," Mata Nui cheerfully corrected him: "It comes from an insular language spoken in a region more or less on the other side of the planet, and depending on the placement of the accents and the length of the vowels it can also be translated with many other words such as Big Flint, Big Screen, Big Sedge or Big Spell."

All five looked at him befuddled.

"Wait, seriously?" asked Nuparu at last.

"Yes!"

"Why is it Great Spirit for us, then?"

"The Matoran language derived from what words were available to you in the coding," the other mused: "I suppose my name must have been amongst them, and it was assigned meaning according to the culture that was developing alongside your conscience."

That made enough sense, considering what they'd learned of themselves. It still didn't help much on the matter at hand, which was that, according to Matoran custom, Mata Nui was still inequivocably the Great Spirit, and claiming not to be was a bold faced lie - especially considering that there wasn't exactly an alternative option, neither in deity (the Great Beings were on thin fucking ice at best) nor in alternative candidate.

That very thought struck Kongu, who tilted his head and began, very slowly: "Alright. Answer me this, then. If you're not the Great Spirit... Then who in Karzhani do you suppose it would be?"

"The actual Great Spirit."

Jaller groaned very loudly and massaged his temples, still laying flat on the ground.

His aerial deputy pointed at him: "Seconded."

"Thirded." Hahli added in a similarly disgruntled tone.

Hewkii, last deputy still standing, once again figured it was up to him to make sure the possibility of one of his siblings caving in and calling their former god a bitch directly to his face - which he was rather sure said former god wouldn't have even objected to - was anything other than extremely likely, and defused the situation by asking: "Is it a religion thing?"

Mata Nui nodded: "More or less. I assume there is an ineffable Great Spirit which houses the universe within itself, much vaster than I ever was; I would not dare to compare myself to it."

The Mahri had to admit that it made perfect sense, and it made his statement not exactly a lie; so, they silently agreed to let it slide.

Nuparu actually turned thoughtful for a moment: "Would that imply that, much like our previous cosmos, this universe is also contained in some kind of robot so big that we don't even think it could exist, and that we are its cogs?"

"That is perfectly plausible, yes," Mata Nui considered. "Though considering the size it should be according to my journeys, we would be much smaller from its perspective than you were compared to my former body - somewhere closer to grains of sand in a perfume bottle, lost somewhere in a castle with a large number of rooms."

"Oh, that'd be fun," the Onu-Toa commented casually.

"Alright, but what are you going to do if someone asks if you're Mata Nui?" Hahli interrupted them. "You can't lie about that."

"In truth it has already happened once, and I did inquire if it was meant as a synonym for the Great Spirit, which it was; ergo, I could reply that I do not believe I am."

"What if they asked for your name, specifically?" she insisted.

"There are quite a few ways to swivel out of an answer in such a case."

"And if they were just really blunt about it? Asking directly, is your name Mata Nui?"

"Then I would say yes," he answered simply. "No necessary relation."

Jaller groaned even louder.

Mata Nui leaned back, very amused: "I am but a strange traveler from a foreign land, with a strange name in a foreign language, not alike to any other being either biomechanical or organic, with an ancient air about my person and the sort of frail body that often denotes an advanced age. Is it so unlikely, that I would happen to be named in such an unusual way?"

The leader of the Toa Mahri rolled over and treated him to an angry, begrudgingly impressed glare.

"You're far too good at this," he grumbled.

The other beamed with pride: "Thank you! I like this sort of riddles."

A sudden silly idea blinked to life in Hewkii's head as he watched them - something that made great sense and also threatened to drive him slightly insane: "Quick question, did you choose the Turaga because they're really good at zigzagging around the truth?" he asked. "You know... Like you?"

At that Mata Nui's face fell into a neutral expression.

He blinked slowly, appearing surprised; he then tilted his head, gazed blankly into the wall, pondered the question, and at last regaled the Po-Toa with a sweet, gentle, wide smile.

"That is something between me and them," he replied enygmatically: "Perhaps you might find denial or confirmation in their words."

"We're never going to know."

"Probably."

[pondering-gales-left-orb]

Okay okay OKAY just watched the full Emmrich romance video and phew PHEW this man was written specifically for my goth little heart i need him like i need to breath holly shit

[batsplat]

stop your tags on that jorge post are so funny cause real, he’s actually like here’s my guy casey. here’s my special guy dani. here’s Those Two Weirdos (ignore them like they’re ignoring you). yep, that’s it. no one else comes to mind. thats my gang. cool.

there are four people on this planet jorge fully respects. he has regularly fantasised about strangling three of them. the fourth has regularly fantasised about strangling him. everyone else on this planet is on thin thin ice. valentino and marc are the token two nutjobs he's bizarrely ride-or-die for. he's actively nostalgic about the times they deliberately rode their bikes into him and even jokes about it, somehow. he's been obsessed with dani for years and eventually decided he adored rather than hated that man. he's been obsessed with valentino for years and eventually decided he both adored and hated that man more than he already did both of those things. he started rating casey circa 2011 but as far as he's concerned they're now bonded #forever. he went from trying his best not to hate marc to genuinely not hating marc almost by accident - and now that annoying child is part of the team too. he's gotten into instagram beef with pretty much everyone from all time greats to random current riders to andrea dovizioso. not his crew though... he's the type of guy who would base his new racing number on adding up the numbers of his greatest rivals (apart from the bloke he actually fought for both his 250cc titles). he's the only alien who can truly claim to have managed open animosity with all his fellow aliens and now he just can't get enough of them. he's had several dozen work divorces, but those guys are the only ones he's ever actively decided to un-divorce. they're a team for life. not that you could get them all in the same room together without a gun to their heads and possibly not even then, but apart from that they're a team for life

[akkivee]

i hadn’t thought about jakurai and gentaro being parallels in years until hypdream purposely made ghost gentaro and ghosts jakurai’s stories parallel each other’s; like they both sought to draw their originals in via ruining the lives of others irl in order to possess their original

LIKE HYPDREAM MANAGED TO MAKE THE GHOST CHARACTERS REFLECT EVEN THE PARALLELS IN THE MAIN NARRATIVE ITS SO COOLLLLL

[made-my-peace-with-all-the-bad]

And what if I said Northern Attitude was lowkey Dallas Winston coded????

[the-knife-consumer]

While im thinking about women characters being assigned their fandom roles the way the pikmin fandom outside of tumblr treats brittany is fucking horrible. Whats wrong with you people its a children's videogame character.

[rush-the-stars]

i think if you’re in a relationship with caitvi and you’re a brat/have a bad attitude, you’d think cait would be the sweeter brat tamer on the surface but. certainly not. you can’t catch an attitude with cait unless you want swift punishment. cait’s “nice” solution is to let vi handle you first. and vi is wayyyyy easier on you than cait.

[nellasbookplanet]

Okay I've talked about the tragedy of Laudna now let's talk about the tragedy of Imogen.

It’s been a while, but her moment in the Feywild truth exercise where she says "I think I’m tainted. I don’t know if I want to save gods that don’t love me" has really stuck in my mind. The thing is, I don’t think she’s specifically talking about the gods here, but rather summing up and projecting her entire experience as a ruidusborn. She isn’t thinking "Why aren’t I the gods' special little princess? Why haven’t they come to save me specifically?? You better love me or I'll let you die" (which we have seen does seem to be a common attitude in the Vanguard) This is her fear of being against her own will tainted by something evil. Her fear that, despite knowing how wrong it is, part of her longs for the power and belonging that comes with giving in to Predathos. It’s knowing that this thing is the antithesis of the gods, and that no matter what she does and how much she opposes it, it is still part of her. And because of that, the world doesn’t love her. Her mother left, her father can barely look at her, her own body will betray her with feelings and powers she doesn't understand, her community ostracized her, her allies view her with suspicion, the gods will not lend a hand in their own rescue when she asks despite Imogen putting herself and her loved ones in danger for their sake.

And Imogen is tired. Tired of being the bigger person, tired of resisting. Logically she knows the gods don’t hate her specifically but it ads up, and as the lure of Predathos does promise love and belonging part of her wants to give in because why should she risk so much to save a world that has never once tried to save her.

And that’s where she, as well as Laudna, get so interesting. They have deeply sympathetic reasons for their doubts and flaws, as well as for why they value each other so much higher than the entirety of Exandria (tl;dr because they have only ever gotten genuine understanding and unconditional love from each other). But that doesn’t mean it isn't flaws. It doesn’t mean Imogen, if she hadn’t met Laudna and the Hells first and realized the harm the Vanguard is causing and that their promises are ultimately lies, couldn’t have been drawn in by the Vanguard's ideas. It doesn’t mean they aren't wrong in blaming gods for bad things in their own lives, or in demanding special treatment. But it’s deeply understandable, which is the very reason they and people like them're such excellent targets for the Vanguard to convert. And once in the Vanguard, it doesn’t matter how tragic and sympathetic you are, you are still doing evil.