#I'd want to solidify that as much as possible and I could do more if it went longer but I think there's just plenty to do with the framing

[thesnacken]

A post-apocalypse short film that opens on an ordinary-looking man (He's just a guy. Just some dude. Connecticut Clark ass hombre. I swear to god this story WILL NOT WORK if he looks like fucking Jeremy Renner or some shit he's Just Some Guy) scavenging the dilapidated ruins of Totally Not An Ace Hardware. He's rummaging around, looking for spare parts like its his job, dismantling things because all the easy stuff has been taken months, maybe years ago. He takes molds of some things, breaks off standard stuff like mass-produced bolts. All of this frames the story as a state of post-apocalypse.

We watch about fifteen minutes of this, with some establishing character moments. He swears softly when appropriate, wipes blood off on his jeans, he's reserved and pragmatic. Toward the end we see him tuck back around a shelf, grab a packaged snack (maybe a candy bar?) and tuck it into his shirt pocket.

He leaves the building, donning a cowboy hat with a bandana over his mouth. The shot frames him not unlike the bandits of a spaghetti western. He dons a leather jacket and gloves, shooting from about the height of the seat of a motorcycle. The shot pans around behind him, and we see a horse instead. He's gentle with the horse, speaking softly and slowly. After some coaxing, he loads the saddlebags and mounts up.

We get some wide shots of scenery as he passes through old farmland, all from one angle. He brings his hat low on his head, and the camera pans around to show an unfocused shot of the town as he approaches. It comes in close to him as he mutters "Man I fuckin' (very softly) goin into town". He slings something nondescript over his shoulder, which at best guess may be a rifle bag.

The shot pans further, and as it does we get a much better view of "town". In contrast with the framing, the town appears to be very much Alive and Not All That Apocalypse'd. The shot pans further, and we see the other side of the road he came in along, where perfectly functional and active farmland is, across from the neglected acreage. The town population is sparse, but present, and neither especially frantic nor undead. We get a better shot of the parcel across his back, which appears to be a bundle of fabric.

[whore-ibly-hot]

OMG SPEAKING OF MARRIAGE honeymoon with Joey or like anyone really what would Fritz honeymoon be like? Like I'd assume they didn't get one cause man's busy

Honey-mooning with Joey would be fairly simple, he'd take you to the inn or motel of one of the slightly larger nearby farming towns, and treat you to all the southern comfort food and hospitality you could want. He'd get you a nice breakfast, and flowers, but in the evening he'd make it very clear that he wants to begin the process of knocking you up. He will back off if you tell him to, but he'll make his intentions known. He just wants you knocked up as quickly as possible, and as much as he wants to enjoy the honeymoon he mostly just wants you back in the farm, acclimating to life with his family and getting settled in. It'll feel all that more real that your truly his once he can wake up in his own bed, with you their everyday.

"I hope you liked dinner, I've never been to that restaurants before, but my chicken was great. Um, darlin'? I know your probably stuffed, but are you too stuffed to work up the energy to go for a roll in the hay with your new husband?"

Fritz wouldn't be able to spend anytime honey mooning with his bride, and as a traditionalist this upsets him. Instead, he'll settle for a very extravagant one night wedding and ceremony away from the small town he's stationed at. He wants to give his bride the luxury you've never been accustomed too. You'll meet all his fellow military officials, and be shown off like one of Fritz medals. That night, he doesn't let you do anything during the consumption of the marriage. He wants to worship you, not the other way around. He will insist on some sort of white lingerie being sent in, as he wants you looking like a bride when he takes you, but he doesn't want to ruin your dress or suit. He asks beforehand if he'll be able to start trying for a baby that evening.

"Being a woman is not enough for a slimy cadet or confident rookie to simply respect you my poor dear, and I am sorry for their behavior. Being an officers bride should help, but we get new soldiers so often on the front lines, they may not know."

"What are you saying?"

"I think it'll be a little more obvious your an officers wife if you're walking around with a little bump next time we go to town. All for your safety, of course."

BONUS!!!: Mattias doesn't have the money for a big wedding or an extravagant honeymoon, but while he may not have the money, he has the spirit to party, and he knows others who do. The entire wedding reception is held as a block party at his mother's home in old Harlem, and the guests are a mix of neighbors and family. Mattias loves his family, and his perfect way to solidify a marriage is to blend you in with them. His biggest regret about the wedding is his father wasn't there to see him get married, so it's also nice for him to be around his Mami at a time like this. He loves how the two of you get along, and the two of them share stories of Mattias's papa, from when he was alive.

Mattias cannot handle it when his sees you playing with his young primos and primas, and the other neighborhood kids. Dancing with them and helping them reach the tinfoil trays to get food onto their plates. This results in him returning back to your apartment and immediately begging to dick you down, and give you a baby.

"Cmon, pretty girl!" He's kissing up on your neck, pulling you out of your reception outfit. "Gotta have you, mi esposa guapa, give you some kids. I've been shaking with nerves and energy all day, and I can't exactly fight it off at a block party. So please-"

"Let's make some hijos..."

[transgamerthoughts]

Abandon All Delusions Of Control

this is another cross-post. which is funny because I've paid for a domain name redirect to my tumblr since like 2016.. i never know what site is gonna explode these days. less people follow me here than anywhere but this write ups been passed around so...

I've been playing Dragon's Dogma 2 and while I'd love to talk about gameplay or interesting moments, the game's found itself something of a cultural lightning rod. It is a game with many friction points arising in a cultural moment where gamers are, perhaps more than ever, convinced that "consumers" are kings.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is not readily "solvable" and you can't min-max it. You will make mistakes. You will be scraped and bruised and scarred. Pain is sometimes the only bridge that can take us wher ewe need to go. And gaming culture, fed the lie of mastery and player importance, does not understand that scars can be beautiful. I love this game. I think it's a miracle it came out at all.

I also think in spite of the success it's found… that 2024 might be the worst possible year for it to have released.

Let's ramble about it..

It's easy to feel like Hideaki Itsuno and his team miscalculated the amount of friction that players are willing to endure and while I don't think that's true (he didn't miscalculate moreso stick to his particular vision) it certainly appears that we've reached a point in gaming where players, glutted on convenience, don't really know what to do when robbed of it. I've heard folks complain that they can't sprint everywhere or else balk learning that ferrystones required for fast travel cost 10,000 gold as if these shatter DD2 into pieces. I'm vaguely sympathetic to these concerns but at the same time they seem to spring entirely from a lack of understanding of the game's design goals. Much like how folks demanding a traditionally structured RPG narrative from an Octopath game misunderstand what that team is trying to do, players asking to sprint through the world or teleport with ease fundamentally misunderstand what Dragon's Dogma wants. The world is not a wrapper for a story. It is the story. Dragon's Dogma is a story factory whose various textures create unprecedented triumphs and memorable failure.

It is crucial to the experience to allow both of those to occur and live with whatever follows.

I'm always cautious of talking like this because it can come off as smug or superior but I think ultimately that's the truth of the matter here. This was not a well-played franchise before now and even if it's a AAA title, there's a way in which this game is meant to elide most AAA open world trends. You are expected to traverse. If you want relatively cheap and faster travel, you're meant to find an oxcart and pay the (quite modest) fee to move between trade hubs much like you would pay for a silt strider in Morrowind. Even if you do this, you could be ambushed on the road and in the worst case the ox pulling the cart can be killed. Something being "possible" in a game doesn't always mean it is intentional but Dragon's Dogma continually undercuts the player's ability to avoid long treks. Portcrystals, which act as fast travel destinations, are limited and ferry stones (while not prohibitively expensive compared to weapons and armor) are juuust expensive enough that you need to consider if the expense is worthwhile. Once is happenstance. Multiple times is a pattern. And the pattern in Dragon's Dogma is to disincentivize easy travel. It screams of intent.

Something I could not have imagined playing games growing up is the ways in which even a decade (or two) could lead to radically different attitudes on what games should provide. That's an audience issue to an extent but it's also something games have brought upon themselves. The "language" of an open world game has been solidified through years climbable towers, mini-map marked caves, and options to zip around worlds. When a game deviates from that language, the change is more noticeable than ever.

Hell, even Elden Ring (perhaps the closest modern relative to Dragon's Dogma) allows you to warp between bonfires and gives you a steed to ride. But that's also a much larger game! DD2 is not a large game and the story is not long. Yes, you can spend untold hours wandering about into nooks and crannies but a trek from one end of the world to another is still significantly shorter than bounding through most open worlds and a run through the critical path reveals a speedy game. Not as speedy as the first but brisk by genre standards.

exploration is the glue that binds the combat and progression system in place. Upgrading armor and weapons requires seeking out specific materials and fighting certain monsters. Gathering the funds for big purchases in shops mostly comes from selling your excess monster parts. The entire game hinges on the idea of long expeditions where you accrue materials and supplies on the road and then invest that horde one way or another once you return to town. It's not simply a matter of mood and tone for you to trek throughout the world without ease. The gameplay loop is built around it.

There's another complicating factor that I'm less interested in diving into and it's the presence of certain microtransactions at launch. Principally I'm against MTX in single players games, particularly conveniences of which most of DD2's microtransactions are. But I also think there's been a fundamental misunderstanding of what many of these are. Among the biggest things I've heard (repeatedly!) is that you can pay real life money for fast travel but that's not true. You can buy a single portcrystal offering you one more potential location to warp to. It's a one-time purchase and the only travel convenience offered. This has transformed, partly because of people's lack of familiarity with Dragon's Dogma's mechanics, into a claim that you can pay over and over to teleport around. I think that assumption reveals more about the general audience than anything else.

I think it is worth entertaining a question: does the existence of this extra port crystal signify a compromising of the game's goals regarding travel? That's not a discussion that folks seem to be interested in having—instead opting for more emotional and reactionary panicking—but it is the most interesting question. On face the answer is yes and that raises the follow up question of whether or not the developers had knowledge this convenience (though one-off) would be offered to players. If so, did that knowledge affect how they designed the game? Even slightly? It seems rather clear to me that these purchases are a publisher decision; there's nothing in the game's design that suggest the dev team wants players to have access to an extra portcrystal. As we've established it's quite the opposite!

They want you to haul your fucking ass around and get jumped by goblins, buddy.

Which is many words to say that as much as I care about microtransactions from a consumer standpoint, the way in which they undermine Dragon's Dogma 2's goals is a fair reminder of the ways in which they hurt developers. Ultimately, I do think that these purchases are ignorable and in that sense (combined with the misinformation surrounding them) I'm a little burned by the consumer-minded discussion. Doubly so because of the way it feels, at least in part, tied into a certain kind of rhetoric that's been on the rise lately. Instead, I find myself drawn to the question of the damage they do the devs and if more onerous plans actually would force their hands into undercutting portions of their own designs. The shift of many series into live-service chasing suggest so but even as I entertain these thoughts I don't get the sense that Itsuno and his team were forced to reshape their game world to encourage these microtransactions. The world is as they want.

If it wasn't, they wouldn't make it so failing to act quickly in a quest to find a missing kid stolen by wolves could end with you being too late. They wouldn't make it so buying goods from an Elven shop without an interpreter was a hassle. It's present in Every Damn Thing!

More interesting to consider is why this particular game became such a lightning rod of passion when I'm going to assume that most people caught up in the discussion have no particular fealty to the series. The answer is a combination of factors but there's something about the genre that ignites the panic we're seeing as much as the culture moment we're in. When people try to explain that these MTX purchases are not needed, it's confused for approval of their inclusion but that's not something we need to grant. I don't think anyone wants these things here and when they say "you don't need them" they are referring to the more complex thought that the game is better played without them. But this is not heard because the idea that you'd want to opt into friction and discomfort is not something that the general audience is likely to understand. They're wired against it. They crave ease.

not everyone, mind you. DD2's enjoyed a lot of excited reactions (there's tons of folks who like this game as it is and are happily playing it) but it has faced plenty of folks railing against "bad" design choices but the fact remains that those "bad" choices were intentional.

I'm writing about this stuff instead of, say, the wild journey I took solving one of the Sphinx's riddles because the immediately interesting thing about Dragon's Dogma 2 has been what it's become as a cultural object. It is a game suffering from success. Never designed for a general audience or modern standards but thrust into their hands due to Capcom's ongoing renaissance. Dragon's Dogma is a fine game whose cult status is well earned but the reason DD2 garnered this attention (and therefore becomes a hot-topic game) has as much to do with Capcom's ongoing success rate as anything else. In some ways, it actually IS a good time to release a game like Dragon's Dogma 2. There's certainly a curiousity in place. Partly borne of goodwill and also from folks' genuine desire to try something new.

and yet, we're in a odd moment in games. consumer rights lanaguge, having been fundamentally misunderstood and reconfigured by gamers as a rhetoric for justifying their purchase habits (I'm paying the money! why can't the game do exactly as I demand!?) has stifled many people's ability to have imaginative interpretations of gameplay mechanics. they don't ask "what is this thing doing as a storytelling device" (which mechanics are!) and rather default to "what is this thing doing to me and my FUN and my TIME". which are not bad questions but they also misunderstand the possibility space games have to offer. While we can attribute some of the objections that has arisen to players' thoughts about genre itself and the way in which Dragon's Dogma positions friction as a key gameplay pillar, the fact of the matter is that we would not be having such spirited discussion about these things in, say, 2017. not that things were great back then, but I think the audience is worse now in many, many ways. sarcastically? I blame Game Design YouTube.

Even if there were no microtransactions, we'd still be having a degree of Discourse thanks to a key game mechanic: Dragonplague. It is a disease that can afflict your Pawn companions which initially causes them to get mouthy and start to disobey orders. If you notice these signs (alongside ominous glowing eyes) then your Pawn has been infected and you're expected to dismiss them back to the Rift where that infection can spread to another player. The game gives a pop up to the player explaining this the first time they encounter the disease. However, some players have ignored that warning and found a dire consequence: an untreated Pawn can, when the player rests at an inn, go on an overnight rampage that kills the majority of NPCs in whatever settlement they are in. This includes plot-important characters. The reaction's been intense. Reddit always sucks but man… just look…

I understand some of the ire. It's a drastic shift from your pawn being a bit ornery to instantly killing an entire city. On the other hand, the game does warn of potentially dire consequences if a Pawn's sickness is ignored. Players have simply underestimated the scale of that consequence. Surely no major RPG would mass murder important characters and break questlines! We're in post Oblivion/Skyrim world. Important NPCs are essential and cannot be killed, right? Well, wrong and this is another way in which Dragon's Dogma chases after the legacy of a game like Morrowind more than than it adapts current open world trends. This is a world where things can break and the developers have decided that they are okay with it breaking in a very drastic way. It's hard to think of anything comparable in a contemporary game. We don't really do this kind of thing anymore.

The result has been panic and a spread of information both helpful and hopelessly speculative. Is your game ruined? Well, maybe. There is an item you can find which allows for mass resurrection but that's gonna require some questing. But some players also say that you can wait a while and the game will eventually reset back to the pre-murder status quo. What's true? Hard to know. Dragon's Dogma doesn't show all of its cards and won't always explain itself. We know entire cities can be killed. We know that individual characters can be revived in the city morgue or else the settlement restored (mostly) with a special item. Dragonplague is detectable and the worst case scenario is, to some extent or another, something that the player can ameliorate. Those are facts but they don't really matter.

That's because players issue (panick? hysteria?) with dragonplague is as much to do with what it represents as what it does. Players are used to the notion of game worlds being spaces where they get to determine every state of affair. They are, as I've suggested before, eager to play the tyrant. Eager to enact whatever violences or charities that might strike their fancy. They do this with the expectation that they will be rewarded for the latter but face no consequences for the former. Dragonplague argues otherwise. No, it says, this world is also one that belongs to the developers and they are more than fine with heaping dire consequences on players. Before the dragonplague's consequences were known, players were running around the world killing NPCs in cities because it would stabilize the framerate. They're fine with mass murder on their own terms. they love it!

This is made more clear when we look at how Dragon's Dogma handles saving the game. While there are autosaves between battles, players are expected to rest at inns to save their game. This costs some gold, which is a hassle, but the bigger "issue" is that they only have one save slot. Which means that save scumming is not entirely feasible though not impossible with a bit of planning. What it does mean, however, is that the game is saved when a dragonplague attack happens. you have to rest at an inn for this to trigger. which saves the game. They cannot roll back the clock. The tragedy becomes a fact. It's not the only time Dragon's Dogma does this. For instance, players can come into possession of a special arrow that can slay anything. When used, the game saves. Much like how players are given a warning about dragonplague, they're warned before using this arrow: don't miss.

If you do? that's a real shame. The depth of this consequence is uncommon in today's gaming landscape. Games are mostly frivolous and save data is the amber from which players suck crystallized potentialities. Don't like what happened? No worries. Slide into your files and find the frozen world which suits your proclivities. You are God. In Dragon's Dogma, you are not god. The threads of prophecy can be severed and you must persist in the doomed world that's been created. The mere suggestion is an affront. The fact that Dragon's Dogma has the stones to commit to the bit in 2024 is essentially a miracle.

It's easy to boil everything I'm saying down to "Dragon's Dogma is not afraid to be rude to the player" but that doesn't capture the spirit of the design. It invites players to go on a hike. It makes no attempt to hide that the hike is difficult. But that's the extent of it. It offers little guidance on the path, doesn't check if you're a skilled enough hiker. Your decision to go on the hike is taken as proof of your acceptance of the fact that you might fall down.

This is not unique to Dragon's Dogma. In fact, this is part of the appeal (philosophically) of a game like Elden Ring. The difference being that even FromSofts much-lauded gamer gauntlets (excepting perhaps Sekiro, conincidentally their best work) offer more ways to adjust and fix the world state to the player's liking. Even the darling of difficulty will offering you a hand when you fall. Dragon's Dogma is not so eager to do so. In a decade where convenience is king for video games, that represents both a keen understanding of its lineages and a shocking affront to accepted norms and expectations.

The core of Dragon's Dogma, the very defining characteristics that earned it cult status, are the same things that have caused these modern tensions. It is both a franchise utterly consistent in its design priorities and entirely out of touch with the modern audience. Dragon's Dogma 2 has come into prominence during a time where imaginative interpretation of mechanics is at an all time low and calls for "consumer" gratification are taken as truisms. It is a game entirely at odds with the YouTube ecosystem and the very things that give it allure are the tools that have turned it into a debated object.

This flashpoint of discussion is proof of Dragon Dogma 2's design potency. It's also a sign of the damage that modern design trends have done to games as whole and the ongoing fallout that's come from gamers learning design concepts without really understanding what designing a game entails. And, uh… I dunno respond to that or how to end this. That's both very cool but it also bums me out. Dragon's Dogma 2 is a remarkably confident game but games are long beyond the point of admiring a thing for being honest.

[gremlins-hotel]

Hii I've been stuck on this for awhile and figured maybe you'd have a better answer for this, I'm taking a college history class right now to test the vibes but I really want to do something in that general area, just don't know what. How did you decide what you wanted to do? And how long has it been? Also I love your art sm 😩😩😩🥺💖💖💖💖

Hey there! What I'm going to include will be under a read more since it's longer than I expected, but know that this is a valuable question and I thank you for considering me to answer. Also a HYUGE thank you <3 though I do apologize for being slow on art.

My own journey has been a winding road to say the least, so don't fret if yours becomes that way. And do not be afraid to take your time. Try weird things you think you like or know you do and see if you can find the golden nuggets of opportunity in them. I had originally pursued animation because in my head art was the only skill I possessed, nothing more, and I didn't feel intelligent enough to pursue anything else. Yet all my best grades in my first years at university were in the classes I was taking as extracurriculars (history, anthropology), and trying to force myself to do art was killing my motivation to be creative in the first place. I had originally wanted to go to university for something in the natural sciences, history, or anthropology, but at the time I didn't think there was anything I could possibly use those degrees for and therefore didn't go after them despite being more interested in them. Apart from my own mental blocks. Three years of telling myself I was nothing better than a set of hands that could wield a pen and pencil just...kind of destroyed me. So I turned back to face my other love that I'd wanted to do beforehand but didn't think I could. It took a lot of internal searching and asking questions to more people than I can really count.

I admit I am currently taking a break from education. 2024 has not been my year, and I won't go into it further than that, but I know I'm not the only person feeling that way. As for anthropology, while I'd already enjoyed the study since I was younger, it was solidified for me through the classes I took. The way the information stuck so naturally in my head and that I could think on it in a way that subjects I disliked or struggled with did not. It was melding with me in a way I think I always knew it would, but was too afraid to let it, because I had already had the notion in my mind that was I was doing (animation at the time) was a disappointment. Both of my parents are in the medical field. I'm the complete opposite no matter which interest I pick. They knew that, too, and it made it difficult to get the gung-ho "do what you want" from either of them, though they tried their best. At least a science like anthropology they somewhat understood, which earned me good points. But the classes I was taking made me feel so much better. About my future, about my own knowledge, about my own worth. And I was loving every single thing I learned, all my professors, and my classmates, too. Anthropology, archaeology specifically, just works with my brain. Later on, going through my field school also solidified that for me. Getting to be hands-on in the field I was pursuing really made me realize how much of a fit it was for how I think, how I operate, and how I learn and teach others. Also? The friends I made there...you know when you finally get that feeling that you belong somewhere? That. It was that. I won't give that up because that's special and a thing I admittedly haven't had in a very long time. It merely feels right.

So take your time if you can, when you can, where you can. There's a lot along the way you may have looked over and miss, or new things to come. If that thing doesn't really grab you, then maybe it's not your thing thing. Try the weird classes you're unsure of but get the gut feeling for. If there's something that's making you want to claw your hair out, then don't force yourself to do it. It's terrifying, but sometimes the odd leap of faith is far more worth it than clinging to the unsteady ledge you live on. I'm also just an emotional and reactive person, so my method and my journey will of course be different from yours. My more tangible advice is this: Ask your professor(s) about why they like the subject matter or what they think of the study as a whole. Ask them about what they did to get into it, about opportunities, what the jobs are like and the community. If you dislike those answers, alright, whatever. If you like them enough to take that risk, then do it. That's what helped me decide to make that switch from animation to anthropology was asking those questions of the teachers I had in the subject I'd been doubting for years.

[thethirdromana]

What could Jonathan sound like?

I've seen a few posts going around that Jonathan could or should have a Devon accent, so I wanted to look into that in more detail. This is not to be negative about anyone's headcanons, but just to provide a bit more context.

Accents in the UK are complicated; the UK has a higher level of accent diversity than nearly anywhere else in the English-speaking world. Someone's accent is determined by their region, where accents can vary between towns that are less than fifty miles apart, and by their class - not just working/middle/upper but variations within those as well.

It was much the same in the 1890s. "Standard" accents have been promoted since the 17th century, and by the end of the 19th century, "received pronunciation" (RP) was "widespread among students at fee-paying public schools and universities by the end of the 19th century." (source)

So to figure out what Jonathan might sound like, we first need to figure out where he grew up and what his social class is. For where he grew up, I'm going to assume Exeter. Plausibly he could have grown up somewhere else, then moved to Exeter, say in his teens, to have "grown into manhood" working for Peter Hawkins. But to narrow down the options, let's go with Exeter.

Then there's his social class. That's trickier. As a solicitor's clerk, he was on the lower fringes of the middle class; as a solicitor, he is more solidly established in the middle class. But in the English class system, your job is usually much less important than your background; even in the modern day, someone with long-established family wealth who went to private school who falls on hard times and ends up working in a supermarket stays upper-middle class even if they're doing a working-class job. And we don't know Jonathan's background; he's an orphan.

OK. So let's listen to some options. These are all much later than the 1890s, but I've done my best, especially working with the limitation that the British Library Sounds Archive doesn't have a straightforward search by year option that I could find.

Here's a working-class man in from Plympton, Devon (38 miles from Exeter), born 1882, speaking in 1964:

And another working-class man from Blackawton, Devon (36 miles from Exeter), born 1888, speaking in 1964:

And I can't get the preview for this to display properly, but here's a final working-class man from Swimbridge, which is also about 35 miles from Exeter but in a different direction. He was born in 1885 and the recording is from 1963.

That gives some sense of what a working-class Jonathan might sound like.

But regardless of Jonathan's actual background, I don't think he would sound like that. Frankly, I'm not sure you would find many solicitors with a strong working-class Devon accent even in the modern day, let alone the 1890s.

(Which is a damning verdict on social mobility in the UK, but never mind that right now.)

Let's compare the accents above with that of an upper-class man from Exeter, Devon, born 1881, speaking in 1942. This is William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury:

He's a perfect example of the RP accent I mentioned above - the one that was widely used by students at fee-paying schools in the UK by the late 19th century. I'd expect Jack, Arthur and Lucy to have this kind of accent. You can't easily identify which part of the country Temple comes from, but you can instantly identify his class.

Jonathan might not have naturally had this kind of accent, nor might he have grown up speaking this way. But for an ambitious young man attempting to solidify his position in the middle class, attempting to sound like this as much as possible would be a good career move. Personally, my best guess at his accent would be that he would sound like this most of the time - maybe with a little more Devon sneaking in when he feels emotional or forgets himself. The more privileged you imagine Jonathan's background to be, the more likely he would be to use RP.

RP has evolved a lot over the past century, so I think it's interesting to compare what this kind of accent sounds like in the modern day, since historic RP can sound quite strange to modern ears.

The current Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, comes from a relatively similar background to William Temple (there's that social mobility again), and he sounds like this:

(he's arguing here that the Church of England should do better on LGBT rights, in case the preview doesn't make that clear)

And that's pretty much the same accent as the fantastic Ben Galpin has in @re-dracula too.

[kissthesun-gvf]

Hurting for You

INTRO: I know I can't be the only one who's been thinking about the aftermath of the eardrum incident since it happened... I've seen a few other posts about it so I thought I'd try my hand at what came to my mind. Idek how to describe this one... angst? It's sad, that's what it is. But of course some brotherly sweetness too.

In that moment, everything stopped. You saw the tiniest change in Josh’s expression and you knew something was wrong. Your stomach dropped and you wished he would meet your eyes, do something to communicate with you, but of course he just continued the show. When the encore started you left your seat and made your way backstage, alarm bells ringing in your head as you made eye contact with Jake from his side of the stage. After what felt like an eternity the music stopped and in an instant Josh was basically falling into your arms as you walked him into the green room and away from the large mass of people.

 It took you until he nearly collapsed onto the couch to realize that he was holding the side of his head. You squatted on the floor in front of him, assuming he would begin talking, but he was in a whole other place. “Josh, baby, talk to me. What’s wrong,” you tried. He looked up at you, eyes filled with tears, and tried to speak, but you could see the pain in his face as soon as his mouth opened. “Okay, just take your time. Breathe, honey.” You placed a reassuring hand on his knee despite the fear ripping through you. You would be strong for him now. The silence was broken by the rest of the guys entering the room. Jake was immediately by his twin’s side on the couch, saying nothing, but beginning to rub Josh’s back. Jake looked down at you and you could see in his eyes the fear and pain he had for his best friend. Sam and Danny stood nervously behind you as you tried again to coax Josh into explaining what he was feeling.

“Sweetheart I need to know what’s wrong so I can help you, okay?” Josh looked up at you, eyes filled with tears, and nodded. “It’s your ear?” He nodded again. “Okay… Can I take a look?” He slowly turned his head towards you, flinching again. “You stay there love… Jake, can I trade places with you?” Jake nodded and you sat on the couch next to Josh, his brother kneeling where you had been and holding Josh’s hands in his. You thought you knew what happened, but what you saw solidified it. Josh’s ear was bright red, and you could see liquid pooling out of it. Fuck. He had burst his eardrum. “Oh honey…” You didn’t want to be the one to tell him. What if you were wrong? You tried your best to remember the symptoms, but you assumed Josh was feeling all of them based on how he was acting. You looked down at Jake and tried to shake your head as subtly as possible. Josh’s hand reached for yours, asking for an answer. “We need to get you to a doctor, Josh. You need to get this checked out.” “You can’t take care of it?” Jake answered for him. “At this point there’s not much I can do but help him stay comfortable. But I don’t have the equipment to figure out what’s really going on.”

Your limited medical knowledge was nowhere close to enough to help right now, the only reason you knew what was happening was because a friend of yours had burst an eardrum years ago, and you happened to witness it. “Mama,” Josh mumbled out, slowly leaning over to rest his head on you. “I know sweet boy, I know.” You tried as gently as you to touch him, not wanting to cause any more pain. “The only thing open right now would be the emergency room,” Danny whispered from across the room. You nodded and lowered your gaze to meet Josh’s. “We have two options right now, love. We can go back to the hotel and you can try to rest, or we can go to the ER and see what they can do.” Josh’s face contorted at that idea. Right now an emergency room would be loud, bright, and full of people, which was the last thing he needed. “Danny, you go talk to security and make sure we can get back without running into any fans. Sammy, can you find someone who can run to a drugstore for me? I’ll text you a list.” The two of them nodded and headed off, thankful for some way to help. Josh usually tried his best to avoid medication, but he wasn’t likely to argue tonight. Jake lingered at his twin’s side, anxious to leave. “You stay here Jakey, I’m gonna pack things up in the dressing room.” You pressed the lightest of kisses to Josh’s head. “I won’t be far, J.”

Your mind was spinning as you rushed to pack up the chaotic dressing room. You looked into the mirror to focus yourself, taking a deep breath. Josh needed you now, and you’d be there for him even if it meant shoving your fear deep down for the time being. Your phone brought you back to reality with texts from Sam and Daniel confirming they had done what you asked. You made your way back to the twins and the five of you left for the hotel as quietly as possible.

When you finally arrived, extra grateful to not be sleeping on the bus this particular night, you let Josh head into the room alone, leaving you in the hallway with his brother staring concernedly at you. You paused for a moment, taking a deep breath before beginning. “I’m not a doctor, but I think he burst his eardrum.” You paused again. “Fuck.” Sam squeaked out. “I’m gonna stay up tonight and see what doctors can see him tomorrow, because this won’t likely get much better on its own. But right now I’m just hoping he can get some rest…” You trailed off, realizing that would be next to impossible. Sam handed you the bag of drugstore essentials. “I’ll take good care of him guys, I promise. You all go get some rest too.” You forced a smile and said goodnight to the guys, minus Jake, who stayed outside the door with you. He didn’t say it, but the look on his face told you: he had never been more worried about his twin. “I know. Me too. But we’ll get it all figured out Jakey. It’ll be okay.” You pulled him into a hug, and after a moment he relaxed into it. “I’ve got him for tonight, go sleep.” You squeezed his arm, but he didn’t seem convinced. “Go shower and I’ll text you afterwards with an update.” He half smiled at your realization that you wouldn’t be left alone. 

You opened the door to find Josh sitting on the edge of the hotel bed, head in his hands. Like you had earlier, you knelt down in front of him. After a moment you saw tears dripping from his face. “Oh sweet boy, I’m so sorry. I promise you we’re gonna make this better.” He dropped to the ground next to you and rested his head in your lap. With a feather light touch you ran your fingers through his curls, doing the only thing you could think of to comfort him. Somehow your intuition moved faster than you did, and you reached for the garbage can in front of you just as you felt Josh begin to move. You rubbed his back as he threw up, knuckles turning white as this only caused him more pain. He leaned back into you and rested his back against your chest afterwards. “I’m so dizzy, and- and it hurts so fucking bad and I just… I’m scared, mama,” he choked out. “I know love, I know. I'm here.”

You waited a moment for his breathing to settle before you prompted him to stand. “Let’s get you into bed, Joshy. Move slowly, okay?” You helped him to stand and he shuffled his way to the bed, the room still nearly dark. You quickly opened your phone to text Jake. “Call Karen.” was all you sent. The use of a usual nickname had reminded you that Josh and his mom had an amazing bond, and you knew he needed her right now, and wasn’t in the place to be calling himself. Jake would take care of it. “Take these, hopefully they’ll dull the pain a little and help you sleep.” You handed a bottle of water and some pills to Josh, who, as you hoped, didn’t question it. He slowly lay down onto the pillows and adjusted his head carefully, looking up at you. “I”m right here, Josh. You just close your eyes and take some deep breaths. I’m here to help you relax.”

After a few minutes of lightly running your fingers up and down Josh’s arm, like you did many nights when he found himself unable to sleep, you noticed your phone light up with a text from Jake. “She’ll be here by morning.” Thank god. Even if Josh got no sleep tonight, waking up to his mom in the morning is the least you could do for him. It had been at least a half an hour of you trying to relax Josh to no avail before you realized what he needed. You sent another text telling Jake to come to your room, and you swore he must have sprinted with as fast as he was next to you. Josh glanced up and noticed his brother, who instinctively made his way to Josh’s other side. You had remembered Karen telling you that when the twins couldn’t sleep as kids, her first idea was always to put them together, as it tended to calm them. Within minutes Josh was ten times more relaxed, as if Jake had shared some of his discomfort in order for Josh to rest. 

[nyarlathotep-thecrawlingchaos]

SO I HEARD POKEMON IS YOUR EARLIEST HYPERFIXATION AND YOU LOVED THE ASK FOR POKEMON X OP???

WE ARE MAKING NYARLA HAPPY WITH THIS ONE BOYS 🗣️🗣️🗣️ ‼️

Would you rather we ask you OP with existing Pokémon or some crack bs with OP blorbos *falling* into Pokémon Universe dur to like a devil fruit power or something?

Also who's your favourite Pokémon? And type? (MIMIKYU/SPIRITOMB FOR LIFE HERE AND GHOST TYPE)

I'd love if you could do the OP blorbos with a Reader who has a Mimikyu/Spiritomb (MY SPIRITOMB IS ALWAYS CALLED SPOOKY FUN FACT) and how they'd interact with said Pokémon/if their babies would get along with Reader's babies (DON'T FALL INTO THE TRAP OF ASSUMING GHOST AND DARK TYPES ARE ALL EVIL I PROMISE YOU MY BABIES ARE SWEET AF 😭 TIRED OF MISREPRESENTATION)

My brain when Pokémon/One Piece asks:

keep your composure keep your composure keep your mfing composure what would Mihawk do he would absolutely keep his composure be like Mihawk keep your composure Nyarla keep your BUT but but wait what would Shanks do INTERNAL SCREEEEEEEMING—

My brain is short circuiting.

My primary type is psychic. Sabrina was practically my goth awakening at seven years old, and Abra is my spirit animal (immediately teleport away when presented with anything unfamiliar or even potentially threatening). My secondary type is ghost, in no small part thanks to the fact that I started writing "horror" as soon as I could properly hold a pencil ("horror" here meaning silly lil ghost stories that probably made no sense to anyone but me).

I was also the kid glitching out my game with my older brother's game genie trying to catch all the Pokémon ghosts in the tower in Lavender Town because I was so sad that they were lonely, so that should give some insight as to how I feel about ghosts, Pokémon, and ghost type Pokémon in general.

Any asks are welcome asks, I did not realize I needed Pokemon/One Piece in my life but I am

I am—

I am not incredibly familiar with Mimikyu or Spiritomb (my last Pokemon games were Diamond/Pearl), but I will be doing research like a proper Pokémon Professor to learn as much about them as humanly possibly. I know more about Mimikyu and frankly the poor bb just wants to be loved and deserves absolutely all of the love.

Pikachu is overrated anyway. I said it and I will fcking stand by it, and Mimikyu's very existence only further solidifies this opinion within me. Out of all the iconic Pokémon in the original anime itself, Team Rocket's Meowth is and will always be my darling bb. Smart-mouthed lil mafia cat who deserves SO MUCH BETTER—

Ahem.

Brief reading into Spiritomb has, at first glance, enlightened me to the following:

Several Pokédex entries state that Spiritomb was sealed roughly 500 years before the present time. The Pokémon lays curses with its wicked thoughts. It will lash out at anyone with little thought, often exercising short-sightedness in its pursuit of vengeance.

And I am beyond intrigued by every last word of that. Historical ghost Pokémon? Vengeful lil ghost bb? I want one RIGHT NOW—

On an unrelated note, tysm for this, I just had a briefly horrifying moment because my cat made a mad dash out the door as I was taking the trash out. He is back inside and safe now but I almost had a heart attack when he zipped past my feet and into the darkness, and this has helped calm me down so much 😭😭♥️♥️

[3mcwriting]

Check You Out

He was back again, Captain America.

Though that's not how you actually knew him. You knew him as the shy man that always said please and thank you when checking out his books. The man who would sit in the corner of the library, reading World War II books until you finally recommended some other types to him

He came often, at least 5 times a week always greeting you with a, "good evening, ma'am" or a, "how are you, miss?" Always waiting patiently for a response and smiling shyly at you.

And whenever he picked out a book he'd ask you if you had read it. Oftentimes, you had, but sometimes it would be a book you hadn't read and he would ask, "Well, if you'd like, ma'am, you can read it with me?" His voice would be unsure but always polite.

And on days when there weren't many people, you would accept, sitting with him at the window seat and flipping through the book. And the first time he forgot about his shyness was when your friendship was finally solidified.

He had been checking out a book about medicine.

"I'd like to check out this book, please."

"Of course, so you're interested in the medical field?" you asked him, scanning the book and handing it to him.

"Yes, ma'am, when I was younger we didn't have all this stuff and it's interesting. I had a couple of illnesses that weren't really treatable then and now they are so, it's amazing how much knowledge has been gained." He stopped, looking sheepish. “Sorry, I'll stop. You probably don’t want to hear me ramble.”

"What? No, don't stop. It's nice to see you so passionate about something. Normally you just sit in a corner and read your book, you're very reserved sometimes. Also, I think it’s an intriguing topic."

"Oh, are you interested in medicine too?"

"I'm actually in medical school right now, so, yeah, you could say that."

"Wow…” he breathed, looking awestruck. “That's amazing, so do you think..."

And you had spent the afternoon talking about the wonders of healing people. He was genuinely fascinated by it, seemingly in awe at the possibilities of how a person could heal others.

"So why do you come here?"

"Huh?” he asked, face screwed up in confusion.

"Well, this library is kind of out of the way and there are closer ones to Stark tower."

He gaped, making you laugh. "What? You think I didn't know you're Captain America? The shades and hood don't really hide you all that well."

"I just though since you didn't treat me any different than anyone else you didn't know." He looked embarassed.

"Well I assumed you didn't want to be, you came here to read just like anyone else here so why should I treat you different. But back to my question, why do you come to a library so out of the way?"

"I used to go to this library when I was younger," he said hesitantly.

You nodded. "Has it changed much?"

"Not really, everything is in the same place except the computer tables used to be just more bookshelves. Oh, and the lighting is new," he said, looking around.

Since then, he would always asks for recommendations, and often would stay until you closed up.

You snapped out of your thoughts, looking at the man in front of you. "How can I help you?"

"I'm so glad you asked. Why don't I take you back to my place and you'll find out. How's that sound, baby?"

You wrinkled your nose at the scent of alcohol and BO. "If you're not going to get a book, please leave."

"Oh, don't be like that honey I'm sure we can work something out-"

"She said to leave." An angry voice was heard.

"Chill,man, why do you care? Is that bitch yours? Damn you tapped that ass, you lucky-"

He stopped when a fist collided with his jaw, throwing him to the floor. Steve stood there, glaring at the man with rage in his eyes. "Don't ever call her a bitch and you better not ever go anywhere fucking near her or you'll end up with something worse than a broken jaw."

The sleazy man ran out of the library so fast he tripped out the door, all while holding his jaw and cursing Steve which only made him curse more when it hurt.

"You know, I had that covered. But still, thanks.”

Steve said. “I just can’t believe that after all this time people still feel like they can treat women so lowly. I know you had it covered though, so I’m sorry for making a ruckus in here. It’s just makes me angry.”

"Yeah, I noticed, I've never heard you swear before." Even on the days when he came back after missions and he was clearly stressed he never lashed out.

He flushed. "Sorry about that."

"Don't be, it was amusing. Plus that guy definitely got what he deserved, I'm not the only woman that's been hit on by him while he's drunk off his ass and is about as crude as a caveman."

"He's done that to other women too?” His voice got even angrier.

"Yeah, he's a sleaze."

He was clearly about to go out there and beat the man up, so you grabbed his wrist gently. "If you beat that guy up I'm going to have to suspend you from the library and I don't want to lose my favorite regular."

He blushed, almost forgetting about his previous angry thoughts when you said he was your favorite.

~~

"So, what will you be checking out today?" you asked Steve, stepping behind the counter.

"You." He blurted out, eyes widening when he realised what he had said. "I-I mean, uh I meant-"

You laughed. "Calm down, Rogers, it's ok."

He flushed, rubbing his neck sheepishly. "Well that wasn't how I wanted to ask you out." His eyes widened again, realising yet again what he had said.

You grinned at his expression, "Well how about you ask me out the way you wanted to?"

His jaw dropped, you laughed. This man just couldn't get a break from being shocked. And to you, it was extra hilarious because here was Captain-freaking-America looking like a shocked toddler.

He cleared his throat. "Would you go out with me?"

You winked at him, "I thought you'd never ask."

[kenna-is-reading]

Crescent City: House of Flame and Shadow Review

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Dear Readers,

I have, at long last, finished HOFAS!!! And I might just have more thoughts, questions, comments, and concerns than I did when I finished HOSAB. Strap in, cause we're in for a long post. I'd give a TLDR, but I think if you can get through 2,500 pages of Crescent City books, you can skim through this too :). I really enjoyed the book, but I feel like I want more time with these characters in order to really solidify them as a group. I am looking forward to the next book just to see how it all continues, especially given some of the connections that were made and the history that was revealed in this book. That said, let's wrap up the preamble and get into it.

Brannongate

I'm just gonna start with what was probably everyone's biggest takeaway from HOFAS, and that is Lidia being a confirmed relative of Aelin's. I was waiting for the TOG tie in, and I've had many different theories, but I knew as soon as we started getting into the deer shifter stuff, combined with Brann being Lidia's son's name, that it was coming soon. I definitely gasped out loud regardless when she said his full name, and I would very much like to get deeper into that history as soon as possible, because I miss TOG with every ounce of my soul and spirit. I love that Lidia is able to be so powerful with her fire, if only because I'm still mad that Aelin lost hers. I am not one of the genius Maasverse fans who have probably already figured out what everything means and how it will all happen going forward, but I am excited to be along for the ride to find out. Speaking of Lidia...

2. Lidia & Hypaxia

I would really love to see more of Lidia and Hypaxia as sisters and figure out what their dynamic will be. I feel like there could be a lot more to discover as far as the witches go, and I really like both characters. I really just want to see Lidia be able to love and trust and have a family. She has suffered a ridiculous amount and I want to see her happy. I think Hypaxia being the head of House of Flame and Shadow was a very interesting development, and I am interested in following that storyline further. I still feel like I don't know Hypaxia very well as a character, but that could also just be because we only really hear about her from other characters' perspectives. Her relationship with Lidia, if one is ever built, is definitely one of the aspects of the story that I am most excited to see develop.

3. Tharion or Sathia or Colin or Ariadne (to the tune of Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus)

These were the biggest questions I was left with at the end of HOFAS. Is Sathia okay? Did she get Colin out? What happened with the Viper Queen? What is Ariadne going to do? Why does Tharion consistently make such bad decisions? I knew that Tharion and Ithan, arguably the worst, most self-sabotaging decision makers in the series (if not the entire Massiverse), being the ones to transport the antidote was going to end...como se dice...badly. While I still love both of them down, I felt like Tharion definitely continued his streak of making me facepalm while reading to a very serious degree. His dedication to ruining his own life would be nearly admirable if it weren't so painfully stupid. That said, I don't think it was as bad as book 2. I liked his dynamic with Sathia, and I think he had good motives for marrying her. As I previously said, I do love Tharion. He's definitely one of my favorite characters in this series, but I want better for him. He and Ithan are so wracked by their own guilt that they only worsen things for themselves, but I'm really hoping it will get better for them as they all work as a group to establish a post-Asterian society. And speaking of Ithan...

4. Sunball McGee, Prime of the Valbaran Wolves

Some of y'all are about to be real mad at me. But it must be said.

Ithan Holstrom is one of my favorite SJM men.

Now, now, now- Let me finish- I have seen such a huge and, in my opinion, unwarranted amount of hate for Ithan as a result of his actions in this book. And while I 100% understand the frustration, (trust, I do!!!), I also understand Ithan. Think about it. This is a very young kid who is essentially a frat boy. His only personality trait, other than Make your brother proud, is sunball player. This is everyone's biggest complaint. Every time he is mentioned, he is reduced to sunball. And I know people find this redundant and annoying, but let's consider this for a moment. Walk with me. Sunball is all Ithan is reduced to, and I think that's the point. He thinks very lowly of himself. It is clear that he does not think he has anything else to offer aside from his sunball skills. In the whole quest to save Sigrid, (everyone's other complaint about him), he never once considers that he himself should lead. Again, this annoys people, but I think that is the point. His opinion of himself is so negative, and he lacks so much confidence, and he has lived so much in his brother's shadow that he seems like he had to cling to what he was good at in order to stand out and have something of his own. His identity as a wolf was somewhat overshadowed by Connor, his love for Bryce was overshadowed by Connor, and while he obviously loved his brother dearly and that's nothing against Connor, it would have made it very difficult for Ithan to develop his own sense of identity and sense of self outside of who he was related to and what he was good at. Now, am I reading too far into his character? Maybe. However, I am nevertheless appointing myself captain of the Ithan Holstrom Defense Squad, and I am trying to convince SJM Nation to join me. Signup sheet is by the door, grab a badge on the way out. I think becoming Prime is exactly what he needed to come into his own and figure out who he is, as a wolf, as a leader, and as his own individual. He has never been given permission to lead his own life, and now he must step up and take the reins of not only his own life, but the wolves' as well. All the deep psychoanalyzing stuff aside, I think him and Perry could be really cute. Don't know where y'all stand with that, but I was sensing some vibes between them that I wasn't mad at: "...Flynn and Dec across from him, the former eyeing Perry with an interest Ithan didn't entirely appreciate. Perry was blushing, and Ithan didn't appreciate that either...Perry laughed, and...okay, maybe Ithan liked the sound." (pg. 829). I really like Perry, despite seeing relatively little of her in the book. (I've only known Perry for a day and a half, but if anything happened to her, I would k!ll everyone in this room and then myself). I'm curious as to what will happen with her, given that her scent didn't change when she took the antidote, etc. And I'll be done with my Ithan rant, but don't think I didn't notice the whole ice magic thing. I clocked that tea faster than Bryce can teleport. I won't make any theories, but all I'm saying is SJM men w Elsa magic >>>.

5. Call me Sigrid the way my life keeps getting progressively worse

Now I know we're not really supposed to care about Sigrid whatsoever at this point, but I feel obligated to note that she is out somewhere wandering, and the gang does not know where she is. I make it my personal mission to keep tabs on the opps of my favorite characters. I think she could have been more complex than a throwaway-side-villain character. She hasn't had a lot of choice in the things that have happened to her thus far in her life, but I do think she has to be kept out of the way so that Ithan can be Prime, so I can't guess at what will happen there, but I'm glad the Astronomer is gone. He was ticking me off.

6. Reapers and Necromancers and Lion Shifters, Oh My

I feel obligated to discuss with my fellow readers- do we all think the Lion Shifter Reaper that talked to Ithan and Hypaxia was the same one Bryce banged in book 1, or am I tripping? Ithan does think, "Gods, Bryce would have a field day with this guy-- his long golden hair was very carefully mussed" (pg. 608). Just something to think about, something I noticed, not important to the plot. Carrying on!

7. Ember & Nesta & My Tears

Let's just take a moment to read some lines that made me (No. 1 Nesta Stan) tear up!

"But Ember continued, looking only at Nesta, 'I am glad of one thing: that I was able to meet you.' Nesta's lips pressed into a thin line, and she glanced down at their joined hands...'Your mother loves you,' Nesta said quietly, reading the exasperated expression on Bryce's face. 'Don't for one second take that for granted.' Bryce could only incline her head to Nesta. 'I'm lucky,' she admitted. 'I've always been lucky to have her as a mom.' Ember really looked like she might cry now, especially as she turned back to Nesta and said, 'This time with you was a gift, Nesta. It truly was.' With that, she pulled Nesta into a tight embrace, and Bryce could have sworn something like pain and longing crossed Nesta's expression. Like she hadn't experienced a mom-hug for a long, long time" (HOFAS 813-814).

I truly love Nesta so much, and this book set up a lot for her in the next ACOTAR novel, which I really hope will have her perspective in it. I love Nesta and Bryce's potential friendship, and I hope there is more crossover content coming. I know a lot of people thought there was too much info-dumping about Fae history in this book, but I loved learning about the lore, and I think with Nesta's eight-pointed star situation could lead to us learning even more, which I am excited about.

8. Wyrd - Urd

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Finally some insight into the whole Urd thing! I have so many thoughts and theories about the different powers and gods in each series, and I'm so interested in the ways that they are intersecting and connecting. We learned that Urd is the Cauldron - "A cauldron of life, brimming with the language of creation...Wyrd, we called her in the old world" (pg. 692). The symbols on the "bowl" the statue of Urd is holding in this scene are most definitely Wyrdmarks, but the way they are described as tattoos running onto the statue's arms reminded me of Feyre's tattoos, which I thought was kind of a cool image: "And those symbols running from the bowl onto her skin...they were like tattoos" (pg 690). I am very interested in learning about the origins of the Under-King, too, him having come from the shifters' world. Again, I need to look further into theories to see if anyone with more brain power than me has figured it out, but I am really enjoying putting the pieces of this gigantic puzzle together.

9. HELLO????? VIKTORIA??????

Finally, I have to at least mention the gang's complete and total neglect to retrieve Viktoria from the bottom of the ocean, yet again. I understand y'all had a lot going on the first couple books, but come on. You've now worked closely and allied with not one but two Blue Court water queens, and you've gallivanted all over Midgard via submarine, and you're telling me not ONE person had so much as the THOUGHT of "oh hey, we should try to find Vik's box"??? And now that Asterigate has been resolved, they have no excuse! I feel so bad for her that they just...forgot about it? Assumed she's beyond help? I don't know! Justice for Viktoria!

10. Jesiba.

I love Jesiba Roga so much and I am so sad about her sacrifice, but I should have seen it coming. I think I did, but I was living in a river in Egypt. Talk about characters who are always two steps ahead, her having Ithan packing those boxes knowing darn well what she was going to do...Absolute icon. I shall never forget her. I've heard people saying that not enough people died, but I feel like it was simply spread out through the series and done a little differently than other SJM endings. This series started out with like seven people who meant the world to our MC being brutally slaughtered, we lost Lehabah, we lost Viktoria and Justinian, we lost Cormac, we lost Sofie, we lost the Prime, which some might not consider a "real" loss but he was on the right side, and then Jesiba. I think our characters suffered plenty, considering some character or another spent like half the series in an Asteri dungeon being horrifically tortured.

In closing, I will say that I really do love this world and these characters. I am so intrigued as to how it will change and develop going forward, especially with such a drastic shift in power in so many areas. I don't really care if the only conflict in the next book is them figuring out the Firstlight problem, I just want to know what happens next. I can't wait to dive deeper into the whole multiverse situation and see what is next for all of our favorite characters, and the more time goes on, the more ready I am for a new ACOTAR. Now that I have caught up on Crescent City, I will be diving headlong into Summer Reads, so I am thinking about doing some summer themed posts the next couple weeks to get into the summer vibes! If you read this far, thank you so much for giving half a crap what I think, and let me know what you think is next for the Maasverse! I want to hear all the theories, or things I may not have caught, or things you guys have figured out! Until next time! :)

XOXO,

Kenna

[melit0n]

Just having a think about Half Alive's Now, Not yet again. In my own opinion, it's definitely their best album, half because it's a brilliant indie-rock-pop-electro-amalgamation, and half because it holds a very special sentiment with me.

That whole album is so unsure and wary of the present, and all the things it affects, yet so accepting of it.

I mean, lyrically, that much is obvious throughout all the tracks. Ok ok's "Far too great a toll it's played on me; the animal of destiny" and RUNAWAY'S "I hold my life out in front of me, dreams of who I want to be, I'm seeing every empty page".

And what is possibly my favourite line ever; Arrow's "The hardest place to be is right where you are."

Because they're right. We can be haunted by the past, we can worry as much as we want about the future, because the hardest place to be is the present. Present eventually becomes past and our actions during this time solidifies our future. Present is horrifying because it slips through our fingers faster than we even know; it's the hardest place to be.

The album constantly runs over the fear of the present and, consequently, the future, and being unable to escape it so well. But, sewn throughout the songs, I'd pure acceptance and joy at simply living.

RUNAWAY is a direct statement; you don't have to runaway from it all. It's hard, it's scary, but you don't have to runaway.

Still Feel is a shout that despite it all, they still feel alive. When it's hopeless, they start to notice that, because they feel hopeless, they're still alive and can change for the better.

TrusT speaks of the horrors of learning how to have faith in people, but the realisation of how good it is to trust someone is.

BREAKFAST acts as a sentimental contemplation to TrusT; it's the aftermath of it, in a way.

Finally, Creature is a love letter to humanity. A thank you for being made the way they were made. It feels like the first rays of warm sun after Winter. It's acceptance. They're not afraid of it all, they're fine with being made out of worn clay, because in the end they're still be haunted and Holy; recovering the beauty of discovery.

It's something I wish I could do, in short. I see myself in this album more than I'd like to admit. It's probably why I resonate with it so much.

[reilleclan-blog]

Yes I'm still here and while I'm here I decided to get rdr2 b/c I wanted to rp as a cowboy so fucking bad. Um honestly I don't hate rockstar games recent gta story wise and online play is ass to me movement and thr story felt so trivial to me(this js my opinion after years of thinjing rockstar and gta are relativrly good) but yeah. the only rockstar game i faithfully love is Bully.

(SPOILERS)

and as i play rdr2 i feel like the story is basically like Bully except the entire plot of rdr2 is Jimmy(arthur) and Gary(Micah) going at it the entire game but also using a bit of mislead.

(and yes after arthur got captured by odriscolls i immideitely sused out Micah as being a snake. also i didnt believe a word of a "truce")

And yes i did look up the truth to confirm my suspicions b/c i don't believe in spoilers kinda. But yeah im gonna say a couple things about this game I genuinely think it's a cool and interesting game. I personally can't fathom how ppl thought Dutch was so "wise" and "complex" he basically was some dude that monologued EVERYtime he was on screen. Like I swear to god this dude was just a "head up his own ass" type of guy and it solidifies even more around the ends of the game. (In the beginning I thought he was sort of a good guy but once they sat up camp out of the cold .. I was like this guy is annoying ass shit and I absolutely hated taking orders from him as Arthur lol)

Dutch was basically a dude that thought he knew more than everyone cause he read a couple books and quoted shit all the time. My nigga , u are ultimately a fucking poser. U no better than anyone in the camp ANYONE could've done what he did he just got in the position before anyone else. I swear to god I'd skip so many cutscenes b/c all he did was talk and talk "blowing hot air" and as the game went on he continued to do dumber and dumber shit and everyone just went along with it. I genuinely think it's hilarious a separate job everyone does(robbing the bank) was the most fun mission with main side characters I'd probably had thru the entire game. And all that was pretty much thrown out the game b/c Dutch's plans made everyone have to leave again.

(Him saying "play both sides of the war" was the dumbest shit ever. But ofc everyone still listened to him. Hosea was having a mind of his own but STILL choice to do what he said.) Dutch wanted to play chess so bad but really he was playing checkers ever since they left Strawberry possibly Blackwater as well.

Also I wasn't sure how I'd like the game mostly the main character but Arthur actually has a personality and can be complex more than a lot of the characters ppl call "complex" . I honestly think rockstar could've gone farther with making the story so compelling maybe the main character could've been a woman who is living in the west u know and finds these band of misfits and it could show the struggles of crime and being a woman advantages and disadvantages. Something like that.

I don't think the characters aren't interesting not saying that lol I just think in the end this story didn't want to push further with complex understanding or characters. It's like yes it's a story but it's not here to make u think too much on what's going on. (That's how I felt) since most of the audience I'm assuming were biased players and SURPRISE straight white men.(even though funny enough cowboys were originally black and brown) so I think rockstar made a story just interesting ENOUGH to keep that certain demographics attention. I assume with ppl that assess games and the way the game plays out at times. For example a lot of the times during missions u could do something stealthy but still end up having a trivial ass shootout to "keep the excitement" of the game. A lot of the times that happens and it just annoys me b/c it'd virtually makes stealth pointless unless otherwise.

I'm still trying to finish up the game but rockstar has a tendency to make these games over long for no fucking reason . It reminds me of movies that are like 2hrs long just to have the entire movie be "racism is bad"(Cloud Atlas) or some dumb simple shit like that. So I'm still tryna see what the story this game is tryna tell me or show me but damn it's just taking forever for no fuckin reason TO ME. 💀 also feels like there's so much shit happening in the game that I can't grasp the story at times like there's no rest? Doesn't mean when characters died I didn't care but still

I was even baffled that the crew really went overboard and landed on some tropical island. Sometimes the events in the game seem unnecessary as well. Again adding to the fact the game is over long for no reason. Anyways um cya till next time.

[sanderssidesthehouse]

Can you do Patton for the character bingo? I've seen a lot of different takes so I'm curious to see what you think.

-🌻🌼

Hi flower anon! I'm a little nervous about this one ngl but I will do it for you.

Circle sizes represent how confident I was marking a box. Not a lot of confidence on this one bc I'm still conflicted. I think further resolution of his arc might solidify how I feel about him, or change it completely.

I don't really like Patton Sanders and that's my toxic trait, but HEAR ME OUT. I don't want to convince anyone not to like him, in fact I'd love to convince people of all the reasons they COULD possibly like him! Just like bc of my real life personal experiences, I'm not very fond of him. He is not my blorbo 😔 I don't hate him, but I do mildly dislike him. (As a character I think he's great, his conflict presents a fascinating narrative that I enjoy quite a lot.)

"But Ace," I hear you saying, "you said you don't like him and yet you still think he's being done dirty by fans?" To which I say "Yes, absolutely, there are people out there liking and disliking him for the wrong reasons!" (In my humble opinion.)

Patton is NOT an innocent little baby who needs to be protected, NOR is he a manipulative asshole. He's just a guy trying his best who messes up sometimes. He should be treated like an adult with agency and be given some grace for when he stumbles.

He does care about his famILY and he tries so hard to show it, but he's always felt like he has to know the correct answers and that they're depending on him. And tbh with how much c!Thomas defers to Morality, I get it. When someone is constantly looking to you for answers and it's your job to have them, saying 'I don't know' is scary! But he and everyone else should really try to be brave and say 'let's figure it out together' rather than confidently giving an answer that has a good chance of being wrong. But again, I do understand the crushing weight of these expectations.

I think it's really clever that Morality got paired with Emotions, bc emotions are what drives morality. Different people have different emotions that more strongly affect their morals, with Patton, we see compassion as a primary motivator, but also fear. The fear of slipping into the category known as 'bad person' and the fear of that categorization being permanent. And then bottles that fear up out of shame. Very catholic guilt of him.

I do feel bad for Patton where we left him bc he's finally going to get the help he needs, but somewhat at the cost of the love and respect of his famILY. Roman feels betrayed, Virgil hates Janus, and Logan... Well he's got a lot going on right now anyway.

I prefer Patton when I'm looking at him through the lens of his relationships to the others. He really does his best for them, he's a sweet guy. He tries to be encouraging and he clearly knows the other three very well. And with Janus I think the strongest negative emotion he feels is occasional annoyance, you know, like when he was impersonated. He seems to actually kind of like him otherwise. Not the biggest fan of Remus, which is an understandable side effect of him not yet having sorted himself out. He's trying now, so I'm sure that will come with time.

Also his froggy traits are sick as hell and I hope we see more, I want to see more, make him a frog please, I beg. That's like, the high point of his character to me, I actually had to come back and edit this after I scheduled it to include that bc holy crap Patton's a frog and I love that for him, but I also love that for ME.

So why don't I like him? I have intrusive thoughts and moral ocd and personal trauma I'm not going to get in to so like... He's just so unbelievably frustrating to me as he currently is. Also it just irks me that he's clearly not as naive as he pretends to be and it just boils my blood when people play willfully ignorant. He's doing it bc he's scared, but isn't that why everyone does it? It's still bad, and it causes a lot of damage. I'm of the opinion that if something scares you, you should learn everything you can about it. Logan said something like that once and he was right.

He just makes me feel the need to tell people they don't have to be a moral paragon to be good or do good things or be deserving of happiness, health, safety, and love. I get it's his job and all, I just really can't separate a character like that from all the stuff I had to learn and unlearn for my personal health and safety. And maybe I actually just want to say that to him. Maybe the problem is that we're too similar in all of our worst traits and seeing a grim reflection where once stood a cheery mural is upsetting. Maybe it's Maybelline.

Idk, I might actually like him. I'm very wishy washy on this subject. I think I can manage liking him while also disliking him. I'm very talented. I would love for everyone to tell me all the reasons they love Patton! I think he's neat and I'd love to like him.

[bekkachaos]

fuck it friday 🤘

oops it's absolutely not Friday anymore

tagged by so many beautiful people @prince-buck-diaz @monsterrae1 @heartbeatdiaz @spotsandsocks @alyxmastershipper @wildlife4life @elvensorceress @buddierights 🩷🩷

Not tagging anyone else because it's super late, but if anyone still wants to please tag me 😁

So I heard this song and got an idea for my angstfest fic in which Buck and Eddie both ended up down the worst possible paths in their lives, Eddie is living in LA, suspended from his job, his parents have taken Christopher back to Texas after a battle in the courts, and he's lost, standing on a bridge in the middle of the night looking out over the quiet, and he meets Buck, dirty and disheveled, more than likely living on the streets, and he's high, Eddie can see it in his eyes. It starts them down a winding path together that just might turn them around.

Have a little snippy snip below:

Eddie's fingers on the metal rail turned white. His teeth ground together so hard he should have been worried one or more might chip, but he wasn't.

There was only one thing on his mind, and that was how much he had failed. He failed himself, and Christopher. Eddie refused to believe that he was better off with his parents, and the fact that he hadn't been able to prove that to them, or the court, well, it just solidified his failure and it felt like cement sinking down through him.

Everything seemed to spiral after that. The underground fighting ring, getting suspended from his job at the fire department. And his parents wouldn't even let him speak to Christopher. Not yet, they kept saying. Let him get settled, we don't want to make this any harder. Call him when you've got your life back on track. You need to show him some stability.

He closed his eyes and sucked the biting air into his lungs, filling him with cold, fanning the fiery anger that consumed him and escaping back through his split lips in a heavy cloud.

"You know most people think your breath doesn't do that until below freezing."

Eddie flinched, turning back to see a tall man approaching slowly from behind, hands shoved into his front pockets and eyeing him with a tilt of his head.

"Excuse me?" was all he managed in reply.

"When you can see your breath in the air, doesn't have to be freezing, hell, only needs to get to about 45," he said, making an o with his lips until his condensated breath came out in a long thin line.

Eddie eyed him warily. He hadn't seen him when he arrived at the bridge, there's not much around save for a few derelict buildings and a foot path leading towards the overpass. On top of that, he could see the way his pupils were dilated, he was high on something, or maybe coming down.

"I'd say sorry, that I didn't mean to interrupt, but I guess I did," he said, keeping his distance from Eddie but not taking his eyes or his curious gaze from him.

Eddie just grunted back at him, not sure that he should turn his back on him. He could probably take him in a fight, as long as he doesn't have a knife, but he doesn't really want things to come to that. His knuckles were still cut and bruised from his fight earlier and his brow throbbed from the left hook he'd been too slow to dodge.

"Want to tell me what you're doing out here?" the stranger asked, and this time Eddie really didn't care what happened next, so he turned his attention back to the black over the bridge.

"Could ask you the same thing. You always sneak up on people? Start conversations about the air, how cold it is?" he said roughly.

"Only when they're holding as tightly to the bridge rail as you are."

Eddie let his teeth grind, letting his grip ease as some of the feeling came back to his knuckles, the ache of the pain now somewhat dulled.

"There," he said, turning back and folding his arms over his chest defensively. "Feel free to walk away now."

The man's lip turned up in a smile, and for the first time since he'd appeared, Eddie felt himself lower his guard.

It wasn't menacing or snide. It was somehow a thing of warmth in the coldness of the dark.

[bluegekk0]

How's Lewk doing in regards of making friends? Listening to your school ramble gives me the feeling, while he has some friends, he rather stays at home after school than to go out to play with said Friends

Actually making friends isn't that big of a problem for him. He naturally attracts others' attention and makes them curious about him, but it's his sweet and kind personality that solidifies it (otherwise, the other kids would most likely feel scared of him due to his connection with Grimm, who's widely perceived as very intimidating). So it didn't take long for him to gain friends, he was surrounded by them from the first day of school.

But the problem lies in maintaining those friendships. The way he was raised definitely shaped him to be very attached to his parents - he was the center of attention, he was spoiled, especially by Grimm, who would shower him with gifts, and FPK would add to the pile with the toys he made in his workshop. But it wasn't just that, since they value affection, he grew surrounded with love, so it makes sense that he would become very close with them, but also learn to be kind to others. There's also the fact that all of his friends are younger than him, not by much, but he didn't have any playmates for a chunk of his early childhood, so that brought him even closer to his parents and family. Consequently, he didn't really get to know the other Dirtmouth children until school started.

He is naturally very curious, but he's just as dependant on his parents. The lessons are fun, he's very excited about seeing his friends, but just like you suggested, he tends to gravitate back towards his family after they're over, since being separated from his loved ones for longer periods of time makes him feel a little scared. So he's kind of split between his want to explore and make friends, and his close bond with his family. If one of his friends asks him to come out and play, you can tell he's feeling conflicted every time. Often times he declines, since he already planned to spend time drawing with Holly, going on a trip with Hornet, helping FPK in his workshop, or watching Grimm's rehearsals. So I could see the other kids viewing him as someone who's really nice but never wants to play with them, and eventually giving up on asking him to join them.

I do think this is something he'd get better at over time, though. As much as Grimm and FPK love him, they still want him to have friends, so they encourage him to go out and play with them. But I doubt he'll ever lose that close bond with his family, even if he doesn't end up quite the mama's boy Milo is shaping up to be.

---

Unrelated but I thought I'd talk about this while I'm on the topic of the future. I mentioned some time ago that Lewk's arc would be getting annoyed at how pampered he is and trying to break free from it, but after some thinking I decided that this didn't fit his personality very much. Instead, I think Asta would be more fitting for that kind of possible development, she has a much more snarky and rebellious personality, I imagine, so I could see her trying to be more independent.

I most likely won't age the kids any time soon, but thinking of the paths they could take in the future is good for character development. Like I mentioned, Lewk would be the really kind and helpful one with a close bond with his family, I think he'd end up being quite well liked among the Dirtmouth folk. Asta would be far more rebellious and cause trouble all the time just to gain some independence, though shd'd still have a soft spot for her twin brother. And Milo would stay close to and very dependent on his dads, to the point where he'd end up being a bit of an outcast among his peers, maybe even quite mean and dismissive of them, though deep down he's still very kind, just very shy and awkward which paints him as a target for mean comments.

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Maybe you’ve done this before (so feel free to ignore this - actually feel free to ignore it either way if you don’t feel like doing it 😅) , but if you had to pick the wardrobe for Buck, Eddie, and Chris for the buddie canon confirmed episode what would you pick for each of them? Your costume metas are so fun so I think your answer to this would be too. 🖤

DJ my darling!!

this is such a fun ask and I've been pondering on it for a few days!!! What kind of outfit we'll see them in really depends on the location of where we get canon confirmation, as well as when it happens!!

If it happens this season, then I'm kind on hoping we'll get some colour paralleling of the lasagne scene from 6x01 - with yellow and blue being the colours worn - especially as I've been banging on about the use of yellow and blue in queer storytelling for a little while (its in so many other queer stories, especially recently) who is wearing the yellow and who is wearing the blue depends very much on who makes the first move - but I'm kind of leaning towards Buck in yellow and Eddie in blue, because I really feel the blue on Buck has bee na deliberate choice this season and is very much tied into his own healing arc, so I think once he gets to the point of being ready, we'll see him change colours in some way as the blue will have done its narrative job for him! I would quite like to see Buck in either a knit polo of some sort - as he's been wearing a lot of this season, or possibly something simialr to the grey jumper form the kitchen scene. I don't want to see him in a hoodie though - those are for when he's seeking comfort and thats not what he'd be doing in a nbuddie canon scene!

I thinkEddie in blue would be a great choice for him and we've seen it start to creep more into his wardrobe since 5x14 and in brighter tones as well. I also think seeing him in Blue would time in to a couple of interesting touchstones for his own journey - the conversation in Christophers room in 5x17 and the suit he wore to Hen and Karens vow renewal and then in season 6 we've had him in blue sleeping on the couch in 6x09 (as well as a couple of other instances) so I'd really love to see him in blue if for no other reason thang getting to see the couch metaphor play out to its full and natural conclusion!!! I either want Eddie in a traditional henley or in an open shirt and tee combo - which we've seen him wearing more often since mid 5b.

If Chris is involved in Buddie going canon in any way, I'd actually kind of like to see him in grey of some sort - possibly with a nod to whatever colours Buck and Eddie are wearing - and if they happen to be stripes, then so much the better! the reason I want to see him in grey is because its a neutral colour and because as much as Christopher is a central part in them becoming a family unit, I kind of want the buck and Eddie outfits to do all the talking - Buddie should be about buddie and not about buddifer - in much the same way that Chris was there on the fridge in the new kitchen scene - present but not a part of the scene directly, I feel a bit like that should also be the case for them getting together canonically - because they should and will be together because its what they both want for each other and themselves, and not because of Christopher (does that make sense?!!) I'd really love to see Buck wearing maroon at the moment they tell Chris they're together though - really solidifying the maroon and fatherhood aspect and coming full circle with when we've seen Buck in maroon. I'd like to see Eddie in either cream or blue for this as well -

Another reason for wanting blue and yellow is that I'd love the symmetry of their turnouts being blue and yellow and the whole connection to their jobs - it all just ties in so well together and would make me very happy!!!

Of course they could choose to parallel Athena and Bobbys first date and go with brown and blue - which I would also not be mad at, but I feel like the yellow would be a bit more interesting and fitting - especially because of all I've already said 😎

This post is either going to haunt me when I'm a million miles off, or I'm going to drag it out and be really annoying and make it everyones problem if I happen to be right!!!

How did I do?? I hope it was fun to read! thanks for giving me some fun! 💜💜💜

[inkofamethyst]

October 2, 2023

After two and a half days of illness, I'm pretty much back to regular functioning (with occasional sneezes but at least the sinus pressure has majorly receded). This does mean that I'm about two days behind where I wanted to be, but I'm going to have to try as best as I can to catch up so Thursday doesn't ~suck~. I don't really want my sleep to suffer though [edit 2, next morning: failed, reverse bedtime procrastination strikes again], that's a habit I'd like to leave back in undergrad if possible. Man, I can't wait until I'm done with (undergrad-level) classes (though then I'll have to structure my own days which is another kind of challenge).

Anyway back to the house conversation, I'm obviously facing a major hurdle preventing ownership: the down payment. I know I listed out all of those "little" savings goals a bit ago, but preparing for a down payment is a huge goal, like tens upon tens of thousands of dollars in some places, and I don't want that to bite into my emergency fund which I am also trying to build (though the emergency fund will likely be much smaller than the down payment goal). The toughest part is that saving in grad school is terribly difficult. The first year and a half are so are going to be weird because I don't really know what my taxes will look like, but budgeting should become easier as I settle in.

And then and then not only do you have to do a down payment, but also hoa fees, monthly mortgage, insurance, figuring out how to get things fixed when (not if) they break, not to mention all the fees you have to worry about before moving in and all the people you have to pay... so many things to consider, so much cash to raise. And like yes I know that serious saving requires serious sacrifice, but bread and roses man. I wanna get a bass guitar in two years, I'm solidifying a wardrobe, I wanna keep sewing. I don't wanna be so single-track-minded that I'm totally miserable for years (like they tell phd students to not let Being In School stop them from living their lives).

I need to talk to a financial advisor, agh. So many things online are saying that renting could be the better move,,,,, but something deep in my bones tells me that it's propaganda of some sort.

God the way I could've been absolutely insufferable as a (metaphorical) finance bro had I actually taken accounting seriously in high school. Like I totally could've gotten a degree in finance and gone into consulting had I not taken money for granted in high school and really thought seriously about it. Honestly...? That probably would've been an easier way to live than the path I've chosen, but I suspect that what I'm doing will be a bit of fun and probably more intellectually stimulating. So that's okay. I guess.

Another funny thing about this whole ~house~ mini-obsession is that it was merely a month ago that I was freaking out (mildly) about the idea of moving away from home lol.

On to different topic entirely, Knowt has got to be my fav quizlet successor. Having anatomy experience is definitely making these practical cram sessions go by faster.

Today I'm thankful that I'm mostly back to normal and also that I decided to go to this social hour thing where I might've made a new friend (someone who knows my puzzle-friend actually lol)! Now comes the tough part--finding and scheduling things to do with them. It's not like high school where you are with people all the time and come to learn who they are gradually. This takes a lot more conscious effort I feel like.

Okay, enough time spent here. I have (too many) things to do.

[edit, like 20 minutes later: I think I just worked through necessity vs sufficiency in my head and im so proud]