#couldn't really integrate it but a lot of the background for why things were Like That in '12 was 'guys there's a massive financial crisis'

[batsplat]

kind of recently clocked that marc took caseys honda seat coming into 2013 (not saying he didn’t deserve a factory seat immediately bc he obviously did, kid went and podiumed his first and won his second ever race on that bike but it somehow never crossed my mind and it’s kind of insane to imagine now that a rookie would get it) and i was wondering if there was something To Know about that mid to end 2012 season, about vale back to yamaha and casey retiring and casey and danis teammateship and how dani reacted to marc getting that seat etc i love love love your rambles so if you got thoughts please share?

y'know what. let's do this one with bullet points

at the start of 2012, retirement rumours were swirling around two riders. one was casey stoner.... the other was valentino rossi

valentino was entering year two of a miserable stint at ducati, trapped on a bike that was *checks notes* shit and that was still several years away from making the kinds of improvements that could make it championship-winning machinery in anyone's hands (remember, even casey wasn't anywhere close to fighting for the title in 2010). it had also been a rough couple of years injury-wise for valentino, with 2010 bringing the shoulder injury courtesy of a motocross accident, followed by him breaking the leg at mugello. the painful shoulder problems persisted even upon his return from the leg injury, not exactly helped by his decision to delay shoulder surgery until the end of the year, and he remained hampered in 2011 while he was trying to adapt to the new bike

probably the main reason for the retirement rumours, however, was the death of simoncelli in an accident valentino had been involved in. the rumours basically started the day after the accident, and did not stop even when he showed up at valencia and raced (for about one corner until he was caught up in an ugly multi-rider pile up... kinda set off by dovi but anyways)

the rumours persisted in 2012. valentino became increasingly irritable about them.... meant that both valentino and casey were going into round three at estoril having to address the retirement talk. casey denied that he was planning to retire in the estoril pre-event presser (and he'd already kinda hinted to honda he was ready to sign a new contract)

this all led to some pretty silly drama, where the journalists were less than impressed when casey did announce his retirement two weeks later at le mans and casey went 'well I hadn't decided to retire yet back then!'

anyway, more important is the retirement announcement itself. casey made a statement at the very start of the le mans presser. here's the text:

he was the championship leader at this point, and the favourite to defend his title. of course he took a bunch of questions at the presser about the announcement, and cited several other reasons for his decision to retire, like people's reactions to his mystery illness in 2009, or too many people criticising the current racing being boring, or how they let CRT riders into parc fermé (let's not get into that)

now it's important to note that this was round four. which meant that the entire rider market was about to be spiced up... so let's backtrack a bit and talk silly season: historical edition!

okay, so marc could have feasibly moved up to motogp a year earlier, and for a large chunk of 2011 there was pretty frenzied speculation he was going to do exactly that. in october, between the phillip island and sepang rounds (where he had the crash that gave him diplopia and prematurely ended both his season and his championship bid), he finally announced he was going to stay in moto2

so, in late 2011, speculation was already of course starting for what the grid would look like in 2013, with a lot of big name contracts expiring at the end of 2012. both factory yamahas, hondas, ducatis, amongst others... you know how it goes. the expectation was broadly that casey would stick with honda and dani would be protected for at least another year by the rookie rule (more on that in a second), that jorge would stick with yamaha and... well. at this point, it was plausible valentino might sign at least a one year contract extension with ducati, with just enough glimmers of progress and signs that things might be headed in the right direction for him to want to continue building that project up

early 2012, around the time of the first race, and actually it's looking plausible that none of the six big factory seats are going to be changing hands. jorge and casey seemed the most certain ones, valentino too committed to ducati, and dani likely to sign a one year deal until marc swoops in at the end of 2013 to take his place

then casey announces his retirement, and silly season properly kicks off

first order of priority is of course the vacant repsol honda seat. now, the main thing stopping marc from getting that repsol honda seat was never actually going to be a lack of space - it was the 'rookie rule'. in 2010, a rule was introduced to stop rookies from joining the factory team. the idea was basically to help out satellite teams by giving them the chance to house a young star rider, give them publicity and results and so on (face it, how much would any of us be talking about tech3 this year without the pedro acosta factor?)

this was likely never to really work like it was supposed to, because if you're one of the factories, you can basically set up... teams that are only very theoretically 'independent'. another factory team in all but name. remember how valentino technically won his first title at a satellite team? well, that was essentially a shell team set up as a way to have somewhere to put valentino for two years while repsol honda was full. not the same team (and indeed, valentino and jb did sometimes look over at the chaos at repsol and go. good lord. what's going on there) but full factory support

in spring 2012, dorna was still adamant this rule would remain in place:

should also help explain why the general reaction to suzuki suddenly pulling out in 2022 was 'shocked but not that shocked' lol

but of course by mid-2012 this rule was facing another serious test: where do you put marc marquez, especially with this vacant repsol honda seat just sitting there? now, the valentino model did seem like a reasonable one in this situation, where you put him into an existing satellite team with heavy factory backing or even just create a new one to house him. which is something valentino himself talked about:

except, it wasn't quite that straightforward, because from 2013 onward manufacturers were limited to supplying bikes for four riders, two in a factory team and two in satellites - so you'd have to take away one of the bikes from the existing two honda satellite teams, gresini or lcr

one of the reasons why putting him in one of the existing satellite teams was a bit of an issue was that he was already backed by repsol, which could have caused sponsorship conflicts if he'd been housed with one of those other teams. but also, by this point ezpeleta was sounding rather less committed to the whole thing. from june 2012:

which.

my man

if you KNOW that the most prominent rookies can be put into shell satellites anyway and you are openly joking about it then WHAT was the POINT of any of this

by the end of the month, they gave up on the whole thing. as it happens, it wasn't even repsol honda who asked for the rule to be dropped - it was the satellite honda teams who were like 'yeah we don't actually want this kid for our team, way too stressful to make this all work for a single year before losing him anyway'

not a universally popular decision, it has to be said

it's quite likely that if casey had stayed and the rookie rule had still been dropped that hrc would have immediately taken in marc and not renewed dani's contract, which would have been a wee bit awkward given dani's late season form, but. you know. so it goes. anyway honda didn't end up having to make any tough calls

about two weeks after the rookie rule is dropped, hrc announces the two year contract with marc

by this point, valentino has had another miserable start to the season with ducati, save for a fun little wet podium at le mans - you know, the race where casey announced his retirement... they had their last ever duel there, with valentino snatching second place from casey on the last lap

photo abbove not representative of the general tone they used to discuss each other in that time period

anyhow, these rare bright spots weren't going to be enough for valentino

"There was a lot of expectation from me and from Ducati to win, but unfortunately I didn't have a good feeling with the bike, especially with the front," he said some years later. "When you are in that situation it's very difficult because you lose motivation and you lose the joy of going racing. When you start the weekend you are already in a negative way, so it's difficult, because if you don't have fun on the bike everything becomes heavier: leaving your home, all the travelling, speaking with journalists, everything. Also it becomes difficult to sleep. You are in a tunnel. When I was with Ducati I thought about stopping many times, but in the end it was a very good decision not to give up. Because if you stop and you don't have a bike then it's very easy to find yourself out of the business." - from Oxley's 'Valentino Rossi: All His Races'

he began openly talking about a return to yamaha in 2012 to replace the underperforming ben spies (though as late as july, publicly he was still talking up the chances of him sticking with ducati)... which was not a prospect welcomed by all in the factory - who saw his initial move to ducati as displaying a lack of loyalty. there was also of course the issue of yamaha wanting to avoid a repeat in the dramatics with jorge, which was certainly a topic in the negotiations. valentino's new deal with yamaha was eventually announced in august

so yes, obviously pretty qualified enthusiasm from jorge's side. it helped that it was made clear that, at the start of 2013, this was very much jorge's team, something which valentino had to work to change as a result of his level of performance (after 2013)

which left dovi to take the ducati factory seat. though he too maybe had to do a little bit of... smoothing over past comments in the negotiation process:

and that's that! there was a brief period in which honda and valentino rumours were a thing... always unlikely, given the long-standing mutual animosity there, and valentino claims he was never in contact with them. dani's contract was signed when marc's was, so that put an end to that. there was also serious speculation jorge would take casey's seat at honda, which was ended by him signing for another two years at yamaha in june. everyone sorted

dani and casey had a pretty cordial teammate relationship - though of course by this point it was already no longer really a team organised around dani as it had been in the late noughties. from late 2011 (shortly before simoncelli's passing):

and from the mind games post:

he also says the following in that passage: "some days [dani] beat us but to be honest I always felt like I had the measure of him over the course of a season"

more to be said about that relationship, of course, but it was basically harmonious on both sides, and they parted on good terms. as for dani's response to marc's signing, it wasn't like he was in a place within the team to complain too much - though his position was strengthened by his late 2012 form, where he won six of the last eight races. both of them mostly just stick to saying the standard respectful pr stuff about each other

though this is pretty funny in retrospect:

"I know nothing about pedrosa's goals" my man I think you can probably guess

[lunargazing-png]

Hey Lunar! I do hope you don’t mind me dropping an ask in here. You’ve got me very curious about Lt. Ikoleta Sylso, who is apparently Aspot’s momma, as crazy as it seems! It’s genuinely hard to imagine a woman this harsh-looking having a child at all…

May I ask, what’s her background? Was her apparent marriage to Az prearranged by their parents or other authority figures? Was Aspot conceived out of genuine passion or as part of their marital agreements, like a requirement or something? Why did they split up?

I sincerely hope this isn’t too much! You’ve just got me very curious about this mysterious, scarred lady. Thank you so much in advance! 😄

I love it when people send in asks about my ocs!! 😁 This is a formal invitation for anyone to ask questions about any of my mass effect characters, my ask box is always open to people's curiosity about them! Thanks for popping in about Ikoleta💃This might be long and very convoluted, but I'll answer all your questions to the best of my ability. I leap at the chance to talk more about her when given the opportunity, she's interesting to talk about. Ikoleta was born on Palaven, near the capital of Cipritine. A lot of the turians in her family are associated with the government there, playing roles that would be similar in concept to political administrators. She is downright faithful to her Hierarchy. She takes her background very seriously, and plays her part of public service for the good of her people, no matter the cost. She prefers her feet on active soil, but still carries the sharp tongue a politician would have. The Relay 314 Incident was the first time she experienced any real "threat" when it came to the security of Palaven, and was motivated to join the fight. Much like a lot of turians, it was not a brief skirmish in her eyes. This was war. Azailick and Ikoleta met each other during training and shared a lot of equal pride for their backgrounds. Their service during the war made their bond closer, and even after, she stood by his side during the rough patches as a close companion. Apsot's conception was a complete accident (oops) but her family was supportive and used it as an excuse to pressure her to come back home to continue as a public servant. Their union was simply out of necessity to keep a clean reputation (specifically for Ikoleta's family), albeit I think everyone knew there was something going on due to how young they both were. Two years after Apsot was born, Ikoleta had discovered paraphernalia Azailick kept from the war on Shanxi. A photograph of a human with a child, and a mysterious USB stick.

(Taken from Az's reference sheet. It's a picture of Kara and her daughter, Kenzie, as a baby. The USB stick is the research she abandoned from the colony. You can read a little more about their story here. Azailick didn't know that Kara was alive during this time- only eight years after the fact.) I think it's important to note that Ikoleta's feelings towards humans after the war were strained and full of deep distrust. She couldn't give a pyjak's ass about their politics and integration into the galactic community, except if it's only for the interest of the turians. Despite the alliance that the Citadel conjured up between the two species, she still has the perception that they're still "at war" with each other, but bends to the whim of needing constant change for the betterment of galactic society. Her own opinions on this are much different, as one could imagine. The discovery of these items made her LIVID. Years of deception, when Az knew how she felt about the war. How did her partner really feel, then? If he was so willing to hide something from her for so long. Azailick never told her his experience as a soldier during Shanxi, and everything coming to light honestly explained why he kept a tight lip about it. They got into a HUGE fight over it (honestly it was probably little incidents and that was the thing that broke the damn), and Ikoleta fully cut contact with him, which followed with a divorce. She considered him a complete failure in terms of turian pride and honor.

(I drew this awhile ago- and was planning to make better art for it, but never got around to it! Az is blue and Ikoleta is orange.)

I could go on about how Ikoleta feels about a human participating in raising her son after Kara and Az reconnect, but that's a whole can of messy worms- and I think we all know, honestly 😬 She still visits Apsot often but focuses heavily on pushing up in her ranks. The scar on her face is from an assassination attempt a couple years after, but she still works as if nothing has happened. She gets that hardened look from a mixture of everything that's happened to her... And from being a little bit of a hater, i think. 🤭

[datastate]

do you have any hcs about mishima and nao?

SOOO MANY! BUT for now, i'll stick with a small one on their beginning friendship :D

nao used to be very quiet in a lot of her classes; a nice person, certainly, and easy to talk to! but rather closed off unless you tried to pry, where even that would just be rude and she'd say as much.

but of course, there were small things here and there she'd share with her friends should you happen to overhear. usually, it'd be anime/manga that she'd recommend to others (usually horror with interesting concepts, though she wasn't immune to well-written 'slice of life's) - which resulted in hana (her best friend) actually buying her a keychain for her bag!! nao doesn't usually wear/buy merch, as she fears she'll lose/damage them, but... since her friend got it, she felt she'd be disappointed if she didn't show it off.

&...! this is the spark for professor mishima to actually prompt her on her interests; one of the few things she'd end up rambling on about... and he has enough context to keep her going!

it was nice getting to see her actually relax a bit, if a bit surprising to realize that she liked horror so much... and of course, it was when she inevitably brought it back to art (she was inspired to become an artist from such a silly thing, though mishima assures he understands) that she started getting nervous again; as much as she loves it, she can't draw it well. it doesn't feel like it could fit her style much at all - she intimidates herself out of drawing it.

however! mishima does not lose hope so easily. he encourages her to keep trying & experimenting with her art. after all, art is something she should have for herself if nothing else...

although mishima doesn't typically work with horror, he does have plenty of pointers on how to incorporate characters into a backdrop (it provides variation + reflects his current views too... people being a part of something larger, connected through means they don't quite realize); he had a similar start to nao in that he often relied heavily on portraits/character focus, but for that reason can help lead her along into slowly branching out.

a lot of what nao likes is the eerie - something that you have to really look at to realize how off it is. working on backgrounds such as these definitely helps with integrating characters in a more natural manner! and helps improve her work altogether, too...!! she's having more fun than she used to with her personal projects, where she previously felt stagnant but couldn't pinpoint why (and felt guilty to ask hana, as the response would always be a well-meaning "but i like your art! i don't think that at all" rather than critique she wished for), so it was...!! really nice for her to have <3

and... getting to show a trusted adult that, too, made her very happy. her parents didn't often see art as something that'd work out... but she finally felt pride in her work, and had something else to look forward to when it came to classes, rather than simply skirting by day-to-day. it took about a year and a half of school to get here, but... it makes it feel worth it.

it's also around this late time of the year, too, that mishima casually mentions he's trans.

one of the other students is complaining about the cold, and he agrees a bit too personally that skirts are awful in this weather before offering his usual advice... and it's this moment that stays in nao's mind. combined with previous comments here and there about the dysmorphia in horror...

despite this near-confirmation... nao waits until the very end of the year before she admits to the professor that she's trans. she hasn't really socially transitioned yet, only a few friends know, and she's still a bit afraid she might've misunderstood that he's trans... but it all turns out well by the end of it <3

however, since she's about to enter her last year with people who mostly knew her as a boy, it's only when she graduates that mishima offers to help put word in to adjust her uniform; which she greatly appreciates... also, throughout her last year, they get to actually discuss how it is to be mixed & that is when he offers to learn arabic with her. she was never taught it, and is too embarrassed to ask her parents, so he's taken it upon himself to help her with that too... here and there, still as her mentor and friend even after their time in school :'D

[zhnnveuxpasdrmir]

I really should have gone to sleep, but, I regret to inform you, the Fallout show is really fucking good. Ironic as hell to have it on the Vault Tec channel.

There are callouts and references from New Vegas and the Commonwealth. There's not exactly easter eggs, they're the bedrock of the plot. Fallout logic applies. Every conceit that has to explain why the nonsense of Fallout exists is an integral part of the story flow in the show. Better done than in FO4, tbh!

Familiarity with the games will for sure give you lots of background information on who's who and what they're doing. That was cool I thought. I couldn't help but wonder if any of the artists got any kind of remuneration at all for having their work copied down to the millimeter. They said that Bethesda was "in the room" on art direction and stuff but I don't know what that means, really. I stopped thinking of any of those companies as anything but little Vault Tecs themselves years ago.

On reddit people's complaints are all highly logical - fucking triflers. This is Fallout. "Why didn't they XYZ? How did the dwellers know about ABC?" if it made a whole bunch of sense it wouldn't be a Todd Howard story. But yeah visually thematically and textually it is Fallout, to a T. I'm actually annoyed at how fucking entertained I was. Todd Howard will be insufferable forever after this, and assume all his ideas are good. Psh.

random spoilery theories and observations:

That first ep was frustrating in that my Vault dwellers would've eaten those bullshit raiders up in seconds. Scars? Tattoos???? oh no no. Instant chunks. My vault is no-nonsense. If any of them had made it past that first security checkpoint, it would've just been to get gaussed into several pieces by Ethel or mowed down by Big Dave's minigun. Anyway.

I also kept wishing someone would scrap. Not fight: pick stuff up. It just kept occurring to me because everything was so exactly game-perfect in appearance. That's 2 Steel and an Adhesive, Lucy! cmon grab it for your backpack! Get that machete!!! free machete! 1 Copper in every bulb on that crate, move it into a safe container! until nobody turns red in your reticle! Get with it!

When Lucy talks Maximus into their alliance and they do the warrior's handshake, the Battle Hymn of the Republic played loud in the score out of nowhere, never to return in season 1. Is Max going to found the Minutemen? I don't really know the timeline well enough to know how that fits together - but it sure was emphatic.

The Ghoul is a crit banker! Ha! Lucy seems to have Chem Resistant, Maximus is climbing the Power Armor tree… nice. LOVED how other-Dogmeat used the right tactics on the Gulper, they have that same weakness in Far Harbor, sensitive lil arms, tag'em for instant stagger.

I was glad they held back on directly showing Deathclaws yet, but set up the promise of them for the future, giving exposition for those who didn't bother to read terminal entries on their playthroughs.

I was thinking that the Vault 31 mystery was going to reveal synths, but it went more to the plot lines that you find in the environmental storytelling - Vault Tec's nefarious technocratic scheme that you piece together from terminal entries on side quests. Interesting. Is the Enclave a BOS thing? I never played a fash character & I can't take orders so I don't know that quest tree too well.

I loved that all the armor pieces were game standards, made it super easy to figure out who was who in battle scenes. I would definitely be a Leather Right Shoulder guy. Some like the Sack Hood with Hoses / Metal Chest Piece thing; I get that. It works. Personally I would not go with the red eye shadow because everyone would assume I was a cannibal but you do you.

New Vegas is up next! There's no way this doesn't get its three seasons at least.

[gggoldfinch]

What's the meaning of your username?

hi omg thank you SO MUCH for asking I love answering this question!!! It's kinda a long explanation so I'll put it below the cut ‼️

So, the meaning of my username is a long story that needs a small bit of background: back in the summer of 2019 I was VERY ill. Physically couldn't leave my house, felt like I was dying, was very depressed, etc., because of my IBD. The only thing I had were tv shows, and that's when I got into a lot of the shows I'm into today. While I don't watch/enjoy some of them anymore (like the one in this story), they still hold a very dear place in my heart for helping me survive a very bad and painful time in my life.

Now on to the actual explanation. Basically, I got really into this one particular crime drama show and developed a self-insert oc to follow along with the canon episode-by-episode plot. I never wrote any of it down, but I remember a lot of it vividly. There was a character who I got so so so attached to (to the point where when he died suddenly off-screen it felt like an actual family member died; I was devastated for months, and still haven't really gotten over it tbh). Anyway, in this self-insert storyline thing, the oc and this character were very close (tragic unresolved unrequited love thing going on) and exchanged little wooden bird figurines representing each other. The oc was a goldfinch and the character was a bluebird; they called each other "goldfinch" and "bluebird" too, really sweet shit. I really love birds irl and identified with the character's love for birds (if you guess which character/what show im talking about atp you deserve a cash prize lmfao), so it was just a natural progression that birds be incorporated into their relationship kinda. It was an integral part of their shared story/ the oc's story, and it kind of just became an integral part of me as a result.

So anyway yes that's the "abridged" story of why I call myself goldfinch. It's basically a nickname given to me by a person who isn't even real yet managed to leave a genuine lasting impression (and trauma) on me lmfao. Also, if I were to ever legally change my surname, it would be to Finch, just cuz I like the name.

[raininyourblackeyes]

BSD Formula 1 AU

I know it sounds ridiculous but hear me out. THE POTENTIAL IS HUGE.

The characters are just the right amount of silly to be put in those funny cars, and the exact amount of dramatic to reflect whatever the fuck is going on in the circus (F1) in general.

First of all, this was brought to you by me watching one of the most chaotic races ever last weekend and I couldn't sleep last night which meant my brain had free time and BSD brainrot is 24/7.

Basic idea is that various organisations are different teams and all characters have different positions in the team obviously, not everyone is a driver. This will be long so the details about each team and headcanons about each driver and team member are under the cut.

ADA

ADA is a long standing team that has produced several successfull drivers. It is well known and beloved by the fans. “Everyone is a Ferrari fan!” in Seb Vettel’s words except it’s “Evereyone is an ADA fan!” in our case.

Last season was a wild ride for them, with their no.1 driver and another driver basically fighting to win the Driver’s Championship in the final race of the season and they were leading, they were winning, ready to celebrate but then an incident happened and the stewards made a completely illegal decision based on their own rules which resulted in their driver losing his title. What followed was a lot of controversy, possible lawsuit etc. Ultimately the team decided to just decimate them in the new season.

Team Principal Fukuzawa was a famous driver for the ADA team himself and is now doing his best to lead the team filled with absolute chaos to the victories through fair play and respect to integrity of the sport.

Ranpo is the team’s chief strategist whose biggest secret weapon are his deduction skills that help him figure out other teams’ strategies. Every time he’s shown on TV he’s snacking obviously. He is also lowkey Fukuzawa’s adopted son from all the way back since Fukuzawa was still racing and he met this amazing kid that started ranting why exactly was his strategy shit at first glance.

That one rich kid that was supposed to become university professor or something but at 16-17 fell in love with f1, too late to become the driver but just in time to go into mechanical engineering and become team’s first engineer - Kunikida. His goal for this season is to build a fucking rocket for the team’s first driver which, rip his nerves, requires him to spend a lot of time with the menace. Watching Dazai go another lap on dying tyres when he told him to box already: “I don’t know how long can I live like this.”

Team’s second engineer was the chief mechanic until last season - Tanizaki. This season he is going to be working mostly with the team’s new driver to develop their car. He once hacked into PM’s database to get all info on their cars. His “sister”, one of the biggest mysteries of f1 really, Naomi is the intern in charge of team’s social media and public relations. 

Yosano is the team doctor, fresh out of university but wanted something other than the hospital. She may or may not be having a thing going on with PM’s chief strategist...

I really have no idea what to do with Kyouka and Kenji since they are just 14... unless we age them up and say Kenji chief mechanic and Kyouka one of the analysts. 

Now onto the hot topics. The drivers: ADA’s 2nd driver is a rookie in f1 getting ready to start his first season. Atsushi doesn’t have a wealthy background like most drivers, and nearly gave up on it several times but in the end was scouted by ADA and admitted as their reserve driver. He comes into the team hopeful to have a good first season, and during the development everything is smooth sailing. The mechanics and engineers are very wellcoming, the first driver becomes somewhat of a mentor to him. And then the first race comes up and he and PM’s new driver fucking crash into each other on the first corner (you know who PM’s driver is lmao). Fans are having flashbacks from seven seasons ago when a driver parked his car on top of another driver’s car in the first lap on his first race (guess fucking who!!??), and are like damn not again we can’t do this drama again. Went through the most traumatic crash where everyone thought he was dead for a terrible second; “it is what it is.” Tanizaki on the radio: Don’t slow down Atshushi-kun, keep pushing, keep pushing. Atsushi: I AM!!!!

ADA’s 1st driver, the GOAT basically, the walking red flag in the paddock, the most controversial motherfucker on the grid, brilliant driver who won not only his first ever race but also won the entire championship in his first season, but above all a suicide maniac - Dazai. He got screwed over by the race control last season and is now walking around the paddock like a Bond villain. He started out as a rich kid driver whose family invested in this back-of-the-grid-team and he became a superstar overnight.  Four years ago after a fiasco that resulted in PM’s reserve driver dying in a car crash because of team orders he disappeared from the sport. Two years later he showed up as ADA’s driver and has been serving cunt ever since. Despite the sudden team switch, he is usually paired with his ex-teammate during pre-race press conferences because the tension is through the rooftop and that’s what the fans want. Like are they going to fuck? Are they going to strange each other in front of the journalists? Both? Who knows. He’s mostly a clean driver but when he does cause an incident, the red flag lasts at least half an hour. Annoying af on the team radio. 

PM

PM is a relatively new team when it comes to being in the top positions on the grid. They used to be stuck at the back of the grid until the old team principal’s doctor didn’t take over all of a sudden, bringing with himself a driving prodigy. Nowadays they are one of the top 3 teams always fighting for the Constructor’s and Driver’s Titles. Last season they finished 2nd in the Constructor’s and their driver was 3rd in the Driver’s championship. 

Mori is the team principal. He wanted to race when he was younger but just wasn’t really good enough to make it, but he found a way to remain in the sport. He was quite envious of Fukuzawa’s fame when he was younger. As a team principal, he brought fresh ideas to the team even if they sometimes seemed crazy - in the end they worked. Not well liked among the fans but brutally effective in giving team orders. Calls the race director over radio at any minor inconvenience. Sighs “If only Dazai-kun was still here” at least once during every team briefing. 

Kouyou is the first strategist. Takes no one’s shit. Also brutal in the team orders (something PM team is famous for, and not in a really good light (beloved driver Oda kind of died because of them after all...)). Ambigous relationship with ADA’S team doctor hmm. Will do anything to have her drivers on top of the podium. 

Hirotsu is the chief mechanic. He is getting old but he loves his job so he’ll be damned before he goes to retirement. Is probably secretly no.1 Dazai fan even if he switched teams. 

His assistant and brilliant young mind, Gin. Apart from being a sister to the team’s 2nd driver, she is also dating Hunting Dogs’ 2nd driver, Tachihara who just this season made a transfer from being PM’s reserve driver to Teruko’s team. They are the sport’s sweethearts. 

Another strategist, kinda terrified to work under Kouyou, especially as she seems to be making all the wrong decisions regarding 2nd driver’s strategy, but hey it’s her first year too! Higuchi! Poor girl kinda thinks she’s living in a kdrama. She is doing her best!

Kajii is one of the engineers obviously. He is driving the other engineer through the roof because he is mostly focused on the next season developments as soon as a season starts, and has these crazy science ideas. Also who the fuck eats raw lemons to help them think? I’m rlly nerfing Akutagawa by putting this dude in charge of his car.

First driver’s engineer and absolute fucking legend - Albatross (I’d rather die than kill off the Flags thank you very much). Maybe once punched Dazai in the face for damaging his baby (Chuuya’s car) when they crashed (again.). Became the most popular PM team member when he once stole the mic from Mori to yell “FUCK ‘EM UP CHUUYA” at the top of his lungs when his boy was making his way to the front all the way from the back of the grid. 

Apart from him, Doc is the team physician. Other Flags are leaders of Chuuya fanclub the official race commentators. Piano Man just retired from the position of the 2nd driver (he replaced Dazai when he vanished) because of an injury or something and decided to just waltz into commentating together with Iceman and Lippmann. More about the media team later on. 

Akutagwa was scouted to the PM academy by Dazai and his goal for his first season in f1 is to beat him obviously. It goes as amazing as you can imagine. He and Atsushi crash into each other on the first corner of the first season. Stellar start. He is extremely stubborn and rarely listens to team orders which drives Higuchi insane as that gives her trouble with Kouyou and Mori. His first season is set to be one hell of a ride. “Grill the Grid” oh he’s going to grill them.

Now onto the hottest driver on the grid. Much like Dazai, he has hordes of fans following him round the world. He is always so chill and appreciative of them, very laid back person. You are as likely to meet him in an art gallery as in a night-club and fans love that about him. On the track though, he is a storm. You just know the dick is big based on his overtakes. Sometimes it feels he’s bending the laws of physics to his whims when he’s racing. Chuuya is PM’s first driver. His first race in f1 ended with his car parked on top of Dazai’s almost killing him, and this weird image of Chuuya dragging the other out of the car, checking if he was fine (he was), and then starting to yell at him at the top of his lungs. Born in Japan, he was adopted by this fancy French family whose biological son was dead set on becoming an f1 driver and Chuuya followed in his footsteps. Has three Drivers Championship titles, but finished 3rd last year.

DoA

RB Racing of this AU lmao. fia is dancing to their every whim, inventing and reinventing and bending their own rules every race because they are choking on DoA’s dick beeing paid insane amounts of money. The most controversial team on the grid, espeically after a stunt that was pulled to secure their driver’s victory last season. Fans are basically manifesting their engines dying every race. Remember the whole “Red Bull went over the cost cap because of catering” bullshit, yeah that’s this team right here. Their cars are fucking illegal and it drives Dazai so pissed because HIS car is a rocketship but this shit straight up goes at the speed of light

Team principal is Fukuchi duh. Has been fighting with Fukuzawa over the radio the entire last season. This season he banned the media team from coming any close to his team after the Flags kept spilling the tea and asking the right questions without stuttering. Accidentally claimed Dazai won last season; somewhere deep in his sub-conciousness he’s aware of the bullshit he pulled off. 

Because I’m not insane enough to put him in a car, Nikolai is team’s cheerleader and one of the engineers. Once their crew messed up Fyodor’s pit stop so bad he had to retire early and he made them all wear clown wigs until the end of the race. You have to give it to them tho, you cannot fuck up the strategy if you forget to put wheels on a car. Unlike Bram, he plays Fyodor very specific music to piss him off during the race (Rasputin or Party Like A Russian). 

Bram is also an engineer. The most delighful part of every race weekend is his little daughter, Aya, in the DoA garage. She does sometimes escapte to bother Kunikida - the only DoA team member that ADA will tolerate. Plays absolute bangers for his drivers over the radio. The only normal person on the team. “Box Box Box Box” gets ignored. Nteflix Drive to Survive team entering the DoA garage hoping for tea; Bram: coffee is disgusting! rant

Sigma is the team’s 2nd driver (rip). He gets thrown under the buss every race and everyone is waiting, praying for him to just one day cut his mic and do his thing, not letting Fyodor through. He is an amazing driver if not a bit inexperienced, and easy to stan despite his team. Has anxiety induced by whatever the fuck is DoA doing to his strategy. There are talks he might join ADA as the reserve driver next year, let’s have our fingers crossed for him. Nikolai once taped his rear wing in the middle of a race so it wouldn’t fall off. Yeah the car is several million dollars worthy. Yeah Nikolai used actual tape so it doesn’t fall apart on track. 

Fyodor is the current champion although it is obvious he shouldn’t be. Won championship once, changed his car number to 1 immediately. Nature heals a bit more every time he flops in a race. Is he actually homophobic or is he just live slug reacting to whatever the fuck Dazai and Chuuya have going on during press (he is sitting between them). “F1 is about driving, not penalties” my brother in christ you’ve been trying to kill a man in every single race last season. Kisses an icon of a saint or something before every race.  Throws other drivers under the buss every drivers’ briefing with a smile on his face. Plays cello during red flags. New season objective: win no matter the cost. 

HUNTING DOGS

Fukuchi’s old team. They are usually a mid-field team but with talented drivers that are able to bring out the most out of their engines, they do podium!

Their team principal is Teruko, the only woman to be a team boss. She used to be a strategist and got promoted when Fukuchi moved to DoA. “IF YOU IMBECILES AREN’T ABLE TO GET PAST THAT OLD MAN I’LL GET IN THE CAR NEXT TIME” a bit childish at times, sweet little Teruko until it’s the time to race. Secretly loves her team. 

Jouno is maybe blind but he can still see through everyone’s bullshit. Chief strategist of the team and is considering running Tecchou over with his own car every time he has to talk to him over the radio. “STOP SINGING BABY SHARK WHILE I’M GIVING YOU INFO ON ROAD CONDITION”. Fukuzawa, Mori and Fukuchi arguing on the radio; Jouno cutting in out of nowhere like “Sorry to interrupt gentlemen, but there is an actual tractor on the track. My idiot almost crashed into it. Yellow flag maybe, no?” 

Jouno and Teruko’s no.1 idiot - Tecchou. Most clean-racing driver ever. Sings to annoy Jouno on the radio. That one Carlos Sainz radio that was like “De Vries behind, on an outlap” “What? DEBRIS?” yeah that’s him and Jouno. Questionable fashion choices in the paddock. “It was just dangerous driving dude” in the most chill voice when Fyodor nearly crashed into him on a turn (it was probably deliberate). He’s like gym buddies with Chuuya or something. 

Tachihara is the no.2 idiot of the team. Used to be a PM reserve driver and just signed for Teruko’s team. 5s penality for incorrect starting position; 10s penalty for serving the og penalty wrong; 15s penalty for speeding in the pit lane; DNF all in one race. Teruko on the radio: Okay what damage do you have. Tachi: TALENT. Is like besties with Chuuya. Is also dating Gin, people were afraid his team change would affect the relationship but nah. Still the cutest in the paddock. Retweets memes from fan accounts after the race. Lippman interviewing him: So how do you feel about the race? First pole position ever... Tachihara: I’m not comfortable at all, not feeling confident either. I got nothing but problems. His wheel just randomly fell off during pre-season testing. Tweeted the it ain’t much but it’s honest work meme once when he spun on the wet track and caused a Guild driver to crash into the barriers. He’s just vibing tbh.

THE GUILD

That one team whose team principal knows shit about racing. Can they even be called a racing team? Yeah they can, because their boss has the money. Treat the sport as a reality show. Honestly I have thought about them the least but here’s what I have:

Fitzgerald is the rich team principal obviously. Had absolutely no connections to f1 prior to buying the team. Supports the idea of more race weekends and sprint races even if that exhausts both the drivers and their teams because it’s more fun! It’s not. If we take out the free practice sessions the races will get more unpredictable mindset. Is most likely using f1 as a way to launder money...

Lucy, poor girl, is stuck as his assistant or something because obviously a rich guy like him needs an assistant. She’s secretly rather good with the mechanics and will be recruited to an actual team (ADA) at one point by Atsushi. 

Louisa is the principal strategist obviously.

Poe is the chief engineer. Has to pay fines like every weeekend because of Karl. Goes with Ranpo to all his fave restaurants each weekend. Ranpo is also trying to get him to come work for a team with better prospects. 

Herman is the chief mechanic. He really should be retired tho. 

Mark Twain and Steinbeck are their drivers and are usually the wild cards of the track. Like a podium here and there, even a win sometimes but those races have to be the most chaotic events ever. 

I have no idea what to do with them actually. 

Media Team and Race Control (basically everyone else)

Starting with the media team. It’s kind of a reversed situation from that with the founding of the Flags in terms that Piano Man was the last one to join. Also I’m bringing Adam into this. Adam used to be the head of the media team which was a lot of work that he’s glad he’s not doing anymore. Now he’s just in charge of Grill the Grid which are basically the games they have drivers do for fun and fanservice. The games range from Driver Heights (you know who got bullied with that one) to Name Every F1 World Champion to Drivers Explain F1 and more. Iceman is the most brutally honest commentator. Calls FIA out on their bullshit at every opportunity. Used to be a mechanic for PM and he misses the thrill sometimes but he’s happy with where he is right now. The famous “THROUGH GOES HAMILTON” commentary - that’s him with Chuuya’s overtakes. On the other hand, Lippmann wasn’t even supposed to be there lmao. He is a movie star, a very popular one at that. Went to one race because that’s what rich people do you know. Got charmed by one the back-of-the-grid-team’s driver and got passionately invested (Piano Man before he signed for the PM). He’s not there every weekend because he is a famous actor after all, but when he is... Sat down to interview Dazai once this season and next thing you know Fukuchi is announcing his team will be boycotting the entire media team. Another media team member is the newly retired former PM driver, Piano Man whose career was a wild ride but he’s just had enough. The picture of him and Chuuya from the last season went viral because he just told him he’s about to announce his retirement moment before it was taken so he is smiling like a lil shit at the camera and Chuuya is visibly shook. Perfectionist really, he has not exceeded the track limits once in his career. Joined the team as the new full time commentator and is having the time of his life. 

Continuing with the Stormbringer squad, Shirase is actually a successfull Moto GP racer, but likes to hang around the F1 paddock when he can to support Chuuya (now that Dazai isn’t sharing the garage with him because fucking hell he did actually try to run him over once or twice). 

An ex-driver with several titles to his name, Verlaine. He was born to this rich French couple that let him do whatever he wanted to do, which is why he turned out the way he is. At one point when he was already in F2 his parents decided to do some “charity” and adopt a kid, Chuuya. And then they also proceeded to ignore the kid the same way they did with Verlaine and well, basically, Verlaine was like I am not just a big brother now, I am a dad. His career was also smooth sailing mostly. He got retired the season before Chuuya became the PM driver saying how he didn’t want the fans to see him get beat by that kid. A few years later and he is just casually hanging round the PM garage, offering Chuuya advice or is watching the Monaco GP from his yacht with his husband Rimbaud who has no connections to racing, idk I just can’t see him into F1. 

Now onto the most hated people - the Race Control Clowns! Chief Taneda is the race director so basically the man who makes all the final calls regarding anything really, from the rules to the penalties and disqualifications. What bullshit DoA and The Guild teams get up to enables him to make a lot of money. And finally the man who suffers the most (conducts the drivers briefing after the race) is Ango. It is the worst job ever. You put a bunch of grown men in one room and it’s an episode of gossip girl. Example of shit he has to deal with. Ango: any more complaints (praying they all stay silent). Dazai: just after my pitstop, Chuyua deliberately, DELIBERATELY, ran wide out of Turn 9... camera moves to chuuya on the other side of the room gesturing how he’ll kill the bitch the moment they’re out of the room. Another example: Fyodor looking to cause trouble: You say if we were missing Turn 2 we have to go behind the bollard, correct? Ango: Correct. Fyodor with a smile: What do you make of the situation with Tecchou and Dazai then? Ango: Well, the interesting point there was, it was very close because what the notes that I wrote said... camera zooms in to dazai’s murder face and atsushi looking scared for his life next to him. So, Ango’s lfie is the most difficult here.

Am I missing characters here? Yes, just like I have a bunch of random scenes playing in my mind, but this is already getting way too long. 

[sluthut6000]

hi! I think all of yall are right and are looking at some very important findings about international workers rights and its a very complex issue caused by a lot of things. BUT I saw yall talking sociology and couldn't help but butt in with some fun facts and background info on some of the topics discussed (I'm a sociologist)

the protestant work ethic is a sociological theory used to explain the relationship with religion and work, put forth by Max Weber in 1905. The book argues that as religion develops, so do moral and philosophical ideas around general life affairs (such as work). He postits that as capitalism and the Protestant Reformation followed similar timelines in terms of development that Protestant religions attitudes towards work was a causal factor in the development of how Protestant and capitalist countries developed and understood the actually idea of what it means to work. In this way, the Calvinists who were forced into America (because their religious views were so extreme) were very influential in that work (and also being in general very anti-human in sentiment,, like, all things that brought pleasure and weren't for suffering or devotion to God weren't really it) was a mainstay devotion to God. Blandness and doing nothing to pleasure the senses were devotions to God. suffering your life away for heaven was a devotion to God. America in general has a very specific understanding of both the Christian religion and work due to this historical influence. I can't say anything about the revolutionary war era (1775-1810 I'll just say) because I'm not studied on that but I am aware of the way protestantism developed across America in the early 1800s was influenced by these perspectives as well. Examples of religions that came from this era: Baptists, Mormons, Methodists. This is known as the "Awakening" and you can see influences of this religious zeal all across the American West (went hand in hand with Manofest Destiny). Anyway, that is to say that both the Puritan ethos and the Evangelicalism are both profoundly influential on American culture and the understanding of American work and capitalism and have been for 2 or more centuries.

If work and denying oneself pleasures in life are the foundations of godly devotion in the religious lives of those who were forced into America, what legacy would that leave?

I haven't done specific research into work culture in the modern era and how that relates to this historic ideological legacy, however, one could theorize that a lack of workers rights could very easily be a consequence of this, especially as WASPs tend to be those who have political and financial power in the US.

Now, that leaves the question of why that didn't happen in Protestant countries in Europe. I think Weber (its been a while since I've actually read this book) did in fact find that those in Protestant countries did devote themselves more to capitalism, but that has nothing to do with government policy. (this is 100% speculation now - no research has been done on this topic tho ig i technically "had to read an article on this for class") It could have to do with a stronger focus on the humanitarian aspects of the enlightenment having more of a legacy in Europe? Like, America has always kinda been ruled by the rich, but ik Europe seems to have a lot of historical class based revolutions (this is based on a vague remembering about a peasant riot in one of my classes on social movements?) even tho these countries have also been ruled by the rich ??? but I am aware that there are actually very important philosophies that Europe looks at when making laws and influence daily life (just as ideologies influence most things that people touch) and "Integral Europe: Fast Capitalism, Multiculturalism, Neofascism" by Douglas Holmes gets into it a wee bit BUT I don't remember it because I read that book over a year ago. sorry. but it could have to do with that? I'm sure there's been research done into that - if I remember about this when I have free time I'll look into it and also I'll cite and link my sources if yallre interested

I am really interested in studying the real life ramifications of religious and philosophical ideology in the US sooo this was just right up my alley. Also I haven't looked into some of these topics in a while so I very well could be wrong, misremembering, or misinterpreting the things that I've learned and would love for corrections or discussion on the topics!

I think adults need summer vacation. Like let's just close down all our jobs for three months and play outside. Please. I'm so tired.

[senuassaga]

Desperate Struggles and Hope in Senua’s Saga Hellblade II

Hellblade really stood out because of Senua herself, this Pict warrior haunted by voices she thought were cursed. Feeling tainted, she cut ties with her people and lost everything she cared about, yet her journey continues to resonate, compelling Xbox gamers to explore and buy Xbox games that delve into her complex story. Her trip to Hel was epic, blending awesome visuals with an audio experience that embraced her voices and her unique worldview. That's why Hellblade was so different, even if the gameplay was kinda standard. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is alike in many ways, offering another unforgettable ride. It shares the strengths and weaknesses of Senua’s first journey—some might wish for more evolution, but this game sticks with you. Senua made a vow. After coming to terms with her past in the first game, she found new purpose in preventing others from suffering like her loved one did. When the Northmen returned, she couldn't stand by as her people were attacked. She let herself be captured, seeking out those responsible in a new land. But things get complicated fast for Senua. This land is no cakewalk, plagued by giants and monsters that drive its inhabitants behind walls and onto mountains to escape. They're desperate, doing terrible things to survive, hoping their actions will keep them safe from lurking horrors. You're not alone on this journey, encountering many with blood on their hands who might yet find hope through Senua.

Engaging Environmental Puzzles Elevate Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II

Playing Senua’s latest journey will mostly feel like déjà vu for those who played the first game. You’ll stroll down straightforward paths, soaking in a beautifully crafted world that beckons you to buy PS5 GAMES. Every now and then, you’ll hit spots where you gotta crack some puzzles or duke it out with enemies. That’s pretty much the whole shebang from start to end. But hey, both sides of the coin have seen upgrades from the original game. Combat will ring a bell for OG players. You’ve got your quick and heavy attacks, but it’s not just about swinging wildly. You gotta nail those parries and blocks to open up chances to really lay into your foes. Rack up enough damage or blockage, and you unlock a time-slowing power to go ham on them, often taking out the weaker ones. It’s like a refined version of what you saw in the first game—better timing, smoother moves, and a solid flow when you’re facing off against multiple enemies. They didn’t reinvent the wheel, but man, the gameplay feels a lot tighter. Now, let’s talk puzzles. They’ve done a major overhaul here. The original Hellblade’s low points were those pesky environmental puzzles that just felt off. You’d have to stand in some exact spot and squint at a tiny detail in the background, which was kinda pointless. In Senua’s Saga, there are still some of those environmental brain-teasers, but they’re better integrated and more reasonable. Plus, there are new areas where you gotta manipulate the surroundings in cool ways. These puzzles get trickier as you go, and honestly, they’re way more engaging than anything in the first game.

Exploring Senua's Personal Evolution

What makes stand out, though, is its unique vibe that no other games can quite match. Senua still hears her voices, but this time around, she’s less convinced they’re a curse. Reflecting her state of mind, these voices can still hit you with doubts and call you out, but they can also cheer you on with joy and push you towards victory. Senua’s journey has helped her grow. She still doubts herself sometimes and hasn’t fully healed from her past trauma, but she’s in a better place now. Because of that, the whole experience has a more mixed tone. The first Hellblade was technically impressive but was a deeply dark and gloomy ride. That grimness shows up in parts of Senua’s Saga too, but it’s just one side of the coin. Alongside moments that are both stunning and spine-chilling, there are also times of pure beauty—like breathtaking views, unforgettable lighting, and mind-blowing effects. Plus, the graphics here are top-notch, up there with the best on the Xbox Series X, and the sound design is so on point that you gotta hear it through killer headphones. But this isn’t just about looks and sounds. It’s about how they blend to create a full-on experience where every part boosts the others. Throw in some seriously intense and emotionally charged scenes (which I won’t spoil), and you’ve got a game that hit me in ways no other game ever has. Some might brush off Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II as just more of the same, and they wouldn’t be totally off base. It’s definitely a step forward from Senua’s first adventure, with improvements across the board. But it undeniably feels like a continuation of her story. Where it truly sets itself apart is how Senua’s personal growth has shaped the world around her. The horror is still there, lurking in every corner, but what really sticks with me is the profound beauty amidst it all.

[toloveandbelovedtoo]

Day 3: practice

I had to think about today, since starting this and thinking about love, I think about how to practice and integrate it in my day. I had gone to Backyard BBQ for lunch and as I was leaving, I realized it would have been a good opportunity to pay for someone's meal. I think about it when I hold a door open for someone or when it's held for me. I thought about love when my neighbor offered my some plant clippings and when I laid on the floor with Kiwi.

But today I want to make it a continuation of yesterday as art has been on my mind lately. I woke up still feeling grumpy and disgruntled by my art practice. It's a gray day, cloudy outside but not really raining and I felt tired. I got the idea then to go back to basics. I'm a digital artist, pretty much all of my work is done on my iPad and I mostly work on big pieces with coloring and shading and the whole deal. And while that's great and my art has developed with each piece, I need to do the work all people do: basics and fundamentals.

I'm a self-taught artist. I had a phone with a stylus and one night in bed I thought, I want to draw. So I started going to town drawing people, doing the line art, the coloring, the shading, each piece was a full completed piece. My art was not that great two years ago, I definitely learned a lot and gotten so much better with spacing and proportions. But I realized that I should put in the work and practice of doing timed figure drawings, doing doodles, making sketches, and practicing the anatomy, the clothing, the background basics.

I grabbed some pencils and paper I bought a few years ago and posted up on my couch where I went through timed poses. I got 90 seconds with each figure and just went to drawing as much as I could before the time was up. Some poses were definitely more difficult than others, but I had fun. Fun! That was something I felt like was missing from my art yesterday and that I just wanted to have fun. I feel like I fell in that trap in fandom where I needed to be producing completed works and my worth was based on what I could produce and how often. I lost the joy.

And I realize now that some of my art block stems from the need to be instantly perfect. Perfection was demanded by my mother, each of us kids were gifted and talented, we didn't need practice, we didn't make mistakes. Whatever we picked up, we were supposed to know how to do it with little instruction. I am the sort-of-youngest of four (I'm a twin) and it always looked like my two older siblings were amazing at everything they did. My brother was a marching band science genius, my sister was the artist and musician. I stayed in the shadows in technical theatre.

I didn't know how to ask for help, or how to ask someone to teach me x, y, or z. My grades were to be A+ in school and when I, the son of a math teacher, was getting a D in calculus, I was yelled at for not asking for help. It was shameful that I needed a tutor to get through chemistry and that I couldn't keep up with my peers in school who were already going to college for math as they had completed all the courses the school system offered.

I would find myself getting frustrated with hobbies. When I was in middle school, I thought I would make jewelry, but I felt my work wasn't as good as my mom's or sister's. I learned to knit and was great at it, but it got boring after a while. I learned to crochet, sew, needlepoint. I tried an instrument but I'm fairly tone deaf and can't read music. I picked up hobbies easily and mastered a lot quickly, I was great at knitting, origami, gardening, and video gaming.

So I realized that's why I was getting so frustrated with art. I could see I have talent and potential, I love getting to draw bodies and explore what it means to be trans and queer through art. I love making my blorbos kiss. One of my favorite things is to draw from fan fics to surprise writers, it makes my heart warm to see their excitement. And so it's okay to not be good at everything at once. What was that Jake quote from Adventure Time? Sucking is just the first step to getting good at something? So I'm giving myself this act of love of learning my craft and hobby by working on lessons and the basics and fundamentals.

[waheelawhisperer]

It really bugs me how Blake being a civil rights leader, or at least being interested in Faunus liberation, just became irrelevant after volume 5,

Especially since the “happy ending” we leave the white fang on is that ghirah is in charge again, even tho they literally showed us an example of when is was too passive in his methods, yet going back to his status quo is shown as a good thing unequivocally,

Then we go to atlas, the kingdom responsible for Adam’s brand and the death of Illia’s parents, and Blake makes no effort whatsoever,

Yet NOW they decide to bring the white fang back for the vacuo arc, vacuo, the kingdom said to lack any systemic racism,

To be honest, I think pretty much everything related to the White Fang plotline was fumbled from the beginning, and iirc even the writers have admitted they dropped the ball with that storyline. I appreciate their willingness to try to tell that type of story even if they aren't comfortable with it, but I'm not impressed with the execution and I think that by Volume 5 they were kind of looking for a way to push it out of the narrative as best they could.

I think the way the story was presented led to a lot of people assuming that the lesson the writers wanted them to take away was "violent protest is always bad, only advocate for change in socially acceptable ways", which is kind of... the opposite of how protesting is supposed to work. Protesting is meant to serve as a warning to the people in power that they better start fixing things before they suffer the consequences, which Ghira's approach... does not accomplish. No idea if this is what we were supposed to get out of this or not, but I can see why a lot of people did and were unsatisfied with it.

I really think they wasted Sienna Khan. My God. They really created a 6-foot catgirl with a whip and then killed her off after 2 minutes of screentime. Truly a tragedy.

There was just... so much more they could have done with her. Like, yeah, we get a bit more out of her in the Adam character short, where seeing her serve as a corrupting influence on Adam was interesting, but I think the "wasted potential" argument applies far more accurately to Sienna than it ever did to Adam. To start with, we could have used her to explore the change in the White Fang's methods and how it affected Blake. There's still so much we don't know about the transition from Ghira's leadership to Sienna's. Since it happened roughly five years before the start of the series, Blake would have been around 12 at the time. How did she manage to stay with the White Fang when Sienna took over from Ghira? Why did her parents allow it (or why couldn't they prevent it)? What was going through her head when she chose to defy her father's ideals before she was even technically a teenager? How did the transition of power work? Did Sienna promise to take care of Blake in exchange for Ghira not making a fuss? I have no idea, and I likely never will. I don't think the narrative is really going to return to the White Fang's history, which is kind of a pity because the White Fang was integral to Blake's personal growth and development and I think that should've been explored more.

Anyone who follows my RWBY posts knows I'm heated about the way Blake got so little to do in the Atlas arc, so I'm not gonna go on that rant yet again, but yeah, she should've been one of the two most important heroic characters in Volumes 7 and 8 along with Weiss. Fighting for Faunus equality is Blake's biggest storyline in the whole damn series, and yet somehow when they arrive at Atlas, the Kingdom the narrative has been associating the most closely with racism and discrimination since Volume 1, Blake fades into the background and Nora becomes the champion of Mantle for some reason. There are so many negative events in Atlas that have already been connected to Blake, and yet she never engages with any of that during the part of the story where it would make the most sense for her to do so. This and not letting Yang talk to Ironwood about their disabilities are really the two places I think Volume 7 dropped the ball, and I really wish we'd gotten another Atlas Volume to fit more development and worldbuilding in.

Are they even bringing back the White Fang for the Vacuo arc? All I really remember is Ilia learning that Atlas is under attack and getting a call from Ghira, so while I wouldn't be surprised to see the White Fang show up in the Vacuo storyline in some capacity, I'm not convinced they'll be super important. That said, I have not been paying a lot of attention to the Volume 9 news, so maybe there's something I missed.

[dilucids]

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤSacrificial duties, Mondstadt ver.

would they sacrifice you or mondstadt?

includes: jean, lisa, kaeya, diluc, amber, albedo and venti.

( i'm too socially inept to request for someone to do this so i took matters into my own hands. )

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ〔 JEAN GUNNHILDR ━━ DANDELION KNIGHT 〕

━━ is this even a debate? jean would sacrifice you to save mondstadt.

━━ the question would tear her apart though, she'd spend so much time trying to find another way to save both her city and you that she'd neglect her health ( basic needs, like eating, sleeping )

━━ if it were a person or god who was demanding these terms, she'd try to negotiate anything to save both, even her own life, though if you were willing, she'd hesitantly ( literally beg you to not go through it and reassure she'll find another way ) let you go.

━━ no matter what she chooses, she'll still feel incompetent in the end, as if she isn't good enough to be the acting grandmaster and would probably overwork herself to try and focus on something.

"I'll do it," Jean looks back at you, horror flashing through her eyes though you didn't falter, still staring the entity in her eyes. The wind picks up as if feeling the ameno swordswoman's vivid emotions, she shakes her head, taking small steps towards you as she reaches out for your hand. You cringe when she fell to her knees, "no no no, please, you don't have to do this."

You don't look at her, knowing it would only make things worse for the both of you, you didn't want her to be the last thing you saw nor did you want your face to plague her dreams like a ghost. "I care about Mondstadt too, Jean." You hope she understands that you were also doing this for your city and doesn't blame herself, "it's my duty."

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ〔 LISA MINCI ━━ WITCH OF PURPLE ROSE 〕

━━ lisa is a bit more of a wild card.

━━ lisa only oversees the library of mondstadt but it's really unclear the extent of her care for the city itself.

━━ it's impossible for one to say if she would hold a lover priority over a city due to lack of background so that's why she's more of a wild card right now, because i could see her potentially doing either.

━━ though i'm leaning a little towards sacrificing you because of her closeness with jean and her involvement in the knights of farvonius, she knows it would be morally wrong to sacrifice an entire city for one person, lover or not.

"It's okay," you reassure her, smile still gracing your face albeit the heavyweight pressure of death for your city digging it's claws into your shoulders. "I'm sorry," she apologises for the nth time and you can do no more than squeeze her hand in affirmation, knowing a hug would be too much for the both of you right now.

You feel her fingers slip through yours and your hand is embraced by the winds of Mondstadt, a sudden change from the electricity that plagued her fingertips and passed onto yours. You take a shaky breath and leave her behind you, her eyes watching your back along the way until you were nothing more than a dot in the horizon━━ ready to become a star in the sky.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ〔 KAEYA ALBERICH ━━ FROSTWIND SWORDSMAN 〕

━━ another wildcard!

━━ unlike lisa, however, i'm leaning towards sacrificing monstadt.

━━ even with all his background knowledge, kaeya is still a character that holds a lot of secrets and it's canon that he's a mysterious figure, cavalry captain or not.

━━ don't get your hopes up though, because he still may sacrifice you ( after a talk with jean or diluc/j )

━━ kaeya lets anything happen as long as it falls into place of how he has expected to end, he really doesn't know what to do when an unknown entity shows up and demands the price of you for his city or vice versa.

━━ really hard to get a grasp on him.

━━ i could see him spending one last day with you after deciding he was going to give you up ( you obviously knew of this ) but after 24 hours with you, away from mondstadt, he might realise that, even if he regrets it for the rest of his life, he'll never be able to give you up.

━━ alternatively, if he didn't open up to you about this or went to jean or diluc, they would convince him to "do what's right" and give you up.

"No. I'm not doing it," his tone differed from the norm━━ he was never like this, not even on official knights' business. His eyes unnervingly determined, tone you were unable to refute, and words that scared you. "Kaeya, you have to," your fingers place themselves over his, which were barely touching your cheeks.

"I'm not doing it," he reaffirms, sounding as if he were trying to convince himself out of all people. "I'm━━ I'm not losing you to some city. I can rebuild a city, we can find a city elsewhere," he states, eyebrows furrowed and not taking a single breath between his words. You pry his fingers away from your cheek, holding them over your lap. "Kaeya, this isn't just 'some city', it's the city you love. The city we love." You coax, finally getting him to look into your eyes. "You're the person I love." He says, exasperated.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ〔 DILUC RAGNVINDR ━━ DARKNIGHT HERO 〕

━━ hate to be the bearer of bad news,, and as biased as i am to this man, he would give you up.

━━ wouldn't open up to anyone about it, he'll just drive himself insane pondering both options.

━━ and although it would literally make him insane even thinking about losing someone precious to him ( again ) but his loyalty lies within the city of freedom and the city alone.

━━ even after the dispute with the knights of farvonius ( in the webtoon ), he still remains as the protector of mondstadt and i don't think nor am i able to see it will ever change.

━━ unlike kaeya though, i don't think he'll be able to see you at all once he decides to sacrifice you, he'll just be reminded that he'll never be able to see you again and the terrible decision that he's going to go through with.

━━ will also throw himself into extensive work to get you off his mind afterwards.

"You okay there?" Your eyebrows furrow, leaning against the open door of Diluc's office, seeing his hair tied back into a bun, hands in his face as he gazed deeply at his wooden desk. His head flies up at the sound of your voice, clearing his throat, "when did you get here?"

You shrug, taking steps towards him as he leans back into his chair, "being a hero taking a toll on you?" You tease him, taking a seat on his desk next to him and placing your feet on the chair, leaning forward to cup his cheek. He turns away. You're no stranger to his austere ways so you merely lean back, balancing yourself with your hands against his desk, telling him about your day.

"━━and then he wrapped it up and sent it to me, which was awfully disturbing might I add."

"I'm sorry," your eyebrow quirks when he suddenly cuts into your storytelling. You push yourself forward, reaching out for him and redirecting his gaze ( which hadn't looked in your direction even once ) onto you. "What's wrong my dear?" He only grimaces at the nickname━━ wincing almost and still refused to look at you, gaze cast upon the floor behind his bangs. You couldn't even see his eyes.

"Your guilty act is making me ponder if you've had previous relations with someone else, Master Diluc," you frown a little, using your other hand to force him to peer at you. He leans forward, placing his forehead on yours and whispers, "never."

"I just wanted to apologise for the future," you smile a little and place a kiss on his forehead. "I will always forgive you."

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ〔 ALBEDO ━━ THE CHALK PRINCE 〕

━━ albedo's original creator hails from khaeri'ah and venti, archon of mondstadt, was one of the original seven who aided in the destruction of khaeri'ah; is that enough reason to destroy it for a lover? no.

━━ would he still do it? yes, yes, yes.

━━ we all know he considers himself a threat to mondstadt but i don't think he would've ever thought this was why he was a threat, to hold an entire city in his palms and be able to destroy it with a single word was quite a terrifying thought.

━━ it wouldn't stop him though, i really don't think albedo holds any sentimental attachment to mondstadt, he only works and lives there as of right now but he's currently heeding his creater's words and pursuing the truth of the world.

━━ he might grimace over losing a few people that he holds dear and end up rethinking his decision but in the end, will choose you.

━━ another reason i think he would destroy mondstadt is that, once albedo discovers something or the feeling of enlightenment that comes with studying something new disperses, he is quick to stop studying that and abandon it due to the "bittersweet truth" hitting him so if he grew tired of mondstadt,,,,,, rip to jean 🙏

Your eyes flicker from the sight of his back to the unknown entity, hovering just above the floor, her eyes uninterested in you as she gazed into Albedo's eyes, maybe trying to read his expressionless face. "Have you made a choice, Kreideprinz?"

Nothing is said. Nothing from Albedo nor you, you didn't seem to have a part in this private conversation but you also seemed to be an integral part of it due to the way Albedo kept looking back at you, squeezing your hand as if to remind himself that you existed. "I'm choosing them."

She peers at you now, her eyes boring into yours as she scans you for something, "are you sure about this decision?"

For some odd reason, you're not offended by her words, maybe because she didn't sound like she meant it in a rude way ( it also seemed out of her standoffish character ) but was genuine in her curiosity if Albedo would go back on his words. He squeezes your hand again, rubbing circles on the back of your hand━━ something he did to calm you but it seemed that this action was to ground him instead.

"Yes, I am."

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ〔 AMBER ━━ OUTRIDER 〕

━━ YOU.

━━ in the most heart breaking – heart warming way ever, she'd give you up.

━━ notice how more than half of these mondstadt fuckers would give you up? yeah 🙄

━━ on a serious note, a lot of them have devoted themselves fully to protecting the city and i don't see any one of them being able to give the command to destory the city, even if their s/o was being held with a knife to their throat right infront of them and amber is the very same.

━━ even though we don't know to much about her, she is seen as a perfect example of justice by kaeya, and is extremely devoted to her work, she's just below diluc and jean in the most to least likely to sacrifice you in my opinion. it's simply overlooked due to her lack of presence in the game.

━━ i think her compassionate and kind side will make it harder for her to come to a decision because she doesn't want to have to lose one thing to keep another but in the end, she will give you up.

Amber seemed extremely distressed, immediately running into Jean's office once arriving back at the Knight's base after finishing her usual trek of Mondstadt's surroundings. You had attempted to call out her as she ran through the halls but she didn't even look your way, which was peculiar to you but you could only guess something dangerous must've happened due to her eagerness of reaching Jean's office, slamming the door wide open.

You quirk an eyebrow and Kaeya, stood beside you, whistled briskly, hands on his hip. "Someone's in a hurry," you roll your eyes at his comment and simply grab his arm, dragging him over to Jean's office, "just shut up and come."

The minute you knock and open the door however, the room is quiet. Jean sat on her chair, elbows placed on the table and concern burrowed deeply within her furrowed eyebrows and Amber, who was shaking her leg up and down in anxiety, fiddling with her nails.

Kaeya seems a little amused by the situation, unlike you, who was extremely concerned by the little actions of anxieties Amber was exhibiting, striding over to her side in an instant. Placing your hand on her shoulder, she leans into you almost instantly and begins quietly sniffling into your shirt.

You mouth to Jean that you're taking her out and Jean nods, thanking you with a small smile on her face. You guide Amber into a quiet room in the headquarters, letting her silently cry as you attempt to soothe her. "Hey, hey, what's wrong?"

She shakes her head, only repeating a small, "I'm sorry."

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ〔 VENTI ━━ WINDBORNE BARD 〕

━━ venti is characterised as a free spirit, like the freedom that the city of mondstadt represents, he carries that within him but at the end of the day, he is still mondstadt's archon.

━━ so we all saw this coming but you 👫

━━ i don't really think there's a lot to explain, he's their archon and even if he loses everyone he's ever loved, his priority is mondstadt.

━━ he'll probably take you on that ride on dvalin he's been promising you for the past year with no explanation.

━━ you'll ask him why he's dragged you from work and he'll just say he's feeling nice or that the winds are good for a ride right now.

━━ you'll stare at him with that, 'don't–you–control–the–winds?' look and he'll wink at you, telling you to stop staring at him or he'll blush.

━━ will completely come undone when he seed you happily laughing on dvalin's back, arms spread open as your laugh echoes into the wind.

Your excited whooping is all he hears, previous nervousness abandoned with his hands placed on your waist as Dvalin pierced up above the clouds; the ground nothing more than a fleeting dream to you both. It's such a shame that young, immature Dendro Archon got his hands on you first, gifting you his gift of Earth's nature━━ if not for the God of Wisdom, Venti would've gifted you heaven's winds if he knew how simply being in the sky made you so ecstatic.

The adrenaline finally dies down when Dvalin arrives just above the clouds, wings creating new and dispersing the old. You lean into Venti who takes this as an invitation to push himself further into your side and begin playing with your fingers, allowing you time to simply relish in the situation. "You're awfully quiet today," you muse, staring at Venti with a small smile.

He hums, "it's quiet up here," in nothing less of a whisper. You nod along with his words, fighting the urge to jump into the clouds, knowing you'll pass right through them. Venti sinks into you further somehow, like you were a passing cloud; his shoulder pressed into the crack of your arm and torso, head leaning on your shoulder. "You'll be okay Venti," and you embrace him.

[bookwyrminspiration]

is it still council-hating hours? even if not, this is something that's been bothering me for....so long. and i am going to explode if i don't say it right now. (In fact i actually have a doc titled "council incompetence rant" that is. getting a little long.)

One of the things that annoys me the most in Keeper is how utterly incompetent the Council is. They are shit at their jobs! They don't make sense! And that would be fine if that was something that was explored and talked about in the story, but it's not?

Like, sure, it's brushed on a little, but Keeper never goes in-depth in order to explain just how flawed and corrupt the system is! We have no idea how far the rot goes because we haven't been given a chance to see how far it goes, and despite the earlier books being really great setup for all kinds of plots and discussions surrounding the Council, it feels like Messenger is completely dropping that in favor of..."Neverseen Bad, Council + Black Swan Good". Which I call fucking bullshit on, by the way, because this series has gone to pretty decent lengths before to show that it's not the case! So WHY are we getting to that now?

Well, I think all of this is the symptom of a bigger problem.

Note: I don't want to be mean, and please tell me if I'm being too critical here, but this series has some serious problems actually delivering on what it's saying.

Like, it's trying to tell us that Sophie shouldn't be doing all this because she's a kid, but then it treats her very own existence as a project as background information when that should absolutely be at the forefront (like it was in earlier books)!

It's trying to tell us that discrimination against the Talentless is bad, but then every single member of it's cast has an ability, has a strong ability, and regularly uses their ability! Even Dex, who could have easily been talentless and good with tech, gets to be a Super Good Gadget Person thanks to his ability as opposed to his own creativity and ingenuity.

It's trying to tell us that maybe banishing children is bad, but also tells us that Exillium is now """fixed""" because Oralie gave them...better tents? Food? And never touches on the fact that children are still. getting. banished. It doesn't explore Tam's anger in detail, Linh is only there to be the token asian girl, it does nothing to fully dispel any thought of the Council being alright.

And it's trying to tell us that the Council fucks up, it's showing us that Councillors have no problem being incredibly selfish and violent and so many other terrible things, but that never changes. Nothing in Keeper is changing. It is only maintaining the status quo!

I'm confused as to what Messenger is trying to tell her readers! Are the Council good or bad? Is working with the Council good or bad? Are the Black Swan and Neverseen actually morally grey? Should I be angry at what's happening in these books? Am I meant to look at all the rot and shrug because "that's just how it is"?

And like...I wouldn't be mad if Keeper was just...bad! I mean, I would, but I wouldn't be as distraught! What really grinds my gears is that Keeper has the chance to be good. It has the chance to do great things - and at times it absolutely does! - but it keeps reinforcing belief in a deeply flawed and broken system that is regularly hurting people. And those examples were just off the top of my head!

And again, if this was explored within the series, that would be amazing, but the problem is that it's...not. And that's just...a real fuckin' shame, honestly.

- pyro

(sorry if this was like...too angry? i started and then kinda just...couldn't stop. i should probably get a hobby that's not tearing a middle grade series apart. oops.)

it may have been over a week since you sent this (thank you for being patient with me!!), but fuck yes it is still council hating hours. it is always council hating hours in this household that is not actually a house. (also that incompetence rant sounds intriguing)

yes! you are right! they are so bad at what they're supposed to be doing it's like they're just figures for people to look to and say "yea they'll take care of it" to keep everyone else from acting out! but it's really interesting to see a government so awful and incompetent be such an integral and influential part of the story...without acknowledging that they're actually really bad? I know in Unlocked there's a line where Shannon says something like "Sophie had to figure out who the bad guys were: the black swan? the council? someone else entirely?" but then it's never touched on again that I can remember. Thinking through the series, I honestly can't think of a situation that the council, of their own volition, saw was an issue and corrected in a way that was beneficial to those who needed it. Like yea, Oralie gave money to Exillium, but that was after Sophie chewed her out about it. I think i've said it before but in case not: it feels like they've taken the "for the good of the many over the good of the few" ideology too far in a society that doesn't work for. If someone threatens the majority (and often that's just in appearance only) they get rid of them to preserve the image of the rest. It doesn't care about their people, it cares about the majority of people feeling undisturbed.

considering Sophie is part of a huge organization created literally because their society, led by that system, isn't working for a lot of people, they (the Black Swan) sure do go along with the council a whole lot. I think one of the linked posts in one of my masterposts is specifically about how making the Black Swan work so closely with the council screwed them over and completely undermined everything they were working towards. I'm going to make a very vague comparison here, but the Black Swan feel like "we need to fix the system" while the Neverseen are "the system is broken lets start over" (except the Neverseen added a lot more violence into the mix). It's absolutely infuriating to have them working side by side: one, because the Black Swan aren't accomplishing any of their goals and should cut their losses and go back to being mysterious underground groups with more freedom to move (in my opinion), but two, because it makes the council seem like it's trying to fix things when really it feels like a publicity thing to make the public think they're addressing the rebel issue while they're really just showing up in places and causing problems. And!! that's another thing! it feels like their collaboration with the Black Swan is to address the problem of having rebels, not the problems these rebels have identified and are trying to fix. Unfortunately, it seems the council is getting their way more than the Black Swan, getting them to act more legally and work closer with less room for working outside the system. if that makes sense.

considering it's literally stated in unlocked that there is no "good" and "bad," there does seem to be a lot of focus on associating the Black Swan with being Right, and the Neverseen with being Wrong. I can hope that it's the outward reactions to the Black Swan realizing they've done some fucked up stuff (Sophie) and are now overcompensating and trying to make sure their every move is the correct one. But I do think it will be interesting to see if Sophie makes the connection in canon (as she's already started to) that there isn't always a right option, there's just the best you can do with a situation and the Black Swan's insistence that she was "in the wrong" (a summary) helps her realize her own values and think through their decisions with her own perspective instead of just trusting them

response to your note: you're fine! you bring up a good point that this book sounds like it wanted to be a unique perspective (by having the "good guys" also be questionable and give the "bad guys" reasonable motives) but the execution misses the mark for a lot of us. so you're qualms and observations are entirely valid and I don't think you're being mean at all! I think you're expressing a frustration you have with something, which I support and encourage.

at times it feels like Shannon bit off more than she could chew in terms of all the complicated things she could get into when it comes to this series. not saying she's doing a bad job or a horrible author or anything, just that there are some things she introduced that kind of get left behind or unexplored because there's so much else going on. I think we can see that in the whole being experiment part of Sophie life. we saw sophie was uncomfortable with it in the first few books and would sometimes bring it up, but I personally would've been more satisfied if she'd either taken the time to process it (opposed to her think about that later strategy) or come to the realization that no, she isn't okay with it and she deserves to have her thoughts on the matter heard. she was literally created to serve someone elses purpose, and brought into the fight too early at that. and yet it's treated like an "oopsie, guess we just gotta go with it" thing, like this minor part of her story when I bet her thinking about it for more than a minute at a time would absolutely wreck her. but I'm getting caught up in this, so moving on!

I think we can see it in the talentless too, as it's treated like a "that doesn't affect me" thing for Sophie. because she doesn't have any friends that are talentless right now--the closest she's got is Marella, who I think is still legally considered talentless with her pyrokinesis. it's been acknowledged that she doesn't think the way talentless are treated is right, but it doesn't impact her right now so she's not really doing anything about it. maybe if this was brought back later with someone like Jensi, then that would be a satisfying conclusion to this issue (not a conclusion, but it wouldn't be left hanging, if that makes sense). And I can understand the benefit of leaving things open to go back and explore later from a writers perspective, but at a certain point it becomes more of a hindrance to the story than anything else.

and exillium! I have so many thoughts on Exillium that I actually started talking about it earlier in this post. They're not doing anything unless prompted and what they do is the bare minimum. With the tents and the food, they aren't fixing Exillium, they're making it into what it should've been at the very least were they going to actually go down that route. So I can't praise them for it when it's just basic decency to provide literal children with food and shelter when you force them to be somewhere they don't want to. But all this doesn't fix Exillium, because the problem is that it exists in the first place. The problem is that the council saw children who were struggling, and decided the best thing to do with them was to just get them out of the way for everyone else. Three coaches total for leadership? yeah, there's no way that place was ever supposed to be "alternate learning" or however Oralie phrased it, that was just so you could say you hadn't completely abandoned them in the middle of nowhere.

you're so right about the council fucks up bit--I think the most obvious example of this is with Sophie's ability restrictor. Yea, she's not wearing it anymore, but that's not because the council changed their minds. It's because she broke the law and the didn't punish her for it. this is a great example of how things keep trying to move forward, but the council isn't doing anything to stay up with it. "they are selfish and violent[...] but that never changes." yes!! this!! you put it so well! the council is still the same old council that we saw in book one, concerned with their own interests and their own views, just trying to mitigate the damage Sophie and her friends are capable of doing to their system. Note: the fact that a handful of teenagers who haven't even graduated can do this much damage might be telling of the structural integrity of their system. Bronte and Terik did a little flip, and Alina replaced the Now Crispy Kenric, but aside from that nothing has changed.

I will say, I personally don't want it to be clear who the good guys and bad guys are. (not saying that's what you're asking for! just piggybacking off your comment on the confusion). I'm glad that the characters make me think and I'm grateful there isn't just the "we're good and they're bad" element you see in other stories. not that that's bad, i just think realistically they'd be more complex and their simplicity grows repetitive after a while. But like I said, at times it feels like there's too much going on for there to be a clear message, which in and of itself could be the message. i could be seeing something where there's nothing, though. I think part of it might be Shannon trying to take on all these complex narratives and perspectives with a limited perspective (as in she only has Sophie to tell the story through), while also needing to make it enjoyable and palletable to a young audience.

and I agree with you! I think it's a lot of the potential we see not being used that makes us so infuriated (or me at least). Because there are some stories yo uread where you're like "ah. it's just one of those stories. cool." and you move past it. Because you know it's going to have a set perspective and you know it's going to accomplish what it wants, but Keeper seems to have so many possibilities and Shannon's getting stuck in this rut of good and bad after so long. maybe we'll get out of it in the next book with sophie thinking the Black Swan was in the wrong, but I also wouldn't be surprised if that Didn't Happen.

it's just like what i was saying about Ro! There's all these opportunities for these characters and this world to be really explored and fleshed out and complex, but we've gotten stuck in this romance drama and loosing fights again and again with little progress. All their actions are undoing the Neverseen's actions and counting it a victory because no one is dead. I just think there could be so much more that we're not getting because the story tried to go too broad when it wasn't ready for it.

this response got very long but in essence: I agree with your assessment of the story. is frustrating to see so many of the details and paths we'd like to see explored that often aren't in fiction just pass us by.

there is a special place for keeper in my heart and I will always appreciate it for that, but I also mourn what it could've been.

(also: you are not too angry! you have genuine thoughts about this series and they deserve to be heard! we are allowed to have complaints, even about the things we like. we don't have to appreciate every single aspect and we're allowed to be mad at the things we don't like.)

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

not sure if these types of questions get on your nerves or anything, but i was wondering what you do to organize and plan your writing. (cosmic specifically). ive been trying to start writing again, life’s just been so much but i wanna start getting back into writing. i was just wondering how you do it? love you 🤍

I don't mind at all, I'm happy to answer in fact!

Short answer: bullet points. This is especially important if you're someone like me who is doing a rewrite where it's following along with the show and working an reader/oc into the series everyone already knows, big convoluted background origin story or not. I bullet point scene by scene, episode by episode with each season. Tedious, I know, but it helps keep my adhd thought on track and organized

💡 The idea:

When I first decided to write my first ever story, cosmic, i wanted to jump right in but I knew it was better for me personally to just sit myself down with this little crumb of an idea and get to know it and the world i wanted to bring it into. This little wisp of an influence I would have loved to have seen in the show and all I did was sit and watch the show while keeping this in mind. I got myself used to the world and the history of the lab and what boundaries our heroes faces when it came to investigating it so I knew what gray areas were free to play in as my little sandbox. And as I watched, the more that watered my idea and allowed me to develop it cause I saw ahead of time what I needed to make it happen (I also just happen to be someone who loves details and fitting them in wherever I can), and it definitely helped to jot down any thoughts that came to mind during the first watch.

📝 The Bullet Points:

The second watch is where I really get into the physical planning of it all. I wouldn't necessarily consider it any more important than the first cause if I didn't have the first (again, maybe this is just how my brain works) I wouldn't have had the opportunity to fully develop my ideas and let myself get inspired as I enjoy the show (that's how I came up with the story in the first place, after all!) But it is where all the "writing" gets done.

All it is is just a bullet point list, episode by episode, scene by scene, of what is going to happen. Probably not super conventional or how "the pros" do it, but again, my brain just might be weird and likes to be thorough. I don't make myself go in detail for stuff I don't need to. Literally, half the bullet points are stuff like

-gov does tests on pumpkin patch. Powell tells hopper about the reported sighting of el.

^that's an actual copy and pasted line from my season 2 bullet points. The stuff where I actually integrate reader (yes, I try and do this wherever I can which is another reason why I am reluctant to update s1 on tumblr cause there's a lot of missing experiment nuggets in non reader scenes) The point is, it can obv be as extensive as you want if you even find that bullet points work for you.

A quick example from my tua fic plans. Sorry I couldn't get anything from cosmic, the app I used for that one didn't allow screenshots, but it is the exact same process.

As you can see, i don't always keep my notes super serious and/or wordy and just have fun with it to keep myself from working myself into a corner 😅 believe me I have a lot of great little nuggets, including literal memes just thrown in there. But overall, that's about it!

🔁 Repeat:

That's pretty much it, and is still the method I use more or less today. Like when season 3 of ST came out, I just sat down to watch it as a fan. But it was also the first time I was watching stranger things while having my series out so it was really fun to watch with a new lense with y/n just riding in the back seat of my mind and popping in here and there. (Again, notes have gotta be ready!) And I plan to do it again with season 4, and it will be the first time I do it with my tua fic being written as s3 releases!

Again, I just want to give a disclaimer that this is just how I go about things cause my unmedicated brain gets tangled and distracted easily so doing this helps me. I've definitely gone through trial and error, as anyone likely has and will but my best advice is not being afraid to try things. When I had the idea to sit down and be thus thorough, I really wasn't super jazzed about it and I certainly didn't dive in all at once because I was afraid of getting bored. But it weirdly helped and felt kinda satisfying?? Cause I went the extra mile ahead of time instead of facing that later if that makes sense? I knew it was something that was gonna bother me later, knowing the lore and getting it 👌just right👌

If you just stick to your gut and get what you feel like you're gonna need, I think things will work out just fine. Sorry if this was super long but I feel like people should know by now that's just me 😂 also, thats the kinda the point I was trying to make! Lol shutting up now. Love you too darling, feel free to stop by anytime <3

💕💕💕 - Yurtle

[2jaeh]

milky way | youngtaek

you find unexplainable comfort in the words of your favorite poet, but he has a deeper connection to you than you think.

genre: fluff, a little angst

word count: 1.4k

author lin

Your favorite part of the day was curling up on the couch with a hot beverage, scrolling through your phone and having the television on low, offering great background noise so the apartment felt less empty. When the clock struck 7pm you knew you would be receiving that notification from the one person on Instagram that you cared enough to keep up with.

They were a poet who went by the name April and they were quite popular on the social media platform, despite never revealing any information about themself save for what deep feelings were incorporated into their poems. You found a great sense of comfort in their work and you were always anticipating to read their poems.

That day, April had revealed a poem titled 'Milky Way'. The post contained a plain white canvas with the words scribbled in black ink on the left side and a relevant drawing on the right - the standard format for all of their works. For this particular poem, the drawing was of a shooting star with a tiny person looking up towards it.

The poem described a relationship between two people that was so dazzlingly perfect that everyone around them was envious of how perfectly they were made for each other. Alas life moved to a point where the narrator could barely contact their lover and they slowly drifted out of each other's lives. The narrator still had lingering feelings for that person and could never truly move on. The final words of the poem read, Nothing without you, nothing without you… 

April's poems always hit close to home and prompted you to think about your own life and experiences, but Milky Way in particular felt as though you yourself was the narrator in question. A few years ago you had also been in a relationship that was so full of bliss. The boy was named Youngtaek and you always joked about how he set a standard for any other guy you would ever meet, but it was true. 

He was an aspiring songwriter and rapper and often wrote songs about you. He was someone that you could tell anything to and he would never judge. He always showered you with compliments that helped you find confidence in yourself. He encouraged you to try new things and a lot of milestones in your life involved him. Your first kiss, your first time and even your first experience getting chased out of a movie theater because he screamed too loud at the horror movie onscreen.

People who claimed the honeymoon phase didn't last forever clearly did not see the three years the two of you spent together. However, all good things must come to an end. Youngtaek left for Japan to further his studies while you stayed behind. You stayed in good contact for a long time, until you both started to live your own lives with different friends, different timezones, different lifestyles. It was a mutual decision to just end the relationship and move on, but your feelings for him could never disappear that easily.

Since the poem had tapped into an integral part of your mind, you decided to leave a comment. You never did leave comments on April's work - it was quite pointless considering they were so popular and your comment would just disappear into the swarm of others - but you were running on sentimentality at that point. 

@______: Thank you for this, I wonder if the lover will ever know the impact they had on the narrator… 

You left your phone aside and turned the television volume up to watch whatever game show was going on. Despite your eyes being on the screen, your thoughts were still filled with Youngtaek and the poem. The only thing that was able to snap you out of your own world was a chime from your phone. You grabbed your phone and opened up the notification. 

@aprilpoetry: @______ I think they do now… 

Your eyes widened at the comment before contorting into a confused frown. First of all, April didn't reply to their fans often so the interaction did catch you by surprise. Second of all, what did they mean by that? The message was so short and vague, but you didn't want to read too much into it. April was notorious for trolling and pranking their followers so you shrugged it off.

Your notifications were flooded with people liking and leaving congratulatory words on your comment. It was so overwhelming that you almost missed a direct message notification you had received. You opened the message up and you couldn't hold back the gasp that escaped your lips upon seeing it was from April. 

@aprilpoetry: As you know, I will be releasing my first book this Friday. We'll be having a small party to celebrate and I'm looking to invite some interesting fans to join us. Would you be interested?

@______: Me? 

@aprilpoetry: Of course. Your comment piqued my interest. 

@______: My comment? 

April was typing for a long time and you didn't know why you were becoming nervous. You couldn't even believe this conversation was happening. Your phone pinged and you looked down to see details as to when and where the party was being held. 

@aprilpoetry: I hope to see you there

+++++

After days of deliberation, you finally settled on just going to the party. The interaction with April was quite strange and your curiosity really got the better of you. You arrived at the venue - a sleek dining hall decorated in black and white and adorned in pictures of the art that usually featured alongside April's poems.

You floated around the room, taking the drink that a server offered you and inspecting the snack table for anything you might like. Everyone else was already engrossed in their own conversations, presumably about April's poetry. You felt somebody stand next to you, but your eyes stayed fixated on the pink drink in your hands. 

"The mini pizzas are really good." The person next to you spoke and you almost shuddered at the familiarity of their voice. 

You looked up to see Youngtaek smiling down at you. He was wearing black turtleneck with a black blazer thrown over his shoulders. He looked older and much more mature than from when you last saw him. His hair was dyed bright red and his ears were adorned with pretty piercings. He still had the same sparkly eyes that you had adored so much.

"What are you doing here?" You asked in a small voice and he chuckled lightly. 

"It's been a while hasn't it?" Youngtaek ran his fingers through his hair with a sheepish grin on his face, "well actually, we've been closer than we think." 

"What do yo-" 

"I'm April, ______," he cut you off and your eyes widened comically, making him laugh, "when I saw you comment on my post I couldn't believe it was really you. 

"I actually refused to believe it was, so I invited you here to find out," he let out a nervous sigh, "I'm… I'm really glad you're here and you read that poem." 

"I've read all of your poems," you admitted and now it was his turn to look surprised, "I've always followed your account and I… really love your work… Milky Way just hit very close to home." 

"I missed you, every day," Youngtaek admitted, stepping closer to you, "every time I'd think I moved on from us but then you'd cloud my thoughts all the time, just like what I said in Milky Way." 

"I missed you too," you smiled at him when you saw his eyes light up, "I guess it's fate that we found each other again." 

Youngtaek grinned at your words before leaning closer and placing his lips on yours. It felt so familiar, the feeling of kissing him while soft music sounded from the speakers, yet butterflies still fluttered in your tummy. His hands came up to cup your face as you gently held onto his wrists. He pulled away just a few centimeters away to admire your flustered face as his cherry lips curled into a smile. 

"So are we doing this again?" You laughed lightly. 

"Only if you want to ______." Youngtaek grinned, softly running his hands down your arms. 

"Of course April Poetry." 

[dizi-maniac]

Hello! I’m not sure you’re the right person to be asking but as someone not from Turkey, are you able to explain the social context of Uc Kurus? Like obviously I’m aware that the Romani are discriminated against, but why exactly? And also, how do they know that someone is Romani? Is it purely a looks-based thing?? Would be super interested to know more about the background!!

Tbh I'm also not sure that I'm the right person. I can only express my thoughts on this matter.

It's not a secret that the Romanies were treated unfairly at all times, including ours. They were subjected to persecution, injustice, oppression. Children weren't allowed to study, adults weren't allowed to work just because the media formed a preconceived stereotype about these people - that all Romanies are criminals. Murderers, crookes, thieves and rapists. So most of people began to fear them. This is where all the hatred came from. And because of unfounded myths, their poverty, illiteracy and all the oppression by the state and people many spheres of life are closed for them. They're not protected by the law what makes them defenseless against outrage of law enforcement agencies and officials. There was no one to defend them because such thing was always severely punished and they couldn't defend themselves because of their illiteracy again. Therefore, they can only count on each other's help and their community independence. This isolation from the outside world doesn't allow them to integrate into the modern economy, engage in entrepreneurship, receive education and highly qualified work. So it turns out to be a vicious circle.

I don't know about Turkey but there is such a problem in my country too and as far as I know a lot of countries treat Romanies that way, but I can only say for myself. So when we were little everyone around was saying that we shouldn't come close to them, shouldn't look into their eyes, much less talk. That they will curse us, hurt us, rob us, steal us or kill us. Just imagine what these words could make to innocent little kid, of course we believed in everything they said and ran away screaming if saw Romanies. Then in adulthood everyone decides for himself of course what he thinks about it, but still this was awful.

I think it's a good thing that the show touched this issue. Perhaps public opinion about Romanies will change. Well, I'm not saying that all of them are innocent but an entire nation can't be so mistreated because of actions of a few people. Tbh this applies to all nations and people in general.

What about how they are defined, I can be completely wrong, but I think this is really bc of their look, all the jewelry and etc.

[flameontheotherside]

Interview with Autumn Wells

Today I reached out to Autumn for a little interview about her experience with her TF in spirit, Jimi Hendrix. 

Me: Thanks for agreeing to this interview. For my readers, I thought it would be nice for them to get to know you a little bit especially if you are planning to contribute by submitting your input here on this very blog. I think we all appreciate you sharing your story and that it’s exciting to meet yet another “spiritual widow”.  You would be the 4th one I’ve met with a TF inspirit who was a musician! 

This experience can be difficult but of course has its rewards as we learn and grow from this. It’s great and comforting to know you’re not alone. This was something Erik stressed to me all last month while I wasn’t feeling my best. So I really don’t feel you reaching out when you did was in any way a coincidence. There’s no doubt also that Jimi Hendrix is a legend who inspired many and had an amazing talent. 

Autumn: Thank you so much for interviewing me. I really appreciate it. I'm glad you enjoy the blog! It's funny, but when many people describe how it is to hear Jimi Hendrix play for the first time, they're blown away, too! :)

Me: Where are you from? Are you American?

Autumn: I come from the USA, and I'm a young African-American woman in my twenties. I like to create art, stories, and other artistic projects. Jimi is African-American, too. We both come from mixed backgrounds, with Native American and European ancestors in our backgrounds, too, but our African roots are the strongest.

Me: Are you spiritual or religious?

Autumn: I consider myself more spiritual rather than religious. I do learn a lot of wisdom from different religions, but I don't follow any one religion in particular. I believe in God, through Jesus Christ, but I'm open to shamanic wisdom and many other cultures as well.

Me: I think most of us have a level of intuitiveness. Do you have intuitive or psychic gifts?

Autumn: Yes, I have intuitive and psychic gifts. I've always sensed people's emotions ever since I was little, and the psychic gifts grew stronger as I grew older. They became stronger because of my experience with Jimi's spirit, too. I can type down Jimi's thoughts when he wants to talk and share something with the world. I can also communicate with deceased relatives and other loved ones. Sometimes I sense the emotions of people who are alive on the earth, too. I've had moments where I can psychically detect knowledge about people without really knowing them.

Me: What is Jimi like?

Autumn: Jimi is a sweetheart, really. His personality is the same as it was when he was on the earth. Although he was really flashy on the stage, off the stage he was quiet and so shy. That surprised me in the beginning, because I didn't realize how quiet he was as a person, but the way he is to me is the way he was to many people on the earth - gentle, shy, and loving. He is very intelligent, and he still thinks and dreams in visions, as he did on the earth. He can be romantic, but most of all, he's unconditionally loving.

Me: How do you both communicate?

Autumn: I communicate with Jimi through telepathy, and I often see him with my eyes, too. He can affect my physical reality at times, but not always. For instance, he may draw me to him without me doing anything to move closer to him.

Me: How would you describe your relationship? For instance Erik can be in spirit guide mode which is serious and sometimes we can be friends and more.

Autumn: Yes, Jimi is like a spirit guide, and recently, well... he asked me to be his wife. I was so shocked! :) I didn't expect him to do that. In the past, we've spent many different periods where we were sometimes friends, and other times he was more like a guardian angel. There were also times when we developed a romantic relationship, and we would feel like husband and wife, but Jimi also sometimes would withdraw from my life if he felt I needed to have new experiences on the earth. So for us, we've experienced many different kinds of love on our journey, but right now, he asked me to marry him, and I said yes, after nearly fainting, haha.

Me: How does Jimi appear to you?

Autumn: Jimi looks the way he did on the earth, and he usually looks very young. He has beautiful brown eyes and a kind smile, and he's about 5.11. He wears colorful clothes and sometimes brings his guitar with him. He still loves to play in the afterlife. Here's a picture of Jimi, I think there's no copyright on it:

Me: Telling someone about this can be hard. Did you have problems explaining to anyone close to you?

Autumn: I did try to tell my mother about Jimi and the experiences I had with him, but it didn't really turn out well. At first, she seemed to believe me, and she even said I was lucky. But then she started to doubt me because she didn't see Jimi the way I did, so she thought maybe I was making it all up because I was just a teenager. My Dad figured it was just my subconscious mind, although it was harder and harder for me to believe it was my subconscious when I started seeing Jimi while I was awake. My mom and dad's disbelief did make this journey very challenging because I had no one I could really turn to. I was not on the internet at the time, so I couldn't reach out to anyone who had a similar experience. The best I could do was keep it to myself, but I trusted in Jimi, and I read all I could about Native American spirituality, and how the Native Americans believed they had guiding spirits to help them in life. That helped me out a bit.

Ironically, though, during the accident incident where I had the near-death vision, my Dad was actually present when he saw me speaking to Jimi in the state I was in. I saw Jimi, and felt him so strongly, even though I was malnourished and in very bad shape. I had no clue I was about to go, because I didn't realize how sick I was, but I knew Jimi, so when I saw him, I had this blissful smile on my face and felt I was in heaven. I saw another deceased relative, too, who had just passed away. When my Dad asked me, "Are you in heaven?" I turned to him and said with tears of joy, "I love you so much, Jimi!" My Dad was shocked, and he said, "Now I know you're in heaven," because he always believed Jimi went to heaven after he passed away at 27 (in 1970). But I think even witnessing that moment I had with Jimi might have been too much for my Dad to comprehend.

Me: What can you tell us about your past lives? 

Autumn: Anyway, about past lives, that's an interesting question, because recently I asked Jimi if we shared any lifetimes together. He told me he didn't want to overwhelm me with too much information, but he did say that we shared a past life in England in the 19th century. He said we had several other lifetimes together, too, but he wanted to start with one at the time. It's really intriguing because I didn't know much at all about England in the 19th century, and Jimi told me about a very detailed experience about his life as a music teacher back then. It turns out that everything he told me, when I searched for the historical context, matches up with that time. I'll write about it on my blog eventually, but yes, this is the first past life we are working on. I don't exactly know how many past lives we've had, but I'm sure Jimi will share more when the time is right. (Jimi loved England in his last lifetime, too; that's where he felt really at home.)

I was a skeptic about reincarnation for the longest, but the evidence has led me to believe it's a reality. There is so much pointing to the fact that we've come to this earth before, and I've had that feeling myself.

Me: We have a twin flame (or spirit spouse) who isn’t living. Most of us have never gotten to meet or be with our counterparts while they were alive. So, it can be difficult. What is the hardest thing about having this experience?

Autumn: I'd say the hardest thing about having this experience, as beautiful as it is, is that most of the loved ones and people around me don't really understand it. I tried to open up about it in the past, but it didn't go over well, so I just keep it to myself. I hope that one day, I can integrate this experience into my life more fully, but right now, I just keep most of the details to myself in my everyday life, and try to find a balance.

Another hard thing in the beginning was dealing with the fact that Jimi died young, and tragically. That really hurt my heart, especially as a child. I just couldn't believe it. I kept asking my Dad, "Why? Why?" because I just couldn't understand why Jimi had to pass on when he was only 27. It took me a long time to accept that he was in the afterlife, but it really helped me when he came to me and told me he was at peace, and he came to me because he loved me, not because he felt haunted.

Me: What are some important things you’ve learned being Jimi’s TF?

Autumn: There are many important things I've learned from this experience, though, and the main thing is learning to trust in God, myself, and Jimi. I've had trust issues throughout my life, to the point where I didn't know if I could even trust Jimi or not, but he helped me to love myself, and love him, too. He showed me unconditional love which really helped to heal my heart, and he was there to guide me through some really difficult times in my life. He also brought me closer to God, who I love, too.

Me: How often do you communicate with each other?

Autumn: Jimi and I talk quite a bit, depending on the flow of my life. Sometimes I spend a lot of time studying, so we don't talk as much (I really need to set aside more talking time!) but I can always feel him near me. Early on, we spoke nearly all the time, and I'd write down a lot of our conversations. That helped me connect a lot of dots later on.

Me: What are some funny or good moments you’ve had?

Autumn: I think there were a few funny moments between us sometimes, but mostly Jimi's pretty serious. But he's serious in a light way, if you know what I mean. He's often smiling and telling me stories about his life on the earth, and he helps children a lot in the afterlife.

Me: Like physical twins (I have a twin brother btw), twin flames or twin souls aren’t always alike. In what ways are you alike? Different?

Autumn: I agree that twin souls don't have to be exactly alike. With Jimi and me, we do happen to be amazingly similar, although we have some differences. We both look similar, especially in the eyes, although we don't look exactly the same. We share a deep interest in spirituality, God, and the afterlife, and neither of us believe in organized religion. We love music and the creative arts, although I tend to get more addicted to writing, and Jimi's addiction was music.

We both experienced ESP and psychic phenomena during our lives on the earth; Jimi said in the 1960's that he saw the spirit of Handel while he was living in the composer's home (you can look it up on the internet if you like, it's really interesting!) He also believed his mother, who passed on at a young age, was watching over him in spirit.

We both have the tendency to be nervous perfectionists with our creative arts. I used to feel kind of bad about driving the people crazy around me with my "everything must be perfect" tendencies, until I found Jimi was the same way. :)

We have a ton more things in common, but we also have a few differences. I'm deeper into writing, while Jimi is more into music. But a lot of our differences are more like different sides of the same coin. For instance, we both grew up in blended families, but the blended family for Jimi came later in his life, when his father remarried, whereas I grew up in a blended family (although I didn't always spend time with my older half-siblings).

Considering that Jimi and I never met on the earth, and he lived and passed on before I was born, it's amazing how our lives and personalities parallel each other. Many of the parallels I didn't even know about until I got older and could get on the internet to research.

Me: How do you think you’d be together if he were alive or reincarnated now as your significant other?

Autumn: I think my life would be different in some ways if Jimi were incarnated as someone else. I used to wish I'd meet a guy like Jimi one day, but I knew it was hopeless because no one else is Jimi, unless he came to the earth again, of course. I do think it's good that Jimi is in spirit, though, because the way my family life is, we probably wouldn't spend much time together if he were incarnate. I don't get into the outside world that much.

If Jimi were incarnated with me, I do think it might work out, but he would have to be free from many of the things which led to him passing away so young. Drugs, for instance, were a problem Jimi dealt with, as well as ruthless people in the music business who took advantage of him. I do believe that in spirit, he has much less to worry about, and that has really helped both of us. So although it would be wonderful to have Jimi physically here with me, I also know that it's best that we connected in this way, because he's in the peace and love of the afterlife. I also think that having Jimi as a spirit guide and partner is wonderful because he can be with me wherever I go in the world, and we don't have physical distance separating us. Sometimes I do long to be where he is, though, in the afterlife. One day, I'll be with him for all time, God willing.

Well, that's it for now! Thanks for asking the really good questions.

Me: Thank you for answering and thank you especially for reaching out and sharing us your story! 

If you guys who are following me or stumbling on this, want to know more about Autumn Wells and her amazing story about being Jimi Hendrix’s twin soul, you can find her blog at:

https://jimiheaven.gonevis.com/

She will also be guest posting here as well so watch out for her content. You can see all her submissions with the tag: #Autumn Wells <--Click that link for the goods!