#We are probably on different wavelengths entirely

[gegengestalt]

I hope being free of Iv*nlyosha is the next pandemic

[parfaitblogs]

persimmon ❀ s. reid x reader

in which you wake up to your first morning on your honeymoon. 

pairing: spencer reid x fem!reader genre: smut (18+ mdni) tags: oral (f receiving). praise. he loves you you love him!!! newlyweds. word count: 1.2k a/n: couldn't tell you where the fuck this came from tbh. very short + very simple little thing i wrote instead of doing assignments after seeing a tweet about persimmons :)

You were beautiful. Maddeningly. Iridescent, as sunlight reflects off your skin and golds the room in which you lay with him. Gentle breaths that lift and deflate your chest evenly, bringing you closer to him, ripping you away soon after. He ached to hold you closer. To the point of your chest never cutting contact with his own. He knew better; knew to let you sleep.

The things he feels for you seem too demanding for a human being. Too overwhelming. How can one man hold so much adoration for another person? His heart was always so full when he woke up like this; before you did.

Things were more beautiful today, though. The ring around your finger, for you had refused to take it off despite his efforts, sparkled amongst crinkled white sheets. Legs entangled with his own, skin resting against skin, warm enough to provide an enormous amount of comfort. 

Never one to curse unnecessarily, Spencer Reid was. Yet, all his thoughts were consumed with, fuck you were beautiful. 

It seemed too inconsequential of a word to describe you. Every word did. A thousand adjectives and he would still believe he's not loving you as much as you deserve. 

You stir, and his entire bloodstream burns. He couldn't count on his hands how many times he had watched you wake up in the morning, but this morning was so special, and before you had even fully fluttered your eyes open, he was kissing you. Gently, for he wanted to take his time with you. 

You're smiling. He can feel your lips stretch against his, and he's proud to have enough self restraint to pull away from you so he could see it. He's sure the sun could develop a rivalry with you when you were this happy. 

"Good morning," you murmur, a little breathless from the half asleep kiss you were still trying to recover from, "husband."

He relishes in the way the word leaves your lips, and it takes a considerable amount of strength to not kiss you once more. Though, he wants to. Desperately. 

Then again, he wishes to do a lot of things this morning. So many different activities he yearns for (many of them not very appropriate, if he's honest), and he is quite content to cancel the schedule you had developed for today to complete them. 

He knows better than to do that unprompted. So, he asks, "How much time in bed do we have?"

Perhaps it was the way he looks at you while he's above you, hair falling down and gently tickling your face from how close he was. Perhaps it was your own personal desires seeping into your strong willed mind. Whatever it was, you were probably on the same wavelength as him, and you were discarding whatever else you wanted to do that day. 

"As much as we want," you reply, and it's a shit-eating grin on his face that promises you a good morning. 

"Thank God."

Never one to be religious, you know he's wanton if he's thanking a figure he doesn't believe in. You bite down a remark about it. 

Amongst all the doctorates he had attached to his name, you were sure worshipping your body had to be one of them. For the way he kisses down your body is practised, and it is a trail of flames he leaves on your skin. Benign kisses on every patch of skin he can find, paying extra attention to the pulse point on your neck that drags whimpers from your lips. 

Fingers find your thighs to push them apart, hands sliding up and down the skin and encouraging goosebumps to lift. He is breathless as he laughs at you, but then he is pressing kisses into your hip bones, and you truly forget how to argue with him. 

"I love you," he says, lifting his gaze up to you, breath warm against your skin, all whilst his head lowers further down your body. He presses a kiss to each thigh, repeating the adoring phrase in between. 

Wasting no time to put his lips on you, he's teasing with his tongue licking a stripe up the centre of your folds, before he's attaching them to your clit. 

He probably mumbles something about how good you taste, as he usually does, but you're too overwhelmed already to actually register the words. For you had been inside the cabin David Rossi had gotten the two of you less than twelve hours, and he had drawn four orgasms from you already. Something about spending your honeymoon loving you in every way he can. 

You're writhing beneath him already, and he's sure if he focusses any more on that, he'd lose his mind. His tongue flicking over your clit elicits more moans from you, and the broken sound of your voice. 

"Spenc—er—oh," your head digs into the pillow beneath it, back arching. "Please."

Usually, he would force your hips back to the mattress, and he would concern himself with keeping you still. Then again, usually, you aren't this sensitive. He lets you lift yourself off the mattress, though he moves with you, and you're provided no respite from his mouth.

He's never once eaten you out with this much tranquility; he likes to devour you like you are his first meal in months. But today, he is taking his time, and he is dragging out every quiet moan and cry from your throat that he possibly can. 

Persimmons can sometimes be so incredibly tender they split themselves open. The osmotic pressure that is built up by the sugar tends to cause the skin to burst. When he touches you like this, you consider whether or not you are but a tender persimmon, splitting under the duress of how good he feels. 

"My beautiful girl," he breathes out against you, and God if you believe nothing else in this world, let it be how much this man loves you. 

His hand reaches up to find your left hand, interlacing your fingers with his own and bringing them both down to your stomach, where he finally pushes you back down onto the mattress. 

You are too tired to even warn him, but your moaning becomes incessant, and your fingers are digging into the knuckles of his hand within your own. You're sure you don't need to say anything.

He coaxes you through your orgasm, obscene praise leaving his lips every chance he gets, his eyes so fixated on your face you can feel it, even through your now closed eyelids. 

He's pulling away and kissing his way back up your body, each kiss more drawn out than the last, until he's got his lips back on your own, and he's swallowing the gentle moan that leaves your lips. 

"I love you," you finally murmur, and he pulls back to bury his face into the crook of your neck, kissing the skin there so delicately you wonder if you could fall apart all over again, for an entirely different reason. 

"I love you," he punctuates his words with his hand squeezing your own, which he still had interlaced with his. 

"Can I cut our bed time short for a shower?" you ask him, quietly. 

"Mm," he considers it, or pretends to, hair tickling your jawline. "No, I'm not done with you here yet."

"You're insatiable."

You squirm when he nips at your neck. "You married me."

He pulls back to look at you, eyes sparkling, and you breathe out a quiet huff of amused laughter. 

"Yeah, I did."

your reblogs and replies are always appreciated ♡

[bombuni]

what abt woosang 🥺🤲🏻

sharing is caring

summary: Wooyoung makes an offer Yeosang can’t refuse. genre/pairing: bf!wooyoung x fem!reader x bsf!yeosang, smut wc: 1.4k warnings: SMUT MDNI, meandom!wooyoung, softdom!yeosang, sub!reader, a lot of degradation, name-calling, face-slapping, choking, cuck!wooyoung lowkey, creampie, a lil breeding kink bom note: this is the underrated duo of atz!!! lmk if u had smth diff in mind bby, otherwise enjoy :)!

“We don’t mind you using her to let out some steam.”

Wooyoung’s words echo through all of Yeosang’s body. He knows they’ve been best friends for years, and that they’ve shared everything between a bed and their darkest secrets, but sharing a girlfriend seems like a step into dangerous territory.

Dangerously enticing territory that he can’t stop thinking about. As he walks towards his and Wooyoung’s shared home, you’re all he’s thinking about. The way your sweet moans sound when he overhears you two fucking, the way your face probably scrunches as a cock slides its way in. He tugs his shirt down as he passes by his neighbors in the elevator, clueless smiles plastered on their faces as he greets them.

He shakes his head to get rid of the dirty thoughts. It’s no use though. As soon as he unlocks his front door, the sound of moans fills the apartment hallways. Yeosang tries to quickly shut the door, but he’s distracted by the sight before him.

You’re shaking on the couch with one hand down your delicate pink panties and the other groping yourself, “H-hi, Sangie!”

Your sweet, desperate voice and blushing face makes him stop in his tracks. Your hands don’t stop moving. Before Yeosang can gather his bearings, Wooyoung steps into the main room. He walks over to you, wrapping his arms around you and kissing your cheek in an innocent way.

He looks up at Yeosang with a sweetly venemous smile, “Hi. We heard you were a little stressed.”

Your voice is meek and Wooyoung pinches your side to make you speak up, “P-please use me, Yeosang.”

Yeosang’s throat is dry. He moves robotically towards you, body and mind on completely different wavelengths. He wants to stop, be rational, and not fuck his best friend’s girlfriend.

But he’s so hard it hurts, and you’re so wet the fabric of your panties is clinging to your folds. The look on your face is pure desperation and need to be fucked dumb. Wooyoung’s hands on your shoulders alone make your back arch, body yearning for more.

His slender fingers slide under the sides of your panties, hurriedly pulling them off of you. He fumbles, but as soon as they come off his lips latch onto your sweet mound. He mouths you gently, licking in between your folds and taking his time to find your most sensitive spots. He’s blushing and shaking under your gaze, but he’s not stopping. Now that he’s got a taste of your nectar, he really can’t stop.

Wooyoung kisses a trail along your neck when your head lolls back, sucking hickeys onto you that you’re sure will be there for weeks. Two wet mouths on you at once is overwhelmingly delicious, your entire body shivering as the wetness overtakes you. Yeosang moans into you, the vibrations of his dream finally come true adding onto your pleasure.

Wooyoung giggles into your neck, “Feeling good, baby?”

You nod, but Wooyoung’s hand gently smacks against your cheek. It’s enough to focus your attention back onto him, teary fluttering eyes making him weak in the knees, “Words, brat. Aren’t you happy Yeosang’s fucking you?”

Your blush worsens, but the need to satisfy Wooyoung outweighs any embarrassment, “S-so happy, Woo,”

Wooyoung leans into your ear, wet lips sending shivers down your spine with every syllable spoken, “Tell him how many times you’ve thought about having his cock inside you.”

Yeosang groans at his words. The thought of you laying there, imagining, wishing it was Yeosang fucking you instead of your own useless fingers or Wooyoung gives him full-body shivers. You want him just as much as he does and he can’t get enough of the satisfaction. Wooyoung’s knowing smile aimed at him only adds fuel to his fire.

You shake your head at Wooyoung. Your lips are tightly sealed now, but your hips grind furiously against Yeosang’s face and your harmony of moans is muffled. Yeosang doesn’t stop playing with your entrance, but it’s obvious Wooyoung isn’t happy with your response. He brings a hand around your neck, pulling your head backwards as a surprised gasp sounds out of you. The vulnerability of being completely at the mercy of Wooyoung’s hands is always riveting. His eyes don’t sparkle anymore. There’s a scowl on his face and his nostrils flare.

Yeosang’s tongue suddenly entering you makes you let out a gasp of surprise, and Wooyoung takes the opportunity to stick his pointer fingers into your mouth. His other hand continuously spurs you to suck on his sweaty skin, slapping your cheek until it’s a dull red and the sweet sting dulls your bratty attitude. With every slap there’s a squeeze to your throat. The lack of oxygen excites you, brings you to a cliff where Yeosang’s tongue waits to push you off the edge.

Wooyoung slides his soaked fingers out of your mouth, “You wanna be quiet now? Tell Yeosang about everytime you moaned his name instead of mine, doll. Tell him about your fantasy.”

You want to say no, fight some more to bring out that callous side of Wooyoung, but Yeosang’s waiting so patiently under you to hear you. He’s lapping like a dog, red cheeks working overtime as his mouth explores every inch of you. He’s memorized the taste of you by now, memorized the sight of a broken, battered you under Wooyoung’s care.

Yeosang leans into your hand when you dig your fingers into his brown locks, “W-want your cum inside me, Sangie. And Woo’s. Want you to give me a baby.”

He keens over. There’s a spot in his gut that has set alight at the sound of your words, his heavy desire flowing through his veins and overtaking his senses. It feels fucking euphoric to hear you say that. He wants to record you and play it over and over again everyday for the rest of his life.

He wastes no time in pulling you onto the couch with him, gentle kisses running over the expanse of your belly and over the horizon of your tits. You feel like a dream. Like he’s kissing a cloud.

Wooyoung only watches with his cock in hand, raw need and heat filling him as Yeosang slides a thumb over your throbbing entrance. He holds your shaking hips steady as he slides in, warmth enveloping him and a fever wracking his entire body. Each of his worries melts away with every inch he reaches inside of you, your hole fluttering and twitching as it makes room for him. Yeosang can’t help but watch as he finally finds home.

He knows he won’t last long. The elation of being inside you, the utter exhilaration he gets from Wooyoung watching, is too overwhelming. His wet cock jostles you, touching your gummy walls in just the right way. He leans his sweaty forehead onto yours, gripping onto your hips hard enough to leave bruises. He needs some sort of anchor to Earth as your pussy swallows him.

His harmonic, quiet moans are sickly sweet. They contrast to the harsh, visceral way he fucks you. His balls slap against your skin with every thrust, your entire body bouncing every time your hips meet his. He’s raw in his taking of you, forceful and privileged with his touch.

Wooyoung keens over when he sees the way you cream around Yeosang’s cock. He loves fucking you, but watching you be fucked dumb is just as good. He gets to detail every little twitch you make, watch your hole be stuffed in its full glory.

Whatever was bothering Yeosang before seems to have been forgotten and changed into energy for you. His deep, panting voice sends waves of thunderous bliss throughout your body, “I’m gonna fucking fill you.”

And he does.

He’s stuck in a maddening ecstasy as his cock twitches inside you, filling you with his hot cum with every jolt of his body. There’s a mixture of fluids flowing in between you as he pulls out of you, his pearlescent liquid dripping out when there’s no more room to fit inside. Yeosang’s chest heaves as he sits back. A sweet, intoxicating, and exhausting exhilaration fills him. It’s a high he’ll never get tired of.

Wooyoung comes down to your level and slides a finger over your sensitive, freshly fucked-out hole. He gathers Yeosang’s cum, bringing it towards your face to admire the connection alongside him. He smiles sadistically down at you, biting his lip in an attempt to stop the moan that wants to slip at the sight of a disheveled you.

He taunts you, “My good little slut takes cum so well. Are you ready for Woo’s?”

You nod weakly, ”’M ready, Woo. W-want it so bad,”

He looks up at Yeosang, “See, Sangie? I trained my dollie so well.”

[thepastisalreadywritten]

With the addition of Saturn, the James Webb Space Telescope has finally captured all four of our Solar System's giant worlds.

JWST's observations of the ringed planet, taken on 25 June 2023, have been cleaned up and processed, giving us a spectacular view of Saturn's glorious rings, shining golden in the darkness.

By contrast, the disk of Saturn is quite dark in the new image, lacking its characteristic bands of cloud, appearing a relatively featureless dim brown.

This is because of the wavelengths in which JWST sees the Universe – near- and mid-infrared.

These wavelengths of light are usually invisible to the naked human eye, but they can reveal a lot.

For example, thermal emission – associated with heat – is dominated by infrared wavelengths.

When you're trying to learn about what's going on inside a planet wrapped in thick, opaque clouds, studying its temperature is a valuable way to go about it.

Some elements and chemical processes emit infrared light, too. Seeing the planets of the Solar System in wavelengths outside the narrow range admitted by our vision can tell us a lot more about what they have going on.

Saturn

As we saw last week, when we clapped eyes on the raw JWST Saturn images, the observations involved filters that dimmed the light of the planet, while allowing light from the rings and moons to shine brightly.

This is so a team led by planetary scientist Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester in the UK can study the rings and moons of Saturn in more detail.

They hope to identify new ring structures and, potentially, even new moons orbiting the gas giant.

The image above shows three of Saturn's moons, Dione, Enceladus and Tethys, to the left of the planet.

Although dim, the disk of the planet also reveals information about Saturn's seasonal changes.

The northern hemisphere is reaching the end of its 7-year summer, but the polar region is dark. An unknown aerosol process could be responsible.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere around the edges of the disk appears bright, which could be the result of methane fluorescence, or the glow of trihydrogen, or both. Further analysis could tell us which.

Jupiter

Jupiter was the first of the giant planets to get the JWST treatment, with images dropping in August of last year – and boy howdy were they stunning.

The spectacular detail seen in the planet's turbulent clouds and storms was perhaps not entirely surprising.

However, we also got treated to some rarely seen features: the permanent aurorae that shimmer at Jupiter's poles, invisible in optical wavelengths, and Jupiter's tenuous rings.

We also saw two of the planet's smaller, lesser-known moons, Amalthea and Adrastea, with fuzzy blobs of distant galaxies in the background.

"This one image sums up the science of our Jupiter system program, which studies the dynamics and chemistry of Jupiter itself, its rings, and its satellite system," said astronomer Thierry Fouchet of Paris Observatory in France, who co-led the observations.

Neptune

Observations of Neptune arrived in the latter half of September 2022.

Because Neptune is so very far away, it tends to get a little neglected; you're probably used to seeing, if anything, the images taken by Voyager 2 when it flew past in 1989.

JWST's observations gave us, for the first time in more than 30 years, a new look at the ice giant's dainty rings – and the first ever in infrared.

It also revealed seven of Neptune's 14 known moons, and bright spots in its atmosphere.

Most of those are storm activity, but if you look closely, you'll see a bright band circling the planet's equator.

This had never been seen before and could be, scientists say, a signature of Neptune's global atmospheric circulation.

Uranus

Uranus is also pretty far away, but it's also a huge weirdo. Although very similar to Neptune, the two planets are slightly different hues, which is something of a mystery.

Uranus is also tipped sideways, which is challenging to explain too.

JWST's observations, released in April 2023, aren't solving these conundrums.

However, they have revealed 11 of the 13 structures of the incredible Uranian ring system and an unexplained atmospheric brightening over the planet's polar cap.

JWST has a lot to say about the early Universe; but it's opening up space science close to home, too.

As its first year of operations comes to an end, we can't help but speculate what new wonders will be to come in the years ahead.

Top: Jupiter - Neptune / Bottom: Uranus - Saturn

Credit: NASA

[anonymouscapybara]

people say the worst SI unit is the mole. "ohhh but it's just a number it doesn't even have anything attached it doesn't deserve to be an official unit" BZZZ WRONG

the worst unit is the candela. the candela is stupid.

what's the candela, you ask? well, it measures the brightness of light

"oh that sounds reasonable" you say, "just measure the energy or power emitted!" nope. they would not do anything nearly so simple. a lightbulb emitting a watt of yellow light is more candelas than a lightbulb emitting a watt of red light.

"ok that's weird" you say, "but maybe they're adjusting for that somehow? maybe it measures number of photons?" again, that would be far too reasonable. a lightbulb emitting a fixed rate of yellow-light photons is more candelas than the same rate of purple-light photons.

but what are they even measuring then? what else is there to measure? clearly they ran out of ideas while making up units, because what they're actually measuring is the SUBJECTIVE BRIGHTNESS OF LIGHT TO THE HUMAN EYE. the candela is STUPID

a reasonable question to ask is: how would you even measure the brightness of light to the human eye? aren't a lot of human eyes different? don't different things look bright in different circumstances? aren't there colorblind people in the world?

surely the General Conference on Weights and Measures, which spent millions precisely calibrating magnetic quantum flux to avoid basing the kilogram on a random block in France, has a clever solution!

no. no they don't. the candela is stupid.

as far as I can tell, what you do is you first measure how much light of each wavelength comes in. Then you multiply each measurement by a "luminosity function", which measures brightness to the human eye:

you will notice that there are multiple functions shown in this diagram. the SI system has five of these, for different lighting conditions. do your lighting conditions not exactly follow one of the Five Official Standardized Lighting Conditions? guess you're out of luck then.

and whose eye are we using? why, the Official Standardized CIE Photometric Observer, of course: the "ideal observer having a relative spectral responsivity that conforms to a CIE-defined spectral luminous efficiency function for human vision"

(and no I can't show you this function because the fine people of the ISO put it BEHIND A PAYWALL. who puts measurements determining a fundamental SI unit BEHIND A PAYWALL. the candela is stupid)

all right, so we're measuring a fundamental unit using a (nonexistent) idealized observer in one of five random lighting conditions. how did they find the values for this? i'm...not entirely sure. but here's a glimpse, based on a few of the most recent studies I found used for this:

"...heterochromatic (minimum) flicker photometric data obtained from 40 observers (35 males, 5 females) of known genotype..."

"To obtain an estimate of the mean L-cone fundamental, we weighted [weird variables] according to the ratio of 0.56 L(S180) to 0.44 L(A180) found in the normal, male Caucasian population...and averaged them together"

that's right, our Official Objective Brightness Unit is probably sexist and racist. none of the other SI units have a chance to be sexist and racist. a meter is a meter in every country on Earth. 6.022*10^23 For Women is still 6.022*10^23. but the candela is-- probably-- the white man's candela, because you can absolutely bet that genetic drift around the world gives different values for this stuff.

in summary: my opinion, as you might have guessed, is that the candela is stupid. hopefully you agree with me after reading this that we need to completely eradicate it from the planet. failing that could we at not give it the same level of officialness as the meter or the kilogram?

[magicaldragons]

family dynamics.

– Varadha –

Varadha is a wildcat among rabid dogs. He is no less capable of violence or twisted games, but he operates from a completely different wavelength, which is his biggest strength.

Rudra is a typical bully. He is someone who, from childhood, has always teamed up against the minority in an effort to seem powerful, because he cares too much about perception and not enough about true value

so it makes sense, that he’d find validation in treating Varadha – a stepbrother who is so far removed from how people normally behave in Khansaar – condescendingly.

he is specifically envious of Varadha – most of the hate Rudra feels for Varadha stems from an insecure desire to elevate his own worth.

but Radha Rama?

why does she hate Varadha? – she's above Rudra's pettiness and definitely knows better than to waste her time and energy on power plays when she could work on herself.

but we know that she's hated Varadha since his birth – even more than Rudra does, in fact.

It must have started out as sibling rivalry, especially with how eager Radha Rama is for Rajamannar's approval. Varadha, ever since his birth, was probably a threat for that spot – was possibly even Rajamannar's favorite before he gave away his honor territory. and after that? the hatred only grew. We know that once Varadha lost his position as a lord, he was shunned from court, and he spent more time among the people of Khansaar than his family. and this gave him more exposure throughout Khansaar and definitely earned him a particular reputation for how level-headed, clever, and genuine he was.

it slowly became more and more obvious, (to Radha Rama especially) as Varadha grew older, that he inspired devotion in people – he had people that would die for him, and she could never understand how he'd done it, especially with how hard she'd worked to be seen as valuable.

so it frustrated her that Varadha, even with his inherent, deliberate softness, and the way he portrayed himself, was able to receive such love and warmth from the people who knew him personally, and that maybe played a part in how much more she worked for the approval of Khansaar's king:

Rajamannar.

Rajamannar is someone who definitely saw the soft power Varadha had for winning hearts, especially with his coexisting capability for exerting his own power.

It takes a diplomatic, yet terrifyingly strong man, to build and maintain an empire, and obviously, this is something that even Rajamannar was unable to do perfectly, with his need to annihilate an entire tribe to secure the throne for himself.

Shivamannar was the first and only to be capable of doing this, and Rajamannar sees that same strength, tenacity, and authenticity in Varadha. As a father, he was definitely proud of Varadha in the beginning and could see his capacity for greatness.

After Varadha disappointed him by giving away his kada, though, Rajamannar still cared for him and saw his potential, but could no longer publically support a son who had disregarded their honor & disrespected not only the territory but also Rajamannar's decision to put him in charge of that territory – especially since Varadha refused to tell him why he did it.

and now that Rajamannar, just like Radha Rama, has realized the extent of Varadha's quiet power, most of his pride has turned to wariness.

because as a father, he can be proud.

but as a king?

Varadha is a threat.

Which leads us to the fact that: Rajamannar, Rudra, and Radha Rama have been hostile to the one person who has the capacity and the qualities to rule, but wouldn't have actively sought out the throne if they hadn't placed him in a spot where the only way for him to attain respect and feel valued was to gain the throne.

Essentially, by treating him they way they have, in an effort to keep him away from court and in fear that he will surpass them, they've dug their own graves.

— love, a definition: part two [part one / part three]

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

Rewatching s1e9 and I really love how Ed and Stede are just on such wildly different wavelengths. It sets up Stede's panic and Ed's resignation when Stede doesn't meet him at the docks so well.

Stede in this episode cannot catch a fucking break. Ed was visibly not thrilled to be signing the Act of Grace - even though we know Ed wants to leave Blackbeard behind, no one wants to serve the English, and Stede obviously blames himself. Then he gets a reminder of the family he abandoned and learns that Mary reported him dead, and immediately after that, he sees Ed's shaved his beard.

He feels so lost. He's being hit constantly with reminders that he's a failure, that he's ruined things - he thinks he's forced Ed into this terrible thing, and Ed shaving is such a potent symbol of that.

Meanwhile, Ed? Thriving. He doesn't really care that they're in the service of the English, all he cares about is he's with Stede and he doesn't have to be Blackbeard right now. He's worried that Stede's upset, but on the whole? He wants so badly to believe things are okay.

Then comes the kiss and Ed's plan to run away to China. Obviously, that plan was never going to work - this isn't a show where characters are rewarded from running away from their problems. Wherever they go, there they are. But Ed is still trying to believe that this whole situation is everything he wants, he's trying to believe that running away will fix things. And Stede? My guy is riddled with guilt. He is obviously reluctant to agree to the plan to run away, although he doesn't tell Ed. Ed is so excited he's practically vibrating after the kiss, I don't blame him for not picking up on Stede's obvious reluctance here, but it's so clear they're not on the same page at all.

Would Stede have actually met Ed at the docks if Chauncey hadn't found him? Personally, I think he probably would have, but the guilt would have made him need to return to his ex-wife and kids sooner or later. It was always going to need to happen. When Stede says "we were moving so fast" in s2e4, I don't think he's just talking about the kiss - it was the plan to go run away, it was how all these reminders of his guilt were hitting him constantly from every fucking angle during this entire episode.

When Stede never shows up at the docks, I'm not surprised that Ed doesn't go looking for him. I'm not surprised that he doesn't seem that surprised. This entire episode, Ed has the air of someone trying very hard to believe that everything is okay, and at the docks that all comes down around him. He thinks Stede left because there's something wrong with Ed, that Ed's unlovable.

I think it says so much that their first kiss is in Ed's "I love Stede!" montage in s2e3, but not in Stede's in s1e10. I think that speaks so well to what different headspaces they were in. For Stede? He had so much going on that while he kissed Ed back and obviously liked it, I'm not sure it even fully registered. But for Ed, it was finally working up the courage to admit he just wants to be Ed and show Stede he wanted to be with him.

[ms-scarletwings]

A Speculative Analysis About Irkens No One Asked For: Part I

Dem green fellas. Them lil guys, they’re an interesting pack of critters, aren’t they?

I used to really fixate on them back in middle and high school, stronger than everyone else seemed to be on the spazz in the dog costume. Jhonen Vasquez’s worldbuilding has always towed a very fine line between nonsensically ridiculous and surprisingly logistical, and this balance is typified in everything we know, and can infer, about these bug-eyed imperialists at the center of everything Invader Zim. So, let’s infer, and take a crack at it since no one’s stopping us anyway- More specifically, some thoughts and ponderings I had about how they “tick” as a fully realized society, not just a sci-fi monster..

A Homeworld Obscured 

Now, to really understand the history and “deal” of any civilization, or any animal, usually you would turn to their environment first to give you some handy clues and context.

Small problem, though: We actually don’t get much in the way of direct, explicit showing or explanations about Irk itself when it comes to the show. This makes some sense, given that the whole of what they do worth showing (and the most notable members of their kind) exists almost entirely off-world. So instead, we mostly find out more about Irk from what Invader Zim does tell us about its natives. As far as confirmed canon goes, we know that Irk’s atmosphere appears red, its surface is entirely and densely urbanized, and it’s long been depicted in starmaps with a set of Saturn-like rings. 

  This last fact is probably the most interesting, because planetary rings are usually something we, in our own little solar system, would only associate with massive, gaseous worlds, not terrestrial ones.  What These rings are made of is really anyone’s guess- could be ancient debris from natural satellites, Water-ice particles, maybe even some form of artificial defense network put into orbit by the Irkens themselves. If they aren’t artificially created, this would suggest that Irk has quite a strong gravitational field- greater than that of any of our neighborhood’s rocky planets. This is the common theory I personally like to subscribe to, because it would also go hand and hand with explaining why the average height of the irken race is so much shorter compared to that of an adult human. It fits neatly into the “why” question for the sort of athletic skill and agility we’ve seen invaders able to demonstrate on Earth, too, for otherwise being of meek physical prowess. It even adds some credible context for why the very achievement of growing to a more substaintial height is both uncommon and associated with extreme survival fitness to them.

A Fun fact that’s about to be relevant: “Rayleigh scattering” is the term given to when light wavelengths become shifted and scattered through an atmosphere medium. Long story short, it’s the reason our sky has color to it during the day. Stay with me on this.

I’ve also seen some people take a go at the red-looking surface, guessing a different gas makeup than the elements on earth responsible for our blue skies. I’m gonna go against the grain here, and actually contest that. I think that Irk’s atmosphere is coincidentally extremely similar to Earth’s. We know well enough that they both have a similar composition of gases breathable to both societies, given that Zim, Skoodge, and Tak all seemed pretty comfortable without some form of assistance on the same dirtball as humanity. Instead, I propose that Irk’s magenta skies are actually the symptom of heavy pollution. Sunsets and sunrises in the real world are known to make the sky appear more reddish-orange, even pink, as is. Usually, Rayleigh scattering has the light From the sun appear bluish in full midday, but during low sun, the rays are coming at an angle making them have to travel farther before reaching us, so you have already stretched light waves getting the same treatment from the air and, well, a higher frequency blue turns down to the lower end of the spectrum, red and yellows.

And wouldn’t you know, air pollution can actually do the same thing. THIS is why there's a scary ass orange haze known to accompany the presence of massive forest fires and volcanic eruptions. Earth’s most polluted cities even experience longer and redder sunsets for the same reason. 

Left: Image of a lilac sky over a Chinese city experiencing heavy smog levels Right: Intense red haze spotted over towns in Indonesia in the wake of rampant rainforest fires

On Earth, Zim stared directly into the midday sun without hesitation, nor concern that it would literally blind him. I think the planet hue and this is plenty enough to guess the likely case that Irk’s surface probably doesn’t get a lot of direct sun on an average day as is, and the sheer amount of unbroken cityscape that covers the homeworld would be the more obvious suspect than just having a more distant star from them. If they overcrowded to the point of their expansion, why build their civilization deeper into the ground, instead of up? Maybe there's actually a good reason or two they don’t raise their young topside.

A Psychology Molded for Domination

As well, I want to chirp about real world space again for a second. So, anyone up to the buzz in geek circles and aware of the math on the matter probably got the memo: humanity is almost matter-of-fact certainly not alone in this sandbox of a universe (or at the very least, we won’t always be alone). Like, about as certainly as we were about Black holes’ existence before we up and observed the real thing. And while it’s probably not going to happen in any of our lifetimes, sci-fi and media generally have been trying to take a crack for years at what the theoretical first contact with an alien civilization is going to look like. 

And I’m gonna go ahead and say it, 

As “cliche” and Hollywood as the conquering little green/grey dudes trope might have become… it’s actually not a wild take after all. The little and green thing, that’s creative liberty, but the part about them being hostile and something we may not actually even WANT to be aware of our existence? That’s an idea that even the smarty pants experts have been fearing the realistic odds of, even including the late Stephen Hawking .

The Evolution of intelligent life is a hard thing to really pin down and predict, given that we literally only have the one example to study. Under the right conditions, what reason would another advanced species NOT have to be equally as expanding, as exploitative of its resources, self-destructively short-sighted, and as supremacist as humans have already demonstrated themselves to be capable of? There is a lot of very interesting literature that suggests BOTH empathy/altruism and or aggression/tribalism to be (at least in the short term) very rewarding characteristics for an intelligent social species to develop.

And that’s the thing about the behavior of the Irken Armada I think has always been fascinating. Their drive to be the biggest definitionally invasive species across the cosmos is framed exactly as irrational, bumbling, and pointless as it deserves to be; however, is it not just the extended conclusion of every empire that has existed here on Earth, if only it had survived long enough to achieve the technology of Irk? And yet, it’s reminiscent, like the rest of their design, to the far from sapient, yet very real world creatures they appear to be most inspired by: hive and colony building arthropods. Whether the next point I'm about to touch on should be seen as a rejection of that resemblance, or further elaboration of it is anyone's to answer.

Transhumanism, or.. Transirkenism, in this case?

Like the specifics of what Irk really looks like and how it realistically works, a bunch about the aliens’ physical biology is left to scattered tidbits to ponder and piece together into a bigger picture. A few of those tidbits are as follows, drip-fed to us over the course of aired and scripted but never released episodes:

+ From the mouth of Vasquez himself, it has been confirmed that Irkens lack any form of reproductive organs. Instead, they rely on industrialized facilities to grow and produce them in a factory sense.

+ Yet curiously, they still demonstrate something akin to sexual dimorphism, or at least the cultural existence of masculine/feminine genders, where females are aesthetically set apart by the presence of curled antennae, eyelashes, and higher voices.

+ Irken lifespans are able to stretch far past that of an average human’s (Zim himself is cited to be around 2 centuries old in earth years).

+ Invader class soldiers have been implanted with surgical upgrades to their eyes.

+ Every Irken is fitted with a PAK that serves a wide array of utility and life-sustaining functions for its owner. These units are physically and neurologically connected into an Irken’s spine from “birth” and contain a cybernetic backup of an individual’s personality, assigned occupational programming, and memories. 

That’s not close to a complete list by any means, but it’s got the gist of what I want to dwell on most, starting with the last bit; because the PAK isn’t done true justice in one statement. It is not an extra addition the way a prosthetic enhancement is, and it is not a tool the way armor and weapons are. It is literally analogous to a vital organ to these aliens, and they are shown to die within 10 minutes of being forcefully detached from their own.

The degree to which Irken bodies and minds rely on this technology, and how seamlessly they are integrated into it, ALONG with their completely artificial life cycle all directly points to the fact that their civilization has advanced into a cyborg-like stage of evolution. It may even be on track to reach a post-organical peak in due time, phasing out more and more of their “vestigial” and feeble meatsuits until they’ve become a true drone army. And that actually begs some huge questions now that we realize we will never know how much of the Irken anatomy was ever originally a natural feature. An Irken���s own brain practically comes secondary to the superior efficiency of the supercomputer on their back, capable of literally holding their own essence and being in the form of code. A code that can preserve the “self” even in the event of meatbody failure, being uploaded post-mortem into the Control Brains’ collective data and repurposed for a future generation of workers. It absolutely would stand to reason that the species has continued this biological self-tampering to other heights- extending their lifespans, incorporating untold amount of mechanical upgrades into their bodies, and maybe even genetically engineering their smeets to be so compatible with this technology.  The control brains themselves are a mesmerizing reflection of this change over time- the result of an evident shift long ago from technology serving them, to them serving the directives of computers. When you really pay attention to the control brains’ role in the series, it comes clear to you who (or what) is really in charge of their society. The Tallest still maintain their symbolic/cultural importance to the Irkens, but outside of their part in spearheading the active intergalactic invasion, they ultimately are figureheads when it comes to actually running the homeworld and ruling the lives of Irk’s inhabitants. If I had to bet money, I would say the Brains may even have the ability to choose and predetermine the next Tallest when a replacement is needed. But what does that make the Tallest? A meaningless title and transformation, chosen arbitrarily by the AI overlords? Well, I don’t think so, actually… but maybe that, and more on the “meaty” morphology of their race is all a tangent fit for another day and post ;)

[centrally-unplanned]

To share another thought on the Folding Ideas video I Don't Know James Rolfe from my last post, while I enjoyed it a ton I do think its core "meta" element fails to reach the heights it could. It is never made that explicit so I am making a subjective read here, but essentially while most of the content of the video is textually about James Rolfe, there are dozens of moments where Dan performs actions that mimic or parallel James, culminating in his own parodic angry video game review as the finale. The idea is something of a "there but for the grace of god I go" point, that perhaps all youtubers, and Dan specifically, are too close for comfort to Rolfe's reality of limited creative options and a hostile fanbase clinging to the past .

But I can't really say for sure! Because he is very adverse to making this concrete enough for the audience.

At times the visual parallels are incredibly direct. There is one moment, where Dan is explaining the real skill and craft of being an internet clown on demand, where he mimics Rolfe's style of rant to explain it while projected AVGN videos that were looping in the background flash over his own body:

And it really works, the meaning shines through; it is a moment you can see back through time where the idea for this shot was, spiritually, the impetus for the film, that this idea must have come to him and he built the essay around making it happen.

Other visual parallels are less explicit; when the parody sequence starts, Dan - who has built a 1/12th scale recreation of the Rolfe's "video game basement" aka studio set in order to "understand" him like normal people do - represents himself in that room via a tiny hand puppet

Which is cute if, like probably most people, know him as the guy who makes videos about NFTs or Qanon. But close to a decade ago, when he was first making ~20 minute media analysis takes, he represented himself on screen with a wooden puppet like this:

It is even like the same color, I am confident this is intentional, it is saying "yeah this could have been an alt version of me; I was not so far from this".

All these symbols function to make the emotional impact; but an emotional impact in service of...what? So in the essay he discusses the film Wavelength, a 1967 avant garde film that is almost entirely composed of filming the side of a room with minimal camera movement while actions occur around it. It is a movie that never gives you a meaning, and therefore you must project meaning into it, bring yourself to the table. That makes sense for Wavelength, and the aggressive cinematography of I Don't Know James Rolfe - which is stellar to be clear - is making the film out to be sort of its own personal Wavelength for YouTube.

But then we go back to that text, which is over an hour of Dan directly talking to the camera about a real person. It is incredibly concrete and detailed, with explicit points being made over and over. And through what those explicit points reveal... I don't think Dan Olsen is like James Rolfe! Does he have an hostile fanbase trapped in nostalgia? Do people acuse him of being cucked by his bitch wife? He has evolved as a filmmaker, intensely so, he does things completely differently than Rolfe does and completely differently from how he himself used to. He doesn't have a shitty biography that self-outs his own creative narcissism, he isn't obsessed with remaking his own childhood films - I am pretty sure as a kid he had never heard of NFTs, they didn't really exist! The final line of the film is "maybe you aren't a filmmaker either" - but idk, Dan, I kinda think you are! If documentarians can be filmmakers you have to qualify.

Now I'm not a fool, I understand that the film could be suggesting these are differences of degrees and not kind; that Dan is equally "trapped in the room" making vlogs for the net, just with more outward trappings of success. But, in the ruthless specificity and detail of his treatment of Rolfe...this film cannot be Wavelength. I am not capable of forging my own meaning from the pieces, he connected way too many of them. This is the trap of avant-garde; you are tempted to help the audience, but once you try to answer some of the questions, it forces the hand of the rest, they all have to fit into that schema. And the film is just too coy with Dan's own parallel life for me to figure the schema out. I make my guesses and I lack confidence in them, they feel "contradicted" by the text.

More detail would have been the easier path; less detail and more symbolic expression would have been the harder path. But right now the balance is just a bit too out of whack for it to come fully together.

[shock]

This one is definitely my favorite so far in my collage solar system, so I wanted to post it. Hopefully I'll get some nice scans once all the pieces are done, but here's a spotlight on Neptune Side 1, "MEMORY".

The photos on the left are all pictures I took as a kid with film my gammaw got me before she died, and most of them are from the same day we took a walk together. The photos on the right all include her except for one. I can't remember HOW I managed to get ahold of the time they hired a stripper for her birthday, but I've always found that set of photos to be really evocative and I feel like I found the perfect use for them! 🤣

The text reads:

One fine day in 2006, a wild deer wandered into a Target store. When animals are traumatized, we make careful, logical calculations. Which is what the deer did.

After falling down the stairs, skidded around for a half hour, like when Odysseus opened a bag of captive winds, would surrender for a second, then dash from one event to the next. Until out of sheer frustration, I threw a bucket. But it made the deer race right through the window.

"F---ed up beyond all recognition."

If I had known what that maneuver would cost, I would probably have let the deer go.

A couple of days before she died, she took me to the ocean.

My log adds, I had some nice things to eat. I have never seen a being, human or animal, always so full of joy. Talking to her filled me with the power of the sun.

I wanted to hug her, but I didn't. I literally forgot to put my arms around her. We talked again that night on a ship-to-ship radio frequency. You weren't supposed to talk long on that because others might need it.

The next day, she died. I went into the woods, trying to clear my head. I could hear the deer breathing in the darkness. It was weird.

The day after she died, I called and cried. I don't like to yell or scream, but a bad storm brings something out of me. Not until I knew there's be no response did I realize how much pleasure I had taken in calling her. I bellowed up at the approaching storm: All right, you have the power of life and death! Love's no good! I know it! I had so many meetings with different people, I forgot! I'm sorry! So deafen me with your thunder! Go on, then! Scorch up my brains! I defy you! I'll defy you to my last breath!

Who was I defying? God? The deer? The storm? It didn't do any good to make noises of my own.

Sleeping helps. In dreams, I reach out my hand and grab the disease with my fist, drive that f---ed cancer back across an entire wavelength, refuse to contemplate the distant future, have a great talk with her held safely inside my arms.

I think It's worst than a nightmare. It's slow torture, it will drive you crazy, cunningly spooled and folded scenarios spin out in your mind.

Two years ago, I watched tapes of her that only reminded me of how I wanted to hear live people. It took me years to learn how to use them.

It is always interesting to see how situations change and people move from one to the other. Then you walk around a rock, and there it is: names and drawings, graffiti, all of one trade— MEMORIES carved in the rock:

Her life was a gift to me. She'd given me a greater one.

She sounded good.

I got the message. Follow the noise.

Retrace my route between the images of a continuous narrative. I went to the spot where she took her last breath. By then I could hear the deer running through the brush. I called again. This time, with a smile.

It worked. I made contact again.

Of course I knew this time she couldn't come, so my approach changed:

All right, REFLECTIONS can't support life.

That's okay. Keep moving.

GO AHEAD AND FREAK OUT.

Keeping busy helps, too— She lived every moment as though it were her last. It was wonderful.

I love her very much.

Do you want to know a secret?

I transformed into something grown for the pure happiness it brings me.

I feel really good now.

My attention most days is on the here and now.

It's the only real escape there is.

[doodle-pops]

Ok so I know for elves sex=marriage but what if an elf has sex before marriage with their lover ?

Like do they get shamed or die or something? (IDK OKAY 😭😭)

I really went off on this answer for you >.<

As far as LaCE states, sex = marriage. There's a whole explanation about their marital process of being betrothed for one year and then wedding at the altar before the eyes of Eru (or Manwë and Varda??). The act of of sex is how the elves complete their marriage (consummation) and form their final bond between each other. However there were probably records of some elves just marrying right away (probably doing a quick exchange of vows and rings and jumping into bed).

Hypothetically speaking, lets say you have a high class couple (one's royal the other is a lord/lady) and a wedding ceremony was planned and the entire public knew about their betrothal and so forth, then in secret, they engage in sex out of lusting for each other, shame could play a part there. This would push for them to properly wed quicker to avoid shame upon their house.

Then, you have to remember the process Tolkien described elves' marriage had a lot to do with his Catholic beliefs. That meant, wedding at an altar and then having sex was the traditional method that all elves abided by. Thus, having sex before marriage (more so in Valinor) would have been consider improper; people would ill-talk and such. Even as they moved to ME, I don't see elves rushing for the quickest method (sex) to get married, since they enjoyed celebrations. So a wedding was a huge highlight and a must to celebrate a joyous moment in their lives.

As for the dying part, elves didn't die if they had sex before wedding, however, (see below the cut)

If an elf had intercourse forced upon them, their fëa would leave their bodies and the they would die (as stated in LaCE and also stated that no elf had ever forced their partners, even though we had Eöl using enchantments upon Aredhel but it was then stated that she was "not unwilling" but imo it sounds forced).

"Among all these evils there is no record of any among the Elves that took another's spouse by force; for this was wholly against their nature, and one so forced would have rejected bodily life and passed to Mandos. Guile or trickery in this matter was scarcely possible…for the Eldar can read at once in the eyes and voice of another whether they be wed or unwed." (LACE footnote 5) 

So marriage and sex was always consensual between both parties and shame played a part depending on the wedding procedure.

Edit: I know it said "took another spouse by force" and nothing about forceful taking in general for unwed elves, but honestly, even if an elf were to be taken by force, since they experience emotions on an entirely different wavelength than us, who's to say that they can't die from being taken by force. Their freedom and consent were taken only be defiled. Them choosing to die can be a (optional) thing.

[incorrecttowerofgodquotes]

Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Season 2 Episode 11 Discussion

- Martin was me the entire episode, freaking the fuck out

- Eri vs Suletta is such a great fight. The two love each other, but their viewpoints and morals are on such opposite wavelengths. Eri, much like Suletta in the past, is doing everything for her mother because she wants her mom to be happy. The Eri we see is simply lines of code reconfigured into what could possibly be construed as a human being. She has Eri’s memories and feelings, but she hasn’t, can’t, grow up, unlike Suletta. Suletta loves her mom, she wants to be there for her, but she can’t accept killing people. She’s realized just how much heavy a life is and so she moves to protect it.

- Peil and the SAL have taken the mantle of final boss. If they really cared about punishing the Benerit Group, they would arrest the leaders, not shoot them with a giant fuck you laser while children are on board all while supporting the people who make nuclear child body doubles. The League is doing exactly what Delling did during the Vanadis incident, right down to the “I’ll take responsibility (but I really won’t)” shtick.

- However what’s interesting is how out of place Elan seems to be. He isn’t sitting down with the Peil ladies, he’s standing off in the corner, staring at his own reflection, and I think this shows a lot of us got his character wrong. Elan is just another child the Peil ladies are taking advantage of. He only got where he was due to sheer luck that the AI picked him, if not, he probably would have either ended up as the other body doubles or dead and discarded. It’s common with abusive parents that they’ll choose a “golden child” and use that child to put down the others, and Elan seems to fit in that mold. I hope he breaks out just like El5n and creates his own life.

- God the Schwarzette is the best fucking Gundam. Between it and Calibarn, how are they ever going to challenge it in the future? It has space rave lasers, it’s sword is the GUND bits and it can become a wing, and it has bisexual lighting.

- Lauda is too good for every one of his haters. He’s been second string to Guel for his entire life, his very name “Lauda Neill” is just a reminder of how he’s a mistress’s child. But here he proudly proclaims himself as “Lauda Jeturk.” His feelings for his brother come from both admiration and self-worthlessness. He puts his entire identity into being Guel’s brother so when Guel falters, he does as well. He wants Guel to rely on him. He wants to be his equal. He put Guel on such a high pedestal because he was everything he wanted to be.

- My poor son Guel. He’s always loved his brother, no matter the fact that they come from different mothers, but as always he has trouble understanding others. Also, we get to see a far darker part of his psyche that most others might have missed. In his fight with Shaddiq, despite being stabbed, he managed to eject and save himself, but here he waits for death. Guel has been keeping himself moving with the idea that his family still needs him, but once Lauda seemingly rejects him, he loses all that energy. He hasn’t recovered from the trauma and pain he’s been through, he’s only simply masked it. But in that moment, he’s perfectly fine with dying because he believes it would be better for everyone

- But best girl Felsi says fuck that! She reminds Guel and Lauda that the world is so much bigger than them, and that there are people who still care about them. They can’t ignore their problems, they need to talk through it. Lauda’s insecurity and Guel’s suicidal nature and guilt, these are things that can’t be held within or else they’ll bubble over and end in tragedy. Felsi the hero says cut the bullshit, and I love her so much for it. I need Felsi merch right now

- El5n was another MVP of the episode. I’m surprised just how talented he is with a gun and shoot outs. Does he have experience, either from his past life or current one? And the fact that he didn’t hesitate to get the head shot off of Prospera says so much. He’s ruthless because he has a purpose. He ain’t letting anyone die unnecessarily, but he also recognizes when the doing needs done

- And Belmeria really stepped up as well. She’s spent the entire series running away from the consequences of her actions but here she finally stands up and protects the children who have been abused by the system she supported. Her diving to protect Miorine from getting shot was beautiful, and you can tell El5n really appreciated the gesture.

- Miorine is the best wife. That’s it, that’s the tweet

- Right when Eri was about to merc Miorine and co, something interrupted them, and I believe it was Notrette, Miorine’s mom. We never learned how Miorine’s mom died, so it’s possible she also got sucked up into the data storm and resides in Quiet Zero, and that’s why Delling was working on the project. She also added a failsafe so her daughter could shut it down, one that speaks words of love. Mother of the year

- The fact that Eri’s final act is to protect her sister and mother is so sad. She never had the chance to grow up, she’s forever stuck in stasis inside a giant hunk of metal. Quiet Zero offered the hope that she could finally escape and travel the world as herself, but it still wouldn’t give her herself back. However, Suletta can still live on, and so she valiantly protects her from the big laser, giving one final smile to her little sister. I hope she can finally rest in peace.

- But will Prospera allow that. She’s watched her daughter die twice now. Everything she worked for, all the lives that were sacrificed, they now all mean nothing. The world has rejected her once again. Whether she can accept it and become a better mother to Suletta is to be seen, but I don’t think she’ll follow that path.

Really hoping we get that second half so I can see the Peil girls get fucking incinerated. Also can we paint the Schwarzette red and give it to Guel? Double the points if it’s revealed he’s bisexual.

[melonteee]

thoughts on how Zoro and Sanji sometimes seem to be connected?

Like we meet Zoro and his entire deal is '3 sword style', three earrings too. and then he meets sanji WHO IS NAMED AFTER THE NUMBER THREE?? probably oda didn't mean anything with it but idk 🤷‍♀️

Also, first time we meet Zoro we see him eating the onigiri even after helmeppo stepped on it, which follows Sanji's 'don't waste food' ideology even before they met

And then I think it was mentioned that Sanji was trained in sword fighting?

Sometimes i don't know if i'm overthinking it just because i ship it, but even in a friendship sense i see those two always connected somehow

sorry for the ask in case if it's annoying sdfdfgdad

I feel like the point of it is, even if they don't get along on the surface, we see all these little things regarding their character and morals that they perfectly connect with.

They both have soft hearts but a tough image. They both have a pride and passion in their craft. They both will forever put others over themselves.

It's a complete showing and connection of Luffy's wings, it's a constant reminder that even though they bicker and fight, they are extremely similar in heart and person. And we see it happen many times, where they agree with the other on an extremely serious topic while the rest of the crew is at odds. A major example is when Zoro yells at Luffy for wanting Usopp back immediately in Water 7, and while the whole crew (even LUFFY) makes Zoro out to be cruel, SANJI is the one who agrees with him and backs him up.

There's a perfect harmony they have when they're on the same wavelength, and while they're foils of each other in terms of demeanour, emotion and fighting style, they're complete mirrors of each other with their passion and care.

Zoro and Sanji will always disagree on the small things, but will always agree on the big things. They fight over something like the better flavour of ice cream or whatever, but they agree on the bigger picture and - ultimately - they respect each other for it.

They make Luffy's wings because they ARE their own selves, but they can also act as one - both to uplift Luffy and each other. So the connections Zoro and Sanji have will always be a reminder of how they're more similar than they are different, and shows that, beneath the teasing and arguing, there will forever be admiration and respect.

[mystybelle]

World Seed SRD (WSRD) is intentionally built to be a pot you can throw a setting into, or reforge slightly so you can make any dish you want. And I'm working on the JJK setting right now, so we only care about pre-building the fantastic elements of the setting into World Seed, and the Jujutsu Kaisen universe only has 1

Cursed Energy

A pretty elegant addition to a world's laws, in my opinion. An aspect of reality that responds directly to the emotions of sapient and sentient creatures, capable of even giving birth to life itself. However malicious that life may be. Everything fantastic within the world Akutami-san has created, seems to flow from that, and these facts:

Cursed energy both comes from and responds to brain waves that correspond to negative human emotions.

It can be spent, no differently from electromagnetic energy, and interacts with matter similar to how light does. Being absorbed, refracted, reflected, radiating, etc

It can also coalesce into tangible matter, in high enough concentrations, made entirely from Cursed energy particles.

It seems to be some form of "W.I.M.P," on account of the fact it possesses all of these qualities, but remains invisible to most creatures and all but the most specialized detection tools. Likely absorbing all light outside of (or only interacting with) a very specific wavelength, beyond absorbing it.

So simulating it's behavior through WSRD means that cursed energy should -

Be present on all Character and Object sheets

Characters should have motivations that are related to a "curse" that colors their life. Some past, or ever present trauma that colors their existence

In Characters; standing Cursed energy levels should recover at a consistent rate based on their Stats (Rhyme), while the upper limit a Character can possess or infuse their body with at any one time should be controlled by another (Constitution).

In Objects; maximum Cursed energy levels should limited to that Object's Durability directly. But there should be a mechanism for determining an Object's progress towards "Cursed Tool" status, based on how often it's infused with Cursed Energy... It should probably be nearly identical to the way a body becomes permanently strengthened by cursed energy infusion, or the effects of Heavenly Restrictions that enhance the body.

Techniques just need to have a Cursed Energy cost attached, and that's simple enough.

Characters that are Cursed Spirits should exist first as a Character with a minimum personality and sentience (Motivation/Curse, REA, RHY). Then its current Cursed energy should determine -whether or not and by how much- it can manifest its physical form.

After all that is the Binding Vow, special laws that creatures can impose on themselves to control how their Cursed Energy flows and behaves overall. Usually by imposing a limit on themselves, in exchange for a boon. I think that's probably as simple as a Basic Action with a low cost, that creates an Event... Yeah, I think that's everything.

Now I've just got to put the numbers in after this mist has cleared....

[an-aura-about-you]

cracking open a room temperature one (Handbook for Mortals chapter 1) with the boys

when we last left our hero, Scheherazade, who insists on having a nickname that doesn't sound like her name, had just left home after some vague thing her mother did. it's implied that she used magic to keep her stuck in her one horse town, but it's never outright stated and I doubt it will be at this point. it's wild because it honestly doesn't take much for me to side with a kid against their parent in a fictional argument, but you're giving me nothing to work with so I don't honestly know if Dela even did anything that bad.

also I'm upset that Dad is apparently on just the right wavelength to hear the name Zade and guess that it was similar to Scheherazade. but maybe that's one of those parent things like when good ol' Strong Bad told us that a garage sale is more like a garbage sale and made them rhyme. so congrats, you have reached your target audience of nearly 70 year old dads who do things like doing a little dance when they try on a comfy pair of shorts at the store.

anyway, on to Chapter 1: The Magician

-Zade is doing her audition in front of the entire theater company of nearly 200 people. this is ridiculous both in real life and in the story. like isn't that equal to about 2/3rds of the population of the town where she just left? why waste their time when you probably only need to audition in front of like 3-4 people?

-I don't know why Sarem feels the need to explain what show blacks are. I'd be surprised if someone reading this book hasn't seen a piece of media that shows the backstage crew all in black. I guess it kind of works because she takes the time to talk about how she thinks dudes in show blacks are sexy? but like, we know that black clothes are sexy. that's why the concept of the Little Black Dress exists.

-"Most of the performers looked bored." which means you're really making a great first impression. her audition hasn't started yet, but she's already getting off on the wrong foot with her potential coworkers by dragging them to see this when it's clear they'd rather be somewhere else, like getting ready for their next show since a number of them are in full costume.

-the boss of this thing is the "infamous" Charles Spellman, which means it's time to get into word choice! this isn't exactly a wrong word to use here, but I think it has different connotations than what Sarem was going for in this scene. it's kind of like when I watched like half of the opera Doctor Atomic and a song chose to use the word "odor" when talking about a pleasant smell. it's my understanding it was based on a real poem, but odor typically DOESN'T convey a pleasant smell, and I probably would have chosen "scent" or "aroma" instead had it been me. likewise, unless we're talking about Spellman's penchant to date girls his daughter's age, then there's not really anything infamous about him.

-speaking of, we've got a dude named Spellman and his daughter isn't named Sabrina, but it occurred to me tonight that it WOULD have been hella cool and still a subtle reference to Sabrina the Teenage Witch had she been named Zelda. I might just pretend we're reading about Zelda Holder for the rest of this book.

-in the very next paragraph after calling him infamous we're told Spellman is well respected. so which is it?

-the theater is in the round with stadium seating. (she doesn't say stadium seating, she spends like half a page describing stadium seating instead of just calling it stadium seating.) we're keeping this detail in mind for whinging purposes later.

-ok, Zade is talking about how she doesn't know much about her father during the book's introduction to Spellman. HOW was him being her father supposed to be a twist?? there's a difference between planting clues to your twist and just spelling it out for the reader. but then, considering Sarem has been spelling everything else out, I'm surprised I'm not seeing dashes between the letters.

-this girl on Spellman's arm, Sofia, is the Designated Mean Girl, and I'm gonna take a moment to do what Sarem SHOULD have done and think about her like she's a person for a second.

Because here's the thing about writing, guys:

Your characters are not people; they are tools.

Your characters are most successful when they APPEAR to be people instead of tools.

All of the characters you write are you. Yes, you. Not just your designated self-insert. ALL of them. Even the characters that might be based on someone else since they're still going through the filter of your perception of them.

so let's take a look at Sofia with some information that we're going to learn about her later. we know almost immediately in the book that she's Spellman's girlfriend. (she's about to tell it to Zade "coldly and mean even") and if you know how this book ends, she and Spellman will be broken up sometime before the ending because *spoilers* Spellman is gonna marry (possibly remarry?) Zade's mother Dela. this means their relationship is possibly on the rocks at this point. we're also going to learn smartphones exist in this world. considering Sarem's lack of creativity thus far, I wouldn't be surprised if that includes Facebook and thus has info on Spellman's past hookups. also, when Spellman talks to Zade, he doesn't mention being pleased to meet her or anything. he already knows her, and she knew enough to set up this weird ass audition with him.

if I were Sofia, I would be thinking one of three things:

I would think this girl wants my spot considering my boyfriend is respected as a magician but otherwise "infamous" so it's likely known he likes them young.

I would (incorrectly) assume this is Dela and/or another ex and that Spellman is going to leave me for her.

I would (correctly) assume this is Spellman's daughter and she's about to give me shit for banging her dad.

also, there's a scene later in the book when Sofia talks about paying her dues to be in the show. if she and Spellman are close to splitsville, then her illusion is in the show by merit of her actual talent. even if I was banging the boss, I'd be pissed if his kid showed up expecting a position out of pure nepotism when I had rightfully earned my spot initially. all things considered, I would probably be kind of cold in my greeting to her, too, especially since Zade straight up forgets about Sofia by the end of the page. if Zade can't be bothered with Sofia, why should Sofia bother with her?

-Zade is all self-conscious about everybody sizing her up before her audition but like. what do you think happens at an audition? they are literally here to judge you???

-let's just pause the book for several paragraphs while we introduce you to every fucking person who works in this show. because that's a worthwhile use of pages and ink.

-I know from later information that the dude Zeb who's looking at Zade like he's not happy she's here also knows real actual magic. and like, yeah, I'd be pissed off if I had a magic show in Vegas and worked very hard to conceal my true magic ability while still making it work in the show only for this rando from bumfuck, nowhere to come along and just blatantly do magic in front of fucking everyone in the company.

-this probably would have been a good setup if Zade was supposed to be unlikable but I honestly don't think Sarem would have the ability to write an intentionally unlikable protagonist if she wanted to. and considering she literally confirmed Zade is her self-insert mary sue, I doubt she's supposed to be unlikable. though this also leads to the story problem a lot of mary sue stories have: if the protagonist is already perfect, then where is her character arc going to go? (the answer is nowhere.)

-"I do hope you can get this going soon; we all have other things we need to do." wow Zeb really is a magician you guys! he was able to read my mind!

-oh my god everyone is ignoring Zade. I love this.

-oh this is rich, saying the way Trig spoke to her could have sounded very condescending, Miss "Let Me Devote Paragraphs Of This Book Explaining Show Blacks And Stadium Seating."

-Zade takes the time to tell us it bothers her when people say her name wrong like "Zaad" which just makes me wonder how the hell Sarem thinks Scheherazade is pronounced. like, after reading this I tried doing this with my own name since it could be parsed like that, going from Auralie (rhymes with bee) to Lie (rhymes with eye) and I'm just distracted by how wrong it sounds. I'm convinced that Sarem thinks (or thought, idk if she's heard anyone say the name since publishing the book) Scheherazade rhymes with jade because I can't imagine being called Scheherazade, hearing it pronounced correctly by my mother all 25ish years of my life, and then not being bothered if someone said ANY part of it wrong.

-Mac the technical director is very upset that he hasn't been able to do a safety check on Zade's setup for her trick. and yeah, bro is right. I don't care that Zade signed a waiver, this is still one hell of a liability for the entire company because we don't know if or how any of the other acts will be affected by this.

-Zeb is playing on his phone during Zade's audition. clearly he's the most relatable character in the book so far.

-Zade meets a guy that she claims is too attractive for her to date because she wants to be the prettier one in the relationship. this is the first of many of the little things Sarem will sprinkle into the narrative that indicates Zade is not interested in any actual partnerships but instead wants others the way one wants objects.

-I notice that Charles calls Zade's act a "jump" but Zade thinks of it as an "illusion." calling it a jump is the more fitting description. what she does is she uses her Actual Real Magic to turn the stage into some kinda fiery transportation liquid for her to dive into only to reemerge from the nearby pool. she throws a rose down as proof that the stage is solid, but I mean. anyone who comes to see this trick will go, "Oh! There must be some hidden pool for her to dive into and the rose landed on the only solid bit!" like, I used to really REALLY like magic shows as a kid, and if you watch them long enough, you start picking up on some of the sleight of hand they use, start noticing some of the things they do to try drawing your attention away from the mechanics of the trick. the trick as presented is only truly impressive because of its high dive nature even with the magic.

-wow, Zade even points out that a regular audience would think "trapdoor," meaning once again that the magic part of this is pointless since the high dive is the only part a regular audience would find impressive.

-immediately after the trick, Zade throws her rose to Sofia, winks at her, and says, "For the pretty lady." once again putting myself in Sofia's shoes, this is the moment Zade makes it personal, the moment Zade throws down the gauntlet. this would erase any lingering doubts in my mind. as far as I would be concerned, Zade specifically came here with the goal of ousting me from my position in the show and just straight up challenged me for it in front of literally ALL of my coworkers AND my boyfriend. the absolute fucking nerve of her.

-Sofia gives her a fake smile upon receiving the rose. I'm amazed she had the strength to do that because holy shit Zade that wasn't just a bitch move it was a bitch samba.

-"I was starting to realize it was going to be harder to keep our secret from everyone." YOU MEAN YOUR MAGIC? THE MAGIC YOU JUST POINTLESSLY USED FOR YOUR HIGH DIVE ACT? THAT MAGIC? THE SECRET MAGIC THAT YOU JUST SHOWED 200 PEOPLE? IS THAT THE THING YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO KEEP SECRET?

-Spellman's assistant Beth tells Zade that the offer in her contract is the biggest she's ever seen Spellman offer. this is just beyond insulting. girl walks into her daddy's theater like she owns the place, does a high dive with some pointless magic sparkles, and then Daddy gives her allllll the money.

in an interview Sarem did for Vulture, she says that she wrote the story so her self-insert could have all the things she wanted. so, what, Sarem wants her dad to give her some money? if the idea is that Zade earned it, that doesn't hold up no matter how you look at it. with the twist built in that Spellman is Zade's father, it's gonna reek of nepotism upon reread no matter what. but let's look at it without that, and let's take a moment to look at Sofia again.

if I had to pick the dynamic I THINK Sarem was going for with Zade and Sofia, then it's probably Elle and Vivian from Legally Blonde. (not that I think Sarem would watch Legally Blonde, but that doesn't mean the example isn't fitting.) Vivian doesn't take Elle seriously and initially tries to humiliate her but eventually comes to respect Elle the longer they know each other and genuinely befriends her. but it's important to point out that the reason Vivian develops that respect for Elle is because:

she sees all the hard work Elle does to actually earn her position on the legal team

Elle is a genuinely kind person who works to uplift others even if they didn't start on such great terms (more on how Zade treats other people especially women later)

Zade is like if Elle showed up to Harvard Law with the necklace from Ace Attorney that's haunted by the Ghost of Lawyers Past that gives her all the legal information she needs to win the case and bigger boobs. that's just the magic equivalent of what Warner did buying his way in.

long story short, the work Sofia puts in to her prestidigitation act is more impressive than Zade's magic, and Zade getting a position in the show is an insult to that hard work.

ugh, and that was only the end of chapter 1.

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 35 through the end of Gideon the Ninth

So if I understand right, the last door was the Seventh House door, the one that Cytherea used when she originally became a Lyctor, and Palamedes was able to tell that she'd been in there 10,000 years ago because of the "YOU LIED TO US" message that she left on the wall, I guess probably when she realized that becoming a Lyctor wasn't actually going to cure her cancer. And Cytherea hid the key and stopped up the keyhole to prevent anyone from getting in there to find out who she was, I guess before she figured out how to kill everyone

I only found one of those two times:

But possibly the second time was something else, and not related to that chapter specifically. Harrow has a good memory, though, I didn't remember that line of dialog

Not sure how I feel about Palamedes' weird relationship with the real Dulcinea, and I think Camilla is with me there

I love how this whole scene at the beginning of Chapter 35 is just Harrow and Camilla figuring out that Cytherea is not Dulcinea and Gideon completely missing the point of everything they're saying in favor of going "oh my god I've been trying to steal Palamedes' girlfriend"

You know, I suspect that is not in fact the reason why Cytherea was flirting with you

Ok, but why is Gideon asking for her sword here? Like, I think she is still on the wavelength of "I have to apologize to Palamedes" right now, she doesn't yet get that Cytherea is not Dulcinea and also is evil

If Cytherea killed Dulcinea and Protesilaus en route to Canaan House, why were the remains in the furnace a month old? I don't think they've been there that long

And I guess she punched out Mayonnaise Uncle way back when because he could have figured out who she was due to him siphoning everyone in the room

And then there was an entire long chapter of fighting, involving multiple literally unkillable people. Yes, there was some interesting stuff in there, some of Harrow doing cool necromancy stuff and applying knowledge that she learned from the challenges, but reading this was honestly kind of exhausting, and then Gideon hurt her knee and there was a bunch of text describing knee pain and I guess maybe this just me getting old, but I didn't mind any of the other descriptions of injuries or gore or etc but the knee pain was hard to read

I think I said way back when that I don't particularly like long fight sequences? Yeah, that's still true. But I appreciate that from a story perspective we had to completely exhaust their ability to defeat Cytherea and put them in a position where there was only one choice left to not die. I appreciate that

I also appreciate Palamedes and Camilla's relationship, and I'm guessing this exchange means that we have (hopefully) not seen the last of Palamedes

Also, it was wild that Cytherea is still trying to flirt with Gideon while this fight is going on. She's not quitting. Like, I know Gideon turns out to be God's daughter, but what exactly does that mean to Cytherea that she is behaving this way? I gather the Gideon that Cytherea used to know is either another Lyctor, or one of cavaliers who got eaten by a Lyctor

And yeah, I got last chapter that Ianthe and Naberius had some serious difference of opinion on whether or not Ianthe should become a Lyctor, and this is kind of fucking her shit up. I guess Gideon was right when she said the whole trial is about how good of a pair the necromancer and the cavalier are, and I guess maybe the closer they are, the powerful the Lyctor is? Only it seems like the pairs that actually are that close, like Harrow and Gideon or Palamedes and Camilla, the necromancer would never sacrifice the cavalier to become a Lyctor, so this is kind of a self-defeating trial. Like, I have to wonder what kind of people the original Lyctors were that they all sat down together and said, hey, let's figure out a way to absorb our cavaliers' souls and become immortal. We know that Cytherea just wanted to not die, and her cavalier was willing to sacrifice herself to help her. But what about the others?

Also, I guess Ianthe's skeletal arm is actually going to be a prosthetic? This book introduced bone prosthetics at the very beginning, with Aiglamene, I don't know why I never considered the idea that Ianthe's skeletal arm was just a prosthetic

I don't think Harrow actually ever got the last theorem, though, the one behind the black key door. Or maybe Ianthe spelling it out earlier caused her to figure it out on her own?

It is Jesus O'Clock, isn't it?

Ok, yeah, that's the good stuff

The last chapter of Gideon, like, merging with Harrow, I guess, was so bittersweet, but I'm not sure if Gideon in this chapter is actually Gideon's ghost, or just Harrow's imagination, but either way

And I guess Harrow was able to easily defeat Cytherea as a Lyctor when Ianthe wasn't because she was stronger due to her bond with Gideon? And also because Harrow knew about what Palamedes had done to her. I am happy that Palamedes had a role in killing her.

You know, I had thought that maybe the way that Gideon was going to die was that Harrow was going to become a Lyctor, and then I was like, no, Harrow wouldn't do that and that's the bad ending. But I don't know what kind of good ending I was expecting given that I already knew that Gideon was going to die at the end of the book

I cannot take the epilogue at face value. I cannot buy the Emperor as just a tired guy fighting a war to survive. This is a universe where they kill people to generate power for the elite, I can't believe that their god is a good guy on the right side of history, even if I didn't know like two things about him and one of those things was that he forced Cytherea to die of cancer for 10,000 years and would probably happily have done the same to Dulcinea

So, I guess this is the list of people who survived this book other than Harrow and Ianthe? Interesting, I wouldn't have guessed that Judith would make it, but it's true, we did not see her die on screen. I guess Harrow was wrong, and she does live to find out the answer to who killed everyone. But I'm obviously much more interested in what's going to happen to Camilla and Corona, and how we're going to get Gideon and Palamedes back, especially since apparently even God isn't able to extract Gideon from Harrow anymore. And then there is whatever Harrow and Ianthe and the Emperor and the other, I guess, three Lyctors are going to get up to separately

I think at this point, everything I was spoiled for has come to pass, except for Gideon coming back, but I think that would be a given even if I didn't know it was going to happen ahead of time.

There's like 40 pages of back matter in this book, although it looks like at least some of that is an excerpt of Harrow the Ninth, which I will save for when I get the next book, and then I will go look for the Dr. Sex side story