#and oh man this post Is big and long

[cantdealwiththisnow]

Part 1 - Appreciation post for all the TFP universe Autobot mugshot cameos (known and unknown) in RID2015 3x25 (even if the context is that they've been OUSTED against their will)

[tenshi-agerasia]

new enstars characters (nice + 4piece) as tbh/autism creatures ◕_◕ also i color picked them and recolored some pride flags because i can

fuyume -> bigender

ibuki -> nonbinary

esu -> transmasc

raika -> aroace

kanna -> agender

[dukeofthomas]

"Angry robin" "violent robin" "misbehaving robin" shut up and accept my alternative; spunky Robin. Determined and head strong, can out-stubborn the Batman, has a strong moral-backbone and does what he thinks is right regardless of what anybody else says, Robin. Jason who was sassy and quippy and made crude jokes with a smile on his face. Jason who hid in Bruce's cape and whispered gossip to him. Jason who, if Bruce refused him something, could keep bothering endlessly until Bruce caved. And also dramatic Jason. If Bruce tells him no, it becomes a whole theatrical show; a monologue, a narration, embellishments, and falling onto the floor in his grief upon the fact his cruel father has denied him once again.

(Jason who has suffered through abuse and homelessness and poverty and starvation, who is the Fight out of Fight or Flight, who's built up defenses and walls and when pushed and triggered responds with the thing that's always protected him; anger. He's sweet and kind and funny, and when he sees a pimp hitting a prostitute he gets furious and responds with violence.)

[savrenim]

whos ur mdzs blorbo (if u say anyone but jiang cheng youre wrong /JOKE)

not to be an Extremely Basic Bitch but Wei Wuxian. in my defense gotta LOVE me any character who is doing basic physics research and you cannot tell me that the development of demonic cultivation is not basic physics research in any given story I am going to be most obsessed with the character who is closest to doing theoretical physics in that setting bc most often nobody gives a fuck about the physics of their world in the main story even!! though!! it!! would!! be!! really!! cool!! magic!! physics!! that!! I!! want!! to!! know!! about!! and yes I understand the author set out to tell a story not to do fundamental physics but the physics of it will haunt me. I can and will kill on the hill that Wei Wuxian does magic physics and he does it Really Fucking Well and that is the thing I care most about in the world

but also

I am generally Bad At Cooking. I got better at cooking towards the end of grad school! but at the beginning of grad school I was actually cooking all my own food for the first time and was Bad At It and what's worse is that I was so tight on time that I'd almost always bulk cook for the whole week which meant that if I fucked up a recipe I had to eat it for lunch and dinner for like six days straight

until I discovered. the single best cooking hack. in the world.

you see, I like spicy. and I'm a vegetarian have been for forever and vegetarian bulk meals are like. "pasta and vegetables" "beans and rice and vegetables" etc etc. which and it turns out. that if you fuck up trying to make something. without altering the texture and having to redo anything bc it's totally possible to do it at the very end you can just dump an ungodly amount of red pepper flakes and/or cayenne pepper powder in and now it does not taste Bad, it simply tastes Spicy, and for me, that tastes Good

I proceeded to use this trick with everything. including when my coffee beans got really old and stale bc bought those in bulk too. simply throw red pepper flakes in to the ground beans before you drip brew it and now it's spicy coffee instead of stale coffee!

anyways I eventually became A Better Cook and Started To Make Food That Is Spicy But You Can Actually Like. Taste Other Flavors. miss Spicy Coffee tho, wish I had the time to brew my own coffee again.

fast forward to like. a month ago.

I discovered about a month ago lo and behold that I Do Slightly Better life-wise if I Actually Eat Breakfast before running out the door even though it's like 6:45am and I'm not that hungry. and I had a bunch of old fancy farmer's market granola from like two years ago that was about to expire so I started eating that with some greek yogurt. but it was a small bag and I was about to run out. so I bugged housemate-partner-who-is-a-good-cook-my-beloved of would he consider helping make me a shit-ton of homemade bulk granola, I'd grab the ingredients and we could figure it out as we went along

except the thing is he Hates cooking by Vibes instead of A Recipe it Stresses Him Out So Much bc he is not used to people with the attitude of "eh if I fuck around I find out that is the deal I make with the universe I'll still eat it" he is used to people with the attitude of "if it's fucked up I am physically incapable of eating this"

so I. jokingly. as he expressed some Worry about "do we REALLY need to cook this by Vibes? can we Please find a granola recipe??" went "hey don't worry!! if it comes out Absolutely Terrible we can just use my old trick from grad school of throwing enough cayenne pepper into it that it just takes Spicy instead of Bad!" the joke being that like. spicy granola in yogurt that is a CRIME hell spicy granola is a crime who ever heard of spicy granola

.............except I was. really curious.

so the next morning I tried sticking some red pepper flakes so the texture wouldn't be disgusting into my granola and yogurt, I am nothing if not a caricature of myself, I live by the primary tenet of "commit to the bit" there did not exist a world in which once I had set forth that bit I would not Commit to it.

and it was delicious????? like it was weird Spicy Surprise but it was delicious. No Bit I Just Legitimately Like Spicy Granola Apparently With Or Without Yogurt.

so I Decided that let's not even wait for us to Potentially Fuck Up The Granola Recipe let's just put 3/4ths of a full shaker of red pepper flakes into it for Funnsies. because that's a reasonable amount of red pepper flakes, right? there's a lot of granola I want to make sure that there's a hint of spice in every bite!

out came a gallon and a half of Crimes Granola. the red pepper flakes got into the coconut oil so every single bite of it is infused with a huge amount of spice it is FUCKING DELICIOUS and to absolutely every single person in my house who have Nowhere Near My Spice Tolerance even the one who Likes Reasonably Spicy Things it is Totally Inedible I make a three month supply of booby-trapped granola that I and I alone can eat

anyways.

like two days later I proceeded to have an existential crisis about the fact that I'd made granola that I was the only person I knew who would like it, except also, Wei Wuxian would probably like it.

so yeah he's my fave.

[kindahoping4forever]

Ash IG Story

[sleepy-crypt1d]

how is it that every time i have played cry of fear i have discovered a new horrible thing about its story and its symbolism

[poetess-trobadour]

I'm a poet,

She's an artist,

We are a funny mix.

I write our jolly ventures with my lips,

She draws them on my skin with her fingertips,

And when I wake, it still exists,

Awhile, in quiet morning mist.

I'm a poet,

She's an artist,

A tale that's bittersweet.

I smudge with ink soft linen sheets,

With paints, she smears her crown of wheat,

And when she laughs, it all imprints,

Like spots of sun, behind my eyelids.

I'm a poet,

She's an artist.

Oh, what a messy pair.

I'm so in love, it's unpoetic.

She draws the line, she's unaware.

And when we're together, people stare;

Call me a fool or straight pathetic,

But world's in love with our aesthetic, too.

Poet & artist, November 2023

[buffyspeak]

the big book of craig manning meta, part 2: pre-series background.

trigger warnings: discussions of emotional, psychological, physical, and potential financial abuse, as well as brief references to classist attitudes.

albert: what's your interest in my son? joey: just... albert: he's my son, right? joey: yes, but he's also angela's brother. albert: half-brother.

though craig's introduction is quite memorable and the show is quite good at letting us get to know his life circumstances right away, because certain things happened pre-series (or at least pre-craig's introduction) there are a couple of things that are left ambiguous and up to interpretation. i've seen different perspectives, for instance, on how julia leaving albert went down, whether albert was abusive to julia as well, or whether craig used to live with joey and julia before she died. a lot of this is going to be based on speculation/my interpretation of what's talked about.

a couple of things we know to be textual in canon by when doves cry:

joey and julia's wedding was five years ago, so craig would have been about 9 at the time.

angie is six in season 2, so julia and joey had her before they got married.

craig went to a different middle school as most of the rest of the main cast, which is why he wasn't in season 1. (i mean, realistically, i don't know if the writers had come up with his character at the start of the show. but this is the in-universe reason.) he starts at degrassi because the nearby high school closed down due to budget cuts. this also seems to be the the high school the other grade-nines would have gone to, so he likely would have met them, but he would not have gotten to know emma more or met sean, who are both in grade eight. (and both of whom are pretty instrumental in helping to get him out of his situation.)

albert is a rich surgeon, and at least since julia died, seems to have full custody of craig.

julia died two years ago, given that at the start of season 1, joey says she's been dead for a year, and it's now a year later. so i believe craig would have been 11 or 12, depending on what time of year it happened.

at some point, when angie was a baby, craig was with angie (and presumably joey and julia) on a trip to british columbia.

joey is unaware of the abuse until the events of when doves cry. while he seems generally concerned for craig's well-being due to his mom's death and his clearly missing angie, he doesn't seem concerned for craig's literal safety until sean and emma inform him that albert is hurting craig and angie unwittingly tells him about the bruises she saw.

a couple of things i feel can be intuited from the aforementioned facts:

albert frames the separation between him and julia as her leaving him for a used car salesman. while he is not the most reliable source and we have little perspective about what their marriage was like, the timeline seems to indicate that julia either divorced albert in order to get together with joey very quickly, or that she cheated on him with joey, and that getting pregnant with angie was possibly the final push to leave albert. i've always kind of assumed the latter to be true since i first saw these eps, given exactly how much resentment albert seems to hold for both julia and joey.

(note: i am 1000% not blaming julia or joey for albert's abuse of his son. his actions are his own, and whatever reasons he has or feels he has do not excuse those actions. we also know very little about the relationship between albert and julia, making it difficult to judge her actions, as elaborated on below.)

i think it is unlikely that albert was physically abusive to julia, because i think if that was the case, joey would likely know about it and would be much more concerned about craig's safety. while it's clear joey and albert don't like each other, and that joey thinks albert is not a very nice person, i think it's fairly logical to chalk that up to the relationship drama in their history. i do think it's possible that albert was emotionally/verbally/pyschologically abusive to her, as he also is with craig. but even now, some people don't recognize these things as abuse, and at the time period this would have been happening, i think there was much less understanding of the kind of toll these forms of abuse can take. i think for joey's part, if julia did confide in him about any potential problems with her relationship with albert, he likely thought albert was a dick and a bad husband, but may not have the language or the knowledge to recognize him as an abuser. julia herself may not have at the time, either.

these notes are even more speculation based, but this is how i tend to interpret the events before craig's intro on the show, based on what we do know:

i pretty strongly believe that even when julia was alive, at the absolute most, the time craig spent with joey, angela, and julia was on weekends, maybe holidays, and at least one trip to british columbia.

i know people are often confused by the idea that albert might have gotten full custody, but honestly, it is not that much of a stretch to me. if julia initiated the divorce, and especially if she and joey had an affair, putting my own feelings about it aside (because again, i really do not want or think it's fair to judge her for this, given how little we know about the relationship), i think any court likely would have seen julia as the one 'at fault' for the divorce. we also don't know anything about her own background or what she might have done for work: it is possible that she did not have the financial means to either start or win a custody battle, and albert is established to be a rich surgeon with a good reputation. so it's possible that julia did fight for custody, but it's also possible that she wasn't able to and that they worked something out for whenever albert oh-so-graciously (note the sarcasm) decided to let craig see her.

i've seen it implied that joey, julia, and angela might have lived in british columbia, or that albert and craig moved there for a while, but i don't see this as viable, given that we know joey has a long-standing used car dealership and that albert is a well-regarded and well-known surgeon at his hospital. while it's not impossible, it seem seems unlikely and is not confirmed.

what we do know is that at some point, craig and angie were there together, though angie was too young to remember it and craig says she was "just a baby". my best guess would be that maybe joey and julia had a little honeymoon there and brought both kids along with them. angie would have been about 1, then, making it a lot more feasible that they would have taken her on this trip. with her being so young, i doubt they'd want to leave her, even with another family member, like joey's mom. and hey, if angie's coming, craig can come along, too!

it might seem counterintuitive, when i'm sitting here saying that i don't think albert usually let craig see them, that he would then allow him to go on this trip, but for one thing, it's clear that craig did spend at least some time with them, given the bond he and angie have developed. i also think the show does a pretty good job at showing the complexities of abusers: they're not always these complete monsters, doing one bad thing after another. we see 'nice' moments between craig and albert, couched as they are in manipulation, but realistically, he probably wasn't always this 100% unreasonable guy all of the time. and honestly, that's one of the really dangerous things about abusers: they can seem nice in front of other people and even to their victims, and they may even mean it some of the time, but that 'niceness' is often what keeps people from seeing the truth. someone could see one of act of kindness albert might do for his son and think, there's no way that guy hurts his kid.

maybe craig really wanted to go, and the day he asked, albert was feeling charitable. because again: the show is actually pretty good about showing the cycles and complexity of abuse. albert, while awful to craig in general, probably did not always seem awful 100% of the time.

or maybe julia insisted and threatened, regardless of her circumstances, to take him to a court. for one reason or another, i think it's feasible that this happened without necessarily being indicative of albert agreeing for craig to spend a lot of time with them in general.

however, based on what we know, i do not believe craig lived with joey long-term prior to the show for a couple of different reasons. this is fairly subjective, and they obviously know and are decently familiar with each other in when doves cry, but it does not seem like they know each other particularly well. i don't know exactly why i say this, it could be totally off-base but... the way they talk to each other just does not strike me as two people who have spent tons of time with each other.

to be fair, you could chalk this up to the fact that julia has now been dead for two years, and albert obviously isn't letting craig see joey in any signifcant capacity. 12-14 are also pretty formative years where a lot can change for a kid. but still, it doesn't seem like, up to this point, they are more than somewhat acquainted to each other. i imagine that trip to british columbia was probably the most significant length of time they spent together.

however, my especially big reason for believing this is the case is what happens after craig moves in with joey and angela. in the next especially craig-focused episode we get, drive, something subtle is happening in otherwise overall pretty lighthearted episode: craig and joey are both learning the boundaries with each other. craig doesn't know where he'll go if joey goes away for the weekend, but joey says he's old enough to stay at their home. joey establishes ground rules for having friends over during the weekend. craig gets into trouble at joey's for the first time and it is clear it is the first time joey is disciplining him as his dependent. i think that, had joey and craig lived together in any significant capacity prior to this, their boundaries and dynamic would be more firmly established. the underlying conflict here might be "i do not know how to raise craig now that julia's gone and i can't coparent with her" rather than "i don't know how to raise this new teenager in my life." but instead, a lot of what we see between them this season is learning how to live together, what the roles are, and how to be a family unit.

this sort of leads to my next point, as convoluted as all of this problem seems (i swear the structure makes sense in my head): because i believe that albert had full custody pretty much from the moment julia left, i think it logically follows that the abuse toward craig either started or ramped up/became physical once julia was no longer in the household.

i've seen other people say that it doesn't make sense for albert to be abusive to craig but not julia, and while i can understand that to a degree, i don't know how much i agree. as i said, i think it's more than possible he was emotionally abusive to her, and that may have contributed to her leaving, but it's clear that her leaving triggered a lot of albert's behavior, as he let that resentment fester and began projecting it onto his son. i think the abuse toward craig likely started or significantly ramped-up and became physical once she left because albert could get away with it, being his primary guardian and given his ability to isolate craig the way he does.

albert is an esteemed surgeon who clearly cares a lot about what people think of him and about his prestige, and he is very used to being in control. yet, with his wife leaving him for someone he considers so low beneath him (because classism), his pride is wounded, he feels his sense of worth, tied up in ego and masculinity as it is, slip, and i think his abuse of craig is pretty undeniably him grasping for the one 'thing' that still is under control: his son, who he sees as his to parent how he pleases.

which tracks, because albert often frames his abuse of craig as punishments for craig 'misbehaving', such as lashing out and throwing a dinner plate when craig is home late for dinner, or saying "because you always screw up" when craig reminds his dad that he always says it will never happen again and it always does. it obviously goes past what any reasonable person would deem appropriate discipline for a child and is instead abusive, but i truly do think that's how he justifies it in his mind. it may have even started out - i don't want to say more normally, but there are more socially accepted (especially at the time, though to some degree, even today) physical punishments, like spanking, and it's possible albert's assertion of his extreme control over craig started somewhere there, and escalated as he began projecting all of his issues onto craig and realized the degree of control he had over craig as his primary guardian. which i think is why he can stand there at the end of when doves cry and say he doesn't beat craig, and some part of himself probably genuinely believes it, because cognitive dissonance. (it is still gaslighting, though.)

anyway. this was long. it realistically should have been the first part, but oh, well. i think that a lot of this is subjective and up to a viewer's own interpretation, as i think they left some of this purposefully ambiguous because trying to establish the prior events when craig's story is supposed to be about what's happening now would have been confusing. regardless, this is my two (or three, or five million) cents.

[sysig]

Just a few favourites, only a couple, I swear (Patreon)

[phoenixkaptain]

Okay but all the little changes and everything in Scum Villain add up to the ultimate, biggest difference in the story, which is this:

Shen Qingqiu, who was an early villain in the novel who gets defeated relatively early in the story (relative to the fact that there are about a billion more pages after he becomes a human stick) and Luo Binghe, who was the main character, both completely reverse their roles.

Shen Qingqiu becomes the protagonist who is generally very well liked. The Shen Qingqiu of PIDW was a liar and a schemer and just about the most suspicious person in any given room at any given time. The Shen Qingqiu of SVSSS is a liar (by necessity) and a schemer (of ways to off himself but live through it) and just about the most suspicious person in any given room at any given time (if someone who I had a rivalry with suddenly called me a “beauty fading,” I think I would react in a similar way to Liu Qingge honestly). All the traits that made the character disliked are things that the others actively choose to ignore in the person, because they like him.

Luo Binghe becomes not just a villain, but the ultimate villain. The unbeatable villain. Luo Binghe in PIDW was generally very well-liked because he could manipulate people into thinking he wasn’t that bad and he was morally grey and he could defeat any monster with relative ease. Luo Binghe in SVSSS is generally disliked, particularly because whenever he pulls out his very convincing polite person cosplay, everyone knows that he is definitely manipulating them and is a bit wary of why. He’s morally grey but his morals are even more screwed up than his predecessor. He can defeat any monster with relative ease, but he can’t defeat any person he wants to, he can’t kill anybody he wants to, because he knows that Shen Qingqiu would hate him if he did and he doesn’t want that. The traits that the original used to his own advantage only makes this version more and more unhappy.

Shen Qingqiu goes from a villain, the villain the readers all most wanted for Luo Binghe to take out because of how terrible he was to Luo Binghe, to the protagonist.

Luo Binghe goes from the protagonist, the protagonist with hundreds of wives and the world under his control, to the villain.

I can never get over this role reversal, this swapping of spots, this absolute 180 of the characters from the base novel. It’s one of the clearest indicators of the story being permanently altered. It’s part of why they fit so well and work and it’s really good, it’s really really good I like it a lot.

[cantdealwiththisnow]

Part 2, tinyass RID2015 3x25 screenshots continued. because I mean just LOOK at Percy, he's definitely killed a man before

[ratatatastic]

there is nothing more delightful than hearing forsy talk about fishing absolutely nothing more delightful than that so behold. forsy talking about fishing.

"More than just hockey, you're also a big fisherman. Why fishing?" "I don't know, it's something that I did growing up with my grandpa, my dad and my two brothers. It's a good way to relax and get your mind off hockey—Everything really in life. You're focusing on fishing and that's it." "So, when are you buying your boat here in South Florida?" "Well...we'll see. It's mostly a summer thing but I wouldn't mind a boat. I'm pretty simple like that! It's hockey, fishing and family-life. Yeah, that is pretty much it for me." "You're a simple man!" "Yep!" "It's good! It's probably why you're a good player 'cuz you got your focuses. You're locked in!" "Yeah, yeah."

WSFL Inside South Florida | 4.11.24 (x)

"When you disconnect—When you step away from the rink, what are some of the things you like to do over the course of the summer?" "I'm a big fishing guy, so that's pretty much all I do when I'm working out back home." "Where do you go to fish? Where are the big spots in Sweden?" "Can't tell you the best spots. Just around—We actually—Me and my fiancée just bought a house back home. We haven't seen it yet so it's gonna be fun to see the house by the lake...I'm gonna fish that way." "It is furnished? Or are you walking into an empty house?" "No, it's gonna be empty!" "Oh, that's a summer project!" "Yeah, so we got a lot of things to do." "What do you go for? What's the most exciting thing you've pulled in?" "I enjoy pike fishing. I love big pikes. That's probably my favourite." "Is that part of the off-season workout? I mean, the upperbody gets a good workout fishing." "Oh, yeah. I think it's a lot of mental, too! Like, a mental game. So, you know, you gotta stay patient. It's a lot of fun."

Territory Talk | 6.15.22 (x)

"First question, I gotta ask you. What's something recently—off the ice, outside of hockey—that's brought you joy?" "Ooh! When I'm home during summer usually I fish a lot. So, that's something I really enjoy. I've been doing a lot this summer...Yeah, fishing, I would say." "Fishing. That's something you do with friends, with family, by yourself?" "Yeah. Actually both. I fish with my brothers and my dad, and a lot of buddies." "That sounds great! That sounds like a nice way to unwind!" "It is!" "—And the total opposite sort-of mentality of hockey which is so 'go-go-go-go!' physical in-your-face." "Yeah, it's still very competitive. Fishing it's—but it's fun!" "When you're dealing with a professional athlete I can't imagine theres anything that's not at least a little competitive." "Exactly!"

Miami Mic'd Up | 10.12.23 (x)

"We're seeing you're a big outdoorsman... ya like fishing?" "Yeah. I love—I'm a big fisherman." "Yeah? Do you have any—Have you been on a big fishing trip? Or you've just been fishing in Sweden? Down there in Florida? Where you at and what do you like to fish?" "In Florida it's mostly deep sea fishing. I'm more a lake guy. I mean, I'm starting to get into it more here in Florida. Ekblad is fishing a lot, so, he took me out a couple times. It's pretty cool to get a big Tuna and stuff like that...but I'm more of a lake guy, I would say." "Does Ekky make you pull in the big fish? 'Cuz he already said how big and strong you are, 'throwing a 250'... He's like—he gives it over to you or what?" "Yeah, but he's got the whole electric stuff so he's—" "Oh, he's cheating! With the big rod riggers!" "Yeah! He rigs—" "He got into that a few years ago when I was down there with him. He's still into it, he's still on that deep sea stuff. I can never do it, it made me sick." "Yeah. Yeah, he is."

NHL Network | 3.14.24 (x)

man who absolutely wanted to be asked to reel in a big one by his partner but absolutely did not get the privilege because ekkys gone electric mourn for him hes want to be a big strongman and useful but now he cant because of technology.

but also the lakeguy vs seaguy fishing fued we got here is utterly delightful im not surprised if ekky took him out fishing just to try and convince him that its better can you imagine the amount of squabbles theyve got in over fishing. but also ekky took him out fishing. several times. like that happened. okay im gonna normal about that 👍

also not them damsel in distressing ekky like ohhhhh does he make you do the heavy stuff he talks soooooo much about how big and strong you are does he put you to work *bats eyelashes*

forsy, who really desperately wants to be put to work: no no he doesnt 😔😔

and here are just the multitude of photos of forsy fishing (redfin perches and northern pikes) over the years and posting it to ig and the captions are all filled with the weight and length of the fish like oh hes a real fishin boi give me those numbers (x)(x)(x)(x)(x)(x)

[astranauticus]

Do mechanites cry?

[tempestmothstorm]

Thinking about human versions of the tadc gang. I think they would work great in The Office (they would suffer immensely)

[meowstix]

i think probably my biggest issue with analog horror and r/nosleep is the fact that like. in analog horror especially there's this sort of unquestioned trust in authorities. like, the horror is always "what if a public service announcement or something was intercepted by a scary guy" or "what if the government is hiding some sort of apocalyptic horror" (the former being more analog horror and the latter being more r/nosleep) and not like... "what if these institutions wanted to hurt us from the start. what if all of these horrifying things were things working exactly as intended". the horror always comes from those in power being unable to deal with threats, never that they ARE the threats, at least from everything i've seen

edit: a lot of the time with r/nosleep these often tend to fall into "weird scary mentally ill person" which is... an entire other can of worms. like "oh i used to work at the government and there's a maximum security prison there full of Crazy Serial Killers". i know nosleep isn't exactly known for being great but you really notice particular trends just by scrolling through it hoping that just maybe there'll be something good.

[kindahoping4forever]

AshtonIrwin: playing along with the band in my head