#compounding fuckups

[easel-eisel]

i love chain reactions and catastrophes one failure in the right conditions leading to grand consequences is really cool

[milkweedman]

Accidentally made coffee with about 8-10 times the ideal amount of grounds (its technically drinkable but only with an absurd amount of 1/2 & 1/2 and even then it still tastes very bad) but ! I did at least manage to weigh down my warp for the last little bit. Only one side of the connectors snapped so it was all lopsided, and once i hit the tape i either had to detatch the apron bar and do this or tie it back down but with the exact matching length with a warp still attached, and this seemed a lot easier. Downside is that i have to pull the loom forward so i can fit back there and remove all the weights every time i need to advance the warp, but still. Theres only the smallest bit left.

[scoonsalicious]

6.3 Bucky

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Fem!Reader

Summary: Lily McIntyre, trainer for new SHIELD recruits at the Avengers Tower, has been in love with her best friend, Bucky Barnes, from the moment she met him. She's been content with her role of the #1 girl in Bucky's life, even if it means she has to sabotage a romantic relationship or two. It'll be worth it when he realizes that they're meant for each other, right? There's just one small problem: Lily McIntire never expected Bucky Barnes to fall for You.

Warnings: (For this part only; see Story Masterlist for general Warnings) Language.

Word Count: 500

Previously On...: Lily tricked Bucky into going on a picnic date; they made plans for a "friend date" for later that evening.

A/N: Sorry this is late- I tried something new with the texts, but it took too long, so I don't know if I'll do it again, lol. Reminder: My break is starting today, so there will be no new updates until Thursday, May 23rd. I'm hoping to get a ton of writing done, but I won't leave you hanging for content, I promise!

If you ever feel so inclined to support my work, hop on over to buy me a coffee; it's much appreciated! <3

NOTE! The tag list is a fickle bitch, so I'm not really going to be dealing with it anymore. If you want to be notified when new story parts drop, please follow @scoonsaliciousupdates

Thank you to all those who have been reading; if you like what you've read, likes, comments, and reblogs give me life, and I truly appreciate them, and you!

He was really hoping his plans with Lily would take his mind off of his fuckup with Major. He must have thought about calling her about seventy five thousand times, but each time he picked up his phone to dial her number, he saw her shrug in his mind’s eye when he asked if he could call her later. Lily may have been wrong about the reasoning, but what if she had been right about the gist of it– If Major really wanted him to call her, wouldn’t she have said so? It was driving Bucky crazy.

So, he agreed to a night out with Lily as a distraction. After their impromptu picnic, he’d walked her back to her car and they’d set back off to the Compound, where Bucky napped and took a shower. He was just deciding what to wear to dinner in a few hours when a text came through on his phone. He almost did a double take when he saw it was from Major.

Sugar: Can we talk?

Bucky’s heart sped up at the sight of her words. She wanted to talk. This was good, right? 

Bucky bit his lip. Lily would understand if he had to cancel, right? He’d explained to her how much he liked Major, how upset he was when he thought he’d blown it with her. She’d get why it was so important for him to meet with Major tonight. They could do a raincheck on their friend-date.

Okay, she was putting the ball in his court. Bucky wracked his brain, trying to come up with an idea that would be spontaneous, but also romantic, so he could show her that he was serious about her, about making this thing between them work. An idea struck him suddenly, and though it wasn’t very original of him, all things considered, it was perfect. Absolutely perfect. He was just going to need a few hours to get everything ready. Glancing at his phone, he realized he needed to get in gear; he didn’t have a lot of time, and there were things to do.

>> DROPPED A PIN

>> Meet me here at 7:30pm.

A few hours later, Bucky was doing his final set up preparations. He checked his phone– Major should be arriving any minute, and if he said he didn’t have butterflies in his stomach, he’d be lying. He nearly jumped out of his skin when his phone buzzed with an incoming text, but it was just from Lily.

Shit. In his haste to get everything prepared for Major, Bucky had completely forgotten he’d made dinner plans with Lily. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

It was a long moment before the three dots appeared on his screen, indicating Lily was typing.

Bucky smiled at his phone, not sure why he had been so nervous about telling Lily he was dating Major in the first place. 

<- Previous Part / Next Chapter ->

[phoenixyfriend]

[squints at the MCU] Tony Stark has displayed more ability to weather interrogation and torture than Steve Rogers.

This is "(displayed more)(ability)," not "(displayed)(more ability)," to be clear.

(I know fiction’s depiction of torture is famously propagandafied, but in this case, it’s not about torture for information so much as physical traumas shown on screen.)

(Anyway, have a rant I did on discord the other day.)

It's not really so much about "resisted the urge to hand over information" as "survived a truly harrowing experience and still came out of it trying to do good."

Tony's very first movie involves getting repeatedly drowned while in constant pain from bomb injuries as a civilian contractor, and I… don't think I can remember anything even a little similar with Steve

I don't think he's ever been captured for long before breaking out? All his injuries are in active battle, not torture.

Like... Steve went through something horrible with the ice and losing Bucky, nobody can argue that. But I think it's very telling, sometimes, that movie Steve, especially 2012 movie Steve, is completely unaware of the absolute nightmare that Tony experienced in his solo movies.

I have so many feelings about Tony Stark being the epitome of "guy who was raised and manipulated into being a bad person by someone he trusted, and (after a horrible experience) attempts to be a better person, constantly and consistently, even if he sometimes fucks up in the execution."

And the way that some fics elide his experiences in cleaning up other people's messes (first Obadiah's, then Howard's) and how that doubtlessly compounded his many neuroses from fixing messes that he did actually create himself is just

I have a lot of feelings

And am also feeling a little bitter and salty about how Tony Stark's MCU incarnation reportedly took some inspo from Elon Musk... and a little petty and satisfied about just how drastically we've all be shown that Musk can never live up to the idea of 'billionaire with inherited wealth who actually, without hesitation, risks his own life to save millions' that he tried to use PR to achieve in the media with 'my electric cars are gonna save the world' stunts about things he didn't actually have a hand in inventing

I'm just reading some fics I really enjoyed when I was still in the YA fandom, and there was a reference to a line Steve said in the movies and I started thinking (again) about how frequently fans take lines from Steve or Sam about Tony as gospel, because they haven't seen Tony's movies, and the lines from the star spangled boys are contextually meant to show that they don't know jackshit about Tony or his life, because they are directly contradicted by multiple prior films.

Also like... how often Steve's traumas get explored (in fic) in a way that Tony's just... don't? At most, his issues about Howard get explored, but that's it.

There's this moment in CACW that people take as Accurate and it infuriates me.

Tony Stark: [Back in the cell.] Just look. Because that is the fellow who was supposed to interrogate Barnes. [He shows a holographic image of Doctor Broussard.] Clearly, I made a mistake. Sam, I was wrong. Sam Wilson: That's a first.

Which, like... it's a bad movie. Obviously. But also

That line is immediately followed by Tony revealing that he's here to help the others and is sabotaging the security to make sure Ross can't take advantage, and yet fanfic still uses Sam's quote to promote anti-Tony agendas!

And 'Tony admits he fucked up' is. Like. Listen to me

Tony's first solo movie is fixing Obadiah's machinations. *

His second solo movie is fixing his Dad's fuckup.

His first team movie is fixing Thor's mistakes.

His third solo movie is fixing something that is only tangentially his fault.

It's not until AoU that the fuck-up is really his and his alone (well, not counting Bruce), and even then, even then, a massive portion of the blame is narratively laid at Wanda's feet!

And only then do we get this man, who has spent five movies seeing what happens when people don't take responsibility for their actions, or have anyone riding them to be ethical, who has criticized himself for neither having that oversight nor providing that oversight for people who snuck shit under his nose, that is when we get Tony weighing in on the side of "most countries on the planet are agreeing with this and it's for a reason, please work with me here, maybe we can get some of it rolled back to be less authoritarian and more reasonable."

* and removing himself from the military industrial complex he was raised and groomed to be in, but that's a system and not an individual act or a set 'villain'

Or as @firebirdeternal put it:

I would say that his first solo movie does have a large element of fixing his own mistakes too, it's just that his "mistake" was Trusting the Wrong Person and not taking personal responsibility for how his actions are affecting the world. (Which, he immediately does upon coming back from being captured? "We're going to immediately stop making weapons, because it's making the world worse" and then when Obadiah cuts him out of the company he goes "Oh. Okay no that didn't work, have to personally fix all this then.") and yeah it's just Tony have plenty of reasons to be on the side of "Someone needs to have oversight over this"

IM1 is such a good exploration of someone in privilege saying "this stops now" in a situation where they do have control because they have been confronted with their mistakes in a way that's unavoidable

It's also like, a great example of the fantasy of the Super Hero. Because Tony Stark, the businessman, even with all his wealth and knowledge, isn't able to stop the systemic harm being caused by His Own Company. One person isn't able to do that, even with the best of intentions. It isn't until he becomes something else, something more, a Super Hero, that he's able to make any kind of meaningful change on his own. Like IM1 is just a phenomenal movie. It understood it's subject material so incredibly well.

And people skip it and then take Steve and Sam at their word about Tony's strength of character and moral convictions and I scream.

THIS MAN FLEW A NUKE INTO A WORMHOLE WITH THE FULL EXPECTATION THAT HE WAS GOING TO DIE

Yeah, like, that Jump on the Grenade mentality is something that he and Steve actually literally share.

They both had 'jump on the explosive to save people' moments in their introductory movies.

I find so much more strength and inspiration in stories like Thor and Tony, where they are inherently fuck-ups and were shitty people and they are trying so damn hard to be better, which is more Tony than Thor really, but both of them and their first movies are just. I find that more inspiring than Steve or T'Challa or any other hero who was already a good person and just Became Great.

Tell me about the person who has to struggle to find that moral choice. Tell me about Natasha dragging herself from her oceans of blood and Tony fighting the government over whether they have the rights to use weapons he's created and about Thor having to reckon with his family's power being born of imperialistic ravaging of other cultures.

I want to hear about the people for whom being good is hard and a choice they don't have to make, but then they make it anyway.

Also I stand by "I am Iron Man. [infinity snap]" being the most amazing bookend the MCU could have done and probably the best part of the Endgame.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 6/11/2024

sibling visit!!!!!!!!! but who cares about that my cats finally greeted each other calmly and politely!!!!!!!!

listening

WET DREAM by SNOW WIFE, off one of my sister's playlists. i have since added it to my playlist titled "SOMEBODY COME FUCK THIS (GAY)". sounds like early kesha?

-

reading

oh right i read a brace of temeraire books last week. we're in australia now. excited to see what sort of bullshit we get up to. i do really love these books and am astonished at home much they Feel like period-typical books, but i am too busy going :D :D :D while reading to have tuesdaypost thoughts about them

-

watching

thank you @rae-being-naughty for this rec bc i inhaled A Murder At The End Of The World in one evening. limited series on hulu that is set in Legally Not Elon Musk's Compound with Legally Not Elon Musk.

"A Murder at the End of the World" is a mystery series with a new kind of detective at the helm -- a Gen Z amateur sleuth and tech-savvy hacker named Darby Hart. In the new limited series, Darby and eight other guests are invited by a reclusive billionaire to participate in a retreat at a remote and dazzling location. When one of the other guests is found dead, Darby must put to use all of her combined skills to prove it was in fact murder, all against a tide of competing interests and before the killer takes another life.

oh my godddddd do i love a horrible little woman. sopping wet cat pathetic fuckup of a woman. enormous friends at the table clementine kesh vibes here but slightly lesss malicious. now! normally i am a girl's girl. i love women. but my god did darby royally fuck up her former lover.

one of the better hetero-appearing romances ive ever seen-- we fall in love with bill just as much as darby did, and his death drives the show in a way a fridged wife would in a different show.

i like how it is not a show About hacking, and darby became a hacker somewhat incidentally bc she needed to hack to get what she wanted. super tense, beautifully shot, balances current-day and flashbacks well, the twist is honestly bonkers but it is a very fair mystery.

-

playing

got clorinde :) now i have to collect one billion starfish to level her up :(

her story quest was so cute! a really fun visual novel take on ttrpgs/larping! everyone got little character art! i like her more uniform-braid-style outfit in the character art more than her actual outfit but oh well. im sure they'll release that one as an alt outfit at some point

also pulled dehya! pyro claymore wielder! goodbye diluc u were a mainstay on my team for a year but there's a hot girl who fills your same niche now

-

making

my sister was here so a lot of sibling bonding (going to lesbian bars, moving furniture up my horrible stairs, art museums, weeping over impossibly well tended five hundred year old tapestries and carpets, etc). i had an Excellent slice of key lime pie cheesecake at House of Pies-- i do not typically enjoy cheesecake, i feel like it's often too rich and leaves a weird coating on my tongue. alarmingly green but the tartness offset the cheesecake in a very pleasing way.

look at my new desk's woodgrain again

[howsdeanshole]

man i wish lisa and ben DID remember dean. having them go away forever while dean destroys his liver over it is less narratively satisfying to me than like. because of all of that lisa decides to get into hunting to keep her and ben safe but she doesn’t forgive dean. or if they do forget him what if it was an imperfect erasure. lisa’s family and friends and colleagues remember her talking about Dean, remember meeting him. his number is still listed as ben’s second emergency contact. dean is constantly having to contend with how bad he fucked up and then the compound fuckup of trying to undo the danger and pain he caused his family because he needed the security of playing house. idk. this probably sounds very critical of dean but he should have dealt with long term consequences for all of that

[gnomeniche]

it’s dhmis week day 4 which means i get to talk about dhmis s1e4 friendship and how interesting it is

so a lot of people’s analytical opinion about friendship has been “it’s funny but i don’t know if it really has that much to dig into, lore-wise or thematically”. i disagree. if you will indulge me, i will present the reasons that i find this episode persistently interesting in an easily digestible numbered list.

warren’s incompetence reveals more blatantly that the world’s reality can be and is manipulated by the teachers. we had hints of this before, but the shifts in reality were well-hidden with elements like the jobs song, which established a “teleporting” stylization to drop them into the factory, or the trip to the family house being built into the episode’s storyline. you could plausibly argue that maybe their world is just like this and nobody’s actually manipulating anything. however, warren dispenses with any kind of subtlety and straight-up pauses the show. because he’s bad at what he does! this is the episode that comes immediately before the two final episodes, which make the manipulation of the world explicit, so you could take this as setup for the idea’s full reveal.

the question of what the other two actually said to yellow guy: did they insult him? the bleeping happens immediately before warren starts his spiel. since the episode is riffing on the after-school bullying special, that is the kind of moment that would be built into a storyline as a segue for that kind of moral, and the recurring element of traditional kids’ show storylines with nice, pat morals being forced on the characters leads toward the bleeping possibly being a mislead. combined with the blatant world manipulation i discussed, the bleeping could have been added by warren to imply something harsher than they actually said. even the lead-in of “it’s not your fault. you’re just a—“ could plausibly set up a non-insulting phrase; part of the humor of the sudden bleep is derived from the expectation that it would be some kind of reassurance. still, they COULD have genuinely insulted him, but they just as possibly could have not. this ambiguity is compounded by…

the way the “being a good friend” message slips away to reveal a message of “insecurities can ruin your relationships” and how neither of them seems fully accurate: what is even up with the message? it starts with warren’s poorly delivered anti-bullying program, but it slowly transforms into being about how insecurities can get the better of you. warren styles himself as a teacher, but at some point, he becomes an embodiment of and metaphor for insecurity. with this in mind, if warren’s influence caused the bleeping, it becomes even more plausible that the other two did not necessarily insult yellow guy. was his impression that they insulted him really just a “worm in his brain,” an insecurity that he thinks his friends hate him manifested literally in the episode plot? HOWEVER. IT IS STILL MORE COMPLICATED, EVIDENCED BY…

the fact that his friends ACTUALLY do not respect him: there is repeated evidence in the rest of the show that his friends DON’T see him as an equal! i do believe that they genuinely do not hate him, but they certainly do not always treat him well either. red guy and duck don’t always respect each other, but both of them seem to see yellow guy as being on a slightly lower level than the two of them, and they treat him accordingly. he may have had a worm in his brain, but in the plot of the episode, they were the ones who encouraged warren to get into his brain, and they had to fix their fuckup. they may or may not have insulted him in the bleeped instance, but either way, they do not think about the behavior that could have led him to believe they would. the ending message of “your friends love you; don’t let your insecurities get the better of you” is then misleading; they are making it all about his insecurities and not about their behavior. sure, they love him. sure, insecurities can ruin your relationships. but neither of those facts negates that even when both are true, there can still be genuine problems within a friendship that need resolving. and boy do these guys have friendship problems.

the ending fight: peak television. funniest moment in the show. but also it adds to the weird ambiguity of it all. what DOES friendship even mean here? in a world like this, where nothing is ever really true and the enforced narrative is you and not you at the same time? can you ever really understand each other? or maybe it just means that sometimes you do need to call your friend on being a dick for no reason instead of trying to be the bigger person. and sometimes that means hitting him with a glass bottle and a katana and a gatling gun and also a chainsaw. who even knows

anyway that’s all the reasons i find dhmis s1e4 friendship interesting. and also it’s just really funny? the jokes do not stop coming and there’s a bunch of really subtle tiny gags that are just delightful. dhmis is always making you feel several levels of weird complicated emotions at once and this episode really does that to me. all of the lessons it gives have Something within them or in the surrounding context that complicates them or throws them into question. friendship is not the most emotionally devastating episode by a LONG shot (the one-two punch of transport and electricity kills me instantly every time i rewatch), but it is the one with the most weird shit that i keep trying to puzzle out.

[jethroq]

“we bombed this compound full of children, and it turned out they all just happened to be child brides. yeah the main guy convinced them he was god and forced them to marry him, pretty lucky for us that we burned down the right compound. we also found out hamas and hezbollah were using it as a hideout, so it was a valid military target anyway”

Just because the ATF fucked up the way cops keep fucking up raids doesn’t mean I have to join your militia-church that believes David Koresh was actually the second coming of Christ.

How many people did the FBI and DEA, and local law enforcement kill during drug raids in 1993? Sorry I don’t feel sympathy for the guy who chose to die in a siege because he thought he was god, and convinced dozens more to do the same. ATF fuckups aside, he, and his adult followers had every chance to walk out. His child brides didn’t have a choice. Koresh killed them, both figuratively, but also literally by shooting them after his followers set the compound on fire.

[toaarcan]

I mentioned in my Bold New Moebius post the other day that Miles is one of my favourite Archie Sonic characters, so I thought I'd elaborate a bit more on that.

Bear in mind that the more I talk here, the more likely I am to go into pure "I made it the fuck up" territory, because he was a very underutilised character in canon, and that means I'm going to be doing some heavy interpreting and stretching. This is how he appears to me, after all.

The obvious first point (one I even made in the previous post) is that he's a Starscream-type, and that's one of my favourite villainous archetypes. Some little shit of a bad guy who sits there going "I could do better" and often has kind of a point, because the main villains they're working for tend to be a bit... dim.

Miles usually working for Scourge is a prime example of this. He's a genius, and Scourge is... not. Remotely. They work in very different ways, Scourge being loud and explosive and prone to self-sabotage, while Miles is more sneaky and subtle.

But what gives Miles so much potential is actually something unexpected: His fear.

Miles is often regarded as a coward, and I used to hate this. After all, being afraid of Super Scourge is a fairly reasonable stance to take. At the same time, framing Miles as someone who talks a big game but is kind of a wimp when cornered does fit as an inversion of Tails' lacking confidence and braver centre.

But the main reason I think this is actually a fairly good trait for a villain is that it compounds with his intellect.

If Miles is a genius who really, really doesn't want to get punched in his smug face, then he should be very cautious in his schemes. He has the intelligence to make his plans in such a way that he's always safe. His plans have contingencies. His contingencies have contingencies. Even if you thwart and foil the first six layers, maybe the seventh will catch you out. Even if you stop him from achieving his objective, he's already escaped.

Miles isn't a villain who can show up every few weeks with another crazy scheme and get foiled. He's the sort of villain that only shows up rarely, but when he does, strap the fuck in, because even getting close to stopping him is going to be a challenge.

And despite the Sonic series' propensity for genius antagonists, none of them have ever really tried the "Master planner" angle. The most genius plan we've seen from other villains in Archie is Mogul going "I'm immortal and you're not, so I'm just gonna wait until you 80 and then win."

Finitevus is a genius, but while his plans are good, they're not hugely intricate. He tends to resolve his problems by way of overwhelming force, and his ultimate goal is worldwide genocide by way of burning the entire planet to the ground.

Eggman... look, as much as I dislike Ian Flynn's version of Eggman, whom I find an incredibly confused character, I do think he's got a good point about Eggman being a fuckup. The SEGA game version of Eggman is the guy who responded to one Gizoid going into murder-mode and nearly killing him by immediately building another one, which then proceeded to go into murder-mode and nearly kill him. He constantly unleashes other threats that he cannot control (Chaos, Shadow, Emerl, Gemerl, Dark Gaia, Zavok) and then acts surprised when it blows up in his face.

The guy is a scientific and mechanical genius with the foresight and planning skill of a cranefly. It's weirder when his plans don't backfire on him.

And that means there's a niche! There's a type of villain that Miles can fill, a character who uses his intelligence not for the creation of doomsday weapons, but to concoct a plan that will take every last scrap of Sonic and co.'s determination to overcome. Additionally, Miles has another trait that works in his favour: Who he's a counterpart to. After all, in Archie, Tails has a grand destiny and unmatched power that is simply... never used. For anything. Gallagher introduced the idea, and Penders waffled on about it and dragged it out and changed his mind about what it was meant to be, and then Flynn ended it in a really weaksauce way.

So basically, Tails had a big role to play, and ended up fulfilling his destiny about three times, and with the final one it was mostly done for him, by a machine, that he was being used to power, but he was mostly unconscious, and he had help from Shadow. And then Flynn said he lost all of his powers except flight off-screen, but it was never shown and that's intensely lame so I ignore that part and so should you.

But... Miles is an evil counterpart to Tails, and the antiverse appears to have just as many Emeralds (or Beryls) as the Prime one has. There's no reason Miles can't also be a Chosen One. In fact, it stands to reason that he is one. And while Tails briefly had all the power of all the Chaos Emeralds in the universe, and gave it up... what would a villain do with that kind of power? Certainly nothing good.

On Moebius, the Great Harmony is a doomsday prophecy, and Miles is at its centre. And that feeds into another one of my favourite villain tropes, "The Chosen One exists and it is explicitly a bad thing."

And we'll round this out with another villain trope example, because Miles is an absolutely amazing candidate for the Villainous Breakdown.

I love it when a bad guy reaches the end of their rope and just fucking loses it. Maybe they start begging for the mercy they never showed others, maybe they lose control and just start viciously attacking everything in sight, determined to take the hero down with them. Whatever form it takes, it can be immensely satisfying.

And Miles, a genius schemer who really, really does not want to get the crap kicked out of him, would play out this trope beautifully.

Now if only they'd actually done something with him in Archie. Or maybe it's a blessing in disguise that they didn't, given the standards most Archie villains were at by the end-stages of the preboot.

[navree]

Would Aegon have been a decent king if he had ascended the throne without the dance happing ? Let's say he was the eldest child or maybe Viserys named him his heir . Same question for Rhaenyra

Hey, I actually answered the first part of the question, in a certain way, here, so I won't spend too much time on that. Short answer is that I think he'd be Fine, not spectacular but not awful, though it would likely be due to the fact that he seems willing to listen to his administrators on the Small Council. I think that would be the same if there'd never been a Dance at all and he was king just like that.

Rhaenyra, however, I don't think would have been a very good queen. She's less tractable than Aegon's shown himself to be (while he does push back on stuff, especially in the book, he seems more inclined to listen to other people), and unfortunately when she does listen, she's listening to the worst possible people (relying on Mysaria, for instance, against more seasoned and less nefarious advisors). Rhaenyra does have a stint where she rules in King's Landing as a queen regnant, and that gives us a pretty decent view of what she's like as a political leader and administrator and it is........Not Great. The issue she has is one that they've hinted at in the show, that Rhaenyra thinks the will of the commons don't matter. And let me tell you, every single time a ruler in the entirety of history has thought "the will of the commons don't matter" they end up either being the worst rulers in a good long while or booted off the seat of power, oftentimes both. Rhaenyra's vengefulness and bloodlust and the way she took it out on people turns the commons against her, the high taxes she put on without thinking of how it would anger them in order to fill her coffers, these are bad decisions, politically unsound decisions made by someone who doesn't understand what actually ruling entails. While Rhaenyra ruling in a world without the Dance likely wouldn't result in her making such brutal choices, she'd still make similar ones. Rhaenyra as a ruler is someone who often doesn't listen, and when she does tends to choose the worst person in the world to listen to, is impulsive and quick to anger and determined for revenge whenever possible, and doesn't seem to understand the minutia of government and how bad choices can compound on each other.

So no, I don't think that, if there'd been no war and she'd assumed the crown peaceably, she'd have been a fine queen (Alicent is biased because she and Rhaenyra are in gay love and therefore blind). Her tenure might not have been quite as disastrous because, wartime compounded the issues of her queenship, but the evidence we have of her as a ruler means that she likely would have been more of a fuckup and heavily disliked, perhaps not to the level of Joffrey but certainly getting up there in terms of popularity during a tenure.

[notwhelmedyet]

an approximately chronological list of things i've fucked up in my current bookbinding project

When merging the individual chapter files into a single pdf I messed up the page numbers and had to go back and redo it

I did that again

I fixed the page numbers but forgot chapter 7 entirely and only caught it halfway through printing. Thankfully fixed it

Realized I fixed all of that without catching an image cutting off part of the text in the colophon. fixed it in the UK edition

Didn't test my inkjet ink for bleed before designing and drawing the entire Eriador map, only to realize that the magenta ink bled horribly. Fixed it by image editing all the red elements to brown.

(there were lots of other map mistakes but we're going to keep Fred Mithrin between us)

Marbling fuckups, which deserves a whole separate category:

Tried marbling outside. As it turns out, wind moves paint when it's floating on top of a pan of water. This makes it difficult to put the paint where you want it.

Alumed the paper, then pressed it in a stack under weights and left it overnight. Turns out the alum deactivates (chemistry something something) if left in an anaerobic environment for a long time and the sheets were ghostly pale

Made the size too thin (there was a wake like I was jet skiing with those combs and the patterns were illegible)

Made the size too thick (so many. fucking bubbles. everywhere)

Air bubbles in all the wrong places RIP

Made my stencil BACKWARDS because I didn't check which arm was injured before marbling

Alumned before applying the stencils (the paper warped everywhere except where the stencil was and then it wasn't flat)

Alumned after applying the stencils (now the paint could bleed under the stencil and it didn't have clean edges)

Used freezer paper for the stencils (this was my ultimate mistake it just doesn't stick enough to prevent bleed. i think. i never fixed this so who knows)

Black paint was haunted. (That's not so much a mistake as an unavoidable reality I didn't realize when planning my marbling)

Back to regular fuckups:

Tested a new endpaper style (hidden linen-joined endpapers) on one of my good marbled sheets rather than on a blank sheet of paper, only to realize the sulphite paper was too weak and would tear. Impossible to remove the linen from the sheet and had to abandon it for one of my sub-par marbled sheets

Glued the cloth hinges for the UK editions on BACKWARDS with PVA. compounded this mistake by trying to carefully remove them with a microspatula rather than living with it. Tore the paper. Attempted to mend it with kozo and warped the paper. Attempted to color it with paste paint to cover it up and tested my color match on plain rather than mended paper, leading it to be obviously the wrong color.

When sewing the US copy of ATWW I pulled the wrong thread while doing a weaver's knot and ripped the first signature out of the book (mended it with kozo tissue)

Trimmed the head of US DR with the pages askew because I forgot to square the book in the press in all 3 dimensions. Trimmed it again to try and correct that, but didn't take enough off so it wasn't flat. Tried to sand it flat and still didn't succeed. Gave up.

Glued and rounded the spine of UK ATWW before trimming the fore edge. Had a panic. Got the trimming setup and done in under half an hour, a new record.

Rounded the spines unevenly (always)

Didn't press UK DR tightly enough while sanding the inside fore edge and some of the pages got hooked in on themselves, necessitating going through with a microspatula and unhooking each page individually, then sanding again.

Over to edge marbling fuckups:

Used too strong of masking tape to tape off the head and tail when dipping the fore edges, which ripped the back side of the endpapers while removing.

Didn't dip US edition fore edges deep enough, leaving blank spaces

Panicked and dipped them a second time, making the pattern muddled

Managed to get bubbles on both the head and tail of the UK editions, because god hates me in particular

Attempted to fix one of the bubbles with paint and accidentally washed off a patch of marbling in the process.

Didn't press the books tight enough (quick release clamps were a mistake

Should have dried off the edges gently with a paper towel before air drying - the water on the edges seeped into the pages, causing both paint bleed and the books to warp out of square

Forgot the paste paper endpages and literally GLUED THE BOOKS SHUT. Had to very carefully pry them open again. 🤦

Aaaand that's as far as I've gotten so far but never fear more mistakes are on the way

[furryprovocateur]

seeing a giant fuckup in the site excel spreadsheet that would've been compounded by days of shit being done wrong (because i was gone 🤪) and eventually just went "i'm not paid enough to fix this" and proceeded to not gaf anymore

[strayguitarist]

Ventlike nonsense

Sometimes my (adoptive) father buys fast food for the rest of his family but specifically excludes me, and makes it a point to tell me not to take any of what he got for them, or I'll pop out of my room to see what all the commotion is about to see they're all sitting down for a nice meal and see nothing for me It's definitely a first-world-problem, not-a-big-deal sort of situation in the grand scheme of things and god knows he's already spent more money on me than I EVER deserve to have spent on me in the past, but like.. still feels weird and exclude-y and bad but I really can't speak up about it because I don't wanna ruin their happy little family time probably just rejection sensitivity but it sometimes makes me feel like the fuckup/unwanted/bad kid because it compounds with the whole "you're adopted 'cause your bio parents didn't want you so why should these people want you"

[lovewaterforthesoul]

*spoilers for herogasm*

To reduce Hughie’s actions to toxic masculinity overlooks the complexity of his motivations and what set him off this path initially. We just saw his residual rage and grief of Robin’s death in his scene with A-train. It never left Hughie. He never had the chance to protect her. It makes his decisions a lot more nuanced, compounded by the crazy shit he has survived in the last 3 years. He also has had to reconcile with Neuman’s betrayal and the fact that he contributed to Vought’s strength in government which completely upended his life. That alone was a huge blow to his confidence and everything he believed in about doing things the “right way.” I just wish Annie, MM and Butcher did more to correct him like, “nooooo babe, you’ve done so much xyz.”

I do like that it shows the challenges of being in a supe relationship and with Hughie its also informed by his knowledge and experience of the collateral damage of supes and the life it took away from him. This is why I think it’s bigger than Annie just being physically stronger.

An underrated moment: In a way, Annie proved Hughie correct. When he was standing in her way, she used her powers against him to get him out of her way. If he wasn’t suped up would he be able to withstand the attack? She was willing to physically hurt Hughie for the greater good to try and save multiple people at herogasm. And Hughie is the same. He did everything he could to make sure Soldier Boy focused on the twins. He failed in this endeavor but the question remains, what’s damage and carnage of a supe party compared to the potential of Homelander taking out New York, the country?Thats why I completely understand team whatever it takes. Hughie was ready to die to take out homelander.

I really enjoy Annie as a character but she’s been allowed to change course multiple times and naturally we root for her but Hughie despite everything he’s experienced is expected to do the right thing. Like no sis! Please my favorite morally upright character, please continue fucking shit up.

It looks like the lesson the show is trying to demonstrate with Annie is that you fight your enemies with the truth and honestly that is really an idealistic and pretty way of looking at the system. I think the show itself may not be ready to reconcile what it’ll take to disrupt systems of capitalistic oppression. But that’s a whole other post.

I really love MM’s arc because his motivations continue to be revealed to us. He’s a man consumed by the trauma and grief of his past which informs his OCD, anxiety and depression. His mental health severely impacts his ability to move forward, to be present and focus on his relationship with his family. For all the talk about Hughie’s codependency with Butcher, MM’s codependency with Butcher extends much longer and deeper. He was willing to lie to his wife multiple times in S1 for Butcher. And for all of Butchers fuckups and multiple betrayals, MM finds his way back to him. I always thought that during the course of 2x01, 2x02 and 2x03, Hughie had every right to feel betrayed by Frenchie and MM when they sided with Butcher even though he straight up left them for dead and Hughie had to step up to help keep the team together. I just hope MM and Hughie can reconcile once the dust settles. Hughie never gave up on MM when he was dissociating and depressed over losing his family in 2x01 and had initially chose to focus on building a dollhouse rather than the mission. Hughie “what if he does this to the Brooklyn bridge” still cares about the greater good. MM more than anyone should understand Hughie’s plight and allure of not only being with Butcher but making fucked up choices motivated by revenge. Ahhh the drama, soo good!!

Thanks for bearing with my excessive train of thoughts. There’s so much more to unpack with Ashley, A-train and others but I’ll need to assess and rewatch.

[purplesurveys]

1518

Have you ever cheated at a card game? I doubt it. I’ve never been into card games enough to feel like cheating on them.

Tell me what colors you’re wearing right now? Red, pink, white.

Have you ever wandered around drunk with your friend? No, too dangerous. If we had to walk outdoors, we never go beyond the compound we’re in.

Are you longing for the day that you’ll be an adult? (If you’re not already) I wouldn’t say longing is the right word...maybe hopeful? I’d love to see the day I can live on my own, afford to go to a different continent, do stuff with my money beyond having a debit card lmao. I mean age-wise and milestone-wise I’m definitely already an adult but there’s lots of things I’ve yet to learn; I still consider myself young and naïve in many ways.

Have you ever felt like your heart actually stopped? Yeah, usually the moment I’ve done a fuckup - like sending a text to the wrong person, accidentally sending the wrong emoji, sending an email without an attachment when it’s supposed to have an attachment, etc.

Are you a fast runner? Not anymore; I get tired so easily, too. But I used to be in track.

What’s something you’ve vowed to never eat? Dog meat.

Are you good at holding back your laughter if needed? Depends. Sometimes things will just be really funny, lol.

Do any of your friends shamelessly burp or fart in public? No. Not that I’d have a big problem with it; they just don’t.

When was the last time you had a good cry? I haven’t cried hard in a while, but I did tear up a bit last week. Rough time at work and a song that had fit my emotions at the time came up on shuffle so I ended up crying for a few minutes.

Has anyone ever told you they wanted to marry you? No. Have you ever had a “thumb war” with someone?  Sure, mostly with my siblings.

Have you ever been so unfortunate to suffer from a hangover? Yeah but ‘so unfortunate’ is such a generous way to put it I think lol. They suck, but it’s not the end of the world - I usually take a painkiller for my headache, chug lots of water, and look for oily food like fried chicken cos I find that helps.

If you need a job, will you take whatever you can get? Depends on my situation but generally not. I know what I can handle and what I would potentially be good at, and I’d much rather stay in those spaces. Even in looking for my first job I was kind of picky, but fortunately I got the company and position I wanted relatively quickly.

Time goes by faster as you get older, don’t you find? It does. I can hardly believe it’s going to be September again. How is it Christmas season already?

Have you ever had a panic attack? Yes.

Are you deathly allergic to anything? Nopes.

Have you ever had a mouse in your house? Yes, in our old duplex. There was a rat who never failed to show up, climbing up the same spot in our shared bedroom around midnight.

Do you know what you want for your dream house? I know I just want three components for my dream condo/house/whatever: a split-type aircon, a big comfy couch, and a large smart TV. As long as I have those three I feel like I’d be able to say I’ve Made It, hahaha. Have you ever seen the movie the Notebook? Tried the first ten minutes and it just sucked all across the board. I don’t think I would ever give it a second shot.

If you download torrents, what torrent program do you use? I haven’t done torrents since high school, but I used to have uTorrent. I’m pretty sure I still have it on this laptop lol but it’s definitely gathered cobwebs since.

If you go to school, will this year be different? I haven’t been to school in two years, but yeah my last year was for sure different in that it got cut short.

Do you know anyone who DOESN’T have an ex? Yes.

Are you able to count to ten in another language? A handful.

Is there something you know you have to do, but haven’t done it yet? Hahaha yes but they’re all work related and it’s 10:45 PM so those can fuck off until tomorrow.

Is anyone you know really religious? A lot of people around me are; and it would typically be a surprise to encounter someone who isn’t because everyone here is assumed to be Catholic or some type of Christian.

Can you sing? I cannot.

Have you ever read “Gone With the Wind”? I have the book and have read a significant portion of it, but have never finished. I’ve watched the movie countless times, though.

Are your eyebrows naturally thick? Yeps.

Have you ever attempted to cut your own hair? Just my bangs.

Has speaking in front of people ever made you sick? No, I’ve always been fine with it. There’s a part of me that enjoys the thrill that comes with it, I think; I realized it when I got entered into an impromptu speech competition and was surprised that my mouth just kinda did all the work naturally lol. I like to think my love for wrestling has been a big part of why I’ve taken a liking to public speaking.

Have you ever wanted to tell someone how you felt, but never did? Sure. This is a vague situation that’s applicable in so many ways haha, so I’m sure this has happened many times.

What was the last movie that made you teary-eyed? Idk, I haven’t watched any movies recently.

Do you check your email daily? I have to, it’s part of my work.

Have you ever breathed in helium? Nopes.

Do you try to be confident and positive about your future? Yeah, and I am.

When was the last time you felt disappointed in yourself? Earlier when I had a work booboo.

Have you ever owned a garden? Nope.

Who was the last person to text you? I think it was Liara asking me where I was since we had to meet up at the mall yesterday.

Have you had two friends that absolutely hated each other? It was one-sided hate. My ex despised every guy friend I had.

Do you ever find yourself trying to be the referee amongst your friends? Referee of what? I’m not sure what this entails but I have definitely served as the mom/leader more recently; like if we wanted to have a night out I’ll usually be the one to pull up spots to consider, organize the schedule, figure out who’s picking up who and from where, things like that.

Has a laptop ever burned your legs? Not burned - I wouldn’t let a laptop stay on my legs that long if I was already feeling such a level of discomfort. But yeah, my laptop regularly heats up now and that’s because it’s already a bit old and the battery isn’t at its optimal performance anymore. Then again I only ever take surveys on here and watch BTS videos so as long as they can do both jobs then I have no complaints.

Do you know anyone who has a scar through their eyebrow? Heyyyy, I have it. Some distant cousin hurled a glass jar at me when we were kids. The sick fuck was actually targeting my left eye but he missed. I have never seen him since the incident because my mom refuses to be in any function with him in it and tbh I’m not against that. Who was the last person to flip you off? Can’t remember.

Are you doing anything the day after tomorrow? Counting down the hours til the day is over.

Anyone’s birthday coming up soon? My mom’s and sister’s but those aren’t til next month.

Would you ever wear fake eyelashes? If I absolutely had to, like if it was for a formal photoshoot then yeah whatever. I don’t find them necessary though.

Do you make the effort to smile at people? Yeah, as long as I don’t come off as creepy doing so lmao.

Are you good at following directions? No I’m awful. I need written instructions every time because otherwise my memory always fucks me over and I forget everything as soon as it’s relayed to me.

Have you ever just screamed really loud in an attempt to feel better? I do that a lot in the middle of my shifts.

Are you in any way, still a child at heart? Sure.

Quality triumphs over quantity, correct? For me it does, for the most part.

Have you ever danced when there was no music playing? Sure.

Do you have someone that you can just act a fool with and not care? Angela.

From where you’re sitting, can you touch a wall? Nopes.

Have you received a text today that made you go “wtf”? I receive lots of messages from my clients that make me go like this every day, if not every hour.

When at a restaurant, do you put your napkin on your lap? Not usually at restaurants but if I were at a formal-ish occasion, like a birthday party, debut, family dinner, etc I would.

Are you even feeling the least bit tired? I am. I need to go to bed soon since I have an early calltime tomorrow.

Is there currently any caffeine or alcohol in your system? Caffeine, yes. 

Do you prefer electric or manual pencil sharpeners? I’ve never used an electric sharpener but I don’t really care. I rarely use pencils anyway.

Are your biceps at all noticeable? Nope.

Have you ever seen a walrus? Once or twice, I think.

When it comes to dropping food, do you believe in the 10 second rule? 5 seconds, and yes.

If given the opportunity, would you ride on a camel? Nah. I’d pose beside one, but wouldn’t ride one.

Do you believe that cellphones actually do cause cancer? Idk. I honestly never cared to know.

When people you know cry, does it make you feel like crying too? No.

Were you single last Valentine’s Day? Yes. Do you tend to jump to conclusions? Sure, sometimes.

Are you good at remembering your friends’ birthdays? Yep.

Is there something you need to do, that you’re trying to avoid doing? Yes.

[ms-demeanor]

Like on the one hand I'm very sympathetic because we don't train people we just drop them into lava and say "okay keep up." On the other hand all you had to do to not fuck up here was literally nothing. You only had to wait to hear back from the customer before starting work. You were *told* not to call the customer.

And I definitely fucked up at least once here, but this fuckup is now compounding.

My Boss: I want to send out quotes to all our customers with old computers but I don't want it to take a month.

Me: Okay, I've been building a spreadsheet with all the computers that can't upgrade to Windows 11, why don't we send customers a structured schedule of replacements so they can swap those out over the next eighteen months?

My Boss: Sounds good, but just quote them all at once. How many can you get out today?

Me: Uhhhh well getting the data from each computer takes a couple minutes and we manage a couple thousand computers so if I work through the client list alphabetically I can maybe do a couple clients a day? Maybe five?

My Boss: I said I don't want it to take a month.

Me: Okay, well, how about this, I'll work on this while we've got phone coverage. I'll spend five solid hours on it and I'll ignore my teams channels and email and just do this until Patty leaves at two and I have to take over the phones, because yesterday I was slammed with stuff and didn't get any work in on the list. I'll just focus on this alone for five straight hours and I'll respond to other stuff in the afternoon.

My Boss: Well you can't ignore the techs, if they need you you need to drop what you're doing to get stuff done for them.

Me: And that's why putting together this list has taken a month *so far.*

My Boss: Well, figure it out. I want to get these quotes out today.

-----

Anyway so that's why I'm fucking around on tumblr at work. If I'm going to fail at the task he's set anyway I might as well be relaxed while I'm failing at it.