#card validation script

[quinloki]

FuckNoWriMo

Here's my official Writing Challenge Post for anyone who wants to play along.

FuckNoWriMo will be held December 2024 for this year only, and will be held in March from 2025 on. Due to the terminology being used, this is probably an 18+ event, but I swore like a sailor at 12, and it's not like I can stop you from participating.

How to Participate:

Decide you want to write during the month of the event.

Write.

Bonus!

3. Post and share that you're writing, and what you're writing if you want \o/ 4. Tag your posts with #fnowrimo or #fucknowrimo

Want more structure? Certainly, allow me.

Pick one of the categories to run with and set that as your goal for the month:

A Word, if I May?: Write at least 31 words for the month.

Get That Shit Outlined: Write at least 1,000 words for the month. (33 words a day)

Give it the Gusto!: Write at least 5,000 words for the month. (162 words a day)

Hell Yeah, Write!: Write at least 10,000 words for the month. (323 words a day)

Words At Work: Write at least 20,000 words for the month. (646 words a day)

Punctuated: Write at least 35,000 words for the month. (1,130 words a day.)

Fuck It: Write at least 50,000 words for the month. (1,613 words a day)

Crazy 88 (it's a Kill Bill reference): Write at least 100,000 words for the month. (3,225 words a day)

Please note you may write anything:

An outline, several outlines, rough draft(s), poetry, journaling, lyrics, role-play with your friends, a campaign idea for a table top game, the script for a movie, show, visual novel, etc., notes to defend your dissertation, recipes, to-do lists - you get the point.

If you want to breakdown the granular concepts of an old historic text on index cards for shits and giggles, that counts too!

The event is less about the quality of the end result, and more about creating a habit to write daily. If you don't want to spend a lot of time fixing and editing a harried rough draft, then don't worry about the word count at all.

0 is a valid word count for the day. So is 1, or 10, or 100 or all those little numbers we often get discouraged seeing.

But set aside some time during the month, and write some fucking words, hell, write some words fucking. A real alphabet orgy. Be silly, weird, cringe, strange, gross, problematic, thematic - whatever \o/

Just write it yourself. I don't care if you dictate it, use the hunt and peck method, a pen, pencil, quill, or chisel.

But for the love of all that's holy -

No Generative AI

That's the only rule.

[faeriemarie]

introducing my lifa app!!

so if you don't know what the lifa app is... here is my extremely confusing explanation. if you can't understand it, i don't blame you

the basics of my app:

The app is for pc, phone, ipad, and other electronic devices (or on paper in drs without smartphones)

It will automatically appear and it can not be deleted. I know everything there is to know about Lifa and I control the app with absolute ease.

If someone were to go on a device where the Lifa app is on, they wouldn’t be able to see it or tap on it at all. Only I can see it or use it and it is 100% real and 100% effective

The lifa app doesn’t take up ANY storage

Lifa knows exactly what I mean because it is connected to my subconscious mind. It knows what I mean exactly, and all intrusive thoughts are ignored

The lifa app doesn’t need wifi

I can do ANYTHING and I mean ANYTHING with Lifa, no restrictions, and nobody ever suspects that I’m using it

Nothing I search or watch on my lifa app is traceable by anyone but me (not even cell or wifi companies)

There are ZERO CONSEQUENCES to using Lifa and what decisions I make. Nothing goes wrong, everything happens how I expect it to, excluding the intrusive thoughts which are always ignored

No one is ever suspicious of the things I manifest and it’s like I’ve always had them (clothes, food, talents, etc. has always been there)

okay now for the features!!

lifa closet

Any item of clothing I choose from the catalog, script, or import a picture of will be sent to my closet, suitcase, or wherever I want

reality shifting

I can set a time and pick a reality to shift to. I will then shift during that exact time

reality check

I can check which reality I am in with the click of a button

scripter

I can script and write anything. Inserted images are HD, and PNG images remain transparent. I can insert infinite images and change the font’s color and style itself (same features as notes/notion/google docs but neater)

desired scenario

I can specifically script to describe my desired scenario. I can set the time and date to when the scenario happens. The scenario is exactly like how I want and even 1 trillion times better

manifestor

I can insert a picture or describe what I want to manifest. I can also manifest people by typing their name and Lifa will automatically recognize who they are. I can set the time and date to when you want that thing to manifest, and it will happen 100%.

skill increaser

Choose any skill I desire to have (I can also insert it by typing “cooking”). I can choose to master any skill and it will show up immediately. I can search any skill and increase on a scale of 1-100% mastery

motherlode (sims reference lol)

I can deliver/spawn money of any currency in my chosen form. (gift cards, bank acc, cash, etc.) I can choose from coins to bills. There is no limit amount of money or times to deliver it. I can deliver it how much and how many times I want. The money is 100% legal and valid, and passes all money detectors. The money has valid and legal coding, as if it had been made in factories. It still remains perfectly legal. I can choose to spawn the money in my purse, bottom of backpack, pockets, amazon, wallet, etc. The money spawns in 5 seconds. I can deliver/spawn as much money as I desire, there is no limit (even 50 million is 100% possible). There is 0% risk of money inflation

lifa credit card

The Lifa credit card has an infinite amount of money and can never go in debt. There is an infinite amount of money in all international currencies. The card is universal and 100% valid and legal. It can be used in any ATM and online store/game (could be recognized as any official credit card like eg. visa or ae). The money has no money or usage limit, and it can be used for anything, anytime. In ATM machines it appears that the card only has 1000€/$, but in the Lifa app it will be ∞ €/$. If the card gets lost, it will automatically disappear. The same happens if the card breaks, and Lifa will spawn a new card with the same exact info.  It will come inside a little gift box (that matches the app’s color scheme I desire) wherever I want. The card’s number and code (and other infos) are up to me or the universe but it's always 100% valid. The card lasts forever. There is 0% risk of money inflation

lifa bank account

The bank account feature is connected to the credit card feature. It’s almost like a normal bank acc. I can see all mytransactions. The amount of money never changes because it stays 100% infinite. I can change my money’s currency. I can also take money out of the card in my desired currency. I can customize the card’s design and I can spawn more cards. I can easily create more bank accounts too, they will all have infinite money. There is 0% risk of money inflation

lifa paypal/venmo/cashapp/etc.

It is 100% legal anywhere. It is exactly like the real paypal, but my Lifa bank account/card is registered. I can use it in all purchases that require paypal. I can login on the real paypal website with the Lifa paypal acc. When I first use the app I get to create a Lifa paypal account. The balance shows 1000€ / $ / £ but the money amount is infinite. There is 0% risk of money inflation

food delivery

If I insert a picture of a food item or search the catalog, Lifa will recognize. When I confirm, it will be sent to my ideal location. (i can pick the location). The food will be 100% fresh and new

boredom cure

Instantly provides me with inspiration to do something that is productive and beneficial to my overall well-being

create-a-person

I can design a person’s hair, body, face, etc., script their personality and choose their traits. It is set up like scripting and has different templates I can use. I can change skin tone, skin type, undertone, hair color, hair texture, eye color, etc. I can insert any pictures and they’ll be exactly how I want. When I insert a script of the person’s personality and behaviour, Lifa will recognize it. I can also script traits and the person’s backstory. I have to fill in each’s birth info (name, age, birthday, sign, blood type, etc) to my desire.  I can also choose the relationship between the people when I’m done creating them. Then I confirm and once I shift to my dr it will all be exactly like how I wanted and even 1 trillion times better. If I’m feeling lazy, I can select to let the universe fill in the gaps, and the universe will fill them like I wanted and even better

lifa messenger

I can text with anyone in the universe that I want. It feels completely real and all conversations are remembered. It’s like having online bestie because the people I text always get along with me, always respond, and actually care about me. We can also call and video chat. I am not actually communicating with someone from my reality and instead with the universe since everyone is part of the universe. It works exactly how I want it to

natal chart

I can select which life/reality’s natal chart I want to see. Lifa offers a personalized detailed description of my chart and personality. The chart is 100% accurate. I can also select to look at anyone’s natal chart. Lifa will show a list of everyone I know. It is divided in 5 categories (friends, family, acquaintances, classmates/coworkers, celebrities). The natal chart can also show compatibility

grade changer

Automatically makes me have good grades and changed all my past grades to A. My wrong test answers morph into correct test answers

ask-me-anything

I can ask anything and get the complete and 100% right answer. The questions can vary from asking where my lost tennis shoes are to what’s the answer to number 4 on my math homework. There is no limit to what can be asked and the answer given is always exactly what I need

feature adder

I can visualize and script more features and add them to Lifa with the feature adder. Lifa will add these features in 1 second and they will be 100% effective. Lifa also knows exactly what I mean, even if I script something wrong, so there are no surprises

lifaflix

A streaming site where I can watch shows that only exist in my dr (most of the time used for fame drs so i can see all the great acting projects i have been a part of). I can also watch my drs like tv shows.

lifatube

A video site set up like YouTube where I can watch anything from my dr. Things like fan edits, compilations of dr moments, my dr tiktoks, youtube videos made by my dr self and more. I can also watch memories/anything that happens from either a 3rd person point of view or 1st person

lifa socials

My lifa app has social media accounts from all my different realities that i can flip through, post from, dm with people from those realities, and go live (i can post anything i want on these social media sites and i’m immune to anything bad happening like leaking nudes, screenshots, hacking, or any other cybercrimes/bad things). My wr self even has their own account

[pictureamoebae]

hey, it's me again regarding cinematic mode!

ok so this took awhile! i am actually using their videocamera but i redownloaded it and it seems to work fine now so far! but now i do have an issue with graphicrules (i'm using this instead btw) now since i didn't use theirs ever since their update (which was faulty at that time), when i moved it and the setters into the configoverride folder as instructed, i kept getting this error: "Unable to start:  There was an error processing the startup configuration script."

i've look around for answers like this and basically i can't use s4s' graphicrules and the setters in the configoverride... so i removed them from the folder to leave it blank and replaced the default graphicrules in the bin folder with s4s' instead which it still pops up the same error. i think i've seen you using this overhaul before, did yours happened too? i'm not sure where to contact s4s either since they're not active online...

So what happened with a recent patch was maxis overhauled the graphicsrules.sgr file with some new stuff in there, so old ones stop the game from starting, or produce weird results like super pixelated Sims, because they're no longer valid. What you have to do is take a copy of the new vanilla version and edit the parts of it you want to change. You can't just pop an old edited version in there, it won't work.

I was previously using Simp's alt clipping version without the setters file, just the straight up graphicsrules.sgr file, alongside my own camera files edits. What I've done now is compared side-by-side the old edited file and the new vanilla file, and edited the values in the new version to match what had been previously edited in the old version. Then I've placed that directly into the Bin folder (keeping a backup of the original vanilla file).

The main downside to this is that whenever the game is patched the sgr file in the Bin folder will be overwritten with a fresh vanilla one, so you have to keep a backup of your edited one somewhere, or remember to take it out before you update, and pop it back in again afterwards. Placing anything at all in the configoverride folder at the moment seems to make the game not start (except for graphicscards.sgr, which I have edited to add my graphics card since it wasn't originally listed).

If you're editing the file yourself (which is easy to do, it just takes a little while and some patience), you also need to keep in mind that from time to time maxis will add new things to the graphicsrules.sgr file. So it's a good idea to periodically compare a new vanilla file with your current edited one and see if there's anything new, and if there is start the process again of transferring your edits over to the newer version.

[cosmonadarovicarts]

What do you think about the theory that Eve and Lilith are the same person?

I try to be open-minded to these theories, but I just can't accept this one hahaha

Not because I like that there are two different characters, but because the series hasn't shown anything really valid to prove this theory.

Just by introducing the story, they already show Lilith AND Eve. The two took different paths. how could it be possible for Lilith to be banished in hell with Lucifer -and gaining power -while Eve was outside of Eden, surviving and having thousands of children?

Until the iconic Lucifer vs. Adam fight scene, Lucifer says he got both of them, and Adam only got mad when he mentioned Eve.

Now the points that the defenders of this theory say: those character cards where Lilith's face does not appear - and her hair appears to be in Eve's hairstyle - the fact that Lilith is in heaven AND - the most iconic - the mysterious woman who carries Charlie in the song scene between Charlie and Lucifer.

I can't see how that would prove it's Eve and Lilith being the same person. Let's break it down:

this Lilith card: honestly, this card shows that we don't know Lilith yet. and the possibilities would be: is there really some entity possessing her body -Roo, Eve herself? Is Lilith keeping a secret? anyway, theories, and none that would lead to Lilith being Eve - ar most that eve would be possessing her body for some reason (??)

About lilith in the sky. Look, there's a lot of theories about it. she could have simply gotten tired of fighting the sky, she could have been plotting something against the sky... But she could be Eve?? I'm almost 100% sure Eve didn't go to heaven. she committed the act of disobedience. And what would that be like?? Would this Lilith/Eve character be switching places all the time? time materializing in hell and then in heaven?

and finally, the mysterious female figure from the Charlie and Lucifer song. It would be hilarious if it really was just Lilith. but I understand the appreciation that so many people had in this scene. In cartoons, in character design it is essential that their silhouette and colors differ from others. So it's understandable why that hair with a different hairstyle causes so much uproar, especially because Lilith's appearance was shown in the portraits. I'm not trying to put an end to this issue, but there are other possibilities that are more... plausible than being Lilith and Eve at the same time - even if it were just Eve it would make more sense.

Now let's talk about script construction. Seriously, what would the series gain from a plot like that? a lot of plot holes - just the fact that Eve ended up with Adam having children and Lilith in hell would break this. It's a confusing theory, which takes away the weight of the creation of these characters: Lilith being born from the same Dust as Adam, being her equal & Eve being born from Adam's rib.

Anyway, I think this theory would just make the series confusing and a little strange, with unnecessary complexity. At most, I think it would be reasonable for Eve to have possessed Lilith's body, which is still super weird.

[poisonousjk]

Jungkook in AYS: I love it, so much fun, I love it, oh my god I love it here, I’m having so much fun “skipping around excitedly”

Miss netta from arkansas: Oh my poor baby, he looks so bored and tired, he didn’t wanna be there, he looks like he isn’t having any fun

Jungkook in Sapporo: Oh my God I will remember this memories when I am in the military, “takes pictures of his seat number at a restaurant” “puts his head on Jimin’s shoulder while they are both sharing earphones listening to the same song”

Shruti from India: Oh my god, look at Jimin and Bighit torturing Jk, he looks so depressed and sad, he doesn’t wanna be there, he spent the whole time on his phone talking to his tete😪🥹

Jungkook to Jimin: This is where we came on our first trip

jimin: yea

jungkook: “while touching his nape affectionately and looking at him and speaking in the softest tone ever” that’s why I wanted to come back.

Sonia from the philipines: Oh my God look at Jungkooks eyes, he was forced to go there, he was forced to read that script, he hates it there, he just wants to be with his boyfriend, bighit you will go bankrupt.

Jungkook: Let’s go to Jeju next. We can play cards, boardgames, and take rides. We can also go to that mackerel restaurant. You like mackerel right

jimin: I do

Tkkrs on tumblr: See he didn’t want to go, he looks frustrated at Jimin, he is mad at Jimin for making him go, he hates everything

Jungkook: I want us to do another 12 seasons, even after our military service, lets do it till we are 50

Tkkrs from twt: He didn’t wanna do this. Curse Jimin and bighit for making him do this. Jimin is such a predator, Jimin is such an attention seeker, Jimin is trying to feed his cult by using Jungkook

Jungkook: Ah I am free

The cult: He is in bondage. That company is making him do this when he would have rather stayed home in his lonely dark house, drinking himself to stupor, falling asleep on Live.

You lot are a big bunch of insecure as losers! Does it make you feel good when you sit here and lie to yourselves? Do you get some kind of validation in forcing yourselves to believe that Jk isn’t having a great time? Does it validate your ship to you when you sit here disrespecting Jungkook’s own choices and his words? Jungkook’s actions and words in AYS goes against everything you just said and you know it but because of your insecurity, you sit here lying to yourself and your fellow delusionals.

When Jungkook doesn’t lift his head to even look in Tae’s direction after he complained about his neck hurting, that is true love to you.

When Jungkook skips past tae excitedly, leaving him behind to go jumping, it means nothing or he is just an excited bunny then. When Jungkook calls taehyung weak and Taehyung gets visibly upset, it means nothing but you will sit here grasping at straws and not being able to recognize friendly banter and teasing. In your mind Jk didn’t really want to be with Jimin yet he couldn’t put an end to if after NY but went ahead to suggest two new locations they could go to.

Put your hand on your chest and say : “ I AM A WITCH” “ MY HEART IS RIDDEN WITH JEALOUSY, BITTERNESS AND INSECURITY” “ I MAKE UP THINGS IN MY HEAD AND BELIEVE THEM” “ I ONLY BELIEVE JUNGKOOK’S WORDS WHEN THEY VALIDATE MY DELULU BUT IGNORE THEM WHEN THEY DON’T”

This should be your daily mantra, you and the other idiots like yourself.

I don’t feel like arguing with you maybe someone will care enough to read all this and respond but I don’t so I hope you feel better.

[thebramblewood]

Oasis Springs Side Quest: Part V (The Finale)

This tarot-reading pose pack by @radioactivedotcom is the main one I used! Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck and spreads by @the-dewofthesea with some personal tweaks by me.

Previous / Next

Transcript under the cut.

Celeste: “Now, darling, what question will we be posing to the universe tonight?”

Helena: “Oh, I… Well, that’s a pretty loaded question in itself. Maybe we should just ask what I’ll have for breakfast tomorrow morning.”

Ulrike: “Take this seriously, Zhao!”

Helena: “I am. But what if I ask the wrong thing and learn, like, the exact date of my death?”

Ulrike: [chuckles] “I don’t think that’s quite how it works.”

Helena: “Fine. Then I guess I’ll ask what my final year of college has in store.”

Celeste: “Good. I’ve cut the deck. Now, choose four cards at random and, without looking, place them face down in the center of the table. Let’s see what the cards have to tell us about your future. They’re more illuminating some days than others, so we must be receptive to whatever they’re willing to divulge.”

Helena: [nervously] “So what are they saying so far?”

Celeste: “Patience, dear. The full meaning will not become apparent until all the cards are laid out. We must reveal the fourth before we’ll know. Oh. Well, this certainly makes things more interesting.”

Helena: [groans] “Oh, God, what is it?”

Celeste: “You’ll not want to take this one at face value.”

Helena: “Just show me!”

Celeste: [holds up the Death card]

Helena: “Oh, you have got to be kidding me! Damn it, Faust! Why did I let you talk me into this?”

Ulrike: [cracks up] “The way you jumped like Grim himself just entered the room.”

Celeste: “Death is almost never meant to be taken literally in the context of the tarot.”

Helena: “Almost never?!? That seems to imply that it sometimes is!”

Celeste: “Let’s take in everything we’ve got here before jumping to conclusions.”

Helena: “Well, the Lovers has to be us, right? Oh, God, our relationship is going to die, Ulrike.”

Ulrike: “Will you stop freaking out and let her do her job?”

Celeste: “This spread is all about transformation. Many changes are brewing, some more difficult than others. Your relationship will be one of them. You’ll find yourself up against a great obstacle, and the outcome of that struggle will determine if the connection between you and your partner strengthens or weakens.”

Helena: “Okay... And what about the Magician? How does he fit into all this?”

Celeste: “Well, the Magician may symbolize self-actualization. You’ll have to tap into your inner strengths to face the decisions ahead. But it can also be a warning.”

Helena: “A warning of what?”

Celeste: “Illusion, deceit, manipulation. Perhaps a situation that is not as it seems or an untrustworthy individual.”

Helena: “Please don’t tell me I’m going to fall for an MLM scheme.”

Ulrike: “Helena!”

Helena: “What? It’s a valid concern.”

Celeste: “Whatever or whoever crosses your path, the Queen of Swords reminds you of your fortitude. She advises you to remain clear-headed, rational, and objective in your decision-making.”

Ulrike: [snorts] “You’ve already got that part down, Zhao.”

Celeste: With Death comes rebirth, and it is up to you to determine what you make of this new life when it arrives.”

…

Ulrike: “What’s the verdict? Are you a believer now?”

Helena: “Eh, not really. Transformation, hard decisions, inner strength… It’s so vague! She must follow the same script every time.”

Ulrike: “That Death card got you pretty bad.”

Helena: “It just caught me off guard is all.”

Ulrike: “And all that talk about deception?”

Helena: “I doubt I’ll be meeting a con artist any time soon.”

[stellarred]

CAUSE VS. CANON: Making the Case for Qcard

*Warning: May trigger some Qcard shippers*

I had an interesting conversation with a friend yesterday about loving certain dynamics in stories, like Star Trek's Qcard for example, and how nitpicker fans and shippers analyze the writers' work, the actors' performances, etc. to show that a dynamic/relationship is true/canon.

She insisted that if you look hard enough to find proof that a relationship between two characters is canon, or has validity, you will find it "*simply because you want it to be true, even if it's not.*" 😡😡😡

She called it "nitpicking for a cause."

As a devoted and longtime Qcard shipper, I bristled at her comment, and I proceeded to explain how writers intentionally weave dynamics into their scripts and stories through devices, including: parallels, such as STP S2's Q/Picard and Teresa/Rios, and through lines, such as STP S1: the butterfly motif, (Q)ueen cards, (Picard's unusual luck in surviving the explosion), which led to S2 Q's butterfly comments, the S2 trailer (Q)ueen card, The Sun/Q motif, Q, of course, and his lesson to Picard about opening himself up to love, so that he could be chosen by someone else to be loved in return. Then, in S3, we had Q's last minute return signaled by the Sun, and Picard allowing himself to love Jack and being accepted by Jack.

I also pointed out that Trek writers choose very specific words for actors to use at unusual times to indicate dynamics, too.

Ex: Picard (S2): I always filed Q as *unknowable.*

@porgthespacepenguin and @celestialholz both have meta-analyses on Qcard that beautifully prove Qcard as canon by the writers.

She still insisted at this point that I was nitpicking, intellectualizing dialogue, and over-analyzing all because I WANTED Qcard to be real.

Finally, I told her that writers, such as Cindy Appel, producers, like Akiva Goldsman, and Ron D. Moore, as well as actors Patrick Stewart and John de Lancie backed it up, too.

She then said, "Well, De Lancie was told to act a certain way and read the script."

I then pounced, saying that although actors follow scripts, they do have some agency in their performance. John de Lancie and Patrick Stewart both made deliberate choices in their portrayals, using certain types of body language, voice inflections, facial expressions that added credence to Qcard.

At this point, she gave up the fight and smartly so.

I mean for her or anyone else to suggest we Qcard shippers find those nuances/subtext/indications woven into a script and performance out of a desire or desperation for it to be canon irritates me.

My friend then asked me, "Why can't you just casually watch something, like Star Trek and enjoy it for what it is? Why all this analysis?"

It's a fair question.

I guess it's because while I can casually watch something and enjoy it at face value, other things, such as Qcard are like finding gold dust on the ground. You see gold on the surface, and it's great. You could make some money from selling that gold dust, sure.

But, if you dig just a bit deeper, you find a rich gold mine worth much more. Much more satisfying.

So, what do you think?

Was my friend correct in saying we Qcard shippers analyze and nitpick for The Cause?

Or, are we actually on to something?

[mayhem-moth]

Comic about me finding any sort of adhd content(Also I become evil and edgy)(very satisfying)

Script cause the words are hard to read:

Person A holding a small ball(represents ADHD content": "I really like this thing about ADHD. It makes me feels seen and understood"

Person B holding a magnifying glass to the ball: "Uhm, actually everyone feels that way. ADHD is fake and you are all just lazy."

Person A strangling person B while holding the ball in the other hand: "Yeah sure but do you constantly feel like your trying to control your brain that's supposed to be working with you? Do you always feel behind of everyone and stuff that's supposed to be easy takes so much work?"

Person A (their face is zoomed in now): "Do you feel worthless because of the constant judgement and critism you or people like you deal with? Do you feel a constant guilt for all the things you can't seem to bring yourself to do?"

Person A: "The body only has a limited amount of responses to stuff. It's why many symptoms can signal many different types of ailments. People having an off day isn't the same as having a nuerodivergent brain. The difference between feeling depressed and having depression or hallucinating due to lack of sleep and having a disorder that causes hallucinations."

End card: "ADHD IS REAL" "and you are valid (:"

(^I don't exactly know how to write these but I tried)(Also forgive the comic messiness I don't really care about redoing it all over again)(also picture quality i don't know how to take good pictures)

[softeningthesound]

Non-exhaustive list of reasons behind the delay when you go to pick up your meds at the pharmacy, from a pharmacy tech

It's a long one, so there'll be a read more after the first few points and more in a reblog

Tech filled a prescription for an antibiotic, but when it gets to the pharmacist, they actually need to call the doctor and have the script changed because it’s the wrong antibiotic for the infection indicated. Doctor doesn’t answer at first. Pharmacist starts validating a refill but the doctor’s office calls back and the pharmacist has to stop what they were doing.

We haven’t had time to restock the shelves with all the medications that are lying in bins in the back, and we’re out of your medication on the floor so we need to look through the order list, figure out what bin your medication is, and go rummage in the back.

Someone’s calling to get a box of Covid tests, but we have to give them our rehearsed speech on how the handing out of Covid tests in pharmacies is actually now restricted, and has been since May, to certain patients who are unvaccinated and at risk or to patients who are financially in a situation where they can’t afford to buy them, so unfortunately, person on the phone, you’ll have to go to X center or X clinic to get them, where they’re handing them out no questions asked. This call takes three minutes.

We just received a fax for someone who’s just left the hospital and we have to prepare six new medications for them and when we call the patient, they can’t get to the pharmacy on their own and no one can pick up their meds for them, so we have to organize a taxi for that person’s meds. The pharmacist also has to explain all these treatments over the phone and answer any questions the patient may have, which always takes longer than in person.

The pharmacist had to see two other patients for advice on their medications, patients who had ordered in advance but who find out at the register that the pharmacist wants to speak to them or explain this new medication or what have you, so the pharmacist takes the time to see these two patients who did order before you and also want to leave the pharmacy.

The slot for a certain medication in our pill-counting machine is empty, so I have to go fill that.

Someone’s insurance didn’t go through because they have a new card or are with a new company, so they need to go back over to the first counter and have a tech update that in their file and print the new receipt.

We… don’t have a full time cashier, so the technicians need to take turns being at the register.

It’s lunch time and people are on break, which they rightfully deserve, so there’s an employee or two less than there usually is.

You came in at the same time as four other people who also wanted just a single refill, but we still fill them one after the other and can get interrupted by phone calls, by problems at the register, etc.

We need to substitute your dosage, which is back order, for two different dosages that you’ll take at the same time. This takes more time, because we need to copy the prescription and modify it, have the “new” prescription validated by the pharmacist, have the pharmacist, legally, explain the new posology to you even if you were told at the first counter that we were going to have to make that change.

Someone wants advice for a cough syrup, and as a technician, I am not legally allowed to give any recommendations even though I know for a fact that the pharmacist is just going to say that the cough syrups we sell don’t do anything and mostly just have a placebo effect and you should just drink water. The patient has to wait behind people who came in front of them, just so the pharmacist themself can tell them that, because I can’t. It’s frustrating for me too, but I can’t say anything.

We’re behind on preparing the refills that people ordered hours ago because our day has been hectic, so I have to give you a longer wait time so that realistically, we can get some of those filled by a technician and validated by a pharmacist.

Daily patient comes in for their dose of methadone or suboxone to help with an opioid addiction, and the pharmacist has to prepare their medication, too.

This happened recently but uhhh some guy comes in pissing blood out of his arm and we urgently have to help him while we call an ambulance, and a patient comes in thirty minutes later and the blood has been mopped up and there’s no trace that anything happened but I’m at the counter and a little fucking traumatized and this patient wants me to synchronize their medications and I am not mentally processing anything

There are complicated files and prescriptions and types of ways we fill prescriptions (ex: people who get their medications weekly in these little packs sorted by day and time of day and their files are really complicated to navigate and usually taken care of by a specific technician)

Your medication is a special order medication that gets made by another pharmacy and we sent the invoice and everything and are waiting for them to send us the medication but the ball’s in their court and we still haven’t received your meds

Main reasons for delays are just… a lot of calls and lots of people coming in at the same time for refills and questions that require a varying amount of time and effort to fill and answer. People who come in when we just opened usually barely have to wait, but we have rush hours just like every other store and there are five people in front of you waiting for a counsel and/or their meds. Sometimes, a quick little refill that took the tech literally thirty seconds to fill is immediately noticed by the pharmacist and gets validated right away ahead of the more complicated cases and sent to the register, but sometimes it sits on the counter for a while because the pharmacist is resolving a difficult situation, or showing someone how to inject their insulin, or explaining side effects to someone, or in a consult to prescribe the morning-after pill and has lots of questions to ask the patient.

Sometimes, we have patients who are very mean and rude and short with us. They are often in pain, or have been slighted by the medical system, or have had bad experiences at the hospital or the pharmacy before, and they take a lot of time to talk to and try to reason with. During this time, your request, or even refilled medication, sits on the counter in a little basket waiting to be validated.

More in reblog

[youchangedmedestiel]

Very short version as I try to remember where on earth I saw a much more thoroughly explained version. But from what I can remember.

It had to do with the whole “they don’t have a lot of money in season 1” (seen with how careful dean is with it and how he goes “I earned that!” and 1x8 of him convincing Sam to squat in the empty house for free and to go to the grand opening house thing for free food. Dean working very hard in various ways like the credit card scams and pool hustling to keep money on hand to keep food on the table)

then added with a weird time skip in (The Benders?) episode where Sam goes outside while Dean stays inside, he winks at the people across the bar (one woman and a lot of men) before going into the bathroom.

And then I think it also had to do with the 1x20 Dean easily being bait with John saying “you know what to do” and the later on in the seasons script that was taken out where Dean admits he did the doe eyed hitchhiker routine before.

I think someone also brought up MOC Dean really relating to the girl who died after leaving home at night to seek validation when she wasn’t getting it at home.

Again, this is just what I vaguely remember from some posts I saw like 7 months ago. <-key thing. I hope others have more info!

Thank you so much, anon! That's really interesting! Also some people said in my post that it started with Jensen being vague about how Dean found money in his youth in case you didn't know.

If some of you find that "key thing" don't hesitate to send it my way.

[weirdstuffinthewoods]

Bride of Chucky

A Review

Ronny Yu made the correct choice working with the one and only father of Chucky, Don Mancini. I feel like Don's seamless continuing control over the Chucky franchise paired with Ronny Yu's absolute lack of knowledge of the Chucky franchise (and his love of the monster) made for a one-of-a-kind franchise installment.

Writing- 5/5

This entire script takes the snark we know Chucky for and dials it up by giving him a dominating sparring partner in Tiffany Valentine. There are some jokes that kinda feel needless (repeating the "what a crock" joke only got an "eeh" out of me), but Voodoo for Dummies?

And lines like:

"For God's sake Chucky, drag yourself into the 90s"

"Martha Stewart can kiss my shiny plastic butt!"

When Chucky tells Tiffany to "act natural" and this is her response

The entire weird sex scene conversation that 100% does happen in a film about two sentient dolls? It was only a matter of time before we got here, let's be honest.

The addition of Tiffany Valentine allows for a totally valid reason to shake things up- creative kills, high-speed freeway chases with two DOLLS holding two whole adult humans hostage, and the film's only gay character (spoiler but RIP David) getting absolutely blasted by an 18-wheeler for no reason other than Don probably just realized the cast needed to shrink real quick.

Special mention-

The honeymoon suite kill scene. Yeah, it looks a little cheesy, but you best believe before I was old enough to watch horror movies, my older cousin was telling me about this scene in vivid, terrifying detail (much scarier than reality, but what can you do?)

Soundtrack- 4.5/5

Living Dead Girl starts this movie off with a bang and a moment I haven't forgotten for one second of my spooky sapphic life. These are the moments in which horror icons are made.

The soundtrack is mostly upbeat drums and chugging guitar riffs which I loved (it especially added to the freeway chase) I just didn't go full 5 stars because I didn't notice it as much as I'd want to in a party movie like this (because yes, if I ever do host a halloween party I will be popping in this exact VHS to play on repeat).

Also shout out to my boy, Graeme Revell. Been a legend since The Crow in my eyes (but also for so much iconic 80s and 90s horror....and Sharkboy and Lavagirl) and I'll always get excited when I see that name in the credits!

Effects- 4.75/5

First let me say Chucky looks fantastic. Can he emote as well as Tiffany with those pencil-thin eyebrows? Maybe not but this is the opus version of Chucky, so.

The animatronics are still my favorite thing to watch in a Chucky film because you forget that these aren't sentient dolls almost constantly (except when Chucky's body double is crawling on all fours- that's some nightmare fuel). Their faces are so expressive (for rubber doll faces) and there's even a shot of Tiffany walking across the floor of a Winnebago (maybe?) without a wire in sight! Oh, how far we've come.

The effects in some scenes are a little cheesy (the honeymoon suite kill, the gross, fleshy title card, etc) but it's easily overlooked because Chucky and Tiffany are by far the main event of the sfx team.

Extra ratings?

Queerness-3/5

Written by an out gay man, HELLO!

Alexis Arquette!! Easily the second-hottest person in this movie, I loved seeing her camp it up (in a masc role, but goths love to play with androgyny so I'll take it) as the try-hard Damien.

This also unexpectedly features the gbff trope usually reserved for rom-coms in David, a guy whose queerness isn't painfully exaggerated like some portrayals were at the time, and who's probably the most level-headed of the bunch.

RIP, -2 because David got blasted by a big rig and not in the fun way.

Bride of Frankenstein retelling 5/5

It's pretty obvious on rewatch, but this is a whole Bride of Frankenstein retelling. It even follows the title convention (I tell my younger self who completely missed the comparison). I haven't read the dissections of the original that explain why the bride is a metaphor, but in a more literal sense, this Bride has the power unlike her predecessor. Even though she falls in with a toxic ex, she has autonomy and pushes back, eventually sort of kind of helping the two teens (who are not interesting enough to put in this review) stop Chucky. And she gives birth to a weird demon baby while mostly charred through a non-stretch plastic vagina so. That's pretty metal.

Tiffany Valentine 11/5

TIFFANY VALENTINE THE WOMAN THAT YOU ARE

THE COSTUMING

THE TRAILER SET DRESSING

But most of all the performance!!!

I may be looking through heart eyes, but I'm not wrong!

Overall, Bride of Chucky will never not be one of my favorites. The addition of Jennifer Tilly allowed the Child's Play series (and all future iterations), to have fun, but to also play with the tone of its installments. Seed of Chucky and the Chucky series tend to focus on Chucky (and friends)'s humanity and personalities, whereas Curse and Cult of Chucky take the franchise back to an exciting, sometimes scary, and eventually openly queer and complicatedly sapphic place. Ignoring the reboot (which he was thankfully not responsible for), Don Mancini's got quite a legacy going, and Ronny Yu had a key part in that.

[youjustgotxfiled]

Hey, everybody! I've finally gotten around to starting to upload my own works on this hellsite! :D

This one's dedicated to all the Amphibia and Sashannarcy fans out there, as well as to everyone who deals with trauma, CPTSD, anxiety, depression, and other mental & emotional conditions and disorders, as well as to everyone in the LGBTQ community at large. You are ALL warriors who deserve the best out of life.

This piece was written between May and November of 2022, but is only being uploaded here now because a) I wanted to run it through beta readers to feel confident enough to post it, and b) I wanted to make sure my AO3 and DeviantArt accounts got their uploads going first.

If you like what you see here, feel free to like, reblog, and share with everyone! Any and all engagement helps me out a ton (especially the reblogs XD).

Story for Chapter 1 below the cut for those unable to access the link above.

************************************************************************

You are invited to: THE BEST FAMILY DINNER EVER!

You’d recognize that script anywhere. The kind of writing that can come from just one colleague of yours: the inimitable Marcy.

You’ve known each other for a fair bit now; ever since Marcy moved back to Los Angeles and took a job in your studio three years ago, you’ve have been quite the talk of the town as perhaps the two lone people ever to have gotten more than five words out of each other in any given conversation. Not that either of you mind too much—being both introverts and nerds helps you be that much more attuned to each other’s needs and interests, to say nothing of the ease with which each’s rapt attention to the ramblings of the other helps block out the surrounding office gawking and gossip. After all, both of you are very much used to it by this point in your lives. 

Still, this invitation comes as a surprise. For one thing, Marcy is not one to talk about her private life or after-work plans much, and neither are you. For another, one of the few things she has revealed is that she’s married to a pair of women, and not just any pair: they’re Anne and Sasha Boonchuy-Plantar, famed heroes and defenders of Earth from the attempted “Frogvasion” over ten years ago. Though you haven’t said as much to Marcy, you’re filled with all sorts of weird emotions at the mention of their names. Excitement, fear, curiosity, and longing all collide within you, TV and social-media images and sounds of that day—of THEM, at their most fierce and intimidating—bouncing around in your mind, leaving much more space than is comfortable to wonder how much of it carries over, then or now, into their private lives.

How similar it makes them to…well, them.

No, you think. Your hands are beginning to tremble, your breathing becoming tougher to do. Not them. PLEASE not them. Not right now.

You put the invitation card down on your desk, gripping your hands against the front edge to steady them and not tip off any snooping passers-by. For a long moment, you close your eyes, trying to steady your breathing, hoping the serrated pattern it takes on when you get like this isn’t loud enough for anyone to hear it. After a shake of your head for good measure, you open your eyes again. 

“Heeey!”

You jump in your seat, and it’s all you can do not to scream. At least your hands have stopped trembling. You can’t say the same for your breathing, however. 

“Oh my frog, I’m SO sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!” Marcy says as you turn your head to see her standing next to you. Her hands are covering her mouth, and her brows are furrowed upward. Uh oh. Better make a quick cover.

“No worries, Marcy! I was, uh…just kinda tunneling on this frame, is all,” you reply. You throw in a sheepish laugh and grin for good measure, hoping to God—excuse you, FROG—that she buys it. “You know how I get with that sort of thing.”

“Oh, yeah! I’m the same way when I get SUPER-invested in something,” says Marcy. She flaps her hands to accentuate her words, a trait you find makes you smile. For a moment, you wonder if Anne and Sasha react the same way about it, too, though the chill coming up your spine and settling in your stomach at the mere thought of them prompt you to shove the question aside and turn your attention back to the still-chatting Marcy. 

“—so she was thinking that we should sub it out for roast beef sandwiches, but of COURSE Anne wanted something a little more special than that, so—”

“Marcy,” you say. She quiets right away, noting the tension and uncertainty you’re failing so hard to hide in your voice. “Do…” The names seem a bit too difficult for you to spit out, so you opt for the next best descriptor. “Do your wives know you’re planning all this?”

“Of course they do,” Marcy replies. She tilts her head with a confused look. “I’ve been begging for them to put this together with me for at LEAST the last two weeks. I can’t even BEGIN to tell you how many work stories of our convos I’ve shared with them just to get them to let their guard down and be a LITTLE curious about you.”

Let their guard down. Sounds…possessive. That doesn’t bode well. The icy feeling in your stomach begins to swirl. Out of sight—you hope—your grip on the edges of your desk tightens, even as you flash another smile. “Heh, yeah. Probably should have figured that. Sorry for the stupid question, Mar.”

“Oh, no! I don’t think it’s stupid at all,” says Marcy. She looks down for a second, her beautiful smile fading a bit. “Frog knows I’ve hurt them enough with trying to plan stuff behind their backs.”

It’s your turn to shoot Marcy a perplexed look. Hurt? Behind their backs? Whatever in the multiverse could she be referring to? You look down towards the ground for a moment, wheels turning at an even higher speed in your mind. You look back up at Marcy. “Are…are you okay with telling me more about that?”

Marcy emits a sad grin, shaking her head. “No. Not right now, anyway. That stuff’s…pretty private between the three of us.” She looks back up at you. “You ARE super-nice and considerate, though. Maybe one day. When I’m ready. When all three of us are ready.”

When all three of us are ready? Now that’s curious phrasing if you’ve ever heard it. Your pulse begins to quicken, as does your breathing. Your trembling hands are becoming a bit more pronounced, too. Does your possessiveness reading have legs? Maybe accepting this invitation isn’t such a good idea…

You squeeze your eyes shut, gritting your teeth. You exhale in a huff. You’re not letting this fear overtake you again. Not ever again—you let them control you enough as it was then, and you have no intention of ever letting them win. This is YOUR life to live now, dammit!

Right?

You reopen your eyes and shoot an even more exaggerated grin at Marcy than before. It’s crucial that she not see your panic right now. “Fair enough. Perhaps tonight’s dinner will be a start, then.”

Marcy’s eyes widen. She begins to jump, hands flapping a million miles a minute. “EEEEE!” She squeals, all toothy smiles. “I’m SO excited for you to come over! Oh, I can’t WAIT for you to meet the other girls! This’ll be the best guest-dinner EVER!”

************************************************************************

You arrive right on time at six o’clock, though more so because you had trouble finding the right address than out of any sense of precision or punctuality. After all, the directions are but one of several thoughts racing through your mind.

At length, you reach the bottom of the steps leading up to what appears to be a modest suburban house like most others here in Long Beach—small front porch, two stories with a couple of windows apiece, sloping up at the top where the attic might well be. 

You close your eyes, taking one more deep breath. You look down at yourself—not dressed the fanciest in the world, but presentable enough, in your opinion. Plus, you made a point to comb your hair and shower before heading out. Outside, you’re about as good as you’re going to get.

The question, of course, is inside. 

You’ve been running through several scenarios in your mind—or rather, your mind has been running them through you. It’s never been your best friend for most of your life to begin with, but you and it have been on extra bad terms with each other since they tore you to pieces all those years ago. Fear and suspicion have lived so long in your head that they now color your perception of every person who tries to touch you, and these three are no exception. 

First off, Marcy. She’s sweet and all, if a little on the airheaded side of things in spite of her clear exceptional intelligence. Despite your mutual talents for talking each other’s ears off, however, most of your convos never turn to your personal lives, in part because she seems to…well, never want to talk about it. She always tends to look down, or in directions other than your gaze. Like she’s far off from that moment and into one from the distant past. One with a lot of secrets.

Too many secrets.

What do they contain? Do you want to know? Is it something that can hurt you if you don’t? How long do you let her play this out before demanding she come clean? And are you willing to lose her as a friend because of it, like you have so many others--?

You shake your head in a violent motion. You’d better get this show on the road before you change your mind.

You pull out your phone, pulling Marcy’s contact info up. “I’m here!” you text. You add a smiley face for good measure.

A minute passes. Two. You start to wonder if maybe you’ve got the wrong house, after all.

Ding!

“Be ready in five! Just need to finish the main course lol,” Marcy replies. For a moment, you’re confused as to why they don’t just let you in and make you wait in the living room or something. Then comes the second ding! “Still trying to clear the last of the smoke from the oven. Wouldn’t want you to die from carbon-dioxide poisoning before the loves even get to meet you,” she adds, throwing in a sweating-smile emoji for punctuation.

You begin to smile and sweat at the same time, too, though not for the same reasons she is right now. Loves, she called them. And they might be possessive. Which means getting too close to any of them, too quick—but to Marcy in particular—equals a high chance of getting eaten alive by them. In any case, you need to sit down and get your thoughts a hair more together. Strategy was key for a successful night here, after all.

You take a quick glance at the porch, and notice that there’s a swinging chair hanging from the right-hand side of the eaves. Three, maybe four people wide. Perfect. You waste no time in marching up the steps and making yourself comfortable, taking care to keep your toes dug into the wood of the porch floor so that you’re not swinging all over the place. Once you’re settled, the thoughts catch up to you again.

Strategy, comes the first offering from your subconscious. A fitting word for this situation. One an ex-military leader like Sasha would appreciate.

Sasha. Right. The blonde double-sword warrior whose severing of the interdimensional demon’s cord—umbilical? medical? The public debate still raged—was now perhaps the second-most iconic news image in recent memory, of course to Anne—

A full-body shiver strikes you. Not now. Not right this second. And why are you feeling so cold as you’re sweating, anyway? Isn’t it 75 and sunny? You squeeze your eyes shut a moment, then reopen them, determined to keep them on the porch floor for now. Okay. Time to focus.

Determination, your brain titters. And focus, too. I wonder how many more appropriate words we can add to the vocabulary list of Sasha descriptors before we—

“Shut. Up,” you growl. Frog, you wish you could just grab the jokers that liked to snatch the microphone for your thoughts and crucify them against the wall, sometimes. You can dream, can’t you?

Dreams, your mind responds. You’ve been having all SORTS of dreams about Sasha, haven’t you?

Much as you hate to admit it, you have. And many of them haven’t been pleasant.

Ever since the footage of that fateful day was uploaded for all to see and meme, you’ve developed a nasty habit of rewatching it over and over along with millions of others. It’s become a bad combination with your memories of them, but Sasha’s clips, though brief compared to Anne’s, are anything but merciful in how they’ve impacted your psyche. For starters, they helped you develop a deep fear and suspicion of anyone with combat training, in particular those teenaged or older with any kind of military background. For another, one of the few things Marcy has deigned to mention about her wives is that Sasha, like them, seems to have a chronic short fuse even outside of battle, and you know all too well the various kinds of body discoloring that can result from someone with a loose emotional grip. All well and bad, to be sure. But that’s not even the worst part.

The worst part is the dreams.

It’s enough of a struggle to get to sleep these days anyway, has been for years. But once sleep comes…the horrors are often indescribable. Them, seeming to save the day and the city from the invasion—and then continuing to kill, and kill, and kill, until you’re the last Angelino standing, begging for mercy and a second chance that will never come. Sasha and them, together, tying you up and forcing you to watch their plans for a dictatorial new world order come into fruition, with your eyes being taped open to deprive you of sleep for good measure. Sasha alone this time, in your house that you bought with your own money, stalking you, beating you with a cup, and then her fists, and then her boots, because it’s just so fun to torture you for being so weak and helpless and not wanting to learn how to fight like she does, then taking the sword from her beltline and tearing your heart out with it, with watching you lose consciousness and your life being so funny to see that she just keeps laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and—

Ding!

“Jesus!” you shout. Your toes lose their grip on the porch floor, and you’re quite certain at least a couple of the neighbors heard you. As you wait for the swing to run its course, you look down. Your upper body is now soaked in sweat. Great. Just great. At least you can use the weather as an excuse, you hope.

The swing comes back to center position, and your breathing has returned to a manageable level. You waste no time checking out the text that startled you from your poisonous reverie.

“Gonna be another 5 before we’re ready, love! SO SO sorry to keep you waiting outside,” it reads, punctuated by a frown. “Smoke alarms going off ALL over the house now, so now we’re trying to keep the food, furniture, AND you from getting soaked. Try and enjoy the sun! Will text again when we’re all done.”

Smoke alarms? You scrunch your face. Then, you hear the faint, shrieking beeps coming from inside, the detector in the living room behind you losing its mind as you felt like you were not a few moments ago. Perhaps that was why you didn’t catch it the first time. And as for poor Marcy…well, she’s confided to you about being a walking disaster before, but this? This is another level. You wonder if these are the kinds of pratfalls Sasha and Anne have to deal with every day. And what their limits are for tolerating it.

More to the point, you wonder about Anne’s limits for tolerating it.

For tolerating you.

Unlike Sasha’s limited footage, Anne’s is so extensive that breakdowns of her fight with the mad King Andrias are plentiful on social media. What that’s meant for you is plentiful opportunities for every punch, kick, shot, and word between the two of them to be burned into your mind. Bad enough that every moment of combat itself raises their specter in your mind, and that the additional sounds of shattered windows, wrecked cars and buildings, and ear-piercing screaming churn your stomach. Even these things, however, pale in comparison to how Anne powers up—and how it all ends.

First, the power-up. By some grace of the multiverse’s cosmic forces, she had—has? —the ability to go from regular, brown-skinned Thai to a glaring, snarling, blue-haired demigod of immense power. The aura itself is intimidating enough, but the changing of her eyes from brown to icy blue is unnerving. And that voice. Oh frog, that voice—a voice at once hers and that of a power far beyond comprehension, one even angels and demons alike would tremble from in fear. Her power in this state is (was?) nothing to sneeze at, either—she could fly, summon swords, dismantle enormous missiles, knock the block off of dozens of robots, take insane physical punishment. All primo nightmare fuel for someone prone to conflating, extrapolating, and associating. But even this—even this—doesn’t stack up to the real reason you can’t sleep at night anymore.

The way the fight ends.

For all the damage and punishment the two dealt Los Angeles and each other up to this point, it was at least comprehensible thanks to its striking similarity to that of a superhero showdown in a Marvel or DC film. Even when Anne, demonic voice and all, began to tear down the leviathan about his inability to open his heart or follow his true feelings, it felt, cruel as it was, familiar enough. Precedent, after all, bred familiarity and minimized shock value, the key ingredient to creating trauma. Which made what happened next all the more insane.

There were two occasions in the fight where Anne lost her grip on her powers. The first time, she’d been clocked enough by the king’s fists and missiles to make a mini-crater in the helipad of a nearby hospital, where she appeared to be down for the count—that was, before some FBI agents on the scene had the bright idea of using enormous loudspeakers to play one of her favorite songs, a move that brought her and her powers back and is now the reason you still struggle to listen to K-Pop on the radio anymore. The second time, however, was where things began to defy description.

Alongside Anne and Sasha, there were dozens of the aforementioned FBI agents, some military, and a host of creatures—from the other dimension, it was presumed—battling all manner of robots and perverted animals on the street level. Among them was a small family of what appeared to be anthropomorphic frogs, from which the event itself would get its name. One of the more well-known images from the day was when they began a strange, hypnotic dance that would end up subduing a pair of mutated herons responsible for much of the early damage. It was one of these smaller frogs—Sprig, you seem to remember Anne calling him in the fight footage—that stepped in as a meat shield when Anne seemed to just lose her glow all at once, leaving her on the physical brink and ripe for a finishing blow from the titan. A single slingshot to the dome to get his attention. Then…the speech.

There are internet denizens who can quote the whole thing chapter and verse, but you’ve never been one of them. Something about the necessity of change, feelings repressed, and following one’s heart when the moment comes, all coming from the soul of someone once near and dear to the king long since lost to time and regret. All you know is that the letter Sprig read to Andrias appeared to have moved him to tears, to the point where he began to wail about the accruement of his sins being too high to overcome and pounding the roof of the building they were both on. And yet…Anne didn’t care.

She just. Didn’t. Care.

No matter that her enemy had seen the light, no matter that his subsequent redressing himself into the armor he’d been using the whole time looked involuntary, no matter that she seemed ready to hear him out for a second before his re-armoring appeared to be all it took to convince her otherwise.

She kept trying to power herself back up. To rear back for one last blow. A couple of snaps of the fingers. A spark. Then all blue again, circling back around, picking up speed as she—from what you remember of the footage available—aimed straight for the frog’s heart. The king himself, frozen for a moment, then waiting until the last possible second before disarming himself again, eyes closed, arms spread wide, embracing the inevitable—a gesture that even the most hardened of war veterans would give pause over, reflexes permitting.

Anne did not give pause. 

She killed him.

Oh, everyone debates whether the king died from the blow, citing deceptive camera angles and trajectories and combat philosophy. But you know.

You know better.

You can’t speak for creatures from other universes, but you know for a fact that not a single one of Earth’s would have survived a direct shot like that. And that the king, torn limb from limb, never moved much again. And that Anne, smiling and triumphant over her deed, took one last look at him, went up to the floating castle for something (someone?), and came back to drag his body up to it before the castle vanished into the portal from whence it came. 

All of this, burned into your memory. And that blow. That last blow, that image seared into the brains of everyone who lived through that day but yours in particular—THAT’S what keeps you up at night. What wakes you up, shaking, crying, sweating, hyperventilating. 

Because she could do it to you.

“GAAAAAH!” you scream, yanking yourself out of your daymare. As your feet kick out and the swing begins to go again, it turns out you are, in fact, hyperventilating, and your heart rate is an easy two-and-a-half beats per minute. You look around for something, anything that will get it under control before you pass out. 

You check your pockets. Nothing. And you didn’t bother bringing a bag with you. Dammit.

You cock your head in every direction you can, discovering that your scream somehow didn’t bring a single curious neighbor out to inspect the unholy noise. Nor did anyone from the Boonchuy-Plantar house come to check you out. Yet.

Okay. Time for a last resort.

You cup your hands together as tight as you can, then thrust them onto your nose and mouth. Out, in. Out, in. Easy now. Slow it down. Not so high and low, now.

Out, in. Out, in.

On this goes for about two minutes. The breathing stabilizes to something resembling normal, as does your pulse. You’re shaking again, but that will be easy enough to hide. So will the tears that are now intermixed with the sweat flowing from your hair. What won’t, however, is the icy feeling in the back your head, or the slowness with which your body now moves. Whatever. You can figure that out as you go tonight.

Ding!

You jump again, almost dropping your phone as you pull it back out of your pocket. Stabilizing the bottom of the phone against your chest, you see another text from Marcy.

“All done! Ready when you are! Just ring the doorbell and I’ll come let you in,” it reads. Below the message, a second one that came in just as you were reading the first: “SO sorry again about making you wait. Hopefully you didn’t get too bad of a sunburn!” A sweating-smile emoji punctuates the text.

You have to smile at that one. You, a native Angelino, getting sunburned? One might as well be worried about a Republican becoming governor of the state any time soon. Letting out a small snort, you find yourself a bit more relaxed. Good. You’re going to need your happy face on for this one.

You stand up, legs still wobbling a bit. You limp your way over to the door and use the doorframe to straighten yourself. One last exhale, and a straightening of your top. 

Then, you ring the doorbell.

[warningsine]

If Josh Charles went out with a literal bang on The Good Wife, then Archie Panjabi seemingly exited with a whimper.

Panjabi's Kalinda will appear in the Season 6 finale, but she bid a very direct adieu to us last Sunday. Always with an exit strategy, Kalinda decided to leave town after Cary (Matt Czuchry) foiled her scheme to pin the handover of the Lemond Bishop (Mike Colter) evidence on his minion Dexter. She turned to Grace (Makenzie Vega) -- and the camera -- and did this: [gif]

Keeping in mind that a marginally bigger sendoff might be in the cards on the May 10 finale, many fans have cried foul over this low-key, brief meta departure not being worthy of the goddess that is Miss Boots of Justice. But if that "goodbye" had been the last time we were gonna see her, I would be OK with it. It was blunt, so very Kalinda -- vanishing into that good night -- and, most bittersweet of all, emblematic of the strange, frustrating course her character has taken the past two years: untapped potential to do more.

Kalinda was a breakout fan favorite and groundbreaking character from the get-go, an enigmatic, sexually liberated woman of color with complexity and agency. Equally fascinating was her friendship with Alicia (Julianna Margulies), which at its early seasons peak, was one of the best between adult women on television. Two very different women, down to their diametrically opposed job obligations -- sultry P.I. doing whatever it takes to get the job done and housewife-turned-lawyer playing inside the legal arena -- bonded, opened up to each other and downed tequila shots.

But as is well documented, Kalinda and Alicia haven't appeared together in a scene since halfway through Season 4 on Feb. 17, 2013. That's 50 episodes ago. (This will come to an end in the finale.) Rumors abound as to why they've been apart, but creators Robert and Michelle King have maintained that the separation is intentional, due to the bombshell at the end of Season 2 that Kalinda slept with Alicia's husband Peter (Chris Noth) before she and Alicia ever met. Margulies also told The Huffington Post in April 2013 that she believes the Kalicia relationship is "played out."

While it is understandable and plausible for a friendship to be beyond repair after one sleeps with another's husband, nothing the show did in the nearly two years prior to and two-plus years since that final Kalicia interaction suggests that they are completely, irrevocably dunzo. They appeared to start anew when Kalinda helped Alicia find Grace in Season 3. In early Season 4, it was Alicia who expressed concern about Kalinda's violent ex-husband, Nick, in that quickly aborted abomination of a story line, and they both acknowledged that they "missed this" after Kalinda brought Alicia clothes in Minnesota. Since their physical separation, Kalinda and Alicia continue to amicably work together, interacting via phone calls -- which, of course, in the (scripted) words of Robert Downey Jr., can be "shot separately from that insane actress that I hate." If you knew absolutely nothing about The Good Wife and watched one of these episodes, you'd probably never guess that these people's relationship is "played out."

And therein lies the rub. The frustration is not just that they haven't physically shared space in so long, but also because it's still unclear where exactly they stand. If they are no longer friends, nothing was shown to indicate that and validate the separation, which started after they spent a year slowly getting back on track. (Hell, when has not being friends ever stopped people from interacting on a TV show?) Instead, the show carries on like nothing odd is afoot, but the two never interact or address their issues in depth. At times, it even seems to ret-con and downplay the importance of the Kalicia relationship back in the nascent stages of the show. After he confronted her about the Peter affair earlier this season, Kalinda told Eli (Alan Cumming) she wasn't and hadn't been Alicia's "best friend." "Uh, out of all those things I just said, you find objectionable the best friend charge?" he replies. It all plays into a confusing limbo that makes scenes like Kalinda surveying Alicia's family photos in her apartment last week feel unearned and forced without duly invested time in this rift.

If the point of separating Kalinda and Alicia is to develop and grow each of them, that hasn't exactly panned out for the former. The Good Wife is about Alicia Florrick, so she will never be thirsty for new, exciting stories, which Margulies has handled with usual aplomb the past two years. After admitting to the Nick misstep ("You don't give James Bond a girlfriend"), the Kings have over-corrected and we haven't gotten a peek into Kalinda's life and backstory since, coinciding with the Kalicia scene split. But because the construct of her character is caked in mystery, Kalinda needs ties to other main characters to open her up. (The Will/Kalinda friendship is also sorely missed.) What we got, however, was a gradual phase-out, her use limited to her bad-ass info-retrieving skills, seductive bed-hopping skills and apparent phone-talking skills. She occasionally interacted with Cary and Diane (Christine Baranski) this season, but her final arc was babysitting a drug kingpin's son. What was once a three-dimensional, alluring character is now sadly tertiary.

Five years ago, I probably wouldn't have been able to picture The Good Wife without Kalinda, but now? When news broke of Panjabi's forthcoming departure in October, my first thought was, "Good." (No pun intended.) Kalinda has been sidelined for two years. I'd rather not spend another 22 episodes waiting for Kalinda and Alicia to interact, or waiting to find out how her brilliant mind operates (lest we forget, we learned how the mind of Elsbeth, a recurring character, works). I'd rather she leave now and free up the show to hopefully find new creative avenues and stories to tell without having to spend time coming up with ways to intercut phone call scenes.

Am I upset Kalinda's been marginalized this way? Sure -- every Good Wife fan is -- but it's been so long that, unfortunately, I'm used to it, so now it's all just a relief. They've written Kalinda and the Kalicia relationship to a point that it's time for her and us to move on. No matter what does or doesn't happen between Kalinda and Alicia in the finale, I won't be sad about her exit because I won't miss this Kalinda. The real Kalinda left us a while ago.

[xplrvibes]

here's my thing:

do i think they love each other? no

do i think they're infatuated with each other? yes

do i think she's as bland as a lettuce? yes

do i think he's as bland as a lettuce and as deep as a cup of water? also yes

do i think she's the exact type he'd end up with? yes

do i think he's like every other la influencer out there? yes

do i think she's like every other la nonfluencer out there with nothing but a face card to offer? also yes

do i think they're as cringe as two teenagers who are in their first relationship and discovered what sex is yesterday? another yes.

do i think they crave validation? yes.

does that make them the perfect pairing? yes

in the end does it even matter? as linkin park once wisely said, no.

should anybody care? no.

does it change lives? no.

does it make any difference? no.

pack it up and move on, y'all. seriously. if you're this upset over a random on the internet dating another random on the internet, then i have real bad news for you. plus, there are tons of other content creators out there who might suit your taste better. you might have long terrible paths to trail if you're gonna freak out and make a commotion every single time an internet couple interacts with each other. they're literally (and i mean that very very seriously), line by line, script followed to a t, like every other la influencer-nonfluencer couple on Instagram and/or tik tok. it's been half a year. as Elsa very accurately put it: let it go. I'll even hold y'all's hands through it if you need the support.

come on, summer children. it's time.

I would love to comment on all of this, but I got stuck on the bland as lettuce/deep as a cup of water thing 🤣.

I'm just envisioning a piece of romaine limply floating around in a Dixie cup and the whole system just froze, screen went white, and now I'm on a system reboot.

Also, idk what the face card thing is either (you guys got to remember that I was alive when dinosaurs walked the earth before the slang of today at me).

But yea, if anyone is at the point of upset over this to where they are stalking this poor girl and calling her things like "his cum catcher" in her comment section where she can see it (which yes, is a comment I saw today) - you've got to go find a new hobby. You HAVE to. One that isn't whatever the fuck this is. This is getting old. Enjoy this shit, don't enjoy it and block it out, or move on.

[kaiowut99]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Episodes 99-101 Subbed (Finalized)

(Previously: Episodes 97 and 98 Subbed [Finalized])

(Check out my Subbed!GX Stream Masterpost!)

TURN-99: Judai VS the Terror of the Laser Satellite

Judai learns of the secret behind his key--that it's a control key for a laser satellite--from Lind, secretary to Prince Ojin. Under Saiou's orders, Prince Ojin challenges Judai to a duel in order to take back his key. The Prince summons and attacks with three Satellite Cannons, while Judai opposes him with his Flame Wingman in the pinch that he's in...

TURN-100: The Ultimate Arcana, The World

In order to confirm his father's words about the Pulse of Light now possessing Saiou, Ed makes his way towards Saiou. Then, upon arriving to the Society of Light's very own dueling arena, Ed grills him about it. But with the Pulse of Light within Saiou changing who he is, he tries to coerce Ed into return his key to the laser satellite. But Ed gains his resolve and the two duel, Saiou unleashing his Arcana cards on him as if he's foreseen all there is to their fates.

TURN-101: The Finishing Blow, Ed! Bloo-D

Ed's duel with Saiou continues. Saiou's 21st Arcana Force, The World, has burst forth, and while Ed has taken considerable damage, he battles on with faith that the "real Saiou" is still inside the Saiou taken by the Pulse of Light. Though Ed gets cornered by Saiou's merciless attacks, just as he accepts his fate, something unusual happens and he shifts into a counterattack. As he does, the gentle-hearted Saiou seems to be overlapped with him...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*runs in carrying local coffee* Episodes 99-101 are now finalized! Just a bit later than I'd hoped (for reasons I'll mention below), but finalized, haha.

Inching closer to Season 2's finale, here we have Judai realizing just how important the key he got from the good Saiou is, dueling Ojin once Saiou sends him after Judai and breaking Saiou's spell on him (well, for now, if I remember 102 correctly...). Ojin's and Lind's backstory is nice enough if a bit rushed, makes sense to be a kid in the shoes of a prince being expected to be tough but not quite liking it in private, and Judai's bit of humility as he tells Lind he doesn't know if he can save the world from the brainwashing laser satellite but will get Ojin back to his nicer self was cute. After that, it's the cherry on top of Ed's character arc, coming to a head after his duel with DD, as he confronts Saiou about the Light of Destruction being inside him and not really being the friend who approached him at his father's funeral; 100 and 101 give us insight into their relationship and why they were able to connect with each other, even if Saiou initially didn't approach Ed to do so. 100 is also a prettily animated (despite the slight issues I'll note below) and well-paced episode, and 101 is made iconic because of Light!Saiou fully snapping at the end as he summons The Light Ruler, with Koyasu just hamming it up in his voice acting for him haha. (Also, Camula's Theme is featured in 101 for him, agonizingly reminding us it's been unreleased for so long.)

(Also, while I did hope to get these done a bit earlier this month [some social stuff had also come up], I'd luckily previously revised my scripts for 100 and 101 for GX_ST's release of their remastered versions back during the Fan-Favorite Duel airings in Japan, so I was able to make up a bit of time as a result, hehe. Also worth mentioning that Saiou's Material/Spiritual/Heavens Road cards, per Yugipedia, are valid as "Road" or "Lord" [as Konami went for the TCG/dub]; as "Road," they're a reference to "the three "roads" of the Tarot: "The Magician" through "The Chariot" (each numbered I through VII, all Level 4 or lower Monsters), "The Strength" through "Temperance" (each numbered VIII through XIV, all Level 5 or 6 Monsters), and "The Devil" through "The World" (each numbered XV through XXI, all Level 7 or higher Monsters). and as "Lord" they apparently reference the "phases of apocalypse" in a Lovecraft work, though Googling I couldn't quite corroborate that... Given Saiou's cards and his character, I went with "Road" working with the former.)

Animation error-wise, bit of an interesting mix here. 99 only saw three fixes, two card-related, and 101 saw about 8-9 with some card-related ones mixed in--but 100 has the lion's share of animation error fixes here, particularly because for some reason a decent amount of the footage sort of jumps in the video frame, causing a black bar to appear along the bottom for parts of the scenes involved; fixing the bulk of those, while relatively easy, probably took up the most time, lol. Notably, 4Kids fixed most of these for 100's dub, but the master used for the CR upload still has these (I thought it might've been an issue with how Astral_Union had encoded their DVDRip, as it does tend to happen in scenes involving video ghosting). More in my separate post here with my usual fix/edit breakdown for the interested, due to Tumblr’s dumb link limit in posts yeeting them out of the tags used and limiting their reach (and making me split it in two 🙃 [Part 2 with 101's is linked there]), to give you a more visual element to it, but altogether that comes out to 36 fixes across all three episodes! my love for this show is like an Ojama

Quick housekeeping: made an additional revision to 98 to update some of the lines during the Ed-talks-to-his-dad scene to incorporate some of my previous revisions to 100's script for the same scene, as I did prefer some of my wordings there, lol. I've also made another slight revision to 95's hardsub to update one of the Photography credits to match its spelling as of episode 87 that I missed. The link in their respective release posts now link to the re-uploaded version; I've updated their links in the Masterpost and will be posting the re-finalized hardsubs and 98's updated script on NAC soon.

Anywho, enjoy! With these out of the way, the stage is set for Season 2's three-part finale in 102-104, which I'll be starting work on soon; have been looking forward to revisiting these one last time, as these were the first episodes I tried to fansub back in 2007 iirc using Windows Movie Maker (how times fly/etc) and Judai vs Saiou is one of my faves. After those are done, I'll likely take a light breather before starting Season 3 and get a bit done on some side projects I've had in the works (and hopefully get to post about one special one in particular I've wanted to force into a tag here), but more once 102-104 are done, lol.

[noxexistant]

I hope this doesn’t come off as mean because i am genuinely curious and I don’t know how to phrase it that’ll read well through text 😅 but could you explain why you like the delanceys? I just see them as bullies and feel like I’m missing something plz enlighten me 🙏

i appreciate the tact! you’re all good, i love the curiosity, and thank u for asking <3

first of all, you and anyone are more than valid to just see the delanceys as bullies - they are. they’re bad guys, that’s the crux of their character. they’re antagonists. you aren’t supposed to like them, you’re mostly supposed to hate ‘em. but there is also a lot to them just beneath the surface, as implied in the script and spoken about by the actors and portrayed in their performances, and i just think they’re super compelling. they’re fantastic antagonists, especially when played and understood through a more empathetic lens.

like, you’ve got these two kids - barely older than the newsies, at most barely wealthier - who are paid to work as essentially hired grunts for one of the papers and their uncle. violence is expected of them, and they’re apparently very comfortable with it and good at it - they’re known for it. what makes two kids so comfortable with and skilled at violence? they work through the strike despite the fact that by the end of it every other young worker in the city has joined the crusade. why are they so insecure with money? they’re never separate from each other, not for one second - they literally never appear in a scene without each other. why are they so attached and codependent? and oscar’s first lines are defending the work they do and saying the most loaded line ever about their father who they apparently just took money to beat up in the street - “i guess he didn’t take care of me.” why do they hate their father so much?

according to morris’ trading card, which is really the only Solid Canon we’ve got that isn’t actor interpretation, he was abandoned by both parents as a child, and we can only assume the same for oscar. oscar openly resents their father and harbours no shame for getting paid to soak him along with the rest of the striking workers. there’s so much implication there and so much potential, so many questions about what exactly their father did, what their lives were like, what the circumstances were of their (or morris’) abandonment. why or how their uncle took them in, if wiesel is even their uncle. also, the detail that they lived on a farm first, and moved from that to this inner-city work.

and beyond that, we have the details that are from the actors. notably, mike faist (who originated the role of morris in the stage show) stating that morris’ defining feature is goodness at his core. anthony norman stating that oscar was raised in the refuge. alex prakken stating that the delanceys are just kids in an awful situation, that they are actually just like the newsies but were manipulated with money to switch sides to oppose them.

it’s about the idea of what sort of circumstances it takes to create two people like the delanceys - violent and closed off and codependent. they’re willing to do things that most people won’t in order to get money, and even during the strike they won’t risk their pay. they believe in survival of the fittest and resent weakness. all they have is each other, and in the stage show they’re violently protective of each other (in 92sies, at least the original script, oscar is abusive towards morris, which is its whole own type of compelling). they’re clingy and childish and violent and complicated and they have reasons for everything, because everyone does, and that invites all this questioning and headcanoning and analysing. what would it take to turn a newsie into a delancey? what would it take to turn them back?

and each actor brings such fantastic little details to both of them. morris being fidgety and autistic-coded. oscar looking grief-stricken when race is speaking mockingly about les and david having a mother. the two of them clinging to each others sides. the two of them always listening in on the newsies as they talk, like they’re behind glass even when they’re right there - like they stop existing past a certain point.

i just love complicated characters, i love deeply traumatised characters, i love to pick up an awful person and explore what goodness there is, what circumstances could’ve made that goodness go away, what circumstances could bring it out again. and there’s so much potential for goodness in the delanceys, particularly in this love they have for each other. how george crawford and alex james hatton played them in uksies in particular ruined me, they’re so raw and complex and so completely closed off to anyone and everything except this desperate bond with each other, oscar is ruthlessly violent to everyone else but so gentle with morris, morris is at times so visibly wrought with regret while he’s doing terrible things but he still doesn’t stop, and they’re in this position where they have this power over the newsies but no power anywhere else. they’re helpless, as stuck as any of the newsies, as worthless and resented and expendable, but they’re different because they’re paid to be. what makes the difference? the money? them taking the money? the contract in the money being handed over at all?

anyway, yeah, they’re the worst, i love them.