#also understand why they had to get to a certain level of product before feeling confident announcing it

[sapphiresaphics]

Here’s the thing. Arcane season 2 was finished being written back in 2020. It was completed before the first season of Arcane even aired on Netflix in the first place. Before they even knew if it was going to be a hit or not. Before any of the fans had hot takes about the characters.

Which means that all of these “new subplots” (such as the black rose) weren’t just added in on a whim. They have an intentional purpose in the story they’re trying to tell.

It also means that the pacing was always going to increase and become faster as the two seasons went on.

I think a lot of fans are coming at this show from the perspective of a lot of live action shows where the writers see how fans respond to certain things so they add them into the story or focus on fan favorites to grab your attention and keep you engaged. And live action shows can do this because they’re filmed relatively close to when the series airs and so they’re aware of what the reactions are on social media (for good or ill).

But this is animation. Very TIME CONSUMING animation at that. It took 4 years to finish animating the 9 episodes of Season 2. If you include the 6 years of development and production of Season 1, that’s almost a full DECADE of working on this show.

My point is that they literally (and logistically) can’t respond to fan input and make changes in the show based on the way it was received on social media. Like it or not, these specific characters beats and storylines were always the plan from the start.

This is a long winded way of trying to say… if you have problems with the way certain characters are behaving, or certain plot points feeling rushed, or feel overwhelmed by the number of added subplots that need to get resolved before the end of the show… I strongly suggest rather than saying the writing is “bad” or that the writers “don’t know what they’re doing” or just complain about anything really… I suggest you take a step back and ask yourself “why are these the stories and actions they chose for this 2 season arc?”

I think that’s a far more productive thing to do than to go online and whine about things you didn’t like. I find it’s better to try and understand WHY they chose to do these things rather than write them off. More often than not when you look into the why, or try to come up with reasons why the writers would take certain characters down the paths they do, you end up coming out appreciating the media more. Even if you still don’t were with their narrative choices, learning and understanding the WHY is far more rewarding I think.

I’ll give you an example of something I don’t like, but that I understand why. Isha. I don’t like that Isha was introduced and then killed off in the latest episode. If I were to look at it just from a surface level reading, it seems pointless to add this cute mute kid character only to take her away a few episodes later. But NARRATIVELY she’s extraordinarily important. She is what Jinx needed to become more empathetic to her sister and reach out to fix their family. She helps push Jinx into the role of Vander for season 2. And her heroically framed sacrifice is probably going to be the push Jinx needs to stop trying to commit suicide.

Would I have liked to see more of her and Jinx’s relationship? Yes. Would I liked to have learned more about where she came from and why she’s mute? Yes. But at the end of the day, this is not a show about Isha. Isha is a narrative device to help forward the character development of Jinx. And so, while I do not like that she sacrificed herself… I understand it. And that understanding helps me appreciate the writing and the level of depth the writers are willing to go to push their characters around where they need to be by the end of the series.

At the end of the day, Arcane is just another show on Netflix. It is not beyond criticism. There are a lot of legitimate criticisms you can have against the show. But I’ve found that recently the number of bad takes and people refusing to engage with the narrative has resulted in a bit of a backlash against the show and I do not think that’s ultimately very productive. Please… if you’re going to criticize the show, please try to do better than just write off anything you don’t like as “the writers just suck” or “they changed X character for no reason!”

Because I guarantee you, there IS a reason for everything in this show. No matter how small and trivial it might be, this show was put together with love and an extraordinary attention to detail. There are reasons for why characters do and say the things they say. The writers often make these into intentional parallels, foreshadowing, and callbacks.

Please… take the time to actually stop and dissect what you see. Even something upsets you. I implore you… try to understand why. Try to understand what the writers are saying. Try to understand how certain plot points and events could have a bearing on different characters.

Please just…. Try?

[wykwryt]

bro imagine how insane it would've been if they announced hades ii the same day as early access like they did with hades. imagine being someone in that alternate reality

[jiraisupportgroup]

First of all - I'd like to note that this post is not intended to pressure anyone to change or to make people feel ashamed for the position they are in in life. I feel like a lot of people don't understand that being in this position is not often a choice. A majority of the time there are mental illnesses or chronic physical illnesses which lead someone to this point. It isn't like they're just hanging out at home all day having a blast - it is emotionally and physically taxing to be in this position, and it can be incredibly hard to break out. Not impossible!! Just very hard.

It is not as simple as "just go outside" "just get a job" etc; that kind of advice is not helpful. This post is mostly aimed at people who want to make some sort of change in their routine. Again, if you don't want to change or don't feel a need to - I'm not here to pressure you into changing your life or to tell you you are wrong for living this way - you're not, you're okay I promise. More so this is for people who are thinking about changing things up or adding a little more structure to their life.

Keep in mind - there is no shame in this. If you're looking at your daily log of activities and it isn't what you want it to be that is okay! Don't beat yourself up or be down on yourself for not being perfect or not being where you want to be. This is just so we can identify trends in our behaviours and more clearly see the things we want to cut back on or the things we want to add to our daily / weekly routines.

Try to keep this in a place where it is easy to keep track of. I typically recommend something digital like a notes app on the phone or a google document since you can access that from a computer or your phone - that way it's much easier to just pop in and write a simple note like "10am - had a bagel for breakfast", or a little pocket notebook that you can keep on your person. Make it as easy for yourself as possible.

It can also help to add little notes about how certain activities make you feel or your general mood throughout the day. This doesn't have to be extensive, but something like "Took a shower, feel refreshed but exhausted", or "2-4pm scrolling TikTok, I don't feel anything, I'm a little irritated". Keeping in mind how certain activities make you feel is a good step in identifying how different things affect your mental health and overall energy / stress levels. This can also help us start to see some of the underlying reasons for some of your behaviours. If you start to see why you do or don't like doing certain things, you can have a better understanding of yourself and how you can go about changing certain habits.

For example if you absolutely 100% detest doing the dishes, the feeling, the smell, how long it takes, etc, it isn't going to be very helpful to have a "just do it" approach to building the habit. It will become much easier if we also adopt other things into this such as having a dish-washing chair, a special soap, or gloves to make the process more bearable before throwing yourself head-first into it.

Some goals are easier to identify than others. For example "I want to brush my teeth every night" is a pretty identifiable goal and the steps you need to take to achieve that goal are pretty straightforward. Other goals like "I want to feel more productive" or "I want to have more energy" are vague and difficult to achieve in themsevles, so we need to break them down.

What does each goal mean to you? What does "being more productive" mean? Does it mean keeping your room clean? Creating a physical product or hobby? Achieving smaller goals throughout the day? Exercising more? Trading social media for something like a book? Learning something new? What smaller aspect of this larger idea stands out to you? Once it is broken into parts it's much easier to work on one aspect at a time instead of just trying to change everything overnight.

Other goals seem like too much, like "I want to be able to go to the grocery store by myself". That's an easily identifiable goal, but it's a BIG goal. There are likely steps you'll have to take to work up to this goal, and those steps are heavily tied to the reasons why you don't like going to the grocery store in the first place. If the crowds make you anxious - going out with friends or family to less crowded places, or going to the grocery store at less busy times of day could help. If the food items stress you out - going out to places like office supply stores that don't carry food items or going to the store without the intent of buying anything just to walk around and get used to it might be helpful. Some stores like Kroger, Ingles, or Target often have little coffee shops in them - maybe going to one of these with friends just to get a snack and hang out can help expose you to the idea of the store itself without the pressure of having to pick out what you're buying or the pressure of interacting with the cashier so you don't have to tackle it all at once. Or if you typically get groceries delivered to your house, maybe you could do a purchase online pick up in-store thing one day - you don't have to spend much time in the actual store, and you don't have to pick items out while you're there, but it'll get you to the actual store and then you can just go home right afterwards. Try to find ways to get slowly closer and closer to your final goal without throwing yourself headfirst into it. (One thing I will say specifically about going to the grocery store is try to avoid planning out exactly what you're going to purchase beforehand - I used to do this and I would end up crying in the middle of the store if they didn't have the exact bread they wanted, it backfired on me more than once T-T so do that at your own risk).

Write out as many or as few goals as you can think of. These are long-term goals, so if your list feels really long don't worry! You don't have to do all of this at once! In fact, I implore you not to try and do too many of these things at once! Try not to get overwhelmed if it feels like a lot - you've got time, this is not a once-and-done kind of thing, we're going to take it slow and try to be reasonable with ourselves and our expectations of ourselves.

But how do you pick a goal? There's a lot of ways you could do this. Some people like to try and go for the one that seems the hardest first - I've never really had luck with this I usually just give up when I feel like it's too hard. Some people try to pick the one that seems the easiest to ease themselves into it - this is always nice because it can help you feel like you're actually making progress and changing things. Some people pick ones that overlap. Like if you want to spend less time on social media and more time doing a hobby like knitting - you can combine those two goals into "trade social media time for knitting" to kind of tackle two things at once. Try not to combine too many things together - we do still want these goals to be small and separate from each other - but smaller ones like that it is okay to and makes sense to combine together.

So! You've picked a goal to work towards! Yay! How do we do that? It depends on the goal you've picked. If it's something physical like showering, brushing your teeth, vacuuming, doing the dishes, going for a walk, or cooking dinner, it's a little easier to track. Setting reminders or keeping a log of when you do these things can help, some people like having weekly or daily checklists to keep track of what has been done and when. Try to avoid putting too many things on the checklist - we don't want to overwhelm ourselves, remember we're just working on one thing right now.

For others, picking a certain day of the week or time of day to do these things can help as well. Having a set time or day for certain activities can help set the routine of doing them, and also makes it a little easier to keep track of when they are done. If you miss these days or times don't beat yourself up! Try to avoid the feeling of "oh well I was supposed to shower at 7pm and now it's 10pm so I missed my opportunity" you can deviate from the timeframes you set for yourself they're just a guide. But over time if you decide you're going to brush your teeth at 9pm every night, after a month or two you'll start being like "oh it's 9pm I'm going to go brush my teeth" it becomes a second-hand habit that you don't have to think about too hard after a few months.

If it is a more nebulous or vague goal, we might want to make a roadmap. Like if your end goal is "I want to be able to keep my room clean consistently" there's a lot that goes into that. Often that includes dishes, taking the trash out, doing laundry, folding the laundry, vacuuming, etc. Trying to take all of that on at once can be really overwhelming! Start small. Let's say, maybe every other night you want to take the dishes from your room to the kitchen. Just focus on that. Or maybe you want to make your bed every day. Or maybe you want to do your laundry once a week. Pick one aspect to focus on for a while, and slowly build on that. After about 2 weeks of taking your dishes to the kitchen every other night, maybe you can add washing them into that. Or after doing your laundry once a week for about a month, you can add folding it into that. If you ease yourself into it, it gets much easier to actually build these habits and not super overwhelm yourself right off the bat. And if you miss a day, that's okay! I'm not expecting you to set a goal and then immediately be able to do it all the time, and you shouldn't expect that of yourself either. Go easy on yourself. Slow progress is still progress. Maybe you're not making your bed every day, but making it once or twice a week is still progress! And over time that once or twice a week will evolve into three or four times a week. And it'll just keep going from there.

On the other hand, if you're trying to STOP doing something as much - the approach is often a little different. Some people like to use timers or notes to show when they last did something so they can see how long it's been or notice changes in whether they're doing it more or less frequently. If it's something like trying to cut back on social media you can set time limits on your phone for how long you're allowed to use each app. These are easy enough to bypass but often times having that reminder of "Hey it's been 15 minutes your time limit is up" can be a reminder to yourself that you want to be more mindful of how long you're spending on these apps, even if you just extend the time limit when it pops up.

Set up alternatives for yourself! It's really hard to say "oh I just won't do that anymore", give yourself something else to do instead. If you want to spend less time on social media, you might instead spend more time reading, drawing, or even playing video games. (Trading social media for video games is a healthy trade I will die on this hill - I don't care how many articles you've seen saying they're just as bad as each other I promise you Persona 5 is not as bad as Twitter for your mental health). If you want to stop smoking, instead have gums, lollipops or a drink you enjoy; or practice breathing techniques when you want to smoke; or if you vape try switching to a lower concentration juice (I'm also trying to stop smoking so I feel you on this it's a tough one). If you're trying to stop SH, have other things like ice cubes, rubber bands, pens, or something that will give you a physical sensation without causing harm (or as much harm). Work with yourself, identify what you're getting from each of these things, and try to make a trade for something that is a little better for you but still gives you some of that thing that you want. Don't beat yourself up if you do still engage in these habits, it is hard to stop. Instead of punishing yourself for still doing these things, praise yourself for doing them less often. (And if you're not doing them less often, praise yourself for being aware of your habits in the first place).

The hardest thing about this whole process is getting the motivation to start. Once you get started it's much easier to keep it going, but that first push to get the ball rolling is the hardest part. For a lot of things you can't wait until you feel like doing it - often that won't come. There are different ways people motivate themselves to do things they don't want to do. Ease yourself into it, don't do everything at once do the first step of the process and then take a little break. For example, if you're folding the laundry, separate it into categories then take a little break. When you come back fold one category, then take a break. Then do the next category. Over time the laundry will be all folded! Set a timer, think about how much time you could reasonably spend doing something. Let's say 10 minutes. Set a timer for 10 minutes, then start whatever task it is you want to do. If you want to clean your room maybe set a timer for 10 minutes and spend that time picking up trash. After those 10 minutes are up you're done. You can come back to more of it later. Often times you'll find that you're able to finish a lot of tasks faster than you thought you'd be able to, and if they're not finished oftentimes times you're more inclined to keep going once those 10 minutes are up since you've already started the ball rolling. Some people use a sort of "rip the bandaid off" technique where they set an alarm to go do something and as soon as that alarm goes off they just force themselves do it. This is hard at first but it does become easier. Think of it like you're jumping into a pool. 3...2...1... GO! Often that initial push to just start walking to go to the thing you want to do is the hardest, and once you're moving it becomes easier.

Tell a friend you're going to do it. Sometimes this helps you feel more motivated to do it since you're giving yourself a little bit of outside pressure to complete the task. On this note, weirdly enough, stretching can help you get motivated to do harder tasks. Like if you want to take the trash out but you're laying in bed, stretching in bed just to get your blood moving can sometimes help you get that initial push to get up and take the trash out.

Work with yourself. Try different approaches, and celebrate your successes no matter how small they may seem. Over time you will find things do get easier, and after tackling one small goal for a month or two, you can add another small goal into the mix.

Some popular app recommendations (I'm so sorry this list is so short - hoping to add to it in the future)

IAmSober - Andriod and IOS - allows you to set multiple goals of things you want to stop doing and shows you timers for how long it's been since you last engaged in that habit.

Flora - Google Play, IOS, and Chrome Extension - sets a timer for how long you don't want to use your phone or computer, once you finish this timer without using your device it grows a tree, and adds that tree to your garden. I used to use this for studying back in college and I quite enjoyed it.

HabitShare - Android, Google Play, and IOS - set habits and keep track of when you've completed them, you can also link with friends to see each other's habits too (although, this is optional you can also keep it private).

These are the best-rated free apps I could find for this kind of thing, if there are others that you use or have used in the past please feel free to comment or rb I would love to be able to add to this list.

Thank you so much for reading! I hope this can be at least a little helpful and I hope it doesn't come off as a "just do it" kind of vibe. I know getting the motivation to start building new or breaking old habits is realllllly hard so hopefully, this is at least a bit helpful T-T

As always, I love you guys and I'm proud of you for being here and doing what you can ˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗ please feel free to comment or send in any questions, comments, concerns, additions, or anything of that sort ~ ♡

[cripplecharacters]

I'm writing a character with intellectual disability and I can't find much about how the different skill areas affected will be affected based on the level of ID. He has mild ID, IQ measured to be between 60-69, but I was wondering if I made his symptoms too severe and if what he has would actually be moderate. Are these realistic for someone with mild ID, or would these indicate more severe ID?

He started copying sounds at around the same age most babies do, maybe a month or so late, but didn't really understand what they meant until he was around four, when he made the connection that certain sounds had certain meanings. He picked up language decently after that, a bit slower than most but he did eventually hit language milestones, just a few years late

He's not good at problem solving. If he's seen a similar problem get solved he can usually replicate the solution, but if he's never seen this problem or the solution to it he'll struggle to come up with a solution that works. If the solution he's seen work in the past isn't possible, that's also something that'll throw him through a loop. Like if he drops and breaks a plate and he knows the solution to this situation in the past, get his dad and then go find the broom and dustpan so his dad can clean it up, isn't possible because his dad isn't home, it'll take him a little bit before he can adapt that solution to "I need to get the broom and dustpan to clean this up." He can get there, it just takes him a minute.

He was very late to reading and basic math, picking up reading at writing at around seven, addition and subtraction a little bit after, and multiplication, division, and fractions at around ten. Once he gets it he can start growing the skill, it just took him a while to get it.

Planning ahead is also something he struggles to do well. He can come up with unrealistic plans easily, but coming up with an actual plan on how to spend a day out is hard for him and when he does have that plan, any deviance from the plan really stresses him out because now he needs a whole new plan.

He's good at abstract thinking, but there are some things he can't understand. He gets that ableism is a thing, that people see him and think less of him for being disabled (outside of the ID, he is visibly disabled,) but he can't for the life of him figure out why people are taking their observations and using them to be cruel.

His ability to learn from experience is good, it's one of the easiest ways for him to learn things and it's the way his parents taught him some things. He can also learn from the experiences of others- if his dad cuts his hand on a knife while cooking and is thus injured, he can understand from that that knives can hurt and that if they hurt his dad, they'll hurt him, so he shouldn't mess with them without being very careful.

He is also very bad at picking up on body language and facial expressions.

Because he was homeschooled (the elementary and middle school didn't have a good special education system,) a lot of this was kind of brushed off as "Oh, it's because he was homeschooled" when he did start going to school as a teenager. His teachers knew, of course, but the people he befriended didn't really notice, brushing off the things they noticed him struggling with as being products of him being homeschooled. So he's not extremely obviously intellectually disabled to the untrained eye, but teachers and people who know other people with ID can usually pick up on it.

I feel like all of this might be a bit too severe for mild ID, but I also worry that if I change it so he has moderate ID I'll be underplaying what moderate ID is. Sorry for the long ask.

Hi!

A lot of the traits remind me less of myself (mild end of mild) and more of some of my ex classmates (moderate). Some of the points are more universal (understanding of body language can be really hard or really easy depending on the cause of the ID, e.g. intellectually disabled people with autism will usually have a hard time regardless of ID level) but most to me read as "more disabled than me" so either he's on the severe end of mild, or just moderate. The only one that reads pretty strictly as mild is the last one, if someone only has ID with no comorbidity then often others can't tell for a while or brush it off as something else (I'm autistic and people sometimes guess autism, sometimes ID, sometimes things I don't have). I feel like if he experiences all the other points, other people would probably be able to notice rather quickly, if not as "obviously ID" then they would notice that he's developmentally disabled in some way (though, from interacting with moderately ID people in SPED, pretty much everyone could tell, especially abled people).

Other than his classmates not being able to tell, this sounds like a pretty good representation of someone with moderate intellectual disability. I wouldn't hang on what exact number or exact severity he was diagnosed with, just saying "intellectually disabled" is good. ID is a spectrum and it doesn't have hard edges (IQ measurement is deeply flawed), sometimes it can be hard to tell where someone exactly lies on it. There's not that much difference between me, very close to the "normal range", and someone else, very close to the "ID range". I just wouldn't say that your character has mild since it does sound like it's probably in the moderate range rather than in the mild or Ambiguous one, but focusing on the exact label isn't that important in my opinion.

If you want him to have mild ID because he has a condition that causes ID that is specifically mild and not more severe, then I think it would be easier to change the condition than the character. Many of these traits seem thought-out and impact the character a lot, so changing them could be almost like rewriting the entire character.

I hope this helps,

mod Sasza

[bloodpen-to-paper]

Tubbo's "Return" Summarized (Feb 22):

---Recap---

-Didn't realize he was gone for a week; thought it was only a day or so

-Has something he wants to do but doesn't know what it is; described himself as "having one piece missing"

-Insisted he is alive and human to an odd extent (implications that he is not fully human)

-May have canonized that the Streamer Awards was a dream he had during his absence

-Kept bringing up how Chayanne was supposed to protect him and failed; seemed very upset about it but also brushed it off as a joke when prompted

-Kept asking people who they think the worst egg parent is (has asked everyone he's talked to so far, including Cucurucho)

-Described feeling like his brain had been taken out of his skull and had the dust blown off it, leading to him being able to see and think clearly and at max capacity like never before (certain descriptions used are reminiscent of a lobotomy procedure)

-Described being dead as very calm, and waking up felt very warm (like when you're cozy in bed and don't want to get up yet)

-Wants to reinvent himself

---Behavioral Patterns---

-Hates loud noises

Showed fear and nervousness at the prospect of loud noises

Persistent noise not loud enough to cause ringing but enough to cause annoyance makes him highly irritable and aggressive

Ringing-induced noise (typically sudden) causes him to mentally tune out (when Cucurucho shot a gun next to him he had to lie down until his ears stopped ringing)

-Mood swings wildly and to different levels of emotional elevation

-General aggressive aloofness at what's going on around him (like he's excited to do things but incredibly detached)

-Impulsive decision making; moves on to the next thing very quickly (saw a random house, decided it was his, and promptly forgot about it seconds later)

-Still retains core aspects of his personality, but with differing behavioral patterns

Noted by Fit and Chayanne to have amplified emotions (joy means extreme joy, boredom means extreme boredom, etc)

Sad when hearing Sunny was alone on her birthday, salty about the Create mod not being unlocked, and generally acted like himself but as if he was on drugs

-Gets incredibly defensive when he feels left out (Sunny and Chayanne kept having private conversations from him and he got very cross)

-Irritability gets quickly squandered when called out in some cases

Had moments of lucidity where he'd ask himself "why did I do that?"

Yelled at Chayanne to wake up in an unusually aggressive manner before Sunny told him to calm down, to which he insisted he was calm but complied and went to sit down quietly

-Strong sense of justice; willing to cross strange lines to enforce it

Incredibly upset upon learning Richarlyson destroyed Leo's garden and insisted it be fixed by Richas and only Richas

Couldn't understand why Sunny wanted to fix Leo's broken garden when it was Richas who destroyed it

Was willing to stand over Richas' bed and wait for him to wake up just to make him fix the garden

-Seemingly inconsequential actions that most would let go is something he feels very strongly about

Believes that letting go of the little things is a detriment as they will build up and eventually destroy you (most likely a product of unresolved feelings from before he died)

[iminseriousdebt]

GENLOSS RAMBLE

Heyo! This is a little ramble I needed to make before the founders cut comes out!  yipee!

(GENERATION LOSS SPOILERS)

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So we can see in the above images the methods Showfall Media is using to control gl!Sneeg gl!Charlie and gl!Ranboo, they use an already pre-existing technology called an Electroencephalogram (EEG). Now this technology has been in use for decades, and essentially how it works is that it uses electrodes placed onto your scalp combined with a conductive gel to measure the electrical activity in your brain, these electrical signals are usually referred to as “brain waves” and these brainwaves can be subdivided into four categories, Gamma (greater than 30 Hz), Beta (13-30 Hz), Alpha (8-12 Hz), Theta (3.5-7.5 Hz), and Delta (0.1-3.5 Hz)

These different brainwaves are generally assosiated with different emotions, awareness levels, brain activities, etc. Now if Showfall Media has installed these onto sneeg, charlie, and ranboo, that means they have access to their thoughts and feelings, but brainscanning isn’t an absolute precise device, it still takes a lot of human effort and time to properly interpret the brainwaves. If Showfall somehow had a tool to easily interpret the signals they could much more easily operate, say, a live show. Lucky for them there is already a real life solution to this problem, kinda.

Its called Brain Generative Pre-Training Transformer, or BrainGPT for short.  What its goal is, is to act as an assist tool for human neurologists to use in real neuroscience cases and case studies, what it does is it uses a Large Language Model (LLM) full of pre-existing human research papers and other neuroscience knowledge too vast for human comprehension. And whenever a neurologist hands BrainGPT a prompt, (such as anomalous finding or to asses the fields understanding of a certain topic) , “would generate likely data patterns reflecting its current synthesis of the scientific literature”  (braingpt.org)

Now in regards to Generation Loss, what this means is that Showfall Media potentially has acces to this sort of technology, and would be able to use it in the production of their shows, now BrainGPT has a good way to go before its widely avalable. But in the genloss au, it can be far into development at this point, and be available for companies to use in whatever way they see fit.

Now reading and decoding brain signals is one thing, but to mind control someone is far beyond what is capable today, but Showfall Media has somehow developed technology to do so, the way I’m guessing they did it is that they produced certain brainwaves from the electrodes on the actors heads to give them the emotional reactions they needed for the show. I can’t exactly get into the technical stuff cause I’m not a neurologist, but its just a hunch on how I think they did it.

As for the mind controlling devices themselves, I feel there’s a more subtextual reason as to why those objects in particular are chosen as the devices that are central to the show’s operation. Ranboo’s mask has been a heavy emphasis throughout Gen 1 TSE,

Its been a central figure in not only generation loss’ marketing, but also ranboo’s marketing, because when you think of ranboo one of the first things that pops up is the mask, atleast in the wider public’s eye.

But these general associations not only exist with Ranboo, with Slimcicle you usually think of the wide brim glasses, with Sneeg its his backwards cap, and this is with the other cast members too when their introduced on the spinning carousel in episode 2. Furthermore, with Niki it’s that’s she's just so nice, with Austin its that he’s just a gay guy,  and with Vinny and Ethan these associations don’t really exist. So, with Vinny he's just the “hoarder”, and Ethan isn't even introduced. And then there's Jerma, who is relinquished to a goofy character with a weird voice and a strange sense of humour which sort of fits his public image.

But what I wanna mention with Ranboo’s mask specifically is that with the three images shown on the genloss twitter of the control devices, sneeg’s is just a hat, like theres nothing special about it, just a hat with electrodes on it, when you take it off he’s completely in control of himself. But, with charlie’s it’s a good bit harder to just take it off. His glasses are drilled into his skull connected to electrodes which are also implanted in his skull, with an additional feature of a speaker in his jaw. But if you remove the glasses, there would be a lot of bleeding and his vision would be impaired, but he would still be a free man.

But with Ranboo, poor, poor, Ranboo… Like Charlie, they have electrodes implanted on to their brain connected to a switch on the back of their skull (which also may or may not also be connected to their spine, idk its hard to tell). These sprout wires that thread through the mask and lead into their throat, and the mask piece itself is sewn shut onto their SKIN.

Now this makes me wonder, why is Ranboo so heavily guarded when the other are (relatively) easy to set free? Is it because Ranboo is an integral part of the show and therefore high risk? Is it because Showfall needed extra resources for the chat to be able to control them?... Or is it because Ranboo tried to escape so many times before that they were forced to disfigure them to such an extreme degree, and yet somehow, SOMEHOW, they are able to resist, whether it be tapping SOS on their hand when they're on full control mode or shanking a Showfall employee with a dagger, Ranboo, Resists. But Showfall will never let them leave. Or they will? Idk founders cut hasn’t come out yet as of writing this, anyway ramble over. You can leave now.

[in-the-glow-of-a-silmaril]

Nolofinwe and feanor are like ships in the night, okay. They are fundamentally talking past each other. It makes me crazy, it drives me absolutely mad

Nolofinwe was swayed by melkor's lies (it is briefly mentioned, if I recall correctly, that he and finarfin both fell victim to mistrust in the section right before feanor, under the same influence, escalated by threatening his half brother directly). But, it seems like afterwards nolofinwe thought better of it. At the feast the day the Trees went out he reconciled with feanor, swore to be full brothers in heart, and - as far as I can see - meant it! He stuck to it! He followed feanor! He spilled blood for him, and followed again after! Had feanor not burned the boats - but feanor did burn the boats.

And that is the thing. Despite a period of melkor-orchestrated doubt, it seems that nolofinwe, more than any of his siblings, was like finwe in that he wanted feanor to be reconciled to the family. He wanted to be "full brothers in heart." He wanted Feanor to be included, and he wanted feanor to include him in turn. Nolofinwe is looking at feanor and going, "see me! Find me worthy! Take this olive branch! Let's be brothers!"

But feanor is not looking at nolofinwe. Feanor is wrapped up in Miriel; the mother wound he can never move past. He does so much for the principal of the matter. He will keep the thorn in his speech so that Miriel's name does not change while she is...away. he is defending his mother's honor and memory always, at all times. He feels that everyone forgot her as soon as she died. So he is the only one, it all falls to him, he is on the frontline crusading in her name.

From that perspective you can see how even little things like a minor shift in language become a sticking point that can divide a people.

And in that same sense, on a certain level feanor does not give a damn if indis is the scum of the earth or an angel incarnate. It does not matter. It is the PRINCIPLE of the thing. The fact that she married Finwe is the sticking point. It is the only thing that matters. Her personality is not relevant. He is always going to avoid and ignore her.

And that is also the tack he takes with her children, right up until he CAN'T ignore them anymore. See: fingolfin making a political name for himself or scheming to turn finwe against him. (Fingolfin didn't actually do that second one, but morgoth sure made feanor believe that he did.)

But this is the thing that gets me about it all - when feanor confronts fingolfin, fingolfin interprets it very personally. That is feanor, I am fingolfin, this is a matter between us, and it can potentially be resolved by agreements or understandings made between us. But Feanor is not talking to fingolfin. He is never looking at fingolfin. He is speaking symbolically. It is about miriel, it is about feanor and his own legitimacy, it is about finwe.

The valar sanctioned the remarriage. It strikes me as significant that when feanor concludes that the valar cannot be trusted and turns his back on them completely, he also burns the boats to leave fingolfin behind with the valar. Fingolfin, who is in some way, a product of the valar's judgement.

The kicker for me is I think feanor would have gotten along fine with fingolfin, as a person. Fingolfin is a bit like his own oldest son in terms of personality and a bit like himself, and I believe a man who has seven children WANTS to be part of a big family. He wanted siblings, I guarantee it. But the circumstances set it up perfectly so that in his own mind he could not accept fingolfin without betraying miriel. And fingolfin has no way to understand why feanor rejects him. They are always speaking past each other.

[tsisisail]

what kinds of phobias do you think the drawtectives have? I was thinking about it earlier because I think eugene would be a little afraid of the dark and I want to know your take :)

Ah I was just thinking about this earlier! Perfect timing

Usually I start these with Rosé, but I’ll do Eugene since you brought him up.

Eugene is, indeed, afraid of the dark to me. He has to sleep with a light on which seriously messes with his brain’s melatonin production.

I also feel he’d be afraid of doctors and hospitals due to a poor medical history. (I made an entire head canon post about this.

I also think he’d be afraid of car crashes, them being one of the most common causes of death he encounters people who died in one particularly frequently.

Rosé is afraid of needles. I’m personally a trans woman Rosé truther and believe she’d take E pills for this reason rather than injections. This is also why her ears aren’t pierced. She doesn’t admit this fear though, she thinks it makes her sound silly.

She also generally has a fear of being “found out”, being a rather secretive person. She keeps a lot to herself and the idea of people just knowing stuff about her before she’s ready for them to is really upsetting to her.

Jancy, being rather perceptive, has figured out a lot about her anyway, and chooses not to reveal too much of this as to not make her uncomfortable.

Grendan is afraid of the decompositional process just, as a concept. They understand it’s a part of nature and such, but it just squicks them out. When you die the other stuff eats you? No thank you! Don’t want that! This fear also extends to them being really grossed out by mold.

In spite of being rather outdoorsy she has a lot of issues with centipedes specifically. Most bugs are fine but if a centipede gets near him he’s leaving then and there.

York, aside from the obvious, isn’t really afraid of much. There aren’t many problems he has that he can’t just punch, and if he can’t punch it he’s generally accepting of that.

He’s really just afraid of what all the drawtectives are afraid of to a certain extent, and that’s things going back to the way they were before they had each other. It’s sort of unfathomable to them collectively where they’d be without each other, but they do understand that it wouldn’t be anywhere they’d be proud of.

But York doesn’t really like thinking about hypotheticals like that. He’d prefer to focus on the more tangible, punchable problems in front of him.

.. Oh, and he’s claustrophobic.

Jancy is a generally level headed woman, but she does have a healthy fear of the ocean and drowning, (as I’d assume most people do.)

Fire also gets to her, and suffocation. Generally morbid causes of death such as these are mainly what she’s afraid of, although this is only notable because her children seem to exhibit no fear of death regardless of cause (unless, for some reason, the cause is a cat boy in a mascot costume.) They’ll just stumble merrily through the saw trap that is life whilst giving her heart palpitations.

[soft-bellied-tannies]

Chubtober Day 10!

Today is a mix of @softievante’s last prompt of the ten day list, shortness of breath, and fatguarddog’s day 10 prompt, discovery.

There are mentions of very casual drug use here so just be aware before reading!

—-

Jin didn’t know what to do. He was afraid of judgment from his boyfriends or friends if he brought up the subject. He was afraid of offending Taehyung by directly addressing the situation. No matter what happened, Jin knew it would be embarrassing and awkward.

It all started with Tae freaking out about his ceramics midterm. He chose an elaborate idea, and he had not stopped spiraling during every free moment about how his project was probably going to explode in the kiln, he would fail, and then all his hopes and dreams would dissolve. It truly was a dramatic telling every time he got going.

His boyfriends and friends tried everything to help him stay calm and rational about it until Yoongi finally cracked a joke about him needing to find a way to chill out and offered him an edible.

All of them expected Tae to laugh it off, but he actually accepted immediately, telling Yoongi he’d be willing to try anything to help him relax at this point. His anxiety was becoming a big challenge for him to actually be productive lately, and he needed something to help him escape it for a little while.

Yoongi checked in with him a few more times to make sure he was certain and said he would gladly give Tae one of his if he really wanted to try. Taehyung excitedly agreed, and they planned a whole evening around it.

While it did relieve Taehyung’s stress for the evening and allow him to enjoy a mellow night without his mind berating him, they discovered that Taehyung experienced an impressive urge for munchies. None of them had ever seen his appetite so voracious before.

Taehyung cleared his own portion of takeout, the rest of Jimin’s order, a bag of chips, multiple packs of sour candy, and a pint of ice cream.

It did wonders for his anxiety and Taehyung enjoyed the night with no recollection of his binge. It also made Taehyung realize that he wanted to feel that level of relaxation again. He asked Yoongi for suggestions and started buying his own.

With many more occurrences of munchies that didn’t really lose their intensity, Taehyung was admittedly more relaxed, but there was a more noticeable change as well.

While his boyfriends and friends noticed his softening frame quite quickly, Taehyung needed more experiences to catch on. He started to realize that the quick walk required between his morning classes was taking longer, the four flight trek to their preferred study room in the library left him sweaty and winded, and keeping up with Jimin and Jungkook on their nights out was exhausting.

His fashion sense was struggling slightly when he preferred more comfortable clothes these days…well, maybe it was the fact that the waistbands of most of his favorite pants were getting uncomfortably snug.

Taehyung wasn’t insecure about the gain itself; he thought he looked great no matter what. His concern was what his boyfriends thought of him, more importantly their attraction to him.

However, Taehyung’s worries could not have been more misplaced as Jin was desperate to get his hands on his boyfriend’s softening belly and feed him meals of his favorite foods.

The awkward tension between his boyfriends had Namjoon worried more than ever. Taehyung seemed to shy away from both of them, especially Jin, mainly due to the fact that Jin seemed nervous or even afraid to touch Taehyung longer than a short peck or brief hug these days.

Jin finally cracked, needing to figure out why his mind was all over the place when it came to Taehyung. He went to the perfect person to help him understand - Yoongi.

Without meaning to, Jin completely unloaded his entire emotional struggle to his friend, asking Yoongi if he had any idea what was wrong with him.

“Hyung, nothing is wrong with you. What could possibly be wrong with you for being attracted to your boyfriend?” Yoongi finally asked, cutting off Jin’s rambling.

“Because I shouldn’t like him…you know…getting bigger. It’s weird!”

“It’s a kink!” Yoongi replied loudly causing both their eyes to widen before he continued at a more calm level. “It’s a kink, hyung, and it’s perfectly fine.”

“What if he hates me?” Jin asked, hanging his head in defeat.

Yoongi rolled his eyes since Jin couldn’t see him. “He’s not going to hate you, you drama queen. He loves you and Namjoon loves you. Just talk about it and quit acting like he makes you uncomfortable. They’re worried.”

Jin finally agreed, making his way back to their shared apartment while thinking about what he would say, how he would explain the recent discovery about himself.

As he walked through the door, Jin heard Namjoon talking to Taehyung in his signature comforting tone. He found them cuddled on the couch as Taehyung ate ice cream from the container.

They both looked up at him and Jin immediately felt terrible for the clear signs of crying on Taehyung’s face.

“Hyungie, I don’t know what I did, but whatever it is, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.”

Jin then started tearing up, scolding himself for allowing his sweet Taehyung to believe that he did something wrong when it was all Jin’s pride in the way.

He immediately sat beside Taehyung and pulled him into his arms, tighter than he had in a while and unafraid of touching him now.

“Hyung is sorry, baby. It’s all my fault. You did nothing wrong. I was just…I’ve been caught up in my head and instead of talking about it, I got freaked out,” Jin admitted, seeing the surprise on both his boyfriends’ faces.

“Jinnie, talk to us,” Namjoon said, gently but encouragingly as always.

Jin sighed and took Taehyung’s hand in his own. “I will admit, I did talk to Yoongi because I needed some help understanding my thoughts. I know I should have talked to you, but I’m hoping you can understand after I…after I explain myself.”

“Okay…” Taehyung replied hesitantly, expecting this to be the moment where Jin finally confronts him about his weight gain.

“I think you…” Jin started, the words getting lost and muffled as he finished his sentence.

Namjoon was concerned now too, never hearing his older boyfriend so unconfident. “What’s going on, babe? You can tell us anything.”

Jin took a deep breath, looked at both of them to see no judgment whatsoever. “I think I may be enjoying the fact that you are gaining weight. I like feeding you and I think you look and feel amazing. I’ve been distant because I didn’t want to freak you out since it’s…not the, you know, the typical reaction to that.”

“Wait, really!? I thought you didn’t like the way I look anymore,” Taehyung exclaimed.

Jin’s jaw dropped, upset to realize how he must have been making his boyfriend feel. “Baby, no, oh my god. I think you look incredible. I can’t tell you how much I love you.”

“Both of you,” Jin added as he reached over and took Namjoon’s hand, seeing the fond smile on his other boyfriend’s face.

Taehyung threw his arms around Jin’s neck with an excited sound before he said, “I didn’t know how to tell you that I kind of like it now too.”

“Kind of like what?”

“Well,” Tae started, seeming to get shy. “I like eating what I want and I…I like my body even more now. It feels good.”

“Really!?”

It was Jin’s turn to be surprised.

Taehyung nodded, his blush growing on his newly chubby cheeks. “Yeah, I wasn’t expecting it, but that’s how I feel.”

Jin felt the relief yet excitement wash over him. “I’m so glad, Tae. I couldn’t be happier that you feel that way.”

When the younger pulled away, he turned to Namjoon with a sheepish grin. “Joonie?”

Namjoon kissed both their foreheads and responded, “As long as you both are happy and healthy, I’ll support you. You know I think you are both amazing.”

Taehyung turned to hug Namjoon as Jin stood, watching them with loving eyes. All three were in shock of what was actually going on, thinking the worst and ending up with an ideal situation.

Jin then put the lid on Tae’s cheap convenience store ice cream and held out his hands to both of them.

“Come on, my loves, let’s go get Tae some good ice cream like he deserves,” Jin announced.

“Oh, good idea, Jinnie!” Taehyung replied as he stood and adjusted his shirt before heading off to the door.

Namjoon looked at Jin with a raised brow who had the decency to look down with a blush on his cheeks. He took Jin’s hand and whispered, “This is certainly going to be interesting.”

Jin could only happily laugh as he was led to the door. He’d have to remember to thank Yoongi.

[mangocheesecakeicecream]

I can talk about elephants too and they can all go die I don't want that to happen I love elephants elephants are dope but if elephants go and die I still have the signifier and there's a very real sense in which as soon as I have that signifier it's always a pronouncement of their death my grandmother as some of you know was raised on a farm and she was never allowed to name the animals and I said Grandma why can't you name the animals what was that a big deal about because cows are cute right she said my dad wouldn't let me name the animals because they're not pets they're not members of the family that's product that's what we make no naming of animals so that when it's time for the slaughter you don't fucking cry you get the job done there's a reason why whenever you want to take over a small country hell a big country one of the first things you do is fuck with their tombstones change their names assign them numbers instead of names you strip them of their signifiers easier to kill a number than it is to kill somebody with a name like yours a name that also belongs to somebody you know maybe even love signifiers are tinged with death for this reason they pronounce loss absence but what Lacan's getting at here is another connection that we have to death that is more primitive more primordial don't forget also that lacan understands the fragmented body at the start of the mirror stage and all this business this bumbling discombobulated baby in front of the mirror he sees that early stage which we call the fourth trimester when this worm-like human organism is doing nothing because they lack gross and fine motor skills he also refers to that as being tinged with death the baby newly born is not at the start of Life they're right on the verge of death think about that we call it the fourth trimester because that baby wasn't ready to come out put that baby back in needs to cook a little longer it came out early a baby comes out early that can't stand up and do its own thing the way a horse could when it's first born you can put it in the corner of the room and walk away whether you're gone for five minutes or five weeks that baby will still be there when you come back it may be more or less dead by the time you come back but it ain't going anywhere Lacan's point about the fragmented body this early stage of Child Development the origin of the mirror stage too because I know some of you are interested in that is that this is a body tinged with death it's not the start of life it's just hanging on to life it more closely approximates death I forget where he says it it's somewhere in Escrits here though we're going back a little further because before that baby came slithering out whether by slice or slice it was sexed put on the trajectory towards individual death and whatever type of enjoyment if you will quotation marks around enjoyment it had at the level of pure undivided life has now been sundered split divided shoved aside suppressed by The Straits of sexuality where enjoyment is subordinate to reproduction where you enjoy genital contact because it enables reproduction or as evolutionary scientists would say it's because genitals enable reproductive processes to occur that genitals feel good the concentration of nerve endings in certain Origins usually swimsuit zones has everything to do with the propagation of the species but what we also know as Lacan is pointing out here is that the blow of individual death is at play here as well as soon as this happens you have fallen under the blow of individual death. -Samuel McCormick

[beautifulpersonpeach]

been lurking on your blog for a while and i find your new jeans write ups interesting. it's like the cookie song doesn't bother you so you're okay with it?

***

Hi Anon,

Story Time

Some years back, I moved to the US for work. I'd learned English at a young age, lived and worked with English-speakers and thought myself to be very fluent. Anyway, one day I had a business proposal put in front of my desk. I won't explain what exactly the product was, but the long and short of it is that at some point during the brainstorming session, "two girls one xyz" became the catchiest, most fitting tagline. My team had a good mix of old and young people who came from diverse backgrounds. We could all speak English and considered ourselves well versed in slang, but nobody in the team caught the reference until 2 weeks before launch, when in one of the campaigns, it sounded like "two girls one cup".

Now, for anyone who doesn't know what that phrase is, don't bother googling it. The gist is, I quickly learned that in America, you never say "two girls one cup". At least not in public. Everywhere else, this line doesn't mean anything, but in America and certain online communities, it means everything. By the time we found out, it was too late to revamp the campaign to change it, so we instead tweaked it to become a bit quirkier so those who caught the reference won't be totally put off by it. And overall the project was a success and caught on well in Germany, Poland and the UK, but if we didn't catch that reference in time, the campaign would've been a disaster. The way we caught the reference was someone outside the team, a local American, who immediately flagged it the minute he saw it in our outlook report. All of us fluent English-speakers had some vague idea of the various ways the campaign would look and sound, but nobody attached the meaning of "two girls one cup" to it.

And so, maybe that's why I buy the explanation offered by Ador. I can very easily see how an English professor at a Korean university, a couple of Scandinavian songwriters, and one Korean DJ, wouldn't know a Eurocentric slang interpretation of an innocuous English word. Because I myself, the first time I heard Cookie, didn't get any sexual undertones or innuendos. The song honestly just seemed cute to me… the puns in Korean were cute. Also, “taste it, smell it, bake it…” for Korean sweets and desserts, all that isn't odd to say. I mean, people here plan their whole days around trying out a new café and savouring a new sweet on the menu like it's a life-changing experience. It's fun and cute to attach that level of attention and importance to your sweets. The connection with CDs was obvious at first glance too (the CDs are huge in the MV so it's hard to miss), and given what I would call the ‘café culture’ in Korea, the play on words in Cookie seemed honest to God adorable, and a lot of my Korean friends and family (the few who listen to k-pop) felt the same. It probably sounds like I'm reaching here but overall I didn't think this was a big deal anyway.

International k-pop stans felt differently, but k-pop stans in general are easy to rile up, and even if Ador indeed had some ulterior motive, either way I don't really care.

I don't care for the same reason I don't care that Beyonce used the 'spazz' slang in her song, for the same reason I don't care Chaeyoung from Twice went around the US in a Q-Anon/nazi t-shirt, for the same reason I don't care about XG saying they've got 'opps', for the same reason I don't care that Mamamoo/Shinee have done black/brownface and never apologized for it, for the same reason I don't care that Florence Welch is apparently a Satanist, for the same reason I don't care Bang PD is likely fucking someone half his age...

And so on.

It's not because I don't understand the implications of all these issues, but the standard applied in stan twt for what is considered 'problematic' and 'cancellable' doesn't impact how I feel about music and the artists. I decide all that for myself.

And I like Cookie and NewJeans.

[revoltinggirl-urethra]

basically the thing to understand about me is i wake up at 11 am every morning and i have to decide if im going to eat the slabs of raw meat in my fridge.

i havent done it yet!! obviously, lol. but i go to get some eggs for breakfast and i see them there. the weak fridge light coats them in a glistening glow that should be unflattering (i really should change the bulb) but instead i am entranced. theyre piled up on top of each other sort of haphazardly, a thin, wide pale plate the only thing standing between them and the defilement of the foodstuffs below. i think theyre steaks? im not really sure. im not an expert you know, though i do spend a LOT of time researching and reading about the topic. i guess im something of an appreciator; an enthused observer. my vision unfocuses a little as i get lost in this familiar sight. the proud red color of the thick muscle swirls with the white of the marbling and it reminds me of van gogh, although a bit messier. as if he'd been up to his usual business and then splashed his paints across the thin, wide pale canvas in a serendipitous and terrible mistake. i become acutely aware of my skull's presence in my head. the way my face hangs off it like a coat on a hook. then i notice the eggs in my peripherals and remember what i am here for. i crack three of them into a bowl, add a little milk, salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder, beat the eggs, and scramble them over medium heat. theyre ok, not the best I've done.

when i tell people about this usually theyre a little confused. they ask me why id even want to eat the slabs of raw meat in my fridge. "you dont need to do something as drastic as that, cant you just grill them?" is the response i get most. the thing is, i love cooked meat! i eat it alll the time, its so delicious. i love all the ways you can prepare it, too, and you better bet ive tried most of them. however theres a certain je ne sai quoi about the idea of meat untouched by flame. nobody seems to get it. it makes me feel really lonely sometimes and like im going crazy.

lately ive been turning to online communities for a lot of my socialization. it turns out there are actually quite a few people out there who also think about this sort of stuff! theyre all very kind and intelligent as well, just total delights to speak with. i stay up late talking to them and laughing and feeling connected with them in ways ive never felt before. they make me feel as if maybe im not a monster.

some of them have eaten the meat in their fridges. they post pictures of themselves with grins and blood plastered on their faces. the cloying envy that fills my throat and threatens to suffocate me is one of the strange new connections between us because i know they've felt it too.

honestly most of these feelings are new, period. i havent always been so fixated on this. i used to not give that plate a second thought. of course, ive always been a bit of a carnivore, like i said before i do love and have always loved cooked meats. but this is a new level. its scary. intense. i mean also think of the risks! you can get hurt from doing this shit. i am very aware of all the ways that it can hurt you in fact. ive spent hours upon hours poring over everything anyone has ever had to say about the meat in their fridges and embroidered a complete list of consequences onto my consciousness. its always best to be safe.

i barely remember what its like to be normal anymore. no matter what im doing or where i am the knowledge that there is a plate of luscious animal product just waiting for me gnaws at the base of my brain stem. i open the door to my fridge. the tree of knowledge of good and evil is rooted in my vegetable drawer. i grab three eggs, i crack them into a bowl. milk, garlic, onion, some seasoned salt this time, because i am a person who likes to keep things fresh and new and exciting.

i lay in my bed and thoughts clump up in my brain matter. everything in the grand cosmos and also within the most secretive corners of my heart comes together and holds council over whether i should let these thoughts eat into my synapses. there's a delicious temptation in the erosion of my nervous system. there's a phrase on the tip of my tongue and i won't let it go. the aforementioned clumped concepts that weigh on my frontal cortex start bleeding raw sensory data. red and white swirl like a painting and my teeth rip into tendon and bone and i tear and i rip and there is a carnal beauty in the way blood pours from my mouth and down the front of my body and coats my skin in a slick crimson. this is no van gogh, now it is francisco goya, and i am greedily gulping down mouthfuls of flesh as if i've never tasted anything before in my entire life. and i am laying in my bed. and i go to sleep. and at 11 am i wake up in the morning and face whether or not i'm going to eat the slabs of meat in my fridge

[theravitrader]

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[skylarmoon71]

Lance Sweets (Bones) - Crossover AU - Chapter 2

There was a bit of guilt that came with the encounter. 

The following week, you never saw him. He worked in the FBI, so it’s not like you expected to see him everyday. You were also located on another level. So your paths with the rest of the forensic team only crossed when you were collaborating with other scientists or simply having lunch. Your area was specific to retrieving artifacts.

An attempt to learn more about your home.

The one you lost.

You couldn’t help but feel anxious. No one has ever found out about your secret before. When they asked for your expertise on the case, you were curious. Especially when the evidence led back to the gathering of special green rocks.

Kryptonite.

“These are the materials we found.”

Dr. Hodgins was giving you a run down of what they discovered. You were fully prepared to join him on the platform to carry out your own test, but the second you were within five feet of the meteor, you felt sick.

You heaved over and both Hodgins and Camille rushed to your side.

“Dr. (LN)!”

You were struggling to keep your footing, and they guided you down the short staircase. When you were no longer within distance, you felt like you could catch your breath.

“Are you alright?” Camille didn’t understand the reaction, and neither did you at the time.

“Those rocks..they are dangerous. You need to secure the lab.”

She didn’t need much convincing. Smugglers moving unknown rock fragments tended to do that. They took the necessary measures and learned that certain exposure did cause deformities. At least that’s what the science said. You knew better.

You had to investigate.

That's why you went back. It was poor timing at best.

You had returned to the suspects home to gather more perspective. He wasn’t supposed to come back and given the fact that you literally had the strength of ten men it’s not like you were concerned for your safety. Most of the kryptonite had been removed, so you assumed you were safe.

The second you realized that those rocks could weaken you, it became obvious that they were linked to what happened to Krypton. You couldn’t walk away.

You didn’t account for him to be just casually walking around with the product he was pushing, especially since there was a warrant out for his arrest. Nor did you think he would have been stupid enough to grab a federal employee.

Dr. Lance Sweets.

Obviously Sweets’s timing had been as good as yours.

That’s how you ended up passed out in the man’s escape house with a piece of kryptonite in your stomach.

Threatening Sweets was petty, especially since he was a victim himself. It’s not like you would actually hurt him. You just needed him to think that. Fear was the only way to ensure your safety yet..

“I’m an ally..”

That’s what he said.

He’d literally stood in front of a bullet for you. If he hadn’t pulled out the meteor, you’d probably be dead right now. You owed him your life.

“Damn it.”

It wasn’t supposed to get messy.

~

“Dr. Sweets, it’s good to see you up and about. Did you finally escape the hospital?” Camile smiled and Sweets nodded with a little grin of his own.

“Successfully escaped. I was actually hoping to have a word with you. It’s about Dr. (Y/N) (L/N), what do you know about her?”

“Well she’s a good worker. Quiet, sticks to herself. Whenever we get certain materials we always run it by her. She has knowledge beyond her years. She’s the Dr. Brennan of archaeology and research. Why are you asking?”

“Just curious. We were there together and I’m trying to get a feel for her emotional state.”

Not a complete lie.

“I know she’s not an official member of the team, but she did just go through an ordeal.”

Camille nodded in understanding.

“She’s hypersensitive to those rocks. If it wasn’t for her advice, we probably would have taken longer to realize they were a danger.”

“Hypersensitive? How so?”

Camille was casually sifting through papers at her desk as she spoke.

“Well the minute she was within two feet of it she looked like she was about to throw up. She must have had an allergic reaction. It’s common. Hodgins did a full analysis and it turns out those fragments came from outer space. The radiation from the atmosphere altered them. You could imagine the theories that came when he found out.”

“Oh I bet.”

It was starting to make a bit more sense to him.

“I’ve got to get going but if you see her around just let me know.”

Camille nods.

“I will. Thanks for looking out.”

Sweets smiled, giving a short wave as he exited.

“Outer space..”

He needed to do a complete background on those rocks if he hoped to understand even a fraction of what was going on. While the knowledge of your abilities were frightening, at least he knew that he wasn’t crazy.

Better yet, you aren’t invincible. 

[xtruss]

Experts say store-bought chilis are getting bigger and more mild—though other growers are breeding the spiciest peppers they can. Photograph By Ian Laker, Getty Images

Are Chili Peppers Getting Less Spicy? The Truth Is Complicated.

Jalapeños At The Supermarket Are Twice as Big As They Used To Be, And More Mild, One Expert Says.

— By Eric Alt | May 09, 2024

Hot chili peppers can illicit big reactions: flushing in the face and ears, panting, tearing up, sweating, and maybe even some swearing. Chilis are inherently dramatic—and even by its own standards, the peppers have had an explosive couple of years.

Severe climate conditions might cause another shortage of sriracha hot sauce after a lapse in 2022 for the same reason. In 2023, a product with a single tortilla chip made with two of the hottest peppers in the world was pulled from shelves “out of an abundance of caution,” though a 14-year-old’s family says he died after eating the chip. Meanwhile, over the last year or so, panic that peppers are being purposefully grown to be less spicy have been inflamed by conspiracy theorists.

On the other hand, certain farmers are pushing back on the alleged “weakening” of peppers by cultivating barely-fit-for-human-consumption levels of heat. There’s also the popularity of viral internet series like “Hot Ones,” where celebrities eat chicken wings basted in hotter and hotter sauces, and “hot” snack varieties that have grown to include Cinnefuego Toast Crunch and Carolina Reaper chocolate.

Regardless of whether you prefer milder peppers or boundary-pushing spice, it seems like there is less and less middle ground for the curious foodie. Do you have to settle for only mild or life-choice-questioning hot, with nothing in between? And is our understanding of a chili’s heat—largely through the 112-year-old Scoville measurement process—even accurate?

Heat Vs. Flavor

“There’s no denying things are going in two different directions,” says Ted Ballweg, chili farmer and owner of Savory Accents. There are two camps, he says: one that prefers flavor over heat, and the other pushing the limits of how spicy chilis can be.

For those of us noticing weaker chilis at the supermarket, something else might be at play. As food historian and novelist David DeWitt, known as “The Pope of Peppers,” points out, part of the reason is simple profit.

“Generally, the larger the chili, the milder it is,” says DeWitt. “These days, jalapeños are getting to be about six inches long, when they used to be about three. Farmers are deliberately breeding for larger pods because they get paid by the poundage. Larger chilis weigh more, so they get paid more.”

Brad Rubin, Agri-Food Institute sector manager at Wells Fargo, told the Food Institute that yes, peppers are getting bigger and less flavorful because larger, more consistently spicy peppers sell better in stores.

To be clear though, DeWitt says in his experience he hasn’t found products like sriracha (which uses very common serrano peppers) to be any less spicy than before.

Why The Scoville Scale Doesn’t Work

Pharmaceutical chemist and professor Wilbur Scoville developed the Scoville Organoleptic Test in 1912, and it remains the standard 112 years later. The problem is that it wasn’t a precise system then and hasn’t gotten any more so with age.

The Scoville test works through taste testers. They’re given a solution of capsaicin, the compound that makes chilis spicy, in sugar water. More and more water is added until the tester says they no longer feel the heat. The Scoville rating is the number of times required to dilute the solution to eliminate the heat—so a pepper with a Scoville rating of 10,000 means the solution needs to be diluted 10,000 times to be neutralized.

Wilbur Lincoln Scoville (1865 – 1942) was an American pharmacist known for his creation of the "Scoville Organoleptic Test", now standardized as the Scoville scale

Scoville tests have always depended on humans—and as anyone who has watched more than one episode of “Hot Ones” knows, sometimes you get someone who is completely unfazed by even the hottest sauces and sometimes you get someone who can barely get beyond mild without tearing up.

“That’s not very scientific, but it’s the only method we have,” Ballweg says. “All of our taste buds are different.”

Heat tolerance in people can be largely genetic, as shown in a 2012 study conducted by the University of Helsinki. Researchers took two sets of twins—one that shared the same genetic makeup (identical twins) and the other who had genetic distinctions (fraternal twins)—to measure their reactions to spicy foods. Their results suggest there are common genetic factors that can greatly impact a person’s response to spice—anywhere from 18 to 58 percent, with the rest determined by environmental factors.

Taking the human element out of the equation, heat level can vary a lot even within one species of chili pepper. Ballweg points to changes in their growing environment as a big factor. “Last year was a very hot, dry year here in Wisconsin…So the same pepper a year before that might have been 30,000 on the Scoville scale was now around 60,000 to 70,000. There are so many factors that can change a pepper’s heat level, in addition to subjective taste tests.”

More Options Than Ever Before

The mildest and hottest peppers get the most attention, so the concept of a “middle ground” may seem like a futile quest. But both Ballweg and DeWitt believe that you don’t have to settle for either defanged peppers or potentially toxic endurance tests.

Ballweg posts a Scoville Scale display at his market stands, so people can assess his peppers’ heat levels and find something that suits their tastes or intentions. “My suggestion is for folks to shop their local farmers markets for fresh chilis, because the farmers that grow them often have insight into heat and flavor profiles,” he says. “The bottom line for the consumer is ‘more varieties are better’—just ask questions to become enlightened about what suits you best. You have choices.”

With increased knowledge of and desire for more pepper flavor, peppers becoming less spicy might simply be a cultural shift. More ethnically and culinarily diverse food is available to and accepted by diners than ever before, and we’re all just...used to it.

“There’s definitely a bigger tolerance for spice than I’ve ever seen in my 70 years on the planet,” DeWitt says. “People travel more, they see more on TV, and have more opportunities to experience other culture’s cuisine.”

[media-studies-stay-alive]

Ocean's Film Opening

Introspection:

In making this video, I learned how to use the camera stabiliser, some shooting angles, arranging and directing the actors, and the unspoken rules of making a movie. In this film, although I had used the stabiliser, I still had hand tremours in most of the shots, and some of the camera values were not adjusted properly when I shot, it caused me that most of the storyboards were dark. I need to find solutions and improve the above two problems.

Mind map:

An introduction about the Mind Map:

This is the Mind Map I made before making this video. I used science fiction as the topic, and I could write out all the ideas I knew about science fiction, and then I came up with the idea I wanted to use from this Mind Map.

Video:

Story Synopsis:

It's a survival story about a student who goes back to school at night to get his homework and is transported to another dimension.

Cast:

Actor introduction：

Luca:

Luca plays the role of the boss and protagonist of the masked man, and he appears in most of the scenes, because the two roles he plays are the two most important roles in the video.

Ocean:

Ocean, who plays a masked man, doesn't appear on camera much because Ocean has written, directed, filmed and edited on the sidelines. This is why he played less.

Arthorn:

Arthorn plays the main villain who kills the survivors in the video. In the video, he is a villain with strong strength. In this story, there are more battles with the protagonist, so there are more scenes about him

Nick:

Nick played an ordinary masked man who hunted the main character in the video, and he also played the corpse of a security guard. In this video, he did not appear many times, but he had a very good acting performance in the corpse of a security guard.

Luca, Arthorn and Nick:

The above three were not registered for the Media Study exam, and they were cast as friends of Ocean.

Storyboard:

The introduce about the storyboard:

I drew these storyboards before I started shooting the video, so that I could show them to the actors before I started shooting the video. Furthermore, the actors could better understand how their actions should be done, and so that the actors could understand the structure of the whole story.

Behind the scenes of BE ALIVE :

What did I do in this movie:

In this film, I was responsible for the writing, video editing, shooting, and acting. In this film, I referred to some of the actions in a trailer of backroom, and also looked at the works made by others. In the shooting process, because most of the shots need to be shot at sunset time, so the video was divided into more than 10 days to shoot. Before writing the script, I went to watch some instructional videos on script writing and followed the advice of the videos. In order to complete this work, I tried to learn video editing by myself, in fact, I got a new skill.

What did I improve during the production process：

In the process of making this video, I realised that the rules of this industry must be done well, and I also learned how to plan the whole shooting process. Moreover, my photography skills and video editing skills have been improved to a certain extent. In addition, My camera/shooting skills have been developed by this project. I fully understood the importance of mise-en-scène.

The teacher's impressions after viewing：

Questions i asked:

How do you feel about this video?

Can you guess what type of video clip it is?

Do you think it is suitable for young people to watch?

Do you want to watch the hole movie?

Introducing idea.

What is backroom？

Backroom is a world that is relative to the real world Earth Frontroom, the total area cannot be measured, it is divided into different sizes of various Spaces - Levels. And these Levels are actually made up of the Liminal Space that can bring about a sense of depression and weirdness. As the number of authors grew, this became a forgotten setting.

The idea (inspiration) comes from the following video.

What i had done before i made this video:

Before I started making this film, I learned how to edit the film, and I had learnt some skills about the media from the book. For example, I learnt different types of camera shots, some unspoken rules of photo editing and film making. And before I started making this video, I looked at other people's work as a level media study. Finally, before I started shooting, I bought all the necessary props online and learned how to draw storyboards.