#and also people are inconsistent

[arabella-strange]

caveat: I do think the s3 of the show was great in many parts and I am loath to put negativity into the universe when we could be celebrating how beautiful the animation was, the sound design, so much of the hard work of so many people

That said: I think what made the s3 Keyleth arc so frustrating was that the narrative kept undermining the message. At first, she was the one who didn't trust Raishan because liars and murderers are not ideal allies—some of the party agrees, but they go with pragmatism. It's useful to have someone on the inside and we can't have perfection if we're going to win.

Then it's: Keyleth isn't being listened to, but at least Vax does the respectful thing to say that he trusts her instincts even if they can't follow their better angels right now. Keyleth compromises—hooray, pragmatism. (We even do this back-and-forth twice: Once at the start of the season, then again around the selling-out of Whitestone. Keyleth immediately mistrusts Raishan, but she's wrong about that—and if they had let themselves consider it was really Ripley, they might have stopped it [or whatever]. So then they decide to be pragmatists again.)

Except then: Nope, Keyleth was right, she shouldn't have compromised, she wasn't listened to, her friends dismissed her, and she was right [except for those times she wasn't] and she needs to go it alone. She needs to trust herself independently and refuse to back down. Hooray, we have down a boardroom victory at the Ashari Council.

Except...: Wait, just kidding, Keyleth needs to learn to listen and trust, and go back to Vox Machina, and thank them for empowering her to trust herself. And now they can reunite as a team more sure of themselves and thus more able to communicate and trust each other to take risks as a party.

^^ Which in itself is not a bad message! But the whole doesn't really click with this final point. And so by the end, it was hard to feel like there was really wisdom gained or understanding reached by any of the characters individually or about each other, because the back-and-forth just... made it so inconsistent about what choices we are supposed to see as right or fair, and which as incorrect or naive.

[voiice-of-the-soul]

It irritates me alot when people say that making medic more compassionate is ''missing the point of his character'' when he is literally shown to be in the comics.... did you miss the part where he showed concern for both sniper and miss pauling's well being in comic 5 and 6.

His actions are a combination of genuine attachment + clinical interest and these things do not cancel out one another. He is always pushing boundaries and going against the grain and i think this is what led to him losing his license in the first place. He felt stifled by the rules imposed on him.

He is shown to be extremely passionate so it makes sense that he would use his endless fascination with medicine as a way to show his affection. He loves his friends so he will find a way to make them borderline indestructible. Malpractice is his love language.

[ceaselessims]

the fact that martin blackwood haters exist is so confusing to me like he's a bitch who moans and complains but also sets fire to things for fun and successfully manipulates avatars and gets jealous about the avatar of death waking up his boyfriend up from a coma and is both jon's staunchest defender and not afraid to call out jon's bullshit

[doctahchang]

something about season 5 of voy starting with the episode called night where janeway is at her lowest point + wants to go on suicide mission and ending with the episode called equinox (the time when day and night are approximately the same) where she goes on a revenge rampage, nearly killing someone. <3

[aether-weather]

art block amys :]

[al-luviec]

zane + nya parallels

[ba1laur]

support womens wrongs

[crowskullls]

So excited for baconswag week! 🟪🥓♠️

[blackhholes]

teen wolf meme: [2/2] locations -> the hale house

I've been having dreams. Dreams, or nightmares? Nightmares... About a fire. It's this-this house, and I can hear screaming-

[tejennnn]

🌏 May 2024 Etsy sh0p REOPENING & UPDATE 🌏

HUZZAH Finally I can do a shop update again 🫠 My Etsy shop will reopen with new updates & restocks on:

🛍️ artejennnn.etsy.com

🗓️ Saturday May 18th, 9AM EST/EDT (8PM UTC+7)! 🎉

🎁 New items:

⭐️ APH Balkan-Mediterranean countries spirit (Greece, Türkiye, Romania & Bulgaria) 🇬🇷🇹🇷🇷🇴🇧🇬 ⭐️ APH Iberian bros liqueur (Spain & Portugal) 🇪🇸🇵🇹 ⭐️ APH Switzerland Absinthe 🇨🇭 & APH France Red Wine 🇫🇷

⭐️ My first A5 100P reusable stickerbook!

Reminder: These new items and several product restocks are released in a very limited quantity! I'm planning to do a next update by preorder (PO) 🙇🏻‍♀️

🌏 Shipping info:

1. Got a few updates for non-USA countries shipping, please check the highlight on my instagram here!

2. If you’re located in the Americas and Europe but your country is not listed on my Etsy, please let me know!

3. For the next update, after adding the APH Aus-NZ and East Asian fam on the drinks series, I’m planning to open a PO for domestic, SEA, and Asian countries!

✨Shares are greatly appreciated! Thank you✨

[thebibliosphere]

Audible just announced to creators that they are lowering prices to “drive more sales,” but retaining the current policy of paying authors 20% royalties while taking 80% for themselves.

So now we’ll be getting less money for “hopefully” more sales 🙃

If it didn't provide an important accesibility feature for kindle whisper sync that so many people asked me for, I would never sign another project up for Audible ever again.

[californianedgeworth]

girl's night out

[radiotrophicfungi]

by the way, are there any disability-specific blinkies anyone would particularly like to see? my inbox is probably going to remain closed for the sake of my own sanity, but you can always drop a reply down below. :-)

[cluescorner]

I cannot imagine being a Damian stan right now. You've got both Zdarsky's bullshit (where he clearly doesn't give a shit about your boy) and The Boy Wonder (where Juni Ba clearly gives so many shits about your boy) coming out on the same day. The whiplash must be insane. I hope y'all get some nice warm soup for your efforts jfc

[strangersteddierthings]

Steve, Gareth and Chrissy are cousins AU (sad edition) [prologue] [part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5] [Part 6] [Part 7] [Final Part]

There is a voicemail on the answering machine when Steve gets home that night. It's from his Uncle Phillip, stumbling through a clumsy message about Chrissy's death, all while he can hear his Aunt Laura wailing in the background. He cuts the message off halfway, rewinding it for his parents to listen to when they return from wherever they've been. Whenever they return.

He picks up the phone, dials Gareth's number, and immediately hangs up before anyone can answer. This is a phone call that needs to wait. Even though all of Steve is itching to reach out to the family that still matters to him, he can't. He can't offer comfort or kind words or even offer to just be there. He's got the Upside Down to deal with first.

The Upside Down has returned and they don't have El and her powers. They don't have Hopper or Joyce. What they have is Steve. Steve is the only adult left in Hawkins that knows anything. It's his job to protect them all, somehow. Someway.

He's the adult.

Fuck. He can't think about this anymore tonight. He's so fucking tired. Instead of climbing the stairs to his room, he flops onto the couch in the living room, falling quickly into sleep plagued by nightmares.

Meanwhile, across town, Gareth has finally pried himself free of his mother's grip and slunk to his room. He flops on his bed and rolls to stare up at the ceiling.

He feels numb.

Chrissy is- she was- and in his best friend's house. And now Eddie is missing. What if whoever killed Chrissy kidnapped Eddie? Is something worse going to happen to Eddie?

And his mom and dad. They wouldn't say it to his face, but he can tell they blame Eddie. Maybe not blame, as in think he's the murderer, but certainly blame, in that, they think it's his fault Chrissy's dead. That whoever murdered Chrissy was really out to murder Eddie and Chrissy was an innocent bystander turned victim.

When his uncle called with the news it was unbelievable. His parents had seen the news, knew about the murder, but the police hadn't stated a name yet. He'd been asked so many questions, mostly about who Eddie knew that could have been over, but Gareth didn't have answers. Eddie hadn't mentioned anyone that was going to go to his house.

The police didn't take long actually identifying Chrissy, because they're reached out to next of kin and then Uncle Phillip had called, spoken to his dad and it's-

Well, it's all unbelievable. Hawkins has always been so dull and boring. Nothing happens here! Well, beyond that time the Byers kid went missing, then was dead but then not or whatever. And the fire at the brand-new mall but that was an accident, so even though a lot of people died, it was- it wasn't a murder.

Eddie is missing.

Chrissy is dead.

And Gareth is here, finally alone, in his room. His parents hadn't let him out of their sight since the phone call, and he can't really blame them. The death of someone in a family always makes his parents cling tighter to him but never before has the person who's passed been younger than his parents. He's been to the funeral for an uncle on his mom's side, which was her older brother, as well as for both his grandparents on his father's side.

Steve's side, he thinks. He knows Chrissy's dad called Steve's house, but his aunt and uncle probably aren't even in town. They barely were when Steve was a minor. Now that they can legally abandon him, they probably won't hear about Chrissy until Thanksgiving.

Jesus. Is Steve doing okay with the news? He knows he's got a best friend who stays more nights than not but are they there now, or is Steve alone?

Tears build in his eyes again as he thinks about when they were all younger, each just a year apart in school but all each other's first best friend. It used to be Steve, Chrissy, and himself against the world. Why had that changed?

Oh.

He knows. He changed it, heading into his freshman year. He told them he didn't want to hang out with them in high school.

And now Chrissy's dead and he realizes he no longer knows her -knew her- well enough to know why she'd be at Eddie's. Were they friend? Was Eddie her dealer? Did Chrissy even smoke weed? He knew she was dating Jason Carver but- was she also into Eddie? Chrissy had never seemed the kind of person to cheat, but what did Gareth actually know about her at the end of the day?

At the end of her life?

He rolls onto his side and sobs, curling into himself with all these unanswered questions running through his mind until he cries himself to sleep.

Steve has been awake for maybe ten minutes before Dustin is calling. The Upside Down waits for no man, so Steve finds himself picking up Dustin, Robin, and Max, and then they go to Cerebro to eavesdrop on the police.

Dustin talks him into handing his wallet over so he can run into the store and buy Eddie something for breakfast.

They deliver bad news to Eddie, follow a police car, meet up with Nancy, Robin and Nancy go to the library, he drives Max and Dustin first to Ms. Kelley's house, then the school. Once Robin and Nancy join them, Max fills them in on some depressing news before noises from the hallway draw their attention.

It turns out to be Lucas, here to warn about Jason.

Steve isn't meaning to eavesdrop when Lucas saddles up next to Dustin on the way to Steve's car and says, "Jason. He, uh, he went to Gareth's. Looking for Eddie. And he. Did you know Gareth and Chrissy Cunningham were cousins?"

Steve stumbles but if anyone noticed they don't call him on it.

Dustin says, "no. Oh, no. Don't tell me-"

"Yeah," Lucas confirms an unspoken question, "he's joined Jason's hunt for Eddie."

"Shit," Dustin and Steve say at the same time.

Unlike Steve, Gareth wakes late. It's almost noon before he drags himself from bed and to the bathroom.

A half hour later, he's clean and fed, and dialing Steve's number for the third time in a row, to get a third answering machine pickup.

"Answer the goddamn phone, Steve!" He snarls into the receiver this time, not having left messages the first two times. Just hung up and dialed again, then. "Have you heard about- I need you, so answer your fucking phone."

He slams the phone back into its cradle. His parents are still lost in their own fear and sorrow, because neither of them scold him for his language or the treatment of the phone.

He calls Jeff, and then Frankie, to cancel practice. They're worried but don't push when Gareth blames his mom. Then he spends another two hours trying to get a hold of Steve, and even Wayne a couple times, but no one answers.

He is surprised, and a little annoyed, when he mom comes to his room a bit later in the day to let him know he has guests at the door. He hauls himself from his bed, ready to tell the guys to fuck off, but when he steps outside to Chrissy's boyfriend instead of Jeff, the words die on his tongue.

Carver, some other guys from the basketball team, and Lucas Sinclair standing in the way back, are waiting for him on his lawn. Gareth closes the front door before slowly stepping off the porch. "Can I help you?"

"We're looking for Eddie. He here?" Carver asks.

"No."

Carver nods, hands shoved into his letterman lifting and dropping, like he was going to make a 'what can you do' gesture but forgot his hands were in his pockets. "Know where we can find him?"

They're looking for Eddie. This is -was- Chrissy's boyfriend. He probably knows the truth as much as Gareth does. And, he wants to know more. He's sure, judging by the tension in Carver's stance and how Lucas is shaking his head no behind them all, that Carver's probably convinced Eddie did it. So, if Gareth wants the truth, he needs to find Eddie, too. "You try Dustin Henderson's house?"

Carver looks surprised by the freely given information, and Lucas looks betrayed. "No. But we will. Thanks."

"I'm coming with."

Carver, who had turned away, turns back slowly. "You think so?"

"She's my cousin. Chrissy. So, yeah, I think I'm coming," Gareth hopes it's enough to get Carver to agree. If Eddie's innocent, Gareth wants to be there to help him. And if- if the fucking worst has happened and Eddie did it.

Well. He wants to be there to help with that, too.

[lokh]

its sooo fun how dungeons reveal the psyche of the dungeon lord like. thistles dungeon was so planned and meticulous but so full of ghosts and unravelling at the end. mithruns dungeon was apparently so convoluted and 'made out of jealousy, lies, anger and inferiority'. marcilles dungeon was like.... that lmao, everything being brought to the same level with no real regard for what that might do to the ecosystem, and laios' dungeon ultimately ends up spilling out onto the surface. becoming one with it you might say

anyways if you were a dungeon lord what would your dungeon look like