#ISN'T THAT NICE

[ross-hollander]

i love your micro fiction. why is ‘mech spelled with the apostrophe at the start. the world wants to know (the world is me)

@ranryu asks why I spell 'mech that way.

The answer is that in my most frequently written-about mecha IP, Battletech, 'mech is an abbreviation usually for BattleMech, but sometimes also for HaulerMech or IndustrialMech.

Also, thank you, I'm pleased to hear that.

[lafaiette]

I finally found Pen's Chinese romance lines :')

(You can find more comparisons here and here by the way)

First, something sweet to start with: Jasmine calls Pen, Burgess, and Miguel "uncle"! (叔叔)

Jasmine to Andy: Uncle Peng Hu thinks he's the most beautiful man in the world. We can secretly put a mirror in his room, so he'll look at it all day long and we can sneak out to play!

And now, I'll start with the Romance Quest - I included only the Chinese version of the dialogue happening after giving him the Heart Knot, because the post is already pretty long!

Chinese: Well... little weakling, you gave me this Heart Knot. I thought about it seriously... You have always been nice to me. You often praise me, give me gifts, and help me run errands everywhere. Maybe I have really found the one, the most special person to me. Someone who loves me as much as I love myself! Oh, this is so surprising to me... Little weakling, before we go further with our current relationship, I have to speak with you. I have to make sure you are sincere to me! Everyone knows that I am a golden bachelor. If you are with me just to show off and make yourself look good at some workshop awards ceremony, I will not allow it! What I want is true love... And I still have to understand if my fascination with you is not just for your body, but also for your personality… Yes, that's right. All this time, I called you "little weakling", not because of contempt for your figure, but because I couldn't take my eyes away when I saw your small body without muscles. It’s like seeing an uncultivated land with unlimited room for exercise. It’s so charming! There is only one way to test whether there is love between us... and that is - Fighting! An adrenaline-filled battle! Drenched in sweat, bloody, and bare-knuckled! Yes, the fastest way to get to know someone is to fight with them! Builder: 1) Then let’s go! -> Pen: Good! Let's meet tomorrow at the gate of the Paradise Lost ruins. Let's fight side by side to destroy those robots from the corrupt era and beat fierce drumbeats on their remains with our fists! I’ll go first! Remember to wear protective gear and be prepared. All for romance! Builder: 2) After falling in love... shouldn't you go on a date? -> Pen: Haha, that's what ordinary people do. I don't care for those old-fashioned ways of falling in love. Only when fighting can I feel truly alive! Builder: 3) But we have already fought many times... -> Pen: Many times?! It's never enough! I'm a fighting expert! For me, this is true love, nothing else but pure fighting and strong love!

Meeting Pen in front of Paradise Lost: Here you are, little weakling! I've been waiting for you for a long time, and I'm a little bored... Let's not waste time, let's hurry in and kill everyone! Get ready, little weakling! Let's show those robots real fighting skills and send them all the way back to their corrupt era! Not bad, little weakling, you have been exercising recently! Robot, take my blow! Punch! Fighting with you... makes my heart surge! That move is awesome, little weakling! Don't let them escape, leave no one behind! Haha, fighting with you is more exciting than I imagined! The thought of being able to "seal love" with you and fight these robots to confirm our relationship... my heart is beating fast! Let the battle become more intense! Come on, let's go in! Awesome, little weakling! It's been a blast all the way. Now there's only one last step left to make our date today even more perfect - Yes! That's it! A powerful elite monster! Come on, little weakling! Show your fists and give the big robot in this corrupt era the coolest blow! Haha... so refreshing... This feels so right... Little weakling, what do you think? I’m having too much fun today... ha, wait! I got it, the most important step is missing!

English: I'm afraid this moment cannot last forever… We must return to the hustle and bustle of city life… But let us always remember this place. Our lovers cocoon where, for one brief evening, the world was ours... Outside Paradise Lost: Goodbye, my love! Expect to see me again soon… I'll swing by your place later for a major make-out sesh!

Chinese: I really want to stay with you for a while longer! But I have to go protect Sandrock. Let us remember this moment and this feeling. No one can take away the energy of this love... … Goodbye then, my dear! I'm looking forward to seeing you next time …… I will definitely have a more exciting date with you!

English: You fell from a cliff and survived? Did someone help you? Or did you simply claw your way back to safety, and crawl to my feet just to see me again. You truly do love me, don't you? Chinese: You fell off a cliff and came back alive? Could it be that someone more powerful than me saved you? Alas, I missed an opportunity to protect you.

English: Knight, Protector, Enforcer, Big Daddy Love Sponge… I go by many names. Chinese: Besides, Knight is just a title. Guardian, Big Brother, Heart-throb... these are my titles!

English: Alright… fine. You want the truth? You can't handle the truth! But… here it is anyway: Miguel totally brainwashed me! Yeah, that's it… He told me, uh, Duvos rules and stuff, and… I was in a bind! I have multiple obligations! Do you have any idea how expensive the holidays are when you're shopping for twelve separate lovers who all think they're my one and only? Plus with Sandrock failing… I had no choice, I needed the money from his scheme… He said if I protect him, he'd give me a portion of his dirty money. Now that I think about it… say, do you think he could be some kind of high level Duvos operative? Certainly seems like it. Not trying to do your job for you or anything, though…

Chinese: Okay, okay, let me tell you... [Player's Name], your pal Peng Hu didn't know anything before he met that bad guy Miguel! Just eat, sleep, and protect the town every day. Until one day he told me that he was working for Duvos, trying to win me over, and saying a lot of things that made sense... I was short of money at that time, so I fell into his trap. Anyway, I am also a part-time worker. What is the difference between working for Sandrock and working for Duvos? Besides, with Sandrock being the way it is, I was saving myself. He asked me to protect him. As long as I did it, I would get a share of the embezzlement money. So I got involved in all this. Could that guy Miguel be a senior member of Duvos? An agent? Maybe he really is! Of course, that's the job of your militia group [Civil Corps], so I won’t say more.

English:

Builder: "How could you do this to me?" Pen: "What can I say, sometimes country trumps love…" Builder: "Please stop…" Pen: "I'm sorry, gotta fulfill my KPI, you understand!" Builder: "I still love you." Pen: "I know." Builder: "You were ugly anyway!" Pen: "Ooph, that might have hurt a mere mortal, but I know you know deep down in your heart that it's not true!" "Hm… to finally face you as my true self… it's invigorating! Now quit playing hard to get, Skinny, and take your place at my side!"

Chinese:

Builder: "How could you do this to me?" Pen: "What else can I do? The Empire is more important than love." Builder: "Don't do this to me..." Pen: "Sorry, [Player's Name]. This is my job, and I have to earn enough performance [points]!" Builder: "I never stopped loving you." Pen: "I know." Builder: "I stopped loving you a long time ago anyway!" Pen: "Haha, that doesn't hurt me. ["That sentence has no deadly effect on me."] Don't deceive your heart, you must still love me deep inside!" "Today I can finally face you with my true identity, and I'm actually very happy. Who doesn't want to be honest with his lover, little weakling? Why don't you come to my side, eh?"

English: I heard from someone in the capital that they experimented on him to make him stronger. Chinese: I heard that someone in the capital specifically conducted experiments on him, that's why he is so strong.

English: Ha! Know one thing about me, Skinny: any declarations I made on behalf of us was true. I make no mistakes, neither in war nor in love. You want proof? Well, it's not like I go around giving everyone nicknames! No… you were special in that regard. Perhaps it was always our destiny to be together… But I'm afraid that thread of fate has been cut short. I have chosen my country over love. Such is the duty of a Duvos Knight. …That's what you wanted to hear, isn't it…?

Chinese: Haha, one good thing about me is that I put real feelings into every relationship. I don't like to give people random nicknames either! Perhaps, ever since the moment I called you little weakling [Skinny Arms], you were destined to be my one and only love. It's just that we're different, and I had to sacrifice our relationship for the greater good of my country. Are you satisfied with this answer?

English: "Goodbye, [Player's Name]. It was... fun. Chinese: Farewell, [Player's Name]. This time it's for real. You're free.

The Protector's description, called "Guardian of Love" in Chinese:

A very delicate bracelet that protects the wearer's wrist. Wearing it gives the wearer a feeling of being emotionally confined. Perhaps this feeling is similar to what Peng Hu often said, "Marriage is a boring bondage".

Pen's letter in Chinese:

Dear [name], I've had a little more time to think lately in this so-called Atara Maximum Prison, and I'm more than a little sorry that I couldn't bring you along to accompany me. Well, it's my fault. Anyway, you are still the most beloved lover I have ever been with, and one of the few that I continue to miss even after a breakup. So, I'm going to forgive you. Yeah - I forgive you.I don't think there's a chance we'll ever be together again. You're just doing what you're supposed to do in your position, so there's nothing to complain about. I should have tried my best to recruit you from the beginning, and it would have been the best way to keep you with me. Of course I don't blame you, you're indeed excellent. I also left you a final challenge. In some ruins, there are a few of my most valuable things, and if you can get them, they're yours. It should be easy to get there, using the tricks I've taught you. My dear little weakling, this is the last time I'll call you that, I believe in your abilities. Remember, don't slack off on your training. We won't meet again. (but 后会无期 can also mean "meeting at an unspecified/unclear date")

WELP, what more can I say :'D

[liketolaugh-writes]

Care to explain what in this letter was bad in your opinion.

I hope you're not looking for a fight, because you're getting one response and one response only. If you're curious, I'm sure the letter has been broken down by dozens of writers at this point.

Above everything else, 'J.K. Rowling Writes about Her Reasons for Speaking out on Sex and Gender Issues' is harmful because of the legislation she pushes. Because she wants 'a philosophical belief that sex is determined by biology' to be protected by law, meaning you can't get fired for transphobia. She talks about how trans activism seeks to 'erode the legal definition of sex and replace it with gender,' and she wants it to stop. She pushes for more barriers to legal transition - you must meet certain requirements, or else you might, I guess, fake it? (I can't stress enough that this has never happened.) More recently, and outside of this letter, she donated money in support of an effort to force the definition of 'woman' to remain strictly biological, excluding trans women from many legal protections.

And then there are the assumptions she's attached to all of... this.

She's clearly decided that trans activists are a violent group, as if Twitter doesn't bring the worst out in everyone, as if TERFs don't send death threats and slurs every day. (Dream on, there's monsters of every political stripe on twitter.)

She says, 'Ironically, radical feminists aren’t even trans-exclusionary – they include trans men in their feminism, because they were born women.' (Trans men love being looped in with women, amirite?)

She says, 'Autistic girls are hugely overrepresented in their numbers,' speaking of young trans people. (It's well-known in the autistic community that there's a particularly high percentage of trans folk there. None of them seem to have a problem with it.)

'The more of their accounts of gender dysphoria I’ve read, with their insightful descriptions... I too might have tried to transition. The allure of escaping womanhood would have been huge.' (I'd have a lot of compassion about this if she wasn't using it to invalidate the experiences of trans men, which she is.)

'But, as many women have said before me, ‘woman’ is not a costume. ‘Woman’ is not an idea in a man’s head.' (We already knew you didn't understand, thanks for making it obvious.)

And finally - because her argument comes down to, ultimately, 'men will pretend to be trans women to attack real women.' This is a tired argument with no basis in reality. It has never happened. We are sick of it. Everyone is sick of it - except TERFs.

I could be compassionate about her fears, which are clearly borne from trauma, if they stayed fears, if she understood that this doesn't happen, if she wasn't so fucking certain that she was right. Her platform here does her more harm than good - the sheer volume of criticism and, yes, violence she has received has made it impossible for her to see through the noise and actually listen. Because she thinks that volume is because of the violence of trans activists, and not because of the unprecedented number of eyes on her.

To Rowling, trans women are men and that is that.

Rowling has lost her way and she's not coming back.

[dyrewrites]

Ludovico remembers the eye color of every man he meets.

Has no fucking clue what day it is at any given moment.

[confinesofmy]

thinking about buying a mandoline slicer the other day + going through a bunch of my mom's stuff today + apparently i inherited a mandoline slicer

[ikemenomegas]

return of then

a/n: from the point of view of a reader who went with the last of 104th to see if the world would end and if they could help save it. It's vague whether they were a part of the corps, can be read as yes or not.

There's never been an illusion in your mind that you would do anything but go down fighting. But you had a dream nonetheless, that maybe you survive, and maybe that survival means something because others will survive too.

Because what does survival mean, what is it worth, if you're the last and only person in the world?

Of course, no one is the last person in the world and if everything that matters goes away, you know what you'll do. You'll find something else that matters, because that's what life is owed.

But still.

It feels like there's nothing you can't do, and that there's nothing left to do. You're on your knees on the ruddy hard-packed earth in a land far from home. Your ears ring with the aftermath of bomb blasts and the cheers and cries of strangers, your throat trembles with each ragged exhale in time with the silent cries of the child mourners behind you. Your joints ache from the violent twists of the ODM gear and the days of fighting to have a chance.

You hold your breath to stop yourself from shaking, just for a minute, just long enough to see if…

You can't see if Levi's eyes are open and you hurt too much to move just yet because if he isn't. Well.

There's no reason that you should have survived, except for the sacrifices of everyone else who didn't.

His chest rises and falls. And over that, over where his heart has to still be beating, presses his clenched fist.

You sit back, ass in the dirt and blood all over your shirt, human so it doesn't vanish into the steaming wreckage littering the landscapes. There's a flicker of something around you, like those visions from the white sands, a flutter of cloaks, and your heart is in your throat.

For a moment, you're convinced you're dead, that this is your farewell. Nifa, Nifa - you never thought you'd see her again - leans down and her hands are on your arm, although you can't feel her. She tilts her head with a smile. You look up and behind her is Luke, shaking his head slowly liked you'd gotten thrown from a horse.

There is a forest of legs, boots and the flickering green fabric like whispering leaves, but you can see through it. You still feel half-deaf, but you can see all those people in the distance, alive. Levi is alive.

Nifa nods once, like she hear your thoughts and - it's such a simple thing, but it's also the most important - you are alive and so is he, and so are many others.

She turns away from you and stands in parade rest with all the others, and then they turn as one, walking the other way and passing you by. There are so many. Your palm goes to your chest because it hurts, to have lost so much because of choices made hundreds, thousands, of years ago.

There are so many you lose sight of Levi as the Survey Corps' dead move on. The ones you know sometimes smile as they go, but most go on with the same determination you'd seen on so many living faces when the gates rose. Determination, and something fiercely more.

Only one holds your gaze as they walk past. Your own shaky hand makes a fist over your heart when you spot Erwin, who nods but doesn't stop. Hange looks at you the whole way, brown eyes wide and stride strong until they too vanish behind your peripheral vision.

You know somehow, if you looked back they would be gone, lost in the smoke. Just as sure as you understand the words they did not say.

Levi doesn't move until the last bit of ethereal movement stops, and then his hand flattens, palm over his chest, his chin tips forward.

His chest still rises and falls, just enough for you to see it.

If you look hard enough, you can find something that matters, but this does too. The secret dream you had held close when the end got closer and closer.

Survival had meant something as long as there was anything left. It's worth everything just to have the memory of now.

Levi looks up and you can see him blinking in the harsh sunlight slanting through steam thick enough to move like clouds. You can't move, it feels like you're frozen. You can move, the grind of fine gravel under your knees won't matter if you can get to him.

He's smiling, soft and faint, and he sees you. The last ones left.

He's smiling and maybe that's the track of tears, shining silver on his cheek.

He's smiling and you know the war is over.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

License to Kitty.

[mishosoupy]

hey a week from now is the day I crawled out of hell

[canisalbus]

✦ Fashionably late ✦

[watmalik]

THIS HAS ME FUCKED UP 😭🫠

X2: X-Men United (2003)

Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)

After 21 years, someone finally takes him home.

[ross-hollander]

I love your stories with all my heart and I think you should know that. Every time I see one of your posts on my feed I’m ecstatic :3

Well, I appreciate being told so, thank you.

[halfdeadwallfly]

spending my entire lunch break in the bathroom bc im scared of running into people when i leave 😀👍

[gaybuckybarnesss]

HUGO DIEGO GARCIA The Substance (2024)

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

uhura slightly off-camera breaking into giggles and ducking out of frame every time she looks the God of Healing statue

this saves their asses when she can't even answer starfleets communications she's laughing so hard

i want a jaynestown kinda thing w/ star trek where they land on a planet and yeah they’re pre-warp and pretty primitive but yeah fuck the prime directive because there’s like a plague there and bones isn’t going to let all those people die so he kinda sneaks the medicine and stuff to them and they leave and kirk is like “ok there’s pretty much no way we’re gonna get away with this so we were never here”

and then like ten years later they’re sent to check on a planet and whoops it’s the same planet that bones helped so kirk is like ok we go in, write a report and stuff, and get out and hope nobody notices us. and they beam down and there’s a giant goddamned temple dedicated to mccoy. paintings and sculptures and shit and it’s kinda crude but still clearly recognizable and they’re standing there in shock staring at this giant fuckin statue of mccoy like holy shit we are in so much trouble and spock just goes “this must be what going mad feels like.”

[bixels]

End-of-Splatoon thoughts.

Thinking about how since the very start, Splatoon has had a feature where players can draw and post artwork and spot them as graffiti on walls or billboards. Or how the weapons have always been paint brushes and rollers and ballpoint pens. Since its inception, Splatoon has been dedicated to engaging its players with the act of creation and creative expression, showing them how their art can build communities and (literally) change the world.

Thinking about finding golden human-made music discs buried underground for thousands of years, and a grand finale music festival. About the Voyager Golden Records. About those human handprints etched into concrete in Alterna. Did those human artists know it would end like this? First a fiery death and then, eventually, a worldwide celebration of music to represent our shared past, present, and future. Did they know that their songs, insignificant in the face of extinction, would one day become the solution that will save the next dominant life-form from the same fate?

Thinking about how eerily similar the Octarian domes are to Alterna. About how close Inklings and Octolings were to repeating the same mistakes as humans. But their doomed fates were undone not by some miracle technology or military power or a rocket, but by music.

Thinking about how humans wiped themselves out with war, and our parting gifts were liquid crystals that somehow paired with the DNA of primeval inklings and somehow infused them with our memories and culture and a Song. And 12,000 years in the future, that same Song will end a war.

Thinking about how art and music and punk culture and rock & roll and friendly competition and petty arguments and water guns aren’t uniquely human concepts, but the fundamental qualities of intelligent life. An inheritable spirit that can cross evolutionary bounds.

Thinking about the theme of Splatoon, that art and music and fun will not die with the human race. That every piece of art we create is a seed we sow for future generations to reap. That our legacy is ingrained into the crust of the earth. That long after we’re gone, the oceans will remember, and they’ll pick up where we left off.

Thinking about how Splatoon says that the essence of humanity –– the thing that will outlive us –– isn't war or prejudice or destruction or greed, it's a song.

[plumadot]

shy confessions mmmmmmmmmm