#but also i just...don't get the indication that they behaved as if it was one-sided love the entire time

[bunnys-kisses]

how can i take your order? all you have to do is pick a dessert, drink and driver/character of your choosing! are you in the mood for a mille-feuille or a big slice of chocolate cake! please, please, please indicate who you want me to write about!!

the servers are from the following: formula one, call of duty, baldur's gate 3, haikyuu, one piece, jujustu kaisen, detective comics (dc), marvel comics (but i am open to any other fandoms you might have in mind! please do not hesitate to ask!!)

i do also accept polyam relationships! (pairing + reader), up to about four people! just to make it manageable on my end!

all orders can be made to the inbox for @bunnys-kisses and i'll get your order together asap! also let me know if you want it extra sweet or a little more spicy !

mille-feuille: “that’s it, fuck, that’s a good girl.”

butter tart: "let's ruin ourselves for anyone else."

sugar pie: “gonna let daddy hear ya?”

zebra cake: "well, what do we have here?"

carrot cake: "swallow it. all of it."

millionaire shortcake: "if they saw you now, you'd be the biggest shame to your family."

pots de crème: "if a picture is worth a thousand words, then i could probably get a million dollars for this photo."

oat flapjacks: "i'm not scared of you."

persian rolls: "it's mandatory i finish. you getting to finish is a treat."

spice pie: "i didn't know it was possible to be a liar and a slut."

mushroom pie: "if you don't shut up. i'm going to shut you up."

lemon slice: "i'm sorry, what was that? i can’t hear you over all that noise you’re making."

swiss roll: "everything you own, everything you wear i paid for. so i guess that means i own you."

pumpkin pie: "i've met strays who were more obedient."

pastry braid: "your job is to make me cum. now get to work."

sausage roll: "i wonder how much i could get for photos of this cunt."

pithivier: "if you don't behave, i'll let the boys take care of you."

tiramisu: “my little slut to ruin.”

sponge toffee: "aw, is someone mad that they can only cum because of me?"

pull-apart bread: "i love you"

powered sugar donuts: "marry me."

blueberry bars: “gonna make you a mamma and you're gonna make me a daddy.”

pudding chomeur: "i don't share."

ice cream bars: “did you see the way he was eyeing you? he need to know you're mine."

chocolate cake: "do you feel that? that's what happens when i think about you all day."

soufflé: "i'll be gentle."

fried dough: "i know virginity is a stupid concept... but i want to take yours."

apple pie: "now be good and beg. thank you."

vanilla cheesecake: "where are your manners?"

berry trifle: "wrong. try again."

maple cream pie: "either you wear the necklace with my name on it, or wear my bruises around your neck."

s'more: "The accent gets to you, doesn't it?"

belgian waffles: "i cum in that every night."

pancakes: "if you bite me. i'll bite you back."

loaf of whole wheat bread: "you're going to shut that mouth and take me."

jos louis: "does someone need a daddy?"

maple taffy: "oh my god you're stupid."

snowballs: "don't worry, drug tests aren't till next week."

shortbread cookies: "and who does this belong to?"

flan: "i'm not possessive... i'm obsessive."

peach cake: "if you spill a drop, we start all over."

angel food cake: "if he fucks with me again, i'm finishing inside of you."

red velvet cupcake: "if you don't like being called a whore, then stop acting like one."

mince pie: "i'm not jealous."

banana bread: "i'm going to fuck that sweet pussy of yours until the only word your little brain can form is my name."

crumb cake: "if you just listened, all of this could've been avoided."

chocolate chip cookies: "you're beautiful when you smile, but you're the prettiest when my cock is in your throat"

nanaimo bars: "who's my pretty girl? c'mon say it."

coffee cake: "knees. now."

sourdough bread: "i'm going to breed you."

blueberry muffins: "i don't think it'll fit."

pound cake with strawberries: "you know i hate going over rules, but just because i like seeing you embarrassed, i'll tell you them again."

croissant: "i wonder if your father knows what happens during the off hours. if he knows you're here with me."

crepe: "pretty girl."

french toast: "you're trying to make me jealous!"

churros: "if you don't shut that little mouth of yours, i will stuff it full. okay?"

shortbread squares: "you're just mad that that my cock fits perfectly in you now. must be a blow to the ego that we're a perfect match."

savory pastry: "let your brother find out."

sweet pastry: "i'll make it all better."

eclairs: "the family's precious little girl. under me like a slut."

boston cream pie: "yeah, i'll use protection."

bagel: “gonna paint you with my teeth.”

crostata: “stupid slut, this is what you wanted huh? wanted me to fuck you like i hate you.”

tres leches: "i wonder if your brother know i cum in you."

peanut butter bars: “scratch me, bite me, just mark me sweetheart. show them I’m yours.”

eton mess: "be careful. your breath smells like cum."

scones: "but what if they see us!"

english muffin: "aw, is someone crying?"

honey cruller: "i forget how small you are sometimes."

banana split: "don't look at me like that."

beer brownies: "stick your tongue out anymore and you'll look like a dog."

fudge: "your father is pissing me off."

sticky toffee pudding: "the only way this is ending is you getting pregnant."

hot cross buns: "don't hide your face from me. i'd hate to have to tie you up."

brownies: "you're so much more agreeable when you have something to occupy that mouth of yours."

chocolate mousse: "the only necklace you need is my hand around your throat"

tim bits: "stupid little thing."

fruitcake: "i'll make tonight special."

cornmeal muffin: "i need you most."

devil's food cake: "you're my most unhealthy obsession."

crème caramel: "oh. you thought you were getting away from me?"

banana & chocolate muffins: "i'm only doing this because you need to learn how to behave, rules are rules, and you need to follow them."

custard tart: "i've never done this before."

cinnamon rolls: "no one needs to know."

mango sorbet: "you are by far the dumbest thing i've ever fucked. how did they even let you graduate?"

date squares: "you look better with my marks on you."

figgy duff: "if i buy it, will you stop pouting?"

spicy upside down cake: "let's play a game: don't get caught."

cream puffs: "let me finish inside."

profiteroles: "come away with me. for a week, together. anywhere you want, we'll go."

with a side of:

coffee: rivals

tea: semi-public/public sex

juice: cockwarming

mocha coffee: breeding kink

bubble tea: daddy kink

a vodka shot: rough sex

sparkling water: gentle sex

coconut water: alternate universe

energy drink: doggy style

champagne: sugar daddy situation

hard lemonade: possessive behaviour

espresso shot: dirty talking

a glass of wine: cowgirl position

ice capp coffee: werewolf au

bloody mary: vampire au

martini: mafia au

frozen latte: dumbification

frozen lemonade: consensual non-consent

cranberry juice: mean!character

glass of water: aftercare

chocolate milk: tenderness

milkshake: size kink

pina colada: pregnancy

cider: body worship

mai tai: loss of virginity

margarita: unprotected sex

mint julep: punishments

chai: biting/hickies

earl grey: big cock

fishbowl cocktail: protected sex

tonic water: age gap

matcha latte: collars/bondage

root beer: filming/recording

soda: jealousy

americano: oral sex

whisky: degrading language

vitamin water: dom/sub dynamic

irish coffee: high sex

sangria: drunk sex

dark roast coffee: sub!character

dark hot chocolate: sub!reader

iced tea: accidentally launching relationship

lemon water: university/college au

naked & famous: bimbo/ditzy!reader

on the house: author's choice!

ORDER UP!

[mercurianthing]

SHORT ASTROLOGY OBSERVATIONS Pt.6🗣️😻👠

🫶🏽 Saturn in the 10th house can indicate that at the beginning of your career you were not liked at all and other people laughed at you because of something you did (usually what you became famous for) but later in your career you get positive publicity and you start getting appreciation and love from other people And because you learned from the lesson you already passed at the beginning of your career, and only after that you started to receive love and appreciation from other people, you know exactly how to work and how to behave in the life of publicity and fame and that is exactly what makes you continue to receive the love and appreciation you receive from your audience for many years after.

🫶🏽 I don't think there is a mercury - uranus (especially conjunct) who doesn't experience that feeling when you think of something you want to say and the moment you want to say it you forget what you wanted to say and you still keep thinking about what you wanted to say hoping and feeling that you will remember it but after a few minutes you despair and realize that you have completely forgotten.

🫶🏽 I don't care what your style is right now, start dressing according to your venus and ascendant signs and if you want to attract a lot of attention and you don't care about other people's reactions, also according to your lilith sign. IT LOOKS THE BEST ON YOU.

🫶🏽 I'm sorry for all of pisces mercury (uranus - mercury too) who have experienced again and again, each time anew the moment when you say something and everyone gives you back "what?" and then again, you repeat what you said and once again everyone answers you "what?" because they never understand what you say or hear what you say, it sounds sucks to experience it every time.

🫶🏽 Venus conjunct MC (also venus conjunct jupiter) is just the definition of pretty privilege in a human being, no matter what this people say or how shitty their personality is people still gonna see them as the most beautiful person they've ever seen.

🫶🏽 When you have placements in your 2nd house it's either you love makeup and literally can't go out naturally no matter what or you don't care at all about all the makeup industry and appreciate and respect the beauty's of natural face. there's NO in between, I think it depends on what placements you have in your 2nd house.

🫶🏽 Sagittarius moons have the loudest laugh and the most beautiful smile ever, they are just so beautiful when they smile and are truly the funniest people ever. they literally can be the most serious in the world, accidentally look at one of their friends and in a second burst out laughing and get out of all seriousness, in a second.

🫶🏽 Venus - chiron/saturn can indicate that relationships can overwhelm you and bring out a certain insecurity from you (can be fear, trust issues and jealousy) but if the relationship is with the right person for you then as time passes in a relationship with that person you will learn, to free yourself from this insecurity and this person will learn you how to put aside this insecurity and he will bring out sides of you through which you manage to live without this particular insecurity, sides that you didn't even know are existed in you.

🫶🏽 THAT'S IT FOR TODAY, SENDING ENERGY OF GOODNESS AND LOVE.❤️‍🔥

[freedelusionshere]

I don't want to set any unreasonable expectations, but the sleight of hand and legerdemain mention in S3 could also be referring to the status of Syd and Carmy's relationship.

While I think it definitely refers to the fine dining smoke and mirrors going on (while The Bear is broke, changing the menu everyday Jeffery Ballet, trying to recreate Empire), and Carmy being trapped in his own illusions of grandeur (and trapping others with him, primarily Syd, who shields the others), it could also be about their relationship.

There is plenty of subtle evidence of stuff happening, and maybe more off screen. First and foremost, their comfort at showing resentment of each other while sticking it out regardless. They behave like a married couple bickering in several scenes. There is a subtle progression here:

Syd calling herself his accomplice is a big one for me. Seems a bit resigned, doesn't she?

Carmy' wanting to lock down Syd by promising her the star and a partnership agreement to make it legal. Which she is hesitant to do for a number of reasons.

Syd making the margins wider for him after the funeral of Marcus's mother, where the message we know they hear is that they have to look at each other close up. It indicates Syd reaching for him emotionally.

Carmy telling Syd she's dressed nice and obviously wondering where she's been outside the restaurant. The way their voices both get soft in this scene. I know people think stuff will happen with Luca, but really, it set up Syd as "cheating" on their restaurant this season just like he did last season with the C-person.

How did Syd get her apartment lease when she has bad credit and would likely need someone to co-sign? It's not her dad's doing, the show made sure we knew that. It's likely Carmy. And she's on deferred pay.

Carmy saying he's sick of this shit. He is sick of the restaurant. He is very clearly not sick of Syd, though!

Syd treating Nat, Pete, and the baby like family and looking out for them. His whole family pressuring her to sign the agreement.

Carmy telling her to go home and get some rest and he'll finish up in Apologies, and also asking her to be his plus one in public outside the restaurant.

Him cleaning his side of the street up, spraying off shit in the back of The Bear and seeming somehow mostly unbothered and feeling hopeful about the future even after Cicero tells him about pulling the funding and pressuring him to talk to his mom. Why? Because he knows he's going to see Syd later.

Carmy getting ready to go to the Ever dinner. We see he has a scrunchie and there are hairpins on his dresser. Syd pins her hair up for the Ever dinner. She wears scrunchies. It's on the prayer card and Syd is associated with Mikey constantly. Carmy makes sure to get there before her so he can introduce her and have her be seen with him.

Despite what happens with Chef David, he comes out on the other side seeming more clear-headed about what he wants. Then, the other shoe(s) drop in true cliffhanger finale style.

In S4, my expectation is that we're going to get a lot of Syd POV about all of this.

[schildpadkneus]

Since there is a lot of misinformation when it comes to the "incident" that got Joost Klein disqualified I figured I'd put a post out with information from actual news outlets and not speculations from social media users.

If you are too lazy to read everything, here's a summary of everything I've been able to find:

After his performance in the semi finale, Joost was filmed despite agreements he wouldn't be.

The camera woman did not listen when he asked her to stop several times.

Joost got angry and made the camera woman in question feel so threatened the police was called on Joost.

Despite what fans think, it was confirmed by Dutch commentator Cornald Maas that the Israeli act and their delegation were not involved. I understand the frustration with their participation and I ranted about their disgusting behaviour at Eurovision here, but they were not involved with this incident.

He did not hit or even touch the woman involved.

Nor did she make any remarks about his parents.

STOP SPREADING MISINFORMATION.

Continue to read for more details.

Edited only for later addition (as indicated) and slightly changed the wording because I was rambling in the initial post.

According to Avrotros (the Dutch broadcaster of Eurovision), Joost had made a threatening motion towards the woman.

According to the Swedish Aftonbladet, multiple witnesses say he behaved very aggressively and damaged/broke(?) the camera.

The rest of this will be speculating. Hopefully as unbiased as possible.

Based on other interviews and discussions about the incident in Dutch media, it sounds like Joost was probably just very overwhelmed. It is reasonable to think the artists are under a lot of pressure to perform well, and it's fair to conclude the controversy of Israel's participation has only added to artists' frustration and the pressure. Add the whole aspect of this being Joost's childhood dream and the passing of his parents and the fact he had already complained about the many many rules of eurovision and you get this explosion of emotions and frustrations. Apparently he also gets very emotional during the outro, and I imagine such a performance does come with loads of adrenaline.

Considering that nice little cocktail of stress, frustrations, emotions and adrenaline, it is likely he just snapped. He was already on the edge, and then the employee filmed him when he didn't want to be filmed and didn't back off when he asked her to, so he did something stupid and irrational.

That is a human response, I don't think he's a bad person for that, I just think he did something stupid in the heat of the moment. If it was something really bad he would've been arrested and locked up, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. That does not mean he should go unpunished, however.

Whatever he did, he made this photographer/camera woman (sources alternate between which one it was) feel so threatened the police got involved. I trust this judgement.

Don't get me wrong, I do think she should have stopped filming when she was asked, but we don't know the full story here. She could have misunderstood the situation, maybe she was unaware of the agreement she should not have been filming him, maybe it was just a stupid mistake.

Regardless of what truly happened, I hope we can all agree both were in the wrong but both have also been punished enough now.

The employee in question should not have been filming in the first place and stopped when asked.

Joost should not have done whatever it was he did.

For the love of god, please stop meddling in situations we know virtually nothing about and definitely stop taking sides. It is never ok to wish horrible things upon anyone.

We don't know what happened and chances are we will never fully know. We don't even know any of these people, we don't know what they are like, we only have little bits and pieces.

I also really want to know but it's not that difficult to just shut up and not say anything in favour of or against anyone until we have more details. You can condemn people for their actions but not when we don't even know what those actions were.

They both should have been punished and they both were.

A bunch of you should have been punished for the vile things I've seen you spout about Joost or this poor woman.

Basic fucking decency and common sense is not that difficult.

Later addition: (I've calmed down a bit)

I posted this about an hour ago but I want to add I do support Joost and feel bad for him but if it is true he punched and broke a camera it disqualification was not an unreasonable punishment. The awful rumours were just an unnecessary kick in the stomach.

If it turns out he did not damage the camera I will happily eat my words.

It is a pity he did not perform in the grand finale considering the huge potential it had but we can't excuse that behaviour. I hope he learns from this situation enough to prevent himself from getting in more trouble.

This does not mean I support the ebu btw <3 fuck the ebu

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

aita for being part of the end of my friends' relationship and then refusing to take sides?

so i travel often for work. i live in the city my company is based out of, and the other two cities we operate out of are currently a little understaffed so people from my city will often go and spend a week or two working elsewhere to make up the gaps while we hire.

i was recently asked to spend a week away, along with a few coworkers i'm friends with. it was me (25f), this guy N (24m), and this girl J (24f). N was dating another coworker based out of the city we were visiting for the week, L (26f), who i'm friends with. i'm also really good friends with another coworker in that city, C (23f), who had never met N before but was also friends with L and therefore knew of him. a big group of us wound up going out for supper and drinks on our first night in town, since we weren't expected to work until late afternoon the next day. L was invited but chose not to go, as she was exhausted, and C was invited and she came.

as the night wound down, it was just me, N, J, and C hanging out in my hotel room. earlier in the night, N and C had made a bet about who could punch harder (we were all PRETTY drunk), and it came up again and they started play fighting and wrestling once it was only the four of us. i was talking to J and not super paying attention, but when next we looked over, N and C were curled up on one of the beds, very very close and cozy. they were both asleep. obviously J and i were uncomfortable with this and after a short discussion, woke them up and separated them. while C was in the bathroom, we told N that what had happened was inappropriate and hurtful to his girlfriend, and he immediately seemed to realize this and messaged her right away to say what happened, and received no answer as it was really late. i encouraged him to tell L that i was there and had seen what happened so i could help explain - it was a shitty and awkward thing to do, but considering the circumstances, i figured she would be really pissed at him for a while but they'd be able to talk about it and set boundaries for the future. this is not what she chose to do.

L messaged me first thing in the morning and i explained what had happened, and before we were off the phone and before she had spoken to EITHER N or C, she had decided that she no longer wanted to talk to or see either of them. she planned to speak with each of them once to inform them of her decision and that would be that. she was pissed and i fully get that and empathize, but the reaction seemed a little extreme.

both C and N were really devastated. i felt really rotten about the whole thing, but at the end of the day i would've wanted to know if my partner was behaving like that with one of my friends, and J and i agreed that L had to be told. and when L and i spoke she explicitly said she expected and was okay with me remaining friends with C, which I am. i think C behaved stupidly but not maliciously.

i messaged L a number of times in the days following, to check in and see how she was. she wasn't super responsive but she was busy, so i didn't think much of it. and then she heard that i had seen C and was suddenly blowing up my inbox looking to vent about C's behaviour and asking if she seemed remorseful and stuff.

i don't want to lose either C or L as friends, but i feel like despite what she said, L really thinks i should drop C as a friend and seems really annoyed that i haven't. when i saw C she was upset but we mostly just didn't talk about what happened. since i've now gone home, i won't have any opportunities to see L or C anytime soon.

tldr: i was witness to inappropriate behaviour between a friend and another friend's partner, which i then told the partner about. she says she's okay with me staying friends with the other girl but her behaviour indicates differently.

so, aita for getting involved in this and then refusing to cut either party off?

[grison-in-space]

I know we're past this point, but I'm beyond exhausted with ARA mentality making its way into the public consciousness. Flaco being championed as a symbol of freedom, Dodo promoting anthropomorphism, celebrities backing PETA, fucking TIKTOK. I work with sled dogs and I don't know how many people per week accuse us of abuse because dogs should be free and not "chained up" and why do we "make" the dogs work. No matter what you say, they just twist your words and take your frustration as admission. Sorry for the rant, but it's getting beyond annoying! How do we combat the misinformation when they take your information and say that you can't read an animals mind, even when the animal's behavior suggest its content?

Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I'm right there with you! It frustrates me, too, especially because animal communication and signaling was a huge part of my doctoral work, so I have spent a lot of time thinking about how animals can encode and unpack information from signals and cues* to communicate and share information with one another.

What I will usually do if I run into someone like this is treat the comment that "you can't read an animal's mind" as pertaining to both of us. I sure can't read an animal's mind, and neither can you, friend! So how can animals communicate with us about what they want? How can we use evidence from the animal'l own behavior to indicate its preferences?

Well, when we give animals choices, what do they do? Matilda doesn't love harnesses for their own sake, but she knows that she doesn't come with me for the day if the harness isn't out. When she sees the harness, she approaches me and stares intently; if I don't pick it up and put it on her, she will sometimes move in front of my and block my path to the outside. Or take my mice. When we open the top of the cage for a behavior session for the mice in my lab (a noninvasive "game" that asks them to choose between one side or another in exchange for little squirts of watered down Ensure), it's common to see mice pop out of the cage and start racing around the rim, trying to climb onto a hand. Animals learn cues from us about what is going to happen next, and they behave accordingly. If they aren't enjoying a task, you can usually tell!

Okay, that's for small, easily understood time units. What about the big questions? Would a dog rather run free than run in harness with a human handler? Well, it's certainly hard to get an informed consent from an animal, because again, no language to communicate risks TO THEM. But you can also go, okay, what does freedom actually look like for free roaming wild animals? There's... an awful lot of bad deaths out there, it turns out.

Like, a lot.

Hey. You're a human who presumably prefers to live in society. If I told you that I had the offer of a lifetime for you, where you'd be released from all debts and obligations to human society and in exchange you could go live on a naked island by yourself in a hut with a bucket to drop waste in and no running water, and just enough food to keep you alive until you learned how to successfully forage for yourself, would you do it? Or would you keep your debts and your job in exchange for being able to rely on a society to prevent your neighbors from deciding to murder you for rations, construct safe and hygienic ways to handle drinking water and waste, and devise predictable and palatable things to eat? Would you like to be released into the world without a social group or any connections, or would you rather stay in a society even though you're not able to make any possible decision that might flicker into your head?

If they tell me "yeah I'd love that actually," ask why they're not doing it right now. Like, I'm assuming you work tourism in some capacity, Nonny; why are they shelling money out for this dogsled ride if their dream is to be free of Society? Living in a big collective group always entails some loss of freedoms (e.g. I cannot play big brass music at full volume at 10pm unless I want my housemates to riot), but the potential gains (increased comfort, lowered costs, rewarding long term relationships) outweighs those costs.

Which is why when my dogs do get out, they usually stay in earshot and return when they're bored with brief exploration or they hear our alarmed contact calls. If the great outdoors was that much better, do you really think so many domestic animals would come right back?

*Technically speaking, you can extract information from both signals and cues, but a signal is intended to transmit information to a receiver and a cue is a physiological byproduct of an individual's state. Think of it as the difference between a human making eye contact with you and then glaring versus seeing a human having a whole-ass meltdown directed at no one in particular on a park bench. This is a meaningful difference for animals, too: I did quite a bit of work on eavesdropping in the animal world, where messages intended for one kind of receiver can be detected, accessed, and unpacked by another, much less desirable party — like a competitor or a predator.

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

hi! I'm new to the beatles lore and I've been trying to catch up on an insane level of information for weeks. it's been fun but also heartbreaking 💔💔 anyways, I wanted to ask a couple of questions if that's ok? for example, I keep seeing this narrative that john was using yoko as some sort of weapon against paul... what was john trying to achieve by that I mean where does this idea even come from? according to this, john was hurting paul on purpose while he was singing him love songs in the studio asking him to be partners again (as in songwriting creative partners) WHAT WOULD JOHN ACHIEVE DOING THAT? also it sounds very one sided like paul is the most innocent in the break up eventho he was the one who came up with a secret album and a lawsuit. I don't know what to think. before knowing them I used to think lennon was in love and on drugs so he got so annoying to the point that he broke up the band but now...

Hi there! Welcome to the fandom! don't worry about feeling overwhelmed at first there is a LOT to take in.

I want to say, I do get the feeling you are somewhat mixing things up here, though I don't particularly blame you for being confused. (if not then sorry! just want to clarify as much as I can)

Tedious as it sounds, I find keeping a timeline in my mind (ideally, accurate to the month) helpful to provide some clarity regarding the breakup era specifically, so the period of 1968-1971. John's studio taunting you're referring to would have happened between mid '68 and mid '69, but Paul worked on his solo album (what I presume you meant by "his secret album", though it wasn't all that secret – John had already released solo music of his own by that point*) in late '69 and early '70. He filed a lawsuit against the others in late '70.

*I think you're conflating the album itself with the fact that, along with the release of McCartney (said album), Paul "surprise revealed" he had quit the band to the public, which the other band members, especially John, were not impressed with.

That being said, the events of the breakup are still convoluted at best, even to "seasoned" fans, I'd say. One of my main pieces of advice I can provide as someone who's been doing this for more than 3 years is get comfortable with not knowing things and with some of the actors involved doing something fundamentally irrational sometimes. They're humans, they don't always make sense and they won't always be forthcoming about why they behaved the way they did.

Which brings me to the narratives you mention: I say this as nicely as possible, but sometimes people want to tell themselves the best story rather than the most truthful one. It's more important to some that John is taunting Paul out of some twisted form of love than why specifically.

To answer your question regarding where this particular idea comes from, I would say: Paul has indicated that he felt John replaced him with Yoko (in whatever way he meant by that – some think it's sexual, some it's about creative partnership, or simply as a best friend); John's behaviour clearly and drastically shifted for the worse in mid '68, which is around the time he got together with Yoko, left his family, and started doing heroin; footage from Get Back shows John both all over Yoko and trying to reach out to Paul periodically.

There's probably more, but I don't know if there's much point in getting into the weeds of it right now. My point is: it's not the only valid theory, IMO, and probably not the whole truth if it is true, but it's not unfounded.

I think it may be a misstep to dismiss a theory because "what would John achieve by that?" Again, people are not always acting in a way that strictly makes sense, especially not people with the issues John struggled with. Some people might say John was testing Paul, trying to make him fight for him. Some might say John had an outright sadistic streak. Others that he was too out of it to notice the pain he was inflicting on others. I think it could very easily be a mix of all three. When dealing with human emotions, I personally think it's a mistake to assume things are simple and straightforward, which is why a lot of tinhattery turns me off. It very often feels like a blanket-statement self-confirming axiom, rather than a truly thoughtful and multifaceted argument.

My most condensed version of events would be: John became incredibly difficult to work with in multiple ways (including but not limited to bringing Yoko to the studio) by mid '68; Paul, for the most part, tried to accomodate him, to diminishing returns, while having his own longterm relationship fall apart and being completely in over his head running a brandnew business; Paul deals with distress by burying himself in work, the other three do not – this leads to further conflict, along with issues over creative control; the band decide they need a new manager type to help them out with their new business and provide the guidance they haven't had since Brian died; cue John wanting Klein and only Klein and massively distrusting Paul's "nepo" choice of Eastman + apparently not trusting Paul's belief that Klein was bad news; extreme resentment over money issues which are incredibly underrated by the fandom because at their core they are boring, emotionally, ensue; John decides he's "over" the band and tells the others he's out; Paul is destroyed over this (and everything that led up to it), spends months spiraling and recording his album; wanting to get this all out of the way, Paul finally breaks down and admits he's leaving the Beatles to the world and to the band itself, even though he had asked John to stay quiet about his own quitting the band months earlier; John (understandably, IMO, though I don't blame Paul exactly – this is what I mean by not everything makes perfect sense) assumes Paul is using the band breakup for PR and gets a hell of a lot angrier than he already is about the money stuff; John undergoes primal therapy which opens up about 43273289635298 wounds; John does an interview in which he spills his guts and tears down almost everyone in his life except Yoko; meanwhile more financial issues. I cannot overstate that those matter too, tumblr is just not a place where finance peeps hang out; Paul is getting more and more fed up with all of this and he, as a last resort, files a lawsuit to no longer be legally tied to the others.

I for the most part left out George and Ringo here* and I'm writing off memory here without re-checking sources, so take what I say with a massive grain of salt. My main point is that this shit is complicated and don't let people tell you it isn't.

*I'm of the opinion that John and Paul are at the center of the breakup, but they also aren't the be-all, end-all of it. But because in the end George and Ringo fell "in line" with John and you didn't ask about them, I decided to mostly leave them out.

[astroyongie]

How would NCT127 react if they made their significant other cry

How Would NCT127 React If They Made Their S/O Cry

Taeil

It will really depend on where exactly he made you cry

if you start crying in public he will feel uneasy

and his first move would be to take you away so people don't stare

if you guys are in private he behaves differently

he will mostly try to understand why you are crying

and why was it his fault

Taeil would want to talk about it

He would listen to you and try to understand your feelings

He would apologize if he hurt you

and he would try to compensate by snuggling with you

hug you

or give you a sorry kiss

Johnny

Johnny is a paradox

because when he hurts you and your response is by crying he will conflict with his own feelings

firstly of course he feels bad

he will want to listen to your point

of why you crying, why you reacting like that

he might even understand you

but on another side, he is way too careless

and his emotional reticence will make him think that you are overacting (again)

and that can be conflicting if he says out loud that he thinks you are being dramatic about the whole thing

He will try to be fair

but mostly he doesn't talk much to solve the thing

he will let you do whatever you want because he doesn't want to be dragged on "your drama"

Probably uses his romantic side to make you forgive him

he might take things to a physical level as well

Taeyong

Taeyong can be sharp sometimes

and if he hurt you he might not understand it at first glance

seeing you cry will make him understand

However careful, because his placements also indicate that when he hurts someone he might take the victim role

in a way "oh I hurt you, I am the bad guy, leave me" type

So depending on you this would result in a fight

or in something quiet where both of you take some time away from each other to reflect

but he ain't stupid either

and he wouldn't like to stay in such a mood

he would be the type to annoy you, to be playful until you forgive him about what he did

Yuta

Oh this boy will hate himself for making you cry

of course, if you are crying there might have been something he has done, maybe due to a fight, an argument, or something else

doesn't matter to him, even if his point of view seems logical and important he will still feel bad for making you cry

Yuta will handle this in a diplomatic way

you guys would talk through calmly

each one exposing feelings and ideas to find a middle ground

He will try his best to make you forget about this

he is the type to wipe your tears away

to hug you

to make jokes

because making you laugh somehow helps him feel less shitty about the whole thing

Doyoung

He would be surprised if you start crying because of something he said or has done

contrary to the other boys, Doyoung might use emotional and logical manipulation to get himself out of the problem

basically reviewing what went wrong and try to argue things in a way that might touch you

not to ridicule your feelings

but to put another perspective on what you are feeling so he seems less guilty

He is a perfect storyteller

and the way he always put something positive and bright into his arguments makes him see more plausible

so there's a chance that by the end of the convo, you don't even understand or remember why you started crying at the first place

He would try to use also contact and love to ease your feelings

Jaehyun

Despite being an ass in love he isn't an ass in the totality of it

meaning that if he makes you cry he will feel compassionate

he will stop whatever he did or said that hurt you

and he would give you time to calm down

Jaehyun hates conflicts and no matter if he truly loves you or not, he will be patient and calm about it

He will stay quiet and allow you to express your feelings

he might just look at you, nod his head and understand

although he might not say sorry

he will show empathy

He will try to find a common ground so you guys don't get into that situation again

he will also allow you to make your own choices concerning the relationship

Jungwoo

He would become very quiet at first when he sees you cry

the type to feel very guilty about things

but at the same time, he would try to over-analyze why what he did or said made you cry

of course, he would want to know from your version

but he still makes his own idea of why you reacted the way you did

He would make the quick decisions

to talk It through right now

so you guys won't stay stuck in this mood

He won't hold grudge against himself

but he will be very understanding

Jungwoo would apologize for his wrongdoings

and after that he will do whatever you want to do

cuddle? sure! Do you need time ? no problem will be of service

Mark

He would be on the defensive

seeing you cry will mix his ego up and that's not something he appreciated

so if you gus are arguing and you start crying he gets defensive

and impatient with your cries

asking you to stop doing so

that you are being dramatic

and that it's not his fault if you feel things that way, because that's not what he meant

Mark can be very persuasive as well

and the same way you use your feelings to communicate he will do the same

"oh you crying because of this ? well it's because you did this or that" type

it would be honestly better for you both to take time away from each other o cool down and talk later

because in the moment he will refuse your guidance

he won't listen to your point

because only his own matters

Haechan

He can be a total prick

and his capricious side would come out as well

seeing you cry won't make him emotional nor guilty

because what matter for this man is to win whatever argument you both are

even if he knows that he is wrong

his placements clearly show that he feeds of arguments

and crying won't stop him

so yeah things can get heated pretty quickly

and just like Mark I think it would be better for you guys to take some time out

to cool down

and mostly not talk to him until he changes his point of view, which can take some time

Haechan is way too complicated to deal with honestly

[mllemaenad]

...I am going to regret asking this, I know, but what was the thing with Preston, and how far should I steer clear of that particular mod, as a Preston fan?

Oh. I ... would very much not recommend you playing this. This is very much the story of how I made a mistake.

So ... I can occasionally be a bit rash about installing mods, particularly if they offer new quests. It's a weakness of mine. It has meant that I have found the occasional overlooked gem, but it has also meant that sometimes I'm left flailing and wishing I could unsee what I just saw.

And my theory of mods is very much inline with my theory of fanfic: there is going to be so much stuff out there that is not to my taste, and if I don't like it I should back the hell out of it and never tell the author what I thought. It's just ... slightly more complicated to back out of a mod install than it is a fanfic.

Now I've looked it, there's a suite of three mods here: Depravity, Outcasts and Remnants and Project Valkyrie. They seem to enjoy considerable popularity, and they offer alternative routes through the main quest line, with a bunch of additional side quests to go along with them. In a fit of boredom I thought ... why not?

They're also big, foundational mods. If you go into a modding forum you'll find a lot of finger wagging about how you should never uninstall any mod mid game; you should always start a new save. But ... if I find at hour 60 that an armour mod is crashing my game, I'm uninstalling that thing and rolling the dice on going forward. These ones, though ... once they're in, you'll never get an ongoing save to load properly without them. Too big. Too many changes. You need a new game to uninstall.

So I did, to my later chagrin, put up with some indicators that these mods were not for me when I should have bitten the bullet and started over. The early stuff involved collaborating with a slaver and ... well, no thank you, really, but it did say it offered some "evil" options for progressing quests in places where there were only good ones. So, okay, more role playing options are broadly a good thing even if I don't want to engage with them very much; it also suggested that it had alternate "good" routes in other places, so I assume it wasn't just trying to be edgy. And there was a bunch of nonsense with raider women running around in absurd outfits, and female characters with ... let's say improbable proportions.

It can be interwoven with normal questing, though, so it was a thing I'd run into occasionally when going into the mod's storyline. Otherwise, I could just keep collecting companions and play on.

But what stopped me dead was the Preston thing. A core part of the mod's story centres around a group of Lyons loyalists who had become "outcasts" themselves as part of the regime change and fled to the Commonwealth well before the arrival of the Prydwen (an interesting concept, even if this take on it did not work for me).

They are, from their impossibly gigantic and well equipped base, investigating who is funding the Gunners. Well, spoilers, the answer to that question turns out to be the Enclave. You attack their base and fight your way to the bottom. And you find a terminal. The terminal reveals that Preston Garvey has been lying to you. He is, in fact, an Enclave officer who infiltrated the Minutemen specifically to collaborate with the Gunners on orchestrating the fall of Quincy. His superiors are currently annoyed with him because he's having too much fun stringing you along to come back to base and take on his next job.

The mod then invites you to confront and kill Preston for his crimes.

Does this make any sense to me, or in any way conform with the way Preston behaves in a normal, unmodded game? Nope. And yet. I'm sure there's more to it, but at that point I swore, accepted the fact that I had wasted an unreasonable number of hours trying to give this a fair chance (it's so popular), and set about scouring it from my game and starting over.

Terrible mistake.

I will note that, obviously, on a technical level this thing is very impressive. Voiced dialogue, scripted scenes, new dungeons, multiple quest lines – the lot. I can ... add keywords to an item in xEdit, in a pinch.

But the storyline was very much not for me. It seems to be accepted, at least by some corners of the fandom, that Preston is incurably annoying. I do not share this sentiment, but I can't tell people who to like. But this ... thing where they have to rewrite a good man as a villain so they can justify killing him is just ... baffling.

So my general advice would be: benefit from my error and keep your distance from these ones.

[brazenautomaton]

powerscaling is stupid in a way applicable to more than just powerscaling. there is maybe a point to this post but it's after a bunch of dumb bullshit you likely don't care about so I am putting it under a cut

got into an argument with a powerscaler on reddit. his argument was "because of these feats dante would mathematically beat homelander since he's so much faster and stronger" and my argument was "that's stupid nothing works like that"

key to his argument was a scene where dante throws his sword off the top of a tower, the sword starts heating up and glowing red in the atmosphere, and then dante runs down the side of the tower and catches up to it. since "re-entry speed" is 17,500 mph, and the sword was heating up from atmospheric re-entry, dante must therefore be capable of running at 17,500 miles per hour

and this is stupid because no he can't. he's not running 17,500 miles per hour in that scene because the tower isn't 300 miles high and he doesn't hit the ground in that scene (he gets swallowed by a flying whale so he can have a level inside a gross flying whale). more to the point he doesn't behave like someone who has the ability to travel at 17,500 miles per hour, because when there are things that he genuinely wants and he's not just fucking around, and the ability to run at 17,500 miles per hour would allow him to get what he wanted, he doesn't do that. the people involved don't behave like it's true.

powerscaling is all about taking one detail, interpreting that detail in isolation, making an inference from that interpretation, then proclaiming it ironclad mathematical truth without checking if it matches up with the actual thing you're talking about and whether people behave like it's true. "one interpretation of this shot is that the sword is experiencing atmospheric re-entry, atmospheric re-entry requires this level of speed, therefore it is traveling at this level of speed regardless of any other indications of what might be happening."

and it's notable to point out in the case of powerscaling because it's not a selfish deception, not a selective presentation to get away with something you want. it's not motivated reasoning to arrive at a predestined conclusion or to dismiss a new upsetting idea. this dude had these numbers ready to go, someone sat down and said "I want to know how fast this guy can go," and then made those inferences, concluded it was 17.5k, and said "well done, this is good information I can use to place this guy on a scale." any theory of this being intentional and self-serving obviously isn't true.

and the reason to point out that this isn't intentional and self-serving is that this problem is also the same problem as a shit-zillion political explanations! make an inference about one detail, work only from that detail, make a conclusion, don't check if it matches anything else.

it's obviously common to conspiracy theories, "this is one explanation for one thing that happened, so it means that happened, and I don't need to look at how it fits into anything else," but it can't be particular to conspiracy theories, since powerscalers aren't conspiracy theorists! you can see how people would engage in motivated reasoning or intentionally decieve you that way, but that's not what powerscalers are doing!

so like that one argument back when hogwarts legacy came out, when what's his face was saying "the game is antisemitic, that is the obvious inference to make based on the promotional material saying the game is about quashing a goblin rebellion" even after being told that the game was out and we didn't have to make inferences about its content, we can see its content, and that's not what's in it; that was this same thing. "I made this inference, i KNOW there is more information that contradicts it, but my inference is true." this is by far from the only political example I could use, you can think of some yourself. and most of them are of the form "if that was true, why do the people involved not act like that was true, even though if it was true they would?"

it's not even confirmation bias or being stubborn, because, like, when you won't change your mind based on new information you generally have a reason you don't think that information is trustworthy. this isn't that! people aren't saying "this is why the other things being contradictory doesn't matter," they are saying "this is a valid inference to draw if we only look at this information, therefore, the inference is true regardless of what other information we have." is there a name for this? is there even a point to making this post? no there isn't

[scoobydoodean]

Do you have siblings, and what order are you in?

How do you view and feel about Sam running away multiple times, and then in 5.16 Sam running away are the only memories he's given? (and do you think angels did that purposefully?)

I am the younger of two and I understand how Sam can run away and how it would only be about getting away from their, but that Dean would feel the brunt of it all. But I can totally imagine my older sibling understanding Dean, but not necessarily Sam's pov.

I also don't think Sam's reasoning is ever fully explained, at least in 5.16, it makes him seem much more selfish and uncaring. I think he assumed Dean was better equipped to handle living with their dad alone simply because he behaved, it just happened to be that Dean and dad were linked - and I don't really know how much they talked about their relationship with their dad till they were older.

I wonder if Dean ever would've considered leaving John and living somewhere near Sam, or even running away with Sam.

I have three siblings. I'm in the middle. Two older siblings and the caboose is 7 years younger than me. So I remember what it's like to be the baby but I also know what it's like to play older sibling to a sibling several years younger than me. My younger brother and I are also very close.

If this was all prompted by my comment the other day that I wasn't looking forward to watching "Dark Side of the Moon", I don't dislike the episode because it shows Sam running off. I do have issues with the episode, but a large part of my distaste for it is that it is generally very depressing. It being depressing in of itself isn't a criticism of the episode—it's supposed to be depressing because it's about total loss of hope and belief for Dean (and then Cas as well losing hope at the end of the episode). It's doing what it's supposed to do in that sense. It's just hard to watch. Unfortunately, a lot of people take the bleakness of it and the idea that Dean is a burden and etc as truth and not manipulation meant to drive him to say "yes", and that also makes me rather sour about it.

I don't care that Sam wanted to go to college, or that he was happy at another family's thanksgiving at one point in his life. The Flagstaff memory bothers me a little because Sam's fond recollection of it, unmarred by any negative associations, clearly suggests he didn't face any consequences for running off once John found him. The fact that he never even into his adult life considered that Dean might have faced consequences does feel rather self-centered, and that's on purpose. I don't care that Sam went to school or that there were points as a kid where he wanted to run off.

I do disagree with the premise that Sam still desires some normal core Thanksgiving. I simply don't think that would be a favorite memory for Sam anymore. Just a few episodes prior to this, in "Swap Meat", Sam sat down with someone else's family for a normal, family dinner and he hated it. He found Gary's parents absolutely obnoxious. He told Gary afterward that he envied his life, only to turn to Dean and say he lied.

SAM I totally lied. That kid's life sucked ass. All that apple-pie, family crap? It's stressful. Trust me – we didn't miss a damn thing.

Or observe earlier in the episode:

DEAN You ever think that you'd want something like that? Wife, rugrats, the whole nine? SAM No, not really my thing anymore.

In fact, it's Dean who envies the normal life in "Swap Meat" and several other episodes (ex: 2.20, 4.19) whereas Sam indicates several times that a normal life is not something he wants (2.02, 2.10, 2.20, 4.08, 4.19, 5.12). In 4.08 and in 2.20, Sam in fact overtly states that he would not go back and choose a normal life now if he could go back. In 3.01, 4.19, and in 5.06, Sam also heavily emphasizes the importance of family within the hunting dynamic. I track a lot of this within the tag #sam the hunter.

I think there is a strong argument to be made that Zachariah ran them through heaven like rats in a maze in 5.16, directing them toward certain memories and not others in order to make Dean believe that Sam doesn't care for him (I have a separate post to make about this in more detail). However, I don't believe Zachariah forced in memories that aren't "greatest hits". I think he just drove them away from any happy memories Sam has with Dean and toward ones where Sam grasped independence from John, misappropriated to make Dean feel Sam doesn't care about Dean or appreciate/recognize his sacrifices (the former is not true, but the latter is in fact true in many cases).

Note though that when Joshua arrives and takes them to heaven's garden:

SAM: This is heaven’s Garden? DEAN: It’s-it’s nice… ish. I guess. JOSHUA: You see what you want to here. For some it’s God’s throne room; for others it’s Eden. You two, I believe it’s the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. You came here on a field trip.

So right there, we have a shared favorite memory, right after (presumably) any potential influence Zachariah had on what memories they were seeing was eliminated.

What primarily irritates me about this episode and many other Dabb/Loflin episodes is their perpetual need to insert the narrative that Sam wants a normal life he explicitly states he does not want over and over and over in everyone else's episodes, while they write Dean as someone who says things like "I mean, we’re supposed to be a team. It’s supposed to be you and me against the world, right?" It implies a sort of desperation vs apathy that, even when contradicted in subtler ways, I just don't find interesting... And yet they seem to harp on the same dramatic "misunderstanding" over and over and over for all eternity. And Dabb continues it after cutting ties with Loflin. In fact he continues to toy with these obnoxious dramatics to the very end of the series in a way I find unbelievably tired and obnoxious and I resent it. He's the same one-trick pony when it comes to his ideas on Dean and Cas conflicts in the later seasons.

As to your last bit there: Dean did consider running off. We see this in "Bad Boys", and in that episode, we also see that Dean doesn't end up abandoning their family because he felt Sam needed him. We hear a similar narrative in regards to John in 1.06 from the mouth of the shifter—that Dean had dreams of his own, but Dean felt that John needed him, so Dean stayed. John echoes this when he says that he was an emotional wreck and Dean took care of him (2.01). We see Dean also taking care of Mary in "Dark Side of the Moon" after she gets off the phone with John, upset. 5.16 casts Dean as someone perpetually sacrificing his own needs for his family, but unappreciated all the while. In fact, Sam doesn't recognize any of his sacrifices. Dean is nothing more than a blood offering on the altar of family. Zachariah intends this narrative and leans into it heavily in the scene where he explicitly manipulates what Sam and Dean are seeing.

MARY: Don’t you walk away from me. I never loved you. You were my burden. I was shackled to you. Look what it got me. The worst was the smell. The pain, well. What can you say about your skin bubbling off? But the smell was so… You know, for a second I thought I’d left a pot roast burning in the oven. But… it was my meat. And then, finally, I was dead. The one silver lining was that at least I was away from you.

Zachariah has Mary speak about Dean being a burden to his family and to her, but it's potentially more layered than "Dean has abandonment issues". What Mary says about being shackled to Dean—being burdened by her child—firmly recollects Dean's claim to Cas in 5.03 that he's chained to his family through responsibility, and that finally being away from Sam is a relief. This fake Mary says death was her escape from similar chains of responsibility to her loved ones. It was the only escape. Burned up and dead but finally free. There's an implication there that Dean can finally escape responsibility in a similar way, and in two episodes, Dean is going to try and escape by saying "Yes".

[almightyhamslice]

Opila Bird's chicks! I redesigned them so now each one has a unique appearance. They don't have wall art depictions because they weren't planned, they just kind of happened. Opila and Tarta made them of their own accord but it wasn't seen as something strange or scary, it was treated like when baby animals are born at a zoo. Banban's resort RLLY capitalized on it LOL. Would you buy a plushie of them if they were real?

They're all roughly the same age, but I like to think Birthday Bird acts like the oldest sibling and Little Beak (originally named Shortcake) is treated as the youngest due to her small stature. Icecream Cake and Cupcake don't have apparent genders cuz I rlly couldn't decide when I redesigned them, I just knew I wanted at least one of the pink chicks to be a boy (hence Birthday Bird's roosterlike appearance).

As indicated by his name, Birthday Bird was often taken from his flock and presented to children on their birthdays. He was pretty well behaved and the most friendly towards humans, and was more familiar with the other mascots than his siblings were. He probably liked Banban! He was very well fed-- kids would often give him crumbs of cake if they didn't eat all of it. Of course, Banban would get jealous if they didn't give him a slice too.

Cupcake was born without a beak and wears a bucket over their head to cover it up. I'm not sure if it hurts, but it is definitely hard for them to eat. I imagine they had a specific caretaker that'd feed them by hand every day when the resort was open. After it was abandoned I imagine the chicks slowly got sicker and sicker due to the lack of food, which Cupcake would've suffered the worst from.

I attempted to vary the chicks' genetics a bit, so none of them look exactly like either parent-- They're generally not very Tarta-esque (I assume Tarta was not planned until literally banban 3 & Devilfood's unique coloring was originally meant as a ref to Opila's unused color scheme "the haze") but I wanted Shortcake and Icecream Cake to be slightly more red to reflect Tarta's markings, and I drew Angelfood with blue feathers on her wings to reflect his main feather color. On the other side of the coin, I depicted Devilfood with yellow beak and feet because that's how he looks in Punchrush (which I think is off model since Tarta also has this inconsistency but it's unique anyways). Maybe I should've drawn Cupcake with red feet like Tarta's?

I named and designed these guys during a brief stay in a hospital (don't worry I'm ok now LOL) and I didn't have internet there, so I had to ask the staff and fellow patients for ideas on cake flavors instead of going with my initial plan of using different language words for cake (matching Tarta and Opila's names). So, the placeholders I used then totally stuck lol.

[rkaln]

Wait, AkatsukiLee can just enter Sunna at will and Kankuro won't freak out? (I haven't gotten the time to read all of this AU yet, I'm lost)

Also, courage points for Lee for being jealous about someone hitting on the person he's meant to 'kill'

- why didn't you call anyone? - it looks like you came as Rock Lee, not as a member of akatsuki

Oh, I don't remember if I talked about it in the posts here. I once planned to finish writing several pieces, one of which was about kankuro, but… somehow I stopped writing any texts about it here

so I'm going to collect here from the discussions of this, which once should have gone into the part about KANKURO. SO

just to be clear, I just really love the friendly relationship between Lee and Kankuro, especially after the wedding episode, because they literally have one brain cell for two. 🖤😩

and, if you haven't read any parts, then Lee intersects with Gaara AFTER Gaara's death, in fact, you can say because of a sense of guilt and the beginning of the path of rethinking what is happening as a whole.

>

kankuro (he was essentially guarding gaara, so I imagine that he was the first to find out about such a guest and despite quickly made friends with him), but at the same time both would delay the moment as much as possible to tell about AKATSUKI "on a visit"

he first decided to wait for Gaara's reaction or perhaps that he would tell him about it. I think he would be sure that Gaara would be able to protect himself physically, but yes, he would be worried about whether it would somehow affect the emotional side. but what Gaara himself did not tell him right away… forced him not to go head-on with questions, for fear of scaring him off (in terms of what it means to respect his choice-boundaries, and the desire for his trust him with tell him about it)

therefore, he would just look out for a while in a sense, but did not interfered with their relationship. (it also plays a role that if it were another akatsuki, the situation would be different… But this? I think everyone has remembered him since the exam, and given that, in my opinion, kankuro feels people well - he would have believed that Lee did not have any malicious intent, especially since he would have known some news about how he got there(also kimimaro timing). probably, in some sense, he could also sympathize with all of Lee's emotional torments) and at the same time, he would have KNOWN that Temari would not have done that - so he just did everything to delay the deadline for her to find out about it, giving himself and Lee a chance to deal with this shit.

>

But speaking of protection! I'm sure that kankuro did not get into their relationship from Gaara's side, but would he have caught Lee for an explanatory "conversation" once, indicating that he was watching what was happening. "I won't pry into your business, but know that I'll rip your head off if necessary." LEE WILL UNDERSTAND kankuro's approach - he would do exactly the same, and you need time to prove that you can be trusted in this way.

over time, kankuro really respects how Lee behaved in this situation and appreciates that Lee justified the trust placed in him. that he was not mistaken. moreover, he seems to me to be a man without prejudice (especially considering Gaara's past) - therefore, he would also treat him simply as a person, regardless of whether he is an akatsuki or not.

[imreallyloveleee]

Where do you think it all went wrong with Riverdale?

honestly, part of me is like, the show's over and nothing but fandom matters. so who cares?

the other part of me loves to complain about Riverdale and will continue to do so until the day I die in the parking lot of Michael's Diner in Montgomeryville, PA at the age of 86. so, long-winded answer under the cut

I'm tempted to say it's the s4 b*rchie kiss. It was so wildly out of character for both Betty and Archie that it's laughable. You know how you can tell when something is just blatantly OOC with no justification? They...don't justify it. They find ways to dance around any interaction that might offer clarification. They mute the reactions of the characters who should be devastated by it. And then they jump ahead 7 years so it's easier to just handwave it away as something that happened a long time ago.

but the thing is, I did keep watching after that. I thought: okay, at least we should get an exes-to-lovers arc out of this, which is one of my favorite tropes. there is no way they would spend 4 seasons developing Bughead as this loving, supportive, communicative, sexy, and almost-unbelievably-compatible couple just to tear them apart and never do anything with that dynamic again. maybe it'll be even sweeter seeing them come back together after so much hurt and longing.

boy was i wrong!!!!!!!!!

so, the episode that actually made me stop watching for good, with the exception of some standalones like The Jughead Paradox and the finale, was the s5 musical. that was when i realized that this team of writers was 100% willing, maybe even eager, to completely drop storylines they themselves had been building over the course of a season - do a 180 with all of the characterization and relationships - and then act as though the buildup they wrote never even happened.

in this case, i'm specifically talking about the Bughead reunion storyline they dropped in s5. i'm not going to pretend like it was a GREAT buildup - and it was mostly on Jughead's side, Betty's character in s5 was basically an emotionless misery bot that had sex sometimes - but it was there. Jughead told Tabitha he had unresolved feelings around Betty. that's followed by an entire episode that lays out Betty & Jug's time jump relationship, and how Jughead still believes she's the one who saves him from himself. they work on a case together, they start opening up to one another. Jughead's so worried about her he can't eat.

and then...you know what happens.

(i'll also note here that there was random bts stuff that strongly indicated the musical ep storyline had a drastic last-minute rewrite: lili tweeted a blue dress, suggesting the song with that line was meant for her character; RAS said cole had to do last-minute recording sessions; supposedly crew members have confirmed this was the case, too. since none of it's 100% confirmed you can take it all with a grain of salt, but i believe it.)

it was so fucking insulting as a viewer to give my time and attention to a show made by people who would not only randomly drop the threads they set up, but torpedo them altogether, and then behave like the fans are the ones somehow at fault for expecting a story that actually follows through on its own emotional and plot beats. we're just shippers, so our opinions are dumb and biased! it's just a tv show, so who cares! get over it!

so, i stopped watching, because i knew they would continue to write without any thought or respect for their characters or their audience, and therefore inevitably write themselves into another corner. and, shocker, i was right. they did it again, whisking everyone away to the 1950s because actually resolving any of the scenarios they set up was ToO hArD. why bother when you could just make every single character Righteously Angry and Incurably Horny all the time, lecture the audience about social issues that have already been mainstream progressive for the last several decades, and call it a "love letter" to your fans?

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I find it so interesting that with in the twist universe, the boys write things out in English and not Japanese. For instance, the Valentines Day cards having been written in English as well as the contract in the Octavinelle commercial. It feels very deliberate. As if to indicate that they are foreign and don't necessarily speak the same language, but the writers also want us to still understand what's being written so they write it in English. Idk I just think it's a neat way of depicting this without having to go full Tolkien.

Mmm, that's definitely an interesting topic 🤔 Most fantasy media doesn't go out of its way to invent entirely new languages for its use (I only know of Devil is a Part Timer! doing it). It's actually difficult to come up with an entirely new language; you don't just come up with substitutions for words, but also new meaningful symbols, pronunciations, grammar and syntax which governs how the and sounds, words can be arranged, and social rules for the language's use. It's just easier to use a preexisting language and then to come up with some excuse for why we can understand them (typically because of magic doing the translating for us, or plain old suspension of disbelief). In the case of TWST, I think there's a number of reasons why they decided to utilize English for its writing system:

Firstly! The main setting for the game, Night Raven College, is modelled after a British boarding school and England's education system in general. With such English roots, it only "makes sense" for the characters to also write in English. If we consider that Yana herself is involved with TWST, "English" is also an aesthetic that is very suited to her skillset, especially considering her other very popular work, Black Butler. (She really was a perfect pick for the job, huh?) Secondly! If TWST's intention always was to go international someday (which it has), English is a safe bet to go since it's considered a "global" or "universal" language. Not everyone knows it of course, but it's the closest thing we have to a "common" tongue, as the most people in the world speak it! Thirdly (and this is the big one)! In Japan, TWST's country of origin, English is seen as (for lack of a better term) "aesthetic" and even as a status symbol. One 2020 poll found that less than 30% of the Japanese population speak English at any level, and 2-8% speak English fluently. In other words, most Japanese people would not understand the level of English being used in TWST, from Azul's contracts to the wording on the Great Seven statues and more. (You can sort of get a grasp for how few Japanese people are fluent in English from the Valentine's Day Gifts, which are all written in English; it's the one time of year when Japanese fans behave like EN fans and ask around for translations of the cards rather than the other way around for generalized TWST content.) Now, continuing off the point I made about English being seen as a status symbol... It's typically the highly educated and/or the privileged of Japan that learn English to a fluent degree. Considering that NRC is seen as an elite institution, the fact that its students can fully articulate (ie use full sentences in complex ways) in English only adds to that feeling of "being elite" (at least for the Japanese audience). English also has the effect of making the world of TWST come across as more "foreign" and helps to simulate the "other-worldliness" of the TWST characters in general (again, because of how rare fluent English is in Japan). The effect is somewhat lost in TWST EN, as most things are in English and the material is presented to predominantly English-speaking audiences in the USA and Canada, although I guess you could make the argument that the spoken dialogue staying in Japanese makes up for that lost feeling of the writing seeming foreign.

So!! There's actually many different reasons (or perhaps a combination of all of these, or unintended side-effects of one of them) as to why the general writing system in TWST is English rather than Japanese.

[dr-futbol-blog]

Runner, Pt. 2

They gate to the planet with the high UV radiation index in a puddle jumper, and where Sheppard is obviously steering, McKay has taken the second seat. Previously, McKay usually sat behind Sheppard and Ford had the second seat, probably because it's the gunner's position and Ford was the most useful person to sit there and look at targets for him. Regardless, McKay has changed seats and taken what would be his rightful place by his side. Riding shotgun is the privilege of a significant other, and while they may not be together-together anymore, they are still significant to each other.

However, we don't know how McKay wound up sitting there--whether he claimed the seat, ended up there by chance, or whether Sheppard had wanted him to take the seat. Given that Lorne, his new second in command is on board, a case could be made for him to have taken the seat. But then, McKay and Teyla are on his own team, so the privilege should probably have gone to one of them. And a case could also be made for Teyla, as a lady, to have been given the privileged seat. But alas, it is McKay that we find next to Sheppard. And this is their usual seating arrangement from hereon out.

They land the jumper, and we find Sheppard and McKay bickering with that old married couple energy:

Sheppard: Life signs detector's useless. McKay: I told you so. Sheppard: Just preserving your streak of being right? Officially.

McKay's "told you so" is given with such gusto that it's pretty telling. It also informs us that we are once more missing a part of this scene because we did not, in fact, hear McKay "tell him so." But Sheppard's response to him here is strange. What does he mean, officially? Why does he say it with a playful smirk and raising his eyebrows in a way that indicates there's some backstory to this? When we look at the previous episode, McKay wasn't right the whole time and in fact Sheppard got more things right than McKay did. His streak of being right, whether official or unofficial, cannot be a reference to the events of the previous episode. And the way McKay says "told you so" makes it seem as though it's not the first time he's said it in recent times.

It's possible McKay has been pointing out more errors for Sheppard and in Sheppard's behaviour than he had done previously. It's not that he was previously giving Sheppard "best behaviour Rodney" but when someone is in love, they tend to see the other person through rose-coloured glasses, being blind to their flaws. When you're in love, letting their flaws slide is natural. But it seems as though by this time, they are both severely chafing on each other, intentionally or unintentionally getting under the other's skin, and so they are both bringing out the worst in each other in a vicious circle. McKay is behaving like a haughty know-it-all and Sheppard is being a snooty asshole, going back and forth, back and forth. Truly they are a match made in heaven. And while neither of them wants to be like this, they seem helpless to break the cycle.

But, even though it might not seem like it, they are both trying to make this work. They are putting in the effort to stay professional:

McKay: Doctor Parrish believes that the indigenous plant life retains enough residual radioactivity absorbed during the daylight to, well, to screw up our sensors. Sheppard: Making it the perfect place to hide. McKay: Yes, or the perfect place to be exposed to dangerously high levels of solar radiation!

McKay is being Sheppard's science officer. He is giving him factual information to make his decisions by. And he's not wrong, either. Especially for the two of them with their recent radiation exposure, this planet presents a clear risk. And while it's not even that Sheppard doesn't believe McKay, it's that he's being entirely too stubborn to actually hear what the other man is saying, and this stubbornness has very little to do with Ford. But Sheppard, too, is trying to remain professional, giving them orders based on his strategic evaluation of the situation.

He also gives a manly grunt as he adjusts his... weapon, which just may confirm Lorne's belief that Sheppard motivation for treating McKay the way he does here has to do with masculine performance, or McKay's lack of the same.

Sheppard: Start a sweep, teams of two. Radio contact every twenty minutes... How come it smells like I'm on vacation? McKay: Mmm, could it be the simulated tropical aroma of cocoa butter? Sheppard: Strong enough for anyone within five miles to smell you. McKay: Like they haven't been tipped off by the Aqua Velva? Sheppard: It's dark.

This exchange is fascinating.

For one, Sheppard loves the beach. We later learn that he likes surfing (in fact, he tells McKay in The Last Man (S04E20) that "surfing a thirty foot wave in Waimei is cool!", implying it's the best thing he knows). Also, when he has an actual vacation in Brain Storm (S05E15), he describes the destination as "a beach that's never been surfed or even touched" and in Travelers (S04E5), he's returning from "a tropical paradise" from a supply mission he had volunteered for. So, he loves the beach and ergo something that smells of vacation to him must be a really good smell. It's a smell that takes him right to his happy place (and also, while we're on his happy place, he turns to face McKay just as soon as he's out of the jumper; even now his body just cannot seem to bear to have his back turned to McKay). Interesting in this regard is the meaning of the name Rodney, often derived from "Rhoda's island" which is meant to evoke "images of breathtaking beaches, gold sand, and crystal clear water". And if this wasn't obvious enough, they later emphasize it by giving him the name Meredith, ruler or protector of the sea. John Sheppard loves the sea, is the thing. He loves the beach. And apparently when Sheppard is on vacation, cocoa butter is involved.

Now, did McKay know that it's one of Sheppard's favourite smells when he concocted the sunscreen? This, we can't tell. However, McKay himself seems to know what Sheppard smells like. Real up close and personal. He knows the aftershave Sheppard uses. He knows Sheppard's personal grooming habits. There is no earthly reason for a guy to know, and even less to have made a mental note of, another man's aftershave if they're just co-workers. And here, he's making a dig at Sheppard using this very personal information.

Interestingly, Aqua Velva is also a cocktail that one might have on a beach vacation, and McKay might be implying that he can tell Sheppard has been hitting the gin a little too much recently, which would admittedly put a pretty dark spin on this. Probably he didn't mean to imply this, as McKay is pretty straightforward with what he says, there's barely ever hidden meaning to his words. That's not how he operates, he's an open book. That, of course, doesn't mean Sheppard could have taken it that way, as he has a penchant for double entendre, especially in the case he actually had been drinking (and it's entirely within possibility that he has; the nights suddenly seem longer when you're not watching someone sleep like you used to).

Sheppard's response to McKay's dig is "It's dark," and the assumption is that this is an argument against wearing sunscreen. It's dark, hence the sun isn't up, hence there is no need for sunscreen. Only, he says "It's dark" as a response to McKay's line about the Aqua Velva. He makes it sound like his argument is that the enemies won't be able to smell his aftershave because it's dark, like that makes any sense. What Sheppard actually seems to have done is to ignore McKay's comment entirely, just skipping right over it, either because he didn't deem it worth answering or because he simply didn't have an answer to it. If he has been sleeping in his fatigues (and it seems as though he has), it's likely he has been skimping on other forms of grooming also, and splashing on some aftershave might have been an attempt at covering up the fact that he hadn't showered that morning. The fact that he was still wearing his fatigues from the previous day also suggests that this was the case; if one showered, they wouldn't put back on the rumpled clothes they slept in on. So, because McKay was still preserving his streak of being right, unofficially this time, he chose to ignore his comment instead.

But this whole exchange is again the two of them having a conversation inside a bubble of their own where the others are not invited. And given that most of the men are new recruits that don't really know either of them, it must be confusing for them to witness this interaction between their commander and his science officer. Sheppard is not behaving like a team leader and McKay is not behaving like someone who takes orders from this man. And the thing is, they don't need to be having this argument. They know where each other stands perfectly well without this exchange, and at the end of the day, they both want the same thing. They want to bring Ford back to Atlantis and fix him without getting skin cancer or losing the ability to procreate children, so they're not really at loggerheads. They don't have a disagreement.

What they have, at the present moment, is an inability to connect with the other man outside of this unending bickering, because even this is better than not having any connection to the other at all. So, they both say a lot of unnecessary things:

McKay: Yeah, and the sun will be up in two hours, forty three minutes and... ten seconds. Sheppard: It's raining! McKay: So we'll be cold and miserable. Look, the cloud cover will depreciate a small percentage of UV rays, but ninety-five percent of deadly is still deadly.

Again, the audience is made to think that McKay is being unreasonably cowardly when it probably hasn't been more than a week since they both got a nearly lethal dose of ionizing radiation. But we can't really point to either of them as the instigator of the this bickering, of making these digs at each other. They are both behaving this way, they are clearly acting and re-acting. Other people also seem to get caught in the cross-fire (and it's interesting with regards to the next episode that McKay seems to hold nothing but contempt toward the science of Botany). As soon as McKay turns his attention on Lorne, Sheppard tries to be the grown-up and actually splits himself and McKay up:

Sheppard: Teyla, you're with me; Coughlin, take Billick; Reed: you and Sherman cover the Gate; and Major, you've got McKay. Lorne: Oh, lucky me...

Now, Lorne clearly thinks that he got put on baby-sitting duty because McKay is the weakest link, he's the science officer with no field experience that needs looking after and as the second highest official, second most capable person militarily, he's the best person to look after him. And this is partially true. McKay is not a soldier, he has no combat experience. His field experience is limited. He does need someone to watch over him, to keep him safe. And it's logical for Lorne to come to this conclusion, as the tone Sheppard uses, he makes it sound like he's tired of McKay's bellyaching and hence wants someone else to take him on. Actually, Sheppard's internal conflict comes through in how he first says "And Major" with the tone of listen well, this is the most important thing in the world, but then the "You've got McKay" comes out in a tone that's more neener, neener, as he quickly takes off so as to avoid any backlash from McKay for his decision. Clearly, while he needs Lorne to look after McKay, he doesn't want either of them to know just how vulnerable this makes him.

Now, Sheppard could have either taken this task on himself or put anyone else on it. But Sheppard knows that since he himself is going after Ford, it would pose the most danger for McKay to be with him right now. He chose Lorne because he does think that he's the most capable fighter after himself. He chose Lorne to be McKay's personal bodyguard because he trusts him enough to be able to perform this task. He had chosen Lorne for his second in command, and he believed that Lorne would be able to take on Ford if it came down to that. Sheppard paired McKay with Lorne because he still cares about McKay, and he is damned if he's going t let anything happen to him. What ever Lorne might think, he didn't pair Lorne up with McKay but McKay with Lorne, and there's a world of difference in that.

Bitchy though he might (currently) be, McKay is the most important person in Sheppard's life, and he's not going to let anything happen to him. He's not taking any chances with his life. And the thing is--he chose not to take McKay with himself for that exact reason. He doesn't think that he's the best person to look over McKay and keep him safe, especially not now. He is distracted by McKay at the best of times but currently, the way they are bickering, if they had paired up together anyone would have heard them coming a mile away. There is no way they could have kept quiet. Even though neither of them wanted to talk about the important stuff, the stuff they should have talked about, neither of them could shut up around each other either. They both need each other's attention, and they'll clearly take it any way they can.

And given that Sheppard can't keep himself from making snide digs at McKay or from responding to the other man's subtle barbs, there is not a way in hell they can form a team of two on this mission. He needs to be able to concentrate, especially because a slip in his concentration might lead to McKay getting hurt. So, he chose the second best thing for McKay, his second in command. He trusts Lorne to keep him safe. But Lorne doesn't get this, doesn't get how much Sheppard is trusting him with, doesn't understand the importance of what he has been trusted with. He thinks he got shafted, for some reason. He got the short straw, the short end of the stick. Like maybe his commanding officer doesn't quite trust him yet, like Sheppard might be testing him or something. Lorne doesn't know what Sheppard and McKay are to each other and the way they're behaving, there's really no way for him to even begin to guess.

McKay himself, he seems fine with this. But we've got to remember that for McKay, not being wanted is his core issue. It was the fact that Sheppard seemed to choose death rather than him that had hurt him the most. While Sheppard does get in 'the last word' here with this, because he doesn't understand how McKay thinks about this, he also doesn't get how far below the belt this last jab is for him. Yes, they're trading barbs, but it's not their intention to really hurt the other. And yet, that's what Sheppard manages to do here, and he doesn't even realize it because his thinking is so very different from McKay's in this.

For him, McKay is the single most important person in his life. There is no one else in two galaxies that matters more to him, and that's a fact. Put next to anyone from either galaxy, he would choose McKay ten times out of ten any time of day. And because this is so obvious to him, he can't even begin to understand why what he did hurt McKay so much. As far as he's concerned, he's doing what he thinks is best for McKay, he wants to keep him alive and safe. That's what you do for someone you love. Even when that means protecting them from yourself, which is what he does here, pairing McKay up with Lorne. But for McKay, it's high school athletics class all over again. He's chosen last because no one wants him. He's pawned off to someone who makes it clear they don't want to be paired up with him. For him, what Sheppard does is cruel.

But at the same time, this is familiar to him. McKay knows how to deal with Majors. He can break in another one. He at least tries to make friends with Lorne:

McKay: Here, try some. SPF 100. Lorne: A hundred? McKay: Yeah, can't buy this kind of protection. Make it myself. Waterproof too.

This is pretty interesting, too. First of all, McKay makes it himself. Fair enough. But Sheppard knew that he does this. Earlier, back in Weir's office, Sheppard said "Bring your sunscreen". Not "bring sunscreen," not "bring the sunscreen," not "put on some sunscreen," not any number of things he could have said if he was referring to general sunscreen, or just making a snide comment. He told McKay to bring his sunscreen, knowing that McKay has made his own sunscreen. Knowing that McKay had sunscreen that he had made for himself. Sheppard knew about McKay's sunscreen. Which is interesting in and of itself.

But then he tells Lorne that it's waterproof. Sunscreens generally aren't water resistant, although obviously there are waterproof ones out there and, if one had aspirations of swimming while wearing it, it would make sense to make it waterproof. So, it's possible he had made it with swimming in mind, whether for himself or for someone else that might canonically enjoy the ocean. OK. But what on Earth made him try his hand at mixing up body lotions in the first place? What, he's suddenly Alfred Garnier of Atlantis? From what we can tell, this man barely knows how to cook and probably survived mostly on instant noodles outside of institutional cafeterias his whole life.

The thing is, they probably didn't have a whole hell of a lot in the way of lubrication the first time they came from Earth. We don't know what the expedition's policy was on sex and sexual hygiene, whether bringing condoms and other assorted paraphernalia was a priority, but how ever much of this stuff they did bring with them, at some point during the year, it would have run out, just like the coffee. If there was any lube intended for sexual purposes to begin with, it would eventually have run out. And after that, just like the beans they attempted to substitute coffee with, it would have been up to them to come up with alternatives. And here, McKay is suddenly an expert in mixing up waterproof lotions. And let's not glide over the fact that he's using this to bond with Major Lorne, very possibly a closeted gay man in the military. He's letting Lorne know that if he's ever in the need of waterproof lotion, he's the man to see about that on Atlantis.

Granted, this sunscreen that smells of cocoa butter is not something Sheppard has smelled before--at least outside of the context of a vacation. Sheppard is not familiar with this lotion. But this does seem to be a new mixture, the fact that it has the simulated aroma of cocoa butter is a new thing. But it is interesting that McKay specifies that the sunscreen is waterproof here when sunscreens most often are not, whereas personal lubricants used for sexual purposes which are particularly useful in all manner of sex acts between two men due to a distinct lack of natural lubrication, well. What we know now is that McKay had, at some point in his life, learned how to make waterproof lotions that made the skin slippery with its base of vegetable butter. And we, as the audience, apparently really really needed to know this. Safe sex is important, after all. And I'm not saying he had made this particular lotion as lube, although it probably would work as such. I'm saying, he clearly has acquired the know-how to make sunscreen and other lotions through personal necessity.

And now we know this about him. Now we know this about them. They might not currently have any use for it beyond staving off radiation but they have used it in the past and they will use it in the future. And Sheppard won't mind if McKay's new stuff smells like a beach vacation. He won't mind at all.

Continued in Pt. 3