#has just made the aspect of drawing and being creative put a bit on a backburner

[theside-b]

Quick talk about FC Soldout, the KBL that IQIYI dropped out of nowhere and five people watched:

Features the cast of City Boy Log, the BL series in vlog format, so if you feel like some faces are familiar it’s probably because you saw clips of them kissing before.

This series is most likely part of the deal IQIYI had with CBL — one of the show’s seasons was exclusive to the platform in some markets, as of recently it seems it was an one-and-done deal.

Tech aspect is curious: it was filmed on a light digital device, either a phone or a handheld camera, and is in a constant 60fps rate, which gives the show that very distinctive feeling of watching those Samsung commercials we often see on TV screens displayed in stores. This could indicate an automatic setting during filming, which is faster and cheaper to use since it doesn't require qualified operation. TV/movies are usually shot at a rate of 24fps, and although most are now filmed on digital, the technical specifications still require a great understanding of camera operation.

Personal Take Here: Despite being an IQIYI original the platform itself has provided no information about the show. There has been little to no promotional material, prior to episode two we didn't even knew who the director was, nor the writers and producers, a cast list was not provided either. My guess is that they were contractually obligated to fulfill their end of the deal with the City Boy Log crew, and that included an original show, even though the distribution deal was not renewed for a new season of the webseries, and so they are pretty much dumping this one — would also guess that the release schedule was set on the contract as well, CBL team probably wanting to synergize show and vlogs, the show's release coincided with the latest 'volume' hitting YouTube.

Interestingly enough the first episode, which was made available for free at IQIYI, does not feature the credits...* *not at launch at least, this could've changed but I'm not going there just to check this out lol

I just wanted to get that out of my system really 😂 but yeah, if this whole show reeks of “low budget” it’s because it is, and nothing wrong with that, "adversity breeds creativity" — imma a bit of a nerd with the ins and outs of tv/film productions so is somewhat fascinating seeing what the City Boy Log team managed to get out of their deal with IQIYI (their currently on-going season is back to its origins, after a brief stint on IQIYI that had a tepid reception by the fandom).

I'm going to put my tinfoil hat here: Something tells me that Civluvs got played here. If I had to guess the Js were supposed to be the leads and got demoted during production — they are by all accounts the biggest draw and got crumbs in the show and I think we can all agree that they could easily eclipse the main couple — being replaced by actors not related to the digital mother-ship show and my hunch is that this happened because since there was no renewal of the City Boy Log contract, IQIYI being responsible for FC Soldout production and having no ties with CBL anymore saw no reason to give them a platform to promote the new vlogs.

[traumaticemphaticfantastic]

This is a piece I made just recently that I call “Golem Under A Harvest Moon” I made it because I saw a harvest moon this November and was greatly inspired!

I decided to get creative with my golem’s design for this painting, the muted blue colour of the clay was inspired by the clay blocks in the video game Minecraft funnily enough, I felt that the blueish-grey colour was something interesting that I hadn’t seen much in golems (They tend to be depicted as brown or grey when made from clay) and so I thought it was an neat idea to incorporate into this design. The bob haircut is borrowed from the golem’s design in the German expressionist film “Der Golem wie er in die Welt kam” from 1920, I quite like bob haircuts for some reason, I even have one myself.

One of my favourite aspects of this design is the slot on the golem’s chest, written above the slot are the Hebrew letters Shin and a Final Mem, this spells out the word “Shem” which is sometimes used as a shorthand for a little piece of paper with the full or partial true name of G-d written upon it which is put into the golems mouth in some stories as a means of animating the creature. I thought that instead of a literal mouth, I would put a slot like is used for mail on this design and I think it turned out looking really interesting!

I also, of course, have written the Hebrew word “Emet” (Letters: Alef, Mem, Tof) on the golem’s forehead, but here I have it written out diagonally, as well as having put the golem’s eyes off-centre, one on the top right and the other on the bottom left of its face. Emet means “Truth” in Hebrew, and writing this on the creature’s forehead is another way of bringing a golem to life, it also acts as a kind of off switch because when you erase the Alef it will then read “Met” or “Death” interesting stuff! And finally, as an aside, the golem in this piece has yellow irises, I chose this colour because it highly contrasts with the otherwise more muted palette of the painting, it draws your eyes to golem’s and in my opinion gives the creature just that extra bit of life and expression!

Anyways, that will be all for today, I apologize for not posting for a bit to any who may have noticed my absence, I can assure you that while I was away I was being very creatively productive! More to come for sure, be well all, and I hope winter hasn’t been so hard for you for all who experience it to whichever degree, as they say “Hulyet, hulyet, beyze vintn, Itst iz ayer tsayt! Lang vet doyern der vinter, Zumer iz nokh vayt!”

[kitty-gray]

hey! as someone who hasn’t thought too much about how tda and tlh were shaped by their respective times (i read them both two years ago at the same time and am still not sure exactly when either were published), i’m so curious to hear your thoughts about this if you’d like to share? :)

First of all, I just woke up, so fair warning: brain doesn't work. That being said, put your seat belts on and go have a drink, this is gonna be a long ride. Thanks for asking.

TDA was published from march 2016 to 2018, which means LoS and QoAaD were written through the first half of Trump's first term. One of the main differences between TMI and TDA, and one of the most applauded aspects of the series, is that TDA turns heavily political. Much of the Cohort's speech mirrors Trump's, and many of its followers are built around the maga agenda. You even have Kit drawing parallels between them, the X-Men and Nazi Germany.

Now, TLH is a little bit more complicated.

Iirc, Cassandra hadn't planned to write about the TID's kids until she wrote James' story for The Bane Chronicles. Then she wrote tftsa and at some point announced she'd published the series alongside TDA (kind of how TID and the second half of TMI were published interspersed), which didn't happen. Right from the gate, the series was supposed to be THE tragic TSC series, that's why we have quotes like "my father was cursed. Whereas I? I'm damned" from back then.

For a reason or another, Cassie had a writer's block and couldn't write TLH. So she postponed it till after TDA was finished. At last, in march 2020, Chain of Gold was published.

And the pandemic hit.

Idk how much you know about Cassie's process, but she's a social writer. She travels, she does readings with her friends, she plans trips with a bunch of other writers so they can help each other out, she has fun with other people. She's talked about it multiple times, but the lockdown really affected her. She specifically talks about how horrifying it was to hear the statistics of casualties and fearing her friends and family were going to die every single day.

So, the tragic plotlines TLH was supposed to have? She couldn't bring herself to do it. The real world was already a blood soaking place, how could she make the fictional world like that too? So she shifted a lot of plotlines, dropped some of the themes ChoG had and wrote not one, but two books with her mental health hanging from a thread.

This is too the reason why we don't have TWP yet. TLH was pushed back a number of times, she took a sabbatical year and now she's back at the trenches. The strongest of our times fr.

So, I find it interesting to see how two different world crises played a completely different tool in her writing process. Where the Trump administration drove Cassie to add heavier politics to her books so she could take the chance to say "y'all this is fucked up. You aren't immune to propaganda and you need to learn history so you don't become the fascist in the story", the pandemic made her take the opposite road, so in TLH what she ends up saying is "look, this was going down. This was really going down. But there's hope, and there's love, and there's still good in the world, and we cannot give up. All of us deserve a happy ending. Let me give you this one at least" which would've fit perfectly in literally any other of her books, except TLH. This was written to be a tragedy, and all of its foundations promised that. So, many people got incredibly upset with her because the series didn't deliver and the plot line ended up feeling a little clumsy.

But I think it reflects how anger and frustration can feed art until a certain point before we need to push back. Art can be a reflection of the time we're living, but it can also be the breathing space we need to keep going. It doesn't matter how bright you are as a creative, you can't stop your humanity from showing up in your art. And I can't really blame Cassie for that.

[yourknifemyside]

"I recall when I was small how I spent my days alone The busy world was not for me, so I went and found my own"

#1. The Royal Scam, by Steely Dan (1976) ✨

First new listen of the year! I've poked my nose around the Steely Dan discography a little bit before—I know the hits, and thought Aja was pretty good when I heard it last year—but this album marks the start of me getting deeper in the weeds with them. I grew up exposed to a lot of the obvious 70s and 80s rock outfits, but most of the ones that I'm actually interested in these days remain a blind spot to me. At the recommendation of my younger brother I gave this one a spin, since it's the record they released just prior to Aja, and is supposed to mark the beginning of their creative peaks (according to my brother, at least.)

A big aspect of why I find myself drawn to Steely Dan over their contemporaries is their sound. I'm a bit picky when it comes to rock music, especially in the 70s. Much more of a Genesis guy than a Supertramp guy, much more of a Fleetwood Mac guy than a Zeppelin guy. I find the aesthetic of the broader rock blanket of that era very polarizing; either I love it, or I'm completely put off to it.

Steely Dan has a fantastic sound for when I'm in the mood for something with a more vintage warmth to it. Great oldie rock production is like the audio equivalent to that irreplaceable grainy look of films from around that same time. Older music just has a unique warmth and brightness to its tone that makes for a really pleasant soundscape to exist inside of. The Royal Scam retains this aspect of their music that I'm drawn to, so I was pretty much automatically going to like it on that alone. The vibes here are good.

Despite that warmth, I get this sense of a disillusioned attitude behind this record. If I could describe it with a single made-up word, I would call The Royal Scam "shlunky." This occurs when you serve your funk with a grimy undertone, like there's a bit of darkness infused within the groove. To that end, this album is Steely Dan at their shlunkiest as far as I've heard by now. Make no mistake though, grime is a good thing! The album undoubtedly has its more lighthearted tracks, but the overarching edge to their sound here adds a lot to the listen.

If the general sound and feel of the record is the highlight for me, the tracklist is where things start to get bumpier. There are some big highlights, there are some lowlights, and everything in between. The album opens strong with the 1-2 punch of Kid Charlemagne and The Caves Of Altamira, the latter of which I was honestly blown away by. Lyrics aren't necessarily the thing that draws me in when I listen to Steely Dan, but this one grabbed me immediately. It's crazy how the shortest song on the album can paint the most vivid picture of mysticism when confronted with mementos of people long since passed. Heavy and impactful, full-on shlunk with some fantastic melodies, and a consistently awe-inspiring set of chord changes in the transitions out of the chorus. This song rules.

From there though, things are a lot more hit and miss. Don't Take Me Alive highlights probably my main issue with The Royal Scam: repetition. It's always been a big pet peeve of mine, and it's impossible to avoid on a lot of my lesser favorite moments on the record. If a song is a story, repetitive song structure mostly leaves me feeling like I'm circling the start of the rising action over and over, never really building to anything. This is especially a letdown with the title track and album closer The Royal Scam, a six and a half minute song that mostly just spins its wheels in place, then ends. Thematically that could be kinda cool, tying into this idea of unfulfilled promises and neglect, but it mostly just leaves me underwhelmed to listen to. Somewhat contradictory, The Fez is one of my favorite cuts off this whole thing despite probably being the single most repetitive tune of the bunch. The reason The Fez still kicks ass where the aforementioned two don't do it for me is pretty simple—I just think the parts being repeated are really good! It just jams out and congeals into a more complete-feeling song than those other two. Who doesn't love a shlunky jam about practicing safe sex... never do it without the fez on, kids...

From here, most the rest of the tracklist is pretty decent without many standouts, save for the great Haitian Divorce. This is my other big issue with the record though, my up and down relationship with it as a full project. I think overall, this is a pretty nice collection of tunes, that I don't see myself revisiting in full too often. I’ll likely just pick my favorites from it and be leaving behind the ones that didn’t hit, because my enjoyment of the whole is still relatively inconsistent. There's nothing outright bad here, a lot of stuff that's pretty good, and a couple highlights, wrapped up in a overall soundscape I really like. For as much as I might whine I did enjoy checking this out a lot, and intend to check out some other Steely Dan stuff soon!

6+ / 10 Favorite tracks: The Caves Of Altamira, Haitian Divorce Least favorites: The Royal Scam, Don't Take Me Alive

Listened on Jan 10th, 2025

[ruleofbirds]

𝚍𝚎𝚟𝚕𝚘𝚐_𝟶𝟷.𝟷

Kia Ora, Te Ao!

Hello, World! It's official - Robbie has a tumblr now. Absolutely unfathomable. Honestly, it's mostly because it was this or Wordpress (or a more obscure indie dev forum) and this seemed the most accessible and quirky. I'm sure this won't lead to another awful endless scrolling habit. Any advice for the visual side of things is warmly received! I want this blog to be a fun part of the week, because a lot of fun will be had developing RoB. Just realised that acronym happens to be my name. Could be worse.

Okay! Now that the initial ramble into the void is out of the way, it's time to get into the c o n c e p t.

This tumblr is a devlog for my NZ ecosystem simulator currently titled "rule of birds", which I will be working on for the next 8 weeks as part of Blackbird Foundation's "Protostars" program. This means a weekly check-in with the other creatives in the program, the organizers at Blackbird, and a post for all of you here.

I'm breaking this week's post into 3 sections just to cover the bases;

01.1 -a bit about my creative practice and how it led to this project

01.2 -a discussion of "flocking" in programming (using p5.js)

01.3 -a discussion of NZ natural history

So here's the intro post, where I ramble about myself for a sec.

So! basically, I specialize in spatial design, I love working with anything nature-related, and I want to make a video game.

Lately I've been on a tangent based around art in NZ's cultural context - the design principles behind whakairo (Maori woodcarving) and how their composition conveys meaning, how histories of spirituality, tribal and colonial relations affected design, and my own art interpreting my natural surroundings with photography and charcoal drawing. I can neither confirm nor deny whether there will be an art zine compiling a wee bit of this work on the community table at the Whanganui Zinefest this Saturday.

That tangent branched off into a focus on natural history that's the keystone of rule of birds. My motivation for focusing on an ecosystem simulator is to articulate a basis for the sort of games I want to come out of Aotearoa. The sim will be the proof of concept - and I suppose this blog will be the manifesto.

I feel like there's a massive demand for games exploring NZ history - like, imagine a big-budget maori-led release set in pre-colonial time, with all the unique aspects of survival, resource management and day to day activity that involved - or an assassin's creed type action game based during the time of Te Kooti. It goes unsaid that Kupe is one of the best parts of Sid Meier's Civilization VI - iykyk.

What I think separates a good game from a great one is how alive the virtual world feels - rather than being led through an a-to-b progression of events presented in the same visual style I've seen countless times before, if the world can react in a dynamic way, and the details in the background are crafted to feel organic and immersive, I'm going to want to stop and wander off the beaten track that an objective marker may be pointing me towards.

The last game that caught my attention in this way - and coincidentally the one that made me want to put my coding knowledge to the test with gamedev - was, of course, Rain World. To everyone who knows me, I'm sure you're surprised I've made it three paragraphs without bringing this game up. I'm not going to go into too much detail here, because there is *a lot*, but key points are you are one creature among many scavenging for food in a brutal biomechanical ecosystem, hibernating between cycles of cataclysmic rain, and the game plays like basically nothing else due to how the coded behaviour of every entity in the world follows its own logic that has much more to do with its own survival than the experience of you as a player.

Here's a nice little illustration of the physics behind a movement-sensing tentacle monster, to give a sort of discrete example - but the creatures that act according to behavioural karma systems and the dynamics of how the different lizards scuffle and coordinate with each other is worth looking into too, if this is your thing.

(Source: GDC, Curious Archive)

Now, I really want to jump into some of this behavioural coding stuff, so I'm just going to move on to collecting things for the next post - hope this has been an interesting read! if you somehow found this page in your tumblr algorithm, welcome! I'll also be posting bits on the instagram page @robbiek_devlogs and you can check out my other work on my main insta @robbiek_art

Hei kōnā mai,

Robbie K

Next up: simulation in coding, natural history research post #1

Next week: Adventures in Godot Engine!

[kharmii]

It is so true that the entire fandom has a massive obsession with furries.

And are also converting normies into furries. Sometimes when I see fanart of Sneasler and it’s drawn in a furry-ish way a big part of me wonders if this artist has a sideblog containing furry nsfw with Ingo.

Or those weird hybrid designs. (When I‘m able to look past the furry implications I can appreciate a creative design but I also can’t unsee potential nsfw stuff for a lot of these.) What icks me the most about this is that furry stuff is accepted and even embraced as to blankshipping is taboo and "the worst"…

Personally I’m rather someone who wishes to engage a lot more with the Japanese community since they are still very much have the old fandom culture intact.

(Also when I‘m leaning more towards blankshipper over here it’s because they’re less to throw hissy fits at everyone who doesn’t bend over backwards to their beliefs. They can be just as nasty on some topics)

And so much yes for your annoyance for the celebration of politics in fandom. I don’t know when this has become such an issue (especially when I remember that back in the day in a previous fandom called Hetalia [a series that was based on the idea that each country was represented by a human and being a bit stereotypical (in a way that was funny or made you feel called out)] people were constantly reminding everyone not to include current day politics in their stuff, that was no biggie back when but nowadays it’s normal to use fandom and fiction to push their political agenda on people… Be it characters waving certain flags of countries or beliefs and all those surgery scars everywhere… I don’t wanna see this kind of content. Though I’m at least somewhat happy that so far I didn’t have to see artificial "assets" down below in art.

The only way to interact with the fandom is to mute and block each political movement and only interact with certain content that doesn’t deal with all this nonsense.

I have said it before but I really enjoy sharing opinions with you. While a lot comes off as probably harsher than it’s meant to but I appreciate your opinion and your perspective.

That was absolutely meant to come off harsh because Submas fandom (Volo too) is a nasty little mean girl clique gone wild. That's how social contagion works. You'll have a handful of aggressive vocal petty little twats who will convince everybody that 'this stupid thing is acceptable and yet this other stupid thing that's equally as stupid and harmless as the other thing is not acceptable'.

Next thing you know, the few bad apples who draw top surgery scarred fat furries have the whole fandom thinking that's what everybody is into. Normies might be like, "Well, I actually don't like any of that because it forces me to have a wastebasket I puke in when browsing this fandom, but I don't want anyone to call me a bigot.."

Most fans might be drawn to beauty and good things, but the whole theme seems to be centered around dreck and wallowing in misery (the shipping end anyway. General is more upbeat). Since everybody has blocked me at this point, I'm one of the few who isn't afraid to say what a lot of people might be thinking (like most of you, don't lie. Nobody likes a fat furry chili fart in the face).

Side note: I had to unfollow someone last week because they put up a post about Submas celebrating Pride Month...and yet they had to put the dig in about 'Proshippers DNI'. Hey, Emmet's pronouns list is a mile long! -So what aspect of Pride do they celebrate? Is it okay for weirdos to wear dog masks around kids? Is it okay to give minors puberty blockers? -And yet shipping brother-on-brother action with fictional characters (that doesn't hurt anybody) is taboo? Would you be okay with a grown-ass man exposing himself to a minor at a Pride Parade, and yet a 20/15 year old ship between Volo and Akari is taboo?

Anyway, how about some good old Submas Angst?

Art credit: こんぶ。@konbu_0915_ Twitter.

[nottheweirdest]

Hi!!!

I really enjoyed reading through all of your fics for the past couple of months. Like many others, Coming Home remains to be my most favorite fic of all time. So much so, that I'd love to learn how to bind book pages one day and make a handmade Coming Home physical book to always come back to (plus I could admire it on my shelf hehe). I won't if you don't feel comfortable with that, of course! I just want you to know how much your writing has influenced me in various ways.

Your works helped me see the appeal of Sonadow's dynamic and made me an official Sonadow shipper™️! These dorks already mean the world to me, but the idea of putting these two together really opened a whole new realm of endless possibilities for me (pun intended lol). The way you write their dynamic made me love these hedgehogs even more. I love seeing their more mature, complex sides in the varying situations you write them in.

I was a fic writer years ago and never thought I'd go back into writing, until I came across your fics. New story ideas would always be swimming in my brain over the years, but had no motivation to follow them through. With some encouragement from friends, I recently came back around to picking up my pen and paper. And it helped rejuvenate my love for writing. I didn't realize how much I missed writing about my favorite blorbos, and hope to improve by practicing more.

That being said, I do have a question!

How do you maintain consistency in your writing when it comes to different aspects of your stories? (some that come to mind include: characterization, dynamics between characters, central conflict, etc.)

I hope this question makes sense. Feel free to add anything else you'd like! <3

Oh wow, no I'd be honored if you decided to print it and handbind it, that's so cool!!! I'm just happy you enjoyed the story enough to even consider it 🥰 I love when folks tell me their favorite fic of mine and why. It's so interesting to me!

I fell into these two by accident too! Back when I was into Sonic and playing the games, Shadow didn't even exist so when I started reading Sonic fanfic out of curiosity back in 2020 I had no idea sonadow was a thing. Stumbled into it and then gleefully dived head first and haven't surfaced since lol I'm super happy that I could have anything to do with you jumping on board the ship! These two just... make sense and there's something about them and their dynamic that is comforting 🥰 I'm well into my 30s, I've got plenty of life experiences to draw on and feed that into my writing. It's part of why it's so therapeutic to me 🖤💙 I'm soooo happy to hear that you've picked up writing again. Being creative is such a gift and can be so healing. I hope you get to do it more and more and then if you ever post anything holler! I'm a bit slow on reading but I'd love to add it to my list so I don't miss it!

As for your question.... I don't know! hehe I should probably. But I'm not sure. I try to have a general feeling for what the characters are like in whatever universe I'm writing and I hope I keep it consistent, but I don't have a technique or tool that I use. Part of why I latched on to these guys is because I see so much of myself in both of them and I think that might be part of it. Writing them just feels like writing a part of myself. When it comes to plot, I usually outline by chapter if it's going to be anything lengthy. Masks is the exception, mostly because I intended for it to have little plot lol Now I'm making a bit of an outline after the fact because the plot wanted more airtime 😂

I hope that helps but just let me know if you have any other questions and thank you so much for your kindness!! 💙🖤

[redlenai]

I'll be honest, when I heard these audios the only thing I could imagine was projection, Dylan is really insulting you through what seems to be the very same things that they are doing, sounds like the behavior is theirs.

For a few weeks, I've shared a small server with them that focused on Mouthwashing Ocs, the Server wasn't very active but I remember I felt a bit... odd? When I saw Dylan's character bio, I think it was through their Toy.House or something similar. I remember it struck me as odd the fact they put A LOT of effort in trying to make their Self-Insert's bio to match the Mouthwashing Wiki, I also remember reading the whole thing but noticing there was some... issues connecting certain parts of the backstory, or aspects that weren't mentioned at first but later were. I didn't say anything because well, no one likes unsolicited advice nor I thought it would have been nice to be the only one not complimenting them and especially on some narrative stuff (I ain't a writer so, yeah I just saved it to myself, also don't get me wrong! I admire those that put such effort onto their ocs and fancharacters, I even felt bad I got this feeling specifically with Dylan, unlike others in the MW or even other fandoms)

When the whole incident happen, I wasn't sure about what to do. I've only complimented people there and shared some of my drawings and renders, Dylan wasn't very active there to be honest. And I would say, I also kept my activity to the minimum when I realized the server was 13+, I rather keep my interactions with minors short, I don't mind giving advice, encouraging them on their AUs or creative journey, providing resources or art tools, but that's it. I left the server mostly because I didn't feel safe, yeah, it sounds dumb a 27 years old woman feels unsafe... but having an oc that is being shipped with Jimmy even in a nice AU kind of makes it predictable about the possible outcomes from others, and I also worried a lot for my fellow Anya-shippers friends. At first I wasn't sure if to leave, as I thought that would lead to possible trouble, like giving a "I'm siding with Joetastic" kind of indirect answer. But when the other document dropped, that's when I realized that Dylan left the server, so I deleted everything and did as well. Then I attempted to make a ticket to notify the Wrong Organ server just in case, while I was at it I noticed that Dylan's username went from blue to white, meaning he left.

Something that has been bugging me ever since both your Document and the other one were made public, its the fact that from what it seems Dylan also commited sexual abuse towards one of his ex-partners, besides the emotional and financial abuse, if I'm reading the document correctly as they were subtle about it.

I may be reaching, but considering that they used HE back when they started with their model and all that jazz... like, I feel sorry for those that transition, are still finding themselves and I hope none of them get shoved inside a bag and get generalized, especially today when it is Transgender Day of Visibility, but it seems that Dylan started using she/they as a means to be better seen especially while shipping themselvse with Anya? I mean, by how... twisted they seem to be I think that could be a possibility, Joe didn't misgender them and so didn't other people if we look back at the dates... but now Dylan claimed that Joe misgendered them when in fact Joe apologized when corrected.

Another thing I've been suspecting is the fact that both in Strawpage and Tumblr you can send self-gimmicks/asks. On Strawpage you don't need it, but in Tumblr you'll need to log-in and turn the anonymous filter on if you want to hide your identity while sending yourself an ask, now of course haters would take advantage of being mean towards literally anyone involved. But, it could have been a possibility that either Dylan and/or some of their friends sent anonymous asks as a means to stir more drama, blame Joe and his fans, get pitied, etc... Lying on the internet is easy, typing is easy, especially when cornered.

Like, it kind of adds up if I keep in mind the document and the timing of things. An abuser changing their gender in order to be shipped with a character that is a victim of sexual abuse, someone who shared similar traits to the protagonist of the game; like the hero complex, narcissism, manipulation, lack of accountability, immaturiry, gaslighting, projection and its tremendously jealous at the point of trying to turn people against the person Dylan feels overshawed by via harassement, lies, etc. And in fact the way how Dylan says it in the audio even seems as if they are repeating words without even realizing its depth and meaning.

It's wild to think that he accuses Joe of sexualising a female character, while... they do the same, just that probably under wraps because Dylan cares about his image and trying to manipulate the narrative by being misleading. Funny how during their rant they go around, making jokes and the irony of trying to call Joe Jimmytastic when in fact the one that has a record in 3 different fandoms for having shitty abusive behavior is them...

To be honest, I don't understand much about the whole non-sharing, aggresive, jealous, sould-bonding thing about self-shipping with a fictional character that doesn't belong to you but I do feel bad for the Yumeshippers, selfshippers that don't go out of their way spreading lies and being abusive, aggressive and completely deranged towards other people instead of counting their losses and know that they cannot control everything and everyone or be possesive over something that is not even their property....

And I hope people to not generalize nor prejudge others because of it.

Tho, what matters is that Joe and all those people that fell Victims of Dylan get better, are able to heal and remember they are supported. So please the rest, either try to apologize if you were mislead, it won't be your fault for being deceived, just remember to offer some love to the victims

They might seem like a nice person in public.

But this is who Dylan/ @anyamusumesonlywife really is behind the scenes.

[asimch11]

"Raise your style: let the OVO magic out with OVO clothing!"

Starting off:

When it comes to fashion, trends come and go quickly. But there is one brand that has stood the test of time and captured the sense of style and grace. Here comes OVO CLOTHING, a name that is always linked to cutting-edge style, high-quality workmanship, and a bit of urban flair. In a market full of options, OVO CLOTHING stands out as a true original, providing not only clothes but also a way of life that says loudly. Let's learn more about OVO CLOTHING and see why it's the name for people who want to stand out.

The History of OVO:

Drake, the famous singer, came up with the idea for OVO CLOTHING, which is an extension of the OVO (October's Very Own) name. Drake's Canadian roots and his journey in the music business have influenced OVO CLOTHING's style, which combines streetwear and luxury in a way that fashion fans all over the world can relate to.

OVO CLOTHING is proud to make clothes that look good all year round, regardless of the season or fashion. Each pattern has been carefully chosen to include both classic and modern aspects. From the famous owl design to the careful attention to detail, OVO CLOTHING pieces show that the brand is dedicated to making classic styles.

Quality workmanship: 

OVO CLOTHING stands out because it is always committed to quality workmanship. Each item of clothing is carefully made with the best materials to make sure it lasts and is comfortable. OVO CLOTHING knows that fashion is more than just how you look. It's also about how you feel when you wear something.

OVO CLOTHING has clothes that are versatile enough for any event, whether you're going out on the town, to a show, or just for a night out. The brand's wide range includes everything from casual hoodies and pants to stylish jackets and other items of clothing. The clothes from OVO CLOTHING go from casual to stylish with ease, making them perfect for any event.

Limited Edition Drops: 

One of the things that draws people to OVO CLOTHING is how unique it is. The brand often puts out limited edition drops so that its fans can show off one-of-a-kind items that make them stand out. It's not just about fashion to own an OVO CLOTHING item; it's also about being a part of a small group of people who value the better things in life.

Global Influence, Local Impact: OVO CLOTHING is known all over the world, but its roots are still deep in Canada. Every OVO CLOTHING buy has a good effect because the brand is dedicated to sustainability and doing business in an honest way. You're not only improving your style when you shop at OVO CLOTHING; you're also joining a movement that supports conscious consumption.

Endorsements from Famous People: 

OVO CLOTHING has a cult following, and famous people and fashion icons are often seen wearing its signature pieces. On the red carpet and in the streets, OVO CLOTHING has become a sign of style and wealth. Add your name to the list of stylish people who know that OVO CLOTHING can make a statement.

Take part in the OVO culture. OVO CLOTHING is more than just clothes; it's a way of life. The brand has made a lifestyle that values being unique, being creative, and expressing yourself. You're not just wearing clothes when you wear OVO CLOTHING. You're also showing that you have a mindset that says, "I am unique, I am bold, I am OVO."

There are a lot of fashion options out there, but OVO CLOTHING stands out because it offers a unique mix of style, quality, and rarity. Improve your clothing and adopt the OVO way of life, which goes beyond fashion and becomes a statement of who you are. Join the OVO trend right now and let your style speak for itself with OVO CLOTHING. But OVO CLOTHING is here to stay. In the fashion world, some names come and go.

[absintheancandle]

corvietans terrible horrible no good very bad day (every day)

[onyx-archer]

Some Thoughts on Luz Noceda, and How Some Critics Don’t Get Her Arc.

I’ve been kicking around the idea of doing some sort of post about The Owl House for a while, and now that it’s over, I have a lot of thoughts on it. Specifically, I have a lot of thoughts on the series’ protagonist, Luz Noceda. Obviously, I’m going to be talking about spoilers for the series, so if you haven’t watched it, or are just not finished with the series yet, don’t read this. I just have a collection of thoughts and opinions about aspects of the show I want to put out there. More under the cut.

To start, I wanted to actually talk about Luz as a character, because I think there are certain critics *coughcoughLilyOrchardcoughcough* that don’t really get the issue with Luz’s arc, and how it likely was intended to come across. In particular, the small crowd of people who think that Luz feels like a different character starting in Season 2B, but I don’t think that’s really the case. Well, I sort of do, but I see it as a development based change that was affected by the cancellation, rather than a flaw in the writing.

Luz’s character, throughout the first Season, is somewhat static. Sure, she does experience some development, all characters do to some extent after all, but she isn’t on a specific path of development. As many characters in the series would likely point out, just as the critics of Luz’s depressive spiral do constantly, Luz in the first season is the character that largely facilitates change in others, rather than being the one who experiences a ton of growth herself. Early-series Luz is functionally the match to light the fuse that is the character development for characters like Eda, Amity, and to a small extent in the beginning, King. The show outright says in Season 2′s first episode that Luz made Eda’s life better, and Amity’s affection for her is rooted in how Luz inspired her to be a better person. I’d go as far as to say that King wouldn’t be able to deal with his lack of living biological family if not for Luz’s influence on him, with his older sister figure truly helping him come to value Eda and Luz as his family being a cornerstone of King’s growth as a character.

Season 1′s conclusion works because it’s really the first time where Luz’s more reckless behavior bites her in the ass. Luz feels she is at least partially responsible for Eda losing her magic, and it’s obvious that it weighs heavy on her heart, even with Eda’s assurance it’s not her fault, because it’s the kind of person she is. We don’t see her really have to come to grips with her actions having consequences for a long while because most of those consequences get undone or aren’t really worth worrying about. Then her mentor and second maternal figure loses her magic, and Luz had to sacrifice her only way home to help her. Luz has an emotionally tangible reminder of her actions, and this obviously has a negative impact on her.

Remember, Luz is a bundle of creative energy, and is misunderstood because of how she expresses herself. It’s the only other instance where her behavior has a form of consequence, as she was being sent to a camp to “correct” the issue... but then a magic door happened and she didn’t have to face that responsibility. She could shrug off the consequences, and if things got too bad, she could always just go back to the Human Realm for a bit. She was never placed in a situation where she’d have longstanding consequences for her actions until “Young Blood, Old Souls.” Her actions made her an easy target for Lilith to draw in Eda, who would lose her magic trying to save Luz, which while not entirely her fault, she still feels responsible because Eda was only in that situation because of her existence on the Boiling Isles to begin with. Sure, Eda would have to eventually be put in a similar spot, but with the added context of Luz’s Dad being dead, and still being a sore spot for her due in part to being so young, yeah, of course she’s going to feel responsible.

Luz paid the price of her desire to become a witch when she had to give up her only way home to save someone she cares about. Even if it meant never seeing her mother again. Her actions expedited Eda’s curse reaching it’s final stages, and while Eda’s no longer in immediate danger because of her being able to save her from petrification, it’s still something she feels she has to take responsibility for. Why? Because she gave up her ability to go back to the Human Realm, potentially forever. In that moment, she had to make a choice, and that choice had consequences that ripple through her and the events of the story until the end of the series. I know I’m repeating myself to a degree, but I want to make it clear that Luz’s “trauma” was never really a thing that factored into the story until she had to actually face the fallout of a choice she made that could negatively affect her life forever.

With the added context of Luz’s lingering grief of her dead father, and Eda becoming something of a maternal figure for her, Luz made the choice she did because while she could potentially never see her mother again, she was alive and well... but Eda, another parental figure in her life, could die. She was able to prevent it, and she did, and if you have a positive relationship with your loved ones that could potentially die, you’d likely do the same.

Luz is able to move on, relatively normally, after this point, because she has something to work towards: a new portal. She’s given hope because she learns of another human being in the Demon Realm before, and that gives her something to hold on to. When combined with the budding romance with Amity, Luz is able to deal with the consequences of her decision to stay in the Demon Realm, and her choice to save Eda over going home. It’s a dam, holding back a torrent of negative thoughts that she’s likely been burying for a while.

Then she sees her mother again. Then, the dam begins to buckle.

I think “Yesterday’s Lie” is something of an under-rated episode, because it’s this moment where you can see Luz’s wall of positivity start to break down. She’s reminded of her selfish wish to be a witch is something that can, and did, hurt her mother. Yes, her mother didn’t know that she was gone because Vee took advantage of Luz going to the Demon Realm to be able to (more or less) safely live in the Human Realm... but upon Camila learning the truth, and learning that her daughter effectively ran away to another world, it became harder to ignore the consequences of her choice to stay on the Boiling Isles. Camila blaming herself for Luz’s situation only makes things worse by compounding consequences with guilt... and Luz is only a 14 year old girl.

It’s this that has Luz begin to truly slip into the more depressed mindset she develops over the course of Season 2B. This is really the first real time Luz has shown to be truly traumatized, and this is where I think a lot of people misunderstand how trauma works.

Trauma is something that lingers, and affects you in ways that are more often than not negative. It’s something that is triggered by a distressing situation that rattles you, not just distress in general. I myself have PTSD that genuinely keeps me up at night, and while I’ve been better at managing it as time goes by, it still has me panic enough that life is made harder by it being there. Luz’s “trauma response” was never proactive, because Luz wasn’t dealing with trauma, she was dealing with issues in the moment. This is fundamentally why it bugs me to no end when people like Lily Orchard blatantly shit on Luz being depressed in Season 2B; Luz didn’t really have long lasting consequences to her actions begin to pile up until she destroyed the portal door. That’s not something a proactive and positive attitude can just fix, nor is it something that can be dealt with in the same way that Luz deals with other problems that have cropped up during the course of the series. Luz’s choice to stay in the Boiling Isles was born out of her seeing it as a way to escape... until it wasn’t an escape anymore. She could have left at any time and went back home. But she didn’t, and that is why Luz ended up in the mental state she did. It’s the ripple effects of an act of selfishness catching up to her, and leaving her emotionally damaged as a result.

Luz’s decision to stay and the guilt associated with not being able to properly tell her mother that she isn’t at fault for Luz staying in the Demon Realm is further compounded on by Luz unknowingly helping Belos by teaching his younger self the Light Glyph, and then learning the truth of this in Hollow Mind. While I don’t think the episode is that great, Hollow Mind is critical for Luz’s decent down the emotional spiral she’s on because it only serves to build on top of the foundation of consequences and guilt by adding a wrinkle that, while we figured out pretty quickly as the audience, Luz didn’t know about because, realistically, why would she?

Luz learning that she helped a tyrant rise to power because of the choice of staying on the Isles is where her dam breaks, and the negative thoughts become so loud they’re practically screaming in her head, and it’s perfectly justifiable that she, in that state, would believe she is at fault for everything. Remember, this all started because, and say it with me, Luz decided to stay on the Boiling Isles until leaving was no longer and option. Her decision to stay would lead to Belos learning of her existence, which would lead to the Door being destroyed, which lead to Luz looking into Philip, which lead to her meeting him in the past and teaching him the Light Glyph, which lead to Belos being able to rise to power via the lie of the Coven System, which lead to Belos being a factor to begin with. It’s a self sustaining feedback loop, and it naturally leads to Luz downing a big old cup of depresso espresso. This is why Luz feels so responsible for Belos. This is why she ends up so depressed. This is why Luz’s ability to deal with things in a healthy way falls into her depressive downward spiral, and why she needed to hear her mother basically say she’s sorry for ever thinking that Luz being different was a problem to pull her out of it (and ultimately cause Stringbean to hatch). It’s why I think that the way Luz is in “Thanks To Them” works. I do think it being dragged into “For The Future” was a bit much though.

Luz is an example of a character that goes through a negative character arc, but still walks out on the other side a better person where others might not. It’s not done the most gracefully, but it’s something that, given the circumstances, worked for what they were able to do within the time constraints.

I think it’s blatantly obvious that Dana likely had this sort of things planned to be more gradual than it was, but had to cram a whole bunch of story stuff into Season 2 (especially Season 2B) to make up for the fact that she wouldn’t have three full seasons to do this kind of thing more gradually. It’s sort of like if you lost a season’s worth of context for Walter White in Breaking Bad: you’d get that dark spiral, but it’d be a bumpier ride because of the lack of time. It’s pretty safe to assume that early Season 2 was written and approved by the people in charge before Dana even knew cancellation was a thing, as you typically write treatments for this kind of thing WAAAAAY in advance of full blown production from what I understand. And now, to pivot to something related, but less important than Luz’s handling of her growing depression.

There are things about Luz’s arc that I find to be somewhat disappointing though. Specifically, how they handled Stringbean. Stringbean feels like one of those things that was a victim of the mass amounts of cuts that had to be made because Disney execs were going too hard on the Apple Blood and decided a 3rd Season would have been too much for something that didn’t fit the Disney Channel “Brand.” If I had to speculate on the intended direction of Season 2B, it seems likely going to be the climax of the season where Luz got Stringbean, rather than what we got. Like, I firmly believe that most of Season 2A was written and approved for production before Season 1 even ended, because it feels like a more logical extension of Season 1 than the later half of the season does. Stringbean was basically set up as far back as “Hunting Palisman” at bare minimum, and you could argue it’s an even older concept because of Eda’s mention of young witches needing to earn their staffs/Palismans in earlier episodes (I can’t recall the exact episodes). The seeds had been sewn earlier than even Hunter, so Stringbean was likely a victim of the cuts.

The other reason I think this is because of when Stringbean first appears. She debuted in the second-to-last episode, and then is truly relevant for all of 5 minutes of that episode before Luz dies, and comes back with Titan Powers. Sure, Stringbean is used in the final battle after Luz gets said powers, but it could have just as easily been Owlbert and not much would be different. It’s clear to me that Stringbean was meant to fulfill an emotional climax of the story, but due to time constraints, barely managed to get squeezed into the series by the end, and that’s a damn shame.

If I were to write elements of Luz’s arc, as far as getting Stringbean is concerned, I’d have it serve as a connection to Luz’s father. While I love what we got of Camila in the specials, I think it would have made more sense from a writing standpoint for Camila to lack the understanding of Luz’s more eccentric traits because that’s something Manny was better at understanding. I’d even make the idea of a Snakeshifter something Luz and Manny came up with together when Luz was little, and that Stringbean’s form is born from Luz finally feeling like her mother understands her, and from Camila finally being able to truly begin understanding Luz like her husband did before he died. I think that would have at the very least made Luz’s dead dad thing be a bit more relevant to the story, make Camila have a bit of an arc that has a bit more punch to it, and it’d give Stringbean a better debut as a more emotionally potent moment. Even if this had to be saved for like, a Season 3 mid-season finale, it’d still have done more for the story to handle it in a way like this in my opinion.

Anyway, those are some thoughts of mine. Feel free to let me know if you agree or disagree with anything I’ve said. Just be respectful and stuff.

[murderbot-moodboard]

I get what you're saying, and it's a valid take. I've started to see it a little differently based on a few factors, though, and have actually gotten more optimistic about it. So if you don't mind me autistically infodumping a bit, here's what I'm thinking.

First, it's worth considering that the show might never have been greenlit if they hadn't had Murderbot played by a big-name actor who's guaranteed to draw an audience. Studios are ultimately trying to make money, and the people who decide if a show gets produced decide based on whether they think it will make money. These decision-makers can also be very risk averse. (As an extreme example, there's the whole debacle of Warner Bros. not releasing movies they've already made just to get tax breaks.)

The "powers that be" had to be convinced that a scifi book series featuring a nonhuman main character would draw a big enough audience to be worth the (probably) millions of dollars that will be poured into production. The best way to guarantee the show's success is to cast an actor who has a large fanbase and has a history of success as the lead on multiple TV shows. Alexander Skarsgård is one of a limited number of actors in that category, which makes him a good candidate from that perspective.

Here's the other reason I'm more optimistic about the show than I was at first. As the casting has been announced, I've looked up each of the actors on IMDb and looked through their credits and what they're known for. And I've become more and more convinced that the decision-makers are putting a lot of thought into the casting. They've supported Skarsgård with David Dastmalchian and Noma Dumezweni, who've both been in blockbuster films and hit TV shows; Tattiawna Jones and Tamara Podemski, who have a good amount of TV experience and have also appeared on hit TV shows; and Sabrina Wu and Akshay Khanna, who both have less experience but have had experience working alongside bigger-name stars.

The rest of the cast is also actually pretty ethnically diverse (even if they're mostly Canadian or US American): Noma Dumezweni was born in Swaziland, Tamara Podemski is half Ojibway, David Dastmalchian is part Iranian, and there's no specific details of ethnicities on their IMDb pages but Jones, Wu, and Khanna are definitely not white, lol. And, for what it's worth, Alexander Skarsgård is from Sweden, not North America, so he's still going to bring a notably different perspective to Murderbot than the nearest available North American white guy would.

All that to say, based on the little bit I can observe from the outside, I have hope that careful thought is being put into the decisions around the casting and other aspects of the show. Apple TV+ has also been producing some excellent shows like For All Mankind, which speaks well to their chances of doing The Murderbot Diaries justice. And I can't speak for anyone else, but personally, if the options are having a Murderbot show with an overall diverse cast, Martha Wells as a creative producer, and a white male actor playing Murderbot, vs. having no Murderbot show at all-- honestly, I'd like to take a chance on this show. I think it has the potential to become one of my new favorites, and I want to see what this group of creatives and creators make of it.

... Also I just really think Noma Dumezweni will be awesome as Mensah. :)

murderbot casting is getting a little better (gurathin, arada, and mensah in particular look great) however the fact that they hired a nonbinary actor to play a cis woman and cast murderbot as a cis man is kind of. ouch. don't get me wrong i am SO excited for sabrina wu as pin-lee, but this proves they COULD and WOULD hire a genderqueer person for the role but. just didn't. and that's so disapointing.

[bifairywife]

jaystephroy concept:

fashion industry au 🚶🖋️📸

i had way too much fun conceptualising all of this so i'll be posting some edits to help visualize (and explain a bit) this au <33

imagine: jason as a model, steph as a fashion designer, and roy as a photographer - it's basically a power trio in the fashion world

jason is one of the top models of wayne enterprises' fashion branch alongside dick and cass, it's kind of a family business. they all got their share of modelling (tim ultimately decided to go with marketing, damian initiated making a sub-branch for pet clothes, and duke decided to help out with the creatives team in making commercials + social media posts).

steph made her first spoiler costume, so it's safe to assume she designed it too. plus her cute lil red headband as robin? cute and iconic, a statement piece none of the previous robins ever bothered to have. and if you check the notes on her clothing style in wfa, it'll totally solidify my point:

highlights from the notes: young and trendy, likes to customize her clothes → this is a girl that has style and someone you'd want in the designing team (+ in canon she's a good cartoonist too, she got the drawing skills)

now onto roy, i'll admit my thought process really just went: "well he's an archer, right? so he has good eyesight and he can quickly have a good scope of his surroundings taking into account of its details while he's at it - so that'll make him a good photographer." for the sake of this au, i want him on team wayne enterprises already.

some notes on jason:

with dick on men's formal wear & undergarments (hehe) and cass on women's athletic and formal wear, jason got the men's casual and athletic wear covered.

he's been planning on dropping his modelling gig. he's interested in a career change with helping out in a different aspect in the company's fashion branch. but with his popularity, it's a risky move to pursue it.

between him, dick, and cass - jason's surprisingly the best trendsetter. dick can be flat out embarrassing sometimes and although cass is iconic, she's a whole new league of her own for being able to be the only one that can really carry a look the way she does (some can copy her, but they don't hold a candle to her). the looks jason serve on his own is a mix of classic and functional - which is why leather jackets are never out of style in gotham.

some notes on steph:

steph couldn't afford fashion school but she was discovered by selina. she's under a sort of apprenticeship with her (selina gets what steph is going through and she wants someone to take over for her now that she wants to focus on designing jewelry).

she's also very active on social media. she's got a super cute and semi-consistent theme on instagram (featuring a mix of her works and shots of herself), and her stories are a mix of aesthetic shots of her designing process or photos of her snacks.

steph is closest with cass. when she started out, selina assigned her as one of cass' designers. steph and cass work together often and they easily bonded.

steph is also close to tim and duke. she gives them insights on how to appeal to the audience better, and they help her be updated to current trends.

some notes on roy:

i always hc roy as the type of guy that enjoys travelling a lot. he's originally a landscape photographer, doing a lot of mountain-hiking and rock-climbing which are risky but worth it for the view. problem is: he got into an accident so those activities need to be put on halt.

he still wanted to continue photography though. even if oliver doesn't play favourites, he doesn't want to work for queen industries where people can assume he got in the "easy way" so he picked the next best company: wayne enterprises.

he's a generally friendly guy, so having to work with new people was a breeze. the problem lies with how different this particular genre of photography is. he's so used to snapping photos of landscapes that focusing on people (and clothes) is an entirely different level.

[stephreynaart]

Gravity Falls - “Waiting”

Pop-Pop AU

Stan sits in a hospital waiting room, thinking about his life and the people he loves.

- - - -

This is kinda old, but I realized I never posted it on tumblr. Hope ya like it!

Lots of fluff, the only ships are Soos and Melody.

AO3 LINK

- - - -

It had a square aspect ratio. Ink pen and watercolor on white heat pressed cotton paper in a bland white frame. One single blue flower in a red vase with what looks like a yellowish shadow. One shadow going left, the other going right. The lack of confidence and inexperience was obvious, the lines were unfocused and jagged, the color plainly filled the shapes and gave no other visual interest to the image.

Below the frame was a small white card that read “Painting donated by Jessica Blaise from Gravity Falls Elementary School”

Stan scanned the painting at least 20 times while sitting in that chair. The too rough and too soft at the same time chair that had similar copies populating the almost white room he sat in. The wallpaper bouncing off light pinks and blues with tiny ducklings as a makeshift wainscoting was starting to irritate the old man. It was too bright, and the consistent buzz of the fluorescent lights seemed so loud. Stan adjusted himself in his chair, switching his crossed legs to a wider spread and leaned his head against the wall.

The only other stimulus in the room were a few posters promoting proper hand washing techniques, the play area with a small table and chairs with large blocks, crayons and that weird “game” with the metal wiring and wooden beads that’s in every waiting room Stan’s ever sat in. He played with the toys to give himself something to do after he read all the magazines. The novelty wore off fast.

The television mounted on the wall was airing some cooking channel with no sound and no subtitles. Looking at food when you haven’t eaten in a few hours was practically torture, so Stan had been averting his eyes.

There were other paintings on the wall, one was less of a painting, but instead a print of a painting. He doubted that the artist got any compensation from it, if they were still alive. The other was a charcoal drawing done by a student from the community college a town away. Another square, but the entire image was black, the brightest thing on the page was an intruding infant hand coming from the left with the arm fading into the dark background. The fingers seemingly mid-twitch and grabbing at something. The lighting was dynamic and interesting. Stan swore it was a drawing of a penis the first time he glanced at it, which resulted in his brother’s laughter. Stanley smiled at the memory, it was only a few hours ago, but he relishes any time he can make Stanford laugh.

Stan’s eyes darted at the door in the far corner when it opened suddenly. He eased back into his chair when the nurse crossed the room to talk with the receptionist. He couldn’t hear the conversation very well, but could tell they were just gossiping and making jokes. Nothing that was of his interest. So he looked back to the elementary school child’s painting and analyzed it again. His eyes were dry and he was tired. He wished he could sleep, the chair wasn’t comfortable enough and when he did managed to sleep, his neck was sore when he woke up. He was only lucky Ford let him use his shoulder as a pillow for a while. He looked to his left and noted the book his brother placed in the seat. It seemed thick and in what looked like Hebrew. Stan wasn’t very surprised Ford was fluent in the language they were acquainted with as children. Their grandparents on their father’s side were the last to be fully fluent in Hebrew. It was like his brother to be curious of their heritage, but Stan only remembered a few phrases and words he learned from holidays and special event when he had to recite anything in Temple.

Stan crossed his arms and glanced at the clock on the wall and let out an exasperated sigh. It had only been 10 minutes since he last checked the time. He wanted to be at home, be in his soft warm bed and getting ready to eat pancakes at this time in the morning.

He and Ford were on the porch of The Mystery Shack when Soos rushed them off to the hospital the yesterday afternoon. What he originally thought would be a couple of hours of waiting turned into almost twelve. Apparently labour can last a long time.

Stan wished he could be a witness for Soos and Melody like he was when Dipper and Mabel were born, but Melody wanted her privacy, which Stan could respect, but Soos wanted him there…..so he and Ford waited in this bright, annoyingly pastel waiting room, twiddling his thumbs awaiting the arrival of the new member of the mystery family. He was glad he was in at least comfortable clothes, some gray sweatpants and a sweater Mabel knitted for him that read “godfather”.

He was never clear on what the title entailed, but it was mentioned a few times by Soos’ grandmother and the kids insisted that Soos was intending to ask him. He hadn’t, but he didn’t protest Stan wearing the sweater. Whatever job godfathers had, he was willing to play the part if Soos were to ask him.

Stan looked at the double doors a few feet away that lead out of the waiting room and into the halls. His brother left to find something for them to eat, but was taking his sweet time. The turkey being basted on the television was no help in aiding his growling stomach.

He distracted himself by returning his thoughts to Soos and Melody. Just down the hall they were experiencing the strange and beautiful phenomenon that was witnessing the arrival of a brand new person. Stan remembered the feeling so clearly. His entire life he’s felt the presence of human beings. It’s inherent in most people to feel when someone is in the room with you, the other soul sharing the same space as you. Imagine being in a room with a set amount of people and someone else comes in, but imagine they came in without using a doorway. Just appearing seemingly out of thin air. Suddenly another person is with you, and they’re brand new to the world, a life full of potential and power. Yes, today is indeed a happy day, but no amount of positive thinking would ease Stan’s nerves. His foot began to bounce and his hands unconsciously began to fiddle with each other. He didn’t want to think anything would go wrong with Soos’ baby, but anything can happen and life is so fragile, especially at the start of it.

He recalled his nephew’s nervousness the day Dipper and Mabel were born. His hands were shaking and he was constantly checking on his wife and asking the doctors loads of questions. He didn’t fully understand the twins’ father’s behavior until the end of that day.

Mabel’s birth was swift and easy. Her mother only needed to push one and a half times before she was here. It was as if she was eager to meet everyone waiting for her. She cried like most babies do, but Stan could’ve sworn they were tears of joy. While Mabel was greeted with, “hello, beautiful”, “hi, sweetie” and “she’s perfect”, Her brother’s introduction to world started with, “what’s wrong?”, “wait, let me hold him”, and “he’s not moving”. Dipper was rushed out of the room before his mother got a chance to look at him. Stan managed to catch a glimpse of the horrifyingly blue tint on his great nephew’s tiny face. The memory still gave him chills. He remembered how much he wanted to hold Mabel, who began to fuss and cry, obviously missing her brother. He was terrified at the prospect of another incomplete set of twins in their family. After the longest 30 minute of his life, Stan’s great-nephew returned with a bright pink face, wailing with all the power his little lungs could produce. Once the twins were reunited in their mother’s arms, they settled down almost instantly. The doctors told their parents Dipper was significantly lighter in weight than his sister, but both were very strong and healthy. Every so often Stan thinks about Dipper and how much he has impacted his life. His thoughts lead to darker places and he questions if Ford would be here if Dipper wasn’t there to find the third journal. He shook his head as a cold shiver went up his spine.

Stan did his best to distract himself from revisiting the scare that Dipper caused him 16 years ago.

16 years…..17 in August

Stan blinked. The squishy, bright faces that stayed with him that first summer had changed significantly. They stayed in contact all year round and visited every summer since they were 12. But every in-person meeting was always a shock. Dipper was developing the square jaw Stan, both his brothers and nephew shared. He started to regularly wear glasses their second summer with the Stans. Poor kid will grow up looking like Filbrick like the rest of the Pines men. He reminded Stan of Ford at that age.

And Mabel…..

Stan will never get over how much she looks like his mother. It didn’t strike him until Soos and Melody’s wedding and she put her hair in a bun. She’s calmed her hyperactivity down a bit, but not by a lot, she still brightens his day with her wit and creativity. They’ve both matured physically, but not much has changed personality wise and they still acted like big children when they’re around each other. Stan loved them very much, and wished he could see them more often. He wondered what the future held for all of them. Would they still visit town after going to college? Would they move here? Or somewhere else?

He’s had several conversations with them to see how they’re managing the prospect of separating. They’re much better at communicating than he and Ford were and they seem actually excited to have some independence. It made Stan nervous, but he was sure their close relationship wouldn’t suffer.

Wendy chose to be elsewhere for the next few years. She and her friends booked a plane ticket and plan to backpack and hitchhike around Europe and the UK. Stan hopes they stay safe and watch out for each other. Lotta weirdos in Amsterdam. She was set to leave in the coming days, Wendy wanted to wait until today arrived so she could meet Soos and Melody’s kid before going away for who knows how long.

A tap on the shoulder woke Stan from his deep thoughts. His brother arrived with some warm sub sandwiches and coffee.

“Any word yet?, he asked Stan

“Nothin’ yet”, Stan felt helpless not having any clue how Soos and Melody were doing.

Stanford took his seat next to Stanley and they both silently enjoyed their late breakfast. Since arriving they’ve witnessed families reuniting and going past the door in the far corner to meet their children, grandchildren or siblings. Stan looked at the clock again. How has it only been another 5 minutes? He sighed, leaned back and finished the rest of his sub. One hand holding the sandwich, the other went back to gripping the arm rest, then a six fingered hand went down to rest on top of it. Stan let go of the armrest and tangled his fingers between Ford’s and held onto it with a, hopefully not too tight, grip. It was like an anchor to reality, much better at easing his anxieties than any words could. Over the past 4 years, Stan and Ford’s bond grew stronger. Stan still feared one day he would wake up and find himself still in that basement surrounded by broken machinery and languages he didn’t understand. He hasn’t yet, and was enjoying the time he had left with his twin. Stan took a moment to look at his brother again, Ford made eye contact and smiled then continued to read his book. Hands still intertwined

Stans thoughts went back to Soos…

It amazed Stan how much he had grown and it still baffled him that Soos idolized him as much as he does. Before Soos, Stan had no one. His brother was….gone, the rest of the family didn’t talk to him much outside of the holidays and special occasion. There hadn’t been any sense of consistency in Stan’s life for years, decades even, until he hired the chubby little kid he barely glanced at one random Saturday. Soos always arrived to work early, sometimes with breakfast for both of them. Stan didn’t know how much he needed a reliable companion until he had it and he enjoyed the 10 years he had with that kid… or man he should say. Here he was…a few rooms away, becoming a father.

Stan used to daydream a lot about the prospect of having kids when he was younger. He’s was always good with them when he had the chance to babysit his nephew, then later Dipper and Mabel when they were toddlers. He loved having kids in his house that first summer. He loved the energy and the sense of adventure the twins brought. They gave him a sense of purpose and belonging he hadn’t felt in years. He wished he was brave enough to have his own children. Not that he was ever with anyone long enough to want to have kids with him. He supposed it was for the best that he didn’t subject a child to homelessness or an unhappy marriage. He was also terrified at the idea. His dad used to say having kids ruined his life. He wondered who his father was before his older brother was born. Did they really ruin his life? Stan often wondered if he would be like his own dad if he has children of his own. Would he change and become that annoyed parent that resenting his children?

He thought about Soos again

That was probably the closest to parenthood he ever experienced. The first time he felt like one was when Soos asked him for homework help after closing. He initially told Soos no, he wasn’t exactly smart and didn’t think he would be any help. It apparently upset the kid, so Stan sighed and gave it a try. It was fairly simple middle school math, he didn’t remember everything, but helped Soos do more than half of it. Soos thanked him and went home happy. Stan felt weirdly proud, he was glad he made a small difference and managed to teach Soos something he didn’t even know he knew.

The second time was when Soos was a teenager. His grandmother wasn’t able to teach Soos to drive, since she had forgotten how and her late husband used to do the driving, she mostly walked everywhere. Soos offered to work for free so Stan could teach him. Stan loved driving and found teaching Soos cathartic. He was a fast and eager learner, he only bumped Stan’s car once while trying to figure out parallel parking. Little did Soos know that he was getting paid for his normal work hours. Stan just put it away long enough to help buy the kid some old used truck in the junkyard for getting his license. They fixed the truck up and in only a few weeks it was ready to be on the road. Soos has taken good care of it and it’s still his ride to this day

Stan was very proud of Soos. He taught the kid some basic self defense and managed to be a decent influence in his life. Soos at least has his priorities straight.

Stan was even glad to see that Soos was willing to question him. When the portal was reaching the final countdown, he didn’t hesitate to protect the kids from him when he thought Stan was dangerous. He didn’t know, none of them did, so he didn’t blame Soos for distrusting him. He hoped he never had to betray him again. They both had crappy dads, and Stan knew how Soos saw him. Stan was never really sure if he reciprocated those feelings. It felt natural to act the part, but to put a label as important as “dad” on Stan was daunting. Soos definitely deserves better than what he was given, Stan wasn’t sure if he was it.

Stan looked up at the familiar voices running towards him from the double doors.

“Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Ford!” Mabel waved to them

The two teenagers and Wendy walked in holding a balloon and various toys. They took some seats across from the Stans and asked how everyone was doing and if the baby arrived yet.

“Not yet, hopefully soon” Ford answered

Stan relaxed and silently enjoyed his family’s company. He laid his head back and leaned slightly on Ford to rest for a minute. His eyes shut as he listened to the kids joke around and talk amongst themselves. He squeezed Ford’s hand one more time before drifting off.

He knew he should’ve tried sleeping earlier, he wasn’t out for more than 15 minutes when Soos came into the waiting room. Stan’s eyes shot open and he was on his feet faster than he did when he was being chased by angry costumers as a door to door salesman. Soos’ red eyes sagged and he seemed exhausted, but carried a proud, wide smile across his face. He sniffed and wiped his eyes.

“It’s a boy”, he squeaked, “mom and baby are okay”

Dipper and Mabel were first to start the hugs, and the room filled with cheers of congratulations and love. Stan felt light as a feather giving Soos a hug and joking about child labor.

“Can we see him?”, Mabel bounced with anticipation

“Yeah, dudes!”, Soos gestured everyone past the corner door and into the suite. “But only for a little while, Melody has to sleep”

The room was small, dimly lit and warm. The Pines crew collectively lowered their voices as Melody came into view on the bedding holding a bundle of blankets decorated with small yellow ducklings. She was leaned back on a large pillow, covered in blankets and toted a soft smile on her face. Soos stroked her hair and picked up his little son to show to the Pines’. The younger twins got a look at him first,

Mabel squealed and cooed at the tiny infant. Then Wendy, who said hi to the baby and told Soos she’d make sure to send him gifts while she was away

“What’s his name?”, Mabel asked Melody

“I named him after my dad”, Melody replied, “Jacob”. She smiled sadly at the memory of the father she lost the year before.

Soos approached the Stans, Ford smiled and complimented the couple on a having such beautiful little boy, but shot Soos a look, who silently replied with another one. Something was up.

Finally Stan got a look at baby Jacob. “Wow” Stan smiled, patting Soos’ arm. “He looks exactly like you”

Soos laughed, “really? I think he looks like Melody”, there was a short silence before Soos spoke up again.

“Do you want to hold him, Mr Pines?”

Stan looked at Soos and smiled, “heh, sure”. He held his arms out. Soos lowered his arms to pass the baby to Stan, who scrunched his face up and started to fuss. Stan took the infant and managed to hold him with one arm. He bounced and shushed little Jacob until he calmed down. “Heya kid”, He’s held babies dozens of times, but something felt different about this one. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but Stan felt an almost magnetic pull towards him. Jacob settled comfortably against Stan and continued his rest. Stan softly beamed at the tiny person in his arms.

“Hey, Stan?”

Stan lifted an eyebrow and looked at Soos, who was fidgeting with his hands and nervously smiling.

“Uh..”, he paused, taking in the sight of Stan holding his child. “You know about my dad”, Soos looked at Ford again, who shrugged and nodded. Stan studied Ford’s face, who’s eyes strayed away as he hid a small smile. Soos got his attention again.

“You uh…he wasn’t…”, Soos choked up, his voice strained a bit, “I met you when I was probably the loneliest I ever was in my entire life”. Stan pictured the little boy he hired on the spot, he didn’t remember him until Soos showed up at his door step the next day ready to work. He didn’t know how much that quick, thoughtless decision would change his life.

Soos perked up and walked across the room to a table and picked up the piece of paper sitting on it. Soos glanced at it, then at Stan and smiled, gaining some emotional strength it seemed.

“You mean a lot me”, Soos, “you were there when I really needed it, you gave me a job, taught me just about everything I know. I don’t think I ever thanked you for that”

Stan got a bit nervous, Was this him asking to be the godfather?Everyone was silent and curiously watching. Soos held his hand out and handed the paper to Stan. He adjusted his arm to properly hold Jacob in his arm and took it. Stan flipped the page and noticed it was the baby’s birth certificate. Stan eyes bounced off the page and read the various information: birthdate, weight, parents, but he froze when he read the full name. Stan’s wide eyes questioningly studied Soos’ face.

“Are you…”, Stan felt his own throat tightening, crap. Come on, not in front of everyone “really?”, he asked. Soos gave a genuine nod and sniffed.

“I uh” Soos cleared his throat, “I was wondering, since Jacob doesn’t have one…if you wanted to be…. his grandpa?

There it was

Stan felt dizzy and took a small step back before remembering who was in his hands and regained his balance. Ford came to his side and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. Stan decide not to look at his brother and chose to stare forward, then his eyes went back to Soos, who look deflated. Oh man. Stan was terrified, he didn’t want to say no and hurt Soos, but if he said yes….he wasn’t sure what made him so nervous. The entire concept sounded so alien to him, like he didn’t deserve the title. He always considered Soos, Melody and their son a part of his family. But to bare a title like “grandpa”, had to mean he had children that that children. That he was already a parent without his knowledge. It all felt so natural to want to lean into this and become part of this family like Soos wanted.

He heard something make a noise from beneath himself. Stan looked down at little Jacob, who was mid yawn. The baby’s mouth grew wide opens and inhaled, scrunching up his face and suddenly shut. Suddenly two tiny eyes opened for just a few seconds, enough time for Stan to make eye contact before Jacob shut them and got comfortable again

Everything was different now.

Stan didn’t notice how quiet the room had gotten nor the tears forming in his eyes. Stunned by beauty and overcome with pride and a sense of purpose. The pride he felt teaching Soos math, how to drive and attending his graduation all combined just looking at the perfect being in his arms. If he said yes, he would want everything that came with it. Stan lifted the birth certificate up to read the name again.

Jacob Stanley Ramirez

“Y-Yes”, he heard a shaken voice say, almost not realizing it was his own “of course”. He looked at Soos, tears in his eyes and a bright smile on his face. He still wasn’t sure if he deserved this, but Stan wanted it. He wanted it all. Why not indulge just this once? He gave the certificate to Ford and used his now free hand to pull Soos into a hug. Gently sandwiching his…..grandson in between him……and his son.

[snarkywrites]

July Horoscopes: Fixed Drama

Saturn, Mars, and Uranus are all forming a T-Square at the beginning of the month. Things will ease a little a few weeks in as Mars breaks free from the aspect. Everyone will feel this energy since it has made us angry, go at a slow pace and we may feel like we have not accomplished what we would like. However, this month has a lot of changes and movement in store for everyone. The New Moon in Cancer on the 9th is going to serve as an awakening for most of the signs, especially Water signs, as we tune back into our emotions since this is the transition from Air to Water season. Venus and Mars will be moving into Virgo later in the month on the 21st and 29th respectively. A transit that is going to make Earth signs feel more energized. The Sun and Mercury will enter the sign of Leo, a positive feat for Fire signs and Jupiter will return to Aquarius (28th) and the Full Moon in Aquarius on the 23rd will allow Air signs to feel like they are back in the game. There is a lot happening and while it all moves slowly, the shifts will be more prominent once the summer ends. For now, be patient and go slow because rushing will get you nowhere.

Aries – The Sun entering Leo on the 22nd and the Full Moon in Aquarius on the 23rd are going to allow you to focus on major transformations in your social circles. This is also a good transit to switch up your creative styles and try something new if you are an artist. Get ready to feel the intensity of your emotions with the New Moon in Cancer in the 9th as you find the balance between home and career. Mercury entering the same sign on the 11th giving you the plan needed to make some good interior decorating decisions or just strike a deal for a raise at work. For the next four weeks you are going to prioritize self-care and opt to stay and hang with family or close friends. Venus in Virgo also sends a reminder to add a little self-love into your routine when the transit begins on the 21st. Mercury will be in Leo on the 27th, so use this transit to write up a storm, draw, get into photography, sing, anything, really. Jupiter will finally go back into the sign of Aquarius on the 28th and you might expect the unexpected (good) surprises and recognition you deserve.

Taurus – Rebuilding your relationship with your creative side is the theme for the month. When the New Moon in Cancer appears on the 9th, you will be fueled with inspiration. Another plus is that Mercury will be in Cancer on the 11th, motivating and allowing you to be more confident in your self-expression. Venus enters earthy Virgo on the 21st and this trine to your sign is going to add more excitement to your social circles. The Sun enters the sign of Leo on the 22nd, a time for you to take a little breather and focus on home and roots for the next month. When the Full Moon in Aquarius happens on the 23rd, you are going to feel the impact the last six months have had on your career. You will finally see your hard work paying off (assuming you put in the effort). With Mercury in Leo n the 27th, you are going to feel more comfortable in your surroundings and once again, the topics relating to home and your roots take center stage. You might feel compelled to dig deeper into your family history during this transit. The Jupiter Retrograde in Aquarius on the 28th will bring more questions about work and your drive and goals for the future so this is your reminder to stay focused. On the 29th, Mars enters Virgo, expect more excitement with your new (or current) romantic partner as you find new ways to express your love.

Gemini – July is bringing you familiarity. While you find new ways to adjust your finances, the New Moon in Cancer on the 9th, will add some good tactics for growth. Budgeting will come to play with Mercury entering Cancer on the 11th. During the Sun’s entry in Leo, you are going to feel once more in your element, focused on what you have to say and write. Venus enters Virgo on the 21st, a good opportunity to make some renovations at home if you have been thinking about it for a while. Things intensify for you with the Full Moon in Aquarius on the 23rd as you feel more in command with yourself during this time. An opportunity to learn from a new course, class or book has presented itself in the last six months, so now will be your time to be tested on your knowledge. Are you ready? Mercury joins the sun on the 27th, bringing you new insights and a joy for the work you have created. Jupiter returns to the sign of Aquarius on the 28th with more lessons and questions about your path and inner growth. If you want to learn more, Saturn will still be there teaching you to evolve. Mars will enter Virgo on the 29th, closing the month but this will be an interesting transit, offering more opportunities to perfect and learn more through the comforts of your home.

Cancer – We are officially in Cancer Season and the New Moon in your sign on the 9th will redirect your goals as the focus is brought back to you, so treat yourself. Mercury in your sign on the 11th will initiate a period of confidence and it will be easy for you to steal the spotlight since everyone will notice how sharp you are during this transit. On the 21st, Venus will be in Virgo, adding a touch of romance to your mind and the way you communicate. You command everyone’s attention now and Venus gives you more magnetism. The Sun will be in Leo on the 22nd bringing a shift to your spending habits. With the Full Moon on the 23rd, you might be more aware than before about where you are planning to see yourself financially for the future. With Mercury in Leo on the 27th, this is all about making plans and being wiser about your purse. You might also be more intrigued to dive deeper and learn about the mystical. Jupiter will move from Pisces to Aquarius, bringing you back down to Earth but adding more optimism in your life. Mars enters Virgo on the 29th, more of the themes Venus brought in but you now must be more aware of how you say things. This transit can make you speak without a filter, so try focus on being more polite if you are compelled to yell.

Leo – A month of guidance and meditation with the New Moon in Cancer on the 9th and Mercury following suit on the 11th. Journaling and meditating will help ease the tension during this transit. It could feel nostalgic, thinking about the past and focusing on the present as Mars and Venus are still in your sign for most of the month. Get ready for excitement as the Sun will be in your sign on the 22nd and the Full Moon in Aquarius will occur on the 23rd. Your relationships come to focus once again, a cycle that began only six months ago will bring you more clarity to answers you may have had earlier this year. As Saturn still make waves in Aquarius, you are noticing your dynamics with others shifting and the Full Moon may highlight this. Mercury will be in your sign on the 27th, giving you that additional star power and energy you have craved since Saturn might have made things a little gloomy. Jupiter will return to Aquarius on the 28th a good transit, even if it is in opposition to your sign. Once more, you will feel that abundant energy showing you much needed love and support. Appreciate it now since it will remain there until the end of the year.

Virgo – Venus will be in your sign on the 21st and this transit will feel a bit like an awakening as you are able to shine. The month starts with the New Moon in Cancer on the 9th which will be extremely different from last year. No longer is Saturn in Capricorn, so the Moon now can be vibrant and bring you joy and fun opportunities, even if it is in a water sign. Mercury will be in Cancer on the 11th, adding more of the same themes from the New Moon so if you have felt alone or isolated, you will be in good company now as your friends give you some much needed support. The Full Moon in Aquarius on the 23rd will allow you to focus on yourself and goals for the next six months and with Jupiter entering Aquarius once again on the 28th, you will feel a lot more optimistic about your career plans and the choices you have made for the future. On the 29th, Mars enters your sign, adding more energy and drive. Those dreams you have had might seem more practical now. The month closes with you going full speed ahead and confident.

Libra – Full speed ahead for Libras during the month of July. The New Moon in Cancer is powerful for you since this is going to highlight your career and goals for the next six months. This is your time to make some moves along with the rest of the Cardinal signs. With Saturn no longer in Capricorn, you can see your dreams manifesting. Mercury will enter the same sign on the 11th, giving you insight and motivation to plan. Venus be in Virgo on the 21st, magic, love and romance are highlighted as this occurs in your 12th house. You are embarking on a time where you are focused on your sense of happiness, even if you are single. Prioritize yourself. On the 22nd, Leo season begins, getting you in the mood to meet and greet friends and family in lavish settings. The Full Moon in Aquarius on the 23rd will bring you back to topics from six months ago, perhaps a relationship you ended may be rekindled or you have learned to move on and set your sights on better things. Mercury will be in Leo on the 27th, sparking your more dramatic side, just try and not to stir things up. With Jupiter back in Aquarius on the 28th, you are ready to explore your creative side, or this could be a time of reflection for you. The Mars transit in Virgo on the 29th might make you feel irritable. A reminder to focus on some meditation and breathing exercises if things just feel stressful around you.

Scorpio – Nothing sparks changes like a New Moon in a water sign. On the 9th, the New Moon in Cancer is going to make you feel restless and impulsive. Try not to act too out of character. While you may feel the urge to get away, try and focus on channeling that energy into a new project that can be fruitful in the long run. Mercury follows the Moon on the 11th, which will inspire you to begin a new course or study something you have been curious about. Venus enters Virgo on the 21st a good transit to hang with friends. Who know, you could meet someone new through your friends if you are single. Leo season begins on the 22nd, an important transit since this will be the time where your focus shifts on career goals. The Full Moon on the 23rd adds a need to bring some balance to home and work, you are going to be reminded of events from six months ago, so this can be an introspective time for you. With Mercury in the sign of Leo beginning on the 27th, this is a promising transit for you, as you can push forward with your dreams and goals. Have lots of faith in what you want, and you can see that your superiors may even help you get there. Your hard work is paying off. Jupiter will retrograde back in Aquarius on the 28th, more introspection, more analyzing and more plans as Jupiter allows you to rework and change your game plan. An interesting Mars shift in Virgo closes the month on the 29th. Once again, group dynamics come back to play, and you get to meet some interesting people during this time.

Sagittarius – What an interesting month this promises to be for you, Sagittarius. Jupiter, your ruler will go back to the sign of Aquarius on the 28th. This transit will be quite favorable to you since Jupiter will once again make a sextile to your sign and boosting your mind and creative energy until December. This is also a good time to reconnect with friends and family. A New Moon in Cancer on the 9th will allow you to dive deep into your memories and find new ways to let go of the past. Find your source of power during this transit so you can move forward with confidence. Venus enters Virgo on the 21st, a very important time for you since you are going to turn heads and be in the spotlight. Venus will give you some motivation but since the transit might feel calm and lethargic, make sure not to slack off. The Sun enters Leo on the 22nd, which is going to make things a lot easier to manage during the next month. This is your time for inspiration, knowledge, and some creative ventures. The Full Moon in Aquarius will happen on the 23rd, a chance to look back and make some changes to your pending projects. This is your time to revise, edit and redo things if needed. Mercury will enter the sign of Leo on the 27th, making you feel sharp, empowered by your words, and motivated to speak up. Just make sure not to be too preachy here with others and take the time to listen to their views. New career moves will be made when Mars enters Virgo on the 29th, more of a good thing as you get focused to make a lasting and positive impression to those in charge. A reminder to not explode when you feel stressed and to practice some diplomacy from time to time.

Capricorn – Your ruler Saturn continues making challenges in the sign of Aquarius. The energy for this month is a little rough but you always find a way to keep powering through. A notable transit is the New Moon in Cancer on the 9th, a time to reexamine your relationships and maybe even start a new one if you are single. Then Mercury in Cancer begins on the 11th, more relationship topics on your mind and this transit can even make you more emotional communicating with your partner (or a potential new one). Earth signs will be thrilled to see that Venus will be in Virgo on the 21st, adding excitement and grounding energy to your routine. You are here to work, get things done and learn while Venus has some strategies to keep you focused and driven. The Sun will be in Leo on the 22nd, and the Full Moon in Aquarius is on the 23rd adding some eye-opening news when it comes to your finances. Try to buckle down and not splurge too much or you might regret it. Expect a boost with Mercury in Leo beginning on the 27th, if you feel like you are slacking with savings and investment, you may consider learning new ways to stay financially fit. Jupiter will retrograde back in Aquarius on the 28th, adding more optimism to the way you view yourself and the material things in life. You will see more shifts happening when Mars enters Virgo on the 29th, a guiding light that will push you forward now if you have stopped believing in your dreams.

Aquarius – The Full Moon in your sign on the 23rd is going to be a notable event for you since it adds onto the responsibility and hard work you have dealt with this year. But before that happens, the New Moon will be in the sign of Cancer on the 9th which is going to bring some familiar themes from the current Saturn transit. Your work ethic will be highlighted now, and your bosses or teachers may see you in a favorable light; this Moon is a reminder that hard work and results come with patience and focus. While Mercury is also in Cancer on the 11th, you are going to see how you can prioritize and plan in a more efficient way. Things might have felt scattered for you, but you find grounding energy now as you are able to focus and get things done. The Sun enters Leo on the 22nd, allowing you to focus on healing your relationships and when Mercury enters the same sign on the 27th, the energy this transit brings will be promising for your relationship. Jupiter enters your sign again on the 28th, giving you more optimism and if you needed the positive energy, this transit is going to work wonders for you. Mars will change signs on the 29th, entering the realm of Virgo. Here you might feel a little uncomfortable, as Mars will have you churning through the past, but you will find new ways to break free from any thoughts that might be bringing you down.

Pisces – Water energy can be favorable for you with the New Moon in Cancer on the 9th bringing some positive trines to your sign. Mercury will also add flare to water signs beginning on the 11th, so if you are a creative, this energy can boost your imagination. This month can bring a lot of excitement especially if you are single. Venus will ingress in Virgo on the 21st, making an opposition to your sign but still bringing all its lovable Venusian qualities to the table. If you have thought about the prospects of love, this transit will make your heart flutter and make you daydream more than usual. The next day, the Sun enters Leo, and the Full Moon in Aquarius will occur right after that on the 23rd. You are going to be diving deep into your subconscious, reflecting on topics from earlier in the year. This is your moment for some grounding and optimism, even if things feel a little harsh. Jupiter will return to the sign of Aquarius on the 28th, enhancing the prospect of hope and joy in your life. While in your sign, Jupiter showed us our potential and we will experience more of the abundance and joy later in the year. Finally, Mars enters the sign of Virgo on the 29th, initiating a period where you are going to feel much more motivated to accomplish many things. Just remember not to lose your temper on others.

[lem-cup-rev]

ID: INVADED (2019)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

- some spoilers for early episodes -

Do you want to hear me gush? I’m going to gush in this one.

I was absolutely blown away practically from start to finish. In terms of cerebral thriller anime, this is almost definitely the most interesting thing I’ve ever seen.

The very beginning puts us in a simple, abstract scenario. It says, “this is a story about solving a puzzle.”

Then it unfolds a little more. In this procedural, our detective explores a dreamlike subconscious in a dreamlike state of mind. The team, meanwhile, observes his interaction with the dreamscape to draw deductions about real-world crimes. Upon understanding this premise, I fell in love instantly.

Frankly, the puzzles and deductions frequently lost me. A lot of times, I wasn’t sure it quite made sense. And yet it always did a fantastic job of bringing me back in. The stakes for the characters are really clear, and after a little bit I would start to have ‘aha’s about the last plot twist and what it meant. I had so many moments of pure amazement at the way the sci-fi and psychological elements came into view from a brand new angle that totally clicked, or the way established characters and rules came back with brand new relevance that made complete sense. Ultimately, the whole trajectory of the series felt like a really successful building of a twisting, speculative mystery story that knew what it wanted to be and had so much thought and creativity put into it.

The main characters are incredibly interesting and endearing, which was constantly a thrilling surprise given how grim the story is.

Narisago is a fascinating dual figure: when exploring the subconscious, he’s a carefree, charming detective. When he wakes back up, the weight of his personal tragedies and the violence he’s committed comes rushing back to crush him. I find him thrilling to watch like a running drill bouncing around on a table. His grimy dangerousness is palpable, yet his tender heart is painfully clear to us as well.

Hondomachi is a young field agent who begins to show an eerie aptitude for the darker parts of the job. One aspect of her design is extremely funny: I initially imagined she was supposed to be about 16, sort of averaging together the fact that she’s a police officer with the fact that she looks 12. She’s supposed to be like 26. But besides her being a cutie, I love her character quite a bit. She’s extremely good-hearted and sincere, and yet we immediately see her do things and react to things in small ways that offput and frighten other characters, until she’s confronted with the idea that there’s something genuinely wrong with her. Watching her navigate the different sides of herself is such a uniquely sweet and creepy experience.

The show has a really surprising sense of humor that comes out when you least expect it. The characters will be goofy and joke like real people in bizarre situations, and it creates this absolutely delicious feeling of naturalism. The range the writing has between horror, grit, and humor is just unique.

The series’ obsession is serial killers, and its excavation of the subject is so interesting. I think it kind of takes modern knowledge about the patterns and motivations of serial killers, and expands on it to create its own personal mythos, this in-story logic about the nature of “the drive to kill” and what it means about your brain if you are a killer.

The animation is wonderful. During more static scenes the art feels serviceable and efficient; but as soon as there’s more movement, the animation kicks straight into gear and conveys it with flawless realism and charm. And that goes both for fantastical action sequences and for small moments of mundane, characterful movement.

There’s honestly more I could say, but if you want a thick little pitch packet for why you should watch the show, there it is. God, what a bizarre masterpiece.

Anyway it’s basically Inception