#and the extra content has been great with the books and stuff

[possiblyawesometmblr]

"ooh i hope disney makes another season of gravity falls" you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept that where a story ends is just as important as where it begins

[txttletale]

hey what DO you watch on youtube? seems like you'd have some neat recommendations :3

i really loathe the like super-highly edited sound effect post-mrbeast slop most of youtube is now so i mostly like stuff that's like... calm and sedate. stuff i've been watching lately in no particular order:

northernlion vods and clips. he's an OG. i especially like his react court series, i must have watched all of them like five times.

speaking of OGs i've been watching zero puncutation (now fully ramblomatic) for like ten years and if anything it's only gotten better. best game review content on the internet. been really enjoying his more recent, slightly longer and more thoughtful 'extra punctuation/semi-ramblomatic' series too.

any austin's skyrim unemployment rate videos. instant classics to me, it's just a guy going around in skyrim trying to figure out the unemployment rate in every town. it's a very dry kind of humour, he plays it admirably straight, and it's weirdly calming.

kitten arcader's foot the bill videos. in a kind of similar vein, he watches the saw movies and then produces an itemized bill for everything jigsaw needed to buy to make his traps. it's kind of like... if cinemasins was fundamentally curious instead of fundamentally incurious, it scratches a similar sort of nitpicky detail-oriented quantifying itch but without inimical to the concept of art.

shuffle up and play. it's a magic the gathering play series that has enough editing that the gamestate is actually legible but not enough editing (or at least, not enough obtrusive in-your-face editing) that its annoying. i also like that they reguilarly play non-edh formats like cube and pauper.

spice8rack. i'm pretty picky about video essays but spice8rack has very obviously actually read books and has interesting things to say about the topics it discusses (mostly magic: the gathering). sometimes it has a kind of grating Theater Kid Energy but the fact that it actually meaningfully structures essays and analysis to earn the silly long runtimes is a rare delight from a video essayist.

jenny nicholson is a long-time favourite and another permanent fixture in my rotation. she's just extremely, remarkably funny which makes her the only 'basically just summarizing a thing' youtuber i think is worth the time of day.

i watch some sketch comedy, mainly wizards with guns and aunty donna, who both consistently put out really funny stuff that's kind of ITYSL-adjacent in its barefaced absurdism and contenmpt for concepts like "stopping a joke at the logical punchline". i also really like alasdair beckett-king and binging the old clickhole backlog for short-form comedy on youtube.

wolfeyvgc is right on the edge of the level of editing i find tolerable but as a long-time fan of multiple esports he Has It, he's absolutelyt fantastic at t elling the narrative of a tournament, explaining plays clearly, and generally making competitive pokemon esports thrilling and interesting ti someone (me) who#s never played it and doesn't care about pkoemon that much

i religously watch every elliespectacular/dathings YTP, the absolute best in the game right now, top tier snetence mixing and really good at actually setting up and paying off jokes in a way it feels like a lot of ytp doesn't. verytallbart is also pretty good.

trapperdapper is a channel i recently binged, it's a really fucking funny parody of minecraft challenge content that veers slowly from obvious angles of parody into pure absurdism with tons of blink-and-you'll miss it subtle visual gags.

too much future is a great youtube series where the two guys from just king things/homestuck made this world play through every fallout game and analyze them in that context. extremely funny and also just top-tier very sharp analysis. really good

another one of the rare good video essayists is jan misali. they're really funny and will go into topics that kind of seem narrow or strange to begin with in such depth and make them so interesting that it's consistently astonishing.

oh and finally sarah z makes pretty good videos. 'the narcissist scare' is an absolutely brilliant deconstruction of one of the most annoying pop-psych phenomena of the last couple years. and remarkably well script supervised i think did anyone else watch it and think 'wow the script supervisor on this must have been, a mind geniuse'

ok i think that's all i've been watching lately. hope you like whcihever of these recs you check out :)

[saranilssonbooks]

100 Moby-Dick covers ranked by your's truly. Thank you so much to all those of you who sent in contributions and helped make this completely out of proportion project a thing. Jars of angelic spermaceti for everyone! 🤍

As for the ranking, it is purely the result of my own personal taste in aesthetics and heavily influenced by my perception of the story. Add to that a generous amount of sentimentality, as shall be apparent.

What I have been mainly looking at in judging the designs is as follows...

- General appearance; is it attractive? 💕

- Does it help sufficiantly communicate the nature of the story (theme, genre, mood, plot)? ⚰️

- Is it canon? (Meaningful creative licence perfectly allowed!) ✅️

As for the tiers themselves, we have...

Topmost Greatness: this is something out of the ordinary, possibly genius and also I neeeeed it for my collection!

A: Good, good stuff, but might lack that very extra special something

B: Gets the job done, agreeable, totally okay.

C: It's not exactly bad and I'll let that oopsie over there slide, but I probably wouldn't pay much for this one.

You Had One Job: Yeah, you did.

Should Never Have Surfaced: Makes the Pequod tragedy look like a merry holiday.

Art thou ready?

TOPMOST GREATNESS

1. The most beautiful Moby-Dick cover I've ever seen. I was almost tempted to create a tier higher than Topmost Greatness only so that I could place it there.

2. Brilliant composition and color choice, despite its simplicity it hits me straight in the soul.

3. I remember drooling over this in the book store back in the day and considered reading it only because it was so gorgeous. Manages to be both crowded and clean at the same time. Story instantly recognizable.

4. The classiest of all time? Forever a winner!

5. I show the image of this one to people to make them understand the creative brilliancy that thrives within the Moby-Dick community.

6. Captures the mood in a fittingly crooked, awkward way that makes my heart beat faster. (Also reminds me of my copy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for some reason.)

7. Another sort of awkward one, but I love the style, I love the surreal combination of drama and stiffness, pretty fitting the story itself. Makes 'Hab look a bit like the Grim Reaper.

8. The erratic painting technique gives me the perfect kind of crazy vibes.

9. Moby-Dick, a bibliophile's dream, topmost mood nailing, superior dark academia accessory... what more could anyone wish for in a book?

10. So well thought out and the claustrophobic feel helps to create an unsettling mood despite the otherwise quite cheery colors. Sorry, Madagascar.

11. Look, my two main areas of Moby-Dick interest is Ahab and rhe psychology, so... y'know.

12. Mood certainly set.

13. Guess I have a thing for harpoon/eye symbolism. Again that claustrophobic feel by leaving only a sliver of crowded surface.

14. First physical Moby-Dick copy I ever bought. All the books in this Penguin series are gorgeous, but to me this is one of the design winners regardless of the contents.

15. Unsettled in all this tropical serenity yet?

16. The boldness in color choice and to focus on the fire theme is as unusual as it is exciting, and the very modern touch makes it even more interesting!

A.

17. Not normally a style I'm drawn to, but somehow this manages to capture my interest. A successful nod to the painting at the Spouter Inn, lovely line work. My sibling got me this one as a locket for my last b-day.

18. My beloved companion, by now containing almost as much tape as paper. The 19th century poster design is irresistable to me. A white tail would've been even cooler though.

19. It's not that unique looking, yet the worn feel and harpooned Moby Dick simply gets to me somehow.

20. All the crucial elements skillfully and effectivly forged (no pun intended) together.

21. The way the psychology has been captured and the missing leg detail is yum!

22. Kind of busy but so unique and interesting! Yes plz.

23. Another classic! How could Kent's iconic whale ever fail?

24. Aiming for the adventure theme, it appears, and successfully so. Unusual color choice which I happen to be all about. Total vintage feel!

25. Again, not that much is happening, but the ropes, the character design, the inking... I love you, cover, and I need you in my life!

26. An often used scene, but the style gets to me so, so bad.

27. I'm not that much about the washed out color, but the rest is love.

28. Very basic, but also very nice and display friendly and I enjoy the vibe so much.

29. Almost made it to Topmost, but the positioning of the illustration gives off a cheap feel to me. Why couldn't you have used that gorgeous theme depiction to better advantage? Can one order a remake? Or a cropped poster?

30. Love the composition so much but the technique simply doesn't do it quite enough for me to move up one full notch. Still want it so bad for the collection though.

31. Runny ink on pure white is something I associate with Moby-Dick, don't know why. The blotchiness is a really great touch.

32. The design doesn't say much concerning the content, but nevertheless it is so pretty and am I correct when I say there's harpoon vibes?

33. Had that been a white whale, it would've ended up under Topmost!

34. My first reaction to this was that it's a really interesting piece of art, but I wasn't so sure I liked it as much in book cover form. The more I look at it, the more intrigued and enamoured I get. I want more of this.

35. Ahab and Moby Dick from Ahab's POV? Love the distorted psychedelic atmosphere, but another one with missed full illustration use potential.

B.

36. Brings back the menory of cigarettes and fear. Granny the Gregory Peck fan owned one of these and it freaked me out where she kept it on display ever after I'd been forced to watch the movie at age 6. Now I want one just for the hell of it.

37. Okay, so hear me out. I know it's a children's book, but the illustrator obviously knew the story. Love the tangling rope and that Ahab's prosthetic leg seems made out of whale bone rather than wood for once.

38. Nice modern touch, but that's straight up the New Bedford whaler statue, which kinda ruins it for me.

39. Lovely, lovely design, but I simply don't associate it with a story about suicidal tendencies, gore, and mass death.

40. A somewhat unusual character choice to pose on a cover, but hey, I'll take it! :D

41. Doesn't pop, but I do like me some traditional Japanese art vibes!

42. Elegant, but the huge M obscures the title text and the harpoon looks as if crossed with a sewing needle.

43. Basic, but the feel is there and I like the color combination for this story.

44. Love the art and it's impossible not to identify which story this is, but I have several Ahab design choice questions which won't leave me.

45. This whole thing is odd and busy, but I also really like it!

46. Speaking of Japanese traditional art. The lines and the moodiness is much to my liking.

47. Simple, spot on, nothing that extra.

48. If only he hadn't looked so damn happy about it as if Ahab was about to throw that harpoon like a stick for him to fetch. Untold plot line??

49. There is this whole sub genre of Moby Dick balancing the Pequod, a concept that certainly works, but by now it has to have that little extra something to seem truly special.

50. We have a less erroneous whale, folks! It may be a stock image, but Ishmael gave this one thumbs up, and so how could I possibly do differently? Nicely done!

51. First, I get strong The Old Man and the Sea impressions. Second, what kind of whale do you intend to kill with that thing, my dude? Points for canonical end game beard though.

52. I assume this is meant as a traditional Polynesian art style nod in honor of our dear Queequeg. The sports wear lining texture in the title letters confuses me though.

53. There certainly are plenty of canon here, but also, this is some odd mayhem and where are you aiming, Captain? Yay, ivory leg again!

54. Basic, works perfectly fine.

55. This is a really odd scene choice to pick for a cover, but I love this edition and its illustrations to bits. In fact, I'm planning on posting a review of it soon.

C.

56. I haven't peeked into Melville's mind, but I'm pretty sure the Pequod looked quite different. The story is unmistakable though.

57. Nothing wrong with it, I guess, but way too messy for me to be comfortable with.

58. Not much to say here, but a perfectly nice-looking cover for any book.

59. Gets the job done, but not that inspiring.

60. Despite seemingly little effort behind it, this design based on a 19th century (erroneous) whale drawing could have gone straight up to A. You see, in the original image the (erroneous) whale has his penis (erroneous?) in full view, but on this cover it has been erased. How could I not have given a Moby-Dick book cover depicting dozens of (erroneous) whale dicks A? Alas.

61. Good, professional-looking cover, but judging by the illustration only, I would have guessed this was a children's book about the adventures of a jolly porpoise named Toni.

62. No spoilers to see here or anything. Is that a gold prosthetics??

63. This looks so much like a academic book on psychology. Not too far off, I suppose, but I wouldn't be able to figure out which famous story it is.

64. The Temple toggle harpoon was invented in 1848. Do with this information what you will.

65. Hey! That other cover from before! Have to say that the color alterations and helm sihouette wasn't an improvement.

66. A bit extreme for me.

67. I call this excessive simplicity. If you need a copy of Moby-Dick, you will recognize it at once, but it might not attract new readers merely in itself.

68. Just because it's a children's book doesn't mean the vibe has to be off, but I think it is in this case. Recently posted an example of this illustrator's adorable Ishmael here.

69. Where's the title? Confusing for a cover, but I would love this for a poster of mug! Also, the biggest words are Ahab, Queequeg, and Pequod, which I find mildly insulting towards a certain someone. What was he called again?

70. Cool whale picture which I really like, but the accuracy for Moby-Dick isn't really there.

71. It's blue.

72. I understand the idea and the illustration is awesome, but for me, the vibe is strangely all off and I get almost a comedic feel. Again, that's just me.

73. I often feel like an Ahab apologist and can often be somewhat harsh on the whale, but holy shit! A sort of red herring situation meant to make the reader think Ahab will be the winner?

74. It looks full of action and Scrooge's Ahab cosplay look is really neat, but I have... concerns.

75. I don't remember the scene playing out like this and Ahab is clearly not having it.

YOU HAD ONE JOB

76. The exact face I made the first time I saw this kind of cover.

77. After all the people I've heard at the museum mistaking the sperm whale skeleton for an orca, I'm honestly surprised these fails aren't more common. The snowy setting is a nice touch.

78. Hast seen the white beluga?!

79. First shark Moby-Dick I ever saw and during my first week on Tumblr even. The nostalgia is real, shipmates.

80. Cool scene. Where is it from?

81. Come on! This is a fucking Wordsworth's edition!

82. My sentiments exactly.

83. No, it isn't.

84. At first I seriously thought this was some interesting modern sci-fi/fantasy take on Moby-Dick. Nope.

85. At least the person who did this one bothered to give it a traditional nautical flair.

86. The ocean is canon.

87. *screaming shark mode*

SHOULD NEVER HAVE SURFACED

88. Someone's dad is balancing on top of a fire breathing eel whilst ravens are flying around and a poor guy has dark thoughts in the bottom right corner and... I dunno, man. "Whaling voyage turns fatal obsession" apparently. Moby-Dick the Prequel?

89. Whoa, dude!! I know you're angry, but holy shit!

90. "Captain Ahab? He went that way. Me? Just your average cliché 18th century pirate. If you don't mind me asking, sir, what sort of creature are you?"

91. By "annotated" they mean the truth about Wild Bill Hickok's one time side gig as a whaler. There's a fan fiction idea for ya.

92. What in the everloving AI fuck is happening here?

93. Friends, your guesses are as good as mine.

94. In the early 2020s, the ghost of Melville Herman set out to find the ghost of Moby Dick.

95. I guess we never learned what Ahab's dad died from back in the 18th century. Runs in the family and all that.

96. ?????????

97. If you download a public domain work to sell on Amazon for a possible extra buck, taking one minute to check the basic plot before slapping a stock image on it for a cover will be an actual long term investment.

98. "Lol! U overbite!"

99. Well, he is clearly a zombie whale, so maybe this is the sequel then?

100. And thus endeth MOBY D CK.

[notebookqueenofnarnia]

Okay Demigods

now that Season 2 has been confirmed (!!!!!!!!!!) I am here to make my official appeal that you ALL read the books. and yes...i mean ALL the books. Because here is what you are missing if you don't:

(mostly spoiler free. mostly vibes and chaotic no context)

OG PERCY JACKSON

Percy's INCREDIBLE sarcasm

Lots of chaotic Mr. D moments

Percy's unending absolute obliviousness when it comes to: his own abilities/powers, his own feelings towards a certain daughter of Athena, and EVERYONE'S feelings towards him

the full list of Percy's felonies (it's longer than you think!)

how much Percy thinks about Annabeth, especially in the third book

The Hunters of Artemis (everyone's like 'which godly parent would you have?' but im like ??? who cares??? I'm running off with the girls to immortal to hunt men i mean monsters)

soooooooooo much Sally Jackson is the Best Mom (to everyone who walks through her door) content

BLACKJACK. TRANS ICON BLACKJACK THE PEGASUS.

Rachel. Elizabeth. Dare. (this is how the audiobook says her name every single time)

Paul Blofis

Sally Jackson, author

Poseidon: Blowfish?

HEROES OF OLYMPUS

If you don't read these books you are missing out on some of the coolest female characters Rick has created: PIPER (an iconic), HAZEL (unintentionally hilarious), REYNA (beautiful character arc), and ANNABETH's point of view will have you loving her on a whole other level, trust me

Also: COACH HEDGE

Leo

All The Ladies Love Leo

the audiobooks are INSANE. It felt like a full cast read the book, but no. it was just one insanely talented narrator.

FESTUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS (im a dragon girlie)

Personally, I spent a lot of time reading the OG 5 wondering about how Roman mythology plays into Percy's world. Uncle Rick answered my questions and answered them SO WELL

Hazel the horse girl

Frank the horsebirddolphinman

Frank, gentle himbo, my beloved son

MY FAVORITE SCENE WHICH INVOLVES PERCY NOT KNOWING HOW TO DRIVE, A HARPY, FRANK, AND HAZEL AND THEYRE ALL SCREAMING AND IM PRETTY SURE STUFF IS ON FIRE

Forced Proximity for 7 teenagers and one chaotically violent satyr (that's Coach Hedge)

Eros/Cupid being one the most genius things Rick's ever written

Percy's hate of Ares transcending god magic

(also his love of Annabeth, but that's like obvious)

PercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabethPercabe

weird barely gnome things

this one giant whose name is definitely not pronounced like female anatomy

everyone thinking Percy and Annabeth are constantly getting up to the hanky panky

a statue made me cry

Gay Grumpy/Sunshine (or should that be Death/Sunshine) origins!!

TRIALS OF APOLLO

Apollo, vain himbo of godly proportions is forced to live as Lester Papadopoulos

Percy: why

a very chaotic twelve year old daughter of Demeter

she commands Apollo around

plant magic

terrible great haikus at the start of every chapter

Sally Jackson being the best mom to everyone who comes to her door

magic shoes

a sassy magic prophetic arrow that talks in Shakespearean English

so much gay grumpydeath/sunshine content

also yes sunshine's dad is Apollo

Apollo sings

Grover! Piper! Reyna! Hazel! All the friends! Everyone

Jason! (also im sorry)

what if there were some trees who were an elite squad of warriors who also answer to the chaotic twelve year old

gay moms of the midwest

unicorns

in the last book, chiron takes the campers on a 'field trip' to help take down the big baddie and he shows up dressed as a warrior soccer mom with granola bars, water bottles, and extra swords attached to his fanny pack

a different chaotic twelve year old while fighting to the death in a building that's on fire: "CAN WE GO ON FIELD TRIPS EVERY WEEK?"

chiron: "ROSE DEAR RAISE YOUR SWORD A LITTLE HIGHER!"

okay im not going to spoil it but in the last book there is also this extremely horrifyingly violent moment that Uncle Rick somehow turns into one of the most hilarious things i've ever read

Piper in the epilogue

CHALICE OF THE GODS

more insanely funny percy first person narration

Grover, Percy, Annabeth reunite ("the gang is back together!" "The three musketeers!" "Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey!" "Excuse me?")

have you met the god of himbos? (Percy has)

SO

MANY

EASTER

EGGS

for Season one. you can totally see how Uncle Rick worked on the script and chalice together

if you liked Annabeth shoving Percy into the water....this one is for you

Percy, supreme god of snakes

the cutest cutest cutest cutest Percabeth content you will ever read

hippie gods (yes more than one)

Percy is literally obsessed with Annabeth

Annabeth already being the Jackson daughter in law

Sally Jackson and Paul and

For the record: You CAN read Chalice of the Gods without reading the other series, but please please please read all these books. The audiobooks are phenomenal.

[saltydkdan]

Salty i wanna get into Baki which one do you recommend,the manga or the anime?

Oh you just woke up the fucking beast (I'm so sorry).

I LOVE this question, and as a recent Baki fan myself, I can tell you that getting into the series as a Western consumer can be rough if you don’t have a basic guide to know what you’re getting into…. so that’s what I’m gonna make this post (TEEHEE).

This series has gotta be one of the most insane shonen- actually no- one of the most INSANE PIECES OF FICTION I've ever experienced, and I NEED more people to check it out. Like, LOOK AT THIS SHIT DUDE.

Baki out of context somehow even puts Jojo's Bizarre Adventure to shame. The way I usually pitch it to people is that Baki is as insane as people THINK Jojo is before they read it. Shit is just... MAN LMAO. OBAMA IS FUCKING IN THIS.

Unlike more popular stuff like Dragon Ball and Hunter x Hunter, a lot of this series has just never been officially localized, so knowing where to start, and even how to support the series, is a hard task if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Thankfully THAT’S WHAT YOU HAVE ME FOR. This Tumblr post is gonna be your one stop shop for how to get into Baki as an English speaker (and it’ll give me some space to ramble about one of my latest favorite series).

But uh before we get into the nitty gritty, wanna put some trigger warnings for the series for those who may want to know. Listen, I know how some of these are gonna look to the average person, but this series just be like that sometimes, if you can’t take stuff like this trust me it’s insanely valid. You’ll understand if you choose to take the plunge.

SERIES TRIGGER WARNINGS:

Animated Blood/Violence, some animated gory imagery, Incest (???), Nudity, Urine stuff, Bigfoot/Animal Violence, Death, Uncomfortable looking muscles, and one instance of sexual violence (offscreen)

If you are comfortable with all that (and again, valid as fuck if you aren’t) then let’s talk BAKI!

First off, Manga or Anime?

You would think that either would be fine, but my personal recommendation for Baki as a beginner, is to watch the anime over reading the manga. Simply put: The anime is a lot more widely available and accessible in English speaking territories, and is fairly easy to support officially with its current iteration.

For whatever reason, the manga just never really took off in the West when compared to other series, so it was only ever officially released in English a handful of times, and they only ended up publishing the first few volumes. Theoretically, you can read the first few books to start, but the entire series all together is legit longer than One Piece at a whopping 1,203 chapters, so you are gonna run out of material real quick. The fraction of officially available manga barely scratches the surface of the series.

Even if you’re stubborn about reading the manga and want to try reading fan translations, they come with their own separate batch of issues. Plenty of fan scans you can find online range from wildly outdated, to generally being poor quality at best. There’s even some fan translations that just straight up make shit up and don’t even properly translate the original script. Adding in extra dialogue and slurs randomly to make the text seem way edgier than it actually is.

Full disclosure, I wanna cut through my bias here and say that there are indeed some great scans available on the internet if you look hard enough, especially for the more recent content! But they aren’t super easy to track down with how the series is formatted, and you may accidentally find yourself reading the story out of its proper order.

The watch/read order of Baki is a bit of a toughie for new people, but is actually pretty simple once it’s explained. The story of Baki is split up into multiple different series, kind of similar in format to Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Though instead of “Parts”, Baki is split up into completely different manga and TV series. This is why many fans get confused initially, especially with the watch order, because it isn’t laid out in an easy to understand way at first glance.

The most well known series are currently streaming on Netflix, but those aren’t the ones you wanna start with. Nope, the story of the Baki anime actually starts way back in 2001, in a TV show that isn’t streaming officially online. Now if you want to watch out of order, I’m not gonna stop you. You can do whatever you want, by all means, but you’re gonna be missing some VERY important story context, and some characters just won’t hold the same weight.

So if you DO want to watch in order, come with me my friend. Let me show you-

BAKI’S SUPER COOL AND NOT AT ALL CONFUSING WATCH ORDER:

Baki the Grappler (2001) (24 episodes)

This is the original 2001 anime adaptation, the very start of serialized Baki anime. You’re gonna wanna start here trust me.

This series isn’t streaming anywhere officially online, but you can find it… places. Seek it out, trust me, because otherwise you’re gonna pay way too much for out of print DVDs on Ebay. Thankfully though you have options! The series is both subbed and dubbed (as well as every series I discuss from this point forward.

This show is the very start of serialized Baki anime, the very beginning of Baki Hanma’s story. Although it’s not in the way you may think. Despite this being the earliest point in the Baki timeline, it’s actually an adaptation of a later story arc from the manga.

Now I know what you’re thinking, “Didn’t you just say this is where I should start? Why is it adapting something from later in the story?”, and yeah it’s valid to be confused. While yes this is the first ever Baki anime, for some reason the staff behind it made the decision to move this later arc up a bit from the original manga. In my honest opinion, I feel like this is actually a great decision.

As you will see as you watch, this honestly FEELS like this should be where the story begins. The escalation of power and storytelling from this point onward feels very natural, and you won’t miss out on anything or spoil yourself whatsoever on later events.

This is the de facto best starting point.

Grappler Baki Maximum Tournament (2001) (24 episodes)

This is effectively the second season of Baki the Grappler. For whatever reason they decided to title it something else, and while this is the norm for the series later on, this name change is weird because it adapts an arc from the original manga just like the first season of anime I just talked about.

Whatever lol.

Anyway this series, much like the previous, isn’t officially available as of now. So your best option is to SEARCH for it. SEARCH on the INTERNET. Or y’know. The good ol’ expensive out of print DVD on Ebay route.

In my opinion, compared to the first season, this one feels a bit slower paced and a bit of a slog at points but HOLD STRONG TRUE BELIEVER. This season is the introduction to a lot of mainstay characters in the series. Many of which you will come to love, even if you don’t know it yet.

BAKI (2018) (39 episodes) (NETFLIX)

This is the modern adaptation of Baki. After the last series ended in 2001, the anime went on hiatus for 17 years before it was announced that it would be coming back with a modern coat of paint.

Contrary to what you may think, this isn’t a ground up reboot. It’s a continuation of the exact point they left off years ago, right after the Maximum tournament. The only thing that kind of sucks about this is that, at least for the English dub, they replaced most of the voice cast. Most of the new VAs do a great job, however you may need to get used to Yujiro Hanma having Shadow the Hedgehog’s modern VA from the games haha.

Thankfully, you can officially support this series easily via Netflix. Normally I’m pretty eh on Netflix as of late, but this being the only way you can support the show officially in the west, I personally recommend it.

Baki Hanma (2023) (39 episodes) (NETFLIX)

This is the most recent anime! It’s also on Netflix.

Me and my friends just got to this on our watchthrough together.

Anyway, this is my list! If after you catch up you wanna hop into the manga and read the fan scans, I’ve heard that you can start on Baki Hanma/Baki Son of Ogre (chapter 183).

Hope you enjoy the funny man punching show! Feel free to report back and tell me how you feel about it (positive OR negative)!

Like I said, I've been watching the series with friends on Discord every night or so when we're free and MAN. Baki is fucking AMAZING WITH FRIENDS. It just never slows down after a certain point, and it just gets stranger and crazier.

[jq37]

FH Junior Year Post-Season Thoughts

With another season of Fantasy High in the books and my recaps all finished, I wanted to do an overview of my thoughts on the season as a whole. Even though I feel generally positive about my experience with the season, there are a few things I think maybe could have been done differently narratively or mechanically. This isn't to criticize the way the season went down or to backseat DM/Play. More my combined ten years of college for textual analysis and storytelling bleeding through, haha. 

I first want to start with the things I thought worked really well.

Fantasy High has "High" right in its title but, in past seasons (and especially Sophomore Year), not as much time as you'd think was spent actually at school and even if it was spent at school, there wasn't much time spent in class or engaging with the realities of being a student. This season really dug into the academic consequences of skipping your classes all the time and the realities of needing to do a ton of extra stuff to try for a scholarship and I think that was a refreshing thing to highlight for a change. Being more scared at flunking out than the dragon that's trying to eat you feels very emotionally resonant. Real "High School Is Killing Me" vibes for anyone who's a fan of NPMD. 

Even though Fantasy High is a show that has some deep emotional beats and strong character arcs, it's first and foremost a comedy show. From the jump, everyone was generating bit after bit that had me cracking up as usual. "Little girly dog collar" is one of the funniest combinations of words I can think of. I think it was Siobhan who said that this was the goofy season and, having seen it, I'd have to agree with her. It never failed to make me laugh and it was always a highlight of my week.  The cast just has great table chemistry that I love to watch no matter what they're doing. 

Watching some of these high level combat encounters is as close as I'll get to understanding people watching sports. Even though combat is generally my least fave part of D&D, I think the cast really killed it this season with how cleverly they played and Brennan came up with some really great combat encounters. Special shout outs to Baron's Game and The Last Stand for their unique mechanics.  

This is going to be one that's on the other list as well because my feelings are mixed, but I genuinely do like the downtime mechanic and how it forces hard choices. I think it's an interesting way to connect a mechanic to the story and cultivate stressful atmosphere for the season.

I have problems with the execution but I love the Rat Grinders in concept. I think as early as season 1 I was hoping that we'd meet a party that was like the Bizarro Bad Kids and the idea of a party that's farming XP instead of going on crazy adventures is a strong concept. Likewise, I think a character that's jealous because of your "cool" (read: tragic) backstory is also a fun trait for an unhinged antagonist in this kind of setting.

This is me absolutely showing my bias but I adored the Abernant Sisters content this season. I dunno if Siobhan specifically asked Brennan to not put her on a bus with the other beloved NPCs or what but I'm so glad she stuck around and we got the development we did. It was almost entirely ancillary to the plot but there was this clear pattern of Aelwyn getting softer and sweeter towards Adaine over the course of the season, from the guarded, "Enjoy the nemesis ward," to, full I love you's and, "I'd take them to get you." It was way more focus than I expected considering that Aelwyn completed the bulk of her arc last season and a lot of the time, a redemption arc basically ends after the big gesture (in this case, Aelwyn taking a magic blast for Adaine in Sophomore Year). So the fact that we got to see all of these sweet moments of them reestablishing their relationship outside of do or die moments was such a pleasant surprise. Again, I fully admit I am extremely biased, but this was my top wishlist item and the season overdelivered so there's a baseline happy I'm always gonna be with Junior Year. 

OK, so moving on to things I things I think could have been tweaked.

Even though I liked the downtime system and the pressures it created, it also squeezed out the chance for more casual PC to NPC interactions that would usually be more common because they were semi-locked behind the relationship track and there wasn't an obvious benefit to roll for Relationships (as opposed to something like Academics which was crucial for not flunking out). Making the mechanical benefit more clear would have helped that (even if it meant Brennan didn't get his reveal--which he ended up just telling them anyway so might as well do it early). The other thing is that the consequence of a rage token was so bad that of course they spent all season avoiding getting one. Things might have gone differently if the consequences had been a bit more obscured, like in Neverafter. And it could have been a nice parallel to the Rat Grinders to take this unknown resource that makes things easier for you but is also having this negative effect. Then it could be like dang we did the same thing they did unknowingly. 

I mentioned this in my recap but I'll talk about it again. It is a little confusing to me that we did the Ankarna subplot right after we did the very similar Cassandra subplot. It took up so much time this season which I don't think is an issue in and of itself, it's just that we literally just went through some extremely similar beats last season. Why double up on this same storyline when there's so much new ground to cover? Or if we're going to raise a god, why not make it a different kind of god? One theory I had early on was that the Rat Grinders were trying to raise their own god to one-up the Bad Kids but instead of raising a chill, misunderstood Cass type, they accidentally raised a god who was erased for a good reason and got in over their heads. 

It's fun for there to be connections between seasons but sometimes it's like, OK that's a *lot* of coincidences. Like the god who your rivals is trying to raise *happens* to be the wife of your cleric's god and also *happens* to be the god of the fiend trapped in your friend's mom's chest and that fiend *happens* to be the relative on your bard's dad's side which is *also* the reason she is randomly cursed? That's a LOT of red string connecting plot points. As unhinged as Kipperlilly is about coveting Riz's backstory if I saw that go down I'd be like you have *got* to be kidding me.  

The mystery elements didn't feel like they clicked as well as they did in other seasons. I think that's partially because Porter's plan was so convoluted (seriously, I made another post about how haphazard his plan was) and had all these moving parts and we didn't get clear answers for a lot of mechanical things like how the rage crystals actually work and when they were implanted and stuff. You had stuff like Devil's Honey which I think is super cool as a thing that exists in the world but ended up being an element that just led the players down the wrong path and had a relatively small payoff (that Porter was using it to lie to Ankarna). I think it's plausible that a forgotten god would be willing to listen to anyone saying the right things without introducing this element. (As opposed to, for instance, Ambrosia which has a very clear connection to what's going on and is a solid clue that someone is flirting with aspirations of godhood.) 

The Porter reveal came so late in the season that even though it was a fun/challenging fight, there wasn't a lot of emotional weight behind killing him. It was basically just dunking on a teacher Fig has always hated who was also mean to Gorgug so screw him. Which, valid of course. But the Bad Kids were never going to react as strongly to Porter as they were to the Rat Grinders so putting Porter in the prime villain spot isn't necessarily what I would have done if I wanted the fight to be more than just a brawl--especially since we've done "School admin with student minions" already in S1. I don't mind the full circle callback but it would have been nice to pick something else for the sake of variety. We haven't had a child mastermind yet and I think Kipperlilly could have been a great candidate for that. My friend suggested that it would have been fun if Kipperlilly was trying to become a god instead of just being Porter's underling and I agree. "I'm not anyone's chosen one so I'll choose myself," is still within her established jealousy and Type A tendencies. If we want to keep Porter involved since that was Brennan's gift to Emily, maybe have it be that instead of Kipperlilly working for him, he's working for her. Like Artemis Fowl vibes! And the Rat Grinders can be varying levels of on board--from true believe to redeemable. I don't think Brennan planned for the Bad Kids to ever redeem her so might as well go full megalomaniacal mastermind with her and make her The Villain if she's not gonna be nuanced anyway. If My Little Pony can do it and send a literal child to Tartarus for pony treason (or whatever Cozy Glow did), Fantasy High can too. 

Continuing from the above, if we have the Porter fight in place of the Grix fight (a la Daybreak) and don't use Ankarna, that gives way more time for the Bad Kids to investigate the Rat Grinders throughout the season and it would mean that they would have their personalities developed a lot more. With the limited downtime, they Bad Kids didn't have a lot of time to spend on these kids who were just hating on them for no good reason (valid). But if you cleared their plate of the god hunt stuff, they'd have more time for this. And if they weren't all rage zombies to varying degrees, it would be easier to see them as characters. Besides Kipperlilly (and, funnily enough, Mary Ann) we don't really have a good read on what these kids are actually like. The little time we spent with them all season was kind of a wash if them breaking out of rage means their personalities got laundered too. Anyway, regardless of how their loyalties ended up shaking out, it would have been fun for them to be more than the minions that they were in canon. As funny as it is for them to just kinda be XP farming losers, they did have the potential to be more interesting in their own right if they weren't just Porter's minions. And again, we've done adults forcing or coercing children into being minions in Freshman and Sophomore Year already. Lemme see some self-created child maniacs! (Or, peer pressured child maniacs. That's cool too. The Lucy/Kipperlilly dynamic is way more interesting to me if it's like girl, I would take a bullet for you but I CANNOT walk this path with you any further in response to *I* will be a god and you can be *MY* champion.)

Anyway, those are my thoughts! Like I said, I have my points that I think could have been tightened, but overall an enjoyable season and I will be glued to my screen if they decide to close out with Senior Year! 

[littlxpxtal]

400 Lux

TYRANTS || STORY MASTERLIST PAIRING: rafe cameron x fem!reader WARNINGS: MDNI 18+ Content, swearing, sexual content, drug and alcohol use, violence WORD COUNT: 3.1k

You pick me up and take me home again

Head out the window again

We're hollow like the bottles that we drain

You drape your wrists over the steering wheel

Pulses can drive from here

We might be hollow, but we're brave

I love these roads where the houses don't change

Where we can talk like there's something to say

December Continued

Adding an extra dash of cinnamon into the bowl, mom turns to give me a stern look, holding up the whisk in a threatening manor.

“We never add enough.” I complain, pouting my bottom lip. She sticks her finger on a pile of flour and swipes it on my face. I gasp and she laughs out at me.

“We’re following a strict recipe. I refuse to change any measurements!” I huff out, turning my body to the stove, crouching down to check on the cookies we placed in about 8 minutes ago. 

“Second batch of gingerbreads almost done.” I call out as she starts on the batter for our next group of cookies - Jam thumbprints my favorite. 

“Start rolling out the dough for this last batch while I prep the Jam” she instructs. I walk to the sink, rinsing my hands off when the door bell rings.

“LUCY” I call out to my younger sister who is lounging on the couch, munching on the sugar cookies we made earlier this afternoon. 

She takes her time pushing herself off the couch to geto to the front door. I hear faint voices exchange hellos, and Lucy finally says “She’s in the kitchen”

Rafe comes from around the corner and my eyes widen. His backpack is slung over his shoulder, the front button of his uniform unbuttoned. 

“Hi Mrs. Y/L/N, Hi Y/N” He greets us with a devilish smile. I stare at him, my mouth agape at his audacity to be in my kitchen with my mom.

Mom dusts her hands on her apron and walks around the island counter to give him a hug. I internally cringe to see him wrap his arms around her and he sends me a wink.

“Rafe, it’s so nice to see you. You’re so grown!” she compliments, patting him on the shoulder.

“Smells good, what’re y’all making?” he asks, scanning the counters filled with various baking supplies and tools. The dining table stacked with various cookie types and sizes. 

“We’re finishing the last of the gingerbread men right now and were starting our Jam thumbprints. They’ll be our last cookie of the day.” my mom informs in, getting back to making the dough. 

He licks his lips, still scanning the cookies. “Those are my favorite” he says with a smile.

“Y/Ns too!” she says, playfully pushing into my side. I look down at the batter and begin to press the shape cutter into the rolled gingerbread dough.

“So what’re you doin here Rafe?” I ask. My mom tsks her tongue at me, giving me another stern look. 

“Uh I tried callin ya but I see now that you’re busy. I just wanted to come and drop off your stuff.” He puts down his bookbag on one of the barstools, pulling out the study packet and calculator. 

I had been so hyper focused on my exams all week that I honestly forgot I had even given those supplies to him last weekend.

“How’d the exam go?” I ask, continuing to cut out the shapes of the little men on the counter. 

“Think I aced it. Your study book was very … thorough.” he says with a smirk, walking over to stand and inspect the cookies I was working on. 

My mom pokes her head over “She’s always been a great test taker. She has an excellent ACT score.” my mom boasts.

“Mom” I hiss at her.

“Oh really, what do you have?” he asks. I purse my lips together, refusing to give him an answer. Mom chimes in for me “A 33. Isn’t that amazing!” she cries out.

“Kinsey got a perfect score.” I grumble under my breath

“A score like that and she wants to go to NC State.” she says, shaking her head at Rafe. 

“NC State really” he says, raising an eyebrow. I finally turn to look at him after cutting the last cookie out.

“Duke would be a living hell and I would see too many Kooks at UNC.” I say, staring at him with an emotionless expression.

“She’s still waiting to hear back from UPenn though.” my mom chimes in again. 

His eyebrows stay raised. “That’s pretty far.” he states.

“That’s my dads alma malter. I really don’t think I’m going to get in, I only have good grades, I didn’t do half the extra curriculars most of the applicants did. Plus I’ll be fine with NC State. Its the perfect distance that I wanna go.” I start placing each cookie on a baking sheet as Rafe watches me intently.

“Well I’ll get out of your hair,” he says, backing away. “But I also wanted to invite you to the Christmas get-together we’re having tonight at Toppers.” I snort at his choice of words, avoiding his usual vocab of “banger” and “kegger” for the sake of my mother.

“Oh honey that sounds nice.”

“Mom we still have to finish all these cookies.”

“Lucy is perfectly able to help me out with the last batch. When’s your hangout starting?” she asks Rafe, already starting to push me away from the kitchen.

“I can pick you up around 7:30” he says, walking towards the front door. 

“I wasn’t planning on going out tonight.” I say crossing my arms.

“Honey, you should go. And you can take some cookies!” My mom says, giving Rafe a hug goodbye.

“See you at 7:30 then.” he says with a smirk before opening the front door. I turn on my heels and shoot daggers at my mom.

“Hes such a nice boy.” she says before walking into the kitchen. “Go get ready.” she says, more commanding than suggestive. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mom kept popping her head in while I was getting ready, so I kept a robe on, and kept the makeup to a minimum. I pull out a large ugly Christmas sweater from my closet and slide it over my tiny red dress. I was trying my best to keep up the facade that this was a pure christmas hang out to celebrate the end of exams. I slide on a black pair of tights underneath for extra measure. 

The doorbell rings at 7:30 sharp. I apply a few dot of lipgloss onto my lined lips and grab my bag, heading up the stairs.

“Rafe, how you doin?” I hear my dad greet Rafe at the front door. When I come into view of the front door I see that Rafe and I were on the same page. He was wearing a santa hat and an ugly sweater with a reindeer on the front. My mom rushes past me with a tin full of cookies shoving them into Rafe’s hands.

“You kids be good alright?” my dad says, placing a kiss on the top of my head.

“What time do you want her home?” 

“No specific time, just get home safe.” my dad instructs, giving him a firm handshake and walking back towards the living room.

“It’s okay if you need to stay at the Cameron estate, we trust you to stay safe and don’t want you drinking and driving.” my mom whispers into my ear.

“I’m sure I’ll get home fine.” I say before giving her a tight hug. We walk out the front door and he opens the car door for me. I hop into his truck and place my bag and the cookies in the back.

“What time does this actually start?” I ask as he turns his head around while backing out of my driveway.

“Not till 10. Figured that would be suspiciously late for your mom. Thought you could come with me on the alc run.” 

“Where do you usually get your stuff?” I ask, slipping the sweater up and off my body, tossing it in the back.

“Mainland” he says, turning the volume up. I groan and pull my tights off, bringing my knees up to my chest.

“Cant use my fake round here, they know ‘M not 21.” I nod, understanding the risk and start to play with his apple car play.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asks, swatting my hand away.

“Putting songs on queue. If ‘m stuck in this car with you for the next two hours I’d like to listen to my favorite driving songs.”

“None of that Taylor Swift bullshit.” he says, his hand returning back to the steering wheel.

“You’re so reputation-coded.” I laugh at my own joke, putting some songs into the queue. Rafe liked a lot of rap, which I could get down to but I also needed to add my own pump-up songs on rotation.

“Don’t know what the fuck that even means.” he says.

“I’ll play the one that has Future on it.”

“She did a collab with Future?” he asks, turning to take a glance at me. His eyes scan my body up and down, finally taking a peek at the dress I had underneath the sweater.

“You’re gonna fuckin freeze” he mutters, gripping the steering wheel tightly, clnehcing his jaw. I watch as his hands flex and start chewing on the inside of my cheek. 

“This is for you.” he says motioning down to the reusable tumbler in the cup holder. I pick it up and take a small sip.

“Damn this is good what is it?” 

“Apple cider sangria. Rose’s special.” he says with a tone of annoyance. “Figured you would wanna pregame.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it.” I say with a smile. He gives me another quick glance before turning the volume up even higher for the last chorus of a Playboy Carti song. I made sure to leave most of his songs at the front of the queue, trying to not annoy him so early into our drive. He’s surprised when I sign along to a few of them. By the time we reach the liquor store were both shouting at the top of our lungs the chorus to Mr. Rager by Kid Cudi.

“MR. RAGER, CAN WE TAG ALONG? CAN WE TAKE A JOURNEY?”

“You want anything?” he asks, turning off the truck and unbuckling his belt.

“Peppermint Schnapps?” I ask, battling my eyelashes at him. He smiles and nods his head, “I’ll be back. Don’t do nothin stupid.” 

After about 5 minutes He walks out with the store clerk, loading up everything into the bed of his truck. The man daps Rafe up and he walks up to the front of the car.

“You hungry or anything?” he asks, putting Topper’s location into the GPS. 

“I could go for Cook Out.” I say with a smirk.

“That place is foul.” he grunts, adding a stop to Cook Out on the GPS.

“I’ll take a small burger, a small fry and a Cheerwine pleaseee” I say as we pull throught he drive through. He repeats my order, getting himself a corndog and a banana milkshake.

He passes me the food and I shriek out in excitement. 

“You’re cute” he says as I stick a straw into his milkshake for him. My songs start to play and I reach over to turn up the volume. I peak my eyes up at him and he glances down and nods in head, letting me touch the nob, twisting it up.

Lights Up by Harry Styles starts thumping throught he bass of his truck and I sing along with pride. As we pass through backroads I roll the window down, feeling the crisp winter air blow into the car. 

“Take my picture” I say, passing my unlocked phone to him. I push myself up and out of the car, leaning my body out of the window, letting my hair flow 

“Careful” he grumbles, one hand on the steering wheel, the other holding my phone up, snapping pictures. I stick my hands out, imagining myself like Harry in the music video. 

“DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE?”  I shout into the sky. Rafe pulls me by my arm back into the car and tosses my phone onto my lap.

“Can’t do dumb shit like that when I have alcohol in the back” he growls. I ignore him and go into my camera roll to inspect the picture she took.

“Might need you to be my photographer for the night” I say, flicking throught the images.

He rolls his eyes, slurping on his milkshake. 

We finally roll up to the Thornton estate and Rafe instructs me to head inside and get Top and Kelce to help him bring everything. I follow his instructions and walk in, finding Top leaning over the bannister of the top floor, a santa hat lopsided on his had, a beer bottle swinging loosely in his hand. He catches sight of me and lets out a roar

“Y/N!” making his way down the stairs I greet him with a hug.

“Rafe’s outside with the alc.” I inform him. He pats my shoulder and heads out to help Rafe unload the truck. The living room is already filled, this time with more familiar faces. 

I spot Sabrina across the room with our group of friends and I make my way over.

She lights up when she sees me, running towards me with open arms.

“Did you come with Rafe?” she immediately asks.

“What happened to hello, how are you?” I joke, hugging her back. 

“Topper said you went with him to the mainland for Alc.” she says, guiding me to the couch.

“Yea I didn’t really have a choice. He told my mom he would pick me up and then sprung that on me as well pulled out of my driveway.”

Our conversation is interrupted by cheers as the boys pile into the living room, bottles of liquor and cases of beer in their hands. 

“Lets get this party started” Topper hollers to the crowd. Everyone cheers back and swarm the guys, ripping open into the cases. I pull Sabrina up to the bar where the boys start unloading the bottles and mixers that we got. 

“Lets do some shots.” Kelce suggests. “We do Holiday shots a little different round here, Y/N” he says turning towards the back counter, grabbing bottles of chocolate syrup out. My eyebrows lift and I watch Sabrina hop onto the barstool.

“Why dont you show her how its done Sab?” Topper suggests. She gleams back at him and turns around. Her back against the counter, leaning her head back and opening her mouth wide. Topper props himself up on the counter, a bottle of Peppermint Schnapps in one hand, chocolate syrup in the other. 

“First you give the victim a shot,” he begins to slowly fill Sabrina’s mouth with the clear liquid. She stays still as he opens the lid of the chocolate syrup. “And then you top them off with a little bit of Syrup. He squirts a dollop into her mouth and she closes it, swallowing it all and raising her hands up. 

“We do it this way, or sitting on someones lap.” she says with a smirk, hoping off the barstool.

“Lets see if we can get another volunteer.” Top scans the room and calls over Carissa. I roll my eyes, stepping back against the kitchen wall. 

“Rafe, show her how it's done,” Topper says. Rafe, who had also ditched his ugly sweater, now wearing a dark red polo, waltzes over to the bar stool and pulls Carissa on top of him. Her back is against the bar like Sabrinas was and he holds back her neck, pouring the liquor into her mouth, and then squirting the chocolate syrup into her mouth. A little bit extra lands on her cheek and she squeals, pushing Rafe aggressively on his chest. She hops off of his lap and he and Topper exchange laughs.

“You ready to try?” Top asks, still propper up on the counter. 

“I volunteer” A voice comes from around the corner. It’s Noah. Rafe reluctantly gets up from the chair and pushes past Noah, knocking his shoulder. He stands next to me and I hesitate, walking over. He grabs my hips and lifts me up onto his lap, swiviling in the bar chair to press me against the counter.

I lean my head back and he grabs the back of my neck, pouring the peppermint down my throat. My eyes lightly water and I feel my body tremble beneath him. His hand around my neck didnt feel as nice as Rafe’s and I feel myself clenching inside at the feeling of my legs on his lap. He places a dot of syrup in my mouth and I swallow, Sabrina cheering behind me with a beer bottle in her hand. 

I lift my head back up to meet Noahs eyes and he smiles, leaning up close to my face.

“That was hot.” he whispers. I stifle a laugh and hop off of the chair. Adjusting my dress back down my legs. I look around to see that Rafe left the spot on the wall and was making his way into the crowd. 

Sabrina and I make our way into the middle of the crowd dancing along to the songs booming through the speakers. After finishing a few beers I ask Sabrina if she wants another shot. She excitedly says yes and we find Topper and Kelce maning the station, chocolate Syrup all over the counter, and their faces. 

“We wanna take a shot again.” Sabrina says, tapping Toppers shoulder. He turns and grins down at her.

“Y’all have to kiss after if you want more.” he says jokingly. We exchange a look between each other and I shrug.

“Okay”

I plop onto the stool and Sabrina hops on top of my lap. I go through the motions of the shot, Rafe appears back in the room for the first time since he had left before.

After Sabrina swallows the shot, I pull her neck down to meet my face and we exchange a quick peck, gaining a cheer from the guys behind the counter.

Making eye contact with Rafe, he has a smirk on his face, running his hand over his chin and chuckling under his breath. I can tell Sabrina is drunk by the way she slides off of my lap and wobbles over to Topper.

“My turn.” he says and she grabs his hand leading him from behind the counter. I get off the stool and go over to stand by Rafe, his Santa hat still placed neatly ontop of his head.

“Will you take some pictures of me now?” I ask innocently. He turns his head, bending his neck down to meet my face.

“Where were you thinking?”

“Upstairs bathroom?” I say, holding my breath for his reaction.

“Let's go.”

Previous Chapter | Instagram AU | Next Chapter

[cute-girls-from-vns-anime-manga]

Ooh your display case is really cool! Can you give us a rundown of what stuff is/where you got it etc?

HELL YEAH ID LOVE TO SPEND MY TIME DETAILING ALL MY COOL SHIT!!!

I don't want to overload everyone's dashboards with a ton of HQ pics of ALL of this individually so we are gonna go shelf by shelf left to right! I will try and use bullets to group certain things if they are apart of a set of some sort! (though I'm still working on these display cabinets and organizing things into their sets)

Starting with the Eushully shelf!

Kami no Rhapsody (RPG/VN), Source: Ebay

Kami no Rhapsody guide/art book, Source: Ebay

Madou Koukaku (RPG/VN), Source: Ebay

Ikusa Megami Zero guide/art book. Source: Ebay

Kamidori Alchemy Meister Special Alchemy disk (content pack), Source: Mandarake

Kamidori Alchemy Meister Perfect guide/art book + content pack disc, Source: Ebay

Kamidori Alchemy Meister Hannah's Pilgrimage (content pack), Source: Ebay

Kamidori Alchemy Meister (RPG/VN) Source: Ebay

Ikusa Megami (RPG) Source: Ebay <- STUPIDLY RARE I STILL CANT BELIEVE I FOUND EUSHULLY'S FIRST GAME THEY EVER PUT OUT BACK IN 1999 EVEN A SEARCH FOR IT ON SOME OF MY MORE ESOTERIC VISUAL NOVEL HUNTING GROUNDS TURNS UP A SINGLE LISTING THATS BEEN SOLD OUT FOR YEARS NOW!

Amayui Labyrinth Meister guide/art book + content pack disc Source: Ebay

Amayui Castle Meister guide/art book Source: Ebay

Fuukan no Grasesta (RPG/VN) Source: Ebay

Eushully branded mug printed with MC's of their various games Source: Ebay <- just showed up on my ebay alert for Eushully for dirt cheep probably the most absurd Eushully branded thing I own!

Emilita phone strap (she one of the main three heroines of Kamidori Alchemy Meister) Source: Ebay

Amayui Labyrinth Meister (RPG/VN) Source: Ebay

NEXT IS MY FIGURE SHELF!!!!

Tenryuu (Kancolle) Source: PLAMOYA

Saber Lilly (Fate Series) Source: PLAMOYA

Bendy OL-chan (pixiv artist OC) Source: amiami

Jill Stingray Nendroid (VA-11 Hall-A) Source: GOODSMILE

Yumiko Sakaki Bunny Suit (Grisaia no Meikyuu) Source: Solaris Japan

Marin Kitagawa Swimsuit ver. (My dress up darling) Source: amiami

Konata Cat Lingerie (pixiv artist OC) Source: amiami

NOW FOR MY VISUAL NOVEL COLLECTION (That isnt an Eushully or Minato Soft title)

Tsukihime remake (Switch Limited Edition) Source: Amazon

Witch on the Holy Night (Switch Limited Edition) Source: Amazon

Side note here THANK YOU TYPE MOON FOR MAKING THE LIMITED EDITIONS OF THESE TWO SUCH BIG BEAUTIFUL BOXES!!!!

Grisaia Complete Box (Japanese edition) Source: Jlist <- I genuinely believe this is the RAREST thing I own did a quick search and found only ONE seller on Mandarake selling this and its a used and incomplete copy MINE IS STILL PRISTINE AND COMPLETE!

Rewrite limited edition Source: Ebay <- Rewrite has my favorite limited/special edition extras of any visual novel in additon to the beautiful artwork and some interviews and stuff they included SHEET MUSIC FOR TWO OF THE BG MUSIC TRACKS

Clannad Limited Edition Source: Ebay <- This was the first physical visual novel I ever bought and Imported so obviously it holds a special place in my heart, AND OF COURSE CLANNAD WAS THE FIRST VN I GOT A PHYSICAL EDITION OF BEING ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR VISUAL NOVELS OF ALL TIME AND CERTAINLY EARNS ITS STATUS AS A CLASSIC!

Little Busters Limited Edition Source: Ebay <- Not much to say about this one like I did the other two Key VN's ive got just another solid Limited edition of a great classic Visual Novel!

Subarashiki Hibi Source: Ebay <- Honestly with this one I am kind of disappointed in the quality of the box feels REAL flimsy but sadly box build quality isnt what it used to be back in the 90's

LASTLY THE PLUSHY SHELF ONLY THREE AND THEY ARE ALL FROM MAKESHIP!

Glow in the dark goblin: by Jocat <- glad Jocat has recently returned to twitch as his content is really amazing and I loved the little gobo animations he made with these guy's designs!

The absolutely adorable Cardiegon: by Ceroro <- whom is just an absolutely incredible artist whom yall should already be following here on tumblr by now!!!!

Finally the most recent plushie Sky (2.0 WITH BORGOR) the MC of Endless Monday Dreams and Deadlines: both the amazing game and sky herself are by hcnone <- GO PLAY ENDLESSS MONDAY RIGHT NOW GIVE HCNONE YOUR MONEY THEY ARE AN INCREDIBLE ARTIST AND MADE A WONDERFULLY AMAZING LITTLE GAME!!!!

THIS WAS SUCH A FUN TRIP BACK THROUGH THE MEMORIES OF FINDING ALL THIS STUFF AND REMEMBERING BEING SO EXCITED FOR EACH AND EVERY THING!!!!!

[katerinaaqu]

I have been looking at your page for over na hour now and I love it. Thank you for so much for sharing these with us. I saw your posts about EPIC and while I like epic very much I also understand where you are coming from with your criticisms and I agree with them, they just don't diminish my enjoyment.

However I saw you comparing EPIC to PJO and I got curious about your thoughts on the changes PJO and the expanded books did to Greek Mythology. I am talking about stuff like Calypso being impresoned on Ogygia as punishment, Zöe Nightshade and her connection to Heracles and the like. Things that change the context of old myths and stories.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!! Thank you so much for the question. I need to clarify though that I am not THAT familiar with PJO but I know the basics of it and watched the film that was released back in the day but I haven't read the books (our of Riordan's books I have only read the first two books of Cane Chronicles so I am a bit familiar with his style of writing among others but yeah).

I usually compare PJO to Epic because as I mentioned before Epic treats mythology at this point as just some form of entertainment even if that is on expence of the source material and the culture behind it. I have heard that before by many people that it "doesn't diminish their enjoyment" and I am gonna say for one more time that this is great but is not the case with me and I just believe I do not have some moral obligation to like them both. Some ideas stick with me and some do not. Epic just doesn't and the fact that it takes over every Epic Cycle discussion is even more increasing my aversion for the changes the same much as the constant talk on Miller's books on expense on actual analysis on the Iliad did back in the day. Again that is just how I see it. I am not saying I am expecting everyone to think the same, of course

As you imagined from my talk I am not a fan. For starters once more the gods being used to express some purely modern set of values on expence of the story; how the gods are being once more ridiculed or altered for the sakes of this teenage novel. I also see that many aspects of their lives are ignored for example again as many people know how gods are "terrible parents" while literally in many myths we do follow the idea that a hero blessed with god lineage has been advised or helped by the god-parent. What is more we have the prompt that a demi-god has powers that belong to the parent which was not the case. Arguably most demigods didn't have distinct powers except from exceptional talents with certain exceptions of course. Like I said I am not familiar with all the contents of the books but yes I remember how they treated Calypso and honestly that doesn't make any sense. Arguably Calypso didn't need any more stuff in attempt to make her "sympathetic" in that aspect. She was already a lonely deity. To add more tear-jerking stories and such to explain mythology shows only the modern way of thinking to me; that people need something extra to understand the myths but this sometimes has an impact to the story. For instance the whole thing on the implications on "child support" by the gods and all... Arguably gods in greek mythology knew what they were doing. Like I mention to another analysis; Zeus wasn't just screwing around and kids just pop up. He deliberately sleeps with NOBLE women to leave behind noble heirs that are heroes of humanity etc.

I think modern fiction like that is often OVERLY simplifying the ancient myths treating them like some other fictional book that doesn't matter what you do to it and while it can be entertaining or even fun in the end of the day it is not that; it is a part of a living culture and history that still goes on. And the fact that the stories are so overly simplified and altered or twisted gave the false impression to many generations. Honestly I have heard more comments about "Zeus not keeping it in his pants" than the actual meaning and symolism behind the myth and then of course the talk swifts to stuff like sexism and such and while the talk is still valid it misses important points of myths

Also I dislike the double-standards of this that greek myth is free game to do whatever but oftentimes other myths do not have the same treatment because public considers it "disrespectful" or that it "spreads the false idea" or "propaganda" on these cultures. I would say I get more annoyed by the way that general public acts than the story itself sometimes.

I hope that helps somehow

[whisperiin]

May I have hcs on Liv and Skk reader trying to teach Lucia how to cook?

I was reading Lucia Plume's Dancing Ripplet coating story event, where Lucia gave a reason why she's not a great cook. Like she has to scrounge up as much food as she can in her childhood, as little as food source is, so I imagine that she wouldn't have the opportunity to experiment with cooking or mixing with spices and such. So now that she's in a better position where it's possible, now she's got other people to rely on to teach her with cooking! ^^

THAT'S THE REASON????? i don't have plume and i think i was taking a break from the game at the time so i definitely missed that ... that's so......... cat screaming dot jpeg..........

this is such a cute request, and i hope i did it justice!! i think it's a little shorter than the rest of the stuff on this blog so far, but i hope you enjoy, anon ^w^

liv and the commandant teaching lucia how to cook

content warnings: none

➸ Any and all jokes about it aside, LIV thought it was really sweet of Lucia to come to her for help with her cooking, but she can't help but wonder if she's really the best teacher... And that, dear Commandant, is how you get involved: I would feel a lot more reassured if you could help me out, Commandant... But only if you're free, of course! Lucia also perks up a little when she sees you there too, clearing away any clutter from the kitchen before you begin. Regardless of whether you're any good at cooking or not, you'll definitely know if it tastes passable, right?

➸ It starts out with picking a recipe in the little cook book Liv brings along — something simple since you're just starting out, maybe soup or stew, or something else if you prefer? Liv clasps her hands together with a smile and says that maybe once you get the hang of things, Lucia, we can try other kinds of dishes!

➸ Dutifully, Liv lists out what ingredients you'll need while you help Lucia prepare them. Neither of them need much instruction for any slicing and cutting, but every so often Liv will give some other pieces of advice as you put everything together — It's a bit too salty, but that's fine, we can just do this... or, It feels like it's missing something... Maybe we should add some more of this? Lucia listens with rapt attention to anything you or Liv has to say; this is new territory to her, and your advice has her realising that maybe she's been a bit... overzealous in her previous cooking attempts.

➸ She's not dissuaded, though! When you have some downtime while waiting for the food to cook completely, she asks you and Liv for some extra advice. What does she do if it gets too dry? How would she know when it's finished? Once the timer you've set goes off, you help with putting everything onto plates and setting them onto the table (maybe if you're lucky, you'll happen to catch Lee?).

➸ Of course, your first taste is far from perfect, but considering her track record, it's a very good attempt. Lucia perks up as Liv echoes the sentiment — and if you're so inclined, maybe the two of you would want to help her again on the next day off? Her smile is bright as she suggests it: maybe sometime, she can treat everyone to a homecooked meal, too.

[procrastinatingattorney]

my book of bill reactions!

Ford making regular appearances in the book like the fucking drama queen he is, complete with disapproving dramatic selfie god damn

Fucking ‘cipherholic’ and god damn jack skellington moth

Bribe me properly with a stan twins spinoff, old man

(listening to ghost tricks ost at the same time and this truly is a chicken kitchen page)

–

That square image better not be fucking loss

–

These codes with tiny font are such a pain lol, i’m using someone’s incomplete cipher on twitter and its kinda fun filling in the blanks

"Between lives"… so this is before the axolotl reincarnated him

Not the parallel universe where mabel OD-ed on smile dip

Kinda fun using the reflection on my phone to read the mirror page

--

The first dream page and not ford and soos having light hearted shit while everyone else has nightmares (stan seeming to have a mix of the portal incident and the science fair) no mcgucket on that page for some reason tho– oh wait nevermind there's a full page for him and it freaks bill out

Oh there’s the oracle as an ex henchmaniac i think

bill's license plate being a ciphered ‘suck it’ …. So close to saying fuck

--

“My hole could be yours”

--

got to the advertised "extra journal 3 pages" and im fucking losing it omg

also the sixer nickname being used so much in the books and comics is almost funny when you realise that it was only used twice in the actual show

we finally got proper paranoid ford era content and its so painful its great

also god damn even before the paranoid era theres an entire section where bill was like "haha you should've eaten your twin" "haha if you ever met the monster who destroyed my dimension it'd eat you alive" mY GUY THE RED FLAGS

Not ford being told to see therapy way back in college omgggg

Baby stan twins in an ugly hannukah sweater omggggggggg

Oh wait i just realised the first page has some stuff cut from the leaked preview :((( rip no twins kicking the shit out of the statue and hitting it with a crowbar-- oop nevermind my pages were stuck together so i missed the first goddamn page

NO NOT THE FUCKING CRINGE ASS ANTI BILL SUIT WITH THE BRAIN,, FORD NO

SAHDSDHSAK THE EX WIFE JOKE- BUT NO NOT THAT BEING ANOTHER THING FROM THEIR FUCKING DAD

so glad that theres an entire section expanding on paranoid ford era

The joyride section holy fuck

Aw hell yeah the fucked up section which probably bumped this book to an older audience rating

Ford thinking that stan wouldn’t last if bill got into his mind when we have evidence that he has ridiculous amount of control over his mindscape….

Also him remembering what exactly stan looked like when he was begging for help and him using their childhood code…..

--

Is the first fucking reference to the axolotl a coded hot sauce message ‘hotxolotl’ near the end of the fucking book

Been having the ghost trick on loop and the ending song playing as i get to the family section was great timing lol

Me throughout the entire book: boo there’s only a few pages mentioning stan

Me at the stan page:

but also then immediately going “oh shit he has the same handwriting as the bill font in the lost J3 pages” 

Also weh decoding stan’s cartoon censor swears which translates into ‘love ya bro’

(another weh at him signing off as stanley pines)

boo at the lack of acknowledgement of the ridiculous amount of control stan has over his mindscape tho

bill only mentioned him like once before the journal page sections because he's so mad lmao

--

finished it!!! was worried too if it was gonna somehow ignore the whole axolotl being the one to let bill reincarnate thing but the ending really was it going rip bozo go to therapy

attempting the ciphers was pretty fun altho im sleepy and missed a few

(also same coin theory isn’t dead so im a-okay with this lol)

[p0chy]

~One Piece characters tiktok user HCs~

Part 2 !

Characters included : Brook, Yorki, Rosinante, Marco, Yamato, Robin, Luffy, Hiyori, Iceburg, Buggy, Mihawk, Ivankov, Pudding, Whitebeard

Brook

He'll do videos with Yorki most of the time, the content will vary between scary exploration, dad jokes and ofc music

He'll shows his own creation and make live asking people what they'd like him to play

Sometimes will do fashion videos because people keeps asking to see more outfits (grandpa is swag)

He has been suspended once because he kept duetting girls videos asking to see their panties

Yorki

Rarely post alone videos, always with Brook

He also makes music but he's also willing to get an outfit makeover from Brook

Will never answer the "are they together??" comments because he enjoys the chaos

Will duet cool musicians and add something to create the best music ever

Rosinante

Kind of a dad will tell stories, also make bad jokes, usually a go to page when you're sad

When he tries to make serious video everything goes wrong and he end up catching fire almost all the time

Had to ask Law why some people call him babygirl

His fyp is mostly cute things, he cries in front of cute kitten videos

Marco

Doesn't post often but when he does he breaks the internet (too hot)

He has medical videos and animals videos on his page

But contrary to Law his videos aren't traumatizing and everyone loves to learn with him

He likes to just watch his friends videos, seeing them happy make his day

Yamato

An Oden dedicated account

He'll do everything, edits, drawings (he tries), cosplay, dance everything if it's Oden related

Will be a guest in Ace videos sometimes (for more chaos)

His most viral video is not about Oden and it's making him very sad (he tries his extra best to change it)

Robin

The historian tiktok, you learn so much thanks to her

Will also tells you about the most gruesome cold cases she knows about with a smile on her face

Her fyp is book recommendations and cute little animals

She's also a guest on Franky's page a lot, he keeps building her cool stuff

Luffy

ABSOLUTE CHAOS

Use of sounds you never heard on this app, loud and shakey camera as well

Exploration and bugs tiktoks, can't focus on a thing for more than 2 seconds but will spend 10 minutes describing his new beetle

Doesn't even understand the app but people follow him because he's funny

Hiyori

Pretty girl influencer account

Makes music and fashion content, overall not problematic

She has some male fans accusing her of taking their money without anything in exchange and she's unapologetic about it

She has a secret channel for girls to give advices on how to find and take the most money out of a sugar daddy

Iceburg

Was supposed to be the face of the Water 7 official account to show all the good things in the city

The account is almost dead

The rare posts starts normally with his secretary making a speech about the workers but Iceburg ends up making a vlog of Tyrannosaurus

Often repost miniature accounts especially with tiny rodents in them, with the official account

Buggy

Started as an hater account, but people never took him seriously

Ended up trying to make himself look cool, failed miserably as his lies has great consequences on his life (rip)

Pathetic boyfail, doesn't know if he should be happy or offended when his fangirls insult him while saying how much they love him

Attempts thirst traps, get interrupted by Alvida who gets all the attention in the comments

Mihawk

Didn't want to make an account, his (undesired) kids made one for him

Ended up spending a lot of time on it when he saw he could find useful advices and recommendations from interesting accounts

Started posting a bit without showing himself showing his favorite wines and his plant garden

Shanks recognized him anyway and he deleted his account after seeing a comment from him

Ivankov

Drag queen account

Post shows, makeup, drama and always manage to have feat with the baddest bitches

No one ever dare to criticize the queen, they fear what happened to those who tried

Virtually adopts every misfits and made a discord for them, hops in from time to time to remind them to hate the government and slay all day

Pudding

Made videos about baking and cute family moments

She was very liked as an unproblematic and caring girl

Until a video of her being awful and mean was posted and her downfall was almost immediate

Posted an apology video with tears but people still don't trust her

Whitebeard

Another dad account

Badly filmed video of his children, always trying to show them off

Will engage in dads fight to prove that his children are the best

Reposts all of their videos even the questionable ones to their dismay

SEE I TOLD YOU THAT I WOULD MAKE THE POST BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR, YES IT'S THE 30/12 BUT I'M STILL IN TIME I DON'T CARE, NO ONE WAS WAITING FOR IT ANYWAY BUT IT'S MY PERSONAL VICTORY I AM TRUSTWORTHY

Anyway you liked these ones! I didn't have the inspiration for a while and was super busy after, but really wanted to take the time to do it today! The hype is probably gone with all the wait but if you want a part 3 with more characters let me know, I'll try to make it in less than a year 🧍🧍🧍

Well this aside, take care of yourselves, happy holidays and best wishes for 2024, hope your year is full of Killer 😌

[markantonys]

Oh wow that was such an amazing in depth answer, thank you so much! I guess I will just treat books 4-6 as a great trilogy with a load of extra books afterwards 😅 I am definitely mostly here for the girls, Elayne has been my favourite new addition so I’m excited to see more of her! Also can’t wait to see what the show does moving forward with the later books!

i'm glad my answer was helpful! hopefully i didn't bias you too much against the later books haha one of their highlights is that elayne really comes into her own in the second half of the series! she gets to lead her own storylines rather than only being a sidekick in her friends' storylines, so that is very exciting for elayne fans. if you're already loving her now, you'll only love her more with each subsequent book! and egwene and nynaeve also have some really great stuff coming down the pipeline.

in fact, i'd prooooobably say books 9-11 are my favorite books for elayne content and 12 is my favorite for egwene content, so the good stuff definitely isn't exclusive to books 4-6! but in more immediately gratifying news, elayne is unlocked as a pov character in TSR so you have that to look forward to very soon!

and same, i'm so excited for season 3!!!! i can't wait to see how it all shakes out. we're due to meet some interesting new characters (including my BOY gawyn trakand.........judge judy tapping watch.gif as i wait for a gawyn casting leak) and see some cool new locations, and most importantly, we're due to see mat finally take a bath and get a new costume djkjfg anyway, it sounds like you've started the books fairly recently in which case i'm guessing s3 will be your first season where you read the books it's based on before watching it instead of the reverse, so that will be a fun experience to come at it from the other side for the first time!

[wellpresseddaisy]

For the character ask game! I'd love to hear your thoughts on Severus, Sirius, and Narcissa for 2, 3, 12, 24 (because I personally find characters annoying habits a hoot), and 47!

2. A canon or headcanon hill I will die on

Severus

Severus is short. Poor childhood nutrition and stress put paid to him resembling his father. Also genetics. He takes after his mother a great deal.

Sirius

When Sirius is grieving or mired in strong negative emotion his animagus form is that of a Grim. When he’s happy and healthy his animagus form is still the size of a Grim but looks like a black Samoyed.

Yes, this is absolutely so Harry can go "Look at those EARS!" and smoosh his face into Padfoot's fur.

Narcissa

Narcissa is an incurable meddler. Given that she is In Society, she’s often bored to tears. Meddling in other people’s affairs gives her life. She absolutely read Emma and missed the whole point of the book.

3. Obscure headcanon

Severus

Severus’ paternal grandmother was On The Stage from the 1920s through the 1930s. Severus learned a wide repertoire of songs from her and pulls them out every time Narcissa tries to get him to sing at one of her musical evenings.

Narcissa now knows the opening chords for every filthy song from the 1920s.

Sirius

Sirius never quite got the hang of non-magical clothing. He wore jeans because he knew it would annoy his mother, but they never felt…right. Also knit boxer shorts in the summer are a hell he never wants to experience again. He never realized one could feel quite so…soggy.

Narcissa

She had a great deal of difficulty conceiving Draco and was ill for a long time after his birth. She’s convinced that without Severus’ intervention with potions she wouldn’t have a child at all.

12. Crack headcanon

Severus

Promising NEWT Potions students get to learn Severus’ more…illicit brews.

Sirius

Sirius has never been able to get rid of the dog breath after the first animagus transformation. Mr. Potter even tried to invent something. It became incredibly popular as oven cleaner.

Narcissa

Narcissa has never once told Draco the truth regarding childbirth. He went to Hogwarts convinced that babies of the Black family were brought to expecting parents in a chariot of stars.

She feels no remorse.

24. Most annoying habit

Severus

Stuffs used handkerchiefs in his robe sleeves during cold and flu season. He also leaves trails of books marked with bits if parchment all over his quarters.

Sirius

He thinks puns are the height of humor. He also likes to show off how many languages he speaks sometimes and will use a language no one else understands.

Narcissa

She files her nails manually with a metal nail file and hums in a high-pitched drone while she does it.

47. Their dream job

Severus

Researcher. Bliss. No students, no questions, and no being careful not to blow the roof off the building. Also he gets to go to conventions and argue with other people. Oh, and he can send scathing articles in to the journals and not have to worry he's insulting someone's second cousin twice removed.

Sirius

Extra-posh dilettante. He could dabble to his heart’s content, go to society events, and annoy Narcissa and Lucius to screaming point.

Narcissa

Matchmaker. She’d get to meddle as much as she liked and pair people off.

[phantomspren]

I have acquired stickers! And I have things to say about them so BUCKLE UP. :p (I will talk about more than tuberculosis, I promise.)

I have tuberculosis stickers now! From Partners in Health!

While they are very neat and all, I'm going to use this as an opportunity to tell you guys to EMAIL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES (if you're in the US).

Here's an email from the TBFighters that sums things up much better than I can. (The End TB Now Act is a thing that will allocate more funding to fighting TB.)

First link

Find your rep

Email template:

Hello [REPRESENTATIVE],

My name is [NAME] and I am a constituent from [TOWN, ZIPCODE], I am incredibly concerned about rising cases of tuberculosis in the USA and around the world. I am urging [NAME] to PLEASE contact members of Congress on the appropriations committee to include the End TB Now act in the Continuing Resolution on the budget for 2025. The End TB Now act is a reauthorizing bill for USAID’s TB program that has passed the Senate this year and has broad bipartisan support. It’s a fantastic bill that will help USAID continue its lifesaving work around the world. (If emailing: More on the End TB Now act can be found here: https://results.org/wp-content/uploads/End-TB-Now-Act-One-Pager.pdf). The support of [REPRESENTATIVE] means so much to me and my family.

Thank you.

[NAME]

[TOWN, ZIPCODE]

Note: you can also check and see if your representative is part of the appropriations committee on the appropriations committee website. Mine is, so I changed the emails I've been sending a bit.

If you guys would be willing to take a few minutes to send this email, it would mean so much to me and everyone else who's advocating for better access to healthcare.

If you want to learn more about PIH's work, they have recently made the documentary about them, Bending the Arc, free to watch! It's fantastic. I watched it in two of my anthropology classes last year. The TBFighters website is also a fantastic resource.

Aaaaaaand I got stickers and a pin from @sparkbirdmusic !

Their music is super fun, you should definitely go check them out. (If you enjoy groups like The Crane Wives, you'll probably enjoy their stuff.) Circle Maker is my personal favorite, and the song that my friend used to introduce me to them!

SPEAKING OF

They're also a Magnus fan! WHICH MY FRIEND DIDN'T TELL ME *AS I WAS SITTING THERE WITH HER IN MY JON COSPLAY AT FANX AFTER HAVING SPENT THE PREVIOUS DAY WITH A HUGE GROUP OF OTHER MAGNUS COSPLAYERS.*

She was just like "you really like birds and they do a lot of stuff with birds and have birds you should listen to them." And I do love birds but there was another bit of very low hanging fruit there that would have been way more effective in my brainrot addled state. It was very fun to find out after having already gotten into their music though. :)

And speaking of Magnus....

A lovely sticker from @miloillustrates ! :D

It's very pretty and I'm very excited to put it. Somewhere.

Anyways those are my plugs. Go email your rep and maybe buy a few silly little things if you've got a few extra dollars. :)

Oh and the Vlogbrothers video today was fantastic. John talked about why his book Looking For Alaska is banned and why book bans are ✨not great✨

Okay that's all I have thanks for looking at my long thing byeeeeee

[zahmbie]

If you’re comfortable can you write fluff and comfort for Evan and habit with a reader who has FND or seizures? Struggling atm and need some comfort - 🌸 anon

Evan and HABIT comforting a reader who gets seizures

Note: This one took a little longer than I hoped because unlike the other things I’ve written so far, I have no experience with seizures! I’ve been researching them cause I didn’t want to get anything wrong, but I’m basing a few points in here around stuff I read online. Please let me know if I got anything wrong and I’ll be more than happy to fix them! And I hope you feel better soon anon <3

(No content warnings I know of)

Evan

Evan gets a little panicky when he learns you get seizures. You tell him that you’ve been living with them for longer than you’ve known him, but he loves you so he’s going to be a little worried. Just give him some instructions on what to do in the event of a seizure and he’ll do literally everything in his power to help you. He also asks Jeff for any advice on seizures, his closest friend works in a hospital, Jeffs gotta know something right?

Jeff told him that stresses can be a trigger and healthy habits can help with some seizures and Evan is on it. He’s offered to teach you yoga if you wanna try and use it to destress, and he’s very good at making sure you’re always drinking water and keeping a good sleep schedule. 

He struggles a little with some of the things he has to remember, but he’s never once forgotten about any meds you need to take. He’s not gonna baby you about it or anything but he’ll give you a gentle reminder about taking your pills if you need it.

Evan’s by far the best cuddler out of the EMH group, and the best at comforting by extension. He’s gotten his bedroom set up with snacks and drinks, he’s got your favorite CD playing, and he dug a bunch of extra pillows out of his closet to make his bed as soft as it could be. He’ll stay next to you as long as you need him- he’s honestly considering calling out sick to work the next day if you want him to stay with you for longer- talking to you about anything that comes to your minds. Any shows or books you like, some new xbox game he got, how work or school’s going, how filming EMH has been. There’s no place he’d rather be than next to you.

HABIT

Adding to my list of “things HABIT can sense”: seizures. He’s like a medical support dog, he can just smell it coming before you can feel it.

You two are just hanging out, playing with the cat, and he suddenly sits up straight, looking alert. Before you can ask him what’s wrong he goes into some grounding stuff. He’s good with distractions and decent asking questions to help you with reorienting. Some reorienting questions just don’t work great with him. “Where are you” and “what year is it” don’t have clear answers when you’re hanging out in HABITs weird little hell dimension.

Very bad at reminding you to take your meds but he still wants to help, if you didn’t have a pill case before he’ll steal find you one the next time he goes out.

The longer he’s been around you the better he’s been getting at comforting, at least physically he’s still working on verbally. He’ll curl up with you in a blanket on the couch, put your head on his chest, and ask about your day. He’s normally the more talkative one of you two so it’s an interesting change.

Sometimes when he gives you affection he’ll act like he’s only doing it for your benefit, like you cuddling him isn’t something he adores, but during these times he’ll let you see a peek of his true feelings. He’ll drop everything he’s doing to be close to you, and if you want anything you only have to ask and he’ll set out to get it. Yeah he’s got a guy tied up in the attic but that’s not important right now, you take priority for him over anything else.