#even though i KNOW that (1) these kinds of cases where the context very much overrides it i keep it in my head and

[faggotry-enjoyer]

anyone else have the dogwhistle radar so sensitive you see a half-specified "they" one (1) time and go on alert for a second before remembering that you are literally reading a post about antisemitism and "they" is antisemites

[necromancelena]

where is a good starting point for Touhou? It seems like there's a TON

I'm not really an expert, I've been chipping through the games slowly but I'm only up to 11 so I think that any way I answer is bound to grind the gears of someone that knows better than me. However.

1-5 are the older PC-98 games and unless you're like me and you're specifically interested in seeing how the series developed or you're interested in retro pc98 games I would suggest skipping them. You'd need to emulate a PC-98 (actually that's easier to do than getting the early windows games to work tbh so forget this point) and the games are kind of clunky and also if you're interested specifically because of the characters it doesn't even take place in the same continuity. Touhou 1 isn't even a shmup you play with the ball. And Marisa isn't even there until 2 so wgats the point. They're still fun though i just wouldn't recommend they be your first. unless you wanna. In which case play 1 for 20 minutes and then get into 2 onwards.

First Windows game is 6 (Embodiment of Scarlet Devil) and once you actually get it running it is both the most straightforward gameplay wise and gives you a pretty notorious lineup of girls to like.

It's here that i will say that there isn't actually very much story in the games, most of it is told through brief character interactions at the start of boss fights, and the dialogue can be hard to understand because of a)weird translation b) cultural context you might not have c) pop culture that Zun specifically liked at the time and d) the girls themselves are, in fact, as weird as they sound. So what you're going to do is you're going to play a game to establish your favourite girl from that game based on which was weirdest and then you'll figure out her whole deal by reading the official manga (there are a lot of those and, like the games, I haven't read all of them yet so I'm not even going to try and make a "these are the starter manga you should read" list).

So with that said really the first touhou you should play is whatever you can get your hands on. EoSD is the obvious start, PCB is a bit easier and has fox girls. The early Windows games aren't sold anywhere except japan and are a bit of a hassle to get working on modern devices. So like you can do whatever you want i dunno. You could even start with a fan game if you want. Play the sakuya metroidvania. It's girl osmosis it's fine.

[naoreco]

I figure it’s worth putting on the Tumblr radar since much of this is current discussion of Niosi is happening on Twitter.

(content warnings for sexual assault, abuse, manipulation, and otherwise taking advantage of people)

On Chris Niosi, and Kyle McCarley’s defense of him:

Recently Chris Niosi (aka Kirbopher), who has admitted to abusing people around him for at least a decade, was cast in Honkai Star Rail as the character Moze. Five years have passed since his public apology, where he addresses some specific callouts from victims to debatable effect, but unfortunately he’s lied about apologizing to all of his victims (1, 2), and the specific apologies he has written are now deleted from his tumblr, calling his efforts into changing for the better into his question. Furthermore, as he has a history of taking advantage of his fans even in his more underground days (1+2, 3), putting him in a situation where he has access to more fans to put him on a pedestal is dangerous. Other users have iterated much of this already on tumblr, where it was already discussed in previous years, so this is just some context.

But I’m here to talk about something related that hasn’t gotten any Tumblr coverage. For example, people here have talked about Griffin Puatu’s reddit post defending him already. But nobody has mentioned Kyle McCarley defending him yet.

On July 19, 2024, in the replies of Moze’s introduction tweet, he had this to say:

He addresses his use of “bad boyfriend” downplaying legitimate abuse later. I don't think it's great but we’ll get to that. However, “the court of public opinion” is a concept that he does stand by, perhaps reinforced by the backlash he received for this. Some of this was vitriolic, given the kind of person he was defending from further criticism, but others did try to reason with him, including some of the above and more as evidence that Niosi isn’t being entirely truthful about his atonement, and overall most responses expressed disbelief and disappointment more than anything else.

Still, he deactivated his account the following day, on July 20, 2024.

Unfortunately, our story doesn’t end there. In the early morning of July 21, 2024, he made an announcement in his Discord server.

So here's the thing about Niosi not being a confirmed sexual abuser or rapist or pedophile. I don't have everything, with this being such an expansive case so this is off what I've found. You know the time he planned to take advantage of his girlfriend at the time while said girlfriend was intoxicated (plus this follow-up where he attempted to cover for himself)? Drunk people cannot consent, especially not when drunk sex is already a hard boundary. Although this technically doesn't make him a rapist, to my knowledge, if you're gonna argue semantics it'll just sound like "well he didn't ACTUALLY rape someone so it's not as bad". Is it not already terrible that he tried to and still downplayed it when called on it? Besides, as mentioned in Lighty's testimony linked above, he's let other in his sphere groom minors under his watchful eye, and his other ex Audrey had things to say about how he weaponized sexual favors too. If someone actually has more on a history of sexual abuse and pedophilia, though, please bring it to my attention. I'll add it to this post.

Either way, we don't know what he knows. At best, Kyle has a very incomplete picture of the situation, and at worst he does have a complete picture and he just doesn’t think it’s valid or up-to-date criticism. The person who first brought this to people's attention on Twitter also mentioned that her messages in the server were being deleted when she spoke up to provide evidence, so for someone who welcomes others to share evidence how open he actually is to it is questionable. (UPDATE: There's more to this part of the story but we'll get to it in a future update.) His final message a couple of hours from these just solidifies it.

Having joined the server myself to see, around the time of the announcements seems to have been scrubbed clean, but there is some current discussion of the topic as of this post. Furthermore, someone there has stated that they're compiling sources to send his way to give him a better understanding of the situation (even if they're not sure if he still wants to talk about this), so maybe this will finally get him to reconsider his stance! Only time will tell.

Overall, though, I stand by my point that if Niosi makes a living, it should be somewhere far away from the public eye. Don't give him a platform to find new fans to take advantage of. Don't give his victims the opportunity to be retraumatized whenever they start a new game of show. He's been given more than enough chances. It's time to turn over a new leaf instead of digging his heels into the ground.

Still, I don't know if Kyle will change his mind at this point. I want him to - I tried, back when his Twitter was still up - but even at this stage he's doubled down on a situation he knows he might not have the full story on and I'm not sure if I can trust that. For any other fans, give this some thought - keep an eye out for any future developments if you still want to have faith in him, move on from him if you can't stand it. I just want him to at least hold his friend accountable instead of trying to shield him from the lasting consequences of his own actions.

(I'll be linking future updates here: #1, #2 and #3 for now.)

[festive-unserious-fellow]

This shot is going to haunt me for at LEAST the next couple months. Like. It's driving me insane. And it's all because of one stupid, tiny detail.

The blood drips on Vox's mouth

Now, there are 3 reasons this is bothering me so much. 1 is obviously the fact that THEY ARE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF HIS MOUTH, 2 is that there's no real reason the blood drips would be appearing in this moment, and 3 is that this is part of a sequence where VAL AND ANGEL ALSO BOTH HAVE PINK LIQUID DRIPPING FROM THEIR MOUTHS.

Now, there are possible, very reasonable explanations for the blood drips(which I feel the need to clarify have been CONSISTENTLY on the left side of his mouth in every shot except for like one other): it could be an animation error, simple as that. It could also be that they just switched the sides so the blood drips would be more noticeable, but I'm not really sure why they would do that? Because A, I edited the screenshot so that the blood drips are in their normal position and it literally looks fine

And B, why would it be extra important for us to know the drips are THERE unless they have some kind of significance in the context of Poison? Every detail in an animated show is deliberate because each panel literally has to be drawn out. If they flipped Vox's blood drips to the other side in this scene in order to draw attention to it, then there's a REASON behind it, there is something important going on here.

I think it's also important to acknowledge the only OTHER time Vox's blood drips have been on the right, this shot in the finale:

Though in this shot there's also an extra drip on the left, and the two on the right are both different sizes, which. Isn't how they normally look. The drips in this frame just overall look a lot more natural then the usual ones? Which I haven't added a picture of yet but they look like this

Two, same sized red stripes on the left side of his mouth. Anyways those are the only two times they look different, and the two moments have literally nothing in common so I can't figure out why they would be different THERE. The best explanation I can think of for the one from the finale is that a story board artist made an artistic choice(hence the drips looking significantly more natural, mor like Alastor's at the end of Stayed Gone), and then it never got changed or corrected or whatever because the frame where his face is right up in the camera last for like a split second. But Idk. That explanation doesn't really apply to the Poison shot because they look EXACTLY the same aside from being on the wrong side and the Poison shot lasts a lot longer than the close up in the finale does.

I would also like to point out that the drips switching sides is NOT a Val make out session exclusive, because when they're making out in the finale, the drips are still on the left. Like you can see the right side of his mouth in this shot and it's completely drip free.

That was a LOT of text for just one section but ONTO REASON NUMBER 2!!!!!! There is no reason Vox would be doing the fucking mouth bleeding thing in that scene.

Those blood drips only appear on Vox's mouth when he's really, REALLY worked up. The times we see them he's typically REALLY angry or REALLY excited. Like, emotions that would typically cause an adrenaline rush. And there's no real reason he would be having an adrenaline rush in this scene? Like unless wanting to make out with someone real real bad gives you an adrenaline rush I wouldn't know I'm ace. But even if that IS the case, shouldn't the drips disappear after Angel interupts them?

There's no energy in his expression when he looks at Angel, no real evidence that he's feeling anything beyond "ugh this guy again". No reason he would still have the drips. And it's not even really an animation thing, because there was plenty of time to get the drips to subtly go away in this shot. But no. They stay for the whole time. Also, while looking through GIFs to find one of this scene, I noticed that Vox literally NEVER has the blood drips when he's frowning. There a couple shots where it would make sense for the drips to appear(like when he calls Adam a pussy for not killing Al), but they don't, and in all of those shots he's frowning. So for this to be the ONLY TIME the blood drips don't dissappear when he stops smiling? Idk seems kinda sus.

Now. The final, and possibly most concerning reason this scene won't leave me the fuck alone: Angel and Val are drooling to.

(IM SO SORRY FOR THE HORRIBLE QUALITY I HAD TO GET THE SCREENSHOT FROM A LOW QUALITY REPOST OF THE MUSIC VIDEO OFF OF YOUTUBE-)

It's really, really subtle, like to the point where I didn't actually notice it until I saw somebody else point it out, but in the scene where Angel is breaking down after all the SHIT Val put him through over the course of the Poison music video, he has a little bit of neon pink coming out of his mouth. He then wipes it away, looks at his hand, and turns to look at Vox & Val.

And Val has it to. All three of them have the same bright pink dripping from their mouths. And granted, Vox & Val are in a very limited color pallette, and the red in Vox's design got swapped for that same bright pink, and his drips are usually the same red as his eyes, but the fact that it's the same color as the spit(?) coming out of Angel & Val's mouths should at least be a little noteworthy, right?

ALSO!!!!!!! I literally just now put this together- the pink substance is coming off of the right side of Vox and Angel's mouths, but the left side of Val's. It's a small detail, but given that the main reason this scene is driving me up the goddamn walls is that Vox's drips are ON THE WRONG SIDE OF HIS MOUTH, there's gotta be something to it.

Anyways, these points have all been driven into the ground already. Everybody and their mother have been taking this scene and analyzing it, saying the same shit I just did in a bunch of different ways. I'm rehashing all of this because it's relevant to the conversation, but at this point it's kinda like just pointing out the obvious. BUT! I do want to try bringing something new to the table, something that might ALSO explain why Vox's drips are on the wrong side(again, same side as Angel's), so bear with me here:

I've pointed this out before, but Poison is a pseudo dream sequence. It's constantly cutting back and forth between Angel living it up vs him suffering extensively. This is the most obvious during the dance sequence with the giant blue screens(which I cannot provide a GIF of bcuz I have already reached the image limit for this post-). The very obvious dichotomy is meant to show us how Angel uses his mask to cope with the constant abuse, he literally says he's dissociating in the song, but it ALSO means that a lot of the stuff we're seeing in this sequence isn't literal. The scene with Vox and Val might be part of that.

Vox and Val are in a very different color pallette from everything surrounding them. They're both colored in dark blues and neon pink, purple & blue. The demon beside them, however, is not. That demon is colored more naturally. And while, from a technical stand point, I think it's mostly just to make sure Vox & Val pop and are the center of our attention, it could ALSO mean that this is specifically a part of Angel's dream sequence. It's how Angel sees them. And Vox's drips are on the wrong side.

Now, I don't wanna say that this means Angel feels that Vox is in a similar situation to him, because it feels. Weird. But then again, this shot is the only thing we have on Angel's view of Vox! We know plenty about how Vox views Angel, it's not like. Specific. It's just pretty obvious that Vox Does Not Like Him. But we have nothing concrete on Angel's view of Vox(or Velvette for that matter but that's not relevant rn). Which is interesting, because Angel DEFINITELY has oppinions on him. Vox is dating Valentino, Angel's abuser, and never does anything to stop the abuse. That's gotta lead to some built up resentment, y'know? But all we have right now to show us Angel's view of Vox is something that, if you look deep enough, seems to imply he feels more empathetic towards the guy then anything else? Again, Vox and Angel's pink drips are on the right. Valentino's pink drips are on the left. Vox's blood drips are almost always on the left. But they aren't here. They're on the same side as Angel's. You see what I'm getting at here? Wether Angel is RIGHT about Vox being "on the same side" as he is remains to be determined, but still.

Anyways, I could just be over thinking this. I have a long, storied history of taking small details that are probably just mistakes and blowing them completely out of proportion. Ask literally any of my friends abour Bird Teeth and they will confirm. Plus, I'm probably gonna end up over thinking this shit for all of May and completely change my mind on what the reversed blood drips mean, I have a tendency to do that. But for now this is my theory; the reason Vox's blood drips are on the wrong side of his mouth in Poison is because Angel views Vox as being in a similar situation with Valentino to the one he himself is in. Not the exact same, but similar enough to warrant sympathy at the very least.

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Gaersnae

This one seems to be flying under the radar, identification-wise, much more than I expected, which is a pleasant surprise. I don't have anything else to add at the beginning of this post. The entry people are working from is here:

And if you don't know what this "bestiaryposting" business is, you can find an explanation and all previous posts at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

Now, art in roughly chronological order:

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has made the entirely logical decision that the "king of crawling things" should be whichever creature has the most legs, and drawn us a millipede large enough to fight a weasel. I think this is a good and sensible direction, and that's a quality depiction of a millipede/weasel fight right there.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) has gone in a more rodent-y direction, with the interesting detail that, as a result of living in caves, its legs are gradually becoming vestigial. I think this is also quite clever, and the rat is pretty cute.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) decided that the "king of crawling things" should have no legs, as maximum crawling happens when one is flat on one's belly. Hence our crowned snake -- complete with a bird going down in flames near the top of the drawing, and a weasel/Hreksong invading the burrows near the bottom. I think the "crown" works really well, and it's always nice to see a callback to previous beasts. As usual, CheapSweets has provided an interesting and informative explanation of their design in the linked post -- I particularly liked the phrase "pelvic spur for extra rizz".

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) is running with the idea of a creature that kills with its scent (and has white stripes), so we have this amazing picture of a skunk zapping an owl out of the sky. The medieval skunk is excellent -- I think if they had skunks in medieval Europe, that's probably how they would have drawn them -- and the scribbly owl is just delightful. Check the linked post for additional observations and a link to a short but informative source about medieval owls.

@pomrania (link to post here) also has some skunk inspiration going on here, though their version has some extra legs and a kind of boar-like face. A very informative series of drawings about how this thing can kill you -- I particularly like the one with the little scroll reading "deadly!!"

@strixcattus (link to post here) has contributed an invertebrate, which I think makes this one of the only entries that's gotten more than one of those. And that's a solid drawing of an arthropod -- I also like the lettering at the bottom right there. As usual, I implore you to read the write-up in the linked post, where the animal is re-imagined from the perspective of a modern naturalist.

Okay, Aberdeen Bestiary:

So this is actually a case of the artist's preconceptions making them mess it up a bit. You may notice that it does not fit the description. It also sticks out a bit in the context of the bestiary, because it's in the "snake" section of the manuscript.

What's happened here is that this is the entry for the basilisk, but the artist has drawn a cockatrice. This is not actually unusual, as the two mythical beasts are hopelessly entangled in the tradition; I looked into it a bit, and it seems like there's actually some confusion about where the cockatrice even comes from. Probably the reason the two creatures have similar powers attributed to them is because the cockatrice kind of inherited that aspect from the basilisk.

(See, e.g., Breiner, Laurence A. "The Career of the Cockatrice." Isis, vol. 70, no. 1, 1979, pp. 30–47.)

Anyway, the basilisk is so called because it is the king of snakes -- basileus is Greek for "king", and -iskos is a diminutive. Little king.

(The translation provided by the University of Aberdeen, "king of crawling things," is unusual -- the Latin reads "rex serpentium". It's possible this translation choice is because of the flexibility of the term "serpent".)

This is a creature originally described by classical authors and then passed along through medieval European sources. It has white stripes, often some sort of "crown" on its head, is venomous, and is sometimes said to distinguish itself from other snakes by holding the front part of its body regally upright... yeah, it's obviously a cobra that's been telephoned and exaggerated into being ludicrously deadly. Just swap out "weasel" for "mongoose" -- I think that's pretty clearly a case of some author who distantly predated scientific taxonomy just going, "looks like a weasel to me".

Also, this entry ends with:

The creature called sibilus is the same as the regulus, or basilisk; for it kills with its hiss before it bites or burns.

I am not aware of any creature called sibilus.

[cannibal-walleye]

@a-plethora-of-peters’ So Much for Stardust au has had me in a chokehold the past few days, so... ART! Fic link below (READ IT I say) as well as me talking about things

Ft. aliens Zed, Tango, and Impulse (still tweaking Imp design) and a very traumatized human Skizz

Warnings! Blood, scars, but also hugs n comfort :')

Fic Link:

So Much For Stardust - Chapter 1 - Cringe_Is_Dead (A_Plethora_Of_Peters) - Hermitcraft SMP [Archive of Our Own]

Quick summary for context, it follows human Skizz after he was abducted from earth by the "Defectors" and essentially tortured and treated like an animal before being rescued by space cops. Team ZIT is a group of scientists whose job is to determine how intelligent alien species are, and they're tasked with figuring it out for Skizz in order to know what crime the Defectors will be convicted of (were they poaching & murdering animals or people?). But they don't speak English, so good luck with that. And Skizz has trauma. :]

Now excuse me while I wax eloquent on random things about the art and the fic itself:

I don't think it's difficult to tell, but my favs are Impulse and Skizz lol. I don't usually like drawing them all so differently from their minecraft skins (especially Tango, in this case), but decided to just go all out making them look a lil alien and I think I went too far for Imp. Might redo, give him more skin instead of scales. Also, his clothes r just grey bc I couldn't figure out what colors to give that wouldn't clash horribly lmao.

Also in case you couldn't tell, I ADORE the hurt/comfort this fic has, the concept is so fascinating and just PERFECT for this kinda thing, the angst is delectable. It's the kind of fic where the longer you consider the scenario that Skizz is in, the more tragic and heartbreaking it gets, for everyone involved. I tried drawing a couple other hug/comfort scenes but scrapped them bc I didn't like how they turned out, might retry later.

As for the fic itself, I'm very excited to see where it goes, hanging on the edge of my seat. I only learned about it like 5 days ago and I think I've read it 3 times (AND ITS OVER 100k WORDS???), not to mention how I reread my favorite scenes over and over (chapter 10 ESPECIALLY, I tried to draw like 7 times but it was all hot garbage lol). I'm slightly worried but also itching to get to the climax they mentioned in the last update. I have a couple theories/ things I kinda want to happen.

First, they've mentioned a few times that ZIT doesn't have the data on what the Defectors actually did to Skizz, even though they should have had it from the start. This hints at 2 VERY juicy things, one, that they're being sabotaged. It seems the Defectors are trying to prevent ZIT from determining Skizz's sapience, and in the absolute worst-case scenario, I can see this going so far as them trying to hurt/kidnap/kill Skizz while he's under their protection, which would be just... evil >:))) and traumatizing. and scary. it would just be so juicy if they got separated after all this bonding and healing and growing love they got for each other. Idk if that's where it's going but we'll see. Second, they're already so devastated every day (especially Zed) by Skizz's obvious trauma and scars, breakdowns, triggers, etc, and they don't even know what happened. But if/when they do get their hands on that information, well... I imagine it'd absolutely break all three of them, to the point where they wouldn't even know what to do with Skizz, they'd feel incredibly guilty, angry, heartbroken, everything over him-- not to mention them becoming overwhelmingly protective over Skizz, wanting to just get retribution on the defectors, maybe break some bones, spill some blood, ya know. (PROTECTIVE IMPULSE PLEASEEEE). Meanwhile Skizz is just tryna eat gapples without hurling and narrowly avoiding panic attacks every time he sees Tango.

I could talk for hours about this, but I think that's enough for now lol. I shall continue to spin them around in my head for the next month, and you should too, I highly recommend.

[utilitycaster]

Would LOVE that essay on combat in dnd because full agree. But not even just for people watching live play, like, combat is an essential feature of dnd as a game system and it endlessly frustrates me when i see dms be like “yeah combat is just too complicated and no fun so i dont do it in my game :)!” Like i guess thats your right, but any non-caster class is gonna be miserable in your game. I saw a video recently talking about how dnd has kind of become the default ttrpg and is marketed as the perfect system for everyone and any style of play which is just. So not true. Combat in dnd is equally as integral as roleplay is and theres really no argument otherwise. Very valid if you hate dnd combat, it sure isnt for everyone, but in that case maybe play a different ttrpg where the characters arent constructed around combat abilities, i promise you’ll have more fun.

So this is one of those things that touches on maybe 99% of my feelings on Experiencing Fiction in general and actual play in particular; I apologize in advance for the length and digressions within this response.

Here are the reasons I have seen or I surmise why people don’t like D&D combat, either in actual play or in home games:

It can get crunchy and involves a lot of rules

There are long stretches in which individuals do not necessarily act (not exclusive to combat but I think this is a factor)

It contains violence

There is a potential for character death

Now, it’s fine if you aren’t interested in D&D-style combat, for whatever reason, when you play ttrpgs. It’s just that this is a core feature of D&D. As you say, this is what the martial classes are structured around - and, frankly, no small number of casting classes/subclasses as well. By avoiding it when you play D&D, you’re avoiding the bulk of the game, and there are plenty of ttrpgs that permit open RP that aren’t combat focused that would probably fit your needs better (eg: PbtA and Savage Worlds are both generic systems that can support a heroic fantasy like D&D without the emphasis on combat skills). I happen to love and prefer D&D, but that is specifically because I love combat, and yeah, there are other games and people should seek out those games if they don’t like combat.

When it comes to D&D actual play though…skipping combat is just straight-up stupid. And to be clear I mean fully skipping it and not watching it at all; while this is piggybacking off my post about spoilers, it’s fine if you are the sort of person who needs to know how combat ends in order to enjoy it! That’s just a personal preference that I respect even if I don’t share it.

D&D combat isn’t just an inherent part of the game; it’s an inherent part of the story. The idea of D&D being split into combat and RP is a false dichotomy. There is RP and crucial story within combat scenes, and you simply do not achieve the same effects by reading an after-the-fact summary. To use examples from Critical Role, consider one of the most famous RP moments from Campaign 1, when Scanlan uses his 9th level counterspell in the Vecna fight. The weight of that moment derives from mechanics and from the fact that it is in the midst of combat and well into a climatic final battle. Or for lighter examples, there’s a ton of Beau/Yasha and Fjord/Jester mid-combat flirting running through much of Campaign 2 that informs those relationships. Molly’s death? Caleb going into a fugue state when he kills humanoids with fire? Yasha destroying Obann? Fjord dying mid-deep scion fight? Those are all moments that have deep character weight and meaning that are within the context of combat, and you cannot divorce them from that context and hope to retain the same effect.

This is what dovetails into a larger discussion of Experiencing Fiction which is a (in my opinion) worrying tendency among some people to truly believe that you can cut up media into the palatable bits and pieces and push all of what you see as icky vegetables to the side of your plate. I fucking hate this. I think it’s what drives a lot of things including a distaste for combat. This is how you get, for example, people who dislike combat because Violence And Death Bad, which, do I think that in the real world violence is most often a thing to be avoided? Do I think that in the real world death is heartbreaking? Yes, but this is fiction. There’s that great Brennan Lee Mulligan quote about how TTRPGs like D&D allow people who usually must be conflict-avoidant in real life to let out their anger and frustration in a place where it is safe and harmless, and I believe that whole-heartedly. I want stories about death because I want to know I'm not alone in how I feel about death. I want stories in which people can express their rage in ways both healthy and unhealthy, because big same. (I also think it’s absolutely not coincidental that people who believe they are ‘protecting’ people by circumscribing what is acceptable in fiction tend to be strongly associated with either bigoted, violent policies in real life, or harassment and doxxing online; maybe enjoy a fucked up movie, as John Waters once said, and you'll calm down.)

This idea that you can cut up media and only consume what you like is also what I think is behind some of the really ill-considered and overly granular timestamped content warnings I’ve mentioned previously. It is fine if there are things you don’t want to watch or which will be upsetting or even triggering to watch! It’s fine if you as an individual don’t like violence! But I think there’s a problem when people believe they are entitled to be able to watch whatever they want and have it mold to their exact wants and needs (and that it’s a failing if it doesn’t), rather than taking on the responsibility of seeking out media that already fits the bill. Actual Play D&D will nearly always have violent encounters. If this will be an issue this is not for you. It is not gatekeeping to say “you can come through this gate, but the gate is in fact here for your specifically requested protection"; and yet people think that instead, gates should be placed around everything else. So (to give an example) this is why the warnings for D20’s Neverafter strike me as a symptom of this larger problem - if you have discomfort with violence towards animals and children, that’s fine, but you are watching a D&D horror series in which over half the player characters are either animals or children. This is not something where you can skip a few seconds of a flashing gif that might be a migraine or seizure trigger, or a case where an exceptionally rough scene of gaslighting can be read instead of watched; this is inherent to the show, and if this is not for you, you need to go elsewhere.

To give one last example, I was looking for fanart for Worlds Beyond Number, and came across a picture of Suvi with a caption of “Suvi but without the imperialism” and like…Aabria has said in interviews that this engagement with the empire is extremely deliberate; that Suvi is intended to be tied into the political structures of this world as an intentional contrast with Eursulon’s status as an outsider and Ame’s role at the smaller, community level. Suvi without imperialism is not identifiable as the same character and it throws the entire story off-kilter; she is of this empire and that is the fucking point. Any story worth telling is not just items thrown haphazardly into a bowl; they are combined and mixed. Someone is giving you a plate of brownies and you are acting like it’s physically possible to take out the cocoa powder without fucking the end result, and buddy, it’s not.

(Truly, I was not joking when I said this is like, the load-bearing pillar of most of my complaints about fiction consumption patterns in general. This is about how people will deny the flaws in characters even though any reasonably intelligent ten-year-old, and I know because I fucking was one once, understands that person vs. themself is one of the core conflicts and overcoming one’s flaws is in many cases the entire story and if you start out perfect there is nothing to be said. Like…I think a lot of people genuinely just want to watch a nonstop Monterey Bay Otter Cam of their sufficiently sanitized, focus-group-tested blorbos baking cookies together, and are affronted when people with the tiniest sliver of empathy and/or curiosity want a story with plot and character growth, which in turn require conflict.)

Anyway. I think the takeaways here are that there’s this awful entitlement people have in which they think that they can simply consume anything and it is the failure of that media if it doesn’t cater specifically to them, rather than a failure of them to seek out that which they would enjoy (and I could go on this rant indefinitely; it is truly the most constant theme among Takes I Think Are Dumb); and also I really want to bake something right now, given my choices of metaphor. Combat is part of D&D as a game and as a storytelling medium, and it is incumbent upon people who do not like combat to find something that doesn’t have D&D combat, rather than try to pull out the vital organs of the story.

[thatpodcastkid]

Magnus Archives Relisten 1, MAG 1

Very excited to begin this project! I will be updating Saturdays and Mondays, so feel free to listen along and let me know what you are thinking. I will be discussing each episode within the larger context of the show, so spoilers ahead!

I am starting with MAG 1, Angler Fish.

Oh, how I missed that cello intro.

Facts: Statement of Nathan Watts, April 22nd, 2012, taking place in Old Fish Market Close, Edinburgh. I want to keep track of statement times and places so that we could get some semblance of a timeline.

Character Notes: I forgot how autobiographical Jon gets in this first episode. He spends the first ten minutes just describing the archive, how he came to work there, and who he is. If he was just attempting to catalogue the stamens, this seems unnecessary. But, as we know, he wasn't exactly qualified to be an archivist.

Jon describes himself as a not believing in the supernatural and the archive as where the "dead end cases" end up. It's suspicious that Elias would hire someone who doesn't believe in the supernatural at all to look into the cases with the least evidence, which foreshadows that Jon wasn't hired because of his research or archival skills.

Another part of this episode that I really love is where Jonny puts the listeners focus in terms of character. At the beginning of the episode, Jon kind of glazes over Tim and Sasha to talk about how much he hates Martin, which in turn makes the listener ignore Tim and Sasha to think about Martin. Jonny really draws your attention to what's important there.

Additionally, at the end of the episode, Jonny brings the focus back to Sasha as he describes all the online research and computer-related work she does. So from the get-go, he was showing us how involved she was with the archive and how committed she was to work.

And of course, it wouldn't be TMA without Jon's complete tonal shift from describing to reading the statement. It's such a stark contrast.

Statement Notes: It's been said before, but the fact that the statement that draws Jon in is called "Angler Fish." Especially after hearing how immediately when he starts reading the statement, his voice changes. He is completely absorbed in it from the moment he starts reading. I know we all make fun of the way Jon acts out the statements, but he just can't stop himself. Once the statements start, he's no longer in control. We hear this in his voice from MAG 1, but don't realize how intense it is until Martin has to shake him out of statements in season 5.

It stuck out to me that Nathan was drunk when he met the thing in the alley. This serves as a reason for Jon to dismiss the statement, but I vaguely remember several statement givers being under the influence, which makes me wonder if entities specifically choose to prey on intoxicated people because they have a lower capacity to reason. Maybe because they're more likely to act based on fear than logic?

Entity Alignment: The entities overlap a lot, especially in this episode, so I'm going to share all the entity vibes I got and hear what others think.

Going on imagery alone, there's definitely something to be said about The Dark in this episode. The fact that actual angler fish live in the darkest section of the ocean and the creature refused to let itself be fully seen really bring that fear into this episode. Also, when Sasha reconstructs the photo one of the missing people took of the creature, Jon says it's on a stairwell. I remember the creature on the stairs episode being pretty Dark-aligned, though I doubt they're related.

But, the fact that Nathan and the listener are afraid of the creature because they can't see it and don't know what it is makes me think of The Stranger, too. Nathan says that, "whatever was asking, it wasn't the thing in the alley well," which really reminds me of "I don't even have a voice box." The creature isn't speaking for itself, an unknown voice is coming from an unknown place and it's asking for a cigarette. Nathan also says that when he told people about what he saw, they didn't believe him, only responding with "pity and concern." This is similar to how people would treat those who remembered the people The Stranger replaced: they were treated like they were acting weird and different, when it was the Not!Person. Also, before Watts realizes the thing in the alley isn't human, he calls it "The Stranger."

Yet, the entity I believe is really aligned with this statement, is The Web. With everything from Jon asking for a cigarette before trying to blow up the world, to his spider lighter, to this being the statement that draws him into the archive and leads to him becoming the Archivist, this episode is so reminiscent of Annabelle Cane and her plot (Can you say reminiscent before something happens? Is it just "miniscent"?). There were two things that really got me thinking this was a Spider ep though.

Number one, when the creature disappears, Nathan describes it, "as if a string had gone taut and pulled it back." This really seems like Annabelle or The Web itself had placed the creature there, let it play its part, and then yanked it off stage when it was done.

The second part being the very last line in the show. Sasha, IT god that she is, reconstructs the image of the creature, and a hand is visible in the darkness. Jon, without an ounce of professional distance or feigned objectivity, says, "I find it oddly hard to shake off the impression that it's beckoning." And just- Oh my god. Jon. It's beckoning him. It's calling to him. It's telling him to keep coming back. Telling him to change. To disappear. To become another mystery. It was all planned from day one. He never had a choice but still made all the wrong ones.

Anyway,

Will be posting about MAG 2 on Monday! Please share your thoughts on this episode, hope you enjoyed reading. Also hope that you have a great day, because you deserve it.

[cenvast]

toshiro in your fanfic seems to like hugging/holding/cuddling kabru a lot. i forgot if he is like that in the manga but would you say he would be the more cuddlier of the two (especially with kabru)?

you're definitely right about toshiro being touch-starved in my fic sldkfj the short answer to your question is that yes, he's clingier than kabru in their relationship. i'll explain why i wrote him this way!

in canon, toshiro seems to dislike affectionate physical contact from other people. he appears to be uncomfortable with laios' touch though it's unclear if that's just influenced by his relationship with laios. in my memory, the only other person to consistently touch him is maizuru, who he ignores, since it's usually in the context of her grooming him as his servant. i would still categorize her touch as affectionate since she cares for him deeply and still dotes on him. we see falin touch him to rescue him from the nightmares, which sort of counts as affection since healing is a type of care, but he doesn't look particularly comfortable there either.

kabru touches people, including toshiro, much more casually than toshiro does. he shakes and squeezes laios' hand. he hugs rin. he grips mithrun's shoulders. etcetera. kabru is very comfortable using touch as a tool to foster intimacy in his relationships.

opposingly, we can glean from canon that toshiro hasn't experienced much physical affection in his life. he comes from a household where loving touch is rare. his father and hien don't hug him for comfort when he cries as a child. we rarely see maizuru hug him or touch him affectionately. multiple factors contribute to his physical distance from others including his culture's norms, his parents' general neglect, and his noble status. it'd be inappropriate for servants like maizuru or hien to frequently hug him even as a child, so if his father and mother weren't hugging him, no one really was.

i personally think that since toshiro hasn't experienced much touch, he doesn't know how much he craves it. although some people try to be physically affectionate with him, he's uncomfortable because his guard remains up. the situation with kabru is different because 1. they've already had sex, so the most embarrassing situation (or the reveal of his inner desires) is out of the way. it costs him little to take the next step after sex and ask kabru to cuddle 2. they're in a private setting.

at the beginning of the fic, toshiro chases physical closeness to kabru because it feels good and it's easier to ask for more when kabru initiates things. the intimacy kabru grants toshiro is something he isn't getting anywhere else in his life, so he takes as much of it as he can get. at least at first, toshiro is kind of latching onto the first guy that gives him affection without crossing his boundaries. he does like kabru as a person, ofc. i don't think he'd look so comfortable with kabru touching him so soon after getting to know him in canon if that wasn't the case. and in my fic, toshiro's feelings for kabru do eventually develop into something deeper. but overall, he's also just silly lol

kabru, on the other hand, enjoys physical affection, but he's not as starved for it as toshiro. historically, his main issue has been preventing his relationships from reaching beyond a certain level of emotional intimacy, so he highly values the fact that he and toshiro are openly and vocally in love with each other; that's what's rocking his world. their emotional intimacy is also important to toshiro, but he just has that added layer of trying to make up for 26 years of not being hugged alkjflfdkj

[positivelybeastly]

Results of the Quiz!

As you may recall, just over three weeks ago, I posted this quiz, so that I could test all of your knowledge of the ever elusive, ever effusive Hank McCoy - and here are all the results!

Now, I know for a fact that you only got 9, and that you flubbed the girlfriend question, because you told me as much, but you did still get the best score out of everyone, so, congratulations!

Extremely good score. This is elite results. Uncanny. Astonishing, even . . .

Very good. Honestly, this is the point at which I think people were only getting questions wrong because those questions were insane to ask in the first place, heehee.

Eminently excellent scores! Not that I would expect any different, I know all three of these fine individuals, and they've been kind enough to let me blather to them often enough that I expect they've internalised a lot of it.

Firmly good scores! Of the ten questions, I'd say only four were common knowledge, so getting above four is a good score, honestly. Though, Abby, Raze, you may want to get to know your beau a touch better. ;)

Respectable scores! About the level of knowledge I'd expect, honestly, because as far as I know, some normal people do follow me. :P It has been known.

Remedial classes! But hey, you did good. Nothing to be ashamed of here.

I'm proud that none of my followers got a zero. I think the world of all of you, and you showed me exactly why that's the case here. <3

Look below for the answers and the context!

What was Hank's first girlfriend called?

Hank's first girlfriend, as revealed in X-Men Unlimited vol. 1 #10, was called Mindy! A short lived fling during high school, she was sadly killed by Dark Beast during his infiltration of Hank's life. Jennifer Nyles was Hank's second girlfriend, who he was with when he was first recruited to the X-Men, and who had her memory of Hank wiped by Charles Xavier. Vera was Hank's third girlfriend, whom he met at Coffee-A-Go-Go! during the original 60s run of Uncanny X-Men.

Hank's fur was originally what colour?

A slightly unfair question, because I believe the original intention was for Hank's fur to come out black, but due to printing and colour limitations of the time, it actually came out grey, which is what modern recolours of the initial issues of Hank's first mutation have run with. It later turned blue towards the end of Hank's run on Amazing Adventures.

Which of these organisations is Hank NOT an official member of?

Hank has, in fact, been a member of the Illuminati (New Avengers vol. 3), the Britney Spears Fan Club (Wolverine), and the Stark Industries Board of Shareholders (Astonishing X-Men). Despite having two longtime friends and teammates on the Champions, as well as making a cameo in that title, he is not an official member of the team.

What is the universe designation for the world that Dark Beast comes from?

The Age of Apocalypse where Dark Beast comes from has been designated as Earth-295 in retrospect. Earth-1610 is the original Ultimate Universe, Earth-616 is the mainline Marvel comics universe, Earth-199999 is the MCU designation, Earth-63 is a world where all mutants are of African descent, and Earth-42 is where Miles Morales ends up at the end of the second Spider-Verse movie.

Which of these characters is Hank's best friend?

Though Hank has been friends with Jean Grey, Scott Summers, and Bobby Drake for far longer, he and Simon Williams have always identified each other as mutual best, dearest friends. While Hank's friendship with Emma Frost is very dear to me, sadly, it never got much focus after Grant Morrison stopped writing both characters.

Where does the idea that Beast likes Twinkies so much come from?

Though Marvel has had a long standing advertising and promotional arrangement with Hostess, the idea that Beast likes Twinkies to an unhealthy amount comes from an issue of X-Men from the late 1990s, where he posts up his New Year's Resolutions, which include curing the Legacy Virus, reading more 12th century texts, and eating less Twinkies.

Which type of animal did Hank once claim that his mother was allergic to so he was never allowed to have one as a child?

When Hank first acquired his puppy Sassafras, he claimed that he saw her in the window of a pet shop while out jogging and couldn't say no to her, stating that his mother had never allowed him to have a dog as a child because she was allergic. Precisely where Sassafras went after the events of New Defenders is, unfortunately, unknown.

Which of the following musical artists has Hank NOT been shown listening to across his comics history?

Hank has, in fact, been shown to enjoy listening to the Rolling Stones (Generation X), Oingo-Boingo (Multiple Man), Frank Sinatra (Uncanny X-Men), and Devo (Astonishing X-Men). Though he has not yet been shown to have listened to Taylor Swift, it isn't out of the question, given his apparent appreciation for Britney Spears.

When did Beast first meet the new team of X-Men (Wolverine Colossus Nightcrawler Storm etc)?

Beast makes an appearance in Uncanny X-Men #111 (1978) investigating the seeming disappearance of the new generation of X-Men, and when he finds them trapped in Mesmero's circus, he makes numerous references to not knowing them well enough to say whether or not the people he's seeing are them or not, indicating that he hasn't yet met them. It's only when he sees Scott and Jean that he realises it's definitely the X-Men.

Who was Beast's first successful brain surgery performed on?

When Rogue neutralised the Red Skull, who had had Charles Xavier's brain grafted onto his so as to claim his telepathic talents, she took him to Hank so that he could remove the Professor's brain from the Skull's. He makes the remark that he's just completed his first successful brain surgery while washing up, to which Rogue claims that it's no great loss if he was unsuccessful. Whether or not Beast had attempted unsuccessful brain surgery prior to this point is never clarified.

[stackslip]

what if you are a victim of sexual violence and you do feel forever damaged and angry though? what if you do feel that your perpetrators are evil?

so first of all, anon, i get you. your emotions and feelings about this are your own, and i'm not saying that they are fake or wrong. you're not a bad person for hating your abusers, and you're not wrong/bad for feeling damaged and angry. what i will gently push back on is that these are your feelings--i don't know your situation, past or current, and even if i did i still wouldn't be in a position to judge how you react to traumatic events. these are your own, nobody can take them away from you. what i am trying to say is, sexual violence does not have a specific essence different from other forms of violence that irredeemably damages its victims. rather, societal insistence that sexual violence is a black mark upon its victims, and a system made to fuck over victims of abuse and violence of any kind, leaving them little space or material resources to be able to heal in peace, leave many survivors barely able to stay afloat. it is normal to feel damaged when 1) you are told constantly that the thing that was done to you makes you lesser than, that it is your fault, and that you should not be able to talk about it or obtain any closure from it 2) for many survivors, ever since the violence occurred, they've been struggling with poverty, with being mocked and going through further abuse, with having very little space or material/emotional support to process and heal the pain they've been through, which compounds the feeling of being irreperably damaged. support of survivors *is* crucial to me. you should be able to leave your abuser and be in a space far away from them, to feel safe, to not have to worry about your material needs as your grieve and heal, to not being reinforced that you are broken beyond repair.

as for the question of your perpetrators, i'm not asking you to forgive and move on. again i do not know the context of what happened to you, but even then i cannot force you to feel anything, and forcing survivors in absolving their abusers in order to feel better does not do much. you cannot be forced to not hate somebody who's done harm to you! what i will try to push back on, though, is the notion that anybody is ontologically evil, and that figuring out who belongs in a class of ontologically evil people in order to wipe them out because they are Bad People Who Do Bad Things is not ultimately helpful as a whole. i'm not saying "if you killed your rapist you'd feel worse" bc that might not be the case. i'm saying that as a whole, a society that designates a group of people as irredeemably evil, and whose understanding of sexual violence is that it is done by Bad People Only who deserve to be lined up and shot, is not actually a society that reduces rates of sexual violence, or has the best interests of survivors at heart. you're allowed to hate your rapists and see them a certain way. but if you are told that the solution is to Kill All Rapists, that this will heal you and others and reduce the risks of sexual violence, the problem is that that just isn't true! if anything, it might make some survivors and perpetrators' families and friends even less likely to want to talk abotu sexual violence, because they have complicated feelings towards their perpetrators or materially depend on them. a society where people take matters into their own hands means even more silence around rape and sexual violence, and more shame around the victim. furthermore, it treats Being A Rapist as something people are born with, an innate evil, rather than the result of societal and economic forces, which then does nothing to actually prevent rape and sexual violence.

your feelings on the things that happened to you and the people who did this to you are real and valid. i am not judging them and nobody should judge you either. you cannot actually force yourself to love someone as yourself or to forgive, especially when you have been given no justice or healing. but also, while your feelings are your own, i will plead to you that using these feelings as justification to push for a worse world is not helpful to you or any other survivor. there are people on here and out there who will use what happened to you to try to convince you of a simple solution, one that they claim is helpful to survivors as they allow them to get justice in their own hands. but that is a lie. they are using your pain, your very real suffering, to obsfucate the real forces behind sexual violence and violence of any kind. they will often make you feel worse--not because revenge is morally bad, but because the idea that you are now irrevocably broken and damaged and that the only thing that can bring you a semblance of satisfaction is seeing all Rapists TM murdered is harmful to you too. it will not help you heal or make the world a better place for other or potential victims of sexual violence. it is a tool that people want to use in order to use it against more vulnerable people, who are seen as disposable and inherently predatory. it will not save you or others. so i am not urging you to forgive, or to magically heal from something traumatic. instead, i'm asking you to be kinder to yourself, to realize that while healing might not be in reach for everyone, including you, that it is because you were failed--not because sexual violence has inevitably broken you and soiled you. i'm asking you to not choose to support people who do not have your interests as a survivor in mind, but instead seek an easy solution with easily designated Bad People. i'm asking you to be kinder to yourself through both these things.

i hope this answer clarifies things somewhat. i wish you well. if you want to talk further about this in private, please feel free to dm me. i do not have all the solutions or the combination for a perfect world free of sexual violence, but i think there are paths to reducing said violence and making things better for survivors. sending you love.

[liskantope]

I of course agree about disliking this thing where people go "X political opponent of mine is weird and awkward, haha", including when it comes from Democrats. In addition to it simply being ableist and hurtful to people who have struggled with social skills - I'm certainly no fan of J. D. Vance, and I imagine you aren't either. But I think there are lots of very intelligent, thoughtful people who would make great policy decisions but aren't especially socially charismatic. (1/2)

(2/2) I really don't think it's a good idea for liberals to reinforce a norm that such people should be disqualified from office.

(This is regarding this post from 10 days ago -- I've been really busy with the new academic semester and so am struggling to find time and the right mindspace to respond to stuff on Tumblr.)

You're right that I'm no fan of Vance: his book that made him famous might have some merits for all I know (I haven't read it), but at least since then he seems to be a completely phony chameleon, and, worst of all, he's chosen to run on a ticket with Trump, which is pretty automatically disqualifying for my respect. That, and all his vitriol towards childless people and cat ladies and so on is much worse than any of the specific examples of ableist undertones I see from the other side.

I'll also say that all the ridicule of Walz's son for standing up and tearfully shouting "That's my dad!" a bit non-neurotypically after Walz's words of love for his children (ugh! God forbid! actual exemplary family values are just dumb and cringey, at least if they come from Democrats!) made me far angrier than any kind of ableism that would come from David Pakman. The only reason I didn't go on a rant about it here is that I already got it out of my system on Facebook. And there's plenty of other garbage coming from the Trump/Vance side about Harris laughing a little strangely (supposedly? her laugh seems pretty normal to me) which makes her intolerable and so forth.

Still, two wrongs don't make a right.

And anyway, I agree that social skills shouldn't be considered such a huge factor in what makes for a qualified politician -- it does need to be somewhat of a factor, but I wish we didn't live in a world where most public support for politicians is based on vibes and most vibes come from superficial mannerisms. It wasn't true 150 years ago and is an unfortunate product of our modern technological world.

Also, if Pakman and his ilk want to point out that Vance was very awkward in the donut shop by typical politician standards and this doesn't bode too well for him because that's how politics works, I wouldn't really have a problem with that. (That's essentially the treatment they gave deSantis.) It's the "ha ha ha, nyah nyah nyah" -flavored mockery, which comes across as being independent of the context of politicians being held to extremely high standards of charisma, that gets to me.

I also might as well mention (though this is less in response to your ask) that this came somewhat in the wake of an earlier Pakman clip that I mentioned in the other post that I was even more annoyed by, didn't bother to post about it at the time, but I just recovered it. Seriously, Pakman, in an uncharacteristically halting way, says the following in anticipation of showing Vance issuing a few kind of evasive and sub-par answers at an event and being a little awkward by politician standards but still less awkward than most ordinary people in their everyday lives:

The only -- uh -- how can I even say this?... The only people I know personally who are this uncharismatic-seeming... Man, it's just so hard to say this without sounding so offensive. There's, like, some explanation, um, that sometimes is... medical in nature... uh, it just sounds so horrible to say... I-I guess what I'm trying to say is, it's... it's a personality that he seems to have that is really an edge case. It's a fringe personality of some way to be this unappealing as a person, some traits of which sometimes connect to medical explanations -- I don't believe they do with JD Vance -- I think he's just really a horrible person, is what I'm trying to say. I hope I'm being kinda like sensitive and not offending anybody.

He can worry as much as he wants about coming across ableist, but, well, what he says is still what he says.

[wheelercore]

The Curious Case of The Dead Wheeler Granny

Also known as: I need to make a cohesive post that actually has context so i can add it to the ✨ master post ✨. So basically if you already know, you know. idk.

So... recently have been thinking A Lot about weird "production errors" (tm) and creel home fuckery + wheeler parallels. Its no secret that there are Many references to the creel home in the wheeler home for whatever reason, from the piano to the wedding dress to even the clock chimes (?) close to the the door way of the wheeler home.

However one of the most fascinating Choices was when the main urn that sat on the wheeler mantle place since s1 suddenly changed to a completely different urn during the convergence of the four gates at the climax of s4. What was the reason for this? It's also no secret that ST is riddled with what we can call "intentional" errors in objects, peoples positions, etc etc. But why a seemingly random object that has been sitting in the background of the home for 4 seasons w/o any special attention? And why at the important climax of the season?

Season 1

Season 4- before the climax

Season 4- after the climax

(and this isnt even to mention the fact that the wheeler dining room is covered in rose vases that mimic the OG urn)

If you reference this back to the mantle place in the Creel home... there is something quite interesting:

A few little trinkets, weirdly placed and evenly spread out. There is a little bird (dove?) statue like how the wheelers have two geese statues sitting on their mantle place. Next to that though? A strange looking golden vase. Mind you, this is happened when Virginia is having her "holding up the mirror" moment. As in this mirror is right there reflecting Virginia and this little urn-looking vase trinket and the rose-y wallpaper behind her (which is interesting given that the OG urn has pink roses on it with a framed picture of pink roses next to it).

Put the Virginia relation in your back pocket for now. Lets go up to the stuff in the Creel attic, which are heavily referenced in the wheeler home, in particular the wedding dress:

Where has have we seen a piece of a brides clothing in s4? In Suzie's home, where her sister Tabitha is wearing a wedding veil, and you guess it, a pink floral (roses? Honestly the color scheme is very similar to the creel wallpaper mentioned above) dress:

In which Tabitha pretends to die. She's not really dying. The joke here is that Tabitha's father had thought she was dying though ("it looked genuine"). And oh... is that the edge of a grandfather clock I see right outside the doorway framed right there this scene?

If I was extra weird about it I could also point out that the letter blocks on Tabitha's bracelet kind of spell out (M?)AMA. But its super blurry and I cant get a good shot of it so take this with a grain of salt:

A little sprinkle of Petergate here but Tabitha is a woman who was raised from the dead by Saint Peter:

Which I mean... If we're going to talk about lying about moms dying? The "Nanas got cancer" gag in s3 in which... Hopper lies about Mikes Nana being sick but then goes onto say:

There's nothing wrong with Nana

Mike then proceeds to repeatedly call him a liar. So... nothing's wrong with Nana? Would that explain the weird trend of people specifically lying over the phone about having a sick family member also in s3/s4?

(credit: screenshots from this @/heroesbyler post - unrelated to this theory, I just think its neat)

And if we're talking about lies:

(oh holly girl... wearing that pink + white outfit and that rose shirt lmao)

And of course: Papa lies.

(don't even get me started on how the grandfather clock most likely represents Brenner ("maybe hes a clock maker?" and s4 literally starting with Brenner setting a timer))

But this begs the question... If, by all accounts, nothing is wrong with Nana, so much so it would be like she was raised from the dead, then who's ashes do the Wheeler's have on their mantle place thinking that its their granny?

Could it be, thinking back to the weird trinket on front of the mirror in the Creel home, Virginia's ashes instead? Quick question, where exactly are Virginia and Alice buried? Did Victor get a say in his wife's funeral arrangements?

And if Nana Wheeler's death was a lie designed to conceal a truth and Papa lies... ah who am i kidding it was martin brenner. it was fucking brenner who else would do some weird shit like this. it was him.

Anyways things like this really make me question why exactly the Wheelers are one of two main families in the show. As far as I know they didn't do much in TFS, so hell, why not Patty? Bob? The Sin Claires?

Regardless, I would really like them to be kind and rewind back to whatever is going on here if you know what I mean

[digiblueslush]

Feeling very intensely over project sekai right now (I’ve pulled almost 150 times for this damn rui card and I have no more energy to keep farming, and also I didn’t realize that the close game offline bachata was coming back so aaaaaa) so here are some random opinions I have and note that I am not a consistent story reader, I’ve read some of them but not every one

1 - out of the units, VBS has the best music. Period. I’d say 90% of their commissions AND covers are spectacular, there’s really only one or 2 covers I can say I’m not fond of, and some of the songs that I think are just ok are still really good, they’re just not my kind of style

2 - honami is not underrated. I will not tolerate “honami is underrated” this “honami is underrated” that. if everyone in the entire universe thinks says that, she’s not. Now, I really have only read 1 or 2 l/n stories, and if people didn’t say she was the best character ever all the time I’d probably like her more, but she is just kinda meh to me

3 - if we want to talk underrated though, HARUKA. Yes I am biased, but still. How often do you see people getting excited about her in the way they do over literally any other character? She’s easily in the top 5 vocals in the game (honestly I’d put her at one but I’ll go more into why that’s not the case in the next blurb). Personality wise (I haven’t kept up with stories in a while so bear with me and my projecting) she’s feels so genuine and mature, and she’s just got this calming presence to her that I really like. Yet I see NOBODY ever talk about her. Have y’all heard her chikyuu saigo cover?? Or really most of the alts she has? She’s amazing and I love her

4 - I have beef with whoever picks/arranges lines for the vocalists if that makes sense? It really didn’t click with me until I heard a part of the l/n Tokyo teddy bear cover. There was a line (and I don’t remember it off of the top of my head so sorry but anyways) that would’ve been AMAZING with shiho’s stronger, deeper vocals. And they gave it to either saki or honami, and it made this really powerful sound something weak and flimsy. And I’ve noticed this a lot in other songs more broadly too. Honami and saki aren’t bad vocalists at all, but the lines they are given don’t fit their voices, and this happens with a majority of the characters. I’d love to give haruka best vocals, because some of her covers are just so beautiful, but some of the songs she’s in really don’t highlight her type of vocals. Top of my head I’m thinking her near cover, where once again it just sounds weak and unenthusiastic. I know not every song can perfectly fit with every vocalist every time, but this genuinely happens so much and it irritates me a lot (and don’t get me started on the vs tuning 75% of the time yeesh) with this specific issue, I think every group does have it to some extent, but n25 is better at giving the right lines to the right vocalist, followed by vbs. And I’d honestly expect n25 to be able to make weird lines assignments work a majority of the time. They all have pretty versatile voices and in my opinion they have the most professional sound out of the 5 groups. With that said, in the context of the game, I’d have to say mizuki’s vocals are number one for me. The way they are able to almost shapeshift their voice is incredible, and I can’t recall a song where I think they sounded out of place. Haruka is still number 2, but it’s a bummer that so many times the vocals sound off because the va’s are given something that simply aren’t in their range, or their voice doesn’t just doesn’t give off the vibe requested from the song.

5 - Leo/need. Where do I even begin. Like I said I haven’t read much of their story nor do I remember it, but I’ve got beef. Please don’t attack me for this, but I really don’t like ichika. I’m sorry it had to be said but most of the time I just can’t stand her. I get that Leo/need is a band type group and she is the vocalist, but this mechanic doesn’t make sense a in a game where every other group everyone gets vocals in songs and b THE DRUMMER AND KEYBOARDISTS SING?? Like if saki was giving harmonies, that’s fine, and I totally get shiho having more vocal lines then saki and honami cuz stage wise she’d still be more up front and it’s not uncommon for guitar/bass players to add to vocals, but it makes no sense for a drummer to have vocal lines. Like in the slightest. Like that’s not how sound works at live shows?? Or lungs?? And with that in mind, I do think it’s actually insane how Leo/need is just Mike and ichika 90% of the time. And ichika in general just annoys me for some reason. Nothing in specific but she urkes me. Last Leo/need opinion for the moment, but going back to the honami is underrated thing, SHIHO. YALL THE DISRESPECT. I honestly don’t care too much for l/n but shiho is the best thing about l/n. I know her 1 cover is decently talked about, but I am OBSESSED with her from Tokyo cover. She somehow can sound edgy but also soft and light at the same time, and honestly I just think she’s really cool in general, and I wish she got more vocals in songs :(

I have more but I’m exhausted. I’ll probably add on to this at some point

[crownonacat]

Prompt: Zip

(Or otherwise how to speed run all ascian bullshit without gaining crippling depression from losing friends

Or otherwise How to Make an Ass out of an Ascian

Or otherwise This Time White Moves First)

-

For context I wanted to write a cracky sort of what would happen if all the WoLs from people I know were to end up in I guess canon(?) ffxiv way back in the beginning? Specifically after Endwalker halfway into their time off before dawntrail WoLs so this is wholly self indulgent and features a lot of friends OCs just for fun

Also featuring a fix-it just cause and also for fun and profit (and also to drive the Ascians up the wall)

Spoilers: For the whole game until EW; this is technically part 1 I will be writing more as I go and then post it on AO3 maybe later cause this got uh Long

(Also do you know the feeling of losing all your formatting cause you wrote everything on your phone yeah ;-;)

Clow wakes up with an awful taste in his mouth and with the feeling like Titan had decided to sit directly on top of his head. If that wasn't enough to tell him he's not wheres he's supposed to be, the fact that he's leaned up against a wall in an alley in rags as well as the empty bottles of what is most definitely the cheapest gil can buy in good old Ul'dah with not a weapon or soul stone on him definitely make the case for him. He's also, for some reason, completely barefoot.

He doesn't drink. Not since Nanamo a decade or so ago.

So he'd forgotten, he thought wincing as he put one arm on the wall to at least get himself kneeling if not at least partially off the ground, how much of a bitch hangovers were. And how bloody bright and annoying the sun could be when it felt like a Morbol had passed away inside his mouth.

Right.

--

The Adventurers Guild had sounded like a decent idea as any to figure out how he'd landed up in Ul'dah of all places. Yes, the rags were a bit much, but surely it was all a misunderstanding of some kind or at the very least talking with someone would let him know how he'd ended up here when the last thing he'd remembered was conking out in Garlemald after making a visit to check on the twins.

The sharp look as well as the terrible facsimile of a polite smile on Momodi's face - sign number seven or thereabouts that something has gone horribly, horribly wrong- when he walks into the Adventurer's Guild though give him second thoughts. The sneering Roegadyn two whole fulms taller than him dressed in full set of armor with a sword the length of his torso that gets called over give him more second thoughts. Enough second thoughts that Clow - even with a headache and a sour mouth and no shoes - makes an about face almost immediately and walks through the door faster than he walked in.

Right.

--

He finds himself seated at the alleyway again leaned up against the wall and watching people walk by feeling awful, smelling quite awful, and with no clues whatsoever.

Further investigation among the empty bottles of piss masquerading as drinks turned up bone hora - again the cheapest gil could buy - that had still seemed decent enough and his Adventurer's plate scuffed with dirt but otherwise fine. No shoes though. And surprisingly, or unsurprisingly based on the general trend of awful that this whole morning has been, an empty gil pouch. Namely, his empty gil pouch.

Now.

Clow would never say he's rich in gil. That statement can be made about a great many people he knows and is, rather lovingly, rather terrified of (and what does it say that quite a few of them tend to be about knee height lalafells who looks like butter wouldn't melt in their mouths until you take a second gander at them and see the shark teeth). Not rich however is malms away from not dirt poor. So poor cannot buy shoes poor. Penniless poor.

He does however know how to stop being penniless poor and it's about this moment when a Hyur gladiator walks out of the Adventurers Guild muttering under his breath about not having enough people for a quest - some sort of subjugation for the mines near Horizon.

Clow is not ashamed to admit that he damn near ran the man over trying to get to him fast enough.

--

He has shoes. Sandals really and a new piece of leather armor that will likely help with all the coblyns and the spriggans and the giant jelly that likes the middle floor halfway through Copperbell but shoes.

His tail starts wiggling if he thinks about it too long.

Technically they're both being lent to him by the Hyur who introduces himself eventually as one Meteor "I think" - after screaming which was honestly quite fair, Clow may have been a bit too overzealous in how he'd approached him.

Making his case about being hired on as another adventurer while being hungover and generally awful was something that he worried about after immediately springing the guy, but, turns out headache or no, with enough motivation you can Thunderclap to just about anyone and, turns out, that frightening someone with martial ability to then ask them if they'd be interested in taking him to then use that frightening martial ability to dispatch some coblyns or what have you might be very convincing.

But shoes! And armor!

That he'd be able to get for free along with part of the quest reward!

The joy of clothes and the promise of gil lasts him through the first elevator ride into the mines and through the initial encounters with what is a really angry pack of coblyn. And then he's too busy bring horribly, terribly confused.

See it's not that he'd never visited Copperbell after the whole business with the hecatoncheires. Arguably both Copperbell and Haukke Manor tended to crop up fairly regularly as dispatch requisitions as the mines themselves needed to be kept clear or anything really dangerous for the Miner's Guild to work there and Haukke Manor tended to attract voidsent regularly. Something something void gates wasier to make there something something. But in the case of the mines they'd either have to approach newer sections or go through old previously detonated areas to check if it's clear and he's fairly certain that he'd seen these parts of the mines before despite the fact that there are no signs of detonations anywhere. He dismisses the feeling as a freak case of deja vu in the beginning but as they start to blow up more and more walls with firesand he starts to feel like this is that first requisition all over again.

And then Gyges the Great who should also be the Dead but isn't breaks through a wall with his giant hammer screaming something about being free and he's too busy dodging to focus on the realization that this is the first quest into Copperbell from years and years ago. Which begs a question that Clow forgot to check the answer to because he'd thought the answer was obvious: What the hell is the year?

When they get on one of the mine shaft elevators to go back up to surface he asks. The other two - a Hrothgar conjurer that looks like they desperately need to lie down by the name of Farrah and a Lalafell archer with the name Yaya Yaniya who looks like they're still shaking from their encounter with Gyges - look at him like his mouth is making sounds they don't understand. He doesn't take it personally; Yaya had gotten almost flattened by Gyges' hammer. Frankly he's surprised she's still upright at all.

Meteor says a number in a way that sounds like he's either baffled someone's asking for the year or like he's just as shocked by the number and is still trying to convince himself of the year also. Clow's eyes roll over while trying to contend with the fact he's ten years somewhere else and, he's getting the horrible inkling, someone else.

He's not the one who took the quest from Momodi, Meteor is. From his own adventurers plate - which reads Koh'a Molkot god he's going to need a name change no wonder Momodi had been very confused when he asked for the record for the requisition to be put under Clow instead - he can tell he's not the new adventurer being asked to do missions by the owners of the different Adventurer Guilds across Eorzea, Meteor is. And that means-

He has no idea what that means.

Clow gets paid for his help in the Adventurer's Guild still dazed enough that Momodi's frowning and squinting don't really register.

He asks for a room that's very hesitantly granted to him after a long silence and watches through the inn window as Meteor deals with a merchant and then Thancred in very quick succession - and it is Thancred, or old Thancred with the carefree smile and the daggers instead of the gunblade.

He knows he's staring and the little waggle of fingers and raised eyebrow aimed at him after Meteor ambles off tells him Thancred knows that he'd had an audience but Twelve. Twelve.

Right. Fine.

--

The worst possible thing he could do right now is go to Vesper Bay.

The absolute stupidest thing to do would be to end up in Vesper Bay gawping at the Waking Sands while trying really hard not to gawp at the Waking Sands.

So of course he finds himself a couple minutes later in that very same Vesper Bay after a quick sprint down from Horizon (which forking over gil for that aetheryte travel Sucked but there's a panicked creature in his chest that makes giving it away to get to Vesper Bay as fast as possible the easier thing to do) telling himself that no, going to the Waking Sands when no one knows who he is after the Scions spymaster caught him snooping on a conversation with a potential recruit is a bad, awful, horrible idea. He's very tempted to go against all good sense and do it anyway (when was the last time he saw Papalymo or Minfilia or thought after them in a fashion that wasn't heavily tinted with the guilt of losing them; had he ever really known either of them-) so it's probably for the best that when Y'shtola of all people walks out of the Waking Sands a small hand closes around his wrist and pulls him across the street into the bar nearby.

The relief of managing to get away is larger than the initial suspicion he feels but it doesn't take very long to place the face even if the fact that he can at all just leads to more questions, "...I-uh- Lemons?"

"Hi Clow!" Lemons says brightly, and it is Lemons down to the purple hair and the face tattoo just younger the same way Clow is younger despite the fact they should not be younger let alone in the same universe at all.

"What are you-"

"I have no idea!"

"Oh."

"Yeah!"

"How did you..?"

"The same way as you probably!"

"Right."

"Probably!" Lemons says brightly.

Right.

--

Lemons takes one look at the sad sack of gil he has-

"What happened. "

"I thought you said the same thing that happened to you?"

"Clow I had more than- is that exactly two hundred gil? You had exactly two hundred gil-"

"I had more than two hundred!"

"And-"

"So what you're telling me is you didn't wake up hungover in an alley-"

"Clow-"

- and buys them both a glass of orange juice. And then he buys Clow a sandwich after Clow's stomach remembers that it hasn't eaten today and decides to protest loudly and violently to the general public.

It's after when Clow feels marginally more like a person and Lemons has stopped making faces at him from across the table that Clow gestures vaguely around him, "When did you get here? Or well- how long have you been-"

"About a week or so - I think."

"I think?"

"Well" Lemons hums, "I was half covered in cow intestine when I- landed? I guess?"

"UH-"

"I still had gil on me! And I don't think I was - what's the word - participating?"

"With the cow intestines", Clow says squeakily.

"Yes, with the cow intestines. Kinda difficult to do that when you're tied to a rock. And there were weird chanting guys in hoods. And a giant voidsent statue and- anyway! I found a staff near me so I had a focus but no sword. And y'know how I feel about black magic alone just", Lemons wrinkles his nose before suddenly beaming, "I made it work though!"

Clows nearly too afraid to ask. He feels his mouth open and close a few times before he croaks, "And, how...?"

Lemons smiles sunnily back at him, "You know how if you stab something hard enough-"

And listens in abject horror as Lemons describes what is most undoubtedly the grisly deaths of some cult idiots who'd accidentally ended up with a Warrior of Light as their sacrifice. With sound effects. And hand gestures. Too many hand gestures.

"Anyway then some adventurers came by and they helped wrap up things pretty quickly. After, I hopped on a chocobo carriage to get here because...", Lemons trails off his face turning a little wry as he shrugs. Clow knows the feeling - it's why he was here instead of in the inn he'd gotten for the night. Why he's here even if one of the Scions could catch him gawking outside.

"You wanted to see if they were alright."

"...yeah."

There's a moment of silence between them where they feel a little at a loss; being nearly ten years out of time and out of space would do that.

It's only then that Clow realizes with a weird feeling of the same deja vu he felt earlier in the mines- "Wait, you said cult? And giant voidsent statue? So this all happened in-"

"The Tam-tara Deepcroft yeah. The supposedly no longer cult harboring Tam-Tara Deepcroft", Lemons nods grimly.

Well in for a gil, Clow thinks.

"Did you ever get their names? The adventurers I mean."

"Yeah, why?"

"Were any of them a Hyur by the name of Meteor?"

"Yeah", Lemons said slowly before squinting at him, "Why?"

Right.

--

They leave the bar. For one thing, Lemons' story seemed to have attracted some unneeded attention-

(- "They like my sound effects!"

"We all like your sound effects Lemons."

"More people appreciating my sound effects isn't a bad thing Clow.") and some wide eyed looks from the average passerby. And by that Clow means hes taking pity on the fact that he saw someone hear the way Lemons described just how much viscera he'd had on him and turn green. There was also the problem of whether they had any unaccidental passerby were around;

Clow doesn't want any particular rogues listening in and trying to make more sense of what was spoken than they have already. Also because he's not sure if push came to shove he'd be able to find where Thancred was even if he actively looked. At least by walking away he'd have the benefit of being able to better spot if they had any suspicious incidental listeners.

For another thing talking about the possibility that they're in a place where they could possibly help another person not go through any of the trials and tribulations they went through and stop the near end of the Universe early is probably not something they want to do in a bar filling up with people after a days work. Even if some people don't agree on that being a possibility.

"Listen, I'm not saying its not whats going on. Just- it doesn't make any sense."

Clow sighs, "I never said it made sense. I said that just maybe-"

"I know what you said. Its just- it doesn't make any sense!"

"Still doesn't change the fact that two of the same things that happened to us way back when is now happening to someone else."

"Well", Lemons says at last, "Okay, say it is what you say it is- in a way, this is good right?"

Clow blinks, "What is?"

"Well we have each other instead of, y'know. Not that I mind the whole "being summoned to kill things" thing and then hitting the closest spot for snacks before we just kinda get kicked out-"

"True", Clow says smiling. Lemons grins back before continuing, "And we know what happens- later, right?"

"Yes...?"

"And so we can- you ever just wanted to see what colors their faces could turn?"

"Whose faces?"

Lemons grins and Clow unintentionally finds himself backing up a couple steps as Lemons curls his fingers into claws menacingly in front of his face, "Those guys."

"I hate how that's what you said instead of something like change it for the better."

"Well that too but c'mon, tell me you don't wanna put the old grump in the grave early."

Clow stops. "Oh right he's-"

"Yep."

"And he's-"

"Yeeep."

Solus Yae Galvus. Otherwise known as Emet Selch.

(Otherwise known as that Terrible Bastard by just about every Warrior of Light Clow has had the chance to meet. Whether it's said fondly, or hatefully, or sadly depends on the person but all of them universally agree - a terrible, terrible bastard.)

"And then there's Bread, Mr.I-Eat-Cigarretes, the guy from the Chrysalis thing, fire and ice lady-", Lemons counts.

And it would be wouldn't it. A whole decade of half truths and cryptic messages that they'd never really had the chance to understand in between fending for their lives but here they were back at the beginning. Back before- well, most if not everything. And it's not like messing with Ascians while dealing with with everything else were diametrically opposed to each other. Hell most of the time both of those things needed to happen at the same time anyway.

"You know what", Clow says, "You're right. You're right, it would be fun."

"Then- revenge? For all the cryptic dramatic bullshit?"

"Oh, definitely."

[dr-futbol-blog]

Underground, Pt. 1

Introduction to the Genii. Lots of lovely interaction in this episode, as Genii-episodes are often real McSheppy.

In Underground (S01E08), we return to the theme of food, hunger, and Sheppard observing McKay like a hungry hungry hippo hawk. The expedition is running out of food, which is why they have to start meeting new people. It begins at a team-meeting where Sheppard has, in fact, started leaning on his hands so that he can keep doing the same thing he has apparently been doing for a good while here once the episode starts: watching McKay.

He can't look away. He is not even blinking. Oh, he tries to. He just can't. He is gazing at McKay through this entire meeting.

Eleven is an interesting number in this context. If someone wanted to make a comical exaggeration, ten cups or a dozen cups would make sense. Eleven is oddly specific which means that it's the result of actually counting the cups he's been drinking, it's the result of observation. Also, while he chastises Rodney, it doesn't sound so much annoyed as it does tender. The kind of 'Oh, you' that's born out of familiarity and fondness. Like he's fascinated by his observation that the other man is drinking a lot of coffee and not like he's drinking them all to ruin. The way Sheppard looks at him is contrasted by Teyla, who looks at McKay eating as though she's put off, even disgusted. That's sure not what Sheppard was doing. We can also contrast it with Ford, who is completely neutral. Also not Sheppard.

When Sheppard says "I guess it's always good to get to know your neighbours" in this weird sing-song cadence, he looks at McKay while he's doing it. He takes one quick glance at Weir, the leader of the expedition and chair of this meeting, but otherwise he is entirely focused on the man stuffing his mouth on the mirror opposite side of the table from him.

Have you been getting to know your new neighbour, Major? This man has absolutely no chill.

Once they reach the Genii homeworld, they come across what they think is a farmer and her beautiful daughter. The farmer is quick to point out that his daughter is betrothed, as though suspecting Sheppard might have designs for her. But the thing is, he actually expressed no interest in this woman what so ever. He doesn't even (jump to) introduce himself which is something we see characters do time and again when we're meant to believe they are interested in a hot specimen of the opposite sex variety. He's not even looking at her, really only makes eye contact with the father and briefly at that. Again, contrasted with Teyla who is beaming at the daughter, Sheppard is extremely nonchalant. If anything, he seems confused that the father would even think that. He even explicitly says that he's not interested:

Tyrus: My daughter, Sora. Sheppard: You must be very proud. Tyrus: She's betrothed. Sheppard: I wasn't hitting on your daughter. I just thought...

You'd be polite? Try to make a good first impression? Compliment you, my dude, by way of the fruit of your loins, the exceptionally good-looking Farmer Joe that you are?

Where Ford side-eyes the farmer as they part ways with him, Sheppard leaves him with a smile and a nod. Clearly, he's on what he later calls his "best behaviour".

But the father wasn't the only one worried about Sheppard's disposition toward the young beauty. When Sheppard turns to Teyla to comment that "They look friendly enough" in a completely neutral way, he gets this worried, searching look from McKay:

Beautiful young woman. Blonde. McKay has zero interest because none of the other guys show interest. He makes sure that Sheppard has no interest, here. Satisfied that this is not the case, McKay himself then proceeds to have no interest. Contrast all of this with the introduction of Perna in the previous episode, Poisoning the Well (S01E06). My guy has so little interest in women he needs other guys to point out when someone is hot.

As they part, we get another private moment between Sheppard and McKay. The fact that as soon as they depart, McKay seeks Sheppard out to make this conspiratorial remark shows us that they are in the process of creating their own little world together. This is also one of the first examples of what McKay will later call "the kidding," which is to say, Sheppard saying counterfactual things just to wind him up.

McKay: Maybe we should offer a sense of humour in trade. Sheppard: Sure. They can have yours. McKay: Oh, please, my side. You slay me. Sheppard: I'm thinking about it.

Again, he uses this sing-song voice to say it. Obviously, he's not literally thinking about slaying McKay. He sure does seem to love teasing the guy, though. I mean, later on (in Sateda, S03E04) he confesses he sometimes takes actual time to think up of ways to tease him about something. Of course, we could alternatively interpret Sheppard as saying that he's thinking about McKay's side here (that is, he often says things that he means literally and people merely interpret in their own way due to this tone of voice) but really he seems to be thinking about the entire package, pretty much all of the time.

But what's curious is that Sheppard actually kind of complimented McKay here, in a back-handed way. He's saying that unlike these people, the man does have a sense of humour, and that his sense of humour is something they could trade with. McKay is quick to interpret it as an insult but for a jibe, it's really weird. "Hey my man, you're much better company than these people." And the episode does go out of its way to show us that Sheppard really does enjoy his company.

The feeling is mutual since, as soon as he's faced with the choice of attending a harvest ceremony (where, one presumes, one might find a plethora of rosy-cheeked maidens) or following the Major, he opts to go back (alone) with Sheppard. Also notable is that while Sheppard orders Ford to stay behind, McKay gets to make his own decision about what to do and where to go.

As this is getting rather long, continued in Part 1.