#full disclosure this isn't my actual last line

[embyrinitalics]

Last Line Tag

Rules: In a new post, show the last line you wrote and tag as many people as there are words in the line.

Tagged by @spicychestnut! Thank you so much lovely! 🥰

He passed her a censuring look—maybe for speaking in that speechless place, or for stating the obvious, or for questioning her guide when she’d never set foot outside Necluda and he had seen the world. All three were fair.

Taggiiiing ummm @wolfwarden @yourenotacat-writes @intangiblyyourswrites @airplanned @pastelsandpining and @voltfruits! (Volt volt volt "All three were fair" reminds me of your unforgiving radish and I still think of it often have I told you that T_T)

[alicepao13]

Hudson and Rex S06E01 - Ghost Ship - Part A

I don't want to preface this with how it shouldn't be the first episode, I've explained this before.

Black letters in quotes: Actual show quotes.

Green letters in quotes: What I come up with my twisted brain.

Full disclosure, I barely spared this episode a second glace. Aside from the fact that I rewatched it with my sister but I think neither of us paid any attention to the plot.

There is an almost tradition in this show that the first episode should not start with a murder but with a missing person's case (or several, in this one). It's happened in all season premieres except for S2.

The last time I went on a tour boat, I puked my guts out (motion sickness forever, yay!) so I'm sure that doesn't help me like this episode more.

Might be the only good part of the episode lol. Just kidding, there were moments. Unsure of where this is supposed to be? It looks way too dim to be inside the precinct?

I don't like that they're showing them all separately, especially Charlie and Sarah, it definitely set a very negative tone with a lot of us. But her first few shots are beautiful, even with all the blue (like, we don't need that much blue, show, chill).

Jesse got a new toy lol

Joe looking disapprovingly. Come on, man, you'll have time for that later, when it's ruined.

I bet it's the drone they do the aerial shots with, by the way.

Rethinking this, Charlie and Rex should be at the precinct as well because if they show the rest of the team at work, Charlie and Rex should also be at work, maybe working out during downtime? My initial thought was that for some reason Charlie and Rex were at home. I think I set myself up for some extra, not sure how to put this, light anger? Mild disappointment? I'm not going to pretend I'm an impartial viewer, though. I'm still able of critical thinking after the fact, though. The lack of Charah, which is supposed to be a part of this show now, and team scenes, which is also supposed to be a part of this show now, skewed my perception early on. I re-evaluated later, although I still maintain my position on the first one.

Autopilot on boats can actually get them to the marina without help?

I think every crime show that's had an even remotely "supernatural" case has used this line.

Sarah is like, oh yeah that's what Jesse is going with, don't ask. That screenshot does not convey the intention but that's what it is lol

Oh, yes, I forgot Jesse's "moments" with Marta. Never to be seen again.

I think I'd definitely want to fly a drone one day.

Newfoundland beauty.

Isn't it weird that a billionaire goes incognito on a boat tour (instead of with his private yacht) and then signs his own name?

I always found that funny.

Charlie remembers all of Rex's barks?

lol

Let's do some crime.

I don't think I've ever seen that green thingamajig anywhere else. They usually use something that looks like a metal ruler? Anyway, unlocking cars that way is kind of sexy.

And then onto the next car. What?

Wow, everyone is so cut up about the hostages. Not talking about Joe, by the way.

Your only team, as far as I know. Also, did you talk to Charlie lately, because he seems to think it's his team. Which apparently didn't start on S6, per my rewatch. I mention this because I erroneously blamed it as one of the changes of S6.

Flying doggo strikes again!

Rex interacting with the whales would have been an actual selling point for this episode. Although I don't suppose there was a way that could actually happen. Watching them from footage obtained by the production (which wasn't even shot by them) is not the same thing.

"Who are you trying to scam? That guy wasn't shot."

Have they, though?

To be continued in Part B.

[abubblingcandle]

I love your Jamie Tartt meta so much and seeing your take on things is so interesting! People have been reblogging with tags about Jamie at Manchester City. What's your take on that?

I can't sleep and I'm back on my bullshit about S1 Jamie and his return to Man City and the Man City of it all and writing fic so you can definitely have more meta.

Because for me, I completely get the opinion that being benched for half of one game by Ted in Man City's eyes isn't much fodder for getting rid of Jamie. But we also don't see, apart from that last game in the season, Man City actually wanting Jamie there.

Full Disclosure - Now I am not a Pep fan, I'm actually a Pep enemy and will always wax lyrical about how he's not as good as he thinks he is. So that is the grain of salt to be taken here.

Back to Jamie - He's a top scorer. He's a dynamic versatile forward. Nothing that Cartrick or Ted taught him was worthwhile so he would have returned to city in the same shape that he left really just with game minutes under his belt. Yet ... he doesn't make the team. He only gets a few minutes, a few touches of the ball. When he does touch the ball he creates and he scores ... so why isn't he playing regularly?

Say it with me now ✨disciplinary issues✨

Because Jamie returning to Man City under a cloud isn't only bad for Jamie's reputation ... it's embarrassing for City as well. You've got this talent that you've fostered through the academy, spent money on, grown yourselves and he's got an attitude, needs the edges sanding down, doesn't really fit into your scheme so you send him off. Either he'll come back and be City ready or he'll come back with a nice little price tag for the summer. But neither happens and so your little academy pet project is now a "problem". He comes back still rough around the edges but now with a reputation for not caring about his teammates, fighting on the pitch and not going to training. No one is going to want to risk him until he proves he can fall in line but City can't risk playing him if he's not going to fall in line with their scheme and be a good fit which he likely won't be because if he would then he would have done it by now. They are at an impasse.

He's nearly 24, the longer he goes without breaking through the more people are going to look and go "what's wrong with him?" so your next option is to try over summer and send him out on loan in Europe or to a lower league. But you call up a League 1 team and go "hey wanna loan this guy who got in the teens goals in the prem last year?" What will they say? ... "What's wrong with him?"

Teams do not want a loan player that will stir the pot. The last thing you want is what happened at Richmond where a player who is only there for a few months fucks with the dynamics.

For an example of this there is Djed Spence. A Tottenham player who was returned for "not fitting the ideals of the club" by Leeds United. He was immediately put up for sale. No sale came through. He was eventually loaned to Genoa and is probably going to be sold there. Player sent away to a lower ranking club to mature and get game time he wouldn't at his home club. Returned for disciplinary issues. Rejected but barely anyone is interested.

We then get to the LCA of it all, because in my opinion if Jamie was getting good minutes in preseason, a chance of starting for City regularly then that's the dream and yeah his dad would have been shit but Jamie wouldn't throw away the dream. If he genuinely thought I am one of the starting eleven then Jamie wouldn't have wanted to do anything to risk that. But if preseason is rolling around and no one is interested in signing him, loaning him and he's sat on the bench for 75mins of most matches then ... getting away from it all looks a lot more tempting.

[victoriouscabaret]

Get to know you - tag game!

I was tagged by @preciouslittlebhaalbae - thank you! <3

Last song you listened to:  Bad Girls - M.I.A.

Favorite color: Green!

Currently watching: Nothing really. If I'm having a bath and don't feel like reading I'm working through Penny Dreadful again, but that's it. I found my ability to sit on the couch and watch things for extended periods went away when I quit smoking for some reason. Probably because being idle = cravings, so the more occupied I keep myself the better. Looking forward to the latest season of The Boys though!

Favorite flavor: Cherry flavored anything is usually a win for me. I crave that red dye. Bequeath unto mine buds the taste of red.

Current obsession: BG3 (Especially Astarion) has bewitched me, body and soul (I just left this from @preciouslittlebhaalbae's answer because it seemed stupid to delete it and re-type basically the exact same thing.) Also currently v obsessed with writing again for the first time in many years. Can I be obsessed with personal growth? Because that too.

Last thing I googled: "Do mosquitos bite more than once?" (I have Type O blood and they LOVE me because of it, but I'm also extremely allergic to their saliva, so the first few bites I get each summer are exceptionally reactive. I also have bed bug related PTSD having had two terrible experiences with them (I'm also very allergic to them), most recently a couple years ago, so like... every bug related itch immediately sends my mind to bed bugs.) If I was bitten by a vampire, I would probably go into anaphylactic shock or something.

Favorite season: Autumn! Summer is too hot, Spring is too unpredictable, and Winter can fuck all the way off. Autumn generally still has warm enough weather to enjoy being outside, the colours are utterly stunning, you get to wear fashionable and cozy clothing, it's spooky season, the air smells amazing, and it just has a vibe about it that makes me feel happy and peaceful.

Skill I’d like to learn: I'd like to explore archery/marksmanship more. I've done some over the years, and I have a bit of a knack for it (full disclosure: most of my "practice" has been in my eventual husband's garage with the fellas, many beers deep, lining up empties on the garage door frame and taking turns taking pot shots with my air soft gun. Ditto archery - just in our backyard years later with my little brother's recurve bow. It's just a really lovely feeling to have a bunch of big, burly mountain men arguing over who wants you around in the event of the apocalypse. I would hate to let them down.)

Best Advice: Don't worry so much about what people think - it's easier said than done, but really most people are actually too wrapped up in their own shit to care, and as long as what you're doing isn't actively harmful to yourself or anyone else, they can get over it (or not, because their feelings aren't your responsibility either :D)

Tags if you'd like to play! : @marlowethebard @scrytpe @myheartismadeofstars @thefallenangelsgang @babblebrain-blog @xxnashiraxx

[owlbean]

So it turns out that the presence of "AI art" enthusiasts is increasing on tumblr so I'd like to make my stance extremely clear by explaining what AI art is. I'm going to get rid of a lot of the anthropomorphic terminology used because it obfuscates a lot of how this system actually works. I'll use Midjourney as our example since it's the system I'm seeing most often mentioned in posts. With full disclosure I've written this explanation before and am crossposting it into an actual post because I hope it can be helpful to explain what is going on here.

What we know as AI art is an image generated from a program like Midjourney, which has been "trained" to reproduce individual images associated with certain key words. Training in this context is not the same as a person being taught how to draw because Midjourney is not and will never be a person. That isn't how these systems work. Training refers to the source pool Midjourney pulls from as it is generating images. If you only sourced a program with the Mona Lisa, it would at all times attempt to reproduce the Mona Lisa. It is attempting to find a middle ground of the key words you gave it. When people say AI art cannot innovate, this is what they mean. It cannot reproduce that which it cannot directly source. When AI enthusiasts use terms like emulation, what they mean is reproduction of the median. This is why it doesn't really work as an aid either. It wouldn't correct your proportions for example, it would generate an approximation of the average proportions used by the source pool an then maybe skin a semblance of your style overtop of that.

You may have seen this tweet floating around:

In this case OP wanted to find a way to basically skin the artist's line and colour style over someone else's poses and composition. Whose poses and composition? Impossible to say, because Midjourney's sources are pulling from thousands at once as a way to circumvent the art theft argument. One individual image is a gestalt of so many source images that it makes it basically impossible for every person involved in its generation to band together to litigate.

This is also why so much AI art is that sleek airbrushed anime style, it is incredibly common and variation within is subtle so it's easy to blend it all together and come out the other side with something recognizable. This is also why using artists with extremely distinct styles as a key word often comes out with stylistically recognizable but generally incomprehensible visual slurry.

On the left is the work of the late Kim Jung Gi, who died October 3 2022. On the right is a Stablediffusion AI image generated four days later in "homage." Prior to his death, he did not consent to allowing his work to be used in this way.

Confirmed source pools have been places like Artstation and DeviantART. We actually know this to be the case because so many Artstation artists changed their images to the words "no AI art" that it clogged up the system enough that for a time programs like Midjourney could only reproduce Artstation's very distinctive No AI Art thumbnail image.

It couldn't "remember" previous Artstation Trending prompt sources and use them instead because Midjourney as previously mentioned is not a person and never will be so it does not have a memory or skill, it is reproducing from source pools. The term AI is in itself kind of a smokescreen to create this confusion and defend its legitimacy.

Unfortunately if you're saying "the problem is capitalism" this is true, in the sense that this exists as a cost-cutting measure because the average person would not know and may not care about the distinction. We have seen examples of AI art being used in the backgrounds of anime, D&D sourcebooks, etc. The AI prompters and "trainers" might get paid, but remember that this is a replacement for the work of artists. The artists and photographers from whom these images draw, on the other hand, are not compensated for their part.

(One last note- I'd like to make a distinction between so-called AI art and Algorithmic Art. Algorithmic art is, in florid terms, an expression of its coder. It generally is working within programs and sources all worked on by the artist, often an artist with experience in coding. This is why it's within the purview of abstract art, visually it tends to be abstract in concept and philosophically the code used to generate it is itself part of the piece. Whether or not you LIKE algorithmic art is another question entirely, but it is my personal opinion this is an important distinction.)

[phoenixyfriend]

In defense of Eloise (the wedding movie)

--part of the miscarriage plot was that messy sister's ex blamed her for the miscarriage. No one told Eloise this.

--if my siblings spent the whole lead up to my wedding acting like they were forced to be there, I would also tell them not to come

--she is clearly stressed and trying to impress her future in-laws, and none of her family is helping with that

--while it's not messy sister's fault that the wife showed up, it does not change the fact that all of Eloise's future in-laws know she is related to someone who had an extramarital affair. Its also possible that they might think Eloise condoned the affair.

--her brother told her in-laws about his sex life and pissed on someone. I love my brother and I would still uninvite his ass if he pulled that shit.

--there are... uncomfortable implications about two white siblings banding together to ostracize their mixed-race siblings.

Your opinion is still valid. I just also think that Eloise is going through it and deserves some slack.

Context: this post

Oh yeah, definitely. I do get exactly where you're coming from, and a lot of stuff was revealed after the movie had already led us to forming some specific opinions. I do think Eloise still could have handled some things better, though; even after watching the full movie and having all the context for her behavior, I think that... god I can't remember the exact phrasing, but there was a moment at the start where she said something along the lines of "We've drifted apart, but I'm sure we'll all be best friends again in no time."

And that's... I think that colors a lot of my opinion on her in regards to Alice specifically and Paul by extension. There's that really strange disconnect where she seems so casually excited and not even considering that a really horrible situation might have had some strong feelings lingering about.

(Full disclosure, a lot of this is probably influenced by my own faults and foibles, and I don't want to go too deep into self-analysis because I don't have room in my schedule for that kind of self-loathing lmao.)

It's not really excusing the extent of Alice and Paul's behavior, and I don't fault her for telling them 'listen, just don't come, then,' after the whole Situation at the dinner party, but.. IDK I just can't get past that initial Bright Eyed Optimism where she seems to be shoving Last Summer under the bed and pretending it didn't happen. I can't imagine that she didn't notice that Alice was avoiding her, or how long it took her siblings to actually respond? I mean, I guess she could have just been caught up in wedding planning, but that shock she had at Alice being hurt, in the limo...

It's just... it's an ugly and complex intersection of situations, and it's hard to paint any of the main cast as a villain (since Henrique, Dom, and Jonathan are secondary or tertiary characters). The siblings and Mom are all just Going Through It at the same time and it's a bad, bad time because nobody's well enough to really help the others through their shit (except Alice and Paul doing their best for each other, which isn't great).

Nobody's the villain but I do have somewhat more pity for Alice than Eloise, just because of the known specifics (miscarriage+breakup vs medical realization) and their life circumstances (white collar working class vs inherited wealth), and... yeah, Alice is a dick. But Eloise is rich and, in a lot of scenes, seems more interested in going through the motions (holding Alice up while she pukes) and controlling the situation (yelling that this is her wedding) than in actually understanding why people are upset with her.

[hey-hey-j]

now that I've finished my rewatch of the entirety of SU here's my Top 10 Moments from the series in no particular order

- The entirety of "Something Entirely New" but especially the ending bit; Ruby and Sapphire's first fusion dance, so scared and so timid but so sure that they want this, that they want each other, and the way they're both humming the tune of "Stronger Than You" in unison right before forming Garnet for only the second time ever

- Amethyst's "I'm not going to let you stand there and remind me of everything I hate about myself!" because god YEAH if that isn't just. THE mood.

- The first time Steven and Connie form Stevonnie. There's just something about the writing in Alone Together that scratches at this particular itch in my brain and I love it so much. That sequence of Stevonnie running and laughing and jumping into the ocean......

- The opening scene of Watermelon Steven. Steven and Greg's relationship is one of my favorites in the entire show and I cherish every moment between them but there's just something about the mundanity of this scene that gets me. Just a father and son having fun fooling around with watermelon in the driveway of a carwash. Your Watermelojesty.....

- Ruby and Sapphire's argument near the end of Keystone Motel. It's weirdly my favourite Ruby and Sapphire interaction in the entire show because it just. Hurts but in a nice way? I like that they don't fully resolve the disagreement by the end! I like Ruby's line "You know what's nice about being split up? I get to look at you." I like Laughy Sapphy! I like Sapphire's little giggles as Ruby kisses her! I love Ruby and Sapphire and their relationship so much aaaaaaaghhhhh!!!!

- Steven calling out for Greg in Adventures in Light Distortion. Yeah it's DEVASTATING and it makes me WEEP every time but GOD. He was just a scared little boy crying out for his dad 😫😫😫

- FULL DISCLOSURE. I don't care what you think "Full Disclosure" is the best song in the entire series and I lose my entire shit every time I hear it. "You don't have to be a part of this / I don't think I want you to be / You don't need this / You don't need me...."

- Two moments from Keeping It Together: the scene in the Kindergarten when Garnet starts to fall apart, and her dialogue with Steven at the end of the episode. "You forget you were ever alone. And your old names might as well be names for your right arm, and your left." Steven and Garnet's relationship is hands down my favourite among Steven and the Gems and I just. Really really love how they're there for each other this entire episode.

- "Do you believe in destiny? / Close your eyes and leave the rest to me / Do you believe in fantasy? / I have to when it's right in front of me, oh / What are you doing here in the real world? / What are you doing here / so close I could touch you? / What are you doing here? / And what are you doing to me....."

- and this last one might actually be my favourite moment in the entire series: Steven's breakdown at the end of I Am My Monster. How cathartic it is. How overdue it is! Yeah, we'd heard Steven cry before but. Never like this. Raw and visceral and ugly and NEEDED. God I hope Zach Callison got the recognition he deserved for that performance because GOD. I will never stop thinking about it.

[prokopetz]

Do you know any hidden gem game from the last couple of years that you think deserve more attention?

You didn't really think I was going to pick just one, did you?

(Courtesy cut, because this post’s a big one.)

On the tabletop RPG side:

Minerva McJanda's Voidheart Symphony is very unapologetically an Apocalypse Engine hack of Persona 5, right down to assigning each of your character's relationships its own tarot-themed mechanical playbook with ranked special abilities and such. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it does a better job of following Persona 5's thematic through-line to its logical conclusion than the actual Persona 5 does. Technically not "from the last couple of years", because it's been in early access since 2018, but it just went 1.0 in March of last year, so I'm counting it.

Caro Asercion's cyberpunk science-fantasy game Dwindle is really more of a proof of concept than a full-featured game engine, but it's got a fascinating core mechanic, one that I was inspired to lift for one of my own projects. (With full credit, of course!) You'll need to do some hacking to get a full campaign out of it; as written, it's a perfectly serviceable rules-light oneshot.

Heather Flowers' Extreme Meatpunks Forever, based on the independently published episodic video game of the same name, isn't actually out yet due to pandemic-related delays, but is slated to hit the shelves this summer. Short version: found family meets extreme body horror in a game about gay mecha pilots punching Nazis. Both the pilots and the mecha are made of meat. (Presumably the Nazis are made of meat, too, but one can never be sure!) Full disclosure: I backed this one on Kickstarter, so this is definitely not a disinterested recommendation.

Keeping the body horror theme going, Elizabeth Chaipraditkul and Steffie de Vaan’s City of Flesh is a particularly grisly example of an old-school sword and sorcery dungeon crawler, set within the womb of a colossal, dying beast. It’s a zine-format game that self-describes with terms like “splatterpunk” and ”femmecore”, and if you know what both of those words mean you’re almost certainly part of this one’s target audience. This is the second game on this list with tarot-based mechanics, though in a different way from Voidheart Symphony.

Its title notwithstanding, Erika Chappell’s Flying Circus has nothing to do with Monty Python. Like the Extreme Meatpunks Forever, this one is about beating up Fascists, this time in a vaguely fantastical pastiche of post-WWI Germany. You play as a private company of ace pilots taking on a combination of charity missions and mercenary work for the highest bidder, with extensive downtime mechanics and a strong focus on community-building. As you might have suspected from that pitch, it takes a lot of cues from Blades in the Dark, right down the mechanics enforcing the fact that player characters are extraordinarily dysfunctional people, so be prepared for that. It’s also got one of the most intense non-map-based tactical combat systems I’ve ever seen, so maybe not the best choice if keeping track of G forces and engine RPM isn’t your idea of a fun time. If it is your idea of a fun time, though, highly recommended.

(If you’d prefer something a little more lightweight, the same author’s Dirty Pair inspired Double or Nothing is also great fun. It’s juuuuust slightly outside the two-year window, being a December 2019 release, but my post, my rules.)

Shifting gears to something a little less intense than those previous few entries, The Quiet Life – whose author is not credited in the text, but elsewhere goes by Duck – is a semi-competitive tabletop dating sim about gay nuns at a pastoral convent. Its framework resembles that of a board game as much as a tabletop RPG, so it's a good one to play if you're looking for something highly structured and don't want to do a lot of faffing about to figure out a scenario.

Rose Bailey’s Bright and Terrible is an older game, but a second edition (linked) came out just last year. The players are cast as wandering exiles of lost Atlantis, each wielding a terrible power and bearing the guilt of an equally terrible crime. It’s basically one of those “everybody is [insert media character here]” games where [insert media character here] is Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone and his various imitators, so if playing as an angsty, mostly-unsympathetic loser with far more power than is good for you (or anyone in your general vicinity) sounds like your cup of tea, maybe give this one a look. Note: a big part of this rec is because Rose Bailey shares my love of big stupid random tables, and this title’s got them in spades.

P H Lee and Aura Belle’s Four Ways to Die in the Future is in a similar boat as the preceding entry, being an anthology collection of older games that squeaks into the appropriate time window because the anthology itself is only recently published. As the title suggests, it’s a set of four sci-fi games revolving around death and mortality: Amid Endless Quiet, Island in a Sea of Solitude, Alone on Silver Wings, and The Tragedy of GJ 237b, being for three or more, two, one, and zero players, respectively. (If you’re dying – ha! – to know what a game for zero players is, well, the whole collection is only six bucks, so I invite you to find out.)

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Dr. Jenna Moran’s Glitch. This one might not seem like a “hidden” gem to many of this blog’s readers, but remember that Dr. Moran’ work is virtually unheard-of outside of a very particular circle, so I’m counting it here. Elevator pitch: diceless post-modern god game where you play as a pack of dysfunctional weirdoes for whom divinity is a terminal illness. This one also has a found family focus, except this time you’re playing as the bad guys. Well, the nominal bad guys; by default, the player characters are assumed to be drawn from the ranks of those who’ve realised that being an all-consuming eidolon of the Outer Void leading a crusade to destroy reality itself is bullshit, actually, even if you do get to wear a cool crown. Like Flying Circus, above, the learning curve and mechanical overhead are considerable, albeit for different reasons.

On the video game side:

(Note: the entries in the previous section are selected with no particular criteria beyond my own gut feel; nearly all independently published tabletop RPGs are underexposed, so it’s not like I have to be terribly rigorous! For video games, I’m adopting a somewhat arbitrary cutoff of “has fewer than 200 user reviews on Steam at the time of this posting”.)

Aeon Drive is a cyberpunk-themed pixel-art precision puzzle platformer with a strong focus on speedrunning and the obligatory cute red-haired girl protagonist. Basically, any time I say the phrase “precision puzzle platformer”, just assume I’m talking about a game that you’ll love if you enjoyed Celeste and won’t be able to stand otherwise. Beyond that, I’m not going to belabour the point – you know what you’re getting here!

The original Kathy Rain is both too widely reviewed and too old – being a 2016 release – to make this list, but the late 2021 remake seems to have flown a bit under the radar. It’s a pixel-art point and click puzzler about a jouranlism student investigating her grandfather’s mysterious death. Apart from improved graphics and audio, the remake features extra puzzles, an extended story, and an ending that actually makes some damn sense; the lack of the last one is something the original was rightly criticised for.

Open Sorcery: Sea++ is the sequel to Abigail Corfman’s 2017 Open Sorcery, and expands on it in nearly every way. It’s a piece of hypertext interactive fiction where you play as an amnesiac seer who’s been forced out of her body and cast into the Deep Web; the game takes place in a magical-realist universe where the Internet and humanity’s collective unconscious are the same thing, so that preceding sentence has several implications. As is typical for games of the type, you definitely won’t get the golden ending without either a guide or several careful playthroughs. Content warnings for some very frank discussions of disability and ableism, particularly with respect to forms of abuse experienced by physically disabled folks; much of it’s handled in a fairly lighthearted fashion – like the protagonist’s efforts to fight through a fairy court’s incomprehensible bureaucracy in order to get them to install a ramp for her wheelchair – but much of it is not.

Red Ronin is part of a highly specialised genre known as the “ice-physics puzzler”, which means that your character can only move in straight lines and can’t stop until they hit an obstacle. This one casts the player as a disgraced samurai on a mission of revenge, with the ice-physics movement representing the impossibly fast run-by attacks that samurai media is known for. Features an interesting dynamic difficult mechanic where the puzzles adapt to whether or not you’ve carried over resources from previous puzzles, which creates some fascinating routing challenges if you’re trying to speedrun it.

Star Apprentice: Magical Murder Mystery is literally Touhou meets Phoenix Wright, and I mean that not just in terms of its gameplay, but also in terms of its obvious inspirations. Kinda janky in most game-mechanical respects, but it’s a free student project, so it’s not like you’re going to feel ripped off for the price. If you’re a fan of either of the two franchises it takes its cues from, there’s a good chance you’ll love it anyway.

Sunblaze is, well, just copy-and-paste the description of Aeon Drive, above. This one differs in that where Aeon Drive is mostly about routing across large levels, this one focuses on single-screen execution challenges. It’s one of the few examples of the type that manages to strike the same balance of difficulty versus well-paced introduction of new gimmicks that Celeste does; perhaps not quite as expertly, but then, what game does?

Sunshine Heavy Industries is about building spaceships. You have all the usual concerns about fuel versus thrust ratio versus heat generation versus energy demands and so forth, but rather than being a hardcore engineering sim like most games of the type, this is essentially a complicated jigsaw puzzle, challenging the player to slap puzzle-piece components together in a way that satisfies all of each project’s engineering requirements while remaining under budget. The story is surprisingly good, though not even slightly serious. The game kind of falls off a cliff once you run out of storyline missions, since the randomly generated postgame tasks currently aren’t able to make use of any of the really interesting mechanics, but the developer is reportedly working on that.

Transiruby is a goofy casual metroidvania about a robot girl who can turn into a motorcycle. You can probably shoot through it in 4–6 hours unless you’re a completionist, and the difficulty curve isn’t too high. Free demo available. (Note: according to the publisher, the title is a reference to the fact that the protagonist transforms, and has nothing to do with gender. However, I have also been informed by certain mutuals that she’s definitely transition goals, so take it as you will!)

Treasures of the Aegean is a pseudohistorical adventure game that isn’t really a metroidvania, in spite of being tagged that way on Steam, as the ability upgrades are very few and don’t really affect your ability to move about the world – in fact, 100% of the game world is accessible right from the start. It’s a time-loop 2D puzzle-platformer where the world will be destroyed in 15 real-time minutes, and you have to explore a mysterious island to figure out how to stop it. The plot heavily involves the Minoan civilisation of Crete, though the historical particulars range from speculative to outright fabricated.

Like Voidheart Symphony from the tabletop game section, Viola: The Heroine’s Melody is a an entry that squeaks into the correct time frame by virtue of being a long-in-early-access title that got a 1.0 release during 2021. It’ a cute, music themed platformer RPG with rhythm-based combat. I’m going to put a disclaimer on this one: there are a number of conspicuous user interface bugs that may never get patched because the dev experienced a serious health crisis more or less immediately after the game’s 1.0 release, so you’ll need a fair tolerance for UI jank to get through this one.

[tarisilmarwen]

Why is Luke's characterization in TBOBF Chapter 6 considered OOC and character assassination when it is fully in-line with Jedi teachings? (Even if it was written by Lord Darth Dave Felonious and was clearly framed in a bad light because of that)

That... is a complicated story that basically boils down to two things:

1. A long-standing fandom-wide misinterpretation of Jedi philosophy and teachings.

2. Fandom nostalgia and attachment to Legends EU material. (That's pre-Disney-buyout Expanded Universe books/comics/games/whatever wasn't the six OG films. Note that EU material operated on a nebulous and often contradictory tier system of canon and could be overwritten at any time by Lucas himself on the "G tier".)

See, fandom conflates "attachment" with "any close or intimate interpersonal relationship whatsoever" and think the Prequel Order's prohibition on marriage is stupid so they basically have this whole insidious pervasive fanon where Jedi aren't allowed to love or have friends or express feelings/emotions and therefore they adore and One True Jedi Luke for "bucking" all of that and having compassion and saving his father and his friends with The Power Of Love or some shit and for allowing the members of his new Jedi Order to marry and have families.

A good chunk of the material about Luke's New Jedi Order, it should be noted, was written before the Prequel Trilogy came around and clarified how the Jedi Order of old actually operated (more monastic and structured, under the Senate's authority). And people... did not like that the portrayal of the Jedi in PT contrasted with the EU material they were reading and preferred Luke's Order to the seemingly more sterile and esoteric Prequel Order.

And thus emerged the first roots of the fanon idea that the Prequel Jedi were supposed to be portrayed as Having Things Wrong and that Luke, being of course the One True Jedi, came along and "fixed" things with his new order.

You can see now how people who were operating under this fanon framework came to decry Luke's The Last Jedi portrayal as him having "repeated the mistakes" of the old Order. (That's not why TLJ Luke was OOC but that is a rant for another day my friend.)

TBOBF Luke, being in line with the Prequel Jedi philosophy of "attachment bad, this is a serious commitment and you can't half-ass it, you gotta be 100% in on this" is seen as a continuation of the "bad characterization" established for him in The Last Jedi, because again, Luke is supposed to be the One True Good Jedi Who Fixed Everything Wrong About The Old Order.

Even though the things that fandom thinks were wrong about the old Order weren't actually problems, for the most part, because "attachment" =/= "love" and Lucas has been clear and explicit about this from the beginning, attachment is the fear of loss and the inability to let go. Not "romantic relationships", not "family and friends", it has a very specific connotation in the Star Wars universe and people are very stubborn about ignoring that fact in favor of their preferred fanon interpretation.

Full disclosure I haven't actually seen TBOBF so I'm unclear about the tone of Luke's portrayal but just from what I've seen in gifs it seemed honestly more neutrally portrayed than negative. (Though given Filoni's track record of being mostly in-line with Lucas aside from annoying moments of, "Well but weren't the Prequel Jedi just a little bit in the wrong?"/"Isn't attachment just a little bit good sometimes?" I wouldn't put it past him to lean that way.) And you're right, nothing Luke said or did is out of step with Jedi teachings.

It's just that fandom doesn't like/doesn't understand Jedi teachings so they don't like Luke adhering to them.

[pebblysand]

[PEBBLYSAND'S 2021 FIC REC LIST] - HARRY POTTER EDITION

hi all! i hope you're doing well during this rather awkward week between christmas and new year's! i'm currently sitting on my mum's balcony under the southern france sunshine, enjoying a much welcome break from the grim winter irish weather.

as you might know, i'm not typically one to build extensive rec lists but as 2021 is coming to an end, i thought it would be fun to look back on the fics i read and bookmarked this year and give you a sort of 'best of' (especially since a lot of you might be enjoying some time off at the moment and looking for things to read). as a forewarning, while i did pick my ultimate favourite ten, these are in no particular order. i've tried to keep the ships varied (writing this list has made me realise how much i actually gravitate most towards a specific type of prose than any actual pairing) and am also reccing only works that are finished. if you want my full rec list, please don't hesitate to look through my public bookmarks on ao3, where i keep my most treasured finds.

pour a little salt, we were never here by youcallitwinter (harry/hermione-ish ; 1,274 words ; canon-compliant [1]): so, look. i appreciate that most of my following will not want to hop on the harry/hermione bandwagon with me (fair enough) but this one is definitely one of my faves within a very specific trope of harry-and-hermione-and-all-the-reasons-why-it-didn't-happen, which is probably my favourite trope for this pairing. this fic has some of the most gorgeous writing i have ever seen, period (literally every line is a quotable gem). it's about growing up and accepting life as it presents itself - the summary explains it much better than i currently am: "What happens isn't particularly epic, or even tragic. What happens is stupid; they all just grow up. That's it, that's the whole story." and yeah, that's it, that's the whole story and it's a formidable, heartbreakingly beautiful and realistic story. .

all is quiet in the clearing by slyther-ing (andromeda/ted ; 1,304 words ; canon-compliant): since reading turncoats (which is obviously the ultimate andromeda fic and is my actual favourite fic ever - if you haven't read it, please leave and go read it now), i've been low-key obsessed by andromeda's story and her trajectory from a young, Black, slytherin girl to resistance hero and grandmother to teddy. this fic presents a good insight into her relationship with ted, which is obviously tragic but so very interesting within the potter canon. it's rather short but spans over a few years as ted and andromeda meet, grow up, grow old, up until ted's death. it's beautiful and heartbreaking in all the right ways. if you're interested in that ship, i would highly recommend giving it a read. .

glass over the flame by thegreybeyond (harry/hermione-ish ; 1857 words ; canon-compliant): this is my second rec in the harry-and-hermione-and-all-the-reasons-why-it-didn't-happen category. the writing in this one is fantastic and it strikes similar cords in terms of growing up, coming of age, etc. as the first fic i recommended. i love this one because i think it very subtly studies themes of friendship and how there-might-have-been-something-but-we-chose-not-to doesn't have to be a heartbreak either. .

naive: in defense of hannah abbott by dirgewithoutmusic (neville/hannah ; 5,557 words ; canon-compliant): now, full disclosure, if you've been following me for a while, you'll know that i'm a dirgewithoutmusic stan. i've had to limit myself to only reccing one work per series because if i didn't, this whole rec list would just be dirgewithoutmusic. i've been slowly working my way through their series we must unite inside her walls or we'll crumble from within which is centered around hogwarts houses and different secondary characters, and after turncoats last year, this one was definitely my favourite i read this year. the degree of imagination and worldbuilding this author masters in shaping entire, fully fleshed characters out of the very little information we have about them in the books is truly unbelievable - i am forever in awe. this fic is mostly about hannah, her relationship with neville, the loss of her mother in book six, and a reminder that it'd okay to take time to grieve, and not to always be 'fighting' or 'okay.' it just such a gorgeous story that makes you cry and smile at the same time, just like life does. i adore this fic so much. .

the kids who chose themselves by dirgewithoutmusic (gen ; 9,714 words ; AU): i read this fic once. i will likely never read it again. it has lived in my head rent-free since then, has fucked up my psyche forever and is probably one of the most stunning what-ifs i have ever read. it outlines the scenario of what would have happened if both neville and harry had died that night on hallowe'en and there was no chosen one. i'm generally nnot one to enjoy fics where harry is dead but i suppose this is the exception. if you want to read about muggle/wizard alliances, clandestine schools, and a worldbuilding that is fucking stellar and will make you forever in awe of what this author can accomplish with less than 10,000 words, go read this immediately. the other works in the series are also amazing but this one just stuck with me. .

savior complex by @hiinnys (harry/ginny ; 1,495 words ; canon-compliant - the fic i tagged as not epilogue-compliant but i'm not sure why): someone once recommended this fic to me first asking me if i'd written it and calling it very "me," which i think i can't ignore when placing it on this list. this being said, not only did i not write this, but it's also written probably ten times better than i ever could. @hiinnys's writing is everything i adore down to the lack of capital letters (lol) and an amazing use of language and flow. it's a simple, post-war story around an ipod and harry's love of muggle music and running, topped with a gorgeous picture of his growing relationship with ginny, showing that you can create beautiful tales out of thin air. i can't stress how beautiful this is (and funny, too) and it warms my heart every time i read it. .

warm front by flagpoles (harry/ginny ; 5,332 words ; canon-compliant): as someone who's traveled quite a bit and lived in a number of different countries, i adore the trope of harry going traveling after the war and this fic (and the next one) does this so well. harry moves to australia with teddy and andromeda a couple of years after the battle and slowly learns to find his way home. there's a lot of letters, funny quotes and deep phone chatter between harry and the rest of the gang, and a very interesting study of how you can both miss people but also need to be alone sometimes. this fic is fluff and fun, and warm feelings done incredibly well (see, i'm not always bleak and angsty!) - i love the style and the dialogue and the cleverness of it all. it's something that i don't think i could ever write but which i aboslutely adored reading. flagpoles also very recently released another fic which i'm not listing here officially but also brought me a lot of joy. .

maps to the stars' homes by lizbee (gen - slight harry/ginny ; 7,475 words ; AU): i think i first read this fic years and years ago, but only rediscovered it last may. this one sort of explores the same trope as the previous one (harry goes traveling after the war) but does it in a completely different way as it was written in '05, so before book seven came out. it's a very interesting take in what could have been and what the war could have looked like if written differently, though it's uncanny how the end point is so strangely the same. i absolutely love the non-chronological structure of this fic (we all know i'm a sucker for non-linear narratives) as well as this idea that muggles could just be told about magic casually. this fic was a huge inspiration for how i wrote mia's reaction to magic in castles. .

the seam between by @copper-dust (gen ; 26,188 words ; canon-compliant): i think i'm not alone in saying i absolutely adore this fic, it's - imo - got potential to become a classic. to give you a little bit of a pitch, this story is (mostly) set during the summer between harry fourth and fifth years, before he makes it to grimmauld place. as far as i'm concerned, it sets the canon within that gap of time we never heard of in the books, describes his daily life at the dursleys', his relationship with petunia, the ongoing struggle to come to terms with cedric's death, etc. it's a fic i didn't even know i needed - i mostly read post-war fanfic to makes sense of the giant nothing that is the post-war world in my head - and i'd never really realised that there was a gap in those few weeks spent at the dursleys that i was interested in filling. in terms of the writing itself, i'll just what probably everybody knows at this stage, which is that copper_dust is one of the best (if not the best) writers in fandom at the moment. every word on that page is studied, thought through, chosen and exact, in a way that i've rarely ever seen, including in original fiction. the work and its tone is subtle, clever, and just right; harry's teenage, inner voice is rendered absolutely perfectly - as i've said before, this fic is canon, as far as i'm concerned. what i particularly love about this fic is the amount of research done on the historical context of that period of the 90s, which gives such an immersive feel to the story. you'll often hear that there is poetry in the ordinary, and this fic is the ultimate illustration of that. it is shaping beauty and truth out of the daily life of a scared and scarred teenage boy, in a truly invaluable way. i could not recommend this fic (and the rest of copper_dust's work) more. .

toxicology by speechwriter (gen ; 2,942 words): to me, this fic probably exists somewhere within a space of canon-compliant and not, which is why i'll let you be the judge. i really hesitated on what i'd recommend as my last point (close runner ups were: bless the children give them triumph yet and it's a small crime and i've got no excuse) but i chose this one because it's not only incredibly well written but also dives into an interesting concept: since harry was a horcrux, did being around him impact ron and hermione's personalities growing up, the same way the locket did in the forest? if so, in what way? i'm not sure that i fully subscribe to this theory but i think it's a terribly interesting idea and the exploration is done superbly well in this fic. i would very highly recommend.

[sheloooveswomen]

attention - audrey tindall x reader

masterlist

summary: pure fluff. audrey rambling a lot.

includes: audrey x fem!reader, thoughts are italicized, POV switches.

warnings: none

inspired by Safe in Her Arms Audio’s audio on youtube

2,464 words

AUDREY POV//

I should wake her up...

No no no no I won't.

Bloody hell Audrey let her sleep!

I move a little closer, brushing stray hairs from her face. Taking the time to admire my love and allow my fingertips to lightly trace over her features. Then the alarm goes off, finally. I reach over to turn it off and set another one for in an hour.

Y/n stretches her legs and sighs softly before tilting her head to kiss the palm of my hand that rests on her cheek.

"Hi gorgeous" I smile.

"Good morning"

"How'd you sleep, love?"

"Wonderfully. I was dreaming about you."

I may melt, "About me?"

She gives a sleepy smile, "Mhm it was a good one."

"What was it about?" 

"I'm embarrassed to say"

I gasp, "Was it naughty?"

She hides her face in the pillow with a laugh, "No"

"I don't believe you" I whisper, trailing kisses from behind her ear to her shoulder.

"Maybe a little... it was actually quite romantic. Guess I just missed you so much."

"You missed me in your sleep? I was laying here the whole time, you know. And you decided to roll over instead of sticking to big spoon. You gave more love to your spare pillow than your wife. Yes, I was appalled, too."

"So sassy. You were away so long I haven't turned off dream Audrey."

"Darling you could never turn me off" I chuckle lowly.

XX

She laughs into her pillow before peeking at me, "I missed you a lot."

"Yeah?" I grin.

"Yep" she smiles.

"Well you are in luck, my sweet, because I am extra needy this morning. I want your attention- no I need your attention, nay! I demand your attention."

She rolls over into my embrace, "I think I can spare some"

"Thank you kindly"

_____________

Y/N POV//

I burrow my face into her chest, my arms going around her waist, hers loosely around my neck, and her leg over my hip. My hands find their way under her shirt to trace random shapes in effort to soothe her further.

"Mhmmm... I'm feeling better already. Big squeeze?" Audrey asks.

We tighten our hold on each other before relaxing.

"I don't want to put pressure on you when I'm in an attention seeking, needy mood but I'm happy to see you like it a little—"

"I like clingy Audrey a lot actually."

"A lot? Isn't that convenient." she pecks my forehead.

"This is exactly what I needed these last few months"

She hums in agreement, "Full disclosure: during the night I was tempted to wake you but nuh uh. I was not going to cross the line, uh uh. Your rest is important to me. If it wasn't I'd be a terrible partner and I'm a fantastic partner. We hold this relationship to high standards. We take care of each other and of each other's sleep." her serious voice turns to laughter by the end of her speech.

"You could've woken me up" I run my hands through her short hair.

"Sweetheart no, I don't want to wake you up for that. I just hold out for however long and soak you up in the morning like this." Audrey places a few kisses on the crown of my head, "This really does feel fantastic though, I really needed this a lot. I love your little back rubs too, feels really good."

I continue gliding my hands underneath the back of her shirt, "Anytime baby."

She smiles when I kiss just above her heart, "I love how affectionate you are- hello." Audrey giggles as I nibble on her collarbone. "Mhm... I love your little kisses. God I love those lips. Come here my darling heart."

She takes my face in her hands and plants her lips on mine.

"Good lord those lips are crazy!" 

Kiss

"Look I can't get enough of you!" 

Kiss

"I can't say I mind" I smile into the next kiss.

"Be careful what you offer. I will keep you here, wrapped in my arms, locked in place by my legs forever. I win."

"You win?" I laugh.

She tilts my head to the side to kiss my cheek, "Mhm, I win. This is the most winningest fight position- no we're not fighting, no. I'm just keeping you locked in. Keeping you safe. You do make it easy for me though. And I rather like you between my legs." she kisses my other cheek.

"Again, I say anytime baby."

Audrey hums contently, "Those little back scratches are sweet, too. You know that's the thing about touch, I think I had to learn once I got a little bit older considering... errr where am I going with this?" she laughs, "I think like a period of time- because we are all so poorly educated on all things intimacy, I think we highly underestimate just the intentions of touch."

"Elaborate" I reply.

"You know you can have- well I can have someone else rub my back—"

I shake my head, "No."

She grins, giving me a chaste kiss, "But it'd be very different than when you do it because your intention is very very sweet."

"Damn right"

She pecks my nose, "And even if their intention was sweet or... I don't know, transactional or kind of robotic or whatever, what have you. It would feel like a totally different experience."

"I think I get what you mean"

"My favorite thing about touching you- well one of my favorite things is feeling the intentions behind each touch, ya know?" she subconsciously starts to play with my hair, "The affection being our operative word. Affection. So affectionate you are" she lowers her voice to a seductive tone before breaking out into giggles again, "in all seriousness it makes me feel special."

We go quiet for a moment, just enjoying each other's company.

"On the flip side though it probably means I'm spoiled by you. I do clock my neediness as a- what do you call it? A red flag."

"Well I completely disagree because either you have no red flags or I'm red-green colorblind."

"You liar. I know I'm not like needy needy but even this morning I was pained to not have your affection and attention for a little while. I think it means I'm not producing enough self love to hold me over in those moments because I'm so used to these moments where I do have you. All cuddled up. Often nude which is the icing on the most delicious cake. Think about it: eventually I will have to film again and you'll have to go about your work. But even in the same room we have to let go of each other and I can't go through full love withdrawals every time we break away. So that's where self love comes in as the anecdote to my loneliness."

Can you tell she's an actress?

"But that requires effort which requires energy and I have been low energy on self care lately as well, my love."

"Since you first left or even from before?" I ask, running my fingertip over her eyebrows and down her jawline.

"Only since I left. I haven't done much for me. It's one of those things where every day I want to and know I have to."

"But you never get to it?"

"Exactly, darling. Then maybe all my need for attention won't have to fall entirely on your shoulders." she puts her hand up to stop me from interrupting, "I know you're so sweet and you don't mind, but it's good to keep oneself in check. So this is me talking it out with you as my lovely, compassionate, sexy listener. One of the greatest things you do for me is listening and sharing and breaking me out of my lowering self esteem, energy, and effort. Just sharing with you is possibly what I need to set off a productive cycle. So thank you."

"I'm happy to listen but if there is anything else, Audie, don't hesitate to let me know okay?"

"You can try and help however you like but honestly, you simply caring to listen and caring to care does so much, darling heart. It's extraordinary. You are extraordinary."

"Extraordinarily lucky, you mean?"

"You and that silver tongue" her smirk turns to a yawn.

"Do we have time to relax before lunch? I don't think I'm ready to get up and function." I look over her shoulder to check the nightstand clock.

"We actually have loads of time. I had a feeling that I was going to need you this morning so I must confess I set the alarm earlier so we could be on time and have a cuddle."

"You are a genius, Tindall."

"Thank you, my sweet. We did go to bed early on top of it so I believe we can call this morning a success."

"Success indeed" I peck her cheek.

"You know, I feel like my independent self is when I'm most attractive so I can only imagine you enjoying me when I am fully self producing motivation, eating right, learning new things, and cramming hours of work in a day. Because sometimes I'm the opposite."

"Audrey I'm the opposite 85% of the time so it would be not only impossible, but unfair for me to think less of you when you're having a tough time."

She nods, "I know but I love to be a rock for you. I don't want you to have to worry about me in any way, I'd rather focus my time on taking away your worries."

"It's human to go through ups and downs, babe."

"True but I don't know if it runs super deep. Maybe I'll look into this a little bit. Maybe it's just my anxiety or seasonal depression possibly, luckily it’s almost spring. I don't know." she starts to smile.

"What're you smiling about?" I caress her cheekbone with my the pad of my thumb.

"I've never been with someone who allows me the time to acknowledge my needs the way you do. So I'll look into it. Just a check. Because I have every intention to be with you for a very long time and I'd hate to wake up one morning and have regretted not following my instincts to look into it. To say 'if only I'd followed up! If only I trusted my instincts!'"

"It's now an instinct to check?"

"Yes I'd say so. It was a suspicion for a little bit, but now I'd say it's a hard instinct to check in with myself." she shakes her fist for dramatic effect.

"Well I will help you look into it if you want"

She pecks my forehead, "I love how supportive you are of me as far as any self awareness- where any self help, more like, is concerned. I thank you, gorgeous."

"You are welcome, gorgeous." I imitate her accent.

"Yep. I like it here." she sighs happily.

I laugh in response.

"Honestly how I go without you for any period of time is unfathomable. Absolutely tragic. This is the happiest place on earth right here so the disneys can piss off. They have nothing on your little kisses and back rubs and cuddles and sweet sweet nothings."

I'm sure I have a stupid grin on my face, "That's what I'm here for, my lovely."

"The pet names, too?! That's another thing! It doesn't take much for you to melt me, does in?" she laughs, "Does not take much at all. You do anything and I am absolutely done for." she brings the back of her hand to her forehead as if she'll faint.

"I'll clock that, too, then." I reply.

"You better... you know Im suddenly knackered."

"You had a long flight yesterday and a change in time zones. Go back to sleep, I'll stay here, and then we can go out for breakfast- more like lunch but still."

"Sounds wonderful, thank you darling... and thank you for the attention" she yawns, "I will take all of the affection you can give."

"I will smother you with my love then. Lay it on as thick as you" I pat her bum.

She giggles and swats my hand away, "Are you always this cheeky?"

"Yep. Was that pun intended?"

"Yep."

"Are you always this witty?" I slowly move my hand back to her butt.

She starts to laugh, "Yep."

"Keep it up. I like it."

"I like that I soften up with you... that I can giggle with you and play with you and—"

"You soften?"

"Yeah I'd say I soften with you. Being in your arms is somehow so liberating. I can just relax and trust that the person I share my space and vulnerability and heart with, whom I love and care for and respect... and appreciate- my darling heart I can go on and on about how you make me feel. You somehow manage to make me feel so safe, and you know how rarely I feel that anymore."

I draw her into a soft kiss and rest my forehead on hers, playing with the shorter hairs at the back of her head.

"And you make me feel good" she laughs, biting her lip, "thank you very kindly for that." her hands move under my shirt to run up and down my back.

Audrey positions my arms around her neck and tightens her hold around my waist so we lay chest to chest.

"You've already made me feel so much better. I wish I didn't have to be so needy but I'm really really grateful that you're into that." she releases a heavy sigh.

"You alright?"

"I'm okay sweetheart, just exhaling any pent up stress" she smiles before squeezing me, "You're so warm!" she rolls us over to lay her head on my chest and throw her leg over me again, "I'm gonna pass out" she laughs, "hold me tighter."

"I missed this" I kiss the top of her head a few times.

She lifts her head, "Kisses? Bring that mouth here again" she puckers her lips and I close the gap. Her hand on my cheek holds me in place, "Mhm I'm crazy about you. Mhm."

She deepens the kiss.

"You are delicious." she pecks my lips a few times.

"Thank you, babe." I smile.

"Thank you, babe." she grins before laying her head back down.

Just when I think she's back asleep she pipes up again.

"Darling heart?"

"Yes my love?"

"Can you be big spoon?"

I have to laugh, "Of course!"

She kisses all over my face before rolling over and pulling my arm over her waist, "And you better stay! I love you."

I smile when her hand finds mine, "I love you, too"

[spade-riddles]

Tea 🍵 Time Responses

Tea Time! There's something in the bridge of Coney ISLAnd you all are missing!

🍵

Coney Island 🎤

_____________________

rainbowdaisy13 said:

Ok look into Isla Grant. She’s a Scottish folk singer and a lot of her song titles are like woah. “Daisy for Mama, You’re the Best Friend, Partners in Rhyme, Keeper of my Heart, Out of the Blue”

Could be a weird coincidence

lov4-kaylor said:

Maybe Something to do with the Gold Clock??? We just recently saw the Gold Clock in the Fearless De-Coding post from T. Maybe we still need to de-code something further with the Gold Clock. The word scramble was too easy for Ts style anyway!

a-swift-folklore said:

Why write it like IS-LAnd? My first thought was "Is LA"

sherryd23 said:

Did I paint your bluest skies the darkest grey.. a universe away...

Anonymous said:

Isla is a Scottish feminine given name, and it just so happens to be pronounced EYE-la 🧐

Anonymous said:

ISLA / isn't there a famous treeline in LA? it's been in a lot of movies. bonus :drake's party was in LA

asteracaea said:

the only isla i know of is fischer...

cyberpunk89 said:

maybe it’s “name” in “when I walked up to the podium, I think that I forgot to say your NAME” and tea time anon made it Coney ISLAnd, so… ISLA the name? Still not sure, it’s too simple.

UPD: well. Taylor sings “ [your] name” on 3:19 and it’s 3+1+9=13. I hate these “13″ references even if it’s coincedence.

Anonymous said:

It's probably obvious, but the Trump family bought up huge swathes of Coney Island in the 60s and got entangled in legal actions over what to do with it. Locals were trying to revitalize the area but Trump Sr wanted to forget the fairground amenities and build more profitable apartments instead. I don't remember all the details but I think they took him on and he won. The setting adds a layer of sad irony to Taylor singing about losing the good times after the election.

Anonymous said:

re: tea time/ full disclosure i'm terrible with riddles but if you google gold clock nyc the most prominent that comes up is on fifth avenue (the 666 kushner bullding is also on fifth avenue). it's not much but i hope we can solve this

Anonymous said:

ISLA-Lisa baby name?

Anonymous said:

Okay the Coney Island bridge makes mention of a birthday and TT! anon hid the name Isla in their message! Could Isla be the name of the Kaylor child?

Anonymous said:

ISLA Blair, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

lov4-kaylor said:

Could it be the babies name??? Ben??? Silly me that's the cat's name...

Anonymous said:

"When I walked up to the podium I think that I forgot to say your name " well she certainly did not forget to say Joe's name, so whose name could she possibly have forgot? 🤔😆

Anonymous said:

Anonymous said:

Well it could be Isla, as in the name, that's why it was capitalized. But if it was that simple why specifically direct us to the bridge? Food for thought: the bridge of the song has 11 verses/lines (according to google) and Coney Island has 11 letters. So maybe we should focus on the capitalized ones, which are 6-9? So on this part: "Did I paint your bluest skies the darkest gray / A universe away /And when I got into the accident / The sight that flashed before me was your face".

Anonymous said:

just dropping observations about the coney island bridge, maybe someone else can run with them

Isla is a (Spanish) girls name, that means island

when taylor sings your name in the bridge it sounds like someone is singing in the background/ there is an echo

the only other time this is the case is during the first three lines of the bridge specifically

your name is said exactly from 3:17 (11) to 3:19 (13)

one connection I made was to Taylor mentioning three kids on the last 'podium' where she thanked people. this seemed strange to everyone and feels like it was a placeholder for a name she 'forgot'/ couldn't say

@chosetherose said:

Ooo thanks TT!

First thoughts:

Isla is a popular baby girls name. Is this kaylor’s daughter’s name?

I need to listen to Coney Island again and think things through.

redpaintedgolden said:

i feel like it’s about

Were you waiting at our old spot

In the tree line

By the gold clock

the other lines are kinds self explanatory. and we know abot the birthday cake

Anonymous said:

Re TT Coney ISLAnd, the only thing that has been in my mind since the Grammys is the bit

And When I walked up to the podium

I think I forgot to say your name

Over and over..

So, the baby in Coney Island isn’t the same person that was named in the Grammys speech (obvious, yes)

But what’s really been haunting me about this song is the lyric “when the sun goes down”.. and coincidentally a certain embodiment of the sun or literal sunshine ☀️ went down (in the dark/out of the spotlight) around the same time evermore was released.

swift-79 said:

So I have a little time before a meeting so let see. London has a ferris wheel like a coney island. The London Eye. Lyric:"we're you waiting at our old spot. In the tree line by the gold clock".🤔🤔 So if it is about Joe why is someone waiting in secret! 😉😎🌈 So old golden clock maybe the Big Ben in London. Does it have tree lines?

Yes it does than next lyric:

"Did I leave you hanging every single day?"🤔

Another meaning for hanging can be "floating" She used that word not so long ago. 🤔🤔🤔

Lyric: "where you standing in the hallway with a big cake, happy birthday"

Now about the cake in the hallway we know that KK who left a Victoria Secret photo shooting to be at Taylor b-day or it about the cake in Miss Americana🤔

Don't have more time to decipher maybe this can be a start for another person to continue. I don't know if I am on the right path either. Good luck!!!! 😉😎🌈

kellykaylor said:

When I first saw ISLA in capital letters, i was thinking about the International Securities Lending Association, a trade association. But I dont think thats the part we missed.

So for all the NYC people out here: is there a physical bridge which u can take to coney island? maybe tea time anon was referring to an actual 🌉? swift-79 said:

Hmm Great Britain is an Island in the North Atlantic Ocean! 😉😎🌈

Anonymous said:

re: teatime anon, if the C in Coney ISLAnd is capitalized, perhaps the I would normally be capitalized as well, meaning the change would be the capitalization of SLA.

i don’t have much either than that but, SLA is an acronym for “Service Level Agreement” —which isn’t really a term in the entertainment world i don’t think but one example definition i found is “a guarantee of performance in a contract, with penalties for not hitting the published elements. For example, a customer might have a guaranteed 4 hour response window to equipment issues, or a guarantee on spare part arrival of 24 hours or less.”

[smallandsundry]

What *is* RWBY? I've seen people talking about it for years and I've seen fan content but it's one of the few shows I've never actually seen anywhere other than tumblr. I've never even seen any gifs or screen grabs. Is it even available in 'Murica? (More importantly - to me - is it actually queer?)

rwby is an animated web series by rooster teeth (the same people who made red vs blue) and as far as i can see all 7 volumes that have aired are available on rooster teeth’s website for free.

the four main characters make up team rwby (ruby, weiss, blake, and yang), who start the series attending a combat university where they're basically learning how to fight monsters​ after having gone to combat schools before that, and they get dragged into a bunch of much broader conflicts that have worldwide implications.  

as for whether it's queer or not: i think it's important to note that romance is not a major part of the show at all. there are some romantic plots, but the show isn't centered on them. it's not like avatar or korra or she-ra, where romantic relationships are a significant part of the show and have significant time dedicated to them. that being said, though, one of the only romantic plotlines rwby does have is a super slowburn one between two women. it's still building in the show but the groundwork was laid in earlier volumes and it's continued moving forward since then. so in that sense, yes, there is a queer storyline in it, and it also happens to be one of the only romantic storylines in the whole show, but i also wouldn't classify it as a queer show--in the sense that, say, she-ra is a very queer show on every level-- but more as a show that happens to have a queer romance in it.

(full disclosure i tried to watch this show years ago and failed because the animation for the first three volumes is Bad. last summer my wife and i just powered through because the world building and story lines were worth it and by volume 4 the animators figure it out. the episodes are very short and the writing really is very good and the animation gets a lot better.)

[coinofstone]

3x05 The Crystal Cave

Disclosure: I fell asleep watching this episode last night, and then spent the entire day trying to watch it but getting interrupted and distracted. My orginal notes were lost/ deleted by tumblr, so this is a full do-over. If I sound cranky, that's why.

I love everything about this intro sequence. The slow-mo shots cutaway in time with the heartbeat, the ambient sound removed so all you hear is that heartbeat and the breathing, the swing around to the oncoming horde chasing after Arthur and Merlin, the increase in the heartbeats speed till full audio fills in as the shot's sped back up to real time and the music kicks in full of suspense and adrenaline as Arthur and Merlin absolutely book it through the same 15 feet of forest over and over 😂

No but it really is a lovely shot. I also love that they just never even bother with an explanation for why they're being chased, where they were, what they were doing, why they were there alone and without horses. Like.... ok then.

Bradley and Colin both in this shot with their mouths hanging open but there's clearly a swarm of gnats like right next to his Bradley's face and I just

As for the crystal cave itself - you telling me Morgause didn't know about it? Like I understand Alvarr but Morgause?? Kind of makes the crystal of neahtid seem a lot less important than it was made out to be.

Ppl hate Arthur for being mean to Merlin but Merlin seems to give as good as he gets to me. Not *just* in retaliation, either, but like even this scene he's just being rude because he's moody over the cave - Arthur doesn't even actually deserve it here. Not that I'm saying Merlin isn't justified, he 1000% is. I just really don't see anything abusive in their dynamic.

This entire episode is just Merlin entering rooms

They made Arthur a new crown and he still looks like a child playing dress up in it

The shot of Arthur holding Gwen while she sobbed was the most awkward thing ever. Gwen didn't seem to know what to do with her hands and Arthur looked like he's got no idea how to hug a person. Idk if it was deliberately awkward to signify the awkwardness of THEIR situation, or if it was just a shot they didn't get a better take of.

"Merlin: Have You Learned Nothing?!" Sundays on BBC One*

*I have no idea what day or channel this series aired on, I just think that line from Kilgharrah nicely fits as a tagline for the series.

FTR I think Merlin commanding the dragon to give him the power to heal Morgana after he's explicitly refused to do so IS a gross abuse of his power.

Morgana hears Uther say he's her father but she doesn't hear Merlin speaking that enchantment to save her 👌

I still don't understand why Merlin is so desperate to keep Uther alive. I think the party line is, "don't let Uther get killed by a sorcerer because Arthur will hate magic so much he'll be as bad as Uther was" but frankly I just think that's dumb, tbh.

On I'm falling asleep shook I'm gonna call it. More tomorrow.

3am EDIT:

I actually did fall asleep just before the end of this episode (again) but the music jolted me awake enough to be worried about losing this draft (again) so I added an incoherent sign off and posted, because that's just who I am, as a person. Now that I'm wide awake at 3am I'm just going to polish off this post properly, because I never got to the main point of it: the plot device.

I do appreciate that Merlin is self aware enough to realize he shouldn't be given messages of the future. A big part of this show is old magic beings telling Merlin prophesies about himself, things that amount to him being told the future and then working to either prevent or encourage it. The future-telling crystals are really just a neat plot device to get Merlin into position to prevent a thing from happening. In this case, he's trying to prevent Morgana from killing Uther. Aside from that though, the story here is really about the choices Merlin makes in order to prevent the future from happening, and how they actually contribute to the future happening rather than preventing it, as though it were inevitable. This really ties in to the Mordred story, and Morgana's, and honestly just overall Merlin and Arthur's.

It's a really big, sort of heady theme, the way that future knowledge shapes Merlin's choices and the effect on those choices could have on his character when they're at odds with who he is as a person. The way Merlin is manipulated by prophecy is a really big thing within the series, and the events of this episode both foreshadow events to come, and reinforces the defiance of prophesy that we've already seen from Merlin. It's much more important thematically than in terms of the specific events of the episode.

[downinfront]

“Godzilla: King of the Monsters”: Just go with it, people

The new Godzilla should come with a disclaimer at the beginning asking you to turn off your brain along with your cell phone, and I mean that as a compliment. But also kind of as an insult. But mainly a compliment. Unless it's an insult. Which makes me think that it's more of a compliment.

Look, point is, when the big guy himself is onscreen, brawling against or alongside the scores of hairy, scaly, winged creatures that have risen to ravage our worthless asses, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is frankly spectacular summer entertainment on par with anything the final battle of Avengers: Endgame cooks up. But when the film turns its gaze towards the hapless humans scurrying around in the lizard king's wake, it turns into a different kind of stupid, where paper-thin characters shift motivations seemingly at random, profanely talented actors stare ponderously into the middle distance (better to do the math on the zeroes in the paychecks) and a crew of military jocks/science dorks sprout impenetrable jargon that serves as exposition. Ultimately, whether this movie is worth your while will depend on where you land with respect to that dichotomy: Is numbingly silly human drama worth sitting through to get to the endorphin high of a monster rumble?

In fairness, this movie has not been remotely shy about what it's selling us. Gareth Edwards' 2014 Godzilla, which this movie serves as a sequel to, teased the monster as a malevolent natural force and pump-faked him into a surly protector of humanity, albeit one with a conspicuous disregard for collateral damage. This one, from jump, has been marketed as a four-way showdown featuring Godzilla and three of his most notorious frenemies: The glowing insect Mothra, fiery pteranodon Rodan, and three-headed dragon, King Ghidorah. It shares a central thesis with its predecessor — long story short, humans are wasteful, horrible creatures who've ruined the planet, and we deserve what's coming to us — but to its credit, has no patience for the ponderousness with which Edwards approached the subject. Instead, it settles for a blunt-force, here's-what-I'm-doing-and-why speech by a scientist (Vera Farmiga) who seeks to use the monsters to restart the earth alongside someone the script has seen fit to designate as an "eco-terrorist" (a harrumphing, underused Charles Dance). What earned him that reputation is left mostly to the imagination; he is quiet, British, speaks in monosyllables and shoots a lot of extras, ergo, he is bad.

Along for the ride is Farmiga's daughter, Eleven — err, Madison (Millie Bobbie Brown from Stranger Things), who has been drawn into her mother's plan as ... a co-conspirator, I think? She seems oddly willing to go along with the extinction of humanity in principle, though her mom's execution of the plan leaves a lot to be desired. On the other end of the spectrum is her father (Kyle Chandler), another scientist of sorts who is trying to repair his own relationship with Madison -- her brother was lost in the events of the previous film, as established in a prologue that recalls Batman v Superman, of all things -- while also reconciling his own feelings about ... Godzilla? I think?

Yes, it's all very silly. And the director, Michael Dougherty, is visibly lacking the personal touches he brought to his last feature, the nasty, nihilistic horror-comedy Krampus from 2015. (Worth a watch, by the way.) But to his credit, he also seems to realize that this is not the reason for whence you have come. And when it comes time to get to the smashy-smashy stuff, he excels. His King of the Monsters may have ditched Edwards' sense of seriousness, but it wisely retains that filmmaker's eye for sheer, awe-inspiring scale. He knows how to use it a little better, I think, lingering less on the shots emphasizing the monsters' enormity and using them more as beats in the kind of viciously streamlined action sequences Edwards never felt the need to attempt. (The scene where the military tries to bait Rodan away from the Mexican village he's nesting above is so thrilling it took me out of the movie for a bit.)

It's to Dougherty's credit the effect isn't diluted despite the movie's dumbing down: Even if some of the best shots have been spoiled in the trailers, there's still something primally majestic about the sight of these monsters among us and the merciless destruction they wreak in a battle that is revealed to be, quite literally, older than time and beyond the scope of our world. It makes you wish both movies had done away with the speechifying entirely; the imagery in them is, frankly, enough to speak for themselves, and the people speaking are blindingly puny in comparison anyway. (That's is no reflection on the actors, a talented bunch that brings back Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins and David Strathairn from the first movie and expands to include Ziyi Zhang, O'Shea Jackson, Jr., Bradley Whitford, Aisha Hinds and Thomas Middleditch. They all seem pretty happy to be in a Godzilla movie. Good for them.)

Like all good bad movies, King of the Monsters does contain one single germ of a good idea: That all these other monsters are the only thing stopping Godzilla from turning his attention to us, the reason he has to come back in the first place. Edwards reimagined Godzilla as a burly, glowering sort, but his movie didn't go far enough to establish any kind of relationship with the humans at his feet. Dougherty, again to his credit, at least tries to create a dynamic: This beefy, lumbering Godzilla has the air of a blue-collar dad who comes home to find his spoiled kids have trashed the joint and wearily resigns himself to setting things right. He lumbers from mess to mess, spewing fire and moving on to the next one before things get really out of hand. (As if to drive the point home, at one point in King of the Monsters, he actually takes a nap.) Unspoken in all of this is whether we as a species are worth this aggravation, save for a throwaway line at the end, and you wish the script, by Dougherty, Zach Shields and Max Borenstien, had made a little more room for the kind of existential query that would give this movie some urgency, especially in an age where climate change has become an existential question.

Alas, no time for that. There's cities to smash, some queasily so (Boston is completely disintegrated in a nuclear holocaust — go Yankees?), people to eat, overqualified actors to kill off and a hairy fellow glimpsed only in shadow on the periphery, patiently awaiting his own throwdown next year. (Stay through the very entertaining, creative credit sequence for some setup on that front.) Again, this isn't necessarily an insult. Godzilla may have begun as a metaphor for Hiroshima, but it's worth noting that his legacy is probably more in line with the cheesy, B-movie, man-in-suit movies that followed suit, so the movie isn't quite as out of line as you might think by choosing destruction over allegory. Nonetheless, even the most forgiving of viewers might be tested with its final sequence, a bombastic, ridiculous scene that is probably the dumbest thing ever put to film — unless it's your thing, in which case it's the coolest thing you've ever seen. (Full disclosure: It’s totally my thing.) It's to King of the Monsters' credit that it plants its flag, then and there, as to what kind of movie it's trying to be, and if I do say so myself, it's to your credit if you go along with it: You're allowed to like a dumb movie. But there's nothing wrong with quietly wishing that it was a little smarter, too.