#anyway ty reddit

[loneliestpeopleinnewport]

Kirsten & Sandy Cohen holding Seth Cohen, with Jimmy & Julie Cooper holding Marissa Cooper, circa late 80's.

4x13, The Case of the Frank's.

[stinkrascal]

it’s so hard being a datv lover on the internet right now, i can’t make any comments about how much im enjoying the game without some weirdo on reddit being like “yeah but dont you find the dialogue so cringe? doesnt it feel so disney+ to you?” and when i ask what they mean without fail they’re like “well have you seen taash talk about their gender” 😐

[significant-narratives]

btw the leafs are streaming the rookie showdown vs montreal today it’s just impossible to find on their site. here’s the link

[justafriendofxanders]

enjoying your leverageposting!! question for fun if you want: do you have any headcanons about hardison?

hi thanks so much! i'm glad my descent into madness is bringing some enjoyment to people. 😄 this isn't so much a list of headcanons as it is one i've been thinking about a lot involving hardison running a game of dnd -- he chooses 5e (assuming some timeline wibblyness) not because it's the simplest system out there, but because he figures it's the most accessible given the cultural baggage around it. it's not that the others aren't smart enough to figure it out (they definitely are), but they're a little intimidated by the various handouts hardison has printed out and put into individual binder sleeves. eliot (jokingly) gives him a hard time about not wanting to dress up as an elf and do "nerd shit." hardison picks up on everyone's reticence and goes, "well if this is too complicated we can do a different system," and then stays up all night gutting and retooling the entire game and making premade character sheets and a presentation explaining how to play, but then something more important comes up and nate's gotta pull the plug on their scheduled game night. hardison gets actually bummed about it and they can tell because he insists "it's cool" and is not actively bringing it up except to occasionally give them sad puppy-dog eyes from the corner.

anyways the team make it up to him one night when he comes home and they're all sitting around the table wearing silly costumes. a couple of them have brought dice; eliot's the only one with a d20 and is arguing with nate who's brought, like, craps dice ("it's a very distinctive rolling system"), except hardison's reworked it into some 3d6 system so technically nate has the right ones. (no one can tell if nate actually knew this all along or just got lucky.) sophie's like, "oh i have six-sided dice!" except everyone knows they're loaded and she's not allowed to get them. also every single one of them is a control freak who gets upset when their rolls don't go well ("a BABY could pick that lock"). after a while, parker starts consistently rolling very well, and no one can prove that she's manipulating the dice but also no one can prove that she's NOT manipulating them.

hardison also makes premade characters for everyone based on what he anticipates their playstyles will be:

parker's a cool thief that can only do three things (sneak, steal, and stab) but does them very well

nate's a shifty used car salesman of a bard that tries to talk his way through every situation

sophie's a beautiful actress that everyone recognizes and adores. tries to seduce her way out of the situations nate gets them in.

eliot is squeaky the gnome. he grumbles about it until combat rolls around and everyone learns squeaky is built to kick absolute ass.

[viridian-house]

Your prose is so unique and I just really want to know if there are any pairings you plan/want to ever write but have a hard time with (outside the naruto fandom as well)

🥺😭💕💕💕 thank you so much, you're always so kind!!

there's a ton of stuff I have ideas for (varying degrees of vague to decently thought-out plots). I've even written out decent chunks of a few, but am not happy with for reasons

ichigo/rukia: watched the first arc of bleach with my wife during initial quarantine and thought these 2 were so aesthetically complementary and CUTE with each other?? not confident writing them just because idk the source well enough (I know the canonical endgame couples though 🥲)

bakugo/uraraka: I can't nail bakugo's attitude, and my uraraka comes out bossy & outspoken. I have an easier time throwing eijirou in the mix and bc he suits them both very well (they're such a lil ot3 for me!!)

matrix/andraia: ummm kind of a deep cut with this one, no clue if any of my readers even know what they're from. a canonical power couple (and my pansexual awakening shhh) who honestly get done justice by the source, how can I compete with the hottest woman I've ever seen calling her absolutely jacked, emotionally stunted bf "lover" and him killing the big bad with HER WEAPON??? *chefs kiss*

ryoko/ayeka: another semi deep cut. I love the idea of them together but can never write enemies/rivals to lovers with any believability. had a dream once where ryoko was carrying ayeka bridal style.....they might be Fanart Only territory for me

ino/sakura: although I'm writing about them in one fic (and have a separate [smutty] one cooking), these 2 are hard for me. idk if you guys have seen that post that's like "came back from the codependent homoerotic friendship wrong" but that was a Real Thing I lived through lmao I didn't even ship inosaku until years after we'd stopped talking 😩

leon/ashley: they are simply Too Sexy for me to even think about attempting. I'll read other fics of them and have to put my phone down to take regular breaks like I'm doing manual labor they make me INSANE. but maybe someday I'll get there (I'm working on one that's just titled "sin" in my docs HELLO)

[kneejerknuck]

why are anonymous oilers fans jumping into ur dms to complain and play “gotcha” on tumblr dot com of all places…i fear reddit is the website they’re best suited for bc where is the whimsy!

i brought it on myself by mentioning them in one SINGLE post in a fit of post win elation last night

i do, however, agree that reddit is a better platform for their particular brand of fandom

[oddygaul]

the REDLINE manifesto

In honor of my second DIY screening of Redline, here is, at long last, a prettied-up version of my most popular reddit post, an unabashed love letter to my favorite movie. Most of this is probably less groundbreaking than it was when I first posted it a decade(!) ago, but whatever, the internet needs more Redline content anyway.

REDLINE Trivia

–JP stands for Joshua Punkhead, and in the very first draft he had 26 children and raced to pay off his child support. Also, the catchy moniker ‘Sweet JP’? English-only… the original Japanese gets the mouthful ‘very sweet weaponless prince’.

–You'd be hard-pressed to tell without looking into the lore a bit, but Miki & Todoroki are damn near the only actual humans in the movie; everyone else is some species of alien. Some are obvious, like Shinkai (Oceanic/Chikulun hybrid) and Trava (Anista tribe), but even the most human-like characters are some other race. Sonoshee, for example, is listed as being half human, half Oceanic tribe (海洋族). 

The most curious case, though, is JP. While it'd be easy to assume he's human, there's a lot of details that don't add up: his unique elf ears, his super-lanky-even-for-a-Koike-character-design physique, the fact that his race is conspicuously redacted on his bail sheet… and his seeming immunity to death. Seriously, bro crashes every single thing he drives in the whole movie, then emerges unscathed with just a fiery flash of the eyes – that ain’t normal. If I had to wildly speculate, and I do, I’d put money that he’s somehow linked to Mikuru and the Giant species, as seen in Trava: Fist Planet. The physique matches, the Giants have displayed some preternatural healing abilities, and Trava lays the groundwork for a few other threads in Redline (namely, the existence of bioweapons and Shinkai & Trava’s past military experience), so there’s precedence. Maybe one day we’ll find out for sure…

–We all know and love Funky Boy thanks to the Roboworld president’s endless tirades. But the giant data-motivated crocodile monster Volton fuses with to engage Funky Boy in thrilling combat? She is a lady, and her name is Wire Girl.

–All of Redline’s vehicle and mechanical designs are nuts – they’re insanely complicated and filled with organic curves and details. Despite the immense difficulty of keeping such complex designs consistent, every mechanical shot is hand-drawn, without the aid of any CG. To help the animators stay on-target while drawing, the team made some sweet-ass production models for them to reference. What I wouldn’t give to own one of these…

–Before deciding on Redline being a film, writer Katsuhito Ishii and director Takeshi Koike considered making a TV series. Initial writers’ meetings saw the team fleshing out a comprehensive story bible about the setting: it included not only a wide-scope view of the universe and its history, but also detailed backstories for each racer. Even after deciding to make a feature film, Redline’s initial script gave each racer as much time and focus as the final cut gives to JP & Sonoshee; all of this was, unfortunately, cut for time. According to Ishii, though, much of this ancillary information made it into the novelization…

one day my Japanese will be good enough to read you ;_;

–Confused about why the movie ends with that sparkly, PowerPoint-ass ~LOVE~? Well, you shouldn’t be – Redline is ‘unabashedly dumb’, after all, per Ishii – but there is a little context. Over the course of the movie’s 7-year production, Koike and Yukiko (a producer on the film) fell in love, tying the knot in Switzerland just before Redline’s world premiere. If that doesn’t justify the ending for you, I don’t know what could.

–This isn't trivia but idk where else to put this stupid-ass Lynchman meme I made

Subtext you may have missed on first watch

–Machine Head is Sonoshee's estranged father?!

Crazy, I know, but hear me out. 

First of all, Redline unambiguously shows the viewer that Sonoshee and Machine Head have some sort of pre-existing relationship, the nature of which isn’t explicitly clarified. 

At the Oasis restaurant, Sonoshee tells JP she's waiting for someone; it may sound like she's simply brushing him off, but the moment Machine Head enters the scene, Sonoshee perks up and waves to him. When the Crab Sonoshee is flipped by missile fire during the Redline race, we get exactly two (2) Dramatic Anime Freezeframes: JP and Machine Head, implying those two, out of everyone, care the most about Sonoshee. During the final stretch of the race, as Machine Head prepares to pop his steamlight, he is not only aware that Sonoshee also has one, he taunts her about it:

“I see you still have your steamlight – got the guts to use it this time?”

JP even draws attention to the fact that Sonoshee’s looks identical to Tetsujin’s. Finally, though this is certainly ancillary, it is interesting to note that the exact moment Godwing loses its structural stability is right after JP declares he’s going to win because he, not Machine Head, has Sonoshee at his side.

So let’s line this up with what backstory we definitively know. As stated above, Sonoshee is a human / Oceanic hybrid; Machine Head, though his body has been modified beyond recognition, is referred to the same way. While talking to JP about the steamlight, Sonoshee says her father is the one that gave it to her, then describes him as a skilled racer who ran a junk joint. In that same conversation, when JP suggests she’s too focused on racing at the expense of personal relationships, she bristles and tries to end the conversation. During the flashback of young Sonoshee racing, her reaction to crashing is intense: she’s clearly holding herself to a higher standard, and is already dead set on racing in the Redline someday.

Now, there’s other plausible explanations for all this; maybe there’s just a romantic entanglement between Sonoshee and Machine Head, with JP barging in as the third vertex of a love triangle. But is that the most likely scenario for two people constantly characterized as putting racing before any personal matters?

No, I think Machine Head is Sonoshee’s father. 

Picture it: Machine Head raised Sonoshee at his junk joint, so she grew up around racing and car modification. After seeing success on the circuits, Machine Head stopped being content with mere victory, and started spending all his time and energy modifying his body, pushing himself farther and farther. Sonoshee, feeling neglected and cast aside, turned to racing, seeing it as the only way to get her father’s attention. This lead to her perfectionism complex; if she’s not the very best, why would the King of Kings ever look her way?

Anyway, while it’s not confirmed in the text, I think there’s so many hints it might as well be. It makes JP and Sonoshee’s romance a lot more interesting, too. Their arc isn’t just two people falling in love, it’s about Sonoshee moving past the trauma of her father’s emotional abandonment and opening up to someone new. After JP explains his match fixing history in the climax, Sonoshee isn’t placated because he told the truth, she’s fired up seeing the strength of JP and Frisbee’s friendship: she sees the folly of chasing approval from her absent father, and that she could instead be forming bonds with friends who support her unconditionally. She can race for herself.

Koike and Ishii said Redline is about adult friendships, after all!

pictured: the most romantic kiss in cinema history

–The Redline race is, in fact, underhanded political maneuvering

Now, this one is sorta just The Plot Of The Movie, but I feel like there’s so much going on in Redline people often don’t connect these dots. 

We all laugh at the Roboworld president’s hammy word salad:

“I wonder if this might be some kind of ploy by our enemies to infiltrate our borders. If that’s true, do you realize Roboworld’s military secrets could be at risk here? We’d be exposed!!”

…but he’s… kinda right, though?

At the time of the movie, the M3 Nebula has just emerged from two devastating interplanetary wars. The galaxy’s superpowers are under a tenuous peace agreement – one of the most important stipulations of which is a ban on the use and development of “bioweapons”, which in the Redline universe are less ‘weaponized bacterial strains’ and more ‘gargantuan synthetic monsters that can be deployed to wreak unthinkable destruction’. Despite this ban, the government of Roboworld has been continuing with bioweapon development unabated… and not only does Planet Supergrass seem to be aware of these violations, it really seems like they’re leveraging all their soft power to expose them.

Now, we know Supergrass is generally involved with the Redline final. As a member of the Redline Committee, they have a reason to be involved; they’re helping out with nuts & bolts logistical stuff, like transporting the racers to the course and prepping the finish line. But when you consider the significant, tangible political blows dealt to Roboworld by the race – Funky Boy and Wire Girl’s presumed destruction, Roboworld’s violation of the bioweapon treaty being broadly exposed to the public, the decimation of Roboworld’s military – the long string of coincidences that got us to that point start to seem a little suspicious.

Who pushed for the Redline final to be held on such a hostile planet? Who knew about Roboworld’s experimental orbital laser cannon – a project so tightly under wraps even their president only learns about it during the race – and hired contractors to sabotage it? Who organized a group of malcontents to attack both Roboworld’s power relay station and Funky Boy’s containment creche, right when such disruptions would be the most impactful? And who decided the race’s crucial middle stretch should go right over the restricted military zone housing said creche?

Supergrass has the motive and the means – plus, the race is already illegal, so what can Roboworld do, sue them about it? No sir, that Princess is on some subterfuge shit, and Secretary Titan, that shady fuck, is her inside man. And you can take that to the bank.

Craving more REDLINE?

Unfortunately, due to the movie’s commercial failure, there’s not much else in the franchise. The Redline production pilot is fucking sick, though, and there’s Trava: Fist Planet, an OVA by Koike & Ishii that predates Redline and focuses on Trava and Shinkai’s misadventures. While Trava never got the continuation it deserved, they did make a trailer for season 2... ahh, what could have been.

If you’re just after more of Takeshi Koike’s mind-blowing animation, there’s only a scant few projects in his trademark black-filled style. His most well-known work is probably the Samurai Champloo OP, or maybe World Record from The Animatrix (can’t find a link for that one, but y’know, do your thing). Koike also contributed animation to two other Ishii films: an extended intro for Party 7, and this aggressively horny dance sequence for Funky Forest. Back at Madhouse, it seems the studio liked to use Koike as a bait-and-switch, letting him direct lavish production pilots to secure adaptation rights then switching the staff up for the full production. Feels kind of scummy, but we got the immense Afro Samurai Pilot and Iron Man Pilot out of it. Finally, he made the series of Love shorts for SMAPxSMAP, the SMAP variety show, which are as dope as they are low-res.

I really wanna know if Koike was the one ballin out to CYNE and Gang Starr for this

—

And finally, as I threatened in my last post about Redline: let’s talk thematic depth.

~Thematic Depth~

In conversations online, Redline is often given this caveat of just being ‘eye candy’, or hit with the classic ‘style over substance’ cliche. Now, the phrase ‘style over substance’ has always bothered me, generally – it feels like it comes from folks who have never tried to make art before, who make light of the painstaking work and dedication that goes into creating anything – but it particularly frustrates me in animation. The process of animation is such an absurd, masochistic timesink that it’s a wonder anything ever gets finished at all; something this ambitious being finished, with this level of consistency and polish, is nothing short of a miracle, and to simply call that ‘style’ massively undervalues the whole endeavor. 

Because, make no mistake, Redline is ambitious as hell from a visual standpoint. The consistent focus on kinetic motion and speed, buoyed by Koike’s masterful use of exaggerated perspective, spatial distortion, and dynamic camera work; lots of moving, hand-drawn backgrounds instead of matte pans; lively crowd animation in most scenes; remarkably expressive, constant character animation that imbues personality to every character and never settles for industry standard lip flap dialogue… and all of this using incredibly complex character & mechanical designs, many of which feature distinct alien physiology, and a rendering style with bold, detailed shadows that would be more at home in illustration than animation. It is truly a singular work.

And the thing is, that wild ambition and unfailing dedication to the craft is the message.

The very first moments of Redline, before we see a single car or alien, are a brief series of title cards. I think most first-time viewers, and even many repeat viewers, immediately forget these words seconds after reading them due to the famously high-octane opening act. They read:

“In the far distant future, when cars are giving up their wheels in the changeover to air-cars, there still exist stubborn fools who carry on a vanishing spirit of racing…”

It’s easy to pass over this narration because, well, Redline simply isn’t about this conflict. We don’t see a single air-car racer, and there is no on-screen depiction of this purported old-school / new-school racing divide. So why is it here?

Because it’s the thesis of the whole damn project. Redline is about a group of old-school animation industry vets coming to terms with a changed industry that doesn’t support the type of art they want to create anymore, and their determination to pour their hearts into one last, stupid, beautiful swan song.

Madhouse was founded in 1972 by a group of ex-Mushi Pro staff, including Masao Maruyama and Yoshiaki Kawajiri. A response to Mushi Pro’s shoestring budgets and spartan timelines, the goal of studio Madhouse was to create production schedules where animators could flourish, rather than choosing the cheaper route; as Maruyama puts it, their mission statement was to ‘create animation other people aren’t interested in creating’. And, well, for decades, that’s what they did – Madhouse consistently gave a platform to idiosyncratic creators and produced incredible results. Their film canon includes pivotal productions like Kawajiri’s Ninja Scroll and Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust, Rintaro’s Metropolis, every single Satoshi Kon production from Perfect Blue to Paprika, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, the film that launched Mamoru Hosoda into stardom. While their TV output might be seen as more workmanlike, they were still dedicated to creating original stories. For example, despite his proven track record, Masaaki Yuasa was unable to secure funding and creative freedom anywhere else but Madhouse, with whom he produced Kemonozume, Kaiba, and The Tatami Galaxy prior to the establishment of Science Saru.

Takeshi Koike’s formative years as an animator were during this golden era of Madhouse. Poached directly out of high school by Yoshiaki Kawajiri himself, Koike was taken under his wing – his first job as a professional animator was inbetweening for Wicked City, and he’d moved up to key animation roles just one year later. I think Kawajiri’s intent was for Koike to be his protege; in this boom era of animation, with high-budget feature films and OVAs as the de facto standard, creative vision and a unique style is what you’d look for in an up-and-coming director, and Koike had both of these in spades. For a time, this pathway seemed almost assured; Koike’s big-league directing debut on The Animatrix produced one of its most well-received shorts, even amidst an anthology stacked with superstar creative talent.

Unfortunately, the turn of the millennium brought a lot of change for Madhouse and the industry at large. Budgets shrank, and production schedules started trending towards today’s unsustainable nightmare grind. CGI became ubiquitous not for the unique shots and compositions it allows for, but as a corner-cutting method for complicated actors like vehicles or mechas. A certain homogeneity and tendency toward ‘safe’, appealing designs and premises took hold; what good is your off-the-wall, creative worldbuilding idea when the anime industry revolves around merch sales, and generic moe waifus are outselling your original IP ten-to-one? All these industry vets could see the writing on the wall: animation would survive, but things were changing, and the ideals they’d founded their studio around were becoming untenable.

So I genuinely believe Redline is a parting shot from the old guard, a celebration of the era of the industry they cut their teeth on, one last lush, extravagant farewell before they passed the torch to the next generation. Maybe not from the start, sure, but after years of troubled development, progressing slowly due to the team’s meticulous vision, I think they rallied around the cause, dead set on making a masterwork, no matter what. Just look at the talent they attracted, the staff list reads like a best-of: Shinya Ohira, Hiroyuki Imaishi, Sushio, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Sayo Yamamoto, Katsuya Yamada, Takafumi Hori. 

And that’s where we come back to that opening message, about those stubborn fools. Suddenly, that movie chock-full of characters putting everything on the line for their passions feels a lot more personal. Koike is JP, the traditional [animation / racing ] purist who’s become an anachronism and just wants to be able to do things his way; Kawajiri as the God of Racing, who JP’s looked up to since he was younger, giving him one last thumbs as he achieves his goals; and Maruyama as Frisbee, putting his livelihood in danger to buy his team the time and money they need for one last gig, who wants to see his friend finish the damn thing on his own terms, just this once. 

In a way, it makes it heartbreaking that Redline performed financially as poorly as it did; Japan’s frosty reception to the movie is at such odds with the fervor of its creators. But you know what? Redline exists, and it exists without compromises. They did what they set out to do. They made it across that finish line.

—

[debian-official]

hello system that operates my computer do you mind explaining the discord hate ty

hello software that runs on my computer of course :3

In summary, it's about enabling venture capital and complaining when they ruin the internet. It's not discord-specific. There's two components to it: monopolizing and enshittifying.

Once upon a day someone decided that their options for a chat platform weren't sufficient and built their own alternative. Then, some investors came along and who can say no to 20 million? With that kind of money you can undercut (read: offer a free service) the competition and become the default platform everyone goes to.

People love free services!

Sadly, the investors will come knocking again at some point. That's the second phase. Because people know only your service (or everyone else has gone bankrupt) they're very hesitant to move. That allows you to raise prices and paywall all kinds of features. At this point users will complain but that doesn't matter, enough of them will stay anyway and enough of those will pay up, as well.

Off the top of my head this has already happened at Google Search, Reddit and Twitter. Imagine my frustration when the same people who complained during the reddit thing, migrated to discord.

I will not address free vs. paid software here (and means to afford them). That deserves to get addressed as well but not in this post.

[horny-p0et]

simpbur x streamer!reader

wow what if i wrote about another bursona that's crazy. i know a lot of people put incelbur and simpbur under the same umbrella but in my mind they are more like brothers and not twins, different in important ways i can elaborate on another time. ty for support please enjoy some more horny ramblings :) slightly shorter as i'm introducing you all to my version of this character. nsfw in later parts but this is sfw.

warnings: mentions of stalking and obsessive tendencies

wordcount: 741

dont like, dni. please just block me and move on.

────୨ৎ────

SIMPBUR who spends most of his free time online. gaming, scrolling reddit, stalking the cute girls from his uni course- normal stuff. he finds himself more at home on the internet anyway, he's a social outcast who stumbles over his words and doesn't know how to small talk. he has friends, sure, but he feels like they don't understand him. whenever he opens up about his insecurities and trauma they push him away... he just wishes someone would see him, connect with him on a deeper level.

SIMPBUR who falls in love with every girl who even glances in his direction, let alone shows him basic levels of human decency. he remembered when a girl from his class gave him a pen to use when his broke and he brought flowers for her the next day, she stopped sitting next to him after that. he didn't know why, don't girls like flowers? he left poems on her desk and kept trying to talk to her until the school administration got involved.

SIMPBUR who's scrolling mindlessly through tiktok when a clip of you shows up on his for you page. its nothing crazy, just you getting trolled by your chat playing a creeper sound alert while you're in a cave, but something about the way you laughed, smiled and you scolded chat playfully gave him butterflies in his stomach.

SIMPBUR who scoured the internet for every drop of content about you he could find, checking every social media and consumed it all. every bit of information he learnt drew him in, it was like you were made in a laboratory for him. you're kind but assertive, funny but compassionate, beautiful but sexy. He feels like he knows you so well, you guys would make good friends. you play the same games, listen to the same bands, you're about the same age, it must have been fate that put you on his feed that day.

SIMPBUR who plays your vods on his second monitor while he plays games by himself, imagining you're in a discord with him chatting like friends. he finds himself growing addicted to your voice, he doesn't do anything without you playing in the background. eating breakfast? your funny moments are on his phone. walking to work? your podcast episodes play in his headphones. late nights when he can't sleep? your vlogs to soothe him to relax.

SIMPBUR who jumped out of his skin when he got the notification you were live. he hadn't been able to watch your streams live before, he'd always been asleep or in class- he was so frustrated you were in a different timezone. he hops in chat, finding his hands shaking as he chats with your fans during the 'stream starting soon' screen. he's nervous, this is basically your first date!

SIMPBUR who feels like he's on cloud nine when you appear on his stream, casually relaxing in your gaming chair as you read chat and talk about your day. you thank someone for resubbing, the way your face lights up with genuine appreciation is beautiful to him. he wants to be the reason you look that happy.

SIMPBUR who scrambles for his credit card, not even considering the consequences before he's gifting 50 subs to you. he doesn't even care its almost 250 dollars, he'd give you a million if it would make you smile even once. he watches with bated breath as your eyes widen and you cover your mouth with your hands.

"Holy shit- 50 gift subs? Are you serious? Oh my god... thank you so much <username>! You seriously just made my day, my week I think. I really appreciate that, sending my love to you."

SIMPBUR who quickly clips and screenshots you giving the camera a hand heart, giving him a hand heart. you said you gave him your love! he feels like the luckiest man on the planet. the rush of your approval makes him feel high, like he needs your praise more than oxygen.

SIMPBUR who is already obsessed and he found out about you a week ago. he dreams about you, you're the first thing on his mind when he wakes up and before he falls asleep. he can already imagine you in a white dress, holding your hand as you tell him you love him. he just needed to get his hands on you, because he knows once you meet him you'll feel the same way.

[mygirltheking]

Juliette Lewis, Simone Kessell, Lauren Ambrose, and Tawny Cypress all criticising the way yellowjackets is going hits so much harder after that mid ass finale. It wasn't a descent into chaos or a tragedy for all of the characters because you don't get to see that they have complicated emotions anymore, they're just one side or the other. They're either good or bad. You get evil, saint, mentally ill, or complicit unwilling participants.

While Shauna clinging onto the wilderness with her fingernails because otherwise jackie and her baby dying have no meaning makes sense if you remind yourself of last season every time she speaks, the way it is executed makes her present day timeline seem so unrealistically removed from her teenage character in comparison. She's blowing up her own life, sure, but how had this not manifested in bigger and more dangerous ways earlier? How do you attend Shauna's wedding to Jeff after witnessing her in the wilderness? Like her choosing Jeff to punish herself is such a different punishment from the one she's choosing in the wilderness. I can see how she gets so emotionally distant as time passes, but they needed to have more time spent before making her the villain/antler queen. That would make the payoff of her figuring out other characters' schemes more realistic bc she seems to just hold onto to power from sheer luck and fear. I want to see how she gets from cutting up Javi to revelling in hunting the others, not just arriving straight there.

By nuking main characters early on there's no room to get into interpersonal dynamics which is what made the show so compelling in the first place, we ate up jackieshauna because it was so beautifully tragic and easily avoidable. I think by playing off character deaths for plot points rather than following through a character arc or relationship dynamic makes it seem pointless and then it becomes confusing rather than tragic. The fact that they cut out so much of Tai's speech to Van before eating their heart just is a perfect example. All shock value without any emotional reasoning. Why are they removing scenes demonstrating character relationships and just tying in every single loose thread and image from the pilot? (Reddit.) The ultimate pit girl reveal felt tragic but I think that's due to alexa's acting skills rather than the writing.

Sidenotes but the lack of opposition to Shauna is also confusing when Gen and Natalie are both hunters so they should have access to weapons and Tai just seems to have decided to go along with it rather than make her own bid for power? Anyway. And what happened to the supernatural element????? The symbol? Is death the end? What is the point of van's death later on??? Why did akilah help lottie?? You have to stretch these things out so far for it to make sense, and this coupled with the multiple vcr flashbacks just seems such lazy storytelling. At least build on some existing mysteries or create new stories that have intriguing uncertainties about them.

The show still has some good bits (mistynat pay off was yummy) but it suffers so severely from lack of time to pace things out, a willingness to kill off poc characters quickly without reason or to further a white characters storyline (crystal and lottie!!!!!!!!), flat dialogue and sudden one dimensional characterising, complete lack of female interiority and relationship exploration within this season. And just retconning characters' drives and ambitions, Taissa has just been following Van around all season without any exploration of the consequences of blowing up her previous life! It was funny for a bit, but what is actually happening in this show 😭 why are your characters doing this, and what is the impact on them ?? Maybe it's all rotten all the way down to the bitter end, but can I at least see how it gets there before it decays?

[likethestarsatnight]

Hiii!! I’m very new to the Greek Pantheon and honestly religion in general and am doing my best to learn! I’m trying to research and worship both Dionysus and Apollo but don’t know exactly where to start. Is it possible you could give me a few tips on good places to begin research, begin worship, etc?

I’m likely going to gather and essentially get a hold of recourses and an idea of what exactly to do before I really start doing anything in full, and by then I’ll probably pick either Dionysus or Apollo to start with since idk how I’d do both at once lol

Also if it’s not too much to ask, which it’s totally fine if it is, are there any specific “no”s that I should make sure not to do? I understand that I’m bound to make mistakes and stuff and that it’s fine, but it always helps to know things I should lean towards and things I should lean away from yknow?

Anyways that was a lot /np on any of this ofc!

Hey, ty for asking!! I love educating and I'll try my best, but pls know I've only been worshipping for a few months, so I'm still learning as well!! Also sry if this advice comes off as too basic :3

Oki, first, I'll cover how to start worshipping. It's very easy, all you have to do is... start! -As in you don't have to do anything to be able to be a follower of the gods, just beleive and boom ur set to start. There was misinformation spreading back in 2020 about having to ask the gods for permission to worship, but that isn't true at all, I bring that up cause I made that mistake when i first started (⸝⸝⸝O﹏ O⸝⸝⸝).

Here's some things to know about worship:

-Altars aren't necessary!

-Prayer and offerings are important, but it's completely okay if you can't pray or give an offering all the time!

-Worship is a very personal thing, so go at your own pace, and don't feel guilty if you have periods where you can't practice do to external or internal forces!

Oki, onto researching. Some beginner friendly websites are Hellenism 101, The Theoi, Hellenicfaith, and Baring in the Aegis. Reading books are very good too! If you don't want to read an entire book though, I encourage tp look at the table of contents for information you really want and take notes. (I was gonna link you the link to that one post abt free books but i saw you already reblogged it so heck yeah 💪.)

Social media can be very good for learning at times but also really bad due to misinformation. R/Hellenism on reddit and Tumblr is really good, but make sure you continue doing independent research to verify things things others teach about the practice. Also fuck tiktok, 9/10 times its bull.

I encourage you to start with learning about the core values of helpol, cleansing, and how the ancient greeks worshipped in their normal day to day lives!

Now to the do nots!

- don't insult them pls 😭 don't call them slurs for fun or call them things like "daddy/mommy" in a weird way. That's the most common examples of disrespect I've seen.

- don't rush

- don't give human blood offerings. (Idk how old u are but if you like hunting, It's completely fine to give animal blood or any sort of animal offering if the animal is ETHICALLY killed -as in basically not tortured or killed when it's not the animal's season to be hunted. Just wanted to point that out cause some people mix it up and think it's bad to give ALL blood offerings).

- don't rely on candle flames for communication. If you want to communicate with a god, you'll have to learn divination which is its own entire thing to learn about. This is another common mistake I've seen ppl do.

- don't be afraid to do your own thing, you don't have to copy what everyone else is doing!

- don't take myths literally, they're just stories humans made!

Oki that's all I know to say rn (≧▽≦)! Though i wasn't sure if you wanted to know about specifically Apollo and Dionysius, so ifyou want to discuss how to worship them and want to know how I do things in my practice or my experiences, feel free to tell me by commenting or dming me!!!!!

[chelemlem]

For the prompts: 5 times Oscar takes care of Lando and 1 time Lando takes care of him Back!

ty anon! hope u don't mind that i combined 2 prompts + made it LOVE ISLAND AU ��� (why is this 1k)

"Watch your step," their driver says sharply, half a second before Lando's loafers slip on a particularly wet patch of earth climbing out the car.

"Cheers, mate," Lando says, heart thundering. Jesus. Fine way to start off his reality T.V career. Week one and out of the running 'cause he split his head open on some fucking rocks. 

Lando extracts his fingers from around the guy's bicep. Huh, not bad. He wasn’t trying to cop a feel, but.

"Anytime."

And he’s back to squinting at something on his digital notebook. Pale and rumpled, he looks out of place in the Majorca sunshine. There's a subtle furrow between his brows, like he’s got a long list of tasks to get through, and Lando’s just the first.

"That was close," George fusses, strategically sliding an arm around Lando's shoulder in a way that both highlights their height difference and show off his delts. One of those posh Cotswold types; harmless enough. Lando'd picked him for his first date because at the end of the day, they wanted the same thing—to win.

"Yeah, scary," Lando blinks up at him. Giggles for the cameras.

 

Lando's going to quit. 

Or like. Sue someone. He stares down at his pre-packaged meal, stomach turning. This was the one thing, the one thing he listed as part of his dietary restrictions, and still—

A shadow falls across his lap.

"Here," the PA from before says. Brown hair, thighs. Oscar?

Lando eyes the unmarked takeaway box hovering in front of him with suspicion. It smells okay. And anything's better than fish.

"Chicken rice," Oscar clarifies, handing him a spoon to match. "Thai okay?"

Oh. Lando gives him a smile, small but genuine. So someone did read the profile they made him write. Who would've thought?

Oscar clears his throat. "If you need anything else, just—I'll be over there."

He hightails it to where Luisa and the other girls are holding court around the firepit, sliding his headset back on as he goes. Nice arse too. 

Crew aren't allowed to speak to the islanders, if Max’s rudimentary Reddit trawl is to be believed, but whatever. Lando's not one for rules anyway.

He tucks into his chicken rice and tries to think of other things he needs. 

"There's a new bombshell arriving today," Oscar casually lets slip at mic-up. Quietly, under his breath.

The fuck? It's only been forty-eight hours since Nyck got here. Or maybe longer—who the fuck knows with the way time passes in the villa. There's nothing to do but tan and flirt, the sun setting on the same listless, lazy day forever. Forever. 

But more importantly—

"They hotter than me?"

Oscar's face does this put-upon little thing before sliding back to neutral. Instead of responding, he winds the mic pack around Lando's waist, bending down to secure it at his hips. 

Lando knows how to do it himself by now. Oscar knows Lando knows.

"By a fair bit, I reckon," he says finally, and escapes before Lando can call him a liar. 

"Also, you've got a terrible poker face. At least pretend to be touched when he surprises you with breakfast." 

"He made me eggs and toast, mate. Not exactly Michelin-star, is it?" Or chicken rice, for that matter.

Oscar sighs. "Next week's vote's going to the public. Just so you know."

Lando's not worried. He's survived this long—longer than Daniel, even, who won fan favourite, week two—so clearly there's something he's doing right.

He sort of wants out, anyway. He misses his phone. God, he misses sex. Everyone talks a big game, but when it actually comes down to it they're fucking, like, shy about doing it in front of the cameras. And the cameras are bleeding everywhere. Lando would know.

The only reprieve, or something like it, is—Oscar. 

He's not exactly forthcoming with chatter, but through the power of being cute and annoying, Lando learns a lot about him anyway. 

Like how he's a fan of the cricket. And he's got three sisters, none of whom give a fuck about the show. And how apparently being a former cub scout makes him some kind of authority on tying people up. 

"Just saying those knots seemed loose, is all." 

Lando feels a smirk coming on. "Watching, were you?" 

Oscar rolls his eyes. "I review the Hideaway footage to make sure it's fit for broadcast, yes."

"Kinky."

"Good job. Really defended my honour there." 

"Fuck off," Oscar says, surprisingly calm for someone with bruises trawling the side of their face.

"Dunno why you thought you could take him. He's got like two stone and six centimetres on you. And Charles heard he's done amateur boxing—"

"Got one decent one in there, at least?"

"Element of surprise, s'all it was."

Lando gives up with the bandages. He has no idea what he's doing—and his hands are shaking too much to be of any real use. Best leave it to medical.

"Oscar," he says, rubbing his eyes. His thumb comes away damp. Christ, this better not end up on telly. "The fuck were you thinking, mate." 

Oscar exhales long and hard. His voice is softer when he says: "Sorry. Wasn't really… thinking."

Lando punches his arm lightly—the good one.

"Next time, just. Ask me out normally, alright?"

"They're not firing me," Oscar's voice sounds stunned through the phone, coloured with relief. It's the most emotion Lando's ever heard out of him. Well, second most. "Did you—?"

"My agent said me and Carlos can call it quits two months after the finale," Lando interrupts. It's important, after all.

There's quiet over the line. He can hear Oscar breathing. In out, in out. 

"And what did you say?"

Lando leans forward, against the dash of his borrowed McLaren. The one he's being paid to drive around in, posting selfies with wine and roses in the passenger's. 

Runner's up is first loser and all that, but. It's still a pretty good deal.

"Told her I'll do two weeks." 

[nebulations]

[ID: Tumblr post edited to be by Sonic characters. It reads:

Anonymous: Thots on eggman

sonniku: So eggman has thots now

sonniku: (Two screenhotted replies as follows):

theultimate: crawling all over him like weevils

tailzprower: They're called badniks I think. ENd ID]

[makpees]

ty shaw headcannons because he’s my sweet little himbo baby boy!

ty shaw wanted to be a firefighter so bad, since he was a little boy. he had seen them put out house fire or brush fires and just thought they were so cool. then when his dad passed away, (in my head, his dad passed away because to me, it kind of seems like they’ve experienced deep grief like losing abby before. especially when he’s like “gotta keep on living” right…anyway) he felt like he needed to take on that “man of the house” role and gave up his dreams of being a firefighter because it was too risky of a job.

Ty dated the same girl all throughout high school but she ended up moving away for college and he was just so devastated because he loves so deeply! he loves with his whole beautiful little heart. He acts like it doesn’t bother him anymore, and usually it doesn’t, but sometimes at the bar or at an oilfield party, he sees couples getting close and just gets a pang of loneliness. he never talks about it to anyone. (except ben, once when he came back down to visit, and the two got way too drunk and ty would not stop talking)

he doesn’t bother dating again for a while because he’s so upset over his ex, but when he finally starts to feel ready, abby passes. Then he feels like he can’t have time for a relationship and keep his family together during their loss, so he pushes his own wants and needs aside again for the sake of his loved ones

okay on a less serious note. ty has like three social media apps. facebook, reddit, and dare i say espn fantasy football. he only uses facebook to go onto the “*insert town name* happening now” page so he can post things like “did anybody hear that boom about 8pm last night?” or posting about being available for odd jobs

there isn’t much to do in town but there is a bowling alley. he got banned for two weeks once because he celebrates way too hard.

Paris wants to be a film producer and ty will always agree to be in one of her little films. no matter what. even the one time she had him kiss a boy! (which he had no hesitation in doing) “Anything to help out my sister,” He told everyone.

contrary to popular belief, he is a cat person and will always feed the stray cats outside. (he even built a little wooden shed big enough to hold the cats. put hay in it to keep them cool when it’s hot and warm when it’s cold.)

ty shaw is never leaving my brain btw!!!! need that country bumpkin real bad

[ecoterrorist-katara]

Idk about you, but there was a period of ATLA fans trying their damn hardest to convince me that Katara didn't get any hate. And then when I counted that yes, she did (I didn't make up all of 2020 and 2021 ffs), they told me to calm down?? Like, am I the only one who's experienced this?

The people who are so "neutral" in this fandom are actually the worst ones istg

IT’S SO WEIRD! It’s not even just revisionist history, it literally still happens today. Reddit is overrun with “haha Katara dead mom” jokes. Redditors really show their asses with their simultaneous contempt for Katara and their fervent defense of Ka/taang.

On Tumblr I blame the Zu/kka shippers lmao (who also tend to be the ones who claim to be neutral multishippers, as if multishipping wasn’t the norm in this fandom, yes even amongst the ZKs). Some m/m shippers really want to get rid of the female character in the way of their m/m ship. Which, hey, shipping is supposed to be fun, and if you put Katara with Aang or Azula or Haru or Suki or whoever with zero development for the purpose of your Zu/kka, there’s nothing wrong with that! They do that with Mai and Ty Lee, no drama, bc Mai is not so well developed as a character.

It’s just that…instead of admitting they want to get rid of Katara so that they can enjoy their Zu/kka, they emphasize how she’s so mean to their woobie Zuko, or to their woobie Sokka. Then you get absolutely wild mental gymnastics that are just Katara slander with more steps, like the baffling “homophobic Katara” headcanon (as if Katara, who allowed a fortuneteller to dictate her breakfast and spent the entire show waffling over whether she likes a boy, is any less likely to be queer). People on Tumblr don’t hate on Katara directly anymore because they know it’s misogynistic, so instead we are subjected to a wide variety of random ass takes. The latest form of Katara slander is “just let her be a kid” and assigning her qualities to Sokka, which I categorically refuse to read, because it pisses me off. People are so weird about Katara.

I think this must be something specific to Zu/kka, not m/m ships in general. My first major ship was Klaine and female character slander was not an issue at all. Anyway I ship all variations of Fire Sib x Water Sib (except the incest ones, which apparently requires clarifying nowadays), but Zu/kka is becoming my least fave of the bunch due to fandom shenanigans.

[animentality]

It's tough because I hate the Astarion haters on Reddit, who are just misogynistic and homophobic and dismissive of the character because they hate how gay he acts and also how many women love him.

but I also hate BookTok Astarion fangirls who feel the need to assert how superior Astarion is on every fucking Gale, Wyll, Halsin, Shadowheart, Minthara, Lae'zel, Karlach or pretty much any BG3 video at all. Like we get it. He's white.

And then I'm ambivalent on the Tumblr Astarion fans because there are the people who simply like him and make fun art and fun meta analysis about him, and then there are the people in my inbox currently telling me that Astarion's Ascended ending is morally correct and it's not a bad ending for the character, and if I disagree, then I hate women.

You're correct that I hate women, but it has nothing to do with Astarion.

Also, I once again point out, that your own husbando literally tells you outright in both endings that being Ascended ruins/ruined who he used to be and also your love for one another.

Your man literally says that your love would have been corrupted by becoming his spawn, and you still cling to the idea that your character is living happily ever after.

He's not making you a vampire queen, he's making you a vampire pet. And it's fine to like that ending. I don't care if you LIKE bad, unhappy endings. That is your prerogative. But you are simply incorrect if you say that it's the "happy" ending for the character, when it clearly is not.

No one ever said you had to use your skull for anything other than cold cut storage, I just don't see why it's even necessary to argue your point to me.

Stay in your Astarion echo chamber, and block me. I don't have time or energy to block all of you.

Anyway.

It sucks because I really like Astarion, he's my favorite love interest.

I really enjoy his storyline and his growth as a person and how sweet he is. He's also very funny. All the companions have great voice acting behind them, but Neil really knocked it out of the park, and I honestly think the character would be far less popular if they'd picked any other actor.

But the fandom around him is just...awful.

It's a mixed bag of normal, unnormal in a fun way, and unnormal in a "you need to fucking step off in this Walmart bitch" way.

It's why I'd rather interact with Dark Urge and Gortash fans.

Much smaller subset of the fandom, so I don't have to deal with the generic crazies, and we're all such freaks that we don't feel the need to go around acting like Gortash is a good person.

I also only ever see people saying these two are fucking disgusting and horrible and I'd murder them in real life and honestly, true and based.

No happy endings for those two, and that's fine for me. In fact, it's great.

See, Astarion girlies, this is called...knowing your ship doesn't deserve a happy ending after all they have done, and knowing it wouldn't be a happy ending if they got together, but being able to acknowledge that and not get bent out of shape trying to justify it.

Stop tying your irl morality to your tastes in fiction.

I never said that liking the ascended ending made you a bad person in real life.

I just said that pretending it's good and happy and great and not continuing the cycle of abuse, is factually incorrect.

And it is.

Every single bad ending for all the love interests is literally continuing the cycle of abuse. Why would Astarion's be any different?

But maybe I'm being bold in assuming you even know the other love interests exist or have stories. Maybe you don't even know the general story of baldur's gate 3, because it is, as you say, the vampire dating sim, and it's definitely not about anything other than banging the sexy vampire.

Media literacy weeps.

Anyway.

Not ruining my enjoyment of the game.

Just my general tolerance for the fandom that is not Durge and Gortash obsessed.