#but it is absolutely ridiculous to do this MID SEASON

[lastlapfastestlap]

I mean, on the one hand it is absolute bullshit that they’re considering taking away DRS for qualifying after only half a season of Max stomping on everyone. But on the other hand…I really don’t think this is gonna fuck Red Bull over as much as they think it will. Max isn’t getting pole by DRS margins, he’s getting it by “the car is fucking bananas fast” margins. Whole seconds. Plus, if DRS really was the RB19’s magic bullet, then the car would be faster on Saturday than Sunday and that’s just not true. Other teams have gotten poles on pure pace, nobody’s gotten a race win.

If anything, taking away DRS in qualifying is gonna fuck over everybody else and god wouldn’t that be funny. Trying to stop the dominance and making it even more crushing instead.

[what-the-floofin]

So how do baby taurs work for the equitaurs and cervitaurs in your stuff?

Oh that's a good one actually - lots to talk about! Too much for one post, but gotta start somewhere. Enjoy some messy micro scribbles peppered throughout. They were originally very very tiny so, pardon blurriness.

I've got my Taurs running overall pretty similar to equine cycles and gestations - meaning they are what you call 'long-day triggered' by the spring and summer seasons.

(Though they do cycle throughout the year, just at slower rates and less consistently over cooler seasons)

This goes for the cervitaurs too - rather than using the shorter gestation of their deer alikes - as they and their foals are a bit bigger and more complex to deal with. Which also goes to suggest that twins/multiples are not a frequent occurrence for cervitaurs in comparison to actual deer, and inherently poses as much danger as it does for equines instead. Possible, but high risk and incredibly demanding.

So, you're looking at an 11 month gestation on average, and typically starting in a mid-spring to late-summer window. Which places most taurs at being born early-spring to mid-summer. It's most uncommon to be winter born, but not weird tbh.

Foals are super awkward, there's no getting around that, and in the first year they have a ridiculous growth rate when compared to other sentient creatures of similar lifespans.

These things are weeds - the difference from one day old to three months old is phenomenal alone. They are, however, cooked a little further along than what you'd be comparing to for a newborn human. They're able to support themselves enough to avoid outright injury (think like a 3-4 month old baby), but gaining actual control of all those limbs takes a bit more time. The equine half however would be a touch undercooked for a horse. Just physically, in size. No worries about comparative internal developments, that's all good and ready to go.

So they're typically gonna spend shy of their first month feeding and sleeping, practicing rolling up, sitting and limb coordination to build strength for self-standing. If mama has places to be, that baby is getting carried.

I also absolutely subscribe to the idea of arms being naturally held close to torso prior to having balance and coordination. It would support them a lot! Then it becomes a self-soothing gesture seen in the anxious, and an instinctive positional response when badly startled. Tuck in!

By three months you can expect them to be racing on their little stilt legs - albeit still with the occasional wobble and spill. And wowee did that happen fast when you think about it.

While the zoomies are a lot, they're balanced out by the fact that so much oncoming growth means foals crash nap very frequently. These buggers sleep a lot. It's go hard and sleep hard on endless rotation. Play, snack, nap, rinse and repeat.

This accelerated growth races away throughout their first year, and then drops right back into something a bit more reasonable - at least when you're considering it from the human perspective!

Yet in comparison to how they first started out, it's practically snail paced.

I'm meaning, you look at the size of a 3 month old horse foal, and that's the closest comparison to a 2 year old taur foal in body. Every 'horse foal month' thereafter starts guiding the next 'taur foal year' visual until you hit that yearling horse look for a taur when they're 10-11 years old. Then by that point, they've reached most of their full leg length, and the next 10 years is focused on finishing the bulking out of their frame.

(click to enlarge I hope) - Featuring my lass Thalo here haha

By rule of thumb I just have both equid and humanoid aspects grow in relative balance to each other, lanky stages and all. From the human perspective, the humanoid half grows crazy fast at first and then becomes comparatively similar. From the horse perspective, the equine half is crazy slow and always is. It would also give credit to having a higher physical durability than their animal counterparts. More time was spent growing!

It's worth noting that a lot of perceived 'weirdness' only comes from trying to compare them purely 1 to 1 with either horse, deer or human kids. Taurs are their own thing though! And nature's most consistent attitude is to Find What Works and Do it. No matter how wack, if it works it's used.

So, a rapid starting growth tapered into a much slower rate once they're stabilised and running was just the path that worked best for this Taur survival. Keep it simple!

There's always more to cover, but this is chunky enough for now. Whew!

[vro0m]

"Just thinking about the time they tried to apply the "drivers must race unaided" rule to the radio comms makes my blood pressure spike."

the what now

Okay so. Perfect timing because I have nothing to do at work and it's too early for lunch.

There's an article in the rulebook that says that "drivers must drive the car alone and unaided". Nowadays (and for most of F1 history) it mainly means the marshalls can't touch the car when there are issues on track and such things.

However, mid-2015, the FIA enforced a radio ban that was then made way stricter in 2016. Basically they decided that the drivers were getting too much info from the pit wall and that wasn't driving "alone and unaided".

The list of what was banned was so complicated (and changing!) that the teams had it taped on their pit walls to try to avoid mistakes.

It led to some absolutely ridiculous situations with drivers facing car issues mid-races and their engineers being unable to tell them what the problem is and especially how to solve it.

You can read such an example in my 2016 European GP review.

Then drivers were given controversial penalties in Silverstone and Hungary for receiving help in the race and some teams suffered DNFs because of it so of course everybody was LOUDLY complaining.

Mostly they said the cars were too complicated for the drivers to figure out how to debug them mid race. The FIA answered that if the cars were too complicated to drive alone and unaided then the teams had to make them simpler. The teams patiently explained to the FIA that the FIA were the ones making the regulations on how to build said cars.

Anyway they gave it up mid season and decided to only enforce the radio ban during the formation lap.

[lover-of-mine]

Top 5 most hilarious, ridiculous BT theories? 😂

I'm gonna give you my favorites in no particular order.

Ryliver is sleeping together. Why did this make the list? Well, 3 weeks ago I had people in my inbox telling me that Oliver and Lou are in love and Oliver is only going along to protect him from the buddie crazies, and that's why they're hiding Lou. Now Oliver is sleeping with Ryan and they are forcing the network to do what they want and conspiring to get Lou out. So like, which one is it? Is he with Ryan or Lou? Is he protecting him or trying to force him out? Can they pick a struggle? Probably not.

The what if episode without Eddie that's just buddie highlights with Eddie removed. The way they think that putting Buck in the same situations he's been with Eddie with an explicit love interest and having Buck have the same reaction helps them is hysterical. That would literally just further the idea that Buck is in love with Eddie, because if he has these reactions with someone he's romantically involved, then he has romantic feelings for Eddie. It's a very simple parallel they don't seem to understand. They also seemed to have forgotten that Tommy left the 118 before Buck joined so even without Eddie, it would not lead to bt. Also got me thinking "so you agree that buddie is romantic?" I would laugh if Tommy got shot tho, but don't you dare break the sanctity of the shooting.

That leads us to the "Tim only wrote Eddie so that he could bring Tommy in during season 7 and have him replace him." Somehow they think that they would write Eddie in to give his personality to some random character 6 seasons later because somehow, Tommy has been in the show longer in their heads, even though Hen Begins is 9 episodes after Eddie was introduced (I think they think that the begins episodes being earlier in the timeline means something it does not), so the spot was always meant to be Tommy's, Eddie was just a placeholder for Buck to kinda fall for but then choose Tommy so they then they could remove Eddie seamlessly. Doesn't make sense at all. I like that they admit that Buck is "kinda" in love with Eddie. Just a reminder that Ryan didn't audition, was brought in as a lead, and Eddie was written for him.

The Tommy is getting a spinoff week was also fun. I was legit rolling around on the floor with how much I was laughing. They had potential names. Plots. Buck was going to leave the 118. They were sending posters to Tim. They had the whole thing locked and loaded. And they kept talking about it like it was a sure thing for whatever reason. Highly entertaining. Was convinced they were rage baiting me until the spies confirmed they were in fact talking about a spinoff as if it was a done deal.

And boring but the invisible string thing. They somehow missed the way that Eddie was the one who restarted Buck's heart. That and the way that multiple people are on record saying that Lou was a last minute decision. And that he was brought in for Eddie. But sure, they absolutely took the time to pretend the relationship has been planned since season 2 when they changed it from Eddie to Buck mid filming the cruise. Totally happened.

Honorable mentions: the Chris has 3 dads and Tommy is somehow the better parent and the only one who can connect with him, and the Tommy is going to admit he was interested in Eddie, Eddie is going to admit he is interested in Tommy, Buck because he just loves them both so much is just going to accept being 50th choice.

[bylightofdawn]

I've made it to Season 3 of Due South, and I'm trying to not be an obnoxious slash shipper wearing her shipping goggles 24/7 but holy fuck balls, these two.

I actually enjoy Fraser/Detective Thatcher and definitely saw some major sparks and UST with them through S2 but S3 comes around and in the span of 5 episodes, Kowalski has asked Fraser if he thinks he's attractive. (from the POV of Fraser being a woman) and now in episode 5, they are walking down the hallway and Ray is ecstatic because he thinks Fraser has given him the win over this argument he's having with Thatcher and Welsh.

Kowalski: I love you, Fraser.

Fraser: And I you, Ray.

Kowalski: -clearly taken aback- No not literally, I mean symbolically or something.

Fraser: No, I know. Thank you.

The way he quickly glances over at Kowalski and then away again with a blank face? Sends me.

But even taking out the shipping overtones, can we talk about how Fraser is completely comfortable just telling his male best friend he loves him without any ridiculous postering or even having to make qualifying statements like Ray does? Because Gods forbid a man tell his best friend he loves him???

Also this show is from the mid-90s at the peak of toxic masculinity culture and the rule of no-homo?

Sure, they do have that one absolutely infamous scene where Kowalski freaks out because Fraser gives him mouth-to-mouth to save his life, but again, I feel like his reaction made to lampshade Fraser's much more laid-back attitude about the whole thing.

Which kinda flips the whole no-homo context on its head. Something the show does a lot. LOL

[anopenbookunderlockandkey]

The 118 Sauce Chat

Eddie: I definitely make spaghetti sauce extremely wrong but I’m not going to stop

Chim: please elaborate on the wrong way to make spaghetti sauce; it sounds highly entertaining?

Eddie: 1 chop onion and put in a pot

Eddie: Add 1 or 2 cans of diced tomatoes. Whatever makes the ratio of onion look right.

Eddie: Add a ridiculous amount of frozen peas. Peas should make up a notable portion of this sauce.

Eddie: Add frozen corn also if you wanna be real fancy. If I have bacon I’ll ad that too. But I very rarely have bacon.

Eddie: Cook on HIGH

Eddie: While sauce is cooking, grab the nearest bottle of mixed spices that isn't obviously for desserts. Add some. How much? I dunno, enough that you feel like you've added seasoning so it's technically cooking. (For me this is most often a mix called Moroccan, but it could be anything. Buck reorganised my kitchen recently so tonight it was something called Pizza Topping.)

Eddie: If you happen to have green herbs lying around, add those too. Whatever you have on hand that's green

Eddie: Let the sauce boil on HIGH until all the water is gone. Stir occasionally so the saucepan will be easier to clean later. Serve on cooked spaghetti noodles with no cheese

Eddie: Today I added a new step called "while the sauce is cooking, duck out for 15 seconds to text the group chat about spaghetti sauce, then get distracted and forget you are cooking." This adds a novel Extremely Burnt edge to the flavour profile.

Chim: I am not Italian, or of Italian descent by *any* stretch of the imagination.

I am also not one of those "cooking purists", who believes that everything must be done in a specific/ traditional way (unless you are making a cooking video with the title "how to make x" in which case if you don't specify mid video that your way is not traditional god help you).

I am a firm believer in "If it tastes good, then it is correct for you".

Chim: Except in this case

Bobby: This hurts every cooking bone in my body. The latent ancestors in my soul. The judgmental elf in my brain just bit a cyanide capsule

Hen: Why? The spices.

Using a different spice mix every time, based on what is ready at hand just ... hurts

Eddie: *sends SPICE IS SPICE meme*

Ravi: absolutely deranged, Eddie. Food crimes.

Bobby: Hey Eddie, looks like you forgot to mention the part where you obviously sweated the onions, because nobody would make spaghetti sauce that had straight up raw onions boiled in tomato juices.

Bobby: RIGHT????

Bobby: Please Eddie

Eddie: I don’t know what sweating the onions means

Hen: It means. It means you cook em a little in a pan with a bit of oil first

Eddie: A pan? How many dishes do you want me to have to wash here?

Hen: I mean you can also do it in the same pot you're making the spaghetti sauce in! The important thing is the onions get a little cooked before the wet stuff goes in, so they're not so wet and limp and boiled....

Eddie: Honestly this depends entirely on whether I remember to chop an onion first or I find the can opener for the tomatoes first. The ingredients go in in whatever order they go in.

Ravi: Eddie, who hurt you???

Eddie: A pack of wild chefs herded my mother off a cliff

Chim: Theres probably a hit out on you for this

Eddie: What kind of stupid idiot would waste money assassinating someone who's so clearly going to accidentally poison themself for free at some point

Bobby: hi Eddie, big fan of your firefighting, this is the sauce equivalent of the running up a metal ladder in a lightning storm to try to pull up a 6’0” tall man instead of lowering him to the ground

-Athena

Eddie: Athena, that is the meanest review my cooking has ever received

Chim: congratulations you found the worst way to do it! this feels like a spaghetti recipe made by AI before it got really sophisticated

-Maddie

Eddie: this group chat’s hate mail game is insane

Ravi: at this point please just eat every ingredient raw… please

Eddie: Do I look like Tony Abbott to you

Buck: As a former Committer of Food Crimes, I have decided to make this sauce this weekend after I have a chance to go to the store. I will report back.

Eddie: Excellent, I look forward to vindication.

Hen: No one's going to vindicate your boiled onion in cinnamonny tomato juice on noodles, Eddie

Eddie: Not cinnamon. Cinnamon is a dessert spice. You use the nearest non-dessert spice.

Ravi: cinnamon is absolutely not a dessert spice

Eddie: Yes it is! It's for muffins and pancakes and fruit pies!

Chim: Cinnamon powder is absolutely a dessert “spice” and Eddie if your cooking is this bad I can’t imagine your baked abominations

Eddie: I put lemon juice in everything I bake that isn't bread

Written for the only two gremlins (endearment) who find this as entertaining as I do @professionalprocrastinator22 and @gravelyhalversobbing

Inspired by:

[optimist-pine]

hello!! i saw your thinking asking to send three things. so for color, orange. song, everywhere everything by noah kahan, and noun, imagination. thank you if you get to this, i’ll be excited to see what you do!!! and i hope you have a lovely evening ❤️

Storyteller

Warnings: None

Word Count: 397

Era: Between seasons 2 & 3

A/n: I saw your other message too, thank you so much, that's very sweet of you! I hope this isn't too silly.

It had started one particularly quiet night when Carl asked for a story as everyone settled in around the pulsing embers. He looked embarrassed after like he had momentarily forgotten that he was supposed to be too mature for such childish things now. But you'd jumped on the moment anyway, beginning to weave a fantastical story about a fictional land full of heroes and villains and adventure.

It hadn't taken long for even the adults to become involved in the story (although you claimed it was only for the baby) and thus, the telling of tales became a staple of the evening routine. An escape of the purest kind.

Tonight the flames cast their orange glow across your face, the crackling of logs your faithful ambiance. Like the rest, Daryl couldn't help but take an interest in the way the words flowed from you, your hands that couldn't stay still, and the ridiculous faces you pulled just to get a laugh out of the kid. Even if you'd pulled one over on Carl, it was obvious that you did all of this just so he could still feel like a kid.

Daryl never had the privilege of imagination; he'd learned early how pointless it was, how temporary. But somehow, even in this world, you live a life of possibilities not only while you spin your stories. You're... vibrant. Still, if your stories ever get too ridiculous he's right there to poke holes.

"A dragon?" He scoffs, a few heads turning at his interruption.

Your hands freeze mid-motion. "You got a problem with dragons?" You ask, eyes sharp.

"It's a little overdone, ain't it?" He questions.

You sit up straighter. "Absolutely not. For this particular dragon speaks." You reply.

He can't help but let out a low chuckle. "A talking dragon?"

"Yes, a talking dragon! But unfortunately, it has a bad attitude and bad manners and sometimes growls at people." The way your eyes reflect the firelight makes them practically burn.

Under that gaze, he has no defense. He grunts, pulling his eyes away in surrender. You go back to your story, in which the grumpy dragon gets himself into all sorts of trouble, but in the end, ultimately saves the day and finds an amazing girl dragon to live out the rest of his reptilian years with.

Maybe he'll be more careful about interrupting in the future...

[logan-lieutenant]

i didn't win the wheel: episode 7 (pt. 1)

[they read the intro cards, it's quite cringe]

Logan: "You know what the honor is..." (tries to gesture)

Alex, interrupting: "Because nothing says Tour de France like mad stats."

Logan (after waiting): "...You get to spin that wheel."

Alex: 😊😊

i know, i know, i start every episode out with The Bit. and this could be a paragraph almost identical to the last intro because at first it looks same-old, same-old: logan is describing the activity like he's reading his own death sentence, alex still has not learned how to play to the audience, they both brighten up a little bit on the **iconic** line. but there are some differences. the body language. the way alex is once again posing so awkwardly so he can face logan. the way he looks right at logan immediately, and then the laugh just sort of tumbles out of him and he can't even keep his head up, and the way logan turns to him and his eyes track the movement of alex curling in down and towards him and then he uses the card to gesture and bring alex back in as it's time to start the game

i was rewatching this moment listening to their voices and their laughter when the thought came to me suddenly: "it's like they're taking care of each other." and i didn't even know how to elaborate on that more but it just felt so right that i had to keep examining it and now it've got it. the thing is, they're both struggling at this point. a lot. logan for obvious reasons, but alex too, very much so. silly season is hitting williams hard. there's rumors of antonelli, rumors of sainz, rumors of a mid-season replacement. on top of that, checo's contract is at this point being both ridiculed and questioned because of his failure to meet the goals, and what are people benchmarking him against? not max, his teammate, but logan. because logan can now outqualify him. and that's not "oh my god look at how well logan's doing!" it's "oh my god look at how absolutely dogshit checo's doing" (the general discourse, not my opinion). even when the williams upgrades make an actual improvement, nobody notices or cares because everybody else makes bigger improvements. and while williams doesn't have the worst pr situation on the grid, ever since australia they've needed some serious image management and that hasn't been attended to enough. jv is publicly and aggressively courting carlos, making outrageous claims about How Well They're Doing, and the longer the team goes while pretending the logan situation doesn't exist, the more aggravated the fans get. the team isn't doing anything to address the growing tension, and they don't have the on-track performance to do the work for them, so who's left carrying such a huge portion of the entire team's image? alex. he's walking on a wire to avoid falling into the absolute shitstorm of william's pr while still supporting and representing the team that's given him a second chance. he has to juggle being compared to logan and outperforming his car and people saying he deserves better and his team principal's fumbling and knowing he could have all this resentment and bitterness and jealousy from logan and that's not there. and because he's already created this image of sunshiney cutesy cuddly cat dad, he can't afford to have a single moment of visible anger or frustration, even though that's literally how racing drivers just are. so in many ways he's completely trapped in multiple situations and he doesn't know what logan's thinking or what anyone else is thinking and he's overwhelmed.

and logan doesn't have anything. no team support, no chance at another team, no certainty about literally any event in his future from the next few years to the next few weeks. his last few moments with alex are starting to feel like a consolation prize, starting to feel even more painful because of how aware he is of the time running out. and logan can see past the disoriented rambling and the hyperactivity and the media personality, he knows alex is overwhelmed. and it's not something they feel they can talk about with each other because they're scared of hurting each other, of driving a wedge between them when every goodbye feels like the last. but here's logan, unable to feign interest, unable to give the camera anything to work with because he's tired and he's bitter and he just wants to stop owing these people. but alex is there, kind of looking like he forgot they were filming today, and logan can't do much but he can do this. he can make alex laugh. he can remind alex that it's fun to be silly, you can make something silly out of this stupidity, that it's okay and the resentment at the whole thing doesn't need to be there and that they're going to get through this and they're actually going to have fun. he turns all the way into alex and watches his reaction, eyes him up and down, and his smile gets a little sadder and a little more mature as he lets alex half-fold towards him because "logan that isn't even funny how am i laughing every single time". and it's become this sort of ritual for them. it's literally just A Bit but it's their way of stepping all the way out of formula fuckup life and into just this little bubble of each other and a game. "okay, we're going to let this go now. we're going to forget that it's stupid and we don't want to be their social media guinea pigs and we're both being mistreated yet expected to deliver performances like we're not. we're just going to forget that and we're going to have fun with each other and it's going to be nice because we can do it together." and even with everything that's happening, logan is the one who initiates that. he flicks the switch for both of them. and alex's laugh is amusement, yeah, but it's also just relief– the beautiful dissociative relief of leaving everything behind for just a little bit. it's gotten to the point where alex visibly waits on that cue. he looks fidgety and frustrated and out of it and like a kid who got dragged to his mom's book club until logan starts even the beginning of the sentence and then he looks over and the smile starts to flit across his face and then the channel changes. logan's carrying them both over the threshold.

[the question is about average speed]

Logan (such a dumbass annoying smile): "Can I answer in miles per hour? I'm kidding ha ha HAA 😎😎😎" *smacks table* "Ah that's funny..."

Alex:

Alex:

Alex a million years later: 😂

ah, we haven't had one of these in a while. logan being a little shit just to annoy alex. alex being so annoyed and then so endeared he basically short-circuits. that was such a stupid joke and even the way he laughed was like "i just made the STUPIDEST joke >:)" it like has the tone of a dad joke but not even that it's just stupid... and he's the only one who laughs. even though it's obviously forced because that's pretty much part of the joke, it's supposed to be so not funny it actually is funny.

and then logan moves on from that and heads straight into thinking-too-hard-about-this mode and alex is processing on internet explorer speed. he laughs first when logan looks over at him with that stupid shit eating "did you hear that STUPID joke i just made" look and then he does the signature blush and look away (seriously we might have heart-eyes piastri and fuck me-eyes leclerc but what about cast-down eyes albon because he literally cannot hold eye contact when he's flustered which is 80% of the time in logan's presence) and then as logan starts musing about the question alex is like– i swear, he's playing logans expression over again in his head. he's tilted in logan's direction, not looking at anything, and i swear to god he's just remember logan's dumb shit-eating smile and thinking about the joke itself and then suddenly he's laughing. and he doesn't mean to and it even sounds unexpected like it's taking the breath out of him and then he literally has to interrupt himself like, "um! sorry!" because it takes him some time to regain his composure. logan crept out of the shadows just long enough to drop a shit joke and now he's huddled back but that moment is sticking way longer in alex's head than it should. bringing himself back to the game and out of his own head/imagination nearly pains him.

(will continue soon but jeez i had a LOT to say!)

[cassberry]

(Some links if you want to watch 3rd Life or Last Life first! EDIT: And here is Limited Life! )

Welcome one and all to the life series soulmate AU season! I seem to have got into the habit of making a new one of these whenever the new season is literally just around the corner. And I use them as an excuse each time to re-watch the life series and to ramble about it lmao

Now thankfully the core mechanic this season of soulmates made collating this guide 1000% easier then 3rd or Last Life. With a few exceptions, soulmates tended to stay side-by-side the whole session. Now don't get me wrong although some perspectives can be interchangeable, they are all a great watch! I have just put the POV I believe to show more of whats happening on the server or an incredibly important moment.

WARNING: Once again an incredibly long read more where I expound at length why I chose these specific POV's lol enjoy!

SESSION ONE

Grian - I'm keeping with tradition and recommending Grian first because in all honesty his first episode is a fantastic watch. Between the reveal of who his soulmate is and various shenanigans, this episode was so much fun.

Cleo or Scott - Cleo and Scott probably see most of the server trying to find their soulmates so either of these POV's are fantastic.

Pearl - Pearl bounces between groups for quite a bit of this session, so she's great to get a good look at multiple dynamics. However, its the last 5 or so minutes of her episode that really set in motion some of the leading conflicts of the season that you don't want to miss.

Etho - Just a fun episode honestly! His soulmate reveal with Joel is so freaking funny and I called it my 3rd Life post that when Etho and Joel team up, they just become little gremlins lmao I think they spend half the episode giggling.

SESSION TWO

Impulse - The Real Housewives of the Mid-Century Modern Home is a totally true and totally real show that happened during Impulse and Bdubs episodes this week. They are happily married and will prove that fact by breaking up every other couple on the server.

Scar - With a combination of swindling and major arson, Scar really does do it all this session.

Scott - The interpersonal drama this season is amazing and Scott being right in the middle of it makes this POV a great watch.

Tango - Absolutely not related to another POV this session, but making the Ranch out of wood was probably not a good idea in the long run.

SESSION THREE

Big B - The drama between Big B and Ren this session is so juicy. Between secret soulmates, Scott testing their relationship and [SPOILERS] becoming the first reds on the server, I don't know how they survived as long as they did.

Jimmy - Along with his soulmate, Jimmy and Tango welcome a beautiful baby boy into the world this week and probably cause the most chaos I've ever seen in the life series.

Martyn - Man, he is really bad at maths.

Pearl - Being the lone wolf (heh) of the season, her POV is great to get an outside view on events.

SESSION FOUR

Joel - I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard at the beginning of an episode before. Also fishing rods are to OP, mojang needs to nerf them before they claim even more lives lol 

Cleo - So much happens this episode, its ridiculous. But Cleo has a good blend of chaos and calm.

Ren - The most elaborate plot to kill others never seems to be as good as just a weapon in the end. 

Martyn - As Martyn is inviting everyone to a pool party, he probably sees most of the server, so he is great perspective to see what everyone is up to.

BONUS: watch Scar’s POV around 26:10 for the ultimate badass moment.

SESSION FIVE

Scar - Scar goes through it this week. I really can’t say much more without major spoilers but oh boy, this is an exciting POV.

Etho - The boat boys have wayyyy to much fun being red this session.

Jimmy - At this point I think there is someone out there has a personal grudge against him lol also if you want to see a fandom go nuts over a Ferris Bueller quote, watch the end of Tango's video.

Big B - Just a good solid episode and the ending is actually tragic.

SESSION SIX

Pearl - The most essential POV of the season. Heartbreak! Betrayal! Just general badassery! It's all here and its all amazing!

Bdubs - Gives a good overview of the Red Alliance and the chaos that happens when a group of people have nothing left to do but hunt others down.

Cleo - Watching her and Martyn try and outrun the reds is so incredibly stressful. Watching her turn red is so incredibly satisfying.

Grian - After he kicks the bucket due to... reasons, he sticks around in ghost form for a bit. Also his credits honestly makes me a little emotional.

In Summary...

And that's it! This season was incredibly short due to the shared life mechanic, however it was no less amazing than the others. Can I just say the fan content that came out of this season has just blown me away. It's just all so damn good.

Also I had someone ask why I do it this way rather than just recommending specific POV's to watch all the way through. It's really because I believe the best way to watch a Life season is to binge all the POV's of one session at once, completely break down over the sheer amount of content and then move onto the next week lmao just like as if it was live!

But really, there is something magical about watching multiple perspectives of the same event one after another that just gives the life series its charm. You see everything there is to see and then your anticipation for the next session is super high which just makes the experience so much more exciting. Anyway I hope this helps you on your Double Life adventure!

[ferryfoam]

This is corny and silly but for some reason I truly love Deep Space 9 so so deeply... I think it's wonderfully written, I love each and every one of the main characters and how much they care for each other (the fact that you can /feel/ that they're all genuinely friends and enjoy each others company makes me so ridiculously happy - the little things like how comfortably O'Brien and Julian talk with Odo about their holodeck program, how Jadzia occasionally goes into Odo's room to move all his furniture by a few centimetres, how easily Sisko asks for relationship advice) and the fact that the show allows certain plot-lines the time they deserve to develop properly, rather than rushing through them in just one episode. It's so lovely and I am having the most wonderful time watching it ! Currently I am ~mid season 4, and it's funny but every single episode of s4 so far has been an absolute delight to watch ! Ahhh!!! I feel bad about comparing to to Voyager, but I felt as if around the same place on my voyager watch through I had to kind of force myself to keep watching because goshhh they really fell off in the later seasons (I think my dislike is partly due to the fact that I just don't find the borg interesting at all.. I might have mentioned this in my voyager complaining post but the borg are so deeply boring to me), and as a whole the Voyager crew felt more like they were just tolerating each other at times, rather than having genuine deep friendships with their crew mates (This is pretty obvious but I am a massive platonic relationship fan I love friendship so so much and Voyager was just not doing it for me) and also this is a nitpick but the characters kept making pretty stupid decisions, which I feel DS9 has far less of (ds9 characters tend to actually think things through and do the smart thing. Yay!)

I rambled again oh well tldr I love deep space 9 so much I have genuinely wept thinking about it like the strange little nerd I am

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

But I think they are J Crew. She is really in the mid-tier market -- Ouch, this one line would've made her SO mad 😂 But that's the truth. And she's looking to lure the uber rich as her customers/patrons/investors. Old money. Born in money, generational wealth, discreet, classy and absolutely loathe nouveau riche especially someone as crass and loud mouthed as Rachel Markle. Another day, another project, another failure and blaming others for that. Same MO in Rachel's universe.

If we're being honest, I think J Crew is also little out of reach for her actual market. J Crew feels pretty solidly in Kate's demographic, if only by the stereotype of who the J Crew woman is. The J Crew woman is a professional, she's focused, she's driven, she's put-together, she's consistent in what she wears/what she does/how she decorates. She may not have the budget for Kate's high street fashion, but she can make do with replikates from the likes of J Crew, Brooks Brothers, Anne Taylor, LOFT, etc. This, by the way, is Reese Witherspoon's audience.

My sense is that Meghan's market is more of the TJ Maxx demographic. People who love a brand name but don't want to pay full price. People that want to be trendy and stylish in every season at all times. People that want artisanal and organic but not at full price. People that want a bargain or a discount that can be easily passed off as "the real designer thing." People who love luxury but love bragging about their discount even more. People who slap "live love laugh"-esque motivational quotes on everything.

There's nothing wrong with being a TJ Maxx girl or a J Crew girl or a High Street girl. You do you.

What's wrong here is Meghan's perception of the market and what's feasible for her. She isn't Gwyneth Paltrow who can get the uber rich/old money/nepo baby crowd. She isn't Reese Witherspoon who can get the middle class/J Crew crowd. She isn't even King Charles who can get the Waitrose crowd, which is the equivalent of the Whole Foods crowd here in the US.

The only audience left, the only space left, in the market is the TJ Maxx/bargain discount retailer crowd. That's where the money and the loyalty is. And it's ultimately who Meghan is. If she was smart, she'd understand that about herself, target the TJ Maxx / Ross / Home Goods / Marshalls group, corner the market there, then scale up once she has a loyal community who can do the marketing for her by talking about the products on social media.

I mean, how much of us are paying ridiculous prices for our favorite lotions, potions, subscriptions, and boxes today? And the only reason most of us put up with those ridiculous prices is because we fell in love with the brand when they were reasonably priced to get our attention.

[coraniaid]

I understand why it happens, but it's kind of striking how quickly fighting vampires on Buffy goes from being something that only the Slayer can do at all ("she alone will stand against the vampires", as the opening narration tells us in the first two seasons) to something only the Slayer can do well (meaning that other people can try but they'll risk getting hurt or letting vampires escape), to something that only the Slayer can be trusted to do properly (even if it might seem superficially that other people are doing okay) and then finally to something so mundane that pretty much anybody can do it, with or without any special powers.

The pair of mid-season 3 episodes I've reached during my current rewatch (Gingerbread and Helpless) almost feels like the last time that the writers will really take seriously the initial premise that being able to fight vampires is not something anyone can be expected to manage if they just put a little effort in. Both of them feature as plot points the idea that being able to fight vampires makes Buffy somehow uniquely special (which is perhaps one reason why Faith doesn't appear in either one of them). And yet, if anything , they already feel a little anachronistic at this stage in the show's history.

In Season 1 or early Season 2, the idea of Joyce accompanying Buffy on patrol as a sort of impromptu mother-daughter bonding event would have felt ridiculous (and not just because Joyce had no clue that Buffy was the Slayer or that vampires even existed) and it's clear in Gingerbread that we're still meant to think that it is. But it's a little harder to accept that when we've seen Buffy going on patrol while casually chatting with Willow just a couple of episodes earlier, or when we know that Willow, Oz and Xander spent all summer fighting vampires without sustanining any significant injuries. If it's okay for them, why can't Joyce tag along while Buffy's on patrol? (It's presumably not going to lead to her trying to burn her daughter at the stake every single time.)

Equally, the test that the Watchers' Council subject Buffy to in Helpless -- in which she is robbed of her powers and forced to fight a vampire without them -- is meant to be cruel and arbitrary. But by Season 7 the writers will decide that expecting a bunch of teenage girls with absolutely no special powers to be able to fight vampires is, in fact, a perfectly reasonable thing to do. And as the show progresses, more and more people without powers will do just that. Indeed, the conclusion of this very season will upend the show's premise by having Buffy's classmates take on a small army of vampires at their graduation ceremony.

In fact, vampires as a serious threat at all become increasingly rare in the show, starting from around this season. This season's main vampire adversary Mr Trick has been relegated to a subordinate role after less than a full episode on his own devices, and this is a role he will only manage to keep for a few more episodes. Despite a fun first appearance, Trick has never really managed to make an impression in the way that the Master or Spike or Drusilla or Angelus did. I'm honestly not even sure when exactly Buffy first learns his name. This season's Big Bad, the Mayor, is the first primary season villain not to be a vampire, and in fact no vampire will ever get to play this role again.

(Vampires in general start to become so quotidian and non-threatening that by Season 7 the writers resort to the rather embarrassing measure of introducing a brand new special type of really dangerous vampire, with decidedly mixed results.)

I might be missing a couple of names, but I think the list below covers every single speaking vampire character that appears in more than one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Darla (first appears in Season 1, last appears in Season 1)

The Master (first appears in Season 1, last appears in Season 3)

Angel (first appears in Season 1, last appears in Season 7)

Luke (first appears in Sesaon 1, last appears in Season 1)

The Anointed One (first appears in Season 1, last appears in Season 2)

Spike (first appears in Season 2, last appears in Season 7)

Drusilla (first appears in Season 2, last appears in Season 5)

Dalton (first appears in Season 2, last appears in Season 2)

Lyle Gorch (first appears in Season 2, last appears in Season 3)

Mr Trick (first appears in Season 3, last appears in Season 3)

Wishverse!Willow (first appears in Season 3, last appears in Season 3)

Tom (first appears in Season 4, last appears in Season 4)

Harmony (first appears in Season 1, first appears as a vampire in Season 4, last appears in Season 5)

Sandy (first appears in Season 3, first appears as a vampire in Season 5, last appears in Season 5)

And what's striking about this list is that we have, less than a third of the way through the show, already met almost everybody on it. The only two recurring vampire characters with speaking parts who haven't appeared at least once already as of The Wish are Harmony (who we've met, but not yet as a vampire), Sandy (who we'll meet as a human in just a few episodes), and 'Tom', a character so unimportant I had to look his name up on IMDB because it is never spoken in the script for either of the two episodes he appears in. (He's one of Sunday's goons who's later captured by the Initiative, if you were wondering.) More recurring vampires have already appeared for the last time than are yet to appear, with still a hundred episodes left to go.

Yet, at the same time, (unnamed, mostly harmless) vampires will actually appear in almost every episode of Buffy until the show ends. Season 3 is actually the first season of the show to feature a vampire on-screen in every episode. The season where vampires appear least is actually the first: there are four episode of Season 1 with no vampires at all, and only three other episodes where that's true (one in Season 2 and two in Season 4). Perhaps that's why Season 1 is able to take them seriously as an obstacle.

Buffy will continue to be a show where vampires feature heavily after this run of episodes, but it won't ever really be a show where the audience is expected to find them particularly menacing. Even in The Zeppo, the very first episode after these two, it feels telling that the supernatural threat Buffy is worried about Xander being exposed to -- and the dangerous enemies she and the other Scoobies fight in the background while we follow Xander around town -- are demons, not vampires. Because as much as the show wants us to think that Xander is the "Jimmy Olsen" of the group, by this point it's stretching credulity to suggest that even he would be seriously troubled by something as unimpressive as a mere vampire.

[m3r1m4r5u333]

I was thinking of the episode titles in season 7 in relation to Buddie.

7x01 "Abandon ships" basically has them abandoning their current relationships, right?

Buck tells Eddie that he broke up with Natalia.

Also, Eddie needs help co-parenting and instead of asking his girlfriend, he asks Buck to talk with Chris.

The way they combine Eddie's and Marisol's date with Christopher's, and then Eddie muses about the date feeling just friendly when the camera is actually focused on him and Marisol...

Then Buck brings up sexual tension while he's putting out a fire... And Eddie stares.

---

The emergency in 7x01, introducing the couple at the pool? Feels like a recap of past events.

With the guy passing out mid sex and the woman becoming trapped due to the stress response making her muscles spasm...?

Is truly such a hilarious retelling of Eddie's panic attacks.

The poor woman, still trapped, is basically living the life of Ana Flores:

"I don't even know how this happened. I mean, I know how it happened. We were, you know, doing it, and then he got woozy and started complaining about chest pains, and he went limp. Well, mostly - because every time I try to get free, I can't! What is happening?!"

The team tries to figure out how to help,

Hen comes to the conclusion that the medical emergency does not appear to be a heart attack (much like Eddie's panic attacks weren't either) and then states that

"What we need to do, is get him out of this hot water!"

(Hot water, indeed.)

The woman begs for help because she does not wish to have an embarrassing hospital trip.

The parallel - remember the cringy conversation at the hospital, when the doctor & the people in the room were trying to figure out what could be making Eddie so stressed, and Eddie reveals his hand by looking at Ana. Embarrassing all around!

So the team at the pool tries to come up with a solution, and decide they should help her relax.

Eddie's watching the pool scene unfold and is then like

"(*sighs*) This is the story of my fucking life. Okay, I got this. I know how to deal with panic attacks!"

So he orders Buck to switch with Hen, to get Buck closer.

So the first step to the road to recovery and getting out of panic mode is Buck getting closer! (And he did, didn't he. Eddie talked with Buck, then broke up with Ana, and Eddie was able spend more time with Buck again.)

Then Eddie asks if Buck's "got him?" (meaning the man who's collapsed), Buck does.

Then Eddie rambles on about a game called Jell-o body, to get the woman to relax. Apparently that's how Eddie also calms himself down (which is a fun fact I did not know I needed, but I will cherish it to the grave anyway).

I'm not entirely sure what the "lime jell-O" reference could mean, but after some obsessed googling, I'm thinking it means incompatible ingredients - components which do not work well together.

These absolutely mad jell-o recipes used to be a thing, and also ridiculed. Go listen to "Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise", if you haven't, it's pretty funny.

Anyway. Would make sense in the context I'm seeing here. Picturing lime jell-O is what brings the stress level down because it reminds you that it's okay to let go. Some things just aren't meant to be. Like Eddie and Ana weren't!

...

So. Does this mad rambling of mine make any sense to anyone but me? 😅

[altschmerzes]

🌹💐🌺🌸🌸🌹🌻🌸🌸🌸🌹🌹🌹🌻🌻🌹 a bouquet for something Roy and Jamie from wiggle up on dry land? 🙏

OKAY SO. THIS IS. LONG. BUT SOMETHING TELLS ME YOU PROBABLY WON'T MIND. so here, take this, from a LONG ways ahead, in the like, mid-season 2 area of the timeline in wriggle up on dry land-

It’s one of the stranger moments of Roy’s life, this one. He’d acted without thinking, following an instinct he didn’t know he had and wasn’t prepared to reckon with being in him in the first place and doing something he suddenly knew he needed to do without considering the implications or consequences. It’s something that he’s done time and again when it came to Jamie specifically, and it’s only gotten more unsettling the more it happens. And now here Roy is, standing in Rebecca’s office, the unwieldy burden of a deeply asleep sixteen year old in his arms and absolutely no idea how he’s going to get down to his car.

There are stairs between Rebecca’s office and the car park, for one. For another, Roy’s got a permanent injury to one of his legs and today has not been a particularly good day on that front. And, while Jamie’s lighter than Roy would honestly have hoped he would be, and he hadn’t had trouble picking him up off the couch, it’s going to be different as soon as he tries to walk farther than the distance across the office floor. It’s a dilemma. Roy is stuck in a situation with a sick boy he needs to get home so he can be properly looked after and the thought of waking him up to walk to the car is a prospect that makes Roy himself feel ill just contemplating it. The answer should be obvious. Jan Maas is right there in the doorway, having been sent after him by Ted for exactly this reason, and the thing about Jan Maas is that he is about eight feet tall and and built like he plays American fucking football. Jamie is willowy and short for his age. Stairs or no stairs, Jan would not have a problem carrying him down to Roy’s car - honestly, could probably carry him all the way to Roy’s house without breaking a sweat. Roy’s knee hurts and Jan is enormous and Jamie isn’t that heavy. It’s a no-brainer. A non-issue. Even so, Roy doesn’t move. He stands there in the middle of Rebecca’s office, frozen into complete stillness despite the increasing ache in his knee, the awareness that if he tries to take another step carrying an extra person with him it will not withstand the strain, and a complete unwillingness to pass his burden over. It’s a no-brainer, a non-issue, but Roy can feel Jamie’s forehead against his neck and it’s damp and hot. The boy has a fever and he’s sick, limp and asleep in Roy’s arms and there’s this panicky little corner of Roy’s brain that is convinced that the only place in the world that Jamie is safe, even close to safe, is while Roy is holding him. He’s aware this is stupid and ridiculous for all kinds of reasons, but knowing that doesn’t make that panicky little shriek any quieter or make his body any more willing to move. There’s something calculating in Jan’s eyes - they’re a cold and piercing grey-blue that never seem to miss much, even when Roy wishes they would. Roy shifts Jamie a bit, holding him a bit higher, a bit tighter, and waits for the inevitable. Jan knows Roy is reluctant to pass the boy over, and that he has no real reason to be so, and Jan is Jan, which means that any moment he’s going to start rattling off all the reasons why giving Jamie to him is the obvious solution and Roy is doing nothing but wasting everyone’s time. When Jan does speak, Roy blinks at him, uncomprehending. He can’t process what’s just been said, and he shakes his head a little like that will clear his ears or his head or something. The movement draws a faint whine from the still-unconscious kid and Roy hushes him with a duck of his cheek against the top of Jamie’s head. “I said, I will be careful,” Jan repeats, obviously aware that Roy hadn’t understood what he said. He sounds just as straightforward and frank as he always does, he doesn’t speak delicately or talk around the ridiculous problem he’s addressing, but he doesn’t mock either. He doesn’t make fun. All he says, looking right at Roy with a steady, clear calm, is, “I promise. I will be gentle and careful with him. You have my word.”

[linnetagain]

Hi !

I don’t even know where to start. Firstly, I apologize for my english, as it is not my first language.

I wanted to tell you that I started reading The Season a few weeks back, and I gobbled it all down in a matter of days. Under my desk at work, past reasonable bedtime hours giggling under my covers like a very much outgrown 12 years old. (and i regret nothing)

This story caught me so quick, i was hooked mid first chapter. I love how emotionally complex it is, I love the way you write the characters and especially how clever the dialogs are, and how clever your writing is in general. With the themes you tackle, It hits right at home, I don’t know how to put it into words. I just love the way you write ! And it brings me so much joy to read your work (even if the end of the last one broke my heart :( )

I don’t know why I started to read it, because I am not drawn to reality shows, and as far as fanfics go, i’d rather read oneshots and was never fond of AUs. But it seems that i have to reconsider what I like, seeing how I enjoy yours so so much. You put the bar very high for the next ones i will read !

Also, you made me want to read more. I even started reading Howl’s moving castle because of you, and I am really enjoying it so far. So thank you for that !

Thank you for bringing this story to life, and making me (and many others) feel all kind of feelings.

Please do not put too much pressure on yourself, take all the time you need for chapter releases !

Take care (of you and your little cat!), much love from Belgium ♥️

I was trying to respond to every little part of this, but then it was never going to get replied to, so here's my best;

First of all, please never apologise for your English, it's a ridiculous language and you wield it beautifully.

Secondly, I'm so, so grateful to you for taking the time to write this out and to let me know how much you enjoyed it. I love that feeling when I'm utterly enraptured in what I'm reading, and it's an absolute honour to have been able to do that for you.

I also thought I didn't do AUs and have zero interest in reality TV, so we can reconsider our tastes together, hah! I just got seized by this silly idea and I'm not entirely sure how it became what it is now.

I am SO FLATTERED that you started Howl because of me??? I fucking ADORE that book, it strikes this incredible balance between whimsy and plot, I really hope that you enjoy it!!

My cat and I are sending you love to Belgium!

[awfcrusso]

Well if Barça did like Arsenal with Australia their vacation would be shortened even more.

Let's remember that through great majority are starters for their national teams, they meet mid july for EURO qualifiers and a great deal of them will also eat a lot of minutes during the Olympics.

Was the date or place appropriate? No, but it was put there to have the biggest amount of players there (not like in last August when English, Swedes, Spaniards were on vacation post WC) and to lengthen their vacation a bit

I get that but it’s absolutely ridiculous having 3 games in 7 days with one of those said games being 5000 miles away in a country that has a time zone difference of 8 hours that’s the bit that is just outright stupid.

Oh and they’ve got to do 23 hours of travelling for one of those matches fucking stupid why not just have the match closer to the start of the season when they’re actually back in PRE season