#Random musing

[indigosunsetao3]

Thinking about the 141 in a corporate office setting.

Kyle, the best salesman in the company with his slick designer suits and even smoother personality. Need to close that deal or convince someone to sign the dotted line, he’s the one to call.

Simon, the quiet IT worker that people always go to for help because he’s the best at it, even if they’re intimidated by him. He’s the top performer in the business, and he knows it, which lets him get away with the surly attitude.

Johnny, the finance guy who always seems to know all the company numbers and can make any finance report look good. Need some forecasts or predictions on stock, he’s your man. When the quarterly report may fall below goals it’s not as harsh of a blow when Johnny smiles.

John, the gruff COO that’s in before the sun is up and in his office long after everyone goes home. He keeps the company running while the CEO gets all the glory but he doesn’t mind, he prefers the background.

Then there’s you. The new receptionist that greets these men every morning with a cheery smile and wave. You haven’t been around long enough to be intimated or shy around them like the last receptionist and instead get to know them.

You know Johnny’s favorite sweet-treat and make sure the candy bowl stays stocked with it for the ten times he stops by to chat every day. You always make sure John has a hot coffee to keep him going when he hits that inevitable two o’clock wall and you can hear him grousing at his desk down the hall. As a favor, since you see how Kyle is always coming and going, you keep his meetings in order for him on his calendar. And for Simon, you are careful to route people away from him when they forget their password or can’t get the printer to work. This helps keep him free to do whatever it is he does in his office and in turn he removes the website blocks from your profile so you can watch YouTube videos in your downtime.

It comes as a bit of a surprise to the other workers when John ousts his personal assistant and promptly puts you in that position after you’ve been there less than six months. He moves you into the connecting office to his and ropes the other three to get you all settled in with new furniture and decor despite your protests.

The office gossip ratchets up tenfold when people notice the four men book meetings with you, behind closed doors, to discuss business at all hours of the day and night. They’re all in different departments, what could they possibly need from you? And more importantly, why do they all need to meet with you together?

[muses-with-afp]

Among the cobwebs tangled about in the ole noggin is: Byakuya really is just out there living a whole 'nother life inside his head, isn't he?

We see this get clocked by Toshiro in Chapter 674 (above) and, hopefully, Rukia and Renji (i.e., the "they" to whom Toshiro is referring). You could surmise that Toshiro is very perceptive and that's how he discerned what Byakuya was doing. And, sure, Toshiro is plenty perceptive. But... also... like... how often does Byakuya do this? How often does he put on some weird "performance" that he's fairly certain others "see through"? Or, at least, he intends for others to see through?

My guess is: The whole damn time.

I like to think the below Q&A from KlubOutside isn't just some continuity error that Kubo is fixing in post, but, rather, a suggestion that Byakuya is really out there living a life completely untethered from reality.

KlubOutside Q&A, as translated by reikorun

Like... we know from the SS Arc that Rukia does not view her relationship with Byakuya as warm and fuzzy. She says as much with her words and actions throughout that arc.

But... umm... the above seems to suggest that she and Byakuya likely discussed Renji at some point during their 40/50-year relationship. And, from that/those discussion(s), Byakuya left feeling intimately acquainted with not only Rukia, but Renji as well. Enough so that the man married to formality thought he could totally dispense with it when he met Renji.

Rukia, on the other hand? Girly, didn't blink an eye at her crazy "brother's" crazy antics during the SS Arc. She was like "he'd kill me himself and not give a damn" (paraphrasing). And like... understandable since it did seem to be going that way, but for Ichigo et al.

However, what subtle "hints" had Byakuya dropped that he just assumed she understood during the SS arc? Probably a million. Maybe he thought they were totally aligned then. Maybe he thought she knew the extent of his troubled heart along with the whys and hows and whatfores.

Maybe he was really out there living his best headcanon life.

[the-scooby-gang]

Skeptic Velma who treats science like iron clad rules that can't be broken, is extremely close-minded and doesn't believe in the supernatural: boring, overused, nothing new, not funny at all, girl you know that is NOT how science works Believer Velma who gets SO HYPED about the ghost haunting this bank that she barges in with a home made ghostbusters ghost vacuum backpack, has a little recorder where she makes her observations about what kind of creature this is; Is it a poltergeist? Is it a haunted object left behind in one of the safes acting up?? Is it a secret murder??? She doesn't know but she will damn well find out!!! She has sample tubes where she puts all that glowing goo that is all over the floor and a EMF meter attached to her waistband. Then she is later super disappointed that it was actually the manager trying to scare people away so he could steal from the coffers: New, innovative, would watch a whole show where she is like this, a true scientist spirit

[meg-noel-art]

if there's one thing the most recent five years in fandoms have taught me it's that: a.) writers who are paid professionally to write things are generally worse at their job than unpaid fanfiction authors and fan artists. ii.) the ships/pairings that make the most sense and have the most chemistry will be banished to the shadow realm. 3.) everyone should just generally be nicer to each other. we're all doing this to escape a capitalist hellscape man. Chill.

[jade-lop]

Watching Gavv was like eating sugar mixed with glass shard or cotton candy wrapped on a knife.

[lemissingmask]

I don’t know why, but I absolutely adore when any of the team hold Eliot back from violence with a simple gesture or by putting themselves in front of him. And Hardison is the first to do it, right in the pilot episode 😌 But they all get a turn, like Parker in the inside job and Sophie in the snow job, or Nate several times.

[cant-get-enough-btr-forever]

*taps microphone* Hello, friends! I have a BTR topic that I want to discuss, and I'd love to know everyone's thoughts on it.

Since you all have been kind enough to include me in the fun, I'm going to return the favor: @myloveforhergoeson @fiyero3305 @its-lovelyhappycollection @confettifalling @partiallypearl

@day-dreams22 @anykindofcarlos @bishounenbtr @icegirl2772 @bejeweled-wahlberg

It's common knowledge that the boys changed over the course of the show. I even made an entire Hot Take/Essay about this.

At the very beginning, Kendall Knight was a snarky "bad boy" who talked back to anyone who messed with him/his friends. He simply Did Not Care what people thought of him.

Logan Mitchell was a shy, nervous "nerd" who usually played the devil's advocate (he also always had an intellectual tidbit on hand).

James Diamond was obsessed with becoming a pop star, but he wasn't as obnoxious/stalkerish as he later became.

Carlos was more like a "wild child"/daredevil, rather than an outright idiot (I'm sorry, but he was reduced to the ultimate Butt-Monkey status).

By season 4, they were dumbed-down, one-dimensional caricatures of themselves.

But...what if they hadn't changed?

What do you think would have been different?

[odd-odds-and-oddities]

[supposedlysecretlysapphic]

Sapphic is such a beautiful word. It's perfectly descriptive without the baggage of others using it as a slur (if it has don't tell me, ignorance is bliss). It's perfectly inclusive. It's also great as it's a word that those who know will gravitate towards (for example looking for sapphic books) but those who don't won't instantly prejudge it and will just move on. It just sounds lovely phonetically, and immortalizes the name of a woman from a society which tended to demonize them. All in all I just think it's neat!

[pterodactylwoman]

Me at work: ugh I hate my job and everything sucks

Bowser jr in a tiny car:

[notmadebyhumanhands]

At the worst of times, I’m made of maniacal laughter. Subliminal interactions, if it’s all good. But here is nothing resolved and everything denied.

So set something in motion, but only if you understand — that there is something older than love, and it is truth; and something rawer than honesty, and it is pain.

You hold my heart in your hands while it’s still pulsating. Then it, too, shall move on, when it realizes that there’s no point in looking back.

[asha-mage]

Here's a pride month flavor musing for you:

There's something to be said about the fact that even when works of period art are deliberately using a fun house mirror version of history so they can have more modern/progressive sensibilities for either race (Bridgerton) or feminism (Mrs Masiel) they still almost always maintain a period accurate attitude twords homosexuality and queerness.

It's almost like this weird tacit acknowledgement that though we can expect the audience to accept a desegregated British Aristocracy or a 1950s house wife doing stand-up comedy that speaks to modern feminist struggles, we can't expect an audience to accept gay people having happy fulfilling lives and relationships in the same way. Queerness still has this edge of enforced tragedy, secrecy, and shame to it. Of course Shy Baldwin is forced to marry a woman in order to keep his fame and to loose his best friend after nearly being outed. Of course Suzie's one romance is a tragic heartbreak that embittered her to love and left her "happy to be alone". Of course Reynolds and Brimsley must steal moments in secret and ultimately be separated- without even a passing explanation as to why their not together in the "later" timeline. Their is certainly no scene of them reuniting in the same way George and Charlotte get. Reynolds and Brimsley are queer, it's assumed they don't get to be happy and end up together, even as the show lauds the undying and unyielding love of a interracial Queen Charlotte and King George.

I know that it's just a reflection of where our society is and yet....I can't help but wish it was different. I love all these big budget glossy period pieces that look back at our history and ask "what if it had been different? What if we had been kinder and more accepting and less hateful?" and I genuinely do believe that is a question worth asking. I just think it's a question worth asking for everyone.

[nyalternatehellkitten]

"I still think that us Youkai should dress up as Shrine Maidens, exorcists, and nuns. You know. Holy people who do anti-Youkai things."

[bethanydelleman]

As you read along in Mansfield Park, you, apparently like the Bertrams, almost start to feel like Fanny’s treatment is normal. This is just what people do when they informally adopt their poor nieces, right? Fanny seems content in her place, if only Mrs. Norris would be a little nicer. This is fine.

And then someone from the outside visits and reminds you how insane the whole set up actually seems to them.

Like Mrs. Rushworth, who invites Miss Price to see Sotherton and then is really confused when she can’t go. “Why not? She’s part of the family I want to confer favour upon her too,” thinks Mrs. Rushworth, somehow the voice of reason in this situation. Edmund must move mountains to have Fanny included.

And then we have Mary’s most sparkling moment, where Mrs. Norris openly berates Fanny for being ungrateful and Mary is like, “What the actual fuck did you just say to that poor girl?”

In an earlier chapter, Mary can’t even figure out if Fanny is in or out socially, not only because Fanny is so shy, but because her style of dress and pattern of going out doesn’t make any sense. Which yeah, everything done for Fanny is an afterthought even though you had a plan to bring Fanny out into the world, remember Sir Thomas?

When Henry Crawford is talking about marrying Fanny, he says he’s going to treat her so well that her whole family will be ashamed of themselves. Is this slightly problematic in itself because of the performative nature of his charity? Yes. Am I down for it? Also yes.

Or when Fanny is caught out in the rain and doesn’t want to impose on the Grants by asking for shelter. She’s so beaten down that Dr. Grant has to go out himself to convince her she’s worthy of not being soaked.

The way that Austen kind of numbs us to the abuse and then brings it back into our faces is terrible and magnificent.

[jade-lop]

Shouma passed out…

In front of Aruto’s little apartment.

In front of Kamiyama Book Store.

At the doorstep of Happy Spa.

At the stairs to Ukiyo’s shrine.

In front of Kitchen Ichinose.

[mt10lt20]

Incorrect Ace Combat - AC 0/6/7 AU Did quite a few slightly shippy Wingmen's perspectives before, so on the flipside - the Flight Leaders' version.

Cipher: Trig, I don't think you should go out with Count.

Talisman: Agree, he's slightly dodgy.

Trigger: *Ahem*. You both do not have the moral high ground to tell me not to date Count when one of you is seeing a dude who got you court-martialed and the other is seeing a dude who tried to murder you.

Trigger: And, you are both still alive. So.

Cipher & Talisman: Okay, low bar, but fair enough. You win. Enjoy, don't die.