#have fun guessing who's who! it should be fairly obvious

[peachhcs]

a blurb about the time they have their first kiss??

au masterlist | this lowkey ate more than i thought it would

in one of the last days of summer before everyone had to leave again, samy was hosting one last get together at the lake house. everyone was invited so it was fairly crowded in the backyard. somehow, hannah lost the brunette in the mass of people, so she decided to stick close to the drinks instead of trying to fight her way through.

she didn't notice a certain tall brunette making his way towards her until he was basically in her eye line. "hey hananh," james caught her attention.

a quick grin appeared on the girl's lips, "hey hagens. long time no see."

it'd been awhile since the two saw one another. both of their summers were spent in completely different places that they never got a chance to catch up until right now. "yeah, for real. it's been awhile," the boy hummed as he reached for another drink.

"it's good to see you though. i heard your last few months of dev program went well. are you excited for boston?" hannah poked a bit making james flush.

"i am excited. it should be fun getting to be on the same team as the guys again. i've definitely missed playing with them," their gazes swept to where ryan and gabe were talking with their hockey buddies. hannah smiled.

"it's really cool you guys get to be on the same team again. must be really special," she met his gaze again and the boy nodded.

"definitely. how are you feeling after becoming an olympic gold medalist?" james changed the subject and he enjoyed seeing the brunette blush at his question.

"it still feels unreal honestly. i don't feel real, actually."

"well, you killed it like usual. i still don't know how you manage to flip around up there," his praise just deepened the red adorning hannah's cheeks.

"i guess it's just natural at this point. your, uh..the flowers..they were nice," it didn't take an expert for the gymnast to know who was sending her such a huge bouquet of flowers, especially when she didn't know any other hockey player using the number 10.

now it was james's turn to blush, "so you figured it out?"

"come on, i'm not that stupid. you really didn't have to do that."

"you had just won a gold medal. i always think that deserves a huge bouquet of flowers" the hockey player shrugged and hannah blushed again, steering her gaze to the ground.

"well, thank you. it was sweet."

they let a comfortable silence fill between them while taking in the party again. even though they were outside, it was loud and everyone was talking at once. hannah had no idea where samy disappeared to, yet she figured the soccer player was with will like always. it sort of didn't feel real that they were already going to be in their 2nd year of college.

"you know i'd really like to hear more about paris. would you wanna talk inside so it's quieter?" james spoke up again. he looked at her nervously like she was going to say no, but a smile danced on hannah's lips instead.

"yeah, sure."

the two managed to slip away unseen. it was much quieter when they made it back inside and cooler. hannah dug through the fridge for some water knowing she didn't want to be too hung over tomorrow. she handed a bottle to james without asking which he took gratefully. they found themselves in the living room a moment later.

"so what was your favorite part?" the boy wondered, eyeing the space between them without being too obvious about it.

"can i say everything? i loved all of it," the girl giggled.

hannah and james talked for what seemed like forever in that living room. the gymnast gave him an entire rundown of her time at the olympics and all of the cool people she met. she definitely rambled, but james didn't mind one bit. he liked hearing her talk, especially after not talking to her all summer.

that space between them on the couch got smaller and smaller too because hannah would jump up and around when she talked, so naturally, she moved herself closer each time until there was basically no space left between them.

it had to have been nearly 11:30 by then. people had gone inside, but neither james nor hannah noticed because they were too busy talking. no one else really noticed them either because they were just too drunk to notice their friends really hitting it off with each other.

when hannah stopped to take a breath and just close her mouth for a second her nad james were inches apart. her knee kept brushing his thigh and her head rested on the back of the couch so she was basically looking up at him because james had his elbow propped up to support his head. he stared at her while she stared at him realizing just how long they'd been talking.

that fire that's been ignited since james met hannah almost two years ago lit up the longer he stared at her and he knew she felt it too.

hannah knew what he wanted. maybe she wanted it too, but that voice inside of her head was preventing her from moving any closer or further. that voice that always told her she didn't need a boyfriend because it'd just throw her entirely off. she didn't even know how to function with a real boyfriend because all of her past relationships had always been stupid flings that didn't matter to her.

this mattered to her though and she knew that it wasn't gonna be some fling if she let herself indulge.

james mattered to her and she was finally starting to understand that.

"this might be super dumb, but can i kiss you?" the hockey player asked and everything hannah thought she knew went out the window because he asked and no guy had really done that before with her.

she was leaning up before she could even stop herself and james met her in the middle. their lips collided in a very passionate kiss that definitely showed all of the pent up tension that had built between the the last few years.

she could feel him breaking her walls down and letting himself into a space she's tried so hard to keep him out of.

when they finally pulled away both of them were speechless.

"so.."

"so.."

an awkward silence wedged its way between them.

"i should get some sleep. it's late. it's been a long day. thanks for talking..or letting me yap your ear off," and just as fast as hannah's walls came down, they went right back up.

she stumbled up while james quickly grew confused at her sudden change in attitude.

"night, j," she mumbked over her shoulder before he could even say anything.

"night hannah.." she was long gone to even hear him.

[palossssssand]

the splat ocs when they were itty bitty for funsies

[fanfic-reading-challenge]

The 2025 Fanfic Reading Challenge

Welcome to another year of the Fanfic Reading Challenge (FRC)!

I won't bore you with the history of the challenge, this year, but I will welcome you to check out past posts that do explain some of it, as well as include a brief overview of what, exactly, this challenge is, though it does change year to year. (Essentially you read fics to complete goals and win bragging points and an artsy badge.)

This year is especially different, as I had the extreme pleasure of having @noxsoulmate as a partner in crime in keeping me hostage on track to completing this year's FRC. Another valued member of the mod team is @jandjsalmon and speaks for all of us if you need questions answered!

As for the challenge....

This is, indeed, a challenge. Of course.

First of all... you must obviously read fanfiction. As if you don't already!

You also need to download and make your own copy of the spreadsheet, which can be found here, as well as below in the important links section.

To participate in the challenge, you read fics that match the tasks in the challenge. An example of a task can be: "read a fic with a title containing the word purple in it." Should be easy! Of course, there are harder ones.

Which is why there are different modes of challenge to the FRC. These are as follows:

Participation (Complete 1 task)

Regular Mode (Complete 80 tasks)

Hard Mode (Complete 150 tasks)

Extreme Mode (Complete 220 tasks)

Complete (Complete 250 tasks)

The challenge lasts from January 1st, 2025, to December 31st, 2025.

There are badges that go with the modes completed, and even a secret 6th badge that will be fairly obvious if you look at the spreadsheet! Doesn't mean it'll be easy to complete though. *smirks* (Blame Noxy)

Most important of all: this challenge operates on the honour system. We don't check your work, or your reading logs (see below), so I mean, I guess if you want to be slippery with the rules, you do you, and that's on your conscience, but honestly it's so much fun to see how much you can get done by following the letter of the law/tasks! You can be slippery even with following the tasks fully. It's great fun. ;D

I think that's enough for an intro, really, maybe too much.

Important Links and Reading Logs/Trackers

As there is a component of the FRC that includes tracking numbers of words read, most of us use a reading log/tracker to keep count of how many fics we read, including data such as words, of course, chapters, month completed, ship, author, title, fandom, link to the fic, and such. It's a great place to mark what fics you want to read in the future as well!

This year we have FOUR trackers on offer, quite different from one another, so take a look, play around with them and check out their "intros", and choose according to what you think will work best for you!

Fic Tracking Sheets

Juulna's 2025 Reading Log

Noxy's 2025 Reading Log

2025 Jandy's Fic Tracker

Taru's Fic Tracker 2025

Discord

We have a blast on Discord. From general chatter to sharing pet pics to being there for each other during the tough times to forming lasting friendships and making friendships you’d never make in a ship- or fandom-specific Discord, to asking for help ‘rolling the dice’ (pick a number between 1-10!) to choose the next fic to read, to finding some of the really challenging task fills in fandoms people might not have ever read but are willing to try, or finding fandoms someone has never read and is very tentative about stepping out of their box, but they’re being 100% supported and know they don’t need to complete the fic for it to count for the task, stepping out of their comfort zone… we’ve formed a very odd group of, if not friends, then companions (but there are definite friendships that have formed!! Just ask the people who have started watching NHL and NFL together in our off topic channel!).

In any case, our Discord is not necessary, but it is a worthy and tactical element to completing many of the tasks of this challenge. 💙

And.... without further ado....!

The 2025 Fanfic Reading Challenge! (link)

There is an info/rules page as the first sheet on the spreadsheet that should fill in any further questions you have. It also has more contact info than just this page if you have any further questions and perhaps need a more immediate answer for your needs.

*Occasionally you will run into something that looks like an error, and it may in fact be one! Let us know if you see it. It's hard not to make a mistake on as large a spreadsheet as this.*

Please, first of all, have fun and just read fanfiction that you enjoy! I (Juulna) did that last year and didn't even come close to completing the entire challenge, and I still had a blast because I was enjoying what I was reading and rereading. Others took the challenge right to the completed end. Others forgot about it halfway through but still had fun, and some even went back and filled in the sheet for a really good showing! The challenge is what you make of it, what you want from it. So... just have fun. Read fic. Smile. Enjoy. :)

Second of all... well, we would love if you signal boost this post!!!!

Third of all, we do have our pinned post that includes a link to this page and that will include a link to our Discord and all our trackers as well, including past links for memento and informative purposes.

Thank you, and a blessed 2025 to all!

[joyce-stick]

The Beef Stroganoff Song! (arbitrary subtitle discourse edition)

So, you may have noticed here that the subtitles in this clip (from Symphogear GX episode 3) are fairly different from what you're used to seeing when people post this video, and the phrasing in the subtitles is fairly different from what the associated memes often say

For those who don't know, Symphogear got itself released on blu-ray by Discotek, and with that came with a new translation authored by Noelle (@ulsairi on twitter ) who is notable for being the only trans lesbian anime translator I know of off the top of my head.

Her translation appears, in my opinion, really rather polished and very good, and I strongly appreciate the way it's written and how much character it adds to the dialogue by giving everyone distinct voices and adapting things into more natural English. It's also a fair bit gayer. I haven't encountered many people who've seen these subs, but I think most fans of the series would consider these a net positive change. There are some people who are mad about these subtitles, and they can die mad.

Anyway, let's talk about the different phrasing of the beef stroganoff song. I'm mostly going to compare to Crunchyroll's subtitles for reference since that seems to be what most others go off of. Here's a link to that version.

So right off the bat we can see here that while CR's translation appears to be a lot more, for lack of a better word, functional, Noelle's translation tries to apply more dialectal force "it's beef stroganoff/Yes! It's THAT beef stroganoff!" And generally communicate through the tone how excited the girls are to get started. Additionally you'll see throughout that the latter is a fair bit more lyrical, there's a lot more punctuation and verbal tics and filler phrases written into the dialogue to express that they are singing, which makes sense since Japanese tends to omit a lot of the sorts of prepositions that Noelle threw in here,

Like, Yumi (yes I went and looked up her name on the wiki) just says "beef stroganoffu" because it's obvious from context that it is beef stroganoff, she doesn't need to spell it out, at least, not in Japanese

(We know like maybe ten hiragana and 1 kanji do not trust us on Japanese this is all just basic shit we learned from online guides)

So this probably leads to a rushed translator from Crunchyroll (they are notoriously crunched for time) who's just trying to Get It Done probably not really bothering to throw in extra additional connecting letters to express the tone of the character, only doing so when it's required to make basic grammatical sense in the target language. So they likely didn't think to make the subtitles have flourishes like this that aren't explicitly in the original Japanese. Noelle meanwhile had the time to consider things like this and take such liberties in order to attempt to convey the same tone that was arguably implied by the Japanese, even if not explicitly put forth

And that's about all the things I should not repeat I guess, TL;DR, these subtitles are more fun to read because the translator had more time to think about the best way to make them more fun while still being accurate to the spirit of the original dialogue, who'd have thought!

(In case you're wondering, the Commie subtitles say kind of the same thing here, and y'know, it doesn't seem like a wrong translation, but also I really dislike this subtitle styling, orange on pink with that font and that drop shadow is just kinda bad. I appreciate the effort but like. Come on. Please fansubbers, please think about if the font and colors you chose actually work with the image you're putting them on)

Moving on!

horizontal and middle rhyme with each other so you can almost actually sing this, actually let me take a moment to try it right now- never mind, I can't sing. Hahaha. I don't actually think it lines up that well with the melody But I thought it did! Didn't I? That's significant, that this actually reads like plausible lyrics to a silly song someone made up instead of a literal translation of a Japanese song

Anyway, here comes the first major difference!

So in the Crunchyroll subtitles, Yumi says "it doesn't have to be beef" which in English (in my estimation) sounds a tad scatterbrained, like, "oh yeah sure beef but whatever really it doesn't actually matter," while Noelle's subtitles rather say "Got no beef? Don't you worry!" Which implies something different.

"It is recommended to use beef, but you may substitute something else if you are sorely lacking in beef" as opposed to "Oh the beef doesn't actually matter, zoinks lol!" CR's translation is kind of a bit funnier in how it sorta comes from nowhere without this qualification, which probably lead to this phrase's memeticness, but Noelle's translation seems more reasonable to me so yeah again, tada, yay for sensicalness.

Now here's another interesting change:

Again, the flat manner in which the CR subtitles say "finish with salt" with rendezvous only being included because that's literally what they said, is sort of absent any stronger emotional implication,

Noelle's translation meanwhile going with "don't forget them, they need it" imparts personhood upon the salt and pepper. The implication being that the girls are saying, "the salt and pepper are in love, please reunite them, they must be in gay love together." Or maybe you think the salt and pepper cannot be forgotten and must be reunited because they are Only Friends.

Whether you choose to believe that this is the salt and pepper getting married, or merely subtext, or an interpretation, or salt and pepper shipping bait, this is a deeply important tonal indicator because it reminds you that these girls are ultimately playing with their food!

"And there, now you're in for a treat!" I don't think I need to explain this one.

Now, here's an interesting one!

In the Crunchyroll subtitles, it just says the memetic "boys don't know this." With no context, no elaboration, no clarity, no qualifiers. Boys don't know. Did the boys magically get their brains wiped? Are the boys biologically incapable? Who knows. Nothing is said but that.

Noelle's subtitles, on the other hand, qualify this statement by saying "Boys aren't taught to cook, so they may not know" (And note again how, it says "kno-ow" to emphasize, once more, that they're singing, and also this lines up with the long "ooooo" sound they make at the end of this lyric, so cool)

There is now context! Boys aren't taught to cook! Anime and Japan's culture in general still pigeonholes people into gender roles! And an anime translator just wrote you a hidden translation note about it! You might be a boy, you might know how to cook, but certain boys in another part of the world aren't traditionally taught cooking, so they may not know

They may not, but they could!

Trust a trans person to express gender facts with subtle nuances like this in anime translations.

And with that lovely bit of good translation and good writing and good localization of a thing to make it make sense to people

Mew!

[underthevenadahl]

Okie! So! As someone who hasn't finished the game yet, I thought it would be cool to list off a few predictions here and see if they end up being right! I'll do 12, one for each month of the year. Sorta in the new year spirit yknow?

So, there are definitely gonna be spoilers in this post so the rest will be below the cut! I've managed to stay away from a good deal of big in game spoilers, so I shouldn't be too tainted in my guesses, lol.

Important note: I tend to have weird pattern recognition with media, so I'm usually either pretty accurate or pretty off base, no in the middle. I think I'm fairly accurate on most of these, but I guess I'll have to see! In no particular order, here we go!

1. Starting off obvious . The weird Wraith thing, gloom howler(??) in Davrin's quests, has something to do the Last Flight. I dunno what yet, I wouldn't be surprised if it's something caused by Isseya's bood magic?? But ofc they are gonna tie in Last flight somehow, it's the origin of our current gryphons!

2. This one I have no evidence to back up at all, but someone's gonna die by the end. I feel it in my bones? This game is light and fun in some ways but I feel an air of tragedy, and I would put money on it specifically being related to one of our companions. And probably it's gonna be one of those scenarios where WE have to decide too, uhg. Hate those

3. Something is up with varric. Like a BIG something? Ill be quite upset if im right. At first I thought that maybe he'd betray us or something, because this game also has an air of betrayal, but I've been really sitting on it yknow. I've noticed, he's never mentioned by the others, he very rarely shows up in cutscenes he should probably be in, and he's shown no getting better. Another thing that's bothering me, is when harding touched the dagger, there was an entire awakening, but the dagger went INSIDE of varric, literally interacted with his blood, and nothing? Nothing at all? It just isn't adding up. I'm starting to think that this might be that one trope, where we see a charcater the whole time but it turns out it was just in the mc's head?? If I'm right I'm gonna be SO upset. He just feels so weird.

4. There is probably gonna be a problem with Taash's mom? I've no evidence, but parents don't tend to last very well in this series? And Taash has a parent who while a little iffy, would probably still do almost anything to protect them I feel like. Within the series we tend to get this history of charcaters who love and would do anything for someone, sacrificing themselves. So. Yknow. I guess I'll see? As someone who relates to their relationship I want it to all turn out well but idk.

5. Rook is prolly gonna have a say in if Emmerich becomes a lich? I say this mostly because in the games, the Mc ALWAYS ends up making final choices for charcaters so, I already have a decent idea of some of the choices I'm gonna have to make based on the early quests

6. In the same air, rook will probably have a say in what goes on with Bellara's brother? That's what I think it's gonna be in her quest at least. Bellara and Emmerich are the only two I can rlly guess about right now, maybe Lucanis too? But the others I haven't fully figured out what their Big decisions are, albeit I have some ideas, just nothing concrete.

7. The inquistor will not fare well. I dunno what exactly but I get the idea that bioware is gonna try to ruin us with them. Maybe they die in the end? Or maybe they just can't protect thedas like they are trying. I have a Lavellan who romanced solas, and I just know that's gotta end up tragic right? No way are they gonna give us a good happy endinggg.

8. This one's purely optimistic: the Grey Wardens will be better. I want a world where they don't hide as much. So I'm gonna say, that they get their act together and stop some of the secrets.

9. To counteract the previous one: the Grey Wardens are over. Forever. From what I can tell the current stuff in game is the blight to end all blights. And maybe people will just decide they don't need the Grey Wardens any more ):

10. Neve and lucanis are gonna be a thing? Hasn't happened yet in my game, but MAN do they have banter. It's gotta be like Bull and Dorian ya? They r totally a thing. Low key ship others more, butttt Neve and Lucanis is still pretty cute, they could match very well.

11. Ghilan'nain is probably gonna be secondary to Elgar'nan when It comes to defeating them? As in she will probably die first, and he will be the finale. I say this because he seems like the type to toss her to the side if it'll get him what he wants. But what I want to happen, is her betraying him and going to the "good" side. Lol. I just like her so much, i hope we get to see a softer side to her, even if we have to end up killing her or something.

12. The titans, or more likely the dwarves, will gain a new connection? I wanna say they will reconnect the titans to the fade in some way, but it just seems too complicated for them to go for in the game I think. And I believe most of the titans are dead, if not all of them? So I dunno. But it would be suuuuper cool to see the dwarves regain a connection to something yknow, to see more of them become like harding. And I think it would be healing for them.

[oodlyenough]

apollo justice: ace attorney thoughts

over the weekend I finished playing AA4 so I wanted to try to put my thoughts in order. much to think about etc

spoilers for the whole game obv, but i haven't played AA5 or AA6 yet so any mention of those are speculation lol

I had heard some pretty mixed reactions to AA4 and I had a lot of reservations going in. It's also probably the AA game I've played that I've been the most spoiled for, which is a shame but probably an unavoidable consequence of waiting for the port while engaging with the fandom. I don't usually like being spoiled but I think knowing the broad strokes of what to expect actually helped here. I can imagine an AU where I blitzed through the first trilogy and onto 4 with no idea of what was coming and being... very upset and disappointed by the direction it took. Having several months to brace for things like Phoenix's disbarment, the 7 year gap, Trucy, etc definitely softened those blows and made me more amenable to them than I would've been otherwise.

Cases

For the most part I thought the puzzle solving was good and the pacing was solid. The puzzles were mostly challenging enough to be satisfying to solve but not so challenging as to be infuriating, and I don't think I needed a walkthrough at all. 4-1 is one of the best tutorial cases in the franchise so far (though I'd give the edge to 3-1) and 4-4 was a really cool finale. The middle two cases tbh I also found fairly charming, and there's usually a least one case in the middle that seems to drag forever, so that was a pleasant surprise. I played Investigations 1 right before this, and I thought both the puzzles and pacing in that game were frankly horrible, so AA4 won a lot of points just with that.

I did think Turnabout Corner and Serenade would be more relevant in the grand scheme of things. The half-spoilers I knew had me expecting a much bigger web of conspriacy than we ended up with -- I expected it to be more than coincidence that Phoenix got hit by a car, more than coincidence that the Borginian egg coccoons are related to poison etc ... like... I fully assumed this was going to tie into the atroquinine plot. But I guess not ... ? Lol

Characters

The new main cast are all very likable, despite my initial reluctance to have a new main cast to begin with. Klavier was an interesting change of pace as prosecutor, in that he wasn't particularly antagonistic outside of the court, nor was he particularly preoccupied with winning, but he was still fun and challenging enough to face off against. Trucy was fun and delightfully bonkers as all assistants should be. Apollo's longsuffering exasperation was hilarious. Ema is the BEST I loved having her as the detective I wish she was there all the time.

I loved Beanix, for the most part. I can see why he rubs some people the wrong way, and tbh I'm glad his last canon outing isn't ... this. But I didn't find him wildly out of character, or at least, when he was feeling "out of character" vs the trilogy it made sense given the intervening events. I also thought it was fun to see him from the outside and see what a galaxybrain 5d chess master he is. I do wish we'd gotten to see more genuine moments of him with Trucy.

Kristoph was fun as a villain, though I have to say fandom led me to believe he was much more of a mastermind puppeteer than he seemed to be in reality. I was expecting a whole decade worth of conspiracies! Instead he fucked up once and struggled to fix it for seven years, lol. I also found the Kristoph/Phoenix relationship a) very fascinating, b) not really what I'd been led to believe by fandom (shocker). I like the canon more though -- I like that instead of being a retread of the Dollie betrayal-from-someone-you-love it was two guys who hate each other being forced to play nice as part of their own schemes.

Criticism

I think it's fairly obvious AA4 was meant to be a soft reboot of the series, to pivot away from the trilogy cast and set up our new heroes in Apollo, Trucy, and I guess Klavier. I think this is probably the entire explanation behind Maya and Edgeworth (and others but lbr those are the big two)'s conspicuous absence... but that doesn't make their absence any less conspicuous. I can squint and forgive neither of them being there when Phoenix is accused of murder, even though I find that insane. I can squint around Maya maybe being off in Kurain during the Enigmar trial, even though I think they could've used a line of dialogue to explain it. But then we started playing past-Phoenix for huge portions of investigation and that started to fall apart for me. Sure, maybe he's pushing his friends away because he's depressed, or maybe he wants to keep Maya out of things because he thinks it's dangerous, or whatever -- you could at least throw in a line or two saying as much. Not mentioning them at all and setting AA4 so closely after AA3, where Phoenix fell through a bridge to save Maya and Edgeworth chartered a private jet, just feels ridiculous.

I also think, at the end of the day, the story here was focused on and pivoting around Phoenix. The core question of the game is "what the hell happened to/is up with Phoenix Wright?" I love Phoenix, so that alone isn't a negative -- except that I think it meant Apollo, Klavier and even Trucy felt underwritten. Trucy and Klavier have such personal stakes in the unfolding events with the Gramaryes and Kristoph, but we only spend a little time and hints on how that might influence Trucy, who mostly falls into the AA weird girl pattern of brushing off major trauma instantly. (Maya got this a lot too in the original trilogy.)

Klavier ... I like Klavier, but they did not do much with him. How did he feel about Kristoph going to jail? He doesn't seem to hold it against Apollo, which is uh, noble, but perhaps not believable. He says he values honesty and truth but do we know why?

Apollo, likable as he was, felt like a passenger in his "own" game, rather than a major character. He doesn't even solve much of the stuff happening in the big overarching mystery -- he is Phoenix's avatar in court, presenting evidence and clues Phoenix left for him. Unlike Trucy and Klavier, who I am pretty sure take a back seat from now on, I guess Apollo still has two more games to try and flesh himself out ... lol but I also know fan reception of those two is not great, so my expectations there are minimal.

Overall

A really solid game that I enjoyed playing, though I can see why it's controversial and not some people's favourite, if they really loved the trilogy. I think it's debatable whether this was the best/only way to continue the series after AA3. And I am excited to read and write a billion 7 year gap fics now.

[aliteral-ghost]

This is the piece I did for @hermitzine! It was so much fun to be a part of this project and get to work with everyone! The theme of this zine was music and I hope that's obvious in this piece :)

~~~~~~~~~~~

The sound of the record skipping is Joe’s alarm clock this morning, and it’s only because it skips multiple times that he actually gets up. Darn, he slept in again, and now he has to stay up late again so he can finish the parts of the machine that he needs to get done, and it’ll just end with him sleeping in again. At least he has–oh. The record that has been playing all night (and also for the past few weeks, if he’s honest) has a massive groove in it, tearing through all of the ridges and splintering the vinyl.

“Aw, man,” Joe mutters, staring at the destroyed disk in his hands. “That’s my last one of those.” To be fair, he probably should have expected something like this to happen after using the record player while placing hundreds of blocks of sand, but it’s still sad. To be fair, this has happened to the last five disks he overplayed, but Joe is nothing if not persistent. 

The next day he and Cleo are halfway through their weekly crafting session when they hum. “No music today?” Joe waves a hand.

“Some days the best music is the sound of nature around you.” He sets down a pencil and listens to said sound of nature, which is currently someone very violently chopping down trees. “You know, be in the moment, and all that.” He’s never lived in the moment once in his life and they both know it, but then again neither has Cleo.

“Sure.” Cleo pauses for just a minute. “Not this music, though. Ugh, who is…” They both glance over across the river, where Keralis is hard at work collecting wood. He pauses briefly to wave once he’s noticed them looking, smiling widely. They both wave back and Keralis continues, moving on to the next tree.

“Do you ever think about how our lives have a soundtrack?” Joe says after a minute, mindlessly coloring the sheets of paper he brought, tracing out the blueprint for a part of the pinball machine. Cleo looks over from where she’s drawing in her own notebook. 

“No?” They say, voice lilting up like a question. “I don’t? Why, do you?” She wrinkles her eyebrows, more focused on the calligraphy than really focusing on the conversation. It’s how they roll, most weeks. Joe talks and Cleo nods along.

“Well, sure! I like to think about the song that might be playing while things are happening. For a while, it was otherside, but…” Cleo glances over again, this time more interested. 

“You broke all of your disks, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. I must have played them in the sand too much or something. Whomp, whomp.” He follows the statement up with a laugh, sort of high-pitched and frantic. “D’you think we all have different soundtracks then, if we do?”

“Oh, for sure,” Cleo says, in a voice that still sounds like they’re just humoring him. “Like Doc? His soundtrack is all scary, like heavy metal, right? There’s no way he and Scar have the same backing tracks.” They pause for just a second. “No, I lied. Doc’s isn’t heavy metal, he’s too much of a softie. Pearl’s is. She’s bloody hardcore.”

That’s an accurate assumption, Joe guesses. He hasn’t been privy to much Pearl has done this season, but he’s fairly certain she just built an entire Ender dragon out of pilfered dragon eggs. If there’s someone able to intimidate Cleo, it’s her.

“So what’s yours, then?” Cleo asks, setting her pen down and leaning on her hands. “Whatever song you’re obsessed with now over and over?”

“I don’t have much time for anything else.” Joe laughs again. “Besides, sometimes the best soundtrack is the same song, over and over, just played at different tempos depending on mood.”

This earns him a patented Cleo lookTM as she turns back to her journal, picking up a small knife. They don’t talk for a while after that, instead listening to the leaves rustle, water flow, and trees topple. 

“Here,” they say eventually, after the wood-collecting has gotten to be too much, and pass Joe a record. “Put this on, I know you’re aching to.” He gasps, energy he hasn’t felt in a while jolting through him, and pulls out his jukebox. 

“Thanks, Cleo!”

The aforementioned record is a simple piano tune, the melody and harmony weaving in and out of each other’s path, spinning down the river and floating high into the air. It fills the server with its music, and although Joe knows that the little song is barely reaching further than Keralis he’d like to think that Tango, in the depths of Decked Out 2, and False, high up on a snowy peak, and Grian and Doc, fighting their battles over the perimeter, can hear it. 

It’s a song that, although the notion is cliche, feels like home. It has managed to encapsulate the feeling that persists, from all ten years of Hermitcraft, of family and friends and feeling like belonging.

[the-one-who-isnt-an-anon]

tw mentioning the suicide-baiting, not in depth or anything, just a little rambly about our relationship as anons to the text

I feel like it should be obvious but at the same time, we're the crickets on Hetch's shoulder so much, I weirdly feel the need to like, officially disavow that :P Like we're holding him accountable for everything else. Obviously it's good that we comforted him but at the same time, I feel bad we didn't stick a "hey don't do that, that was wrong" in there somehow. But maybe that's just me trying to defend against a bad-faith read of our intentions lol.

Even if, if this weren't a comic and was just a TV show or something, I guess I wouldn't be noticing it or questioning it as much. Since the "vote die on yourselves" is about as real of a threat as telling someone to spontaneously combust, and he's also responding to someone who had just expressed murderous intent in a way that WAS a more real threat, sort of.

Also as a side note, I hope 🎱 doesn't feel like any of us blame them. Because as an in-universe thing, that's a terrible thing to say to someone etc. But if we're going by those rules, it's also pretty bad of us to keep calling Hetch "babygirl" against his wishes, since that's yknow, a misgendering and fairly intimate pet name, so that would be straight up sexual harassment irl. And I'm definitely not suggesting we take everything as if it's happening to a real person, because everyone including the blog runner is having fun about it. :P

Since so many of us are babygirlifying Hetch, we really do need some conflict and dissenting opinions to spice things up and also hold Hetch accountable for.

It's not teshuvah/repentance until you're in the exact same situation and make a different and better choice. So I guess we'll be able to tell if this growing-as-a-person thing sticks if in a few weeks (in irl time and probably much longer for Hetch) (ASSUMING HETCH AND THE GANG ARE STILL ALIVE ), Hetch gets a similarly goading ask and is able to respond in a better way.

Anyway, thanks 🎱 for going against the crowd here. If it weren't for a couple mean messages here and there, we might wind up just thinking Hetch's problems all magically vanished and he's a great person now, which would have made him feel flatter... and would have felt really disappointing when he inevitably gives into old habits in a less private situation in the future. :P

[everydayyoulovemeless]

FNV Companions (+Christine and Benny) With A Shy!Courier

➼ Word Count » 0.6k ➼ Warnings » None ➼ Genre » Platonic/Romantic

Boone doesn't mind it, as long as you can hold you're own he'll be content. He doesn't mind protecting you, he just doesn't want to end up being a constant bodyguard for you, so if that's what you're looking for, he's not the guy. He can be incredibly blunt or harsh in his statements whether that flusters you or not, so be aware. Despite the obvious difference, the two of you actually have much more in common than you might think and can tell what the other is saying through simple actions or facial expressions. You both can work well together if you can overcome a few hiccups along the way and find ways to use each other's skills to benefit you both better.

Arcade doesn't mind that you're shy, as long as you know what you're doing. He's fairly quiet himself and doesn't mind talking for you if you end up getting too flustered or overwhelmed. He's very soft with you, you remind him of some of the other Follower's he's seen throughout his time, and tries his best to work around you're nervousness.

Raul also doesn't care. He likes to tease you and get you all flustered, mostly because he thinks it's crazy that you're willingly going on this revenge journey and can't take light flirting, but otherwise, he's nice about it. He'll talk to you and you can just listen and he'll be content with it.

Lily is so gentle with you. She talks quieter and finds herself being way more protective over you than she normally is of people. She honestly just wants you to feel safe and comfortable around her and will do whatever is necessary to accomplish that for you.

Cass loves to say the most outrageously crude things just to get you all embarrassed. She thinks you're the cutest thing. She's constantly trying to force you out of your comfort zone, even if it feels a bit much at times.

Veronica’s quick to defend you in any given situation. She doesn’t mind your more closed-off nature and has so much fun just rambling about anything to you. She won't force you to do anything you don't want to but finds it adorable if you get flustered when you wear dresses.

Rex has a habit of growling at people who seem to make you nervous, but other than that, he won't do much.

ED-E starts to nudge you forward when he notices you doubting or second-guessing yourself. It's his way of trying to boost your confidence, even if he just ends up pushing you over.

Christine doesn't really have an opinion. As long as it doesn't get in the way of her goal, why should she care? Although, when she loses her voice she might be slightly annoyed if you can't help translate her gestures and communicate for her.

Benny thinks it's adorable that you're this shy and still decided to come all the way out here to kill him. He finds it really hard to take you seriously when all you do is stutter and avert your eyes. He'll laugh you off and shoo you away. A lot of his actions will just end up coming off as domineering but it’s only cause he doesn’t believe you’ve ever hurt a fly in your life. You're not a threat to him, so why should he treat you as one?

[doctor-badadvice]

Yayyy comes back at you but with tmnt ask game!

19.) Who is your favorite ally?

23.) What is one of your favorite TMNT fics?

28.) What is one thing you would like to see explored more in TMNT art/fics?

-- Trauma (hi :D)

I'm still doing this thing

19.) Who is your favorite ally?

My favorite ally ever is Irma

Since we're talking allies, I'm going to mention both '87 and '03 which are also the versions I like and know best.

'87 is a challenge because it's ten seasons and I can only rewatch two seasons at the time but even if it's been a couple decades, I'm still fond of Usagi. Good samurai boy overall and while he's in '03 too, I don't have much to say about him there especially when '03 April exists. The choice is a bit too obvious but she's smart, she can fight, she's a redhead and she very much cares about the turtles no matter how many times her home is destroyed without being like, five years old like in recent versions.

A couple of honorable mentions go to Sydney/Quarry & friends, as well as Serling for being always this close to making turtle soup for dinner.

23.) What is one of your favorite TMNT fics?

>:) Let me just open AO3 real quick

I'll be honest, I don't read fanfiction often. My account is still fairly new and I got it just because it clicked that I can use it to keep up with stuff.

Anyways, in no specific order (and with links in case someone somehow missed any of these). It says one but I'm going to give a shoutout to all my favorite works:

Taking Pawns: Excellent all around, I think I read this one like five times. The first chapter had me running in circles for a bit because heck yes and it probably contributed to changing my opinion of FF and even do a proper rewatch of the season.

The Locket from Y’Lyntias: I don't even like mermaids and yet here I am waiting for the next chapter. I likes both ideas for the mernerds but I guess the fun is how messed up it's gonna get regardless.

The Good Way: Still fairly new, yet I think about this one a lot. Few things irk me more than time skips so this one will have me go 👀 throughout the chapters.

28.) What is one thing you would like to see explored more in TMNT art/fics?

I'm probably the last person who should be saying anything in this regard but— I guess I'd like more action? The little every day moments and the introspective stuff are nice but I'm a simple person, I like myself a cool fight. A well written fight scene is incredibly fun and it saves you from writing all that pesky dialogue.

[iiota]

my unasked for hades 2 overview for no one that asked

first off im gonna say this game is so much fun and wildly different than the first game which doesnt make it feel as repetitive as i thought. a lot of hades 2 focuses on longer range attacks which definitely will take a while to get used to as someone who replayed hades 1 a bit before playing thinking itd be similar playstylewise

the main new introduced gimmick is charged attacks and a change cast that is a circle placed on the ground over a launcher which i LOVE now but the weapon charge attacks are really hit or miss for me. im also a tad disappointed with the weapons i like the staff and the skull but the axe and twin flames arree kinda difficult to use with how i play. the sickle im neutral on and i think theres one more i dont have unlocked

the environments are gorgeous. end tweet the only time i remember im playing an early access game is coming across placeholder assets.

a bit of the combat feels like itll get rebalanced later but its not the Worst. its not really buggy besides like 3 really minor things most ppl wont notice (my timer turning off when i reopened the game, sometimes damage numbers dont show when i hit hecate, not being able to change my monitor in settings)

i do not like how you cannot trade ur tools once you get into a run..i forget what i have sometimes..the tarot card upgrades are a cool concept and fit the witchy theme

i feel..less attached to a lot of the characters than the first one which is funny bc i didnt really care too much about them in the first bc the story writing in 1 is awful but character interactions were fun sometimes. melinoe's design is. not Bad but its not really great it feels a bit too disconnected from..like everything when it feels like shes supposed to be a mix of hades but with evidence of being raised by hecate but the orange and blonde hair............girl i do not like it are they allergic to giving a woman dark hair (minus like.. nemesis) (in trying to make melinoe the opposite of zagreus they kinda just made her into a very bland Woman she should have been a slob too idk shes kinda just like..perfect)

I DO like nemesis more than i thought. much more fun to have some woman come antagonize you other than just helping. but dora is the best character so far..my weed smoking shade roommate. i feel like my feelings on the designs are obvious but i will give a pass to chaos because i do think its a bit of a slay but i cant help but laugh at the bishounenification

scylla's songs are way better than all the vocal tracks from hades 1 like no contest in the blood sucked

the story is fairly non existent atm mostly bc i havent beaten a run yet..its..fine i guess. better than 1

the nude headshots from the bath cutscenes are so scary they need to back the fuck up

[sleepyowlwrites]

Im...sorry it's not original, but now that you brought all these questions up (https://www.tumblr.com/sleepyowlwrites/752120356487168000/you-lot-should-be-quizzing-me-on-my-stories-and?source=share)

Can you please answer them?

I wanted to ask you to share fun(or sad, or funny etc) facts about your stories but didn't wanna pressure you TT

Have a wonderful day regardless!! ♥️♥️♥️

The post with a working link

And the answers to the questions asked:

1. R stands for Roland. He doesn't like his name, so he started going by R, which is like, so dumb, my guy, but R is dumb, so it fits. Eventually it just sounds like his name, which, to him it is.

2. R and Mark are fighting because *inhales deeply* R has a mortifying ordeal of being known complex while simultaneously having need to be seen and acknowledged complex, and Mark got invited to the friend group by Daniel but then proceeded to kinda ignore R's existence, which is not okay! And he got all dramatic about it, and then Mark, who lowkey has a self-destructive thing going on due to his healing superpower (oh yeah he has that) so he makes it physical and R is lowkey self-destructive due to his middle child pseudo-parent arrogance thing he's got going on and he also makes it physical and then the friend group is like please stop, this is so stupid, and then they stop being physical about it for their friends but they're still being stupid and being verbally abrasive to each other until gradually they can't find any reasons to keep going with that and then they stop fighting. And then it's awkward! Yay.

3. Rune's ex-fianceè was abusive and controlling and he orchestrated her parents' deaths! Jail, jail for Max for ten thousand years or maybe just like, fall off a bridge or something. ☠️@$%!💀%!#☠️?&!#@💀#!?@ (Asterix cursing, lol)

4. The phantom thieves are after a map that leads to a famous treasure, they hope, and stealing the bride will get them closer to securing it. I invented the idea before I knew anything about one piece but now that I know things I realize the vibes are... well they're similar to the live action show, anyway.

5. Rhea does not know who her father truly is, which is an important plot point but also I feel fairly obvious from certain angles. This is the only thing in this list that I don't want to tell you. I don't even have major ambitions about summon story. I just want to keep this spoiler tucked away until I make myself write the actual plot.

And there you go, here are the answers. I guess I do remember some stuff about my stories.

@akindofmagictoo

[landofzero-archive]

Absolute - The Pure Land 3

(Location: Gatekeeper’s Office)

Ibara: Indeed. I believe that His Excellency is alive.

That person is so obedient that there is no way he would die without my express permission, and I have no such script prepared for him.

However. The reason why His Excellency disappeared at the same time as Shaka-shi is currently unknown, so we should consider all possibilities.

And compared to Shaka-shi, His Excellency is not well known by the locals. He’s no different than the average person out there.

If His Excellency were to be abducted at the same time as Shaka-shi, then it would be easy to treat him as if he were of little importance.

If the abductors are on the run, then it’s obvious that someone of His Excellency’s tall stature would be in their way.

We have to find His Excellency before he’s crudely “disposed” of by that person.

Gatekeeper: Abductor? Is there someone yer have in mind?

Ibara: It’s just a guess. It’s unlikely that his Excellency disappeared of his own volition, so it’s reasonable to assume that he’s been abducted by someone.

Uncle, I am considering the possibility that Shaka-shi has kidnapped His Excellency.

Gatekeeper: Oh? So the theory is that that asshole Shaka, who we’ve thought was abducted with him, was actually the culprit. How fun, it feels like I’m reading a mystery novel. 

Ibara: You probably haven’t read any, since you’re fairly busy, Uncle.

In any case, Shaka-shi can be said to be the most important person to Priest, or rather, to the whole WNW district. Naturally, the more important you are, the “more you can do.”

Shaka-shi made full use of his authority and abducted His Excellency from the hotel where the security was supposed to be strict. And even now, he’s keeping him confined somewhere��

So, where are they? What’s the purpose of this?

That’s what I’m thinking about right now.

Gatekeeper: …… Yesterday, we searched every possible place above ground. So all that’s left is the inside of buildings… and underground.

Ibara: Underground?

Gatekeeper: There are countless underground tunnels in the area. It’s a hotbed for the homeless, and a convenient loophole for us to work in.

It’s a place where those in the shadows live. But of course, as an outsider, I can’t keep everything under surveillance.

If we cause problems underground, where there’s no laws or ethics, you’ll end up caught in a “landslide” and the people with a claim over the area will rip you to pieces and eat yer for dinner. Which is why I hadn’t mentioned it yesterday—

If they were found in a normal place aboveground then everything would be fine.

However, this isn’t the kind of situation where I can say that. Absolute will begin soon, and if we don’t catch that asshole and drag him onto the stage before then, there will be an uproar.

Absolute and the gambling den will break down, and, if we aren’t careful, we’ll lose a major source of income forever.

Ibara: That hardly compares to our current issue. And it would even serve you right, I think. However, I don’t really want to keep having my plans messed up like this.

Organize as many people as you can and send out a search party for His Excellency. Knock on every door you see, and destroy everything underground—

We will find His Excellency, who’s most likely imprisoned somewhere there.

Gatekeeper: Heard. Good grief, it’s not even the gold rush era but we’re getting muddy and crawling into holes. (1)

—

Ibara: ……? What is it, Uncle?

Gatekeeper: Shit. Just now, I realized something bad.

I felt so sorry for you, that I sent my best men to look for Shaka and Nagisa-sama. I didn’t even have time to sleep and I’ve mobilized all my subordinates.

In other words…… You understand, don’t you, boy?

Ibara: …… We’re stretched thin here without enough security forces!

Gatekeeper: Ahh, now would be the perfect time to attack me!

Get yer head down, boy! I heard the sound of the hammer, they’re going to shoot at us!

Ibara: Ahh seriously, this is why I hate gun politics! I keep bees in my office, but I don’t want it to turn into a beehive, got it!?

TL Notes:

Refers to the California gold rush, which lasted from 1848 to 1855. When gold was found in the California mountains, approximately 300,000 people moved to California to try and find gold as well. Not just a historical reference, but could also refer to how they’re searching for Nagisa and Shaka (gold) with very little chance of success.

Previous | Directory | Next

[accirax]

initial thoughts on DCAS episode 9

woah, how strong is Tess/how weak is Aiden? i guess it's probably that Tess is jacked. non-digital art supplies are heavy.

he truly is the worst dad ever. no wonder Fiore constantly faceplanting never raised any alarm bells for him. it does make him being so worried about Fiore being attacked by the scorpion/alone in the dark in S1 all the sweeter, though :) (or all the more fucked up, from his son's perspective.)

WHERE THE FUCK DID YUL GET KAI'S SHIRT FROM SHKHSLKJASLDJASLD. i guess the last time we saw Kai he was shirtless so i guess his shirt must have wound up somewhere???

this makes sense, kind of. although, i maintain that Grett's actual gameplay in S1 was ATROCIOUS. anyways i love supportive Riya!!! just like Alec and Riya, this is a really fun pairing that i hope they expand upon more.

this was just by unabashedly being himself, i imagine? i can't picture Yul supporting Grett being herself, no matter what her true self is. he's too appearance-discriminatory for that.

thank god it's not another split personality plotline; i've had enough of those from other series.

top 10 photos taken seconds before disaster

WHEN WILL YOU LEARN? WHEN WILL YOU LEARN THAT YOUR ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES?!?!?! (/ref)

something about Aiden saying "sexy" really caught me off guard. anyways, woahhhhh whaaaaat oh my godddddd i can't believe Tom's boyfriend was fake!

yeah... because cops never lie 🤨

this really is therapy: the episode, huh? it's fine, i like the character work. also, Trevor's feelings reveal! this was pretty obvious, especially once they showed it in the trailer, so i'm not at all surprised. what i am surprised about is that we didn't see any of Derek and Kristal getting a drink or playing pool this episode. did it just happen off screen, or was it canceled/postponed? i'm sure Kristal's reaction will have some kind of effect on how Derek takes the news whenever Trevor decides to tell him.

Trevor is an honorary member of the Magenta team :) also, i would've thought slip-n-slide was a copyrighted brand name. then again, i have no idea what they'd call it otherwise.

we see later that other people do miss their shots fairly frequently. thus, this is proof that Grett is 100% baller.

mad at her (/j) for this one because my first thought when Tess and Ally wound up on top of each other was "this, too, is yuri."

*adds one tally to the "Yul lines that made me laugh out loud" counter*

maybe they are soulmates

HKSDLKJDLFJSDF GET HIS ASS

THE GIRLIES ARE WORKING TOGETHER AGAIN!!! and for real this time!

mildly disappointing-- with the episode playing out this way, i was kinda hoping that it would have been Aiden instead of Tess. however, for as much as you can argue that Aiden is just an obstacle in the Jake/Tom plot, Tess was pretty much only acting as a counselor in the Gabby/Ellie plot. and, while you could argue that Tess still had more potential to be explored in her relationship with Ally, Aiden still has more potential to be explored in his relationship with Riya. the biggest shame, in my opinion, is that they're favoring Aiden and Riya, who placed 3rd and 2nd, over Tess and Ally, who placed 9th and 6th. i should probably save more of these thoughts for my next power ranking instead, but, these ARE my initial thoughts on the elimination.

and she doesn't even get her gf to see her out? what is this cruel world?! (/j)

this is a really great expression. Tom and Aiden, watch your backs >:)

overall, a really fun episode! we got some nice character check-ins at the beginning, followed by some enthralling strategy at the end. watching Gabby fully and openly devolve into villainhood is a treat. super excited to see where we go next! if you count Gabby in with the villains, we've got 5 villains versus 5 non-villains... will a merge pit the two sides against each other, or will we wait until there are 9 players left to create an even half? until next time!

[blade-that-was-broken]

You know DJ Suki from Trolls, right?

Do you think she will ever be back?

Honestly I’m not sure if she will ever be back as I heard that her voice actor is busy in real life or something.

What do you think what happened to her? I know in TrollsTopia, it showed where she went in the final but as we know it’s not canon to movies and she wasn’t seen in TWT. (Never liked Legsly, I’m surprised I never realized that until now that DJ Suki wasn’t in TWT-)

I’m not sure if she will be in next movie but I’m kind of hope The Snack Pack will get more attention like in Trolls, unlike TWT and TBT.

Yes of course they were awesome in TWT, like Cooper having the important role and have a backstory to his family, Yay! :D

I’m fine with Biggie except how he did was great, as we saw in the end of TWT and how he said that the good queen should be listening, he helped in good way even if I don’t like him.

But TBT… what happened? Where they are?! If Tiny have big role in then should Guy be? He’s Guy’s son after all! Poor Guy…. :(

I hope some missing members are back in too, I like Smidge, she’s the great character.

I actually kind of liked DJ Suki. I'm not sure if she will be back. I guess it depends on a lot of things, even if there ends up being another movie. Not that she had a ton of screen time in the movie anyways; it was mostly the show which I don't think is technically canon?

Cooper's backstory kind of came out of nowhere but it also kind of makes sense cause he was so different. When it comes to that, I kind of understand Poppy's point. Like, despite Cooper being so different, no one ever treated him like he was an outsider and his differences are fairly obvious.

Biggie kind of drives me nuts sometimes lol but it might be his voice. also, controversial opinion, Mr. Dinkles wigs me out.

TBT was very Branch- centric. Tiny was mostly there because kids love him and he's got that extra comedic effect. I understand why the snack pack isn't really involved. That would be WAY too big of a cast for kids to understand and handle - and the cast was already big to begin with for that movie. We have to remember, in the end, no matter what age people are watching - these movies primary audience is children. Sure, it's got some adult humor - it's kind of like shrek. Kids can watch and have fun but the parents also watching can be amused at the same time.

Anyway, I got a little off topic.

If they do another movie, I'm kind of hoping it might be a bit more Poppy-centric? As we all know I LOVE Branch and JD and the rest of the bros but I'd love to see a bit more Poppy-centric stuff too. Especially now that she has a sister by her side. Possibly.

I think we think of the Snack Pack as this huge thing because of the TV show mostly. In the end, the movies are very easily about Poppy and Branch. It's the characters the audience focus on and since it's mostly just them, it can be easier to digest for kids. The rotating cast of new characters invites new jokes, new toys and new interests for the kids who don't always remember some of the side characters of other movies.

This is something that I generally like to keep in mind, that some of the movies we love and watch are made for children a lot younger than us. So I take everything with a grain of salt and that in mind and it definitely helps my enjoyment. I don't expect questions to be answered or deep themes to be addressed. That's something I - and others - can do through fanfiction.

So yeah... my two cents lol

[meretrifles]

Public Library of Ruina - Yesod

I still dither a little about Yesod. He's either Information Technology, Information Services, or both. Both feels a little self-indulgent, but it's kind of what I want.

Information Technology is basically regular IT-- have you tried turning it off and back on again. The library doesn't add a huge amount to that-- more databases, a website, shitty civic budget, unpredictable public users. You're gonna replace a lot of keyboards. (You should probably take the ones where people rearranged the keys into swear words out of service. Or at least fix them first.)

Information Services is, at this point, extroverted IT. Back in the day, this was the department that specialized in "reference" questions-- the weird stuff. People would ask librarians for all sorts of weird facts in the pre-google days. It does still happen, but less and less every year as search engines become ubiquitous and the people who remember that was a thing slowly die off. Still, reference will never completely die. People are always going to come to libraries with weird questions; that's kind of the point.

So why am I calling it extroverted IT? Because that's the primary function. There's the fairly obvious part-- people sometimes need help searching the catalogue or reading e-books. But here's the less obvious part. Myrtle has a new laptop, but she's not sure how to do anything with it and her kids all live hours away. Who's she going to call? Who can help people learn how to use technology? Without many other options, the answer frequently is-- the library.

Think everyone has a cell phone? Ask a public librarian. We know there are still plenty of people without a phone or with a secondhand POS with no sim card. Curious what happens if someone can't remember their gmail password? If you're prepared to deal with a post-traumatic response, ask a public librarian. Have you ever tried to help someone with no available cell phone recover their google account? It would probably save a lot of time if we could just tell them at the start they're SOL. But maybe they can remember the password, and technically there's a reset function that might work in a few days if you're approved.... Fun times when you're dealing with an upset person who can barely type on a good day and has just lost a ton of personally valuable and literally valuable information, probably forever. Think 2-factor authentication is great? It sure is, if you have a second factor. We have a list of free email sites that don't require you to already have an email address or a cell phone. It's hella short. And we took one off cause it was too Russian. Protonmail is a good bet if you can remember passwords. Which is a significant if. Some people just can't. Which is OK if you can save them on your computer. Oh, you don't have one and you have to use public devices all the time? Well, write it down and hope it doesn't get stolen and that you can remember which one is which. (Have you already guessed that sometimes people ask librarians to remember their passwords for them?)

In short, the library also serves as a public IT department, for services and devices it has zero control over.

Whether he's internal or public IT support, Yesod is also going to snap. Though, he will also have access to an abnormality that can affect people outside the library, which is a nontrivial perk. He will use it exclusively on vendors. I am hoping some of his bullets bend space and time to successfully hit whatever asshats decided it was OK to build the entire backbone of library ebook lending on Adobe Fucking Digital Editions, an old ass program with literally zero support. It would seem impossible for them to still be shackled to it in the City, but it also seems impossible that we're still shackled to it now, so I'm pretty sure the ultimate capitalist dystopia couldn't let it die.

Hmm? My specialty? I'm a reference librarian. Why do you ask?