#also i like having dvds because i like being able to put them on in the background while i do stuff

[britcision]

Tbh I think the wildest thing about Trump is that he literally doesn’t understand soft power

And possibly cannot even perceive it

He’s going around bitching about trade deficits and defence spending…

But a trade deficit means that the country with the deficit is buying more of your stuff than you are buying of theirs

It’s a good thing for your market, especially if you want independence and to get money from people buying your stuff - it’s not people not paying for things, it’s people buying your products and you not buying theirs in return

You’re “trading” products for money. You still get the money. And you can do things like influence the market and sell shitty dvd players that break after a year so that people need to buy Even More dvd players from you, because they aren’t making their own and are used to buying yours

(Note: in this example, “you” are the party with a trade SURPLUS. That means someone else has a deficit in their trade with you

Being the person with the deficit is also not a bad thing, so long as you’re actively trading; it means rather than creating your own industries that may not do as well as another country’s for immutable reasons like being able to mine for specific minerals, you can buy a good product and skip all the construction costs and focus on the things you can do better

The general rule of trade is that if you keep trading, everyone wins)

But Trump is essentially saying that he wants to stop other countries from buying American goods; he wants our imports (us buying your stuff) to match our exports (you buying our stuff)

So

You get less money, because either you’re buying more of our stuff (our exports rise to match imports), or you can’t sell us anything (we lower imports to match exports)

And he wants to do this with tariffs, which mean it becomes more expensive for American retailers to import international goods - because they pay tariffs to the American government, and the exporter does not pay those

(So you can’t afford imports)

So the only way to do what he wants… is to stop buying American goods

This will do good things for the American economy I pinky swear 🙄

The defence spending thing is actually even worse, which is fucking wild to me

The main reason that America is a military world power is that you waste all that money on an army you’re not really using to anything but go around showing off and declaring how big your army is

Other countries spend less on defence because we’re spending on things like infrastructure and improving the well-fare of our citizens

So we don’t have a big strong army that can fight your army, because we don’t need one, but we do need things like food for children and healthcare

But Trump is demanding that everyone else make themselves a big strong army

Because the US being able to essentially run a protection racket and ever so casually say “oh gee Russia looks so big and strong. Let us put a military base in your country so we can keep you safe… oh, and I guess maybe some beneficial trade deals while we’re there 😉😉 keeping you safe 😉😉” is… America being exploited?

And listen, Trump doesn’t do subtle. He’d probably just blatantly say “do what we want or we will invade”, and start a war

But because he can’t do that, he seems convinced that there is no value in America spending more on defence, and insists that the very same people he is antagonizing and threatening the sovereignty of should be expanding their own military power

Frankly, they’d probably start spending a little more on defence anyway

Nothing he’s doing will increase American influence on the world stage, because he’s actively forcing the rest of the world to start acting like America has already left

“Stop buying our exports. Build your own army.”

And as a Canadian? I do think it’s about time we were a little less economically dependent on the US - because it gives them too much power

They’re our closest and most convenient trade partner, but not the only game in town

[thestargayzingheroine]

Why A Better World is my favourite "Evil Superman" Story

So in the last two decades or so, there's been a notable amount of dark and edgy stories around superheroes turning evil and whatnot and most of them really love to do their own expies of Superman. I've never been the biggest fans of these kinds of stories.

And then there's the actual stories of Superman and other heroes being outright villains or at least just massive assholes. In recent years, this has been largely thanks to the influence of media like the Injustice Games or the Synderverse DC movies. It's... honestly become a trope I am tired of.

Because you know the damnest thing? There is a story that does all these ideas really damn well and arguably better. It is the two-parter from the Justice League cartoon "A Better World".

Now, I am aware how most people favouring the DCAU has become a bit of toxic nostalgia at times and it's something I myself am trying to work through a bit. But in this case, I do think it's the best idea of doing an evil DC story, much better and more interesting than the Crime Syndicate, who if you ask me are not very interesting, though I do remember liking the Crisis On Two Earths movie a lot, which funny enough, was originally going to be this two parter before various things led to it being canned and then later repurposed as a direct to DVD movie.

Anyway, my main crux of why I love this story is simple... The entire Justice League turns evil... and the reasons are very much in-character for all of them. You look at the scene with Justice Lord Batman for example.

As fucking evil as the Justice Lords are... Batman can't quite fully hate his alternate self for his reason for taking part in all this being basically one-step further than his own mission, that no child should ever go through what he did. Hell, I recall reading that the reason the writers had Batman drop his batarang at the end of this scene... was because he genuinely wouldn't be able to come up with an argument to that.

Superman likewise kills Lex Luthor because yeah, Luthor literally exploited the flaws in Democracy and became president of the US, threatening to kinda basically start world war 3. It's obviously horrible... but Superman is a character whose main motivation is making the world a better place. And if people who abuse the systems of power of the world are hurting people, why shouldn't Superman put a stop to that?

And yeah, Superman should obviously never kill, he's the most paragon of paragons of the DC universe, a man committed to always being better than the villains he fights... but this is him pushed to his most logical extreme. Hell, the main Superman knows this and its why Lex used his knowledge of this alternate universe as part of his plan in the season after this, to goad our Superman into crossing the line because yeah, there's a part of him that could go this far.

But right as Superman is about to apparently finish him, the big guy says this.

"I'm not the man who killed President Luthor. I wish to heaven that I were but I'm not."

Because Superman like everyone else, obviously would have those same thoughts and same urges. He's human.

I've kinda gone off Injustice a bit because to be honest... the injustice games were kinda just this but a bit too edgelordy. Hell, in A Better World, Lois Lane still lives and the whole genesis of it doesn't revolve around her getting fridged.

So yeah, A Better World is probably one of my favourite mirror universe stories because of the fact that well... it really is like looking in a mirror and seeing just how easy the greatest heroes can become evil and how they wouldn't be massively out of character doing so. But also it reminds us that as much as this darkness can tempt some of our finest, the ones who don't go down this dark path are stronger in heart than anyone else. Because when the world becomes a dark and horrible place, it becomes very easy to be just as dark. But even though it can be hard to still try and be a good person even in dark times, it's ultimately worth it. Because good always triumphs over evil.

[ierofrnkk]

(its totes not ominoose...)

Robbie seeing the reader having a low mood day (depression or smth) and when they get home from college classes, he's set up blankets and board games and tea. :)

Thank you for this request, not-mushi!

Long Day?

Robbie Paulson x reader (~1.1k)

Summary: Reader has a long day after their college classes, and Robbie is there to support them.

Content: established relationship, set in canon time (early 2000s), reader is in a depressive mood, supportive Robbie, gn!reader as always, not beta read

a/n: I had so much fun writing this :D

If anybody knew about bad days, it would be Robbie.

He was the king of bad days, between his ADD and every one of his classes seeming to constantly request more and more from him, he was very familiar with the idea.

You were also very familiar with bad days, and today, unfortunately, was one of them.

You felt like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, your focus and attention waning quickly throughout the day. Every class you went to seemed to drag on for hours, draining you even further before the day was up. It was like there was a piece missing from your jenga-tower of stability, and you had to try desperately to keep it all together.

You and Robbie didn’t share any classes together, but you did have a class in the same building, so in between lectures, you passed him by. He picked up on the fact that you weren’t feeling well right away, like a dog tracking a scent.

“Hey, hey,” he said, putting a hand out on your shoulder to stop you from breezing past him to your next class.

You stopped, of course, because you can’t say no to him, not ever.

“Everything alright?” He asks, keeping his eyes trained on you.

“Just off today, I dunno,” you murmur, shrugging as you meet his gaze; you’re not feeling nearly as put on the spot as you thought you would by the sudden question.

He nods in understanding, like that’s all that you needed to say for him to get the message.

“Gotcha,” he responds, nodding lightly.

“I’ll see you later on today, yeah?”

You give him a soft half-smile and a nod in response, adjusting your bookbag on your shoulder before you continue on your way, heading down the hall to your next class.

The rest of the morning bled into the afternoon dreadfully, feeling like you truly were being cemented in place as your professors droned on and on.

In short, the day was miserable.

—

After his brief interaction with you in the hallway, your less-than-ideal state lingered in the back of Robbie’s mind for the rest of the day, following him from class to class, until he made his way back to your shared apartment.

It wasn’t a very big space, but it was affordable when the two of you split the rent, and it was close enough to campus that it was manageable.

When Robbie got home, he kicked his sneakers off by the door and set his bag down right beside them. He had an idea for something that may lift your spirits, and he wanted to get it set up before you came home.

He spent the next half-hour or so moving around the apartment like a madman; bringing blankets in from your bedroom to the living room, changing his mind and putting them back, and going through your stack of VHS tapes (neither of you can afford to replace all your tapes with DVDs) to find a few of your favorites.

—

Finally, your last class came to an end, and you couldn’t wait to just get home and curl into bed forever.

You head up the stairs to your apartment, unlocking the door and stepping inside—you’re moving on autopilot, just trying to get through these last few motions before you’re able to bury yourself in your covers.

Before you’re able to even get your other shoe off, Robbie’s rushed up to greet you at the door, a timid smile on his face as he helps you with your jacket, hanging it up on the hook beside his own.

He looks like he’s got a plan—no, a scheme. Something.

“Robbie, can we just—whatever it is, can we come back to it later?” You ask him bluntly, too tired to entertain his antics for the afternoon after the day that you’ve had.

He deflates a little, but your words don’t sway him completely.

“No, c’mon. Give me five minutes, and if you’re not into it, you can go hibernate, or whatever.”

You can’t help the way the corner of your mouth turns up in a soft smile at his words, unable to turn him down when he gives you such a soft, earnest expression.

“Alright,” you yield, gesturing vaguely in his direction.

“Proceed.”

He beams, his grin wide as he takes you by the hand and leads you from the entryway to the living room, where you see exactly what he wanted to show you.

He’s set up your big, fluffy duvet on the couch, a few of your favorite snacks set out on the coffee table.

He did this all for you.

You give his hand a squeeze, words failing you for the moment at the sight of such a gesture.

“I know how it feels,” he starts, voice low.

“Just wanted to do something to help things go a little smoother tonight.”

You nod, trying desperately to fight back the lump that’s begun to form in your throat, the tears that well up in the corners of your eyes.

“‘S nice,” you manage, sniffling as you feel that jenga tower begin to crumble and fall.

He catches that right away, letting go of your hand to instead wrap his arms around your shoulders, pulling you in close to his chest.

Your arms find a place around him in return, grounding yourself in his warmth and the softness of his sweater beneath your fingers.

After a few moments of him holding you like that, he lets go, his hands skimming lightly over your shoulders before they fall back to his sides.

He nods in the direction of the couch.

“C’mon, I’ll make you that tea that you like.”

Your voice is soft when you agree, giving him an equally soft smile as he leads you over to the couch, and practically buries you in blankets and pillows.

Once he’s satisfied with how well he’s covered you up, he bounds off to the small kitchen on a mission to make you tea. Thankfully, he manages not to spill any of it when he returns, mug in hand.

You take the ceramic cup from him, and take a sip. Perfect, as always. He’s pulling out every stop imaginable in an effort to make the rest of your day better, and he’s succeeding wonderfully.

Before he sits down, he puts a tape in—your favorite movie—and grabs the remote for the TV.

You cuddle up next to him once he’s back on the couch beside you, feeling significantly better in comparison to how you did earlier.

The two of you sit together, watching your favorite movie to its completion, forgetting all about the day’s events.

Your mood is lifted further by the sight of Robbie, trying to mind-will the VCR to rewind faster, so that you two can watch your favorite movie again and again.

—

thank you for reading!

tags: @winniethewife @midgardian-witch @faretheeoscar @silvernight-m @ominoose @reallyrallyauthor @my-secret-shame

[cyclogenesis]

For the DVD commentary ask game, I don't know if it's ok to go so much back in time, but ever since I read your ''Missing Scene'' I can't stop thinking about it or going back to it. There was a reason why I had chosen to distance myself from SamBucky, they make me too weak and vulnerable, and the way you write their codependency and intimacy, is....intense.

So, here it is, if you want....

It wasn’t even like Sam had let himself hope in any concrete way, it was just too impossible to envision the specifics of his life going forward. He doesn’t have anywhere to go but Louisiana, back with Sarah and his nephews. He thought he could count on Steve being there, navigating this with him the same way they’d worked together as partners: fighting the good fight, finding Bucky, being on the run with each other for two goddamn years because Sam chose to stick with Steve. It had seemed doable, if still challenging, to try and figure out this thing with Bucky with Steve between them as a reason to come together.

It felt like he could build something new, until the foundation of it all crumbled beneath him.

“Why did you leave, that morning,” Sam asks quietly. “In Paris.”

“I shouldn’t have,” Bucky says, his voice terribly, terribly soft. Sam’s heart trips in his chest, free-fall in his ribcage until Bucky finishes, “ever let it happen.”

“Bucky,” he says.

“I wanted you. I wanted something for myself. I’d been watching you, you know.” Bucky smiles a little, like it hurts to do it. “The whole time, keeping track of where you were. I was still trying to figure out who I was, but it made sense to me, what you were doing for Steve. Trying to find me. I understood why you’d do it for him. I guess I wanted to know if you were doing it for me too. I wanted to know who you were. I didn’t want to go back to Steve yet, I just wanted you.”

“So you had me,” Sam says, trying not to feel - anything. Trying not to feel anything. “And then what, you were done? You got what you wanted?”

“No.” Bucky shakes his head. “No. I was reckless, I thought if I could just talk to you, satisfy my curiosity, that I’d be able to move on. Get my head on straight, wait for the brainwashing to magically wear off, and come back to you both once I was a real fucking person again. I thought if I just convinced you to give me a little more time, that I could handle it all myself. And then I talked to you, and I just wanted to keep talking to you. I didn’t,” he says, looking down like he’s embarrassed, “It wasn’t like I didn’t know I was attracted to you.”

“Thanks,” Sam says faintly.

“But I could have hurt you. Anything could have happened, could have gone wrong. It was selfish of me. I put you in danger because I couldn’t stop myself from wanting you, and I left before you woke up because you weren’t safe with me. You never were.”

DVD commentary on this bit of Missing Scene below and it is always okay to ask me about anything!! Like no kidding I have your comment on that fic open in a tab to respond to because reading it genuinely made ME a little verklempt bc I also love them VERY MUCH and really put my heart and soul into this fic man. 😭

It wasn’t even like Sam had let himself hope in any concrete way, it was just too impossible to envision the specifics of his life going forward. He doesn’t have anywhere to go but Louisiana, back with Sarah and his nephews. He thought he could count on Steve being there, navigating this with him the same way they’d worked together as partners: fighting the good fight, finding Bucky, being on the run with each other for two goddamn years because Sam chose to stick with Steve. It had seemed doable, if still challenging, to try and figure out this thing with Bucky with Steve between them as a reason to come together. It felt like he could build something new, until the foundation of it all crumbled beneath him.

So the most interesting part of writing this fic for me was just basically meeting the canon on its own terms. You brought up another part just before this excerpt in your (very nice, thank you!!) comment that I was going to expound upon in my reply but I'm going to go ahead and do that here - actually just gonna paste it in for the sake of coherency:

Of course, he’s happy for Steve. He has to be, because in order to have literally gone back in time to get away from his life here Steve must have been truly miserable in a way that Sam never even saw. Sam can’t fathom how painful it must have been to have lost so much, to have suffered for five years with half the world gone. He can’t imagine the weight of that sorrow, so deeply affecting that even getting them all back wasn’t enough to make this world worth staying in. That Sam wasn’t enough to stay for. That Bucky wasn’t enough to stay for, even after all Steve did - after all they both did - to get him back. And Bucky must have known.

I've never been like, a fix-it fic writer, I've never approached canon in a way that's like and THIS is what it did wrong 🙄; if I'm writing a pairing more than once it's because the canon showed me a dynamic that should obviously lead to kissing, and the fact that they haven't kissed yet is merely a narrative oversight, which is fine because that means I get to tell you how they kiss, yay!! I love doing that!!!

Which is to say: I'm pretty much always accepting canon as it is and using what's there as a jumping-off point. And for this pairing that means accepting what Steve Rogers did and taking it seriously and exploring the ramifications of this seemingly dick move without resorting to character bashing, basically.

So I thought a whole fucking lot about it, because the canon doesn't really directly address the emotional fallout this would have had on Sam and Bucky, i.e. no one ever directly talks shit about Steve. You can extrapolate that had Steve not left we would not be seeing Bucky sleeping on the fucking floor in his little sad bitch apartment. And as much of--I suppose--an honor it was for Steve to pass the shield to Sam, it still was not something that Sam wanted. He tossed that big ol' frisbee straight back to the Smithsonian. Nobody's talking about it, but clearly nobody's feeling great about Steve GingTFO either.

All of my Sam/Bucky stories basically have at least a tiny what the fuck, Steve narrative moment, but due to POV reasons I never really got into one of my main conclusions, which is that I think a fairly large part of his decision had to do with Natasha's death. Sam brings up their years on the run together with her, but it's clear from Endgame that Steve and Natasha stayed very, very close for that five years with half the world lost, more so than any of the other characters. And with that relationship stretching back to The Avengers and CATWS you have what, a decade or so of working together, of friendship, of then leaning on each other after this unimaginable loss--and then she's just fucking gone.

I keep thinking about how this gifset highlights his tendency to check in with her/get her permission and it's adorable and everything but when you lose a relationship, a friendship, a person who anchors you like that, I mean. No wonder he was set adrift. Here he was having gotten Bucky back, having saved him insofar as he could have, having been a part of saving so many people, saving the world time and time again. He's gotten Sam back, Sam who he trusted and believed in so much that it felt like the right decision to pass along this enormously important symbol of the person that Steve himself had to become, the mantle of Captain fucking America!!

It's not a stretch for me to think that Steve really believed that they would be fine without him. And it's kinda funny because I don't even directly cover it in the fic--bc the fic is in part me trying to explain it!!!--but the little moment at Tony's funeral where Sam comforts Bucky still makes me SO insane. Because that is based on WHAT?? Like, what had we seen canonically up until that point that would have it make any sense that they would gravitate toward each other in this moment, that Sam would be thinking to offer him comfort or to take comfort in Bucky himself?? Well maybe they had a secret ongoing relationship before this that I should write twenty-three thousand words about!!

But however you answer that question, you can take away that there is some kind of pre-existing bond between Sam and Bucky, or the very strong potential to be if Sam feels that comfortable reaching out. And I think, whatever it was, Steve would have been aware of it, so it's easy to believe that Steve genuinely thought Sam and Bucky would have each other. That they maybe wouldn't even need him. Natasha might have needed him to stay the way that he needed her, but--well, she's gone, and he'll never get to talk it over with her, or see what she thought about it, or get her approval or potential lack thereof. And he's tired. So yeah, it was selfish, but I can't believe it was thoughtless. You know?

And so what Sam was feeling here was a direct echo of that for me, of feeling unmoored in Steve's absence the same way that Steve did without Natasha, but still trying to understand the choice that Steve made, to explain it and find it in himself to forgive it. I don't think Sam or Bucky could bring themselves to stay truly angry with him if they ever were. Hurt, sure. But that's their own thing to deal with. (I wonder what Bucky had to say about it in therapy. Honestly probably making excuses for him, like he does here.)

It means, though, that without the implied time they would have had to figure it out with Steve helping them get back into the world, this conversation has to happen now. No easing their way into it, no letting things play out while they readjusted. And that also means asking the big fucking question: Why didn't Bucky stay with Sam when he could have? Why the hell did he walk away?

“Why did you leave, that morning,” Sam asks quietly. “In Paris.” “I shouldn’t have,” Bucky says, his voice terribly, terribly soft. Sam’s heart trips in his chest, free-fall in his ribcage until Bucky finishes, “ever let it happen.” “Bucky,” he says. “I wanted you. I wanted something for myself. I’d been watching you, you know.” Bucky smiles a little, like it hurts to do it. “The whole time, keeping track of where you were. I was still trying to figure out who I was, but it made sense to me, what you were doing for Steve. Trying to find me. I understood why you’d do it for him. I guess I wanted to know if you were doing it for me too. I wanted to know who you were. I didn’t want to go back to Steve yet, I just wanted you.”

I am a romcom writer. My usual idea of a conflict is "they want to fuck but they aren't fucking yet". Jesus H, the work I had to do to create and justify conflicts on this level, that would make it believable for them to start out where they do at the beginning of this story and then maintain a narrative through-line that doesn't contradict anything we've seen onscreen and still have them end up where I wanted them to end up. Holy shit I asked a lot of myself with this story. I thought so much and so hard about all of this. I never write people seriously fighting! I never write break-ups!! You might notice that I haven't written anything like this since! I in fact probably will not again! 😭

Anyway, so I made the conflict be that Bucky wanted to fuck Sam in the first place, and the next conflict that they fucked and it was a bad idea for a variety of reasons, and the next conflict was Bucky being like okay that was my bad I should not have done that. 😬

“So you had me,” Sam says, trying not to feel - anything. Trying not to feel anything. “And then what, you were done? You got what you wanted?” “No.” Bucky shakes his head. “No. I was reckless, I thought if I could just talk to you, satisfy my curiosity, that I’d be able to move on. Get my head on straight, wait for the brainwashing to magically wear off, and come back to you both once I was a real fucking person again. I thought if I just convinced you to give me a little more time, that I could handle it all myself. And then I talked to you, and I just wanted to keep talking to you. I didn’t,” he says, looking down like he’s embarrassed, “It wasn’t like I didn’t know I was attracted to you.” “Thanks,” Sam says faintly. “But I could have hurt you. Anything could have happened, could have gone wrong. It was selfish of me. I put you in danger because I couldn’t stop myself from wanting you, and I left before you woke up because you weren’t safe with me. You never were.”

Me getting away with having a man acknowledge his flaws bc acknowledging them is in service of the bigger flaw of being a sad self-sacrificing little fuck...

But also, well, he's not wrong. He did put Sam in danger, Sam wasn't safe with him. The next time Sam sees him Bucky's a reactivated bad boy getting face-punchy in this MF.

But it's also fair imo that Sam just cannot with this guy right now. Again, you know, taking canon at face value, something I struggled with when plotting this out was explaining how we went from genuine concern at Tony's funeral to Bucky ignoring Sam trying to get in touch with him. Because that truly had me personally like, hands on hips, frowny face, what's your fucking problem, Barnes.

So they have this fight, tensions are high, everyone's stressed the fuck out, Sam needs a break. It's too much. He gets a break, fine, he settles back into his life, he reaches back out. Bucky's deeply depressed in his sad bitch apartment and thus avoidant to the point that even his terrible therapist is like damn ignoring his texts?? crazy work bc Bucky's apparently talking about getting texts but not answering them.

I swear I'm almost done with this ask, fuck. But when this is addressed later, Bucky on his knees saying "I thought if I just didn’t need anything, that nothing I needed could be taken away from me again" that is the direct consequence of Sam's choice in the above moment to walk away. It wasn't unfair of Sam, and he certainly didn't mean for it to be permanently or even for that long, but for Bucky it was Sam leaving him too right fucking after Steve abandoned him so completely. They both left Bucky and they left him with nothing. He walked away the first time because he was afraid to hurt Sam, but he walked away by default this time because he was afraid Sam would hurt him. Sam already had.

Goddddd this pairing!! You know!!!

I love this fic so much and it's the last one I posted for this pairing and it got like, significantly less attention hits-wise than the other three (sambucky fandom flamed out QUICK in a way that still kinda surprises me, most people wandered away after literally just a couple of months) which is still such a bummer because I spent basically my whole fannish life wanting to write a canon-spanning epic for every OTP I've ever had and I finally managed it with this pairing and I wanted to like, print this thing out and wallpaper the fannish halls with it like look you guys I did it!! I did it I did it I did it!!! So thank you for asking about it because nobody ever has and I still think it's one of the best things I've ever written (it's also the longest!). 😭 MISSING SCENE MY BELOVED!!

xoxoxoxo always appreciate you Kiki!!!!!

[aihoshiino]

Idk but onk is such a let down for me. In the beginning I liked story because it was about ai. Her kids getting in entertainment industry and the revenge thingy were main plot from the starting so ultimately it is suppose to be about Ai, directly or indirectly.

By the end the story got less about ai and more about people around ai. There is SO MUCH about ai yet to explore but because of the writing I can't even enjoy ai as much as i used to. The "i love you" to aqua ruby kind of lost his full essence after the ai's dvd was shown, and that dvd later lost its essence due to last chs.

Onk showed the issues with entertainment industry well. The main issue is that onk never tackles problems with its character. Like Ai's true self, Hikaru (still not sure what to think of him), hikai, ruby and aqua relation (after the damn kiss), miyako and ichigo, ruby's dvd left by ai and etc. which i still feel are alien and mysterious to us. And we surely won't get answers in one last ch. Hikaru had potential to be a great character but everything is just all over the place.

Idk man i just feel very disappointed that aka's build up had so much potential yet we didn't get anything satisfactory in the end.

TBH, to a degree, I actually think this is a natural progression & if the series had stuck the landing, it could have been a really good and poignant way to resolve Aqua and Ruby's shared arc in relation to Ai. Because the thing is, like... as much as I like Ai, Aqua and Ruby's arc SHOULD ultimately have been about them being able to move on and start expanding the scope of their lives until it contained things beyond her. The story should never have stopped centering her because she is, ultimately, the heart of the story and its titular character, but OnK hammers in this idea of 'moving towards the future' and not letting your past trauma control your life to the extent that it robs you of the ability to have one. So I do think that in a more well-realized version of the story, that growing distance from Ai would be bittersweet but necessary for Aqua and Ruby to reclaim their futures.

BUT... Obviously, that's not the ending we got and the result is an ending that weirdly simultaneously deifies her while also not really involving or centering her at all? Like I've pointed out, so much of Ruby's resolution revolves around shallow parallels to Ai's general imagery and vibes but the actual resolution to the story isn't really about Ai at all aside from her being Kamiki's motivation and even then, that's all so poorly explained that it doesn't really have any weight.

That said, I actually feel as an Ai fan that she was ultimately done really well by the manga and I don't really feel like there was a whole lot about her left unexamined? Like yeah, as an Ai Wife Guy I'd love to hear more about stuff like how she felt about her pregnancy and how all that just went down in general and maybe some more stuff about her time in gen 1 B-Komachi but otherwise I feel really satisfied with the stuff we got. 136-7 especially were SO fucking cathartic for me because they put into undeniable, explicit text the thing I'd been saying all along; that there was no 'real' Ai hidden under the one that we knew and the secret part of herself that Ai was so desperately trying to hide was just that she was a normal, fragile girl who was struggling and hurt and that her tragedy was the result of everyone in her life either failing or actively refusing to accept her as she was.

My only real complaint is that I don't like how the manga ultimately (accidentally?) makes her totally irrelevant to the answer of why GRSR were reincarnated as her children and the result is that it kind of turns her into just a convenient uterus who happened to come pre-installed with babies - that's kind of gross, especially in comparison to just how she's treated as an equally important part of the puzzle but that's what my "Ai is the entertainment god's beloved chosen maiden" headcanon comes in and all is right with the world again <3

[madammidnightsblog]

My current thoughts on Kisaki Tetta because why not!

Kisaki is actually a good villain despite how much many hated him because, this kid was 13 years old and yet broke so many gangs up. Something that’s damn near impossible since they’re thick as thieves and usually have each others back. So, coming in and breaking by them up clearly takes lots of time and patience to manipulate and destroy from the inside without a trace. That shows just how interesting and intelligent he is.

His ability to control and lead Hanma who is older and stronger than him is also impressive even though Hanma had the upper hand on whether or not he wanted to follow him. I wished we got the story on why he decided to but at the same time, not telling us was clearly something Hanma would have loved. But to have a 16 year old follow a 13 year old without a single act of defiance or rebellion is very unique as Hanma is obviously someone that’s hard to tame. And yet, Kisaki was able to- not that we fully understand if it’s Hanma’s true decision there or he is playing it safe.

Falling in love with Hinata and becoming obsessed with her is lowkey sad to think of as Kisaki was a young boy that most didn’t love or like. It’s clear that even his own parents didn’t give him that either with how he took his feelings for Hinata and allowed them to intensify. It’s sad to see someone so intelligent and young fall into that mindset all because he was born a prodigy and turned into someone that’s hard became so obsessed and dangerous. I don’t blame Hinata for falling for Takemichi, but I feel bad for Kisaki as he watched the girl he loved fall for someone else. That must of hurt so much.

Now for adult Kisaki!

I feel like if Kisaki as an adult allowed himself to explore and put himself out there, I’m sure he would have fallen in love with another woman. Obviously his type would be like Hinata which wouldn’t be as easy to find, but I feel like he should have tried. Not that it would have taken away his obsession with Hinata easily but it would have really spilt his energy and focus. That would have delayed Hinata’s death in some way and probably frustrated him which would have it easier for Takemichi at some point. Not that would have really happened.

But Kisaki in the bad timeline, I feel like took a lot out of him and burnt him out a few times because who the hell had the power to use their brain constantly like that? I’m sure he let a lot of shit pass him on purpose and went back to it when he was able to rest. Which I’m sure Hanma gave him shit for because he mostly made jokes about how Tetta was a robot or something like that a few times. Especially with how he’s always scheming and acting in the shadows as if it was paying his rent.

I also feel like he kept eyes on Takemichi all the time when Takemichi wasn’t apart the gang in that one timeline. He obviously was obsessed with him too as he was the cause of Hinata falling for him so, that meant he had to have eyes on him when he was working at the DVD store. Probably frustrated with how someone so lame and immature like Takemichi was able to steal the girl under his nose without being as smart or diligent like him. Which most likely pissed him off and made him feel slightly insecure.

Not saying that Takemichi was much of a challenge for him to understand but, with Takemichi being more impulsive than intelligent, I’m sure it left him feeling a little insecure. Because he just acts on feeling and loses which was obviously going to happen, but yet somehow gets people to love and follow him. That must of made him feel insulted and upset that he had to manipulate and scare people into submission and yet, all Takemichi did was get beat up, cry, and claim he wouldn’t give up. That would have made anyone feel jealous because how could you compare to someone who got the charm and heroism that you lacked?

Now, in the good timeline, him being apart of the group and working with Koko was a surprise but it makes sense. Both of them are intelligent and very thorough with their work and it just makes it easier to work with someone who’s like you. With Koko being a financier, he was clearly going to work the company in a way that would benefit not only him and Tetta, but the employees as well without any worries of going bankrupt. He was smart with his money and knew how to nurture it in a way it would last, which made Kisaki’s job easier. Him knowing how to negotiate and manage business in a multitasking manner, he was able to work without feeling like he was crossing Koko.

And at that time, he was over Hinata and most likely learned to cope better and got help with his issues. Because Takemichi is a great friend that would have helped him at the source of his issues and would have aided him in moving on. So, I can guess he might if found himself looking for another woman as an adult. Maybe not, but what matters in this situation, he was no longer being self-destructive and harming others and himself. Meaning, that the last timeline, he was finally able to understand he was able to be loved instead of forcing others to love him.

That’s all I got. I used to hate Kisaki in the beginning for the obvious reasons but in a writer’s point of view, I learned to like him. He was clearly well written and had more to offer than most would think if given the time. But, I think he’s a great villain and I would love to see more of good timeline Kisaki to see what he does if it’s not involving Hinata.

[exeggcute]

after some trial and error I think I finally have the perfect PS2 setup for the modern gamer. behold:

PS2 (old reliable) + power cable + magicgate memory card for those eight delicious MB of storage

retrotink adapter: a must-have in my case because we don't have any TVs that support analog input. you COULD go scrounge up an old CRT instead of shelling out for an adapter but (1) I have no desire to fistfight a melee player over who gets dibs on the CRT we both spotted on craigslist at exactly the same time (2) I have nowhere to put a CRT and (3) the retrotink is sick. worth every penny imo. this thing has upscaling, lots of settings to mess with (including psuedo-CRT settings to add scanlines and whatnot), and zero lag. there are significantly cheaper adapters out there but I did a shitload of research and nearly all of them have some kind of dealbreaking problem, save for the retrotink, whose only problems are that it isn't cheap and it runs out of stock quickly because they're all made by one guy in his garage.

component/YPbPr cable: the retrotink won't accept the regular AV cable that I've had for two decades (with the red/white/yellow inputs), but apparently AV input kind of sucks so component is the way to go for quality anyway.

wingman PS2: this thing is SO fucking cool dude. if you only pick up a single item on this list let it be the wingman. being able to play PS2 games not just wirelessly but on a modern controller (dualsense ftw) feels amaaaaazing. rumble works great, pairing is easy, no lag as far as I've noticed. the only downside is that modern controllers don't have the same pressure-sensitive buttons that the PS2's dualshock did, which means the handful of games that utilize that feature won't be a 1:1 experience.

so now your wallet just took a hit on all these peripherals—but not to worry, because we're also in the golden age of PS2 piracy:

if you have a stack of compatible DVD-Rs and a disc reader for your PC, you can use freedvdboot ESR patcher to patch an .iso of almost any PS2 game, burn that patched .iso to a disc, and then run the game on unmodified(!!!) PS2 hardware. there's a handful of caveats though:

(1) not all PS2s can take advantage of the exploit; it depends on the version of your console's DVD player. atm I think all slim models are compatible, and some fat models are compatible, but people are working to crack the last few holdouts so don't lose hope if yours isn't supported yet.

(2) technically not all games are compatible either, but more games seem to work than not. games that do work are essentially indistinguishable from a legit copy, though—some of the other game piracy methods I looked into (like MC2SIO) have a lot of performance issues that freedvdboot-patched games don't seem to suffer from at all.

(3) not all DVDs are equal; someone on reddit compiled a list of DVDs that worked/didn't work with freedvdboot-patched games. (they aren't on this list, but I used Verbatim DVD-Rs and they worked fine.)

I have yet to find any good text-based guides about using the patcher, but this guy's video tutorial explains everything well. howeverrrr you can skip all the parts about "creating backups" of your "original game discs" and just use the .iso you downloaded off of Vimm's Lair lol.

bam. not quite free since you have to buy discs, but just about. and a 50-pack of DVDs was still cheaper than any of the used copies of ape escape 3 that I could find on ebay

[ghosts-and-blue-sweaters]

1, 17, and 22 <333

what are 3 things you’d say shaped you into who you are?

God, most absolutely!! Being a Christian & letting God lead me has affected my life in really big, powerful, important ways. I love being a Christian & I love being able to have a relationship between the God who created the stars <3 and the sheep!! He’s given me a sense of confidence and security that I don’t think I would have otherwise, and He’s also gifted me with a love & empathy for people, a gift that I deeply appreciate. He created the whole big world and He created me with such purpose & detail & love <3 I’m very grateful to walk with Him :)

MY FRIENDS!!! My whole journey with friendship/being friendless/making friends, really. It’s been one heck of a journey and it’s shaped my life so deeply; the close friends that I have now are one of the absolute most treasured & dear & important parts of my life, 100% <3 They’ve shown me love, compassion, kindness, gentleness… all my friends, in different ways, have helped to heal me after years of loneliness & exclusion, and I’m endlessly grateful for it.

Fandoms!! It might look a bit silly to be putting this on the list, but it’s so so true. Spirit Stallion Of The Cimarron, Star Wars, Dream SMP… each of these things (and more) have brought me immense amounts of happiness & fulfillment, and they’re just… they’re so important. So very important to me. The song Netflix Trip by AJR describes the feeling entirely (the actual song is about a very different piece of media that I’ve never watched XD but the feelings described are 100% what I feel in regards to my fandoms). These fandoms aren’t just fandoms to me. They’ve touched me deeply, in different ways, and they’ve helped me understand myself & the world better!!

name 3 things that make you happy

I mentioned him on my other answer to this question but come on. COME ON. I gotta put Ghostbur on here <3 No other fictional character has affected me NEARLY as much as Ghostbur has!! The genuine happiness & delight & excitement I feel towards him is unparalleled among characters & fandoms!! Unparalleled!!

eating my favorite sandwich :) I make it in a very specific way with very specific ingredients/brands and oh my gosh. best sandwich in the whole world. It’s Canyon Bakehouse (my favorite gluten-free bread brand!) country white or mountain white bread, a very thin layer of mayonnaise on one side, one slice of colby jack cheese, and one slice of honey deli ham. Genuinely I feel so happy whenever I get to eat this sandwich (which has been at least once every day for the past several weeks, and I am not planning to quit anytime soon :) FAVORITE SANDWICH!!!

organizing things :) I recently went through all the posts I’ve reblogged about autism and re-tagged them with new organizational labels, and oh my gosh it was SO FUN!!! I have a bazillion playlists on spotify because I want Everything to be organized and put in the right spot, and at work I really really like being able to organize things like bookmarks & stuffed animals!! None of my coworkers spend time organizing those things, so it’s always satisfying when I do it & get to bask in the glorious sorted-ness once I’m finished :) When I was younger I used to organize my family’s DVD/bluray collection for fun lol, and I kept all the library books I checked out Super organized & neat so that I knew exactly where everything was! I truly do find organizing so fun, it makes me happy :)

say 3 things about someone you love

I shall talk about a dear irl friend 💙 She was the first person to really befriend me irl after I’d spent about seven years friendless and lonely, so… she’s special :’)

she loooves the Lord and is very firm in her faith!! Whenever I have a big prayer request I almost always go to her, because I know she’s strong in her faith & will respond in amazing godly ways. She’s comforted me in the past by sharing specific pieces of Scripture with me <3

SHE IS SUCH A GOOD ARTIST LIKE OMG!!! She does traditional art and she has such a good style!!! I get very excited whenever she shows me her art :D

she is honest <3 Which is not all that common of a trait in people nowadays. I know that she’s not going to lie or sugarcoat things; she will tell the truth, and she will be honest about how she feels & what she thinks—but she doesn’t do it in ways that come across as cruel! Which is also pretty rare of a trait nowadays, the ability to communicate truth while being kind & gentle.

[tarabyte3]

Tell me ur fav thing abt Andy <3

You're giving me the opportunity to gush about one of my favorite topics, and I cannot thank you enough for this opportunity. 💖 Trying to narrow it down to 5 things was difficult because there's so much about him that is pretty great. 😌

His sense of humor

Lesser known fact about Andy: he's a little troll. He actually loves doing the Gollum voice to make people laugh. You can see exactly how pleased he is with himself every time. He's also very good at being cheeky and sly, and the man loves to make himself laugh as well. It's infectious as fuck, especially when he does the nose scrunch. If you've ever listened to him tell a story or watched one of his Stephen Colbert interviews, it really shines through then and it's great. (This is why the last time I met him at a con, making him have to stop what he was doing to genuinely laugh was one of my best moments)

His passion

He loves what he does, but more than that he believes in it. He believes in the advancement of film technology that he's constantly in the thick of, and he believes in the importance of creativity and stories. It shows in every interview he gives. When he talks, he puts his entire body into it in the same way he does when he acts. He thinks stories can make the world a better place, and I find that level of hope and optimism beautiful and inspiring.

His talent

I own all of his movies and shows on DVD. (This is not hyperbole. If it was released on DVD, I own it.) So I have seen some pretty terrible things just because Andy is in them, but even then, HIS performance is never bad. Even in films or TV shows from the 90s when he was just getting warmed up, he was already a very good actor. And he's only gotten better. Just look at The Planet of the Apes trilogy. If his performance capture work doesn't convince you, watch Andor. Watch The Accused. Watch Death of a Superhero.

Take that and apply it to his directing, his innovation in performance capture, and his audiobooks. He plays the tenor sax beautifully, he paints, he does photography. In other words: it's not fair. 🥺

His generosity and kindness

He's constantly supporting or working with charities, particularly when it comes to children and education. He also does conventions just to be able to connect with his fans. Because he absolutely doesn't need the money and the man is insanely busy, but he still travels (sometimes twice in one weekend) just to spend time at conventions and sit at a table for hours. He meets hundreds of people in a day, and he still treats everyone with the same level of kindness and excitement and energy. Doesn't matter if you see him first thing or right before the convention closes. You get him at his best.

And finally: HAVE Y'ALL SEEN THIS MAN? JESUS CHRIST HNNGGG

Like oh my god. Oh my fucking god. The world can be a shitty place, but as long as that face exists I will have some hope. As a treat. Because that jawline and those beautiful nasolabial folds makes me want to believe there is a god.

[cookie-lore-keeper]

Half-moon Cookie! Half-moon Cookie! What do the archives look like? I’m trying really hard to imagine them!

I was actually about to talk about what my archives look like! Thank you for asking!

My archives (called the Half-Moon Archives) is in the Dream World and located between the world of cookies and the world of witches. It's always nighttime, and it accessible to both cookies and witches through the use of dreams. Sometimes, cookies who seek knowledge will wake up in my archives in their dreams. While it's called the archives, it also doubles as a museum.

If your worried about not being able to enter due to your dreams being hard to control, don't worry! I'm a firm believer that knowledge shouldn't be hidden, so it's not as hard to access if you think. Really, all you need to do is just... want to to there and hope to be before you fall asleep, and you can just go there. The reason many cookies don't go is purely because they just don't know it exists.

My archives are actually... very big. It has all the knowledge and records of Earthbread, as well as some stuff from the witches world. It can be overwhelming, so I try my best to keep everything nice and organized.

Also, be aware: I have a cat named Mooncake and an Owl named Wane, also called the Archive Owl. Mooncakes is very friendly and will come up to visitors for personal, but Wane is quite shy and doesn't like when other cookies come by to pet him, though, he likes to sit in corners and watch. Please respect his privacy, and if you see him, please kindly leave him alone.

The Library

(Last picture is art by Meghan Casey on ArtStation)

The largest section of my archives, and its the first thing you'll see when you enter! The library is big enough to fit humans, as witches like to come here too sometimes (though, they don't stay long. They mostly come by to drop off recipes or scrolls or books or whatever). Don't be intimidated by them if you see one! The only witches I allow in my archives are the ones that do not eat cookies, and I know that they're like gods to you, but you're more similar to them than you think. Most wouldn't mind having a chat with you!

It has both human-sized books/scrolls and cookie sized ones, but a lot of them are cookie sized. The library is sectioned off by kingdoms, cultures, genres, and time periods. The books here ecompass almoat everyrhing about the sections listed below, as well as more than that. If you have any questions about a specific text, just ask me! I'm always nearby.

Audio-Records Hall

If you're more of an audio learner, the Audio Records hall is perfect for your! This includes discs, DVDs, videos, and tapes of information, either through someone saying what happened or even by someone who was there as it was happening!

Genealogy Hall

The Geneology Section has the family trees, ingredients, and flavors for each cookie on Earthbread. It's where I get my ingredient pictures from for the ingredients post.

Planetarium

My personal favorite spot of the Archives that isn't the library. The Planetarium has both the night sky of the Cookie World as well as the night sky for the Witch's world. All you gotta do is pull a lever to switch between the two!

Art Hall

The art section of my archives depicts historical art from the cultures of Earthbread. Like the library, it's sectioned by kingdoms, cultures, and genres. Most of the things here are paintings, since other items could fit into the artifacts section.

Since we're getting to physical objects that come from Earthbread mentioned, I feel the need to say this: NONE OF THE ART OR ARTIFACTS IS STOLEN ART! Instead, I made exact replicas of them that I am able to put into the archives. They're exactly the same; just copies made to fit into the dream world. They can't be taken out of the dream world, so don't even try. (Unless I make you able to, but I probably won't).

I can't always make the replicas for various reasons, or I might not be able to because I don't even know what the artifact is. So, if there is anything you want to show me and to make a replica of, just tell me, and I'll happily add it to our catalog!

Artifacts Hall

Things way from the typical paintings. While there is a lot of relics from the Guild Museums here, but I also have so many more items than that as well! Like most things here, it's categorized by Kingsom, culture, and time period.

Magic Hall

The Hall dedicated to magic and how it works! Magic is such a fun thing and it goes over the different types of magic, how witches use the magic, how cookies use the magic, how magic effects us in the world today, etc, etc.

Biology Hall

Goes over the biology of cookies and other dessert creates in the world. It also goes over how specific types of ingredients effect cookies who have those ingredients, which I think is very interesting.

My Room

The only spot at the archives that I'd say are off limits, simply because I like my personal space. My room is at the very top floor in a dome-shaped tower. It works as my bedroom, my kitchen, and my study. If you can't find Mooncakes or Wane anywhere, they're probably in here. I have both cookie-sized items and human-sized items, as I switch between the two often.

Oh! I also have way, way too many ingredients there. If you need some ingredients for cooking or literally baking yourself a child, just come ask. Seriously, istg, I have everything.

[nitrateglow]

So, I just upgraded my copy of Wait Until Dark to blu-ray, and as I was watching the opening scene with our three criminals, I started thinking about something...I don't think I've ever asked you this, lol...

What do you think Roat would have done if Mike hadn't insisted on looking inside the closet? If he and Carlino had agreed to do the job and just left? How would Roat have kept the two of them on the hook, so to speak?

Also, what do you think they would have done if Susy had not gone to Sam's studio? If Sam had told her that he wasn't going to wait for Leciana anymore, and he'd be home in 20 minutes...do you think they would have just bolted, leaving Lisa's body hanging on the closet door?

Time for a long answer. May God have mercy on my soul.

Btw good on upgrading to bluray. The bluray's image quality is so dramatically superior to the greyed out looking DVD.

As for your questions--

If Mike hadn't insisted on looking in the closet, I think Roat would have tried guiding him to the bedroom indirectly-- or directly, I suppose, if he felt Mike was too dense/stubborn. Lisa being dead is a big part of the con plot, so even if they were like "yeah we'll work with you" and even if they were like "cool you killed Lisa, I hated her," knowing she is dead and dumping the corpse where it will be found is still part of the story, so he very well can't have them leave without knowing. And even if they were like "oh no, you killed Lisa :( we thought you were cool," it still suits Roat's purposes. This whole mission is just as much about Roat having a good time as it is retrieving the drugs (something Arkin has said in a lot of interviews), and his idea of a good time is manipulating and controlling people. He ain't here to make friends.

If Sam had claimed he was coming home ASAP, Roat would have probably done what he did in the same scene in the original play-- call Sam up, pretend to be Liciana's assistant, and beg him to wait a bit longer to buy more time. Only it probably would have been at the phone booth, after sneaking out of the apartment-- which would have been a feat in and of itself given Susy's now staying put, but still doable depending on what she was doing/what room she was in.

If Sam was still going to wait longer and Susy planned on staying home, that could've gotten very unpleasant fast. Leaving the corpse behind would be the worst-case scenario since it would invite the cops over, delay getting the heroin back, risk the heroin being discovered by the police, etc. Really, the ideal scenario here would be the men being able to somehow lure Susy out of the apartment and then distract her outside while the other two move the corpse in the carpet to Roat's Scooby Doo van. It would be hard for them to communicate wordlessly with her there, but they manage it a few times in the actual movie, so who knows? (That would dance on the edge of farce. I’m just chuckling imagining it.)

And if they couldn't lure her out and weren't willing to leave the stiff in the closet? Well, that could get grisly.

While rewatching the movie the other day, I noticed when Susy floats the idea of waiting at home, the film cuts to a reaction shot of Roat and he doesn’t look nervous or even annoyed at the potential downfall of his entire scheme (see the clip above, starting at the 2 minute mark). He looks intrigued, but it’s hard to get a read on why that might be.

Because he likes the challenge? Or because he might get to skip to the physical violence?

If he did plan on just skipping to threats of arson and murder, he would still have the other two to contend with and I imagine he might suspect they may be squeamish about physically torturing an innocent woman. That whole thing could’ve been a shitshow and a whole other story entirely. Probably more like a giallo.

That was a fun question! Thanks for the ask.

[verdemoun]

timewarp bill watching brokeback mountain

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN IS A CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE FOR THE ENTIRE GANG

Kieran was the one who discovered it, admittedly just seeing cowboy hats and pictures of horses and sheep and going yay western movie because he still can't read and the images on the dvd cover were not suggestive in the slightest.

He proceeded to watch it alone, mouth hanging open, edge of his seat, going through the emotional rollercoaster that is Brokeback Mountain. The second he finished it he very urgently walked around the house and dragged as many of the 1899 gang into the living room and forced them to sit on the couch 'you need to watch this right now'.

Emotional damage on mass scale. Lenny and Sean watch it curled up in each other's arms and just absolutely entangled in each other for support with Sean just crying into Lenny's back. Can of beans becomes the code for lube.

Hosea and Arthur going through the 'watching sex scenes with your parent/child' awkwardness but both are just projecting so hard they really do need the emotional support to get through the movie. Like Arthur is very much trying not to cry thinking about Charles at the end and Hosea just has to put a hand on his shoulder.

The dvd sits next to the bible on Kieran's bookshelf of precious belongings.

BUT BILL. BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL.

Naturally Kieran loans him his precious dvd and Bill is like is this about homosexuals no fucking way in hell I am watching this. Kieran stares at him autistically and Bill admits he's going to watch it the second he gets home and will let Kieran know what he thinks.

Bill's entire sense of being is shattered and put together again over 134 minutes. It becomes his go to comfort movie. The way the film creates homophobia and the sexual and narrative tension of how much they want to be together despite the era? The terror of making that one mistake and getting caught - Brokeback Mountain was created specifically to target Bill Williamson and it gets him every single time.

If not for Brokeback Mountain, Bill might have taken an extra 2-5 business years to actually be able to admit to himself he is gay. It was his modern era reawakening.

Also Bill and Mac two dudes chilling on the sofa 5 feet apart watching Brokeback Mountain in complete silence because they're not gay. Not realizing absolutely everyone is aware of the film and their casual quoting 'this is a god damn bitch of an unsatisfactory situation' is not supporting their 'i ain't queer' arguments.

[aihoshiino]

It was obvious Ai loved him…but seeing it said on screen still makes it tragic…i almost felt i had a lump in my stomach Hikaru could've been alright if they just had a happy family together but no 😭😭 with the dvd now revealed, do you think Ai would've gotten back together with Hikaru if she knew that "I can't love you" was a lie? Even as a family i feel like that's a possibility now

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, ngl… now we have the full context of the HKAI breakup and a better overall understanding of their r/s dynamic, I've actually been thinking about their first on-scree conversation in episode/volume 1 - where Ai speaks to him on the payphone. I'd always kind of zeroed in on it as important because it was the one and only time pre-flashback that we'd gotten an actual exchange between the two of them, one sided as it was. And I was especially always really curious about the "No, I'm not trying to get back together" line because it implies A Lot even when we just hear Ai's words.

And now that we know that the HKAI relationship was 1) so unhealthily codependent that Earth's Most Autistic Creature, Ai Hoshino noticed and went mmm i gotta get the fuck outta here 2) ended by Ai herself and 3) Hikaru met that breakup attempt with LET'S GET MARRIED I think it makes it clear that the moment Ai reached out to him he immediately leapt to thinking there was a chance of them getting back together, probably out of pure wishful thinking. And Ai, realizing that he hadn't moved on or been able to grow past her, had to gently but firmly turn him down. And keeping in with that theme of miscommunication tragedies, they were probably both having a VERY different conversation:

What Ai meant: "[I know I'd just be a burden to you, especially with the twins and I don't want to put that weight back on you so] I'm not trying to get back together." What Hikaru heard: "[You're a burden and I can't bear the weight of putting up with you so of course] I'm not trying to get back together."

Minor sidebar, but Takahashi actually highlights that moment in particular during her interview in First Report, the anime guidebook (I promise I'll get it translated soon… I promise…!!!), noting that Akasaka actually gave her the full details as to the HKAI dynamic so she knew how to properly convey Ai's feelings for him at that moment (then noted that as a fan of the original manga she has very mixed feelings about getting spoilers… bless her LOL). So Ai's vocal delivery in that scene can also be considered a pretty big clue…

ANYWAY UH. My point is that I don't think they'd ever get back together unless Hikaru got his shit together and was more stable & less prone to clinging onto Ai at the first opening. She herself even says that they broke up because his obsession with her was consuming him and she wanted him to be able to stand on his own without her, because she thought that was better for him. It's possible that him and Ai being in each other's lives vis-a-vis the twins and Ai being more able to set boundaries (in hindsight, her turning him down is actually really good progress for her!) he could've developed a more healthy relationship with her, but his fixation on her then and in the present day is so all consuming I guess it's hard for me to imagine.

[extralively]

Satoru's apartment (Part 1)

Continuing with my whole thing of trying to make the characters' apartments from my fic in The Sims, let's finally get into Satoru's apartment! ....Or part of it, because his apartment is fairly big lol. Here's the layout:

*The office and washroom are blurred because I haven't actually gotten around to them yet lol

Satoru's place is pretty big, but not the biggest he could have afforded because he is just one guy... so a fairly "modest" apartment will do.

("modest" my ass lmao)

His apartment is pretty neat, which tends to surprise people that expect someone like him to make a mess of things, lol. But Satoru had a pretty strict childhood so some things just stuck with him, and along with the way his family never allowed him to decorate his room in the Gojo Estate with trinkets and stuff, most of his apartment ended up the same--almost void of personality. The things he actually cherishes are kept away from prying eyes, even if this is his own apartment.

Honestly, I had a few very vivid images of what I thought his apartment looked like in my head (or parts of it), and it was kinda tough trying to put them all together into a definite layout lmao. If I made some weird architectural choices, well.... good thing I'm not an actual architect! I just really wanted to make it look like how I pictured it in my head.

In this post we'll take a look at the living room/fireplace/dining area and the kitchen after the cut!

The entrance is pretty spacious, and right behind the camera here there's a door leading to a whole ass closet for shoes and coats and stuff.

This here is the living room, where Satoru spends a lot of his free time watching movies (especially when he has people over. And by people I mean Yura and Shoko, mostly). He has a bunch of DVDs and Blu rays there on the shelf behind the TV, and he also has a couple of video game consoles that he doesn't use a lot.

Yes, this is where the Movie Night oneshot took place (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)... among other scenes.

(That corridor in the second pic with the white door leads to the guest bedroom, the office, and the washroom. That white door is the guest room, specifically.)

This is the fireplace area! Satoru doesn't actually use the fireplace a lot since he has central heating in the entire apartment, but in the opening chapter of Deeper in the Dark, this is where Satoru made a little pillow nest on the floor for him and Yura to snuggle... and yes, other things.

It's got a pretty good view! (...just pretend it's Tokyo back there)

(That corridor in the first pic leads to his bedroom.)

Here is the dining room that Satoru only uses when he has people over, otherwise it's just easier to eat in the kitchen or outside in the balcony (more on the balcony in another post... cause I still need to make it prettier lmao)

Also I might make some changes to this dining area at some point because I'm not 100% sure on the decor yet....

And here's the kitchen! This is the one place that has the most trinkets on display, a lot of novelty items that were mostly gifted to him by Yura over the years (and that he actually makes a point to use). Funny mugs, cookie jars, silly sugar bowls--since Satoru is filthy rich, it's very hard to give him gifts, so Yura eventually found out that he actually likes being given 'stupid stuff', in her words.

I had a very vivid image of the kitchen entrance in my head from that chapter where Yura was sleeping in the guest bedroom after coming back from NYC, and she sleepily stumbles into a shirtless Satoru with his back to her by the counter... cue her brain short circuiting for a moment lmao.

Anyway, next up should be the bedrooms! It's been a struggle making this apartment because I had to download so much CC and mods to be able to make things look the way I wanted to, and I'm still constantly changing things lol. If I do decide to change something, we'll just call it Satoru renovating his apartment at some point throughout the years lmao

[neutrallyobsessed]

pls pls pls tell us more about the concept of ur tophrr and joan when theyre grown i read the long post about whos more manipulative and there isn't much about that part of it <_<

u mrntioned them in the future and i was just wondeirng how that would go about? like what kind of jobs? is there any secret double life or hide hustle? how does that play into them at home?

Hey, if im able to work out the joanpher daughter's title card of sorts, then I'll be able to post the grown up Joan and Topher art that goes with it, and I'm like super close to it!! Anyways, I hope you liked my long post of sweet toxic joanpher and hope you enjoy this other long post of:

The Entire Joanpher Timeline (as most complete to this day xd)

Let's start with establishing that in this timeline, Joan and Topher will more likely to drop out of school and never look back. Things I gotta work on are how to deal with Candide's wishes of World Domination, there will be a moment where Joan and Candide meet to discuss this but for the time being I have no solutions xd, so moving on...

When I say "season 3 doesn't happen here" I mean it in the without Topher and specially Joan, the events that happen in season 3 would be very different and maybe not even happen at all, cause yeah, Clone High and its students will continue on with their lives so technically season 3 "does" happen but it couldn't be the season 3 we know. And now, the meat of the post:

Underground artists going by stage names like Joan of Arc and Christopher Columbus go around the country doing plays, films and youtube videos of strange caliber. He is the face and she is the brains. But their most profitable venture is definitely when they occasionally direct music videos for some artists. And let me tell ya, the inmense quality of their work had people buzzing since the release of their second video. Being nomads and hard to find also makes them to be in high demand but they are quite the snobbish elitists and will pick both the artist and song, so have that in mind ;P. These are their best works to ever be made because music videos combine Joan's love of visually confusing storytelling and Topher's love of musical theatre.

Now, they are both a bit older, more mature and financially stable enough to put their world travel dreams in action! Tbh they did travel to Canada and Mexico before but they're really going places now, as many as possible! And in one of those trips, in one silly country of the very down south, they'd get to watch this quirky travel tv show of two surfer brothers travelling the world, doing exotic things and funny skits in between and they thought we could do that........

And that's exactly what they did.

With a clear vision in mind, episodes and plots to write, vigorously searching for the most interesting things a country can give, enjoying each adventure to the max, this lovely couple has enough of a pitch to show investors at a tv station. But from where? Italy? Poland? Estonia? I haven't decided that yet but the show is a medium hit, maybe it gets brought to a couple of nearby countries, they might be recognized very occassionally, it's all pretty cool and chill~~.

10 years later after their class was meant to graduate, Joan is one to know first of a Clone High High School reunion. Topher isn't too thrilled about this and doesn't want her to go either but she tells him that she wants to do something and, ableit somewhat recluntantly, agrees to at least takes her there.

I have the idea for this fic bouncing on my mind like a dvd logo and recently, if I think for long and hard enough of it, one day suddenly I am able to write almost the entire thing in one sitting so I'm hoping for this to happen, I kinda also wanna make it a comic but we'll see, we'll see…

Basically Joan and Abe catch up and he attempts to ask her out in a way, but she drops all nuclear bombs at once, that she's with Topher, married to him in fact, expecting a child and that she has never been this happy since dating him and it's all Abe's fault for being so oblivious but at least she found someone who cares for her, really destroying his heart real nice (but don't lose hope just yet). Topher could either not be there, just leaving Joan at the reunion and then picking her up or he could catch up with the bleacher creatures, it depends of what happens in the others timeline, will elaborate in a different post. In any case, I do want to add a scene where Joan looks at Abe and Topher and her gaze is the same because she's in love with both of them~~.

4 years later is when Abe realizes that Joan is pregnant y si hay que ser pelotudo pero esa es su gracia xdd.

So yeah, Marion Adèle Columbus of Arc is finally born! In the picturesque country of Czechia for no particular reason (of why Czchia) other than Joan and Topher thinking it could be best for her to have a relatively normal childhood in a stable place of residence. And she does, growing nice and healthy, doing girl things like playing with her (few) friends, watching tv, being online, going to school, hating physical activities and occassionally helping in her parents productions, even participating in a few of them!

It is all chill until she discovers her parents travelling show and she's like I WANNA GO I WANNA GO!!!!!!! and they're like ok but you gotta graduated school and when she turns 13 (ideally, cause idk how czech education is divided) all 3 of them do an extra season with Marion included.

It is around here when they travel to the US where there's this little casting place and Marion decides to try out without much push back from mom and dad. Little do they know that she was going to get a role for a long awaited sequel of a movie held in high regard by a branch studio of the biggest conglomerates of the entertaining industry.

And with "they" I mean that, I feel Marion totally knew what she was doing and was hoping that her parents either didn't realize till it was to late or didn't mind at all. Joan minded it a lot however...

No daughter of mine will work for mainstream blockbuster productions!!! she was like, and there are perverts in every corner she appealed to Topher's overprotectiveness, knowing full well that her own personal beef with normie media couldn't be enough to sway him. If that's what worries you then just stick cameras onto me and I'll have any degenerate in jail before they can say "wow you're so mature for your age!" Marion said with everything thought out beforehand. (Fuck, she really is my daughter) Topher thought proud of his little girl with dreams of acting and blackmailing. But of course he couldn't say that last part aloud. No daughter of mine will put herself in danger like that. Not until you're of age and have good self-defense training. At the end of the day, Topher wants to support their daughter no matter what and Joan also wants to but not like this, not like this!!!

Of course she ends up relenting later and after seeing the massive profits and giving work to those who were laid off at the end of the production, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all~~

But didn't Inside Out 2 come out the same year as Clone High season 3? TIME ISN'T REAL!!!! Don't worry about it!! Not a big deal!!

And so, Marion comes back to her home town and enters secondary school as a celebrity! And there's a lot of shenanigans about it that cool down as years pass and she doesn't make any other fuss with that side of hers.

Jumping much further into the future and considering the genetics in place, I don't really think Topher could outlive his clone-father, mayyyybe for two or three years and it could be a miracle of modern science if he reaches his 60s. In any case, he's fine with that. Even if dying a bit after the half-century is considered "dying young" by current standards, he'd do so happy knowing that during all these years he was able to live an amazing and fulfulling life, where he was able to make a name for himself beyond the legacy of his lineage (not as much as he wanted buuuut he may inspire someone else in the future)(and he did play an astronaut once so that's good and realistic enough) along a gorgeous, smart and caring woman and a beautiful, talented and wonderful daughter. The good years outnumber the bad years and there's really not a lot to regret at the end. Topher lived the good life that I think deserves is what I'm saying.

And after a life well lived, Joan returns to the US as a 60~ year old lady who did it pretty much all, except to live that life with the childhood best friend she always wanted to. But there might be hope in the end...

There's this close-to-S3-canon timeline where MaryAbe became canon and Abe is a ghost. She's too old to complain and you know, Mary can bring Topher's ghost back~ And now they all live togheter in a polycule of sorts cause the JoanAbe is actually cheating, but Mary and Topher let them and they also ghost-fuck too so they even ;3.

Meanwhile in the S3-never-happened timeline is a lot less... supernatural lol. Abe and Frida have gotten togheter but he widowed around their fifties. He wasn't much to date after that but didn't want to close off the chances either (to say, he didn't want to die alone). That's when Joan comes back into his life, a path clear ahead where they could live another 36-40 years togheter doing all those things they were meant to do so long ago~~♡

[textfromthelookout]

Did you hear of the news?

I have. :(

Everyone else has their tributes so, here, a summary of my experience with Dragon Ball.

I was in fourth grade art class. A kid had the February 2005 issue of Shonen Jump, back when Shonen Jump was still physically printed here. I recognized Atem on the front cover because the Blockbuster around the corner from our house had DVDs (I think they were DVDs and not VHSs then since I distinctly remember it having a menu and special features) of some of the later episodes of Duelist Kingdom and my brother and I watched them on repeat. So I was like oh, hey, what's this? They make books of that stuff? I don't remember the conversation but the kid ended up giving me that issue, and I took it home with me.

There were a LOT of significant, groundwork things happening in that issue, now that I think about it. We were just beginning to see Sanji truly in action against Pearl. The Dark Tournament was in it's early stages still with Roto fucking around and finding out against Kurama. Sakura shears off her hair in a move that rearranged sexualities the world over. The reason Atem was on the cover was because Yu-Gi-Oh Millennium World was just debuting its first and second chapter. Bleach wasn't even serialized yet. And Dragon Ball, of course, was also there, about a hundred and fifty chapters ahead of everybody else.

Keep in mind that this was my first experience with manga, period. So my very first experience with Dragon Ball opened on this:

and ended on this:

Yeah. Truth be told, at the time Yu Yu Hakusho piqued my interest more than Dragon Ball (a guy fighting with plants? how creative!) but I never did forget these chapters. I thought the art style was so different from the others.

At some point after this, probably between several months and a year and a half, the TV happened to be on one evening when Toonami was airing Dragon Ball Z. Oh hey, I said, I recognize that art, I know those characters. So I hung around and watched some of episode 281. Two things about watching that episode stick with absolute crystal clarity in my mind to this day. Firstly: Buu choking Vegeta out with his arm freaked me the FUCK out as a child. I could not tell you why I had a fear reaction to it but hey, there you go. The second is this:

Specifically I remember 'You died once. If anything happens to you now, you won't exist anymore. There'll be nothing I can do to bring you back.' Not precisely word for word over the years, but Schemmel's tone of voice on this particular lineread. If I had to guess I'd say it was because at that point in my life, uh, death was kinda permanent? So wait, what do you mean died ONCE. Doesn't that apply to everyone?

This still wasn't enough to get me super invested in it though, it just didn't seem like something that would appeal to me that much. So a couple years go by, I don't think about it all that much, and then of course, TFS hits the scene and drops DBZ Abridged. So you know. As a shithead middle schooler with a shithead sense of humor I thought it was the best damn thing since sliced bread. (My biggest character flaw is that I still think a lot of Season 1 is genuinely funny)

And that was really the extent of my interaction with the franchise for the next several years. Say what you will about DBZA but they did manage to put it all together such that someone who had a nonexistent concept of what the original context was could grok it with not a lot of effort. Some time in high school, I think I was around 15, I decided to bite the bullet and read all the manga, as much to increase the funny factor of DBZA as sheerly for the sake of being able to say I had. Stick it to the other weebs, y'know. Now they can't say I didn't know anything about good anime. This was unfortunately at a time when all that was available online were dirty poor-quality scans and questionable translations, but read it I did. I went 'yep, that sure is about what I expected', and proceeded to get on with my life. GT came and went, I looked up and saw Battle of Gods coming out and went 'oh hey that's still a thing huh', kinda was peripherally aware of all the divisiveness of Super as it was happening, didn't really pay it much attention, just stuck to DBZA and quite a lot of wiki-ing.

And then, this time of year about three years ago now, in the middle of conversation with @prophecydungeon, Dragon Ball somehow came up. Something to do with 'Even though I'm not hugely into DBZ's story or whatever Toriyama does have some great character designs' (yes I was referring to Vegeta and Future Trunks at the time, no i will not stop being predictable, yes i am a parody of myself). They eventually brought up the DBS Broly movie and said, and i quote: 'that was a solid 1.5h of unbelievably fun and wacky animation'. Having seen the Gogeta vs Broly part of it on twitter and been like 'damn that animation's kinda off the hook actually, good for them good for them', my response was to be like. Oh word? I've got a spare hour and a half to kill, sure, fuck it, why not, time to watch DBS Broly.

I think that movie was precision crafted to hit me in the hyperfixation, if we're being honest. Opening on a solid 20 minutes of Lore and Worldbuilding and then having most of the rest of the runtime being mindless slobberknocker fun by way of some of the hardest animation flexes ever? I was done for.

In summation. I have been aware of Dragon Ball for a lot of my life, in that its presence was pervasive and enduring as I grew up. I may have been late to the game of actually wholeheartedly enjoying it, but enjoy it I do. Dragon Ball is the roots of a vast tree of anime, and in reading it I began to understand why that is. I respect it for that, and I love it for that. My current fixation may have shifted, but as far as time devoted to one individual thing goes... it took me a year and a half to watch my way through all of the anime and read all of the manga. ALL of it. So there's something good in there, I'd say.