#harold. they���re lesbians.

[kensatou]

what if i risked my life and put up (affectionate) with your unhinged monsterfucker brother to save you. and then revealed i was an expert in illegal black magic just so i could resurrect you from a pile of bones. and what if i later explored your body in the bath. and you laced our fingers together and offered to share your energy with me. and what if after all that… there was only one bed. what then.

update: it's been ANIMATED. gifs here

[glorioblog]

First Look: The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady

First Look: The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady

Alternative title(s): Tensei Ōjo to Tensai Reijō no Mahō Kakumei Light Novel Adaptation by Diomedéa Streaming on Crunchyroll Premise Anisphia, the first princess of the Kingdom of Palettia, has always loved magic, but couldn’t use it herself. So, in comes science with a bit of fantasy to help, particularly with her dream of wanting to fly. After a flying mishap, she ends up crashing her…

[tumblingxelian]

Underrated Writing: .Hack's Morganna Mode Gone

There's a villain I don't think gets enough credit, Morgana Mode Gone from .Hack//Sign, Liminality and the four part game series, plus the AI Buster novels.

Brief summary:

Hack is set on a slightly altered history Earth, where in part due to plot & also the era it was conceived it blends the Sci-Fu futurism and "The internet is magic" together with the "Isekai" and "Trapped in a game" story concepts. Different eras of the series have different tones & structures, but this is covering the early eras overarching Villain.

Morganna Mode Gone is the "God" of a game simply called "The World", which was based on the writings of the epic poem Epitaph of Twilight.

But in truth she is more akin to a Gnostic deity, false or proto god. Because her primary purpose is actually to tend to and facilitate the birth of the worlds Ultimate AI, Aura.

I mean actual AI, as in, artificial intelligence, not some shitty algorithm tech bro idiots slapped a trench coat on.

Morganna Mode Gone is herself an artificial intelligence, one capable of contradicting herself, ah sapience, but is still bound by the rules of her programming.

This is a problem for her because once Aura is born/awake, Morganna Mode Gone won't have a purpose and she can't really conceive of what happens then.

As a result, before the series even began she essentially fragmented off a portion of her own identity, forming the Vagrant AI Macha, but she couldn't solve the problem.

Because if Aura dies, then Morganna Mode Gone also has no purpose. She needs a way to Ouroboros this situation, leaving Aura always growing but never developing, never waking.

She also trapped her and Aura's creator in The World when he realized what was happening. He survives the series but never escapes, and eventually devolves/evolves into a sort of living relic.

It was around this period that she began breaking & twisting things to try & escape the paradox she was trapped in. Re-styling herself from Harold's idea of a mother into the Cursed Wave.

This included orchestrating the hunting down and deletion, IE murder of other Vagrant AI's that were forming as a result of the Black Box meant to birth Aura, IE, proto Aura's, like Lycoris.

"I am an unwanted child. Even God doesn't want me." — Lycoris —

As well as using Macha or Guardians to 'Data Drain' any humans who get to close, which at its lightest, leaves them temporarily comatose, destroys their characters and has a negative impact on their mind.

You might notice Moraganna Mode Gone has not yet been established as making an appearance, good eye.

See, one of the things that makes her so interesting to me is that Moraganna Mode Gone is nominally omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent figure.

She is the underlying system of The World itself and for all intents and purposes a force of nature. As a result she primarily acts through intermediaries, or by guiding others to act for purposes.

Managing to make a villain like this work, and work so effectively is one of the biggest strengths. As it is, we pure Moraganna Mode Gone as a disembodies voice that influences the world & creatures.

She also has some fantastic lines, though not quite as effective without the atmosphere and delivery, I still love them, such as:

"The higher up it is dropped, the worse the crash will be. Hope is the best spice to bring out despair." — Morganna Mode Gone —

In order to accomplish her goal, Moraganna Mode Gone has Macha manipulate and Data Drain Tsukasa. A human who she had been watching and trying to replicate for some time, but without getting what she needed for her goal.

This also involved warping Tsukasa's memories, leaving only those of her abusive father, and creating a divide between her real world identity of Shoji and online identity Tsukasa, to further weaken his ties to the real world. Tsukasa's gender is rather liquid, as far as I can tell and either way, also a lesbian.

"The World and all of its wonders; this is my world, you see."— Tsukasa —

The reason for this was to essentially tie Tsukasa's desire to stay within The World to Aura's development. So long as Tsukasa never wanted to leave, Aura would never want to wake up.

However, other determined players, isolation, and a disconnect from physical sensation leading to alienation led to Tsukasa gaining connections and desires outside of simply staying in The World.

This, Morganna Mode Gone began... Moving chess pieces so to speak. Orchestrating traumatic incidents. Giving Tsukasa a pet monsters for protection but that would also attack those she wanted gone. As Tsukasa continues to develop independence Aura's health improves, VS her sickened, pallid state when Tsukasa is locked in survival mode.

Things eventually come to ahead and well,

Morgnanna Mode Gone basically destroys Tsukasa's mind to ensure a perpetual state of despair and catatonia. Permanently stunting Aura's development.

Much of the rest of the series, is centered on the rest of the characters gaining the necessary knowledge to finally understand the situation.

As well as the Macha fragment of Morganna Mode Gone's ties to Tsukasa creating doubt and Subaru and Tsukasa's bond managing to slowly begin waking Tsukasa up.

Which naturally leads to Morganna Mode Gone needing to orchestrate more despair, but circumstances such as the bastion of Net Slum & her programming keep her from auto winning.

A great deal happens, including some mind fuckery and illussion conversations. Along with more classive abuser tactices like holding the threat of what awaits Tsukasa in theoutside over head.

But eventually Aura is awakened by Tsukasa's desire to return to the real world regardless of the hurled and the characters escape with Aura, thanks to the turncoat Sora.

Suffice to say this doesn't pan out well for him.

Morganna fragments more of herself and uses him as a sort of beacon & vessel to craft the first Phase of the Cursed Wave:

"Riding the Wave is Skeith, the Shadow of Death, to drown all that stands." — Epitaph of Twilight —

This is such an imposing threat that Helba, thematically the same Helba, Queen of the Dark from the Epitaph of Twilight, has to erase the entire world segment they are in just to keep Skeith away from them and put Aura beyond its reach for a time.

Skeith continues to be hosted inside Sora in an ensuing novel, with Sora flittering between amnesiac, malevolent brat and an utterly inhuman monster which violates the basic principles of the game.

But is eventually devoured by Skeith and continued hunting down Aura until the Phase is defeated in .Hack Infection. A memory of Sora leaves behind a reward for the one who did the deed.

Moraganna Mode Gone wasn't done however.

As all this was happening, she basically began fragmenting off parts of herself into other portions of the Cursed Wave:

Skeith:"The Terror of Death"

Innis:"The Mirage of Deceit"

Magus:"The Propagation"

Fidchell:"The Prophet"

Gorre: "The Machinator"

Macha:"The Temptress"

Tarvos:"The Avenger"

Corbenik:"The Rebirth"

Relying on the logic that Aura wasn't yet 'finished' or otherwise not not correct 7 so needed to be destroyed like any other Vagrant AI, so Morganna could start the process over again.

These phased also sent anyone they encountered into comas and even altered electrical installation and internet usage with their presence, while generally corrupting The World.

Fun fact, they all have the symbol of an eye on them representing Morganna Mode Gone's presence in them and her observing the world through them.

Skeith actually did manage to capture and fragment Aura, but not before she created the Bracelet of Twilight, and with it the Eldrich horror Cubia to combat the Cursed Wave.

Morganna Mode Gone would eventually fuse with the last of her Phases in a bid to directly end her foe that had slowly, over the course of four games, destroyed the other seven phases and Cubia.

Ultimately, Aura had to sacrifice herself to ensure Morganna Mode Gone would be destroyed, but in doing so, also allowed herself to be reborn .

Remnants of her continue to haunt and corrupt the world in the form of Data Bugs and an effort by the parent company to recreate her through the lingering fragments of the Eight Phases doesn't go quite to plan, let's say.

Conclusion:

But yeah, Morganna Mode Gone, No one is doing it like her, she has everything:

She is a force of nature and omnipresent goddess, to a Gnostic false god & a program breaking itself & everything around it in the quest for agency inside its own mind that struck down her creator.

She's a woman bound to and violently rejecting the sacrificial role of mother & seeking to destroy that which will supersede her & a manipulator and abuser, as well as philosopher and prisoner.

She is a corruptive influence on the world as well as the very foundation upon which the world world itself is built & she is the Cursed Wave, part of a story, a myth, a poem that is woven into The World itself.

What's more,

Her fragments in the Cursed Wave Phases are all a wonderful blend of eldrich, Biblical & elemental. Something only enhanced by the games Graphics of the time:

[madfoxx]

harold, they´re lesbians

[ladiesandwitches]

You know sometimes, randomly, I remember rehearsing for a play back in 2019 and me and my scene partner were running this whole scene and the freaking writer and another actor were giggling over us and laughing to the point Craig (my scene partner) and I could barely focus on our lines, and certainly not on the emotions.

I ended up turning around and crouching to eye level like a primary school teacher and being like 'We would like to actually run our scenes if you don't mind, so if you could have this gigglefest later?'

And then I got extra mad later when I learned the reason half the cast, and the writer, were giggling and not focusing is they'd all done coke beforehand.

I love being in the creative industry, and I love acting, and one of my best memories is doing a musical at Edinburgh Fringe for a month and all the cast living together in a flat (I could write a book on that chaos), but god some parts of the industry really fucking piss me off. And that's not even getting into the rampant sexism and ageism (such as the time doing a photo commercial and the all-male crew said they were going to shove me under this pool of black oatmeal because I wouldn't have a choice once I was in there).

And then the time I was in a Harold Pinter play at a theatre in Dublin and two thirds of the cast rolled in 10 minutes before curtain up with McDonalds.

Sorry, for the rant, but I'm in pre-production for a Dracula thing and memories are resurfacing and re-angering me and I needed to write them out somewhere.

On a funnier note, once I was playing a character who was a lesbian so I reject this guy who asks me on a date, and a guy in the audience shouted 'oh go on! Give him a chance!'. It took everything in me not to break the fourth wall and be like 'it's not a panto, dude'.

[drunktuesdays]

Re: The Mentalist. Red John is always there on high days and holidays, but many episodes don’t feature him. Can’t deny they do go on about him a lot though.

White Collar is PERFECT for a good three seasons or so (Talitha78's vid to ‘Tonight I’m Fucking You’ by Enrique Iglesias fills me with glee to this day) but at some point you realise that the same two emotional arcs (one of them is doing sometime secretly but not for the reason you think and the other one is onto their betrayal and now doesn't trust them, then swap) repeat over and over again and never build and I cared too much to stand it and had to stop watching. If you are there for homoerotic frivolity though, I expect that stays steady.

Person of Interest I loved at the time (old men repressed and devoted, benevolent AI god struggles to communicate, eventually lesbians, astolat fic) but since then one of the main actors has gone big as a right wing QAnon weirdo.

If you want Bones but somehow even dumber (ex-Joss Whedon actor stars in a show about an unconventional law enforcement/writer crime-solving partnership) then: Castle.

Best actual crime plots (but not that erotic, except I suppose Goren likely gets a nearly sexual thrill from cracking people's psyches open), and it’s so old they don’t have computers on their desks at first and have to go to the library to look things up- the first 3 to 4 seasons of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. After that Vincent D’Onofrio gets tired and so do the writers.

My actual favourite procedural of all time is Elementary. I won’t say it doesn’t make mistakes (coughMycroft), but overall it is good all the way through, unlike all these other idiots.

THANK YOU FOR THIS. it's so helpful. i have read a lot of person of interest fic, to the point where i actually am not sure that i can watch the show, because i KNOW myself and i know i would spend the whole time being like "and when will they have the episode where the men enter a 24/7 bdsm relationship where sometimes harold keeps john in a sensory deprivation bodybag?

MY thing about procedural is that i'm suuuuch a wimp about murder. i actually cannot watch things that focus on the motivations of serial killers which is why the mentalist isn't gonna end up working out for me. i AM interested in bones, castle, and elementary as i enter this time in my life where i need to be watching something i halfway ignore, but again--i really don't like anything that focuses on murder and murderer rationales because i have a dumb soft little heart and dumb stupid old trauma. it's not all violence, or i obviously wouldn't be so into yellowjackets and tlou. it's literally just people dissecting very realistic murders and the why and how.

so you see why i have not managed to get into a lot of procedurals and why house md changed the entire game

[fuckyeahfightlock]

Holiday viewing Friday was a hilariously terrible no-budget rom com called The 12 Pups of Christmas. It was shot during the summer. The puppies come and go. The lead actress looks like low-res Dakota Johnson, and the lead actor is a bargain basement Gale Harold. They have the opposite of chemistry. No one has chemistry in this movie except the lead actress and the love interest’s sister--those two should make a lesbian rom com; there were literal fireworks jumping off the screen. Otherwise, this is the love story of a sociopath and a real dummy.

Unhinged psychopath (just watch her screaming in the trailer) Erin is a “canine therapist” in NYC until her fiance dumps her at their city hall wedding. She takes a job at a Silicon Valley tech company making GPS dog collars in 2019 as if air tags and microchips don’t exist. Her mean and very stupid boss tells her to find homes for 12 puppies before Christmas or he will have them euthanized. They fall in love! Of course! As a bonus, the copyright-free songs in this film sound like they were written by AI “Holly berries and sleigh rides, Christmas tree and you and me and Christmas. . .snow!” (nor really but it’s on that level)

I only watched this because it was this week’s episode of the podcast How Did This Get Made?, which made me snort-laugh. The movie was so bad. So bad. Highly recommend. Ten outta ten.

Yesterday I watched the first few minutes of Great American Baking Show Celebrity Holiday (D’Arcy Carden is as tall as you hoped; rawr) but didn’t get back to it after getting distracted. Today I watched a few Christmas recipe/menu videos on YouTube.

[lwa-but-gay]

Ok, so for anime reccomendations, I have selected a few from some different Genres to feast your eyes apon:

Sakura Quest: A city girl goes to a small town for a summer gig, and makes friends and memories plenty. (I'm underselling it a bit, but its very good and very chill)

Shiki: Scary vampire anime. Like, seriously scary. I try and watch it every year at Halloween, and I have to leave the lights on...

Bloom into you: Harold they're lesbians.

Princess Principal: Steampunk Spy Lesbians

Ergo Proxy: Cyberpunk dystopia, slow and thoughtful, probably not as good as I think it is but God damn Re-L is gender.

Thank you for the recommendations!!! I will check these out !

[insecateur]

thanks!! Starting with the popular ones : Lucas & Dawn, Dawn & Barry, Lucas & Barry, Cyrus & Cynthia, Cyrus & Saturn, Mars & Jupiter, Cynthia & Caitlin, Flint & Volkner, Jasmine & Volkner, Aaron & Lucian. (There's also Dawn & Cynthia and other similar ships but idk if I should put them here, sorry about that)

lucas/dawn, dawn/barry, lucas/barry: those r all fine and inoffensive but tbh i'd probably be more into lucas/dawn/barry i won't lie . i think they should all date. but otherwise they're okay

cyrus/cynthia: i really do like this one but i haven't taken enough time to think about it. i don't think they are a good match but once cynthia has been convinced she could help him she strikes me as the type to keep trying whether he likes it or not. which is a dynamic that speaks to me

cyrus/saturn: i was convinced someone had already asked me this but i guess not ??? i'm always here for boss/subordinate so it's good. i like when all of cyrus' admins are in love with him but he just doesn't care. so i guess it's more saturn->cyrus lol

mars/jupiter: okay THIS ONE i know someone asked me about and i said what i still think now which is that it's good but it would be better with saturn added to the mix. i'm sorry for being a polyshipper

cynthia/caitlin: i really like this one, my fave cynthia ship alongside cynthia/diantha 👍 they're lesbians harold

flint/volkner: they're cute it's fine. a good ship. friends to lovers. the works

jasmine/volkner: i guess i can see it ?? not my thing necessarily but why not

aaron/lucian: i have no opinion on this i don't think i can get myself to care enough about it to have one . it's fine. aaron is a bug guy so he's ok in my book

re: dawn/cynthia and similar, i don't mind it as long as it's like. one-sided crush i guess? like i can't fault dawn for having a crush on cynthia . and i do like platonic dawn & cyrus where she's very taken with helping him get better. but that's as far as it gets for me

[noah-luck-easterly]

This is going up there with "Harold, they're lesbians" and "Larry, I'm on DuckTales" for me.

[chitsangenthusiast]

christina rossetti's 'the goblin market' is about two lesbians, where one nearly succumbs to the power of victorian morality ideals but gets saved by her lover <3

[itsallwearecalledtodo]

From the back of our fried green tomatoes dvd:

“When an unhappy housewife befriends a lady in a nursing home, she hears a remarkable tale of laughter, devotion, and a special friendship that defies all obstacles”

[momo-shut-the-fuck-up]

Can we just take a moment to appreciate this boy and his determination to ask this other boy on a date, and how he brings him roses

[otterknowbynow]

oh my GOSH this girl is GAY

[markantonys]

offer imola to your new brother. he’s who you want to give it to anyway.

[cryptidchicken]

a quiet nap with your lover