#but I've overcorrected so much already :((

[mae-wont-stop-crying]

Ever(skies) After High Character Collection

Got a notif recently from that one EAH Picrew post I made like forever ago... and then I realized I still hadn't posted the Everskies character cosplays I've had lying around 😭 😭 😭

These two are just the full collages I made, you can find them individually in the link below:

https://everskies.com/showcase/25976

[ursula-legun]

very much could be wrong about this, but IIRC much of the benefits for deer (and, I'm assuming for now, similarly positioned cervids) in this situation apply at a population level, rather than an individual level.

For areas where natural predators are present at a level that effects deer behavior - while individual deer may experience fear, death, injury, etcetera, deer in general are more mobile, less prone towards certain (extremely dense) levels of congregation, and have a smaller population per area.

This stabilizes the availability of browsable/foragable food, and diminishes the prevalence of some diseases which propagate more readily through dense populations. For example, the growing prevalence of chronic wasting disease is thought to be bolstered by a lack of anxiety in deer; that lack of anxiety is allowing deer to socialize in larger groups and for longer periods of time, as well as spend more time in one area (CWD spreads at least partially via feces and saliva.) This increases the number of transmission vectors as well as the duration of exposure for each vector; so while the emotional experience of each deer may be more dramatic, and likely much more frightening, the health of the deer overall is significantly improved by that fear.

From a philosophical perspective - or ethological, take your pick - I also don't think we should assume that the human experiences surrounding anxiety and pursuit necessarily map well onto the internal experiences of nonhuman animals. Some naturalists/ecologists I was studying with a few years specifically highlighted this very context when talking about the importance of, and difficulties pertaining to, trying to not project human decisionmaking on nonhuman life.

To paraphrase, at length, one of the lessons they taught - we can't directly see the motivations of deer, let alone the interiority of their experience. All we can see is the decisions they make, and we try our best to infer from there. We often see deer flee from mild stimuli, and we therefore assume that deer live in a state of constant terror and anxiety, the conditions that would create a similar sort of behavior in us. But we are not deer! Our bodies are not predisposed towards flight in the way deer are; deer are suited to run far faster, and more frequently, than humans, and it seems safer to assume that they flee at a different threshold of internal motivation, if not an entirely different quality of motivation altogether.

This first sort of assumption is the exact kind of thinking that is warned against when people talk about the dangers of anthropomorphization. There's also the influence of societal views on violence and predation; violence in humans is often framed as something that's a guilty pleasure, a base desire that needs to be abstained from for the good of society, except when it's "unfortunately necessary" (for whatever conditions any group considers to be necessary.) This is frequently projected wholesale onto nonhuman, and especially interspecies, depictions of violence; to give a slightly exaggerated description of this current context as an example, it is presumed that the natural inclination of deer is to be grazing restfully, and that this is both pleasurable and right. It is then presumed that the Violent Predator, due to their unconscionable desires, intrudes upon this restful state by pursuing the deer; we consider this to be offensive from the deer's perspective, and vaguely immoral - if, at best, "unfortunately necessary" - when we judge the actions of the predator.

However....there are other ways of looking at this. Deer run at the slightest provocation, often "spooking" at stimuli as minimal as e.g. a falling branch. Why do we assume that this is unpleasant to them? What if they're constantly waiting around for something to happen, so that they have a reason to get going? What if being chased actually feels good as fuck, to a deer? After all, we assume that the act of hunting - as an obligate predator - is, experientially, indulgent. Something that "shouldn't" be done, but is excused regardless. Is this not dismissive of the circumstances the predator is in, and how that might feel? Or the agency and ability that the prey can bring into play?

(An earlier version of this reply was oversimplifying stuff in this part to the point of just being wrong, and had me saying some things about deer behavior [especially herd dynamics] that I'm not actually sure of, which I've edited out.)

Undoubtedly, running for your life is terrifying, and we can be certain that prey animals in these situations are activated - stressed, displaying agitation, etc. None of the above is meant to imply that elk or deer would voluntarily choose to be pursued by wolves. Rather, I just want to highlight that the interaction between predator and prey is not necessarily as emotionally - or morally - lopsided as it is often portrayed as being. Being pursued by a wolf is terrifying, yes, but if you are a pursuit animal, and if you get away....could it not also be fun? And chasing another animal as a predator seems like a powerful, exciting position to be in, at first brush - but in the long run, the lives of the predators are also at stake in the pursuit. Genuinely, I don't want to replace one anthropomorphic projection with another, but I think we can be confident that the dynamics of predator/prey relationships are at the very least interesting to both parties - engaging, maybe even enriching.

All this is to say that the "cost" of predator reintroduction - in terms of stress on individual prey - is most likely not going to be accurately framed in terms of human emotional valence; moreover, cultural assumptions in the interpretation of pleasure, violence, and morality are a strong bias in untangling the emotional framework that is projected onto these relationships. From my perspective, it seems that most consideration given to the experiences of prey animals in these situations is based in just substituting what we, as humans, would expect to feel in that situation; which seems to be both more and less than what can actually be said.

So, yeah, I do think that people should be proud of ecological shifts that generate these large changes in behavior - human hunters have obviously done a poor job of emulating the dynamics created by these predators; and at the bare minimum, I wouldn't assume that the difference in emotional landscape is worth the ongoing ecological harm of not having these dynamics in play.

(Also worthy of consideration are things like the predator's right to exist, diversity of interior experience as a value unto itself, the fundamental right of all species to a life that has "meaning" and what that could actually entail, cross-species modeling of stress as enrichment, microecological effects of pursuit and predation, etc....but. I think I've rambled enough lol.)

Around the same time as the wolves were released, the mountain lion population, once hunted to local extinction, was becoming re-established as well – having crept back in from wilderness areas in central Idaho. Under these twin pressures, over a period of about 15 years, elk numbers halved.

Those that did survive behaved differently, too: when the wolves were on the prowl, they retreated to the dimly lit comfort of the woods, where they might wander in clandestine bands. They avoided the cougars, most active at night, by steering clear of landmarks where they might be trapped or surprised from above in the dark – ravines, outcrops, embankments. No longer did they live in an environment defined by its waterholes and pastures, or even by its ridgelines and ravines, but by areas now suffused with danger and relief. A psychological topology, this – one marked with hillocks of anxiety and peaks of alarm. Ecologists know this as “the landscape of fear”.

proudly talking about reintroducing carnivores has made the herbivores really anxious really drives home the question of whether it’s moral to torture other creatures for our convenience.

you might oppose farming, but make the farm really big and remove the visible fences have the prey harried to death instead of quickly stunned and that’s… better?

[crooked-wasteland]

I think what annoys me so much about the way the show blasts Blitzo for being a cold and unromantic partner is that it’s a perfect example of ignoring worldbuilding to make a character look worse.

By human standards, Blitzo abandoning someone when they tell them that they love him is pretty cowardly and understandably upsetting. But in Hell standards? Verosika should’ve fucking known he’d run away because Hell seems to look down heavily at the concept of love. This is like knowing that it’s taboo to kiss and then getting mad at a character for not kissing you. You can’t blame someone for being adjusted to what society expects of you. Verosika can still be hurt but it’s genuinely insane how much she clings on to this hate like he did a crime.

And the fact that we just skip over seeing their relationship is also infuriating because I get the feeling that Viv was both not interested in actually showing us what Verosika was like and also afraid to make her do anything that feels more in line with her character which is act angsty and spiteful

I've had a thought about Verosika. From the we've seen this season, the writers have actually listened to and addressed criticism for the show. The Ghostfuckers leaks show an overhaul of the original story, the fact that episodes got shifted around at the start of the series, the blatant un-writing of the assassination plot, and the fact that Unhappy Campers was the only pre-special episode to not be in the season 2 trailer (most likely because it was still in the early stages of animation due to massive rewrites to incorporate more Millie) are all evidence to this. It's obvious the crew is not happy about it, but they are listening.

With that in mind, the show has repeatedly been accused of extremely sexist writing in favor of the male cast. As such, it's not surprising to see the pivot more towards "humanizing" the female characters in specific. I remember seeing a lot of comments about how they wouldn't forgive the show if they made another female character irredeemably cruel and brainless following The Circus, and even louder after Western Energy.

What fans had wanted was a complicated or even toxic dynamic where both characters weren't perfect, but still held Blitz accountable for his actions, fairly. What they got was the cheapest, laziest writing I've ever seen. Not only does it not make sense in regards to the established world building of Hell's attitude towards love, it still makes no sense for Blitz to run away just because Verosika said she loved him, only to then adopt a child. He explicitly goes to the pound looking for a pup, pivoting to taking in Loona out of pity. It's like saying marriage is too much of a commitment, but still having kids.

Instead, Medrano overcorrected to pander to critics the same way she panders to her fans. Verosika is not an irredeemably cruel and stupid, spiteful woman. She's a perfect victim actually. Not only is her only crime falling in love, but the relationship ended so fast and sudden that she didn't have any time to do anything.

All these choices feel not only deliberate, but resentful in how little care went into the writing. The most drastic overhaul being to Ghostfuckers where the entire narrative trimmed down and immensely reworked already existing elements into the script. It goes to show the level of improvement possible to an idea when given better direction, but it also shows the limitations of not having actual writers on the team.

Ghostfuckers does an amateur's best and comes out generally okay, but still suffers from over reliance on tropes without narrative substance. It's the genuine best that can be done with this team. And unfortunately that's still not good enough.

[kuruk]

do tumblrinas and twitter lgbts forget what the real world is like actually. I guess because all topics have already been covered and it's assumed we're all on the same page about other realer issues but the bi girls with boyfriends topic is so overblown it's more people complaining about people being bitches towards bi women dating men than people actually being rude about those women.. I've seen like 20 different unspecific posts about it already just the vague idea of these bitchy as fuck lesbians getting passed around after a handful of people expressed bad opinions a few times. I'm not sure if people realize how their biases show through that because if they're aiming to fight against a certain perceived prejudice it means they're automatically just in doing so. but it's not a real widespread issue and even if it was it's still more of a matter of hurt feelings and insecurity than genuine hatred and bigotry that would affect anyone in the real world any further than feeling bad about yourself after reading a rude post. which yes it's rude of course but what is all of this for what is the obsession? it's insulting sorry it's rude to automatically do this every pride it's overcorrecting for an issue with a minority of lesbians.

when I got my first boyfriend after my parents previously thought I was a lesbian for years I was suddenly treated much better and during that period my dad stopped beating me because he saw more hope for my future. and yeah of course he didn't see me as bisexual because he didn't believe in that but I was treated better than I had been before because I now had a boyfriend and had more worth and was deserving of my place in society. so I don't know it feels so tone deaf for this to be the one big issue getting talked about every fucking year like as if bisexual women's greatest enemies are online lesbians you think are bitchy, when I'm sure that's not at all their biggest problem or even an issue that makes the list at all. like either you're just talking to talk and you wanna make a rebloggable post or you're trying to alleviate your own insecurities and guilt by claiming there's this overwhelming hatred for you and your boyfriend coming from dykes that just isn't there. and if that prejudice is there on such a scale then this is still a very uncompassionate and misguided reaction lacking empathy that doesn't make sense coming from people who sling words like dykefag around like it's nothing

[roxtron]

Day 5: Rabbit, Reclaim

AGJGDFJF FINALLY IT'S DAY 5 SO I CAN POST THIS

For some reason everytime i draw him he looks so young because i'm accidentally overcorrecting since i'm used to drawing older characters. So unfortunately he looks way younger than i meant him to lol, whoops.

But wait there's more- AHAHAHA

While I did initially plan this for GGY week I eventually got the idea to use this as an excuse to draw other GGY designs, soo..

(Not sure why tumblr formatted it that way with 1 of them big but it doesn't matter lol)

I've been wanting to do this for a while, I put the tags of each person next to their design but ofc I'm still gonna tag them in the post itself so you can see their art for yourself if you haven't already. But I enjoyed each of these in their own ways so if you don't mind I think I'm gonna type a bit of text next to them..

@chipistrate This was one of the first I drew out of these, the design was pretty fun to draw but sorry if I messed up a few details, it was a bit difficult lol. The mask and goggles are really fun to draw and they make for a cool design, along with all the glowing blue. (and yes, I tried to subtly include the heelies lol)

@lunzi0 This was the first fursuit one I did lol. I adore the little stars in the design, they personalize it so well and make it really unique. I wanna try this design again since I feel like the other ones show my improvement a bit better, but I hope you can appreciate the effort I put in on my first attempt <3

@carouselrabbit This one was really fun to draw, I absolutely love the eye shape/lashes, it stands out and I always love drawing eyes with a bit of eyeliner lol, the daycare theme legwarmers is a cool nod to the balloon boy arcade machine being connected to them, and was just a fun addition in general lol, I like the style of legwarmers what can I say, fnaf changed my fashion sense a bit. also the subtle paraells to freddy's design is a nice way to connect a bit to gregory himself.

@puhpandas I can't remember if I talked about this design last time I drew it but, overall I'm really happy with how this came out, it's such an indicator of improvement since I started drawing this and I'm glad I was able to draw it better than last time lol. All the patchwork and similarities to Vanny's suit work really well, and the rabbit you chose to base it off of was a good fit, the colors make it a bit more difficult to shade for but i like detail lol, hope you like it too :)

@dykevanny I knew I wanted to do this since I started but I wasn't sure if I'd have time, and I'm glad I did! I hope you don't mind I combined aspects from the first design I saw and the second one you replied to my ask with, I liked the big purple sleeves lol. (I just realized after doing all the shading I forgot to include the oil splatter on his jacket, sorry!) It was definitely a bit difficult due to the head shape being so different but.. fluffy. i love drawing fluff. And the glowing swirl on the goggles, the shape of the ears, I love a lot about this design. :D

I have a hard time with writing compliments but I wanted to get some of those thoughts out, some of the things I like about these designs apply to multiple lol. I adore every one of these designs but I find it hard to put into words what I enjoy about them, hope the original creators are happy with these. <3

I also kept the ggys without as much lighting effects on a separate file, I felt like I should add them since they're a bit brighter lol, makes them look different.

Okay now that I've gotten all that- Sorry this post is so long! I didn't think it'd end up taking up so much space lol. Buut.. working on this drawing and thinking about it and potential context behind it gave me an au idea for it, but I'll put it under the cut since I understand most people probably won't care and just wanna see the drawings lol.

Idk if I'm confident enough to write for it but I'll give a bit of a summary.. I'll keep it under the cut for people who aren't interested and just wanna see the art though lol.

After the main events of SB and Ruin, now that the mimic's been set free, Cassie's taken control of by what's left of Vanny, using her as a new host. But with Cassie being the only human left alive down there, after being reawakened, Dr. Rabbit has nowhere left to go but back to his old host.

Vanessa, Freddy, and Gregory hadn't gone back to the Pizzaplex after ruin, but they were trying to figure out a plan to get Cassie back safely. One night after Freddy and Gregory disappear, Vanessa leaves to go find them. As dangerous as the pizzaplex is, it's her best guess for where they might've gone. She doesn't want to think about what could've happened to them, in denial for the worst case scenario. She tries to keep herself calm by telling herself they probably just left to go back for Cassie, maybe they didn't want her stopping them.. but deep down she knows it can't be that simple. She knows something's off, even if she's not ready to admit it.

When returning to the pizzaplex, she brought along her own V.A.N.N.I. mask, though unlike the one Cassie used, it was clear of the mimic's influence. After all, she was going to need some way to travel through potential blocked routes.

By the time she found Gregory, she'd still been wearing the mask, seeing him down the end of a dark hallway. He looked confused, afraid, his mind was a wreck of conflicting emotions. She started rushing towards him, happy to see him okay, until he finally spoke.

"You need to get out of here."

She stepped back, taking off the mask, only to be faced with the worst case scenario.

It was a wreck, covered in stains and tears, but it was still recognizable. He was wearing that old suit again.

As he waved, she could see Freddy's claws peeking out from the doorway, as the two stepped closer towards her.

So, she did what he told her to do, and started running. She could hear a faint voice coming from the mask, and put it back on before finding somewhere she could hide.

It was his voice again, telling her which way to go.

I guess that was the dramatic way to summarize the main idea behind it, lol. Basically Gregory and Dr. Rabbit work the way Sun and Moon work in Ruin, whichever one is in control in the real world, the other is left behind in the AR world. Or at least that's my interpretation of how they worked, considering Sun was always in mask-on scenes and moon was mask-off. I'm not too sure where the plot might go from there, and maybe I'll consider writing for it, I dunno. I've never wrote fanfic before because I get deadly afraid of writing them out of character lol, but maybe?? I have ideas for scenes and premise and stuff but I don't know if I have the confidence to write it.

But anyway! That was just more of a fun side-idea I came up with while working on this, if you read this far thanks, hope you enjoyed :)

here's some silly little lineless doodles as a reward for making it to the end hehe

now that's what I call an art dump

@ggyweek2024

[johanna-swann]

The annoying thing about the break up is that it would have made so much more sense if they'd had Tommy break it off because of any of the multiple things Buck says in that conversation that are kind of weird. The vibe that Buck also kind of wants to be Tommy, which isn't helped by him replacing Tommy twice over. The fact that it's been six months of Tommy apparently being open about the kind of work he had to do on himself to get to this point but Buck still hasn't really taken Tommy off the pedestal. Asking someone who probably has a house to move in to a loft. Springing a mention of a possible future marriage on him when it doesn't seem like it's come up before. The writing in this episode was so bad but they still managed to unintentionally give Tommy actual reasons to decide he was done.

I'm not sure what Buck "replacing Tommy" is referring to here, but a lot of the other stuff I agree with. Even upon first glance that break-up made so little sense to me that I immediately jumped to the conclusion that this was merely one of the "hurdles" we were promised and they'd get back together in season 8b.

It was always a possibility that Tommy wouldn't be Buck's "forever love", but the way they broke up was... strange, to say the least.

First of all the Abby thing makes zero sense. It doesn't fit with the way Abby talked about her ex. Even if she didn't want to talk to Buck about being engaged before, she would've at least mentioned to Carla that the terrible break-up she had to relive over and over again came from her fiancé, not just a boyfriend. It doesn't make sense that Tommy never mentioned her to the 118 either. She was basically his beard, right? Isn't the point of those relationships that you can pretend to be straight in front of others? And then Tommy actively hid his relationship with her instead?

This only served as a conversation starter though, it wasn't the reason they broke up. In his conversation with Josh Buck didn't feel comfortable using the l-word, but he did admit seeing and wanting a future with Tommy. Which he later also said to Tommy himself.

Then the very moment Buck said the words "move in" I immediately went "not a-fucking-gain!!" Because this rushed, overcorrecting clinging - throwing ideas of marriage and so on around without even having exchanged "I love you"s yet - is such a Buck 2.0 thing to do. He didn't even take into consideration that Tommy lives in an entire ass house. You promised us Buck would get off the Hamster wheel Tim! He has been more grounded than I've ever seen him in a relationship, but then suddenly, nope. Character growth who?

And lastly Tommy's answer. Maybe he just got cold feet, but. Why did he even give Buck a second chance in the first place when he already thought this wasn't going to go anywhere. If he thought what Buck needed were more casual queer experiences, then why did he stay with Buck for six months? And if he liked Buck enough to be afraid of getting his heart broken, wouldn't he have left that relationship earlier?

I mean. They ended up breaking things off over liking each other too much, essentially. Find the sense in that.

And maybe while Tommy was too pessimistic and scared, Buck was still viewing the relationship too much through rose-tinted glasses. But that's when you say: "Hey, we kind of want the same thing here, but I think we still have a lot to talk about and to figure out about each other. Maybe let's just date a little longer and come back to this conversation in two or three months."

(Though I think Tommy struggling and working on himself is one of the very things Buck so admires about him. It's not that Buck is (love-) blind to this information, it's part of what makes Tommy's confidence so attractive to Buck.)

[alex51324]

That Tweet, take 2

OK, so my first reaction to That Tweet, by Djenks, was as follows:

My money is on DJenks realizing that he shat the bed & now furiously trying to write himself out of the corner he's in. (My second guess is that he basically already knows there won't be a Season 3, but there's some network or business-related reason for not announcing it yet.)

But now that I've had a bit more time to think about it, I am kind of seeing a scenario where he could've intended it to be a fuckery all along.

Step one is that we imagine him being a bit disappointed by how Lucius's death fooled absolutely no-one. It's likely that he was planning for the reveal that he was alive to be a much bigger moment than it actually was; maybe he even has some Big Reveal ideas that he had to put on ice once it became clear that there was very little actual suspense surrounding Lucius's fate. This is, obviously, since I don't know him personally, a big hairy guess, but it seems like a very plausible reaction for someone to have, when they put a lot of effort into planning a surprise and it falls flat because everyone guessed it.

Step two is him deciding to sell Izzy's "death" a little harder, with the emotional death scene and the funeral (where we do not actually see the body, and a mourner, Wee John, is missing) and all. It's laying it on a little thick, in my opinion, but again, we did all confidently (and correctly) assume that Lucius was alive based on the evidence that "this show wouldn't do that" and "The Stede-Ed reunion won't work if he's really dead," so you can see how a showrunner could, hypothetically, get to--

Step three, is Djenks opening up his socials at the crack of dawn on Thursday morning, expecting to see reams of speculation and analysis about how Izzy could have survived, and being genuinely shocked to instead find seas of angry and devastated fans suggesting that he should perhaps give up television in favor of a career in going and fucking himself.

Step four, realizing that he drastically overshot the mark re: creating genuine suspense over character death, he tweets out a big obvious hint.

I don't love this interpretation--for one thing, there is nothing in the episode we saw that would provide a plausible in-universe reason for faking Izzy's death. It would be pretty easy to create one--have Prince Ricky No-Nose vow personal vengeance against Izzy Hands in specific for calling him a syphilitic cunt/his role in foiling the "end of piracy" scheme--but we did not see anything like that. To make the funeral scene work as a fuckery, it would be necessary to insert a flashback between the "death" and the funeral in which A) this happens, and B) the other characters find out about it. That's a cheap trick that I personally hate--the old, "Haha, I made you feel a thing by deliberately withholding context"--but again, if it's an overcorrection for the complete and abject failure of the effort to create suspense around Lucius's fate, I guess I can live with it.

If Izzy's death is a fuckery, that addresses a lot of the other problems with the finale. First, Ed and Stede's obviously-doomed, harebrained scheme to give up piracy and be innkeepers (in a dilapidated shack, on an island where we see no other people or settlements) is plausibly funny, as long as we aren't thinking that Izzy died for it.

Second, the tonal whiplash of going from the funeral to the wedding is also fine if everyone involved knows perfect well that the guest of honor at the funeral is actually recuperating just offscreen.

(Thirdly, there's Captain Frenchie--I haven't seen much discussion of that, but the only problem I had with it is that I can't think of any moments from the season where he stood out as being a leader for the crew. I might've missed something; he's not one of my particular blorbos, but it wouldn't have taken much, just something you can look back on and see how it was setting up him becoming captain.

And, crucially, we do have those few little moments of setup for Frenchie as First Mate to Captain Izzy. Frenchie was there during the dark days, during which he presumably underwent some skill development, pirate-wise, and definitely bonded with Izzy to some extent. We see him holding Izzy's hand during his breakdown, and he presumably helped hide him and definitely lied to Blackbeard about it, and then how they were sitting in the cell on Zheng's ship--it isn't a whole lot, but you can look back and see why it makes sense for Izzy to pick him.)

Making Izzy's death a fuckery doesn't do anything to fix the way the whole Zheng thing fell flat. (Why give her a massive fleet in the first place, only to take it away? Why did we get those scenes of ships being towed across land? What was she doing selling soup on the Republic of Pirates? For that matter, why did she come to the Caribbean in the first place, after becoming Pirate Queen of the Chinese seas?) It doesn't help with how Ed and Stede keep repeating the same beats of getting closer, then running away, then reuniting without ever talking about their relationship or their issues. It doesn't address why the Kraken Era had to go that dark, if the whole thing was just going to be smoothed over in the space between episodes 4 and 5, and how Ed never really takes responsibility for any of what he did.

However, middle installments of trilogies are notoriously difficult to write, and it isn't particularly fair to judge them before you get to the last part. Most of the weak points could look better in hindsight once we know how it all turns out.

(And, not for nothing, as long as Izzy is alive, we can still get something where Ed reckons with the Kraken Era, and particularly-but-not-exclusively what he did to Izzy. I don't see how that works with a dead Izzy, though--it's too easy for Ed to keep minimizing what he did and offloading blame onto him.)

There isn't a whole lot of evidence for an Izzy Lives scenario. All we have is:

This Show Wouldn't Do That (which, recall, was point 1 in why we didn't believe Lucius was dead. However, it is weakened by the absence of point 2--unlike with Lucius, the person who "killed" Izzy isn't a character we're expected to like or root for.)

No body at the funeral. I initially interpreted the funeral as being intended as proof that Izzy was really dead, a sort of "don't get your hopes up, guys," after what happened with Lucius. But again, if we're thinking about the framing of Izzy's "death" as an overcorrection to how completely non-fooled we all were by Lucius's, maaaaaybe not? I mean, if he really wanted to hammer the nail into the coffin, we would have seen Izzy lying in the grave, or his body being sewn into a shroud of sailcloth (as was the custom), or something. (Also, point 2b, the unicorn did have two legs.)

No Wee John at the funeral. There are certainly Doylist reasons he might've been left out--maybe the way the shooting schedule worked out, it saved money or some other resource to just leave him out of that scene, something like that. But for an in-universe reason, "somebody had to stay back and nurse Izzy" makes a lot of sense. (I mean, if this show operated on real-world logic, someone would have had to stay with the ship, but that's never been a concern before.) Wee John helping Izzy with his makeup for Calypso's birthday was presumably a bonding experience that involved some vulnerability on Izzy's part, so it would be weird for him to just nope out of the funeral, but plausible that Izzy would find him acceptable as a caregiver.

Stede and Ed's conversation over Izzy's grave could, just barely, make sense as a conversation about how Ed and Izzy are now on separate paths, with no particular guarantee that they'll see each other again. It takes a certain amount of massaging to make it fit, but it almost could? (Except Zheng's part really doesn't--unless the grave actually contains someone Ed cares about, or she isn't in on the secret that the funeral is a fuckery.)

I'm not in love with any of this, or even particularly convinced by it--my enthusiasm for any Season 3 is going to be pretty dampened, unless the announcement that it's been picked up includes the information that Con O'Neill has a contract to appear as a major character in all 8/10/whatever episodes--but IDK, I guess it's maybe not outside the realm of possibility? Ish?

[morkitten]

thoughts on Sonic Frontiers so far

I was clowning a lot on Sonic Frontiers before release and it took me until now to play it because it really looked like a cynical half-baked attempt at trend-chasing open world stuff, a genre that I already feel is very much not good. But, playing it, I feel better about it than how I thought I would feel playing.

Now, I still think it's a problematic game and definitely not one of my favorites, but when it comes to "open world games", again, a genre I really don't like, I find this as definitely one of the better/more tolerable ones I've played, simply because of the garish floating structures strewn all over these environments.

These look like shit and they're all over the place, but, it does mean that exploration requires you to do actual Sonic action-platforming to explore and to collect stuff, which is a lot more Game than the dull meandering of many open world games. All the problems of open world games are here - million collectibles for a million different things, a lot of things are just thrown out there and don't feel designed, but controlling Sonic is fun, and he's fast, meaning these environments don't feel as tiringly huge as they may appear at first.

The story so far is weirdly mature and it has this strange melancholy feel that I think is very interesting, even if I wouldn't write Sonic like this, it's fun to have a game that takes such a different swing. Sonic's friends are forced to confront themselves and their failings and sadness as they've been reduced to, uh, spirits hanging on cyber-purgatory hell. Sonic's friends are fucking dead and he needs to rescue their souls and hang out with them to comfort their loneliness as they interact with the ghosts of the last living memories of people of a genocided ancient civilization. That's, uh, something!

I do think the constant name-dropping other past games and events and characters feels a bit too much. It does feel like Ian Flynn trying to overcorrect or overdeliver on "fandom complaints" about past Sonic games, about how their stories don't feel meaningful, about how they seem to pretend no other game exists, etc. Sometimes he'll slip in some meta commentary based on fandom complaints about past Sonic games too, there's a line where like, Amy asks Sonic if it feels nice to roam around freely "with no guardrails", as if addressing complaints that people have with games like Sonic Unleashed, Colors, Generations and Forces relying on "hallway"-style level design a la Crash Bandicoot, or, and I haven't gotten to Tails yet, but I do know there's a line where Tails complains about his own character writing in Sonic Forces, and it's like, this is a bit too much. I don't need to be informed of what Sonic reddit discusses about in their spare time, this kinda stuff is lame and insular.

The combat isn't superb but it's interesting that they had to rethink so much in order to give Sonic combat at all. Every big enemy is like a completely different beast that takes specific parts of Sonic's moveset to use against them, and they're decent attempts at doing that! I would just rather not fight them again after fighting them once, though. Also, Sonic has fun and flashy moves that feel fitting to him.

Those are my impressions so far, might reblog this later with more of my thoughts as I progress through the game.

[fantastic-nonsense]

Hello and sorry for disturbing you. I realise this is a question that asks for a very long and time-consuming answer, so I'm sorry for that too. But I think you're the best person to whom I could ask when and how the superhero genre of US comic books stopped being suitable for children. (I've already got a very general idea of the "when" and that'd be "the early 70's", so please correct me if I'm wrong). TBC...

(Part 2) I mean, even after the CCA became far more lax in 1971, what need was there to overcorrect so much that the genre ended up alienating its previous core readership? I would've hated being a child former fan back then, lol. And I can't see how this could be an economically sound business strategy. Thank you very much for the attention and best wishes.

So funnily enough, I actually answered a question very similar to this on AskHistorians several years ago. It might be helpful to look towards that first for some of the big picture answer on the changing target audience for superhero comics as we moved from the Silver Age to the Bronze Age to the Modern/Dark Age of Comics.

As for the economics of it, it's at least somewhat true that Silver Age comics were artificially goofy due to the Comics Code's insanely restrictive content guidelines. I think it's probably fair to say that there was a dramatic pendulum swing between Golden and Silver Age comics that alienated the previous core reader base, and the slow trend back to comics being seen as a storytelling medium for all ages and not just children actually expanded the reader base. However, you're also correct that the grimdark/edgelord tendencies of 90s comics certainly alienated quite a few people as well.

[frownyalfred]

another borderline chapter has me going bonkers, absolutely lovely, and I can’t stop laughing over the part where they go to the watchtower.

2 bats coming up together? Something might be going down

3-4 bats come up? Probably a global invasion

ALL of the bats, at once, marching in unison? Darkseid’s avatars are invading every multiverse at once (again?)

Stephanie calls Bruce SIR??? Reality is about to become some funny spaghetti and oh god, we’re fucked

(Also, can you explain something for a dumb reader? Is the reason they’re putting on a show just to have fun fucking with the JL or is there another reason? I know they’re trying to hide the bond but having Dick and Jason match the BatWalk(tm) and Stephanie calling Bruce sir seems like something different? Please help. Am one brain cell)

My take on it was, most of the bond is (somewhat unknowingly) trying to copy Bruce and maintain a calm, collected appearance. What they don't fully realize (and even Bruce is kind of willfully ignoring) is that by all of them trying to act serious and unbothered, they really look much different from normal.

They're essentially trying to hide the bond by overcorrecting and using Bruce's normal techniques (walking quickly and confidently, being silent, putting off a threatening aura) and while it's intimidating, it definitely makes things look different and possibly worrying for the JL members who see it.

I've mentioned this before and I've seen it referenced in a few comments which I love, but my goal/plan is for the bond is obviously for it to change the Bats and average them out more as they exchange skills/memories, but also to cause issues with how others perceive them even when the Batkids/Bruce insist they're largely the "same" person as they were before. So they think they're acting very similarly to how they normally do, but over time, to outsiders, it's apparent that the bond has deeply changed them.

I especially want to explore this concept as it relates to Bruce being protective/defensive of the kids and vice versa. I find that fascinating since he already felt so intensely about them, and the bond just magnifies that.

[crusherthedoctor]

Lately there's been a lot of discussion/lamentation of modern fandom's tendency to throw canon to the wind in favor of popular fanon that has no logical basis supporting it. I've experienced much of that personally with the Sonic fandom (want a list?), but it's a problem in many others as well, and it is indeed a tragic trend.

However, you might have noticed that I've talked about overcorrection a few times recently. Mostly in relation to Sonic, but it occasionally applies beyond that. And after thinking about it for a good while, I think the steadily growing popularity of particularly aggressive gatekeeping is a self-sabotaging angle to work from, because as much as I totally get wanting to draw a firm line in the sand between legitimate fans of the source material and those who... aren't, this approach doesn't actually address or fix anything: the fanon fan crowd will do their thing anyway, so any grumblings you throw their way will fall on deaf ears, and everyone else will just see the rest of us as uber-Cranky Kongs who exist just to get mad and hate everything. We already have it bad as it is in our respective fandoms, so I'm not interested in making things worse for myself and others.

I'm not a toxic positivity guy, but I also don't want to be a bitter old man in a younger man's body. And as discouraging as many a fandom's state may seem, I believe there are potential newbies out there who could see the value of canon if they had guidance. So with that in mind, I want to focus on encouraging instead of blocking off, and let my love for most of the source material do the talking from now on, instead of primarily "go away, person who thinks differently from me".

It won't be easy, since again, the fanon-over-canon crowd will always be up to their shenanigans no matter what, which will never cease to be frustrating (especially when it seeps into official material due to said popularity... guess what I'm thinking of), but if I'm going to be in a tough fandom situation like this, and I have to fight back in order to not be drowned out, I want to do it in the best, most productive, most inviting way I can.

[prongsmydeer]

Ayesha Liveblogs Heartstopper S1

I will not lie to you have put off watching this show for so long because I thought it might hurt my feelings but I think I'm finally ready to put myself through it

I didn't realize we'd be starting this show with Charlie already in a clandestine relationship. Alright, diving right in

Call me crazy, but I think this guy who is causing Charlie's brain to create gentle cartoon leaves might be the guy he falls in love with:

"Still don't tell anyone about this." Heartwarming words from Secondary Love Interest Ben

"Why are you talking to me? I don't even know who you are." Ben, love, I think you're overcorrecting

Tao saying "Bro Dude Friends" in an American accent tickles me

God I remember not being allowed to have a phone at even at lunch in school. Dark Times

"What about your friends, have you talked to them about it? "They wouldn't get it." HAHAHA the one realistic teacher who deflects dating questions back to the teens

Immediately I like Tori. "Was he a knob?" is exactly the right question to ask

Charlie's imagined romantic cutaways are very fun

"Aren't I bit... small and weak to be a rugby player?" "We're just a school team, you know. It's not that serious." "So you're saying I am small and weak?" "No!" [Both laugh] I love Charlie's teasing streak with Nick, it's fun

"I don't just fall for any guy who's nice to me," said Charlie, as if he had not immediately fallen for Nick on the basis of them just saying hi to each other and having one conversation about ink stains

Genuinely I hope this rugby endeavour ends with Charlie making a bunch of friends and discovering a love of sport

Update from 1 montage later: I think it has!

Also I am immediately invested in Tao and Elle's relationship. They miss each other so much, it's very sweet

This episode took a really harsh and unexpected turn with Ben's reappearance. Bring back the rugby montage

"You have nothing to be sorry about." "Sorry." "You say sorry a lot. Don't say it." Thank God for Nick

"It was normal," said Nick, in a very convincing statement that no parent would find troubling

Nick said: Move over Charlie, I can also have a cartoonish dream sequence. Welcome to My Instagram-Induced Homophobia Fever Dream

Immediately I'm relating to Nick. I too get stressed out by watching other people type and have to put away my phone. Also it is becoming clearer and clearer that he's going to be the one who is slower to come to terms with his own feelings

"Thank you for being my supportive straight friend." HAHAH bold of Charlie to assume. But I get that it opens the door to that conversation

"And bisexual people exist." THANK YOU CHARLIE

"You know, when I was a teenager and had a crush on a straight boy, I just repressed it and suffered." Mr. Gay Teacher speaking to the real Teenage Experience LMAO

I love Elle making friends at her new school 💗 Not to stereotype but I do think girls are more welcoming as a social group

Nick has touched Charlie's hair one too many times today to be convincingly straight hahahah

"You seem much more yourself around [Charlie]." "Do I?" Oh, you're in it now, Nick

"Nick likes a girl," said Tao confidently, as if the 'girl' Nick's friends had been teasing him for texting was not Charlie

"You've befriended the school lesbians." GOOD FOR ELLE

Nick thinking about holding Charlie's hand but stopping himself. Sweet boy

"I don't think he's straight," said Tori, after witnessing one of the gayest goodbyes I've ever seen

Nick staring at his team photo like he can rugby away gay thoughts

HAHAHAH doing the "Am I gay" quiz and getting 62%. I am so Nick-coded. He is so me. Someone stop these Repressed Queer Blond British Boys from being so relatable hahaha

"Do you want to go to Harry's party? With me?" This is SO different to him inviting Imogen, who asked if she could come

I love that Tao's mum loves Elle so much she hugs her twice

"We don't want to make a big announcement or anything, but... just maybe not hide so much." I'm not sure which part of this interaction I liked the most, 1) Nick and Tara immediately establishing they weren't into each other 2) Tara telling Nick she is a lesbian, modelling a chill coming out and 3) Tara immediately giving Nick a sly look as soon as he mentions His Best Friend Charlie

Both cold and cool for Nick to tell Harry off for being homophobic at his own birthday party

Tao making Elle promise nothing will affect their friendship because he is clearly in love with her already LOL

Nick being visibly comforted by seeing happy queer people around him. Once again, relatable:

Very funny of the show to only NOW warn me of strobing effects, which have been bothering me for quite some minutes as I tried to get a screenshot of that scene LOL

"I'm dying." "It's cause you're old." To friends literally months older than you is honestly one of my favourite jokes

"You're just going to assume they're [the person I have a crush on] a she?" "....Are they not a girl?" "Um!" Nick has talked himself into a corner on this one

"Would you.... kiss someone who wasn't a girl?" "I don't know." "Would you kiss me?" "Yeah." I loooove this dialogue. Nick is uncertain about his sexuality, but not uncertain about Charlie

Nick said: The quiz was right! I AM at least 62% gay

Charlie immediately realizing he's got himself into another situationship with a guy who is definitely not ready to come out

Charlie's dad probably thinks he was bullied at the party but in fact it was actually Charlie being retraumatized in a slightly different way

"It's not that I didn't want to, you know [whispers] kiss you... I was just so confused. I've just been so, so confused." The immediate juxtaposition between Ben, who did not give a damn about Charlie's feelings through his sexuality crisis, and Nick, who not only apologized right away, but also is actively trying to explain how he's feeling to Charlie 🥺💘

Charlie is also representing a real group of people who are The Only Out Kid At School Whom All Other People Figuring Out That They're Some Type of Gay May Inevitably Direct Their Feelings

"A lot of gay people are good at sports, Charlie," said the Rugby Coach, slightly offended on behalf of all gay athletes

LMAO @ IMOGEN'S "I'm an ally" scene, I've seen it before

Also she really does give me second-hand embarrassment. Read the room girl!!!

Tao is so hostile to Nick undeservedly ghggghhgh Nick wasn't the one who threw the rugby ball but he did get pelted with it by Tao after

LMAO @ Darcy immediately clocking Nick and Charlie as a couple

"Why are the other team literal adult men?" Ah, a classic sports dilemma

"You've got some mud on your face though," said Nick, like the rest of both of them including his own face was not also covered in mud

HAHAHAHA Isaac also immediately clocking that they are sitting way too close and gazing too much to be just homies

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NICKKKKKKKKKK YOU ARE FALLING INTO THE SAME BEN TRAP. BE BETTER! YOU ARE SEEING SOMEONE!!!!!!!!

I know he's just trying to be a good friend to Charlie and I don't know if it's Tao's hair and face but he's reminding me of someone I know (who had a lot of emotional issues) and it's giving me a bit of the heebie jeebies hahahah

"Do you like this girl?" "Well, um, her dog died." HAHAH NICK, this poor people-pleasing boy

"Tao, no, it's his birthday," Tao is a rough mix of incredibly loyal, moderately possessive of his friends and lacking in any social graces whatsoever

Also if Tao understood what was going on, he'd be TWICE as mad. It's growing more deserved by the minute

"I was going to say I'd send him a strongly-worded DM, but murder's fine too." Hahahahah Tao

I've never seen a more uncomfortable exchange of the words, "You're a good friend." LOL:

Even if this whole Imogen thing is still pretty messy, I give a lot of credit to Nick for telling Charlie about it and explaining the context as well as clarifying he was going to put an end to it before it happened

"I wish I'd met you when I was younger," said Nick, like 16 isn't still pretty young

"I really like you." "You like me?" "Yes, wasn't that obvious?" HAHAHAHA they're so silly, I love them ❤️

I love that Charlie and Nick are so into each other they can't help but have a bit of PDA everywhere they go

Elle said: You're not the only ones capable of cutesy animations for the friend you're secretly in love with, Charlie and Nick

Do you think Isaac's like, 'Damn, this is an above average amount of romantic tension for a bowling outing'

Props to Nick for immediately following through on his pre-date break-up with Imogen

"Mamma Mia." "We've seen that four times this year already." Nick continues to be extremely me-coded, including looking up the best LGBT movies nghghgnjg

I said this MOMENTS before he googled being bisexual after watching Pirates of the Carribean. INCREDIBLE

Darcy is VERY good at clocking people's romantic vibes (Elle and Tao edition)

"Do you wanna kiss? Would that help?" [Sarcastically] "Wow." "Just a suggestion." Charlie said: Sorry about your sexuality crisis, my love language is giving u a leetle kees on the lips

AWWWWWWWWWW I loooooove Nick finally having someone to talk through his sexuality feelings with outside of his boyfriend

"Kissing you is actually one of the things that made me realize I don't like kissing guys." "Okay, happy to help?" Nick 💖

Personally I LOVE the triple date and Meddling Gays Groupchat

Charlie is so blindingly smiley every time Nick acknowledges to someone that they're together it is the sweetest:

In fairness to Tao being the last to know, he is 1) The only one who actively dislikes Nick and 2) The only cishet person at the table

Must be rough for Tara to go from everyone only ever talking about how fit she is to all the crap of people thinking they're gonna catch lesbianism

It would've been VERY funny if they all got locked in the closet

"They all probably think I'm this like, gay nerd." "Well, you kind of are a gay nerd." Nick said: You're MY gay nerd, Charlie

"Oi, just look at him behind him. Like a little girl." Harry's got so many issues. He's literally in the same proximity to Ben, what's his problem?

"Quick question. What's it like being gay?" Not that EVERY homophobic character is secretly gay, but it does seem more and more like Harry is 🤨

"I'm not even gay. I just felt really sorry for you." Since ep 1, I have strongly been suspecting that Ben will be the one to out Nick and Charlie and I feel it even more strongly now that he has eyewitnessed their handholding

Also it does NOT bode well that this ep is called Bully

"[Charlie] has a friend who won't leave me alone," said Harry, as if he has not been the one pelting Tao and calling him names to deal with what is probably a little gay crush repressed deep under thirteen layers of stupid and mean

"None of us are being homophobic." I feel like people are now growing up in this weird era where people ARE still homophobic but unwilling to admit it because it's less acceptable. It's fucked up to have someone do something bigoted to you and say it's not. At least when someone's horrible upfront you are facing an enemy that's showing its face

I don't blame Nick for finally losing his cool. Also wild of Harry to pick a fight with someone who is obviously bigger than him

"Some of the rugby boys are nice." "Even they just... stood there." There comes a certain point where being able to associate yourself with bigoted people must mean that you are at best indifferent to the people they harm

"I think I know why he hasn't [told me]. He thinks I'll accidentally say something stupid and out Nick to all of Nick's mates. And obviously he cares more about Nick's feelings than he does about mine." SEVERAL THINGS, TAO. 1) IT IS OBVIOUS why he hasn't told you, it's because you have shown numerous times you don't like Nick. 2) Why the hell is OUTING THEM even on your list? 3) In a situation where you COULD accidentally out Nick, his feelings are OBJECTIVELY more important than yours! And 4) This possessiveness towards your friends is part of the problem!!!

"This is all your fault," said Tao, as if Charlie had forced him to fight with Harry instead of literally intervening upon it

I get that Tao's a teen and he's hurt Charlie's priorities are different and he's short-sighted but GOD take some personal responsibility

"He said he doesn't wanna talk to you." If Charlie ends up being the only one to apologize for this I'm gonna be SO mad

All other things aside, I'm glad Tao and Nick are bonding

I love how consistently useful it is that Charlie can run fast

"You don't get to make me feel like crap anymore just because you hate yourself." YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH CHARLIE

DOUBLE APOLOGY, AS WAS WARRANTED FOR THESE TWO:

The butterflies appearing on Tao's side so we know the feeling is mutual with Elle ahhhhhhhhhh

If Nick is leaving the rugby match to kiss his boyfriend, that is the FUNNIEST possible thing he could do, surely it could wait til after the match rather than mid-mandatory-sports day

The update is that he was desperate for a conversation, which seems more reasonable LMAO

"My life is way better because I met you." NIIIIICK 😭❤️

Charlie is really coming into his own today. The most nonconfrontational boy crams three different emotional confrontations into one sports day

Bold move to make out in the school corridor mid-mandatory-sports day. In general, interesting how often people are macking around this school. But I understand, it was a very romantic conversation:

"I love liking you," said Nick, like that wasn't one of the most romantic things I've ever heard

"Does this mean we're boyfriends?" "Oh, yes. Was that not already established the last like, ten times we made out?" HAHAHA their DTR talks kill me a little

"Thank you for telling me. I'm so sorry if I ever made you feel like you couldn't tell me that." I was nervous for Nick for a moment, but I'm so glad for him now

"It's called bisexuality, if you've heard of that." LMAOOOOOOOOOOOO not Nick genzsplaining bisexuality to Mama Nelson aka Olivia Colman, of The Favourite fame

What a sweet and charming show

[noivoom]

Sun mentioned teaching Moon how to drive yesterday, and as I've already shared my Sun driving headcanon, here's my headcanon for Moon;

Both Old and New Moon are/were equally bad at driving, but have/had very different attitudes about it. New Moon, as we've seen, very much does NOT like it and does NOT wanna learn. I imagine he'd be just as nervous as Earth, except more internally screaming rather than external (he described cars as "metal death traps" in the episode he picked up Sun from being kidnapped). He'd absolutely make the situation worse for himself too- he makes a mistake, panics, overcorrects himself, panic even more, and things get progressively worse until him and Sun are drifting full throttle down the road, screaming. Somehow he never crashes. The Old Moon on the other hand. He did NOT care. He'd drive like a bat outta hell, yelling "DON'T WORRY I GOT THIS," causing utter mayhem, and afterwards pointing out that he didn't crash once (by some miracle), so clearly he must be doing something right.

On a related note, here's a couple Incorrect Quotes I made on the topic a while back:

Sun: Okay, you’re driving when Monty and Lunar walk into the road in front of you. Quick, what do you hit? Moon: Definitely Monty. I could never hurt Lunar. Sun, tired: The brakes, Moon. You hit the brakes. Moon: … no, I’d still go for Monty- *later* Moon, defending himself: Look, if Monty’s dumb enough to walk out on the road in front of a moving vehicle like that, they deserve it. Besides, they’re probably doing it for some stupid insurance fraud scam anyway, so if anything I’d be doing them a favour. Sun: *deep sigh*

~

*Sun teaching Moon to drive with Lunar along for the ride* Sun: That’s a pothole, to the left! Moon: Take it back now y’all *hits the pothole head-on* Lunar, leaning into the front: Cha cha real smooth! Moon: I don’t think that’s how the song goes. Sun, crying: Please just take me home Moon: Country roads~ Lunar: To the place~ Moon and Lunar in unison: I belong~! Sun, crying harder: What the fuck?

[mercurialmalcontent]

The story formerly known as Night City

:O

(From this ask meme!)

This one is my baby

First, the title -- I came up with the name "Night City" for the city in this book something like 20 years ago. I had heard of the Cyberpunk TTRPG, but after having had someone tell me about it my thoughts on the matter were "Huh. I like Shadowrun better." and I didn't look any further into it. When I found out the big deal city in Cyberpunk is also called Night City I felt very cross about it but was like, well, it's a not super popular TTRPG, most people aren't going to notice or care.

Then Cypberpunk 2077 was announced and I wanted to flip a table. XD I eventually came to the conclusion that fuck that, I am NOT renaming this city, which is considerably different. This isn't cyberpunk; it's a city on the edge of dream, defined by anachronism, warps in reality, and magic barely hidden under the surface.

Anyway.

The very first iteration of the story my Night City appears in was my 2005 NaNoWriMo project which I successfully finished. I wrote more in that universe, attempted a sequel, and had a whole website up for the project for a few years, even (I think I may have still called this specific story its original title of 31 Days). I really, really loved the world and the protagonist and the bones of the story, but as I got older I felt like I hadn't done it justice. It was very... edgy. Too much shock value, not enough genuine horror. My protagonist was so much of a lone wolf it made her seem disconnected from the world, and the plot was very surface-level. Monster back from the dead is killing children for Reasons and recruiting people to turn into ghouls, ho fucking hum.

I've been making stabs at re-writing it for a long time, but there were a lot of false starts (for a while I overcorrected on the edginess, and it got trite). I finally worked out the worst of the kinks in the past year or so and got much more solid and interesting motivations for my different antagonists and have a much better hold on one of my protagonists (who was doing the things he did just for the sake of being edgy and annoying originally, which is like... who cares. Certainly not me). (shoutout to @bleaksqueak who kept throwing me music and going HERE PUT THIS IN YOUR EARS; some of the Silent Hill music got my brain putting pieces together.)

So now? It's about what one protagonist, James, thinks is a conspiracy, but is a horror in plain sight for anyone not in the elite few people who live in safety and comfort under the giant dome that encloses the inner part of the city. To the other protagonist, Maddox, it's a nightmare she already lived through a decade ago; the people who hurt her and killed her friends should be dead, but street children are being murdered again. They meet via horrible circumstance brought about by James's dead best friend, and together they have to find out who's bringing this nightmare back to life... and why the powers that be will do nothing to stop it.

[millerflintstone]

I talked way too much earlier and my sore throat is keeping me up. Since sleep is non existent at the moment, let me tell you about GrammyC's next door neighbors, the sorta drama therein, and how I'm tangentially involved. (!)

I think these neighbors moved in either early 2021 or at the end of 2020. They're a married couple in their 60s. At the time, they also had their 5 year old granddaughter with them. I'll call the couple Becky and Bryan. The granddaughter was what pulled GrammyC in. She adores kids, saw that Becky had some mobility issues and would help her out with the kid.

Becky is super entitled. GrammyC loves feeling like she's being helpful and did not pick up that Becky was entitled. In addition to asking for help with the kid, she started asking GrammyC for rides to doctor's appointments, etc. No idea why her husband could not do these things. Becky also started asking GrammyC's husband for help around her house.

Well, apparently Becky also has a boyfriend, John. He is the reason she moved to Georgia. I am not clear on if Bryan knows John is his wife's boyfriend. I asked if they might be in a thruple but GrammyC does not think so.

John also does Becky and Bryan's accounting but I don't think he's an accountant. (???) I don't know what exactly that entails because Becky will ask businesses to not deposit her checks right away and gets bent out of shape if they can't accommodate her. (How did she meet this guy? Are you confused? I'm confused. Why he is not over there helping his girlfriend if hubby Bryan can't? What?)

After the granddaughter went back to her mom in FL, which is a totally different long and sad story, Becky asked GrammyC if her husband could come by and take down her bird feeder because it reminded her of her granddaughter and made her sad. This was in September after GrammyC found out that the reason why her husband was having balance issues was due to a small stroke. She had already told Becky about this, reminded her, and let Becky know that Bryan would have to do it. She also couldn't take Becky places because she had her own set of doctor's appointments to go to for herself and her husband's stroke rehab and she other health issues he's been having. Mind you, they're in their late 70s and are older than Becky and Bryan.

Becky did not like this at all.

One of the times I was over at GrammyC's in either late September or early October, I guess Becky noticed. The fact that I was over more than once and Becky did not get introduced to me pissed her off. Becky either texted or Facebook messaged GrammyC about how she didn't want her to take her anywhere anymore and basically ended the "friendship". She did mention not getting introduced to me as some type of affront I guess.

I'm still not 100% sure how I got dragged into this as a reason. I'm not even sure I have the whole story yet!

GrammyC had told me about Becky and Bryan in passing. I didn't get to meet the kid before she went back to FL and I had not met Becky or Bryan either. I just knew they were neighbors but I didn't realize the extent of GrammyC's involvement in Becky's life. I think the whole thing had been weighing on GrammyC and I got an earful. I've never been listed as a reason in a friend breakup 😂

My gut says Becky did not like having a boundary set, got weirdly friend jealous and then overcorrected. IDK. I'll try to iron out these details soon. I was letting her vent so I did not get too many questions in

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

I’m a straight woman who thinks jimin may be gay/bi but totally independent of jikook or any ship. I don’t think any other members are queer actually but I also don’t follow them as closely as jimin. My oT7 real life army friends are also of this thinking but they are very not online and don’t even know about the jikook taekook stuff lol.

The way I see it, those PJMs who react aggressively to any jimin being queer talks are just overcorrecting for the jikooker stuff that they see is hurting jimin. Idk just my opinion.

I truly don’t care what jimin is I just love his gentleness and strength and kindness and wonderfulness and these qualities you rarely see in cis men, especially ones that rich and famous. He’s so special 🥺

I do ship him with wi hajoon and Charles melton in my head tho 😶‍🌫️

I got into BTS in mid 2017, and only started thinking there was something between jikook in late 2018- early 2019. But even before that, I already thought Jimin wasn't straight.

People who think more than two BTS members are queer are SO DELUSIONAL I CANT STRESS IT ENOUGHHHH. Sometimes I think even two is kind of a reach but it's still a sensible statistic. I actually don't think many idols are queer.

Even for Jungkook, the only reason shippers have to think he's gay is ships 😭 there's not much he does outside of skinship and other BTS related stuff that could be used as proof he's queer. I mean, in the real world. In the world of a kpop fan, wearing a crop top is peak queerness. They're an easy public.

Imagine if Jimin was the one watching and liking tiktoks of a girl showing her thong, or dming female dancers on Instagram, copying her choreography, or constantly interact with a girl group member the way Jungkook did with chaewon. The video inside his apartment, as well. And that's only talking about the recent stuff, because if we go way back there's years of actual evidence of Jungkook having close relationships with women that his same fans would use to shit on Jimin. Even jikookers would think Jimin liking a girl showing her thong was a red flag as to how he's straight. They believe Jimin saying wow during a hwasa performance was peak heterosexuality and bring it up every 3 business days. Makes you wonder why they don't do the same with Jungkook seemingly showing interest on women.

Yeah, a lot of pjms react to strongly because they can't look past the ship or because they don't want others to use "gay" as an insult towards Jimin. But that's not helping any matters.. being called gay never was and will never be an insult, no matter who or why they say it.

I don't care what he is, either. I just have a feeling and that's it. I've had the same feeling about other people all my life and I've always ended up being right lol.

Just a funny anecdote; I think Ashley Benson was my craziest case of impeccable gaydar. I watched the first season of pretty little liars when it came out. I was 14, and while watching the show and the interviews and all, I kept thinking Ashley wasn't straight. A million years ago by, and she ends up dating Cara Delevingne. It was crazy just because of how young I was, and I knew nothing of Ashley except for the show.

In 2019, I was watching an interview of the queer eye cast without knowing anything about them (because that's how I go about when I'm getting into something -trying to get to know it by myself), and while watching I couldn't stop thinking "this one's not gay, he's bi" about Antoni. A few weeks later, I found out Antoni had come out as bisexual.

But you won't see me talking about that stuff because I don't really go around telling people "I think this one's gay", I don't care like that; it's just thoughts that cross my mind, a feeling, a hunch or whatever. If I end up being wrong, it's not a big deal since I was never going to put my hand on the fire for any of it. I'm not scared of being wrong. That and... I know that Jimin is a real person. There's more to him than his sexuality, and it's not the reason I started liking him in the first place.

Yes, he's totally secretly dating wi hajoon and dated charles for like a month in the past. We all saw charles putting his arm on Jimin's back and that can mean only one thing in Korea.