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occamstfs · 2 months ago

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Green Eyes of Envy

Adam finds a necklace that promises anything his heart desires and nothing does he desire more than a body no one could deny.

Vaguely Halloweeny possession story based on a well-trodden trigger! Twink -> Jock -> Bear(ish?) IQ drain/corruption. Don't forget to vote on my Viral Transformation Story poll, only one day left! Hope you enjoy! -Occam

As soon as he sees the necklace lying on the ground Adam throws it on. So far it’s another subpar night spent going home alone from the bar, at least if he nabs a cute accessory there’ll be something gained. After throwing it on, when there’s a sudden buzzing in the back of his head that’s increasingly approximating a voice Adam chalks it up to his conscience trying to speak up about his and promptly ignores it.

Once he arrives home and takes time to stare at the medallion dangling on his thin chest however, he finds the voice may well have been something external, something supernatural. As a voice resounds in his head that is clearly not his own, “Adam is it?” Concluding he’s already fallen unconscious, hopefully indeed in his home, or that he’s had far too much to drink tonight for him to remember whatever he’s about to get into he plays along. “Whazzit to ya-” Realizing just what a goldmine position it has found itself in, the presence within the necklace prepares to strike.

From the drunken grumblings made by the young man in their short time together there is clearly insecurity to pray upon, and his new owner seems adverse to caution. The being within the necklace feels close enough to gaining a physical form, a body, it can almost taste it. It cannot slip up this close to the finish line and must act swiftly and with care, “So Adam, I take it you did not fare too well in your night on the town?”

The drunken Adam’s small hands suddenly grasp the chain and pull slightly, moaning incoherently all the while. Feeling the tug the necklace quickly speaks up once more, “Woah woah woah my dear, do be careful! If you allow me, I can help you achieve your wildest dreams!” Eyes suddenly grow deathly serious as he hears the metallic voice speak in his head, “you cuh- anythin-?”

Calculating faster than a human mind can, the voice seizes on the curiosity, banking that whatever the drunk asks will indeed be in his purview, “Anything.” The hitherto thoughtlessly lolling mouth curls into a smirk and his mind dances with the possibilities, “Uhhhh, genie ruleshh, ish it?”

The medallion somehow sighs not wanting to highlight the potential, or fact rather, that it’s going to twist the man’s wish to his own end but sensing its holder’s brain seems the type to rarely make a connection deeper than surface level it concludes it should be fine. “Sure, something like that.” The chain jostles on Adam’s thin shoulders as he shrugs, “whateva- can you jussht give me the body of a fuckin’ stud?” Perfect. Mission accomplished.

Adam’s eyes flash green as the medallion does similarly, connecting them and giving whatever surely sinister being lies within the small coin carte blanche. Speaking from a deeper foothold in Adam’s mind the voice gives the perfunctory warning that any act of magic requires, “Do be wary of course, the inner bits of yourself have a nasty habit of matching the outer changes.” Though knowing that it’s now only a matter of time before it’s in control it begins to reveal it’s less than amicable side, “though given how fast you let me in it seems your deep inner tapestry hasn’t all too much to lose.”

Treating the slight as if it were the annoying buzz of an insect flying around his head, Adam quickly ignores the voice altogether and pulls out his phone to hunt for the perfect body. Lucky for the spirit Adam was already beyond horny before the necklace even graced his neck, so it is not long before his envious eyes find a man enthralling. In no time at all Adam is halfway drooling as he stares at some influencer’s massive pecs. He’s doing some skit but Adam doesn’t hear a word he says, as he stares his desire proves enough tinder for the spirit’s work to begin on his body.

Adam’s eyes simply flash green and laughter fills his mind, just as muscle begins to fill out his chest. Having always made excuses to shy away from the gym for one reason or another Adam smirks as he gropes his growing pecs. Suddenly bursting from non-existence into the by far largest muscles on his body, eclipsing his ass and thighs in a manner that should not be possible. Nipples surge larger as a few thick curls begin to smatter themselves across the burgeoning pecs. Nails scratching into the soft muscle Adam smirks as he imagines that no matter how hard he tries from here on out he could never hide these powerful pecs.

Emerald shade clearing from his eyes the aftereffects of his proud new chest are less than apparent. Rather than any grand changes to the horny drunk’s personality, the spirit simply allows the current drunken recklessness to seep in deeper. Suddenly the type to never back away from challenges even in a sober state, Adam smirks as he imagines all the heads that will turn when he gets a chance to show off his bulky new pecs. Though despite how impressive they are, they can’t be the only brawn on his body hm? Before the spirit even has a chance to seed the desire for more changes, Adam himself hungrily returns to the hunt for his own aggrandization.

Only having just faded back to his natural eye color his eyes quickly shade a darker green than even that of the medallion as Adam stares at the arms of a gymnast that pops into his feed. He clenches his jaw and reflexively flexes his arms as his weak biceps suddenly surge with the strength of someone who has spent a lifetime working towards his own betterment. He smirks as veins bulge down his biceps as his own laughter resounds even louder than that of the spirit in his own head. Forearms and triceps suddenly hold strength that hasn’t a hope to reasonably wield.

Adam’s eyes then trail from the impressive arms towards what he always paid more attention to when the gymnast was trending, the man’s thick pits. Instantly does intense itching begin in Adam’s armpits. They burn with pleasure as a forest begins to surge outwards, growing thicker as he desires to be more than any man that pops onto his screen. The few hairs painting his chest rapidly expand in kind to compete with the dank jungles that now thrive and drip with sweat under his arms. Sitting there smirking as he tears his eyes away from his phone to delight in his new beyond hairy pits as rivers of musky sweat begin trickling down his bulging pecs and thick biceps.

Suddenly having the upper body of an Olympian, Adam’s mind grows foggy with a pride even greater than the sum of his impressive parts. Bouncing his pecs for the first time while doing a double bicep flex, Adam is filled with lust for his own form and a growing confidence that already no man could ever possibly resist him. He grunts and notices that his neck has similarly grown thicker, his voice resounding deeper as an adam’s apple bulges onto his previously smooth neck. Moaning as he takes a deep breath and enjoys his new heady musk, he feels his mind start to drift away from the pursuit of perfection and to instead just give in prematurely to hedonism as his larger hands inch towards his crotch.

Before getting the chance the voice returns and whispers like a snake, “ahh ahh ahh Adam… We are not complete yet.” Looking down at his lower body he shakes off his horny delirium and agrees, rapidly returns to the more than mindless scrolling, thankfully easily able to hold up against the whims of his still average cock. Adam again does not have to search long before his eyes land upon men he longs to be, to have, to be with. His eyes once more glow a searing Emerald, and the medallion scarcely lights up, at the sight of two specimens that alight more jealousy than anything yet.

Memories of his anxieties and self-doubt quickly vacate as confidence imbues every inch of him, staring at the thick thighs and powerful calves of the bodybuilders he feels his power and pride grow to new heights. Immediately sending tears down the ratty old skinny jeans he wore to the bar, thighs that make it immediately clear that their owner could break a watermelon between them surge into existence. Finally regaining their top spot as the largest muscles on the body they grow larger than his pecs before being similarly outmatched by his ass growing firm and flexing larger with each hungry glance at the two men.

Legs cramping outward the spirit within Adam feels his ability to control the man almost come to a head. Adam doesn’t notice as his fingers twitch and flex beyond his control nor does he care as his toes strain in the air as his feet inch larger. Why does it matter that his chest is flexing without being told, it’s hot, Adam surely meant to do that anyway. Looking down and inspecting his new form, concern slides off his mind anyway as he sees hair begin to increase across his chest, rapidly shooting down abs that he didn’t even notice forming.

He plays with the forest of hair beginning to shadow the whole of his torso as he feels similar stubble being to scratch against his chin. Tilting his head, his foggy mind struggles to wonder how he’s still changing without looking at men like the medallion instructed. Looking at his reflection in the mirror and seeing the impossibly alluring figure he has become however he decides to not care what the stupid thing said anyway. He must have gotten what he needs from it already.

Thoughtlessly he removes the necklace and tosses it away having decided he’s more than enough man. Only then does his bulge begin to grow beyond what he has always known it to be. There’s a sigh of relief and anticipation as he realizes he almost missed a chance to grow his cock with whatever that coin did to him. Face and chest burning red with blush he forces his hand into his crotch and smirks as he feels his thick fingers begin to tangle in his new bush. His free hand still dances across the bounty of chest hair and his new mustache scratches against his shoulder as he bathes in the new musk that resounds from his pits.

Mind clouded from his changes, having far too much to drink, and the cocktail of new hormones issuing forth from balls rapidly filling his briefs, Adam pulls out his larger cock and begins to go to town. Experiencing the new heights of pleasure that his dream body allows Adam loses himself to new ecstasy. His cock stretches to a size that rivals the forearm of a lesser man and his balls race to match the size his impressive body warrants. If it weren’t for his hand slowing down its thrusts it’s likely that Adam would never notice what was to happen to him next.

His face moves in unfamiliar patterns as something besides him stretches it to understand how to control it. Eyes slam shut as far as they can and then reopen, and Adam suddenly realizes that he can no longer move them of his own volition, and yet he still sees. Staring out from eyes seemingly out of his control, Adam feels his mouth smirk without instruction as a voice he has barely gotten the chance to use spills out from his thicker lips, “Well well young Adam. Excellent work thus far, think I’ll take over from here though lad.”

Adam struggles for dominance as he finds himself but a voice in his own head, watching his new fingers dance at the end of powerful arms he scarcely had time to appreciate. He feels them flex and struggles not to give in to the delight of the power and continue fighting. Feeling himself not totally lost he endeavors a hail mary and focuses all his attention to the one thing that has always been able to override his mind in the past. His balls churn and his cock bounces as even whatever clearly powerful spirit now controlling his form is unable to resist his rising lusts. The need for release that suddenly blares through every sweaty inch of his skin and the being totally not used to self-control or human weakness struggles to not give in.

The spirit grunts as it remembers its tenuous position on reality, through its own suddenly clouded mind it goes into bargaining mode, struggling to stop their body from its uncontrollable thrusting into the air, “Ohh oh fuck okay, another deal. I can’t- We can’t cum yet or grgh- Please not yet!” Adam grinds the well-trodden neural pathways of lust to a halt as he desires to hear the being out. To signal his willingness to play ball, as well as out of the hope Adam should be better at staying his hand from masturbation, it allows Adam full control once more. Adam does begin playing with his cock immediately, moreso from the ever-pressing desire to cum rather than intimidation at expelling the spirit though it works for both.

The spirit somehow clears his throat within Adam’s head, “To level, I am in here now, for good. But we can work out an arrangement, we can share. You can fuck and frot whatever, but every so often I’ll need a chance at the wheel for my own, uhm ends. Worry not, if anything it’ll only amount to more pleasure for yourself!” Adam cups his larger balls and struggles to understand the implications of this agreement. He hasn’t the capacity to care that his intellect seems to have diminished as his body grew, in fact as clearly duller words spill out of his mouth it only turns him on more, “Uuhhh, so we’ll share my body?”

Somehow rolling eyes he doesn’t have control over, the being realizes this must be a two way street and agrees, “Of course, you just let me do my thing and we’ll get along great.” Adam scratches his beard itching thicker and shrugs, “Sure dude, whatever.” At the lightest sign of agreement the spirit seizes control, too late does he realize his haste has caused him a misstep. Whether its his limited time in the corrupted mind of Adam forcing human err unto the spirit or simply from just how unprepared the spirit is to handle the overwhelming lust in Adam’s mind, rather than sharing control the two become irrevocably one in both body and mind. Whatever sinister priorities the spirit had rapidly shift to match the hedonistic needs of Adam. Rapidly fading into the bestial desire of Adam the spirit turns up its nose as it finds itself wanting to change their now shared form, “If we’re gonna share, uh bro, need a bit more space in here eh?”

With that, Adam’s eyes cross and he struggles to not burp as he feels his powerful form begin to bloat. His beard thickens as both minds become one and mass begins to pile onto his torso as abs grow into a bulky muscle gut underneath his still impressive pecs. Scratching his ass as it too grows a jungle of hair before going back to palm his cock, both minds feel sedated as they smell his thick musk and Adam can scarcely remember any priorities besides the all-important goal of seeking his own pleasure.

To this end the pair find themselves awash in exploring their-his body, for countless hours of making a mess of his bedroom, living room, and kitchen Adam finally remembers that there is more to the world than his small apartment. There are more holes to explore than the few in himself and far more to see than the steamy videos he can pull up on his phone. Wiping drool off his face and crusted cum off his torso, something at the back of Adam’s mind itches as he feels there was something greater he was supposed to do, something he was supposed to spread or some control he was supposed to enforce. Giving his pits a good sniff he smirks before opining that perhaps there is no greater goal than spreading his own glory far and wide.

Quite the easy enough task as it runs out as whatever the spirit did before fading into but another aspect of Adam’s lusty mind gave him the ability to attract anyone to his cause. Rather than whatever dire cause intended, with the two totally merged the only purpose of his inhumanly alluring self is to spread pleasure. As soon as he steps out of his front door he finds men throwing themselves at him in droves. Jocks, twinks, and bears alike could not possibly resist the titan as he walks down the street, always shadowed by a heavy wave of his aphrodisiac musk.

Adam’s eyes glance across and stare through every man whose hungry eyes cannot look away, whose shoulders fly back in submission, whose noses lead them to trial behind him. While many of them get the chance to enjoy time with the inhumanly alluring man, only a few get to experience the truly rapturous experience of being changed by Adam himself. Only a select few find themselves molded into something greater than that they are when they first submit to Adam’s will. Though even a few is enough to spread and as time goes on the number of musky men wandering around could certainly become a problem. Lucky for the world perhaps, whatever cause the medallion held is long forgotten and the changed men yearn for no higher purpose than pleasure. And with the enhancements gifted by Adam, that is precisely what they find.

#male tf #mental change #male transformation #jockification #hair growth #possession #muscle tf #dumber #bear tf #beard growth

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septembermonologues · 19 days ago

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i am so fucking terrified, i don't know how to get through this waiting

I guess I'm asking if there's any hope left to be had

the wait is so brutal but yes, i firmly believe that there is always hope!! some things i'm trying to keep in mind are:

- the red haze-- early results seem widely red because in-person votes lean republican. those votes are also counted first and faster because they're smaller counties compared to denser ones that lean democrat. make sure you're looking at the % of ballots counted because projected results aren't true results. the race won't start to actually solidify until tomorrow morning.

- keep an eye on your state and local reps! the nitty gritty stuff can be more positive than the national (i live in a pretty rural area but i just happily voted for rep underwood--a younger progressive black woman--a second time).

- just because results come short of what we hoped doesn't mean they represent popular opinion. in florida, marijuana and abortion rights have fallen short even with a 50%+ majority because they require a 60% majority to pass. i know it's incredibly disheartening to not see popular opinions supported by law but i also believe that you have to remember that people, especially people in historically red states, don't necessary tow the stereotypical line. there is room for movement and change.

- there are ballots that currently aren't being counted because they have errors that are CURABLE and CAN be counted if corrected. i already reblogged something about it but if you voted (esp if by mail) please answer unnamed calls because it could be about your ballot. if you go here at vote.com you can also track your ballot.

- there are always, always things for us to do between elections. encourage your friends and family to look forward at the 2026 midterms (they can have huge effects on congress) and start planning, see if there are any campaigns that could use your help moving forward, look into working polling stations in the future (i did it in 2018 and it was a long but fulfilling day), get the fuck outside and moving around. find out where you can volunteer around you- homeless shelters, food banks/kitchens, community events. read some history and some theory-- we aren't actually in completely unprecedented times and it's important to remember where we've progressed from.

- honestly? stop giving batshit crazy people the attention they want. no rage engagement. its what they want. focus on raising awareness without directly interacting with them.

- it fucking sucks ass that its this close and that extremists win. i will never ever say that it doesn't. but it will not be the end. it will be hard but thats when we have to lean on each other. we can't be afraid to ask each other for help and we have to find things to be excited and hopeful for. there is some truth to "other people have it worse so i have to keep going". who are we to give up on the whole?

maybe im just tipsy but i just find so much hope and inspiration in the work so many people put into civil service. people want better than what we have and are fighting for us. i can't let myself get too negative because it doesn't do any good to wallow. just in general i love humanity too much to let the bad win.

#i feel like im talking out of my ass but hopefully any of this means anything #us politics

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afreakingdork · 2 days ago

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Writing Request: Reader X Leo 🚁

Don't be afraid to let those requests keep going in! I will take whatever you throw at me like how @bewbberrytarts requested a certain video inspiration along with Leo going like “BABE, WATCH THIS”

From now until the poll closes, if you can prove to me that you voted hassan/mikey in this poll then I will write any short 100-400 word request like below or draw you a doodle of your choosing!

ᴰᶦˢᶜˡᵃᶦᵐᵉʳ: ᴵ ᵃᵐ ⁿᵒᵗ ᶦⁿ ᵃⁿʸʷᵃʸ ᵃˢˢᵒᶜᶦᵃᵗᵉᵈ ᵒʳ ᵉⁿᵈᵒʳˢᵉᵈ ᵇʸ ᵗʰᵉ ᶜᵒᵐᵖᵉᵗᶦᵗᶦᵒⁿ ᵒʳ ᶦᵗˢ ᶜᵒⁿᵗᵉˢᵗᵃⁿᵗˢ.

Minors DNI, we got 🍋 below:

The NSFW inspiration video for posterity

Leo often reached a certain state of zen when in the throes of pleasure. He wouldn't exactly call it a meditative state, but pleasure helped to drown out his thoughts. At any given moment, he was knee deep in about a hundred different schemes in various stages of fruition. From things as silly as convincing Raph to eat the last of the stale chips so he'd think to buy new ones without Leo's intervention to great plans to take down foes, his mind was constantly churning.

There's no way to say his mind wasn't on you either.

You had your own special category. Much less nefarious, his plans for your ranges from sweetness to depravity. It was in service of you so he doubted you minded, but you were equally outside your brain in this particular moment. Moaning and shuddering into him to get away from the brick wall, you made sweet, soft sounds in the alley you had both ducked into.

A little heated conversation on the way back from a date and a sudden rush of spontaneity had you pulling him behind a dumpster. His initial intent was to make it a heated make-out session and the portal you to his bed, but you wouldn't stop crooning. You weren't near loud enough to be heard on the street, but for his ears you your breaths and mewls carried him along.

Quieted his mind.

Narrowed his list of priorities.

It was the closest he got to silence.

You.

Your moans settled him.

His praise.

Even when you did often call him your champion without prompting these days.

These were specifically his.

Just as you were.

"Deeper!" You whimpered into his shoulder. "Skewer me."

He hadn't meant it.

His mind just reeled a little too fast. Unlike Mikey where the jumps were lost attention, Leo was adapting for whatever the scenario may be. In this case it was your verbiage. Skewering led to skewers. You had just eaten at that doner place Mikey recommended. The meat was cooked on that huge vertical spit. The slow rotation and the man with his cleaver came to mind. Leo showing off by jumping behind the counter because his sword skills translated to such a thing was to pull an incredulous laugh from you.

Yet another sweet sound.

it was in that train of thought, hearing you both inside his mind and you, that another voice came.

"Hey, you two! Come out!"

He stopped cold.

Authoritative.

Wide stance.

Breath even.

An adjustment of a belt that was a little too loose.

Leo knew it was a cop before his thrust came to a halt.

In milliseconds he accessed the situation and fear meant your innards contracted around him.

His eyes rolled back.

You felt too good.

He dipped to press a reassuring kiss into your head.

He never needed to say it; it was ingrained in your brain.

Leo's go you.

He pulled away and saw that level of trust in your eyes.

Which left him the cop.

"Come out you, two. I don't know what it is about tonight, gotta be the moon, but I really don't want to have to break you up. I just had to see unspeakable things on the subway."

As much as he wanted to keep his mind at that quiet precipice, it was a necessity to break away.

Within a blink the many possibilities lined up.

42 of them required his swords which he had left at home for the sake of the date.

12 involved scaling the building in various fashions.

6 were meant for him to talk his way out of public indecency ticket.

4 was his rounded number for how many times that failed and you two would have to run.

1 would leave him with blood stained hands.

There were more he immediately dismissed.

Hundreds of options, but he really wanted to get back to you.

That meant keeping the mood.

86 scenarios evaporated with the restriction.

He technically could portal without a conduit, but it was messy.

If he was going to move you, he wanted to do it straight into his bed.

The doner restaurant was still there.

A small afterthought that sat idly by for his return.

Your silly smile at his antics.

He'd do anything for that smile.

A single plan emerged from the rest.

That would work and would be a story for the ages.

Leo smirked and pulled out of you.

It took some adjustment was you were weak in the knees for him, but he got your propped up enough and peeked out at the officer.

"Evening! Just a second! I'm freshening up!" Leo flashed the man a smile.

"Hurry up." The officer had a beard and a bored expression that said he was at the end of his shift, but had snuck in a quick meal on the clock.

From here, Leo pegged it as Thai food, specifically pad woon sen, but those glass noodles were tricky sometimes to nail down.

"Come on."

He would be just full enough.

"Let's go." The officer cleared his throat around a burp.

Perfectly so in fact.

"Both of you."

It was like the universe existed to serve his ideas.

Leo made eye contact long enough to see the cop wave him over.

"Hey, babe." Leo turned with a growing smirk at you.

You had known him too long for fear.

You looked at him with ready criticism.

You long recognized when he was about to pull a stunt.

You would chide him, but you loved it.

You loved when he was playful.

You loved when he was his shinning self.

"Watch this!!" Leo hopped out and squared his stance.

His cock hung at the ready between his legs and he swung it toward the officer who hissed at the sight as if he'd be burned. "Oh, what the fuck!!"

With a swivel of his hips one way, Leo tossed them the other.

The cop was still recovering from surprise.

It took a few more swings and his dick made a rotation.

Now the officer was moving.

For Leo, an internal clock started.

You almost said his name, but covered your mouth.

He loved you.

He loved that you hadn't shouted out personal information to the police.

You were truly a catch.

Enough so that he'd expose himself and helicopter his dick just to keep your spirits high.

"Don't worry, officer. We are just about to take-off." Leo's grin split his face.

Now you were holding back laughter.

He did love a performance.

"That's enough!" The cop went for his gun.

"Now, now!" Leo teased. "We can work this out. You had such a calm altitude-itude before!"

Before he unlatched the button over his piece, the officer's head shot up. "Puns!?"

"Oh, you hear that, babe?" Leo glanced at you where you were doing everything in your power not to laugh. "I thought for sure that one was going to fly over his head."

A few snickers broke out and there was an audible pop of the cop getting his gun.

Time rounded down to the single digits and a blue light flickered in Leo's eyes.

He wished he could say he hadn't practiced this before, but he had.

He had gotten his powers as a teen after all.

"Well! That was a whirly good time. We had our ups and downs, but I'm cleared for take off! Don't wanna rotor on for too long!"

The officer's arm lifted, but the spark of ninpo spread first.

As it always did, it shot forward for the first circular pattern it could.

He felt the power sink through his guts and into his cock.

Sparks kicked up off his member for the first catching flickers of tearing space-time.

The portal opened straight through his dick and Leo nabbed you as he fell forward through it.

It took only a quick rotation and he landed on his back on his bed with you atop him.

The portal closed just as a few lingering footsteps tried to give chase.

"You're insane!!" You banged his plastron, but your smile was unmistakable.

"At least you love me for my propeller sense of humor."

"They just keep getting worse!" You moved to silence him.

You did so with your lips which Leo celebrated as a job well done and yet another sign of clear airspace.

#me #fanfiction #my fanfiction #rottmnt #rise of the tmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt x reader #rise leo #Leonardo Hamato #rottmnt leo x reader #leo x reader #rise leo x reader #rottmnt Leonardo #rottmnt leo #rally until the tally #request #writing request #requests open

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birdofdawning · 2 years ago

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Le Poison des Pierreries

Two women kissing in nature, by Georges Rochegrosse (1859-1938).

This is such a sweet picture. I’ve seen it pop up a few times on Tumblr.

And now I am going to ruin it. But then I’m going to try and unruin it! However, if you just want two girls kissing in nature then scroll on by and vote in some polls. It’s all good.

So this is an illustration from 1903 French novelette Le Poison des Pierreries (The Poisoned Stones) The two characters kissing are the Princess Alilat (the tall brunette) and the Prince Sparyanthis (the blond). Sparyanthis is eighteen years old and we weren’t yet at the point where we required super-buffness to indicate masculinity, so the artist depicts him as a pretty youth. But don’t stop reading! Because 1.) this is a tale of eroticism, revenge, obsession, and treacherous murder by sorcery, and who doesn’t love all that? and 2.) there is nothing straight about this couple or this novel.

Also, 3.) it’s pretty sexy. So, you know. Be aware fellow asexuals.

Le Poison des Pierreries was written by the author and essayist Camille Mauclair for his friend the Orientalist Georges Rochegrosse to illustrate. Orientalism was very pretty but very, very problematic and if you don’t know why you can easily find out by doing a search.

(BTW I am not an expert on textual analysis or art history, or queer and gender theory, and know almost nothing about the French language — when I get stuff wrong feel free to let me know! I’m sure at the very least there are lots of classical allusions I’m missing.)

Also: there’s some implied lack of consent in this story.

The novelette tells of the distant city of Etesia. It is ruled by two brothers, the doughty warrior Cimmérion and the beautiful, decadent Sparyanthis. They are really really fond of each other. But in a way that wasn’t a big deal in 1903.

Cimmérion arrives home from war with the beautiful princess Alilat whom he has forced into marriage. Alilat is now the last of her house, thanks to Cimmérion, because he’s slaughtered everyone she ever knew, and she has opinions about this. Despite Sparyanthis’ best intentions, Alilat beguiles him, and they begin having an affair while Cimmérion is away hunting each day. ‘Two women kissing in nature’ is the moment when Sparyanthis finally gives in to his desire for Alilat.

But Alilat is (understandably) after revenge for herself and her people, and she uses her sorceries to bring a strange malady upon Cimmérion that robs him of his strength. At the same time she relishes the agonies of guilt Sparyanthis feels over his ongoing betrayal of his beloved brother.

Eventually everyone dies!

But until that happens there is a lot of queer sex going on.

The Queerness

So we can try and read this story as someone from 1903, or we can read it as someone from today. In 1903 it’s a story of masculinity as a vital, conquering, barbarous force versus femininity as a languid, yielding, civilising… perhaps too civilising… influence. A healthy nation was thought to be warlike and ever-expanding. Old civilizations — like the ancient nations of the East — were regarded as rich but dwindling due to becoming too decadent; their sexual mores (which the West took a not at all creepy interest in; c.f. Richard Burton) were held to be intriguing but Not The Done Thing. A proper western couple — one (1) man + one (1) woman, married — had quick, penetrative sex and then went to sleep or something idk. This is how Cimmérion takes Alilat, and she loathes him for it (there’s a line about her ‘being thrown down upon the couch of the conqueror’ and having to endure his caresses). Real men are too busy hunting or making war or running kingdoms to bother much about girls.

But Sparyanthis is quite a different sort of person from his dull brother. He wanders around the palace in women’s clothes having sex with whoever he finds; the explicit incidents are with women, but there are plenty of young men in the illustrations. And everyone is down with it because the Etesians are known for two things: war and having A LOT of sex, never mind with who (at one point Spary can seek out Aliat at night because all the servants are busy making out with all the soldiers in alcoves).

Both in words and illustrations Mauclair and Rochegrosse suggest Sparyanthis is a young woman. He is ‘more beautiful that all the maidens of that country’. He is frequently described as wearing women’s robes, or of being naked except for his jewellery. He is languid and wanton (not vigorous and virile like Cimmérion), with golden tresses and soft, white limbs. There are suggestions that he is sometimes rouged or kohl-eyed, but I don’t trust my translation enough to say for sure. He lays around on couches and beds a lot, and delves into non-manly stuff like magic and secret knowledge. There’s much made of how devoted to each other the two brothers are because of their differences. Soft, white Sparyanthis idolises tanned, brawny, bearded Cimmérion, and Cimmérion ‘adores Sparyanthis’ beautiful body’.

Alilat, meanwhile, is not an Etesian and is accustomed to wearing sombre modest clothing (there is a scene where Sparyanthis invites her to one of his afternoon gambols, and when everyone strips off and starts making out Alilat remains in her black robes and pointedly focuses only on her host, Sparyanthis, and he wonders what’s going on). But once she seduces Sparyanthis, she starts playing with gender too: she frequently meets him dressed in masculine clothes, while he is still in his woman’s garments. She is a vital force, determined as she is to achieve her revenge, and this is juxtaposed with Sparyanthis’ languorous attitude. She is compared to a hunter, and him to the quarry.

Alilat explicitly cannot stand the touch of a man, so she's having an affair with the beautiful, voluptuous Sparyanthis... because neither her nor the story considers him a man.

She intends to destroy both Cimmérion and the city of Etesia, and she takes a devilish glee in how tortured with guilt Sparyanthis is, but she does seem to be as sexually obsessed with him as he is with her. And there are moments of maternal kindness too, where she fondly treats Spary like a younger sister.

So while in 1903 it’s a story of what city-destroying calamities happen when men and women don’t follow their natures or whatever, today it reads like messed up queer people having a lot of queer sex. And I think it’s definitely much more fun to read it that way.

The Sex

So I am asexual and modern sex stuff doesn’t really do much for me. But, tell you what, 1903 veiled door sex knows what it’s about.

Everyone is having great sex here, and it’s implied that because of all this sensuality the kingdom is doomed to fall: the ‘warm voluptuousness’ is ‘softening the men’. You just can’t run a country while everyone’s fucking all the time, and Mauclair is here to tell you all about how bad an idea it is.

No sex is ever described (though it’s taking place in the background of at least one illustration), so the excitement is all in the set-up: Alilat abducts and fucks Sparyanthis while dressed as one of his own archers (“and seized him with the audacity of a soldier taking a weak, conquered Syrian”). A bearded magician approaches Sparyanthis while he is studying the stars in his chambers and traces on the ground with a wand the symbol for an astrological union, and then the 'magician' opens her robe enough to reveal her breasts and they have sex with Alilat still wearing her false beard. I mean

They met in secret caves and rut like beasts, howling, then sit in the throne room in their official robes and give each other secret looks (which, to be fair, is kind of like every new love affair).

Sadly there are no illustrations of any of this! I guess Rochegrosse just wanted to draw beautiful youths embracing and had no time for Mauclair's gender-switching antics, and I think that's a shame.

Anyway, because Cimmérion has laid hands upon Alilat without her permission she has come up with a very particular murder scheme. She tells Sparyanthis that Cimmérion prefers to take her ‘naked save all her jewellery’ and so she enchants her jewellery to burn away his vitality while it caresses his bare skin — the Poisoned Stones of the story’s title. The very act of sex brings about the stoic Cimmérion's murder.

Everyone in Etesia is making out with everyone else, and Cimmérion’s and Alilat’s marriage seems to be the only expected exception to all this polyamoury or so you would think. But then comes the kicker at the end: as Cimmérion lies on his death bed he tells Sparyanthis and Alilat that he knew all about their secret love the whole time and he was totally okay with it: they should carry on with his blessing. Sparyanthis is not okay about that. But too late, bud.

Anyway, not two women kissing in nature, but — I think — two genderqueer people kissing in nature. Read it for yourself! It’s really short!

(Okay, so this is too long already, but Alilat is just so cool. She sends dreams to Spary and begins seducing him before they've even met.

There’s this whole bit where she summons up a spirit of fire from the underworld to infuse her jewellery with wicked magics, and Sparyanthis is like “Do we need to use sorcery? Can’t we just stab him?” and Alilat says “Don’t be such a nerd, Sparyanthis, I wanna do it with evil sex.”

And there’s also another part where she’s wondering about how it will all turn out once Cimmérion is dead, and she’s thinking that maybe she’ll usurp the throne, but then again maybe she’ll just destroy the kingdom and then ride out across the desert as it falls, laughing, and then she’ll go to the mountains and establish her own country of sorceresses and she will be their queen.

And hey, maybe the Alilat who ‘died’ was only a simulacrum and the real Alilat did just that. I hope so, people should just leave a girl alone.)

#Le Poison des Pierreries #French Novel (1903)#Two women kissing in nature #by Georges Rochegrosse (1859-1938)#Playing with gender #Genderqueer #orientalism #A lot of sex #Like a LOT #Sorcery

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odinsblog · 2 years ago

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Back in 2001, Senate Bill 1 passed the Texas state legislature and banned Harris County - that's Houston - from keeping polls open late into the night, or overnight, so that shift workers could vote, while expanding early voting in rural counties. It lets the state throw away absentee ballots that don't come in with the voters drivers license number attached, without telling people that their vote hasn't been counted. It makes it a felony for any state employee to mail out an unsolicited absentee ballot. It requires election officials to do monthly purges of voting rolls, without notifying voters that they'll no longer be able to vote.

It provides new legal protections for so-called, non-partisan poll watchers.

They're actually recruiting Proud Boys down in Texas to be poll watchers, and it makes it a one year in prison offense if you try to stop them or confront them.

And it maintains the state's lack of convenient online voter registration, making it the most difficult state in the union to vote in. That was two years ago to set up Greg Abbott's election victory in the election of 2022.

Now they're coming back with a brand new piece of legislation that would allow the Republican Secretary of State to throw out all the votes in any county with over 2.7 million people, if the secretary of state believes there are any “irregularities” in the count. Now interestingly enough, the county that has Dallas has 2.6 million people and it votes Republican. The county that has Houston, which votes Democratic, has 2.7 million people. It has over 2.6 million, so in the law they made it only apply to any county with over 2.6 million people.

This is just one small piece of a much larger effort.

As the Texas Civil Rights Project noted, in just the first four years after five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, Texas Republicans closed 1173 polling places in mostly Black and Hispanic counties that had previously been protected by the Voting Rights Act, but none of that was enough for them.

As the Houston Chronicle noted two days ago, the effort is now to be able to throw out election results in Houston, and then say, “now the state has to have a new election that has to be paid for by the county,” or “now the county has to have a new election that has to be paid for by the county.”

And of course they want to do this because they know that special elections have very low turnout, and low turnout always favors Republicans, because the people who can most easily vote are the people who are salaried, upper middle class — white people mostly, and people who are retired. You know the aging Republicans in Texas, and you know it's pretty straightforward stuff.

Out of the 254 counties in Texas, only Harris County, only Houston was selected for this. And this is, you know, a county now that is led by people of color, as the Harris County attorney pointed out.

And Republican Secretaries of State across the nation were vigorously purging people from the polls. Over 17 million, more than 10% of America's active voters were purged off voting rolls in just the two years leading up to the 2018 elections, according to NBC News.

In North Carolina, now this again after the Voting Rights Act was gutted by five Republicans on the Supreme Court, in North Carolina 158 polling places were permanently closed in the 40 counties with the largest African-American populations leading up. This was just before the 2016 election, the Donald Trump election. This led to a 16% decline in African-American early voting in that state.

An MIT study found that nationwide, Hispanic voters wait 150% longer than white people do in line.

Black voters wait 200% longer in line.

In Indiana when then Governor Mike Pence passed a rigorous new Voter ID law, it produced an 11.5% drop in African-American voting in Indiana. This is why we didn't get President Al Gore or President Hillary Clinton. We would have gotten both of them if it wasn't for voter suppression.

Down in Florida, Jeb Bush knocked 90,000 African-Americans off the voting rolls so that his brother could win by 537 votes. Or we would have had President Al Gore, if it had been illegal for Jeb Bush to throw those people off the voting rolls.

And the same thing in 2016: an 11.5% drop in African-American voting just in Indiana, because of a law that Mike Pence passed.

Well, it was happening all over the country. By 2016, the Republican Party had really fine-tuned this voter suppression machine.

The New York Times reports in 2017 that just in Wisconsin, this is in the 2016 election, about 17,000 registered votes were turned away from the polls because of a new Voter ID law from Scott Walker.

In 2018, Greg Palace sued a number of Republican Secretaries of State and got his hands on purge lists that included 90,000 people in largely Democratic parts of Nevada, and 769,000 people in Colorado.

Keep in mind this is when Colorado was run by Republicans. 340,000 people in Georgia, and 469,000 people purged in Indiana.

In the dissent, in the Huston v. Randolph case, this was the case in 2018, where five Republicans on the Supreme Court said, “Yeah, it's fine. You can keep purging people from voting rolls.”

This was the Ohio Secretary of State, Stephen Breyer pointed out in his dissent, and I quote, “the record shows that in 2012, Ohio identified 1.5 million registered voters, nearly 20% of its 8 million registered voters as ineligible to remain on the voting rolls because they changed their residences,” and he points out that's 20% of the state's voters - who were kicked off for moving, when on any average year, about 4% of Americans move. How do these numbers come in while they just, you know, hey, Brown people, Black people, college towns, let's just purge them.

Calling the findings disturbing, the Brennan Center said, almost 4 million more names were purged in the rolls between 2014 and 2016. This led up to the Trump election.

Then between 2006 and 2008, this growth in the number of removed voters represented an increase of 33%, far outstripping growth of both total registered voters, 18%, and total population 6%.

This has been their strategy for years and years and years, to throw people off the voting rolls. Now on top of that, they're waging their culture wars, but the culture wars are not all that popular among most Americans.

—Republicans cry “Voter Fraud!” while enacting massive Voter Suppression laws

#politics #mike pence #republicans #voter suppression #greg abbott #republican dirty tricks #voter roll purges #white supremacy #gop shenanigans #jeb bush #voter intimidation

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mi6-cafe · 1 year ago

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007 Fest 2023 Survey Results

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, but thank you all for participating in this month-long celebration and for giving thoughtful feedback in our survey. Our incredible team of Cafe volunteers met this weekend to go through all of it and we have lots of ideas for changes based on your feedback. We are by no means done coming up with ideas, but here is our annual survey analysis.

Communication

You all loved the all Fest channel in slack so we’ll be keeping that again for next year. We also decided to freeze the Fest-related channels in slack at the end of August. (More on this coming in slack as we figure out the different options for doing this.) We also acknowledge that Fest is spread out across a lot of different platforms. Next year we will lean a little more heavily on emails for the crucial information throughout the month, and also be more clear about where to expect different types of announcements.

Team Leadership

As always, Fest could not run without amazing leaders! We changed things up this year by having both captains and cheerleaders and your feedback indicates that we should keep this! If you were a team leader this year, we’ll be reaching out later in the year to help us create a new document to further clarify expectations so that we can give a much better orientation to leaders next year.

CAT prize

This year we offered a special Cool, Awesome Teammate prize. There were many great nominations, but there wasn't one person who was a clear stand out above the rest. So rather than us trying to debate between people when we obviously aren't on every team, we are electing not to award one person this year as the stand out. We are, however, still passing on all those nominations and shout outs to the people they were about so that they know how much they are appreciated!

Changes to Points

You all voted on tumblr polls counting as one point each. You also voted to increase the bonus stacking limit to 3. We will also be working throughout the year to make changes to the word count divisions, add new higher point categories, and increase the point value of social events like watch parties

Roleplaying

We have comments about this each year in the survey, both good and bad. We’ve had to adjust our suggestions for the roleplaying aspects across the years, but for next year we are putting a stop to all roleplaying aspects, pressing a reset button of sorts. We know for many of you pretending to be in the spy world is fun, but this year the complaints which stemmed from it far outweighed the compliments. As a team of mods and volunteers, we have a few little details to work out, but we want to be clear on our expectation of no roleplaying aspects to the Fest next year. After 2024, we will reassess.

Team days

Along those lines, team days will also stay retired for another year. However, your feedback indicated that what most people missed was the collaborative spirit that often blossomed when a challenge was issued. So, we are going to work hard to incorporate that in other ways throughout Fest. (If you have ideas for small challenges which require teamwork, let us know!)

Big Format Changes

This is a little vague, but your suggestions inspired what we hope is a great idea to shake up the format of Fest. It will de-emphasize some of the competitive aspects, and also increase the focus on the other ways to contribute, like doing beta work and attending watch parties. We have lots of details to work out, but we’re excited.

Speaking of, we’re going to use the tag #007 Fest Change Log to let you all know about changes we’re working on throughout the year and occasionally use tumblr polls to ask your opinion.

Phew, that got long. Tl;dr You all had great feedback, the team is working on changes big and small, stay tuned for exciting announcements!

And stay tuned for LDWS coming up very soon!

~Your Cafe Mods,

Castillon and Linorien

#007 Fest Change Log #007 fest admin #end of fest #Fest survey

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nld-as-insights · 3 months ago

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Disability Voting Rights

In honor of the state primary elections in the U.S., here is information from the American Civil Liberties Union website about voting rights for disabled people/people with disabilities:

“Your rights

Under federal law, all polling places for federal elections must be fully accessible to older adults and voters with disabilities. Simply allowing curbside voting is not enough to meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility requirements.

In federal elections, every polling place must have at least one voting system that allows voters with disabilities to vote privately and independently. Usually, this is a machine that can read the ballot to you (for people with vision disabilities or dyslexia), and let you vote by pushing buttons (for people with mobility disabilities).

Under federal law, voters with disabilities and voters who have difficulty reading or writing English have the right to receive in-person help at the polls from the person of their choice. This helper cannot be the voter’s employer, an agent of the voter’s employer, or an agent or officer of the voter’s union. The helper must respect the voter’s privacy, not looking at the voter’s ballot unless the voter asks them to do so.

Election officials (including poll workers) must make reasonable accommodations as needed to help you vote.

Election officials must provide you with help if it’s possible for them to do so.

A voter with a mental disability cannot be turned away from the polls because a poll worker thinks they are not ‘qualified’ to vote.

What to do

You can bring a family member, friend, or another person of your choice to assist you at the polls. Do not bring your employer, or an agent of your employer or union.

If you bring a person to assist you, let the poll workers know that when you check in. They may ask you to swear under oath that you have a disability and that you have asked that person to help you. Your helper may also be required to sign a form swearing that they did not tell you how to vote.

If there are long lines and you have a physical or mental health condition or disability that makes it difficult for you to stand in line, tell a poll worker.

Tell election officials what you need. For example, if it’s hard for you to stand, they should provide you with a chair or a place to sit while you wait. If the crowds or noise are hard for you, election officials can find a quiet place for you to wait and call you when it’s your turn to vote.

If you are not able to enter your polling place because the pathway to it is not fully accessible, ask poll workers for curbside assistance. Also call 1-866-OUR-VOTE to report the issue.

If you have difficulty using the materials provided to make your ballot selections, review, or cast your ballot, let a poll worker know and ask for the help you need. Accessibility is the law.

If you face any challenges in voting privately and independently or are unable to cast your vote, report the problem to the Election Protection hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE. Trained attorneys can assist you and make sure that other voters do not experience the same problem.”

#disability rights #voting rights #voting #us elections #2024 presidential election #us politics #disability

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pargolettasworld · 3 months ago

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Voting!

So it seems to me that there might be some potential first-time voters floating around here. Maybe you've just turned eighteen, maybe you've been turned off of voting for the past few years, but you're excited and want to make your debut this year, maybe you're a brand-new US citizen. Maybe your town didn't have Mr. Zacchio, who ran a straw poll of schoolchildren every year in my home town. It was fantastic. You got to learn how to use a voting machine, find out what all the adults would be up to on Election Day, and everyone got a kick out of seeing the Kid Straw Poll results when they were published in the local newspaper. But maybe you didn't have a Mr. Zacchio, and you're not entirely sure of the process.

I just worked a primary election this week, and I'm looking forward to working again in November. I'm one of the local Election Ladies, so let me tell you how this whole thing works! NB: I'll be using details from my state -- different states have slightly different laws, but the procedures are usually pretty similar.

In my state, polls are open from 6 AM to 8 PM. If you're in line at 8 PM, we will get you voted. It takes an hour to set up a polling place, so the poll workers will gather around 4:45 in the morning to be sworn in. We all take an oath to be fair and impartial election officials, and that oath influences what we can and cannot do over the course of the day. Our polling place is set up with two Official Checkers, a Ballot Clerk, a Ballot Tabulator Guy, a Moderator, and at least one Assistant Registrar. We've got four or five privacy booths, which are a giant pain in the butt to set up, signs in English and Spanish explaining how to vote and the documents you'll need, and a ballot tabulator, which eats your ballot and records that you've voted.

So we get that all set up, and at 6 AM, the Moderator, our Fearless Leader, shouts, "the polls are open!" If you're in line at 6 AM (and a lot of people are so they can vote before work), you'll be let into the building at this point. From that moment until the last person who was in line at 8 PM has voted, we are open, and we will be happy to see you.

We'll have signs outside the polling place telling you that there is an election, and also letting you know the 75-foot boundary. Campaigners, leafleters, and other electioneers can only do their job outside that 75-foot boundary. They can give you literature outside that boundary, and you are allowed to take it with you into the voting booth, though you must carry it out again afterward. They are not allowed to hand you anything within the 75-foot limit, and if they do, you can tell the moderator when you get inside, and the moderator will go out and chase them to where they're supposed to be.

When you get inside, if there's a line, you'll get in line. If there's no line, you can walk straight up to the Official Checkers. We are required to have two of them, to double-check and verify each other's work. In my state, you need to produce some form of ID that has your address on it. Most people use a driver's license or state ID, but we've been known to accept utility bills, the mailed reminder to vote, a bank statement, or a Social Security card. We'll also ask you for your street address, and then your name.

The reason we do this is that the voter book for our ward is arranged by street, for Reasons.™ In order to locate you, we look up your street, then your house number, and then your name. It's weird, but that's how it works. It also allows us to verify that this is your polling place -- voting districts can sometimes be a little different depending on the kind of election it is, so you may be voting at one polling place for municipal elections, and a different place for state and federal elections. If the Official Checkers find you on the list, they will cross you off and send you to the Ballot Clerk.

The Ballot Clerk will give you your ballot and a privacy folder. There are diagrams at that table to show you how you indicate your choice of candidate. In my state, you bubble in a dot on a grid, but other states have different kinds of ballots. If you need instructions, the Ballot Clerk will have a specially designed sample to show you -- the Ballot Clerk may not point to anything on the actual ballot to avoid influencing your vote!

You then take your ballot to the privacy booth and bubble in, or connect dots, or punch a card, or whatever it is that your state wants you to do. You can vote in as many, or as few, races as you want. It's your absolute right to only vote for one office, if that's the only one you're interested in. If you mess up your ballot, don't worry. Take it back to the Ballot Clerk, and they'll give you a fresh one. The one you messed up will be scribbled on ("spoiled") and put in an envelope just for spoiled ballots -- we have to count how many of these we have at the end of the day, just so we can account for the number of ballot packages we opened.

After you've voted, you put your ballot in the privacy folder, and take it to the Ballot Tabulator Guy. They'll show you how to feed your ballot into the tabulator, which is a machine that scans the ballot and will show how many ballots it's eaten. Then you get an "I Voted" sticker, and you're done!

But . . . what if the Official Checkers don't find you in their voter book? That's where the Assistant Registrar comes in. This is the job that I've been doing for the past few elections. If the Official Checkers call me over, I will take you to my table, and we will Get You Sorted. I might check to see if you're on the Inactive Voters List, which is where people go who haven't voted in eight or ten years. If you're on that list, we have you fill out a voter registration card, then we take you back to the Official Checkers to add onto their list, and you're ready to go to the Ballot Clerk.

If you're not on the Inactive List, you might be at the wrong polling place. That's another reason we want to see your address -- as Assistant Registrar, I also have a guidebook that tells me the polling place for any address in my city. If you live on the edge of a voting district, this might affect you. If it turns out you're at the wrong polling place, I'll tell you which polling place is yours, with the street address.

If neither of these things are true, then I'll put in a call to the Registrar of Voters office downtown. All the polling places have little official flip phones, and the Registrar of Voters office has people answering these calls all day. They'll ask for your date of birth and then your name, and they'll look you up and tell me what the issue is. Often, it's something like "you've moved, but your voter registration hasn't caught up yet" or "this is a party primary and you're not registered with the party that's voting." I'll report in to you what the Registrar of Voters tells me, and we will go from there.

In my state, you can do same-day voter registration, but only downtown at City Hall. At the polling place, we cannot make new voters, but we can tell you to go to City Hall to sign up. If there's some more complicated question about your registration, we might have you fill out a provisional ballot, so you can make your choice known, and the Registrar of Voters office can figure out what to do with it later.

Every hour or so, the Official Checkers will do a quick count of their crossed-off names to compare to the tabulator to make sure we're all in agreement about how many people have voted. And at 1 PM (in my town), there is an official city-wide count. All the polling places pause while the Official Checkers count their morning votes and hope that it matches the number of ballots that the tabulator has recorded.

We are not recording HOW you voted during any of this. We are just counting the number of ballots cast, because we DO NOT want to lose anyone's ballot.

There are rush hours. 6 - 8:30 AM is when the vote-before-work crowd comes in. There's another rush around lunchtime, and the line will come to a stop at 1 PM for the city-wide count, so that's when things will get really backed up. Around 3 - 4 PM, people pick up kids from school and bring them along to vote. From 6 - 8 PM, you get the after-work-polls-are-closing-gotta-vote-NOW crowd, and that's when things get REALLY hectic. No breaks allowed from 6 PM until we're done!

After the polls close, the Moderator and the Assistant Registrar go and print out the ballot tabulator receipt. There are usually a few press stringers hanging around, because at this point, the Moderator reads out the final vote count for our polling place -- "Candidate X, [number of votes]. Candidate Y, [number of votes], Candidate Z, [number of votes]. The receipt gets "posted in a public place" (i.e. taped to the wall next to the tabulator), and the press stringers write down the numbers, and call in the results to their editors to be added up and printed the next day.

After that, the polling place crew canvasses the vote. We take all the ballots out of the tabulator and sort them into neat, easily transportable piles. If there are ballots with write-in votes (or even a scribble in an empty grid box), we set them aside and count how many of them we have. The Moderator will take all the ballots down to City Hall for official processing. After we've canvassed the vote, we break down the polling place, put all the furniture back, take down the signs, and pack everything away in the big blue metal bin that the city delivers the night before the election. The Moderator signs off on the seals for all of our equipment, and the Assistant Registrar counter-signs. And then we go home (well, the Moderator still has to go to City Hall, which is one of the reasons that I have not done Moderator training). We got up around 3:30 in the morning, and we might get home around 10 PM if it's a big election.

Everyone at that polling place is there to help you vote. We are not allowed to tell you how to vote, no matter how much you beg, but we will do everything in our power to make sure you're registered, at the correct polling place, that you know how your ballot works, and that you have all the time you need to fill it out the way you want it. We are sworn election officials, and we take an oath to be fair. As my Moderator puts it, the most important thing is to get people voted. If there are issues, we vote people and let City Hall sort those votes out later.

We try to have someone at each polling place who speaks Spanish. We have phone lines to the Registrar of Voters office to get help or arrange transportation. We have handicap-accessible voting booths. We want you to vote, and we want to make the process as easy and streamlined as possible. If you catch us at a slow moment, we'd love to have a chat with you. If there's time, and you identify yourself as a first-time voter, we welcome you with a round of applause. We are friendly, we are helpful, and we are most likely your neighbors. We're there because we believe in helping people express their opinions on how their city, state, and country should be run, and we love seeing you come in.

So this is your friendly local Election Lady telling you: vote! If you don't, The System will not crumble, nor will it care. If you do, you'll be making your opinion known, and you'll get to spend some time with us. Voting isn't hard, and it shouldn't take long once you've made it through the lines, should there be lines. If you're eligible and registered, there is no reason not to vote. We'll be there waiting for you, street address first, please!

#pargoletta pontificates #voting

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raincitygirl76 · 4 months ago

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Please vote, American mutuals! Or TRY to vote, at any rate. I know they don’t make it easy. Ensure you’re registered ahead of time, rather than registering on the day. And allow plenty of time for the voting process. I know many polling stations in blue districts are deliberately underfunded so they’ll be horribly crowded and voters will give up and go home.

Your employer is legally required to give you time to vote. I suggest raising it with them several weeks in advance so they’re well aware both of their legal responsibilities and of the fact that you’ll need to arrive late or leave early. Also, if you are already in line when the polls close, the polling workers are legally obligated to let you vote. Don’t let them tell you any different.

Christ, you’d think I was talking about elections in Venezuela, not in the world’s first modern democracy. Yeah, yeah, I know the Ancient Greeks did it first, that’s why I said “modern”. And that’s why it’s so important to vote or at least try. Do your best not to let Trump suck the life out of American democracy the way Maduro has been doing in Venezuela.

hey just want to remind my american followers that the US is still one of the most influential nations in the world and that one fascist in power makes everything worse everywhere for a long time. please don't fuck this up for the rest of us

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911tvshowpolls · 9 months ago

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911 TV Show Polls: #16

Best Episode of 911 Season 2A

Today is day 2 in a series of polls, with the end goal of finding the 'best' episode of 911, as voted by you, the 911 fandom!

A new poll will be posted every day, so please reblog so we can reach the largest audience possible!

Episode Summaries below the cut

S2E1: Under Pressure - New firefighter Eddie Diaz joins the 118, quickly becoming the cause of Buck's envy. Buck's estranged sister Maddie moves to L.A. and admits she has left her abusive husband. Emergencies include a tour bus crashing in Hollywood, pressure cookers exploding in a restaurant, and a steam pipe explosion. Bobby and Athena have their first crisis as a couple, while the male firefighters of the 118 compete for a spot on a sexy calendar. Maddie begins her training at a new job and the episode cliffhanger sees an earthquake rock L.A., setting in motion events for the next two episodes.

S2E2: 7.1 -After a 7.1 magnitude earthquake rocks Los Angeles, the first responders must put their lives on the line and make some of the hardest decisions of their professional careers when they rush to rescue victims from a crumbling high-rise hotel both under the rubble and high above the ground. Meanwhile, Athena must deal with wreckage from a collapsed freeway overpass and Maddie is thrown into the fire as she faces a crisis on her first day as a 911 dispatcher.

S2S3: Help is not coming - The first responders continue to deal with the fallout of the earthquake and its deadly aftershocks. Meanwhile, Athena tries to keep the peace and Bobby and his team must help save one of their own while also continuing to rescue victims from the high-rise hotel. Maddie's "baptism by fire" continues as she telephonically helps a pregnant couple deliver their baby safely.

S2E4: Stuck - The first responders deal with a security guard stuck in between two buildings for several hours, a man trapped in a mall escalator, and a drunken girl whose head gets stuck in an oversized tailpipe. Meanwhile, Athena contemplates a lieutenant promotion, Buck makes a suggestion when he discovers that Eddie can't find care for his son Christopher, who has cerebral palsy, Chimney goes for a check-up following his accident and gets a blast from the past, and Maddie reveals to Buck that she decided to move out.

S2E5: Awful People - Maddie goes on a ride-along with Athena, but soon finds her training as a nurse is required when they find a chef who has been the victim of a shooting. She is also aided by the seemingly perfect dispatcher, but soon ends up getting more than she bargained for when she discovers a grim secret about her colleague. The 118 are forced to put their disgust aside when a racist protesting a military funeral collapses, but refuses care from Chimney, Hen, and Eddie, while a porch pirate they once dealt with gets a serious dose of karma as she moves up to insurance fraud. Meanwhile, Hen must figure out how to save her family from permanently falling apart after Eva shows up with Denny's biological father.

S2E6: Dosed - When the first responders race to the rescue of a crashed news copter, they unwittingly become the subject of an eager reporter's first on-air assignment. Whilst being tailed by the camera crew, the team responds to emergencies at an eating contest, a bodybuilding competition, and a toddler pageant, but find some of their members flying high after they ingest LSD-laced fudge. Meanwhile, Bobby tries to deal with his grief/guilt on the anniversary of his daughter's death, Athena prepares for May's homecoming dance, Hen finds Eva in a life-or-death situation and must make a similar decision, and Maddie struggles to let go of her fear of the past.

S2E7: Haunted - On Halloween, the first responders race to the rescue at a cemetery, a haunted hayride, and a spooky Hollywood parade. Meanwhile, Hen receives news that her father, who abandoned her at age 9, is dying in hospital and has to make the decision whether or not to pull the plug. Eddie reconnects with his estranged wife and Buck makes a decision on whether or not to keep waiting for Abby to come back.

S2E8: Buck, Actually - The first responders deal with emergencies involving a woman who goes to great extremes on top of a freeway overpass to get the attention of her husband, a couple who are involved in a car accident on their wedding day, a date that involves armed robbery, and an elderly man whose husband has been crushed between the gate of their home and their car. Meanwhile, Buck jumps back into the dating scene and soon gets the attention of two faces from his past, then gets curious as he notices Chimney and Maddie getting closer.

S2E9: Hen Begins - This episode takes place in 2008, when Hen quits her job as a pharmaceutical rep. While having a conversation with her life coach, the coach has a heart attack and Hen saves her by performing CPR. Realizing being a paramedic might be her calling, she applies to the LAFD. After training, she is assigned to Firehouse 118, but immediately belittled by her bigoted captain, Vincent Gerrard. She meets Chimney there and begins a friendship with Athena, who introduces her to other prejudged first responders who make her feel better about her choices. Hen stands up for herself in front of the entire crew and, after she saves the life of a young boy against the wishes of Captain Gerrard, discovers her team has made several complaints about him; he is subsequently fired.

#911 polls #911 #911 fandom #911 fox #911 abc #best episode of 911 season 2A

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extremetimedchallengeexchange · 2 years ago

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We had 71 people fill out the interest check (thank you very much) and we’re happy to announce that we’re definitely going to go ahead with both exchanges!

MCYT Exchange will be the weekend of March 17-20 (exact date TBD)

Multifandom Exchange will be June 24-26.

More nitty-gritty under the cut!

[ID: Large text reading “LET’S GO, Interest Check Complete”, against a background of an asian woman biting nervously on a pencil while she sits in front of a laptop. The text “extreme timed exchange” is in the corner of the image. ]

[ID: The question: Extreme timed gift exchange? You in? (This is a gut-interest check, the nitty-gritty details are available in the next segment. it has been answered 71 times, with the answers overwhelmingly being “Yes”, no “No”, and one vote each for “IF I FINISH MY BELATED NORMALLY TIMED TECHNO EXCHANGE STUFF,” “really depends on when and how my personal life is lookin,” “curious but not in the mcyt fandom,” “idk,” and “Extremely interested, just unsure if I can particpate. Depends mostly on the pro...”]

[ID: The question: With the rules as above, would you be interested in participating? It has been answered 71 times, mostly positive, with 3 votes for No.]

The overal response was overwhelmingly positive! We had one person write in asking for a lower word count (300, to bring this exchange in line with other “flash” exchanges, which seems reasonable), someone wanted all the prompts available from the beginning, not at the 24 hour mark, and one person take exception with several aspects of the organization, namely how we were doing the tags and the requirements for the prompts.

We should mention here that the requirement for the Gen prompt is only going to apply for the mcyt exchange, because shipping is still an ongoing discussion within the fandom, and the multi-fandom exchange is just going to have the requirement for the art and fic prompt, and the “any” prompt. (We know that one is hard, but a) we don’t have time to find a lot of initial pinch hitters if we don’t succeed in matches, b) it is a challenge exchange, and that also applies to the prompts.)

Someone also suggested a post or discord channel allowing people to coordinate the seconding on tags, which is an excellent idea! We will definitely encourage planning and coordination to make sure everyone is on the same page with tags and to encourage collaboration.

[ID: the question: And yes, we said we were interested in running this twice. Once open to all of mcyt fans, and once as a multi-fandom. Are you interested in joining? The answers are 35.2% “I want to join the mcyt exchange”, 21.1% “I want to join the multi-fandom exchange”, “39.4% “I want to join both exchanges”, no votes for “Neither of those sound good to me”, and one vote each for “I would only potentially interested in the multi-fandom one but possibly neit...” “Both would be awesome but I’m not super branched out in the MCYT com...” and “depends on the fandom”.]

We had a healthy amount of interest in both exchanges! Posting the interest check in some multi-fandom spaces probably brought some more interest in that side of the plan, but even when we were just circulating on the dash with the mcyt followers, it turns out we all have many fandoms.

Yu-gi-oh and Star Trek were both mentioned by name, so maybe keep an eye out for those fandoms...

[ID: the question: Is there a 48-hour period in the next six months that would work espeically well for you? Easter weekend, St Patrick’s Day, any time after just 1st, etc?. It has been answered 39 times. ]

Oh boy, this one made me break out the calendar for real. It was surprising to realize that I had put St Patrick’s on there mostly so I had three options, and then to realize it actually was the most-voted-for date, with 11 people naming or indicating it. We will probably put up a poll (once we have polls) to decide if the exchange is kicking off on Friday the 17th or Saturday the 18th, but after much crunching with a spreadsheet and the notes app, the most-voted-for dates are:

MCYT Exchange will be the weekend of March 17-20 (exact date TBD)

Multifandom Exchange will be June 24-26.

[ID: the question: If we go for it, do you want to be pinged? If so, leave us a contact info and a note about which exchange you’re interested in. It has been answered 42 times.]

We have people interested in the exchange! For real! Leaving-their-email-addresses real! High five everybody!

[ID: the question: Questions or concerns or random factoids for the mods? It has been answered 29 times.]

We have been answering questions as they come in here on the blog (check the FAQ tag for details), so here is just a highlight overview of the answers.

[ID, four screenshots reading, in order: -SMASHES A CAN OF UNSWEETENED GREEN TEA AGAINST MY HEAD AND SHOTGUNS. LET’S FUCKING GOOOO. -ever since last time when certain individuals wrote 10k+ fics in the time frame, i have been afflicted with brainworms DESPERATE to try something insane like that. it’s just not the same when I write 10k in a weekend on my own. -last time this happened i did 9k in one day This event sounds like it will ruin 48 hours of my life and I have never wanted to do anything more.]

Let me tell you I (mod medusa) have already written 3.5k of information for the FAQ and have a couple times woken up dreaming of tag sets. I’m so excited about this. St Patrick’s Day Weekend can’t come soon enough and also is way too soon I have so much to do.

#gift exchange #extreme mcyt gift exchange #mcytblr #mcyt #multi-fandom #interest check #faq

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niuttuc · 8 months ago

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The poll is over! Let's go through all the different options and see where they appear on cards, what purpose they serve and some more context! I'll put most of that under a read more to avoid filling up timelines, but for the first one we'll let it slide.

Unless one or more players have lost the game this turn (17.7%)

This was the correct answer, and also the one that got the most votes (though the vote flipped with the second answer at a few occasions during the poll)! The effect as written doesn't exist. As some people pointed out, there ARE conditions on number of players having lost the game, as well as triggers when players lose the game, for the sake of multiplayer. However, none of them are a negative condition, or a condition that cares about the players having specifically lost the game this turn.

For the rest of the game, you can't cast spells. (5.7%)

This one was on more than one card, in fact it was an entire cycle, contained within a mechanic's rules, in this case. Epic! Which starts its text with quite the drawback, and has a hard time providing enough juice to justify it... Though Enduring Ideal did manage it back in the day in Extended, leading a deck named after it to tournament victories! It was tried a bit in Modern too when that format came around. Epic spells can be a fun challenge to build around in commander, though quite a tricky one to succeed with.

Exchange your hand and graveyard. (5.9%)

Mythics are supposed to have big splashy text on them you'd never expect to read on a magic card, and Harness Infinity definitely passes that bar... Although it isn't the strongest card in practice, the mana requirement is really harsh and it needs too many pieces to be lined up correctly to form the basis of a gameplan... Especially in older formats where better options are available.

Reverse the game’s turn order. (13.6%)

A bigger percentage here, but they did print a legal card with that effect in 2019 in one of the commander decks! The one about casting spells from your graveyard. Regardless, it plays out like a neat twist on an extra turn spell, and can be even sillier when copied every turn, denying a player at the commander table their turn forever while you take twice as many as everyone else's. It's not particularly good, but that's why it's still a fun card to see. Like most of this list, it's just strange!

Each opponent loses 1,000 life. (10.2%)

Another very popular vote, and a recent card! This is just a spin on "you win the game" with extra style points for the lore of the card. You just have to count to 1,000, which admittedly can get pretty annoying with random doublings and addition of a few counters at a time.

You lose life equal to your life total. (16.7%)

We go from the newest card on our list to the oldest! This one was the second most voted, and in fact at points during the polling passed in front of the top contender! Dating back to the original release of Magic in 1993, Lich offers you a very tenuous immortality and more power too... But also to put ALL your eggs in that basket and expose yourself to any stray Disenchant. While not the strongest card ever printed, it's definitely one that marks the mind... And that would have a few references to in the years to come, most recently with Lich's Mastery a few years back.

The bidding ends if the high bid stands. (6.2%)

Only three cards have ever been printed that use this auction style of effect, with the most recent being printed in 2005. And none of them are particularly good. But they are quirky, and exemplify better than most the idea of life as a resource. Not one you want to throw around like that though. The red ones do offer the red player access to effects well outside their color pie... If they can guarantee they're ahead on life. And not against another aggressive deck that would want them to win the high bid so that they go down in life.

It becomes foretold. (4.4%)

This one was included mostly because it sounds very mystical and grave when isolated like this, if you don't know the foretell mechanic. In practice, it's just a named mechanic like any other, though a quirky execution of it that only appeared on a couple commander precon cards along the years.

Each of your teammates creates a token (6.1%)

I saw many people assume this excerpt was from an obscure Battlebond card, as the dedicated Two-Headed Giant set. It doesn't appear anywhere in Battlebond! There was actually another set WotC pushed Two-Headed Giant for a few years prior, that was Oath of the Gatewatch, with the Surge mechanic caring about your teammate casting spells. And this isn't from that set either.

Future Sight was a weird set of experimenting on potential future designs, and Imperial Mask was such an exploration, venturing out into a future where team-based gameplay was popular enough to receive direct support. And hey, they did end up releasing Battlebond and Oath of the Gatewatch, and the most popular way to play magic is now through Multiplayer commander, so it wasn't nearly as far-fetched an idea as it seemed back then! I've literally never seen Imperial Mask being played in Two-Headed Giant though, five mana for that effect is pretty rough even when you get it to "function" even in 2HG.

You control your opponents (5.9%)

A very popular card for this one! While you outright controlling an opponent is an effect that exists in magic on a handful of cards, only one can affect multiple opponents within the same effect... And it's mostly a workaround to get the concept of the card to work within the rules. Unlike other player-controlling effects, you don't get to cast their spells or attack with their creatures. Unless they're running Panglacial Wurm. You do get to see their hand though!

Permanents can't phase in. (4.1%)

Phasing was a weird downside mechanic they abandoned for twenty years, then they printed a very powerful and popular card bringing back the keyword action that's a part of it, for callback flavor. This isn't that card, but since then, they've slowly brought back that keyword action, as it's more straightforward than the original mechanic. And they've been experimenting with it, which is where this card comes in!

A weird card from a commander set associated with a standard release but not in any of the preconstructed commander decks, this Disciple definitely stands out in many ways. It hasn't gotten traction anywhere I've seen, asking for a few too many things to go right to work out, and even then, it's a temporary solution at best. The potential to blow out a Teferi's Protection player is still as hilarious as it is unlikely though.

You can’t spend mana to cast this spell. (3.3%)

And we end with another VERY (in)famous card, the Gaak! Wizards simultaneously knew and didn't know what they were doing with this one. While it wasn't intended to break Modern, or really see any play there, it did. As it turns out, a card that literally states you're not allowed to play it fairly has a tendency to play unfairly.

The Corpse Avatar reigned over a season of tournament play, through losing a comrade, before finally being put to rest once again away from the modern tables. It's still doing ok in some other formats though.

Weird Magic: the Gathering effects: Second edition

A couple months back, I ran a poll where people guessed which of a bunch of weird MTG effects wasn't real. It was fun, so we're running it back with a second batch of weird things.

As last time, only the current text of effects is used, not necessarily the one printed on the card. Limited to cards that exist in paper, and are legal to play in at least some tournament formats. Though this time, I did expand a bit to rules that aren't directly on the cards, but might be part of the full rules text of keywords from the comprehensive rules, and then those keywords are on cards.

Have fun!

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miraculouscontent · 3 years ago

Video

dailymotion

It’s heeeeere! Another summasalt, this time with nearly twice the length of the first one!

(Turns out that not having caffeine doesn’t help me talk any slower.)

Script below:

Anonymous asked:

Thoughts on Rocketear?

Can you Rocketear the newest episode apart with your salt, my beloved Salt Queen?

Penny for your thoughts on Rocketear?

Aw, anon! You can have that for free! I'm a generous goddess.

"Rocketear" begins with Chat Noir and Carapace - just Carapace, really - holding back a pack of what I presume to be the physical manifestation of the writing staff's age, or at least a representation of how behind the times the writing seems.

Just as the dinosaurs break through Shellter. Ladybug shows up with the scientist who revived the dinosaurs in the first place and said scientist uses a whistle to calm the dinosaurs down. There's also a line from Bob Roth about putting the dinosaurs in a theme park to make money and I know what it's referencing but it's so incredibly random that it doesn't really come off as a proper joke.

Carapace was notably sad right after battle, but insisted that he was fine when Ladybug asked. Rena, sporting a... - I would like to say "new design" but it's a recolor in every sense of the word - is hiding behind part of a building and smiles after the heroes before walking off. Ladybug takes Nino's miraculous back but sees that he's still upset and asks him again what's wrong. Nino asks where Alya was and Ladybug claims that she only needed Carapace for the job, which cheers him up but only until Ladybug is already gone.

Mm, I guess Nino and Adrien relate in heroism not being enough for them unless they have their respective love interest to flirt with.

Also, I know this is an obvious set-up, but the show can't tell me that Ladybug just always brought Nino and Alya whenever she needed one of them. Season 3 required her to go to Master Fu to get the miraculouses, and unless she already knew that Nino and Alya would be in the same location - which, okay, the show does basically shove the two of them together whenever Nino is onscreen, fair, if two characters are in a relationship in this show then it's weird for them to NOT be with that person - but it just seems like a gamble, not to mention proof to Shadow Moth that the two are close if Ladybug constantly brings both of them.

Anyway, Ladybug goes into the sewer and asks Rena if she's seen any sign of Shadow Moth or his traps. Rena didn't see anything and they de-transform. Marinette is about to leave when she thinks of something, but Alya assumes it's about her new look, which was apparently not voluntary on her part and the suit automatically adapted to Alya's new role as Rena Furtive, which she has now named it as.

Marinette reminds her that this is supposed to be a secret and that they agreed that the fox has no owner. When Alya is evasive about whether she told Nino that she won't be Rena anymore, Marinette stresses that everyone needs to believe that Alya won't be using a miraculous anymore so that she can remain an undercover spy.

What's the point in changing the look if you're not going to show yourself anyway? I mean, insurance, I guess, but still.

Alya, exasperated, parrots what Marinette has apparently told her before: that she helps Ladybug with Mirage in case Shadow Moth tries to follow her so Rena can follow him instead. Marinette stresses the situation again and Alya tries to get Marinette to agree on her telling Nino that she's Rena Furtive, but Marinette refuses.

At Marinette's house, Alya talks further and explains that she doesn't know if she can lie to Nino since they don't keep any secrets--Alya, babe, you kept Rena Rouge from him and didn't tell him that you knew he was Carapace until Ladybug was forced to give you your miraculouses at the same time. I don't wanna hear it.

Marinette states that it's too late for that and also not technically a lie, but Alya gets upset and says that Nino will never trust her again if he finds out that she kept something from him. Marinette brings up how she had to keep secrets from Alya too, but they're interrupted by Tom appearing and wanting to play games with them. Marinette makes an excuse about homework that she's repeated many times, as Tom comments that the teachers give her too much. After Tom is kicked out - hang on, lemme just... - Marinette uses the moment to show Alya that she's lied to her family a lot and hasn't played games with her father in months. She states that there's no other option as they have to protect their identities, and Alya agrees to talk to Nino.

In Alya's room - I just presume at this point that Nino's house doesn't exist and Chris is an illusion - Alya tells Nino that they need to talk, but stammers and states that it's hard to talk about. Nino thinks that she wants to break up with him, but Alya assures that she loves him. She finally gets to the cover story that Rena herself made up in "Sentibubbler" and Nino understands, sad that she won't be around anymore but agreeing if it's what Ladybug thinks is best.

Is it weird that Nino respects Ladybug's wishes more than Alya does?

Nino hugs her and is confused by why Alya was nervous to tell him, as she can tell him anything and nothing will change their relationship. Alya feels guilty and hugs back, murmuring about how they don't have any secrets; that's not what Nino said, but sure, push this plot to its already predictable conclusion. I mean, I thought it was vaguely sweet that Nino switched to seriousness immediately when Alya said that she wanted to talk, but how am I supposed to be invested in this couple when their dynamic boils down to "STRONG, INDEPENDANT WOMAN who wears the pants in the relationship because her boyfriend is portrayed as a wimpy coward"? Like, the show constantly dragged Nino down to make Alya look "powerful" by comparison, and then when it comes to characters like Marinette, we get a girl who works very well outside of her relationship with her endgame love interest.

It's the fakest form of "girl power," dragging guys down to raise girls up or actually making a strong girl character but having her love interest be a weakness that creates flaws in her that weren't there originally and having that love interest be who she's "destined for."

I'm rambling, sorry.

In class, Marinette assures Alya that she did the right thing and Alya agrees. As they're leaving school, Marinette talks about how their "night walks" start soon, and Alya non-subtly talks about how Rena Furtive will be on the lookout while Ladybug and Chat Noir patrol. She stops, however, as gets excited about some pictures she took of herself as Rena Furtive, which has a lot of details that Marinette hasn't seen. I don't know whether to groan at what I just heard or remind everyone that Rena Furtive is literally just a recolor and therefore this is the writers patting themselves on the back for this design, so let's just move on.

Alya then shows Marinette her phone--AUGH, MY EYES--and suggests making a poll on her Ladyblog so people can vote for their favorite Rena design. Marinette has to stress again that Rena Furtive is supposed to be a spy and thus invisible, which Alya admits that she forgot about.

Okay, I've been holding off on talking about this, but now seems like the best time to bring it up. Alya has been a trash friend as well as a trash confidant, and her role as Rena Rouge boiled down to, "it was convenient for her to be the fox at the time it was needed." She's not particularly stealthy like one would expect of a fox, and she was easily one of the worst candidates to be told Marinette's big secret. I'll get more into this later, but I have to stress that Alya has treated Marinette no differently since learning of Marinette's identity and has already gone against Marinette's orders once before at the time of this episode airing. Episodes are constantly torn between validating their decision to have Marinette tell Alya, having Marinette be worried about the decision while the show considers her to be ridiculous for it, and then having Alya either consider or make choices that clearly don't gel well with what's good for her role. Much like Marinette, she lacks a sense of self-control and--wow, a female character who's impulsive, never seen that stereotype before.

Point being, "Sentibubbler" stressed over and over that Alya was the right choice and deserved to be both the permanent fox and the understudy for guardian, but then we have "Rocketear" here where Alya is making basic emotionally-driven errors that I'm not even remotely sympathetic to when Marinette has gone through so much worse over the course of three+ seasons.

*sigh*

Alya laments that it's hard to find new content for the Ladyblog - ah, yes, tell me more about your struggles, Alya - but figures that at least she can post stuff about Chat Noir instead of--I don't know--making fake Ladybug theories to lead people off Marinette's trail. Marinette says that it's a great idea, though Alya still doesn't look too happy. The scene then rewinds to a little bit to show a different point of view, this time with Adrien and Nino. Wait, this feels familiar, wasn't there another episode that did something like--ohhhh no, this is going to hurt.

After saying good-bye to Adrien - something I wish I could do every time he's mentioned or on-screen - Nino catches the bit of conversation where Alya talks about the Ladyblog. Nino talks as if Marinette isn't there and asks Alya out to the movies because Marinette is chopped liver and this is about Alya and how sad she is, guys.

Wow, she's turning into Adrien faster and faster.

Alya hesitates, but Marinette assures her that there's still time. Alya excitedly runs off with Nino and they watch what I presume are previews given the narrator, featuring recycled footage from the Ladybug PV. Nino is upset because Rena is mentioned but not Carapace, and the preview features Rena telling Chat Noir to forget Ladybug because it's Chat and Rena herself who are trulu made for each other.

I don't know what's funnier; the complete lack of self-awareness or the suggestion that a biracial couple would exist in this show outside of a special that gives them maybe a minute of screentime and acts more like suggestive canon anyway. I think I might've been too generous with that line about dinosaurs.

Nino is offended by the preview and Alya brushes off his comments, stating that it's just a cartoon and it's made to entertain people, though Nino himself is certainly not entertained. Can't say I entirely blame him considering that Alya doesn't really try to say anything substantial or even agree with him. No cuddling or reassuring kisses, she just gets slightly sad and turns to her phone for a bit.

After the movie, Nino is cheered back up again until he catches Alya on her phone once more. He offers to take her home, but she's distracted, and he comments that what she showed to Marinette looked pretty nice; I don't know because they didn't show it. Nino asks what it was and Alya evades the question, stating that her battery is running out. Nino is suspicious, but spots Andre's ice cream cart and the two head over there. Andre calls them his favorite couple and asks what they want, but Alya sees Ladybug gesturing for her and has to run off, giving Nino a cheek kiss as she goes which feels like too little too late at this point.

Nino catches some conveniently-placed kids arguing over who Chat Noir loves, but they settle on the fact that girls in general love Chat Noir. Nino is then seen at the Seine watching the Ladyblog's latest video, where Alya is talking up how amazing Chat Noir is. I hate to stop every five seconds to complain - okay, actually I don't - but I presume this video must've been made after the movie since Nino seems like the type who would actively follow his girlfriend's blog, yet not only is this video perfectly set up to echo the kids and the movie preview, but Alya - despite apparently caring about her boyfriend soooo much that she kept trying to convince Marinette to bend the rules - didn't even try to warn Nino or text him so he doesn't take it too seriously. It's like "Sentibubbler" with the conflicting messages about identity rules; Alya cares about her boyfriend but both isn't thinking about how he'll take the things she says and apparently doesn't know him well enough to realize that he wouldn't be mad over her keeping a secret that she was told to keep. I already talked about how they play up Nino to be the emotionally weaker one of the relationship, but then they don't have Alya try to cover or make up for that. She's been acting very much not like Alya - you know, the one who in "Sapotis" practically bragged about how great she'd be at covering for Ladybug - with her stutters and weak excuses, so I can't completely blame Nino for being upset after everything that's happened when he sees the writers projecting onto Alya as she talks about how Chat Noir is brave and funny and cute and showing all these images of him as well. I don't agree with all of his actions, but--oh yeah, speaking of which--

Nino calls Adrien and is talking to him about how Alya must be in love with someone else. Adrien dismisses the idea, as Alya and Nino are together basically all the time, and asks who she could possibly be in love with. When Nino suggests that it's Chat Noir, Adrien laughs and jokes about it being Fang instead. Nino points out the video but Adrien did see it but is overall unphased and convinced that it means nothing. Nino says that he'll find proof and hangs up, but Adrien is certain he'll find nothing. Plagg comments that Nino will find someone because Plagg's charisma has definitely contaminated Adrien.

Ugh.

Adrien expresses concern that he put on the cat's charm too much and accidentally made Alya fall for him, and decides to visit Alya as Chat Noir to be sure.

Meanwhile, we get a reference to film noirs as Nino narrates. That's the second blatant reference this episode and now I feel like they wrote this script while doing a movie marathon.

Chat Noir arrives at Alya's house and Trixx hides before Alya opens the curtains to reveal her surprise guest. Nino is nearby watching the scene with his phone as Alya wonders aloud if something's wrong. Chat assures that everything's fine, but brings up the video she posted. He insists that it made him happy, but points out that she's been following him and Ladybug since the beginning and that they know each other much better due to everything that's happened. He has some conveniently-worded dialog as he starts to say that he hopes something's just an illusion and Alya gets worried that he's about to bring up Rena. Chat continues and clarifies that he wonders if she started to feel something for him, though adds that he understands because just look at him.

UGGGGH.

Chat clarifies by making a heart with his hands, which Nino sees. Alya laughs at this gesture and states that she has a boyfriend, doing the same heart gesture and suggesting that her love for Nino is even more than that. Chat Noir apologizes - hm, I didn't know he had the capacity to do that - and hugs Alya, saying that he was just confused.

An absolutely unnecessary hug for two people who, at least in terms of their current selves, have had very little screentime together, but this is also the show where making eye contact basically means your friends and it's all just to push the plot along so Nino inteprets that Alya is in love with Chat Noir, so whatever I guess.

Alya states that Nino is far more irresistable than Chat, then adds that she doesn't even know his secret identity, and she'd never fall in love with someone she doesn't know. Nino then runs away upset and the scene cuts away to the next day where--

Wait, wait, wait, hang on a second. Two things right off the bat there.

First off, we're just gonna sidle past that "wouldn't fall in love with someone you don't know the identity of" while ignoring the existence of the love square? Not even Chat thinking about how he doesn't know Ladybug's identity and trying to excuse that he doesn't have to? This guy is that certain of their relationship?

Secondly, Nino is practically sobbing and Shadow Moth doesn't take this as his opportunity? Same guy who akumatized Mr. Pigeon 72 times and has akumatized Gigantitan more than once? What is this pacing???

But--alright, so Adrien comes into school and sees Nino, still dressed up in his detective gear, which gets ignored completely as Adrien goes to tell him about Chat Noir and Alya. Because the show doesn't know how Adrien would convey this within reason, Nino interrupts him, taking him down into the lower part of the school where he has a desk and chairs set up. Adrien goes to ask when Nino had time to do this, but Nino slams his hand on the desk to cut him off. Nino presents the evidence he took and they go back and forth, likewise with Adrien turning off the background music while Nino turns it back on. Adrien insists that it's a misunderstanding, but pleads innocent when Nino asks how he knows. Adrien states that Alya is just a superhero fan and that she and Chat Noir have nothing in common.

Again, the complete lack of self-awareness is astonishing.

Adrien repeats what Alya said about secret identities and how she wouldn't fall for someone she doesn't know - they're really ignoring this, aren't they? - and continues hitting Nino's soft spots about how unlikely it is until Nino decides to tell Adrien something he's not supposed to.

He tells Adrien, not only that Alya is Rena Rouge, but that he's Carapace. Adrien goes through a range of emotions beyond sAD for once, shocked at the fact that they know each other's identities. Nino states that they don't keep secrets from each other, except now Alya is with Chat Noir. Adrien still doesn't understand and brings up how secret identities have to be protected, or else Nino wouldn't have told him because Ladybug wouldn't agree to it.

Oh, here we go. So that's why they waited.

Nino states that it was Ladybug herself who gave them their miraculouses at the same time; not giving the reason why, of course, nor pointing out that they're temporary heroes so there's understandably some leeway. Adrien is having a moment, but manages to bring the subject back to Alya and Chat Noir, who he still doesn't think are a thing. Nino argues that it's because Adrien doesn't know Chat Noir, but he does because he's Carapace and knows how Chat Noir acts. He says that it's all flowers and confessions when Ladybug appears, but he gets rejected because Ladybug thinks that he's annoying, and she's right. He adds that Chat flirts with Rena Rouge and that's all that needs to happen, with Chat stepping in on the first mission Carapace lost in. Nino laments the loss of the love of his life and wishes to shut Chat Noir up forever; we all do, Nino, we all do. Shadow Moth finally steps in with - oh, less than eight minutes left in the episode, yikes - and Nino is akumatized into Rocketear.

Rocketear rejects Adrien's pleas to stop, insisting that Chat Noir is who he's after, not Adrien, and Adrien transforms in sad fashion despite Plagg's reminder of who Rocketear is after. Alya, meanwhile, is in the art club with Marinette - wait, since when was Alya in the art club - telling Marinette about how Chat Noir thought she was into him due to the video, which Marinette groans at. There's an earthquake and they peek outside to see Rocketear firing his tears at Chat Noir, shouting that he stole Alya from him. Chat Noir tries to tell him otherwise, but Rocketear won't listen.

Alya groans at Nino doing this, then she and Marinette set off to find a place to transform. They conveniently go to the same place Adrien and Nino were, so they see the desk that Nino had set up.

Genuine question, how seriously does this episode want me to take itself, because now when I recount all the unnecessary love square drama in my head - because you know that's where this is going - I'm going to have to think, "Nino, dressed in a detective outfit, ripped off his fake mustache and told Adrien both his and Rena's identities, and also that Ladybug was totally cool with it and thinks that Chat Noir is annoying."

Gettin' two completely different vibes here. The episode clearly wants to be important but it doesn't take itself seriously either, which it totally could while including enough jokes to keep things light. Instead, I'm just left scratching my head and wondering what tone they're going for.

Marinette finds Nino's phone on the desk - I'm calling continuity error on that one because he at no point put it on the desk, at least not on-screen - and she questions Alya on the video she sees. Alya insists that nothing happened, apparently completely unphased by her boyfriend having spied on her, and says that he wouldn't have misunderstood if he'd heard the actual conversation.

The two transform and Ladybug immediately uses Lucky Charm, receiving a projector. Ladybug is clueless and Rena Furtive suggests creating an imaginary movie like Nino. Ladybug gets an idea, remembering Alya's earlier comments, and Rena confirms that she remembers every word of it.

Aaaaand, just like that, all of the tension has been completely sucked away. You know, "Backwarder" was a trash episode, but at least when Ladybug was showing every step of her plan, she didn't tell us what it was.

Meanwhile, Rocketear and Chat Noir are still arguing--I started zoning out at hearing the same thing over and over again at this point, so I just presume they were fighting over who does stuff behind their love interest's backs better; I don't think they came to an agreement but they're both losers anyway.

Chat Noir says that he'll prove his innocence, tossing his baton aside to show him giving up, but Rocketear points out that it proves nothing and strikes Chat Noir with his tears.

Our endgame love interest, everyone. Straight As yet about as smart as a sack of bricks, and that at least won't flirt with anyone non-consensually.

Chat Noir makes a point that he doesn't want to hurt Rocketear, and Shadow Moth tells Rocketear to take his miraculous before finishing him. Chat Noir can only weakly tell him not to before Ladybug snags Rocketear's wrist and diverts the shot. Ladybug explains to Rocketear about the projector and how it'll let him hear the audio of the recording he took. She adds that she doesn't know what Chat said, but she trusts him.

Marinette, I'm sorry, I feel so bad for you.

Ladybug turns on the projector and Rocketear relaxes at actually hearing what was going on. Rena then de-transforms and hurries out to meet with Rocketear, hugging him as Rocketear apologizes for doubting her. Alya also kinda sorta apologizes in a way I don't understand and Rocketear then breaks his akumatization, very casually, all on his own.

Yeah, just--casually, in a matter of seconds in fact. You know, it's really sad when people resisting akumatizations are more tense and emotionally compelling than them breaking them. This is twice in one season now and has zero impact considering that Nino's reason for being akumatized was already taken care of so he had no reason to stay akumatized anyway. Him breaking his own object to release the akuma would've at least been different, but instead it's just a repeat of what Alya went through with even less tension considering that Alya's wasn't even that good in the first place, relying on her relationship to Ladybug rather than who she knew to be her best friend.

Moving on, Ladybug captures the akuma and uses Miraculous Ladybug to bring everything back to normal. Shadow Moth monologues about how love and secrets don't go well together and he's sure that she has a lot and I'll talk about this later.

Ladybug hands over the magical charm, which Nino takes but insists that he won't need it, as he'll never let Shadow Moth use his love to manipulate him again. Plenty of other things to get akumatized over, but they gave the supposedly ace character a robot to help him stick out and also gave the supposedly aro character a miraculous back in season one to give her more importance. If characters aren't in love then they need something to ceompensate for it.

Nino apologizes to Chat Noir for being wrong and Chat Noir assures him that everyone has doubts, even him. He gets sad and Ladybug asks him what's wrong, but he insists that he's fine - officially throwing away his right to be upset at her later as far as I'm concerned - and they do their usual fist buuuuu--

...Really?

Everyone then splits up and Chat Noir sulks by himself instead of--you know, talking to Ladybug, or asking her anything, or making any sort of excuse for her because that would mean he actually has faith in her and understands that their partnership is different from temporary heroes, even if the excuse was as basic as her wanting to protect him more than the others because he would be that egotistical if they didn't want to stretch out this unnecessary drama.

Later on, Adrien is staring at a picture on the Ladyblog that might be a metaphor for the show considering how "in the foreground" Chat Noir and Rena are.

Adrien vents about Ladybug giving miraculouses to Alya and Nino, but Plagg states that she's the guardian. Adrien clarifies that he's referring to Alya and Nino knowing each other's identities, but Plagg doesn't see the issue. Adrien gets huffy and asks why the rule exists for LadyNoir but not Ninya, but Plagg again points out that she's the guardian, so she makes the rules, though obviously he uses cheese metaphors to convey it.

Okay, Plagg is only, like--half-right because he doesn't have all the information. If you don't mind me rambling for a bit, I'm on the fence here because, on one hand--yes, I agree that Marinette should be allowed to make her own rules, and I often do that in my writing because I think she should be permitted leeway in order to let herself be happy, but on the other hand, it's not technically her rule, as she had to let Alya and Nino in on their identities back in the Season 2 finale, so Fu was still around for a season. She wasn't even guardian yet!

Now, presumably so the fandom could blame Marinette if anything happened, Marinette never discussed this with Fu on-screen, so I can't say whether or not Fu knew, but I feel like he must've since Marinette had to have told him the heroes' identities off-screen, given "Party Crasher," and thus I imagine that Marinette would tell Fu everything that happened, which is consistent with what she does on-screen even if she'd keep things from him for a little while.

"Furious Fu" had also established that not even Master Fu followed rules completely, meaning that Marinette is in this awkward spot of mostly following what Fu taught her, which aren't all guardian rules anyway, and having to break the rules on occasion for various purposes. I can't say what Fu approved of and what he didn't, because episodes spend so much time on the love square that they forget about Marinette as a person and how she interacts with everyone else. From an emotional standpoint, I can't blame Marinette for not revoking the miraculouses of people whose identities get discovered because of her, as I imagine she feels guilty and it probably doesn't seem fair to force them into another miraculous or have them be entirely without one because of a mistake that she made, meaning that someone needs to be throwing a lot of red flags for Marinette to be through with them.

Though obviously, from the show's standpoint, it's just an excuse to not make new models, but I complained about that enough in "Sentibubbler" and this episode even went out of its way to design a detective model for Nino while spraypainting Alya's bodysuit in the same breath, so this is the world we live in.

Anyway, Marinette is essentially in this position where she still has Fu's rules hovering over her, but she's also trying to step out on her own and make her own decisions to varying degrees of success or failure depending on your point of view. Tikki--wait, no, bad idea--Su-Han then, could easily give input on these things, perhaps with Marinette discussing a modern day set of rules for someone her age and going back and forth with Su-Han on what the right choices to make are, finding something that's comfortable but within a realm of predictable control. Su-Han was okay with some rules being broken after seeing how Ladybug handled them and they could've easily made this episode about that instead, but instead, we get rules being set and then being broken on a writer's whim.

Which now brings us to the end of the episode, where Marinette is on the phone with Alya and apologizes for causing trouble between her and Nino. Alya tells her not to worry and she'll fix things - you know, those things that, to Marinette's knowledge, have already been fixed - and asks if Marinette trusts her. Marinette does, and Alya hangs up in order to face Nino.

Yeah, that feeling of dread in your stomach? That means you know how predictable the writing is and what's about to happen, good for you.

Alya explains that she has to tell Nino something and he's worried, this time trying to sheepishly break the tension. She explains that she's still Rena Rouge, much to Nino's shock, and adds that she's in hiding, which is why Ladybug didn't want her to tell anyone. Nino asks why she's telling him if she's not supposed to tell anyone - proving my point from a while back that he wouldn't have been upset had she kept it a secret - then asks if Ladybug agreed with it.

I want to give him a pat on the back for considering Ladybug, but he didn't even tell her when he had the chance that Adrien knows his identity now, so I'm just beaten down at this point.

Instead of answering the question directly, Alya says that she can't hide her identity from him because she loves him and they don't have secrets.

You know, like Nino telling Adrien about Rena's identity, or Alya saying specifically that she's a permanent holder, which I'm sure both of them will confess to since they said that they don't have--aaaaand the episode ends on happy triumphant music, okay.

I mean, I guess Alya at least didn't tell him that Marinette was Ladybug, but that is such a low bar and not even remotely worthy of congratulations when Alya told Nino the specific thing that Marinette told Alya not to tell; the thing that they had agreed on.

Nino wasn't upset anymore. He won't be getting akumatized either. Alya endured the supposed hardship of being a permanent fox holder for four episodes before breaking down and telling her boyfriend. Even her excuse doesn't hold any water because, again, they're both still technically keeping a secret, particularly Alya who knows Marinette's identity as Ladybug. The episode also apparently forgets that Alya and Marinette's friendship must not be as strong by her logic of telling Nino specifically everything, as Alya kept Rena Rouge a secret from Marinette for all of Season 3, but tells Nino about continuing to be Rena Rouge in Season 4. Boyfriends before BFFs without explicitly saying it, or to be more specific, whatever screws Marinette over the most, because that's what this comes down to, made worse by "Optigami" where Marinette told Alya that she'd tell her everything and I guess that doesn't go both ways.

"Sentibubbler" had Alya stress that no one would ever know. She promised Marinette and told Marinette to trust her, and the episode spent its entire running time talking her up and assuring Marinette that she was the right choice, even considering Marinette ridiculous for worrying when Alya had done something without Marinette's permission the episode right before it. Then, three episodes after "Sentibubbler," when Marinette is finally comfortable and trusts Alya completely, Alya betrays that trust. Nino betrayed that trust, knowing he wasn't supposed to do so but telling Adrien his and Rena's identity anyway, because he was losing an argument and needed to PROVE something.

Marinette gives them an inch and they take a mile. Marinette bent the rules so that they could continue to have the miraculous they'd started with and they disrespected her because it was hard for like a day.

And if this bites them back, it won't reflect poorly on them, it'll reflect poorly on Marinette.

It's not like Alya just overrode Marinette. She didn't go, "Hey, I'm telling Nino, I'm sorry," or tried her hardest to go back and forth with Marinette until they both agreed. No, she did what she told Marinette she wouldn't do without saying a word to her, because LOVE and SEEEECRETS.

And this only applies to her, of course, because don't think I didn't notice the parallels between this episode and "Truth," because WOW.

Episode begins with Marinette hoping for something and it blows up in her face? A date at the cinema that ends on a sour note? Plot-centric couple trying to get Andre's ice cream and the female with a secret needing to leave in a hurry? Boyfriend character getting akumatized over their girlfriend's secret? Boyfriend assumes/suggests that the girlfriend's secret involves Aaaaaadrien - or his alter-ego in "Rocketear"'s case - and the episode hints as much to him even though he's completely wrong? Akuma's colors are blue and black? THE BRIDGE?

But, ahhh, little difference, here and there, y'know, like how Marinette was forced to break up with her boyfriend while Alya got to keep hers, and Nino got to have long talks with Alya while Luka got little to nothing with Marinette.

Because do note that Alya, while trying to convince Marinette and talk to Nino about not keeping secrets, at no point suggests that Marinette deserves to be happy and deserves to have a boyfriend and that Marinette should be allowed to tell Luka her secret so they can get back together, so you have Alya here selfishly prioritizing her relationship with Nino while making no comment about Marinette's relationship, essentially asking Marinette to allow her what Marinette herself didn't have the luxury of, and Alya knows this because Marinette told her. It is both incredibly insensitive of Alya and incredibly insulting of the show to make so many parallels between this episode and "Truth" just to have everything crash down for Marinette because she's Marinette while everything goes well for Alya and Nino because they're not Marinette.

We've talked before about the formulas that are literally baked into the show, and one of those is how Marinette makes a mistake in every episode and has to learn from it. What that mistake is in this episode, I don't know, but considering that she apologizes for Alya and Nino's problems, I guess the show blames her for what they themselves had taught her.

Point being, there's a clear karma system in place, but it only applies to Marinette, and forcing her to mess up in every episode means that she is literally not allowed to be with Luka because had she been able to clear things up between them, he would've eagerly accepted her and they could've been happy. It'd be too difficult for her to mess up when Luka doesn't put mountains of pressure and expectations on her like everyone else. Factor that in with how she can be herself around him and it leads to situation that are too difficult for her to screw up in because her mistakes - more often than not - center around Adrien or her role as guardian.

And because another rule in the show is to bring up Adrien so they don't "lose him for too long," she can't avoid bringing him up either. If he's not in the plot, he has to be mentioned, leaving Marinette in a lose-lose situation that she'll never be free from.

So, let me just get this straight then:

The guy who spied on his girlfriend instead of talking to her about his assumptions gets to keep his girlfriend, not because he realized it was wrong regardless of whether he was correct or not, but because the situation had been cleared up for him, yet the guy who actively resisted his akumatization, saddened by his girlfriend's secrets but wanting her to share them when she was ready, gets broken up with and tossed to the wayside because he's not a rich blond boy who got a miraculous because he happened to be within the twenty meters of space where Fu was searching for new holders?

Meanwhile, the girlfriend who has gone against the wishes and insistence of her best friend - guardian of the miraculouses, by the way, so she calls the shots, something that Alya herself said in "Optigami" BEFORE GOING ON TO DO HER OWN THING IN THE SAME EPISODE AND BEING REWARDED FOR IT - is allowed to go against the wishes and insistence of her best friend again for the sake of "all love, no secrets" with her boyfriend and so she can have the happy ending she wants, yet the girl who was chosen for a miraculous without her consent, forced to screw up and talk about a random boy who doesn't even go out of his way to spend time with her, treated like absolute trash by writers who find humor in her misery, and is the only one to receive overly harsh and long-lasting consequences for her actions while also covering up and forgiving the actions of others within the episode where they do it...

doesn't get her happy ending, and won't ever get her happy ending. That thing Shadow Moth said about love and secrets not going well together? Yeah, only goes as far as the writers want it to, because both Nino and Alya still have secrets, and some of the ones they did tell each other were forced by someone else and kept until that very moment. This idea that people in love have to tell each other everything and that it makes a relationship stronger makes me immensely uncomfortable, and that lesson is also in "Guiltrip."

People should be allowed their secrets, and obviously there are exceptions for things that are being hidden with malicious intent, but being essentially forced to share everything or risk not having a "full and complete" relationship is stifling and sounds like it'd only cause stress.

This episode sucks. It furthers and confirms everything I've already thought about the show, Nino's screentime continues to be dependent on Adrien, Alya, or both, there are pointless references that completely take me out of the experience, and the utter betrayal from Alya and supposed message of the episode just reminds me that Marinette is inevitably going to be stuck with a guy who didn't even DO anything in this episode and is going to let himself stew instead of asking for any sort of clarifications from someone he apparently trusts so much.

So the takeaway is that Marinette's life is awful, she'll be forced to apologize for rules that she didn't even come up with herself, her best friend will walk all over her for the sake of her relationship with a guy - not even for the sake, really, they were going to be fine, it was more for HER personal comfort if anything - and the guy who actually makes Marinette happy and could've known her identity instead BECAUSE HE AT LEAST DIDN'T HAVE A TRACK RECORD OF SPILLING HER SECRETS gets treated in the exact same way that she does; like nothing, just something to abuse unfairly.

What a waste of an episode.

#MC's Videos #category: episode summaries #category: salt #salt: adrien agreste #salt: chat noir #salt: alya cesaire #salt: nino lahiffe #video: critique #MC's Renders #render: persona #episode: Rocketear #((I would usually apologize for rambling but you guys seem to like it lol.))#((I could still afford to trim down the summary probably and repeat myself/ramble a BIT less but yeah.))#((I'm also feeling a little more comfortable this time around))#((which might come off in my inflections.))

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