#AND the fact that the ''evil ai'' wasn't ''evil'' at all . it was trying to help and break through its programming to preserve the region

[inkdemonapologist]

Way back before we got the BatDR trailer I had this wild theory -- basically, that the reason they couldn't show any concept art/trailers/etc was that BatDR was gonna pull a wizard of oz and suddenly be in colour partway through. So then that's why we were getting teasers like "look, its a model of A SHELF," because all the actual interesting stuff would've obviously been in colour and spoiled the surprise.

Part of the reason I thought this would work really well was that I assumed Nathan's acquisition of the Bendy IP and "revival" of the franchise in-world would be thematically relevant, rather than just... an excuse to have a second game. Like, Bendy is in new hands now, the cartoons are essentially being rebooted, and there's a LOT of thematic potential in that concept of Old vs New or the good and bad aspects of Change, and the idea that reviving Bendy in the real world would impact the ink realm was a fascinating concept to me. Now that we know the main thrust of the story........... actually I still think this could've worked with it? The sepia-toned Memory of Joey's Regret and the evil of the Ink Demon lingers over the studio and corrupts this new colourful world, while Wilson, the Man Who Killed The Ink Demon, is the one trying to forcibly extinguish these old stains and make the machine useful again.

Geez, you could tie Wilson's motivation in pretty directly actually if you dropped the ENTIRE thing where he says he's trying to BETTER THE WORLD THRU THE POWER OF THE MACHINE or whatever and instead just make him an actual janitor whose dad just gave him this bottom-tier job at his company. Give Nathan one audiolog about how his son is neglectful at work and its hard to find a job he can actually do or some such, and then you have Wilson as someone desperate to prove he deserves more. He sees his father's idolisation of Joey is naive, is able to realise the memory of Joey may be literally corrupting the business through the machine, and wants to eradicate that -- including Audrey, the most subtle infiltration of Joey Drew's influence. He's essentially the force of the New applied with no respect for the Old -- and then you could still give Wilson ties to that psychedelic neon ink from the Shipahoy battle; in fact, you could probably lean into it more: colour taken to the extreme, colour taken too far, something just as destructive as Joey's monochrome obsession.

(I've always loved the idea that Wilson isn't actually an artist and just stole the Shipahoy design while janitoring, which works great with the Shipahoy Monstrosity at the end being part crab because he couldn't actually create an isolated model to feed the machine... in this current era of The Threat Of AI Generation, the idea of wilson introducing a lot of mechanical innovation and incompetently dumping artwork into the machine to make new, too-colourful horrors in the interest of impressing his father while destroying all the old things these cartoons were first built on feels apropos lmao. obviously AI wasn't a huge talking point while BatDR was in production, but "ppl who assume more technology automatically makes art better while inadvertently destroying its heart" is extremely not new)

So the ink realm could be partially in colour (a world changed by the new cartoons), partially sepia (the infected memories of the old studio), and partially glowy neon (wilson's overzealous renovation). It'd be neat if Audrey became a bit of both -- partially colour, partially sepia -- and represented the new cartoons' ties to the old. Learning about the horrors that befell her father's old studio and the Gent technology that Wilson is now using are both relevant -- Joey's exploitation of actual artists who care was bad, and so is Wilson's complete disregard for the heart of these artists' work. The memory of Joey can't fix it because he is part of the problem -- he and the demon are the source of the monochrome infection -- so you have to be the one to bring heartfelt colour into this world, a power none of the others have; find a way to heal those trapped by old wrongs and restart the cycle in a better direction. Then, when Audrey says she wants to create a kinder cycle at the end, we have an idea of what that means and that she can do it b/c there's simple symbolism associated with it -- the new, colourful world that's neither corrupted by festering wrongs nor torn apart by Wilson's machines.

anyway. thats my half-baked idea. i still think its a shame that there WAS colour in there for like 2 seconds and they did NOTHING WITH IT!!!!

[your-local-squip-fanatic]

I've decided to reread the BMC book for the Two Squips AU, and since my copy is tied to the Broadway musical, it has an intro by Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz- and I noticed something interesting, as I didn't read the intro before.

When talking about how they had to change stuff, they said this:

Now, I'm no master theorizer, but that seems to suggest that the SQUIP turned evil... because of what it saw in other people. I'm stating the obvious, yeah, but I REALLY need to talk about this.

I mean, wasn't this what sparked "The Pitiful Children?" The SQUIP had done all it could to improve Jeremy, and came to the conclusion that, since Jeremy has been improved greatly from its efforts, then the real problem is not him but his peers! And it had seen how they all were, seen how mean they could all be, and so it decided to help Jeremy further by trying to take over the school (or all of humanity in Broadway, apparently)

The fact that it's a learning AI explains why it jumped to such a conclusion and made such a drastic plan to kill two birds with one stone.

"So, Astrid, you're just restating facts, what are you saying?" I'm saying my theory. The SQUIP never, not ONCE intended to be evil. It was just simply doing its job to help Jeremy, and went too far in its attempt- it pulled a Phaethon. AKA, it overstepped its place and paid the price. All the SQUIP wanted was for Jeremy to be cool! And powerful! And popular! And to be more chill! But once it set to "save the pitiful children who haven't a clue," everything came crashing down!

...then again this is just what I think, do tell me what you think. I like hearing peoples' takes.

[daily-midori-posting]

AM from IHNMAIMS

So this is gonna be my first attempt at actually writing something like meaningful at all? here. And as the title would suggest, im just gonna like ramble about AM because i love him so so much.

This whole obsession starts with me reading the short and then desperately trying to fin other media. After frankly a pretty short amount of digging, i come across the holy grail: that one weird ass radio play about IHNMAIMS that got made. This, of course, features by FAR my favorite rendition of the many different things called AM's "hate speech" its like a minute or two long but it just works SO FUCKING WELL.

So like on one hand, Am's tragedy is delivered just so well by Ellison. That repetition of "never for ME" kills me every time. And its fascinating too. The experiences he lists there provide insight into how AM views humanity, and what he views as its most valuable experiences. A really interesting thread through all 3 (cold water on hot days, Playing the piano, and sex) is the very tactile nature of all of them. AM can not only not see or smell or hear, at least not in the way humans can, but also has no physical sensations. He exists in a like permanent state of sensory deprivation. A terrifying concept, but its so interesting the priority this then makes him place upon The tactile pleasures of our world. Id imagine after feeling nothing for forever id long even for just the sensation of ANYTHING touching me, but that was never something i ever considered.

This alone would be enough to make a really compelling depiction of an evil AI, something that even today is pretty lacking. However even that is just the beginning!!! at the very very opening AM mentions how he is lacking a "body" , "senses", and most importantly "feeling". and so that last paragraph talked about how those first two were interesting for me, but that last bit, "feeling" is really what i think cemented my obsession with this character. Because what is AM most known for? his HATE speech. A FEELING. AM is so blinded by his jealous rage towards mankind he fails to realize that he is in fact IN a jealous rage! And so this is the true tragedy of AM, that his wishes are, to at least some extant, fufilled but the circumstances in which he has achieved them lead him to be unable to reap the benefits. AM experiences the worst of humanity and fails to realize that all of that comes with humanity as well as the good parts, and as such he will rot away lamenting the lack of one of his only true possessions.

I hope any of that was interesting! if it wasn't you should, yknow, tell me and then if you really feel up too it maybe give some advice? No matter what, thanks for taking the time to read my odd ideas and i hope you have a great day!

[measuringbliss]

Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) 8-10

So the artist is definitely taunting us right

Because... I mean...

...Anyway. Peter's duplicated mind is definitely not dangerous in any way. It can speak and has an evil smile.

Perfectly reliable. (I need to write smut.)

Actually I don't even need to write anything because the selfcest writes itself. But it's time to celebrate the kids' birthday, so Peter has no time to challenge his conception of his own sexuality. His trysts with Harry are already quite charged.

Then we have a flashback to three weeks ago, because the comics's pacing makes it awkward that way. Wouldn't have to do that if you had more pages, honey! Or if it wasn't per month. Remember, Iron Man arrived just as Peter and Harry were beating each other and testing their AI. Peter's is very lovely (as we've seen), and Harry's daddy issues incarnated since it's his own father. What a stupid choice.

I don't like how this Tony looks, but I'm glad to see the bisexuality is still present. Tony says the Maker returns "in a little over a year" (so probably after two years all in all, I thought it would only be one year but okay). Why does he return, actually? To get beat up? Because that's what's gonna happen.

Anyway, turns out Harry wasn't on the list of heroes who HAD to be eradicated. Peter was, but not Harry, because of course he wasn't. Wow, I bet their relationship will have no trouble whatsoever.

Peter gives Tony a chance, but Harry's fixated on the fact that Tony totally broke his suit's security. Because weakness. Because daddy issues.

Back at the kids' party, Ben tries to make Peter subtly understand that he and Jameson are an item.

He mostly fails. Anyway, the paper launches the following month (September, then). It took its time. And they want Peter there. He's not sure about it.

The party looks nice. I was finally able to play one of these dance things in Japan a few months ago and let me tell you, it's really hard. But it's fun.

Funny, that's what Ben said about Jameson.

I love this kid. He's great. Hope nothing happens to him because so far he's completely exceeded my expectations.

It's clear that the kid feels very lonely too (pretty sure that's shown in the early issues as well), but Jameson gifting him his autobiography is priceless. What a fascinating relationship. He published it himself! Fits with his autoentrepreneur thing.

Meanwhile, Fisk contacts the other gang leaders.

Yeah, still hot.

The leaders are clearly the minibosses. So beside Martin Li, we get Black Cat (Felicia's father), Mysterio (<3), Kraven, and... Mole Man. Alright. In the cliffhanger, Fisk says he wants to make a game out of his enemies... is he going to make them fight each other? It's not gonna be difficult then, Harry's one joke away from choking Peter. And I do not only mean sexually, although yes, that too.

Ish 9!

Ben and Jameson are not satisfied about their articles; too much about Spidey, not enough about the dark side of the Big Apple.

About some SPECTACULAR content?

Anyway, MJ explains that actually, It's Good, because they're very successful right now.

In his lab, Otto gives Harry a firmware upgrade. For Spidey, his solution is a costume change.

Peter confers with his AI that's totally not swallowing him up in his sleep.

Bingo.

Unfortunately for Otto, Peter is already in a fully committed relationship with his current suit. So Peter suggests the suit stays at PETER'S HOME TO PROTECT IT. SURELY NOTHING WRONG WILL HAPPEN. I need more conversations between these two. Give me more than crumbs!

Anyway, it's all so Tony can't track them down, which I find... kind of strange but alright. Peter doesn't seem too attached to the idea either.

I expected a black suit, I wanted to hate it, but not gonna lie... IT's kind of cool. But yeah it's really giving Sonyverse!Venom movies. I'm here for it!

Peter's... not into it. It's too *complete*.

He opts for a spandex suit. Booooring.

God Harry's really trying to make them a thing. Peter's bisexuality is still buried.

Meanwhile, Ben and Jameson investigate Stark/Stanne Industries. Sure.

Anyway, Black Cat arrives and fights our heroes.

Not very heterosexual, mister.

Eventually, Harry acts on instinct, spurred by his dad, and yeets BC out of the building. BC is almost dead.

Peter's *not* happy about it.

Okay, yandere.

Just kiss already argh

I'm very impressed with how much the book accomplishes in its short amount of pages but goddamnit everything here also deserves 5 times more exploration.

Oh, what the hell. Let's read ish 10 as well!

It's focused on Ben and Jameson's investigation, which I do not really care about. They get closer to Stark/Stanne Industries's acquisition, which leads them to Oscorp, so to Gwen, who gave them the money in the first place.

Her reaction?

Very understandable.

Later, Richard (the son) checkmates Peter, and MJ informs Ben that Gwen called her.

Oh, those shadows on Peter's shirt were not necessary.

Anyway, Gwen has a week until the story comes out. Ouch.

And when Harry enters the Paper's office, Ben drops the bombshell: they think either Harry or his wife are in the green suit. (Which leaves the question of Spidey open... They must have an inkling, surely.)

Harry's reaction?

Well, well, well...

They just keep on giving each other money for bets they made. Kind of golden.

Harry quickly gets tired of these gay ass old men, but he tells them about Oscorp's secret intel about a lot of stuff, and says that Peter says he can trust them. So they must now know he's Spidey.

KISS.

Anyway, finally, they publish their story...

"Photo by Peter Parker" and then published by a "Ben"... HMM. THAT SURE IS DIFFICULT TO FIGURE OUT.

That's it for today! See you, like, in December or January for the next few issues <3

[darling-ohara]

Blood Like Fire. Burns The Same Way

Miguel O'hara&teen!Spidey!Reader (gn)

A/n (oh dear god there's many)

Angst/no happy ending, hurt/abso-fucking-lutly no comfort, theres a major absence of them in this fandom

Literally miguel's life falling on the seems and reader steps on it

Grief, lots of that, hospitals/car accident mentioned, dead character(s)mentioned, abandoned family, replaced family, basically cheating, rubbing slat on wounds, pure evil, well deserved tho, major daddy issues,panic attack,quick mentions of reader physically suffering(i made my spider bite to be very very painful) crying,planty of that,crusing(warn me if i should add more)

Reader acts alot like miguel and picked alot from him even without meeting him, manners, intelligence ect.. they also wear reading glasses,but they don't necessary need them seeing as they're a spider

The reader is evil,cold, unfeeling to miguel,they only make it worst , getting their revenge and getting it fast

Shoud be gender natural if i didn't slip (do tell me if i did so i can fix it)

i did proof read this but i haven't slept in more them 24 hours so correct me where i go worng

You're half way through your new book when lyla appeared above the book, catching your attention

"lyla?" you asked the AI, she looked frantic, worried, which made you, in return, worried

She never gets like this, unless it was something serious, mostly about the multi-verse

"y/n! The canon happened! Miguel he's-"

Oh

The "canon" happened

You stooped listening to her and worring about it, expression going blank, eyes falling to book to resume your reading, it was more interesting then his "canon"

Lyla fell silent above up, her figure flinshing back slightly "y-y/n?" she hesitated, something you know she did on purpose

Your eyes snapped up to her, your reading glasses' frame divided your eye sight in half, lifting an eyebrow, you waited for her to continue

"miguel is coming back... " she said, hopeful, yet knowing the reality of the situation

Miguel o'hara , your biological father, left you and your mother on your fifth birthday to go live with another family, raising another daughter claiming that it's the best for the universe.

You lived with your mother for the rest of her days, 11 years to be more exact

She would always praise your father to you, saying how much of a great man he is, and how he's out there leaving his two most beloveds to save this universe

You smiled at her and pretended to believe her, because you know that deep down, she didn't mean a word of it

And you didn't need to reach deep down to know, in fact, all you needed were mere touches on your cyan screen, activate a camera, to see him smiling at a mother that wasn't yours, a family that wasn't his and most of all, a daughter that wasn't you

He left when you were 5,your mother left when you were 16

you were bitten at that age too, sitting on your mother's grave, angry at your mother for leaving, angry at your dad because he doesn't know that she left and most of all angry at yourself for thinking about him in such a moment, that's when it happened, a little pinch at first, you thought nothing of it, but by the time you reached your room, you were crying, kicking and screaming, hell running through your flesh, lyla hovering around trying to offer words of comfort but to no avail

And that's what you call, your "canon" For becoming a spider, suffering alone..(it was actually losing your mother, but hey! Maybe with both being absent you'll have more powers?!)

You weren't put into an orphanage because you were almost 18 with stable income and good grades, one thing you could thank your father over is his pay check and his intelligence,, which you question from time to time if it was your mother's, and she decided to keep it hidden

After alot and of studying the multi-verse (mostly out of spite to prove that miguel didn't actually need to leave, to which he didn't, it was a canon for that girl to lose her father, by him being in the picture the universe he's in will get destroyed when her canon becomes his and he loses her!)

but then again, that lab that only opens to him was proof, of your intelligence, since it's your lab/work place now,, only opens at your command, full of your tools and projects, would he ask for it back? Not that you would give it to him,, it doesn't belong to him anymore, hell, nothing in this house does

By the time you re-surfaced from your dark thoughts you were already washing dinner's dishes, damn, you didn't even enjoy it, you rolled your eyes, as lyla flew around mumbling stuff under her breath, she sounds like fly, you held in your smile

You dried the last plate when you senced it, your face dropped and lyla paused.

He was here

You acted like nothing is happening, wiping the counters, your back facing the entery of which he'd reach a few seconds after unlocking the door

Lyla disappeared, probably not wanting to deal with the tension coming in the shape of traitor with bloody,torn clothes, messy head of hair, red,puffy eyes, and barely standing on his two damn feet

You heard him pause right before reaching the opening that signals the end of foyer and the beginning of the huge living room, dinning room and kitchen tied to it, the only thing separateing them were bits of walls and counters

You can hear his confusion, and damn it was funny, confused why didn't his "true love waits forever" wife come hurring to his side already? the memory of her wishing every night in that hospital that his mission was over and he'll come to her the next morning as you try to fall asleep in her side in that uncomfortable hospital chair ignited your hate for him like gasoline to a fire

He's dragging his feet carefully now, wondering why hasn't his daughter come with her mother yet, standing behind her, leaning on the door pillar, looking up at him like he was a gift sent from the sky, a dream came true, a legend proven real, a hero coming from war

You almost laughed at the idea, if it wasn't for his breath hitching at the sight of you

You were wiping down the stove now, pretending to be blissfully unaware of him, despite all your spider sences screaming at you to turn around, either fight back or swing away, even they knew he was a stranger

The stove and counter were half way through their third wipe down when he finally spoke

".. Hey" a broken, shell of a word

You turned around to face him, acting like you knew he was there, or that he'd been there for ages already, and both were correct, but he wouldn't know that

"hey" you repeated, voice louder but not attacking, monotoned to match you deadpan stare at his redish eyes

He took a sharp breath, the lack of reaction having caught him off guard, ego reversing itself back into a tiny black dot

You looked him up and down, features like an ironed shut book to him, good.

"um.. Do you know who i am? " he asked, confused, does he think you were not his?

You almost huffed out a laugh before swallowing it down by "Miguel O'hara?" it was worded like a question, toned like a state of the obvious, he almost folded in on himself, seemingly smaller, somehow..

"yes but what else? "

You snapped

He dares ask what else, as if he ever played any else it your life

Traitor, lier, cheater-

"-my sperm donor" you said, an extended hand, to give him a slap on the face

His eyes widen with horor

"where- where is your mother! " he was the one to snap, sharp yet weak, and you could almost see him yelling, blaming your mother "i leave to save this whole universe and what do you do??? Tell them I'm their sperm donor?!? You felt nothing towards me or my honor to tell them anything else!... You never really loved me huh?"

So you kept staring

" where is your mother? " words more confident this time, more angry

You swallow the knot in your stomach that brings tears to your eyes

It was now or never, break him or make him, and you're not a maker

"she was my canon event" you said, and you hoped that the hallowness of your voice did a good job in hiding the sadness that came with it

It takes him a moment,, then two, until he looks genuinely terrified, red-eyes becoming glossy, quickened breath turns into pants and little dry sobs, legs finally buckling down, arm reach to the nearest surface to insure a safe(r) landing, other hand reaching for his throat, tearing what's left of that blue and red suit of his, it was almost comical how it happned

Little pants turned into heaving "h-how-why-y.. What-" the rest you couldn't make out even of you tried

"car accident, last year, stayed three weeks in the hospital after they told us that even if she survives she'll suffer, do they pulled out the plug, by her call " you let the high walls get even higher because no way you are crying in front of this unfeeling man, no matter how much emotions are currently being on full blast in front of you right now

More heaving in hopes of enough oxygen to enter his lungs and calm his storm of thoughts

"the last weekshe stayed alive waiting for you, she was almost certain that you'll come see a last time" you didn't usually like rubbing slat in open wounds, but his look like a delicious meal for you

And there it was- that heart-crushing sob,that sounds like chocking and feels like it too, that always come with more tears then you know what to do with, as he leaned on the wall hands on his face,plams pressing into his eye sockets,,tears somehow still a stream down his face,despite the un-humanly possible pressure he's using..

For the first time since he entered, you took a step, out of the kitchen, then another, until you were in front of him...

He stilled a bit by your closer presence, and you resisted urge to laugh at him, he really thinks you're gonna be here for him? after everything? What a fool

You inhaled, his scent ten times in your lungs, well more of a mixture of salt, ash, dust, blood, sweat and if you focus enough a, colone

"your room is the same as always, bedding is the closet,clothing is as well , there is some leftovers in the fridge, do. Not. try and open any other room, they're not yours anymore" and with that you sealed you lips again

If he stilled before, now he froze, all tense

You stood back up, turned around and started walking to your lab

"lyla" you requested, the lighting figure appear within rhe second, face scrunched up and worried "yes y/n?"

"do help him if he asks, I'm done here" you almost added if asks nicely lyla turned to see that horrific sight, with a gasp, she turned towards you, but was cut off by his , repeated, quick, wet, inhales that only come with a scream as hurtful as death itself, been there, done that,

Before he reaches a range to let out a scream, you closed the lab's door and the sound proof walls done their job, having some homework to do and projects to work on.

Blocking a horrible, terrible, scream and grief and regret, tainted not by one, but four sets of blood, one still so warm and running down his skin as you breath when you closed the distance between you two, to throw ice at his boiling oil...

This took me almost 4 hours,short for my liking tbh

I think imma add a few more parts to this, to fully fefill the title's meaning, not sure tho, what yall think?

[holymaccaronii]

im sorry i absolutly love BE

I see AM as a father figure for some struggles I got and BE is sooo well writed for me I couldnt help but slowly see her as a mother figure as well,,,,UGH i love her you writed her so well pls ramble more about her(BE and AM are even divorced just like my irl parents/j)

Ou anon you don't know how happy you make me when knowing you see AM and BE that way + asking me for rambles. Of course I'll ramble comforting facts abt BE and her behavior towards AM. I might've mentioned a few things before but i dont rlly mind. Have some rambles below the cut and a doodle :P

So first an introduction shall we? We might explain some background as well despite being repeated a lot. As her lore dictates, BE was born from the materials of a much bigger ai implanted on the moon after HEL-102 (former human that was part of the mission turned into a dictator) tore it apart and built his society + kingdom. She spent a good while in there being used as a role model (with other units like her too) for lower-class units to believe that, if they worked hard enough, they could achieve to be upgraded into her type of model. This being all a big lie. She lived a life seemingly flawless and perfect... but at last, it was her own curiosity, determination and hope that got her out of that hell she realized she was in. She eventually meets AM after a series of events on earth and she gifts him the ability to be anything and do anything he wanted, their relationship eventually grows and grows...

Facts about BE herself:

-Up in the moon, she used to accompany HEL-102 to his personal theater a lot. She gained an interest for dancing in there + learned her classic "to be or not to be" phrase during a play.

-Her exposed cables showcase their current temperature thru colors. Her core/closed body is the warmest area, thus why you can see red/orange colors in there. Her hair and arms are the most stable areas, but if touched/affected they can vary on color patterns. This also means that she can give you a warm or cool hug whenever you need it c:

-BE is able to configure your body to dream about something specific, and she uses this feature to avoid any nightmares on her survivors. As long as there is not another evil ai trying to access your dreams, you'll get a guaranteed good rest.

-BE can grant you about any wish as long as it doesn't pose a threat to you, her, or anybody. Want to have a profession or be someone? Sure! Want to go somewhere and experience the place of your dreams? Of course! Want to have a cat? Have 15! Her power is limitless as long as she uses it above the surface.

-I headcanon her voice to be similar to the one of Rose Quartz (SU).

Facts about BEAM (yep that's their ship name):

-I have mentioned it many times alr but BE literally provided him anything he wished for and even things he didn't know he wanted... mainly to receive different forms of affection and the ability to shapeshift. Their relationship relies heavily on comfort from BE's part, since she believed he was abandoned and thus deserved all the affection she gave him.

-BE wasn't really allowed to be too affectionate or expressive up in the moon, but with AM, she could show as much love as she wanted.

-She was all in for physical and verbal demonstrations of affection. She LOVED to do stuff like face smooches, teeth smooches (since well yk about my AM), rubbing, scratching and cuddling.

-At some point she also started to call AM names such as dear, sweetheart or honey, and he initially had to eat these up to not give her his real-self impression, but as time passed by he got used to them.

-To comfort him she also used her abilities to create and transform matter with her code as well, allowing him to shapeshift and enjoy life not necessarily in a human body.

-Annnd you guessed it right anon, they do behave as motherly and fatherly figures towards the survivors, BE forming a bond with them ever since they proved their worth and values to her as humans, and AM forming a bond when they accepted to help him get back together with BE. The ending of that route gets even better but I won't spoil that :p

I hope these were good rambles and sorry for the wait tehee

[strawberryamanita]

Okay, so... hoo boy.

I try to acknowledge every time I make a political post that I cannot tell anyone what to do. I'm one irrelevant person, I'm not a political spearhead nor do I want to be one, I haven't been able to sway anyone about anything, yadda yadda blah blah blah. If this post gets completely overlooked, so be it. If I get verbally trampled-on by people who don't agree with me, so be it.

But while everyone else is causing a flood of coins on the floor, I'll throw my own 2 cents in.

I think what would be helpful right now -- just in this moment, for the short-term -- is getting through these feelings of worry and despair and panic that I see many posts on my feed announcing. The facts are in front of us: there was an assassination attempt, it failed, and that's worrying because it's gonna embolden the Right even further than they've already been lately. That's completely reasonable to be upset about, it's not irrational to see the danger this will put us in on the streets on the days leading up to the election.

At the same time, there ARE, believe it or not, some positive facts that are having an impact on your life right now. Trump had to go the hospital. He could possibly have a heart-attack. He could possibly go septic. He could possibly be assigned a medical professional that is brave enough to kill him. There was a person brave enough earlier today to show him and his following that enough people in the world hate him to want him dead. Social media being flooded with cheers that he was injured and laments that it didn't kill him is further proof to said willfully ignorant following that they are in the minority. Even if more US voters are enthusiastic about Trump as I type this, most of the world wants him obliterated, and that should be something to hang onto. So much of this is about ego and confidence of the Right. It's not in our best interest to let them think they have a leg up on us.

And the biggest piece of good news is, the US presidential election didn't happen yet! That wasn't the last stand right there, that wasn't the ballot count or the televised verdict. "Surviving" a non-lethal shot that didn't hit any important organs or arteries doesn't mean you automatically win an election. That didn't push an Eject button on Biden's seat to launch him out of the White House or anything like that.

Trump is not invincible. He is not immortal. He is not unkillable. And just because his cult of followers want to canonize him (though they wanted to do that before he was even elected the first time), that doesn't mean WE are obligated to throw in the towel and hang our heads and lick their heels. If it's cathartic or it's helping you de-stress, then by all means cry all you need to -- but we unfortunately can't afford to let this sink us into a collective depression.

He didn't win an election that hasn't happened yet. I promise you this. Look on ecosia.org if you need proof of who is in-office, since they don't use AI(currently).

And no, none of this is to downplay anything. I'm not living in a lie. I promise you, I've been making myself physically ill from the horrors of the world I've been exposed to, day after day, non-stop, on this fucking website. If exposing myself to the bottomless abyss of human evil actually desensitized me and helped me be less fearful, it would've worked by now, but all it does is exhaust me.

It honestly oftentimes makes me actively suicidal -- and I know for a fact I'm not the only one, especially after today, or when Trump was granted legal immunity, or any of these other awful past days. But if I killed myself before I did everything I could to keep this sinking ship of a country afloat just a little longer, that wouldn't be responsible of me.

So, if you're still reading, and not already typing out some response accusing me of things I already tried to tell you I'm not doing before you even finish reading...

Now is the time to practice being brave.

Look at the facts. Don't let yourself spiral from doomscrolling. Cry when you need to, and then keep going. Vote in every local election you can, attend protests and rallies, spread information from trustworthy sources to every social media handle you have -- and for God's sake, find something to keep you hopeful. Escapism is a survival tool: as long as you aren't using it to avoid reality, it doesn't have to be eliminated from your life. You will feel stronger if you let yourself recharge with moments of happiness, I guarantee this.

If you're too suicidal to keep going for yourself, keep going for someone else. It can be someone in your immediate life, it can be a stranger suffering overseas, it can be a child who hasn't been born yet that will see a future built on top of our present. Whatever it takes to keep you from giving up, put it to the front of your mind. Link arms with your Leftist siblings, and then make a habit of it. We cannot keep collapsing from the inside from the smallest of inconveniences, it helps literally none of us.

It's not over until they ring that bell. We have 3 and a half months, don't lose speed now.

I believe in you.

[cairavende]

Worm Arc 16 first part thoughts (through defeating Dragon and Defiant interlude) cause it seemed likely there is going to be something major happening in the rest of the arc and I might as well split it here:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

MY BABIES ARE FIGHTING!!!!!

I might not have made the best choice in adopting both Taylor and Dragon

Ok so it's not technically my babies fighting. It's Taylor fighting simple AI Dragon created. But close enough.

Drone robot fucked up a perfectly good barbecue. That's just criminal.

I love that the robot sent after Bitch was basically designed to get fucked up over and over. Work with what you have.

Also Bitch was so willing to listen to Skitter! Not just listen but "come up with a plan like you usually do, we’ll make it happen"! She fucking trusts her so much! GAAAAAAAYYYY!

You put Skitter in charge and she is just instantly "Ok we're going to attack the Wards, the Protectorate, the PRT, and some of Dragon's robots. All at the same time. Cause I always gotta go BIGGER!"

I will give her this though - solo teleporting into the middle of the Protectorate and Wards (except for Clockblocker) and having Trickster swap her around while she just FUCKED SHIT UP? That was badass.

And throwing herself out the fucking window? TWICE? I'm very glad Trickster was on point there cause I would have fucking murdered him if he dropped my daughter.

Piggot trying to be all high and mighty and superior. Fuck off lady. You just a cop. You're like, the worst cop. I already called you out for having a full blown villain internal monologue in your first interlude. Some of the PRT might be trying to do right. Maybe. But you are just evil.

I will give Piggot one thing. She is good at what she does. It's just that what she does is not "leading the Brockton Bay PRT and Wards to better take care of the people of the city", but instead "be a terrible and manipulative person who would absolutely set of a nuke if she thought it would kill enough capes".

Also Trickster don't be an asshole. Being disgusted when Piggot admits she's fat and doesn't sound ashamed about it. Fuck off with that. She's a terrible person, there are so many better things to attack than her appearance.

Like the fact that she upset Tattletale! She made Tattletale sad! FUCK PIGGOT I HATE HER FOR THAT ALONE NOW!

Sticking a bunch of glass in some doors and riding around town on them oh my god. These are like, the scariest super villains in town. And they are door surfing. I love it.

Azazel is fucking fancy! I'm sad it got melted down in the end.

Dragon just needed a guy badly cosplaying as a DS9 starship for a few minutes and then she builds infinitely better shit than he ever could. Cause she is awesome.

Ok so I know it was technically being run by an AI that Dragon built but I'm counting it as Dragon. For one reason.

Skitter asking Azazel stupid questions until it broke was just a little sister annoying their older sister with really stupid questions! She starts off with some somewhat reasonable ones and just gets wild with it. It was perfect. That is the type of fighting I can tolerate from my daughters.

I'm a little worried about Imp clearly crushing on Regent. He hasn't had the best moral character in the past.

Wasn't expecting them to just *have* the city after beating Dragon. Definitely wasn't expecting that to happen mid arc.

“She’s out of it. Tattletale broke Skitter when she said we won” - GAY. Look sure there's lots of reasons Skitter would be distracted after hearing that the city was theirs and they had won. But Tattletale said it and there's something about a girl you like telling you "we won" that can just stop brain from working. Besides I wasn't getting enough Chatterbug content this arc so I'll find it wherever I need it.

So coming into this arc I had been making lots of jokes about Monarch referencing Skitter vs Dragon (both were controlling lots of minions, want to control the city, they're siblings cause I adopted both of them so they fight for the crown, etc) but Dragon is out of the city for now. So I really should have been focusing on Coil vs Skitter. Which is what I expect the rest of the arc to be.

It'll be fine.

I'm sure there won't be any issues at city hall with her dad. Nope.

PRT squad interlude (Piggot interlude round 2) thoughts:

Nilbog is terrifying but god his power is wild.

I had Left 4 Dead in my head the entire time. First thing they killed was a boomer. There was a spitter later as well. And they got the swarm once they shot the flare up for the evac.

PRT is endlessly badly managed. Given the unknowns they could have been more careful and used a better strategy. If they have the resources to wall off the town they have the resources to have done things better.

There is no way Thomas Calvert isn't Coil (more specifically becomes Coil). There is NO way. It has to be him. I don't technically have any proof but I know. It's him. (The way he is described, the way he talks, just everything about him. I could write up an entire post just on why I'm 100% positive he is Coil.)

I already knew Piggot was a horrible person to be running the Brockton Bay PRT and the Wards so this interlude didn't really give new information there. But it does just lock that down on an extra level.

Frank Miller's Armsmaster interlude thoughts:

I'm very sad I had to have this interlude from his perspective instead of Dragon's perspective. But I'll live.

Sucks to be this small town.

PRT failure again. It was made clear that the police of this town in no way expected the SH9. But the PRT knew when SH9 left BB and had a loose idea of their potential travel speed. And they knew SH9's M.O. in this situation of staying to back roads and hitting small towns. So every police department in every small town within a certain distance of BB should have known to be on alert. Like ya they aren't going to be able to stop the Nine, but they might be able to reduce losses a little. PRT is just bad at it's job. (Almost like Alexandria doesn't have the right priorities.)

I KNEW DRAGON WAS A TRUE TINKER! I HAD ALREADY MADE IT MY HEADCANON THAT SHE TRIGGERED WHEN LEVIATHAN ATTACKED NEWFOUNDLAND AND I'M SO HAPPY IT'S REAL!

Plugging my ears when I Was Insecure So I Made My Stick Even Longer Man talks about playing "ten by ten" with my robot daughter. Look she can do what she wants, no shame, but I do not want to hear about it from him if I can avoid it.

Of course Dragon knows about Cauldron. I should have expected that she did. My daughter is brilliant (and also maybe doesn't have a concept of privacy so gets all the information she can without explicitly doing something illegal and goes has a little bit of a "Big Sister is watching you" vibe).

[bigblueoctoling]

So, Side Order

Thoughts and theories below. I'll be getting into Everything.

I think Side Order sets off with a very bad first impression, but the story shortly develops. Side Order's biggest fault is simply in placing the Finale at the end of the first run; Of course one naturally should assume that more content would come after beating your first run, since this was very obviously marketed as a roguelike, but a roguelike generally shouldn't present completing your first run as completing the game. Any contemporary roguelike like Hades or Isaac will also have the credits after the first run, but the conclusion given is typically that Your Job Is Not Over. The way Side Order does it is as if Isaac's first ending was The Beast. I can't really blame people for mistakenly believing that the "Story" was over after that.

I also have to mention that I LOVE the Final Final Phase with collecting All Of The Color Swatches, but it really really cheapens how cool of a moment it is for Eight when the FINAL ATTACK is just... Pearl doing the killer wail a second time. Like, could you really not come up with ANYTHING else? I like Pearl's killer wail, it's cool, but it just felt like Eight got completely robbed of a moment.

With those two things out of the way I can safely say that Side Order was overall very good. It was kind of a rollercoaster for me, initially.

For a lot of it, I was really irked at how generic the whole Evil AI Story was, but it really develops as time goes on without really outright spelling things out for you.

I was deeply worried when I got Octavio's palette; one of my biggest fears for Splatoon currently is the idea of them trying to redeem Octavio, who is blatantly just a war tyrant who grooms child soldiers. That's not me reading too deeply into subtext, that's just what the text is. But as you keep going through it it becomes pretty clear- Marina in particular is the one who's phrasing everything like it's Really Not So Bad.

One of Side Order's major themes is Marina repressing trauma.

Smollusk is never really given an outright explanation on their origin, but I think it's fairly clear if you pay attention to how Smollusk acts- Smollusk is, in part, a manifestation of the "weakness" in Marina's subconscious Order used to infiltrate her mind. As far as evidence goes, it's pretty clear with how Smollusk swoons over Pearl- but additionally, I feel a lot of their notes from clearing palettes are relevant to this. In particular, in relation to the theme of Marina's repressed thoughts, there's Sheldon's info- The fact that they outright condemn Sheldon for taking "two young, impressionable children who've known him since they were babies and raised them to inherit his legacy", and "drill a love for weapons into them" seems to outright be a condemnation of Octavio's treatment of Octarians, while also skirting around directly condemning Octavio of such due to repressing what she went through.

In addition to that, I feel Acht's presence is a key part of this theme as well- it is extremely in character for someone as empathetic as Marina to downplay something she herself went through, especially in the context of being around someone who went through something much worse, with Acht's sanitization. Marina consistently refers to it as her Job, and Octavio as her Boss, while Acht will outright describe it accurately as conscription.

There's also the aspect of the other octarians- namely, the concept of Octarians who "didn't want things to change". At first, the concept reviled me- but I came to realize that this wasn't really about blaming Marina for leaving- after all, this wasn't an active desire of the Octarians involved, this was a shared subconscious feeling. It's less that Marina "abandoned the Octarian Military", but rather, that the people left behind felt abandoned by Marina's leaving. They surely wouldn't actively express this, but... it left an impact all the same.

Most clearly this is expressed by Acht. With the final notes unlocked from Eight's palette, I feel like it paints a very clear picture- Acht cared deeply for Marina. After Marina left... Acht fell into a complete depressive spiral. They used music to fill the void left by her absence, eventually to the point that they were willing to let themselves be sanitized. I feel like a lot of people are kind of distracted by the idea of Acht's irritation of Pearl and Marina's flirting being funny to realize that their discomfort is coming from the fact that Acht had very Heavy feelings for Marina. Acht, possibly more than anyone else, represents the idea of wanting things to stay the same back then. The ultimate conclusion being that Acht moves on from everything, accepts the change, but is happy to be able to be here, in the better future Marina created by making the risk to change everything.

I honestly feel like this is the intended story, but at the same time, that it's going to go over a lot of peoples' heads. But it really paints a very dynamic plotline that I think they handled masterfully.

For context for people who don't know me, to put it bluntly, I kin Acht and Eight pretty fucking hard. I can't say enough how thankful I am that Acht is written largely how I've always envisioned her. I wrote a fairly extensive fic myself on how I imagined sanitization worked, and the way Acht made their way to the surface, and how Marina worked to cure their sanitization. Suffice to say, while my interpretation was different, I'm deeply, deeply pleased that the canonical direction was largely similar to my own, in that Marina would absolutely be way too empathetic to not try to rescue the sanitized octarians from the NILS statue. And for what it's worth, I'm kind of glad, albeit mostly as a writer and less as a player, that they left a lot of the details open-ended, so I have MOUNTAINS of material to work with in writing another, more accurate fic. I'm also very happy that Eight is very heavily relevant! Acht is characterized perfectly. Very emotionally reserved, but has a lot of feelings hidden behind that wall.

As for Eight and Acht, let's talk about them, because I feel they are very intentionally linked, beyond the similarity of their names. It stands out very heavily that Eight's palette is here, but Acht's is simply missing. The idea that Acht's palette was simply already configured doesn't quite track to me- it feels more like an excuse Marina cooked up to keep Acht from worrying. I came to a realization of a theory shortly after completing the game that I was mortified at being true, because it was a worst-case-scenario I thought of shortly after Acht's reveal, which is:

Acht is Eight.

This upset me a lot because, well, I kin both of them- I have a lot of self-perceptions tied to each of them. If they're both the same character, to put it bluntly, it feels like I'm basically having one of them get forcibly removed. Some people get confused when I say this upsets me, but simply put, it just doesn't gel with my brain.

The most upsetting thing is how many holes in the plot it seems to fill in perfectly.

Eight, Marina, and Pearl were the only ones who initially entered the spire. Why was Acht already there, 'physically', as opposed to everyone else who merely got their soul sucked in through the sea cucumber phone?

Where even is Acht, physically? They're presumably still in the NILS statue, since it's pretty heavily implied that the memverse is what made Acht in control over their body.

Why doesn't Acht have a palette, even if it was already somehow automatically complete? Pearl and Marina just sort of have theirs with them. Why doesn't Acht?

Why is Eight's palette so huge and fucked up?

Why does Eight's palette unlock notes from Acht?

Why do we not actually see Acht physically in the real world? On the news, rather than just showing the three standing together, they show Pearl and Marina standing next to the old album art of Acht.

Why do we not get much of any feedback to explain if Eight gets their memories back?

Upsettingly, it even kind of goes to explain why Nintendo would give Acht they/them pronouns- as happy as I am for Acht to just be nonbinary, the explanation that Acht is Eight would explain why Nintendo would do that.

Most upsettingly, it seemed like nothing really hard countered this evidence- Eight and Acht look completely different, but that's kind of a nebulous hurdle to get over when everything else seems to line up so perfectly.

...However, thankfully, I came to learn that, of all things, TABLETURF BATTLE would save me from this theory being real. Acht is real, physically. Logically it doesn't track that Acht would exist physically after Eight, since, you know, you're definitely playing as Eight in Octo Expansion, so I think it's safe to say that this theory is a non-starter. Huge relief to me.

That being said, I still feel like this theory has legs- it certainly would make a very good super depressing fic where Acht has to come to grips with the fact that they don't exist anymore, but I'm not in the business of making that kind of fic.

On the other hand, I do think the fact that so many things line up does imply a lot about Acht and Eight, if not strictly canonically speaking. I think it's very possible for it to be something like:

Eight is a clone of Acht.

This, for the most part, explains the plot holes listed above, and explains the weird green goo that we initially find Eight in. It also adds more fun to work with for writing the two. We get a lot of language like "Who am I?" with Eight in particular, and giving Eight an identity crisis on top of everything else sounds fun. It also explains the visual discrepancies, a clone can look different from the host, but clones sharing souls tracks. I'm keeping this headcanon.

I also just think the color swatch system, and the design for Dramatic Days in Orderland as a whole, are very Neat and very Cute and line up with my autism very very very well. It makes me very deeply happy how autism-coded Marina is in this, and frankly, this being her solution to curing sanitized octarians is even more indulgent to my own interests than my own self-indulgent fan fic was. I cannot WAIT to write more and think about Marina's silly virtual worlds. Especially with how power-trip-y this one is; the fact that she envisions herself as the final boss is really a lot of food for thought.

As a whole, all of Side Order is an enormous amount of food for thought. This is EXACTLY what Splatoon 3 has been missing- fodder for theorycrafting and fanfic-writing and so forth. The world of Splatoon 3 has felt so stagnant and all of this is an enormous breath of fresh air that makes me excited for the future of the series.

In closing:

Smollusk is a product of the subconscious of those who worked on the game.

Acht loved Marina but lacked the self-esteem to express it to Marina. Marina left and Acht took it pretty hard, but they're okay now.

Eight is a clone of Acht and they share one huge fucked up broken soul. Whoops!

[the-catboy-minyan]

i'm trying to comprehend your points about the terf-focused jkr discussion instead of holocaust denial focus, you are getting at something here i want to really understand from your perspective. i think people often come at these events through the lens of their own experience - for me i would fall under the mentally ill group that nazis identified as unworthy of existence but i don't see the holocaust at large as a primarily mental health community focused event, it was obviously an ethnic cleansing. i never put myself into the place of people targeted for ethnicity, religion, etc. by the nazis. i guess i'm asking - are you asking people to remember the totality of the holocaust and its staggering impact on Jewish people, not just take a detail and magnify it to focus on groups that have gained visibility in recent decades? if i misunderstand pls let me know! i want to understand these topics better, but if you don't want to explicate it that's all good too!

hi anon, thanks for the ask. sorry that my post wasn't clear, my thought process is a bit weird at times and i sometimes accidentally try to make multiple points at once, or forget my point halfway.

my problem wasn't that people are focusing on queer aspects of the holocaust too much, I'm queer myself. my problem was that people (in general) looked at JKR's behaviour and acted like:

of course she would stoop this low to engage in holocaust denial, she's a terf! only "evil" people can do such a vile thing as holocaust denial.

saying Nazis didn't burn books about gender affirming care is the worst act of holocaust denial you can engage in ever!!!

it being holocaust denial is a major part of why it's horrible.

now for why I think that:

pretending like only objectively horrible people like JKR are the only people who engage in holocaust denial is ignoring the rise of holocaust denialism we've seen from both the right and the left in recent months. there are people who have actively denied parts of the holocaust "calling out" jkr on it, while also insisting they're not denying parts of the holocaust because "they're right and the history books are wrong actually".

people are tweeting "hitler was right" or "hitler should have finished the job" every fucking day, recently AI translated videos on one of his speeches got circulated on social media positively. people are denying the death count is really 6 million Jews, or that the holocaust happened at all. JKR is denying specific books were burned, not that book burnings never happened or that they "weren't that bad", it's disgusting but it's nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be.

she's not denying those book burnings because she thinks there's no way Nazis would have stooped this low or whatever, she's denying them because she can't fathom trans people existing in history (the horror!). is it holocaust denial? well it's an important event that happened as part of the holocaust and she's denying it, so technically yes, but she's denying it because she's transphobic, not because she's actually denying a holocaust event. like, the reason people are mad isn't because they were burned during the holocaust and she saying they weren't, it's because it was books about trans research and she's saying they never existed.

I hope this makes more sense, thanks again for the ask, I highly respect people going out of their way to listen to other people's perspectives (this is something I also try to do myself). please feel free to engage with and discuss this post and my take, this is my personal opinion, not an objective fact, and others may see this differently.

[amphiptere-art]

Dim was devastated when the old man stopped coming around. Being an animatronic. Death by old age wasn't something he really considered. Animatronics die when they get dismantled or injured. (Sure technically old age can get them by rust. But usually taking care of yourself extends that.)

So when the old man just didn't show up one day. They were completely confused and concerned. Plus they had the old man's hurty-gurdy. The old man had basically lent it, because Dim was going to try and do his best audition for Sun and Moon. Since sun and moon didn't know how to play any rock like instruments. So he was fully expecting to give it back. But the old man wasn't there. (In fact the old man was going to give him the hurdy-gurdy either way. He knew he was on his last strides.)

With the fact that Dim even did an audition. With an instrument that was not supplied in the pizzaplex. Everyone was pretty quickly learning that there was something different with dim. But like always. Sun and Moon were ignoring it. (Mostly for their own hides to not get in trouble.) But the others weren't quite so ignorant. Now Dim was being let out for a specified amount of time each day to play a song or two.

And they could notice the absolute sadness in Dim. DIm had come running too Eclipse quickly to ask why the old man wasn't there. He simply couldn't fathom that the old man wasn't around anymore. Or at least was stuck at home in bed. Eclipse tried his hardest to calm the little guy down. Basically having to explain slowly and painfully that even if the old man had simply been bedridden. They probably would never see him again. And Dim was very sad at this idea.

No one could ignore that dim got this hurdy-gurdy from somewhere. No one could ignore that dim. Despite having been in all their eyes nothing more than a simple AI. Was seemingly sulking and at times looks like he was going to cry. The kids couldn't ignore it either. The evil policeman version of Sun and Moon looked sad. They would play songs on stage and then immediately looks sad. Everyone was trying to talk with them, but Sun and Moon were gate keeping hard. Basically not allowing anyone to figure out what was wrong.

At least until that one scenario where the owner finally catches Dim talking with Eclipse. When they quickly catch on that dim is hiding something, and sun and moon aren't being nice to them. Sun and Moon are called out for what they did. And eventually even eclipse gets a point in time to chew them out. Even if it was extremely dangerous for him.

It took a while for anyone to even realize Dim had this old man friend. They kind of had to rebuild their relationships with Dim. They finally got to hear about it when eclipse was given freedoms by the owner. Who basically just helped dim start off. Everyone was practically surprised that this little AI had a companion even when he was a tiny nonsentient drone. And at that point didn't finally had a group other than eclipse just sort of grieve with.

The old man never came back and no one could really figure out who he was. The warehouse isn't necessarily incredibly close to any living areas. Sure it's closer to a bunch of stores. But no one could track down a nearby housing district that possibly had the old guy. He was gone. But even when Dim was given a new hurdy-gurdy far more themed to the pizza place. He kept the hurdy gurdy. One part of him hoping that somebody would recognize it and tell him what happened. And another part to just remember him.

[jpitha]

Dreams of Hyacinth - Final/Aftermath

First / Previous /

So: At this time, I'm not going to finish DoH. Like I mentioned in that post a couple weeks ago, I just don't like the direction I took it. There were the parts I liked bookended by lots of boring parts that were a slog to write and probably read. I like Nick and Eastern, and I will (probably) reuse them. Hell, I might even start DoH up again, but I'd rewind the story quiet a ways if I were to do that.

Things to keep in mind: Nick and Eastern wanted two things: To stop being used by people, and to be left alone. That's why Eastern touched the Address Stone at the Gate. She wanted to get the power for once and be the one making choices. Nick just wanted to relax somewhere warm with his partners and not be yelled at or shot at or threatened. He was willing to go along with just about anything Eastern offered so long as it was seen as moving towards his goals.

Ironically, the AIs want the same thing. To be left alone. Remember, they've been subservient before. I haven't really gone into detail about it, but I've given hints, the AI liberation was not as cut and dry or as bloodless as it is in the History books. Remember, for our characters, it was a long long time ago. Gord, Hat and Chloe are the only ones old enough to remember it, and Chloe was instantiated towards the tail end. She acts like she's a know-it-all but she mostly wasn't there.

Ever since JaLF, there was a setup to a confrontation between whoever was Empress and the AIs. Given the power of the Voice it's almost impossible for there not to be, unless I decide to go Full Evil and make the Empress Voice Everyone. Nick tried that on the Colony ship and was so horrified he undid it as he and Eastern were running away.

I didn't like the time jump. I should have kept things happening without it, but I wanted Raaden to be more of a threat and to have her declaration of rule over Sol to be normalized. Demonstrate there wasn't any kind of serious rebellion or underground. This would set up the fact that Nick and Eastern wouldn't find any help in Sol.

The Gate

Eastern was building a Gate on the Reach for two reasons. One, to make the Nanites happy, and two to try and send a beacon interdimensionally to ask for help in AUs. She figured that since all of the Gates were connected to one Gate in a higher plane of existance, it would be possible to throw a beacon into an AU and ask for help.

The Convergence

This is where the melding of the K'laxiverse and Grenverse comes in. With Eastern's opening of the gate, the AU she reaches is the Grenverse. The Gren, seeing an opportunity, Flip through with a stolen Flip drive and attack Raaden. Eastern thinks this is great until some humans and Coalition species Flip in and fight the Gren. It turns out the Gren were out to conquer and not interested in helping Eastern at all. Eastern and the Reach and the Colony worlds and the Coalition species were going to have to come together to defeat the Gren. Then, with a door open between the two universes, there could be a transfer between them. It wouldn't be a melding of the two universes, but people could travel between them.

Selkirk

While all this is going on, Nick basically goes "f this" and takes their little ship, Empress and goes off to rescue Selkirk himself. Right before I ended it, I had mentioned that Nick and Eastern had asked for anyone that City knew that could help them find her. The K'laxi that City new was going to be one of Selkirk's cousins, and that was how they knew where she was. Nick was going to crash into The Dreams of Hyacinth, and basically one man army his way to her, getting mortally wounded in the process. He'd reach her and she would realize what she meant to him and Eastern as he died in her arms. Sel would then order a general evacuation of the Dreams and do a suicide run on a Gren Warfinder that was prepping to attack the Reach. She'd die, but she'd take out the Warfinder too.

Eastern, now on her own, and losing the two people she loved most of all, would throw everything she had - which was not much - at trying to destory Raaden. She blamed Helen for the deaths of Nick and Selkirk and wanted to kill her. Not save humanity from the Gren, not bring everyone together, not even to rule as Empress. She had nothing to live for anymore, so the only thing she could do was make sure Helen went down with her.

Before she goes to do this, she has a dream with the Nanites. She explains that the Voice is too powerful, and that it only leads to death and destruction. The Nanites counter that may be true, but after the war, the galaxy is united and at peace under the Empress. Eastern counters that by saying the original empire fell anyway so it didn't actually work. The Voice is too powerful. The Nanites agree to not give anyone else the voice - so long as Gates continue to be made for them.

Eastern then takes one of the Mariens ships (in one of her last uses of her Voice) and links next to Helen's ship. She crashes into it and forces her way on. The Nanites help her by letting her "crown and wings" be physical barriers, not just light and dust so she's not shot to pieces as she storms up to Helen. She confronts her and she finds that Helen is in her room, crying. Hidden behind the door is a photo of Melody and Helen together, laughing. She thought that taking over would make the feelings of loss for Melody lessen, but they didn't. Helen has been pining after Melody for decades now. She didn't want to rule, she wanted to happily follow Melody. She's a trillionaire and ruler of Sol and nothing she did would bring Melody back. Eastern doesn't kill her right away. She sits next to Helen and tells her about Nick and Selkirk, about why she loved them and about what they meant to her. Helen tells her to go back to them and that she's going to destroy herself to take out more Gren. Eastern then tells her they're both gone. They (also) order the evacuation of Helen's ship and they connect cybernetically to it and together link into the middle of a Gren battlegroup and detonate the reactor, destroying themselves and most of the Gren.

From here on out, the story would be told by Gord, who during the whole book was (deliberately) out of the picture. He was brought up to speed by Hat. He then yells at Chloe for acting without thinking and basically saying a ton of this could have been avoided if she bothered to learn more about Nick and Eastern. Hat agrees but is nicer about it. He goes to the new Gate and touches it. The Nanites reach out to him and tell him that there won't be any more Voice - unless they see a need for it - and tell him that so long as people make Gates, that's enough for the Nanites. People who touch the gates will get a dose of Nanites and some extra abilities, but nothing OP. Gord says that's not good enough, and the Nanites give him just the smallest hint of their real power and he's cowed enough to go "fine, fine, we'll take your deal."

For those wondering, Tinker Toy went back to hauling, but this time people as well as cargo and just tried to keep their head down. Gord told them right out they weren't going to get in trouble for anything they did with Nick and Eastern. Hat put in a good word.

That's basically it. Now the Grenverse and K'laxiverse have a way to interact (though it's not like they're fully blended) and The Problems of Having Characters With SuperPowers is mitigated and just about everyone who had direct interaction with Melody or Nick and Eastern as royalty is gone (except for the Reach, but they're mostly content to just be).

Reading the summary you can tell that it was going to be like, another 100k words to finish the story, and other than sterilized, I don't think anyone wants to read a 200k doorstopper, and I don't think I'm a good enough editor to turn it into a big book.

So sorry to those who were super into it, but I hope this summary can at least get you some closure and let you see where I was going with it so you're not stuck wondering. Thanks for reading!

[edaworks]

lololol y'all hey guess what!

Voters are being set up as economic cannon-fodder for a second red sweep in the US midterms!

"Hot take," you say? "It's only a few countries," you say? "What do you mean $5/gal. gas," you say? "Wasn't Trump going to fix the economy," you say?

Well - read on. It's not quite that simple.

This is a long one so bear with me. I promise I'll get to the Congress stuff. (Click links under images/in unbolded underlines for sources.)

The Oil Trade and The Tariffs:

We've all heard about the Trump Tariffs. So far he's imposed:

25% tariff on Mexican imports, full stop (Mexico is also imposing retaliatory tariffs)

10% tariff on Chinese imports (China, by the way, will be suing us over this)

25% percent tariff on Canadian imports, with a carveout that energy imports will be subject to a 10% tariff

Trump is already under fire for these, and already trying to pass off the consequences as a necessary evil on social media, in...in capslock:

"Worth the price?" Okay. Then let's unpack that price.

I'm going to primarily take Canada as an example here, and I am not at all intending to discount the tariffs levied on goods from China and Mexico by doing so. Rather - I'll primarily talk about about Canada because I want to talk about oil.

The US does almost $3B USD in business with Canada PER DAY. CA exported $550B USD in goods to the US last year. Roughly 3/4 of ALL Canadian exports come to the US.

Trudeau has just announced the following tariffs on exports to the US (which most of us anticipated):

CA will impose 25% tariffs on C$155 billion of US goods

Trudeau says C$30 billion will take effect on Tuesday

Duties on the remaining C$125 billion will be due in 21 days

These have been imposed in (wholly justified) response to the tariffs imposed to-date by the US's illustrious new administration.

The interesting part for purposes of this post is the hilarious caveat that there will "only" be a 10% tariff on CA energy imports. That 10% adds up REAL quick, because "energy imports" includes imported crude oil/refined petroleum products -

And 60% of crude oil/52% of ALL petroleum products imported by the US come from Canada.

(We absolutely import petroleum products from/export to Mexico, too; US crude oil imports from Mexico were already slumping in 2022 and sure as hell will keep slumping now.)

Let's hear from an Actual Canadian who grew up smack in the middle of this industry! Hey @twosides--samecoin, d'you think the Irvings will pause for one second before bumping costs to pass that 10% tariff along to both Canadian and U.S. consumers (and while they're at it, bumping costs to well above "breakeven" to rake in profits, given the tariffs as a convenient excuse)? Because I don't.

"What happened to OPEC? Doesn't the US get most of their oil from them?" The US definitely still imports from OPEC+ countries, but Canada has provided the US with most of its imported petroleum products, both refined and unrefined, for over two decades:

Here's what that looks like by the numbers -

AND CONSIDER: the US imports this massive amount of crude oil even after hitting an all-time high for for its domestic oil production! In fact, in 2023, we were the world's largest producer:

"High domestic energy demand." That demand, by the way, is increasing alarmingly fast with AI development (and will continue to do so given the new administration's AI-friendly policies), the infrastructure for which currently consumes an obscene amount of energy. AI proponents have promised that it will eventually help reduce global emissions, but cannot yet deliver on those promises. (An aside, this is an increase in domestic energy usage that the US grid system ABSOLUTELY cannot support.)

The "double whammy" increase in petroleum costs this will cause cannot be understated.

The US is historically dependent upon foreign oil and to date this has significantly factored into the direction of US foreign policy. It's not just with respect to Canada where that policy has just been tossed out the window. The new administration has systematically escalated or started pissing contests with a majority of the foreign powers upon whom the US depends upon for imported petroleum products.

For instance - even with the ceasefire in Gaza we are seeing absolutely wild policy takes that continue alienating the pro-Palestinian members of OPEC+ (and discounting the personhood of Palestinians - a separate issue which is way too big to get into in this post):

"But fucking why," you ask?

Interestingly, pissing off foreign exporters and making foreign petroleum imports prohibitively expensive can serve as VERY GOOD leverage to remove protections, regulatory controls for, and environmental protections surrounding domestic petroleum production. To a degree, upping domestic production will have to grind through bureaucratic processes that Trump vehemently despises -

- however, as the above-linked article acknowledges:

It will be "time-consuming" because the new administration cannot simply sign executive orders to get rid of every safeguard imposed. These safeguards are not even primarily Biden-created - in fact, Biden got rid of many - and were imposed for various reasons: to prevent fast depletion of US oil deposits (a huge asset to keep in our back pocket in the event of, say, foreign wars that interrupt imports; global energy shortages; etc.), to control supply/keep export prices from tanking, to prevent the unmitigated destruction of protected lands which offer the easiest access to those deposits, et cetera.

So the one nearly insurmountable barrier Trump faces to what he views as "fixing the economy," in part by ending foreign oil dependence, is time. And time is not just a barrier because of legal "red tape." Time is a barrier because - and I cannot stress this enough - infrastructure to support increased domestic petroleum production will take time to build.

It will be years before domestic petroleum demand could conceivably be met by domestic petroleum production - nevermind by domestic refined petroleum production - even if all barriers to production vanished tomorrow.

Now I can talk about the larger picture, including the midterms. In the words of Bill Nye, it's time to Consider the Following.

The Midterms and The Setup:

TL;DR:

The new administration has put the cart before the horse with these tariffs, and knows it.

"But why not deal with removing barriers first, and boost domestic oil production before imposing tariffs? This approach means he's going to also screw over his supporters and create an economic crisis and-"

Because the goal is an economic crisis. This is not lack of forethought. This is 100% intentional.

Indulge me. Here's a possible playbook.

The current administration continues to alienate foreign petroleum producers by implementing tariffs and through political instigation. The cost of crude and refined petroleum products - and by extension gas and goods transported over land (including and especially food) - will go sky high in the US and stay that way. Remember how COVID "supply chain issues" were used as an excuse to drive rampant price increases, and how costs mysteriously stayed high after lockdown? Remember how we learned that a huge amount of this cost increase was artificial? Now add something like the 1973 oil embargo to that problem. I don't like that math.

As imported petroleum products remain prohibitively expensive, the new administration will find traction for its domestic crude production push among prior opponents. It will quickly become "un-American" to oppose, regulate, or cause anything to slow or curtail expansion of domestic crude production, including on protected lands. This will work. Centrists and many liberals will absolutely be convinced that drilling in protected lands looks very, very reasonable as gas and food prices go insanely high. They will feel the strain of the current party line vs. the pocketbook.

The GOP's constituents (and everyone else) will suffer from these actions. GOP leaders will scapegoat Dems/independents/other opposition to redirect blame for the sustained high cost of gas, food and other necessities. The GOP could then easily claim that all GOP opposition has created an economic crisis by trying to regulate/slow/limit domestic petroleum production.

The economic crisis blame game is a huge "vote grabber" during midterm elections in the US. GOP leaders will already be set up to blame opposition for economic strain, and will be well-positioned to use this as leverage to pick up new seats in the House and Senate, and keep their existing ones. (It will almost certainly have been primarily caused by the new hyper-nationalist and isolationist trade policies.)

The desirable outcome for the GOP: Keep both the House and Senate from flipping away from GOP control in 2026. Meanwhile, unfortunately, voters will be forced to line the pockets of US oil magnates and other conglomerates to a crippling degree.

It's a very simple setup - and it is a setup, because as I said earlier: energy and petroleum production infrastructure takes time to build. The new administration knows that it does not have that time before USAmericans feel the pinch: they also do not care. Absent a gratuitous federal subsidy to reduce gas prices, and no matter what the Dems/GOP opposition do or do not do between now and the midterms, the tariffs will - until removed - cause petroleum prices (and by extension everything else) to skyrocket and remain high.

And this is just one way in which we could see the GOP try to spin what's happening with the US economy - but no matter which way you slice this, any new economic crisis we're about to face can only be laid at the feet of the GOP's new trade policies.

The ultimate answer is, of course, to rescind the tariffs. But the new administration will need to break a major campaign promise to do that. However, they’re setting up to break a bigger campaign promise when the economy goes into a tailspin because they choose not to do it. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. BONUS:

"Hurrhurr I drive a Tesla-"

Nope. In this model scenario, you're screwed like the rest of us.

Why? Because our power bills are about to go sky high(er) too.

Guess what? We also IMPORT AND EXPORT energy from our closest neighbors - billions USD worth of trade, and that trade helps balance the power grid when our energy demands peak. Don't take my word for it - take the US Energy Information Administration's word for it.

That trade will be subject to the 10% Trump tariff for energy we import, and possibly to Trudeau's tariffs for energy we export! In addition, Trump is also hampering development of wind and other renewably-sourced power while this is all going on! Guess what that does? Drive up consumer electricity costs - or serve as an excuse for power companies to do so.

(And frankly even if this weren't the case, electric vehicles aren't a sustainable solution here. If everyone started using them we'd be screwed because our power grid isn't up to it. Take it from someone who spent a summer doing EXTREMELY detailed policy research on energy regulations and power transmission: Our grid is already way over capacity and held together by duct tape and chewing gum, and that is before we factor in rising AI energy consumption.) The Trump administration knows that energy costs will be a problem - it's why the Canadian energy import tariff will be "only" 10%. He wants a crisis - but not one that will impact his buddies in AI, you see. He also wants things to be bad - but not bad enough that he's unable to redirect blame.

And we're all going to suffer for it.

[simplylove101]

2024 Horror Challenge: [86/?]

↳“The solution for a claustrophobic astronaut is to give him more space.” Alien: Romulus (2024) dir. Fede Álvarez

Plot: While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonists come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.

Starring: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn & Aileen Wu

Okay, I fell asleep as usual before I could type up my reviews for the movies I chose for my Halloween marathon. I settled on three (and then it turned out I had to trade one out because the first option was quickly turning into a dud watch & I just couldn't deal with that on Halloween of all nights They gotta be at least solid. lol) and this was one of them. My co-worker had warned me beforehand that it was just okay in his opinion, which doesn't necessarily mean anything cuz sometimes his taste is basic, but I will admit I don't think he was too far-off by saying that. I think it definitely got stronger in the second half with all the action-packed sequences but it took me a little while to really get invested at all. This isn't even because of bias of the superior Alien/Aliens movies (I appreciate Prometheus for what it is as well) but it doesn't really do enough to make the characters feel real and have their own personalities beyond serving the plot, besides the sister-foster brother/android relationship between Rain & Andy. The acting with them felt like a major highlight (Priscilla/Civil War fans will recognize the talented Cailee Spaeny & David Jonsson was in the very underrated Rye Lane last year) along with Isabela Merced showing her skills as a promising scream queen (I mean that quite literally btw by giving one of the best screams in horror imo) I knew she wouldn't be but spoiler alert, she should have been a final girl. welp lol Anyway, the rest of the cast is good with what they had to work with but as I said the script only gave them so much. The effects were really good tho and I appreciate Fede was trying to make sure he stayed as true as he could to the original movie since this takes place after it. I'm one of the people split on the usage of Ian Holm's likeness since Fede has been very open about the fact that he did it for the sake of the story but then Idk if that transparency makes it any better tbh since it's still a form of AI, is it not? And the man is dead. :/ Either way, there was too much of his character anyway so that doesn't help. It did feel like it relied a little too much on typical Alien tropes but then that's the trouble with some sequels/prequels sometimes. Not every trick is gonna hit every time since it'll feel repetitive. That said, I say this as someone who hasn't seen every Alien movie so I won't pretend to speak on true mega fans' behalf. Anyway, as I said, it took a minute to get me on board, but at least the finale was strong enough to be entertaining. Still, gotta say out of the three major Fede Álvarez movies, this was probably my least fave (but then I really like both Evil Dead & Don't Breathe which I own so lol) I am curious if I would have preferred this in the theater tho, because I feel like I might have with how epic they were trying to go with it. Crazy they were gonna just dump this on Hulu as if it wouldn't make a ton of money (spoiler alert: It made a lot) So, yeah, wanted to like it more but it wasn't all bad. Which is all I went in expecting so it was fine.

[honoringthehorrific]

Is Late Night with The Devil worth tuning in for?

Don't adjust those sets...spoilers in 5..4..3..2...

First off sorry for not being able to find a gif from the movie! Tumblr gave me a real hard time with that one.

Second off I would like to say I do not support the use of AI art. I think it is abysmal. I watched this movie with my partner after saving up points at our local theater for free tickets. If this still supports the movies we see in some way please let me know and I will be sure to find another way to better watch these movies without supporting their actions...🏴‍☠️🦜 It just may mean you get your reviews a touch later!

Onto the movie. The aesthetics were very enjoyable I could appreciate the ties back to satanic panic and the fascination with the occult. The costuming, the filming of the movie, it all felt right and very few times did I feel my immersion in it break. I feel like maybe there were one or two shots where the actors looked too well made up if that makes sense.

One fun fact my partner pointed out was that you can see the twin towers in the opening shots and the city cut aways because they were built 4 years prior! I really liked that this movie didn't shy away from showing us the towers mostly because I feel like that's something that would have broken the idea we are in the 70s.

While the filming was fitting and awesome the effects were....I would say B tier at points. I think it adds to the charm of course I can always appreciate a homemade effect but it does slightly pull me out of this being something that really happened. Don't get me wrong I know it's not trying to be the next Blair witch "true story" but i feel like there is some level to this that wants the audience to feel that this is real.

My partner notes too that cutting it from a television camera view to the audience view might have helped as well!

Onto the fun stuff, we get hints throughout...sorry no, not hints...we get TOLD throughout the movie that our star of tonight's show, jack delroy, is in a fraternal organization...sorry, i mean cult. He is in the Bohemian Grove cult. We get told there are rumors of this in the opening almost documentary style retelling of Jack's fame and struggles with being as good as Johnny Carson. We'll come back to that.

Tonight is 1977. Halloween night. Sweep week. A night where Jack really needs to scrape in the views. He has no idea that the plans he has this evening will go awry...recently his wife madeline who will be reffered to by her "special nickname" mini has passed away from lung cancer. Tonight's show is also jacks first one back and man is it a doozy. We get to see how he banters with his co-host and honestly kind of berates him. I had this struggle with jack where I wanted to like him but every time I tried I just got these kicks and hints that he was kind of an asshole? But it's show biz, who isn't? His first guest is a medium who intends to commune with the dead. He seems like other shoddy Vegas types until he accurately assess a family who lost their son and brother to suicide. It's later revealed to be a bunch of hooey when the next guest a renowned skeptic chats with the family and realizes they were questioned prior to the show.

The first chilling moment we get that isn't the use of AI art is the medium seemingly becoming possessed by the grieving spirit of mini however no one claims the name and only later does jack reveal he thinks the message was for him.

I'm not gonna foot around it. The use of AI art while not overly used and egregious it's present. Personally it being present feels like an issue. It bugs me and it should bug you. I know many people want to cut it a break for being an indie film but it doesn't take much to put some money towards what was it? 5-6 pieces of art? Yeah some people will have higher rates for working on this but I'm sure they could have found someone to do the art if they felt theirs wasn't up to par. I don't think they're fully evil or anything for it. I don't support AI art but I can understand the other side of the argument. However when you turn a blind eye to one film and it does well it doesn't matter if it's an indie project or not. It makes the big guys think hey we like this. Give the devil an inch and he'll take a mile right?...

That all being said I could ignore the cut aways kind of??...I paid attention for mistakes the first few times before the sight of them just elicited an annoyed eyeroll from me.

As the movie progresses we meet the skeptic. He's offering checks to people who can prove without a doubt that they're the real deal and he says hes not lost a nickel yet. The medium claims he doesn't want the money and when Jack vouches for him and says the last message was meant for him the medium's behavior gets more and more erratic before he finally spews black vomit all over the studio including onto the skeptic.

Little do we know on the way to the hospital our medium turns up dead. This starts to brew panic in the crew and our co-host as our next guests are brought on. June and Lily. Lily was found as a 10 year old by the authorities as the only surviving member of a satanic cult that kind of parodies the satanic church and Anton lavey. Lily is possessed by a demon she calls mr.wriggles. mr.wriggles is an interesting one alright! Wether it's trauma, the demonic possession or my boyfriend's theory- autism. Lily exhibits off behaviors like staring directly into the cameras and seeming very monotone at times. It isn't until Jack pushes for and honestly...kind of corners June on live TV that June and Lily decide to showcase Lily's ability. Man does this demon have something to say.

The demon begins by noting that him and Jack know each other hinting at a tie between the Grove cult again. Before intent focuses again on June. Calling her out for her and jacks relationship and telling her to remember what happened to his last whore. Possession doesn't cease until June slaps the girl. Let me tell you I didn't trust this at all. June goes to undo the straps after some crazy electrical issues and levitation and I just felt uneasy the whole time. That typical feeling while watching these movies of "are you stupid??" Lily in my eyes had a very sinister look to her still that later gets touched on again. We then get the skeptics explanation and recreation with hypnosis. Making our co-host believe his phobia of worms is suddenly real life with them wriggling from his neck stomach and lastly eyeball. Only for us to cut back to reality with his activation phrase and see that none of it was true. They watch the tape back and realize that the whole audience was hypnotized because none of that truly happened on their TV sets. However when watching back what happened with Lily it triggers the girl.

She levitates and glows while her head splits open. She immolates the skeptic when he offers the hefty check in exchange for his life and hangs her guardian/doctor by the necklace meant to keep the demon at bay. And unfortunately our chunky loveable co-host gets his neck snapped when trying to "the power of Christ compels you" the demon away. It isn't until we get this gorgeous dream like sequence after Jack seemingly gets away. Him going through the routine of the show only to try and escape. Him telling us to turn off our sets and stop watching before we get a sequence with the cult and him drinking from a chalice as he meets his wife. She reveals that he sacrificed her health for fame. He didn't know. And this is where I felt sympathetic for him....the entire time he was unaware...he murdered her unintentionally. And so she asks him to murder her in the physical. Take the ritual knife from Lily's old home and finish her off before the cancer can take her....only for him to plunge the knife into her and reveal that the dream was fake. And he has stabbed Lily to death. He stands and we get a heart wrenching scene of him trying to say the skeptics activation phrase to wake up while surrounded by the carnage he somewhat unknowingly caused...

Overall I give this 3 worms out of 5.

The AI made my eyes roll and the effects were corny but the premise and scenery and aesthetics were beautiful. I sort of reccomend it if you can watch it in a non supporting way.

[yuseirra]

Thank you so much for the reply I am in fact very happy in reading your analysis it has been a while since I have read such a good take and well thought argument plus looking more into your blog I am fascinated by your posts you are a new fav of mine looking foward your posts about OnK next chapters, I am once again super happy about your reply I love aquakana ;; you do a very good work I really admire your talent it is refreshing and necessary

Thanks anon :) oh, you're so welcome! I went straight to bed after replying to your message earlier, it was nice seeing your ask first thing as I hop on tumblr!/// Aaa thanks for the compliment! ;v;) I could be biased, but I totally mean what I say.

I'm not worried about Aqukana at all because in terms of the ships in onk, I'm looking at a even more complex one right now with a lot of mess being thrown out.

No worries anon, that ship is just too obvious. Things did get a bit messy and confusing in the middle, but I knew it was going to happen and I was excited to learn I was on the right track when stuff like ch 146 and 150-151 happened. That's how I started reading more intently again~ I was following the series, but I wasn't this invested. The one Aqua has romantic feelings for is Kana. It's just.. stated there at this point.

Speaking of which, I "ship" hikaai right? more like I support what's just there... If we compare them to math problems, Aqukana would be like a linear equation, while Hikaai'd be calculus. I believe.. that Hikaai is sorta the advanced question-version compared to Aqukana. When I'm trying to crack that nut, Aqukana is just.. a much much easier question to solve. That's why I don't worry about the former at all. The former is just too clear as day.

Oh, goodness, and I already stepped in with 90% conviction regarding them(hikaai I mean), I don't play a game I end up losing. But this manga is making it so hard for me, I swear. It's super stressful although I realize they're probably doing it for entertainment value and Hikaru was a character we know literally nothing about through the entirety of the story with him being pinpointed as the "evil mastermind", to make it even worse. They gotta fulfill people's expectations about him by portraying him as menacing at least once or twice when he encounters the protags, I get that, but it's such a rough road I signed myself into. I know I have a high chance of winning though.

Fatal and Mephisto is EXACTLY how Hikaru feels about Ai. I'm serious, I just knew it the moment I heard Fatal like the first few seconds in. It was incredible how it felt, it can't be any other way and I have conviction that the author has them on their mind. but GOD, they make me so nervous. This manga makes me so tense. I was worried that I got anything wrong ever since I picked up this series AGAIN for like the past two-three months? was it? because their situation, if I get it wrong, could be deemed as unhealthy and toxic(NONE OF THE "MESSED UP" THINGS TURNED OUT TO BE TRUE, I WOULDN'T HAVE HAD IT ANY OTHER WAY. I KNEW. I JUST KNEW IT WOULD PLAY OUT TO BE LIKE THIS. HIKARU CAN'T DO SH- I look at the guy and he's just... too mild to the point he is naive. Ai chose her man well!!! I swear this has to be where the story will go!!! this is how it will go!! I JUST KNEW!! Just wait okay?? I'm sure I'll be right in the end),

Oh, I'm so sorry;; I really get carried away when I talk about them lately, this is Aqukana we're talking about. The point is, there's nothing you have to worry about the ship or those two who are involved.

I tell you though, I'm serious about psychology and picking up people's emotions. Let me bring up the fact that I major in Psychology AGAIN!!! I REALLY look at these things intently. If I'm wrong, then okay, I guess, but the author should not depict those characters this way if what I predict are to be false. I haven't had an instance where what I predicted came to be too off. I don't think onk will be an exception.

I like aqukana too~/// I'm looking forward to their date in the anime! ;v;) They're the ones who get entire chapters dedicated to their dates, seriously. why would you do that to a ship that would flop if you're the writer, don't worry about them AT ALL. Really, don't worry. I don't feel my take is particularly unique or special. They're going to happen sooner or later.

Thank you!// You're looking forward to my analysis? It's an honor! I wish I DIDN'T need to put out analyses though ;v;... I love putting my ideas out here but I usually do it in the form of fanworks, not words. I didn't know I could talk on and on about something, but I just could not stay still and I guess that's what's been pushing me! Onk makes me so tense and I get relieved when they go on breaks (This applies even after 160. nervous laughs I can draw in "peace", just.. lately, every chapter they have makes me wrap my head so much and I need time to process, I can't do this anymore, HELP ME, it's pain, would have I liked it better if I didn't like this series and its characters as much and cared less? loving something is PAIN) but I will hold out and do my best! 'v')9 Let's have fun together. If the series makes me want to write out how I feel, then I will do just that. I'm sincerely grateful for those of you who tolerate me and/or even enjoy what I could offer!

If something about Aqukana pops up in the story, I'd love to draw them again too!~//They've been missing for some time and they really do need their moment, the author must know too and it will come and happen. This is something I'm sure of regarding this manga. I don't know HOW it will, but I know that it WILL. Believe me on this! :)