#don't tell kady

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Thoughts on Taskmaster s18e08, written as I watch it:

- Babatunde's got me with the commitment to the bit there. Even one moment of explaining that paper plate would have ruined it. With no explanation... I mean, it's lazy and low effort. But not a bad idea, given the remit. I can see why he didn't want to go first.

- It's the detail of Andy's prizes that gets to me. The amount of detail is great, and has been all the way along. He could have just thought of the idea for an aftershave made of mosquito bites, told the production team to make a sign or something that says this, and been done with it. But he came up with an actual way to distill the sensation of mosquito bites, using their saliva. And then put all kinds of extra jokes on the packaging, calling it "malaria-free" and things. And, along with the extra jokes, added extra stuff that makes it fit the prize task remit even better, since the task said something that makes Greg scratch his chin, so Andy added packaging that says this thing is specifically for Greg Davies. And, with this being Andy Zaltzman, obviously he had to throw in a lie that's there for absolutely no reason, calling Greg the 2019 Wimbeldon champion. And threw in a pun, Mosquit-eau. A ludicrously literal interpretation of an instruction, a lie, a pun, unnecessary detail. A very Andy Zaltzman prize.

- Jack explained the only chin-scratching bit of his prize, exactly what would have ruined it for Babatunde. And that has ruined it for Jack.

- So Emma had the same basic idea as Andy, go physical and literal, but she called it "fake chin acne", and fake acne won't make anyone scratch. For a start, she should have just called it "chin acne". Also, scratching acne is quite painful, no one's going to do that for long.

- Everyone has gone very on-brand with this prize task, haven't they? Babatunde does something extremely low-effort but with a decent justification. Emma does something clever but the cleverness falls apart a bit in the execution. Jack is kind of annoying. Andy goes with an unnecessarily detailed literal interpretation, with a pun and a lie thrown in. And Rosie made a sex joke. Well done, everyone.

- I agree with most of that scoring but Andy should have had five. Greg answered Rosie's question almost immediately, that's hardly a cause of chin scratching.

- Hey Alex, how about you leave Andy and his helmet alone? I don't see you being concerned about concussion safety out there.

- Puzzles are fun and all, but I think it would be quite funny if this task were just who can do best on a basic eye test. It would be a creative way to discriminate against disability, but not Rosie Jones'.

- This probably isn't the answer, but I'm not sure how Emma found the word "cheesed" and didn't immediately go into the kitchen to check the cheese. I'd at least have a look there.

- I was surprised that Emma and Baba got grouped on a puzzle task, as they tend to do things very differently from each other. But I see they both found the second clue in on-brand ways. Emma figured out the clue that it's written backwards, Baba wandered around the house and stumbled upon it.

- I speak French quite well, not fluently but I did ten years of French immersion in school and live in a place with a lot of Francophones so I hear it spoken a lot, and I don't know what "socle" means. That's a hard word to put in there for them. Especially since it's the most important word, as without it the clue just tells them to look inside something, and that could be anything. You can't guess the last word from context.

It's also not the most fair clue, as it doesn't really reward creative or intelligent thinking, just whoever happened to study that language in school.

- So, what are the rules with phones? Katherine Ryan has done this before, when she called Sofie Hagan to translate Swedish in season 2. Obviously, Katherine could have just brought up Google translate on that phone. Baba's pulling out his phone, using it to call Eddie Kadi, instead of just translating it online. And obviously there are lots of other times throughout many other tasks when a phone would be helpful, for internet or for other things, and they don't normally use it because that's not in the spirit of the game. Ed Gamble sometimes mentions on the podcast that using phones isn't in the spirit of the game, even though Ed is one of the few people who has used a phone in a task, when he took pictures of the canvas, to his great advantage in a drawing task once.

Anyway, have they been told that they're allowed to take phones out, but only if they call other comedians to translate foreign languages? Or to ask their agent to get them out of a field, obviously.

- Okay, it's pretty funny to listen to Babatunde try to pronounce French words. Slightly annoying clue, worth it for that.

- Well, I paused the video, wrote that whole point about cell phone used, played the video, paused it again to make fun of Baba's inability to speak French, played the video, and saw Emma just Googling it. So Baba could have done that too, he just chose to call his friend instead. I mean, obviously, in the real world, I understand why he did that. It's funnier to call another comedian than to Google it. But in the context of the game, Googling is faster, Baba's made an error.

- Oh, base. Well I wouldn't have got that. No one knows that word. I know plenty of Francophones and I bet lots of them don't know that word.

- Oh dear. Greg has just said that Emma and Baba were grouped because they both found the special glasses, and Andy and Rosie are next. This wouldn't be the first task where Andy just gives up without solving it. Tell me he doesn't do that here. We're getting late in the season now, with Andy going into this episode only a few points behind first place. A high-scoring episode eight could pull him into the lead with only two episodes left. A low-scoring episode eight would be hard to come back from. Come on, Andy. Surely you understand some French. You created an entire cryptic crossword, you can read backwards.

- In the first task where Andy gave up completely, he put his hand almost into his pocket right at the beginning, and then proceeded to not find the locket in there by the end. In this one, he has nearly taken the top off that thing right at the beginning, and then didn't. Please do not have this be another "You almost got it right away but then failed completely".

- God damn it, Andy. Just open the thing up.

- I like Rosie trying her hands as circles to be glasses. It's worth a shot.

- And they've got it! Oh my God, that was unnecessarily stressful. Come on, guys. I'd have been furious if Andy had missed that. I mean I'm glad Rosie found it too, I'm just at this point invested in the idea that Andy could win the season. Much less likely for Rosie.

- "It depends on your attitude to flamingos." Andy saying that has reminded me: Alice Fraser is currently in that weird limbo that all Australian comedians seem to do eventually, where she's maybe sort of moved to the UK but hasn't quite done it yet. Meaning she's probably eligible for the UK or AU versions. I'd be happy to have her on either. Having worked with Alice for so long, Andy is, of course, quite familiar with varying attitudes toward flamingos.

- It was funny for them to show the attempts in that order. If we'd seen Andy and Rosie first, then Emma and Baba would have looked very stupid, taking all those clues to find what was obviously right next to them. But because we saw Emma and Baba first, they seemed reasonable at the time, and then Andy and Rosie recontextualized them to make all the other clues seem silly. Good editing decision, that order.

- Hey, Alex managed a bit of French! He did private school and then Cambridge, you'd think he could manage one French sentence.

- Okay, we need Jack to fuck this up here, as he's leading with the points. I'd love for Andy to win the season, I'd also really like for anyone to beat Jack, as I dislike him and just don't want to see more of him. He's been isolated because he was very fast or very slow, let's hope for the latter.

- Oh, bullshit. First of all, I don't like Alex helping Jack once again. He's been helping Jack a lot throughout this season - I thought I was imagining it at first because I don't like Jack, but Ed's been pointing it out on the podcast too. And it makes sense, as Alex had wanted Jack on the show for ages. Stoic, "all the information is on the task" Alex, giving Jack a look when Jack said the glasses might be in the lab. And it still didn't help.

Anyway, bullshit. The task said "the special glasses". Not some, the. The ones that Alex intended. If you could use just any special glasses, even if they're not technically glasses (because things Jack found were goggles), then they should accept the other contestants using their fingers or the eye test thing.

I've not seen the post-task studio bit yet, that is just my opinion on the task itself. I'll be annoyed if they allow this.

- Thank you, Emma. Those are goggles. Not glasses.

- Thank you, Greg! I'm fine with the sympathy point, fair enough. One could definitely argue that Alex screwed Jack over there by stopping the clock when he hadn't completed the task, and if Alex had given Jack more time, he'd have found the real glasses eventually. Oddly, in this case, Alex's sycophantic attitude toward Jack worked against Jack, as Alex just sees anything Jack does and says "Yeah, cool, you're great." So fine, give him one point with the assumption that he'd have completed the task at some point.

- Adorable that Emma heard the whistle and immediately started running toward the task. She's great for this show.

- I 100% believe that Emma Sidi dreams about admin, and Andy Zaltzman dreams about running Olympic events while riding animals.

- Okay, that's fucking funny. By setting a task that penalizes those who speak faster, they managed to find a way to discriminate against the four non-Rosie contestants, for not having cerebral palsy. Well done.

- My pedantic thought #1: It says they can move to the next barrel after completing a challenge, it doesn't say they have to go in one direction or the other, they could go from 1 to 9 and then stop. Pedantic thought #2: it says they can only move to "the next barrel" after completing a challenge, it doesn't say there are any restrictions on when they can move to the barrel after that one, or after that one, or any barrel besides the next one.

- When Emma began her explanation of bed socks with the words "when women...", I immediately pictured various things she might say next - she's very young for menopause (I fucking hope so as I think she's my age), but there are certain points in a menstrual cycle when body temperature regulation can fluctuate wildly, there are various reasons why cis women might be more likely than cis men to need to frequently switch between socks and bare feet. I... I assumed she'd say something about that. Was extremely caught off guard by what she actually said. Well done to Emma, Greg, and Alex for all being quite comedically quick in the scene that followed, that was very funny, but... I mean, it didn't answer the question. Is that real? I'd never heard of that.

- "Lobsters are biologically immortal" is a Zaltzman-level lie. Rosie, you've fallen for a Zaltzman-level lie.

- Ah, I see how this task works. One of those ones where you're best off just getting somewhere, I probably wouldn't try for going past five, and then quitting while you're ahead. The penalties for fucking it up when you try to go farther are too great, going back to the beginning for two mistakes or getting disqualified for an even-numbered barrel.

- And just after I wrote that, Rosie did exactly what I thought, got to barrel 5 and stopped. Good job.

- God, it is adorable how eager Emma is on these. I like how she leans forward, in the task and in the studio, when she's really into something. Jumping to the next barrel without waiting to hear how the question went. Emma Sidi is not here to fuck around.

- "Predict which hand Alex's whistle is in - your right!" Yelling that at Alex before he even put the whistle in in a hand. She's great. She and I shall have a spring wedding. Or whatever season she wants, really, I'll leave it up to her.

- Oh she's done so well but she's flying too close to the sun! Slow down, Emma!

- ...And right after I wrote that, back to the beginning. Especially disappointing as she messed up on the coin, which she could have easily got right if she'd taken half a second to think. Like with the dice, it does not say they can't just carefully put it down with the side they want on top. But that is Emma in this whole season, very eager and very clever, but mistakes in the execution.

- Oh my God, Emma. Nearly disqualified from a task for thinking that lobsters are biologically immortal. Amazing. That was great fun and also unnecessarily stressful. But she scraped by to three.

- Well, Andy and Jack have been grouped. That probably means they did similarly well, so either way, neither's pulling significantly ahead of the other in points on this one.

- And yep, that went exactly how I said. There were multiple bits there where I thought Andy was flying too close to the sun, but I shouldn't have doubted his ability to work out how a lemon feels. You live to fight another day, Zaltor.

- Hot dog! Hot dog time! Hot dog on Emma, so Andy's the only one who's still saving it. I've still got my theory that Andy's going to use it in the studio.

- It would be funny if just once, they gave out a task like this one, that's obviously part one to a larger task, and then that turned out to be the whole thing. They're all trying to work out what to label and what noise to make and stuff, according to what will be most useful in the main task. And then Alex just stops the clock and Greg judges them on who made the best noise.

- Andy. Andy, who are you? TV's changed you. You are a respected satirist, Andrew. And now you have labelled your balls. Well done.

- And Emma immediately assumed this task will be exactly what I just suggested it might be, as a joke. That that was the entire task. She's great. We can get married in the winter, if she wants to.

- And now he has to label his balls over and over.

- Okay, so I'm at my parents' place at the moment, and my dad's just come in and said he'll watch the last bit of the episode with me. So I'm going to stop pausing it to write stuff down every few seconds, and just post this now and watch the rest right through. I hope everyone's having a good time.

[aphrodite1288]

I noticed you said there are many things you know but can't say be sure you're not sure of it as it is not confirmed. More like a rumor. So kind telling us some rumors you know about Kadi or Exo? It's okay we won't condemn you if they don't end up coming true we promise to take them with a grain of salt. Because I believe you many more are scared to be held accountable for their words and never share rumors and gossip, but they forget the Gossip and Tea is always delicious 😋 even when it's most of the time not even true.

Ok I'm going to blurt out some rumors I just happen to know, again! Take them with a grain of salt. They're just rumors might be baseless might be true.

But to make it more spicy, some here are confirmed Facts. 🤫

1. Exo are not renewing with SM (all of them) Don't confuse it with the group contract, this one still valid (they renewed it) to protect and keep their name " Exo".

2. Baekhyun's having a concert in Hongkong in 2024, his comeback would be lit.

3. Luhan is still in contact with all of Exo especially Xiumin and talks to them quite often, but with Xiumin it's everyday.

4. Tao still in contact with Sehun and Chanyeol.

5. Minseok/Xiumin knows he is not popular in Exo and the members tell him to do more efforts but he's quite depressed from Fans not giving him enough attention and he believes '"he's old and boring unfunny and not handsome enough" and he feels inferior to members in his own group because he is not as handsome or tall or with a bright character or sharp sexy features to attract fans, he thinks he's short and cute and unlike the other members he's not attracting new fans anymore. Which is why you would see he's not active and doesn't do any activities because he knows he won't be supported and you can see his album no one gave a fuck.

6. No one's ready to hear this but Baekyeon was real, but mostly one sided, Yes Tae queen loved Baekhyun truly with all her heart, but she knew the age difference would be a problem among his fans and her fans and in the industry she quit mostly because they called her grandma who runs behind younger kids. Taeyeon is still so angry when they ask her about Baekhyun, and she blamed him for not taking responsibility of taming his fans who bashed them so hard that time 2014 ( Ps: he was a just rookie who debuted 2 years only he was still shy with fans and has no power and still building his career).

7. Many idols in Kpop hooked up with their members at least once, if they're not a couple they were once! or they at least once fucked up and hooked. Living with the same sex for so many years not seeing the opposite sex at all, many idol rookies and trainees admitted to have fallen in love with some of their bandmates because they were too nice or good at cooking 😅.

8. Chanbaek are a thing.

9. Luhan and Xiaotong are just media play couple that's been going on for so many years, they never even lived together and there's a vocal where Luhan says he's never even kissed her and he wants this to end as he's tired of this media play and that this stopped him from having the love of his life and always stopped potential partners from reaching him, but the media play was good benefiting both of them so they can't quit.

10. Kaisoo never dated any other person, but themselves. The media play with Jennie was Jennie's choice she liked Ji so much she is so much into The "IT Boys" the "TRENDY BOYS OF THE ERA" once you're no longer famous bye bye bitch 👋🏻.

11. Jisoo and Ah Bohyun weren't even dating. They've never even kissed Jisoo said. It's not the schedule! They didn't click.

[eclipsecrowned]

'but kadi don't you police other people's content --'

no sandy i police my own blog and what i tolerate. i don't drive out to big dick's shrimp shack on the bay and pitch a fit they serve food i am allergic to. i drive past it. but if i tell my partner i'm allergic to shellfish and they still serve up some shrimp cocktail for dinner in my home where i live yes i'm gonna be a bitch about it. unless someone's genuinely and tangibly being harmful don't tell people what to do with their blogs.

[clarajohnson]

the magicians s1e4

filed under episodes you couldn't make today and that you shouldn't have made then. not that i don't love it because I DO but whew

watercolors!

(hamster who was turned into a human boy voice) no, my life is my life, this is--

i do think we need to grapple with how dumb tutting looks out of context

that napkin full of technicolor pills would've done numbers on 2014 tumblr at least

the physical kids is as suggestive a name for that group as they deserve

the moths are real bad !!!!!

ALICE'S BROW RAISE. i'm gonna find a screenshot of it i can't let it go

that's an episode of lost in space-- star trek-- what?-- that's an episode of star trek-- fine, that's an episode of star trek

there is so much eyebrow acting in this episode actually

in my first watch i was so pro-julia the whole time because quentin hadn't become an all-time little meow meow for me yet god this was always a terrible thing for her. the fake engagement is a particularly cruel dig like... how can i torture q the most? tell him nothing that's brought him joy and purpose in the last few years was real, tell him he's being left behind, tell him people are moving forward without him, everyone else knows how to be normal but him

ohhhhhhh julia did you want to see the fireworks? did you? rookie gaslighting mistake miss wicker

laughing at you? what kind of a friend would do that? AND THEN THE SMIRK ohhhhh she and marina could have been so good together

one thing that's real? you're always a raging dick

someone in the discord said penny is leaning into it so hard and i have to agree like... they should not have done this but at least arjun gets to have fun

[whispers] hashtag agree

in 2015 singing shake it off was one of the strangest things a man on television could do but eight years later it just seems like me watching myself in my apartment any given friday night

i understand the logistics that inhibit the pairing but alice and eliot had so much potential like at LEAST platonically

okay all of the stuff above was awful of julia but actually the most awful thing was making q think he'd harm his father (and that that harm was linked to magic use! which will come back around when magic shuts off!)

penny helping by shouting at quentin as loud and aggressively as he can :-) you racist motherfucker !!!!!!

julia and marina having a sexy raspy voice-off

high-end designer cooperative magic... said while wearing her little leather bondage outfit... hitting on kady... affectionately, you melodramatic cunt

our little q :-) he knows where he would take him on a first fucking date

do we know what marina's discipline was/would've been? ik it's not like (barf) hogwarts houses or whatever but i'm curious where brakebills placed her

jesus christ i didn't remember he was gonna get a fucking lobotomy

there's a lot of eye horror in this show which is just the worst

ughhhh bad episode for julia

god eliot is so obvious right from the start it is insane... patting q's head giving him things... fuckin loverboy

poor you and your taste of honey worse than none at all :-( marina they could NEVER make me hate you

[magpiemagica]

-My Personal Mean Girls Movie Musical Song Ranking-

*The ranking will be based on the song in comparison to the Broadway show (how well it changes and/or honors the source material), how good it stands on its own, and my own thoughts. I have not/am not planning on watching the movie so this ranking is purely based off of the soundtrack available. I feel overall neutral when it comes to the OG musical and movie. I will not be counting Not My Fault; it's a bop but not part of the musical.

12. Stupid With Love: Same energy (or lack thereof) as What Ifs. It is very clearly modified to sound like a modern pop song. Just like What Ifs, Kady’s singer is not in a character voice. There are repetitive back vocals added, it reminds me a lot of Toe Jammer from My Singing Monsters. Stupid With Love (movie ver.) is so low energy that it doesn’t really match the situation our main character is in (falling head over heels for a boy in her math class). Much more boring/annoying than What Ifs and overall not a good song, in a pop OR musical setting.

11. Meet the Plastics: A lot less dramatic and a lot more serious/”adult”. The whole song sounds like the start of World Burn (Broadway). Grechen and Karen don't even sing or introduce themselves; it's only Regina. This song takes itself SO DAMN seriously. They do know that the reason Mean Girl’s is a cult classic is its humor and over the top nature, right? 

10. Someone Gets Hurt: The song has a Billie Ellish quality to it; it is very soft-spoken for the most part and includes a lot of whisper singing. Someone Gets Hurt sounds very underwhelming, especially when you compare it to the original Broadway song. The song is supposed to be seductive but also powerful and dramatic. I think they only focused on the seductive part. The instrumentals are all toned down so much that it doesn’t fit the scene it is sung in (Regina kissing Katy’s crush, a big betrayal of their “friendship”). Ignoring the context, I don't think it works as a non musical song either.

9. Apex Predator: This cover is a total enigma to me. It is so weird sounding; the singing, instrumentals, tone, background vocals, pacing. Apex Predator is SO all over the place. Maybe it makes sense in the context of the movie? I honestly have no idea what was going on with this song but it didn’t sound…good. No disrespect to Auli’i or Jaquel; they did the best with the direction they were given. Really disappointing considering Apex Predator was a pretty strong song in the Broadway musical. 

8. Revenge Party: This song feels a bit disconnected from itself. The instrumentals don't match the singer’s energy, especially Janis’ strong singing voice. This is a song about getting revenge so why does it sound so mellow? Auli'i vocals are really nice in this song but everything else falls pretty flat. Janis saying “Yes, bitch!” did make me chuckle though; caught me a bit off guard.

7. What’s Wrong With Me?: It is fine for what it is; it gets the job done. Not really a lot to say. 

6. What Ifs: A new song written for the movie. The song sounds kinda somber and low energy; very different from the upbeat and hopeful song it is replacing, Roar. Angourie Rice has a nice voice; it’s just very soft and fits much better to a genre like pop. Speaking of pop, that is the weirdest part about What Ifs, it doesn’t sound like a musical theater song at all. What Ifs is a totally fine pop song but in my opinion, it fails in the context of a musical. The song tells us pretty much nothing about Katy or her circumstances. It's just a fine pop song.

5. A Cautionary Tale: The first song (and impression) of the Mean Girls musical movie. A lot more edgy sounding; it sounds like the musical was trying to really stray away from the classic Broadway style as much as they could. It has a lot less singing variety (less note variety, belts, etc.) Some of the stuff that they change, I really don't like (like the background oohs and cut of Janis and Damian’s witty banter). It feels more foreboding and boring than fun and exciting. 

Less energy, less of a campy atmosphere :(

4. I’d Rather Be Me: Auli'i vocals are great in this but the instrumentals are underwhelming. I don't know why this movie is straying away from loud and powerful musical choices. Mean Girls is all about drama; why isnt that energy showing up in the music? I’m confused and tired.

3. World Burn: Another song that is super dramatic in context but not in execution. Renee’s riffs and belts are awesome (as always). It's not bad but not very good either. 

2. Sexy: Thank you Avantika for giving us some much needed joy to the soundtrack💗! She totally embodies Karen in this song. Sexy has a funky instrumental. Sexy in the movie is very fun!

I See Stars: It’s pretty good. The instrumentals match the energy of the song, the singing is great, the background vocals add a lot, it's just an overall good cover. 

Songs cut from songs from Broadway: It Roars, Where Do You Belong?, Fearless, Stop, Whose House Is This?, More Is Better, Do This Thing

Overall: I saw this movie making a bit of negative buzz and as a musical theatre nerd, I wanted to know what everyone was talking about. Based off what I've seen/listened to, Mean Girls is a musical that doesn't want to be a musical. This negatively affects the music. Hopefully studios see the reception and improve this movie's flaws in future projects.

[soundsofastar]

Popping into your inbox to participate in the ask game! 3, 16 and 17, if that's alright with you.

Hell yeah amigo :D

3. 5 songs you have been recently obsessed with?

First 2 gotta go to Jerobeam Fenderson's Intersect and Function. Something about the sounds he uses to make his oscilloscope music scratches my brain right

Uhh the other 3 would probably go to The God Machines, Delicate weapon and the NCPD prowl from the cyberpunk ost, I've been listening to it since I started playing. Though as a bonus I associate these 3 tracks with AIDAN a lot lol :P

16. Favorite instrument?

The flute! I played it for 9 years before school got too busy for me to continue. I miss it a lot.. Honestly it's such an underrated instrument in my opinion, especially when it comes to the woodwind discussion since modern flutes are made out of metal!

17. Tell us about your favorite character?

Y'all love to hear me yap about AIDAN huh /lh

You did get lucky timing-wise though!! A post I reblogged reminded me a lot of him and Kady, mostly in their differences in how they handle grief. AIDAN doesn't explicitly grieve, but when you start to read between the lines, he does.

I'd love to especially touch on olivia, because this example is the clearest one, I'll put that under the cut for illuminae files prequel (Memento) spoilers for those who would like to read it blindly!

At the very end of the book, AIDAN writes a 'letter' to Olivia's deceased father, just talking about what happened. Olivia died trying to harm AIDAN - even succeeding to a degree - until UTA marines took her out. Before this occurred though, she was wrecked by grief over her dad and lover who died in a freak accident just a few hours before her attempt on AIDAN. (Is that a sufficient word?)

Either way, before everything AIDAN did attempt to bond with her even though she rejected his attempts a lot of the time, but even while the Alexander was initially attacked in the Kerenza orbit, AIDAN checked up on Olivia, personally .

I don't think it's a huge jump to think he does mourn her sometimes.

[eliotqueliot]

Art for Eliot Rocks the Memory Palace

This art covers a scene that takes place at the end of Part Two from Quentin's point of view, and is briefly recapped at the end of Part Three from Eliot's POV. I included a little reminder-excerpt with the art in Chapter 4 of the fic.

Eliot Rocks the Memory Palace (with Art) (15271 words) by EliotQueliot Chapters: 4/15 Fandom: The Magicians (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Quentin Coldwater/Eliot Waugh, Margo Hanson & Eliot Waugh, Quentin Coldwater & Julia Wicker Characters: Eliot Waugh, Quentin Coldwater, Julia Wicker, Margo Hanson, William "Penny" Adiyodi, 23rd Timeline William "Penny" Adiyodi, Henry Fogg, Alice Quinn (The Magicians), The Monster (The Magicians), Kady Orloff-Diaz Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-Typical Behavior, References to Depression, Depression, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Possession, Episode: s04e05 Escape From the Happy Place, Imprisonment, Physical Kids Cottage (The Magicians), Gods, Memory Magic, Studying, Repressed Memories, Communication, Peaches and Plums (The Magicians), Rewriting Season 4 after 4x5, There is no such thing as Season 5, And canon stops at 4x10 anyway, But this is so AU and gets more so as it goes along, Quentin Coldwater Lives, Queliot is Endgame, Memory Palace, Past Child Abuse, Starbucks, Jennifer (The Magicians) - Freeform Summary: What if Eliot did a lot more from inside the Happy Place than take a greatest hits tour of his deepest regrets and speak to reality-Quentin only the one time? What if Eliot kept putting himself through the wringer to get out to Quentin when he could, especially when Quentin needed him? And by practicing, could stay out for longer stretches of time? What if the memory palace is actually the greatest study hall Eliot has ever known, and the enforced solitude with all his memories gives him the chance to level up into the master magician he was always meant to be? Eliot sees Quentin struggling--with the Monster, with exhaustion and burnout, with depression--and he'll be damned if he doesn't do everything in his power to help. Especially since he feels responsible for it all. 4x9: Eliot to Penny-23: "This is a mind palace situation, and we don't have a lot of time, and I have some extremely major shit to tell you." Penny-23 to Quentin: "I saw Eliot in there. Alive. And poking around like a pro. The Monster, everything he can't remember. It's in there. All of it."

[nyansequitur]

Finished crafting my long-term build plan, besides skill books. Honestly don't know where to go from here. Probably giving each operator a module? In any case, more detailed info about what exactly I farmed below the cut. CN spoilers, photos, and a lot of talking below.

I suppose let's start with the goal.

Module 1/2/3: J/essicat Alter, L/iskarm

E1/E2/SL7: C/ivlight Eterna, A/sh, E/la

S1M1/M2/M3: P/allas, V/igil, M/izuki, C/ement

S2M1/M2/M3: S/hining, I/nsider, C/ivlight Eterna, A/miya (Medic), A/sh, H/oshiguma, S/hamare, F/iametta, I/frit, C/eobe, S/ilence Alter, S/wire Alter, A/miya (Guard), C/eylon, P/roviso, I/nes, S/iege, S/kadi, B/laze, B/lemishine, M/udrock

S3M1/M2/M3 T/horns, S/hu, S/hining, F/artooth, E/xecutor Alter, M/agallan, C/arnelian, D/egenbrecher, L/ee, S/uzuran, N/earlter, M/lynar, V/iviana, L/essing, V/irtuosa, H/oederer, E/la, B/agpipe, P/ozemka, R/osa, E/yja, P/assenger, H/o'olheyak, L/in, K/al'tsit, N/ightingale, L/umen, S/tainless, A/ak, G/ladiia, D/orothy, A/miya (Caster), S/aga, F/lametail, M/uelsyse, S/urtr, Q/iubai, C/hongyue, H/orn, E/unectes, E/xusiai, C/h'en

broke up names so I (hopefully) don't appear when searching for any operator ever lol

Before I start mastering skills, this is the stage of my depot.

Which should hopefully put into context why I have no base morale at the moment

Why didn't I start crafting earlier? Because I didn't know when I was going to be hitting the finishing point and didn't want to overcraft expensive materials that I would be getting as gameplay rewards. (Pick your poison really, if you start crafting early you can make good use of byproducts but poor use of event mats, and vice versa.)

The krooster planner I used looks like this

If I reset the stock to zero, penguin stats estimates it @ 277.5k sanity, although it doesn't account for event rewards or farming rate ups, so the real number is significantly less. It also doesn't calculate chips/skill books however, so forces going both ways on the estimate.

Upper number is how many I need, lower number is how many I have. Ignore the green book count, that's how many green books I would need if I got no more blue ones.

Blue books are what I'm farming at the moment, and the chips will be farmed once the CN operators are closer to release. I think (I hope) natural sanity and events will be enough given my backlog, but only time will tell. I don't want to do more sanity math please.

This took me, uh. About since my last build plan was completed at the end of February, so. Just over five months-ish? Unfortunately there is no satisfying payoff like the last build plan

due to masteries taking forever to complete. Near all earned OP since then was converted into sanity refreshes minus some skins. Don't have a good estimate on how much OP I bought for sanity at the moment, but it did definitely happen.

Why did I do this? A desire for maximum sanity efficiency, at first, although mostly it was a goal I set for myself about not leaving built ops or 6*s behind. (This can also be observed in how I level my operators, besides the CC12 crew, fwiplord exam crew, and some early game ops/favorites, most of my e2s are between levels 35 and 45 because I level the weakest e2 first.)

Anyways, I like having a goal to work towards in regards to building ops that can remain constant for months. Watching as the Penguin Stats sanity estimate slowly crept down (or went up when I pulled a new 6*.)

I might do a smaller build queue of 4-5* operators actually. If you made it this far, send me unbuilt ops you consider 'bad' or never see usage of (or just like) I guess.

[writinglittlebeasts]

nine people tag

tagged by @rickie-the-storyteller

RULEZ: Answer these questions and then tag 9 people to play too!

i will tag (gently; that's a lot of people): @unhingednovelist @rmgrey-author @tabswrites @karolinarodrigueswrites @void-botanist @outpost51 @camillenrose @moonluringfrost @at-thezenith

and i am. Rambling. in this tag game, so i'm gonna throw it under a cut lol

Three Ships

see, when i'm not thinking about these things they fall right out the back of my skull, so i have nooooo idea. ... and you know what that means !!! 🤪🤪🤪

quentin + eliot from the magicians! they are my everything; they invented love and when i think about them i want to scream and cry and throw up. don't have any other details, if you know you know if you don't get well soon

julia and kady and penny from the magicians! the arrangement doesn't matter! i also have a fun au where both pennys are alive at once and in the same polycule, and initially it's super weird but they get over it. julia and kady have everything, they were forced together but stayed together on purpose, their history is so tumultuous but they care so much about each-other. kady and penny's romance feels rushed but when they decided they were doing it they were great and i was totally on board (+ rewatches have made a lot of the rushed-ness make sense in character

fen and margo from......... the magicians! this show was sooo committed to making fen an accessory character to margeliot (i refer to margo and eliot together this way because it feels wrong to separate them) that they crushed her character into a little box and still, Somehow, she and margo have like Allll of the chemistry, it's ridiculous. i think about the scene where margo tells fen that if eliot dies she'll take care of her every day. i languish under the knowledge that fen's destiny being textually intertwined with margo's was never romantic to the writers the way it was romantic to me. the king's wife and the queen who also happens to be the king's best friend slash qp??? it's sooooooo good.

Currently Listening

in the interest of naming a song instead of just saying i've got reads with rachel running in the background, lp's lost on you but specifically this version is one of my most listened tracks this year i think. it's like, right underneath francesca, it's so good

Last Movie

i watched nimona a couple of days ago and puss in boots: the last wish this morning <3 i read nimona aaaaaages ago (ought to read it again) and i was so excited for the movie. i'm still thinking about it. nimona my friend nimona. puss in boots was fucking gorgeous, also, it was So pretty

Currently Reading

i FINALLY finished paris daillencourt (my beloathed) so i guess i'm back to reading ninth house and house of leaves alternately. though i might bounce around a little and read whitesmile instead because baccano! is one of my favorite series and it's just been sitting on my shelf, driving me nuts because i didn't want to add another book to my, like, (at the time) 3 current reads

Currently Watching

i'd say the rain but i really don't like it so it doesn't count lol . i've been catching episodes of sailor moon while my roommate has been watching them, though, and i've been enjoying that!

Currently Consuming

basically just arizona green tea. it never stops (the arizona green tea)

Currently Craving

absolutely nothing lmao . inspiration for original stories.

[nellie-elizabeth]

tagged by @awildwickedslip, thank you!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

103.

2. What’s your total AO3 wordcount?

1,825,148

3. What fandoms do you write for?

magicians and roswell, new mexico primarily! Also wrote a good omens fic recently but that might be a one and done for now.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

tales from a bookshop (good omens post season 2, fairly sure I'll never write anything this popular ever again because holy shit)

Lover's Touch - Queliot fic!

Promises - Queliot fic!

Maybe This Time - Queliot fic!

Fragments - Queliot fic!

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! I didn't used to in my earlier fandom days but now I'm pretty consistent about it.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I once wrote a major character death fic for Queer as Folk where Justin died. Not really my style anymore. Back in my ff.net days I also wrote Merthur major character death fic, I'm just remembering.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I always try and do happily ever afters! A lot of my stories end with a sense of "and then they continue on their adventures, and life isn't always simple or easy", so in terms of the most pure, joyful ending? I guess I'll go living proof, which is the end of my episode series for Roswell, NM, which is just a "now they're married and happy forever" fic.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I have before, but not as a rule. Once got called an abuse apologist & incest support (oh the horror /s) for exploring the canonical close friendship (not even a romantic relationship!) between two dudes from Shadowhunters lmao. And there's a troll in the Roswell fandom who writes hilarious and idiotic unhinged rants and I've been hit by her before, but she's got a scatter-shot approach and attacks a lot of people, so, at least I know it's nothing personal.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Yep! What is meant by "what kind" here? lol. I'm pretty vanilla. Mostly m/m, but I usually don't pass over the chance for m/m/f. I actually recently wrote my very first m/f full-on sex scene ever for a little Magicians snippet, Kady/Penny lol.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

No, I don't wrote crossovers in the sense that characters from various worlds don't meet each other in my fics. HOWEVER, two of my favorite things I've ever written have been Magicians AUs that crossed over the characters from that show with the full plot from other films. One is The Old Guard (A Comet Pulled From Orbit), and one is When Harry Met Sally (When Quentin Met Eliot).

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah, a few times! Used to happen a lot back with old ff.net stuff, and I recently had my good omens fic translated.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

I'm co-writing a series right now! First time I've ever done it and it's a blast.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

uhhhhh don't make me choose? lmao. In terms of fandom engagement and longevity I guess Queliot at this point. But in terms of... the ships that made me discover and appreciate and explore fandom in the first place? Kirk/Spock and Brian/Justin. Classics.

16. What are your writing strengths?

dialogue and tone setting, I think?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

plot details (I get bored and distracted mapping things out)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

tbh I usually wince when I see it in fic? I'm not a fan. It always feels a little silly. Maybe very very sparingly if there's like a singular phrase or term of endearment or something but I'd rather just indicate that someone is speaking another language rather than write it out. I feel like it can often be tokenizing if you just have one character who's bilingual and you give them little one-liners in a different language. Idk. If the author is bilingual and doing a thing, then that's awesome. But I can usually tell when someone's just using google translate for stuff lol.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Gilmore Girls!

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

I'm gonna cheat and name one each for my two big fandoms. Also idk if these are my favorites but they're two I really love that aren't my most popular:

Regrets, or the Absence Thereof (Magicians)

all the roads that lead you there (Roswell)

tagging @portraitofemmy @spiders-hth-is-an-outlier @orchardsinsnow @r-dtoblack and YOU if you're reading this and want to play!

[writingdesknashu]

Character Concept: Micaela

It's been a couple of days now (citation needed), so let's talk about Dark Orange: Reborn Chapter 5: Illuminated Girls, in a character writing concept post.

Featuring Micaela.

First a little backstory

For those of you new around here, Micaeala is a researcher introduced in Book 1, Dark Orange: Reborn.

Hailing from Castle Cerulean, she knew of the Enclave as their number one enemy, and lived in preparation of the battle. This changed when she tried to kill Ace. Rather than take her life, he explained that they only had questions. Those questions gave her doubts about Cerulean's intentions.

What followed was a look behind the curtain. She saw Cerulean for what it truly was, and has been having a bad time since then. Turns out, they were still better than the worst of things out in Old New York City.

Having reached the Enclave in book 2 though, she's finding out that Cerulean's hell might actually be her heaven. Cute girls, a comfortable apartment, and no dealing with lunatic soldiers? What more could she ask for? Probably not having to fight gods.

That's the backstory...

The Concept comes in with the creation of her character.

Micaela did not exist in the story's draft. She came about when I needed a bridge from the first arc to the second. At the time, I was still working out the details of the Castle Cerulean arc. It wasn't until I got to her introduction that I knew where I was going, though I knew we wouldn't immediately focus on her. That led to a bit of intrigue with Peter, but this ain't about him, this is about Micaela!

If I had to say which characters went into her conceptualization, it'd probably be Alice and Kady from Syfy's The Magician. Makise Kurisu from Steins;gate and Robin from Stranger Things.

Kady (Jade Tailor) mostly in her design but you definitely get a bit of her coolness when Micaela's calm, Kurisu too. Mostly though...

She's brains and a whole lot of nervousness. Turns out, you don't just go easily from laboratory to fighting gods.

As a character in herself, she's (untentionally ironically) the straight-man of the Blue trio with King and Khalaf. One being a very alien dark disciple, the other being an insane ghost. It is not the position she wanted, but she also won't turn it down.

When it comes to writing

Micaela is fun to write. Acting on your intentions is an element of DO:R's narrative, and Micaela is the quickest to act on hers. Did an actress flirt with her the moment she got the Enclave and tell her to call? Well, she's doing it that night.

Because she so readily responds to her intentions, she does not have fun with the slow creeping horror of the story, and also can't turn her back on it. As the first non-Enclave "person" The Numbers meet, she has a different outlook on what Old New York city is like, and a different response to it. She's not able to run with the revelations like they are, but she has been essential to the answers they've gotten so far, and her curiosity (another trait she gets from Alice) keeps her deeply intrigued.

She's also a nice lighter perspective from them, as these last two chapters best illustrate. While they work on how to move forward, she's doesn't hesitate to enjoy the simpler things.

I think that'll wrap up this concept post...until next time!

[aphrodite1288]

Idk if you still perceived them as a toxic relationship, I'm the one who thinks that the most healthy thing in a relationship is communication so I really doubt ksoo get enlisted bc he wants to and not telling anyone about it, I mean exo is a thing, his relationship with jongin is other, maybe he didn't tell the other members but Ji is something else in his life plus his dad just died almost a year ago. I kinda understand your point and your theory about ji's depression cus his disease is a fact told by him, but speculate everything is all about ksoo fault its fck toxic. Depression is not something you experienced from one day to another and can be caused by so many accumulated reasons that took years and years to understand and ksoo must know that tho do u think he's that cruel and go to the army without a reason knowing Ji could be really sad about it? Kai must know that before anyone else so he could have time for processing and plans to do tgt but is normal still be fck sad after ksoo left and having therapy is a completely smart thing to do, that doesn't mean they had a huge fight

First of all, all what I said is not my perception, not my opinion, it's what I've been told from everyone: from K-EXOL, to our sources to the insiders who know SM staff or worked in SM and from Exo themselves told about this issue. And guess what? They know better than you. They're closer to him than you would ever be.

Sorry if it can't fit your narratives and feed up your fantasies.

Kadi just like any other couple aren't perfect they have their ups and downs and they certainly have their own flaws. Calling a relationship toxic just by one argument is wrong of you. This is not wonderland I think you should go seek medical help if you think like this.

You're the one calling them Toxic for not having a communication not me!

Ask your parents, I don't think they've never fought in a relationship of 2 decades at least.

I don't know if I'm allowed to share this info, but fuck it, I hate when dumb people who think they know their faves start calling us liars.

Kadi in 2022 in March exactly, they were on a massive fight and had a break again and they even went to Couple Counseling and the old Fans of this Tumblr from the Instagram group know this already. I've seen kadi's name on their Couple Counselor's Chart with their names and IDs, it was a bad thing from that Counselling company as they sold the Info to Sasaengs easily, K-ExoL, when they saw Ji and Ksoo going there frequently alone separately were curious why were they attending couple counseling sessions? Do they have issues with each other or with someone else they know ? And hence they followed them dug into the subject and discovered this and unfortunately the info was leaked. Remember when Ksoo went to Hawaii alone? Well it was during that period of time they were on a break.

Couples fight dear. It's normal ! And most of the couple fights occur because of LACK OF COMMUNICATION.

So yeah ! Expecting a couple in a relationship of 14 years won't have any miscommunication or a fight is so dumb of you. We don't live in Wonderland ! This is life! Have you ever been in a relationship have you watched BLs and Couples movies haven't you seen couples hurting each other and crying and breaking up despite being in love??

, t

So same for Kadi, they can hurt each other, misunderstand each other, Do things to each other, TAKE DECISIONS WITHOUT DISCUSSING IT WITH E/O! Take decisions in a moment of anger ! It's normal it happens and this is what Ksoo did and unfortunately it's true and it was a no-going-back issue becos that's with the government it's military application. He himself regretted it later because he missed many good Movie offers and opportunities at that time, even his managers and SM's production team told him he messed up he acted in a moment of anger at that time, and going on hiatus due to military in the Epitome of his career is a very bad move and he was told that by Veterans and his friends in the industry and he admitted it to movie producers and Management teams in SM, and.it was a famous discussed subject. No idol wants to go on military hiatus when they're on the epitome of their career, but instead until they settle things down first then they go. Because Many idols and actors get a little forgotten and may lose their popularity after military due to the hiatus and some DON'T! which is why you see Baekhyun and all idols always anxious telling their fans "Please don't forget us! Promise you'll be here when I'm back! It won't take a longtime! I'll be back before you know it!" " think of me all the time when I'm absent" and Baekhyun was smart enough and was the very first idol to have filmed Content for his fans to be outed every month it was so smart fans didn't even get to forget him.

So moral of the story: Kadi aren't perfect. And you should know Honey that YOU DON'T KNOW KSOO !! The idea you have on him is not 100% what he really is like! Y'all tend to glorify and shape idols in a perfect mold and put them on a pedestal as Sacred people who don't sin or Do wrong. Honey 😂 your Ksoo Oops isn't a Saint! He makes mistakes!! Remember you're just a fan! You don't know him personally to keep saying he can't do such things and that it's not his character 🤣 blah blah blah who are you? His mother?

Listen I'm just really tired of explaining everything to dumb people here. I don't care anymore, I say the info I have which I didn't create myself, I just report what I've been told and confirmed with Evidence, believe what you want if you don't wanna believe, leave it and leave.

Don't come up here and force your opinion on me, because we're not here discussing opinions, I'm giving you an info most of the time "A FACT" means something that actually happened and was proven to me, so I'm not here discussing it with you wether it happened or not and what you think about it, I don't care what you think , the thing happened years ago and that's on Period. I'm not gonna go back in time to discuss with you how it should have happened.

[eclipsecrowned]

⋆ NAME?: Kadi! Kadian if you wanna do the internet equivalent of using 'first name middle name' like you're my mother.

⋆ PRONOUNS?: she/they

⋆ MOST ACTIVE MUSE(S)?: hel has been here since 2017 and she has no intention of going anywhere, near as i can tell. gale and cyra have also been quite loud of late, and crane pops up his head like a whackamole perennially.

⋆ RP PET PEEVES?: lotta misogyny and biphobia in the community masquerading as diversity. no that doesn't mean saying your muse is gay. i'm talking canonically bi/pan characters getting their important or romantic dynamics with women totally devalued or stripped, or even having across the board m/f relationship bans on the belief it's 'het.' i'm not even bi and i'm sick of that shit. don't even get me started on 'girlboss' and 'team mom' and 'too good for the boys' being the new pedestal installed over 'ew why would a sexy seme/uke-kun ever touch a nasty vageena, women suck.'

⋆ EXPERIENCE / HOW MANY YEARS?: it's been 11 or 12 years on tumblr alone. before that, lot of gaiaonline. before that, deviantart. before that, lots of chatrooms and forums. before that, larping lotr on the playground with the few kids that could stand my maladjusted ass.

⋆ FLUFF, ANGST, OR S.MUT?: fluff and angst all day every day. i'm so bad at smut. every time i have done a smut meme on this blog it's largely foreplay or afterglow. it's not even like i'm embarrassed or repressed, i just know when to fold em as an author, and smut is it. i can do angst or fluff all day though so long as it's compelling/serves characters or narrative.

⋆ LONG OR SHORT REPLIES?: start short and work my way up. genuinely cannot start with multipara but boy howdy i can be there as early as reply 3.

⋆ TIME TO WRITE?: whenever the cold unfeeling grip of capitalism releases its hold on me that i might sit down and churn something out. it used to be daily but that was several jobs ago.

Tagged by: @melpomeneprose

Tagging: the mutual reading this <3

[clarajohnson]

the magicians s2e13

remember when i said i hated q the first time i watched this was a lot of the reason why

you loved him i love you... :-( i'm not without sympathy for him and his sad little face

cancer plus :-((((((

lipson is so fine i wish they gave her better hair

kady/penny are so great together it's crazy to me how briefly they actually get to interact

i love how much it costs eliot to ask if julia's okay "i can tell you the way you're relating to that couch is not unknown to me"

also love the horseshoe over the door. been there bestie !!!!

eliot's book has two volumes ????

you've done enough you get to be done :-(((((( they pull no punches on the season finales

fen's baby makes me verrrrrry sad

this is how you know i'm truly liveblogging these episodes because i don't remember if this is when they take margo's eye. i hope this is when that happens that eye patch is so hot.

it really just is so interesting how much of this magic show is about saving magic which is an animating force for all life in the universe and is constantly on the verge of disappearing without ever being able to return

sad little nerd king !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EYE IS GONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bambi one eye. it do.

jesus christ this show is such a time capsule. strings cover of best day of my life.

there is so so sooooooo much to be said about q killing ember

"society of godless heathens making this the first day of our societal adulthood" such an interesting thing to say

what did otd do to the writers to make her act so undignified in this arc

with every good thing no matter how small it is it's always married to something so completely disgusting :-((((((

big thumbs down on qualice kiss unfortunately

gods like ember have parents you IDIOT !!!!!!

oh my gosh i forgot about the magic pipes how fucking fun is THAT

"anything is possible" "or was, anyway" waaaahhhhhh

unbelievably rude of this show to just mention that vampires exist and not push further on that

joseph calling her "my alice" give me a season on THAT please

"they need to think they're inspired while they're being ruled"

THE FAIRIES PISS ME OFF SOOOOOOO BAD BTW

julia quitting law school is a HAPPY ENDING TO ME !!!!!!!! show ends there congratulations julia

nobody ever believes that julia has magic they should stop it

[spiders-hth-is-an-outlier]

Okay, so we've all been thinking about Harvey's tea-spilling attempt not to spill Magicians tea since yesterday, and IT WOULD BE IRRESPONSIBLE NOT TO SPECULATE, so I'm speculating. Ground rules first? Yes, always, for safety.

The rules to celebrity gossip are, I don't know shit about shit and this is all for fun. Seriously, I'm just bullshitting here, trying to spin an interesting story, this absolutely did not happen the way I'm suggesting, how could I possibly get this more than like, 5% correct? I'm just some asshole on the internet.

Okay. So first off, we know Harvey and Hale are tight, so whatever Harvey knows, it almost certainly reflects what he's heard from Hale, i.e. what he's aware of is Hale's version of what the set was like (and probably Summer's as well, as she seems solidly part of that friend group).

And I don't want to overanalyze specific word choices from that interview, since when you're babbling on the spot, sometimes you don't use the exactly perfect wording. However, there does seem to be two tangled-up threads in Harvey's babble -- the business about how everyone was young and hot, which perhaps let slip that there was some romantic drama happening, and also the business about lead roles, of course it's an ensemble but there are leads, which seemed to indicate that there was some friction over status within the cast -- who are the leads, precisely, and who's just in the ensemble? And from the way Harvey jumbled all that together -- I'm inclined to think those issues were jumbled together, or were perceived to be.

Now, in mid s3 when Harvey first came on set, what was he coming into, script-wise? Well, you have Jason pretty solidly centered in the overall story -- almost anyone would understand him as the series lead, reasonably enough; the show is based on books where Q is indisputably the protagonist. How's everyone else faring?

It's hard to tell whether I view this neutrally or not, but it seems to me that consistently throughout the second and third seasons, the best stories and most robust character development have been going to Team Fillory -- to Eliot and Margo specifically, who have kind of risen out of the s1 "ensemble" of People Quentin Knows to anchor their own ongoing stuff about trying to rule Fillory. Julia is also anchoring s3 plots of her own, all the stuff about her God Spark that's been the fallout from what she was given in s2 with Reynard and Martin and Persephone. Penny and Kady seem to have been cemented as supporting players; they get some scenes, but they're not really driving any conflicts or getting to do anything with high stakes, especially after Penny 40's death. What's always been noticeable to me is that Alice is operating very separately from the rest of the cast, and will be until deep into s4. After her relationship with Q falls by the wayside, she's very atomized -- sometimes she interacts with Julia, but they don't seem to be close friends. Alice doesn't seem to have close friends in the main cast.

So if someone's unhappy with what they're being given to act -- well, it could be anyone, a young ambitious actor could always want a more up-front role, but if I were in Olivia's shoes, yeah, I'd be kind of tense! She entered the show playing the protagonist's main love interest, got written out of that role, and not only does the show seem to fumble around when it comes to what to do with her, you have these two other characters who were almost comedy relief in the first season, and they're eating up episode after episode of drama and adventure. One of them, as of oh, mid s3, looks a little like he's starting to be positioned as the protagonist's new love interest.

Awkward, yeah? Now. Imagine on top of that pressure as people are comparing their relative roles and screentime -- imagine the series lead is hanging out kind of a lot with certain members of the cast. Imagine some people are turning up a lot on each other's Instas, and imagine, perhaps, that in this cliquey little circle, there's a higher than average degree of flirtiness among hot coworkers.

So now that's the narrative, right? Better scripts and more screen time are flowing to certain people, not because no one else has the acting skill to handle it, but because certain people are always in Jason's hip pocket. It doesn't take long for that, in a high-stress environment, to become a circulated story: that the best way to become a lead on this show is if you're besties with Jason -- or if Jason seems to really want to fuck you -- or if he is fucking you. That's how it goes with hothouse rumors, right?

I mean, I'm not trying to pin it on Olivia specifically and entirely -- this shit takes on a life of its own sometimes. But you get this certain swirl of resentment and jealousy and factionalism happening, and suddenly we're headed into s4, and some really interesting things start happening. Hale gets to play a really fun, scenery-eating sort of role, the kind actors love. The early scripts really drill down into the building tension of Quentin being willing to risk everyone else to save Eliot. And then--

Something happens, right? The Monster plotline, which has dominated the season, wraps up abruptly and anticlimactically. Qualice is back on, without much reason given. And Jason, we later learn, resigned at some point.

Again, I'm not trying to single out Olivia -- for this to become widespread On-Set Drama, it can't have been attributable to any one person. A lot of people had to believe that 1) Jason had too much power over the course of the story, and B) was misusing it to benefit people he had a personal investment in. It's not hard to see how that could escalate -- into the writers trying to jerk his chain to prove he didn't control them, and into Jason deciding he was fucking over being in the middle of all this.

The beauty of my story here is that it makes sense out of all Harvey's remarks, if you view him as Hale's friend loyally taking Hale's position circa mid-s3. There were sparks, everyone was young and hot (read: whatever fooling around happened, it happened for ordinary showmance reasons, not out of any self-dealing on Hale's part), and there were leads in the cast (read: Hale's high profile at that point was earned, he wasn't given favors; he was being treated as one of the second leads because he was good at his job).

[whiskeysmulti]

💕Miyuki when she's kicking ass \ o 3 o /

.Whiskey. send 💕 and I will make a Playlist for your muse- accepting!

This Little Girl- Kady Groves

My hands are clean, not yet a killer Ain't I your queen? And did you tell her? 'Cause you broke down all my shoulda known betters And I followed you home, throwin' sticks and stones

I'm two steps from the edge, whoa, whoa Don't push me over it Don't you know, don't you know?

Every girl is capable of murder, if you hurt her Watch out, you don't push me any further, any further You're not the only one walking 'round with a loaded gun This little girl is capable of murder, 'cause you hurt her

Don't you know you should never treat a girl like that? Got a good alibi, and my bag's all packed Don't you know you should never treat a girl like that? 'Cause the next one is gonna have a hammer pulled back 2. Little Girl Gone- Chinchilla

So I heard you're back in town And haven't changed a bit, man You get off talking down to the little man Time you get what you deserve

Wow You're so fucking stupid Been a while since my head was this polluted Lucky I know my own worth

So you, so you wanna fight me, are you big enough? Kick the back of my knee, are you serious? (Are you serious?) You keep on trying but I like your blood on my teeth just a little too much

So bite me, slap me round the face Now I'm twisting your arm 'till I hear it break I get stronger everyday, yeah

Little girl gone, got a gun from a gangster Run little girl, run little girl, bang ha

Say that again, I didn't quite hear you Messed with the wrong bitch in the wrong era I been at work and I got my badge of honour Honey, I've changed so much since I last saw you

Hands off my hair, how very dare you Ding ding, hold my earrings for my debut 'Cause I pack a punch backed into a corner Come at me, don't tell me I didn't warn ya 3. I Wish A Bitch Would- Delilah Bon (warning this song has references to CSA and the slut shaming/blame the victim aspects of rape culture, under the cut for length and those aspects, continue at your own risk, I just felt it really suited the atmosphere and themes in BF and Miyuki's background and personality for that verse)

Cold case after cold case Those bodies in the ground How do you feel knowing you covered it up Knowing she'll never be found How do you sleep How do you eat How do you live with such inner peace How do you sit with your wife and your kids And just carry on acting so normal like this Not enough evidence found at the scene But how do we trust, trust the police How do we ever go out on our own and truly feels safe 'cos I really don't So they're gonna blame girls for their clothes But what does that even mean She was eleven years old, only a child Wearing a hoodie and jeans The cycle repeats I feel the rage inside I feel the rage inside A demon in me I wanna make em' pay I wanna make em' bleed Cos they don't feel this Trauma, trauma, trauma, trauma, trauma Evil little predator your name ain't on no register The system failed that little boy But I am here to rid him of his monster Under the bed, under the bed, under the bed It's all in his head, he was afraid, he was so scared Never again, never-a-never again Never again, never again, never again Never-a-never again Never again, never again, never again Never-a-never again Never again, never again, never again Never-a-never again Never again, never again, never-a I wish a bitch would when I'm walking down the street I wish a bitch would just to find some release Don't trust no man Don't trust the police I wish a bitch would Never again, never again