#but she is implied to be included

[blueskittlesart]

I see you refer to Kris and Noelle as besties a lot. I haven't played the weird routes yet and I certainly don't know the normal route dialogue like the back of my hand, but I thought that Noelle and Kris were estranged family friends, not super close anymore, before the events of chapter 1. That view is specifically because of Noelle's private blog post about Kris from Spamton Sweepstakes (https://deltarune.com/kris_dreemurr_kris/). Noelle wrote, "Even then, with my eyes open, there were times when I wasn't even sure if we were friends." What do you think about this blog post?

well ok first of all when I called kris and noelle 'best friends' in my noelle post which im assuming is what this is about it was after about 3 paragraphs about how significantly they had drifted apart after dess's disappearance. I'd certainly not call them besties as things currently stand, but i think that BEFORE dess's disappearance and the player's takeover of kris they were at minimum the most consistent friend in each other's lives. the real point of that post was that i think they were probably significantly closer than noelle leads the player to believe based on her dialog alone, and that she is an unreliable narrator when it comes to she and kris's relationship. If I listed out every piece of evidence I can think of off the top of my head that she and kris were close this post would get insanely long, but literally just walking around her room in chapter 4 will paint you a pretty clear picture. she had a cactus named after them. and when she mentions that berdly renamed it kris gets pissed off about it in the flavor text afterwards.

as for that blog post, I kind of think taking that one line out of context does a disservice to the picture that is actually being painted here, because honestly I'd argue that the full text supports my point even more. full text of the post for context:

It's funny... there was a time when they were coming over almost every day. We'd play, and we'd play... then after a while, they would suddenly get very still, like they were remembering something. They'd go into the dining room to "get a snack," then after a few moments, I'd hear the piano. The first few times, I went into watch them play, but when they realized I was looking, they'd always shut the piano and come back. So over time, I just started staying on the couch in the living room. I'd lie there, listening to them play, sometimes for hours, sometimes even until I fell asleep. Even then, what were they thinking about me? Maybe they weren't thinking about me at all. They didn't have a piano at their house, so they probably just came over to use mine. Even then, with my eyes open, there were times when I wasn't even sure if we were friends. But when I closed my eyes, it felt like a concert just for me.

Yes, there's a level of removal going on here. Noelle doesn't quite understand kris's motivations and is struggling to contextualize their actions because of this. But I think it's important to remember that this blog post is recounting the memories of a young child, and written from the perspective of a teenager, so it would probably be a miracle if nothing got lost in translation. This is Noelle reflecting on a relationship which has very clearly changed drastically in recent years, and if there's one thing we know about noelle it's that she's avoidant as shit. It's nowhere near above her to recontextualize memories in her own head in order to make her previous relationship to kris feel less personal, so she won't have to feel as sad about losing a close friend. We literally watch her do this in real time in snowgrave--painting over and/or blocking out memories that scare and upset her in order to avoid reckoning with those feelings. I think she likely finds this easier to do with kris because kris seems to have been pretty introverted and kind of. weird in the ways they expressed affection towards her as a child (particularly the pranks she so often mentions) which makes it easier for her to spin their relationship as something obligational rather than true closeness. But because Kris was such a big part of her life for so long, her altered memories are still imperfect. In the same post where she says kris probably wasn't thinking about her at all she also mentions that kris was at her house every day and that she felt an intense personal connection to their music. And for what it's worth, there are at least two other pianos in town that kris easily could have used if all they wanted was to practice--one in the church's choir room and one in the hospital. They weren't at the holiday house purely to use that piano. more likely than not they really were playing for her.

[disastergenius]

My bold take is that R.F. Kuang and Suzanne Collins are actually doing very similar things with their books/writing and both are doing it very well (but notably only one is getting criticized for it, for which there are many reasons, some fair and most not).

They are both making very specific and strategic points about the way that class, class consciousness and allyship, exploitative systems, propaganda, and rebellions work, just to name a few themes. And it’s far more interesting to examine their respective fictional worlds, both of which are heavily influenced by real-world events and history and hold it as a parallel to our own.

[It is also far more interesting to not boil their work down to shipping, “capitalism is the bad guy,” and oppression olympics for fictional characters with far too much projection into the real world.]

[glitterspaghettiketchup]

Felt like i had to make this lol

[fascinationstreetmp3]

the lamb smiling up at the wolf with unsettling passivity etc etc

[anpiels]

here's my piece for the aa spring swap! i created for @aliceaktorka, who requested something sweet with Maria and Gina as a ship and mentioned being fond of hurt/comfort. I'm very happy with this, so I hope you enjoy it, too :]

A short drabble I wrote inspired by this piece under the read more.

It wasn't unlike how Iris had told her Wagahai preferred to show affection, Gina reasoned: being able to feel at peace enough with someone to let your guard down completely, so that you may fully revel in their presence. Of course, the proper way to express that feeling in words was beyond her (and, evidently, Maria herself), but even though her vocabulary couldn't explain what wasn't a sentiment she'd ever truly felt before, she knew that it was a very warm, fuzzy feeling, if nothing else.

That said, it really wasn't so complicated; though both Inspector Lestrade and Doctor Gorey had scarce experience with such emotions (due to either emotional or physical isolation respectively), they both recognized the other's presence as something their heart reached out for. They were both desperate to achieve the sensation of placing all of their faith in another once again, although this time, it was not only to rely on the other— but to be relied on in the same way.

What they both longed for, unwittingly or otherwise, was something they found in each other: a strong bond of mutual trust.

As the dawning sun broke through the twilight, Gina watched blearily through the usually-drawn-shut curtains of the coroner office's window. Somewhere in that hazy level of consciousness between sleep and wake, only one thought occurred to her: the room itself felt much more comfortable than it ever had before.

How strangely tangible it was, the joint serenity of a blossoming love.

[annoying--moth]

Hornet asks around for dating advice (and it goes about as well as you'd expect)

[ohpsshaw]

I've been veeerrrry slowly carving my way through BG3. But I think I keep getting captivated by the wrong scenes? Like when you had to dig up a dog's grave for a free steak.

My durge is a civilized nutbar tief-rogue named Typhus (because I forgot that’s just a disease and not something you name an English bulldog), and he’s only holding himself back from slaughtering innocents because of the Dark Urge to resolve friendly NPC storylines. He’s also a desperate slut who wants to get you out of those clothes so he can see your sexy, sexy character development. Whatever you’re into, c’mon. Yes, he’ll even let you put that in there.

[flowersforthemachines]

Useless Veilguard fact of the day: Day 70

Davrin is the only companion who doesn't mention having prior relationships, or expressing romantic/sexual interest in anyone in the past.

Check out the tag for more useless facts: #useless davg fact of the day!

[mumblingsage]

The first piece of writing by Octavia Butler I ever read was "Bloodchild." Followed by her author's note which - don't fully take my word for it, because I might be misremembering, but my prominent impression is that while the reader is reeling from the alien-reproduction-body-horror, Butler seems to have found this story quite pleasant and interesting (the Wikipedia article for Bloodchild and Other Stories backs me up a bit, with some whiplash between the story's background and critics' takeaways).

Then I devoured the rest of the collection, which also has some damn good stuff in it.

Anyway, if you have never read any Octavia Butler...I think you should also begin with "Bloodchild."

[moldy-flowers]

Sakura and her comically oversized axes

[spiltsoup]

There's potential parallels between Valentina and Yelena's backstories but y'all aren't ready to talk about that I guess

[itissadbutitsmy-artblog]

in a world where EVERYONES names match their career and grown up self eerily perfectly, it's the people with Human Names who are the trans ones. the ones who chose their own names. like see Young Mister Creampuff is clearly a birth name that matches him perfectly but Ann. now that’s a woman choosing her own destiny.

[remnantglow]

so normal about the gender fuckery of the Polish murderbot translation (lie i am on the verge of tears)

[illmoraineakoi]

Fic where through Rocket Corp Shenanigans and/or Orange Power Craziness, the Color Gang, TCO and Victim all get spat out into the human world, where Alan then has to reveal to his wife that surprise! Living stick figures are real, he's made living stick figures, two of them don't like him, and one of those two is actively trying to kill him, while the other five see him as their Dad.

All while trying, and just barely succeeding, in wrangling a very ferally angry Victim who is trying his hardest to inflict great bodily harm onto Alan despite Alan being literally five times his size while the others are panicking trying to figure out how to help. Except for TCO, who is just WAITING for Alan accidentally drop Victim so he can return the favor of the Box beatdown.

And Kaori, who Alan never told that his animations were based on real events and real living stick figures, is just sitting there watching this lunacy like this:

[icecreampizzer]

Well erm. hey. Hi. Had this idea bouncing around my head for a bit...Wanted to do something similar with the portal au for these three hehe >:]

YOU MAY have seen them already in another doodle I made of them as different IEYTD characters. Surprisingly there's a lot of overlap between these guys' personalities and dynamics in my ocs, which is always fun to see HEHEEE

well, here's my favorite fuckass sci-fi love triangle as my favorite science ladies. The notes beside them are their similarities! Most of them are close to the IEYTD canon but some are a bit more headcanon-y. Typed out notes below the cut for readability:

THEIA as COMMANDER SOLARIS

(ex) astronaut, space lover

brilliant engineer

survived an extremely dangerous accident involving a spacecraft built with their own two hands

has no respect for their current employer, operates on their own motives

has something going on with a coworker…even if they butt heads at first

short-tempered most of the time, but generally amiable to coworkers

DEJA VU as DR. PRISM

robot themes…

brilliant engineer

research & knowledge was used against them by the enemy, who they aligned with at first

relatively the most morally good out of the three

has something going on with a coworker (???)

very pleasant to work with

would 100% do those robot blueprints where prism decides to use furniture to build robots

if he had to build his own robot army he would treat them like family. obviously

OLIZ as THE FABRICATOR

the most comfortable with being a cartoon villain

brilliant engineer and artiste……

serving cunt 24/7

dedicated to their boss and job to an unhealthy degree (?)

the coworker that has something going on

certified hater especially to their coworkers

has a very active social life & public persona

does a lot of betraying

[qoldenskies]

I feel like April and Mikey commiserate over constantly being underestimated and ‘protected’ by everyone else for being human/the youngest.

Speaking of, I find it king of interesting (any annoying, if I’m being honest) how much Raph, Leo and Donnie do baby Mikey. Like, he’s less than a year younger than Leo and Donnie, and only in Rise, so it’s not like he needed that much more protecting than anyone else

tbh i think them babying mikey makes sense. the gaps in age really arent that huge but it defines how they function so much because it was a system they fell into in order to protect themselves, especially in the face of splinter's neglect/depression. like raph stepped up as a pseudo-father figure most obviously, but you can see how this effects leo too. advocating for mikey to have independence, questioning raph when he thinks he's being unreasonable and acting as counsel for him, saying he's an undecided voter and putting emphasis on the importance of his input at the beginning of one man's junk, cheering them all up when their motivation is damaged, etc. and you can see it in the way that donnie and mikey operate, too; it's very rare they try to take the lead. even when donnie questions leo's guidance, you dont actually see him directly challenging it or trying to reroute much. he just goes along with it, even if he doesn't think its a good idea (you can see it most in the movie lol, without raph there leo is The Oldest and that's why donnie and mikey just follow him even though he's being shitty).

and mikey's at the bottom of the ladder here as the very youngest and it shows!! they never PUT anything on mikey, and because all of them have these Roles, mikey's the one that needs to be sheltered and protected the MOST. raph is the most obvious about it but you can see it with the middle children sometimes too lol. it means mikey trusts them wholeheartedly, even if the babying gets to him sometimes-- he never uses i'm only a year-two years younger to argue because he doesnt live in a kind of dynamic where he'd see that as a small gap. leo KIND OF does in hot soup: the game, but its more like "when you were his age" which is NOT the same thing. raph is thinking of the dynamic more than he is the actual ages; mikey was never saddled with the kind of responsibility he was. he's the littlest. that's what matters.