#ao I'm just glad that there are other people who see what i see and love it just as much as i do and appreciate it

[umbrellahat07]

This is why I walked to and from school for 3 years. I could have ridden the bus, but I liked walking. It was nice being outside, even if it was just the band practice field. It really helped my mental health, being outside helped me regulate and stay grounded, which I really needed during the school year. It was like having a little break from everything, to just have some time to myself to be part of the world.

And I really got to know that field. I noticed the grass and the bugs and learned where water pools after it rains and how long it takes to freeze over. I live in a fairly rural area, so I saw deer and geese and cats and even a coyote once. You really do start to notice things you never even knew were there before.

My random unsubstantiated hypothesis of the day: the popularity of "stim" videos, fidget toys, and other things like that is a warning sign that something's Deeply Wrong with our world.

Don't freak out. I am autistic. These things are not bad. However, can we just...take a second to notice how weird it is that there are entire social media accounts full of 10-second videos of things making crunching noises, people squishing slime in their hands, and objects clacking together, and that enjoying them is mainstream and normal?

It seems that nowadays, almost everyone exhibits sensory-seeking behavior, when just a decade ago, the idea of anyone having "sensory needs" was mostly obscure. It is a mainstream Thing to "crave" certain textures or repetitive sounds.

What's even weirder, is that it's not just that "stim" content is mainstream; the way everything on the internet is filmed seems to look more like "stim" content. TikToks frequently have a sensory-detail-oriented style that is highly unusual in older online content, honing in on the tactile, visual and auditory characteristics of whatever it's showing, whether that's an eye shadow palette or a cabin in a forest.

When an "influencer" markets their makeup brand, they film videos that almost...highlight that it's a physical substance that can be smudged and smeared around. Online models don't just wear clothes they're advertising, they run their hands over them and make the fabric swish and ripple.

I think this can be seen as a symptom of something wrong with the physical world we live in. I think that almost everyone is chronically understimulated.

Spending time alone in the forest has convinced me of this. The sensory world of a forest is not only much richer than any indoor environment, it is abundant with the sorts of sensations that people seem to "crave" chronically, and the more I've noticed and specifically focused on this, the more I've noticed that the "modern" human's surroundings are incredibly flat in what they offer to the senses.

First of all, forests are constantly permeated with a very soft wash of background noise that is now often absent in the indoor world. The sound of wind through trees has a physiological effect you can FEEL. It's always been a Thing that people are relaxed by white noise, which leads to us being put at ease by the ambient hum of air conditioning units, refrigerators and fans. But now, technology has become much more silent, and it's not at all out of place to hypothesize that environments without "ambient" white noise are detrimental to us.

Furthermore, a forest's ambience is full of rhythmic and melodic elements, whereas "indoor" sounds are often harsh, flat and irregular.

Secondly: the crunch. This is actually one of the most notably missing aspects of the indoor sensory world. Humans, when given access to crunchable things, will crunch them. And in a forest, crunchy things are everywhere. Bark, twigs and dry leaves have crisp and brittle qualities that only a few man-made objects have, and they are different with every type of plant and tree.

Most humans aren't in a lot of contact with things that are "destroyable" either, things you can toy with and tear to little bits in your hands. I think virtually everyone has restlessly torn up a scrap of paper or split a blade of grass with their thumbnail; it's a cliche. And since fidget toys in classrooms are becoming a subject of debate, I think it pays to remember that the vast majority of your ancestors learned everything they knew with a thousand "fidget toys" within arm's reach.

And there is of course mud, and clay, and dirt, and wet sand. I'm 100% serious, squishing mud and clay is vital to the human brain. Why do you think Play-Doh is such a staple elementary school toy. Why do you think mud is the universal cliche thing kids play in for fun. It's such a common "stim" category for a reason.

I could go on and on. It's insane how unstimulating most environments humans spend time in are. And this definitely contributes to ecological illiteracy, because people aren't prepared to comprehend how detailed the natural world is. There are dozens of species of fireflies in the United States, and thousands of species of moths. If you don't put herbicides on your lawn, there are likely at least 20 species of plant in a single square meter of it. I've counted at least 15 species of grass alone in my yard.

Would it be overreach to suggest that some vital perceptive abilities are just not fully developing in today's human? Like. I had to TEACH myself to be able, literally able, to perceive details of living things that were below a certain size, even though my eyes could detect those details, because I just wasn't accustomed to paying attention to things that small. I think something...happens when almost all the objects you interact with daily are human-made.

The people that think ADHD is caused by kids' brains being exposed to "too much stuff" by Electronic Devices...do not go outside, because spending a few minutes in a natural environment has more stimuli in it than a few hours of That Damn Phone.

A patch of tree bark the size of my phone's screen has more going on than my phone can display. When you start photographing lots of living organisms, you run into the strange and brain-shifting reality that your electronic device literally cannot create and store images big enough to show everything you, in real life, may notice about that organism.

[ep2nd]

@anxious-anon-time sorry for being late, was really busy this weekend

I'm very sorry this is 2 weeks late, had to board a plane, then was relaxing on Vacay, then had to catch up in school the next week

"What do you think of the Ink Scroll arc"

I absolutely stinking loved it.

Now here's the essay you ask for (or didn't, I just want to write an essay)

1. Love the foreshadowing/self awareness. Ex. When MK says "Maybe this the part of our journey where things get DARKEE" the poor boy- also love how the word Journey was used, foreshadowing how it was about the Journey to the West

2. Everyone had good arcs, except Pigsy? Like, MK beautiful, Meis opposite nature to Ao Lie, lovely, Sandy fighting the monster allegations, been his trauma since the beginning (when he references he's changed since meeting Pigsy last), showcasing the difference between Tang and Tripitaka qns for Tang to get more development?! Woo!!! But Pigsy?? Having the same plot/character development of Sandy, where being a monster doesn't matter Yada Yada Yada, it just didn't make sense.

There was no part beforehand where Pigsy EVER questioned that part of him, unlike Sandy who's been afraid of hurting someone, yes I enjoyed the episode, the Cook references from previous (and also Freenoodle crumbs) were amazing. What I wish they had done was something like Pigsy questioning his family, or chosen family in this case. THEY EVEN WENTOF THEIR WAY TO MAKE THE "MONKEY KINGS NOT MY DAD PIGSY IS" MOMENT. Like- I just Pigys arc was more family/friend centered, definitely would compliment whatever jumbo shrimp mess MK had going on

3. Talking bout MK- the trauma and angst were GORGEOUS we love it. My boy been through so much. And we learned more of his past?! The theorists were going CRAZY. Love the Sunburst and Soysauce moment, MMMMMMMM, this boy needs to stop trusting people so quickly oh my gosh AZURE WHEN I CATCH YOU-

4. Really good villain. Love how they went with a villain who thought HE was the hero, and main character I guess lol. Was he a turned villain? Yes but he was a good one! Kinda wish the foreshadowing was better, instead of that one episode where Tang just watched and realized it. He's a complex character, who just wanted to help people, and yeah his ambition wasn't even bad, the Jade Emperor isn't great even, but he took it too far

5. Great job yall, you guys made a character everyone hates, Peng, Revalis brother from another mother

6. Yellow Tusk was ehhh, wish we saw more of his character, seemed interesting, loved his loyalty

7. Now LMK is very special from other shows I've watched he'd because well, I'm willing to rewatch many episodes, even if I know what will happen, I tend to not rematch ANYTHING because of this problem, but LMK is just different. For some reason the Scroll arc is the exception, I like it, but for some reason I don't see myself rewarching it, don't know why

8. Ink MK was a beloved, his voice?! Design?!? DIALOG AND SPEECH PATTERN!?!? BRILLIANT. really love all Ink people moments, mostly just Ink MK, and Wukong.

9. Glad Wukong got development, man is facing the consequences of his actions and its really getting him, I'm glad he's getting really good development.

10. Master Subodhi. Do I need to say more?! Loved him dearly. Wish he and Wukong remet. :( liked his character very much, I like how he wasn't even real in the Scroll and still had omniscient abilities. My only question was what else did he know?! On that note, is anyone going to talk about how the girl is just, like immortal?! The Acolyte as yall call her. Now I don't think Subodhi just GIVES out immortality, I feel like he saves it for special people, like Wukong, no I have theories and headcannons for her but that's another day.

Also I'm a suckered for any JTTW character appearance. LMK GIVE ME ERLANG SHEN, GOLD STAR OF VENUS, GUANYIN, ANY OF NEZHAS BROTHERS, AND MY LUFE IS YOURSSSSS

11. The only thing I can think of left is how in the world did the Scroll worked?!? Like, it didn't teleport them to the past, I've been making a simulator almost? But then why does the characters inside feel so real, and how did Wukong trap Peng and Yellow Tusk, and where and hwt have they been doing?! AND HOW DOES THE OMNISCIENT POWER OF SUBHODI WORK. MAN CANT HAVE THAT MUCH PLOT REASONS POWER. AND FOR GOODNESS SAKE HOW DID THEY GET THE OLD PILGRIMS WEAPONS LAST TIME I CHECKED TRIPITAKAAS STAFF WSS IN WUKONGS CAVE

[hummingbird-of-light]

Round 2: Twenty-fourth story for @badthingshappenbingo ~

Title: A Traitor's Punishment

Fandom: Star Trek (AOS)

Character(s): Robert "Robbie" Scott, Original Female Character

Relationship(s): /

Rating: M

Words: 975

Prompt: Mouth Stitched Shut

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Torture, Blood & Injury, Kidnapping, Major Character Injury

A/N: Prequel to "To Hope"

(You can also find this story on AO3)

~ A Traitor's Punishment ~

Robert "Robbie" Scott no longer knew how long he had been held captive in this room. He couldn't remember how long he had been persecuted and punished for something he hadn't done.

They accused him of stealing information about Section 31 and planning to sell it. They said that he was a traitor and that he had to pay for it.

Robbie laughed humorlessly, tears in his eyes, while he just shook his head.

He hadn't done anything. He hadn't stolen any information. But he couldn't deny that he would have loved to.

These people should be punished. The members of the Section who committed crimes on a daily basis in order to achieve the Federation's goals. People who had no scruples and did not stop at blackmail and torture. Someone should expose them publicly and put an end to it all.

They had forced Robbie to work for the organization when they had discovered his potential as a technician by threatening to harm his son Chris. He had had no choice but to comply.

The door opened for what felt like the hundredth time and Robbie sighed in exhaustion when he saw who entered the room.

Alexandra.

The pretty, slender woman was in charge of one of the groups in Section 31, and Robbie had been put under her command. She was a truly horrible, unscrupulous person. And she really enjoyed torturing people.

"Good morning, Robert? How are we feeling today?" Her voice dripped with scorn and she smiled wickedly at Robbie as she stepped in front of the chair he was tied to.

He said nothing. If he answered anything, he would surely get a punch in the gut. On the other hand... even if he remained silent, Alexandra would certainly hurt him. But why should he waste the rest of his strength talking? It wouldn't get him out of this situation either way.

"I thought I'd like to try something new with you today. This constant beating, waterboarding and all that other stuff is getting really boring." Alexandra put the suitcase she was carrying on a nearby table and opened it.

Robbie couldn't see what she was taking out of it at first, but the glint in her eyes told him that it was certainly something very painful.

"Look at this, Robert. Isn't it beautiful?" Slowly, Alexandra turned around and showed Robbie something he had only ever seen in books.

A needle.

"It's crazy to think that it used to take people hours to repair clothes with something like this. I'm really glad that it's quicker and easier today." Alexandra took something else out of the suitcase. A long piece of thread. "But I've discovered that this old sewing kit can also be good for something completely different."

Robbie watched as the woman carefully threaded the thread through the needle and then tied a knot at one end. He felt sick to his stomach as he imagined what she could do with it.

"As we've established, you haven't revealed the stolen information to anyone yet, so... let's make sure you never will."

Alexandra grinned maliciously as she grabbed Robbie's hair with one hand and pulled his head back briskly. He tried to move his head as best he could, but the hours of torture over the previous days had weakened him beyond belief. He had no strength to fight back.

When the needle pierced his lower lip for the first time, the Scotsman let out an agonized whimper. Tears flowed from his eyes and he gave Alexandra a pleading look. But she paid no attention to him.

With a satisfied smile, she kept her eyes fixed on the needle, making sure that every stitch was in place.

Robbie felt hot blood flowing from his lips, both into his mouth and onto his chin. Alexandra made every effort to ensure that each stitch hurt and she worked very slowly.

"Perfect! I should have been a surgeon in the dark ages," she finally announced proudly.

Robbie sobbed quietly to himself. He would have liked to scream and curse, but that was no longer possible.

He lowered his chin exhaustedly towards his chest as his tormentor let go of his head and he tried to breathe through his nose. After all the crying, however, it wasn't easy.

Alexandra seemed to notice. The smile on her lips widened even more and she turned her head to the side thoughtfully.

"Then again..."

Robbie's eyes widened in shock when Alexandra suddenly held his nose. His heart and pulse raced from the sudden lack of oxygen. He couldn't breathe through his nose or mouth.

Panicked, he made unintelligible noises and somehow tried to move his head to free his nose, but he wasn't strong enough.

So he squinted his eyes desperately and did what he knew Alexandra had imagined he would do.

He tore his mouth open. Hellish pain shot through his whole body as his lips tore open and he screamed as loud as he could when air finally flowed through his lungs again. He coughed and sobbed and cried pitifully.

But Alexandra just laughed.

"Wonderful! A really great method of torture. What do you think of a second round, Robert?" She waved the needle around and the Scotsman just shook his head helplessly.

Not again. He didn't want to have to endure this pain again. He didn't want to –

Alexandra's communicator beeped and she pulled it out to see who had sent her a message. With a broad grin, she put the device back in her pocket.

"Unfortunately, we don't have time for another round. We have a visitor coming soon. It looks like you might still have a chance of surviving, Robert."

With these words, Alexandra strolled out of the room and left Robbie to his thoughts and pain. But she would be back very soon.

[mindmeltonabun-blog]

Another Day, Another Plagiarist and Leaker On Reddit

I thought by now people would know I have eyes and ears everywhere. So here I am yet again having to deal with yet another plagiarist. And this one is even worst....they're also a leaker! Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, this dumbass decided to play dumb and pretend they didn't know about my blog until someone else on Reddit told them about it.

Following that, this person tried to make it seem like they didn't take and leak stuff from my blog by including a link to my blog in their post after the fact because they didn't want to get downvoted...HAHAHA HILARIOUS!!!!

I AM FREAKING LIVID!! Let's take a look at plagiarism and leaking at its finest!

Exhibit #1

No one and I mean absolutely no one besides me had came up with the Naksu=Jin Bu Yeon theory. Another dead giveaway this person has been following on Twitter as well as on Tumblr is their usage of "JBY". Most people refer to Jin Bu Yeon as either Jin Bu Yeon, Bu Yeon, or Buyeon. I, on the other hand, sometimes refer to her as JBY.

Exhibit #2

"Mama Jin" is also a nickname I frequently use both here on my Tumblr account as well as Twitter. Word of advice, if you want to get away with plagiarizing someone's work...YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO USE THE NAME NICKNAMES AS THEY DO...JUST SAYING.

Then let's look at this lovely statement of theirs:

"I feel like once her memories returns (both the body and the soul's) the face will also return but here is where it will get tricky because I dont see JSM going back to AOS2 because of how they are promoting LJWxGYJ like crazy."

Riddle me this, if you came up with your own theory.....why the hell are you disagreeing with yourself?! A person who comes up with their own theory would not be disagreeing with themselves. Why? BECAUSE THEY FUCKING SPENT TIME RESEARCHING AND THINKING AND THEREFORE HAVE THE CONFIDENCE TO DEFEND THEIR THEORY. Jesus Christ.

Without revealing the rest of my post, I will only show you the portion that this idiot decided to freaking plagiarize and leak:

Its amazing....how freaking SIMILAR MY SHIT IS TO WHAT THEY SAID.

Continuing on with this idiot, they also decided to end their post with something that sounds so similar to what I write in my T&A post. They said:

"This is will be for today's theory and analysis. If you have any questions too or counter arguments I would love to see those"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA WHO IN THE AOS FANDOM USES "THEORIES AND ANALYSIS"....MEEEEEEEE!!! Below is what I included in my AOS2 blog posts.

Again, what they said is nearly identical to what I originally said!

Exhibit #3

And if you think it stops there.....you're in for a treat everyone!!! This person also decided to take my diagram and used it in their header on Reddit...HAHA.

For those who don't know, this diagram was from my TA post for Eps 7-8. You can see it below.

Exhibit #4

In my original post for Eps 23-24, I had said 200 years ago and then in a more recent post on my Twitter, I corrected myself and said 203 years later. See below.

This person also decided to say 203 years ago in a response to another comment. If I hadn't corrected myself when I posted on Twitter...this idiot wouldn't have caught it either.

You can go and see for yourself on Reddit how this person pretended they didn't know about my blog and then took stuff from it. It's quite hilarious to read their comments and responses since they have no clue what they are talking about. There are many things I did not explicitly state in my blog posts because quite frankly I was too lazy to type more than I already had. I'm glad I didn't because it leaves people like this dumbasses unable to fully explain stuff when asked.

Whelp I'm done with my venting and ousting this disgusting human being! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

[characterswithcolorsnamesfight]

Hello, please excuse me for barging in with a relatively long text. I'm not trying to be rude, but I will probably come across as smart-ass anon. If I'm horribly wrong someone can correct me. I just want everyone to be aware and to watch out and double check when in doubt.

I think, you should be careful with characters named Aoi claiming to mean blue in Japanese. More often Aoi as a name is not blue and even some fandom wikis have it wrong.

But there is a simple rule...

Aoi written with the Kanji 葵 is not blue. It is a noun meaning hollyhock (a plant with very nice flowers!).

Aoi written with Kanji 青い is an adjective meaning blue, blue-ish. The noun for the blue, the blueness, would be Ao (青) without the "i". You can see the colour meaning with Ao (青) more in compound names like Aoyama (青山 green mountain*) or Aozora (青空 blue sky) for example.

So it might be more common to name characters and actual children after a flower. Instead of the adjective blue-ish.

Finally, there is also the Aoi who is not written in Kanji but simply with あおい or アオイ. As here no descriptive Kanji are used, the meaning is open to interpretation and what might more fitting to the character (is the character more a flowery type or a blue type due to hair or clothes? Or maybe both a flowery type with a lot of blue colour theme in the character design?).

*I use green mountain rather than blue mountain in a translation. Japanese doesn't necessarily distinguish blue and green. Ao/Aoi can indeed mean both blue and green.

This is a japanese dictionary for English: https://ejje.weblio.jp/

You can just copy paste any Kanji and it will put the English meaning. It also works the other way round.

I know it's just a fun tournament and it's not meant to be a science. I just wanted to place this here for the sake of fairness. I hope it was at least somewhat informative or worth knowing.

Hi !

As someone who tends to apologize too much in real life, please don't apologize, it wasn't necessary. It didn't sound rude or mean spirited at all and I'll never blame someone for sharing their knowledge respectfully.

I've worked on a tournament before and got more familiar with kanji (including non descriptive ones) then -I'm still not an expert but I understand the system better than I previously did-. That doesn't work that well with non descriptive kanjis but just copy-pasting kanjis in the images search engine also helps. There are two ways of writing Sakura with descriptive kanjis (one is more used in first names and means cherry blossom and I can be wrong but from memory the other one is about warehouse and help and used for surnames)

I knew for the polysemy of Aoi because you all are champions for saying "I know the original meaning isn't xxx but -" but some submitters didn't seem aware of it (well I prefer to think they weren't. This is a silly tourney and honesty is the basis of courtesy)

I didn't know about blue and green, that was very enlightening. I'm glad many more people think green and blue look quite similar (we have a family running joke about never agreeing on colors, especially not blue VS green. "Look how blue the lake is." "What are you on ? Looks green." "More black-ish imo." "Take of your sunglasses. It's blue-green you all" "What do you mean green, it's obviously teal", "Isn't teal a green shade ??" "No, it's blue" "Wait let me check with my phone")

Thank you for the Japanese dictionary, I browsed a few for tourney purpose before but didn't know how accurate they were.

I wasn't planning to accept characters with wrong kanji without and make you all decide about the ones with a good explanation on a case by case basis. I'm also putting explanations for non English names and rarer English names on all the polls. This is comforting me in my choice.

You're welcome to bang on my door and teach me more about linguistics anytime !

Thank you for your research ! Have a lovely day !

[make-me-imagine]

HI HI!!! that’s so exciting you hit 8k! I started following you just before the 7.5k marker and that wasn’t even that long ago!

anyway i’m super excited you always do the best ships, I was wondering if I could get two drabbles with the jealous prompt? one for Shadow and Bone and one for Star Trek (AOS or ENT)? I have no gender preference

a little about me i’m in uni (and like a week behind) I major in Physics and minor in Astronomy, I love engineering and building trinkets and things. I like to image in the grisha verse i’d be a Fabricator inventor either in ketterdam or the little palace. and in star trek i’d be a Science Officer boldly going and all that good stuff. if i’m not in class i’m at my job (a dog training facility) and if i’m not there i’m at a my other job (teaching ballet for ages 3-13) so i’m pretty much never home except to sleep. when I don’t have something to do i get bored quick so i like to keep moving but I love what I do. I’m pretty introverted and I typically don’t talk to people my own age if I can help it. I tend to lose track of time and will actually work on something i’m interested in all night if no one’s there to stop me. i’m also apparently super oblivious to flirts or advance’s cause I think people are just being nice and apparently my being nice back looks like flirting back. and that’s how I ended up dating someone for two weeks without even knowing. I like collecting skills like lock picking or wood working or osteoarchaeology or sewing, just the most random things. I love to read and if I can’t actually hold a book i’ll listen to audio books. i’ve also started mapping stars and making my own planetarium project.

I can’t think of anything else so if you need anything else just let me know! :)

Thank you!~

Also: "and that’s how I ended up dating someone for two weeks without even knowing." WHAT?? lmao that sounds like a moment write out of a fic to me lol

I hope you like them :)

Ships and Drabbles are under the cut~

Shadow and Bone:

I ship you with Inej.

I think Inej would be in awe of your fabricator abilities, and your usefulness and talent outside of being a Grisha. She gets along well with more introverted people, so I think she would be super comfortable and feel safe around you.

Runner Up: Kaz Brekker

'Jealous'

Inej felt a hot burning in her chest as she watched you flirt with the Grisha. She continued to tell herself it was for the job, it wasn't real, you didn't mean it.

She trusted you, but the Grisha that kept moving closer and closer to you with every word? She did not trust.

"Careful Inej" Jesper's voice appeared beside her, making her jump "That jealousy is showing on your face. I'm afraid you might turn green."

"Shut up Jesper." She whispered quickly, her eyes never leaving you.

After a few more painstaking moments, she let out a soft breath as you stepped away from the Grisha after he handed you a slip of paper. She felt the heaviness in her chest start to lift.

Once you reached her, you handed the paper to Jesper who quickly left. Sitting down i the seat beside Inej, you let out a sigh "I'm glad that's over."

Sliding a bit closer so your shoulders were brushing, she slipped her hand into yours underneath the table "That makes two of us."

"How badly did he flirt with you?" She asked after a moment.

"Horribly. I couldn't even understand half the innuendos he was making." You scoffed.

Inej cringed a bit as she glanced back at the man, seeing him looking over at you. She took in a deep breath. "i think we should go before he decides to come talk to you again."

As you looked back over your shoulder, you saw him wink at you and you looked away. "Good idea."

Inej slapped down some money for her and Jesper's drinks before she grasped your hand and led you out of the bar.

As you saw the way she looked back at the man, you smiled softly before teasing lowly "Were you jealous?"

She let out a sot 'Tch' Sound and refused to respond, but you saw a subtle smile cross her face, telling you the answer.

--------------------

Star Trek ENT:

I ship you with Trip Tucker!

Trip is pretty extroverted, but he is attracted to more introverted types. He loves the sides of you that others don't often get to see. He would also think it was adorable how oblivious you are to flirting, until it was him flirting with you. You'd have a moment of "Are you flirting with me?" "Have been for a month now, thanks for noticing" lmao

Runner Up: Uhura from AOS

'Jealous'

Trip glanced at you a few times as you got ready to leave for your shift. He cleared his throat lightly, "So I saw you hanging out with that new engineer, what's his name, uh- Tyler?"

You looked over at Trip, noting the odd tone in his voice "Toby? Yeah, he's pretty nice."

"Yeah...he seems like a ray of sunshine."

You blinked a couple times before you turned fully towards him "Certainly sounds like you agree" You said with a sarcastic laugh.

Trip smiled softly "No, no, sorry, yeah I'm sure he's cool, he just...seemed to be flirting with you."

"Did he?" You asked, frowning.

"Yeah, of course I knew you wouldn't notice, but I did. He seemed pretty intent on getting you to notice him."

You took a small step closer to him "So you're saying you're jealous?"

He smiled but shook his head "No." He said with an obvious lie "I just don't know him, or trust him to back off."

"Well if it helps, he does know we're dating."

"Did he know that before or after the flirting?"

"When was he flirting?!" You asked bewildered.

"In the cafeteria when you were getting lunch! I went by with Malcolm and I saw you two in there, he was obviously flirting."

You rolled your eyes softly and shook your head. "I think you think anyone who talks to me is flirting at this point."

"Oh trust me, I can tell from a mile away when someone is flirting."

You let out a soft laugh "Yeah sure. But if you must know, it was after that, that I told him we were dating."

Trip nodded his head "How did I come up, did he ask you to hang out or something?"

"No, he did not. We were talking about the movie night and I saw me and my boyfriend were going."

"So he was leading you into asking you out!" He said in an 'AHA' manner.

You let out a sigh "Okay, whatever, but he knows now alright?" You let out a perplexed laugh "Can we drop it now?"

He sighed "Fine, but if I notice him flirting again I'm gonna say something."

You patted his arm as you ushered him from the room, "Yeah yeah, alright."

[blackfemmecharacterdependency]

For the Ship Ask...talk to me about Uhura & Spock.

WELL YOU KNOW WHAT! I didn't expect anybody to ask me about this one in 2022, but I'm glad that you did, because I really don't get to talk about them as much as I loved to do, because I don't really know anybody in the fandom anymore.

SHIP IT. BIG SHIP IT.

1. What made me ship it?

Uhura and Spock were one of my first unconscious ships. I liked them together at a pretty young age and didn't really know the concept of shipping or anything of that sort, because I was a kid. But, I think what made me ship it was that, as a kid with a huge crush on Spock and somebody really excited to see a Black lady in space, I most likely projected. (But also, they had a bit of rapport in TOS that I likely noticed and categorized in a girl + boy way doable for my brain at the time). Whenever the reboot came out in 2009, that was the first time I began sharing fan fiction with a fandom and the first fandom that I made online friends with as opposed to talking about stuff at school or with people I hung out with from work and the bar and stuff. So, in a way, it sometimes feels like my first fandom a lot of the time, despite having detached myself from Star Trek fans I knew in real life because... rabid. Jesus.

I have a special place in my heart for Uhura and Spock always, even being a multishipper and shipping both of them with others at times. They're my primary there and I've been able to envision them since I was a kid.

2. What are my favorite things about the ship?

I enjoyed the fact that while you'd often see Spock (sometimes) come off as a bit of a rude person in our human society, he was always honest and his honest thoughts towards her were always really nice ones. You'd even see him appear to enjoy her company at times.

Skip to AOS, and they're canonically involved - he backs her up when put in the position to do so and you get to actually SEE him be vulnerable with a person he's involved with instead of having to make it up in your mind like so many of us had to do for decades of Star Trek shipping prior to the establishment of this romantic connection in the reboot.

I love relationships between people who aren't living solely to connect with others and have a relationship. I like to see two people who could take it or leave it, but have chosen to work with each other and to put into it what they need, and be honest when that isn't there. I'm not a romantic. I'm a realist who sometimes enjoys romance, so they work perfectly in that they aren't fluffy, all over each other and going on epic feats of love and affection, BUT, they will rush to each other's aid when needed and be passionate about that.

3. Is there an unpopular opinion that I have on this ship?

Well, I don't talk to enough trekkies to know what's popular or not, but if I had to think of something that I could remember seeing/not seeing, I would say that I think more people view them in this light where Uhura would either tire of his Vulcan ways and want to have something more emotional or affectionate?

I think that Uhura would be more likely to be chill with a lot of the toned down areas of his being and as a skilled communicator, use everything, not just his words to assess his emotions. And he has so much of them, as a Vulcan, just doesn't react on those as much, but I think she would always see and know what's going on in there, and not be confused, turned off, insecure, or whatever else, for the most part.

Damn... I miss them!

[daisyachain]

hi!! i've been reading through your ao no flag liveblogs lately and they're really interesting! i enjoy seeing someone so passionate about this manga and it makes me want to reread it .... i'm really interested in hearing what you have to say about masumi's ending though!! part of me thinks it makes sense but i'm mostly conflicted on it and would love to see it from your perspective ^^

haha well thank you! ah yes, the arc that created as much controversy as you can get in an active readership of like 10 people...

Blue Flag is an imperfect story, but it also gets a lot of flack for things that a) didn't...actually...happen, b) didn't happen in the way people think they did.

Part 1: Is it actually straightwashing?

The most common criticism I see of Masumi's ending is that she was written as a lesbian character and straightwashed at the end. Marrying off a female character as a way to 'fix' her issues is a common and harmful trope, and saying that lesbian women just need to get a man is a widespread homophobic trope and talking point. So, it's not a good look. To have a character angst over interest in a woman and end up happily married to a guy reads like a '50s pulp novel that just uses f/f attraction for marketing.

But, if the intention of the ending was to show that Masumi should give up on women and force herself to date men, then it doesn't. Mitsuyuki's description of her is 'look at my bisexual wife who has dated both women and men and could also have married a woman', which is an odd choice if the intention was straightwashing. It feels more like a clumsy way to make sure that, in a series full of ambiguity, there could be no argument that Masumi was queer. That isn't to say that cisstraight people don't view bisexuality as less/better than/straighter than her being lesbian and that making a previously gay character bisexual isn't still straightwashing (increasing the appearance of straightness).

Part 2: Was it actually a retcon?

So: Masumi's ending reaffirms that she's a WLW. One question is, was she always meant to be bisexual, or was she originally written as lesbian?

Blue Flag doesn't have a lot of straight (no pun intended) answers. Taichi never expresses any explicit attraction to guys, but there is enough subtext to suggest he's attracted to Touma well before the finale. Futaba believes she is attracted to Touma at first and is shown to be attracted to him using the visual shorthand of manga (blushing, etc.), but she later says that it was just misinterpreted admiration. Mami doesn't want to date Touma or any man, but she implies that she is attracted to Touma when she says around him she was 'glad to be a woman.' Within the main romance, Futaba says that it was specifically because Taichi was a friend to her that she grew to like-like him. The lines between friendship and romance are blurred in Blue Flag, and sometimes romance can only grow out of friendship.

Masumi has a tense conversation with Taichi in the first half after she breaks up with her boyfriend that most people (me included) read as her saying that she tried guys and she just isn't and can't be attracted to them. However, it's Blue Flag, so the conversation is unfocused and doesn't paint a complete picture.

"Even if I get a boyfriend, I can never make it work"/"I don't know why [I don't like him anymore]" seem to imply that Masumi realized that she was feeling compulsory heterosexuality and that she will never like men. "[I don't know] why he like someone like me"/"You can be friends with potential sexual partners? With both guys and girls?"/"I just wanted to hear how you men feel about [a girl liking other girls]" seem to imply that Masumi is bisexual and is afraid to date because someone might find out. Maybe she's written as questioning--she knows she likes Futaba, but she's feeling out other possibilities. It's Blue Flag, so it's unclear.

Part 3: How does it work with Masumi's arc?

Diving further into Masumi's story, she acts as a foil to Touma (and Futaba, see later). Touma feels free to show his affection for Taichi as a friend as well as a love interest and almost confesses to him of his own free will, well before he's forced to. Touma tells her that he intends to try and set Taichi up with Futaba (because they would be good for each other), and also that he intends to pursue Taichi in some way. He tells her he's "not like [her]."

For Masumi's part, she tells Touma that she wants to express more affection for Futaba--not necessarily in a romantic way, just to participate more fully in that relationship--but she's afraid to, she doesn't feel confident enough to try, and that she's "the worst" because of it. We see this theme repeated, that Masumi is pessimistic, is afraid to trust people and hates herself for being afraid. Her conversations with Aki and Mami explore this; Aki tells her that it's not bad to be insecure or unready and that it's fine to keep a secret/stay closeted until she's ready, Mami tells her that she does have people she can trust, who care about her and who will do their best to understand her and help out. Why am I typing all this out? Because Masumi is a bitter, insecure wlw and that is an Established Trope, but her twist on it is that her negativity or bitterness isn't over her attraction to women/to Futaba or even over the reaction she might get from others (as Touma's is), it's over her own insecurity. Like Futaba, she's hesitant to act on her feelings, and like Futaba, she gets frustrated and hates herself for her own inaction.

All that is to say--Masumi is never shown to have a problem with her attraction to women. Her angst isn't gayngst, she's not ashamed of her feelings for Futaba bur rather her inability to express them. Her problems are with social attitudes and more with her own personal feelings--she and Touma face similar problems, but Touma is simply aware of the consequences (being roughed up and ostracised by a certain group of people) while Masumi feels a more generalized and ambiguous fear.

If Masumi were shown to have mixed feelings about her queerness/were shown to be in denial/were shown to be trying to move on from Futaba, then her ending would read more as straightwashing. As it is, there's nothing in her character and arc to say that she'd ever want to erase that part of herself or get rid of it, rather, she wishes she could embrace it but she just doesn't feel confident in doing it. Her ending shows her as an openly bisexual woman who is out to her friends and husband at the very least, which is a completion of her arc in the manga (of learning to trust other people and express her feelings honestly).

Part 4: What context clues does the rest of the series give us?

This is branching off a little from the strict text of Parts 1-3. As I've said, as we know, Blue Flag is 50% subtext and interpretation. Characters speak, but they don't say what they mean, characters think, but they're not always honest with themselves or in tune with reality. Mami is an ominous and antagonistic figure in the first half, but then it just turns out that Taichi was jumping to conclusions. Taichi is the main character and narrator, but we get radio silence from him for like 7 chapters after the climax. Taichi is bisexual, but the reader has to guess that from the way the art style shifts between PoVs, the similar panelling between Futaba and Touma's confessions, the things he does and does not think about Touma and how he feels about them. It's safe to say that there is room for speculation.

First, there is no explicit evidence that Taichi could be bisexual before ch 54. It's easy to tell that he is, but again, there's nothing specific. Some people reading Blue Flag have said that him marrying Touma was out of character, unforeshadowed, bizarre, inexplicable, etc. because their experienced is coloured by their own heterosexuality. Masumi is shown to have dated a guy and in saying she didn't like him "anymore," implied that she did like him. Her conflicted feelings over her bf could well have been foreshadowing her liking men as well, and my reading that as comphet could have just been my own experience colouring the text. Who knows! Taichi's bisexuality was intentional from the start but could be read as a last-minute twist, so why not Masumi's?

Second, Mitsuyuki is Futaba 2.0. Same colouring, same personality. This could feel like a way of saying "Masumi just needs to like guys instead," but to me it reads deeper with some of the trans subtext around Futaba. One of my issues with Blue Flag is that it doesn't go further into Futaba's admiration/envy for masculinity and her uncomfortable relationship with femininity. As a cis woman who wants to be buff and mildly masculine, I can understand why she's a cis girl throughout and I don't necessarily think that she was supposed to be a trans guy. However, her relationship with masculinity draws a parallel to Mitsuyuki. Reading Mitsuyuki as a cis man, he is the combination of Futaba's personality and looks with her 'ideal form.' So, Masumi marrying Mitsuyuki can read as Masumi marring Ascended FutabaTM.

Third, Futaba having a faceless prop husband is interesting in the context of Mitsuyuki getting a name and personality. Mitsuyuki = Futaba and Mr. Kuze is a blank space, so the reader is prompted to reduce the scenario and slot Masumi into that blank space. Given Masumi and Touma's history as foils, I'm inclined to think that Mitsuyuki exists to show the road not taken. Back at the fireworks, Touma tells Masumi that he hasn't given up on Taichi, and Masumi says she doesn't intend to pursue Futaba even though the pining is making her miserable. Given that Futaba reacts a lot better to the idea of Masumi liking her than Taichi reacts to the idea of Touma liking him, given that we see Masumi has successfully wooed male!Futaba, I think that Masumi's ending shows that she could have ended up with Futaba if she chose to pursue her. She didn't and she still got a happy ending where she is confident in her sexuality and unafraid to trust, but she could have also had a happy ending where she married Futaba. Mitsuyuki is a man because desire-for-masculinity is a key aspect of Futaba's character, and Mitsuyuki is a named character with a personality because KAITO wanted the reader to know that Masumi could have ended up with Futaba (as Touma ended up with Taichi).

Fourth, KAITO's notes on volume give us a few hints. He comments that there was remarkably little interference with his story and that he was able to tell it as he wanted, and that the ending was meant to be a "question" to the reader. The way I see it, Masumi's ending wasn't meant to say "maybe you'll be fixed if you get a man" but rather was meant to complement Taichi's ending and say "things happen in ways you might not expect, but that doesn't mean they're bad."

Fifth, Touma/Taichi ending up together shows us that the series is willing and able to show queerness as a good thing and a happy ending, so it's unlikely that Masumi was meant to come off as "actually she just needed a man" and more as "life can be unpredictable but you can always find happiness"

Summary

It's unclear whether Masumi was written as a bisexual woman or a lesbian woman or a questioning wlw

I personally read her as a lesbian and I wish that part of her character had gotten more exploration

Masumi's ending wraps up her arc (struggling to trust other people with her feelings in general and her queerness in particular) in a satisfying and logical way

Masumi being bisexual does not in any way negate or lessen her identity and experienes as a wlw, bisexual people still face external and internalized homophobia and all the associated issues

Masumi's bisexuality may well have been foreshadowed, but the execution makes it easier to read her as a lesbian, which makes her ending seem like a homophobic cop-out in the style of the Hays Code

Masumi's ending doesn't straightwash her and goes to unusual lengths to affirm her attraction to women

Masumi's ending seems to be written to contrast Touma's ending, showing that getting or not getting the love interest depends entirely on whether you choose to pursue them

It's unlikely that authorial intent was to straightwash Masumi

[omentranslates]

Yomei 2:30 -- PinocchioP English Lyrics

Song by PinocchioP

VO: Hatsune Miku

English Translation

Ah, I've been born

Infinite possibilities of what I could do with this life spread out here at the 8 second mark

I bet I can do things like that, I bet I can become anything

While I close my eyes to the misfortune on its way

Living seriously or a bit on the edge

I want to lift you up, I want to kick you down, both those desires are me

Dreams and love go so fast and working hard sure is tough

I wonder if it's ok to only experience books and movies by their summaries

2 minutes 30 seconds left to live, 2 minutes 30 seconds left to live

"Thank you" "Goodbye" "See you later" Like a broken record

It's already a 45 second spring

2 minutes 30 seconds to live, a single-use disposable blue

Not even a full 3 minutes, my life can be replaced

So don't buy it with tears, ok?

So that's what dreams, and that's what love is

Life is a lot like a song you keep hearing around

It can't take less than a minute to figure yourself out

But it still seems so fast when you're doing it

Tick tock, Tick tock, I'm thinking fondly on you who are no longer here

The dream I had 1 minute ago is so far away

2 minutes 30 seconds left to live, 2 minutes 30 seconds left to live

"I'm glad" "That's no good" "Oh well" Like a broken record

A minute and 45 second autumn

2 minutes 30 seconds left to live, another spell breaks

Was it for you? Was it for me? This life you're going to grieve so much

Don't make it out to be too beautiful, ok?

That day, just like all those books and movies I only skimmed through

My life shortened to the length of a song

Even if it's goodbye at 2 minutes and 30 seconds

I want you to let me tell you I was happy

2 minutes 30 seconds left to live, 2 minutes 30 seconds to live

Not even a full 3 minutes, my life is already over

Don't think too hard about other people's problems, ok?

Ah

JP original under the cut (Kanji/Romaji)

あ　生まれた 何をして生きようか　無限の可能性が広がるまだ８秒だ あんなことできるかな　何にでもなれるかな 来るべき不幸から　目を背けながら

A Umareta Nani wo shite ikiyou ka Mugen no kanousei ga hirogaru mada hachibyou da Anna koto dekiru ka na Nani demo nareru ka na Kitarubeki fukou kara Me wo somuke nagara

真面目に生きようか　小狡く生きようか 君を助けたい　蹴落としたい　どっちも自分だ 夢や恋はファストで　努力　はつらいよね 本や映画は　あらすじだけでい���かな

Majime ni ikiyou ka Kozuruku ikiyou ka Kimi wo tasuketai Keotoshitai Docchi mo jibun da Yume ya koi wa FAST de Doryoku wa tsurai yo ne Hon ya eiga wa Arasuji dake de ii ka na

余命２：３０　余命２：３０ 「ありがとう」　「さっよなら」　「またね」　をくり返して もう45秒　の春 余命２：３０　使い捨てられる青 3分に満たない　替えが利く　ぼくの命を 涙で　消費　しないでね

Yomei ni fun san jyuu byou Yomei ni fun san jyuu byou "Arigatou" "Sayonara" "Mata ne" wo kuri kaeshite Mou yon jyuu go byou no haru Yomei ni fun san jyuu byou, tsukai suterareru ao San pun ni mitanai Kae ga kiku boku no inochi wo Namida de shouhi shinaide ne

夢ってこんなもんか　恋ってこんなもんか 人生ってまるで　よくある歌みたいだな 1分以上過ぎて　「自分」　を思い知って だけど悟るには　まだまだ早いね チクタク　チクタク　もういない君を想う 1分前　描いた夢とは　ほど遠いが

Yume tte konna mon ka Koi tte konna mon ka Jinsei tte marude yoku aru uta mitai da na Ippun ijou sugite "Jibun" wo omoi shitte Dakedo satoru ni wa mada mada hayai ne TICK TOCK TICK TOCK mou inai kimi wo omou Ippun mae egaita yume to wa hodo tooi ga

余命２：３０　余命２：３０ 「よかった」　「もうだめだ」　「まあいっか」　をくり返して 1分45秒　の秋 余命２：３０　また一つ消える魔法 君のため？　ぼくのため？　大袈裟に嘆く命を どうか美化しすぎないで

Yomei ni fun san jyuu byou Yomei ni fun san jyuu byou "Yokatta" "Mou dame da" "Maa ikka" wo kuri kaeshite Ippun yon jyuu go byou no aki Yomei ni fun san jyuu byou Mata hitotsu kieru mahou Kimi no tame? Boku no tame? Oogesa ni nageku inochi wo Douka bika shisuginaide

あの日　読み飛ばした本や映画みたいに ぼくの命も短い歌になって 余命２：３０でさよならでも 幸せだったと言わせて欲しいの

Ano hi Yomitobashita hon ya eiga mitai ni Boku no inochi mo mijikai uta ni natte Yomei ni fun san jyuu byou de sayonara demo Shiawase datta to iwasete hoshii no

余命２：３０　余命２：３０ 3分に満たない　もう終わる　ぼくの命を 他人事って思わないでね

Yomei ni fun san jyuu byou Yomei ni fun san jyuu byou San pun ni mitanai Mou owaru Boku no inochi wo Hitogoto tte omowanaide ne

あ

A

[daisylincs]

It's time to see what I can do! To test the limits and break through// no right no wrong no rules for meee// I'm freeeeeeeeee (and i was glad lincoln died)

*silence*

*utter, shocked silence*

Well, Birdie, I only have one thing to say to you --

Why Lincoln Campbell Shouldn't Have Died: A Small Essay By Lily [Redacted]

#1. It’s Lazy. There was all this fuss about how “heart-breaking” Lincoln’s death was, and how it was the most shocking choice, and I’m just like... really? Was it? Because frustrating as it is to me, it’s true that Lincoln didn’t have any significant relationships on the show aside from his with Daisy, and he also didn’t have the time/the writers didn’t invest the time to make him a character the audience could become really close to. 

And I don’t see how that’s a shocking choice at all? That’s just taking the easy way out of things. If they had really wanted to make a heart-breaking death, it would have been so much worse to choose literally anyone of the OG team.

Or, heaven forbid, not to make anyone die at all!! (Yes, I hate the Fallen Agent arc. Yes, that’s a conversation for another day.) But think about it: it would have been way more original, way more shocking, to have Lincoln not die, or find a super original/Fitzsimmons-esque way to get past the vision. It could’ve been way more shocking and ultimately satisfying if the whole team had worked together to avoid someone dying, and succeeded in avoiding that. It would have made excellent bonding.

And it wouldn’t have been lazy, because Lincoln staying alive would force him and Daisy to have some tough conversations, i.e. Hive and SHIELD and what’s next. It would also have meant an equal amount of tricky conversations with the rest of the team - especially surrounding the whole Hive debacle and methods used during it (*coughs in murder vests*). It would’ve actually been much harder than just having Lincoln die... and isn’t that what good storytelling is supposed to do? Make the harder choice for an ultimately far more satisfying resolution? 

Because choosing Lincoln to die makes it feel like that was his only purpose on the show, and I can’t help but rage against that. I know that’s how a lot of people actually do see Lincoln, and it just makes me so furious, because that’s actually such a disservice to his character?? He was so much more than just Daisy’s doomed boyfriend, and he could have been even more. Which brings me to my next point - 

#2. Wasted Opportunities. I’ll always believe that one of the biggest missed opportunities on the show was that we never got to see Lincoln properly bond with anyone on the team - it was like the writers started, but then decided he was going to die, and then went all, oh, RIP that. Which, honestly, is stupid - because they created this amazing character that had so much potential, and then decided to drop it just like that. 

And I mean, dammit!! Aside from Daisy, Lincoln had prime opportunities to bond with at least five other characters on the team - May, Coulson, Jemma, Fitz, and Mack, and that’s not even starting on the other Secret Warriors. 

He had a little bit of bonding with May when Lash/Andrew was still a thing - but then, whoops-a-daisy, unequivocally dropped. And like... Lincoln and May could’ve been such a good friendship?? Imagine May initially terrifying the living daylights out of Lincoln, but slowly seeing that he’s not actually that different to Daisy, and he makes her happy? And maybe inviting him to t’ai chi with her, to help control her powers? And him in turn helping give her some closure over Katya Belyakov/telling her that she really did make the only choice? They could’ve developed a mother/son bond just as beautiful as Daisy’s, if AoS had only tried. 

Then there’s Coulson. Daisy’s (basically) dad. We got to see a little bit of this, especially in the 3x14-15 era, but I would have loved to see even more of Coulson not-so-subtly threatening Lincoln, but grudgingly coming to accept him as a good agent (and, though he’d never admit it, kinda liking the guy.) Ugh, it could have been so funny and GOOD!!

Fitz and Jemma, to do them in a package deal, could also have been a GREAT BroTP with Lincoln if they had only actually developed it. I would have loved to see a) FitzSimmons initially distrusting Lincoln and being like “if you hurt Daisy...” and then eventually growing to bond with him over science and, well, adoring Daisy, b) a Lincoln-and-Simmons-specific friendship starting after Maveth, for example, Jemma can’t really be around her friends because they keep pitying her and trying to help and she doesn’t want that, so here’s someone new who’s nice and can also distract her with a common interest, and finally c) Lincoln and Fitz bonding over, oh, Daisy, and being ridiculously in love. Just. C’mon. It could’ve been WONDERFUL - and, just think about it, the picture of a Fitzsimmons-and-Lincoln triple alliance out-science-ing Daisy. FAB.

And Mack!! Someone who’s basically Daisy’s older brother, and, I do believe, another one for the Don’t-Hurt-Daisy pile. But Mack’s also very just, and an excellent judge of character, plus he was literally listening in on their first kiss, lmfao. So I think he’d be that “ugh AGAIN you two stop *eye roll*” big brother, but secretly be very happy for them. (I would’ve LOVED to see it, ahhhh.)

Then, of course, the Secret Warriors!! If anyone would listen, I could R A G E for days about how we only had one episode with the Secret Warriors, and that only barely before it all blew apart. But what snippets we had in that one episode!! Lincoln comforting Joey when he gets stressed before a mission. That’s canon. Now imagine Lincoln learning Spanish for both him and Elena (and so the three of them can fuck with Daisy.) And him encouraging them to follow Spanish traditions, because he picked up a lot of “traditions are important” culture from Afterlife. And, of course, them all going to Pride together to support Joey...

My point is just, there is so much MORE AoS could have done with Lincoln’s character, but especially his bonds with the other main cast. Instead of highlighting his relationship with Daisy, I would’ve preferred a lot more focus on his bonds with the rest of the gang. Because, most simply put, he’s a nice guy and loves Daisy - but that’s not all he is, and also, that love for Daisy would mean he WOULD go out of his way to bond with her family. (Point made.)

#3. It Conflicts With The S5 Time Paradox. During the Fallen Agent arc, all we’re hearing about is how time is fixed, and a death is inevitable. And then in season 5, we have the same thing with the time loop... except, they manage to break it then. We’re literally told, “there are many different futures.” And, cool. But, uh... that’s exactly what you guys didn’t say in season 3!!

Because someone saw a death, a death had to happen. My question is just: if the loop could have been broken in s5, why couldn’t the death have been avoided in s3?? It wouldn’t even have been that hard to make it still fit with the vision - Daisy can quake the controls to destroy them, then Lincoln pulls her out of the quinjet, but she leaves the jacket behind. Hive dies, but no-one else - and the best part is, that even still fulfils the original vision, because someone did die. Hive. Click boom.

And if I can figure that out, then, come on, surely AoS could have done so much better!! It just... really frustrates me, hrrrg.

#4. It Becomes A Plot Point To Hurt Daisy. We all like to joke about how much AoS hurts Daisy, but... this is extreme?? Like?? She only just went through probably the biggest trauma of her life, being freaking possessed, and now you want to make her lose someone she loves too? Cruel. 

The only real reason the Fallen Agent arc ever existed was, let’s be real, to force Daisy into that spiral of hurt and depression. And, like... she already had more than enough trauma just from Hive. Nobody would have blamed her for running away then - in fact, how very Daisy it would have been, leaving before she could hurt anyone else she loved.

And then, of course, we could have had Lincoln and the team working together to find her and bring her back, and, heyo, bonding!! It could also have been such a good point for Staticquake’s relationship, what with Lincoln helping Daisy recover after depression/withdrawal, because who better suited, and Daisy slowly forgiving herself and them becoming that much more of a deeply caring, solid ship.

So in short - though, 🙈🙈🙈, I suppose I should really say in long, because it would seem I am incapable of doing anything in a short fashion - I don't think anyone should be "glad" about Lincoln's death. If anything, we should all be FURIOUS, and super frustrated, because if he had only lived, there could have been so many excellent storylines, both bonding-wise and regarding THE ACTUAL PLOT (his powers could have been SO HELPFUL, just, argh). Lincoln Campbell should not have died, and I will stand by that till the day I die.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[stormcrawler75]

oh my gosh!! you've got such an amazing bingo board!!! ok, i'm gonna toss you four squares all with one character - if you'd like, you can count this one ask across multiple fics, or try to double up tropes in one fic, or disregard some of the prompts altogether, whatever works best for you! but i would 100% love to see how you write virgil with 1, healing pod malfunction, 2, came back wrong, 3, truth potion/serum, or 4, i know you're in there somewhere fight?

Warnings: Major Character Death, Necromancy, death.

Characters: Roman Sanders, Virgil Sanders, Remus Sanders, Janus Sanders with Mentions of Patton and Logan.

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

“I can’t believe you! How could you do this, Remus!? How?!”

Remus rolled his eyes, accepting a tray from his personal servant. He ignored how his servant kept his eyes on the ground with a pale shaky look to him. “Hey, is it really my fault that Necromancy is super easy to figure out? Janus and I figured it out in less than a month.” He turned and grinned at his older brother, looking uncomfortable and out of place in Remus’ bed chambers. “Get that grumpy look off your face! Look, we fixed everything!”

“Fix-” Roman stormed forward, waving his arms wildly, “Necromancy is banned, Remus! If you weren’t a Prince then you and Janus would be thrown into the dungeon and V-” Roman cut himself off with a pained grimace. “...The person you brought back would be granted a mercy kill. The Nobles Families are already pushing for that to happen and I... I...”

Remus gripped the tray with his and his consorts’ dinner on it tightly, his knuckles turning white. “Finish that fucking sentence,” he hissed, glaring at Roman. “Finish it. I fucking dare you.”

There was a long tense silence where nothing happened except the two brothers staring at each other, one glaring defensively and the other with a pleading look in his eyes. The silence was broken with a low groan from the other occupant of the room. Remus fixed a smile to his face and brushed past Roman, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Hey, Sleepyhead. Glad to see you awake!”

Virgil’s eyes slowly opened, his unnatural purple eyes having a tired glaze to them. While his body had been restored exactly to how it had been before his death - no decay and the gaping hole in his stomach gone like it had never been there in the first place - there were dark circles under his eyes like he hadn’t slept in months. Which he had, of course. He had barely done anything but sleep. “Remus,” he whispered. His voice was so soft and quiet that Remus could barely pick up on it. “Where’s Lo? And Pat? They were just here.”

Remus heard Roman’s breath hitch at the mention of Virgil’s long dead older brothers but didn’t react besides gently smoothing down Virgil’s bangs. “That was just a dream, Stormcloud. Hey, why don’t we have dinner? I got your favourite. Remember the chef’s special pie? I got a whole slice just for you.”

“It tastes like ash,” Virgil whispered. He stared at Remus with eyes that looked devoid of life. “Everything tastes like ash.”

“It’s just a little side effect, Stormy. Janus said that’d your tastebuds would come back soon, I promise,” Remus vowed, taking Virgil’s shaking hand and pressing a soft kiss to his knuckles. He grinned over his shoulder at Roman, ignoring that pale sheen to his brother’s face. “See?! He’s back and as good as new!”

Virgil’s slowly turned to look at Roman, a thin and pained smile spreading across his face. “My King? You did survive. I, I told Logan and Patton I saved you and I did.” he reached out to Roman, the King immediately taking it in his own.

Roman knelt by Virgil’s bed, pressing Virgil’s hand to his cheek. “You did save me,” he whispered, tears pooling in his eyes. “You did and I’m so proud of you. You were the best of my King’s guard. I wrote of your accomplishes and,” his voice trembled and Roman took a shaky breath, “and my people sing songs of your bravery. Virgil the Brave, they call you.”

“The Brave,” Virgil whispered back. His smile widened but it looked wrong, like butter spread over too thinly over bread. “I like that. Patton told me, he told me when he died to be brave.” He blinked in confusion when Roman’s tears started trailing down his cheeks. “My K-King? What’s wrong? Did I, did I upset you?”

Roman laughed wetly and shook his head. “No, no my friend. You didn’t upset me. I’m just worried about you, that’s all. You look so tired.” He cupped Virgil’s cheek, looking over him and asked softly, “How are you feeling? Are you okay?”

“I’m tired,” Virgil whispered. He rubbed at his eyes and whispered out, “I’m just so tired.”

“Then perhaps we should leave you to rest, my Dearest.”

Remus and Roman turned to the doorway where Janus, the Court’s Wizard, stood. The scales spreading across his face glittered in the light of the setting light, giving him an otherworldly look. “It’s been a long day for you,” Janus hummed, walking forward and tucking the blankets up to Virgil’s chin. “You had a walk in the gardens in the morning and then you and I read some books. It’s been a productive day.”

Virgil blinked at him slowly and took his hand. “Okay,” he whispered softly. He looked up at Janus and asked softly, “Do you think I’ll see Patton and Logan again in my dreams?”

“I’m sure you will,” Janus hummed, gently kissing Virgil’s cheek. He took Remus’ hand and pulled him up. “You have a good rest, Dearest. We’ll be joining you in just a few minutes after we say goodbye to the King.” He turned and looked at Roman, arching an eyebrow at the tears dripping of Roman’s chin. “My King? Shall we?”

Roman’s jaw trembled and he croaked out, “This isn’t right. This isn’t right, Remus. Janus, you are the Court’s Wizard and you know that this isn’t right. Look at him,” he cried, waving a hand at a confused Virgil. “Is this what you wanted?! He was at rest, who are you to-” He cut himself off as a cold wind blew through the air, blowing off the candles and oil lamp.

Janus stood up straight, glaring at his King with bright golden eyes. “I am his Husband, that’s who I am,” he hissed, his voice echoing with power. “It wasn’t his time, I know this. If it wasn’t for you, then we’d never have to do this in the first place. If you hadn’t needed Virgil to jump in front of you and get-” he cut himself off and looked away, his face softening slightly as he stared at Virgil. “Leave,” he said softly, the power disappearing from his voice. “My Dearests and I will be having a private dinner tonight.”

There was a long, tense silence that was only broken by Virgil whispering, “Why can’t King Roman stay? Patton and Logan are going to be staying.”

“No, Dearest,” Janus said, smiling at him gently with a sad look in his eyes. “No, they won’t be. And the King has things to do. Perhaps tomorrow.” He glanced back at Roman, narrowing his eyes at the still crying King. “King Roman... you’re busy, aren’t you?”

“...Yes,” Roman whispered. He smiled at Virgil sadly, not bothering to wipe away the tears. “I’ll visit with you tomorrow, my friend.” He left with tears still rolling down his face. He closed the door behind him, just as he let out a sob.

How could Remus have done this?

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[myheartisbro-ken]

you mentioned in a comment on a supercorp fic (i feel like a stalker, yikes) that you got in contact with darren doyle and he gave you some tips on using kryptahniuo, the sentence structure, the krius thing, etc.. would you mind sharing them? because i feel like i've sucked all available resources dry, and as a huge kryptonian nerd, i'd really appreciate it! (ofc, feel free to ignore me and pretend like this never existed if i'm intruding or unknowingly acting like a jerk.)

Okay, soooo, this is all from 3 years ago and I don’t have the best way to make myself clear when talking to people, but I’m gonna put here the things that are relevant and cut out my cringey communication. This is also for anyone who writes and would like to know a lil bit more about the language, or just people who enjoy conlangs. The vocab is over at kryptonian.info, but this is a clearer explanation of some things I had a bit of trouble with.

It’s pretty long though, so strap in.

Here we go:

Me: I was kind of having a hard time trying to figure out what the present form of zhao would be since it already ends with an 'o' and the present suffix is 'odh', I wanted to say 'I love you' with zhao , and on your page I could only find the ukiem sentence. Would it be zhaodh? And how would the full sentence be? What about shovuh, would it be shovuhodh?

Doyle: Sweet! I'm glad to help (I only wish the writers of the show would help instead of butchering the grammar ... and pronunciation)

Ok ... give me a moment to work on this...

Ok ... /zhao/ ... this doesn't end in /o/ (as in go) it ends in /ao/ (as in cow) which is a different vowel. Even if it did, though, you would still go ahead and use the /odh/ suffix. Two vowels in a row in Kryptonian is going to be super rare (pun intended), but in those cases Kryptonian phonetics will use a slight "w" sound to separate the vowels.

So ... it would be /zhaoodh/which would be 3 characters in Kryptonian writing: zh + ao + odhSo, your sentences would be: /zhaoodh (khuhp) w rraop/ and /shovuhodh (khuhp) w rraop/The subject is optional

Also, this is a sentence that would likely be gendered (familiar and/or intimate speech)

So, "I (female) love you (male)." would be: /zhaoodh (khap) w rrup/

BUT

Let's talk about informal speech, because the I love you stuff gets weird ...

zhao and shovuh are primarily nouns, but at some point they got codified as type 1 verbs (taking suffixes)... and grammatically (especially formal writing) type 1 is kind of the "proper" way to use them. But in day-to-day speech, these usually get treated as type 2 verbs (no suffix)

I should back pedal briefly and say that all this applies to /ukiem/ (familial love) ... and actually to /:jev/ (n. happiness, joy) with /:jevodh/ meaning essentially "like" or "enjoy"

So anyway, the informal variant ends up as something like /zhao w rrup/ (you would almost never use the subject with the type 2 forms of these words) Total side topic ... (hope I'm not overwhelming you here) ...

Since type 2 verbs mark tense with a vowel change, there is an interesting result with /zhao/ ... since the past and future versions end up being /zha/ and /zhi/ respectively which also just happen to be the words for "yes" and "no" which also act as augmentative and diminutive markers...

It's a bit of a chicken and egg situation as it's unclear if the "will love/did love" meanings gave rise to the "yes/no" meanings or if the existing "yes/no" words guided the vowel shift as /zhao/ went from noun > v1 > v2

Me: Okay, first, in the verb section of your page you say that not using a suffix creates the potential form of the verb, yet there is a prefix, kai, for potential, so if someone were to ask 'can you do...' say, 'can you speak/say this' would it need the prefix and then the present suffix, or just not use either. Like, would it be 'ta-kai-ehworodh rraop w [thing]' or 'ta-kai-ehwor' or just 'ta-ehwor' or is all of that completely dumb and I totally misunderstood everything? (I'm also not sure when I should and shouldn't use the hyphen) And the second is simpler, I guess: going by 'us-kah' as like a petname for your child, would the same apply to a parent, such as saying 'jeju-te' in sort of the same way kids say 'mommy' and not just expressing relationship. And could that apply to a person's name as well? Like, idk if that works in english, but say you have a nickname for someone and then you say 'that's MY [nickname]', (I do that for my aunt in portuguese, which is why I'm asking)

Doyle: Dang ... the "suffixless form of the verb forms the potential" is actually a holdover from an idea when I first started making the language that eventually got abandoned. Thought I removed references to it, but I missed that I guess.

Hyphens are just there to help show the morpheme breaks when explaining the language. If you are just writing Kryptonian, then you wouldn't use them at all.

so /?takaieworodh rraop ki kryptahniuo/ would be correct

Ok ... the "familial-possessive-honorifics" ...

They kind of act like an honirific (Mr., Mrs., Sir, Ma'am, Señor, Señorita, San, Sama etc.)

They attach using the proper noun punctuation...

So ... Kal-El => /kal,ehl/

Mr. Kal-El => /kal,ehl,jran/

(I'm not related it Kal-El)

Let me start over on that last one

I am talking to you about Mr. Kal-El, I would say ...

* (neither of us is related to him): /kal,ehl,jran/

* (I am related to him, but you aren't): /kal,ehl,te/

* (we are both related to him): /kal,ehl,kah/

* (I am not related to him, but you are): /kal,ehl,ni/

* (Neither of us is related to him, but we are talking about someone who is related to him and that relationship is pertinent to the conversation): /kal,ehl,cheh/

So in that sense, these are honorifics ... they are more formal, not less

so ... us,kah for a child probably wouldn't end up being a pet name

and it means "our" child ... so even less likely in that sense (us,te would be "my child")

and it uses the less intimate gender-neutral form

wait ... scratch that ... /us/ is masculine (derp derp)

so, a more likely candidate for a pet name for your child would probably be /us kir/ (little boy) or /is kir/ little girl

you could also do something clever like /krius/ or /kriis/ (that second word would be pronounced "kree-yees") ... borrowing the "bright" prefix and applying it to the child noun

For Kryptonians that wouldn't have as much of the meaning that an English speaker would assign to "bright" (smart, clever, etc), but more of a sense of "joyful", "pleasant", "you-light-up-the-room" kind of sense.

An English equivalent to /krius/ would be something like when you refer to someone as "my little ray of sunshine"

getting back to your actual question ...  

/jeju,te/ and /ukr,te/ would also be more formal. Kids (especially older kids) would be expected to use this form in public when addressing parents

but at home it would probably be just /jeju/ and /ukr/

for the very youngest kids, /jeje/ would be "mommy", and /uku/ (or even /kuku/) would be "daddy" ... but, unlike some dialects of English (especially in the Southern states), those variants wouldn't last very long as kids would be encouraged to use /jeju/ and /ukr/ as their speech developed

So ... ummm ... I'm not sure if I've answered your actual question ... if I have, I may have indicated the opposite... Kryptonians would remove the "my" on a petname ... does that sound right ... hmmm ... thinking about it

Shoot ... I guess I don't really know how to give you a solid answer on that one. Pet names can be funny things, I think ... because even in English I can see formal titles being absorbed as "cute" ... like having a little fluffy dog that you pick up and in a cutesy voice call "Sir Snuggles"

so ... armed with the info for "normal" speech/grammar ... pick whatever feels right to you!

Me: The first I wanted to ask is if 'Awuhkhu zhadif khap w rrip' is correct for 'I'll never leave you'

And the second I tried to make it out, but the result looked weird so I was just very unsure about (while the other I'm a bit more confident about) so how would 'please don't leave me' be, cuz 'please don't' is a full prefix, right? so it'd be 'please don't' prefix + leave + present suffix and then the pronoun separately. By that logic it'd be 'sozhaoawuhkhodh khap' is that correct?

Now there's actually a third one that I don't even know where to begin (mostly because I didn't try too hard) but I wanted to know would you say the sentence 'she left me alone' or 'my mother left me alone'?

Doyle:

/.awuhkhu zhadif khap w rrip/ ... yep, that's correct!  

/sozhaoawuhkhodh khap/ ... yep, that's right too

or you might go with the future tense, especially if those two sentences are going together

/sozhaoawuhkhu khap/

actually ... whoops... /khap/ is the object of the sentence...

/sozhaoawuhkhu w khap/

Let's see for "she left me alone", I would use the malefactive and the past tense of "to go" (which I just realized wasn't in the dictionary - doh!).

So ... let's see... go+past-perf she w me mal.

hmmm... alone, though ...

cause/PST she be/PRS me w alone ki go/PST/PRG ... ?

/podh zhehd nahn khap w chahvymah ki rrosh/ (that last verb wouldn't take a suffix, derp) ... "She made me alone by going" ... hmmm...

You could always just use /podh zhehd nahn khap w chahvymah/ ... she cause me to be alone ... that's probably the closest to the English 

So that’s it, so much information that I thought it was actually a longer convo

[recentanimenews]

INTERVIEW: So I'm a Spider, So What? Fei Voice Actor Eri Kitamura

  In coordination with the current season of So I’m a Spider, So What?, Crunchyroll News was given the opportunity to officially translate interviews with the staff and cast of the series. You can read the original Japanese interview with Eri Kitamura right here.

The interview was conducted by Daisuke Iwakura. 

    So I'm a Spider, So What? Relay Interview with Eri Kitamura as Fei: "I'm trying to portray reservedness as a human, and strength as a monster."

"Me" (a.k.a. Kumoko) has obtained Parallel Minds. Meanwhile, on the human side, the Hero Julius has entered the Great Elroe Labyrinth ...

Things are starting to take shape on So I'm a Spider, So What?  For Part 9 of the relay interview series, we speak to Eri Kitamura-san, whose character was reincarnated as an Earth Wyrm. We spoke to her about what it was like to play a character who isn't human.

  —What was your first impression of this project?

Kitamura: I thought it was pretty bold. (Laughs) I think I expected the heroine to be a cute girl because of how things normally go, so I was really surprised to see Kumoko's design. But when I saw the way she was throwing around internet slang, along with the typical video game elements like skills and leveling up, I realized that the story and writing would be just as interesting as the designs, and how Kumoko is really iconic of the show's appeal as a whole. 

—When you auditioned, was it for the role of Fei? 

Kitamura: At the tape submission phase of the audition it was for the role of Katia, but during the studio audition I also tried out for Filimøs. After that, they suddenly asked me if I could read for the dragon. There was no art or script at the time, so when I asked whether or not I should go for something more natural or exaggerated, they told me to show them what the difference would sound like. (Laughs) I thought they were maybe looking for someone who could do monster voices on the side, so I tried making battle sounds and talking cutely, and at the time, I had no idea whether it was what they were looking for.

  —That's interesting.

Kitamura: When I was on my way out the door, Director (Shin) Itagaki said I did a good job, and I had no idea if he meant my take on Katia, Filimøs, or the dragon. (Laughs) But something about what I did made them think I was a good choice for Fei, so I'm glad about how it turned out. 

—What's your impression of Fei?

Kitamura: Before being reincarnated, Mirei stood out a bit in her class, and tended to get on Wakaba's case, so she struck me as a pretty traditional high school character. The kind of person who is a bit more confident about themselves because they're one of the popular kids. But Director Itagaki explained that she wasn't just a simple heelish character, and that when everyone was fawning over Mirei, Wakaba was the one person who didn't, which is what caused that animosity. Essentially she's a young girl who was convinced she should be the center of attention, and that's why she picks on Wakaba and takes a high-handed tone with her specifically. It's not that Mirei is a villainous character, and that balance was something I tried to be careful about.

  —She does have a bit of a precocious high schooler feeling.

Kitamura: I think so, too. I don't think she was quite what you would call a party girl, but she does come across as playful in the way that high school students who try to seem mature do. That was something I made an effort to get across, from Episode 1.

—Is there anything you're careful about because she's a monster?

Kitamura: Mostly just how monstrous to make her sound when she's using magic. An example of that is the scene in Episode 3 where they are using water magic for class. She becomes more powerful over time, so I didn't want to make her seem too strong from the get-go and tried to establish a baseline for how that she would sound initially instead.

  —During the battle with the Earth Wyrm, Fei really demonstrated her strength.

Kitamura: There was something about that I was curious about. After the battle, she earns the title of Kin Eater, and I was wondering if there was a point in the battle that she realized her relationship to this other creature. It's pretty clear she's realized what happened in the scene right after the battle, but it's not specified in the script, so I wondered when she realized who she was fighting, and asked the director about it. Fei doesn't seem the type to be able to fight while keeping a lid on her emotions, so depending on how that works, I thought about maybe changing up the tone when she has to bite into the wyrm's neck.

—What did the director say? 

Kitamura: He wasn't sure about the specifics of the Kin Eater thing, but he pointed out that she would be more analytical and cool-headed than Shun, and that she'd have a better idea of what's going on. Essentially, even if she did realize she was fighting a blood relative, she'd be able to figure out what needed to be done quickly, and would be able to fight normally. That being the case, I tried to make sure that it didn't sound like Fei was wavering or not sure about what to do, and tried to match the way the animation looked. 

—You let the animation direct the way you performed that scene.

Kitamura: I think so. When your character's face is on screen, there's always a temptation to try and get across some kind of subtext for the non-verbal parts, but in Fei's case, I generally try to make sure it's a neutral performance unless something specifically suggests otherwise. 

  —What's your impression of Fei and Shun's relationship?

Kitamura: They're pretty casual in an uncomplicated way, so I try to make sure that the performance comes across as low-key. She's a bit like Shun's pet in some ways, but instead of her being his familiar, their relationship is more of an extension of the one they had as classmates, which means they're on pretty even footing with each other. It's a bit like she's his adventure buddy and older sister.

—Adventuring Buddy and Older Sister is a great way of putting it. (Laughs)

Kitamura: She comes across as a lot more mature and reserved than Filimøs, who used to be their homeroom teacher. (Laughs) So when Hugo is being prickly, her reaction is to sigh and go, "Oh, well." She's not the type of character to push back when someone pushes her. She's reserved as a human being, and strong as a monster, and I think those two factors form the core of why I try to depict Fei with a pretty level-headed attitude.

—The way her relationship with Shun is so steady makes them seem like really good partners.

Kitamura: (Shun) Horie-kun is playing a character who's more calm instead of a really fiery young hero, so together we both give off a vibe of being level-headed. With these two, there's not a lot of, "Okay, let's do it!" "Yeah!" action. (Laughs) The way that they try to operate in a more collected fashion ends up making Hugo seem really impetuous in comparison.

  —With Hugo in the picture, what's your take on how the human part of the story is developing?

Kitamura: The way they don't all get along despite being classmates is realistic to me. They're not exactly in open conflict with each other, but they're not forcing the idea of being friends, either. The fact that you still have different cliques among the class, even after reincarnating in a fantasy world, gives it a strange feeling of realism. Hugo and Yuri stand out a bit from the others, but I feel like the others don't let that bother them. 

—Now that you mention it, excluding Yuri and Hugo, everyone seems to respect each other's space.

Kitamura: That's the case with Fei and Shun, too. Nobody has any idea what Filimøs is up to, and nobody is sticking excessively close to anyone else. They've all got a fair bit of independence from each other. I think Katia might be the one who's most on guard about their surroundings, though. It's that awareness that leads her to warn Shun about Hugo's hostility. There's no telling how everyone's relationships might change over time, which is one thing I'm looking forward to.

—Are there any characters you find interesting other than Fei?

Kitamura: Sue's brother complex is genuinely cute. Half of that is just me finding Yui Ogura cute, though. (Laughs) Other than that, definitely Kumoko. We record separately, and when I see the footage of her and how many lines she has, it always comes as a shock. Her sessions must make her feel like a ping pong ball being knocked around. When I encounter Ao-chan (Aoi Yuuki) in the studio, I always tell her she should be getting paid for three roles' worth this time around.

  —(Laughs)

Kitamura: The simple fact is that the amount of lines means that it'd be a terrifying role for any actor who can't process that amount of material efficiently, which makes me believe that she's a character that can only be pulled off by someone like Ao-chan. I think a big part of that is that she herself is a bit of an otaku ... Granted, I am one, too, so it's not like I can talk. (Laughs) But the way Kumoko talks to herself and certain things about her speech have that distinct otaku style to it, right?

—I agree.

Kitamura: I think the otaku audience has certain things that they like to hear that they recognize, and Ao-chan is able to pull those parts off. Usually, if you're not an otaku yourself, it takes a while to really wrap your head around slang like that. And you can't just say it convincingly, but you also need to incorporate it into your performance in a way that feels natural and sounds good. With her, you're like, "Yes, exactly like that!" And between the chaotic action bits and the comedy parts, she does a great job of displaying her range.

—Thanks for speaking with us. Is there anything coming up after Episode 7 that you'd recommend people keep an eye out for?

Kitamura: A little bit further on, we're going to get a picture of what Fei ... or rather, what Mirei is like as a person, and I think that'll be one of the highlights for the first half of Fei's story. Not just her, but we'll also see what Shun and Wakaba were like during school, so I'd keep an eye out for that. I hope everyone enjoys it.   

By: Guest Author

[justanalto]

Hi, I'm so glad you exist. I don't know if you do this, but I was wondering about your thoughts on 7x09.

hi, anon! whoever you are, i’m really glad you exist, too :) for spoilers, i’ll keep going below the cut. 

my thoughts on 7x09 right off the bat are that honestly, drew z greenberg deserves a medal. the entire writer’s room of s7 deserves a medal, because this season has been really well written thus far! (it also might be because this is the most i’ve focused on a season since s3...college rly be like that). from a technical standpoint, i also really loved the editing style that went on in this episode -- i know it’s a time loop episode and the quick-cut style is sort of required to fit the trope, but aos went ham on the quick cuts, which only increased the amount of humor I took out of the episode. the series where they try talking to enoch? the best part, both in the editing and in the fact that so much of the cutting was between one-liners. 

personally, i’m not all that attached to enoch -- i definitely loved him more this season and i understand the relationship he’s had with the team, but i’m just not that attached to him? (again, my brain stopped at season 3, mentally, even though I’m all caught up.) that being said, his ending monologue was fantastic but THE MOST FORBODING THING ever, and it sets up so much for the last four episodes of the...series. damn, the series is ending, y’all. i don’t think i’ve ever been present for a series ending like this and I’d really like to not acknowledge it until it’s there. i don’t want to think about how Fitz is going to react to the fact that he’s lost enoch, either. the two of them have been through so much together. 

i also wasn’t expecting coulson to practically lose it when daisy activated him for the first time (or, at least, the first time that we saw him). getting stuck in a tv for a year will do things to you, i’m sure, but it was so nice to see him going into a passioned rant. it was almost like the old coulson was back, and I really appreciated the banter that went on between him and daisy. it was also really nice to know he wasn’t going to turn out to betray them all like the preview’d made it out to be. 

speaking of banter between characters, a) the conversation between jemma and daisy about having a safe word? 10/10 b) everything about the conversation between daisy and sousa i was positively here for. daisy’s “i can take a loop” and the conversation that ensued was so clarifying to see and really gave us a solid foundation for how they understand and work with each other, even though it was something we’d been seeing since sousa entered the picture. 

oh, and the kiss. y’know, nothing big at all, just a lot of screaming and cheering and really hoping the aos writers won’t fuck us over after this. and while part of me knows that lincoln is good and dead and has been for several years now, i think part of me will always hold space for them even though i enjoy dousy, too. my favorite part of their conversation was that sousa said that he was the person who picked people up after they ran into the wall...and that really hit close. 

i will say it was a little jarring to see all of them acting as if nothing had happened in next week’s preview, but i also feel like that’s very on brand for the show, so... *shrugs*. i gave up theorizing what would happen in the next week a long time ago for Reasons, honestly, and at this point, all I want is for no one to get fridged unfairly (at all is a little bit of a stretch), for fitz to show up at least once and to be satisfied with everyone’s endings. 

if there’s anything else you’d want to hear, let me know and i’ll be happy to answer it for you! 

[goldkirk]

For the 40 questions - 5, 6, 15, 23, 24, 27, and 29? As always feel free to pick and choose, and we adore hearing you talk so talk as much or as little as you so desire. I'm glad to hear that you slept well, as always, you are absolutely fantastic and lovely and I hope your day only gets better from here.

5. Share one of your strengths.

One of my big writing strengths (in MY opinion, I’m biased lol) is building a scene that feels pretty natural via small details of people’s movements and choices of seating and stuff. I love the little ways that people interact and the little bitty details that can show a lot of their personality—how someone eats ice cream, sits in a chair, fiddles with their clothes or hair, makes eye contact or not, etc. etc.

6. Share one of your weaknesses.

I really struggle with making dialogue more natural and not using it to just blabber whatever facts I want talked about. There are a lot of times "show, don’t tell” is good advice, but a lot of times when sometimes it’s really the best option to just tell your characters or readers a thing. But I tend to err too much on the side of that, to the point where much of my exposition is done through dialogue. That’s fine for the fics I currently write, but if I ever tackle something much more plot-heavy like a real novel, I’m really going to have to learn how to not do that so much. But it’s hard for me.

Already answered 15!

23. If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?

I don’t have a ton of older fics to draw from really, but I flicked through my published works, and I think it would be intersting to go back a year or two later now and rewrite freeze, breathe, release. I had a good idea going there, with the aftermath of the trauma Shiro’s been through affecting his day to day living, but I don’t feel now like I wrote nearly enough to portray what I wanted to portray, and I missed a LOT of opportunity for character interactions in that. I think if I wrote it now, it would be a much more detailed, much more emotional fic that’s probably 4x the length of the original haha. I wasn’t in any kind of groove with writing when I tried my hand at that while bored at work two summers ago. I could do a lot better of a job now.

24. Have you ever deleted one of your published fics?

I did on fanfiction.net, although I don’t remember what it was or what they were, even a little bit. On ao3 I’ve only ever orphaned works, because I know even if I hate them or it doesn’t look like anyone was invested, there could be someone out there who will go looking for it as something they read way back when and want to remember, and I want it to still be there if someone did like it in this great big world of fanfic readers. I’ve been that person and I know how lousy it feels to not find a fic you know you read once. It’s so nice that ao3 lets you do that!!!

27. How do you feel about collaborations?

I think they’re AMAZING!!! I love seeing what people come up with together, what their brains tangle up to make. Artists and writers, writers and writers, artists and artists, it’s all so awesome. I genuinely have no clue how more than one person writing together works for anything more complicated than a PowerPoint, but I love reading collab fics when they’re done well. It’s so fun to see people excited to work together on things! I love it!

29. If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

AAAAAAAHH THERE ARE TOO MANY OPTIONS????? Geez louise. Hm. Okay. HmmmmMMMMMMM maybe a sort-of prequel for The Button by distractedkat because GOD the idea of AOS Jim Kirk as a kid falling into the world of Coraline and going on that really painful emotional rollercoaster of meeting, enjoying, and then fleeing the Other Mother and everything is just...so amazing...so painful...like can you IMAGINE his thought processes, this little abandoned abused Jim Kirk being Paid Attention To and smothered in attention and gifts and care and not realizing for a while what feels off about it because he doesn’t have enough experience to know the difference between real love and that manipulation? and then the realization where he finally understands that he’s just being abused and used all over again and no one loves him there either except the one animal trying to save his life??? and deciding that he may be beat and he may be hurt and he may have a button eye and he may have fallen for it because goddamn it he just wanted someone to love him, but he’s not going to give up because there HAS to be something better, freer, REAL, and busting his way out of that world and back to the real one and finally finding a real family? I LOVE IT.

[raifuujin]

I have love and hate toward DC anime/movie staff, because of them we can enjoy DC anime but at the same time i hate them because they are always pushing non-canon shipping stuff (mostly coai) and doing dirty to Ran characterization. I know this is only for the sake of business, but if they are doing it in every movie, it makes me tired. i'm glad in movie 21, they gave Ran at least good role, hope movie 22 also can give Ran justice, Idc if Ran only have small role but please don't make her OOC :(

Yeah...I never really minded the CoAi lean, mostly because I tended to see it as regular Conan and Haibara interaction and I never really shipped them myself. Wasn’t until I saw other people talking about the movies that I realized that was a push on the anime staff’s part. I do tend to get annoyed at the anime staff being mostly to blame for the whole idea that ‘Ran is a crybaby who doesn’t do anything’ ideas that people who dislike Ran tend to have. Between movies that make her a damsel in distress, opening sequences like Miss Mystery, and AO filler having less and less interesting cases with few moments of great characterization, it’s a problem created solely by the anime and the decisions that go into it.

And while filler can get a slight pass because people are trying to come up with their own mystery ideas that aren’t as dedicated to writing the genre or the characters that they didn’t come up with themselves, the damsel in distress moments are just. Ridiculous and a waste of a good character. I don’t think much can top the BAMF Ran in movie 13 for me, but even if you don’t make her quite that action oriented, there’s zero reason to have her passively sit around or accept that death is coming until she suddenly hears ghost Shinichi’s voice calling out to her. It’s a little sad that even describes more than one scenario with her to begin with. She should never have been ‘helpless’ beyond the amnesia plotline, and anime staff forcing changes on any character messes up people’s perception of that character.

I mean, yeah, animation industry in general can be really stressful, and when you need to create material, mistakes can be made. But at a point, you do have to blame the people coming up with the ideas for doing the same mistake more than once. So I kinda have the same thoughts about them that I do with Gosho himself: I appreciate what they do, don’t always agree with their choices or how well they handle things sometimes.