#i actually don't know if it's the 21st or 22nd

[socialiseisnotinmyname]

Happy 2 years Anniversary to episode: EMOTION🦚🩸🌕🎶🕺

(By Gloob's air date!!! when they LEAKED the episode themself)

[yapping alert]

Really sorry for not posting for a while but I knew I had to get my sh#t done when I remember the release date- or when the episode got leaked? whatever cus I have it in my notes since like the start of the year

When the bird boy showed up and start flaunting around Paris (as he should) with his song and dance and I got encased more with his character by his emotions hahagetit he showed. It so RAW and He's so free and Can set Adrien free and it goes all out in this big "Everything I did, I did for you" like Yes that's what happens when a child in need doesn't get the needs and-

ok I need to stop before I yap about how I think Felix will let his emotions get to him and lashed out at first to regret it terribly and he thinks that he fucked up everything and there's is no redeeming this and guilt just piles up on him like-ouUuuhHh..just need to get that out

Oh what are we talking about? OH YEA so I know I had to get that done and I did and I hope guys liked it as much as I had fun drawing it(#> □ <#)

(Also half-way through rendering Fe's face I realised it looks like I put make-up on him and I'm like "What if I actually put a full face of make up on him" and I did... lmk if you see it *wink* *wink*)

[chirpsythismorning]

WSQK Update

The Twitter account for WSQK Radio has reached 100(ish) songs! And while it's currently unknown whether or not this account is in any shape or form associated with Stranger Things, I still want to give a breakdown about it as well as some reasons why this account intrigues me so much, because there are actually quite a few.

For some context about when and how this started, it might be helpful to know that the first (un)official leak regarding the existence of the WSQK filming location occurred on January 18th, the day prior to WSQK making their first post.

That same Friday when WSQK made their first post, fans also got official 'Week 2' BTS from Ross, which more openly acknowledged the existence of the radio station location in comparison to his previous posts for s5.

What then followed was a rocky start in terms of this Twitter account’s approach at making posts. Initially, they only made posts consisting of lyrics, followed by another post with a short clip of the song those previous lyrics came from.

After less than a week of the account being sporadically active, they became very consistent and continued their roll-out of lyrics + video, and then adding in + dialogue, every single day. There are a few outliers, with them not making a post on March 14th and March 20th, but the first time they had a big break in between posts was from March 22nd-March 24th, notably with their March 21st's post being related to Will's birthday:

After the March 21st post, and with their return on the 25th, they officially switched it up from posting every day, to every other day, and more recently with a consistency of every 2-3ish days.

But still, over 5 months later (roughly 156 days), they remain active.

When it comes to the type of posts this account interacts with, they stick to strictly liking and sometimes retweeting/replying vaguely to posts regarding the WSQK location, along with liking the posts of anyone that replies to their posts.

After some time though, I noticed they began posting songs that they already posted before, just with different lyrics and lines from the show along with them. This actually makes sense given that they are acting as a radio station, where songs are known for playing and replaying numerous times.

Which brings me to the most interesting aspect about WSQK, which is that while a good chunk of the songs posted have featured on the show at some point, there are also a decent amount that have not.

Here is a playlist of the songs for reference:

Here are some songs specifically that pique my interest. Some I will elaborate on, while others I might just share and let you figure out for yourself why I think they're worth mentioning.

This song was originally the third song they posted, though it was removed about a week later. Hard to tell why exactly they removed it. Maybe since it was still early on. they mixed something up and decided to get rid of it? Regardless, lyrically there could be some significance to this song choice.

Since we've obviously heard Kate featured on the show already, I don't think it would be too hard for a fan to include this. Though, it being added this early on is an interesting choice to me. Lyrically a song like many on this playlist that I think have a specific meaning which could fit quite well with a potential storyline in s5. It is also one of quite a few songs that have been posted at least twice.

While this song did feature in s3 and s4, this song is one of many that are unlisted for the show. It doesn't feature on any official soundtrack or playlist and so you'd have to already know it to recognize it or go out of your way to search it for yourself. And the meaning is also ummmm... yeah.

I actually got barely any results when looking into this song and its lyrics. Though I did discover that it is most known for featuring in an episode of Miami Vice in 1986.

I could only share 10 songs here, so if you want to look at more or even all of them, I highly recommend taking a look, even if it's only out of mere curiosity. I do plan on going through and confirming all the songs one by one again because I probably mixed up or missed one or two (or more). Scrolling down a Twitter account until their first tweet is not exactly fun, but this should be accurate for the most part!

Something else I want to mention is that @erikiara80, who also keeps an eye on the account, noticed a while ago that they have always followed 11 people, some fans and some connected to the show. There was one time they unfollowed some accounts and then instantly followed some others, keeping them at 11 follows, which means the number could be an intentional choice.

A while ago, it hit me that, if this is a hypothetical radio station, wouldn't they also take requests? So Erika helped me with that by requesting two for them to post, getting this reply:

And they did in fact eventually post those two songs requested... I'll let you guess which ones :)

Basically, I felt the need to bring this whole ordeal back to the conversation now, not because I am convinced that it is run by someone connected to the show, but because the eeriness around it persists.

Keeping something going on this long would not only require someone to be very consistent, but to also have the willpower to not go over the top interacting with fans (which I don't think most fans have the self control to not take advantage of). This account doesn't seem to have any bias towards anything. In fact they remain completely impartial, sticking to their script. They seem fine with remaining in the shadows with fans assuming they are insignificant or otherwise, all while keeping the act going almost a half a year later.

With s5 getting no promotion outside of Ross's (sometimes) weekly BTS photo-dumps, this season's roll-out has been almost non-existent. Usually we would get phone numbers to call and obsess over, even 1-2 years out from release, and yet nothing.

I find this approach interesting because it does honestly resemble something I could picture the show doing to hype up s5. If the radio station is going to be a prominent location, then it offers up a really creative way to interact with fans as a way to promote the show.

Them humbly leaving hints about the final season through songs via a ‘radio station’, could parallel similarly to easter egg like approaches they've presented in the past. Only this time (the last time) it would have existed and built up for months with most not knowing about it, offering up a sleuth different songs fans could dig into if it was ever revealed to be promotion for s5.

With their being whispers that we could get something revealed in regards to s5 very soon, and with this playlist finally reaching 100 songs, I thought I would celebrate and remind ya'll it still exists in case you need an excuse to overanalyze something new.

[desmos-calculator]

I was thinking about those posts I sometimes see about dates being an equation (you know the ones), and was thinking, is there a year where that happens the least? maybe even one where it doesn't happen?

Well, I don't think I'd be qualified to cover every function that uses two inputs, and I would assume every function is quite a few and probably would cover every day

So, I'll be sticking to the basic 4,+,-,× and ÷, since that's what I see most common with those posts

First step is to get a list of all the dates (I should clarify, from the Gregorian calendar, since that's the most common dating system I see from those posts), which is pretty easy, just make it yourself! you know how the months work... right?

right?

Anyways, we have a list now! two, in fact, so we can put our days and months separately

Now, we just apply the functions and,

meh, could be prettier, now, we gotta consider that negative years don't exist yet, less so something like XX negative 19, so those extra spots below, gotta go

We also need to consider that years such as XX 100 would theoretically someday exist, but we're just gonna assume you're only looking at the last 2 digits, so, BEGONE!

And don't forget about the year XX 02.75, that was the best year... for all of us that used a different calendar system, so I'm going to need to ask you numbers to LEAVE!

And that should be all the house keeping we need to do, let's collapse em down

woooah, coolio, let's color them based on the group come from

preeeetty, someone should crochet that

Now, you may think "Hey, he left out my favourite day, [February 29th], How could he????!!!!!"

Well, 2+29=31, which can't be a leap year, 2-29 is negative, so no, not possible, 2/29 is a fraction, and 2*29=58, which is NOT a leap year

so, to anyone guessing dates that can never work, congrats, you won!

we can also see what years work with each function

with division ending the lowest, since all it does is decrease, we find the last date to be XX14, on 28th February, ironic. sorry y'all didn't notice it til it was too late.

for subtraction? the last date will be... 30th January 2029! Get your cakes (uh, funeral cakes?) ready for the last date possible for subtraction in.... 4 years time?!?! jesus, time flies, huh?

uhmm, for addition, we find the final day to be 30th December XX42! woa

and the multiplication goes til the end, being the year XX99, dated November 9th...... ANYWAYS

the year of most functional dates will be XX12 with the dates:

11th Jan (11+1=12), 12th Jan(12*1=12), 13th Jan(13-1=12),

6th Feb (6*2=12), 10th Feb (10+2=12), 14th Feb (14-2=12),

24th Feb (24/2=12), 4th March (4*3=12), 9th March (9+3=12),

15th March (15-3=12), 3rd April (3*4=12), 8th April (8+4=12),

16th April (16-4=12), 7th May (7+5=12), 17th May (17-5=12),

2nd June (2*6=12), 6th June (6+6=12), 18th June (18-6=12),

5th July (5+7=12), 19th July (19-7=12), 4th August (4+8=12),

20th August (20-8=12), 3rd September (3+9=12),

21st September (21-9=12), 2nd October (2+10=12),

22nd October (22-10=12), 1st November (1+11=12),

23rd November (23-11=12), 1st December (1*12=12),

and finally... 24th December (24-12=12)

awesome

the years with no days are all primes after XX43, since if it had any factors, it'd work for multiplication

except, I lied, XX58, XX62, XX74, XX82, XX86 and XX94 are all not prime, yet have 0 days, since they're divisible by 2 but the other factor is bigger than 30

except, I lied again, XX58 is actually the only one with a potentially real day, being february 29, as we mentioned earlier.

"BUT WAIT, WHAT ABOUT m/d/y? WHAT ABOUT THE AMERICAN SYSTEM?!?!"

hghhghghg

graaaaah, the division section barely exists

woah, separation, around the x=y line too, with the same shape no less

except, BOOM, i lied to you, AGAIN.

you see, this shape is actually skinner than the original one

you actually only lose potential dates by switching to the other system, and here's how many you lose

The years that lose the most are XX13, XX14, XX15 with 13 missing days, and we'll reach a consensus for amount of days working with math in XX32! the perfect number to end on

but also, this system gives us our earliest year ending with a multiplicative date, being 1st December XX12 (XX12 was a great year for functions, huh)

So, when's the next functional date? well, we missed 13th November, so mark your calendars for 12th December!!

So, what did we learn?

Well, I mean, I guess you can brag about knowing when the next date that's a math equation.

and also the tragedy that is 29th February XX58...

Suggest other calendar systems, and I'll look into them!

[leatherbookmark]

@labyrynth ok i have to reply like this because i am NOT going to be able to explain myself in a reply field.

so i'm polish and basically we don't really use "am" or "pm", more like "in the morning", "in the afternoon", "in the evening" and "at night". when you learn english, they explain that "am" is sorta like "before noon/in the morning", and "pm" is like "in the afternoon". but it's not quite that! it's been a good while since i had to bother thinking about 12hrs format in english, so i just. forgot that 12hrs format is Special

noon being "12pm" makes no sense to me, because noon is after the "morning" hours: there's 10 in the morning, 11 in the morning, and 12, the noon. it would make more sense for the noon to be 12am! similarly, 12pm should be midnight, because it's "in the afternoon", technically. it's after noon. it's after the first 12 that was the noon. cmon.

and so i assumed that when you have 10pm and 12pm, well, 12pm would be 2 hours after 10pm. alas

and "24" is there only in speech as a concept! 22, 23, and 24 meaning midnight. there's no "0 o'clock" in speech, it's either "12 at night", "24" or "midnight". but i said "24" because i had problems with the hours wrt the day, so "00:00" is "midnight that begins that day" and 24 is "midnight that ends the day". my brain is gone now btw

once again I lost the battle against timezones and the 12-hour clock system

[serpentface]

What intervals of the year do the -mache signs correspond to? Assuming the same length as an earth year. I want to know my horoscope...

I did give it the 365 day length. Presume everything about this planet is functionally earthlike (besides the three moons, which just so happen to be the exact size/mass/distance that perfectly balances out into things still being earthlike, probably not possible, too late to retcon three moons out, don't worry about it)

The Wardi zodiac assigns signs based on when the constellation and its 'field' (buffer of space between each) passes through the ecliptic, (rather than dividing the ecliptic into even spans and assigning a roughly correspondent sign, as in the western zodiac). IE: Only the tail of the Lion passes through and thus its period is very short (6 days), while the entirety of the Gull's wingspan passes through and thus its period is very long (34 days).

I'll add equivalent dates in the western calendar. It's unlikely that zodiac dates would just so happen to align perfectly to the start and end of the western calendar, but the it doesn't exist in-universe and the zodiac dates don't align neatly to the Wardi calendar year so it's fine . Whatevr.

---

Catfish: January 1st-23rd

Crow: January 24th-February 4th

Duck (associated with Anaemache): February 5th-24th

Polecat: February 25th-March 11th

Hare: March 12th-April 1st

Khait (associated with Inyamache): April 2nd-April 23rd

Scorpion: April 24th-May 9th

Aurochs (associated with Mitlamache): May 10th-23rd

Rat: May 24th-June 9th

Pheasant: June 10th-24th

Dog: June 25th-July 4th

Dragon: July 5th-23rd

Lion (associated with Odomache): July 24th-29th

Horse: July 30th-August 15th

Leviathan: August 16th-September 12th

King Hyena: September 13th-21st

Gull (associated with Pelennaumache): September 22nd-October 25th

Gazelle: October 26th- November 15th

Ox (associated with Ganmache): November 16th-December 3rd

Snake (associated with Kusomache): December 4th-31st

---

You can read about meaning ascribed to each sign here:

Note that Imperial Wardin uses a generalized solar calendar consisting of 13 total months (twelve thirty-day months and one five-day month (6 on leap years)), and a separate lunar calendar with specifically ritual functions (most holidays occur along the lunar calendar).

The solar calendar starts its first month at roughly the seasonal equivalent of September (when most of the latest seasonal crops have been harvested, the earliest are being planted, and the rainy season typically begins), the new years holiday is actually Celebrated on the first new moons of the first month (and thus its date changes year by year), and the solar year ends with the five-day month.

[apprenticestanheight]

THE FIVE DAYS OF SMUTMAS QUEUE: DAY TWO

Work Shirts - Lawrence Gordon x gn! reader

All right!! This is day two of my silly little christmas celebration, and of course I had to do what I've been procrastinating since basically the start of this account--write a Lawrence reader insert piece!

I love him wholeheartedly despite my lack of fics for him so this has definitely been a long time coming, and this one, much like yesterdays fic, stems from a thought I had—though with this thought, @mrkheartffmans and I went a lil feral together through the reblogs of the original post and thus, the fic concept came to light!

This is also a few years post trap because I was like "yeah working somewhere for a decade is cool but what about a decade and a half??" also—my mentality was that having it set a few years post-trap would be easier to write?? I don't know how true that actually is but it was my thought process lol.

This fic is for audiences of 18+, so minors, do not interact!

Fic type- this is mostly--almost entirely--smut. There's also angst if you squint because yeah, angst was bound to be present somewhere lol

Warnings- unprotected sex (reader is on BC), and as per usual, the reader is GN for all intents and purposes (petnames included), but I went with AFAB anatomy as that's the anatomy that I know best.

Lawrence wishes he could act like the surprise on the faces of his coworkers when he mentioned having the last two weeks of December off came as a surprise to him, but he can't and he kind of hates that.

Of course people are bound to be a little surprised by it. In the decade and a half that he's worked at Angels of Mercy, the only incident where he took any sizeable amount of time off was while he was recovering from the bathroom trap and could hardly stand, let alone walk like he used to.

But, in the three years since the bathroom trap and aside from that month long period where he allowed himself to recover before going back to work, he'd not taken a single day away. Being at work, seeing to patients and talking to people—even just going to work and filling out miscellaneous paperwork while he sat in the isolation of his office—kept his mind busy and his hands busier.

He came home from work every night and saw you, which just made his entire day as it were. You'd order food or make something quick and just spend your time lounging on the couch, occasionally get a little flirty, and laugh when Lawrences hands started wandering how they used to in the days of your masters degree and his days of medical school.

But, because of a backlog of PTO and the fact that he'd been overworking himself almost to the bone with the onslaught of people needing medical care during the last three months of the year, Lawrence decided to book the 14th through to the 2nd of January off so that he could get some rest and worry about housework so that you didn't have to worry at all, where you normally split the housework fifty-fifty.

Lawrence knew that your marketing job got really, really stressful during the last month of the year. People always unearthed different versions of themselves come the holidays, and all he wanted was for you to come home from your workday and not have to worry about menial things like a messy bathroom counter, week-old leftovers in need of throwing away or dishes not yet moved from the dishwasher to the cupboards.

He gets called into work for an emergency on the 21st, and after running to grab groceries during the afternoon on the 22nd, he's delighted to find what he does waiting for him in the bed you share.

You're typically home from work at around seven, sometimes eight thirty on particularly busy days, and when Lawrence arrives home, it's half past eight.

He goes into your bedroom, having indeed hoped to see you there or at least get a call about work running late with the promise of more details upon your arrival at home as he enters your shared bedroom, but what he sees is so much better than anything he could've hoped for.

You're sitting on the bed, back pressed against the head board, focused on whatever romance book you'd plucked from a charity bookstore on your way home, but it's not what you're reading that Lawrence really takes note of.

No, it's not the book at all, though he does note that the title makes it seem like something from either the regency or the victorian era. It's what you're wearing.

You're wearing the shirt he wore to work the previous day, buttons undone with the cufflinks you'd gifted him for christmas the year his residency ended still holding the sleeves of the shirt together, the duvet covering your legs and hips, which makes Lawrence assume you've stolen a pair of his sweatpants in addition to the shirt.

He knocks, lightly, on the side of the door, and you startle, looking up to the source of the knock and relaxing the minute you see his face.

"You startled me," you say, grinning and closing your book over your thumb so as not to lose your place. "I remember you told me you'd be getting groceries around when I would get home, so I stole one of your shirts and settled in. Figured we could order Thai food or something to that effect, have a late dinner and relax."

Lawrence runs his tongue over his lips, notices the keen way with which you watch him do it.

"Yeah," he grins, further enters the room. "That sounds lovely. I grabbed the last of the necessary ingredients for dinner Christmas Day so that you wouldn't have to worry—I know that work has been something of a mess for you lately and I want to make sure you have the opportunity to relax when you come home."

He approaches the bed, watches you place the book you'd been reading open on your nightstand beneath the lamp.

"I don't deserve you," you laugh.

You've been dating since you were starting up with your masters a year after getting your bachelors degree when you were twenty-three and Lawrence was two years into medical school at twenty-four.

You've been married since you were twenty-five and twenty-six, and seventeen years down the line, you both knew that marrying each other was the best possible thing either of you could've done with regard to the romantic part of your lives, and while you were married you ended up doing the best possible things for your respective careers so it worked in both of your favors regardless.

You were Lawrences rock, especially so in the aftermath of the bathroom trap, and he was yours and would be such forevermore.

"You're right," he says, moving away from the bed to grab a pair of sweatpants. "You deserve more, but I do strive to be what you deserve day in and day out."

"Don't say that," you chide. "You're perfect, Lawrence. I wouldn't've married you had I thought otherwise, I promise."

He can feel your gaze on him as he slips out of the khaki pants he wears, deciding to go commando and put a pair of light gray sweatpants on for comfort. He changes out of the black button up he'd chosen to wear, pulls a baggy dark blue Henley over his torso and climbs into bed beside you, pressing kiss after kiss down the line of your jaw and across your neck.

"How stressful has work been?" He asks, tone genuine but also slightly seductive.

"Oh, so stressful," you laugh, knowing exactly what he's doing and the fact that seeing you in one of his shirts and just one of his shirts has spurred that on by a mile. "I think if I have to hear one more coworker complaining about last minute shopping during the last few days before Christmas Eve or even on Christmas Eve in and of itself, I will start causing heads to roll. December is the worst time to be in the offices because everyone stops caring about year-end quotas and making sure things are good going into next year and starts caring about whatever gossip is being spread around. It's dreadful, Lawrence."

He pauses, looking at you with genuine sympathy in his gaze. "I'm sorry—I feel gross. I didn't mean to attempt to proposition you for sex like that. I really do want to hear about your day and I'm sorry it's been so terrible, my love. Are you going to book time off?"

You grin. Lawrence is ever-so considerate, always apologizing and stepping back if he's done something in a way that he doesn't appreciate midway through.

"You're going to be stuck with me from tomorrow through to the second," you say. "And—for the record, I didn't hate it. I like it when you proposition me for sex with kisses because your kisses are quite honestly one of the best parts of being married to you. Plus, I have had a stressful month and I won't lie and say that my current outfitting was just for comfort. Sure, bare ass on satin sheets is an amazing feeling, but I was hoping that I'd get the reaction I did, admittedly."

Lawrence tilts his head inquisitively. "You're not—you're—I thought you'd taken a pair of my sweatpants," he grins, moves a hand to your thigh. Sure enough, it's bare. "Oh, Christmas must've come early."

You laugh. "You fuckin' wish," you say, ignoring the goosebumps that Lawrences touch brings on.

You unbutton the few buttons done up on the shirt, press your back against the headboard.

"Stressful month, yeah baby?" Lawrence is almost beaming as his hand moves from your thigh to your stomach, lazily perusing up your chest.

You clench your jaw, squeeze your arms against your sides because you are not going to give in to your handsome husband and his illustrious whims just with a few touches and some whispered sentiments.

"So stressful, Lawrence," you nod. "So, so stressful."

"Do you need a way to destress?" His thumb and first finger locate your nipple, and you exhale a breathy moan, quiet and already wanting to give in to his whims. "If you do, I think I could be of assistance."

"Lawrence," you moan, quiet and needy. "Oh, fuck, Lawrence."

Lawrence moves his hand away from you for a second, only to take off his shirt and the sweatpants he wears before he's back to kissing your neck and letting his hands roam across your chest.

A few minutes of much the same passes by, Lawrences kisses lining your neck and jawline and face and your ethereal lips while he rolls your nipples between his fingers. His hand dips to your folds for just a few minutes, taking your slick onto his fingers and laughing against your shoulder.

"You're so wet for me already," he says. "Fuck, you're perfect."

"Wanna ride you," you're almost stunned at how evenly the words fall from your lips but not at all stunned when Lawrence agrees.

He pulls you onto his lap, lets you grind against his half-hard cock until it's fully hard and you're begging to feel him inside of you and moans when you bottom out, gaze watching you intently as his hands settle on your hips.

"Lawrence," you whisper. "Fuck."

A smile spreads onto Lawrences face before he can stop it, and when you start riding him, he presses his back against the headboard, one hand on your hip while the other lightly holds your chin so as to keep your gaze on his.

You get lost in how good it feels within the space of a minute, maybe two—Lawrence's cock is long and thick, and even if riding it takes some adjusting occasionally, it still becomes very enjoyable very quickly.

"You're so wonderful for me, Y/N," he says. "Oh, this never gets old."

He's loving how you feel around him, clenching occasionally and moaning after a particularly deep thrust that hits your g-spot, and you're just—it's just perfect.

And then, Lawrence gets an idea. He moves the hand that's cupping your face to your wrist, which is attached to the hand that you use to grope relentlessly at yourself, rolling your nipples between your thumb and first finger, sometimes moving to rub your clit.

"The cufflinks, baby," he says. "Don't touch yourself, mm? Use those for me."

He watches you press the cold silver cufflink against one of your nipples, moans as you clench around him at the sensation of the cold meeting your warm skin. You moan in turn, pressing the metal against your nipples and moaning his name.

He moves a hand back to your chin, placing his first and middle finger against your bottom lip. You take the hint immediately and bring his fingers into your mouth, grinding down onto him as you do.

"You're so good for me, pet," he says, moving the hand that rests on your hip to your clit. He starts rubbing it with practiced expertise, knowing the way you like it best after nearly two decades of marriage. "Oh, this is amazing. You can steal my work shirts whenever you want, okay? Especially the ones with the cufflinks. You're amazing."

You moan at the praise, pressing the cufflinks against yourself further, loving the way that the metal feels against your sensitive nipples.

He takes his fingers out of your mouth and goes back to holding your chin so as to keep your gaze on his, wanting to watch you orgasm.

You come completely undone when Lawrence speeds up his ministrations on your clit just enough to make you want more, and Lawrence watches.

You thrust your way through the aftershocks, at which point Lawrence releases into you and lets your chin free from his light grip, kissing you and offering praise as he does.

He pulls you off of him and gets a bath set up, helping you into it while giving you more praise and pressing kisses along the back of your neck and shoulder blades because the orgasm had left you both completely and totally breathless.

You bathe in light conversation, once again talking about your days but focusing on the more positive parts, and Lawrence lets you steal a Henley from the days of medical school. You pull a pair of boxers on and curl up in bed next to him, falling asleep only seconds before Lawrence does.

[okeydokeylackey]

Acacius Romeo Sapphirius

So I got sick on technically the 20th (of September) but it really hit me the 21st. Which was frustrating to me, because I'd just gotten back into a mental state of productivity. But after I'd gotten actual sleep, I decided on the 22nd for some ungodly reason to embark upon finally putting together a proper full-body design for my favorite character of all time. The second ungodly decision that I made was to, some extent, paper-doll this reference. 11 hours of work straight the first day cemented for me that I could not simply just… give up on this project, like so many others.

It is now the 25th. I don't know how many hours I've worked on this. I slept a lot in between. I am still sick. But it is done. My magnum opus, my love, my life.

[yamcha-thelonewolf]

🫂Toriyama forgets, Yamcha doesn't!

This time I want us to relax a little bit. My last analysis, The Heart's Savior, was very challenging both for me who wrote it and for you who read it, so now it is only fair to lighten the load.

In a poll, I asked you whether you would prefer to know more about Yamcha's life as a fighter or as an ordinary earthling, and if you remember, the second choice won. So here I am analyzing a little trivia that has nothing to do with battles. Well... Sort of! Martial arts still has something to do with it, but it only serves as a background. In fact, I will tell you about an extremely strong friendship, not because the bond is actually intense but because it goes against the narrative choices of Toriyama and Toei Animation. Believe me, guys, this analysis could maintain the connection with a character we hear little about now. Lastly, just because I know it's a kind of topic that many people like, I'm going to talk somewhat about one of Yamcha's many looks.

Let's be clear, this is just my theory, it's quite silly, but at least it might make you smile a little... Well, I hope so!

Before we begin, it seems only fair to warn that the following is likely to be coincidental. Dragon Ball has never dwelled on details, at least not the ones I care about, so it is highly likely that this topic is meaningless. But... What if it doesn't? Assuming Yamcha has a life of his own in this show, talking about it might be worthwhile... Because it would once again show what a beautiful person he is in everyday life.

So... Let's get started!

Don't worry, I told you. I am not going to talk about Yamcha as a fighter, but as I had anticipated it is necessary to understand how incredible he is as a normal earthling.

We are at the end of the Fortuneteller Baba Arc. Goku has finally found out where the last dragon ball is and so sets off with Upa to resurrect his father Bora. Meanwhile, Yamcha and the others await their friend's return at Baba's palace. It is during this wait that Yamcha reflects at length on his own life and he finally decides to ask Muten to make him his pupil.

A new orange Gi is definitely needed!

Freeze! It is not the Turtle School uniform that I want to talk about. Let's go back for a moment... A few hours before the 22nd Tournament begins.

Alright! We've got it!

We are on the plane bound for Papaya Island. Bruce Lee Yamcha has completed his training under Muten, and with this proud pretty face he lets us know that we are going to see some good things. He also seems more mature. He is in his 20s. Guys, many things could be said about this drawing, but in this case I will simply dwell on his outfit. This is the first time we have seen Yamcha in such an elegant look. We were used to seeing him in martial artist outfits or otherwise with looks more suited to his wild nature, so this is a very nice surprise. For a change, he looks great. I mean, you can dress and style him any way you like: Yamcha has the incredible power to be charming in any way. Yes, even with that bowl hair from DBZ...

Jeez, I love him. Let's go back to our outfit now.

Some will remember it for sure, but for those who do not know I want to let you show that this dress has its own origin.

One more step back now.

We are in the 21st Tournament Arc. Yamcha is in town with Bulma and he's training on his own. Muten's only pupils are Goku and Krillin. Many people do not pay attention to it, but if these two boys managed to get into the Turtle School it is because of a character who unfortunately met a brutal end in the show: Lunch.

The deal is clear: If Goku and Krillin can find a nice girl to stay at the Kame House, then Muten can train them. It is the only way to access. So we can safely say that if Goku has become so strong, it is also thanks to Lunch. Fortunately, she is found in her quiet form, but soon her secret would come out...

...Whatever! Goku and Krillin can finally train under Muten. Well, there really would be so much to say about Lunch. She is a character who deserves a lot. She should not have disappeared at all after the great contribution she made to Goku and Krillin. Not only that. She even defeated some Red Ribbon soldiers, she helped Yamcha defeat some criminals because he had a broken leg, in a filler she saves Goku from an attempted "kidnapping," and among many other things she allowed to find front row seats during tournaments! Seriously, she would deserve a separate post.

If we look at Lunch as a function of the protagonist, it is undeniable that she was the mother Goku never had. At least in her good personality.

The same of course applies to Krillin. Let's think it through. She cooked for them, cuddled them before bed, and who knows how many other mother hen things she did. Goku definitely lacked such a figure, so this is also why I consider Lunch an important character in his growth. If Bulma is more like an older sister, Lunch is definitely his mommy. Have you noticed that? Every person Goku meets represents a family member. It's extremely cute.

Be that as it may, as proof that Lunch is a real mom to the two pupils, she decides to give them a nice gift at the end of their training.

Tadaaan! Okay, I admit that Goku and Krillin are really funny dressed like this. They look like two little gangsters, something like Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro as kids, but that's okay. Lunch sewed these outfits for them, and that's what matters. It was done with love.

Seeing her satisfied like a loving mommy getting excited for her kids going to school for the first time always moved me. Although in this case the destination is the tournament, the meaning is the same: Lunch gave importance to their big day by honoring it with this outfit as awkward as adorable.

Well, friends. Now that the puzzle is almost complete, we can go back to our boy! As I said at the beginning, Yamcha begs Muten to make him his third pupil. Once inside the school, it doesn't take long to realize that for all of his three years of training he has been dealing with Lunch as well.

It should be mentioned, however, that the two had actually met for the first time during the Red Ribbon Arc, when everyone leaves to help Goku.

This is the first real moment when they meet. Lunch is in her "evil" form, but a little later Yamcha will also make the acquaintance of her good side.

This meant that during these three years he also cohabited with Lunch, who must surely have cooked for him as well. I think it's a really interesting detail. Unfortunately, we don't know what has happened during these three years, but I would like to point out that this is the first time Yamcha has dealt so closely with a girl other than Bulma. Imagining that he is still very shy with girls, I have no doubt that he has been embarrassed many times in being so near to her. Stop!, I'm not saying he had feelings for her, but she is still a pretty girl, most of the time very naive as well as sensual, so I wouldn't be surprised if Lunch made Yamcha blush without even meaning to. By the way, it would be interesting to analyze Bulma's feelings in this situation, since she has visited Yamcha several times. I don't think she was ever jealous of Lunch, but she may have punched her boyfriend in the head a few times anyway just because.

...They were so cute...

Okay, now the topic is clear, isn't it? The bond between Yamcha and Lunch is one of the least explored things in Dragon Ball. There is no point in talking about it because it leads nowhere, but believe me, for an earthlings fan it is worth discussing.

First, let's start by saying that this is a different relationship from that she had with the other two pupils. If with Goku and Krillin Lunch was able to act like a caring mother, the same cannot be said for Yamcha. Yamcha is not a child like them. He is almost the same age as Lunch, so the relationship must be absolutely equal: they are two friends. Nothing more, nothing less. This does not mean that Lunch took less care of Yamcha. Surely she must have avoided giving him a good-night kiss and things like that, that is.

As for her second personality, it becomes more complicated. We will never know whether "Bad" Lunch felt attracted to Yamcha. We know she loves wild guys and Yamcha certainly is, but I don't think she was that disloyal to her friend Bulma. In short: I am convinced that there was never any sexual attraction between Lunch and Yamcha. They have always been two great friends, proving that friendship between boys and girls can exist.

So... Maternal or not, one thing is certain: when the big day comes again, Lunch gives her gift to Yamcha too.

I don't know how many of you have thought about this. I'm sure I'm not the first one who has thought about it, but geez... It's a detail that has always excited me for no real reason. Perhaps because it is one of those details that indirectly deepens the relationships between Dragon Ball characters, which are unfortunately poorly told.

I mean, try to think of the scene!

Yamcha at that time was not really the type of guy to wear stuff like that. He has lived for many years in the desert, where it is not necessary to wear fancy clothes because the only priority is to survive. Yet in the desert, we don't know how, he also learned good manners, especially with girls. I'm sure he did everything possible not to disappoint Lunch's expectations. Yamcha has always been like that. In order to please others he has often sacrificed himself, so I think something like that happened in this case as well. Let's try to put ourselves in his shoes. He may be gentle and all, he surely must have thanked Lunch for this, but how much he must have cringed wearing this?

It is a bit like putting a bow tie on a wild wolf...

This is precisely how I imagine him: deeply embarrassed and on the verge of sinking underground. "Boy, I feel so ridiculous!"

Don't worry, silly, it actually fits you much better than you think. I don't believe anyone found him as funny as Goku and Krillin were the first time they wore that thing. Anyway, I assume that this is why we don't see himwith that Al Capone hat. "Hell, I can accept the dress... but spare me that thing!!"

Here you can see Yamcha now comfortable in his elegant look and Lunch by his side totally unaware that she was the one who sewed it for him. By the way, I think it's superficial to say this but... It's really nice that she handmade this dress for Yamcha. I mean, his body is much bigger than Goku and Krillin's. She must have struggled a lot! It's a proof to how much she loved Yamcha, too.

Come on, look at her! Here Lunch is as worried as everyone about Yamcha's condition after Tenshinhan broke his leg. The way she addresses him does indeed have something maternal about it, but it mainly shows that she has become attached to him over those three years.

She is so precious...

...even when she is about to kill Yamcha and Bulma in one shot.

Gosh, I love her! It is so nice that everyone has learned to accept Lunch as she is. Yamcha is like that. He always accepted his friends, no matter how they are, he is always there for them and always took care of them. I am convinced that he loved Lunch as he loves everyone else.

So... the topic could end here, but it is not like me to conclude so trivially. I like to go beyond the impossible, in fact even this time I want to extend the whole situation.

The real point of the topic is another.

Unfortunately, Lunch's fate is the most horrible of all. In truth, I don't know which is worse between being forgotten and being ridiculed throughout the show. Let's just say that neither Lunch nor Yamcha were lucky. They also have that in common, besides the fact that both are very close to Tien. I would call it the trio of outcasts. However, if we at least know what happens to Yamcha during DBZ, we know nothing about Lunch. The last time we see her is in a bar, completely drunk because Tien is dead. Another appearance, which is really brief, is during the Buu Saga, when she gives her energy to Goku. I consider these two scenes to be frighteningly sad because in both cases we see her alone and that hurts me a lot. It is as if she has lost contact with her friends. After all, she could not even return to the Kame House because it was now inhabited by Krillin, Android 18 and their daughter. There was no place for her anymore. This hurt even more, because we really don't know what happened to her. Finally, she appears without ever saying anything in the OVA Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!

This is quite consoling, but it is not enough. Her presence is highly unnecessary. I think she was thrown into the rabble just to actually pay homage to those who were Goku's friends, but what's the point if she doesn't even say a word? She certainly deserved more since she had been forgotten for almost two decades.

Whatever... Thank goodness Yamcha exists!

He is seriously the hero we do not deserve.

Well yes, Yamcha may be the one who partly solves this great riddle:

...What ever happened to Lunch all this time?

The truth is that there are no answers. Everyone can imagine what they want. One can think that she stayed with Tien (although DBS has ruled out this possibility for the umpteenth time), one can think that she opened a food truck or that she came to visit Muten sometimes. I personally believe that she has not completely lost contact with her friends. At least, not with Yamcha. I mean, we've seen how Yamcha is not the type to quit. When it comes to loving someone, Yamcha is always in the front row. This makes me believe that he has not stopped seeing Lunch. He is too loyal to forget a person who has done so much for him. Plus, if we add that Yamcha was left alone at one point in the story, it makes even more sense that he spends his time with an equally "lonely" friend. I imagine Yamcha as a very nostalgic guy. It would be unthinkable for him to exclude such an important memory as Lunch from his life.

At least, that's how it is for me. Until now I didn't know it for sure, but a few days ago I had an epiphany. That's when I realized that maybe Lunch is still there, we just don't see her.

Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might, 1990.

Did you notice anything?

Oh god yes, it's that damn gangster outfit again. I mean, the dress sewn by Lunch. Although it is difficult to identify the timeline of this film, it is still clear that we are in a context far away from OG Dragon Ball. At first I anticipated that all this might just be a coincidence, but personally I like to believe that there is much more behind it. Assuming that indeed it is the dress made by Lunch, we need to consider one thing: it can never be that one she gave him for the 22nd Tournament. It would be really old, plus I don't think it would be able to hold up Yamcha's new body. He's now in his 30s, he has not only grown taller but also added a lot of muscle mass. It is practically impossible for him to have been able to wear it. So... Maybe Yamcha asked Lunch to renew that old dress? Think about it, it makes sense to me. Yamcha is also very cheap. Being a former thief, he knows the value of money well and knows that it is easier to lose it than to find it. He is really funny, but also very cute.

The money accumulated through baseball certainly does not change his stingy nature, that's why it is not strange to think that he turned to Lunch. Of course, also as a matter of affection. I think Yamcha is a guy who is very attached to things, especially if there are a lot of good memories behind them.

I mean, something could have happened like, "Hi Lunchie, how are you? Long time no see, it took me so long to find you! Let me guess, you're hiding from the cops, right?" and then... "Anyway, I wanted to ask you a favor. Going through my closet, I found that fancy dress you had sewn for me for the Tournament. Do you remember? Here it is. I tried to wear it but I only gained a hole in my pants. I'll let you guess where. So... Could you fix it for your bestie?"... So she would say: "Are you kidding, Yamcha? There's no way I'm going to fix that! I'll definitely sew you a new one!"

If so, we could assume that they are still in contact! It would really comfort me to know that Lunch is still part of the gang, even if we don't see her. Yamcha in this case could seriously be the link, simply because he is brought up to be.

That would be great.

I want to believe it.

After all...

...Toriyama may forget his characters, but Yamcha will never forget his friends.

Thank you!!

[aemiron-main]

Birthdaygate and When Did The Henry-Edward Split Happen?

Alright, so, this post by @henrysglock got me thinking.

This scene making me insane because Joyce phrases it as “your birthday”- but who is she talking to? Will’s eyes are brown here.

She’s literally not talking to Will.

Will is possessed in that moment (by either Henry or Edward, likely Edward). And Joyce is talking about “YOUR birthday,” which, in-universe, Joyce is talking about Will’s birthday, but in a meta sense/timeline weirdness sense, she’s also talking to either Henry or Edward about the 22nd being “their birthday.”

And it’s worth keeping in mind that March 22nd is the date that the Creel murders were discovered in Edward’s timeline/they happened the night of March 21st, whereas in Henry’s timeline, they happened the night of March 25th.

And so, when I said that Joyce was talking to Henry or Edward about the 22nd being “their birthday,” I don’t mean it in the typical “born from their mother,” way, I mean it in the “Edward was likely never actually born at all and was likely split off from Henry somehow via time powers fuckery and/or lab fuckery.”

So, if that split happened on the night of the Creel murders/past midnight on the 21st (making it the 22nd), then that would technically be Edward’s birthday, with Edward being “born,” in the sense of splitting off from Henry.

And with the scene of Henward turning back the clock, and the fact that we don’t know what caused all of the upturned furniture and shattered windows in the Creel house, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Henry-Edward split happened on the night of the murders.

After all, we don’t know what Alice was looking at during the dinner table scene. And speaking of that scene, lets take a look at it.

This scene plays during Victor’s retelling in Dear Billy. This shot/scene of Alice does not happen in the 001 retelling/the Massacre at Hawkins Lab episode retelling. We don't see Alice's reaction to Virginia's death during the Massacre at Hawkins Lab sequence.

So, before we get to the shot of Alice looking somewhere weird in the room, let’s go through the shots that happen right before that one.

First of all, this shot makes me insane. I think it’s through Edward’s eyes.

These two shots happen right before the above shot, and both times, it’s like somebody short is looking over Henry’s shoulder, just like the shot above.

We then get these shots of Virginia falling, and those seem to be through Henry’s eyes, looking up from where he’s sitting at the table .

Look where Alice is looking. She’s looking right beside Henry’s righthand side. Near where we got those POV shots from. Right where Edward may have been standing. She seems to be looking even further towards Henry’s righthand side. Looking at the wall.

But how did Alice suddenly see Edward? Clearly nobody could see him previously, or Victor and Virginia and Alice would have noticed him. Well, we know that Vecna (who is likely Edward) creates a sort of bridge between worlds when he kills people, we know that he talks to El about figuring out how to open his own gates/doorways, and his way of doing that is the murders we see in S4 (patrick, fred, chrissy, max). So, if he did the same thing when killing Virginia, then he may have opened a gate and was suddenly visible to Alice.

Especially since that shot of Alice screaming is no longer Edward’s POV- it’s Henry’s. So, Edward, could have been coming through a gate at that very moment, and we, the audience, would have no idea.

And Steve literally talks about Vecna “popping in and murdering one family,” and he actually may have been more accurate than he thought.

But how did Edward see the Creels if we wasn’t in the same timeline/dimension? Well, who else has the ability to see through dimensions/timelines? Will. Will was able to see the alphabet on the Byers’ living room wall somehow- Will “true sight,” Byers. We also know that Victor "sensed," something in the attic, which is a scene that's paralleled to Billy seeing/sensing El in the void in S3. It's almost like Victor was sensing Edward in the void, with Edward watching Victor.

This may also explain who killed Alice- I’m looking directly at you, Edward. Which also gets interesting because in the Edward timeline, Alice is Edward's mother, not his sister, which would explain him killing the "Alice" from another timeline, as Edward's "Alice" wanted to send him to Brenner.

I also watched Insidious the other day, and I’m working on a big post about all of the Insidious vs Creels parallels (there are a LOT of direct shot parallels), but in chatting with James, I wanted to talk about this shot specifically:

It’s the same same place as this POV. It’s though the eyes of somebody short, looking over Henrys shoulder, at Virginia.

And also, to top it all off, there was a mirror across from Henry/behind Alice this entire time and they’ve gone out of their way to avoid showing it to the audience.

I won't be surprised if S5 gives us a shot with the camera facing the mirror, where we can see Edward reflected behind Henry. Especially since there’s a movie on the S4 board about peoples’ evil twins who live in the “mirror world.” Long story short: I think that Edward somehow either split off from Henry or combined the timelines or SOMETHING of that affect on the night of the Creel murders, and was therefore "born," that night. Especially considering all of the "birthing" imagery with gates, and if Edward came through a gate, and if the Hawkins blue UD was actually just Edward's original timeline like I think it was... Then that would explain how Edward was in the UD- the UD is just his original timeline, and something's happened to it to make it all weird and full of spores etc.

[shallyne]

The Diary of Feyre Archeron

Just a tiny fic too see if I want to continue it and keep this format!

Words: 800

TW: implications of neglect, manipulation and controlling behaviour

December 21st

Dear Diary (?) 

I never had a diary, I don't know how this stuff works. Mom gave me an old diary she had never used, it's the closest to a birthday gift I have ever gotten from her. I haven't gotten any cake like Elain or a grand party like Nesta but I'm not mad, at least I get the time to draw in my room without any interruptions. I've become pretty good! 

Rumor has it that a new boy will be at our school tomorrow, which is weird because it's two days before the holidays. It probably stays a rumor, it wouldn't make sense. 

Anyways, I think I'm going to sneak into the kitchen after mom went to bed, I'm getting hungry. 

Bye, I guess? 

December 22nd

Dear Diary, 

Today I have been blessed by god. I didn't expect to make another entry so soon but today the new guy looked at me. OH MY GOD, RIGHT? He totally smiled at me too!! (Delusion aside, he probably saw someone behind me. He doesn't know I exist.) 

I hate the stupid lights in the school but I swear the new guy’s eyes looked VIOLET in the light. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I'm totally going to draw himy he's GORGEOUS! Like the men on Nesta's book covers (that she's totally hiding from mom) but a hundred times prettier! 

Well, I have to finish my math homework now. 

Bye? 

January 2nd

Dear Diary, 

Christmas was pretty boring that's why I didn't write anything but today was insane! The new guy has a name, Rhysand (beautiful, right?) and he's in my history class! I actually quite like history and our teacher, Ms Weaver, even though everyone is scared of her but Rhysand made it hard to focus!! It's not like I'm mad about it because he's sitting like right in front of me and he smells like citrus and sea (Not that I sniffed him, I'm not a weirdo) he smells SO GOOD and I could just get lost looking at him all the time! 

Maybe he'll talk to me someday, wouldn't that be neat? 

Shit, mom is coming home and she sounds mad!!! 

Bye! 

January 4th

Dear Diary, 

Today I got Elain’s hand-me-downs! Finally, I've been waiting for this, I needed new pants. Mom refused to buy me new ones because it's my fault I got them paint splattered. It's only one pair that has paint on them, the others are falling apart! But arguing with mum is like arguing with a brick wall, it won't budge.  

I found a pretty blue jumper in Elain’s old clothes which makes my eyes pop! I will wear it tomorrow. Not because I have history class and will see Rhysand, it just looks pretty. 

I also got a job interview at a run down diner at the edge of the town! Mom can't know, she'd never allow me to work or if she would, she wouldn't allow me to keep the money, she always needs to have everything under control, it's so annoying. 

I'm not worried about not getting the job but I hope I can convince them to give me night shifts so mom won't know! Once she's asleep, she's ASLEEP! 

I'd say wish me luck but it's only me and the ink, so I guess I wish myself luck. 

So excited! 

January 13th

Dear Diary, 

I am dying. I really am. I'm barely able to write these words down. 

Fine, maybe I'm not dying really but it feels like it. I got my period and I literally feel like I'm bleeding out. I feel like someone is stabbing my uterus REPEATEDLY. Why would mother nature be so cruel? Why would my own mother be so cruel to still send me to school like this? That was a trick question, it's my mother. Cruel is carved in her bones and blood and brain. Whatever it is, I can't think through this agony. 

Mom says it's normal and I shouldn't be so dramatic and when I tried to talk to Elain she grimaced!! I mean, it's not her fault, I guess. Mom drilled it into Nesta and Elain that these topics are taboo. I think that's stupid because in biology they said periods are natural so why would something natural be taboo? 

It doesn't make sense, right? 

On a slightly brighter side, Rhysand talked to me yesterday and asked if I was okay!! I am aware he asked because I probably looked like death but a win is a win, right? And his smile when I lied and said I was okay, I was melting into a puddle! 

Okay, the water is hot enough for my hot water bottle! I'm gonna chill and listen go Red for the rest of the day until bedtime. 

Bye

Taglist: @captain-of-the-gwynriel-ship @starfall-spirit @rhysiedarling @corcracrow @sydney-fae25 @tothestarsandwhateverend @aayo-whatt @dreamlandreader

[baratrongirl]

I have been dealing with non-stop health problems since 22nd June or thereabouts and I just want it all to stop.

On 21st June, which was my birthday, I went to an Elder Scrolls Online 10th Anniversary party at the offices of Bethesda/Zenimax in London. I proceeded to catch COVID from being out in public, and spent a week in bed.

On 29th June I was sitting at my computer, still with a high fever, stood up to go to the loo, and something in my right leg tore and I fell over. Couldn't walk at all for several days. Finally got free of COVID, went to the hospital, and they thought from an ultrasound that I'd torn my Achilles tendon. So I got put in a horrible cast and was not allowed to put any weight on the leg at all.

Went to Germany for the ESO Tavern anyway because I figured that accessible hotel rooms would be less stress than my house, which is only accessible for my normal disability and not for "you can't put any weight on your foot at all". Had to inject myself with an anticoagulant called Fragmin because of being immobile, which is super great if you're needle phobic.

Once I got home and saw the specialist, she thought it probably wasn't a tear and ordered an MRI. This showed that actually, I "only" had "thickening and inflammation" of the tendon. So it looks like I "only" tore my calf muscle which is a much less serious injury to heal. (I could dig out the hospital letter with the actual names of the muscles but I frankly don't care enough.)

However, my right leg was STILL rock solid with oedema. (Medical for "swelling"). The calf felt hard to the touch instead of squishy like my left leg. The young doctor that I saw the second time was only bothered about the tendonitis and severe inflexibility of my foot, not the fact that my leg was swollen. And I continued to have pain spikes so bad that my temperature hit 38.0 C and I started puking for probably six weeks after the initial injury.

TL;DR my leg started to get better and then it got worse again. About two weeks ago I noticed the leg was more swollen than ever, and the skin was bright red and very itchy. Took myself up to the hospital again, had a blood test, sat and waited for the results.

My foot turned LITERALLY purple and by the time I got to see the A&E doctor, she just looked at my foot in combination with the blood test results and declared that I had a clot. (Though she was very thorough, carefully checking the entire length of my bad leg against the good one.) They gave me a massive dose of anticoagulants and sent me home to sleep in my own bed for a bit, then I went back the next day and had another ultrasound at a different frequency from the first. (Different frequencies of sound penetrate different levels of tissue). And promptly got diagnosed with Deep Vein Thrombosis.

Blood clots are kinda gross (don't worry, there are no pictures):

Apparently the blood clot is from behind my knee all the way up to mid-thigh. I thought a blood clot was an amorphous, approximate spheroid blocking the vein at a particular place, but it actually fills the entire vein! (Gross!)

Also the main concern with Deep Vein Thrombosis is that bits might break off from the main clot and travel through the bloodstream to cause a Pulmonary Embolism. So the high dose of anticoagulants is actually to deal with bits breaking off from the clot rather than to break down the clot itself! That's why the treatment is 3-6 months on a high dose of anticoagulants.

I was worried about the risk of stroke but that's from blood clots in arteries, not veins.

I'm still annoyed with the doctor in the Fracture Clinic who basically looked at me and saw a fat person, rather than checking that my uninjured fat left leg and injured fat right leg felt the same. Because I had the oedema then. I had a soft, squishy fat left leg and a hard, unsquishable fat right leg.

If I'd actually followed his advice I might have accidentally killed myself. Fortunately I know the medical word "oedema" and knew not to use the special socks which said "do not use if you have oedema".

I am so fucking frustrated. So stupidly tired. I can't work out whether I'm depressed because I'm exhausted or exhausted because I'm depressed. Or whether the two states are orthogonal and caused by something else.

I feel like I've basically missed the entire summer to being sick and mostly unable to move very far from my bed, and the only joy I have is that I live in the UK and have paid nothing for any of this healthcare because it's all funded from our taxes.

[acaplaya-musings]

Voiceplay-adjacent Visuals - Song Of Durin

Geoff Castellucci's cover of Song Of Durin was released on the 22nd of September, 2024 (or the 21st depending on your timezone). It's the third (but not necessarily final) cover of a song from the Tolkien franchise/Middle-earth universe, "featuring" the dwarven characters of Fili, Kili, Thorin, and Bofur.

I did a 2-in-1 Voiceplay-adjacent Visuals for Far Over The Misty Mountains Cold and I See Fire earlier this year, (LINK), though honestly if I could go back and redo that post, I would, as tbh there's some stuff that I could've talked about but didn't, or at least I could've elaborated some more. And also I kinda sorta said that only two of the characters in Misty Mountains are the same as in I See Fire, which is wrong - they're all the same - but in my defense, I wasn't a Patron of Geoff's back then, so I didn't have as much "insider knowledge" as I do now, and also Bofur had a complete outfit change between those two videos, and Kili looked a little different as well (if you want a side-by-side character appearance comparison for those two videos plus this one, go find the post I made for it HERE.)

Anyway, I may not know much Tolkien lore, but I certainly have things to say for this video, so lets get into this!

(Post below the cut!)

Of course I have to start this post with some commentary on set design, because damn Geoff really spared no effort for this (or Kathy!).

As Geoff says in the description, this is meant to depict Balin's Tomb, located in the ruins of Moria. In the movie franchise, it looks like this:

What you might not realise is that the tomb in Geoff's video is actually specially hand-made by Geoff and Kathy themselves! (They used large foam boards (the kind from hardware stores), plus hot glue and paint and stuff).

Some of the bones and pieces of broken armour on the floor were also obtained specifically for the video, and spray-painted to fit in with the overall visual aesthetic.

Okay, now time to address the elephant in the room: Gimli!

Firstly, obligatory kudos to the incredible Rick Underwood for hair and makeup, and also for Gimli's prosthetic nose! I picked up on it almost as soon as Gimli started walking on screen during my first watch, yes, really, and I was rather proud of myself when it got confirmed in the BTS video

But also, credit to a woman named Melissa Feyereisen who created that massive red beard, and apparently some of the other hairpieces as well!

Honestly this is probably the least recognizable Geoff has been since the Hide And Seek/Ding Dong video, and definitely his most unrecognizable getup for a video on his own channel. Like seriously my brain cannot see this as Geoff, like at all, not even a tiny bit.

There's an explanation for that though! Or a few reasons, anyway, and perhaps they're obvious, but I shall say them regardless. For one thing, that helmet does a lot of the disguising work - it covers his forehead and partially blocks his eyebrows (which themselves got coloured ginger!), and the sides of it partially cover his cheeks and obscure his facial structure. And then of course there's the massive beard which covers his entire jawline, and the prosthetic nose. Combine that with the multi-layered character costume which fully covers him from the shoulders down, and you end up with a getup that could really confuse any potential first-time reactors who happen to stumble upon this video 😄

But anyway, time for more pictures!

Thorin! :D

Having the four "main dwarves" appear as ghostly figures was a clever choice, as it gives a way to incorporate them into a scene they don't originally appear in, per the book (because Gimli is from The Lord Of The Rings, and the others are from The Hobbit, which is a prequel). But also it's a neat way of rounding out the narrative that was built for them through Misty Mountains and I See Fire!

Here comes Fili! (And now notice the light shining from the top-left part of the frame, akin to the beam of light in the original movie scene!)

Also this is more of an audiovisual thing but I didn't mention it in my musical thoughts/commentary post (LINK) so I'm saying it here: the vocal parts of the four "ghost dwarves" are the same as they were in I See Fire! (And probably Misty Mountains too, but not all of them get solo lines in that one so it's harder to tell). So from lowest to highest in vocal range, it goes Thorin, Kili, Fili, and then Bofur. (Kathy helped a lot with making sure Geoff knew which vocal lines were sung by who; a million shoutouts to Kathy!)

Oh and also the return of Thorin and Fili means the return of the fur-trimmed coat with the embroidered shoulder-cuff, and the leather shirt thing with the metal rings on it! The shirt was worn by Layne in My Mother Told Me and Valhalla Calling, as was the coat, but the coat was also worn by Eli in Mountain King and Classical Chaos.

Love a good dramatic lighting flash! Makes me think back to Hoist The Colours (or the VP video I can't talk about yet)

No prizes for guessing who did the lighting design! The one and only Eli Jacobson! (But also Geoff definitely had a hand in the ideas process and establishing the sort of lighting he wanted for different sections, so big shoutouts to them both!)

Kili! <3 <3

Geoff really knows how to work the "scruffy"/light facial hair look sometimes ngl 👀 (And as always I can't help but very much love his white-grey streak of hair getting to be on display)

And finally we have Bofur!

Also I gotta wonder exactly how many various fur pieces and fur-lined clothing stuff Pattycake studios owns at this point, because between the viking videos, the Grundel videos, and the dwarf videos, there seem to be a lot of people/characters wearing fur, and I'm genuinely not sure how many are unique and how many items are actually used more than once!

Another dramatic lighting flash!

And now the lighting has switched from a blue colour to a warm gold, because now the song is talking about how the world was "in Durin's day". It's talking about times of happiness and prosperity, and so the lighting shifts to match it!

(Also if you're wondering how Geoff knows when to turn to "look at" another dwarf character and in what direction, Kathy helped with that too! She was literally behind the camera giving arm signals (working off a script thing) during filming. She is a queen and we are all very lucky to have her (including Geoff!).

*hopelessly-in-love sigh*

Look, I really wasn't expecting to have heart eyes for Thorin!Geoff in this video, but then again, I also wasn't expecting to actually kinda be attracted to Jeoph in Unshaken AND YET-

It's that dang smile, it melts me almost every time I see it!

(I also still love Kili!Geoff though, for obvious reasons)

Lighting change! Now we're talking (singing) about making weapons and armour and stuff, and so the lighting is red, because like war and fighting and stuff, y'know (that's my own speculation on the lighting change anyway - it's not actually confirmed, so you can take it with a grain of salt)

And now the song "calms down" (slows down) a bit and takes a bit of a more sombre tone, and so the lighting changes accordingly.

Not much self-conducting hand movements in this one - Kili!Geoff does it the most in this one, but still not as much as typical. I guess it's partially from remaining "in character", and partially from the fact that most of the characters here are holding onto something, and so hand movements are a bit more restricted.

Say it with me everybody! He's! So! Pretty!

(Someone commented on the video that it's easy to forget that all five characters are the same person (because of the incredible costuming and stuff), and Geoff replied saying "It's all thanks to my incredibly bland face. It's like the perfect blank canvas 😉". Honestly! This man! But I did adore the remark of one of the other Patrons in the Discord server, saying that "I'm convinced my aquatic ancestors evolved eyes just so that one day I would be able to gaze upon that 'bland' face." 🤣 So extremely valid, and what a mood.)

On the line "but still the sunken stars appear/In dark and windless Mirrormere", the lighting goes back to gold one more time, reflective of one last remaining piece of hope to cling onto.

"Till Durin wakes again from sleep"

And so Gimli now continues on his journey, and that's the end of the video!

I really like this cover, I really like this video, and I of course always love making these posts! And, assuming I don't get too swamped by classes, assessments, and other real-life commitments, I'll hopefully be doing a new Voiceplay Visuals post in about a week from now, one that I've basically been waiting a whole month to do at this point! Until next time!

[cyraelin]

Based on minimal context clues about the 45th (and with other tribute claimants), I have made a prediction on the flow of the games:

Cornucopia Bloodbath

24th - Robin (7) - Oscar (To my perspective, Robin might not have a chance due to his low score of 5)

23rd - Ceres (9) - Ace (Oatley might probably go outside the cornucopia area to avoid getting in the carnage, leaving Ceres hopeless)

22nd - Mica (12) - Garrison (It's probably obvious that Mica might not survive the carnage, due to her spending most of her time at the plant section holding her knees)

21st - Oscar (4) - Yamaha (Oscar got an average score of 7, which may lead to someone with a higher score eliminating him, which would be the kill freak, Yamaha)

20th - Flora (7) - Diana (I don't think District 7 has a chance)

19th - Lyra (3) - Keelia (They're literally talking about Lyra being a bloodbath death, despite her compliments)

18th - Dean (5) - Ace (I just have that gut feeling that someone near their 18's with such a low score might not make it out of the carnage)

17th - Ace (1) - Yamaha (There's a high chance that Yamaha might kill a career, which would be Ace)

16th - Yamaha (6) - Celeste (REVENGE)

Day 1

15th - Talus (12) - dehydration; Garrison (Talus looks malnourished, so I bet he might lose hydration; Garrison then puts him out of his misery)

Day 2

14th - Vida (10) - Garrison (Training scores don't define how good they are at surviving; so I put Vida here even when she got a score of 8)

Day 4 (extreme heat wave)

13th - Oatley (9) - extreme heat wave (Oatley must be malnourished too, so I think he can't handle the dehydration and heat wave)

Day 5

12th - Keelia (4) - Chaff (Keelia and Celeste go out hunting for tributes, when Chaff and Maverick catch them off-guard)

11th - Celeste (1) - Maverick (Same reason)

Day 6

10th - Becky (5) - Garrison (I have that gut feeling that she might end up like Asterope)

Day 7 (Vultures)

9th - Orchard (11) - Diana (I just can't. Orchard might not make it to the final 6.)

8th - Miles (6) - vultures (I just have that gut feeling there might be vultures that look like steel peckers, with Miles unable to camouflage in time)

7th - Calico (8) - vultures (same reason with Miles, but even more hopeless)

Day 8

6th - Garrison (2) - Maverick & Intel (It's Intel that sets up a decoy and Maverick killing him simultaneously)

Day 9

5th - Corinne (8) - Diana (whoops. someone said that she might survive the bb and get far)

Day 10 (Force Field Contraction)

4th - Intel (3) - Diana (Diana needed to kill the remaining one by one until she wins)

3rd - Maverick (10) - Chaff (Of course he had to; he had no choice)

2nd - Diana (2) - Chaff (Diana got way too glorious, that she ends up dead)

VICTOR: yk who it is.

There might not be any vultures, but according to my research, there are place-able birds in "The Sims", like "steelpeckers," that look like vultures.

I feel your pain eliminating a few good tributes way too early, I feel it.

And note to the others who have made predictions; the way you put tributes with low scores is partially inaccurate; sometimes tributes with low scores get "kaputz" way too early, sometimes tributes with low scores make it pretty far (e.g. Foxface with a score of 5), meaning that training scores don't define a tribute's survival; it defines their skill.

Oh my, another server member! And I love that you actually found the steelpeckers because I have been considering including them too, although I don't think I can make them attack sims because they're just decorative birds.

Overall, it was an interesting read. You have some ideas that, while they're not in the actual death order, I am tempted to use, at least partially. Who knows, I might draw some inspiration from it.

(The placements will likely not change, but the deaths could.)

[nerdnag]

The time has come for me to finish my philosophy bachelor's.

...Lots of ramble below. I mostly just need to get my thoughts out, but there is a plan by the end!

For those of you who were around in May, you may recall that I struggled a lot to get a sort-of-presentable draft ready for my supervisor, hoping to be able to hand the thing in before the end of the semester, and was then completely slammed down into the dirt by said supervisor when he returned the draft a few days later with... pretty strong words about it. Few of which were positive. I couldn't bring myself to read the comments he'd left in the actual document at the time, because the email was enough to bring me to tears.

Yeah.

I mean, he wasn't wrong, it was just a bit shocking to have him go from "hey, how's it going for you, the thesis treating you well? oh and here's a link to a fun video i found on the internet" one day to almost-kinda-petty critique the next. And also, I am wholly unused to disappointing teachers, supervisors, mentors or superiors of any kind. That may sound strange considering my ADHD, which should in theory have gotten me in lots of situations like that, but my entire life, I've usually managed to make use of three things that have helped immensely to get things done well and on time: 1) special interests/obsessions/hyperfocus, 2) perfectionism and performance anxiety, and 3) high IQ. Number one has helped with motivation and creative flow; number 2 has helped motivate me through shame; and number 3 has helped me "bullshit" my way through assignments/relatively easily create a coherent and acceptable final product without doing all of the actual work I should have done (...and also making the actual work I do put in a pretty good quality).

But for some reason, these tactics didn't quite work out this time. I could come up with many different ideas about why this was, but one really important part of it was probably the fact that I've been heavily overloaded with work at my job and still haven't fully recovered from the immense stress I was under from March 2022-June 2023. I might not be able to recover from that period of my life without doing some pretty extreme changes in how I live my life, and although I've been working on trying to make some of those changes over the course of the first half of this year, it hasn't been impactful enough yet.

And so in the middle of this, of trying to recover from a backlog of both work and stress, while still being under quite a lot of stress at work (although not even remotely compared to how it was a year ago), I was also trying to write a bachelor's thesis in my spare time.

Oh, and did I mention I also took on a volunteer position in my spare time from April onwards that has demanded quite a lot of time?

(Jfc why do I do this to myself. ...Because it's fun and I am bad at saying no. That's why.)

Anyway, enough rambling about what's happened and the reasons for it - long story short, I realised I wouldn't be able to finish the thesis in time, and so I told my supervisor I'd hand it in by the end of the summer instead. And wouldn't you know it, the end of summer is closing in. :)

So with the help of my partner, I managed to finally open the document containing my supervisor's comments, and rather than lose myself in complete and utter anxiety and horror over the words, we could sort of laugh over how unnecessarily harsh he was being. (I guess my supervisor actually was a bit disappointed, since he'd seen before that I was more capable than that. I don't blame him.) I also realised that it wasn't quite as bad as I had imagined, and that my life isn't actually over and done for. So yeah. (He even had a couple of positive comments for me, actually.)

Then we made a plan for how to tackle this thing. I'm going away on the 22nd of July, so the goal right now is to have a finished draft to send to my supervisor on the 21st. Then he can read it, give comments, tell me whether he gives his approval or not, and after I've made any necessary adjustments, I can hand in an opposition version by the middle of August. Since I am currently on vacation, and I do need to actually try to wind down from work as well, I've settled on working on my thesis for 3 hours each day, starting tomorrow (the 13th), and my deadline each day is noon. If I realise after this Sunday that I need more time, I'll increase it to 4 hours every day.

It should work. I know what I need to do, and my supervisor's comments are clear. I enjoy writing and doing research and I will finish this in a way that I'm proud and happy about.

So there. That's my promise to myself. I'll climb out of this hole, fill it in with new dirt, and then start building the collapsed tower of blocks up again.

[askthedreemurr-fontfamily]

Sorry if someone has already pointed this out to you, but I noticed that most the dates are in the early-mid 21st century, and that doesn't make sense. Chara fell into the underground in 201X (as shown in the intro, which does depict Chara (Apparently some people thinks it depicts Frisk but the number of sprites on the shirt and the lack of flowers at the end prove it's Chara)) and Papyrus was probably born in a year ending with 95. (going by his username coolskeleton95)

It's implied that Papyrus isn't familiar with what a human looks like and that wouldn't make much sense if he was born in 1995, as he would have alive and probably old enough to every time a human fell into the underground before Frisk and to be familiar what a human looks like. It makes more sense if he wasn't born until after the first seven humans fell. Which would put his birth at being 2095 at earliest, and I'm pretty certain he's older than 5, so that would place Undertale in, at earliest, the 22nd century.

Sorry if someone has already bothered you about this before, I just noticed a mistake and wanted to correct it.

I'm aware Ish doesn't align with the actual dates.

I made this AU when I was ten (and did think it was Frisk at the time, I know it's not know), and didn't want to correct it. In Ish, Chara fell down in the 1910s, not 2010s.

Thank you for trying to inform me anyways, but I'm very aware of this. You don't need to correct me.

-Petra

[ploppythespaceship]

The New Prime Timeline - A Star Trek Theory

This week's episode of Strange New Worlds, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," did something that I cannot stop thinking about. This episode changed the date of the Eugenics Wars -- and not accidentally. It was clearly done very deliberately, with the writers directly referencing the original date to make it clear that they knew what they were doing. After another rewatch, I just kept asking myself -- why? Why would the writers change this?

And after much pondering and a bit of research into the franchise's history, I think I have an answer. Something that explains not only why the writers would do this, but why it's actually a smart decision -- and some of the interesting implications. It's also led me to a theory about the new batch of Trek shows, which is probably reading too far into it, but is fun to think about regardless.

TL;DR -- most of the modern Trek shows are actually set in a very slightly alternate timeline from the rest of the franchise, created by Romulans interfering with Earth's history, which follows the same general course of events but has subtle alterations.

(After poking around in the tags a bit, it seems I am not the only person who came to a similar conclusion, but I spent several hours on this post and want to share it anyway.)

Join me under the cut for far too deep of a dive into fictional history.

Defining the Events

First, I have to define what events we're even talking about.

The Eugenics Wars were a series of conflicts on Earth after a group of genetically engineered Augments seized power -- the most famous of these being Khan Noonien Singh. The Augments were eventually overthrown, with Khan and his followers escaping to the sleeper ship Botany Bay. The result of these wars was a deep-seated fear and distrust of all genetic engineering within the Federation, leading to the practice being outlawed.

World War III, comparatively, we don't know as much about. It was a devastating worldwide conflict that killed hundreds of millions, and it's intrinsically connected to the Eugenics Wars.

First Contact happened in the aftermath of World War III. When Zefram Cochrane constructed Earth's first warp-capable ship, a passing Vulcan ship caught it on their sensors and chose to make contact with the planet. This ushered in a new age for humanity, leading to world peace and the formation of Earth's socialist utopia. It was a pivotal step towards the ultimate foundation of the Federation.

Dating the Events

So when did these events take place? For the most part, this is fairly easy to pin down.

The Eugenics Wars are consistently dated to the 1990s -- specifically 1992 to 1996. This is established in the TOS episode "Space Seed" and later confirmed by the ENT episode "Borderland."

(The DS9 episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?" seems to contradict this, with Bashir stating that the Eugenics Wars were two centuries prior -- placing them in the 22nd century. However, writer Ronald D. Moore has said this was an error on his part -- he borrowed the line from "Space Seed" without accounting for the setting difference. Therefore, I feel pretty comfortable ignoring this one discrepancy outright.)

World War III is dated to the mid 21st century, with the rough dates of 2026 to 2053. The 2026 date comes from a production resource image used in the ENT episode "In a Mirror, Darkly" -- though I do think it should be taken with a grain of salt, considering it gets the First Contact date wrong. The 2053 date, on the other hand, is more certain -- both First Contact and the ENT episode "Terra Prime" state that First Contact occurred ten years after the end of the war, and First Contact has a definitive date of April 5, 2063.

The Problem

So those are the established dates -- Eugenics Wars in the 90s, World War III in the mid 21st century, and First Contact in 2063. However, a few episodes from the 90s and 2000s seem to clash with these dates.

First, we have the VOY episode "Future's End," a time-travel two-parter set in 1996. This would put it either during or directly after the Eugenics Wars, but the episode has absolutely no mention of this. This was intentional -- producer Jeri Taylor stated, "I think those of us who entered into the Nineties realize that the Eugenics Wars simply aren't happening and we chose not to falsify our present, which is a very weird thing to do and be true to it." They also didn't want to alienate casual viewers by having to explain the Eugenics Wars to them.

Second, we have the ENT episode "Carpenter Street," another time-travel episode, this time set in 2004. This is still close enough to the Eugenics Wars to expect seeing some of the fallout, yet there is none visible.

These two are easy enough to shrug off, however. It's possible that the wars just weren't relevant to the story, as humanity was trying to get back to normal. It's also possible that America wasn't involved in the Eugenics Wars -- Khan ruled over Asia and the Middle East, after all, while these episodes take place in San Francisco and Detroit, respectively.

(The DS9 episode "Past Tense" may also come to mind, as it's another time travel story, but I think it actually fits in pretty well. It's set in 2024, and shows the United States on the brink of a massive sociopolitical conflict -- it isn't hard to imagine that they're just a few years away from a worldwide war.)

The thing is, these episodes are running into the same problem -- the dates for these events were settled on decades ago, by writers who never conceived that the franchise would continue for this long. What was once a hypothetical future is now an alternate present. Writers are looking to tell stories that reference and relate to and even directly show our modern day, but they can't do that when they're beholden to these events. And they're put in an awkward spot. Do they lean into these established events, and keep showing modern day Earth as a battleground, and risk losing that direct relatability by not showing the world as we know it?

The answer for a lot of these writers is clearly no. These older shows all managed to just dance around the issue. But it seems like the writers of the current Trek shows have a different strategy in mind.

The Theory

Prior to "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," there are two moments in modern (post-Discovery) Trek that contradict the established dates for these events pretty hard. Ironically, both episodes were released on the same day.

In the PIC season 2 finale, "Farewell," Adam Soong pulls out a file folder labeled Project Khan -- this is happening in the year 2024, which is obviously not right. Khan would have been created prior to the 90s. However, in a vacuum this could be excused -- the folder doesn't necessarily mean that Khan has yet to be created. Soong could just be looking at an older file. But it is an odd moment.

Then, in the SNW premiere, "Strange New Worlds," Pike is showing images of Earth's history to the people of Kiley 279, while stating, "This is Earth in our 21st century. Before everything went wrong. [...] Our conflict also started with a fight for freedoms. We called it the Second Civil War, then the Eugenics Wars, and finally just World War III." This statement contradicts the dating of the Eugenics Wars in the 90s, and it heavily implies that the Eugenics Wars and World War III are simply different names for the same conflict.

Which finally brings us back to "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," which tackles this entire mess head-on. La'an and an alternate universe Kirk are sent back in time, to around the year 2022, knowing that they must prevent a change to the timeline. They learn that Romulans from the future have been manipulating Earth's history to slow its progress -- but this isn't what's causing the timeline change they must prevent. The actual change is the death of Khan, who is now still a child in the 2020s due to the Romulan meddling.

As Sera, the undercover Romulan, explains, "It's almost as if time itself is pushing back, and events reinsert themselves. And all this was supposed to happen back in 1992." It sounds as though minor timeline changes don't matter to the overall trajectory of history -- details may change, but as long as the big picture remains more or less the same, the outcome will be the same. Only a massive change, like the absolute prevention of the Eugenics War, causes enough of a ripple to fundamentally alter Federation history. Which is of course what Sera plans to do, and what La'an ultimately prevents, preserving the timeline.

The thing is, the timeline she preserved... I still don't think it's the original timeline. The Romulans have still slowed Earth's progress, and delayed the Eugenics Wars -- if Khan is a child in the 2020s, then the wars likely wouldn't happen til perhaps the 2040s or 50s. This would cause them to run into World War III, and likely alter that conflict as well. It might even delay First Contact -- who knows? I think these changes are enough to cause a slightly altered timeline. The Federation still exists, the same characters still inhabit the same roles, and so on, but it's now a world with a slightly different history. And I think that a lot of the newer Trek shows -- Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds, and really any others that they want to include -- are intended to take place in this timeline. This would explain Pike's speech to Kiley 279, as well as the Project Khan folder -- Khan really hadn't been created yet.

More importantly, this slightly altered timeline officially undoes the problem that Trek writers have been running into with time travel stories for decades. The hypothetical future of the Eugenics Wars and World War III is once again a hypothetical future -- it doesn't need to interfere with any stories set in or referencing our modern day.

And if you lean even further into this alternate timeline idea -- which I will call the New Prime Timeline -- things start to make even more sense. For one thing, it could explain why the technology of the new shows looks so different when compared to the older shows it's meant to be similar to. Out-of-universe, this was done because sticking to the 1960s designs would seem cheesy and dated to a modern audience, who have a quite different view of the future -- updating the design just makes sense. But this could offer an in-universe solution, as well. If Romulans were affecting Earth history, and these massive wars that devastated the planet happened decades later, then the development of Earth's technology would be quite different. Future technology would then have a more modern look and feel.

It could even explain minor mismatches between The Original Series and its modern prequels, Discovery and Strange New Worlds. Whenever a character isn't quite acting like themselves, or an event doesn't quite line up, it could simply be a result of this New Prime Timeline.

Now, I honestly don't think the writers would ever go that far with it. I think they fully intend for their shows to be in the same universe and timeline as the older ones. But I also think they intend to stick to this altered Eugenics Wars date going forward, and the ripple effects of that decision are really interesting to think about.