#Unlikely Company

[firestorm09890]

there's a part of canto vi I've been thinking about since it came out, and it doesn't actually have anything to do with Heathcliff.

this

She is bitter as fuck and as time goes on she's getting worse at keeping it down. Sinclair's the one who started it, by talking about how sad it is that they'd never get to see color, and Rodya starts to get a little irritated over it (yeah, sure, pity the Backstreets folk and their poor miserable little lives, privileged nest boy), but she's obviously trying not to straight up call Sinclair a privileged nest boy because she doesn't want to. But then Yi Sang and Ishmael join in on talking about how sad this place is with no color and she just can't keep her opinion down.

But that makes the atmosphere tense, and she hates a tense atmosphere, so she changes the subject and her tone, not giving a damn about how obvious it is. also, haha, ice and cold references.

And actually, this doesn't really have much evidence to support it, but I wonder if she holds a higher level of resentment for Sinclair in particular.

Canto II had some discussion about how Rodya wishes she was special (and while I think what Sonya said about her killing the tax collector just to feel special is absolute bullshit, I do also think there is some truth to her wanting to feel special), and introduced us to the concept of The Sign in a way that was vague and more like foreshadowing than actually introducing it. Then Canto III was all about The Sign, and how special Sinclair is, and since then we've had people talking about signs and stars and a new birth of the world and it's all stuff Rodya doesn't get to be part of.

I don't think she wants to hold resentment for Sinclair, and she especially never wants him to know, but going back after all this time and rereading this one interaction with him in Canto II felt pretty jarring.

the more important part of this is the way it feels like she's making a joke at Heathcliff's expense, for being poor, like even though she's also from the Backstreets she feels she's "above" it.

She absolutely does not feel this way.

On my way to find the first passage, I reread some other interesting stuff:

Once again, there's the harsh juxtaposition between casual, fun-loving Rodya, and tired, poor man's advocate Rodya. Almost everyone on the team speaks through the lens of a Nest dweller (I have to wonder if learning that Heathcliff was apparently raised in a mansion made her even more bitter), and the way she's so short with her mention of the Sweepers makes me think she's thinking about how painfully obvious it would have been to any other Backstreets dweller. And then, right after, dropping back into her casual voice, and Sinclair revealing that Rodya used the fucked up Backstreets creature to tease him...

Other obvious moments of Rodya being bitter as hell about rich people include this part of S.E.A.

and this part of her observation logs on Spiral of Contempt (actually, nearly everything in that log that isn't about the physical abnormality has to do with how much she hates how rich people look down upon the poor)

Hong Lu's canto comes after Don's, and then after his is Ryōshū's, who, based on her source material, probably served one of the most awful, contemptuous rich people the sinners have access to, and I really hope at some point here Rodya gets to snap in a big way

...hey so I wrote this entire post at 1 in the morning and then saved it to drafts because I didn't want to post something at 1 in the morning. the Timekilling Time trailer came out about two hours later, featuring both Rodya... and the long-awaited return of the Yurodiviye. so now it's past 3 in the morning for me but I'm posting it now anyway because ohohoho seeing the Yurodiviye again has given me SO much energy

I have a feeling all this is going to be very relevant extremely soon

[404-art-found]

I know you're feening for uncertainty, but I'm not scared!

[quelend-underground]

friend doodle,,, c:

[silusvesuius]

i finally have this and i couldn't be happier

<33 <3 <3 <3 <33333333333333<3

showing him some of my art

[livefromtheelephantsfoot]

i think the best possible outcome is they catch him and the jury acquits him. think about it, if a jury won't convict him regardless of him doing it (assuming they do get the right guy), there will be absolutely nothing insurance companies can do about it but change their policies. if the american public says, fully within the bounds of the system, that their lives don't matter until ours do, there is nowhere they could throw their money to make that message go away.

[carnival-phantasm]

Thank you NijiEN, very cool!

[plan-3-tmars]

thinking about how in kazui's first birthday timeline he tells haruka that he enjoys his birthday because it gives him a good excuse to start a conversation with friends he hasn't seen in a while,,

"Hey, it feels like it's been a while, doesn't it? /

Oh, by the way, it's my birthday today. / Want to have a smoke together?

- 2023 Bday Timeline with Shidou

"Well, come over if you feel like it. Staying alone all the time will make you feel down. I can keep you company if you need to relieve some stress."

- 2024 Bday Timeline with Mikoto

[bucket-puns]

Ardor blossom star Ishmael for people who stare at stuff for too long(me)

[ballcrusher74]

"How blind you are, you devilish fucking bastard." Doc (red one) belongs to @wesblr

[brujahinaskirt]

arthur morgan hears a soggy little queen shriek for help and comes barreling through the wilderness guns out snorting like a bull moose i love it

[sail-not-drift]

Now that I’ve seen “Buck, Bothered, and Bewildered” in the context of the rest of the show I’m going even more insane:

Tommy flies Eddie to Vegas for ringside seats.

He spends time at Eddie’s house.

He gets to know his kid.

He accepts an invite to the pickup game.

No one in the whole episode mentions Marisol.

Lou confirmed that the writers originally intended Tommy and Eddie to get together.

Tommy liked and was attracted to Buck from the beginning; if he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have dated him the moment he realized Buck was interested. But that whole time, while Buck was spiraling and in his feelings about Eddie and (unknowingly) pursuing Tommy - Tommy was pursuing Eddie, and Buck wasn’t an option.

All I can take from this is that when they met, Tommy clocked Buck as straight and Eddie as queer. So I really have to know:

What the hell kind of pheromones do Buck and Eddie give off around each other?

When Tommy whisked him away on the firefighter equivalent of a magic carpet, what did EDDIE think was happening?

How does everyone think Eddie is queer except for Buck and Eddie??

[astragatwo]

Slugbaek

[deadpresidents]

can you recommend any bios on putin?

Sure. I haven't read a ton of books about Putin/Russia, but there are four books in particular that I have and felt were really good.

•Putin by Philip Short (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) This 2022 title is the most recent book I can personally recommend and the only one published since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. Short also wrote two other great books on autocrats that I'd suggest checking out -- Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare, and Mao: The Man Who Made China.

•The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin by Steven Lee Myers (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) Myers, who has been reporting from around the world for decades for the New York Times, published this book in 2015 and it reveals a closer and more-detailed look at Putin the person than outsiders have ever had before.

•The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) Born in Russia and now an American citizen, Gessen, who is now known as M. Gessen is a prominent critic of Putin's rule. They examine how a relatively low-level, seemingly unimpressive KGB operative somehow rose to become Boris Yeltsin's hand-picked successor and one of the most powerful people of the 21st century.

•Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin's Russia and the End of Revolution by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser (BOOK | KINDLE) I make a point of getting every book written by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, whether it's something the married couple has written together or the many books they've written on their own. Published in 2007, after Baker and Glasser finished serving as chiefs of the Washington Post's Moscow bureau in the early years of Putin's first stretch in the Russian Presidency, this book focuses on how Putin impacted a Russia that was rapidly undergoing drastic changes in the 15 years since the Soviet Union collapsed and the backsliding from the delicate form of democracy that Boris Yeltsin had attempted to implement after the end of the Cold War.

[poomphuripan]

so about tong...

Mek Jirakit (Tong): And at first, P'Pep (the director of My Stand-In) said "Tong is not a bad person, Mek. He just has ambition.” I was like okay, I'm not a bad person. When I started playing in the series until the story ends I still haven't seen any goodness in him!!!!! P'Pep is deceiving/fooling the cast!

Mek retweeted the tweet of Pepzi explaining why the Thai team adapted to make May (Ming's sister) a nicer person as opposed to her novel counterpart.

Mek: And when will we get to see Tong's good side? Pepzi: EP. 13... (note: My Stand-In has 12 episodes)

[heartorbit]

NICCORI CORI CORI CORI CORIANDER

[thatmoththoth]

What’s with me and always being 80 years late to fandoms. Like ok dang, your immortal space pirates are cool and all, but they died 4 years ago. And man, your mercenaries are cool and all, but they’re all retired and old now.