#I can't actually make society change and I can't make this fake person change either. the arguments are circular

[here-there-were-dragons]

i have to wonder what super hardcore militant vegans think should be done about obligate carnivore animals, because in all my painfully-rapidly-approaching-30-years i've literally never actually seen anyone give a clear consistent much less halfway feasible answer on that

[girlscience]

I used to make up people to go on adventures with and now I just make up people to argue with. I don't think this has been a good or healthy trade.

[dtmsrpfcringe]

You really are a dumb fuck, aren't you? You repeated exactly what I said, then told me I was wrong for saying what you parroted back to me. Living in your brain must be fucking insufferable.

Your own words were that they did not know each other ten years ago. Incorrect.

They have both said that they have known each other socially (i.e., friends) since 2001. They did not become close until they were in Good Omens. Yes, that is what I said. That's what you agreed to after I corrected your initial false statement. My god, little wonder you think this blog is a good idea when these are your thought processes.

Nothing else you said makes the slightest bit of sense. I can't even decipher the point of that word salad, and I am a teacher. Why would Michael use the names of the characters when he is talking about the show that the characters are in? What? You are reaching so hard that it is comical.

You are a class act making jokes about a congenital defect that kills newborn infants. Is that the kind of thing the mother of a newborn infant who claims to be a nurse would do? We have established that you are lying about both of those things. You are just an awful person. When it comes down to the real point of this blog, you don't care about the greater good of the fandom. You only want attention. You are shouting about a tiny corner of Tumblr that draws no attention to itself. You bring attention to it. You make it loud. Even when it disappears, you keep bringing it back. What's the real point here? You want attention for yourself. You want to be the hero in a war that doesn't exist.

Maybe you don't ship the hairband. Maybe you just have bad taste in music? I don't care. Either way, you have no place calling out anyone when you support those losers. They are the epitome of the scum of society. Actual misogynists. One of them even murdered someone while driving drunk. That is just the tip of the iceberg. But someone no one knows said something mean about Georgia Tennant on Tumblr? Someone suggests that two men who keep talking about having sex and being in love might be in love. Better clutch your pearls over that! Pathetic.

bae that isn’t what you said. You said they’ve been friends for almost 25 years. Do you write things and just fucking forget them? Or can you just not stop lying?

I can’t imagine being a teacher and just constantly being so goddamn wrong, I bet your students can’t stand you.

also saying you don’t have a brain isn’t making fun of a congenital defect babe. I’m neither lying about being a mom or healthcare professional. Most people I talk to pretty regularly here have seen my baby, and it would be pretty hard work to have an entire baby to…fake being a mom??? I’m not going to put my baby’s face on here to prove to someone like you that she’s real, and frankly I think it’s a little strange you wanna see that bad babe. Like? Your obsession with an internet stranger’s newborn (i guess infant now omfg) is kinda creepy.

As for my health certification, you don’t know shit actually. I busted my ass in high school to be licensed because of the people who helped me as a kid. Also I’m not a nurse😉 you are right about that. There’s more to healthcare than your RN and MDs lol. You seem like you’d yell at underpaid healthcare workers in the worst way possible.

you obviously did understand, but didn’t want to lick your wounds and slink into the corner.

btw this group absolutely does draw attention to yourself. I found these people by looking for cute Georgia and Anna stuff and finding hate and misogyny spread about them. As for Motley Crue, I hardly listen to them anymore, if literally ever. I haven’t posted anything about them in over a year and that is why I removed 2000 of my followers on instagram and made it private to have a personal acc. I just never bothered changing the username lol. So try again I guess.

Anyways here’s my daily reminder to you that David and Michael would be disgusted with you. Hope you have the day you deserve!

Keep sending these I think we’re falling in love boo🚨🔵🚨🔵

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

Okay so Dragon Age/MHA crossover 1.

Izuku is the son of Solas and Mythal who was kidnapped by the other evil mages pretending to be gods (by stealing the names of their actual gods because I fucking HATE that plot twist in canon) and sent to the MHA world because Solas was leading a rebellion and Mythal was dead and they wanted to hurt Solas. So Izuku is raised in Japan by his adopted parents who sadly never tell Izuku he’s adopted and would aggressively pretend he isn't.

Izuku though begins developing magic in his teen years much like how in Thedas they develop them as teens. Izuku is convinced he's just a late bloomer. At least until then dreams start and he begins to see things. He is kind and curious, looking up what he sees and deciding it's like the Fae. He promises nothing and gives nothing. No deals either.

Then one day he stumbles upon what's left of Mythal (actual Mythal and not the fake who played with Solas like an instrument) and learns the truth. Solas is actually a God, the belief in him ascending him. Meanwhile the actual Gods got all the power while the fakes didn't get anything. This Mythal tells Izuku everything. She begs him to find his father to speak with him. She knows if he ever awakens he may see Thedas as nothing but a world of fakes.

Izuku travels in his dreams, hunting for his father. He goes to UA and still tries to find his father. He hunts and hunts for him. Eventually he does find Solas- who woke up a year before and is actively working to take down the Veil.

It takes a while for Solas to believe Izuku, until everyone is agreeing and pointing out the truth. But he refuses to listen to Izuku talk about how his plan is stupid.

Izuku by this time is twenty having lived through a war. He's lost friends, his adoptive parents are dead and he looks around at a world that hasn't changed. Despite everything they still have the same systems in place. They still are on the same damn wheel. Bakugou (who never changed. Izuku doesn't have OFA, no he has a Quirk that lets him do so much more and Bakugou can't stop seeing it as looking down. Can't be given trust that makes him look back on his life) is rising the ranks fast and his actions are pushed aside.

Izuku, age twenty, turns to his surviving friends and their teachers. Uraraka (down an arm but still fighting), Iida (still strong even after everything), Todoroki (alive and just as furious), Yaoyorozu (Burned and broken but standing) and Shinsou (mute now but applying the parkour he was given years ago to heroics) are all he has left as friends. Aizawa (lost a leg and an eye, lost his best friend, learned another was a puppet and lost his husband), Nezu (who tried his hardest to change society after what he went through but nothing has changed even now) and Midnight (who clawed her way back after being injured. Who has scars and stopped being ‘useful’ as a hero without being sexy) are the teachers left with Eri (shaking and scared as the hero commission pushes for training for her).

He asks if they would leave with him. They say they will.

So, a week after the Chantry explosion, a group of strange people show up in Haven. Two women, a child, and five men, along with a small person who is covered in a coat. One of them calls out for his father, Solas, who is shocked but delighted.

“I will not change my mind,” the elf warns his son. “You do not know how it was once.”

“I’ll keep trying,” is what Izuku replies with.

(he doesn't tell his father the one to strike down All for One after Mirio died, taking One for All with him, was Izuku. Doesn't talk about how he’d sobbed learning who the man was.

Doesn’t talk about how Midoriya Hizashi was a facade and that Izuku had loved him still.

He's killed one father for the world. He can do it a second time if needed.)

[lilyspond64]

the idea that feminism should be a push to make women more masculine sucks lol

what needs to happen is that the idea of masculinity being equal to strength needs to be weakened. either that, or the idea that strength is a virtue needs to be weakened. preferably both.

edit: because someone found this post and misinterpreted it (and basically called me a man cause of course) let me explain what i mean here. masculinity, as a concept, is entirely socially constructed. the way that we have constructed it is to equate masculinity with competence and strength, and femininity as its corollary, incompetence and weakness. however, one may notice that it is more useful to associate people with weakness than with strength, as to not expect people to be strong or competent. however, a lot of mainstream pushes try to push femininity as a weakness, and the way for a woman to become strong and competent is to become masculine. theres a few issues with this, of course.

1. as femininity and masculinity are socially constructed, we can associate any traits with either of them. we could just say that both have strength and competence associated with them.

2. strength and competence aren't moral good. in my view, they are often bad. weakness is more useful than strength.

3. associating femininity with strength rather than associating masculinity with weakness is not useful. it's just raising expectation of strength rather than lowering it. Again, strength is NOT a good thing.

4. For an explanation of why I dislike strength, I equate it to a weapon. Some people have it and others don't. This has nothing to do with your gender or presentation, it's just dependent on your abilities. People who have it can weaponize it against people who don't. The solution to something like this has never been to distribute the weapons more freely, it's been to take the weapons away. If strength is no longer seen as a virtue but rather a neutral trait, this will be greatly mitigated.

5. Weakness SHOULD be a virtue. However, it is not a weapon. Why? Weakness is the natural state of a human being. We are born vulnerable and needy and somewhere along the line that is our life we are expected to stop being vulnerable and needy, until we die, trying not to be too vulnerable or too needy. This is true for men and women traditionally, however, being stoic and strong is commonly seen as a masculine trait.

5. Of course, an easy solution is to see these traits of masculinity and femininity and throw them away, saying these signifiers are entirely fake, nonexistent, and un-useful. Honestly, this is rather appealing to me. However, in terms of practicality, this would be difficult to enforce. Plus, the traits that exist as socially distributed between them are still useful for everyone.

6. Why is engaging in exploited labor feminist? Why is the goal always set so low? "We must allow women to work their lives away" or even fucking "Let women murder children for nationalism?" How is that feminist? Cause men do it too? Maybe instead of saying women can... we say men can't? A woman CEO is a CEO first and a woman second. This was actually present in the reply to me! Uh, also, STEM fields are not "more useful" than other fields.

7. This is the simplest one: adopting the patriarchy through assimilation is not freedom! It is a continuation of the patriarchy! Right now we sort people into two groups, men and women, and say men are the strong ones. Changing this to say, strong and weak, is just skipping the gender middleman. Systems of oppression cannot be assimilated, they must be abolished.

8. This is more personal, but femininity's association with weakness and vulnerability is exactly why it is so appealing to me. As a human, I am vulnerable. I accept this state. Under maleness, society does not allow me to accept this state. So I reject it. Does this mean women are weaker than men? No, that is the expectation. I've been called sexist repeatedly for an implication that me wanting to be weaker and more vulnerable is my way of being more of a woman, whatever that means. Obviously wrong! I just know that strength exists as a tool for violence, and hate it outright.

9. This applies to men too! Men should not be "masculine", plain and simple. Delete this entire notion of men being masculine! You will just insist that men should be violent. Men are not naturally violent. On the inside, we are all babies with wants and needs and feelings that only vulnerability and weakness will solve. Let's work to redefine masculinity, not femininity.

11. No, I don't think people should be "traditionally" feminine, or really even feminine at all. I think the standards held by masculinity (some of which, at least) should not be upheld, even in a feminist society.

12. What do I define as strength? I've been using this word a lot, but I never defined it. I'm using strength to mean the outward numbing of physical and emotional pain. Has anyone ever said that real men don't cry? Or what about: Women are so emotional? These gendered stereotypes seem to point to one specific thing: let men cry, and women SHOULD be emotional. You can't say "yes they should and no they are not" as this is a backwards mindset. Whether or not women are actually naturally more emotional than men, women are categorized as more emotion societally. When people say emotion in this context, they mean outward sadness and excitement - never anger. Anger, is of course, traditionally masculine, and angry women are therefore actually basically men. Anger is not a bad emotion persay, but it is a violent one. Breaking systems of violence mean breaking systems of anger - ie most criminal justice systems. Strength is the ability to throw someone into a steel hole and not feel bad about it.

13. So what, I want a society where everyone cries all the time? Yeah sure. If everyone simply shows their vulnerability more often, people will naturally become less violent. Stress is caused mainly by an emotional shutdown that can be relieved by an outburst. Allowing healthy outbursts at low stress levels will avoid unhealthy outbursts at high stress levels. Sure, one is more frequent than the other, but it is also more useful and helpful.

I have this all thought out pretty well. It's not a statement that insists feminists believe this, by the way. I'm sure many a feminist would agree with me on all these points. However, I am ok with being disagreed with. However, I do not accept gender essentialism as a talking point here. Masculinity as I described it is not inherent to men nor is it inherent to having a penis, or whatever. It's a societal standard that we uphold because having a lesser class is always beneficial for a greater class.

[swords-of-a-soilder]

Bless you for compiling what’s going on with that ex-bird app. It’s been genuinely insightful for me to understand the thoughts of the kinds of people behind those accounts.

That person trying to cancel creators for associating with Forever (and probably advocating for his lore to be excised from the server) saying “but I can’t possibly give up guapoduo, it’s My Hyperfixation” is very telling. Hypocrisy specifically in the context of “separating the art from the artist” isn’t something I’ve seen before, shockingly, so I guess I get to add that to my Social Media Discourse Bingo. (I had an online friend in 2016 who I was terrified to talk about my interests with because I didn’t know what angry punk teenagers on tumblr had deemed “evil and disgusting”, and even SHE stopped listening to some of her favorite metal bands when she learned they were homophobic, and had absolute turmoil when she learned that David Bowie might have allegedly slept with an underage groupie in the 70s. Her constant, unpredictable rage at seemingly random pieces of media was awful for my mental health, but at least she wasn’t a genuine hypocrite.)

Also that tone of “I’ve had good memories here… but I just can’t handle it anymore.” It sounds like someone whose meaningful but soul-crushing work has finally broken them, almost sounding like someone I knew at the frontline worker job I had mid-pandemic who missed her own birthday three years in a row, got repetitive stress injuries, and then got passed over for a promotion that was given to someone who did a fraction of the work. But the “God willing, I’ll never come back” was followed by “I’m 13” …damn, I got whiplash so hard that I astral projected into a universe where things made sense for a second. Because of course kids don’t have a complex view of other countries’ political systems or cultural pressures. Or the nuances of personal change and redemption. Or that sometimes people are just not online for a few days. And of course a 13-year-old doesn’t understand how dumb and petty they look by trying to ruin other peoples’ careers in the name of Activism (tm) while having a fandom portmanteau username.

“I didn’t want it to come to this but… I’m going to delete twitter!” I hope so, but more for their own sake, honestly. I actually have less anger towards most of them now. Many are kids with a false sense of grandiosity that makes them believe they are the ultimate moral authority, but have very little understanding of how messy people or societies can be. I just hope they can learn one day, and look back on who they are now and cringe. (And then many years after that, have the grace to forgive themselves.)

Oof, sorry for the wall of text.

I’m still not over the whole situation with Forever. I miss his energy, and his accent, and his silly bits with Richas that always dragged on too long, and N.I.N.H.O. (and everything it represented), and how different he and Cellbit are but how they understood each other WAY too well, and how he tried to make people who didn’t log onto the server as often still feel welcome and wanted, and how happy he got when anyone non-Brazilian even tried to speak a little bit of Portuguese. (I was learning, but I’ve barely touched it since.) I won’t lie, it’s affected me far more than I thought it would.

I miss Forever. Thank you for your blog being a little space where that’s okay.

I'm honestly a little worried for the kid (s), not in a "oh I just want the best for" fake bs way just a little concerned tbh. I still don't like them but I don't hate them either, they're a kid.

But at the same time I'm worried for their well being, they have like 5,000 follower on their main Twitter and 28 on curious cat (which is apprantly high for that app )

That's 5000 people (teens or not) waiting for you to tell them how to feel that can't be good for their mental state, not for a 13 yr old kid.

Most of their life was spent learning about the world and their still learning, these are the ages where you're worried about the sun blowing up.

You haven't seen how awful the world can be yet, You haven't seen how much worst it could get you haven't learned calculus yet!

To you the world is only these 13 years and you think if you don't act now everything will be over.

I get it, I had that fear too, most people grown into it and realize just how shitty it can get an settle in choosing their own battles and not letting It consume them, because no one had time for that anymore.

You want to experience the most out of live while you can and the older you get the easier it is to balance.

To me it looks like one of those situation where you'll look back and think "I wish I enojyed my childhood."

Because 5000 people waiting for you to tell them who to bash, 28 people prasing your while admitting they use to hate you.

It can't be good. And if they were to read this they'd probably say "oh you don't actually care you just want to shit on me."

And like, yeah I don't care, but am I saying all this because I want to shit on them? no I'm just pointing out concerns.

Apart from that I fully agree with anon.

[cmyk-anaglyph-honeycomb]

Some ideas for if I were to rewrite helluva boss. (ugh another 1k word post. I either don't say shit or vomit words) Please ignore grammar mistakes, wrote this on my last hour of work at 10pm.

Was thinking about I would change HB if given the chance and these are my thoughts.

- Main location would be in on earth not hell. Having IMP navigating around human society would be more interesting as they tried to keep themselves hidden.

- This way they could have their harsh personalities and have extras still react strongly. (The amount of pearl clutching in the show makes no since given that 'its hell and demons are supposed to be good people.) It would likely take place in a town that's close to a larger city. Or just somewhere rural.

- Stolas, Moxxie and Luna would be human. Gonna explain working backwards.

- Luna would have the same backstory but she gets adopted earlier in life. She's raised by a demon, probably homeschooled, and picks up on Blitzo's mannerisms. Now she's getting older and wants to mingle with people now. The problem, humans aren't accepting of that behavior and she's an outcast. Most people in town openly avoud her. Her struggle with Blitzo is that despite him rasing her, she wonders what would have happened if he left her on the streets and maybe adopted and raised by other humans.

- Blitzo having her working in IMP to show her that people aren't actually all that great. But Luna has more of a problem faking good behavior. (Her relationship with Moxxie is better because he is teachering her about people. Luna will go to Moxxie for questions rather than Blitzo. He and Blitzo have a strain relationship due to this. Doesn't help that Bliz will make things up when he doesn't know, which will screw Luna over socially)

- Moxxie keeps his backstory but instead of the mob, he's born to a cultist family. Not like in S1E1, but a more large scale. His mother got in young and fell for one of the high ranking members. Overtime it got too much and when Moxxie is really young, his mother tries to leave. She is killed for this and Moxxie lives in fear. It is framed like an accident.

- The Millie shows up after being summon by Moxxie during a rite of passage ritual or something similar. Since he summoned her, he's the one that get to request something of her. He asks that everyone forgets he exists/thinks he died with his mother.

‐ The request is granted. But Moxxie has nothing to his name. The streets in the city are too harsh, so he stays in town, scared and keeping his head down. Maybe takes up odd jobs to stay afloat. Crimson comes in later, fining revords of Moxxie, and starts investing. Maybe he summons Striker.

- Stolas is the next leader of the cult. Handed sown from his father. Chosen blood or something. He summons a demon bride, Stella, to bring in the anti-christ. He goes along because he feels like he has no choice. But like Moxxie, he's wanted out for a long time.

- He happens upon Blitzo and is delighted to find that at least this demon is pleasant. Their relationship starts as just a break from things. Blitzo is still a low level demon. He shouldn't even be on earth. How he got there is a mystery, but he can't go back to hell. If anyone find out, then he's dead.

- Blitzo still has to eat (or maybe just feed Luna) and Stolas can't hide him, so he gives Blitze the magic book. Not to get from hell and back, but to trasport himself around earth. His clients contact him online or through the phone. Moxxie joins in cuz he's getting desperate. Millie's been working within the cult since being summon by Moxxie. She enjoys his companyso they stick together and grow close. She gives him a sense of safety, and he's teaching her about humans. She becomes softer overtime because of it.

- Moxxie would be more sensitive to killing, so hewouldbe the one to use the book, he's more trained in magic anyway, and would stay in the office to transport everyone.

- Luna uses traveling around to get practice interacting with people. She doesn't have to see them everyday, so failing has less of a sting and lingering embarrassment.

- Octavia is half demon, half human. She's a teen whose confused on what to do with herself. Stella is ruling a section of hell, she doesn't have the time to be a parent or the interest. For the first time Stolas feels like he can connect with someone of his family without all the expectation. He teaches her about the cult, but make time for nicer things. He teaches her about life.

- Octavia is conflicted about her role in the cult. She's part demon but isn't taught their cruelty. She feels isolated and sufficated. Then by one chance outing she meets Luna. Some who understand. Someone to open up too.

- I'm not sure how Stolas and Blitzo's romantic relationship would develop, but I like the idea of them being less hesitant about it when their daughters become friends.

- Blitzo is hiding on earth because of a huge messup. Maybe something that injuries Fizz, gets his mother killed, and gets Barb to hate him. But unlike the show he is fully at fault. There's no way to apologize or take it back.

( Maybe he tries to take a stash of souls/their energy to make himself more powerful cuz he's tired of being at the bottom. But it goes wrong and they get released. They end up in heaven, tipping the scales and setting hell back centuries. Satan himself wants to throw Blitzo into the void.

It could be why they cult is so important. The more it grows, the more souls willfully signing themselves over to hell. If it goes wrong Stella has a lit to lose. If she finds him, and Stolas, things will get ugly. But they can't leave the town. Maybe something about concentrated demonic energy that lower level demons need to survive. The cult and its mass of demons us enough for IMP to be around but it doesn't stretch that far.)

- Ozzie (and Fizz), Beelzebub, Mammon and the other Sins appear when IMP need to do work in other locations, near hotbeds of other cults or demonic activities.

[lepertamar]

Stalking & The Glory of God 2019 vs Revised 2023 comparison

Since it's a short story this is also gonna be just one post! The few changes are still cool enough to have warranted a good bit of rotating in the brain from me though.

to be clear, stalking was published before Birds or Lives, it's mostly only a prequel or comment on Stars and there's no need to wait until after the full series to read it LOL. it's also free and right here.

I've chatted a bit with people who have read the earliest ever version which was actually all the way back from 2016 (this version i have not read since i only discovered this series in late 2021) and learned some things about eg, tamar's characterization, which is so much more boring/bland here than in stars, because it was apparently written before stars. so that aspect is accidental but somehow fits the narrative of stars really well. the 'i didn't have myself...' etc, the way she kind of made herself Become someone blistering and real through her apprehension of an awakening desire etc, sometime in the gap between here and the prologue of stars......it's cool lol. the way safirah here bears so much more resemblance, not exactly in content of personality but in form of metalness and presence, to stars-era tamar, than tamar here bears to her stars-era self.

anyway as usual, new revision changes/additions are in bold, and deleted old things are in strikethrough red

First, a small bit:

Plastered onto the front of one of the cases is some kind of promotional image of two people wearing way too many shiny things. One’s even a demon, as though to say, even a demon can’t help but indulge in what this shop’s got to offer.

I Love Defamilarization So Much. obviously a 'demon' is 'those extremely non-indulgent guys who live apart from society and wouldn't usually be tempted by worldly materialism'. Duh. What else could the term demon mean. anyway it's a nice little curb-cutting before the holy, with it's similar defamiliarized disconnect between irl connotations of term and the in-universe worldbuilding + cultural understanding. The previous version was:

In what Tamar thinks must be some attempt at inclusivity, one’s even a demon. Either that, or she’s just a normal woman with yellow contacts and fake horns, in which case it’s probably the opposite of inclusive.

Which is uhhhh rather cringey and immersion-breaking lol :P Inclusivity even as a concept, let alone phrased in such post-2010s American Leftist sort of language, isn't really a thing on people's minds (or honestly implied to be something being struggled with much) in Sehhinah.

That woman, it was her mouth that was her price for what she did, right? 

Just a little tweak that imo does a lot, especially to someone unfamiliar with the series :) the mention of price and 'for what she did' which leaves the punishing vs approvedness of it ambiguous, especially in terms of how laypeople think of it.

It makes her think of the feeling of awe.  Or fear.  Or curiosity. 

changed from

It makes her think of the feeling of awe.  Or fear.  Or reverence. 

Reverence, too, is not a very culturally salient concept in Sehhinah, I can't think of a single other time such an idea was mentioned in regards to G-d. Curiosity, of course, is incredibly Tamar.

“If you were to do what you’re thinking of,” Elīya continues, “you would have to report back to me on any feelings of guilt, and your overall moral sense of the experience.  After all, it sounds like you have a little bit of morality these days, from my influence, so you should be able to handle that.” Tamar raises an eyebrow, though Elīya can’t see it over the phone. “Impressive bending of moral codes.”

changed from:

“I’m honestly not sure whether you should go into academic philosophy or be a lawyer,” Tamar says, “what with that impressive bending of moral codes.”

It just slightly allows a pause on just how insufferable Eliya is and exactly what Tamar ran away from and had no idea how to explain herself to in Stars when she did LOL. it also mirrors some phrasing that happens in stars, when eliya or yenatru make an expression tamar can't see.

Couple scenes later:

And their left arm is blackened.

Well, it’s more like a reddish-brown, with a slight, flickering glow under the skin.  But it’s burned, burned horribly—the skin twists and turns, and it’s easy to see how it wouldn’t be usable at all.  Adding to that impression is the fact that Safirah doesn’t move it, not even for balance: it really was their price, then. Her breath catches.  It’s beautiful. Actually, as Tamar continues to look at it—she’s allowed to, she reminds herself, no one will even care or notice—she realizes that the twists on the skin are actually moving.  There are patterns there, patterns of flames and not of flames at all; Tamar squints at it.  She continues to watch Safirah’s arm as the debaters take their seats, trying to follow the patterns there.  She’s becoming half-convinced that they mean something—

I flipped out about this passage back in this post but the thing is it's not even a revision thing. It's always been there!!! In plain sight!!!. I've read it multiple times before the revision and somehow just never snagged on these things.

BUT that incredible passage is heightened by the deletion of a single also very cringey line that seems to have been shoehorned in to try to reassure the readers (or the author herself) of its 'normalcy', as a virtue, at the expense of narrative power or the power of a price as a worldbuilding element in the culture:

Her breath catches.  It’s beautiful. And it certainly doesn’t inspire revulsion, and from what Tamar can tell about the crowd’s lack of reaction, that’s a general fact. Actually, as Tamar continues to look at it—

blech right??? just like those books so afraid of being problematic they're ridiculous. the revision is MUCH better.

she focuses on Safirah’s face, trying to discern if there’s anything in the way they smile that hints at the power underneath them. The power that has burned them, changed them. She looks long and hard, finding her eyes drawn to Safirah’s. They seem hard, somehow. Like diamonds. Then Safirah begins their opening speech, apparently having been spurred to do so by the announcer: “This will come as no surprise to those of you who have read my writings, but my answer to the question posited by this debate is no.  Not for myself. Yes, as you can see, I have experienced the glory of God firsthand, here, in this life”—they use their right arm to lift their left, for emphasis—“and that’s not the only thing I intend to experience.  I’m one for variety, and if there’s one thing we know about the world after the Resurrection, it’s that it’ll have a lot of that. “Our lives argue for us—they argue for what we want to happen after the Resurrection, what kind of new world, or worlds, I suspect, God will create then.  And I want to experience that—I want to experience it all.  Heaven is already right here in my arm; in my other arm, maybe there can be something else.” Safirah smiles, sharp.

safirahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ;-;

Another observation that has nothing to do with revision, because it already existed this way before, but i love how much this echoes Lucifer's description of what the resurrection will entail, albeit less gratingly phrased, and, also characteristic of safirah (and of stars-and-lives-era tamar) very casually, unselfconsciously, and self-assuredly packing way more background assumptions that fly in the face of what's spelled out more didactically by other characters, regarding theurgy. (the word 'theurgy' never appears in this short story, the word 'manifested' only appears once and in an oblique manner, and only in Israfil's dialogue).

A friend of mine joked, regarding this:

"safirah, accidentally intuiting the entire plot of sehhinah: "

Another change, are a few words in the angel Israfil's speech:

“I came to existence this way, God’s fire in my veins—and I have loved it, have loved most of all my role in helping make the world, in adding what is of me to what exists physically. Truly, God would not have been able to make any of this without Their angels—and I say that not just to toot my own horn, but because it is true. Their soul is many things, but ground, water, air… are not among them. So of course They could not have manifested those into existence, not without more varied souls.

despite being only a few words off, the original was, on second look, an absolutely BAFFLING and flying-in-the-face-of-all-continuity-and-worldbuilding:

“God made me this way, Their fire in my veins—and I have loved it, have loved most of all my role in helping make the world, in bringing great plans to fruition. Truly, God would not have been able to make any of this without Their angels—and I say that not just to toot my own horn, but because it is true. Their soul is many things, but ground, water, air… are not among them. So of course They could not have manifested those into existence, not without more varied assistants.”

angels as assistants?????? angels as crafted in a certain way for a purpose???????? G-D '''HAVING'''' '''''PLANS'''''???? LET ALONE PLANS THEY PLANNED TO BRING TO FRUITION WITH ANGELS?????????????? all these things are assumptions that are so commonplace as to be unnoticeable in any other fiction or discussion of g-d and angels and creation, but are so, so anathema to everything in the rest of sehhinah they are completely explicitly contradictory to canon and jarringly misleading. and it is TRULY delightful that this series is so specifically a stickler about how many things in its worldbuilding can NOT be glossed by reference to common assumptions.

Tamar looks back to Safirah’s arm.  The burns, the swirling burns, seeming to draw her in with their suggestiveness, their hints of what has happened to them… she is so curious….

changed from

“The burns, the swirling burns, seeming to draw her in with their promise of pain and joy both…”

ahhhhhhh <3 just another bit of characterization and worldbuilding rigor: no promises, no specificity, just a sexually-charged word 'suggestiveness', riddling hints, another appeal to Tamar's curiosity, and the ambiguity of whether the word 'them' refers to the burns, or to Safirah, or either/both. The phrasing also echoes Lives, where when g-d Sees tesena, tamar's pov on the shockwave is:

she doesn't understand anything at all and it's a delight to see it, a delight to see it all, but yet she is so curious...

Then more of what i was flipping out about in that other post, most of which, again, was there All Along, only one line at the end has been added in this revision:

God, the patterns of the burn really do seem to be moving—and wait, the glow… oh.  The glow beneath their skin moves too, in a different way from the marks on the skin itself.  In the glow also, Tamar swears she can see patterns, if only it would stop moving for a second.  She wonders if they’re the same patterns as the ones on the skin.�� Do they complement each other?  Do they mean something different? God doesn’t communicate in words, Tamar knows, so they’re unlikely to be letters—but then, maybe, feelings? Or, since that burn in Safirah’s arm is God—is God, Themself, Safirah chose to have part of their body be that great and flaming soul—perhaps it’s not something consistent at all.  Maybe it represents whatever God’s thinking about, right now, at this moment, or what if it’s even what God and Safirah are thinking, saying in reaction to each other…?

auuuugh....... ;-;

next up:

She has prayed to God before, of course.  Out of curiosity, mostly when she was younger—but though she felt the vague turnings of wheels, the sense of God having a whole bunch of eyes, it all felt distant. Like, sure, praying leads to a feeling of a flurry of flames of flapping wings that responds to your thoughts, but it always seemed just… that? A flame like the sun being there suddenly… but yet no closer than the sun.

But having seen a Holy’s mouth, wreathed in flame… a Holy’s arm, burned to a crisp and still swirling… Tamar grins, watching those patterns, watching them…

changed from:

She has prayed to God before, of course. Out of curiosity, mostly when she was younger—but though she felt the vague turnings of wheels, the sense of God having a whole bunch of eyes, it all felt distant. Like, sure, praying leads to feeling bright light and feeling a response to your thoughts, but it’s not much more than the light from sunbathing. So it never interested her that much. But having seen a Holy’s mouth, wreathed in flame… a Holy’s arm, burned to a crisp and still swirling… well, it turns out that praying is barely even a window into the real experience of God. Tamar grins, watching those patterns, watching them…”

this is a bit more in line with how other characters (yairen, tesena, nam'ir -- and the characters in Lives after the Pillar, but that experience is extremely atypical lol) experience g-d while praying: something big, but with very varied experiences regarding how much meaning could be extracted from that non-holy communication. and the trailing off after 'swirling...' is of course superior.

Safirah sighs, long and rough.  They raise their left leg and press Tamar’s chest to the wall with their knee.  That done, they remove their right arm, the one that originally did the pressing, from Tamar’s shoulder.

changed from:

Safirah sighs, a long and rough thing, not at all what Tamar might have assumed one of the Holy is supposed to sigh like, if they are supposed to sigh at all. They raise their left leg and with their knee press Tamar’s chest to the wall.

This is another excellent deletion of a more blandly-commonplace, but completely-out-of-continuity-with-the-rest-of-the-series idea of how the holy are viewed by characters in-universe.

Safirah’s laughter fades into quiet giggles, and they look at Tamar and say, “Oh, kid, you were afraid you were stalking?” Tamar isn’t sure if she should answer that question, but she nods slightly anyway. “Not to say”— another giggle interrupts Safirah’s speech—“that you entirely weren’t stalking.  Oh, but you were so concerned about it!  That’s really sweet, especially when I was half-expecting an actual attack.” Tamar finally makes it to the point where she manages out one word: “What?” Ēnnuh’s nowhere near that dangerous. “Depending on what you’re asking, for starters, I did read your mind, if that answers your question.” Tamar had figured out that much. “Or—well, the other obvious question I can answer is, yes, an attack.  Nothing to do with the city itself, just with me. As I’ve directly argued that little to nothing would be lost if the option for Heaven were removed—not that I expect or want such to happen—I’ve been a target for a decent share of nasty letters lately. Now, usually those types don’t actually follow up on their threats, but when I heard suspicious and yet poorly concealed footsteps behind me in an alleyway… I admit I may have jumped to conclusions. As I think I am generally skilled at not doing in the context of writing, debates, and so on, this one included.”

there is soooooo much more suggestiveness here than in the previous version. maybe my jewishness is showing but i just really enjoy the whole idea of safirah being targeted with hate mail because their ideas are considered dangerous or serious enough to warrant it.

the original was a much less interesting and rather clunky 'a mugger, due to safirah reading too many crime novels' rather than 'an attack, due to safirah getting nasty letters (death threats?) about their work':

Safirah’s laugher fades into quiet giggles, and they look at Tamar and say, “Oh, honey, you were afraid you were stalking?” Tamar isn’t sure if she should answer that question, but she nods slightly anyway. “Not to say”— another giggle interrupts Safirah’s speech—“that you entirely weren’t stalking. Oh, but you were so concerned about it! That’s really sweet, especially when I was half-expecting muggers.” Tamar finally makes it to the point where she manages out one word: “What?” Ēnnuh’s nowhere near that dangerous. "Depending on what you’re asking, for starters, I did read your mind, if that answers your question.” Tamar had figured out that much. “Or—well, the other obvious question I can answer is, yes, muggers. This may be a major city, and very Holy-respecting at that, but to someone motivated enough, my arm may read as a weakness to be exploited—or maybe I’ve just been reading too many crime books lately. What I’m trying to say is, I am neither weak nor always the best at thinking on my feet when in an unfamiliar city. Though I think I did well in the debate.”

this is kinda boring imo. lol. it didn't stand out to me as bad or good before, but one of the really fun thing about all these revisions is how i can really feel how much more thoughtful and/or efficiently-packing-in-implied-ideas-and-info basically all the revision changes are! which is honestly really motivating/idea-generating to me if i ever try to write fiction in the future? how to replace anything bland or whatever-feeling with something that holds more information (including just aesthetic/emotional information).

[tau1tvec]

I live in a neon red area inside of a blue state, so whenever I bring up the fact that Donald trump tried to overthrow the government, I'm met with "but he called for peace on Jan 6" "he didn't mea..." FAKE ELECTORS. Fake electors. I'm talking about fake electors and the "pence card," but for 99% of people the electoral college is just that thing they hear in passing once every 4 years, so it just goes over their heads tbh

It doesn't help that they only care about money and think "trump runs the country like a business," as if that's a positive thing. Especially from the person who unironically filed for bankruptcy 6 times

Yeah I used to live in rural Texas, so I totally get this. I'd try to get into convos with these kinds of people, and a lot of the time they'd either talk me in circles or blow me off completely, and even when and if I did manage to convince them of something, the likelihood of them just flipping the switch back after a week or so was pretty high.

Mostly bc these are the kinds of people who tend to just believe what they wanna believe, or what someone tells them to believe, and wear their political and religious affiliations on their sleeve. I like to think it's bc, in some way they feel as if it absolves them of something, in a similar way ppl will look to God for forgiveness bc they can't get it from anyone else, themselves, or the person they want it from. In another way I feel like it's a means for people to get away with othering ppl they don't like, and making themselves feel superior or more deserving than others without actually doing the work to get what they think they deserve, or looking like an ass while doing it. Then in some way it's also that there are just a huge amount of ppl who are truly, genuinely convinced that their way is the only right way, only moral and just way, and that bc it's right, they don't think it can actually harm people.

What's funny is these sentiments aren't isolated to just right wing religious ppl. No one is immune to these types of thinking, I see it a fucking lot in internet fandoms of all places. Yeah we don't see a lotta left-wing ppl sporting Dark Brandon shirts like we Trump ppl sporting MAGA merch, but that doesn't change the fact that it's ingrained in us and in our society to look up to someone, and expect them to have all the answers, and when they don't, or we don't like them, we find our own... even if they aren't right either.

Tho like you said it's got a lot to do with money too. The only thing we can somehow all agree on, but bc most politicians are also obsessed with money, we're constantly being told lies about how to feel about it, and what to do with it.

[mitigatedchaos]

Lightly edited. Fake context based on game mechanics and techs not present in the real Alpha Centauri have been added for flavor.

It is not the case that weakness always promotes unethical behavior, but rather weakness reduces the pool of options available to deal with a situation, which may result in unethical behavior.

- Miti Chao, admonishment to a board member that refused exercise

Anyone who isn't invested in either life extension or cryonics is already betting they're going to die on a normal human timescale anyway.

- Miti Chao, "Regarding the change to your life insurance policy"

The flattening effect when discourse escapes from containment, and all the nuance and personal judgment are wrung out, to the point where "don't be mean to cats" becomes "be mean to dogs"... It suggests a maximum complexity, in bits, that society can support in its ideology. Can that be estimated?

- Miti Chao, submitting request for research proposals to the board Unlocked: Ideological Functional Decomposition

I'm up and about because there's necessary work for me to do, and it would be fundamentally nihilistic or self-contradictory not to do it.

- Miti Chao

These statements are a system of criticism, not a basis for the construction of functional systems, and if you try to put the weight of a functional system on them, they immediately collapse into absurdity. People can say that this is unfair, but we had plenty of collapses into absurdity in the 20th century.

- Miti Chao, criticism of Karl Magnussen's "Subdynamic Political Systems"

Problems generally arise not from differences in capability, but whether people are positioned correctly within the system according to their capabilities, whether the system is set up to adequately and sustainably distribute the benefits from those capabilities, and whether the system is able to ameliorate flaws (which all humans have, and which are contextual, but which are not all equally severe in practice) and prevent negative consequences.

- Miti Chao, internal memo First advisor dismissed.

It turns out that loss aversion makes a lot of sense as a strategy for organisms that can't regrow lost limbs.

- Miti Chao Unlocked: Tissue Engineering

The old Western viewpoint of individualism is useful for both for incentivizing economic production, and as a moral firewall against ethnic and clan revenge cycles.

- Miti Chao First clan feud after adopting Organization: Clans ideological tenet.

While life-supporting industrial systems require a great deal of cooperative and coordinated human choice, you are an individual before you are anything else. Think of it this way: as the only unit in the system with agency, and with a greater degree of different causal factors piling up in one spot (social environment, genes, memories), and much more portable than networks or infrastructure (and less dependent on a given infrastructure configuration), the individual is the correct basic unit of analysis.

- Miti Chao, "The Joys of Individualism" Unlocked: Individualist Analysis

We live in a high-energy society right now, but "literally everyone born before 1950 should have just given up" is actually a really weird standard. Likewise, "literally everyone born in the Soviet Union or Communist China should have just given up" is maybe a little less weird, but still pretty weird.

- Miti Chao First base power outage.

If you want to criticize Transhumanism because all of your worst outcomes are on the other side of The Singularity, might I suggest you instead use that gigantic IQ of yours to write about ⇒ Reproductive alignment, potential for value drift in the event of the technological commoditization of childbearing ⇒ The effects of evolution with effectively 'unlimited' 'investment capital,' through the combination of AI and fusion power, potentially rapidly consuming new surplus as soon as it is created ⇒ The apparent "Babel Limit" our civilization may be hitting, where concentrations of truth-production become nodes to be subverted, and information-faking technology increases at pace with information-finding technology ⇒ Risks in rendering so much mass human survival so heavily dependent on industrial technology (already an issue in late modernity) ...instead of trying to, I dunno, do psychological warfare on someone that's in a better position on that front than you are.

- Miti Chao, personal correspondence Unlocked: Growth Vats

Followers of Yudkowsky answer the question, "What should be done about animals that are less optimal than us?" in the context of imagining an animal that is much more optimal than themselves. Thus there is a potential conservative position that, "Nuke the biosphere, it is too full of suffering," is not a particularly wise position for an imperfect animal to hold.

- Miti Chao, message to a political dissident Unlocked: Ideological Tenet: Effective Altruism

Ideologies are based on certain premises. When one of those premises is contradicted by reality, the behavior of the ideology becomes undefined.

- Miti Chao First new ideological tenet discovered.

One reason to doubt speech restrictions is that they can be used to hide contradictions and externalize the costs to the ruling coalition, putting them onto everyone else - in this case, victims are injured or die in leopard attacks while the Release The Leopards Party gets to stay in power.

- Miti Chao, "Basic Instructions: An Introductory Book of Moral Exercises"

There’s only so much harshness from the environment that can be insulated by the system instead of passed through to the individuals before the system itself starts taking damage, gradually reducing its ability to insulate harm from the environment.

- Miti Chao, "Layoff Notice, Facility #17" First production facility deconstructed.

Is good freedom and free love? Is good fidelity and loyalty? Humans are the shape they are because of environmental constraints - or divine action which created those environmental constraints. (There are some of you around here that should never be given access to a genie. No offense.)

- Miti Chao, message to the board, recovered from leaked meeting minutes First fusion power plant constructed.

It’s just that every part of the system is constantly undergoing entropy. ...So at some point, you have to make a cut if the overall level of justice or functioning within the system is to be maintained.

- Miti Chao, "Regarding the Execution of Johann Bacques" Adopted ideological tenet: Death Penalty.

So, uh.

The only real problem is that these aren't bonkers enough for an Alpha Centauri faction leader - it doesn't stick out enough in any one direction.

Well, fuck, I'm going to end up talking like a character from Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri at this rate, aren't I.

[namtanlovesfilm]

Can't wait to read your post on SeanWhite!!! Absolutely loved this episode and their development

okay so I'll highjack this ask to make my analysis there then hehe! I also adored this episode, and the more I think about it, the more I'm in love with it! let us start bc that shit is, as always, gonna be long as fuck

why not me ep 6 is extremely important for seanwhite

so something that fascinated me this episode, on top of being fucking brilliant, is how it feels like its own arc inside of the main story if that makes sense. in this episode, we had sean finally break down his last barriers and trust white/black completely, before being betrayed by white in the worst possible way in his eyes. let us see why I adored the development of seanwhite in this episode & why it made white's betrayal feel even worse.

we start the episode with white and sean having been "kidnapped", which we quickly learn was just another test to prepare for the upcoming mission. but white's feelings in that scene are very much real as he believes sean's life to be in danger. (see how white rests his head against sean's back when the "gangster" fires his gun in the picture above. a very cute detail that shows him seeking closeness to the person he trusts the most & feels the most protected by.) that entire scene though, whether we the viewers believed it was real at some point or not, is still very stressful and tense as white cannot handle these types of situations well at all. his emotions are more than palpable and it affects the viewer, and, even though he won't show it, sean as well. and white, in typical white fashion, betrays the rest of the gang to save sean. not only this response to the situation would make sense for white no matter who was being threatened to be killed, but here it's sean who we're talking about, THE driving force of white towards changing his ways of thinking from a future politician to a vigilante. the man who white most definitely is attracted to & said he wanted him to "listen to me and trust me too."

so anyways, obviously white is affected by thinking sean is gonna die, and put his life above protecting the rest of the gang, which is a very powerful move. that being said his reaction to be scolded, abundant tears falling on his face, is even more powerful to me because it is white SHOWING sean he cares about him, something black would've never done. and sean knows it & is affected by it. I think this is the scene that makes white takes full conscience of his feelings, because as we know it's only when we have or are about to lose something that we realize how much it matters to us.

in the next scene, seanwhite bicker about the plan & that's when the main problem of the episode starts, which is a difference in value between sean & white. sean wants to make tawi suffer no matter what, even if that causes people to drink something that has been altered, whereas white doesn't want to involve tawi's buyers, and more so worries about how society will perceive sean's actions. we can see that, despite already having changed a lot, having cut off his relationship with his dad & not having taken the political job he'd been given, white hasn't 100% changed his views either. how people perceive you is still very important to him, whereas sean doesn't care one bit & just wants the result to be that tawi suffers.

the next scene we have right after this one is sean being drunk on the bed. it felt a little random to me at first, but actually made a whole lot of sense, as sean was both shaken by white's betrayal of the gang in the fake kidnapping, but also mostly got angry about tawi again & most probably thought about his father. he then drowns his sorrows in alcohol, but I find it very telling that he does so alone, knowing that white sleeps in his room. being drunk is quite a vulnerable position to be in, and we're gonna see that sean doesn't hold back and allows white to see him like that. I also LOVE how for the first time of the show, white comes into the room and says "I want to talk things out." after ALL the shit that seanwhite haven't said, all the tension, attraction and confusion, this time white doesn't run away from confrontation & is even the one to instigate it.

and when sean confronts him about having changed, this time white responds to it heads on, in a way that actually feels less shady than denying it like he's done until now. and for ONCE, the two of them talk like grown ass adults capable of communication, a miracle!!! even with sean completely hammered, they have the most calm & mature discussion they've had until now, clearly eased by, yes, alcohol, but also the intimacy of their shared room. it also seems like white has finally embraced the gang fully & actually wants to belong in it, as well as sean being more open about how much this mission means to him & how invested in it he is (which again, is a false feeling of safety for sean & consequently the viewer who will get betrayed by white's action later on in the episode.) but anyways I love this scene because it's the first time these two feel like a team, that, yes, still bicker & have their differences, but truly wanna work together no matter what. and that... is kinda beautiful. especially accompanied by drunk sean who is truly priceless & very handsy. once again these two finally feel like friends if not more, and I loved seeing sean so vulnerable and white so open. BUT it also is interesting to note that every vulnerable scene that sean has is either when he's asleep or drunk, which means he still has quite a bit of opening up to do.

speaking of being vulnerable when asleep, sean has another nightmare that night, which shows us a lot more backstory to sean's father's death, as well as remind us how young sean was at the time with an amazing performance by off who kills it as always. what I love about this nightmare scene is that it goes almost the exact same as the first one, clearly establishing a pattern, and ends up again with sean seeking comfort with white, by hugging him close. we can see that white is just as worried & soft with him as the first time, and while this scene doesn't bring us any new information on their relationship, it does show a repetition of trust & a habit of taking care of each other forming. I also LOVE the waking up scene, where even though once again sean plays it shocked that they went to sleep hugging, there seems to be way more closeness than in the first scene of that type, showing again that they're closer & more comfortable together. there is even banter between them, with white kicking sean with his feet & sean waking white up repeatedly, which truly shows how far they've come.

then we have a small but meaningful moment during the plan explaining scene, when white tastes the bitter powder and sean immediately gives him a candy or gum to make the taste disappear. this is actually a very meaningful gesture, as up until now sean has only helped white in life & death situations, and not just being mildly uncomfortable for a couple of minutes like here. yet he doesn't hesitate, and pulls that gum out of literally thin air to help white out. I'd say that's love bitches!

after that though, we have white promising to sean he won't jeopardize the plan, which... we all know how that goes 😬 and once the mission starts, sadly the differences of opinions between sean & white only continue, with white being against sean knocking out the employees while sean is way more heartless with it by saying "everything I have to do, I'll do it." we keep confirming how far sean is ready to go to in order to get his revenge against tawi, and how white clearly doesn't agree with his ways at all. the issue becomes that white still wants to be part of the mission, even when sean gives him a way out multiple times. it shows how confused about it all he is: he doesn't think the same way he used to, but there's also a LONG way until he starts thinking like sean, if he ever does.

AND THEN, we have my favorite scene (probably, actually every scene is my favorite lol), when after white basically criticized every step of the mission, sean finally shows him that despite his cool appearance, he's also stressed & scared. this is a very vulnerable admission for sean to make, him who's always acting so cool & detached unless asleep or drunk, and I particularly enjoy the directorial choice to zoom onto their faces for most of the scene to make the scene feel even more intimate. once again, despite them having been in a disagreement for the whole mission, they still feel like a team. sean can't fully work if white doesn't work alongside him too. and here we see a side of sean under all of that pain and thirst for revenge, a side that, as we've seen in the nightmare flashback scene, is actually just a young adult having to deal with too much way too young. once again those two have become softer about those things & actually communicate, which is a true miracle. it almost seems like white is convinced now, as he apologizes and continues to show his support to sean, even if he disapproves of his ways of doing things. and I LOVE how soft their voices are in that scene, even though they're supposed to be fighting. once again we see how long of a way they've come from the earlier episodes.

and then, sadly, we have the gut-wrenching betrayal of white who does not pour the bitter powder in. that scene is as frustrating for the viewer as it is for sean who watches it happen through the cctv & can't do anything, even though he trusted white enough to keep him on the mission even after he betrayed them during the fake kidnapping & showed multiple times that he didn't agree with the plan. yet sean did, probably from a mix of remembering the old unstoppable black & trusting this new "black." I can't fully say WHY white betrays sean like this as I myself am struggling to see why he did it, as even though, yes, he didn't agree with the plan from the start, he promised sean he wouldn't jeapardize it & messes it up right in front of sean's nose and not secretly like when he poured the gas in the sink in the ep 2 mission. I do think most of it is impulse though, and white regrets it pretty much immediately. at least I hope so, and there’s clearly a plan he has with the picture of the tank he’s taken. we see sean in such a rage that he leaves the cctv room without erasing the footage like he said he would... and confronts white, though they're interrupted by tawi's right hand which cuts short to a confrontation & makes them go into survival mode.

you will note though, that even having been betrayed, sean still opens the door & lets white go first, that he still helps him fight tawi's right hand even though he could escape freely & leave him, AND that he lets him go first through the barbed wires so he can arrive first. that shows that even though sean might be enraged, he still cares for white & ngl, that shit is touching as hell.

THAT BEING SAID, when they arrive to the motorcycles, that's when sean can really express his rage. and @fck-inspector-m pointed it out to me, but this is such a quiet fight. it's none of the usual "grandiose" ones with sound effects and choreography, this time it feels... real. sean is hurting white bc he feels betrayed, he who has been betrayed by the justice system & the entire society for his father's case. he who has felt all alone in the past 4 years, trying to make his father's death count for something. trying to make a change. and white ruined that for him, despite how much he trusted him, despite his promise. how can sean not feel completely & utterly betrayed in that moment?

and so, that's how the episode ends. an episode that started so hopeful for these two, finally building a relationship & trusting each other, to white doing the worst thing he could probably ever do to sean & sean choking him for it. this episode truly was a roller-coaster, and I wonder how it's all gonna get settled when now it feels like sean & white are further apart than they ever were in the first place. p'nuchie did say ep 7 is the episode they start to fall in love, so... we'll see 👀👀👀 hope you enjoyed this analysis, it took me so long haha but I really enjoy doing those :')

xxx

[starseungs]

@starseungs' upcoming fics !

all active wips as of november fourth; excluding updates for score a goal & critical hit.

titles and synopsis may change on the final release. no established release dates. i'll be completing them on my own pace, but all fics in this list are ensured to be posted.

taglists are open for all of them. so if you find one that interests you, just tell me if you want to be tagged^^

completion progress last updated on: nov. 4, 2022

ⓒ written by starseungs on tumblr. do not steal, repost, or edit.

➳ all in time. seo changbin

— "can you be my wingperson?" "when have i never been?"

people say you could do a lot of things in the name of love. that was something you strongly agreed with. but what they never tell you is how much you also lose in the name of love. | #3 on skz as types of childhood friends to lovers series

genre: fluff, angst, high society au, conglomerate heir!changbin, childhood friends to lovers, >2k words

completion progress • 20%

➳ one, two, fall for you. han jisung

— "be my date for prom." "oh, sure."

you'd think that as the secretary of your highschool's student council, the ones in charge of this year's prom, that you would already have a date for the event. luckily that won't be a problem with your shameless personality—and you knew exactly what to do.

genre: fluff, humor (romcom), highschool au, student council au, prom season au, friends to lovers, >5k words

completion progress • 30%

➳ new romantics. hwang hyunjin

— "new here?" "yeah. just came for the free food, to be honest."

when you agreed to come as you friend's plus one to their family dinner, you never expected to go home with a budding crush over said family's plus one regular.

genre: fluff, humor, slight college au, strangers to lovers, >2k words

completion progress • 50%

➳ 8:13am. lee felix

— "o-oh my god, i'm so sorry-" "my coffee..."

cliches were a grey area for felix. it could either go amazingly good or terrifyingly bad. and yet here he was, actually experiencing an overly cliche situation in real-life.

genre: fluff, coffee shop au, meet cute au, strangers to lovers(?), <1k words

completion progress • 30%

➳ how to kill a heart's desire. bang chan

— "what?" "one year is all i need, your grace. you may divorce me after a year."

after experiencing a brutal murder from your husband who betrayed your kingdom, you wake up five years back in time with a chance to change fate. but first, you have to avoid going down the same route by making a deal with a man you met at a park.

genre: angst with a happy ending, fluff, fantasy au (nobility), time reversal, fake marriage, duke!chan, daughter of marquis!y/n (fem!y/n), >10k words

completion progress • 60%

➳ second lead syndrome. hwang hyunjin

— "that's… brutal." "shut up, i know. not like yours is any better."

real life wasn't like the dramas you've watched. at least that's how you badly wanted for it to be. even the exaggerated dramas have their truths—second leads do exist; and you were one of them. fortunately, you weren't the only one.

genre: fluff, humor (romcom), angst, college au, following the second leads, fake dating, acquaintances to lovers, >10k words

completion progress • 50%

➳ dear you, can we love again. han jisung

— "as much as i love your name, i can't risk someone finding out who i'm trying to talk through in this letter."

all you had to do was clean the recently discharged patient's room. what you didn't expect was a shocking revelation from someone who claims to be your boyfriend in another universe through forgotten letters.

genre: angst with a hopeful ending, parallel universes au, hospital au, story told in letters, universe shifter!jisung, nurse!y/n, >5k words

completion progress • 50%

[linawritestwst]

avery glass (twst oc)

yayyy lina made a twst oc!! that's my boy.. THAT'S MY BOY..

okay so when i was thinking about which character i should use as an inspiration for this oc, i.. actually had no idea who i should choose. at first i thought "hey what if i just use one of my childhood disney faves" but then i remembered that all characters that i cared about back then were just. either disney princesses or fairies. yeah i was kinda basic.

and i wanted to go with something a little different because twst ocs that are based on those characters definitely exist already. so i went "what if. what if i just use AN OBJECT as an inspiration and not a character" because if i'm not wrong, epel is based on a poisoned apple from snow white, right? feel free to correct me though. but even if he's not, i just thought that it would be an interesting idea.

so here's my son and he's based on a magical rose from beauty and the beast! wow lina one rose boy wasn't enough for you

full name: avery glass (エイブリー ・ガラス) (i had a hard time choosing his first name and just went with avery because i simply thought it sounds cool. his last name is a reference to glass that a rose from the movie was under.)

age: 17 y/o

gender: male

species: human

birthday: january 8

zodiac sign: capricorn

height: 174 cm

eye color: soft pink

hair color: dark pink

homeland: queendom of roses

family: mother, father, little sister

school: royal sword academy

dorm: *cries in not knowing anything about rsa* (also yes his magic pen is pink but i just. made it this color because his color scheme is mostly pink, it's not based on any dorm)

school year: second

occupation: student

club: gardening club. i don't even know if rsa has a club like that, but it has now because i said so.

best subject: alchemy

dominant hand: right

favorite food: hard candy (especially raspberry flavored)

least favorite food: gummy worms (his little sister put a real worm in his gummy worms bag once when he wasn't looking. this would be his villain origin story but he's a rsa student)

hobby: secretly reading romance novels, also taking care of flowers and plants

talent: candy making

unique magic: "the curse of beauty". avery can change any person's appearance so that it would show how truly beautiful they are on the inside. it doesn't only make beautiful people ugly if they're secretly cruel, it can also make people that are "ugly" by society's standards more beautiful if they're actually kind and caring. if avery uses his unique magic on a person that is already beautiful in many people's eyes and kind, their appearance won't change in any way. however, his magic can harm both him and the person that he used unique magic on, because he can't cancel the effect of "the curse of beauty" himself, the person can get their normal appearance back only if someone says to them that they love them and means it (platonically or romantically) or if someone like riddle with his unique magic intervenes. what's even worse, if that person stays with their new appearance for too long, avery will start getting all kinds of injuries such as scars, scratches, bruises, etc.

dislikes: people that are "too pretty" and loud people.

personality: avery sure looks like a cute and shy boy, but don't let his looks fool you, because this guy.. his personality doesn't fit his appearance at all. avery has a tongue that as sharp as rose's thorns and he WILL most likely make fun of you. in fact, he calls most people by nicknames just like floyd and rook, but he doesn't give someone a nickname to show his affection, they're supposed to offend people instead. he even has nicknames for nrc students, for example, he calls trey a "teeth-brushing freak" and he called cater a "magicam addict with a fake smile" once. he's also insanely proud of nicknames that he comes up with and he has a full list of them that's hanging on the wall in his room. avery hates people that are too pretty/beautiful/handsome, because he thinks that these people are self-centered and arrogant and they only care about their looks. but honestly, his hatred of them looks like he's just in deep denial most of the time, because he literally says things like "i hate your beautiful eyes and how soft your skin is and how pretty you look when you smile! i hate it!" his hobbies fit his looks much more than his personality: he's a member of the gardening club, he likes candy and making it and even though he says that he hates romance, he secretly reads romance novels and keeps them in his room. if he sees you finding them though.. yeah, you probably won't make it out alive. he even likes to play matchmaker and ship people that he thinks look good together. he most likely ships mc with someone (but mc will never know about it).

notable relationships:

he stated several times that he doesn't like neige because he's pretty and his personality is most likely fake, because no one can be that kind and that popular at the same time. he's totally not following neige on his secret account. neige meanwhile wants to learn more about avery and be friends with him.

avery is TERRIFIED of chenya because he reminds avery of his little sister who is a huge prankster. chenya finds avery's reactions interesting and fun, because pink-haired boy is trying to act so tough and cool but if he sees chenya he goes "NOPE NO NOT TODAY BYE"

avery is usually a victim of his little sister's pranks and even though he often says just how annoying his sister is, it's obvious that he cares about her and that he would do anything to protect her if anything bad happened to her.

his voice lines(quotes):

if you choose to hold his hand: "hey, if you stay behind, don't blame me, okay? it's your fault for being too slow!"

level up:

"why are we even doing this? i'm already strong enough!"

"fine, you can help me out, if you want to. just don't get in the way, okay?"

"i think i deserve a candy after this."

level up max:

"yay, we've finally did it! oh, um.. whatever, i didn't really need your help anyway."

episode level up:

"why do you keep hanging out with me?.. huh? you think i'm cute? uh.. is that, like, a compliment or something?"

magic level up:

"so this just means i can hit all of those good-looking liars even harder, right?"

limit break:

"okay, fine, i'll do what you want from me. but you absolutely have to pay me with candy after!"

groovy:

"i knew it, i really am better than all of them! and you think so too, right?.. please, tell me that you think so."

lesson lines (before lesson):

"come on, why should i listen to you? ugh, then promise me that you'll visit the gardening club after this! i want to show you something."

"here, i've got a whole bag of candy, it'll help me get through this."

"i don't need your help!.. but if you have subjects you struggle with, i might give you a hand just to show how smart i am."

lesson start:

"you better go with me then!"

lesson end:

"hey, i can't hear you saying "thank you for helping, avery!".. that's better."

battle start:

"watch me win and tell everyone how cool i am after i'm done."

battle win:

"oh you poor thing, here, have a candy!.. haha, you actually thought i'd give it to you?"

fun facts

avery's hatred of good-looking people is a reference to the fact that in "beauty and the beast" the enchantress offered a rose to a prince in exchange for shelter but he refused. he was punished and turned into a beast, so that he looked as ugly on the outside as he was on the inside. so yeah, avery thinks that all people that look beautiful are as arrogant as that prince.

his transparent hat (yes, that's my attempt at drawing transparent things) is supposed to represent the glass that rose from the movie was under.

avery actually tried to hide his freckles with make-up before but he changed his mind because otherwise he would be like those "fake people" that he so deeply hates.

many rsa students think that nrc would fit avery better.

avery knows heartslabyul students well due to some of them being from his homeland. riddle is the only nrc student that he has at least some respect for and he's the only person that avery doesn't call by a nickname. avery thinks that ace and deuce are too dumb to have a proper conversation with them. he's afraid of trey because avery eats.. quite a lot of candy every day and he said that he's thankful for not going to the same school as trey.

if you compliment his appearance, at first avery will be like "?? huh??", he's gonna be so confused and then he will just assume that you're calling him a selfish and a fake person. you can compliment other things though, like his skills or personality.

if he was a nrc student, he would be fine with being sorted to any dorm except pomefiore because.. for obvious reasons.

his unique magic is based on the beast's curse and the way to bring people back to normal is also based on the way of breaking the curse from the movie. avery getting injuries if the person is still under the influence of his magic is a reference to a rose from "beauty and the beast" losing petals.

even though avery reads so much romance, he's actually oblivious to flirting and he doesn't know when he's saying things that sound flirty. he can easily feed you candy when you're not expecting it or give you a flower that he grew himself and he will be like ".. what, some people think it's romantic?"

however, avery can get jealous easily and is kinda possessive, but he probably won't even realize that he's acting like this because he fell in love with someone.

avery tends to use his unique magic pretty often just to mess with people but he doesn't tell anyone about him getting injured after using it and he tries to hide it with his clothes. he really is ready to go THAT far just for a prank. it doesn't help that he's full of negative emotions and feelings when he's doing it, so.. *cough* overblot!avery *cough*

it takes a great amount of self-control for avery to not swear every single second. also judging looks from rsa students help.

[electric-rabbits]

I really want to talk about that first one actually. I dont think I'm smart enough to put it into words, but the problem with what critical thinkers call "the epidemic of diagnosis" is so strange to observe as someone who's studying psychology but who also has characteristics that could be considered autistic. Because that means I'm on both circles, and I can see that they barely interact. There's a critique to be made, but they barely scrape the surface.

A huge part of it is capacitism on the psychologists' part, don't get me wrong. I've had professors talking about diagnosing someone as if that's a death sentence, as if that person won't have any space to grow and change under the heavy weight of a diagnosis, and that's absolute bullshit. A diagnostic should be a pathway to help and, just as importantly, to self understanding. It's not a bad thing. Living your life thinking you're broken but not knowing why is.

But then, on the other hand, it's absolutely undeniable that we are pathologising characteristics that are not symptomatic of anything. The number of ADHD and Autism diagnosis on current day doesn't just point to a better understanding of mental health; it is the market turning our suffering into a way to make profit.

Because that's the thing!!! The suffering is very real!!! And sometimes, from what I see, mental health professionals seem to fail to grasp this notion, and think that the "fake" diagnostics themselves are the problem. They aren't. But they aren't the solution, either.

The people who seek out diagnosis for mental health issues are suffering in many ways, but I don't think that's always symptomatic of some individual issue. Much of it is because we live in an increasingly hostile environment that doesn't allow us to develop our mental functions, and even when they are developed they don't seem enough to make us "fit in", to let us adapt to these conditions. We are suffering because life is harder, and faster, and more lonely.

And that, I think, is where the tiktokization of ADHD and Autism comes from: they didn't turn diagnosis into a trend; they turned it into a community. People are suffering and alone. We are told by society that this is an indication of failure- we can't keep up with the world. And then some teenagers, who are also suffering and also trying to find the reason why they can't keep up, stumble upon the possibility that it's not a moral failure, but a symptom. "There's something wrong with my brain and that's why the world doesn't seem to make sense. If you also feel this way, you're not alone and not to blame. It's a mental health issue."

And it starts with actual medical symptoms, but slowly it becomes everything- because that's validating our experiences. It's the sense of community, of other people sharing some characteristics with you and confirming that you're not alone. They forget things like I do. They sleep in the same position I do. They also have a hard time with this. They also love that.

The problem with the way society currently sees (some) diagnosis is that it changes the way we approach the issue, but it still pins it on the individuals, not considering everything else. I think it was Krishnamurti who said "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society". Maybe what we're seeing is the other half of this sentence: not being adjusted to this society shouldn't be something we have to justify with a diagnosis. Maybe we should be working on making things more doable to everyone.

And all of that doesn't even TOUCH on the fact that neither side of this debate- the tiktok diagnosis defenders and the professional diagnosis deniers- look at other, less "palatable" mental health issues when talking about this. Psychosis in general tends to be forgotten in these talks of "community", and it's still being ostracized; and you can't talk about the "heavy weight of a diagnosis" when someone is trying to understand the things they see and hear and that aren't there. And any talks of making the world more inclusive should always take that into consideration.

The tiktokfication of autism and ADHD, with people thinking all their behaviors and feelings come from a diagnosis. Fandoms (which can be pretty bad. Believe me I've been in fandoms for ages). Crypto bros. 4chan. Incels. I feel like so many of our modern problems are caused by this deep need for connection and understanding in an increasingly individualistic society

[funkymbtifiction]

A little follow-up to your reply about Tert-Fe: I actually found your take on ETPs “caring too much what others think about them and catering their approach to get attention” really insightful, because I spent some time trying to figure out my judging axis, and wondered if I’m actually an ENFP instead of ENTP. It seems to me that most of the time ETPs are described as having a kind of bratty “idgaf”-attitude - and while I’m prone to doing that low-Fe thing of provoking other people to get a reaction out of them around friends, I can shift my behavior relatively easily to what I think is called for at the moment (after I’ve figured out the dynamics of the situation, if that makes sense). Especially at work, I try to make sure that my colleagues see me as friendly and easy-going, even though I noticed that it exhausts my tert-Fe after some time, and I need to “recharge” my Ti, so to speak. So thanks for clearing that up. And I’m sure FPs could care about how they’re being perceived just as much (especially if they’re so dom) but I suppose a Fi approach to that would have a different motivation? Also: do you think gender roles/expectations and socialization play into how much we think we have to rely on or over-use certain (lower) functions in different contexts?

As an ENFP, I care very much what people think about me and want their approval, but I'm not going to change who I am or what I love to appeal to them. An ENTP will feel tempted to do just that when they want outside approval. They aren't as hung up on being true to their feelings, either. One told me as a writer, he can write what's popular and what sells without caring much about the genre, which blew my mind. I could never do that. I have to be emotionally invested in my writing and really love a topic to write about it. Anything else feels forced and lifeless. I can't write anything I don't believe, either, even for a paycheck; my true opinions always bleed to the surface.

ETPs are also better able to adapt to an outside situation and be "one of the group," whereas I am the same person wherever I go -- I will keep my mouth shut to keep the peace with people or be respectful of their beliefs, but I will never fake a view I do not hold to win their approval. ETPs can have trouble being too permissive and adaptable (doing things they shouldn't, or don't believe, just because it will appeal to you), whereas EFPs can have trouble being to self-rigid (refusing to change and shutting down instead of compromising).

Gender roles play into your emotional development. Society expects men to be more logical and women to be more emotional; so many women thinkers develop their feeling functions better than their male counterparts, and the same goes for feeler men developing more of their thinking functions than females of the same type. Why? Because school settings enforce certain values and expectations, and women get more peer socialization regardless of type.

[tellywoodtrash]

immj2 09.04.21 lb

vansh's dumb ass rushing off to that random address he saw. like......... are you even checking on google maps ki kya area hai, is it conducive to having a secret person stashed there as a hostage? pata chala udhar tak pohunch gaye aur ek big bazaar hai.

ishani tripping riddhima as she runs into the house. such middle school bitchidity.

and now some interrogation of really wtf are you and vansh bhai upto all the time, coz no normal ppl can understand wtf your relationship dynamic is anymore.

blah blah some dhamki on dadi ko pata challllllllllll gaya toh??????

idc about this scene except for ishani looking hot af. i love her shirt dress and red lipstick. style icon.

anyway riddhima promises answers in 24 hours and fucks off.

lol vansh reached destination and from the looks of it, it's an empty lot. lmaooooooooooooo, fucking idiot. pehle hi bola tha maine, check kar udhar hai kya.

riddhima meanwhile steals the black box, which changes how it looks every single day.

calls vyom and is like i did my part of the deal, now your turn. they arrange the drop.

lmao vansh comes home to empty safe. follows her as she goes and dumps it in the recycling bins and tells vyom to pick it up.

hoodie waale kisine aake pick up kar diya. which i'm sure is not vyom, but angre/someone else instead.

ew vansh rootin around in the garbage bin for the box. sees it's gone and is all smirkily "INTERESTINGGGGGGG VERYYYYYYYY INTERESTINGGGG" about it. ok either box iske aadmi ne uthaaya hai ya woh asli waala black box nahi tha. warna yeh itna khush nahi hota.

ugh siya is video calling vyom and all WHYYYY CAN'T I COME SEEEE YOUUUUUUUUUUU?!?!!? i promiseeeee i won't disturb you while you work, i'll just keep looking at you and listening to you. what the ever loving fuck? behen, the relationship you're describing is the one ppl have with animals in zoos. yuck i actually cannot watch this shit man, i'm fwding.

anyway riddhima walks in hearing his voice from siya's room. ek toh yeh kaun bewakoof hai jo apne secret bf se BINA HEADPHONES ke baat karta hai? ffs, 6th graders doing aashiqui better than these fucks.

riddhima yelling at siya about getting involved with shunya circle zero man, while siya yelling back about how did YOUUUUUU see my earring with him, why are YOUUUU meeting him huh?!!?? and vyom is just there on the call like

riddhima trying to warn siya ki he's not a good man............. sis kabhi apne relationships ko dekha hai???? you're running on full 100% in the dept. of having romantic relationships with psychopathic men who try to injure/kill you on a weekly basis.

asdkjsakjdhksajdhksajhdkj i honestly am vyom in this sitch, who's enjoying this convo to the maxxxxxxxx. zoom call par baithe kisi aur ke ghar ka kalesh dekhne ka mazzzaaaa hi kuch aur hai.

angre losing his mind about riddhima stealing the box and vansh is all cool which meansssss........ nakli tha. for sure. shoulda known when we saw it looked diff itself.

lmaooooooooooooooo black box ko orange paint kar ke rakha hua hai iss chutiye ne. and he's bragging about how no one can open it without the key.

meanwhile peeth pe key waali didi andar jhaank ke spying kar rahi hai, as per usual.

kabir over here like main riddhima riddhima chillaaunga, banyaan phaad ke........... guard has had enough of his shit and tells him to stfu.

someone from outside hears this chillam-chilli and calls the police. wow, a responsible citizen, in this show?????????? unbohlievable.

cut to riddhima walking into bedroom (in whole new outfit; huh??? is it a whole other day suddenly?????) which is decorated like a mixture of a grade school on valentine's day + the set of a suhaag raat porno, lmao. husband is also in here, in his red velvet suit, giving her bhaaaaari sex eyes.

riddhima's thinking lagta hai issko pata nahi chala ke maine naak ke neeche se box udaa liya, warne yeh saare phool meri arthiiii pe chadhte.

this b has some nerve talking to siya about her "dangerous relationship" with that shirtless bhopuuuu player when her own husband/said chick's elder brother is a quasi-murderer they live with.

LMAO THEIR WHOLEASS BED IS GONE. ABHI SESK KAHAAN KAROGE? IS CHHOTE SE DINING TABLE PAR? ouff, they must still be in their 20s if they don't require proper lumbar support.

gives her a rose, ofc she pricks herself on a thorn, and nowwwww.... he's sucking on her finger. I'M SORRY THIS IS NOT ROMANTIC OR SEXY AT ALLLLLLLLLLLLL. SHE DIDN'T EVEN WASH HER HANDS AFTER COMING INTO THE ROOM!!!!!!!!!! FUCKERS GONNA START SOME INCURABLE PANDEMIC OF THEIR OWN LIKE THIS.

she's all ohohohoho dard bhi tum, dawa bhi tum huh? and he's like yeah babyyyyyyyyyy, coz tum poori ki poori meriiiiiii ho.

ok the sexy is getting scary now. as is on par with this fucker. never a moment where heart rate can be at resting rate with him. and not in a good way.

she's telling him she wants to tell him something, give him some surprise....... and he's like.... ok? and they slow dance while making shakki faces at each other's back.

kabirrrrrrr stillllllllll screaming for riddhima. guard finally calls her and makes him speak to her. she's like bitch tf you want i was about to get laidddddd.........

kabir suddenly in i love you i love you mode. shady. kal tak toh yeh gaana nahi chal raha tha??? *acp pradyuman hand motion* kuch toh gadbad hai.

whoopsssssssssss, police is here. guard is like fuck someone musta called hearing this dude's ruckus.

kabir is like mwahahahahahaha, your game is over now. police will find meeeeee and freeeeee meeeee.

lmaoooooooooo she talks to the police and says ki woh jo chila raha hai, mera mentally unstable bhai hai, toh bas...... inspector is like SAY NO MORE MA'AM, WE DON'T WANNA CHECK ON THE MENTALLY ILL, THAT'S A YOU PROBLEM, NOT AN US PROBLEM AS A SOCIETY, SO GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR CRAZY BRO, BYEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

anyway she's like listen up kabir, my deal is over, i'll tell vansh the truth and then you'll be free. so part of the deal with vyom is to keep kabir locked up???????? hein? what even.........

kabir freaking out about riddhima telling vansh the truth, and keeps on saying he'll murder her........ DUDE WHAT THIS SORDID TRUTH ANYWAY IM SO DONE JUST OUT WITH IT ALREADY

vansh comes outta the bathroom shirtless and............... lollipop ladki is here sexily breaking wine glasses in his bedroom. zero boundaries up in this house. NONE WHATSOEVER.

ok sorry i'm not paying attn to anything being said rn coz

lollipop ladki is like why not we drink from one glass and he's like 🤨🤨🤨

wifey's here to spoil the party.

or to make it better????????? coz lol she's like make it three glasses of wine! won't you invite me to whatever's going on???? she looks waaaay more into lollipop ladki than vansh is, which would be the best possible development to riddhima's character.

vansh like hein aise kaise you stealing girl away from meeeeee, and telling lollipop girl ki why don't you and i just chug from the bottle?

cursory invitation to riddhima too.......... man, why is this giving heavy threesome vibes???

riddhima like "no thanks, mujhe do se zyaada hont ek bottle par achche nahi lagte." alksjdlaskjdlsakjdlsajkdlaksjdlka

vansh: achche toh mujhe bhi nahi lagte.

riddhima: par lagta hai tumhe toh kisi ke bhi chalenge.

OUCHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

lmaoooooooo now these two are just having their own petty pati-patni fight filled with vague statements about trust and misunderstandings, and lollipop girl is just here like

precap: riddhima about to tell vansh the whole truth or whatever, when vyom calls and is like wtf you gave me a fake black box. riddhima and vansh are once again fighting about truth and dhoka and like.......... bro. idc anymore. someone take your shirt off to make this worth my while.