#but that’s a tangent for another post

[sparrowlucero]

I love the licensed doctor who ttrpg where the author clearly has some sort of personal disdain towards non human or campy player characters but contractually can't exclude them (on account of it's doctor who) so instead opts to passive aggressively bully people out of playing aliens and having funny names

[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

I cannot wait for this Stan to reconnect with his Ford.

I still haven't figured out HOW exactly they'll meet yet, but I do think that Ford would ATTACH himself to Stanley and talk his ears off forever when they eventually get comfortable :] and Stanley would listen because HOLY SHIT, THAT'S HIS BRO HE HASN'T SEEN FOR 40-ISH YEARS, HE MISSED HIS VOICE. Nonstop certified Yapper & Listener relationship <3

Stanley looks dead faced because of his ingrained poker face, but he's thouroughly enjoying it, even if sometimes he has no idea what the fuck Ford is saying. He never interrupts him though, since he knows people usually ignore or interrupt him mid-talk already. So sometimes Stan gets stuck in awkward situations where he has to leave or do stuff, but also doesn't have it in his heart to stop Ford and extract himself out of a (one-sided) conversation.

[secriden]

Something that really struck me about Style this episode is how real his fear was.

And I don't just mean his fear of the inevitable conclusion of the path Fadel's hurt and anger has set them on; although this, too, was so very real and honest and tore me to pieces in ways I can still barely process.

But it's interesting how Style talks about being afraid of dying generally and specifically how harm could come to them from an external source. How the way his fear is orientated puts Fadel on the inside ("a murderer is gonna come after us"), on Style's side and someone Style wants to keep safe.

And when Fadel makes the kind of snide joke about letting the hypothetical cannibals kill and cook Style, Style's solution still involves staying by Fadel's side. At no point does he ever stop referring to Fadel and him as a single unit, even after Fadel very explicitly frames Style as the only victim.

I'm bringing this up because I think as a fandom (myself included!!) we may have mistaken Styles unshaken confidence for a lack of fear. We saw Style stare down the barrel of Fadel's gun with an unimpressed look of disdain or the way he casually discusses Fadel killing him at the end of their journey, and we (understandably) think this is evidence of his fearlessness, of his boldness and sense of wild optimism that admittedly fits his character quite well -- but it isn't.

I think Style is very afraid, actually. He has many fears and chief among them at this point is that he does not want to die. He does not want to leave his life or is dad or his friend or his cars or his boyfriend who still thinks he doesn’t love him!

And those tears?? Those tears were real because lying next to Fadel with a metal handcuff digging into his wrist was a painful reminder of their broken trust; the terrible chasm hidden in the scant inches between them, all as the result of Style's past choices and the pressures on all our main characters.

And I think part of it was also Style finally coming down from the adrenalin rush of: (a) Kant and Bison going missing, (b) being chloroformed and kidnapped and stripped naked and tied up, (c) being threatened at gunpoint whilst still reeling from the knowledge that Fadel knows and perhaps has known since the first warning signs of his sudden affection, and (d) not being shot and then being told to drive for hours on a seemingly impossible quest with no real destination.

But I also think this was the core of why Style is so sad. Because even if Fadel forgives him, there's a very real possibility that Style's actions and choices could lead him to dying if not at Fadel's hands then maybe because Style is now at risk of getting caught in the crossfire too. Because Style may well find himself standing between a bullet and Fadel one day, and that choice has repercussions beyond Style himself.

But his fear and his sorrow makes Style's choices on this journey all the more poignant and beautiful. Because Style commits to his love at the end of the day. He is unapologetically honest with Fadel and gives him not just the weight of what it means for Style to choose him, but the right for Fadel to keep his anger in spite of it. At no point does Style demand Fadel's forgiveness or trust or the relinquishing of the distance Fadel keeps between them.

Because Style's heart is his to offer, but equally it is Fadel's to take. And I think to fail to recognise the reality of Style's fear is to undervalue the weight of what it means when Style says "You own my life" -- when this took everything Style had in him to give.

[dvoidroid]

God I cannot get over this Nukoku panel from the latest update. Like. She’s just standing there. 🧍‍♀️core. Like yeah if my sort of ex girlfriend who I hadn’t seen since I died and got resurrected as a different entity basically told me to sit this one out as she was preparing to fight a nigh-unkillable demigod of anger and some metrosexual with the largest ship ever I’d probably be standing exactly like that too.

[hayaku14]

kaito buying every ticket to every soccer game available just to see that excited look on shinichi's face

[king-lena]

i just wrote a whole post on how david and roger’s perception of each other ultimately led to their downfall and it started off as like a paragraph of surface level observations and somehow morphed into an essay length analysis that i can’t possibly justify posting 😭 i did kind of cook tho ngl i’m proud of her

[tragedry]

A Guide to Ashler or Tylyn And Why You (🫵🏻) should Consider Shipping Them Too

(join my cause, and ship this with me <3)

[sieglinde-freud]

out of curiosity do you have any favorite inigo lines? just in general 👀

YESSSSSS YESYESYES i do :) in a very predictable manner, two of my favorite things he ever says is in his father support:

Inigo: Do you think I'd be out here if I were ONLY after girls? Out here fighting every day, wondering if this is the time I don't make it home?!

and

Inigo: I had to fight every day of my sorry life and wear a smile while I did it!

both from the B support which is honestly just my favorite support section like. EVER. but those specific parts always stand out to me as both insight into his head but also how he speaks and how his speech patterns are different relative to everyone else. also lines from his cynthia support that make me laugh every single time i read it

Cynthia: It was so weird! I was just walking along when they started running up to me! Kept wishing me luck and saying I was their idol or something. I dunno.

Inigo: Oh, right, sure. You dunno. Cakes and girls just fell out of the clear blue sky. ...DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW JEALOUS I AM RIGHT NOW?!

absolute fav and underrated support on both of their parts. by the way. another one i like is in his harvest scramble convo with brady after brady snaps him out of spacing out, he says:

Inigo: You know me: Mr. Serious Fighter! I mean, it'd be a crime to see them wreck that AMAZING stage... Or to let them hurt any of these people who would LOVE my newest routine... Or to tear down that garland that just gave me the PERFECT idea for a new move... But I mean, really, who has time to think about dancing at a time like this?

like this is peak inigo to me. it just is. one more from awakening is in his hot spring scramble with laurent, and laurent is trying to figure out why inigo is so averse to letting him watch him dance. he says

Inigo: Yeah. Like I said, it's...complicated. I want people to watch me dance. I want to make them smile... But I can't help worrying what'll happen if I flop. What if everybody laughs at me? Whenever I get the urge to dance, those conflicting voices battle it out in my head. I guess I don't know which side is right.

(italicized is my fav part, rest for context) i dont know i love how he says this i love how he talks because it just feels so REAL and strangely modern which should feel out of place but i feel like awakening is really good at hitting that balance between casual and formal tones of speaking. so theres that

i’ll say that i stare at fates’s script less than awakening’s because no one has matched the category 5 brainrot event that the collective group of awakening kids have given me, but i do have a few. i posted this one pretty recently bc its FANTASTIC but when you battle laslow in birthright (ch26?) with anyone whos not corrin he says

Laslow: My duty is to protect Lord Xander and the kingdom of Nohr, in that order. May the gods have mercy on anyone who stands against me.

this is one if the greatest things that has ever left his mouth. by the way. “in that order” is CRAZYYYYYYYY ARE YOU KIDDING ME. whatever

last but definitely not least, i have to pull from his nyx support which has driven me endlessly insane to which you have all seen before if youve seen my blog for about a month bc i do not shut the fuck up about them. but for laslow specifically, in the B support he says

Laslow: Let's say I'd done something so cruel that I never wanted anyone to find out. If, say, I'd neglected a great many people... let them all die... Would you call me monster, too?

INSANE. INSANE. i quote that all of the time. drives me nuts. the amount of guilt that one carries is crazy. honestly i could paste their entire support in here and i dont think i could pull out a line i dont completely love but i will finish from a section from their S support

Nyx: I don’t want to burden you with my crime.

Laslow: You mean all those people you say you’ve killed?

Nyx: Yes…

Laslow: Well, much as I might want to, I can't bear your burden. Nor could I expect you to bear mine. But with burdens so heavy...don't you think we could lean on each other a bit? My calling in life from now on is to put a smile on your face. And I don't think there's anybody in this world who could make me smile but you.

thheuy r. peak romance. to me……:….

[rolanroran]

Johnny doodles with paper from PSV and a friends colour pencils... heh...

you know the drill, he looks weird—its cause i did it from memory MY BAD GANG

[pinkkop]

Day 43 - 15 Days BL Challenge (part 3)

Day 43 - Let’s get delulu, which branded pairing should just get married already? (Note: this is all for fun and giggles, we’re not actually speculating on anyone’s sexuality or relationships.)

Edit: Fair warning, this post got away from me, so here's a tangent about BL pairs first. I won't get offended if you just skip to me talking about BillyBabe.

When it comes to BL pairings I'm very much someone who won't 100% believe that a BL pairing is actually dating as long as there's any financial gain from them pretending to be a couple. (Which is almost all the time for a pairing who's last show was together or that has an upcoming show together or anything vaguely like that)

So as long as there's even the smallest chance that actors are aware of the camera filming or taking pictures of them, then I view their interactions through the lens of fan-service.

This is not to invalidate the love that's between some of these pairings or say that any fan, who does think a pairing is dating, is lying, but since fan-service is a big part of BL, we're always going to have pairings acting it up and I think leaning into the idea that pairings are dating is a slippery slope.

When we decide we think a pairing is dating, we suddenly have a lot more stake in the pairing and it opens up for so many possibilities for people's feelings to get hurt and hurt people are more likely to lash out.

We've already seen it a good handful of times when it comes out that an actor in a pairing is dating someone else or that the actors in the pairing really aren't very close. When that happens fans feel deceived and hurt, get mad and lash out. "Fans" get nasty and start treating the actors and/or their real life partners horribly, because "how could they deceive us like this?"

This could really be applied to anything we believe to be true about an actor. Sexuality, personality, friendships etc. as long as it's something personal to the actor.

And if you're reading this and are thinking "I wouldn't do that!", then I'm sure you're right, I'd like to think this about myself as well, but some fans would and have done exactly that. And it's just hard to know exactly how you'll react until it does happen. Maybe we won't lash out at the actor but we might still turn our back on the actor and help fuel the fire of hurt and anger in the fandom, even if the actor really never did anything wrong, we just assumed.

Bottom line: I'll happily engage in fan-service but as long as a pairing's working together in some way then I'll never be 100% convinced the pairing's actually dating and I think keeping the actors and their personal lives at an arms length is good for both the fans and the actor in the long run.

Anyways, now lets talk about a specific BL pairing because I guess that's what the prompt was actually about...

Billy and Babe!

These two!

I know I already said that I view BL pairings through the lens of fan-service whenever they're in front of a camera but what the fuck are these two doing?! It's like they're doing fan-service on speed!

Making one after the other of really intimate vlogs where they put up a camera and show the fans exactly how close they are. Like some of the things they're sharing in the vlogs are honestly too intimate to share with strangers on the internet if you ask me. Like:

Straight up cuddling in bed in probably just their underwear(?) before getting out of bed in the morning 🤯

Being domestic AF in their hotel room just in robes and underwear (?) 🤯

Whatever it is Billy finds funny about Babe saying that he "Slept so well" 🤯

And finally them being the antitheses to 'two bros chilling in a hot tub, 5 feet away because they're not gay' here 🤯

Apparently their company has come out and said that they don't control any of the things that BillyBabe film in their vlogs and Babe has also recently said he isn't single. Like what the fuck, guys?!

I honestly really hope that this doesn't give any other BL pairings ideas because I don't want this to push the boundaries of what's normal for fan-service. Because this isn't something you just do with your bro and if they aren't actually dating and are instead just playing the part of dating, I think they're taking it too far.

Anyways, I'm mostly just curious to see how this evolve and what happens when they aren't working together anymore.

Maybe they're dating, maybe they're fuck buddies, maybe they're just the best of friends, or maybe they are none of those. Either way, it's none of my business! I just hope they're happy.

The original challenge is here, part two here and part three here.

[phantomsies]

literacy, empathy and nuance are dead fucking arts and there really is no coming back from it.

[moodr1ng]

i have my opinions on "ai" tech and have stated them before but ignoring the debate itself for a sec -- it does stick out to me how much the ai conversation seems to rly illuminate peoples blind spots regarding what is or isnt a skill everyone is expected to have to deserve respect 🤔 like, the "asking chatgpt to write you emails" thing is portrayed with such disgust that youd think struggling to write an email is the first sign of the degeneration of western society, but to be quite honest with you i have to ask my mom or my friend for help to write emails regularly and always have needed that help. if i have to do it on my own it takes a long time, usually requires googling appropriate phrases/looking for templates, and its generally a lot of stress and effort that most people dont need to put into writing basic emails. again this is not a pro or anti ai argument - the issue i see is not that people are criticizing the technology, but that in order to make that criticism, they feel the need to paint the technology as fundamentally and completely useless, and to make that argument people for whom "simple tasks" (for the average person) are genuinely difficult must be painted as maliciously lazy imbeciles.

[electronicgalah]

A second fan region has officially hit the sketchbook guys.

Transcript: Bone Factory (I wont transcribe the diagram ehhhhh). Platform Spiders transport blocks to nearby facilities, and the train station as well after the transport rail (take a shot every time I say transport) collapses due to poor ground stability.

Approximate layout.

The area around the factory is filled with pollution and sinkholes, and shrouded in darkness due to being in the iterator’s shadow. There are a few inactive rooms (in the factory) due to lowered demand for bone.

Mechanics are hostile to all creatures in the factory regardless of reputation, but become neutral after Time Traveller’s drone is fixed by An Iris of Hues. The same can’t be said for the sentries.

A coloured pearl in the factory contains some old production records. Iris will go on 16 tangents.

(Transcript end)

So basically there are three sub-areas, firstly, a section with firmer ground where a few sentries patrol, creatures that call down Miros Vultures when they spot the player, or any other creature excluding Mechanics. Secondly, an area flooded with acid and marked by sinkholes, if one doesn’t feel like parkouring through wreckage platform spiders can be ridden like raindeer if they are walking in the right direction (will not turn around no matter what). Thirdly, there is the factory itself, partially lit and filled with aging but still active machinery and Mechanics that will kindly escort you out of the premise via electrocution to death.

I did a coloured concept drawing of this area at school but i uh. Don’t have it. BYE

[galaxygorl-does-stuff]

when doof turns into a cow in the episode before the curse of candace (the titles are swapped on my tv and it's cut off so i cant see what the episode js actually called. it's s3 e13 though) he has udders. this leads me to believe trans doofenshmirtz canon

[buckley-diaztruther]

Being the child of a man who is also a divorced eldest son of a distant but strict Mexican father/boymom ultra religious white mother (both of whom are way too gung ho about parenting their grandchildren) who grew up in the Southwwest surrounded by toxic masculinity and learning how to code switch between Tough Mexican Dude and Friendly Unthreatening But Capable White Bro

I think that there's a lot to be said about eddies behavior and wardrobe this week that I have a unique insight on. and as such I am gonna say, eddie introducing himself as 'Edmundo' has a lot less to do w the everything else that he's doing to mask himself and a lot more to do with the fact that he is just introducing himself to a superior thats also a male Hispanic authority figure.

[vilevexedvixen]

What species are the flowers in Fowler's fortress?

The flower with psychoactive pollen we see in episode 6 is probably entirely fictional, and not based on any specific plant. BUT Pondering over small, inconsequential details like this seems to have become my thing, so let's consider what it could be if it IS a real flower.

Based on its shape, the flower looks either like a waterlily or a lotus.

Fowler's indoor garden seems to be either directly above or otherwise near to the kitchen. Any water features such as fountains and ponds would need to be self-contained (to avoid leaking, or rotting the wooden beams between floors). Also, given how dimly lit the windowless garden is we can assume the flower blooms in the dark / nocturnally which actually narrows down which species of flower it could be considerably.

Now, originally I had assumed no waterlily or lotus is psychoactive so considered it might be a poppy instead, with the pink poppy looking the most similar to the flower in episode 6. The flowers we see are clearly growing singularly from the garden soil, rather than floating in water the way waterlilies and lotuses do. However, not only do these flower in full sun rather than nocturnally, it also turns out that there ARE psychoactive lotus flowers. Specifically Nelumbo nucifera or the blue lily flower and Nymphaea caerulea or the blue lotus, although these too bloom in the day and close up at night.

The broader taxonomy of Nymphaea nouchali / water lily has edible psychoactive roots (containing alkaloid aporphine).

It's pretty fitting for Fowler to cultivate a nocturnally blooming flower, given his crescent moon crest. Not sure if that crest is his or that of the Genghin clan, but he dons it all the same.

With all that being said, the psychoactive effects of the flower seem to stem (heh) from its pollen, not its petals as with Nelumbo nucifera. As it happens, there is a plant native to Japan which has psychoactive pollen containing "grayanotoxins" (named after Asa Gray from the 1800s. If Fowler talked about the plants it would be very anachronistic for him to use this term, so he probably wouldn't). These are a type of neurotoxin produced by the family Ericaceae (including the rhodedendron flower - not especially similar to Fowler's flower as they tend to grow in clusters with relatively smaller flower heads), with the different isoforms (structure variations) of the grayanotoxins each flower species produces varying the plant's toxicity. Whatever grayanotoxins are in Fowler's flowers' pollen act pretty quickly so are probably on the more potent end (so probably grayanotoxin III?)

"Mad honey" can be made from pollen contaminated with grayanotoxins, but the pollen itself is still psychoactive.

Overall, no specific existing flower species seems to perfectly fit Fowler's flowers. Lotus look the closest but don't grow in the conditions shown in the show and have psychoactive roots rather than the psychoactive pollen of rhodedendron flowers. If any BES fans are botanists or specialise in plants / environmental science / botany / related sciences, I'd love to hear what you know and think would be more appropriate candidates!