#False Striking

[wombocombo4x3]

A Frustrating Situation

[fancyhats-and-fennelsbuds]

No blorbo is currently safe from the mermaidfication beam

Helga and Clayton's usually try to make them become their tasty midday treat as a pastime. Slim, either watches the scene or participates through toying with pests as if they were bitey, nasty, balls.

Yeah they are quite demanded around and under the sea

[anemonet]

WINNERS POV LETS GOOOOOOOO!!!!

[dailyfalsesymmetry]

a request for when you get back

false in OlympZITS!

day 101

you read my mind anon

[pigeon-butch]

I certainly have my own concerns about the treatment of moo deng but um. well i think some of you may just be racist

[asofterepilogue]

the very first song of epic is about how the gods just really want odysseus to have blood on his hands, and the only choice he has is whose. odysseus tries to think of other ways, and he's told they're not available to him because that's the will of the gods.

poseidon pretends to give him a choice between dying and apologising, and then destroys his fleet anyway. scylla's lair is the only way to go home, and scylla has a cost, and the cost must be paid, and all odysseus can choose is who will pay it. zeus comes down to punish odysseus and his crew for slaughtering the sun god's cattle and tells odysseus someone has to die, all odysseus can choose is who (and anyway zeus already knows who it'll be, doesn't even actually wait for odysseus' answer).

he's never given a third option. he doesn't even try to come up with them after circe - what would be the point? the gods have made it clear they're just toying with him and what he wants doesn't matter, what he would attempt doesn't matter.

and then poseidon finds him on the shore of ithaca, when he's almost done, almost home, after 7 years of having no choice whatsoever, not even the illusion of one. and poseidon tells him to choose between killing himself and watching all of ithaca be destroyed.

and somehow, this time, odysseus will choose another way.

[totally-a-cis-girl]

vessel

[maebird-melody]

Nobody else is gonna be unhinged about the little guys in my head, so I guess it's gotta be me.

[itspotatocatto]

100 epitaphs analysis rambles

mostly centered around symbolism of sanya's outfit changes but also touching on the baseball bat, the convergence cables, and a few strike 3 line retrospectives. (had to put it under the cut because it accidentally got really long, whoopsies!)

the two main outfits we see sanya in are her short yellow and black outfit with her hair down (which i will be referring to as "gymkid outfit") and her longer black and white outfit with her hair tied up (which i will refer to as "punk outfit").

in sanya's gymkid outfit we see her helplessness and youth, from the first time yura took her out to party [false disposition] to how she lays down seemingly caught in a grieving immobility. in her punk outfit however we see her defiance and her attempts to be "mature", raising the bat to protect KT when they first meet [parties are for losers] to her irreverent laughter while "a candle burns another photograph".

in convergence we see how yura views the cables binding the characters central to his plan of saving KT, sanya is here in her gymkid outfit, as much as he cares for her she's still a helpless kid getting tied up and held back by all that's going on. but in 100 epitaphs we see how sanya views this situation, seemingly accepting the cables and embracing them. she welcomes them, they don't restrict her, they comfort her, enabling her to get stronger, to be better at fighting the world.

also take note of the baseball bat, in convergence she isn't touching it but still tied up with her, out of reach but inescapable. whereas, in 100 epitaphs we see and hear how yura taking the bat in his hand kicks up the music, that audible ignition of firey rebel spirit, and when the cables enwrap her she wraps herself around the bat, holding it tight to her, refusing to let it go, that symbol of anything and everything she might be able to do to change things, to use what little power she has and release the frustration she's built up against the cruelty of the world.

this outfit symbolism is also shown in how sanya was wearing her gymkid outfit while she was on call with yura during the "negotiations" in convergence. she had very little actionable power in that situation, her presence was concealed and then almost immediately forcibly removed as soon as it was revealed. even down to the tiniest detail of yura's contact photo of her being her wearing the punk outfit and how that's the outfit she wears when she confronts dmitry in 100 epitaphs, these little attempts at displaying strength.

these outfit specifics even go back to young!sanya tying her hair up in preparation for the funeral, probably her first real experience of having to be mature. the facial expression change between young!sanya and present!sanya there is also very telling, young!sanya's frown is so sad, so unsure. this is contrasted by what we can see of present!sanya's frown, it's a lot sharper, a lot more sure of itself, somewhere between determined and disgruntled, she's gotten used to trying to be mature but that doesn't make it easier, she's just pushing through it harder.

but of course, yura and sanya's views of her aren't the only ones we see in 100 epitaphs, we also see sergei's perception of her as they stand back to back. here she's in her punk outfit, but it's incomplete, her hair is down, she can't fully commit herself to this, it's not who she is (or maybe she shouldn't commit herself to it and it's not who she should be).

on the topic of sergei it is SO COOL how strike 3's presence is all over 100 epitaphs. from the tepid autumn day to the motif while sanya and sergei are back to back, even how they both start with a phone (olga calling vs yura disconnecting). and they way strike 3 foreshadowed that final scene in 100 epitaphs in a way to make the exact way those lines would turn out ambiguous is damn near masterful.

"everything will pass, the edge will dull, i know what's best for you, and after all a day will come, warm and bright when i, tear down this dismal shelter wall." hearing this we're lead to believe a few key things: that sanya's edge will dull, and that this tearing down of the dismal shelter wall will be a strong and resilient action.

and yet in 100 epitaphs, it is not sanya's rebellious edge that dulls, but sergei's protective one. he realises that trying to protect sanya like this is just pushing her further away from him, he knows what's best but he's given up on trying to make her see that, the shelter wall is torn down not in triumph, but in resignation, collapsing under it's own weight.

"just hide behind this back of mine and save your helpless spite" this is framed like sergei asking sanya to let him protect her and to save that spite she feels for times where it might be of more use than as the weapon of an angry teen. in 100 epitaphs we see how sanya grabs onto sergei's back, to prevent him from punching yura, saving the embodiment of helpless spite.

can you tell i FUCKING LOVE THIS SERIES

[mangofanarts]

I appreciate Pomme

[redpasserines]

me personally I think Jason is crucial to the DC universe both in and out. RIP to y’all but I’m different

[scoriarose]

Come hang out with me and my snake Sakura on feeding day while we work on training her to follow and touch her target!

Before I got my girls I saw a lot of videos just showing off people holding their snakes or the snakes just staring back from inside their enclosure- but I wanted to see what it was like to just hang out with a pet snake and interact with them. I've been thinking of posting more videos sharing time I spend with my girls, and maybe it will be helpful for others with hognoses (or thinking of getting one wondering what they are like), or help scratch that itch for folks who want a pet snake but can't right now.

It's pretty fun teaching her and seeing how well she does- she understands what I'm asking her now, at this point the rewards only increase her confidence. Honestly, I bet if I made her a little obstacle course I could probably teach her to go through it- my biggest question is if SHE would enjoy the challenge and gain any benefit from it. Maybe. She does enjoy climbing just for the sake of climbing, and digging to dig. People enjoy the challenge of sports. Perhaps I could come up with an obstacle course that she would have a challenge and when she completes the challenge she is proud of herself and is rewarded- she did do a little celebratory dance when she challenged herself to climb a box before. Once a challenge is effortless, I could add another segment challenging her in a new way and see if she can figure it out.

While it would be a nice way to demonstrate to others how smart snakes really can be, and they aren't just lumps with nothing going on upstairs, if I do this I need to put Sakura's enjoyment and enrichment as the highest priority. And I think she does get bored - it could be a fun game for us!

If you like the idea or want to see more videos like this, let me know!

[istherewifiinhell]

[watching a video about how reading pedogogy got fucked up when they started assuming kids can naturally pick up words from context and dont need it drilled into them] oh my god they text literacy'd them. but first. they literacy'd them. theyre printed words natives... we dont have to TEACH them things. oh my god....

[l-cereta]

reading this play/choreo poem by a black transfem writer and i really want to like it god i want to like it. but it's bad poetry

[intrigd-voyagr]

alt route addie is gonna hiss and false strike at sonny trying to scare him off but they're gonna be so tired and hurt and scared it's gonna look so pathetic... They buck forward at him trying to fake a bite only to fall short and flinch from their wounds

[lineffability]

false pretenses is now a series of loosely connected smutty one shots in which I rewrite some of their encounters but (surprise) they have sex! (shock, gasp) kind of curious to explore how their dynamic would change a bit but stay fundamentally the same if they'd ~accidentally~ started partaking of the other's body very early on and then found they never really wanted to stop...but then there's the danger and the increasing feelings and the angst of not being able to do it outright - so they always bend the rules, and pretend...

[the two oneshots I've written so far are vive la révolution / 1793 french revolution and chocolates, honey / 1800 bookshop opening]