#dr myriad is the best

[mattastr0phic]

Misc scratchy mspaint doodles of Absolution Kondraki

[stolenbybirds]

An Artfight revenge for @mattastr0phic :] - O5-6 Won't you look at that, didn't forget to post it this time...

[jadeazora]

Honestly tho, Spinel's probably the best anime-original villain Pokémon's had. (Not counting the TRio, they're more comedic than they are a threat.) Most of the myriad poachers we've had over the years were pretty forgettable barring J, and she was more "overwhelming power and cool tech" than she was a schemer. (And her petrification gauntlet isn't even unique anymore thanks to that one dude from MPM) and most of the unique Team Rocket characters we've had were only around for a couple episodes, not really leaving time to get much of an impression from them.

There's a few good movie villains like Mewtwo and Molly, but they're more sympathetic rather than evil. Mewtwo is angered over being treated as someone's experiment and is trying to carve a place for himself in the world, and Molly is a kid who lost her family. But with the other evil movie villains like Kodai, Alva, the Iron-Masked Marauder, and Dr. Zed, we run into a similar problem of not being around long enough and it's mostly their tech over their intelligence that makes them as big a threat as they are. (I feel Alva was probably the smartest one? He was manipulating the prince, but it's an adult to a child. I feel Zed topped him in evil tho, since he successfully murdered two people-- I'm still pretty sure this is our first case of human-on-human murder in the anime--and thought he got away with killing an ACTUAL INFANT. When I first saw that, I was pretty shocked.)

With Spinel, every setback is a learning experience, and several of them weren't even things he could have anticipated, like Terapagos's pendant exploding out of his hand.

He's a pretty solid tactician tho, using his Magneton for interference with the Brave Olivine's systems and the RVT's phones, baiting Liko to come off alone and then mind-wiping her, ordering his Pokemon to attack from remotely so the group never sees his face (at least until he can't really hide anymore with the pendant going haywire), disseminating false information across the net to throw the RVT off the right trail, luring Friede into a trap because what are a couple kids gonna do in stopping them from getting Rayquaza (it was really more failure on the end of the other Explorers, he had successfully stalled Friede long enough at that point), and there's now his recent thing with getting Amethio expelled from the Explorers by framing him. (As a contingency plan in case his murder attempt against the kid failed.)

It's clear he's got his own agenda, and I'm curious to see what he's got in store for us now that one of Gibeon's most loyal pawns is gone, and now that Spinel is in Gibeon's ear 👀

[nilboxes]

I loved the way you characterise Aventurine! So I wanted to know your opinion if you think he’s able to have a fulfilling relationship, like life long sort of thing and what makes him hold on to that in spite of him always gambling on his life. Because I can’t really imagine an old Aven.

Hello Anon! Thanks, that's a first xD mostly people like my takes on Ratio more, but I do admit I find Aventurine harder to wrangle. There's just a lot to him but at the same time I keep coming back to feeling like "this guy's got noooothing"

So then, when you ask this, I don't even have like a good answer that isn't going to be a long essay.

Would he be able to hold a fulfilling relationship? In a way, yeah?

For me, I think Aventurine would love to be a family man. He'd be such a good dad! I just don't think his mental state would allow him to really be happy about it when he does get that because:

a) I don't think he will ever be free of being a Stoneheart and live a normal life b) because as he is his entire deal is that he is a man who got (nearly) everything (money + power) because he has nothing to lose.

So the nothing to lose bit is like, key to his character. If he becomes a family man the edge he has, the daring to bet his life vs what he wants to get will really start to have weight, he would start weighing that kind of wager more, and I think he thinks he can't risk that, because while we don't know what his new motivations are, I do think he would still want to accomplish a lot of huge things therefore...

The only way I see him gaining some balance in his desire to win against all cost but having like, a bit of attachment to life enough that there will be some stakes to make his mental state less bleak. He would probably permit himself only the ONE desire/one irreplaceable someone/one weakness, and that is all concentrated in Dr Ratio.

I feel like, idk, he's got to have something to live for, but not too much, enough to keep going. It might as well be 1 single person who he just wants to have a few pockets of peace with, not necessarily a white picket fence life, but just enough to get by in companionship etc. (I also don't think Ratio is the settling down kind tbh)

I really do see him winning until the very end though, at least he'd never lose a gamble where it counts. That said, I also don't think he'd get old, he'd probably die due to some recklessness or something. I do see him kinda sticking to the IPC though, but not because of Diamond's grander ambitions idk too early to tell.

I still really wonder what the deal was in the Myriad Celestia when he looked unhappy to receive his stone back. I don't think he was going to walk out of it alive, so did he want to die instead of come back to being a Stoneheart? It doesn't align with what should have been his character development at the end of the 2.1 quest and the title of his boss theme (Hell is Preferable to Nihility) suggests he is glad to face hell (continuing on his life) rather than be gone so anyway let's assume, he isn't exactly happy to be in the IPC but that is his the "state" that serves him best soooo

Thanks for the ask, anon! I hope that was sufficient answer enough and made sense. He's kinda hard to wrangle....

[scpaesthetics]

SCP Aesthetics: Dr. Myriad (requested by anon, character created by @mattastr0phic)

While Dr. Myriad’s loyalty to Foundation regulations is questionable at best, she is still a great asset to any site under threat due to past Field Agent training, flexibility in threat assessment, and lack of self-preservation while protecting others.

(red/white/black, flora, fauna)

[kwillow]

I alluded to this fact in a previous question about Theo's preferences for companions: it really depends.

Read more because this got long... tl;dr: IT WOULD REQUIRE A LOT OF SQUEEZIN' AND THE JUICE WOULDN'T BE WORTH IT TO ANYONE IN-UNIVERSE WHO WOULD HAVE TO DEAL WITH HIM EVERY DAY.

Someone could exist who could, in theory, get along with him perfectly and be his ideal man/woman (which again, he doesn't even really know what that would be, so he wouldn't know it when he saw it), and they could start off on the wrong foot with him, set off a tantrum spiral and never recover his esteem for the rest of his life.

Even if someone who could be compatible with him was able to pick their way through the bear traps of his mind and get close to him, that doesn't necessarily mean anything would come of it. He can get infatuated easily, experience flickers of attraction - but he would much rather ignore those feelings than act on them in any way beyond just trying to be a good and loyal friend and benefactor.

And then, even if someone got close to him, and he was infatuated with them AND recognized those emotions for what they are (a big ask in and of itself), he STILL would not want to enter a romance because that would change the nature of the relationship, he doesn't know what to do in a relationship, and he wouldn't want to entrap someone in a relationship with him (Gods, the horror) or suffer the travails and indignities of romance because all his experiences tell him that eros is a corrupting force and always ends really, really badly.

So one could ask him to start a relationship, and the absolute best result would probably be a polite and firm decline with some blathering about the nobility of "unrequited courtly devotion," with the more typical result being a meltdown.

Effectively, one would have to stay close to him for actual years in close proximity without leaving for greener pastures than him (which one should) and maybe, maaaaaybe if the right mental dominos fall he could conceivably think of entering a relationship. Except in Amaranthine, he'd only want to do that with a childbearing woman because he feels he needs to have children to continue his withered, hollow excuse of a family tree. AND THAT WOULD START A WHOLE OTHER SAGA. ALL THAT ABOVE WAS JUST GETTING TO FIRST BASE, LET'S NOT EVEN GET INTO WHAT IT'D TAKE TO GET ALL THE WAY TO FOURTH. Anyone not able to produce more Norths would have a whole 'nother endurance test to slog through to work through his issues about debt to his family and legacy and all that nonsense. And would either path be worth it to someone? Performing years worth of informal therapy (not real therapy, he hates doctors!) on a messed-up guy just to get him to maybe agree to go out with you? Probably not!

To bring it back to the beginning, despite all I've written here, it all depends. I don't think I can write a rulebook or point-by-point guide for "how to get Theo to agree to date another imaginary person" because in the end, he is a fictional character and he is more beholden to what would be interesting for my partner and I to write and draw versus anything else. And it would depend on the setting, the characters involved, the circumstances that befall them, myriad little factors that could influence what feels natural for him to do. Maybe there could be an interesting story we come up with where he falls irrationally head-over-heels for someone and proposes the same day. He could also spurn all companionship and focus his attention on other pursuits.

So... if anyone is expecting any sweet blossoming love stories to come to fruition within Theo’s story in Amaranthine… the odds aren't good. I don’t have much interest in writing “romance” as a genre, only incredibly dysfunctional relationships as a vehicle to cause strife and comedy in fucked-up weirdos' lives.

[talesfromsiteredacted]

How Various Members of Site Command React to Sudden Hugs

Okay, this is by no means at complete list of who's huggable on site and who isn't, and HR would have maid-waifuless kittens if they found out I even made this list. That being said... it's a lot safer to hug some staffers than others.

First, no one on record has tried hugging Dr. Gears. But, should someone be brave or crazy enough to try it... he might get to tolerate it with repeated attempts.

Second, hugging Dr. Bright is just encouraging him to be a perv. Stick to pats on the head. On second though... just don't touch Dr. Bright.

Third, Dr. Glass gives the warmest hugs, next to Cain, 999, and 343 themselves. 10/10, highly recommend hugging him if you had a bad day.

Fourth, Dr. Iceberg. Yeah... Sadly, I think only his partner Quinn can get away with that one. Anyone else would wind up with at least a literal cold shoulder.

Clef is most likely to just ninja hug the crap out of you in retaliation if you do this to him first. My ribs still hurt from this morning's clingy ambush. More likely to happen if he's hungover.

Dr. Rights is a hugger. Do not hug unless you're free for ten minutes at least.

Do not ninja hug Dr. Gerald. He likes hugs, but... exaggerated startle responses are not fun. Approach slowly from the front once consent is given, do not squeeze.

Cain will turn terracotta red if hugged off guard. Agent Nordstrom thinks it's adorable.

It is nearly impossible to ninja hug 343. He still loves hugs, so feel free to try. Just... not with whiskey in hand. It's a sin to waste good alcohol.

Dr. Light is fond of hugs. For the record, if she really likes you, she squeezes.

Ninja hugging 999 means you sink into him a tiny bit, like jumping onto a huge Jello lump. Just don't build up too much speed. I recommend this on those really crap days.

Assuming you locate him, hugging Dr. Kondraki will have one of two results: him either shouting at you or dragging you down to the local karaoke bar to get smashed and sing 90's heavy metal off key with him. If he's already half pickled with booze first, it's the latter. There is no in between.

Dr. Shaw will also blush if hugged. It's sweet. Also gives very gentle hugs.

Dr. Myriad, however... be prepared for a rib-bruising hug in return.

Iris is not a hugger. Only family and Agent Markovich can hug her and live.

Do not attempt to hug Dr. Mann. He's not a touchy feely guy, you will be shot at.

Agent Strelnikof likes hugs, believe it or not. Bonus if the hugger is a pretty woman.

Do not hug Agent Dimitriov around 076-2, unless Abel agrees. Agent Okame was just trying to help, you didn't need to kill her, Big Brother! No GTA5 for three weeks.

There was one intern who actually hugged 294 after it produced "a perfect duplicate of my nan's hot chocolate, right down to the correct color of marshmallow Peep". The machine did seem to perform better for the rest of the day, but the test was never duplicated.

Dr. Kain Pathos-Crow is hit and miss on hugging. But... he loves a good ear scratch, like most canine lifeforms.

Dr. Cimmerian gives great hugs, at a dollar a piece. If you're good at something, never do it for free.

Hugging Agent Lombardi will get you punched. Don't.

No hugging Lieutenant Tori. She will shoot you. In the knee. With buckshot. Twice for repeat offenders.

No surprise hugs with Dr. Sherman, lest you get a lecture on consent. Best to just bring him a coffee. He's nice, just a stickler for decorum on site.

I myself welcome hugs from almost anyone except Agent O'Hare for obvious reasons, and Dr. Bright, again for obvious reasons. Just mind my teacup, please.

[librarycards]

hi sorry i saw u rb posts on veganism & i was wondering how you reconcile that stuff re: ED's (for context i am vegetarian -which ik isn't the same thing- for eco/ethical reasons but also have loved ones with eating problems that i never never never want to shame for eating ever)

this is a good question! I've addressed it a few times before on here, but in brief: veganism is a philosophy and ethical orientation around all forms of consumption and relationality. food is, for a number of reasons (many of which also contribute to the prevalence of eds - fixations on false ideas of 'perfectable' heath; desirability politics; etc) a hypervisible component of vegan life. this is particularly true given that there is a massive imbalance in the ways that we collectively gather. a focus on food-themed events marginalizes a wide variety of disabled people and/or people with religious/ethical food restrictions, and in this case, being vegan and living with an ed are actually pretty similar re: exclusion and frustration.

given the above, more and more people these days have been delineating between "vegan" and "plant based". to be vegan, here, is to have a certain set of political commitments - toward multispecies + climate justice, via critical analysis and collective organizing regarding what we are, literally and figuratively, expected to swallow under settler colonial capitalist hegemony. to be, or eat, a plant-based diet, is no more than what it says on the tin.

with that important distinction aside, i actually want to focus on one part of your ask: the idea that to be vegan is in and of itself an act of shaming. i want you (and not specifically you, because this is something a lot of people should ask themselves) to think about why you find veganism itself to shame (verb) nonvegans. generally, there are a few reasons for this: perhaps it's just not having met a lot of vegans and only hearing internet scaremongering. perhaps it's a discomfort not unlike other unwillingness to look at the horrible shit that makes "our" lifestyles possible. it is hard to understand our own complicity in hegemonic violence, and, vegan or not, it is impossible to extricate ourselves fully from it. but we do need to look. veganism, at its best, provides a critical lens for looking, and a set of practices to minimize, as best we can, our buy-in.

truthfully, i think that people who feel shamed by the existence of a vegan in their midst should figure that problem out on their own. this includes psychiatrically disabled people, incl. disorderly eaters. this does not give any of us license to harangue vulnerable people for their eating habits, but it also doesn't morally obligate us to change our lifestyles for their comfort!

as a vegetarian, you probably don't have a whole lot of occasion to talk about your vegetarianism (outside, say, drs offices or food-based gatherings). people are often surprised when they learn that i'm vegan, because they assume all vegans must be "preachy" (i have yet to meet a vegan over the age of eighteen irl who is like this. i've met a lot of Big Mad protein bros, though, as well as MYRIAD preachy med professionals and laypeople who freak tf out that i'm a principled vegan anorexic). at the end of the day, you need to be able to live a life you can tolerate, one that best facilitates you to impart good in the world + in your relationships. one that allows you to understand the gravity and importance of your own survival, on your terms. if vegetarianism or veganism do that for you, those who love you will support it, even if it takes a while.

so, yeah. i'm not sure if you wanted explanation, advice, or both, so I gave both. sorry for the long answer (even though i promised brevity...) but i believe very strongly in bodily autonomy - this informs my veganism - anarchism - broad politic, and my answer to this ask. so you got an essay!!

[applesharonfiction]

trend of the universal market

Fandom: Honkai Star Rail

Pairing: Dr. Ratio/Aventurine

Rating: E

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/53310103

“Doctor, what a pleasant surprise,” he says, noting the muscles in Ratio’s exposed arms and the ridiculous-looking plaster mask over the doctor’s face.

“Although it would be even better if I could see your face.”

“Sadly, despite my best efforts to diagnose and treat the ongoing malaise that is the lack of intellect in the aptly-named Intelligentsia Guild, I am surrounded by fools on a daily basis,” Ratio says.

He waves his hand through the air in a graceful arc. The mask disappears. “Especially when I must speak to those at the Interastral Peace Corporation.”

Raising an eyebrow, Aventurine leans back in his chair until it’s about to tip over, balancing precariously on its two back legs, his feet pressed up against the inside of his desk.

“I consider this an honour,” he says with a short wave towards Ratio’s uncovered face. Ratio is unfairly good-looking in a way that has Aventurine thinking that the doctor could probably fuck whomever he wants, whenever he wants.

A lock of hair falls across Ratio’s forehead as if it has heard Aventurine’s thoughts and is proving them right.

“You should,” Ratio says brusquely. “Despite being inundated with your inane prattle following our last meeting, I have yet to receive confirmation of the monetary amount I requested for the Intelligentsia Guild. While I realize that our funding is…”

Aventurine follows Ratio’s obvious and disgusted look around his office.

“…not a priority of yours in light of the many projects you oversee, I do need to know whether it was approved so I can plan accordingly.”

Taking in the scattered paperwork, strewn playing cards, a series of differently-sided dice, and myriad books and manuals on the floor, Aventurine allows himself to see what Ratio probably sees: someone lazy about every aspect of his life.

With a wide grin, Aventurine reorients his chair so all four legs are firmly on the ground and leans forward, just close enough to Ratio to potentially make the doctor uncomfortable.

“And if I said it was rejected?”

“I would inquire, with no small amount of displeasure, after the reasons that led you to come to that conclusion.”

Aventurine licks his lips and leans even closer to Ratio, taking in the doctor’s stony-faced expression. Ratio’s rapidly-dilating pupils are the only sign that he’s been affected by anything Aventurine has said or done.

“Actually Aventurine I—”

The door suddenly bursts open and Ratio startles imperceptibly while Aventurine clears his throat.

Freezing when she sees Dr. Ratio, Topaz clears her throat and nearly trips as she stops abruptly in front of Aventurine’s desk, her faithful warp trotter Numby trailing behind her with a loud pitter-patter sound. Numby stops behind her and tips its snout in the air with a curious trill.

“—didn’t know you had company.”

After a revealing chat with Topaz, Aventurine returns to his office to an unexpected visit from a certain Intelligentsia Guild member. Dr. Ratio/Aventurine

[mattastr0phic]

Consumption belly rubs for the soul

[skaruresonic]

I was going to make a broader overarching point about how IDW's version of the characters seem more interested in virtue-signalling than in proving their goodness through their deeds, but I got a bit tuckered out. Anyway. Tl;dr for the wall of text ahead: the games still win in this regard. By a landslide.

In Unleashed, Sonic can accept a sidequest from a little Mazuri girl named Yaya. Normally, Yaya is shy, perhaps even nonverbal, and will flee if you attempt to talk to her. It's rare to see her during the day, so when you spot her out in the open, cowering but attempting to communicate to the best of her ability, it's a clue that she wants something badly enough to risk her fears. After several false starts, Yaya manages to ask Sonic to get her a chocolate sundae. She doesn't explain why, nor do you immediately receive a reward when you give it to her. It's only later, after Yaya's mother recovers, that you learn the reason for her odd request. Mom was sick, and Yaya wanted to give her a sundae to help make her feel better. Despite avoiding you until now, she managed to swallow her fears for the sake of her mother.

It's sweet, as well as a humanizing moment for Yaya, her mother, and Sonic. As a good deed, it's nothing grand. Giving someone food when they're sick isn't nearly as lofty as air-dropping food to a nation in need, certainly, but in Unleashed, you at least see the tangible effect you've had on the people you helped. You just brightened the day of a mother and her daughter.

Through sidequests like these, Unleashed shows us that no act of kindness, however small or inconsequential seeming, is wasted.

Conversely, one of the... myriad reasons this panel rubs me the wrong way is that it achieves almost the opposite effect. The people of Mazuri are instead objectified. They're a monolith, a statistic, to help polish the Restoration's reputation to a sterling sheen. In this regard, they might as well be props.

We hear about this aid nearly secondhand, as it's something Silver, Blaze, and Jewel intend to do but haven't yet. All the scene is intended to do is make the Restoration look good, as though by mere dint of being called the Restoration, we couldn't put 2 and 2 together and figure it out.

The one time we're informed of their humanitarian aid, we're not shown it. So really, what was the point of bringing it up, if not to stroke the heroes' self-righteous boner?

Inaccuracies to the games aside (which is par for the course for the book), there's all sorts of... unsavory implications at play here. Blaze "was touring" Sonic's world when she happened upon Mazuri's plight. Because we're not given much detail other than "poor crops this season," we have to assume Blaze took some initiative to ease the situation.

Take a moment to think about this. Blaze hails from a water world. How would she know what constitutes sufficient crop failure to warrant shipping aid to a completely different clime than the one she's most familiar with? How does she know what "poor crop season" looks like in Mazuri? How does she know she doesn't have any biases about the way people in Mazuri should approach their agriculture? Does she understand they eat more than just crops, and sell fruit and broiled ibanga as well as confections? If this is her first time touring Sonic's world, how does she approach the government of its denizens? Did she do this respectfully? Did she confer with Mazuri's Elders? Did the people seek her help? Did they say Out Loud With Their Mouths that they'd accept her help, or did she presume their needs? We don't receive answers to any of those questions. She "was touring" the area when she saw a problem worth correcting. The thought starts and ends there. The people of Mazuri do not merit a voice or agency in the matter, because all that really matters here is that you know how virtuous Blaze, Jewel, and Silver are for helping the less fortunate in their time of need. (Which is really ironic, considering Surge calls Sonic out for speaking over her and Kit when they're standing right in front of him in the exact same issue.)

Add the connotations that Flynn frequently describes Blaze as "the imperial princess of the Sol Empire" instead of "duchess" or "guardian of the Sol Emeralds"... Marry them with the implication that she's butting into the business of a foreign nation when we don't know the specifics of their plight, they're just Objects to show us how virtuous our heroes are, and this whole onion of suckage starts to reek.

[sorrythathappened]

As of May 2024, eleven years post-launch, the Wii U continues to have the following quality exclusives:

Affordable Space Adventures (requires homebrew)

Dr. Luigi (requires homebrew)

Game & Wario

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse

Mario Party 10

Nintendo Land

Paper Mario: Color Splash

Pushmo World (requires homebrew)

Splatoon

Star Fox Guard

Star Fox Zero

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Wii Fit U

Wii Party U

Xenoblade Chronicles X

And outside of the eShop releases and Splatoon, these games are hardly “trapped” on their console. For example, in spite of rereleases (or being rereleases themselves), the Wii U also continues to have the superior versions of the following quality games:

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

LEGO City Undercover

NES Remix 1 and 2 (requires homebrew)

New Super Mario Bros. U (debatably)

Rayman Legends

Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Wii Sports

Yoshi’s Woolly World (debatably)

Rayman Legends is most damning of all, given that it was the poster child of the Wii U’s fall from grace among hardcore gamers. None of its myriad ports have successfully replicated the appeal of its unique and top-notch multiplayer on Wii U.

Even games I deliberately skipped here, like Captain Toad, Sonic Lost World, and Pikmin 3, make clear and significant trade-offs to ditch the GamePad in subsequent ports. One of the best games of the past decade and arguably all time, Breath of The Wild, is also a special case - it got gutted to reach parity with the Switch version.

It was a good console. Deal with it.

[dannyreviews]

Ordinary People (1980)

Yesterday, news came out that Hollywood legend Donald Sutherland had passed away. In a career lasting 60 years, he played a myriad of roles, leading and supporting, comedic and dramatic and everything else in between. Out of the wide breadth of his filmography, his best performance came from Robert Redford's Oscar winning masterpiece "Ordinary People", probably one of the best tearjerkers since the Golden Age of Hollywood.

The plot revolves around the Jarretts, an upper class family living in the Chicago suburbs. They seem like the normal family next door, but are marred by a family tragedy, the death of the eldest son Buck. Mom Beth (Mary Tyler Moore) copes by acting as the dutiful housewife to her attorney husband Calvin (Sutherland) and their surviving son Conrad (Timothy Hutton). When Conrad is released from a mental hospital due to a suicide attempt, he is referred to psychologist Dr. Berger (Judd Hirsch). It is through subsequent therapy sessions that Conrad opens up about the demons that plague his family in the aftermath of Buck's death, such as blame that he puts on himself for the tragedy, how his mother favored Buck over himself and his father's unwavering love and attempt to keep the family together. Over a one year period, the Jarrett family is pushed to the breaking point and their lives are irrevocably changed.

"Ordinary People" is a rarity as it treats its characters like human beings and doesn't trivialize their plights. The dialogues, the fighting and the tears are all realistic, almost to the highest degree. Redford, in his directorial debut, puts together a top notch ensemble that not only play these roles, but live and breathe the trials and tribulations of a grieving family. At times, when it's just the three main characters on screen, the drama is at its rawest the tension is as sharp as a knife. This isn't a Lifetime Movie of the Week, or an After School Special, where you can predict the next line in some paint-by-numbers scenario. It isn't even like a Douglas Sirk melodrama where the performances are too theatrical in nature. "Ordinary People" is a whole different drama that removes itself from the sugar-coated cliche factory and makes the tragedy of losing a child relatable.

As stated before, the ensemble of "Ordinary People" is at the highest level of acting. Mary Tyler Moore as Beth runs the gamut of emotions that make you both hate and empathize with her at the same time. To see this actress, best known for her comedic performances on television, transform into a character without a funny characteristic in her body goes far and beyond ones versatility. Timothy Hutton, in his Academy Award winning performance, portrays Conrad not as a pathetically over-emotional mess, but level-headed in the face of strife. There are moments of calm where he rolls with the punches, and then there are the gut-punching scenes where the loss of his brother is still fresh in his mind. Judd Hirsch's provides the perfect balance as the stern but caring psychiatrist who gradually unravels the root of Conrad's issues. And then there is Donald Sutherland, in the role of his career, as the almost too controlled Calvin, whose vulnerability slowly seeps out and culminates in a heartbreaking monologue that puts everything in perspective.

"Ordinary People" won Best Picture in a contentious race with Scorsese's "Raging Bull", Michael Apted's "Coal Miner's Daughter" and David Lynch's "The Elephant Man", but nonetheless a well deserved honor. Timothy Hutton won Best Supporting Actor in an indisputably amazing performance that is still talked about positively to this day. Robert Redford's win for Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay round out the film's 4 Oscar wins. Unfortunately, Mary Tyler Moore was nominated in the wrong year for Best Actress because Sissy Spacek's performance as Loretta Lynn in "Coal Miner's Daughter" was too great to beat and sadly, Donald Sutherland would never get an acting nomination in his career, and was robbed of a nomination for Best Actor. "Ordinary People" is the kind of film that once its over, you feel the impact of its characters for hours on end and that is a credit to the 4 main actors. The only other films to rival this in a non-melodramatic, and realistic intensity is Mike Leigh's "Secrets and Lies", and Michael Haneke's "Amour". As far as I'm concerned, drama has yet to reach heights like these masterpieces.

10/10

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

Hope for the present, not the future

Reading the previous post on this blog by Christina, I can’t help but feel… a lot of déja vu, actually. I don’t mean to be blasé at all, because everything that Christina alludes to and talks about in that article is concretely, depressingly relatable. From this side of the Atlantic, I’ve been grimly avoiding looking too deeply into what “Project 2025” entails, because honestly? If it happens, it will happen and I won’t be able to do anything even if I know every up-to-date detail about it, so why borrow the trouble? I have enough in my own life (and country’s politics) already, but being geographically situated next to America is really uncomfortable, in that their problems are almost simultaneously ours, and if they’re not, the entangled political-economic-sociocultural mess makes it that way. And yet my reaction to news of upheaval, disruption, and impending doom is to say “okay” and then go back to my little solarpunk ways of living and being. Given all of the strife that bombards my consciousness on a daily basis, why am I still writing hopelessly naïve articles about compassion and optimism et cetera on the internet? It’s a serious question, not really a rhetorical one. I wrote this article to see if I could come up with an answer; I think I recognized a few different factors, but I’m curious to know what you think after reading through the article. Let me know in the comments.

My father is quite sure that Trump is going to annex Canada,* given our reservoirs of freshwater, and the fact that history is rhyming pretty hard right now in his view as the child of immigrants who left their home after the ravages of World War 2. That one started with Germany annexing Austria, and look how that went. He’s not alone in that opinion, either. However, and perhaps this is the anti-anxiety medication and antidepressants speaking, wars have happened before, a lot, and are happening now, a lot, and people living and dying violently happens pretty much every day; it might just be our turn next. Sucks to suck, but that just seems to be the way of the world, and living on this planet means running the risk of The Bad Thing Happening. Hm, maybe it’s post-car-accident trauma or whatever, but random happenings (not even malice aforethought!) ruins peoples’ lives every day and that’s the way of the world.

Maybe I’m more positive because my family (both sides; my Oma and Opa lived through the war as well before coming to Canada) lived through an apocalypse** that was a political violent upheaval and war in Europe; they were poor farmers already, they had nothing when the politicians decided that the war had ended, and they still managed to make a pretty good life for themselves and their families in the aftermath. So I’ve seen that people can live through these things, and their lives do get better. Eventually. You have to scrimp and save and deal with racist bullshit and work menial jobs for a good long while, but I am programmed to believe that you make it there in the end, because I am living proof of it. So I might be biased, and too focused on that end result.

Or it might be because I recently spent six years studying post-apocalyptic fiction and have read through a myriad of imagined ends … as well as the imagined worlds that come after those ends. Grant you, a lot of those worlds are pretty terrible places to exist! But they do exist. And there are people (the protagonists that we follow) who are working to make it a better place. Kind of like solarpunks are now, actually. To tl;dr the takeaway of the fourth chapter of my dissertation in a very blasé way, horrible death is already a foregone conclusion in the post-disaster/-apocalypse scenarios, so the best thing to do is to make life as good as possible for the people around you for as long as you can to the best of your abilities until you expire.

Looking at the news, it’s easy to conclude that the world is full of doom and gloom and awfulness. Just following the reports coming out of Gaza and the Congo alone makes it pretty hard to imagine humanity acting worse than we already are. But it’s not actually all of humanity committing war crimes and exploiting children and adults with literal slave labour. There happens to be a lot of people who think that behaviour is abhorrent, and are organizing against the inhumane treatment of others (including earth others); there are, in fact, many communities of caring individuals who will stand up for human rights. I don’t think it’s incendiary to say “Hm, maybe you shouldn’t hurt someone else even if they’ve hurt you.” I feel like this is something we try to teach our children and bake into our narratives of who is actually heroic and who isn’t.

The people in charge might be okay with the cost of their political agenda being human suffering, but it helps to keep in mind that, in many cases, they’re a pretty small percentage of a pretty large amount of people. It’s true that in a lot of the so-called democracies we have in the Global North right now, there is a lot of support for terrible people with terrible ideas - but it is also good to keep in mind that the political systems we operate in are, each of them, abysmal. As the saying goes, “democracy is the worst political system, aside from all the other ones.” Jokes aside, reading about the stats of First Past The Post elections, voter suppression, and more can be at the same time disheartening as it is encouraging: there are good people in the world, but a lot of their votes do not count for much … if they can vote at all.

Despite that, I think it is important to participate in one’s political system, no matter where they are located. Especially at the municipal level - that is where I find that some of the most progressive, exciting work is being done. In my opinion, if you aren’t especially thrilled about government, it’s not really very smart to disengage from it, because involved or not, you’ll still fall victim to those who manipulate the political system and you will not know how to fight back. Sun-Tzu says to “know thy enemy” and I’m not suggesting you embark on an entire political science degree, but if you have the capacity for it, participating in direct democracy, attending council meetings, volunteering with a local union or political organization will give you the skills you need to understand and become familiar with the policies affecting your life … and also give you the tools with which to change things. This piece (article and full poem “To Throw a Wrench in the Blood Machine”) by Kyle Tran Myhre discusses voting as just one tool in a toolkit in more detail, in a very nuanced although US-politics centric way, and the line “But those who fight monsters have taught me: short-term and long-term thinking are not mutually exclusive” is very relatable. Solarpunk is about both-and, not either/or.

People survive dark and dangerous times by organizing, by reaching out to each other, by enacting practices of care. Maybe caring for you takes the form of making a poster for your local tenants’ union and NOT going to the rally. Maybe it’s watering the little tree next to your bus stop in a heat wave. Maybe it’s organizing a neighbourhood potluck, or just showing up to the one that someone else organized, signalling solidarity with your presence. I have found that being a body that is present is often such a boon to an organizer, regardless of whether or not your participation goes beyond that.

This essay is rather wander-y and I hope not too Pollyannaish. But I’ve had the sinking feeling that life was only ever going to get worse since I was 23; that’s over a decade that I’ve had to get used to this expectation of future ruin psychically, so perhaps that’s coming out. I don’t really expect things to get better, and I don’t know that I ever have. The only thing that really interrupted my internal narrative of cynicism and doomerism was solarpunk! And I still have to dose myself up with it, deliberately choose to reframe my mindset, whenever I start to spiral. Because I do, a lot, when I think about futures. There’s a reason I’m medicated - there’s nothing off with my brain chemistry, though; instead, everything’s off with the world. I marvel that more people are not clinically depressed or diagnosed with anxiety given the state of things.

As far as I can tell, my hope is thus a very present one: it is sparked by other humans who get together in groups to make life better for other people right now. Life can be terrible, miserable, and dark. The universe can seem vast and uncaring. But somewhere there’s a soup kitchen, and a coalition of people writing their government officials for more affordable housing supports, and they’re caring in this moment about the things that are also happening in this moment and the people who live around them now, and they are not deciding not to act because of a calculation based on a possible future outcome (although certainly that is part of their assessment of the situation, it is not the deciding factor). So I might not be part of those groups, but just knowing that they exist and are working towards justice but also being just now and kind now and acting with compassion now… maybe sometimes that’s what I need to hold on to in order to keep the dark at bay.

I want to write one more paragraph that talks about why then, for me, solarpunk is more oriented towards the now, not to the future. I think I needed to start with a solarpunk that dreamed of possible futures so that I could actually begin to see how I could work in the now, and solarpunk futurism gives me a goal. But personally, solarpunk presents is where it’s at.

—-

*I find it darkly funny that our next prime minister is almost guaranteed to be the alt-right-courting Conservative politician Pierre Poilievre, who has on many occasions criticized our current PM for weakening / destroying / doing bad things to our relationship with America (economic/political/etc). If Trump gets in, Polievre will have to deal with him first hand - and he will either welcome foreign troops with open arms (as many Canadians wish they were Americans, oddly enough) or bumble his way into being bravely run over by tanks.

**I remember interviewing my Beppe in grade three about her childhood experience of WWII and she talked about evacuating down roads where there were dead and bloated cows and human bodies (mostly soldiers) torn apart on the side of the road. Before the end of the war they were eating tulip bulbs and potato peelings in the basement of their home while Nazi troops occupied the main floor. Very apocalyptic. I figured everyone’s grandparents had stories like this, though, and by the time I was fourteen I was so sick of hearing about World War Two, because our history curriculum seemed kind of obsessed. I got it at home AND at school. Ugh, apocalypse, whatever, let me get back to reading my Animorphs plz.

[ribcageeater]

Hiiiii!!!! I was just wondering who are some of your favourite SCP 963 rewrites? There are so many cool ones! You should include your goofball! Because I love Dr. M!

this is literally the best thing I could've woken up to :]]]

My personal favorites is Dr Jack Clementine created by @twig-the-egde-lord , Jaylyn Finch created by @drawingsfromthefrogwar , Robert Blank created by @u-got-lynks , Dr Myriad created by @mattastr0phic and ofc the goofball Dr M

here's a group photo I just sketched

Sillys

[pr0udn3rd]

Ok wholesome rant time.

I love board games. Not like, Monopoly or Scrabble, no no. Nerd board games. Board games with intricately designed pieces and rulebooks thick enough to scare away the average person. And Wingspan designed by Elizabeth Hargrave is the best one.

Now, I am an autistic floof who would prefer conflict be avoided, so if you want to make kids cry with your capitalist greed and brutalist strategy go play Ticket to Ride. This game is not that. It is a chill beautiful refined game to put your pinkies out and enjoy a cup of tea with your friends. Imagine sunny days with poofy pretty clouds happy carefree vibes.

The game centers around birbs. You are a birb enthusiast and if that doesn’t hold true in your real life it will soon. Your goal is simple: score the most points. There are a myriad of ways to do this but they all revolve around hosting a sanctuary to birbs of all habitats, diet, size, etc. You play birbs by paying food and eggs. You get these resources by taking a turn to obtain them in a specific habitat. The more birbs you have in that habitat the more of that resource you get and you get to use those birbs powers, which are themed after the real life birb. It’s an engine building game but these rules aren’t really why this is the best game ever.

This game excels at providing a warm fuzzy feeling in your heart. Your competitors cannot impede your progress as everyone has their own sanctuary/board. They can only help you (ie birbs that let everyone get a resource.) Everyone can flourish, and in fact the more players the higher the average score.

But the piece de le resistance is the theming. The birbs are FUCKING GORGEOUS. I don’t mean they only picked birbs that look pretty, I mean the art on these cards makes me calm and happy. And each card has a fun fact at the bottom about that bird or it’s history. The whole game oozes charm and really just encapsulates the feeling when you see an animal and go “oh he’s just a silly little guy.”

The base game is North American birbs so pretty standard but the expansions really leaned into silly guy territory. Or maybe I’m just not educated enough to recognize foreign birbs as normal. The base game is very well constructed and a great stepping stone into slipping into the rabbit hole of expansions.

Because of this game, I have a new hobby. Birbs. I have a favorite birb. I watch birbs out my window. I know random birb facts. I can identify most birbs into a general category. It’s wonderful.

Look at this guy. This is a European Robin. My man does not have any worries. He is living under a rock. He doesn’t even know what a tax is! His entire existence is just round boi. Oh to be a birb like him on a snowy rock.

This guy, however. This is a Sri Lanka Frogmouth. He has committed at least 3 war crimes and he knows it and I love him anyways. He’s so ugly! I love him. He is also my favorite irl birb. So he gets 3 pictures.

This guy, the American Woodcock, is in base game and he gives “mom i frew up” vibes. He looks guilty and uncertain and HIS NAME IS A WOODCOCK.

I met these birbs through this game and I’m a happier person for it.

TL;DR if you like board games and want a good relaxing time and maybe a new birb obsession Wingspan is the game.

Below: card art

Also bonus the art is mostly male birbs for the foliage but they can lay eggs so this game is 95% trans birbs. Hell yeah.