#and also if it kills me at least i died for science instead of the endless fucking war’

[fingertipsmp3]

Eating a quorn chicken sandwich with the wikipedia article for quorn open & feeling like that one person’s wikipedia boyfriend

[rez-urrection]

I saw someone else on here saying how Rick needs someone with a different moral compass to go with him on adventures because otherwise it'd be an echo chamber of bad decisions, and thats why he brings Morty (very outspoken against him) rather than Summer (very often outspoken against him, however very much aligns with his violent impulses)

and I agreed with that, however I wanted to add my own theory as to why he brings only Morty, which kind of goes along with theirs.

I lost their post/url so I dont know who it is who posted that, but if I find it ill reblog with a link to their post, or if one of you find it youre welcome to do that for me !!

okay, so. it seems to me that another reason Rick would take Morty most times and not usually Summer is not only because Summer is more likely to become a moral echo chamber, but because Morty is the most likely in the family to not end up another Rick.

let me explain what I mean:

Rick has witnessed the citadel and how that ended up, he's implied to have witnessed the deaths of so many people (not just Ricks) for being too confident in their smarts. he knows that his life style kind of ruins you if youre as smart as he is because you start getting to know that you are.

this won't happen with Morty.

Morty is a lot of things; resourceful, highly adaptive, good in combat (when he can be), quick on his feet and passionate. but one thing he isnt, is like Rick.

Morty gets none of his traits from Beth or Rick. he isnt inhumanely smart (in fact its canon that he's quite the opposite), he isnt predisposed to being cold and uncaring, he isnt as impulsive (he still is, just not as much), the list goes on.

not only are Summer and Beth predisposed to end up like Rick, they have, on many occasions, acted exactly how Rick would've acted in situations. and to me, it seems like that scares him.

Morty however is very different to Rick, and Rick knows that very few Mortys ever end up even a fraction of the man he is.

Mortys are not predisposed to end up cold and uncaring, in fact Mortys are predisposed to be the exact opposite. Mortys are "hardwired for forgiveness." theyre empathetic, loving, forgiving. Mortys rarely harden into the kind of person Rick is, or the kind of person Summer and Beth would be.

Morty is the obvious answer to who Rick should rely on - he'll never be bad. Morty is good at his core. at least most of them are, of course just like there's outlier Ricks (c-137 himself), there's outlier Mortys, but as a general statement, Mortys are good at their core.

kind of off topic, but I also beleive that c-137 is good at his core.

let me explain.

he is, by admission, a different kind of Rick. he wanted to stay home, to be there for the girls, he was even willing to give up his dream of science just to be there for him.

when they died, so did a part of him.

he lost the love of his life, and he lost his daughter. he lost his perfect little family.

and what did he do ? go insane trying to find the person who did this to him, and get rid of them.

the things he did on the way were kind of a "in the grand scheme of things" type of situation.

again another blog already said this (here) (hopefully that worked), but when Prime said he c-137 could've been him- he already was. he was in the exact same situation that Prime was. he offered someone infinity, and they rejected it. but instead of going the way Prime did, which was killing the people around Bird Person to force him to travel infinity anyways, he just moved on. he got upset at first and tossed some weak insults, but he moved on. because, as the above post says, its not that big of a deal. it wasn't the end of the world for him.

now, im not saying c-137 has never done anything wrong. hes done a lot of things wrong. what I am saying is he's good at his core; his goal was never and still isn't just to hurt people. his goal is revenge and in his eyes, its a ticking time bomb. anyone in his way has to be swiftly dealt with because he's running out of time.

also - of course he can't show how much he loves Morty. he doesnt know if Prime is still watching him, but he does know that the Omega Device could very well still be on operation, and he finds out he was correct in this assumption in Ultmortricken.

if he had shown his love for Morty often at all, who knows what Prime would've done with that information.

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s3 episode 9 thoughts

i have so much to say. i just copied and pasted my notes, and my thoughts were COMICALLY long. but it was SUCH a good episode so i have a LOT to point out. even more than usual, somehow.

(screams to let it all out and then tries to take a deep breath and gather myself)

okay. OKAY FUCK. okay. whew. we start from the top. the very very top, in which i click on the episode. and so begins an emotional rollercoaster.

this episode description mentions a train. as does the one after that!!! am i in for a two parter?!?! well, if so, at least i am prepared with this information, so i don’t get a massive shock like with duane barry! (author’s note: i was right!)

a train. huh. would love to ride one of those someday. unfortunately i’m american. we only really have cargo ones hanging about. but their noise is deeply familiar and comforting to me regardless.

(little did i know that this was the very kind of train to be featured in this episode!!)

camera opens on tennessee! children are riding bikes to watch a train. ah, good to know the desire to stop doing other things and instead watch a train go by is universal.

now it’s night at the train. is some graffiti action going to take place? the music is getting weirder as we look at the top of this train, and it appears we are in for no ordinary graffiti moment as some cars pull up. 

and these people are from japan! in tenneseee! boarding the train…? which is full of science stuff!! this is odd on many levels.

(japan to tennessee… whew, that’s a long flight. give these men some caffeine now!)

caffeine seems to be ignored because they are in surgery looking gear cutting something open. and green stuff flows into a jar? hey. not liking that. 

they are cutting into what looks like, in my opinion, some guts.

until people run in and start shooting!!! really truly shooting and killing everyone!!! what!!! what the hell!! who are these guys!! are they with cig man??? holy fuck, if that WAS an alien autopsy, way to ruin the scientific method with bullets in the lab!!

and they are zipping an alien into a bag!! so it was!!! the blatant disregard for learning here!! it’s appallingly american! who are these people?!!

bum bum bum bum… woo woo woo woo wooo wooo… woo woo woo woo WOOO woo… intro time.

mulder has his feet up on the desk. fiddling with… something. scully opens the door and he tells her to come on in, with the face of a man who is scheming. he has it all dark like a movie theatre!!!

LMAOOOO he ordered a video from a magazine of an alien autopsy. and that must be why he looks like a kid in a candy store. $29.95, plus shipping!!! THAT IS A LOT!!

she’s like, you literally cannot see what they are operating on. and she says it’s hokier than the one they aired on fox news. which means i have to google a few things to learn if that actually happened. actually i don’t want to even know.

he mentions the green goo and he says “it’s widely held that aliens don’t have blood, scully” <- girl how would she know that. also you literally almost died FROM alien blood. so explain.

they’re arguing the merits of what makes an authentic alien autopsy tape, and then he points out how the people burst in with guns right before the film cuts off. well, that could make it look more authentic, or less!

some guy in allentown got the tapes so they’re visiting LMAOOO road trip road trip!!!! to a very old looking house. 

the studio is called “rat tail productions” okayyy. i kinda like that. but it’s all boarded up so they have to try and break in.

and they find a dead body!! that is still warm!!! what is going on!!!

someone else enters!! and mulder chases after them and jumps the fence yelling that he is a federal agent. zooooom that is a speedy man. 

and just when it seems mulder has the guy, he starts kicking and punching and BOOM! down goes mulder. until he shoots something nearby to show he isn’t playing. 

mulder is wet from falling into a bunch of garbage… king. and the language barrier is being a barrier!

(sidenote i’m surprised they didn’t make mulder learn another language in school or for the fbi?? like actually really shocked. you’d think he’d have at least one other one, or a few basic phrases, under his belt. idk, where i’m from higher education in humanities related fields requires language learning, but he somehow escaped)

mulder is pretty despite being covered in garbage and bringing a man to a police station

scully says they can’t find an interpreter! this is not really shocking because they are in pennsylvania. 

“well look at this… a beacon in the night” says mulder whilst smiling, and who is it he glances upon but SKINNER?!?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?? are they in trouble?? does… skinner know japanese??

(mulder asks and he does not 💔)

skinner says they have to let the guy (kazuo sakurai) go because he is a high ranking diplomat. so if you’re a diplomat can you just… walk away from a murder scene and that isn’t a problem?? at all? i did not think it worked like this.

skinner asks what they’re doing and mulder says he’s tracking down a “video piracy thing” LMAOOOO least convincing lie ever. 

skinner tells him to go back home, and then very purposefully brushes into his shoulder before walking away. yowch! that has got to sting. mulder looks like he just got caught and is trying to charm his way out of it

scully rightfully points out that this makes no sense, and asks if he wants to drop it, but mulder says he paid his $29.95 and he is gonna get his answers!!!

LMAOOO he “forgot” to turn in the suitcase kazuo was carrying. it has a list of members of a ufo society with a local woman’s name circled!! was she gonna be their next target…?

he tells her to get a motel and he is going to go back to D.C. and be “a good boy” for skinner… LMAOOO, and he’ll show the files to his besties 

back in D.C., and woah, mulder looks like a real slut with his hands on his waist and his jeans and tucked in turtleneck sweater. i am NOT complaining. just merely observing. it’s kinda giving that one photo of the rock. i see where he took his style inspo from.

so the lone gunmen say that the japanese were looking for a sunken ship from wartime, and it looks like they found it, but they brought it to virginia? very weird. maybe they did not find a sub… but something else.

the diplomats are heading home. or not. because someone is beating up kazuo! huh?! WHAT!

scully on da scene in allentown pa. serving. knocking at a door of the person whose name was circled in the files.

but the person goes to answer the door and she says they know her. she’s like umm not sure about that?? until another person comes to the door and says “oh my god… she’s one” WHAT??

(is this like a secret society of people who were abducted or like. are they trying to scam her or something?)

she looks super freaked out. she’s trying to explain that she’s here for murder investigation reasons, but the lady in pink (penny) is calling and saying everyone needs to come over right away. this will surely make scully even more stressed.

they ask her if there was some unexplained event that happened last year. and also to please sit down. so you KNOW things are about to get wild.

mulder is asking about the ship that allegedly was returning through panama. and the boat was stopped! but then kept going? the guy he’s asking to look into this does not seem to be pleased to discuss this subject. 

scully is freaking tf out but trying to gently explain that she does NOT KNOW THESE PEOPLE. but they’re talking about being taken to “the bright white place” and that she was only taken once, but these other women were taken many times. WHAT IS GOING ON.

they ask her about regression hypnosis and she’s like i do not want to talk about this. (and yes i even TRIED IT) and she looks around at all the other women and it is creepy. SAVE HER… save them all.

mulder is running away from the guy he asked for the files from. he’s always going somewhere. looking at a boat. looking at another boat. is he gonna sneak on the boat? YES HE IS. HE IS JUMPING ON IT. elbowing a window open to get in. this is a wild man!! he will break into your boat!!!

he’s going through drawers looking for stuff and i’m thinking, oh man i really hope the boat doesn’t start heading out to sea… he has nothing to survive on. and we’ve seen them kill people, so don’t say “accidental” boat abandonment with a guy on it is out of the realm of possibility. but it IS the boat he was hoping for. and now he’s sneaking about its underbelly. 

NO! he has been caught. the boat is being swarmed by men with guns. he seems too tall to hide…. but he did!! AND HE JUMPS INTO THE HARBOR LMAOOOOO, NOOO, THE POLLUTANTS!!

back to scully. i was so caught up in the boat espionage i had forgotten about scully’s dilemma. and they say that she won’t remember what happened to her for a while. cut scene to her being blowed up again like we saw in s2.

and she is really freaking out now, because they point out that they all have the mark and she just wants to learn about this murder, damn it, not unpack trauma!!

but betsy, who she came to see, is dealing with very severe cancer. and they say that what she is dealing with is going to happen to all of them. WHAT??? “we’re all dying because of what they do to us” OH MY GOD??? she has tears in her eyes. WHAT!!! what. 

back to the boat. do i look like i give a damn about the boat!! no!! but mulder is crawling- at night- from the harbor. so did he stay there all evening or….

so he’s once again on the run. and soaking wet. please take a shower, my friend. you know not what they do in that harbor. 

he sees people pulling in to the warehouse nearby!! with guns!!! and we see him sneak by!!! no, mulder, consider going home and not getting caught!! but what if he finds something that can help scully…? and oh my gosh, he doesn’t even KNOW she’s slowly dying yet. oh my gosh wait i need to sit down (said by the girl who is literally sitting)

the orchestral score is popping off, too. he peeks in a window and sees a giant… thing? being gassed. with cameras out and about. like a blimp looking thing. 

somehow he gets a change of clothes. and he goes home but his apartment door was unlocked! so he has his gun. is it skinner? 

IT IS!! whew! that was best case scenario, so it was just wishful thinking on my part, but maybe i really am deeply attuned to this show. skinner is sitting there in the dark. we see some photos on mulder’s desk but they kinda just look like random places. one is some sort of field? and the other is a house, i think? not recognizable to me. but back to the plot at hand.

skinner tells him to put the gun down. sort of like you tell a dog to drop it. he obeys. aww, he is a good boy for skinner, like he mentioned earlier.

so skinner has some tea; kazuo’s body was found in a canal!!!! he didn’t make his flight!! and they government thinks he was killed over his BRIEFCASE!!! 

mulder plays dumb. then he admits that scully has the briefcase in her car. he seems like he’s trying to play it cool but skinner is NOT having it. “this is bigger than me, you, or the FBI, agent mulder” okayyyy king of being vague. and he says he is not getting involved!!! woah!!!

so mulder goes to… a senator!!! yes, the senator we saw very briefly a few times before, whose name is richard matheson? i didn’t really understand that in the past, but maybe it was building up to this. richard says to return the photos, but mulder says he’ll be entangled in a murder investigation, which he cannot afford because he is so close to the truth!

this senator claims to be telling mulder the truth about what is going on. and he explains what happens in tennessee, how the japanese doctors were murdered doing a secret thing. 

“what am i onto here?” , he asks. “monsters begetting monsters”, says the senator. ohhhhhhh that does not sound good.

(i hope he exposes the alien people and the torture and they blow up all the people that hurt scully and the rest of those women and then hold hands)

he’s back in his office with his glasses on. and i would be glad for a glasses mulder win under normal circumstances, but my heart is sick over scully. i take what i can get when i can get it, though, because he is a beautiful man in glasses. 

SCULLY’S BACK!! and she is still freaking out. she relays the news that she might be dying, and he looks up at her so innocently and says “but you’re fine, aren’t you scully?” OHHHH BABY. BABY. GROWN MAN. BUT BABY. OHHHHHHH MY HEART. MY HEART ITS MELTING. MY EYES ARE TEARING. “but you’re fine, aren’t you?” oh lord… he cannot lose anymore people. 

she is terrified- “am i? i don’t know, mulder” NOOOOOOOO MY BABY. STOP. DO NOT DO THIS TO HER.

he pulls up a photo and she says she knows someone in it, but that guy has been dead since 1965. mulder seems to find this difficult to believe, but last episode he was suggesting that someone was bleeding another person’s blood, so i feel he of all people should be open to this idea.

(oh…. they’re using unit 731 for the storyline here. and they have done that in the past as well but. wow. awful lot of baggage to dredge up there. very very painful and unhealed wounds)

((and i guess before they have done similar things involving nazis, right, remember victor? and his experiments? even if it was done before though, it doesn’t make it any less chilling to me. i’m not sure how i feel about using real horrific war crimes as plot points in an alien show))

but my reckoning with history aside, mulder says that four of the men in that photo were in the alien autopsy video. and they were murdered.

“murdered for what? or murdered by whom?” oh scully, you deserve none of the suffering that the world has given to you. NONE OF IT. if i were mulder, i would hug her and never let go ever. ever ever. 

he thinks they’re still trying to make an alien-human hybrid, but she still isn’t buying it, even after everything; she needs proof. she says believing is the easy part, but he disagrees. “you think that believing is easy?” he asks, and it hangs in the air.

oh, i want to linger in that space forever. the tension it creates, the things it reveals about him. how belief is centered on hope, how he has to fight for it, that it doesn’t come as natural as breathing as he might have you thinking. it’s hope for a better future, it’s hope for righting old wrongs, it’s looking where no one else will go find the answers. it’s about getting family back. it’s about fighting and sneaking and learning and even killing to get what you need to know. but it’s never easy. 

FUCK. I’M LIKE GONNA JUMP UP AND DOWN. THIS IS WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!!!!!! THIS IS THE STUFF!!!

they hold eye contact for a bit, until she sighs and breaks it (fuck me, i’m emotional) and he points out that they DO have proof, as he reaches for her arms- the spy photos were tracking a ship that pulled a UFO out of the ocean, and the UFO is in that warehouse that he saw earlier!! that thing i said looked like a blimp!!!

he says the US has a secret railroad. i yearn so desperately for accessible transportation. if the government said tomorrow, yeah, we have a secret rail system, i’m not sure how i’d react. perhaps relief?

there is very very very charged eye contact. 

okay, bringing the thingy from her neck to a guy who can understand it. it’s a “micro processor”, and there are a few companies that make them. and they are being used for many things. so was it made by ordinary people, and not alien tech…? who is doing the torturing and testing…? and to what end???

it’s all women in that room… is it for alien breeding purposes… oh, i shutter to imagine

back in west virginia!!! mulder has a leather jacket on and a dream as he climbs up into some sort of railroad building’s roof. his hair blows dreamily in the wind as he busts out some binoculars. if he were to be caught, he could probably convincingly claim he was a birder. i understand they go through a lot to find their birds. 

people are showing up. they’re speaking japanese and getting what looks like a LIVING ALIEN onto the train? mulder is on the move. the train is taking off. is he gonna play subway surfers irl and try to jump on that thing? yes, he is SPRINTING. but he realizes he cannot outrun a train. 

back to scully cam. she is watching footage. a japanese surgeon is taking off his surgical gear and she recognizes him!! OH MY GOSH SHE RECOGNIZES HIM FROM HER TESTING! NOOOOO!!! NOOOO!

she answers the phone like she wasn’t unpacking horrific information and mulder reports from west virginia. and she points out that she recognizes the doctor… but not from the video tape. NOOOOOOO. realization crosses his face, and i’m sure only adds fuel to his fire to get on that damn train.

so mulder is trying to catch up with the train. a handsome japanese man is being followed by the dude that killed the other guy earlier. AND NO!!!! the killer just killed the handsome japanese man and locked him in the bathroom. then adjusted his hair???

mulder JUST misses the train. perhaps this is for the best?

scully going home. WHY IS X THERE?!?!?!? he’s telling her to tell mulder to get OFF OF THE TRAIN. she rightly is suspicious but he is NOT playing around.

mulder is about to leap on top of the train when he gets the call from scully. and he asks who told her what he was doing and to stop it, and like me, she is also probably realizing she doesn’t know this dude X’s name. 

and he jumps on the train!!! but loses his phone in the process!!!!!

TO BE CONTINUED!!!!

WHAT THE HELL.

okay, my yelling aside, THIS is when the show is at its best, imo. THIS is the blueprint for me. character driven. heart of the plot. reveal after reveal but vague enough to keep me wanting more. the government is evil and every conspiracy has more conspiracies. getting to know what is ACTUALLY going on in snippets. skinner is there. this episode truly had it all.

EXCEPT an ending, of course, because now i have to WAIT to watch the next part. SO TRULY DIABOLICAL!

no no, i jest, i can take a cliffhanger most of them time. i just better not have ANY distractions tomorrow. 

whew, so much to unpack. i think there are two things that are sticking out the most to me here: scully’s terror and mulder’s belief.

her not knowing what to believe is true about herself and the world she has studied so carefully, being surrounded by strangers who claim to know her, that know things ABOUT her, and who tell her she is going to die slowly and horribly. how she tears up when she learns this. how she tried so hard to get control over the situation by pivoting to the murder case, only to be denied. how the reigns of control slip from her hands, and it is left to fate. and how horrific that is. how she cannot handle processing what was done to her, but is forced to, by seeing this guy who did unspeakable things to her again. how she says she needs proof. as if she’s biding her time, waiting for a full answer so that the reality of what she has gone through can sink in. if there’s never proof, maybe she’ll never have to process it.

and mulder, who thinks that belief is hard. who has sacrificed so much of his life to belief, put himself in danger countless times to find the truth that everyone around him either denies or ridicules him for. how he has little more than his work, because he needs there to be hope. if belief is terror for scully, to him it is a source of possibility. how they’re both wrapped into the same tragedy with entirely separate takes on what it means and how to proceed but whatever is bringing them together keeps weaving them tighter and tighter. 

AUGHHHHHHHHHHHHH. i could scream.

i actually typed all of that, took way more notes than usual, and STILL feel like i’m barely scratching the surface. i feel like i need to give a lecture on this subject matter to even sort of drain the giant well within me of feelings regarding them. his face, how he insists she has to be okay, right? right? and her terror when she admits she doesn’t know.

now. i hate to say it, but i have seen vague spoilers about what happens in the next season, involving illness. and i have a feeling i’m gonna cry like a baby because i’m so messed up just by this. maybe it’s a sensitive topic for me, or maybe i’m just too deeply attached to these nerds and need them to be happy. 

but the depth of my feeling is indicative of how amazing this episode was. it was fast-paced, but not too fast to follow. it explored our character’s hopes and dreams and fears. the dialogue and acting was excellent. how much can be said with just eye contact, and then it breaking, is stunning. i want to know what happens next, and despite my eagerness, i am too disciplined and sleepy to go onto the next episode. 

(i have some thoughts that i need to gather and articulate at a later time regarding the use of unit 731 as a plot point, but they’re still loading, and frankly it would be better to make a post just on that subject once i can figure out how to verbalize them and if i feel that i can confidently tackle the subject matter)

goodnight world, i’m gonna scream. 

[timeagainreviews]

A Foot in Two Worlds: 73 Yards

My third-grade lunch buddy was a girl named Kendra. We used to love chatting about movies and television. My favourite topic was Batman. Hers was Full House. However, one morning, instead of gushing over Stephanie Tanner, she told me about a movie she and her brother had watched over the weekend. The movie was 1989’s “Clownhouse,” and she was a bit traumatised by it. And because of her vivid description, so was I. Honestly, I don’t remember anything past her saying “It’s about these kids who see clowns watching them through their windows,” because I never stopped thinking about that sentence, for years. While I’ve still never actually seen Clownhouse, nor do I experience coulrophobia, the idea of being watched from a distance still creeps me out. I still close the blinds at night.

Initially, I wanted to compare “73 Yards,” to something like “It Follows,” or even “The Immortal Snail.” Both scenarios entail being tracked by a slow but relentless pursuer who kills you if it ever catches up to you. But “73 Yards,” isn’t so much a story about being pursued. It’s about feeling watched. It’s about feeling judged. It’s about feeling abandoned. It preys on our fear of being the subject of gossip. That people could spread lies about us that scare away our loved ones. The fear that maybe they’re right. Maybe we don’t deserve love. It’s about the ambiguity that sits within our hearts. The liminal threshold between us at our best and us at our worst. But it’s not just about the wicked and the divine, but also body and spirit. A foot in both worlds.

Doctor Who currently has a foot in both worlds. The Doctor steps on a science fictiony land mine one week, and the next week he’s stepping on fairy circles. A recurring theme in this new season is “look before you leap.” Or ‘watch your step.” Ruby steps on a butterfly in the past and changes species. The Doctor steps on a land mine and almost dies. And now, the Doctor steps on a fairy circle and disappears. The Doctor is learning to have a healthy respect for the new supernatural powers coursing through the Whoniverse. At least he would if he remembered anything from this adventure. Not even Ruby will learn a lesson here, so was it worth it?

After last week’s “Boom,” I was game for whatever Russell T Davies had in store for the future. The trailer for “73 Yards,” gave us very little to go on, and in hindsight, it’s pretty easy to see why. This was a Doctor-lite episode and therefore not a lot of footage to share that wouldn’t also spoil this being a Ruby-centric story. But I was ready for it. Ruby has been suffering a bit from underdevelopment as a character. I even saw a Chibnall stan on Twitter saying so, which is quite extreme when you consider how underdeveloped Yaz was. In Ruby’s case, however, it’s hard to pinpoint what it is about her that’s underdeveloped. She’s got a great family dynamic. She’s nurturing. She plays in a band. But who is she? Like River Song before her, her character arc is starting to affect her character development. And my interest is waning.

After the Doctor steps onto the fairy circle and disappears, Ruby unsuccessfully tries the TARDIS doors. She then checks around the other side to see if he’s having a pee. This may be the first time the show has canonically mentioned the Doctor goes to the bathroom. It’s funny to think of the great Time Lord having a slash off the edge of a cliff. The Doctor seems to do a lot of important things on cliff edges these days. Failing to find the Doctor, it’s then that Ruby notices a strange old woman standing under a creepy old tree from 73 yards away making some sort of hand gestures. However, the closer she walks toward the woman, the further she appears away.

The mechanism of how the woman moves is hidden by editing, but it feels like something Ruby would notice quickly. I don’t imagine Ruby walking closer would cause the woman to start backing up physically like that Community episode where Professor Duncan got a restraining order on Chang and used it like he had force powers. Instead, they cut back to the woman and she’s simply further away. Ruby is conveniently looking for footing every time, so she fails to see this. But if you started walking toward someone and they started hovering backwards, wouldn’t you find that weird? It’s not like she doesn’t sense something weird pretty early on. She even asks the woman if the Doctor’s disappearance has anything to do with her. She even asks the hiker (yet another character played by Susan Twist) if she can see the old woman.

Something I found interesting about the Susan Twist scene was that whoever her character is, she’s not immune to the effects of the old woman. Either that, or she’s lying. Either way, it feels important that we were shown her having the same reaction to the woman as everyone else. If she’s a magical trickster, she’s not an invincible one, or maybe she’s not magical at all. We’ve learned very little about Susan Twist’s character(s), but this indicates that she’s not fully in charge of the situation if she can be scared off like that. What’s frustrating is that the first time a character looks at her and says “Hey don’t I know you from somewhere?” it’s in an aborted timeline. I would have expected the Doctor to have made the connection after the ambulance screens in “Boom,” matched the woman from Space Babies, but maybe he’s been distracted by clothes.

By this point in the episode, I’ve been fully drawn in. Ruby finds her way to the small village of Glyngatwg and a pub called “Y Pren Marw,” which translates to “The Dead Wood.” I thought this might have been a reference to the weird tree on the cliff, but the illustration on the pub sign looked more like an oak tree, so I doubt it. Another name they could have used for the pub could have been “The Gaslight Inn,” because man oh man did they gaslight the hell out of Ruby. They keep accusing her of thinking they’re yokels for asking pretty innocuous questions. Asking if you can pay with your phone is perfectly reasonable. There’s a chippy in my village that does the best fish n chips in the area, but I never use them because they haven’t got a card machine and I don’t carry cash. I don’t imagine the owner of the chippy goes home every night in his Fred Flintstone car because of it. Maybe they’re worried they really are yokels. Either way, five quid for a Coke and abusive staff? What’s their Trip Advisor score? Negative six?

The only non-yokel in the pub is Enid and that’s solely because she’s played by Siân Phillips, who could never be mistaken for common. She was easily the highlight of the episode for me, sitting elegantly at the bar in her fashionable hat. Of all of the patrons at the bar, she’s the one I believe would coin the Latin phrase “semper distans,” to describe the way the old woman follows but never approaches. If only she could have taught Isaac Newton the word “gravitas.” Beyond being incredibly rude, I rather enjoyed the patrons of Y Pren Marw. They reminded me of characters you would have found in classic Doctor Who. The pub scenes reminded me a lot of “The Dæmons,” or “Terror of the Zygons.” But more than anything, this episode reminded me of “The Stones of Blood,” wherein things start like folk horror and end in a more mundane setting.

After Ruby’s unwanted follower scares away one of the pub’s most faithful patrons, she’s forced to head back to London, which is about where the episode starts to lose steam. Up until that moment, I was expecting a sort of witch coven or worse to spring up in the sleepy village of Glyngatwg. I was ready to call it RTD’s best ever. But now we’re back in London where the biggest mystery is Mrs Flood, and she’s really only there to remind us she exists. But that’s not to say a piece of Glyngatwg didn’t leave with Ruby, and it’s not to say I disliked the story’s ending. But there was a noticeable drop in excitement the moment Ruby boarded that train.

I found it odd that Carla and Cherry were badmouthing the Doctor in his absence. Cherry was ready to jump his bones the last time they spoke and now he’s good for nothing. I get that they want to support Ruby, but like, what if he’s hurt somewhere? All I’m saying is that if I ever go missing, please don’t send Carla and Cherry to find me. After telling Carla about the old woman, Ruby’s deepest fears are realised. Like Susan Twist and Josh before her, talking to the old woman causes her to abandon Ruby. The look Carla gives Ruby from the cab as it drives away is the last way anyone would want to be looked at by their loved one. It wasn’t a look of fear, it was a look of disgust.

It’s that look of disgust that really started to make me think of another story from the Whoniverse- “The Curse of Clyde Langer,” a Sarah Jane Adventures episode written by Phil Ford. In it, Clyde’s name becomes cursed and anyone who hears or reads it becomes irrationally opposed to Clyde. His friends and family disown him and it’s Clyde against the world, which is wild because Clyde’s one of my favourite characters in all of Doctor Who. Who could hate that precious cinnamon roll? Even further, who could forget that episode? Well, it turns out Davies was kinda hoping the answer would be you. I’m not saying Davies is out of ideas, but he seems to be “remixing,” a lot of what has come before. More on that in a moment.

After losing her family, Ruby gets on with life, but not before being given a spark of hope in the form of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. We even learn some things about the old woman from Kate. We establish that yes, it is always 73 yards away. And no matter how close a person gets to her, she always looks as in focus as a person with 20/20 vision would see her from 73 yards. We also learn that the old woman’s “powers” work via headset, as Kate breaks contact with Ruby, leaving her devastated from losing yet another lifeline.

An interesting factoid about that scene is that Kate and Ruby were sitting across from “The House of Pi,” and Pi Day is the 73rd day of a non-leap year. Why do I know this? Because I went into a bit of a rabbit hole trying to learn about the number 73 yesterday. I looked into its mathematical significance. I learned it’s Sheldon Cooper’s favourite number. I looked it up in terms of numerology. I read the 73rd Psalm. There are 73 books in the Catholic Bible. But none of it felt significant. Then my dumbass googled whether RTD had explained the number, and he claimed it was as simple as going outside and measuring the distance from which people’s faces began to blur. Right. Well, that’s disappointing, albeit creative.

We’re treated to a montage of Ruby getting on with her life throughout the next couple of decades. Like the rest of us, her age starts to show itself with long hair and big glasses. I mentioned earlier that Ruby suffers a bit from a lack of character development and this montage does nothing to help that. She grows up into possibly one of the most boring people they could have made her. Her queer group of friends she has a band with seem to have disappeared. Her dating life is painfully heteronormative. She didn’t date a single woman throughout that time? She would have learned by now not to encourage her friends to talk to the old woman, and due to the perception filter, it’s not like anyone seemed to mind her anyhow. I’m just saying, if someone as normie as her started wearing a political shirt for the nuclear war-hungry Albion Party, I’d look at her and say “Pssh. Figures.”

Speaking of the Albion Party, it’s time we started talking about Harold Saxon. Oh, sorry, I meant Roger ap Gwilliam. The episode implies that Roger is the trickster “Mad Jack" who had escaped the fairy circle after the Doctor stepped on it. But Davies is remixing the classics, or as LCD Soundsystem puts it- “Shut up and play the hits.” He even mistreats women in the same way as the Master. I took this to be Doctor Who’s flimsy attempt at a comment on the MeToo movement. It would work better if ap Gwilliam was more than a moustache-twirling miscreant. Especially because Ruby throws poor Marti to the lions by not warning her away from Roger. If this is a MeToo story, Ruby is an enabler, which is not a great look. But she apologises so I guess it’s ok. Don’t worry Marti, your trauma gets erased anyhow.

While the campaigners prepare for a press conference for Roger ap Gwilliam to announce that Britain has purchased Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, Ruby realises she’s out of time and needs to act now. Using her semper distans friend to her advantage, Ruby backs 73 yards away from Roger and sends him cowering and eventually resigning from his position as prime minister. Ruby expects this to be the end of the old woman, but she remains with her until the day she’s on her deathbed, at which point, the old woman changes from her perspective to Ruby’s. As the old woman, Ruby sees her young self and is able to call out to her and warn her about the fairy circle. That’s what happened, right?

Well, maybe? The biggest curveball comes in the form of the old woman herself. Because while Ruby does age to the ripe old age of 80, the actress playing her is Amanda Walker. The actress playing the woman is Hilary Hobson. Set pictures have also revealed Hobson in make-up that appears to be scarring going up the left side of her face. And those hand gestures of hers? Sign language. Eagle-eyed viewers have roughly translated her signing as “Bless you. Thank you so much, that's so kind of you. When you gave me that little thing, it was just so precious. How am I ever going to repay you? But we will think of something.” Perhaps this scarred woman is someone the Doctor and Ruby have yet to meet. Perhaps she repays them by warning them away from the fairy circle and saving both the Doctor and Ruby from a bizarre fate.

People seem divided by this episode in a major way, which is pretty normal for Doctor Who. But one of the more irritating takeaways I’ve seen is that the episode doesn’t make any sense. That’s only sort of true. There are some bootstrap paradox things occurring, which if you haven’t accepted as a reality of Doctor Who at this point, what are you even doing here? But what does the old woman say to Ruby? Where does the Doctor go? How does she travel back in time to the clifftops of Glyngatwg? Forgetting completely that we’re in a Doctor Who era which has introduced magic in a real way. But that’s a bit hand-wavy, can’t we do better? Well, they do mention that the TARDIS’s perception filter parked so close to the fairy circle might affect how people ignore the old woman. I liked this because it implies that the TARDIS and magic are somewhat compatible and therefore opens up new avenues for storytelling. You could also imply that if the TARDIS could affect the fairy circle, perhaps it can affect the TARDIS in turn. Maybe people reject Ruby because the warding spell placed on Mad Jack is affecting Ruby. Maybe Ruby needed to be in a position where she was so friendless that she would join the conservative party.

The episode may not have explicitly explained things, but it gives us enough of a vague framework to form an idea. As a fan of David Lynch, I am rather happy to exist in that liminal space. To straddle the cusp between the known and the unknown. It leaves an air of mystery, or as David Lynch would say “room to dream.” I will however slightly come down on the episode for its rather bland ending compared to its strong start. I don’t agree with the people who said it nosedives toward the end. But I would be lying if I said I lost a lot of interest the moment Ruby left Glyngatwg. Earlier, I compared the story to “The Stones of Blood,” but where the two stories differ is that when “The Stones of Blood,” changes its setting from the occult folk horror of the Cornish countryside, it replaces it with something equally strange.

That isn’t to say the jump to the year 2046 isn’t interesting. I’d be very curious to see how this story plays over the next few years. It acts as speculative fiction and the bizarre reality of speculative fiction is that it occasionally becomes mundane in hindsight. What once sounded unreasonable now feels painfully obvious. HBO’s “The Leftovers” hits different after the pandemic. Richard Kelly’s loony “Southand Tales,” feels tame after the 2016 election. Therein, I fear the day Roger ap Gwilliam becomes something more than a cartoonish depiction of British politicians. Partly because of the implied threat of nuclear devastation, but also because 2046 feels like a rather generous timeframe.

[fairyhagmother]

el, you're special. you don't have to get interrogated about felix. instead I'm asking about our joint hallucination, maximinius ravinstill... (considering that almost everything about him has been made up by us together... I'm giving you the out of felix... who is mostly a guy I made up... rip)

man from the prop money…..also I’ve had a drink

First impression: none because he wasn’t there

My impression now: absolute wet rat of a man. has about as much swag as trembling Italian greyhound. Somehow also the president of fictional fascist state Panem? Kind of an enigma but mostly volumnias pet president. she parks him in the lab meeting rooms when she’s at work and he stares at the wall.

Favourite thing about the character: how u made him up

Least favourite thing: the war crimes 😔

Favourite interaction that character has with another: when he nodded at coriolanus that one time

A character that I wish he would interact with more: volumnia. hate to break it to everyone but they literally never interact in the book. They interact in my heart and mind. however

Another character from another fandom: King Arthur. He is an absent figure around which the entire narrative revolves. but also he is depressed does not really want to be there and will leave an event early to take a nap

A hc: loves to read and loves history. When his crush dies (rip) he is like I’m going to kill myself like in the tragedies I read. They’re by this guy called Shakespeare? You wouldn’t know him bc the govt of panem censored him 😔 slept with volumnia once and then was like. well now I’m gay for suresies

A song: sure I’ll put him on my 1980s British electronic music abt science playlsit. Or maybe common people by pulp bc that would be funny

Unpopular opinion: N/a all my opinions are popular by default bc no one really thinks abt him outside abyssal me and meekmedea

Favourite picture

[piglet26]

Top Four Romances I'm Furious Didn't Get a Happy Ending

4. Jack and Rose

Blame the door. Blame Rose. Blame James Cameron. Blame science. I don't care. I, and everyone else, HATED that Jack died. After all that.......... he dies? Seemingly in a dumb way.

James Cameron has obviously expanded on his decision making skills regarding deciding to kill Jack. Obviously while it was about Jack's science and the pure significance of the sum of loss the true meaning was......Rose. Rose went from her mother, to Cal, to Jack. She was always dependent on someone for survival, status, guidance or permission to live. If she had gone with Jack she'd be living Jack's life. Jack dying is what forced Rose to finally take control of her own life. I get that. It's noble. I also wanted Jack to live. The audience did as well and it did look like if she just moved over.... he would have.

Don't even get me started on "My Heart Will Go On" cause imma cry.

3. Buffy and Angel

Probably the greatest more tragic romance ever. A couple that defined the 90s with electric chemistry that saved this couple from being creepy instead made it sweet and chaste. Angel fell in love with Buffy the moment he saw her. It was her that motivated him to become A Champion. He gave her the iconic Claddagh ring.  That night, they slept together for the first time, which resulted in Angel experiencing the "moment of true happiness" required to end his curse. He was alleviated of his soul, and reverted to the guiltless, sadistic Angelus........ breaking viewers hearts. Especially this viewer. While Spuffy grew on me and Bangle grew apart..... it became clear even in the worst of times they were connected by the heart.

A romance destined to end in disaster all the same. This one was for the history books.

2. Augustus “Gus” Waters and Hazel Grace Lancaster 

Working through their illnesses together, the two manage a relationship that is mature beyond their years. Part of what makes the end of this romance so difficult to watch is the fact that though Hazel is much sicker than Gus, his cancer ends up making an aggressive and unexpected return. We should have known it wasn't going to end well, but we were hopefully, THEY were hopefully. The scene when Hazel gets the phone call that Gus passed away, pain just pain. Shailene deserved at least the very a nominiation.

Reylo

We could have had it all. Ben and Rey could have had the best of both worlds, powerful light and powerful darkness, a balance. Their love story could have brought balanced to the force.

Ben had felt alone and abandoned for a really long time, and had tried to channel those feelings to gain more power, but was clearly failing and having doubts. Then along comes a girl with whom he shares a fate-like connection, with a similar past of parent abandonment/betrayal issues, who opens up to him & seems convinced that he is meant to be someone better.... will become someone better.

But the internet is why we can't have nice things. Reylo benefited from it's fandom, it also was severely wounded from people determined to paint Reylo as something that it wasn't due to their own issues.

[brothermoth]

See I need to share my dad's lore because someone needs to study this man like a bug. We plan to donate his body to science so a bunch of medical students can see the most brain damage a person can possibly have without losing major bodily function.

Now, my grandparents moved around a bit when their kids were little, but my dad spent most of his childhood in rural New York and the middle of bumfuck nowhere in a cottage (it's a shack, make no mistake) on the shore of lake Erie. His parents did not know what the fuck he was doing at any given moment. This guy was diagnosed with ADHD in the SEVENTIES. Do you even know how bad he had to be to get diagnosed in the 70s??

He was a menace of a child but his parents put him in tball instead of getting the little bastard some much needed Adderall. He was super athletic all his life (didn't pass those genes on to me, unfortunately) but this also went along with deeply concerning injuries in the way every boy in the 70s had at one point or another.

He has:

-had his EAR ripped almost completely off while playing middle school football ��� he duck-taped it back on and it just kinda healed itself

-fell into a storm cellar backwards and got knocked out when he was like 5

-been hit in the head by a hockey stick and knocked out

-had his head smash through a wooden door playing floor hockey in gym class

-broke his leg that one time and then tried out for his highschool wrestling team with the cast on (he got on and ended up being captain)

-broke his thumb and didn't tell anyone, then had to have it re broken at the doctor's

-got knocked out in at least 4 fights

-had his knee replaced in his early 30s, drove himself to the gas station to buy a 12 pack, then fell down the stairs with said 12 pack, smashed half the bottles, and popped stitches out

-broken the same toe at least twice; the nail turned black and fell off the first time

-broke his nose falling out of bed like three months ago

-lost a tooth playing hockey

-cut the tip of his thumb off with a hand saw while camping; duck-taped it and continued camping for another 3 days

-has had at least 20 fishhooks caught in his hands

-had Bell's Palsy a few years ago (he was fine he just couldn't eat soup for a while and it was hilarious)

-had too many drinks and burned off his fingerprints on the side of a mini fire pit (the kind that looks like a paint can), laughed about it, and went golfing the next day with huge blisters on his fingers

~~~~~

I'm missing so many. So many. It's a miracle he reproduced. He has so much brain damage but he's fine, he just ignores it.

~~~~~~~~~~Robert's Greatest Hits~~~~~~~~~~

[In Boston] "Oh yeah that used to be an IRA bar. I think I'm still banned for getting into a fight."

"You know my buddy REDACTED? Yeah he got electrocuted once. Almost died, I visited him in the ICU a couple times, he's fine now though."

"I went into a gas station in rural Florida once, super hungover. My buddy went in and came out with tears in his eyes saying don't go in there, so of course I had to. Guy at the counter had a wooden peg leg like a pirate, and there was a nail screwed in. Attached to the nail was a chain and at the end of the chain was a super sickly looking chicken. Weirdest thing I've ever seen, I think."

"You know that plane crash that killed JFK Jr? His girlfriend he was with—i dated her in college."

"Who's that singer? Dupa Loopa or whatever"

~~~~~~Unhinged Information~~~~~~~~

—his childhood babysitter was the actress who now voices Eda from the Owl House (I've met her twice she's very nice. I fell down the back steps of her mom's cottage once)

—He used to bring home water moccasins (y'know, the venomous snakes) and show them to his very terrified mother

—they had a golden retriever named Toby and nobody can remember if she was a boy or a girl

—while cleaning out the basement he found his ID card from the World Trade Center when he went for a business trip...ON AUGUST 10TH OF 2001

—he lived in Boston in his 20s and took a bet while absolutely hammered to run the Boston Marathon, did it hungover and placed like 200-somethingth

—ate a spider by accident one time because he thought it was a bread crumb from his sandwich

—will drive out of his way just to see car accidents

—man's a sympathy vomiter

—will pet literally any animal. If it's small and sweet he's immediately just ready to commit a crime for it

—likes to pick fights with cops but only if they're rude first. He has gone to court to fight 14 dollar parking tickets just out of spite (and somehow he always talks himself out of it)

—swears to god he's seen aliens

—has hardcore puzzle autism. He'll stay up until 1 am just to get 12 more pieces and will finish a 1200 piece puzzle in a day

—also fish autism I swear to God

—you can put this guy in the middle of nowhere and he somehow always knows where north is

[thenewfuture]

Worthiness...

(Part 1)

Future Foundation HQ, Science Lab...

Haaaaaaaahhhh.... *Seiko is seen mixing chemicals in a beaker upon a countertop...*

Okay..... Test number....E-Eighteen.... C-careful now... *Seiko slowly turns the beaker to pour a drop onto a glass cylinder on the counter containing another type of liquid it seems...*

*Dwoop*

.............

*......Fizzzzzz......*

Hhheeeeennngghhh....! Noooo, no no no no....! *The drop Seiko poured appeared to spread around the cylinder, but then was overcome by the preexisting liquid in the glass. Completely consuming it...*

Hhhaaaahhhh...Hhhhhhaaaaaaaaahhhh! N-Not again....! Wh-Why can't I figure this ooooouuuut...!

The poison...it keeps completely overtaking it. Can I....r-really do this....?

Will I just continue to....s-screw up again....?

------------------------------------

*Flashback....1 Year into the Tragedy....*

........

...........

........................

*BeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeep!*

Hhhwaaaahh...! NO! No no no no no, come ooooon!

*Pant, pant, pant* Live, LIVE, LIIIIIVE! YOU HAVE TOOOOO....! PLEEEEASE!

*Seiko is seen to be a small hospital tent, tending to a small boy. His heartbeat is monitored to be extremely rapid, and although Seiko tries to resuscitate him....*

*.............Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep*

Hhhhaaaaaaaa.......Uuuurrrrrggghhhhhh.....

.......I'm sorry, Seiko.....

Wooooow Seiko. Sure living up to your talent, aren't you? Can't even save a kid like that.

Uuuuurrrggghhhh....

Ruruka! Have some tact! He just died, don't speak ill of the porr thing like that!

Oh you misunderstand. It truly is a depressing thing. I'm not speaking ill of him....

Mmmmm.... *Ruruka is seen nearby sitting in a chair, with Sonosuke beside her as she feeds him sweets*

I'm just saying I'm disappointed in Seiko for failing like that. I mean the Foundation expects a lot of their Branch Heads.

And it seems like Seiko just isn't up to snuff. Maybe she should step back and quit. I mean she wasn't very confident in her own talent evaluation back then that she had to sabotage mine after all.

I.....*pant*.....told you.....*pant*....I didn't......*pant*...cause that....

Seiko, dear. Don't speak. Rest up for now, you've done a lot these past few hours.

Back to you Ruruka. The Foundation also expects us to get along and work together during times like these. How can you expect us to stop these outbreaks and despair if you keep fighting your allies instead?

Hey hey hey, chill out, Blueberry. I'm right there with ya on stopping these no-good Remnants punks. But even you have to admit that this Foundation is really fishy in certain areas.

Like you've seen the new recruit Tenten. Acting all high and mighty while being a short-stack. And she's not even qualified for her own Branch as far as talent is concerned. There couldn't be a better mismatch! I have a feeling some foul play was issued to get her involved here.

You think she paid her way in?

No, but given her height I definitely think she's at the very least offered Kyosuke a-

AAAAAAHHH!

Hm?! *SHING!* *Sonosuke jumps up brandishes his weapons at Tenten*

....For the record if you're gonna kill me, aim the knife at my neck, I can counter head strikes easily with this thing.

Tenten! Wh-When did you show up...?

Just now. Kyosuke asked me to come in here and check the status of the antiserum, plus I needed to get an exact number on the victims in this incident just in case.

[sansisnes]

Did anyone else just not like ceroba in undertale yellow? Like she started off okay but (spoilers)

She just gets more annoying the more you learn about her, at least in the true pacifist run. It seems like the creators were aiming for her to be like yellow's toriel, but she ended up actually being way worse.

With toriel, she fights you because she wants you to prove that you can handle being outside the ruins, and her fighting you PROVES that she wants to be a better person and change for that. But ceroba fights you because she wants your soul. I can't sympathize with a character who's actively trying to kill me for such selfish reasons.

When toriel kills you, there's a split frame where she's visibly shocked because she never meant for it to go that far. But ceroba, once again, MEANS to kill you for a risky chance that it can bring back a family member.

Unlike asgore, who wants your soul for the sake of every monster in the underground, ceroba wants it to revive one monster only because of her feelings and not the freedom of literally everyone.

She might just be a grieving mother, but so is toriel, and toriel doesn't try to kill you for the sake of bringing asriel back because she's a normal person.

Speaking of which, it wasn't toriel's fault asriel and chara died. I mean, she could've watched out for them better, but no one saw it coming in the first place. Ceroba's the entire problem. Well, not the ENTIRE problem. Her husband was irresponsible too, but it can't hold a candle to ceroba. Ceroba, after hearing her daughter wants to help in making a boss monster, aka saying she wants to be experimented on, ceroba hesitates for a second but still agrees anyway. Imagine you're a parent working on a highly risky and experimental way to make a human weapon and your child who's like 8 years old or something says THEY want to be experimented on. No one's going to agree to that unless they're braindead or don't care about their child.

Anyways... ceroba's solution to her mistakes is to go and kill ANOTHER child and take their soul to do some more science-y things in hopes it brings her daughter (who she 100% put in that situation) back to life.

It's not like ceroba thinks that clover in the pacifist run is an evil human or anything because she goes with them for an entire map and sees that they're not a threat or even a bad person at that. But instead of stopping for a second to think, she's just like "oh ill just have to kill another child so I can undo my mistakes. Woe is me, i guess."

Also, I just thought the ending started overdoing things, but it IS an undertale fangame, so what did I expect lol

Tldr: I don't like ceroba bc the game expects you to like her like toriel, but toriel didn't kill her child or want to kill you

[altocat]

If it's not too nsfw (sorry if so), headcanons for SephGen's first time?

Interesting...

Their day starts off as any other. Squabbling, sparring, and heated arguments when not accompanied by Angeal. Since Angeal's on patrol for the evening, they have some time to kill together, with Sephiroth mostly writing field reports and Genesis loitering about the office bored out of his mind.

When Genesis makes the offer to do some extra midnight sparring together without Angeal holding them back, Sephiroth readily agrees. Paperwork is tedious. And Genesis might pose an actual challenge if Angeal isn't there to mind them.

The fight, predictably, goes awry very quickly, with personal feelings getting involved on both fronts--Genesis with his jealousy, Sephiroth with the annoyance of Genesis' dirty fighting tactics. It gets to the point where things take a sudden turn midway through, similar to CC but a LOT more physical. Suddenly, there's actual scratching, the occasional kick, full blown throwing each other around like ragdolls, escalating more and more.

Which...of course, turns into something quite different by the time they're rolling around together.

The actual act itself is very quick and clumsy, a series of violent clawing and biting, Sephiroth not lasting terribly long and Genesis too caught up to really care.

Afterwards, Genesis expect his friend to gloat, rub it in his face at how easy it was to dominate him both physically AND sexually, to degrade and humiliate him and give Genesis ONE MORE reason to hate that awful arrogant jerk.

Instead, he finds that Sephiroth only clings to him, as if desperate he's going to suddenly disappear. And, more bafflingly, he's SHAKING. Trembling like a wet leaf, as if he's guilty, done something wrong.

It occurs to Genesis that maaaaybe Sephiroth himself hadn't expected this. And, what's more, that perhaps they've both been lying to each other in more ways than one.

The sight of Sephiroth vulnerable for a change softens Genesis considerably. He leans over and cradles Sephiroth's head in his hands, murmuring that they should probably go back to his place and get cleaned up, or at least before someone catches them now that they've steamed up the training room. He guides Sephiroth, dragging him all the way up to their personal quarters. Sephiroth is still shaking involuntarily, conflicted, still guilty, clearly wrestling with both his personal need for control and the sudden reveal of his very much repressed sexuality.

But Genesis is agreeable enough, bundling Sephiroth up, fussing over him until the shaking subsides. Sephiroth vaguely mentions Hojo, musing that they are both in very big trouble, that Shinra would never permit such an affair if it were ever made public, that he's disgraced his rank and title by allowing himself to lose control in such a matter.

"What?" Genesis asks, rolling his eyes. "You think that gaunt old bitch in the Science Department is going to put his feelers out? Put a leash on you? Please."

Sephiroth only shakes his head, ashamed, seemingly cold and stoic again now that the shaking has died down. This was a mistake. He cannot allow it again. It might be good and well for Genesis, but not for him. SOLDIER is his life, his purpose. This cannot go unnoticed. Even if he wishes it were different. Even if he wants...

Genesis kisses him again to shut him up. "Fuck them."

Sephiroth opens his mouth to protest.

"Fuck. Them. You know why I hate you so much? You're TOO perfect. Shinra's perfect hero. Maybe it's time you considered letting others take up the mantle--by which I mean ME, of course--but also for your own good. Live a little. Live LIFE. For Goddess' sake, Seph, do SOMETHING."

Sephiroth is about to pull away when Genesis catches him again, more kisses, more insistent.

"We can't."

"Shut up."

"This isn't--"

"Shut the hell up. Seriously."

"It's a mistake."

"My only mistake," Genesis snarls. "Was not realizing what a whiny coward you were before. Now shut up and kiss me."

The second time is a lot gentler. For all his goading and growling, Genesis is surprisingly very doting, gradually easing Sephiroth into things a bit more little by little.

This naturally escalates to a long-running affair under cover of darkness for weeks. And no matter how heated things get between them, it only becomes that much more difficult for either of them to pull away.

[neptunianrefrain]

my real actual life got in the way, so it's time to play catch up! this post will be a compilation of all days missed.

OC-tober day 4 - underappreciated OC -skipped

sorry for skipping a mandatory day, but literally none of my ocs specifically come to mind. because like all of them are because i forget they exist, there's no one guy that specifically gets that title. and i'm not drawing all of them there's TOO MANY

OC-tober day 5 - redesigned OC - skipped

no specific redesign i want to talk about :P

OC-tober day 6 - past

not many of my ocs get backstories, since i don't often have them for long enough to care about those sorts of things... but all of the ocs i've spoken about so far do have at least something within their past! so let's talk about them!

gio was born in the philippines, to a family who didn't really want him. his original birth name was marikit. through some kind of program he was adopted out to a family in canada. this family adopted 3 other children due to fertility issues, though they did manage to have one biological child. they let him change his name to georgia. his life was pretty normal. in his teens, he started to figure out he was trans. by the time it started to click, his mom died. so that kind of got in the way of things. there's also an abusive ex somewhere in there but i haven't figured that bit out. anyways now he's an adult and looking into transitioning. now his name is giovanni. he really likes g names. he fully transitions over the course of several years. during this time, somewhere towards the end of his transition hes like late 20s or something, he meets and soon falls in love with a guy named michael (who belongs to my moirail @dialtone-town,) starting a long and loving relationship. eventually mike's sibling dies and mike fucks off to new jersey. this fucks gio up for a while! and eventually he has to go to new jersey for work shit. and he meets mike again. and theyre friends now yaaay

starlight has a vague backstory involving his development, as he was a custom order. there were several prototypes made of him, that still exist somewhere probably. they're more so an oc that exists to exist instead of an oc that exists for a story.

victor is still very new, but i did come up with the idea that her coding - that is to say the very makeup of her being - was intentionally messed with by another gem to create a reliable hitman, though they fucked up and victor immediately killed them, now continuing to kill as she lacks purpose beyond this.

chartreuse probably served the gempire at some point. eventually rebelled and had a bit of a turbulent life, had a best friend for a while but he fucked off and became a massive bitch. now she's part of a major rebel group, serving as the lead engineer.

OC-tober day 7 - likes

most of my ocs like similar things to me, or things that fit their sort of vibe. it's kind of hard for me to come up with likes and dislikes sometimes... but i try my best!

gio loves all kinds of video games, particularly liking ones with interesting stories or game mechanics. he also tends to enjoy science fiction, liking both sleek and elegant futuristic tech, and rough and war torn machinery. he watched some anime as a teen, and still finds new animanga to enjoy to this day.

starlight enjoys futuristic themes and styles, such as cyberpunk, and cassette futurism. he also enjoys fashion, especially alternative styles. and by god does he love playing weird indie video games. sometimes he does play more normal video games. sometimes. loves music, genre and language mattering not. he WOULD pass those "do you really listen to anything" tests. he also loves creation, making art and music and writing. he loves creating as much as he loves looking into what others have made.

uhh victor. victor likes killing people. chartreuse uhh. she likes something probably.

i have other ocs i cld maybe put here but i don't want to introduce them now. blehh

[neon-green-reagent]

Buyer Beware: Cushing Curiosities

I don't normally do this. My aim is to keep things positive in this space, as much as possible. But I need to talk about the new Severin Films box set dedicated to Peter Cushing and basically beg anyone who loves Peter Cushing to not waste their money on this. When I saw they were, after multiple Christopher Lee sets, finally doing one for Cushing, I admit I got too excited and impulsively pre-ordered it. I have regretted it ever since. Okay, that's too strong. It was way too much money and time wasted on something that's about one-third good. One third is not enough, and even then I'm probably being too generous. 

The box art and presentation are beautiful. If that's all that matters to you, then you'll be delighted. The GIANT book that comes with it is also really awesome. It's informative and thorough with a lot of really cool images. I can't deny that they really went above and beyond, turning a booklet into an actual book that is well worth owning. These are a couple of the highest points you're going to experience with this set. Let's dig into the movies. 

Cone of Silence. Jesus, what a waste of fucking time. This thing was a slog. An absolute bore. If you care a whole lot about planes... Fuck, even then, you probably won't be able to sit through this, because it's so old-fashioned and drags its feet. Is this what thrillers used to be? I shudder to think. Cushing's role is small and that of a misguided villain character. He shows up to accuse a pilot of being bad at his job, gets put in his place at the end, and that's really it. I'll go ahead and make a blanket statement now that he's always good, always worth watching, but that doesn't make most of these movies worth sitting through. 

Suspect. Here's a movie that goes around and around, struggling to get to the point, trying to imitate Hitchcock but without any of the style that goes along with that. Just stationary middle shots of people talking. But don't you worry, it's not just boring! Multiple characters make cracks about how women shouldn't be working in science (Cushing's character included, which makes this an utter loser of a movie to watch for his role). The "villain" is a man with a disability who eventually kills himself, and that's treated like a GOOD OUTCOME. Some movies are old. This movie is old-minded, and it brought what was already not very engaging down to a pile of shit for me. And again, a theme you'll notice, Cushing is a side character who isn't given hardly anything to do and little screen time. Oh, and Donald Pleasence shows up and makes this face: O.O

The Man Who Finally Died. So this was at least engaging. Maybe by this point the bar was just VERY low for me, but I actually enjoyed this. It had lots of twists and turns. Despite being pre-giallo, it had a lot of those storytelling conventions, so I found myself, you know... actually watching the movie instead of struggling to stay awake. The rewatch value feels low, because once you've experienced those twists and turns, they won't shock you next time. But at least it wasn't a total wash. AND ONCE MORE CUSHING WAS BARELY IN IT, SO REGARDLESS OF THE QUALITY OF THE FILM IT WASN'T REALLY A CUSHING FILM, WAS IT? 

Sherlock Holmes. Ohhhhh God. This was not good. I managed one and a half episodes before shutting it off. I couldn't believe how shoddy everything about this was. It's a BBC Sherlock Holmes show! What happened!? I mean, I'm still not clear, but after some googling I did find out that Cushing was a fast replacement for another actor who was leaving in a huff. And the reason he left in a huff was because everything about the production truly sucked ass. It shows. And it didn't improve when Cushing came on. Everything was so clearly rushed. You can feel how everyone's just trying to remember their lines and where to stand, because they were given zero time to rehearse and prepare. I thought this would be a highlight of the set, but it's probably one of the worst aspects. At least Cushing is the main character? 

Bloodsuckers. This was great. I can finally say something was GREAT. What a relief. Cushing is still barely in it, but at least it was entertaining. It's your standard, early seventies, vampire romp. With some psychedelic weirdness thrown in toward the beginning and lots of overly sexual shenanigans. In particular, Johnny Sekka gives a great performance, and in a more modern movie, they would have made the character gay as he should have been. Also, Edward Woodward shows up for a single scene and steals the entire movie. Definitely worth watching, regardless of Cushing's ten minutes of screen time. Even though I thought the point was for it to be a CUSHING box set... 

Tender Dracula. Last but actually the best. This is an absolute ride of a movie. I loved it. My problem is this is such a crazy film, with tonal shifts galore and an unsensible plot, that I could actually see people hating it. It's a movie that is not for everyone, not by a long shot. It breaks the fourth wall, plays with stereotypes and tropes, throws out humor that sometimes lands and sometimes doesn't, and leaves your head spinning. Plenty of viewers might find the experience frustrating and not rewarding. I happened to love it and got a lot out of it, but it feels very poor for a movie like this to be probably the best thing about a shoddy box set. That's not exactly promising your customers the best they could get. BUT CUSHING IS THE STAR! Finally! One (arguably) good movie where he's the main attraction. Christ, that took long enough. 

So what do we have after all that? A set of movies that, for the most part, only tangentially involve Cushing, with his name slapped on the side of the box. Trotting out a beloved actor who isn't here to approve of what's being done for a quick buck feels pretty damn gross. Severin has made a multitude of mistakes over the years in how they've conducted their business, but this is by far the worst of them. Even with the compliments I've given this set, do not buy it. It isn't even close to being worth the price point. The fact that I spent as much as I did on this leaves me shamefaced. 

[miscelliteeous]

So I have a new hyperfixation character and it is The Spot from Spider-Man, and that led to me coming up with a Spidersona, a universe for them, and several side character/villain reimagines (plus my OC I already ship with Doc Ock, killing two birds with one stone here!). And while I don't have anything drawn yet due to my wrist getting injured, I do have a lot written down that I want to share!

-Spidersona Detailed Profile-

Name: Blythe Basile

Alias: Shutterbug

Age: Thirties

Height: An even 5ft

Weight: Classified

Occupation: Fashion photographer

Powers: 

Spider-sense, reflexes/agility, wall climbing, major jumping ability, super strength, (aka standard Spidey powers). Also: photographic memory, enhanced vision, a natural webbing released from the fingertips that can't be swung from but can slow down or catch others

Weakness: 

Fear of heights, Shutterbug is short, handsome men

Location: 

A much, much more fashionable world's New York Garment District, which takes up most of NYC now

Backstory: 

An orphan found abandoned on the doorstep of a fashion boutique, Blythe was taken in and adopted by the owners, Marianne and Rainier Basile, who unfortunately both perished in an accident when Blythe was ten. Rainier’s sister Maylis stepped up to take care of them, and she quickly proved to be a kind and caring adoptive parent, sharing with Blythe a love of photography.

Similar to many others, Blythe was an awkward geek in high school and a loner, and what little respect and status they had was gained through their roles on the photography club and as photographer for the yearbook committee. Bullying was common, but despite everything Blythe graduated early.

After graduation it was like they flourished, gaining a mentor in one of the most decorated photographers in the world; LeBene, a former wartime photojournalist turned nature photographer who taught them everything he knew and was almost like a father figure to them. Their entry into the photography world, and LeBene’s care, gave Blythe a sense of confidence, fashion, and style, and they no longer felt awkward and alone anymore. LeBene often told them "Always put people before the art. Use your camera for good." Blythe was overjoyed when LeBene and Aunt Maylis began a romance.

On one of their first solo assignments, Blythe was sent to shoot photos for a "Men of Science" beefcake calendar at a nearby laboratory. In the middle of photographing a lab technician holding a strategically placed folder, there was a sharp stabbing sensation on the back of Blythe's thigh, though they didn't see what caused it. Despite the pain, Blythe continued to work, until collapsing at their studio apartment and sleeping for three days. Still, they did at least manage to get a boyfriend out of the experience, and a foothold in the photography industry.

It didn't take Blythe long to realize they were developing superpowers and they designed and crafted a suit to photograph themselves in for fun. Instead, Blythe wound up saving someone's life, and found that they actually make a pretty good hero. As they started their heroics, they also started to move up in the world, and was hired at a famous fashion magazine. Unfortunately, with the increase in costumed crime and a beginners workload, Blythe and their boyfriend decided to mutually break up, and Blythe attended the wedding of LeBene and Maylis by themself. 

The increased pressure at work and on the streets, began to cause Blythe to care less and less about the duty they had willingly taken up. Long story short, one day when Blythe put protecting their camera over stopping a criminal, that criminal happened to run over LeBene, who died in Blythe's arms. From that day forward, Blythe vowed to not only stop crime, but also to only use their camera for good (and fashion). Using their powers and photography skills, Blythe takes down both supervillains and corrupt capitalists.

Personality: 

Takes photography very seriously and always has at least one camera within arms reach. Mildly boy (or well, old man) crazy, in that they sure do like getting grabbed by their middle aged enemies an awful lot (though they do always get the upper hand on the bad guys in the end). Blythe still has an incredibly geeky side, and has to hide it while mingling amongst the fashion elite. Hardworking, dedicated, and very good at helping others feel comfortable and safe.

Misc:

Has no idea they were EVER bitten by a spider and would be horrified to find out.

Their boss is J. Jonah Jameson, head of the magazine! He’s tough but fair and considers Blythe to be a good person but thinks Shutterbug is tacky and boring.

By “a more fashionable world”, think like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure fashion in a golden art deco-inspired city. Very in-your-face style.

Blythe doesn’t like touching things without gloves.

Their favorite camera was LeBene’s, and it is only used on the most special of occasions.

Their studio apartment is actually pretty small and cramped, with the walls covered in photographs, unintentionally making it look like a damn serial killer lives there instead of a superhero.

They’re working on not going heart eyes over their villains, but so far they’re having no success.

Despite being a fashion photographer, Blythe is terrible at telling what they look good in, luckily their best friend, Graham Stacy (a fellow photographer at the magazine), helps them with shopping.

Mostly uses their organic webbing for ease of photography. It doesn’t show up on camera, so it can be very useful.

Typically goes by they/them but is fine with any pronouns and prefers to be called a girlfriend when being dated as opposed to partner/enbyfriend/etc. Being called she/her by citizens whilst in costume just means it’ll be harder for others to connect Shutterbug to Blythe.

Despite their fame, Blythe doesn’t have a social life and spends what little free time they have watching old horror movies and playing video games. They’re still majorly geeky, it’s just usually hidden.

Not nearly as book-smart/scientific as most other Spidey-types, and by far the worst at math in the entire multiverse. Yes, that includes the car. Spider-Mobile can do math better than them.

Drinks an ungodly amount of coffee and caffeine, but doesn’t suffer from it  because of a pre-existing mutation the spider had where it could handle caffeine.

Villains:

Doctor Octopus- During an experiment gone wrong, shy and reserved Otto Octavius was forever fused to a set of rose-gold robotic tentacles he created and he’s making it everyone else's problem. He’s very charming and sadly taken, but also very ruthless (with a new god complex) and one of Shutterbug’s biggest and most intelligent foes.

Melusine- An act of corporate sabotage that destroyed her life's work caused Mima Marsh to lose her legs and her career. She turned to crime as a way to get vengeance on those who caused her loss and the world itself. Flies around connected to a very classy mechanical mermaid tail and has robotic flying fish minions. Locked down Doc Ock as her partner fast.

The Spot- Johnny Ohnn was one of the scientists posing for the calendar, and he and Blythe briefly dated until work became too hectic for them both. He was in a lab accident while working on portals and forever changed into a being of portals and turned to a life of crime after losing his job. Blythe thinks they can still work things out. (He’s getting his own section too because he’s a major character)

Electro- An electronica musician in the wrong place at the wrong time, Max Dillon became more electricity than human, and of course turned to a life of crime, but he still makes pretty good music on the side. Tries to not kill anyone, though he’s not always successful. His crimes mostly include breaking into power plants to turn them into giant music machines.

Vulture- After being forced out of the company he created, Adrian Toomes stole an invention that allows him to fly and make life hell for those who planned the hostile takeover. Ironically he’s a kinder person after becoming a criminal and regularly donates to charity. Blythe would let him be if he wasn’t swooping at people on the streets.

Mysterio- Illusionist Quentin Beck lost his stage in Las Vegas to a pop star and decided to try his luck in NYC. Having no luck there either, he decided to put his skills to use in a less legal way. Has an ego even bigger than Doc Ocks. Teams up with Electro a lot and their fights are actually a highlight for citizens. 

Lizard- Dr. Curt Connors injected himself with lizard DNA on a dare from his science buddies and transformed into a big lizard monster and roams NYC’s sewers. Still pretty intelligent, he just eats people now and has a lot less morals. Has an ex-wife and son that he still tries to visit once a month, but they’re less than pleased when he tries to make them lizards too.

Kraven The Hunter- Sergei Kravinoff comes from a long line of furriers, but when NYC’s biggest buyer decided to go fur-free, he decided to seek revenge, using skills learned from the other half of his family; notorious big game hunters. As stylish as he is deadly, he hates Shutterbug for always getting in his way, while they’re kinda low key jealous of his style.

Shocker- Herman Schultz is a mercenary with vibro-shock gauntlets who views villainy like his old construction job, very 9-to-5 blue collar. Doesn’t hold a grudge against Shutterbug for foiling his crimes, and is down to team up with others at any time, though few take him up on the offer. A pretty chill guy when he’s off the clock.

White Rabbit- Model and heiress Lorina Dodson was disinherited after a very embarrassing scandal. In a rage, she paid Shocker a ton of cash to get her a ton of rabbit-themed weapons that she uses for criminal mischief and making her parents mad and dressing like a Playboy bunny. Always down to let Shutterbug take a pic or twelve during fights.

-Spot Detailed Profile-

Name: Johnathon “Johnny” Ohnn

Alias: The Spot/Spot

Age: Late 30s-Early 40s

Height: 6’3” (before Spot)/7’ (as Spot)

Weight: 210lbs (before Spot)/Unknown (as Spot)

Occupation: Scientist (before Spot)/Criminal Mad Scientist (as Spot)

Backstory:

The only son of Patty and Albert Ohnn, Johnathon was a shy, awkward kid, who grew into a shy, awkward (and lanky, his growth spurt was very generous) adult but one with an autism diagnosis that explained a lot to him. 

After graduating from college, his brilliant mind was quickly snatched up by Alchemax Laboratories, and thrown into a number of projects, proving himself a reliable and efficient member of the team. 

Whilst working on a small scale project, Johnathon decided to put himself out there and sign up for a “Men Of Science” calendar that was being done to raise money for a new coffee machine in the break room. He was surprised when he showed up and found out it was a ‘beefcake calendar’.

The photographer shooting the event noticed his discomfort and offered to shoot his page during lunch on a closed set, and he quickly agreed. During that photo-shoot, he felt surprisingly relaxed, confident, and comfortable. Though still the most covered up in his photos, wearing a lab coat and strategically covered boxer-briefs, he was actually proud of how they turned out, and exchanged phone numbers with the photographer, who he learned was named Blythe Basile.

One phone call turned into having lunch together, which turned into dinner, and quickly they started dating. Johnny, as Blythe called him, was experiencing a massive positive boost in confidence and his personality, he even became friendly with his co-workers. But after about a year, things quickly took a turn.

Blythe was hired at their dream job as a fashion photographer for a highly popular magazine, and Johnny’s project (studying and trying to create a teleportation device) was approved by higher ups. As work began to pile up for them both, they agreed to a mutual break-up, at least until things became less hectic, which they did not.

While about to make the breakthrough of his life, and possibly one of the biggest discoveries of all time, a portal opened, which was the plan, but what was not expected was that the Vantablack portal would pull him inside and vanish. He had entered a strange dimension of darkness and light, where he was trapped and studied the unusual properties of the location as best he could. 

For three weeks he was gone without a trace, before emerging, transformed and changed by his experiences, in his lab. He was shocked to find no one believed who he was, and he was shunned by everyone he met, losing his job, home, and even his parents were horrified and refused to believe him. He didn’t bother contacting Blythe, as he didn’t want to experience that painful rejection again.

With no other choice, Johnathon, now calling himself The Spot, decided to work at stealing lab equipment from various labs to try and find a way to turn himself back while hopefully keeping his abilities. Unfortunately for him, Shutterbug stands in his way.

Misc:

Has no idea his most hated foe is Blythe and would be horrified to find out.

Not able to access the multiverse, he’s not THAT powerful, he’s more connected to a pocket dimension and anywhere in the one universe he’s from.

Casually dated others before Blythe but never got past second base before.

Like Blythe, his vision was fixed by his transformation. Despite his eyes no longer seeming to exist. He’s never figured out how that works.

Much more of a trypophobic design than most Spots have, with a small cluster of spots typically forming around where one of his eyes used to be, before it forms into one big one and migrates on his face while another cluster starts appearing.

Technically a genius! He just doesn’t have the confidence to assert himself as much as ones like Doc Ock or Melusine.

Would let Blythe put his hair up for him before work, but after they broke up he started leaving it down again.

Gamer boy, puzzle games are usually too easy so he mostly plays FPS games and has ridiculously good aim after years of practice. It’s his main source of stress relief.

The tea to Blythe’s coffee, this Spot has a soft spot for matcha and Darjeeling, but will drink any kind except sweet tea.

Has a bad habit of being condescending and talking down to others but is working on it.

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s2 ep15: Threshold

I hadn't watched this one the whole way through in a while, since that ending is definitely not one you ever forget once you've seen it. But I forced myself to do it, and, surprisingly, it actually had some good qualities I'd completely forgotten about amidst the whole lizard baby fandango.

The ending really overshadows the rest of the story, which was actually pretty good in general. For one thing, the idea of trying to break the barrier of infinite velocity to arrive home instantly is a cool concept. Considering all the weird stuff they tried over the course of the show, that's not any weirder, and it gave us fun science nerd buddy time with B'Elanna and Harry, plus bonus Tom! Tom rarely gets to do anything science-y, so it was nice that he got to here. This is the first time we see all three of them work together on a project too. They're a good team, and I enjoyed their dynamic a lot- obviously we'll see various permutations of the three of them hanging out together in future eps, but I like the working relationship they have here and think it would have been nice to have more of that. It's also the first time we see Tom and B'Elanna actually hang out together, and they seem to like each other pretty well already. It's obviously not part of a romance plan yet, since the writers were still stuck on the Tom and Kes thing in this one, but it's nice to see them forming a friendship here. (I was not a fan of the 'kiss me before I die, Kes!' nonsense- at least Tom was near delerious at that point, but still, ick.) And I'd forgotten that Tom actually died for a few hours in this one, or at least everyone thought he did. Tbh, the most unrealistic part of this episode was that they thought Tom died, and Harry didn't come to sick bay to cry at his bedside like a lost puppy. Come on, he absolutely would!

The first half of the story actually works just fine- they figure out a cool new way to try to get home, Tom wants to prove himself, so he flies the test flight- it works! They broke the warp barrier! It seems great, until something goes wrong- travelling at infinite velocity is actually dangerous, he's dying, how do we save him? That's actually solid, and if they'd have just left it at that, that would have been great. There were plenty of interesting themes to explore here- the thing you wanted to bring you glory ending up almost killing you instead; seeing all of the universe at once, but only being able to remember bits and pieces before it slips away- I mean, that's a pretty big deal! How would that affect him long term? How much of it is still buried in his mind, somewhere? (They missed an opportunity to use that somehow in a later episode tbh.) That's much juicier than 'what if going too fast turns you into a lizard?'

With more thoughtful writing, it could have been a really good episode. We do get some genuinely sympathetic moments here where Tom talks about being miserable as a kid, and always feeling like he needed to prove himself to his dad, and it's good stuff that lets us see a vulnerable human side underneath the toxic masculinity nonsense they give him most of the time. It's the first episode in the whole series that focuses primarily on Tom, and I do remember watching it for the first time as a kid and being totally invested in Tom's story and caring about him, so it was doing what it set out to do in that regard. But about halfway through, it all gets derailed when it veers off into crazy town.

When they start having Tom turn into a molting lizard creature with the grotesque makeup, and yelling at people like a crazy person, any opportunity for character development gets lost because he's not himself anymore, he's just a crazy monster, and it's become a horror story instead. They could still potentially have saved it if they'd just had him evolve into something actually plausible for humans to evolve into- they've had humanoid species evolve into glowy light creatures or other ethereal, cool looking stuff on Trek before, and it worked just fine. But no, they went with... a salamander.

Why, in the name of all that's holy, would anyone think humans, or any primate, or mammal even, would evolve into an amphibean? Like, we're not even related to salamanders, and they're definitely not superior beings, so where did this even come from?? How high was Brannon Braga when he wrote this script?? And what was he on?? Because it's completely bonkers. And then we get even further into crazy town with an old timey pulp sci-fi monster movie trope of 'monster kidnaps beautiful woman to be it's mate'. Did someone forget that this is supposed to be Star Trek, and not King Kong or Creature from the Black Lagoon? I guess so, but actually, an old timey monster suit would probably have been preferable to what we got here: The goofiest, slowest, fakest giant salamanders you've ever seen. How are they the ultimate evolution of anything?! The away team walks up to them and phasers them practically point blank! They're obviously not as smart as they're cracked up to be lmao. And then the cherry on top of it all- salamander babies. They had salamander babies. They turned actual people into salamanders who had salamander babies.

SALAMANDER BABIES.

And they're adorable. They're actually so cute! Somehow, that only makes it worse. And despite their human DNA, Chakotay (who was obviously still in his bitchy mood during this ep) leaves them there! Even though they could apparently revert the salamander DNA into human DNA super easily, they're like, nah, let's not!

And they tell the Captain and Tom that these salamander children exist, but they're just like, 'gee that's awkward! gonna sweep that one under the rug and never think of it again! lol!'

And then whatever moral they were trying to get across is out the window, because unlike fictional characters, we, the poor audience, cannot simply forget about salamander sexytimes and the poor, abandoned salamander children.

I'm all for episodes where we focus on one particular character and give them a chance to delve into their hopes and fears and motivations, but unfortunately, poor Tom here only got half an episode to do that before he was relegated to B-movie monster shenanigans. It makes me so sad, because it would have been so much easier, actually, to just make this script decent. The mental gymnastics it must have taken to go from 'interesting engineering problem' to 'let's turn people into lizards!' is honestly pretty astounding.

One thing I'd totally forgotten is that this one takes place while that one Maquis guy is spying for the Kazon- and he actually gives them the records from the shuttle flight! The Kazon have the warp ten flight records! Did they ever try it?! Are there some Kazon dudes who turned into lizards too?! Is there a 'Planet of the Kazon Lizards' out there right now?! I smell a sequel! (But really, please. no. no more lizard people and lizard babies, I beg you.)

I thought I would have to go back to pretending this one doesn't exist after rewatching it, but actually, I'm delighted to find that I only have to pretend half of it doesn't exist now! And from now on, when I observe the Trek high holy day that is Threshold Day, I'll carry it's true message in my heart:

Don't get really, really high before you write things.

Tl;dr: Surprisingly only the second half of it was actually bad, but the ending went so disastrously off the rails that it overshadowed what was actually an important character growth episode for Tom.

[theworldisabrokenbonebutitishome]

My fill for my @guardianbingo prompt of 'spaceship'.

Look, give me a show with aliens and special powers and time travel and heartbreak and watch me make it relevant to Doctor Who. If there's one thing I can do, it's make everything about Who. I've thought way too much about this so I'm gonna make it everyone's problem. (behind a read more though because wow I ramble)

I hear spaceship and I think TARDIS, because it's been almost twenty years and I am not getting over DW ever at this point. So my brain decided hey what if Zhao Yunlan got thrown back in time in a more comfortable and stylish way? And thus this image came to mind.

But my mind is not one for shutting up, so while this came to be I had a lot of thoughts about if anyone in the show would pull off being the Doctor particularly well.

The obvious choice is of course Zhao Yunlan; canonically time travels, regeneration could be a sci-fi equivalent to reincarnation, general chaos gremlin vibes, likes sticking things in his mouth yes I'm imagining 13 eating soil rn, quick thinking and loves a puzzle. Kunlun could be his version of 'Doctor' and Zhao Yunlan his version of 'John Smith' when he tries to go undercover.

However, I then got to thinking about Shen Wei. His wardrobe is definitely a much better match for the Doctor but he's not so obviously chaotic. But he is an alien, he's at least 10000 years old, his Dixing power is learning which is perfect, he's literally a professor (like the Doctor) and enjoys teaching (twelve comes to mind), he's into science and has accumulated random detailed knowledge about other things (eg. Bears) whilst remaining somewhat awkward socially, doesn't necessarily entirely vibe with others of his kind, has lots of secrets and is not always very good at lying. Likes to suffer in silence and not fcking tell anyone. He may not be full of chaos like thirteen but he has the vibes of nine or twelve where there's something not entirely human about him.

Another thing I found very interesting though is the potential for Ye Zun to be the Master to Shen Wei's Doctor. Because I like pain. The relationship between them two in DW canon is fascinating, just imagine if they were actually siblings.* The intense 'I want to kill you' vs 'I want to be you' vs 'I want you to like me' desire that's constantly warring away inside the Master. The Master loves the Doctor but feels like they've been abandoned by them, is that not Ye Zun? The desire for power and mayhem but also maybe just wanting attention from a certain person.

Also, if Shen Wei is the Doctor then Zhao Yunlan gets to be the companion and depending which level of angst I can cope with on the day, I've decided on two options.

Novel vibes: Zhao Yunlan as Donna Noble, something happens during their travels together that results in Shen Wei having to remove all of Zhao Yunlan's memories of him and their adventures together and Shen Wei has to stay away and never return or run the risk of Zhao Yunlan's brain permanently breaking. An even more extreme version of Shen Wei having to stay away from Kunlun's reincarnations because there's no chance of Zhao Yunlan coming back in this world. I'm not being entirely evil though because the 60th anniversary clips we've seen imply there is hopefully a way to fix this problem so there could still be a happy ending!

Show vibes: instead of sacrificing his soul to a lantern how about Zhao Yunlan does a Rose and stares into the TARDIS and only almost dies. If there's a way to somehow combine this with Rose using the power to bring Jack back to life and accidentally making him immortal then ta da! a never dying Zhao Yunlan to go with Shen Wei the time lord! Winners all around!

Final point i promise:

The TARDIS is called the ghost monument at one point, is that not a fitting name for a ghost king's spaceship?

[shmowder]

For the OC event: had an interesting (to me, at least) OC idea for a post-canon child, about 16, who was an adopted orphan (parents died from the Sand Pest) and raised by Artemy and Daniil. Growing up, she had a mix of influences that shaped her understanding of the world--she very much believes in Artemy's methods, knows some of the Kin language, and is generally more in touch with Kin culture, but Daniil also insisted she grow up well-read and with a good education, so she has a fair bit of formal knowledge too (if antiquated, given new books don't reach the town often). She comes from the Clara ending, and I think that'd give her an interesting relationship with death in general, altogether. Being a child who grew up with human sacrifice as the norm.

She's a fairly solitary girl. Keeps to herself, likes to have things to do that don't involve other people too much. She has a small tent at the edge of the Steppe, a little ways off from the graveyard, that she often stays in (sometimes for days at a time). She gathers herbs for Artemy and herself, and makes simple medicines with them (and sells them--her contribution to the household). She has a mutt that she loves dearly; it often accompanies her along her trips out to gather herbs, tend to local cows, and cuddles up with her on cold nights (and on warm nights… and hot nights, sometimes).

At home, she helps take care of the chickens, and some cleaning (she hates cleaning, though, and tries to avoid it). Daniil has been trying to teach her some of his more complicated sciences, but it mostly goes over her head. She thinks his microscope is the coolest thing, though--seeing all those little moving things is like magic to her. She loves curling up next to the couch for family story nights, closing her eyes and listening to the crackling of the fire or the dogs barking outside as one of her fathers narrates all sorts of tales. When she stays in a room, the window is always open. She has some books from Yulia's that she's borrowed a dozen times now stacked neatly on her little shelf, next to haphazardly strewn pages of plant and abstract sketches.

I also had some vague ideas of a plot for her: one day, while out in the Steppe gathering herbs, she accidentally wandered too far and ended up on the wrong stage at the wrong time. Instead of the play she was meant for, she ended up in the play set fifteen years before--the timeline we play in the game. She arrives on the first day, around the same time as Daniil.

A lot happens, but some highlights are: desperately trying to keep the younger versions of her fathers from killing each other; dealing with a Clara-adjacent situation where no one knows where she comes from and at least a few people suspect her of being a shabnak; ending up breaking Kin law by harvesting organs to sell when money gets tight and she has to keep the healers alive if they're to find a cure (she knows they can because they did in her timeline, but they can't if they're all delirious with hunger and thirst and exhaustion); the way she cuts people open with the Lines is noticed as similar to the Burakh method (because it is) and when Artemy finds out about the organ harvesting he assumes someone's impersonating him and tries to find them (ends in a confrontation); general angst.

Also had an idea for when she gets back, where after all her experiences on the other stage, she has trouble being comfortable around Artemy again (both because of how their confrontations went and because she broke Kin law), and in general now has that same faintly hollow-eyed, haunted look many bear from their time spent wearying out the plague.

I came up with this years ago and can pull apart the holes until it resembles a ratty old blanket, but this OC brought me joy and I thought I might as well share her for once. I may have named her, but I don't remember now

Who cares about the holes when you can easily see the love wooven into every stich? The warmth this blanket once provided to someone who adored it thoroughly, the memories it holds, the cold nights it chased away, soothingly drapped over your mind, a small relief.

That's what OCs are really about, aren't they? The joy they bring, the feelings the invoke, a cherished doll worn out with time and play.

You told her story just now with intimate familiarity, the story of someone who knew her personally, witness her every step, forged her path alongside her back when everything was new, uncertain and unkown. Now you walk down the same path with reassured confidence.

I love her story! I love the fact Daniil and Artemy end up together in it too. In a way, she is a symbol of love. As long as she exists in the universe, you know these two got their happy ending.

The way she describes seeing microscopic creatures move as magical is so endearing, claiming this device is the coolest thing ever, it's really the best of both worlds.

Not only does she have the childlike wonder for science and technology that Artemy lacks, but the faith and creativity necessary to believe in the extraordinary, to see the magic in the mundane and certian, which Daniil has trouble grasping.

I can't imagine what the lasting effects of meeting her parents back in time would do to her psyche. No wonder she feels conflicted around Artemy afterwards. Having just lost his father, struggling to repress his grief, only to be informed that someone out there somehow got hold of the Burakh menkhu knowledge and is attempting to replicate his surgical lines??? Yeah, he'd lose his shit and take it personally, a great disrespect on his Isidor's memory and an open insult to him.

Honestly, I'm glad it ends with her surviving that confrontation, I hope Daniil stepped in somehow bc Clara informed him ahead of time or something.

Names tell stories, I hope you find a fitting name for her, even just as a parting gift for this old hole-filled blanket, which once brought you so much joy and kept you warm. To grant a name is akin to granting a life, to humanise them.

If not, that's perfectly okay. I will call her the next Menkhu in line for now in my masterlist, or maybe Cub? Artemy's childhood nickname being passed down to his daughter seems appropriate, especially since it was Isidor who gave it to him.

She's very wonderful <33 I love her dearly.