#and this is just how it reads from an in universe perspective

[lvrpiastri]

I’M LOVESTRUCK (AND LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW) ; OP81.

synopsis: An alternate universe (AU) where Oscar Piastri, your awkward boyfriend and coworker at the Daily Planet, is the one and only Superman…and you find out.

trigger warnings: Use of Y/N; Use of feminine pronouns from the reader’s perspective; Descriptions of romantic acts and behaviors; Suggestive remarks; Descriptions of violent events

a message from the author: This idea took ahold of me earlier and it would not let me go. I think Oscar would make the most adorkable Clark Kent and the sexiest Superman… You can argue with the wall. This fic is, obviously, heavily based on Superman, and the title is from Taylor Swift’s eponymous song from her Speak Now album. I enjoyed writing this fic, and I hope you like reading it! 🫶

It was more plausible that a nuclear bomb would strike the heart of the city, obliterating everything in a hundred-mile radius, than for Oscar Piastri, the sweet and mild-mannered reporter, to be Superman. The hero was legendary, saving families from burning houses and apprehending gunmen. Meanwhile, Oscar was clumsy and awkward, fondly nicknamed “Butterfingers” by some senior editors. He could barely get two sentences out without stammering and turning red.

It just did not make any sense that those two polar opposite personalities were one and the same. 

You sighed, running back the footage again, exhaustion biting at your temples. The clock at the corner of your laptop screen read half past midnight, but you weren’t going to rest until the pieces in this inexplicable puzzle clicked in your sleep-deprived mind.

Oscar Piastri… Superman…The names blended together like alphabet soup until the letters were meaningless and your vision blurred.

You had been working at the Daily Planet for nearly a quarter of a year by the time Oscar was accepted into his role as a reporter-slash-journalist. He worked alongside you on a handful of investigative stories, constructing leads and expertly interviewing suspects. Despite all his gawkiness, something came alive when he was in the middle of a case; he was talkative (to the point that an outsider not clued into the topic would think he was having a hysterical breakdown) and, for lack of better words, a genius. He had entered your orbit abruptly, and you never wanted him to leave.

His desk was orderly, with only a small Venus flytrap and a framed photo of him and his fluffy white dog sitting on the surface. The wallpaper on his computer was the default glowing blue-tiled one, with no personalizations made whatsoever. Even his Google profile was set on “Guest”. Even though Oscar had his chatty moments, finding out his personal history – something as uncomplicated as his hometown or date of birth – was equivalent to invading Fort Knox. He was impenetrable.

You invited him on a coffee date – discussed as “just a hangout to discuss a potential article” – after you had known him for a few weeks. He accepted, blushing bright pink and stuttering so furiously it took him three attempts to choke a sentence out. The sight of a six-foot-tall, buff man looking flustered was absolutely endearing. You were sold, your heart falling for him hook, line, and sinker the more time you spent in his company.

Then, sometime around winter, when the snow was about to fall over the city, Oscar spent a night over at your apartment. He was an incredible houseguest, preparing a mouthwatering dish you had never tried before called Salmon Wellington and even watching a cringey teenage romcom from the 2000s without a single complaint leaving his lips. Nothing romantic or sexual had happened, unless you counted the bulge in his boxers that you had felt when you had woken up the next morning, his warm body pressed against yours. 

He was polite, courteous, never crossing any boundaries. Actually, it was slightly frustrating how he never initiated any sort of physical touch without asking beforehand. The hand holding, the soft kisses on your cheek, had all been preceded by a question and a long conversation that intended to quell his worries that he was behaving inappropriately. Consent was never a joke, but he took the concept to a whole other level.

The only snag you picked up on was his tendency to randomly disappear. In the middle of work meetings, during fire drills…He would be there one minute, and gone the next, as if he had suddenly sprouted wings and taken flight. You didn’t think much of it; even as an investigative journalist, you didn’t assume the worst of people. There must have been an excuse for it, and you consistently gave him the benefit of the doubt.

But the more that you thought about it and connected the fragments, the more obvious it became that Oscar was, in fact, a superhuman being tasked with saving the world. 

There had been one day when you had come into work, and Oscar’s collared shirt was singed at the hem. He blamed it on an ironing mishap, but somehow, it seemed odd. Another time, you watched as Oscar consumed five protein bars in the span of an hour. You didn’t say anything – it rubbed you the wrong way, yet you were more than eager to pin it on a crazy “gym culture” trend.

Now that the truth had been revealed, you had no idea how you were going to confront Oscar about it. The secret would stay between the two of you, one hundred percent. You wouldn’t endanger his life by gossiping about it with your friends, no matter how interesting and juicy the tidbit was. You had to be suave, not accusatory – casual and calm, like it was simply a quirk he couldn’t erase. A lovable eccentricity of sorts.

You woke up to your face plastered to your keyboard, drool sticking on your skin. The laptop had died hours before, the screen dark. With a groan, you straightened up, your joints cracking with the movement. The bedside clock read seven a.m., just thirty minutes before you had to be at work. For some reason, your alarm had not gone off.

You swore under your breath, dragging yourself out of the chair and fumbling through your closet to find a suitable outfit for work – a pleated Ann Taylor blouse and linen twill pants from Michael Kors. Coffee was a necessity, and your next goal to achieve. Watching it brew in the maker was a special sort of torture as you drummed your fingers on the granite counter.

Your phone lit up, buzzing with the sound of a notification, and your heart swooped in your chest as you picked it up.

Oscar.

[OSCAR] Good morning. Are you coming into work today? I’m bringing some donuts in.

You grinned, the idea of baked pastries sounding absolutely wonderful to your empty stomach. The last meal you had eaten had been almost twelve hours ago; a simple microwaveable dish that was about to expire.

[YOU] Donuts sound amazing. I’ll be there in about twenty minutes – I can’t wait!

And then you remembered the mission that lay ahead; the inevitable clash that would ensue when you told Oscar what you knew… that his secret identity wasn’t so secret anymore.

Oscar gave you a chaste hug when he saw you at the office, his eyes lighting up behind the classic black frames he always wore. “Glad you’re here,” he said while he handed you a Boston creme donut – your favorite. “I need your help on something.”

You nodded, mouth full of powdered sugar and vanilla custard. “Yeah, what’s up?”

He led you to his desk, sitting down on his spinning chair and unlocking his computer with a quick tap of his fingers. “I’m about to send you my article on the Morris case. Can you read over it and proofread? I want the wording to be just right,” he asked. “You’re the best writer here.”

“You’re flattering me,” you said, waving the compliment away, but privately dying over it. You hoped your face wasn’t too red; maybe you could blame it on the heat…if it wasn’t frigid outdoors. “But sure, yeah, I can do it. No problem. Check your inbox later, OK?”

Oscar’s face split into a wide grin. “Thank you so much. You’re incredible.”

“Oh, and by the way – are you coming over tonight? There’s a new episode of that thriller show. I’ve been waiting to watch it,” you informed him, and the tips of his ears turned red. 

He nodded. “Yeah. I should be able to.”

“Great.” You beamed at him. “OK, I’m going to go work on my assignment. I’ll see you later.”

Oscar knocked on your door that night, his formal polo shirt exchanged for a cozy navy button up jumper and gray sweatpants. He held a bouquet of orchids and a box of chocolates in his hands, kissing you on the top of your head as he entered your apartment. “I know it’s not our anniversary, but I saw these at the store and I thought of you,” he confessed. “It’s cringey, so if you don’t want to accept, you don’t have to.”

You shook your head, taken aback. “Of course I will! What kind of person would I have to be to decline free chocolates? I’m not a mad woman.”

Oscar chuckled. “Right.”

You led him to the living room once you had set down the chocolates and safely put the flowers in a vase filled with water. Oscar’s favorite green-and-blue patterned wool blanket was already draped over the couch, the television on and loaded at the waiting screen for the streaming service platform. A mug of raspberry tea rested on the table, and Oscar picked it up carefully. 

“I’m ready to watch,” he announced, tugging the blanket over his body and snuggling close to you. “Let’s go.”

The episode concluded an hour later, suspense keeping you at the edge of your seat as the main character finally faced the villain who had been stringing them along the whole show. There were plenty of jumpscares, making you seek comfort in Oscar’s embrace, something he was grateful for.

“That was amazing,” Oscar said, eyes wide while the credits rolled in front of him. “I think I might have to sleep with the lights on for a while now, though.”

You bobbed your head in agreement, flicking the television off. “I’m super paranoid now.”

“Me too.” 

You craned your head up at Oscar, courage suddenly spiking within you like a drug addict finally meeting their high. “I need to talk to you about something,” you stated carefully, the words falling out of your mouth before you could think twice.

Oscar’s expression immediately shuttered, defenses scrambling to be built. “What’s the matter?”

“I…um…” You faltered, swallowing back a lump in your throat. “I saw footage from the bank robbery last week.” His eyebrows furrowed, still not catching on to what you were insinuating. “Superman walked into the bank, all suited up…and he left the bank dressed like you. There’s no evidence of him leaving, only you – and you weren’t there before. I checked every minute, from every angle. The similarities are startling. It’s a crazy allegation to make, but the signs are there.”

You looked at Oscar, waiting for a reaction, but none came. He looked at you with the same unemotional stare. “You think that I’m Superman?” Oscar finally said, a disbelieving laugh bursting free. “That’s…Y/N, I don’t know how you could –”

“I saw footage from inside the bank as well. He’s unmistakably you; I recognize the voice. The volume might be louder, the tone more gravelly, but I’m not stupid. I know he’s you.” The words came out sharp as knives, and you took a breath to calm down.

Oscar’s head jerked to the side. “And I’m telling you it’s not true.”

“So you’re telling me to ignore the evidence that’s right in front of my eyes?” you retorted, annoyance flaring inside before you could stop it.

“I can’t,” Oscar bit out furiously. “I didn’t want you to know about this. I wish you didn’t know about it. I don’t want to pull you into the mess that is my life. I can’t risk you getting hurt.”

You flinched. “Well, I do know. You can’t delete it from my memory. So you’re going to have to come to terms with it, because I’m here.”

“And what if someone kidnaps you? What if someone uses you for bait once they figure out how vulnerable I am when you’re involved?” Oscar dropped his head, avoiding your gaze. “The last thing I want is for you to be hurt.”

Without thinking, you flung yourself into Oscar’s lap, your lips colliding with his. A low groan escaped him, and his arms caged you in, the kiss becoming more passionate and visceral. “I understand that you have experience playing the hero, but you better ignore your savior complex,” you implored him. “You have no right to pull away. The moment you reciprocated my kisses was the moment you relinquished the ability to leave me.”

Oscar’s mouth thinned. “I want to protect you.”

“Then protect me by staying by my side, not abandoning me.”

His grip on your body tightened, protectiveness etched in every line of his features. “I’ll never leave you.”

“Good.” You tilted your head up to meet his eyes. “Because you might be the Man of Steel, but you’re also my boyfriend. And that means you’re stuck with me, for the rest of your life. For better or for worse.”

Credits: Dividers — @dollywons

[belbobiggins]

I will defend both Toriel and Kris to the ends of the Earth. People seem to forget that this isn't a one sided situation—multiple things are at play here that brought them to this outcome (as in: Kris coming home to a drunk Toriel and being clearly upset). But that doesn't mean that one side is inherently "bad" or "the victim". Kris has every right to be upset, but Toriel also has every right to let loose and have fun every once in a while. Kris is a how old teenager who is constantly out of the house and just made new friends after seemingly not having ANY. Of course Toriel is going to want to let them go hang out with their friends. They've never had any before.

This situation fluctuates from light gray to dark gray and that's it. It's not and will never be black and white. And depending on who's shoes you place yourself in it's either dark gray or light gray.

The scene was meant to make you feel a lot of things. Toby isn't an idiot, he's a physiological genius who can make you cry during one scene and burst out laughing in the next without lifting a finger. He did it on purpose. He WANTS you to feel conflicted. It's supposed to be a relatable scene, whether you see it from Toriel's perspective or Kris'.

Every argument about it thus far literally just proves that. The argument is always "well I understand Kris because (insert something about alcoholic parents/parental issues)" or "well as understand Toriel because (insert something about not being able to be perfect forever)". That's literally the definition of relatable. You understanding one character or both is the point, and that's supposed to make you feel uncomfortable/conflicted, because you can see what is happening from either side and understand.

The argument that Toriel is either good or bad with no in-between is fucking stupid. Anyone who vouches for either side hasn't yet developed their frontal lobe. Toriel is a gray character and I will die on this hill. I will defend her to my grave. You guys are always throwing tantrums about not having enough gray characters like Rose from Steven Universe or Catra from She-Ra but you guys couldn't even handle Toriel from Deltarune for fucks sake. How many more dumb opinions can I read before I become a millionaire

I do understand your arguments that her decision to party with Sans "wasn't her fault," but I feel like that's a bit of an overcorrection.

As you have rightfully pointed out, contrary to what this new viral strain of Toriel slander argues, she isn't some neglectful drunk ignoring her kid. She's a much better mom than most people give her credit for (in fact not giving moms their due credit is something we see way too often). At the same time, I can't help but strongly feel that her decision to get with Sans wasn't the best decision she made.

IIRC you said in another post of yours discussing Asgore and Toriel's flaws and how they weren't equally flawed, you pointed out how she didn't make the best possible choice at every turn. And the way I personally see it, the chapter 4 ending is an example of her not making the best choice.

It was completely understandable what led her to make that decision (and those who slander her under the pretext of "giving her nuance" are the REAL ones ignoring her nuances), but it was still a decision she made, and that decision had unfortunate consequences.

Again you RIGHTFULLY pointed out that she badly needed this (a moment to be herself and a break from being Kris's mom), and I agree with you. But she couldn't have waited just a little longer for it.

I mean, she couldn't have waited until Kris had got home and then started having her break from being Kris's mom?

I do LOVE how she asked Kris if Susie was okay indicating how much she cares about Susie and how she's still concerned about her, but one can't help but wish she also asked that to Kris as well. Though in her defense, Sans did NOT help with the situation AT ALL in egging her on to party rather than allowing her a small moment to make sure everything's okay.

And in her defense again, Asgore didn't exactly help either, and it's positively ridiculous nobody seems to be harping on HIM for not doing his due diligence.

And in her defense again, the town didn't help either, as you have pointed out, in given her a decent support network.

That said, there were things she came up short in in that moment even though there were very understandable reasons or doing so.

Sorry about the long ask.

you're telling me the impromptu party for 2 she impulsively ditched church for wasn't at the most appropriate and convenient time? color me surprised.

if toriel had a reason to worry where kris was (and she didn't, they were at noelle's with susie), if toriel wasn't highly stressed out by and fed up with Asgore's behaviour, if she WAS in a position to think 100% clearly and rationally she wouldn't have taken sans home to begin with... she probably wouldn't even have stopped by his store. toriel at her most rational will always put respectability and her kids' needs before her own desires. which is exactly why i will defend this rowdy outburst of hers to the end of the earth, that kind of vice grip on yourself can't last forever without crashing out spectacularly

considering her reaction to having the winter party brought up in the alarm clock dialogue, I'm actually really worried that she'll be ashamed of herself? or close herself up even harder afterwards. girl it's okay! you can ditch choir practice once in a while, you can get drunk with the hot new guy. you don't have to be so perfect of a mom you stop being your own person, you're still young, go live your life once in a while!

[nikomedes]

i can't get over how bafflingly mediocre the murderbot show was. im not fundamentally opposed to adaptations--my favorite TV series ever, station eleven, is a much-changed adaptation that i think better gets at what the book wanted to be about. but this adaptation, its changes and decisions, its tone and character work, feel fundamentally unnecessary to me.

all systems red is a novella. they had a 10 episode order. granted, for 30 minute episodes that would've done better as 1hr eps, but they had the space. there really, at least from my perspective, wasn't a need to make the changes to the plot they did. i might've understood that if they were trying to go without murderbot's perspective narration and needed to exposit different ways, but they did a voiceover. so many of the divergent events on screen feel like filler in a show that is not very long! the novella is lauded, best-selling, why not just take the easy win and script it for tv with the plot intact? for the directors and producers to make the adaptation uniquely "theirs"?

more thoughts under the cut:

the casting, aside from skarsgard who i accepted as a necessary evil to make the show happen, was fantastic. there are some stand out performances, especially from mensah, bhardawaj, and gurathin (though the gurathin/mensah subplot is another baffling nothing change that annoys me, i wasnt opposed to the added addict character element except for the tonal whiplash). a lot of the set design, propwork, and visual aesthetic is phenomenal. but i can't get past how much of an own goal it was to get all that together and then make so many small, pointless changes that the series is less than the sum of its parts.

so much of the show tried to be a comedy that it didn't earn its glimpses of the cruel reality of the corporation rim it tried to toss in. the "kookiness" of presaux undermined the whole first season's plot, because it honestly makes u wonder if the corporation rim isn't the more competent body until the last few episodes-- and the last two episodes might as well be from a different show. the fixation on sanctuary moon being a text on-screen that murderbot was obsessed with to the exclusion of all other media felt like a shallow read, and every moment of "fanning out" on murderbot's part was emiserating. the kind of fan it is in the books and the fan it is in this show feel oceans apart. the murderbot books are darkly funny because murderbot is funny. the universe it inhabits is not, and that juxtaposition is part of the character's appeal. in the show it's goofy like presaux are goofy and that bathos deflates every moment of attempted action and plot.

obviously i have tons more little nitpicks that i couldve made my peace with along these lines... if the show had been different but good in its own way. instead, it was different for the sake of being different, and i feel like i need to reread the source material asap to remember why i liked it in the first place. im happy for the show fans that theyre getting a season 2, but i CANNOT see how ART is done in this show. i was so afraid they were going to tease ART and i would have to know about it i finished the show tense. i dont trust this team with it. not to mention everything in book 2 about the comfortunit; the approach to sexual content and bots in this show was so juvenile that i can't see that being done well either.

idk if its worse to have no adaptation, an outright dogshit adaptation, or this... something. its so inoffensive and seems to hit for enough people that i can see it getting 3 seasons and then fading away with no chance of a future remake. would i even want another go at this? yes, i would, and i know from silo and severance and other apple tv shows they have the budget, writing talent, and range to make a show of the books adapted fairly straight-up in a way that could feel true or at least interestingly divergent to me. but this wasn't it, and i imagine there are a lot of book fans feeling the same bland disappointment

i dont have a firm conclusion to these thoughts, but i'll share this meme i made as a way of trying to understand why my mom liked the show and i hated it, despite us both liking the books

the show just doesn't have the depth to operate at all the levels the books can. worse, it doesn't seem like anyone involved cared that it wouldn't

[ask-tay-relic]

(* steal the microphone from the stuck-in-ponyville*)

Dude, dude.

Are you colorblind? I had no idea! Amazing. I would never say that looking at your work. For someone who is colorblind, you have an amazing sense of color!

Although, I have no idea how colorblindness works from a colorblind person's perspective.

So there will be a bunch of questions below that you don't have to answer if you don't want to) Especially if you've already answered them somewhere, and I missed them.

(*points the microphone in your direction*)

What type of colorblindness do you have? To what degree? How does it manifest itself (how do you feel it)? What colors do you not distinguish, confuse, or, on the contrary, distinguish better? What is your favorite color?! (Let me fool around a bit))

How do you choose colors? Do you use any special techniques or does someone help you?

Is this disease congenital or acquired?

Overall, can you tell me a little more about what it's like to be you. And how the process of creating your work goes.

Let me remind you that you don't have to answer any of these questions. I'm just a chatty fool)

The main thing I want to say is that I have the deepest respect for you for choosing a difficult path in life. And succeeding in it.

I don't mind questions at all! Colorblindness is, in general, a very 'Person-by-person' type of affliction as there's so many different ways that the human eye can read light/color. So this is in no way a Universal Stance on it and is 100% my own personal experience \o/ (Just in case such a thing needed to be said!)

To preface as well, I was born about 4 Months pre-mature, so my eyes are one side-effect of that! My father also had eye-problems, but due to (thankfully) losing contact with that family side 20+ years ago, I don't have that information.

Currently I am in the process of digging into this more, as I have been diagnosed with Keratoconus (which affects the cornea of the eye and will cause a type of blindness eventually, it's not fix-able just slowing it down) > I am also 'weird' cause it's only drastically affecting my Left Eye, when normally it's supposed to affect both equally! In late August I will be having a procedure for this (one of many I'm sure)

To short hand things! Due to birth (and Keratoconus) it's given me the starting stages of Anomalous Trichromacy/poor Saturation colorblindness. (This is the easiest way I can summarize this!) Some days it's better, some days it's worse, but that's due to how tired I am. But I rarely see them 'Naturally' as other people do (I did when I was pre-teen, but slowly it got worse until I was talking with my partner at about age 25 and said 'this [Yellow] is the same as [Orange]' and it made us look into how 'OH I'm colorblind'.)

It's difficult for me to get '100%' what I see, cause it's just a bit odd I suppose, but I have difficulty with hues in the Red/Green area (as in they kinda all seem to have an overlay to them sometimes.)

This also isn't touching about the saturation of a colour may make it be 'the same' as another, when they really aren't.

I'm not sure if this comes across but to me personally, these above are the 'Bright Colors' I would pick. I however, factually understand that's not the case, cause I can check the numbers/hue value in Clip Studio and adjust them. That's usually how I'll fix my colours later!

for the Pony Blog, I always correct in post, and I rarely draw without swatching (having them already set on my bar) the colors even if I've drawn something a hundred times. When doing commissions I'll always ask for a client to give me the colors specifically (Either through Google Image the hexcode, or a reference sheet > so I can use the color picking tool and swatch it)

(old Example of eyeball picked being different than his actual colors) It's always helpful that I can see the cursor move on the color wheel to know 'Oops! That's off!' > This memorization of 'Red = top leftish' and 'Blue = bottom' is how I function, and very very very often I'll send my work to friends/partners to ask for help!

I use lots of desaturated colors for this reason when drawing on my own, but it's mostly just cause it 'Looks Bright' to me, when it isn't!

(And some of my non-pony work sketch) with the colors I draw with passively (Left) and the ones that are adjusted. You can assume anything I post has been 'corrected' for like an hour straight of just color editing.

Overall, when browsing the internet, I am very quick to notice when I cannot 'See' something. This usually is when people put handwritten text onto their comics without breaking it from the background, or colored texts in general I have difficulty with sometimes. It's somewhat hard to explain! I hope that post-surgery I'll have more colour sight back, but likely it's just going to keep getting worse and I'm okay with that.

Though! I will say that recently I've been trying to not 'fear' being wrong about my colours (As it was a point early in my drawing time on the internet, that people would come to my askbox and tell me rudely I was doing things wrong, which ended with me deleting the works) But in my break of studies I've started to just let things be however I see them even if they're 'incorrect'. (I'll include some of those under the cut at the bottom cause they're non-pony / graphic horror-esq content)

Thank you for asking! I hope this makes sense and comes across well!

Also! My favourite color is Yellow! Like a Dandelion!

[Edit;; TUMBLR WON'T LET IT BE BELOW A CUT I DO APOLOGIZE]

--- (they're from personal work/Novel work)

[arcade-confetti]

To me, Bruce is a character who doesn't know everything and how everyone works, but he says things so confidently, and is known as a detective, so people just assume he's right and stating facts

[butchvaderkin]

thinking about anakin's line we don't have to run away anymore as a motivation for anakin's actions. yes, he was mostly focused on "saving" padme from death, but there's less discussion of what he envisioned for their lives together after. rule the galaxy together, sure, but i think we don't have to run away anymore is a deeper and more tragic cut.

there's little exploration in ROTS of how anakin conceptualized their lives post-baby, mostly that he was avoiding confronting the issue. we know padme wanted to run away by the end, but anakin would understandably have found this an impossible prospect. he's the chosen one, maybe the most important jedi to ever live, he's functioned since childhood as a political tool, this isn't just his duty but his destiny. palpatine offers anakin a possibility for saving padme's life, yes, but through suggestion, also offers anakin the only attainable possibility for remaining both the chosen one and padme's husband. the father to her child.

i spend a lot of time thinking about how anakin was never allowed to use his love for his family to empower himself and his contributions to the galaxy (until ROTJ obv). its not just anakin's romantic love that palpatine weaponizes but his familial love. the promise of it. i think this is also why i find effective thematic continuity between the prequel trilogy and andor, as andor deals with many of the same questions. do you fight for the benefit of your family? or must you relinquish your family for the good of the fight?

what might that choice do to a person?

[bogkeep]

tbh my thesis on the astronomical clock in prague might just become a redo of a tenth grade thesis i did about the history of clocks. like the question i want to answer is "why does this clock fascinate us so much" and i think the surface level answer is that it looks cool as hell and is in a touristy part of a touristy town - but on the deeper level it's like. well it's one of the oldest mechanical clocks in the world that's still ticking, and it barely looks like the clocks we have now. it's like pshaw of course i can read a clock, you just look at the dial and the hands, right? and then this clock is like. unreadable because the upper dial shows no less than four kinds of time: babylonian time (twelve hours of day + twelve hours of night, but the length of the hours varies depending on the place and time of year), bohemian or italian time (24 hours that start at sunset, good for seeing how many hours of daylight there's left), old germanic time i think it was called (that's just like what we use now except it doesn't account for daylight savings!), and sidereal time (uhhh is this the zodiac circle thing?????? i should know this)

because the thing about how we count time is, WHY do we count time the way we do? why Twelve hours specifically. what matters more, exact measurements of time units, or following the ebb and flow of daylight? has the way the shaped clocks shaped our lives?? MUCH TO THINK ABOUT. or at least i think about it when i see a clock like the orloj.

[hood-ex]

Mikey: I hate that none of you love me anymore!

Donnie: You’re the last good thing I have.

Clutching my pillow and screaming into it.

[cleromancy]

war games 🤝 battle for the cowl;: yeah that was a big pivotal event but uh. it didn't happen like that. They told it wrong

[lieutenantselnia]

I currently have to write a thesis, work on the biggest project in my entire study programme and will have to start preparing for my bachelor's exam at some point, and my brain thinks now it's a good time to get back into Red Dead Redemption 2👍

[cursedthing]

.havign lots of thoughts about how npcs are portrayed learning about the nature of their universe in works

[seventeendeer]

as a fat person who's always clamoring for more interesting fat characters in media, I honestly think one of my all-time favorite depictions of a fat character is Jumba from the original Lilo and Stitch - both visually and personality wise

from a design perspective, even though he's an alien, he has so many little anatomy quirks that make him a more believable fat character than many fat human designs in other media. I love the realistic sag and layering of the fat on his arms, the lack of neck definition, the rim of chub around his face and upper back, the way his back is rounded. his clothes pull taut and pinch in anatomically accurate places (e.g. shoulders are firmer = smoother outlines, the sides and back are squishier = bumpier outlines).

and he's stylized so well! all these great details boiled down to some simple shapes and pen strokes. IMO the Lilo and Stitch art style is extremely appealing - it's warm and clean and visually pleasing, but every character is super unique. Jumba isn't supposed to be pretty, but even though he's a very large, very fat, bald older guy who spends most of the movie in crop tops, the way he's stylized and staged makes it clear the audience is supposed to find him interesting to look at, and variably intimidating/cool/powerful/capable. he's often funny, but the physical aspect of his comedy is derived from being so hefty the other characters struggle to prevent him from barreling ahead and doing whatever he wants; being fat makes him come off more in control of the funny situations he gets into, not less. also, because the art style is what it is, a lot of his character acting also just makes him look kind of cute ... though that's universal across the cast

I also really like the fact that his size clearly gives him both realistic advantages and realistic disadvantages. along with having a stronger sense of agency in the comedic scenes, his size in combination with his impulsivity also makes him a more intimidating antagonist. you never know what he's going to do, and his size makes it difficult for other characters to stop him when he's made up his mind. at the same time, it seems to take him longer to catch his breath, he sometimes grunts when moving around a lot to imply it takes more effort, and he clearly struggled to find clothes that fit him when putting together his disguise. I think it's awesome that the character's size impacts how he interacts with the world so much, and again, in relatable ways

and personality wise, it is ALWAYS great to see fat characters portrayed as intelligent - not only is Jumba an accomplished scientist, he's also crafty and witty! a few quiet scenes imply a philosophical side, as he ponders on Stitch's existence and feelings as a living weapon. with Stitch explicitly being made in his own image to an extent, I'd argue there's even room to interpret some of the things he says about Stitch being hints to how he sees himself; we never learn much about Jumba's past, but it's clear he's a social misfit and strongly defiant. I don't think it's a stretch to assume some of what he said to Stitch about being a monster who can never belong anywhere was intended to read as projection (which makes it all the more heartwarming when both of them find a place to belong on Earth)

it's also a nice twist that toward the end, Jumba is the one who is unexpectedly compassionate toward Nani, while Pleakley tries to urge him to ignore her. again alluding to a level of emotional depth and intelligence that is often missing from even well-intentioned depictions of fat people. his character isn't even fully explored, and yet he's one of the most dynamic and interesting supporting characters in a movie full of fantastic characters. the audience is expected to find him fascinating and even sort of mysterious, and he is!

the sequels and spinoffs were more merchandise-driven franchise fluff for kids than the artsy direction of the original movie, but even so, I remember Jumba went on to become Lilo's lovable, amoral uncle figure, which I also thought was so fun as a kid. I love that they committed to the fact that he was more caring and compassionate than he seemed. not only was he a cool evil mad scientist character, but he was also eventually ... a friend ...

and he was even gay

[ridiculouslyunintelligent]

hot take: the problem with doctor who is NOT that they brought billie piper back, it is NOT that ncuti left early, it is NOT that 15 never faced a dalek or a cyberman, and it is CERTAINLY NOT that it’s ’too woke’

the problem with doctor who is that they have forgotten how to engage an audience without utterly confusing them. if i were a writer, this is what i’d change:

1. i would lower the stakes

my biggest issue with dw in recent years is that the stakes are always SO high - it’s always ‘we need to sort this out or else the ENTIRE UNIVERSE WILL END. this rarely happened at the start of nuwho. of course, there were instances where galaxies and universes were at stake, but there were also plenty of instances where the doctor solves issues to A. save his own skin, B. save his friends, and C. to save smaller populations of people and/or generally do what is morally right.

prime example is in new earth. the world isn’t really at stake, he has a couple of objectives: get cassandra to piss off, free the test subjects, stop the infections from spreading. he doesn’t spend the hour worrying that if he doesn’t help then the world will end, he sees a problem that’s morally corrupt and he solves it for the sake of that group. the payoff is just as good, and actually IMPROVES the payoff for episodes where a bit more is at stake, like the poison sky, for example.

2. i would stop plots from spilling over across seasons

i’d like to remind everyone that, although there were things that kind of linked into each other and were mentioned again, generally for the first 4 seasons of (new) doctor who, an overarching issue was built up, climaxed, and resolved throughout a single season. for example: bad wolf in s1. this has gotten worse and worse over time but has honestly been a problem since rtd1 ended, and for some reason when he came back it got WORSE than it’s ever been!!! there’s just way too much overspill across seasons, things even span accross different doctors more recently which is just too much at times. when it’s little things it doesn’t matter, but it’s not. again, this has been an issue before this finale, but this finale is a good example since there were a hundred and one loose ends before he regenerated. when nuwho began, they literally stated each regen would be treated as a soft reboot and their neglect of that has been a downfall.

3. i’d make doctor who dirty and grungy again

it’s too clean futuristic ultra modern sci-fi these days. the tardis doesn’t look like he stole it. what happened to those fun tardis scenes where the entire thing would shake as it took off and landed? why is everything so light and clean? it should be dim and cozy and imperfect.

4. i’d make the companions’ family members more prominent and interesting characters again

doesn’t take much explaining, really. picture jackie tyler, now picture carla sunday. who has a stronger presence and personality in your head and why is it jackie tyler? (there’s bound to be someone who disagrees and that’s fine but i don’t rlly want to hear about it tbh)

5. i’d re-inject some british whimsy

please don’t mistake this as me saying doctor who ‘isn’t british’ or something weird and gammon-y like that, i love when dw explores different cultures, the story and the engine was one of my highlights last season, i just mean like - let him save the world with a jammy dodger again. let him be brought back to life by a good cup of tea. it makes it enjoyable.

there are lots of things, but those are my main ones.

EDIT: thank you to everyone who has weighed in on this - i’ve found it really interesting to see everyone’s perspectives on this because honestly i could talk for king and country about it, but also i just wanted to say that it makes me kind of sad that one of my only negative posts about doctor who is my most popular post :( if you’re reading this, it’s your sign to do something positive today, if i can help to make just one person’s day better then that’s a win to me :)

[twilightofthesandwiches]

So Kris as we know them is a pretty quiet, deadpan and stoic person. It’s one of their main identifying features that the game constantly draws attention to via both comedic and serious moments.

But like with everything we think we know about Kris, it is always worthwhile to consider how much of their behavior is natural or real, and how much of it is a result of our influence as a possessing entity, or simply colored by our biased and partial look into their life.

First things first, it’s important to remember Kris isn’t quite as quiet as they might seem to us, because we’re incapable of hearing them talk. We can only really gleam when they said something from the reactions of the other characters around them. So there’s plenty of times we can’t quite judge how much Kris was actually talking.

And that also extends to their emotional reactions to some degree there are plenty of times times where other characters note how Kris is smiling, laughing, shouting, looking scared or having another kind of reaction that is not conveyed by their still and stoic Sprite.

The thing about not being able to hear Kris is actually very curious, cause it’s also consistent with the Humans of ‘Undertale’. Frisk and Chara’s voices were also imperceptible to us, only gleaned from the reactions of the other characters. Even when it comes to a recording of Chara’s voice.

The only exception is our little ‘conversation’ with Murder-Route Chara, but this is when they became something not-quite-fully-human beyond our control and it still lacked voice-bleeps for the text, which might indicate that we’re still not quite able to hear them.

So… not being able to hear a character’s dialogue might be a side-effect of possession/sharing a body (since one could say we’re kinda controlling both Frisk and Chara throughout Undertale)…. Or it might be a feature of Humans in the Toby Fox Multiverse? That their voices are imperceptible to Unkillable Body-Snatching Time Gods? After all, we can’t hear Kris even when we’re outside their body.

Whatever it is, their lack of visible emotional reactions might be connected to it as well. Although, it is a lot less… absolute. While we never hear (read?) their voice, there are a few times where Kris’ sprites do have facial expressions and body language that clearly convey an Emotion. And there seem to be more and more of them in later Chapters.

Maybe these are just moments that are… so extremely expressive that they shine through the general obscuring mask of stoic-ness that usually hides Kris’ expressions from us? Are the expressions that are imperceptible to us just too subtle to show up on their Sprite? Or is it because these actions were technically taken totally independent of our possession?

...But also, despite it being sometimes hard to determine how much Kris is really talking and how expressive they seem to the characters in-universe, there are a few indications that they are seen as a generally quiet and stoic person from the other characters' perspective as well. Even if it’s not as exaggerated as it seems to us.

And if you combine that with the few more-expressive Sprites they have, and how these only occur as part of actions Kris takes of their own will, and they’re more frequent in recent Chapters as Kris’ independence from us is growing… it’s not unreasonable to assume their laconic deadpan-ness is purely a result of our influence, and without us they’d be a lot more emotional and expressive.

But… hmmm… the thing is that others do notice that Kris is kinda acting Out-Of-Character, but never really point out their quietness or lack of expressiveness as the reason for it. If anything, the SOUL’s possession of Kris makes them come off as uncharacteristically social and talkative.

Folks who have known Kris for their entire life (like Noelle), do seem to characterize them as a quiet person who does not show their emotions easily. The "Newest Girl Girl" shows us pre-Chapter-One Kris barely reacting to Susie's bullying, annoying her by not speaking before demolishing her with just a well-placed softly-said word and both it and the other Noelle Blog Post about Kris repeat the sentiment that 'who can tell what Kris is thinking'.

Most notably, I think, is how Weird Route Noelle describes Kris’ Real Voice (specifically contrasted against the SOUL’s ‘voice'), as ‘deadpan and mumbly’ - and that’s the thing that makes it feel real and familiar and authentically Kris for her. The SOUL’s voice was weird and unnatural because it wasn’t deadpan enough to be the Real Kris.

Also, in the Normal Route, when Noelle is trying to talk to Susie about Kris acting odd, which Susie doesn’t understand cause she hasn’t known the pre-possession Kris all that well, we have this exchange…

The implication, especially paired with Noelle’s Weird Route dialogue, is that ‘yelling’ is the default for the SOUL’s voice, while mumbling is generally for when Kris is saying things of their own volition, because deadpan mumbling is the honest expression of Kris' free will.

All of this does seem to paint a picture of Kris as a generally withdrawn and quiet sort of person with an air of Edgy Teen Apathy to them, albeit when they do allow themself to show their feelings openly, they can be very expressive and emotional. It’s just a rare occurrence even without the whole possession problem.

But… the complicating factor about that interpretation is Tenna. And specifically his secret bonus dialogue in the second Board of the Sword Route.

Which adds a lot of context to some his other dialogue aimed at Kris and his general anxiety about whatever they’re enjoying his games.

I said before that most characters talking about Kris acting ‘weird’ generally will not talk about their stoicism, but Tenna is the exception to that. He is extremely troubled by his inability to make Kris ‘laugh and cry’, seeing it as a failure on his part. If his Games were truly fun and engaging, Kris would've been more reactive.

This conversation with Susie especially, feels very much like a mirror of Susie and Noelle’s conversation in Chapter 4.

Someone who has known Kris since childhood is bothered by their behavior, while Susie, who has only really gotten to know Kris while they’re under our control, can’t understand what the problem is cause that’s just what seems normal to her with Kris.

Tenna thinks Kris should have a more emotional responses to their show, and that their stoicism demonstrates that they’re just not having fun. For Susie, Kris is just kind of emotionally withdrawn by default and has no reason to assume that they’re not enjoying themself just because they’re not expressing it as openly as she or Ralsei do.

So that makes me think, like… if Kris’ deadpan reactions are normal for Noelle but concerning for Tenna, that might still be a relatively recent development?

Well, if that's so, then Kris’ lack of expressiveness might still be related to their peculiar situation with the SOUL, and the reason why no one’s saying that they’ve only gotten really unresponsive recently is that….

Something has been going on long before we came in.

Or it could be just something totally mundane. Maybe they just became withdrawn and kinda emotionally-numb due to their parents’ divorce, or Asriel moving to college, or Dess’ disappearance or the mental exhaustion of following Evil Phone Voice's instructions all the time or some sort of combination of these factors? So for anyone who sees Kris every day and saw them gradually close themself off to the world, that is their normal behavior now… but Tenna still thinks of them as the happier and more expressive child who used to watch him regularly.

Or maybe this is some sort of a mix of the two options?

[ceceilum]

Toriel slander trending again? Color me shocked

I’m not even a little surprised to see Toriel (a maternal figure) suddenly getting backlash across multiple platforms.

The Dreemurr family dynamic in UT is already emotionally dense the more you sit with it, but Toriel, while often beloved is still often flattened in fandom into a one-dimensional “overprotective mom” trope. At first glance? Sure. But there’s so much more going on there.

One thing I think fandom consistently overlooks is that Toriel Dreemurr is severely depressed. And that’s something she actually shares with Sans (beyond their shared love of puns)

We know from UT that Toriel didn’t abandon her people right after the death of her children. She stayed. She left only when Asgore declared war. That’s what broke her. Even Flowey tells us that Toriel retrieved Chara’s body and gave them a proper burial before isolating herself in the Ruins. There, she ends up caring for not one, but six more human children. And ends up carrying six more deaths.

And yet when we, as Frisk, fall into the Ruins, Toriel is still kind. Still warm. Still trying. She tries to keep her distance, but ultimately she cares too much. She begs us to stay. She fights us, but if we spare her, she lets us go. Like?? That’s already a deeply complex character.

We also know from Gerson that she was once a serious ruler. And then you have the nose nuzzling championship trophy at Asgore’s house. She’s loving. She’s strict. She’s grieving. She’s lost almost everything, but she never stops trying to love.

But it’s in DR where we finally get to see Toriel outside the grief.

She has college memories. A social history. She’s described by Rudy as “fuzzy n’ sweet on the outside, a TOTAL NUT on the inside.” She can be judgmental (whose mom isn’t, honestly?) but we also see how much she cares about Kris. She reads parenting books. She becomes the primary caregiver after her separation from Asgore. She’s doing her best while juggling divorce, a full-time job, and a household.

And yeah, she misses stuff. Like the bullying. But if you’ve ever known a single working mom IRL, this is very real.

Parents can love you deeply and still not know everything happening in your world. Especially teens like Kris, who are actively withdrawing.

And then Chapter 4 hits.

People are divided on the ending, but I think it was brilliant. We go from high stakes cosmic weirdness back to Kris’s reality.

Their mom is having fun… without them. And it HURTS.

But that’s not the full picture. That’s Kris’s perspective.

If you’re a teen of divorce, or any kid with a single parent who finally starts to move on, yeah, It sucks. It feels like a betrayal. Because you can’t yet see the complexity. You can’t understand that your mom is her own person, trying to find joy again.

Because to you, she’s just your mom. And you feel left behind.

tl;dr: Toriel is one of the most layered characters in the Undertale/Deltarune universe. She’s grieving, trying, sometimes failing, always loving. She doesn’t deserve the hate, if anything she deserves empathy.

[hood-ex]

Last night I drew a picture of a tree burning and wrote "change" on the paper. Early this morning one of the restaurants in town caught on fire. Then when I went to clean a house at noon, I found a toy dragon that the guest had left behind.