#aside from me bc i have no standards apparently

[acircusfullofdemons]

can't wait till I'm off my period i hate second guessing everything

[orcelito]

Does matcha know her impact in the world. Does matcha know what she means to me?

Constantly getting world shortages of matcha. But the true shortage. Is in my heart...

[waytootiredstudent]

Okay alright sorry for all the sudden German politics influx but lemme explain what happened so far and why Germans are losing it a bit:

The tldr? Our government is getting a divorce and it's turning messy with elections being called early and now being called even earlier.

The longer version?

Okay so, groundwork first:

in Germany there is a coalition currently in power called the Ampel(traffic lights) bc the colours of the party are red, yellow and green (or not anymore or for much longer??). They're centrist slightly more left leaning than right leaning. (You could argue about that I am aware). There has been infighting for as long as this coalition has been going on. It is also the first three party coalition since y know, the Last Time.

So. Enough groundwork. The yellow party (FDP) has a finance minister (Christiane Lindner) it's this guy

You will see him in memes I am sure. We don't like him. He's an asshole and has blocked every meaningful change that the coalition had been trying to accomplish. He also got his finance plan blocked by our highest court because parts were against our Constitution.

(.... I am oversimplifying hard here it's actually more complicated than that and not fully his fault, but it's also not the focus)

What WAS the fault though of him and the FDP was that they had a strong position of "saving money at all costs" which made bigger and bigger rifts with the two other coalition partners who were more leaftleaning. The war in Ukraine, Infrastructure, climate change - there were many places that needed more money and Lidner was like naaahhhhh for no fucking reason other than "oh we need to save money!!"

Long story short there have been arguing all the fucking time and therefore have started to lose approval. Drastically lose approval. As on for the first time since the Last Time there is a far right party in charge for part of the country that is also being investigated for being Nazis. (Oversimplifying again).

Which is. Worrying. You know. Especially with Trump now being elected. It has us all a little skittish.

The finance minister has also now been fired.

You see. We were all still trying to stomach Trump winning the US election, when Scholz, in the same fucking evening, fired Lindner.

And not in a polite way. Nah. Olaf fucking Scholz our Chancellor, notorious for saying literally nothing, and with a running joke that he regularly stops existing bc that man Does Not Take Stances, a spine of wet cardboard, delivered this yesterday evening:

(English subtitles by me you already got this far watch it I spent too much time on this lol)

And it is insane alright. For his standards and German politic standards thats the equivalent of calling Lindner a egomaniacal bitch that has only his self interest at heart and can not be trusted.

Lindner and his party have been pulverised in all recent elections. Which means that after he was fired, the FDP completely withdrew from the coalition and all minister from the FDP resigned.

....well all but one who apparently stayed in his positions because he's leaving the FDP over this. What sort of shitty backstabbing kindergarten fight is this. (Jokes aside hes the minister of transportation and says he needs to stay in office in important projects. Which. True. Having minister resigning en mass is not good)

Alright cool cool cool cool. Current situation yesterday is the following:

So. Trump is president. Fuck.

Lindner got fired! Yaaay!

Wait my goverment is now also falling apart! Fuck.

Which all lead to new elections being called in Germany.

Mind you, that's not usual ok. I know other countries have systems where they can call an election whenever but that is not a thing that normally happens here. We have a schedule alright. (Insert obligatory "Germans and their plans and structure" joke)

So new elections are called for spring, nearly a year early. Cool cool cool. With a right wing rising in Germany and deeply unpopular current leadership. On the eve of motherfucking trump getting elected.

Habeck, leader of the green party and one of the few policians in germany I think is vaguely liked by ppl (the general attitude in German politics is less "I like this guy" and more "you are the least shitty choice I guess") has appearently also nearly started crying after the news broke. So. Yeah.

Now. Let's make this shitshow complete,alright?

There is this party. CDU. They had been in charge for a very long time in Germany. Centrist, right leaning, with the afd on the rising even more right leaning than before. Their current leader is Friedrich Merz, as unpleasant as human beings can go.

He has now called for the new election to be not in a few months but like. To be called next week.

In the current climate.

So yeah. if you're German mutuals and friends are currently going through their own stages of grief - this is why.

[snekdood]

i kinda feel like so long as someone like me isn’t accepted as a part of the queer community that none of us will ever be able to work together for our rights

[super-paper]

The Villains' Pastime: Gourmet Food Highlights

Another day, another event focused on the LOV and their targeted psychic attacks on Skeptic's blood pressure (+ ReDestro's wallet)

The event starts with the gang fully embracing the freeloader lifestyle: lounging around and playing cards, ordering premium food on the PLF's dime, and doing absolutely nothing to actually help out with running the organization they violently took over like a week ago.

Everyone praises Tomura for being good at cards, with Compress and Twice wondering how he can be so good at reading others even though most of them are wearing masks. Jin then proceeds to shout out what his hand is, solving part of the mystery behind Tomura's undefeated winning streak in record time.

They want to play another game, but Tomura shoots them down bc it's close to noon and he's hungry. They agree to stop playing cards and get some lunch, and start talking about what sort of gourmet (read: expensive) foods they should try next. Tomura breezily talks about how nice it is to finally have money to burn (he's the worst ♥️), which inevitably summons Skeptic from the fourth ring of hell to bitch everyone out about wasting the PLF's precious funds.

"Thanks a bunch~" If Skeptic murks you in your sleep, you really only have yourself to blame Mister.

No one does "endearing in a criminally insane way" quite like Tomura. 😬

Trumpet senses that things are about to get ugly (or that skeptic is about five seconds away from a full blown hypertensive crisis) and intervenes, suggesting that they play a game of cards-- If Tomura wins, the PLF will foot the bill. If Skeptic wins, they either have to pay for their own lunch or just go hungry.

Tomura (quite predictably) says "fuck that" and tells Spinner just to go buy them lunch at a convenience store.

>be me >be stuck in a secret base hidden deep in the mountains >be literally miles away from civilization and the nearest town >tfw warp gate is doing ten-to-life and warp sludge is being gatekept by the world's most toxic Ivo Robotnik cosplayer 😔 >my boss, fully aware of all the above, orders me to walk to the nearest town and buy him a frozen burrito from a gas station >mfw

IS THIS YOUR MAN, SPINNER.

Tomura lightly bullying his friends and making unreasonable requests is nothing new, but this one strikes me as hilariously mean spirited even by his standards bc it’s also implied Tomura expects Spinner to foot the bill on top of all that:

BRO FALL IN LOVE WITH SOMEONE ELSE 😭

Trumpet eventually convinces Tomura that it would actually (read: obviously) be faster to just settle the issue with a game of cards-- Tomura finally gives in, and they settle on a game of blackjack.

Compress explains the rules of blackjack and offers to deal the cards-- Trumpet shuts this down immediately and says that HE will deal the cards, thank you very much:

As an aside, I love how utterly shameless they make Compress in these events lmao.

Tomura and Skeptic begin their game, and Tomura quickly makes it apparent that he approaches blackjack with the same suicidally reckless abandon as he does pretty much everything else:

Out of context MHA, eat your heart out.

Spinner, Compress, and Dabi all worry that Tomura has drawn too many cards and is gonna lose by default, but Jin and Himiko both express their faith in his abilities as an ill-gotten bread winner (<3)

Tomura and Skeptic both reveal their hands, and we hard cut to the aftermath where the LOV are gushing about all the high quality meat they bought on the PLF's dime while Skeptic seethes in the corner.

>Tomura

> making logical choices

well, there's your first mistake.

Trumpet tells Skeptic to stop being a hater and dig in, casually siding with the LOV now that they've won their premium beef:

Trumpet:

Like a true politician.

The lunch party continues until ReDestro enters the scene... gushing about some high quality meat he managed to get ahold of and asking the League if they'd like some hot pot. :) Skeptic realizes his life is a cosmic joke. The event ends.

Bonus Stuff:

This is starting to feel less like a case of the LOV simply liking sushi and more like a united effort to haze Dabi. Deserved, tbh.

Jin telling Himiko to eat her veggies and Compress fondly watching her eat her weight in meat......... they r SO cute wtf..................,😭

>I start joking about Tomura being the most rancid godawful tsundere in existence

>somewhere out there, apollo draws back his dodgeball arm

He sure complains a lot for someone who grumpily indulges their every whim, huh.

[ganondoodle]

(idk if anyone wants to keep hearing my opinions on totk book stuff but-)

apparently it says that rauru DID have kids, multiple even, which yeah... is kinda necessary for zelda to even be connected to them so much so that sonia can SENSE a blood connection (which, even with all the excuses with magic, is just a little too far for me to suspend my disbelief bc its over, OVER, ten thousand years worth of generations that seperate her from them that one lil touch of the hand can sense that (feels more like an attempt to make you care about them or .. see them as zeldas "better" parents just bc they exchange a few nice words, i never got the feeling they were 'better' parents and its also kinda disrespectful to her actual parents, like sure rhoam wasnt the best but i wouldnt call rauru better just bc he was polite)- i could see maybe the light power of hylia or sth but since its the coolest dude that ever lived rauru now that had it which still doesnt make sense and makes me unreasonably annoyed and she can sense BOTH of their powers in her? nah) the fact theres NOTHING about them in the game itself is just so ... no way they planned any of this

i dont think theres anything they can do or say that wont make be believe they either

are making it up alla 'fix it in post' mentality trying to hastily explain stuff the game never bothers to do to try and appease fans or let it appear as if they thought about it at all

something went really REALLY wrong during development, which kinda seems likely given how the game turned out (im sorry i cannot let go, its not just the writing, the game design too and how little was changed in the map while being so damn expensive, i dont know how people dont feel scammed q_q)

given that they (allegedly) spent the last entire year of development on polish (where??? where????? huh??? like it would make it more understandable (EXCEPT for the price) if there was alot of trouble, which was also bc it got delayed and ... turned out like this, but they dont want to say it, especially given their reputation, with that quote i have heard way too many times 'a delayed game blah blah') i just??

are they just gonna go and do it like they did with kashiwa (kass)? "they uuuh where flying around the whole time ony cool sonau tech maschines, you just dont see or hear from them ooooorrr they were uuuuh out of the country at the time" (sending invitations to other continents to join their glorious kingdom ;) )

(bet they are also gonna say they did all the stuff like ... moving the shrines around (lol?) and lifting the islands up into the sky- which is still weird bc ... didnt they also say they were living in the sky before coming to the surface?? so where?? did they park all their islands on the surface and the mystery kids had the keys so they had to repark them back into the sky after they returned off camera?? xD also why are the islands so different as an environment if they where from the surface? like even the STONE up there is different- and if they were first in the sky then on the surface and the nback in the sky .. why is there not a single yellow tree or grass in the past- you cant really argue that it changed bc they were up there so long bc .. nothing else changed, the suddendly and totally always there sonau buildings are largely in prime condition, only some slightly moldy, and what we see of the glorious past looks barely any different from the present, aside from like ... some standard trees shuffled, no castle yet and that glowy uwu filter DESPITE that stupidly long time frame between it)

[kamiversee]

SPILL ON UR LOVELIFE OMG WHAT 👀👀 I want fanfic moments too hsjjssj

Are you ready for a yap sesh…

Okay so do y’all rmb that 6ft tall guy I was talking to & said I MIGHT be in love w? Yeah so erm… He was wayyy to lusty for me, so much so that when we talked and he’d say how much he liked me— it just felt weird because it was like “wtf do you like about me aside from the fact that I’m nice & know how to dirty talk??”

And I thought it was ironic that he was too lusty for me even tho I write literal smut in my free time but y’all I’m not even exaggerating when I say nearly every convo w tht man was about sex. And if it wasn’t about sex then it was just about something pertaining to him in general.

Anything he knew about me was info I had to just throw out there to him yk? It was like he never really asked me anything about myself unless it was something sexual. Which irked my nerves so badly because, again, wth did he like about me? The guy didn’t even know my favorite color like ??

But in the beginning I was pretty blindsided by how good the conversations were and I was just happy to receive attention in all honesty.

Anywho tho, I told my bsf about the guy & he was telling me to stop talking to him because it’s going no where, or at least tell him that I want him to start asking things about me but uh…

I’m not that kinda person y’all. I dont want to have to tell someone to be curious about me if they claim to be interested in me. It was so apparent that he was only interested in the way I gave him a listening ear on his struggles & the way I engaged in sexual convos.

So, although I felt like shit for a while because I didn’t wanna be like his other exes tht just up & left him for no reason, I eventually told him I just couldn’t talk to him romantically anymore. NOW, this was damn there the icing on the cake.

While he was really mature about it ending & basically said he understood and wasn’t going to push me about staying or anything, y���all… he didn’t even ask why I wanted things to end. I wasn’t exactly looking for him to ask why but dude, if u claimed to like me as much as you did & were oh so infatuated with me, shouldn’t you wanna know why I suddenly wanna break things off w you??? 😐

Anyway, that ended & we decided to just stay friends. Our convos got shorter and shorter & nowadays he & I both moved on.

ONTO MY CURRENT LOVE INTEREST 😁

Guys hes so.

We started talking from me giving him advice abt his ex and stuff & I met him literally right after that first guy so he even gave me advice abt him and when I told him I felt so shitty about leaving guy numb 1, he reassured me even tho he didn’t know me tht well at the time ^-^

Then from there we just became friends and would talk a lot bc he noticed my lil sugu obsession and told me he looked like him (He does lowk) which led to him sayin I should be obsessed w him instead of Sugu since he’s actually real… he lowk gagged me there guys

Aaaand we’d just talk every day more and more, all on discord btw bc it’s so silly over there (server coming when??) And like, I dont rmb when exactly he caught feelings for me but at some point I could just kinda tell.

The only thing was that it just felt too soon so when he actually confessed to me or wtv, I told him I still wanted to know more about him as a person and whatnot. AND GUYSGUYSGUYS.

So rmb guy1 right? & how he didn’t even know my fav color? I told guy2 about that and he immediately asked abt it. I KNOW that’s smth so small but pls, it was so sweet…. is the bar in hell? Idk, I swear I have standards 🙏

We even had a whole convo abt colors & it was just super cute! >< Another time, I vented and told him how guy1 didn’t rlly put in any effort to get to know me but claimed to like me and guy2 went out of his way to say how he wants to know everything about me

When I tell y’all his confession was like smth out of a damn fanfic. YALLLLLL. And it’s funny bc MLN is actually based on events tht’s happened in my life soo…

Anywho, guy2 is amazing and ilhsm. He’s so sweet and silly, I wanna eat him yall ☹️

We talk everyday & I’ve ruined my sleep schedule juust a bit for him (it was ruiened beforehand tbh)!

That’s pretty much how things r goin for me rn. Guy1 & guy2 did interact w each other at one point and it was sooo messy yall, I was not feelin it but thats a story for another time frfr

I hope you guys enjoyed my podcast :3

[horizon-verizon]

There is something funny about the fact that unlike most of the other bullied or abused characters, Aemond is bullied not out of misogyny or ableism or homophobia or parentage, but simply because he's "bullyable" and Alicent never put a stop to it on either end. Because any other Targaryen in his place would have been like, "Yeah I'm in a brothel. So are you. So what if I was feeling a little... nostalgic tonight. Now go away, I already paid for a second round."

But then again, not EVERY Targaryen. And that's where it gets kind of dark. Because the writing itself wants us to have far more sympathy for Aemond in that circumstance, than for Rhaenyra at the same age being accosted by Alicent for her own brothel visit, and this time Alicent has bigotry behind her.

And that's what annoys me with how the show wants you to sympathize with Aemond for being "uniquely" bullied. Because he's not. Because in the episode he's introduced, we're shown how Rhaenyra, Laenor, and their sons are being harassed and outright abused for misogyny, homophobia, and parentage, by adults wielding actual power. Hell, Viserys and Aegon are getting more elder and child abused than Aemond is in that episode. And I find it kind of fucked up that... the writers see the one character who isn't harassed or abused for being vulnerable or marginalized as the true "victim" in that regard.

I'm going to be honest with you. I have not seen this episode so aside form the fact that I know Aemond gets mocked by Aegon at the same brothel Dyana works at. HOWEVER, yes, the show has been doing stuff like this since at least episode 3 or 4. With Rhaenys speaking with Rhaenyra and acting as a sort of diegetic mouthpiece against Rhaenyra for not basically acting as if she has no chance of actually becoming queen. The show places her as the "voice of reason" when she herself has lost her seat bc a man, her own grandfather, made it happen--effectively justifying how misogyny doesn't really matter as much as conforming to the status quo and its threat of violence so you can avoid violence from said status quo...

Or how the Velaryons are apparently paternity tests to use against Rhaenyra's supposed proclivities as if Aegon isn't also having bastards he leaves to fight each other in pits.

This is what we mean when we say unchecked, patronizing sexism is built into the very ethos of this show as well as the moral standard the show is structuring all of its characters and the value of their actions on. This is pretty much what capitalism does--provide a sort of "space" or are of focus for its consumers, pretending that they are pointing out a discrimination when they are really using the consumer's extant biases already socially trained and advertised to them since childhood to sell the product. Makes for seemingly rationally written TV when it's all just shallow trash with glitter on it trying to to seem meagingful or making meaning.

[iraprince]

Hoya I'm currently saving up for a tablet aswell, because I'm drawing on my school's ipad that I have kept well past the due date, but have to give back now that I'm moving out of my boarding school that I'm sponsored to be in, and i wanted to ask for tips/recommendations what to get, because I have literally no money, and am scared to blow it on a tablet that sucks or something

advice on what to get can vary, but i am VERY opinionated on what not to get: fuck wacom lol. this from someone who's been on an intuos pro for years, but while they at least have longevity going for them, mine has had constant driver issues and a major hardware failing -- years ago the port for connecting it to the comp AND FOR CHARGING IT via usb failed for no reason, which is apparently a common issue for my model, so for years i have been forced to 1. only use it via wireless connection, which makes the driver fussiness WORSE and 2. buy a separate universal camera battery charger, bc w the port failing that was the only way to charge the thing. wacoms are fucking EXPENSIVE, and they're lovely to draw on, but imo for the price they should be massaging my balls as a bonus, not breaking constantly and making me tear my hair out. they are just not worth it unless you have the cash to burn and you're a HUUUUUUGE stickler on all the really technical stuff.

rant aside. i have heard nothing but lovely things about huion, which is why it's what i'm switching to now; here and there i've seen ppl say the drivers can be fussy on mac, but it doesn't seem like a dealbreaker. huions are also pretty damn affordable if you're looking at a standard tablet rather than a screen one.

if a huion is outside your budget, i think i can recommend a monoprice -- my first tablet ever was a tiny wacom bamboo, but my first "serious" tablet that i used constantly/daily was a monoprice. it was dirt cheap and it worked absolutely fine and it lasted me for ages. i haven't used one in a very long time, so i can't speak to if the quality is the same as when i used one, but i always think fondly of the one i had. i remember the first-time driver setup being awful, but once it got working i don't remember ever having issues with it again.

in terms of just general tips: get the biggest one you can afford. it's better for your wrist, and even though it's scary to invest in something when you're not sure you'll like it, it's usually worse to pay for something crappy that you'll end up wanting to replace eventually anyway. even when i've had really cramped workspaces or no real workspace at all, i've never found that the compact-ness of a tiny tablet has made up for how ergonomically shit it is to draw on one; i would rather awkwardly wrangle a slightly-too-big tablet any day.

good luck, i hope this is helpful!

[mishkakagehishka]

And here's from the thread i posted on twt but slightly reworked bc i think i wasted it on twt lol but

There's the idea that speaking a dialect makes someone less educated or dumb. And asides from the fact that i just think kansai sounds Good, Mika subverts this trope of characters in media who are given dialectal speech as a symbol of "this character is meant to be dumb" because he is actually GENUINELY intelligent. I can name examples for three days, but in the end I always return to HE READ. THE MABINOGION. IN MIDDLE ENGLISH. And got into Yumenosaki which is apparently known for having an awfully difficult entrance exam. What i'm saying is, i appreciate SO MUCH that happyele didn't give him a "country" accent because they wanted us to know he's dumb in the simplest way they could show it. They actually let him have a personality that doesn't revolve around stereotypes. His dialect is treated as nothing more than his manner of speaking, not something that is tied into his intelligence or something we are supposed to judge his character based on. In fact, he himself has talked about how people see him and how they expect him to act just because of his accent - and he has mentioned that it's upsetting to him!!! It's refreshing to see this sort of stuff acknowledged in media when for so long, non-standard accents and dialects were just used as another way to present a character's lack of intelligence and education through speech characterisation.

And you know what - I think that fits very well into the other thing I really love ab him - he's a character based entirely on contrast and paradoxes. Not just the contrast between him speaking a dialect associated with certain characteristics (extroversion, humour, openness, but also stupidity) and being. Well. Shy and introverted and not very quick with coming up with funny quips and INTELLIGENT (i have eternal beef with everyone who falls for Mika's "uhm sorry I musta dropped my brain somewhere" act). But also so many other contrasts like. I don't care, I choose to believe his mismatched eyes are supposed to represent that. Asymmetric on the outside AND inside. We all know he loves creepy/cute, he often calls creepy stuff cute and he loves horror movies and he collects scary images/posters but he also LOVES cute things, he rescues plushies from the trash!! And fixes them and names them and loves them!!!!

But like whatever whatever he's a little orphan who lied to us ab getting adopted, who almost buried his roommate alive bc he thought he killed him, who threatened to kill himself or Shu's future spouse if he gets married, who has been obsessed with Some Guy since he saw him once in, like, elementary(?) school, who decided to enter Yumenosaki (AND MANAGED) almost on impulse, who loves the trash-picking part-time jobs bc he doesn't have to interact with anyone, who collects and fixes thrown away plushies, who apparently makes eroguro art, who wants to be a beacon of hope for all the children who were abandoned and feel as alone as he did, who manages to overcome shyness when he has to talk for TV bc Shu is too shy etc etc i actually adore him.

He means everything to me.

[time-is-restored]

ted lasso 3x11

got through the latest episode tonight, below are unassorted ramblings abt a kansas ending (which i, despite being almost certain is where the show is heading, am still ardently rooting against):

so i was talking a little with my family abt the extremely likely kansas ending*, and was mentioning how much i really don't vibe with it. i said smth like 'i mean, what's even there for him in kansas?' to which they said (fairly, and rightfully!) 'his son!'. like, that's a pretty bulletproof argument, so i guess im just writing this to figure out why i feel like even that isn't. idk. enough?

[*though if that is the ending, what's the point of the cliffhanger? it's the most obvious + expected outcome, how would it be a 'reveal'? idk, some part of me is still praying for one of those classic Twists™ ig]

like. we've known that ted has a kid since day one. we've known that he loves + misses that kid since day one. according to the text, the number one reason ted left kansas was as a last ditch effort to save his marriage, by giving michelle as much space as humanly possible. they were divorced by the middle of the season, and ted chose to stay at the end.

so like. idk. am i missing something? did he just stay bc he felt an obligation to the team? and now that they're doing well (absurdly, breaking the bounds of belief well), he feels okay moving on? like many ppl have already pointed out, that's a pretty standard plot line in these kind of stories: the mary poppin's style exit stage right. but, say ted goes home (potentially even without beard???? agh??). what's happened to him, these past few seasons? what's different now?

like, it kind of feels like im only gonna be hurt by reading in between the lines here, but kansas doesn't seem to hold a lot of good associations for ted w/o the bedrock of his + michelle's marriage. he's reduced to a morose, spaced out mess within 5 minutes of talking with his mother, he very nearly goes through the Extremely fucked up move of paying someone to spy on michelle after seeing her + jake together for an afternoon, and ofc if anything even remotely reminds him of his dad he gets triggered really badly.

and of course, maybe the idea is 'well, he's started to cope with that all now, and he's starting to talk openly with his mum + grieve his dad, so he has the tools to return' but like. does he???? his support system are EXTREMELY london based. setting aside sharon since he could always telehealth w her, all of the positive progress he's made in his 'home' life seem to exclusively come after he talks w his support group at richmond.

he ended up admitting he was mad at michelle after speaking with the diamond dogs, he was pulled out of his obsessive spiral by rebecca, and he was able to put words to his feelings abt his mum by talking w jamie. to be clear, those are all massively positive things for ted to have done, and i think they at least make a good case for ted progressive positively w his mental health (even if its all gotten a bit tell don't show in this last season). but like. what happens when all that's on the other side of an ocean?

to be clear, from the perspective of real life, it absolutely makes sense that ted would want to return to his son. but on a narrative level, im just. i feel like im being expected to take certain things about ted + henry's relationship for granted, when the text itself hasn't even tried to make those things apparent.

is henry miserable or even generally upset when he has to leave his dad/go back to his mum? not that we ever see! im pretty sure the only time we've seen henry explicitly upset is when ted was ignoring him while he was like five feet away which, yeah, mood! and last we saw, henry even sees more enthused abt richmond winning the whole thing than ted is, so its not like he thinks his dad is just going away to do absolutely nothing of import.

do ted and henry not spend a lot of time together/talk very often? technically we don't see enough of ted's daily routine to know for sure, but the casual mention of playing roblox seems to imply they spend a lot of time together! and ofc none of their phone calls ever have the vibe of 'i haven't spoken to you in ages, here's ALL THE THINGS you've missed!'. they're almost all abt stuff that happened that day.

is ted struggling with being away from henry? well... yes, duh, but i don't even think this season's done particularly well establishing THAT (incredibly obvious and free) piece of ted characterisation.

is ted capable of feeling anything other than vague nostalgia (ie: all of his annecdotes being set there) or extreme distress wrt kansas? apparently not! like, seriously, what is there for him? does he have any friends? a job? family that isn't his mother? where's he gonna live? does he miss the weather? his neighbours? like i am literally on my hands and knees give me ONE (1) concrete opinion ted has about the fucking place that isn't about its FOOD (<- ESPECIALLY coming off the back of an episode where ted was able to experience texan food So Authentic™ that it inspired a literal career-changing epiphany?? like HOW are we supposed to take that as anything other than 'ted is at his best when he acknowledges BOTH of his lives rather than cutting one out in favour of the other'???).

idk. i guess my real problem this late in the game is i can see so many POTENTIAL versions of this show, but what ive been given doesn't feel like it matches up with any of them.

i can imagine a story in which ted's avoidance + variations upon running-away tactics for dealing w conflict get thoroughly deconstructed and challenged while in london, so at the end of the show he's finally emotionally prepared to return to his life in kansas even though it's never going to be a fairytale picturesque no-problems-ever ending again.

i can imagine a story in which going back to kansas isn't good for ted, and will be a major sacrifice, but it's a sacrifice he will be making with the support of his new friends + family, and something that he is determined to make in order to be there w his son, all meaningfully juxtaposed w how he feels his dad 'quit' on him.

i can imagine a story where ultimately, the life that ted's made alongside richmond is just as important to him as his life in kansas, and so he + michelle work out a more equal and long-term custody arangement* with henry (it definitely seems like the 'you get him for the whole year and i get him on school break' was something haphazardly worked out while they were both still under the assumption he'd be in richmond for less than a year), and they alternate who goes to whose home for holidays and shit.

[*side note, why hasn't that come up at all? i'd personally think somewhere around the six month mark of working overseas i'd want to have a talk w my expartner + kid about a schedule that isn't so much of a 80/20 split? like, it's fine if henry moving isn't on the table at all for one reason or another, but at least take the time to actually SAY that??? like, what does michelle do for a living? why is SHE so happy to stay there? give me Literally Anything here gang!!!]

...but ultimately what ive actually seen on screen feels like it fits into none of those categories. eleven hours (in as many episodes!! HOUR! long! episodes!!!!!!) in and i feel like i know infinitely less about ted + his mental state than i did in s1. like, from episode to episode, the writer's aren't sure if he's stuck, or progressing, or going through that classic recovery 'one step forwards, two steps back' dance, or just completely and utterly depressed. there's no continuity. nothing that happens to him in one episode seems to have literally any bearing at all on the ted in the next episode. if u scrubbed all of the notable Ted Scenes™ of any overarching plot references, and shuffled them all up, i genuinely think you would end up w a plateau of scenes totally indistinguishable from each other!*

[*of course, this is my main critique of s3 for like. literally everyone, but it's paticularly damning when im left feeling this lost about the main fucking guy.]

i don't know. i guess after the past few weeks of being really genuinely hurt + angry + upset abt the choices made this season, the feeling im left with near the end of it all is. underwhelmed. and im really not sure what 3x12 could possibly do to change that feeling... even if i am still regrettably, but sincerely rooting for a last minute switcheroo.

[buffyspeak]

for the Character Asks, how about I give you your pick of any/all of our 3 established Gossip Girl Main Characters bc we're writing a whole show about these 3 rich dysfunctional gays lmao

hello YES! i enjoy our rich disaster gay trio sitcom (/dramedy) headcanon chats! work with for the other two so it would largely be headcanons anyway. i decided to go with jenny since the others don't have much canon to work with.

How I feel about this character: my beloved <3 more seriously, she's the character in gossip girl i find most interesting so this is going to be. long. anyway. she can be flawed and self-righteous and self-destructive and petty and she can be awfully, egregiously cruel, she knows how to take someone's insecurities or mistakes and hit them where it already hurts -- and despite all that, she's so sympathetic. because she's also ambitious and creative and starts off the show so optimistic and relatively happy-go-lucky, even with her parents' separation. she's cutthroat because she HAS to be, because she would never be able to hang in the upper east side if she wasn't, and that's the path she sees towards her dreams and doesn't she deserve her dreams? she knows she can hack it if she can just GET THROUGH THE DOOR. she's funny and charming and witty and SAD, sadder than i think anyone in the show realizes until she's imploded by the end of season three. she develops this armor of black clothes and sharp eyeliner and bitchy witticisms in season two and season three even moreso and so many people see this as character derailment or think it makes her awful or irredeemable somehow but i look at her and see a girl who's been tread on too many times, with chuck and with damien and with agnes and the guys in the club and what they almost did. with her father, even, and his lack of ability or willingness to understand where she's coming from, that she's not just sad or lonely at school, she's in DANGER. (evidence: the reference to the fact that apparently everyone except two girls in her chem class apparently tried to light her hair on fire?) so she builds up walls and she isolates and she makes decisions that maybe aren't great but she doesn't have the support she needs and all of this makes me feel so soft and sad for her and protective OF her and protective, even, of her right to be flawed, of her right to make mistakes. every other character in the show has equally (or even worse) egregious flaws that get excused or hand-waved by not only the fandom, by the narrative. jenny is held to a much different standard. the narrative screws her and casts her aside (and yes, i get that taylor momsen wanted to leave, i respect it, and i even respect that it's a teen drama and her exit was always going to be a little dramatic, but they did not have to do what they did) and if they didn't think all of this was the perfect storm for me to emotionally adopt her into the list of blorbos in constant rotation in my head-oven well. they've got another thing coming. tldr; jenny is the Born To Die trope except it's more like Metaphysical Innocence Born To Be "Corrupted". it's so clear what they're doing even in the pilot. i will go to my grave defending her.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: jenny x therapy LMAO. actually answer is uhhh idk. might be easier to give a list of my DEFINITE NOTPS (easily guessable, i'd assume.) i simultaneously DO headcanon jenny as having had a crush on blair and think they have interesting dynamic (and lots of angst and turmoil and admiration/jealousy psuedo-political warfare that makes me understand why people DO ship it) while also not really wanting it be like. A Thing. (i also think their relationship was too fraught and blair in particular was too awful to jenny for them to ever have a healthy romantic relationship, so.) i have... a soft spot for nate and jenny let's say? i don't think canon was the right time for them to be together, obviously, and i can easily see how some of her feelings could come across as comphet (especially with him being so constantly unavailable). at the same time, i think they have a lot of sweet moments that are rooted in like, affection and genuinely liking who the other person is. he's very gentle with her and i think jenny could have used a lot more gentle moments in the show. at the same time, i'm not sure they're ultimately the right fit for each other, and i don't really imagine that they're "end game", so to speak, but i do like reading the occasional post-canon fic about them. so that's where i land on them, i supposed. in actuality, i think jenny probably realizes she's queer in some capacity eventually, but that's a whole other question lmao.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: jenny and eric! but also jenny and dan! but also jenny and serena!! it's hard to pick lmao. i think the show does a pretty decent job showing the complexities of the friendship between jenny and eric given eric's limited screentime lmao. i think they hit something very grounded and real with eric and jenny's back and forth, which how much they love and need each other and also can't stand each other half the time, how their introduction was a really simple moment of jenny showing him compassion and him meeting her back with that effort full-force, with how they both value each other more than is common in heterosexual romance-based western cultures but also can't or won't or don't know that they need to or how to admit that to one another. it's a very honest depiction of a friendship at this age and of this kind, at least for me.

i was about to say that my feelings about dan and jenny are simpler, but i don't know if that's true? i might be repeating myself here, but if there's one thing gossip girl does well, it's grounded and realistic dynamics. they tease each other lightly and they tease each other too harshly sometimes, they fight, and they try to understand each other but often can't, they secret-keep for each other until that's no longer viable, and they do their best to protect one another and it's all just so balanced. one scene that stands out to me is when jenny steals the dress in season one and dan goes into talk to her and it's so clear he's had to take on somewhat of a parental role with her since their mom has been gone? and i'm sure that's frustrating for both jenny and for dan. but despite taking on this role of care, he doesn't treat her condescendingly or with any ire, he tries to be understanding and careful and thoughtful where rufus couldn't be. and while i'd say the show does a disservice to their relationship as time wears on, i think when dan gets the CHANCE to be a good big brother to her, he always always is. he tries to do right by her and even in her harsher, more isolating days, she still tries to trust him and lets herself be jenny around him moreso than she knows how to do with other people.

with jenny and serena -- i think i love what their dynamic could have been more than what it was? watching the pilot for the first time, i was sure there were going to be more big sisterly moments between them, but they end up going for conflict instead. which is understandable; like i said, it IS a drama. but serena tries so hard to be kind to jenny in the first season and while jenny wants to BE blair, i think serena's kindness lets her hold onto her dream a little longer, imagine that there's a world where she gets in with the in-crowd and someone like serena is there to back her up. i also think there's a really intriguing theme of jenny's arc paralleling what's serena's been through in terms of assault and sexual exploitation. the "the sixteen year old virgin" really exemplifies how serena WANTS to protect jenny from going down a path of self-destruction that could lead to her getting hurt even more. and just. that's an interesting but woefully underexplored dynamic. she also has the best approach (at first) in that episode which is to just like. talk to jenny like a peer. explain her worries over a shared pint of ice cream. it's only when she panics and starts Plotting that it becomes Too Much. anyway. there's a world in which their relationship was meatier and i want to live in it!

My unpopular opinion about this character: she deserved way better than the narrative throwing her under the bus to prioritize ch*ck.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: i think i wish dan would have found out somehow about jenny getting drugged by agnes. on the one hand, nate telling him maybe would Kind of Not Be Cool, buuut it's tv the characters are allowed to be flawed and messy. plus! it makes the most sense. i feel genuinely feel that if dan found that out, she would be able to open up to him and they would figure out what was best for her (going to stay with their mom for senior year, lots and lots of therapy) sooner and without the ch*ck of it all.

[nandorsjansport]

why are the wwdits writers/showrunners always so weird about the show and nandermo.... i too am getting kind of tired of all the horseshit. And why are they constantly addressing nandermo in so many interviews etc if they're apparently not interested in pursuing it? Like idk, if it were me, and i was in the middle of writing a will-they-won't-they plot, I'd be being incredibly coy and vague about it, rather than flat-out denying or confirming it. Idk if that's standard procedure for tv show writers discussing their shows, but if it's gonna happen in the show (or not), I would want to learn about it by actually watching the show, not from some random press junket. And vehement denial in an attempt to throw you off the scent also just seems stupid as hell as a strategy for keeping people in the dark. Like people are just gonna give up on the show if that's their strategy!

All that aside, does anyone else feel somewhat rankled by a show having lots of queer characters in it but you almost never get to see them do anything queer... i feel like shows nowadays seem to want accolades for having queer characters, but then they never get shown doing anything queer on-screen, like for example literally just kissing someone. it's all off-screen or referred to, but almost never shown. call me crazy but i want my gay characters to be able to express gay love on screen!!! that gets my goat tbh. but maybe that's just me! anyway i'm gonna keep watching bc laszlo is hot and im obsessed with him. (everyone else is hot too, just to be clear.) but im just... tired lol.

[stylographic-blue-rhapsody]

been thinking abt the in-world mechanics of healing magic, and exactly what it is that makes espen Good At Healing. besides the standard boost to hp, I figured her magical healing was more thorough/easier on the body/reduced scarring and itching in an immediately noticeable way to her patients

obviously a ficlet was in order bc the only thing better than textwalling in discord is pairing the meta with another lil glimpse into The Beforetimes

scene: bazzoxan, 60 years ago. the taskhand's personal apartments

...

Espen looked up from her paperwork as the door to the apartments opened with the clattering sound of heavy boots and clinking metal. She smiled to herself as a string of increasingly-nonsensical curses echoed up the stairs and into the bedroom, heralding Fyrna’s safe return: she was only ever quiet coming off duty when something had gone terribly wrong. 

“Do you want assistance?” Espen called. 

While the reply was unintelligible over the clamor of platemail being doffed and dropped onto the floor, by tone it was a declination. Espen turned her attention back to the stacks of parchment spread before her on the bed: the accounts and inventory wouldn’t finish balancing themselves. 

Some time later, when the stocklist requests were almost compiled, Fyrna arrived and collapsed onto the reading chaise with a sigh. She was clad only in soft breeches, hair damp and tousled from the bath she had apparently taken while Espen was engrossed in the task of finding a miscalculated purchase record. 

Looking up, Espen saw Fyrna start to drag her nails along a freshly-healed wound beneath her collarbone before restraining the urge with a grimace. Fyrna muttered to herself, “Light help me, this itches something hellish.”

“You could ask me.”

Fyrna lolled her head back on the chair and smiled apologetically. “I’m just whining to myself. No need to interrupt you while you’re busy.”

Espen gave her a dry look, shutting the journal and shuffling the papers into a stack to set aside. “Martyrdom isn’t becoming. Come here, firefly.”

Chuckling at the reprimand, Fyrna hauled herself from the chaise and clambered onto the bed. The acrid tang of healing poultice and mild florals of Fyrna’s soap hit Espen’s nose as her wife settled before her. Espen cataloged two major lacerations along Fyrna’s back in addition to the one on her collarbone: all three scabbed and showing the shine of young scar tissue. With a muttered incantation, Espen frosted her hand and ran the pads of her fingertips along the one on her chest, avoiding scratching it with her nails. 

Fyrna groaned in relief at the cold. “Oh, that is fucking brilliant. You are so sexy, did you know that? Do you want to get married?” 

“Sure, but you’ll have to ask my wife first.”

“Oh? The handsome Taskhand? Maybe I’ll ask to marry her, too. She seems like a catch.”

Espen snorted. “Turn around so I can get a better look at your back.”

Comfortable silence settled over the room as Espen made methodical passes over Fyrna’s skin to soothe the newly-healed wounds. Based on their orientation and jagged course, Espen guessed that the skirmish had been against something with nasty claws—babau, perhaps. There had been more of those emerging from the Rise, and it could be a pattern—

“Can you teach Elexi how to make his healing not itch, like yours?”

Fyrna’s question pulled Espen from her thoughts of demonic incursion. She said, “No, unfortunately. It’s not their fault, though. It’s very rare to have the ability to heal perfectly.” “And why’s that?”

“Do you want the quick answer or the correct answer?”

Fyrna sighed contentedly as Espen pressed her magically-chilled palms fully against her back. “I want the long winded, technical answer that will make you use your excited academic voice. It’s cute.”

“You are the only person in all of Xhorhas who thinks it’s endearing.”

“Everyone else has poor taste. Please instruct me well, Captain Danlys.”

Espen huffed and leaned forward to place a brief kiss on the nape of Fyrna’s neck. “As you wish, Taskhand Beltune.

“In arcane theory, it is understood that every spell, whether formally taught or accessed innately, falls into one of the eight schools of magic. Contrary to the layman’s understanding of the Weave, these schools are not different types of magic so much as they are the different forms magic can take, or the constraints by which a mage may safely channel its volatility.”

Fyrna hummed. “It’s using a saddle to ride a mount instead of riding bareback.”

“Yes, schools are like tack.” Espen pushed gently at Fyrna’s shoulder to encourage her to turn to face her again. “And ‘healing’ is not its own school because the desired outcome changes the channel required to accomplish it. Returning the deceased to life is necromancy because it is a manipulation of the spirit and not the body. Curing poison is abjuration because it is negation of something extant in the system. 

“The healing of wounds is almost always accomplished via evocation, which is, essentially, indiscriminately pumping creation magic into damaged tissue to fill the gaps. However, this does not seamlessly blend the whole and healthy tissues in the body with the recreated flesh, instead creating a border that the body must finish integrating. Because this integration is biologically the same process as natural wound recovery, magical healing itches just as the end stages of natural healing does.”

“Makes sense to me.” Fyrna’s eyes drifted closed as Espen attended to the wound on her chest. “What about you, though? Why doesn’t your healing make me want to rub against a scrub tree like a moorbounder with a face full of bee stings?”

“There is technically another way to magically heal a wound: speeding along the body’s natural process of converting its resources into new tissues via transmutation. This is, however, exhausting and potentially dangerous to the patient depending on the severity of the wound and the energy availability of the body. Transmutative healing also requires a very sensitive caster to manipulate the magic correctly at that small of a scale.” 

“So your healing combines evocation and transmutation, to restore the flesh and then integrate it with the body?”

Espen hummed in affirmation. “Most people can only manipulate the Weave using one school at a time, but very powerful arcanists have the skill to cast through multiple channels simultaneously and accomplish this. I do not have that sort of power, of course, but the Luxonmark attunes me to body-magic in a way that allows for dual-channeling while healing. To use another riding metaphor, if channeling two schools is trick riding on two mounts, the Mark is a yoke keeping the two together so I do not have to control them both independently.”

A smile began to pull at the corners of Fyrna’s mouth, her eyes sparking with mischief. “ ‘Attuned to body-magic’? That sounds…”

Espen raised an eyebrow. Amused, she asked, “Would you like me to wait for you to make the joke, or shall we assume it’s been made so we can carry on?”

Fyrna barked a laugh and leaned forward to kiss the tip of Espen’s nose. “I was only going to say that you didn’t need to tell me you’re ‘attuned to body-magic.’ “ 

“That wasn’t as crass as I had expected. You’re losing your edge, Beltune.” Espen flicked her cheek playfully. 

“That shouldn’t be a surprise. How could one not soften in the presence of your loveliness?”

For all the flirting, for the suggestive banter, that is what finally elicited a blush from Espen. “What a cliche. Have you been borrowing Bas’s trashy romance novels again?”

Mercifully, Fyrna allowed her to deflect. “I still think you’d enjoy them if you’d give them a chance.”

“And give Tars and Jin that ammunition against me? I can’t risk it.” Espen said. “Do the lacerations still itch?”

Fyrna stretched gingerly, spine popping with the effort. “No, they feel much better, thank you. Do you have work to finish?”

“I think it can mostly be left for tomorrow.” Espen extricated herself from the bed and scooped up the stacked paperwork. “I have a set of infusions steeping that I need to filter and store first, but I’ll retire once I’m done. Wait for me?”

Fyrna snatched Espen’s free hand before she could get too far from the bed and placed a kiss on her knuckles. Releasing her, she made a shooing motion. “Until the mountains sink into the sea, my love, but I hope it won’t take you quite that long.”

“No, it shouldn’t,” Espen replied with a soft laugh. “Maybe only until the Barbed Fields turn green.”

“Oh, that’s not so long. See you soon, starshine.”

[kenobihater]

Listen that post about the Griffins being a Cstholic School has been haunting me and it is SO correct. However, as someone who never went to Catholic School and only has heard Snippets of what happens there, could you elaborate a bit on what you'd envision the Griffin School being like, based on that comparison? Maybe like, how things are in irl Catholic Schools and how that could translate to the Witcherverse?

Tho with how traumatizing Catholic School had been for you, if you don't wanna talk abt it, that is alright!!!! Happy (late) Chanukah and New Years!!!

Happy belated Chanukah and a happy new year to you as well! I'm gonna offer a disclaimer that I didn't attend Catholic school for my entire highschool experience (thank GOD for that) and I'm not Catholic, though half my family is. That said, I don't think you need to have either been in the private school system or be a Catholic to have criticisms of their schools! Also, Catholic school truly sucked as an experience for me, but it wasn't all miserable all the time, so I'm totally comfortable with talking about it.

The biggest similarity I see between Catholic schools and the School of the Griffin is their emphasis on "proper etiquette". Catholic schools and their concept of proper etiquette obviously work primarily within the framework of religion, but I don't really see that being the case for the School of the Griffin. Perhaps there are some devotees to Melitele or Lebioda among the Griffins, but I don't see them as dominant or anything.

That said, there is a book that is said to be central to the Griffins' education and likely their etiquette as well, the Liber Tenebrarum, or Book of Shadows. We don't really know what's in it, but we do know that to pass their Trials they can either find a griffin's egg, or recite this book verbatim, of which no one has ever chosen the latter (though one Griffin did memorize it, Keldar, though apparently not for his Trials). Because it's important enough to the Griffin way of life to warrant memorization, I'd speculate that their "proper etiquette" is outlined in it. This gives off MAJOR "studying scripture/catechisms" vibes to me, especially because they're only required to recite it, not expound upon it and actually show true understanding, a critique I have of the Catholic school method for teaching theology that often prizes memorization of concepts and arguments rather than real comprehension of the material.

The "proper etiquette" thing and studying the Liber Tenebrarum like that are the biggest most central similarities between Catholic schools and the School of the Griffin that I can think of to be honest, though I do admit it would be funny to imagine more superficial similarities between them, like requiring uniforms or something, though the canon we have doesn't really support that aside from standardized armor.

Now, this bit isn't really Catholic school coding or anything like that, but I do find it fascinating that the Witcher George is a dragon slaying knightly figure, just like Saint George of Catholic tradition, undoubtedly a reference on the part of CDPR! Because of that historical reference, I really started thinking about how the knightly order of the School of the Griffin compares to the knightly orders of Europe. By far the most similarities I saw were between those of the Griffins and the Knights Templar, who happen to be Catholic. Both the Griffins and Templars were powerful organizations in their heydays and held substantial influence over politics and political figures, and Templars even had their own code of conduct known as the Latin Rule just like what might exist in the Liber Tenebrarum!

Idk, I just found this all super interesting and I'm glad you sent this ask bc "Griffins are Catholic coded, and Kaer Seren is a Catholic school" is really funny to me and I love it as a concept!

[elizbit]

Ok, so I have been working 8am-4pm at NewJob, and taking the 4:42 train home. As I have always put it, that gives me 42min to walk “15min”. I never actually timed my walk in full, but I knew my building to the train station building was ~15min. Ish.

Well, I officially got the OK to start working 7:30-3:30. Which seems meaningless until you become aware of the magical weirdness that is clocking in/out (I was salaried at OldJob so this was a foreign concept to me) where I can apparently leave at 3:25 which is somehow the same as 3:30. If I leave at exactly 3:25, in theory, I should be able to catch the 3:42 train home.

In theory. So I figured why not try it! Today!

So when I get the slow elevator down, it apparently takes me 3 minutes to even get to the first floor of my building 🤡 So that makes this a little worse. Then I have to navigate inside the train station, which is more crowded at ~3:35ish bc it appears an Amtrak train gets in around then so there’s a sea of people walking the opposite direction I need to go. Even with all that, I was on track to get on the train at 3:41. One minute to spare!

…but the 3:42 train is not on the same track that the 4:42 is. The later is, like, track 14 iirc? This time is on track 4. So I walked there only to see no train, was confused, realized “oh shit it’s probably on a different track” and of course it’s the opposite direction I came from 🤡🤡 So I run past every other track and then at 4:42 I find it and get up to the train’s first entrance and step up into it right as the dude (who wasn’t facing my way) is about to say something into his little radio.

I asked him “is this the train to [my town]?” and he’s like “yep!” and I was so happy he wasn’t judging me (at least not obviously) but just in case there was any secret judgement I said “awesome. can you believe that this train isn’t in the same place as the one an hour from now?” so he knew that I would have been on time and wouldn’t have been running if the train was where I wanted it to be. Yes that sounds dumb as I type it out. Shut up. In my defense, he said that actually all the other times of this train are in that section of tracks (the teens) and this is the only one that’s in this area. So hah.

Anyway I sat down as the train pulled away at 4:43.

So will I do this again?

Uh, maybe? To be determined. I probably should? I did have the worst luck, aside from the train guy being nice, so I think generally when I have normal-luck I should make it ok. And if I do this all the time then the walk won’t kill me like this, at least not as much.

According to Siri, my office is 0.8 miles from the train station. I did that in ~

Wait I’m a fucking god.

I got out of the elevator and left the building at 4:28. I was “at the train” at 4:41. That’s 13 minutes.

Include in that the fact that I have to stop at intersections sometimes (…only sometimes, this is Chicago after all) and like, that’s amazing. I wasn’t running, although I was… aggressively fast walking? If that makes sense?

By Elizabeth standards anyway. I used be be able to run a mile in ~7:45 but that was in Ye Old Days. 8th grade iirc. I’m 26 now lol. Last time I ran a mile (…college?) I think it took me 14:something. Running.

13 minutes holy shit.

Man if I do keep doing this then I wonder what my mile time would be in, like, a month.