#and the only reason it’s not mentioned in this post are 1. i have no clue exactly how much influence taika had over the writing

[fuck-customers]

context: i work in what basically amounts to a mall. we are usually scheduled alone, so if we have to leave the shop for any reason (i.e; to use the bathroom, take out the trash, etc.) we wait for the store to be empty and then put a little "back in 5 minutes!" sign on the front counter and just kinda hope no one steals anything. (I have submitted about this place before, but it's been a while since I've been offline. currently in the process of moving to my store's other location in town because this building is garbage for MANY other reasons besides this. (ex: I had to submit a complaint to OSHA a few weeks ago because we had a heat wave and it got up to 85 degrees in there - the chocolates and soft cheeses some other vendors sell were MELTING - and I'm not even in one of the restaurants, so I can only imagine how bad it was in the kitchens.))

the other night I was getting ready to close up shop and left (when there were no cutomers) for ~5 minutes to take out the trash and use the bathroom. when I got back, there was one person waiting to ask me a question, and a $20 bill tucked under the keyboard on the front counter. I was like ???? and the person who was waiting explained that someone else had wanted to buy one of our oven mitts, but hadn't wanted to wait, so they just took it and left cash. (I wish I could say this is the first time something like this has happened to me. The only difference is people usually do this with greeting cards.) this would have been fine, albeit annoying, except that we sell a lot of different oven mitts, all of which have different barcodes/inventory records, and they left NO indication of which oven mitt they took. 🙄

I helped the person who'd been waiting, and then asked the person at the shop across from me if they'd seen which oven mitt it was. They had a few guesses, and told me they'd tried to make the person who took the oven mitt wait, but they'd apparently been an asshole and had predictably refused. tried cross-referencing the oven mitts the other worker thought it might have been with our inventory records, trying to find one that was short, but it all checked out. I can't stay late to count all of our oven mitts to find the one (1) that's short, or I'll go over my hours for the day - not to mention I had dinner plans. so I kinda resigned myself to having to leave this for the morning shift, even though I hate doing that.

a couple of minutes after I start closing up, a different customer ducks behind my shop screen to talk to me. at first I was like ???? because we're CLOSED, but then they told me they'd seen the guy take the oven mitt and had taken a picture of them because they "fucking hate thieves" (fair, I work for a small business; don't steal from mom-and-pop stores). they showed me the picture and I was able to identify the oven mitt. thanked them profusely and rang it out properly after they left. I tried to find that person after I finished closing so I could at least give them the change that the oven mitt guy would've gotten if he'd just waited for me to come back, as a thank-you, but they must've already left. still, that guy was an absolute legend and I hope their coffee is warm and their pillows are cold 🙏

Posted by admin Rodney

[love-hold]

want to relive some of the top moments of the 2024 atp season?

(all mentioned events from my atp poll)

1) daniil medvedev and melbourne

- was this the cause of danya’s 2024 season downfall? probably. he played four five setters, two of which he started two sets down. his match against emil ended at around 1 am. he beat z*erev in the funniest way possible. he earned himself a new record stat: playing the most sets ever at a slam (31) in the open era. and from two sets up once again, he lost a heartbreaking slam final. but the fact that he managed to reach the final is incredible: i really hope his sufferings get rewarded. maybe 4th times the charm?

.

2) the great bee invasion of indian wells

- i don’t know how this happened. i don’t know why this happened. why did the bees solely target carlos? why were they there in the first place? is carlos actually winnie the pooh? this event doesn’t seem real, but it sure gave us the best memes of the year. shout out to lance, the bee man.

3) indian wells quarterfinal: rune vs medvedev

- people underestimate how fucking hilarious this interaction was. holger hit a defensive body shot but danya didn’t see holger’s apology. in classic danya fashion, he 1) snake-eyes holger and 2) mocks rune’s famous short-shorts. the best part: this beef lasted approximately an hour. “if you want we can talk about this in the locker room ” “there is no reason to talk about it” oh okay then. worlds shortest tennis spat.

4) madrid 2024

- this was the atp’s cursed tournament of the year. /@/fritzes has a lovely post about this so do check that out! ill just simplify this chaos here for now. carlos lost to rublev and jannik withdrew half an hour later. jiri received a walkover to the semis after daniil retired, and then jiri gifted a walkover himself to FAA. in total, FAA received 3 walkovers on route to the final, two of which were the QF and SF. andrey ended up winning the title, uncharacteristically calm. is this a new rublev? no. he was playing with tonsillitis, antibiotics, baby food, and a dream. what an absurd two weeks.

5) holger rune versus the ATP

- holger vs jannik on monte carlo clay never fails to deliver drama. in response to his unfortunate scheduling situation—having to finish two matches in a day due to rain delay and leaving him without proper rest for his match against jannik (who later won)—holger leaves a salty reply on his twitter account. i hope he never gets a socmed manager.

6) corentin moutet

- i can’t believe this didn’t get voted more, moutet during clay season was absolutely fucking hilarious. not only was he the first victim of rg’s new umpire head camera (him being a tennisblr hit post makes this even better), but in madrid, he caused a scene with the poor umpire bcause of his dire need for coffee. i also believe this match against shang was also the match where he managed to get hit by a sprinkler on the opposite court. to top it all off, in rome during his match against djokovic, his phone alarm randomly goes off mid match. even novak was amused.

i’m not even done. this man nearly bageled the unstoppable jannik sinner in round 4 of the french open. this man reached 5-0 AD-40 but somehow, the carrot head managed to save two games, denying moutet that bagel. i’m kinda mad that jannik clutched it: that would’ve been the funniest stat of the year.

7) tomas machac and his shorts

- okay i will give credit where credit is rightfully due. machac defeated djokovic in geneva. he beat alcaraz is shanghai. he won olympic gold for czechia in mixed doubles with his….…um…….with katerina siniakova. he probably has even better accomplishments this year, i just don’t know them at the top of my head.

but he will eternally be remembered as booty shorts machac. his shorts were literally shorter than katerina’s in paris. is it a distraction tactic? gives him better speed? is it effective? who knows. he pulls it off, i guess. (honorable mention: his antics against jannik in shanghai)

(source)

8) the resurgence of stefaniil

-what a great time to be a stefaniil truther during the laver cup this year. i think pictures speak louder than words, especially in this case, so enjoy. and for the video, please play it with audio.

9) hubert hurkacz

-hubi was so unhinged this year oml. he started his year by making iga cry at the united cup after poland’s doubles loss against germany. at roland garros, he attempted the most awkward, failed attempt at a coup. the words “hey G…” will follow his career just like “small cat” follows daniil. grigor’s expression of complete bewilderment and “really man? you’re doing this?” was the cherry on top.

oh i’m not done. i truly don’t know what possessed him at wimbledon this year. after fucking up his knee during his match against fils, he goes on court after a quite lengthy MTO and decides to dive AGAIN. he promptly retires on match point. like brother what. my favorite part of this situation is wawrinka and monfils both getting caught shit-talking hubi afterwards, saying something is wrong with his head. oh hubi

he disappeared for a little bit due to that injury but at the tail end of the season, he delivers one last hilarious moment. would love a look into his brain.

10) jack draper and jannik sinner: puke besties

- oh the friendship that rocked the tennis world. this relationship is fascinating: jack is full of swag and jannik is the literal definition of swagless (it’s okay we still love him for it.) this friendship saga is a two part experience. it first began in montreal with dinner doubles…and the infamous ass slap heard around the world. jannik reveals that he and jack are “good friends” which first of all, carlos alcaraz found dead in a ditch. THEN a month later, they’re projected to play each other in the USO semis and even more details are revealed. wdym they text each other often? WHAT DO YOU MEAN JAN AND JACK COOKED PASTA TOGETHER? WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON???

then the actual semi itself: horrendous. for them, not tennis wise though because those first two sets were actually pretty competitive…until jack threw up the first time, bless his heart. two historically-known sickly victorian children playing during the humid day session: that’s a recipe for disaster. at least the net hug was cute. (honorable mention: the anna & jannik bf memes that emerged)

11) taylor fritz vs arthur rinderknech

- okay this moment needs some context. flashback to roland garros, round two, 2023. taylor fritz is facing the last french man remaining in the main draw, and as per usual….the french crowd is being french (no offense), rowdy and rude. taylor keeps his cool until he wins the match and he:

hot. i mean what who said that.

honestly, this is an iconic image, biases aside. could it get better than this?

yes. yes it can

flash forward to wimbledon 2024, r2. both taylor and his french nemesis are projected to meet again, and rinderknech has a few words to say.

yeah taylor wasn’t going to take that. after taking the win against rinderknech, he came up to the net and dropped the best comeback of the year:

what a year. and there’s many more that i missed. i might make a pt. 2 but the WTA version is next.

[nattikay]

"waaaaaa James Cameron is sTEaLiNG from ATLA!!!11!!1!"

sigh yeah sorry but this is just a really stupid claim. There are some fun coincidences, but they are just that: coincidence, nothing more. If it weren't for the fact that both franchises happen to use the word "avatar", a term which neither of them owns nor invented, it wouldn't have even crossed your mind to compare them.

Oh, they both have "water" themed groups? Sure, but the concept of "water" is really the only thing those groups have in common. The Water Tribes in ATLA are arctic-dwelling peoples heavily inspired by the Inuit (plus the Swampbenders, idk if they have a formal name or how widespread their society is), neither of which are locations or cultures we've seen explored in James Cameron's Avatar (which for the sake of this post we'll abbreviate to JCA). Meanwhile, the Metkayina clan in JCA are a tropical island-dwelling people heavily inspired by the Maori and other Polynesian cultures, which likewise is a culture/location that ATLA didn't explore.

They both have an "evil" fire-themed group? Sure, but again it's not 1:1 and it's very odd that y'all are acting like ATLA invented the concept of fire=bad guys. This one's a little harder to analyze because we of course don't know a lot about the Mangkuan clan yet, but from what little we've heard, it seems their reason for being antagonists is that they've turned their backs on Eywa (the deity revered by most Na'vi clans) after a series of natural disasters destroyed their homeland and they felt Eywa didn't do enough to help them. This is a very different motivation from the Fire Nation, who are antagonists because Sozin was power-hungry enough to commit unprovoked genocide on a peaceful nation and start a hundred-year war to conquer the other two. "Fire" and "antagonists" are the only similarities these groups have.

It's also worth noting that the Fire Nation are the primary antagonists of ATLA, whereas the Mangkuan (as far as we can currently tell) are only secondary antagonists in JCA, who may or may not get involved with the actual primary antagonists, the RDA. In this sense, if we're going to force a connection between ATLA and JCA, the Mangkuan might actually be more conceptually comparable to the Dai Lee than to the Fire Nation. Both are factions of what are supposed to be a "good" group (the Na'vi and Earth Kingdom, respectively) who got involved in shady practices and wind up aligning with the primary antagonists (the RDA and Fire Nation). There are still plenty of differences, of course, and this is far too broad a concept to call it a definitive "copy", but there you go.

They both have a group of flying travelers? The Air Nomads were monks and spiritualists who migrated between their own four temples. The Windtraders—based on what very very little we currently know—are merchants who travel to various other clans to trade.

All these comparisons are based on very broad vague ideas that can potentially be executed in a gazillion different unique ways. I don't think James Cameron "stole" these ideas from ATLA, but hey, for the sake of argument, let's say he did. Let's assume that he did purposefully take the very vague very broad ideas of "water people" and "evil fire people" and "flying travelers" specifically and exclusively from ATLA. What he's DOING with these ideas is still completely different from what ALTA does with them.

Take it from someone who adores both franchises: they are completely different. One is about humans with supernatural ability to bend the elements in a fantasy universe heavily inspired by primarily Asian cultures, the other is about a nine-foot-tall blue alien race living on an alien moon where everything glows in the dark and every living being on said moon has the ability to biologically "plug in" to a global neural network. As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, the only reason anyone even thinks to compare them in the first place is merely that their titles share the word "avatar", a term which again neither franchise owns nor invented. If they didn't share this title, nobody would be calling any of these things a "copy". stop.

[megpie71]

This bill is an example of the politician's syllogism:

Something must be done

This is something

Therefore, this must be done

It isn't going to actually solve any problems; it is primarily intended to kick the can down the road for another twelve months to the other side of the election, and was rushed through in order for the two major parties to be able to say they were "doing something" about the problem of kids being affected poorly by online content.

It isn't the creation of a whole new law - it's an amendment to an existing law - the Online Safety Act of 2021. It defines "social media" incredibly broadly:

"(1) For the purposes of this Act, age-restricted social media platform means: (a) an electronic service that satisfies the following conditions: (i) the sole purpose, or a significant purpose, of the service is to enable online social interaction between 2 or more end-users; (ii) the service allows end-users to link to, or interact with, some or all of the other end-users; (iii) the service allows end-users to post material on the service; (iv) such other conditions (if any) as are set out in the legislative rules; or (b) an electronic service specified in the legislative rules; but does not include a service mentioned in subsection (6). Note 1: Online social interaction does not include (for example) online business interaction Note 2: An age-restricted social media platform may be, but is not necessarily a social media service under section 13."

"(3) In determining whether the condition set out in subparagraph (1)(a)(i) is satisfied, disregard any of the following purposes: (a) the provision of advertising material on the service; (b) the generation of revenue from the provision of advertising material on the service."

(or in other words: no, having most of your content be advertising doesn't mean your site isn't a social media site).

(6) An electronic service is not an age-restricted social media platform if : (a) none of the material on the service is accessible to, or delivered to, one or more end-users in Australia; or (b) the service is specified in the legislative rules.

There's some interesting bits in section 63D about the kinds of information these platforms may or may not collect and why they're allowed to collect it. Basically, one of the rules is they're not allowed to collect information for the purposes of complying with this legislation; they're not allowed to collect government-issued identification material (birth certificates, drivers licenses, medicare numbers, tax file numbers, government issued digital IDs etc etc etc) for the purposes of complying with the legislation. Oh, and if they can prove there are no reasonable steps they can take to comply with the legislation, the rules don't apply to them.

Information collection in order to comply with this legislation also has to comply with the provisions of the Privacy Act of 1988 (which basically specifies the information collected and stored has to be the minimum amount possible; only relevant to the questions being asked - so for example, they can't ask for information which isn't related to your date of birth in order to verify your age; has to be stored securely; has to be available for you to view if you request it; can only be stored for as long as is needed to serve the purpose for which it was supplied; and has to be destroyed completely when you revoke your consent to the collecting entity holding onto it). Or in other words: all these American social media firms have just put their hands up to be governed by Australian privacy law, which, while a bit long in the tooth and desperately in need of a revamping and tightening up for the digital age, is still a bit more vicious than US privacy law.

Plus, the whole thing has to be reviewed after two years.

Here's hoping the US social media firms don't just look at the comparatively tiny size of the Australian market (we're still less than 30 million people) and decide geo-blocking our IPs is the quicker and easier fix.

Australian Social Media News

Australia has passed a law that bans anyone under age 16 from using social media starting late 2025, fining tech companies up to A$49.5M for non-compliance. While intending to address mental health concerns in kids and teenagers, the law raises significant risks for privacy, digital access, and the freedom of expression, raising questions about the boundaries of digital censorship.

With that being said, we don’t expect this decision to affect the OTW or any of its projects, including AO3. However, as the OTW, we are against all forms of censorship and will be releasing a detailed statement about the matter soon.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/australia-passes-social-media-ban-children-under-16-2024-11-28/

[howlsofbloodhounds]

if you want a sprinkle of toxicity on colorkiller, i might have some. not necessarily toxic, just maybe a bit unhealthy co-dependency though.

continuation of the post of color and killer wearing dog tags with tracker so they can always find each other. another reason killer wears the tag is because in case he dies he wants his body (because i hc he doesn't dust upon death like a regular monster) to be returned to color, and the address on his tag is color's address. likewise, color has the address of killer on his tag just in case he dies and his tag will be mixed with his dust and returned to killer.

Yeah I can see them doing this. Not only because of codependency, but for reassurance and safety reasons. Not only is Killer very like public enemy #1 and if any form of official authorities (if they even exist) aren’t likely to save or protect Killer, his friends will have to be his only advocates.

Not to mention: in case Nightmare ever kidnaps Killer again. If he doesn’t know the trackers is there, especially if it’s small and easy to hide, Color has a way to track down Killer if he ever gets kidnapped or goes back to Nightmare—in the case of if Killer has a callback program in his codes.

[angelthefandomobsessed]

What's the deal with Heartslabyul (A TWST theory)

I've been thinking about this for a while now, and it just occurred to me to write it all out because I think this is pretty interesting. This theory involves who some of the Heartslabyul members are twisted from, who Yuu represents, the potential inspiration for Grim (yes, Grim), and how this might affect Royal Sword Academy. Some of this is likely fairly obvious, and almost definitely has been pointed out before, but there are some aspects that I have never seen discussed.

I'll split this post into different points to keep everything somewhat together, hopefully, maybe?

Point 1: Who is Alice?

Okay, so this all started with Ace. This is all his fault. I was thinking to myself, "Who is he actually supposed to represent?", as he's one of the more dubious characters in terms of a direct inspiration (him and the rest of Heartslabyul tbh).

In Book 1, at a glance, he seems to be acting as Alice as he is the tart thief. It's not unusual to see characters doubling up on 'roles' (Azul stands in for the genie in Book 4, and Malleus stands in for Mufasa in Book 2, for example). But then I realised no, Ace can't be Alice, because Yuu is obviously Alice.

Yuu ends up in a different world (a world literally named 'Wonderland'), Yuu meets all of the strange characters this Wonderland has to offer, and Yuu points out that Riddle (the Queen of Hearts) is in the wrong (though it's worth mentioning that Ace and Deuce also do this). These parallels are obvious indicators that the player, the only outsider, is supposed to be Alice.

But for what I think is more definitive proof...

Point 2: GRIM IS DINAH, HAS ANYBODY ELSE NOTICED OR AM I LOSING IT???

Grim shares striking similarities with Dinah, Alice's cat.

Entirely blue eyes. A big bow. A patch of chest fur. I refuse to believe that in making an Alice in Wonderland inspired dorm, in a game named after Alice in Wonderland, that this is a coincidence. At one point in Alice in Wonderland, Alice wonders to herself if she'll be taking orders from Dinah next (I think when the White Rabbit mistakes her for the maid?). Taking orders... like a henchman might?

I rest my case. Grim is Dinah, which makes Yuu Alice.

(If this is somehow common knowledge I apologise, I just felt very clever when I spotted this)

Point 3: Okay... so who is Ace?

Ace is the Knave of Hearts. In the novel, it is the Knave of Hearts who is initially accused of stealing the tart, not Alice. The Knave isn't included in the Disney's animated Alice in Wonderland, but he plays a role in Tim Burton's live-action version... as a man with a heart eyepatch who serves the queen (but seems to hate her and want her dead for... reasons).

But like. Heart eyepatch. Tart thief. Do the math.

Point 4: Che'nya further evidences the influence of the live-action Alice in Wonderland/the original novel

In the animated Alice in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat sucks. He is the worst. In the book, however, he is the chillest creature in Wonderland. At one point in a croquet match with the queen Alice is like "Bro, are you seeing this lady?" and he's like "Tell me all about it", and they have a gossip off to the side.

Similarly, in the live-action, the cat is portrayed in a positive light. He's a part of the revolution (down with the bloody big heid, and such). Che'nya is in RSA - the good guy school. If we were exclusively following the animated film, he would 100% be in NRC.

Che'nya is a good guy, which suggests that media surrounding Disney's original animated films was taken into consideration. I've seen it observed that Leona's overblot design seems to take inspiration from the musical adaptation of the Lion King, and that Diasomnia's Glorius Masquerade outfits resemble the live-action Maleficent when put together (wings on either side of Malleus).

If that's not enough to convince you that the live-action has been referenced in TWST, then I present you with this:

Riddle's hair is red, not black. The Queen of Heart's has black hair in the animated film... and bright red hair in the live action.

Point 5: What does this mean for Royal Sword Academy?

This is very up in the air as we don't know all that much about RSA. If they operate similarly to NRC (seven dorms, each with a leader, each dedicated to a Disney hero), more references to the live-action Alice in Wonderland might be on the horizon. We might see a representation of the White Queen, or the Mad Hatter (a character who was also a little bit terrible in the animated film, but played an instrumental hero role in the live-action).

Point 6: Deuce, Trey and Cater... Whomst are you?

Well... where does that leave the other card soldiers? That's certainly one of the great mysteries of TWST. Most of the characters have such clear inspiration - Jamil is obviously Jafar, Malleus is obviously Maleficient, Azul is obviously Ursula... And then you have a character like Trey, who makes cake and has a dental fixation. There aren't really any other characters like the Knave where you can point at them and say, "They share an obvious visual similarity."

The Mad Hatter is green, and the tea parties couldn't happen without Trey and he... wears a fedora, I guess?

Cater has orange hair and so does the King of Hearts.

Deuce gives dog boy energy, so...

Yeah, it's still anyone's guess.

In conclusion: I think the reason why Heartslabyul is such a source of mystery is because every member hides a part of themselves. Cater has a melancholic side, Deuce is an ex-delinquent, Riddle deeply wants to be normal but holds back because of the rules, Trey wants to be the most average man ever, and Ace can be all kinds of insincere.

I think in the next book 7 update (the Heartslabyul adventure) we might be getting a deeper insight into these characters, which I'm really looking forward to. Ace in particular.

While we're here, I predict that Riddle's dream will involve him being a normal, imperfect teen who eats sweets all day, Deuce will be an honour student (he probably doesn't have the best imagination so it could be silly o'clock with him), and Trey will wear a sparkly dress and become the tooth fairy (his true dream job).

Okay, but serious prediction for Trey - they'll go into his dream and be all "Omg he has such a strong imagination, how did we never notice?? He's actually so OP" because his unique magic is actually broken, I'm pretty sure if he woke up he could use Doodle Suit on Malleus and turn his sleep spell into pretzels or something, it wouldn't even surprise me.

[flowery-laser-blasts]

What are , your Head Cannon , for Drakken and Shego and , Kim and Ron :

Got lots of headcanons so I give 3 random ones for each: Ron - In Pre-K, Ron received a very colorful and glittery friendship bracelt from Kim. He wore it all the time but eventually got bullied for it by other kids. One day Kim noticed that he didn't wear it and thought it was because of the bullies, she decided to not mention it. The real reason why Ron didn't wear it is because the braceltclip broke off, causing the beads to fall everywhere. He spent an entire afternoon trying to find back all of the beads and repair the bracelet, but with his parents being to busy, he placed the beads in a little bag and kept it in his treasurebox underneath his bed, where it still remains till this day. - Ron is smart but it highly depends on what the context is. If you ask him to solve an equation, he'll be having a hard time. But the moment you ask him the same equation but make it sound like it has to do with "figuring out how many coupons I need for Bueno Nacho" or so... he'll solve it within moments. - Ron takes care of his nails and hands, especially since he's into cooking. He doesn't want anything underneath his nails nor does he want food to stick to him while preparing stuff. Hygene is no 1 priority when it comes to preparing food; eating food, however, is a whole different story. Kim - After the Zombie Mayhem tournament, Kim secretely continues to play the video game. She doesn't want to admit it but it was more fun than she expected it to be. She secretely trains in order to surprise Ron with a match someday. - Kim and Ron decided to dress up as Miriam and Jonathan for Halloween Trick or Treating and later on Kim reused the costume for her presentation on Miriam in college. - Kim has become less worried about brands over the years, especially after realising how dumb it was after people wore her mission outfit for a few days, only to jump onto the next best thing. She still is into looking into the latest fashion but thrifts it and tries to make it her own. Together with Monique they started upcycling clothes. Monique has her own business now. Drakken - After Graduation part 2. Drakken started working on improving the quality of the world rather than trying to take it over: Being praised for being a beloved saviour has better gloating perks than being a failing villain that has to hop from lair to lair. Though he does miss the thrill of villainy every now and then. So he sometimes does petty crimes like shoplifting a screwdriver from Planettool or anonymously blaming a fellow scientist for causing a chemical fire that resulted in a three months shutdown..., ...some tax evasion. - Drakken's scar was a result of eyebrow trimming - Drakken has a distaste for okra and bellpeppers and will pick those out of a dish no matter who prepared it. Shego - After Graduation part 2. Shego got tasked to train some of Global Justice's newest agents. She enjoyed it and eventually became an independent hitwoman for a while. After that she just decided retiring early is nice (especially with the money Drakken was making for both of them with his new job). She now does whatever... pretty much what she's always been doing. But also meets up with Kim and rekindled their sisterly bond in stop team go. - Shego is a horrible cook and either relies on someone else cooking for her or having take out/going to a restaurant. However after retiring early, she decided to try and get into cooking... a bit... the kitchen burned down. - Shego hates to admit it but the Snowman Hank song became an earworm. She hummed it once and noticed Drakken smiling widely from the corner of her eye.. or was that just her imagination? She doesn't dare to ask...

Hope it all makes sense. Still recovering from a cold so my typing isn't the most coherend at the moment :')

EDIT: I WISH TUMBLR WOULD STOP SCREWING UP THE COLORS IN THIS POST

[flock-of-cassowaries]

As a person diagnosed with a disease that causes brain inflammation, whose diagnosis was significantly delayed by a neurologist failing to pass along important MRI results - yes, this was infuriating.

I nevertheless ship Hannigram, for reasons I struggle to succinctly explain.

(I would say “brainworms”, but I now get a monitoring MRI every year, and my last scan was clear. Presumably, someone would’ve mentioned it if there were literal worms in there.)

More on both the medical angle, and the “why TF do I ship this??” angle, below the cut.

What it felt like to find out important test results were not shared with me:

It was a horrible gut punch. In my case, there was no malice - only negligence - but the result was that I had been walking around for ten years gaslighting myself that the worsening symptoms I was experiencing couldn’t possibly be what I originally thought they were.

I was mad, but also just devastated. It really shook my core sense of safety in the world.

It took me about a year to even start to kind of feel normal again, despite the fact that I was getting really good medical care in the wake of the error being detected.

Details of what’s portrayed in this episode that are just dumb (aka ✨pedantry✨):

My experience of actual medical testing and care around inflammatory autoimmune brain conditions makes me even more irritated by this plot line.

First off, the MRI scene. Like, perhaps it’s different in the states, but in Canada, MRI departments operate 24/7. I’ve had scans scheduled at 3am.

They will definitely set up an emergency scan for you if you have an emergent condition (I only waited four days for the scan that ultimately got me diagnosed), but there’s no way that they could just do an “off the books” unofficial scan with no one around, as is portrayed in the show.

Also, neurologists don’t perform the MRI. Radiologists do it, and then they send it to the neurologist to interpret.

Most importantly, you CANNOT move your head during a scan. There’s actually a little cushion in there that fits tightly around your head to stabilize it so you don’t accidentally move it, but they also will tell you to stay very still. One radiologist warned me to “breathe gently”.

In the show, you can see the plastic frame where the stabilizing cushion should be, but in the name of a cool shot, they’ve removed it, and Will Graham is just bobbing his fucking head like he’s in Night At The Roxbury.

I was so irritated I made a gif.

That scan would be unusable.

Also, the fact that Hannibal is able to correctly guess the exact condition Will has makes no sense. So many things could mimic those same symptoms.

To conclusive determine that what I had was MS, the following tests were done (within the context of the taxpayer-funded Canadian medical system):

1. Standard blood panel and urinalysis to rule out common infections

2. MRI

3. MRI with contrast fluid

4. Spinal tap

5. Seventeen additional blood tests

And they did all that despite the fact that I had a first degree-relative already diagnosed with the same disease.

Some people have suggested Hannibal made the diagnosis based on smell, but that is anatomically nonsensical. The brain is wrapped in a pretty thick membrane; aseptic brain inflammation would be not off-gassing from the skin or mouth like a stomach cancer, or arsenic poisoning.

Finally, the ease with which Hannibal is able to talk Dr. Dipshit into committing gross and easily-detectable medical malpractice makes no goddamn sense. It is perhaps the baldest example of the cynicism of the show’s writing - as I argued in another post, it portrays a world in which almost everyone is despicable.

If we rule out the possibility of literal brainworms, how the f*^% did I end up shipping these two?

As for how I ended up shipping Hannigram anyway - I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that as a former right-wing true believer, I am an expert at creatively misreading media.

When almost all of popular art has the theme “your beliefs are bad, and you should feel bad”, you learn to preemptively kill the author (death the author?) so that you can extract enjoyment from a work of art without reexamining your odious beliefs.

( See: Republican politicians using lefty protest songs at rallies. )

I’m no longer a conservative - I excised those brainworms about a decade ago, thank god - but the willingness to just arbitrarily toss out parts of a story that don’t suit remains strong in me.

Season 2 of Hannibal is quite good, and Season 3 (while objectively bonkers and very poorly paced) has some great character moments. Hannibal as a character becomes a lot more complex as he unravels.

This unraveling makes him a fascinating figure onto which to project some of my worst psychological tendencies - specifically, my tendency towards splitting (where I see the people close to me as either all good, or all bad, and for that perception can change in an instant). So that’s really interesting to explore.

It’s also probably a deliberate misreading of the text on my part, but there are quite a few parts in s2 and s3 where Hannibal can be read as straight-up delusional; and while I am sensitive to the fact that people with delusional disorders are far, far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators, I am also endlessly fascinated by the trope of “character looks back on his life, and sees a series of horrible sins he’s committed, whose damage to others cannot be undone; and struggles with how to cope with that.”

So in that context, giving Hannibal a deus-ex-machina of high-dose risperidone creates some fascinating narrative possibilities.

(This is probably something I enjoy writing because I spent 15 years being an obnoxious apologist for horrible right-wing politicians.)

I also just like the idea of Will taking it upon himself to kill this guy once and for all, and then not being able to bring himself to do it, and instead just keeping him captive and constantly wrestling with the question of whether he’s just being pragmatic about keeping everyone in the vicinity safe from his pet serial killer, or if he’s actually doing what he’s doing to passive-aggressively punish Hannibal.

There’s just so much there, thematically, that I love to play with.

hannibal lecter SLANDER rant [spoilers for 1x10]

WHATTTT WHAT WHAT. Hannibal Lecter…Oooh… this just confused me so bad guys and when I finish the whole series and this whole rant turns out to be wrong I’ll admit it but how can you still sit there and ship hannigram!!!!! after this!!!!! it made me so mad that a LICENSED RADIOLOGIST sat there and lied to Will’s face ABOUT HIS OWN RESULTS because Hannibal asked him or whatever the fuck, I don’t know how close him and the doctor are yet or what their relationship is BUT???? LIKE???? He’s actively subjecting him to hallucinatory torture and the pain that comes with it, HALF. OF. HIS. BRAIN. IS. INFLAMED. HE CAN LITTERALY DIE FROM IT + brain damage, seizures, and worsen his already worse mental health. I HATE THIS GUY!!!! My hate train will start from here and continue on until he can prove me wrong

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Thank you all for an incredible 500 days of love and support. I offer you: answers to questions that no one has asked.

(As always, more can be found in the tags <3)

[arttsuka]

Based on somewhat real events

I spent way too much time drawing this...

But yeah, Ford finally saying thank you

A continuation (kinda)

[carlottastudios]

Every day I get closer to making an unhinged behemoth of a post listing all of the things about Kaeya and his possible connections to mythology & stuff that I notice but NOBODY ELSE SEEMS TO BRING UP IN THEIR THEORIES

(edit: OMG I reached the tag limit I'm so sorry)

[skitskatdacat63]

"Victory belongs to the most persevering" - Nandopoleon Alonsoparte

+ First Consul Nandopoleon

Wow look I finally drew him properly! This was like the 2nd or so AU I've ever made, but honestly I feel so strongly about it that it's really intimidating to try and make a satisfying explanation post for it. I want it to be perfect ah. But I will one day! Maybe a web weave or smth in the meantime. But I digress. Napoleon Bonaparte = Fernando Alonso, please contact @/skitskatdacat63 for details.

In this painting I drew the uniform Napoleon wore during the Italian campaign in the 1790s, bcs I think it's so pretty, and not just the typical Napoleon outfit everyone knows(tho dw I'm in love with that one too.)

Though I will say, it was a bit weird drawing Fernando in navy blue(is this a sign for 2025?), so I had to draw him in the bright red First Consul uniform, to return some order to the world y'know

I ended up picking "victory belongs to the most persevering" as the Napoleon quote to use, but that was really hard to pick tbh. I literally have a whole folder of Napoleon quotes that remind me of Fernando LOL. Some others, to give you an idea:

"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."

"From triumph to downfall, there is but one step."

"Morality has nothing to do with such a man as I am."

"It requires more courage to suffer than to die."

Etc etc., again: I have a folder ;;;

I don't think this drawing was nearly as complicated as the Seb one, but for some reason it made me suffer more. I think you just get into this really intense mindset after drawing smth super detailed, and it's very frustrating. But I like it! His face was very confusing to me(the angle of the eyes), and then it randomly hit me how to draw it so that was cool. Look at him face :) handsome boy

Also here's the process! I think I'm gonna try and draw something each weekend as a gift to myself after the school week(if I have actual ideas for it lol)

[kariachi]

Midnight Rant #5 billion and 12 on Charmcaster and Kevin- That woman's fucking AF premiere.

Because we have Kevin, very obviously in a very bad place. He's being retraumatized, his girl's cut back hard on spending time with him with no explanation, our boy is going through it. And then he makes a friend, according to WoG over the course of a few months, in a grown woman. And it's great, it's fine, and then she starts macking on him. And then she plants a kiss on him despite him shutting her down. And while doing that she literally takes control of his damn mind, just fucking harpoons that poor boy's bodily autonomy, forces him to turn against his loved ones. All because she never actually gave any sort of shit about him and from the very start was using him to get to and hurt his girl. This relationship that he thought was forming for months was all a ruse, her using him and then abusing him. And this is

So painful for poor Gwen. Can you believe that Kevin didn't have faith that her pulling back with no explanation meant she was working hard to fix him, after the whole three-odd months they'd been together? And to have Charmcaster come back starting problems. Oh poor Gwen, everyone is so mean to her.

And it's not just in the fucking show, it's in the fandom as well, this idea that the shit Kevin goes through matters in how it affects Gwen and not in how it would have to affect him. Just, that had to be such a fucking painful if not straight up traumatizing event. Charm fucked with his goddamn mind. She made him think she cared about him only to hurt him.

Congrats, Charm, I'd say you were only a few steps below Servantis but he at least let the kids have a degree of autonomy and wasn't on screen macking on them. Slow clap, you're even keel.

Just, I sometimes remember that we have a whole episode surrounding Kevin, already openly in an awful headspace, being groomed and straight up mindcontrolled, and the big take-away is how much the situation hurt Gwen and how bad a boyfriend he is for not reading her damn mind. And it drives me up the fucking wall.

Especially when you remember that he spends that season in his underwear, I'm sorry but the parallels to the treatment of imperfect SA victims write their damn selves.

And when you also keep in mind that when Mike is pulling the 'charm them and thrall them' bit it's treated, by the show and fandom, as him being an irredeemable predator and his victims have every right to hate him forever and wish horrible things on him, but Charm gets to have the 'oh poor Charmcaster' treatment and Kevin's thinking she can go fuck herself is treated as a flaw in his character by the show and ignored by fandom.

Because in the end the disparity comes from the same place as the repeated physically abusive acts Gwen commits against Kevin, as Looma's threats being treated as humor, as Gwen's thinking they're romantic being treated as humor- plain old misogyny. Mind the misogyny isn't all of it, but the age old belief that this sort of shit committed by women against men isn't a concern, and in fact may even be treated as ridiculous, because women are too weak to hurt men plays a big role. Doesn't matter if it's a grown woman grooming a mentally ill teenager or a teenage girl shoving her boyfriend into freefall- she's just a girl so of course what she's doing isn't actually dangerous or harmful, because women aren't capable enough for such things. Which then plays into the age old sexist bullshit that men are simply too strong and rough to be hurt, and to be hurt by a girl especially- physically, mentally, however- is funny because it means they're weak.

And that's not even getting into the 'a guy is always eager' bullshittery.

Just, for the love of fucking christ...

[elytrafemme]

i think i played sims 4 with my sister for six hours straight today?

[koushirouizumi]

Edit by @izzyizumi {DO NOT Copy} {DO NOT RE-POST WITHOUT PERMISSION} (Please ASK to Use+Share!!)

[themyscirah]

This is technically a Diana's age poll but I framed it partially around Julia's rescue because that's the event I need to contextualize and whether or not Diana is a thing yet is p important for my purposes. I would keep the Pérez run and postcrisis continuity in mind when answering this bc that's when this is relevant but I'd keep in mind that even though Diana is very young there (like early 20s) we don't know I don't think if she ages differently as a child (esp as a themysciran AND being made from clay) and in some versions she is older than she looks and was made earlier

Edit: I accidentally logic-ed this out in the tags lol 🤦‍♀️but feel free to still vote however you want. Going to publish this anyway bc I think I made some good points later in my tags