#i am an apologist

[emergncymed]

brain not want to write so bullet points

- simon meets monalisa like right before he decides to make abouthat

- or beginning of senior year but probably before

- monalisa new student at school and it's so weird she is virtually unsearchable and it makes him insane. no pictures of her online, and the only ones that do exist she doesn't even look at the camera or they're blurry. she has an instagram @monalikethepainting

- she moved from northern california! she's in a band! she plays electric guitar! she's artistic! she paints, writes, draws, sings, dances, yearbook! she's like all the muses in one!!

- simon knows she's coming and looks!! and digs anything he can about her but he's mad. he can't find anything!! only school journals about a band with her in it named hopeless romantics and it's so annoying he complains to janae and janae is like leave her alone she's good and simon is like no she has to be shitty everyone is. also what kind of name is monalisa like she's a fucking painting

- but he meets her and they have lunch together because he wants to know clues to look for her but she's so. nice and offers her lunch and they talk about having a peanut allergy "is that peanut butter? thanks but i'm okay" "it's not. i actually have a billion allergies" "oh okay. weird you'd offer me your lunch" . also okay maybe she is a painting. whatever. shut up

- either she knows absolutely nothing or she hears things and is like oh well. i don't know i've known you for like five minutes i think you're okay i guess . i do hear you're an asshole though but i don't think so

- they have journalism together and they talk sometimes. it's sickening now nice she is but it's such a genuine change of pace to have someone so disconnected from the 'typical high school experience' of being online

- but simon is horribly depressed and has been. janae knows this and also thinks it's annoying how bright and sunshiney mona is but simon was somehow less insufferable after journalism sometimes. and janae feels like she has been talking him off the edge for years

- "i literally can't find anything about her. it pisses me off" "why can't you fathom every nice person isn't fake" "because it just can't be right"

- mona invites him to poetry reads or to hang out at her house and usually no one is home because they work. they watch movies or she teaches him to play music or they write. she absolutely insists she isn't in love with him but she is. her sister is a senior and her boyfriend also hates simon (threatens to kick in his teeth regularly) (her sister's name is ginerva. monalisas full name is monalisa demoiselle hughes. humiliating)

- she is his biggest cheerleader and hates that she makes him think. (abouthat route) asking him why he does it and why it matters so much because high school is so small and trivial but he hasn't known anything else. he was never popular but when he wrote people hated him. and he's been so mentally unwell. and then there's her. but he can't fathom the idea of admitting it out loud

- he abandons abouthat partially mostly because his time is. occupied with her and he isn't around other people (in the route he does keep it or do it)

- people bug him about not writing anymore and he says he's busy. he picks up guitar and sings with her and their little band is just the romantics. he says because he doesn't feel hopeless with her. they're just """"good friends""""" . she tells him she felt the same way at a point where he wanted to die like he did. it makes them both really unwell and. it makes him mostly unwell because living past high school feels surreal and now its summer.

- summer to san franciso. mona apologizes in advance because its gross but they go to san jose and santa cruz and meet her other bandmates. weird. he feels out of place but in the right place at the same time. everything feels right!!!???

- simon and mona senior year. homecoming. janae clowns on simon because they match. janae warms up to mona but only because they're polar opposites. she never wears darker colors but they wear dark green and people are like god who is this guy. is this not the same guy that leaked the post about everyone cheating on each other or started fights . homecoming just as friends. it's getting harder now.

- simon mona talent show with their little band. simon mona spending more and more time at each others houses. mona's sister's boyfriend no longer wants to kick his teeth in (most of the time). they're so grossly comfortable with each other it's second nature to follow each other home but more often than not they're at her house because his house feels cold and unwelcoming . he sleeps on their couch because her sister would blow up a building if they shared a bed

- janae is like dude. are you okay and he's like no oh my god i have not felt love or compassion from anyone except you and you're gay. this girl is ruining my life and i can't make it stop because she makes me wanna throw up and delete social media and never touch it again and lay in the sun and think of nothing else and i can't imagine killing myself now because i don't know how i can think of leaving her and our little band and heaven knows i'm miserable now because she's all i can think of

- janae clowns on him. edgelord . please tell her you like her. he's like no that's the problem i am in love with her and it makes me nauseated

- no. i'm good. what the fuck do you mean you're good you are not well simon.

- abouthat (if that's the route) gets wiped off the face of the earth and he like clears his entire social media and it's similar to mona's. no notifications. he doesn't bother with anyone's business. people still beef with him. but. he's like yeah that was douchey. i thought it was better to have people know the truth rather than not and i didn't approach it right. (i also think this would be the apology tour if he kept it a secret that he wrote for abouthat and she found out but this is his enlightened apology tour)

- mona simon applying to colleges together. haha what if we went to the same one. haha i would be so happy. haha. ha.

- senior trip to disneyland!!!! ahahah!! janae is like not thrilled to third wheel but . she's like just tell her. oh my god you both make me sick.

- simon says no thank you. fireworks with mona before they go. i'm really glad i met you. i'm glad i met you too. they both feel it but no one will take the plunge. they fall asleep on each other on the bus

- prom prom prom. they know theyre going to the same college. they opened their acceptance letters at the same time. prom!! she convinces him to wear florals and they look so cute together. janae can come too. she wants to throw up. cheesy prom pictures. she keeps asking when is the time right and he's like i don't know.

- they drop janae home late as hell and he comes to drop her off and shes like. just stay. it'll be like any of our other sleepovers. but it really isn't and they share her bed and fall asleep face to face holding hands. wake up. oh my god

- he leaves because he's like dude fuck this is too close. graduation is soon. we have exams and i cannot admit to her i like her. she wakes up really sad because she can't admit to him because it'll ruin their friendship. things are weird. janae is like why are you being emo again dude what the fuck

- i slept at her house and held hands and fell asleep talking about our feelings but i don't want to fuck it up. bro you are fucking it up right now

- finals and exams. nervous glances in journalism looking at each other. she is SAD. sad. like she cried sad. she cries easily and he knows that from movies and talks but she looks like she had been crying for days. janae bullies his ass again. go fix this or i'm gonna put my foot up your ass. ok fuck

- meet me at our spot. cafe bookstore called writers block. she doesn't answer he just shows up snd hopes she comes. he waits. and waits. granted he was early. she comes and she just looks sick. hey. hey. are you okay? i don't know. why did you leave? i was scared. scared of what? waking up there with me? no. then what simon. what. i don't know. i have never felt cared about the way you and your scary ass sister snd her boyfriend care about me. there's janae but you know. yes she's gay. i know simon.

- okay well. you make things not hopeless and i really do think i was going to kill myself and now i don't or can't imagine doing it now. and it's weird if you told freshman me i'd be in some two person band or picking colleges and going to dances i'd tell you you're fucking insane and that isn't who i am because everyone is fake and nobody can be honest. but you were. you were honest. and nice. and shared your stupid edamame with me and told me you were allergic to peanuts. our epipens looked the same. i thought you were too good to be true and i think i love you

- i love you. i hate that you left and i've been waiting for over a year to tell you i liked you or loved you because i didn't want you to think of me differently if you didn't like me that way. i was sick to my stomach you left without a word.

- i know. i'm sorry. i love you.

- i love you.

- graduation and college!!!!!

[xmascritter]

Many gravity falls fans, circa 2016: OH MY GOD WHY DID MABEL HAND OVER THE RIFT. SHE'S SO DUMB, SHE'S THE WORST, WHY WOULD SHE EVEN DO THAT?! MABEL'S NOT A GOOD PERSON!

Alex Hirsch, circa 2024: **deep inhale**

SHE'S A CHILD OF IMPENDING DIVORCE AND IS GONNA HAVE TO GO BACK TO THAT

[human-for-tonight]

if your dad (1) goads the king into challenging him to a fight, (2) accepts the king's challenge to fight, (3) insults the king's daughter that he's super protective of, and (4) hits the king first in the fight then I don't think you can be that mad when the king accidentally one punch kills your dad. that's kinda on your dad for getting into that situation and I think he might've had some underlying health issues that contributed to the single punch instantly killing him

[lafamilledelioncourt]

The heartbreaking thing about a lot of viewers who haven't consumed the books is they don't completely see is WHY Lestat is near sobbing when he asks "Did you hurt yourself?"

Yes, for general reasons like he loves him and what not. But, don't forget, he also said, "I gave you to Armand. You tell me if that is saving."

In TVL, you get ALOT more of the Lestat/Nicky relationship. You see them bond, fall in love, and then Lestat have to contend with that love once he's kidnapped and turned.

Nicky does not take the vampirism very well. Nicky is a very desolate sort of character. Religious trauma to the max, and then throw in family trauma, gay repression, and then vampirism.

When Lestat leaves Paris with Gabrielle in TVL, he essentially leaves Nicky with Armand. He entrusts him into his care in a way, and Nicky chooses the fire. He can't endure as they call it. Naturally, it breaks Lestat's heart.

One of Armand's jobs as coven leader was to cull weak vampires who can't survive on their own or endure. So there is definitely room for S3 for them to show Armand pushing for Nicky to accept the flame.

With Louis, Lestat doesn't fight back in Paris and lets Louis go with Armand. Once again, he's entrusting someone he loves to Armand. Even if it's very much unwilling, but I'll give it to him for once for respecting a choice.

When Armand calls out to him in San Francisco, it's Lestat's worst nightmare. Louis is hurt, Lestat can't get to him. Armand either has allowed him to be hurt, hurt him himself, or did not protect him as Lestat wants him protected.

It is heavily implied Lestat thinks Louis died in San Francisco. In the books, Armand tells both of them the other died to keep them apart. Once again, the person Lestat loves is dead because of Armand.

Lestat, in his mind, has ultimately failed Louis, and so he falls apart as we see him do in 2x08. When Louis shows up, he cannot believe he's there initially. It's very clear he's only half there mentally. He has to ask him if it was all real and if he'd really been hurt because he has to know if it is really Louis. It's a question you'd ask the ghost of the person you love, but Louis CAN answer him.

Needless to say, please read the books if you're up for it. They are a riot.

[aq2003]

twelfth night main plot: haha bisexual love triangle that is gay in both directions! haha mistaken identity and gender fuckery haha

malvolio side plot:

[h4unted-d4rling]

People find Pyramid Head hot and nobody bats an eye. But when I say I find Bill Cipher hot? Society!!! Society calls me weird!!!!!!

[lullamiine]

random headcanons (but I haven't finished reading the light novel yet ono)

[jacodraws]

remember when this arc was about having little sandwiches at cafes...

[mermaidteeth1111]

Ugh I love this scene so much!

I know Adora has so much inner turmoil. She does love Catra, she always has, even in her worst most horrific moments, she’s never stopped loving her. And for that she feels so fucking guilty. She bares the burden of all the people Catra has hurt even though she did everything she could to stop it. Still, she sees the good in Catra and she fears no one else will.

At the same time, Adora has never allowed herself to want anything for herself. It’s always been about serving those around her.

So it is some serious character development when Adora admits that she wants to go back for her. I think that’s when she starts to accept her true feelings for the first time and heal. 🥲

[nibeul]

uncle aaron in spiderverse fucks me up so badly because here is a man who has done terrible, unforgivable things, and he loves his nephew very much

[legendoftherisingtide]

i don’t wanna start shit but i think it’s really interesting how good omens fandom is saying “death to the author. so it’s fine” and then hate harry potter fans

EDIT: i do NOT want ANY terfs/transphobes/radfems/bigots see this as an invitation to defend the actions of jkr or the bigotry within Harry Potter.

this is a critique of fandom behaviour and the hypocrisy that lies within it. this came from a point of frustration where people try to justify why it’s okay to financially support one creator while also demonizing another group for doing the same (to be clear, i want NEITHER to be financially supported)

have empathy for your fellow human being, that’s the bottom line. you are now coping with the reality of something you enjoy being created by a bad person.

now you must give yourselves the grace that you failed to give others who went through a similar situation. and also hold yourselves to the standards you deem to be morally correct.

[milkhorns]

💫🔥💫

[starcurtain]

I wish everyone collectively understood aventurine’s character like you…things would be so much easier! I genuinely don’t understand how people keep getting his motivations wrong??? Could it be because some of the most popular Aven fanfics were written prior to his release? That could have contributed to some of the takes we tend to see about him…thoughts?

I struggled all day to come up with a concise way to answer this and couldn't think of one, so here, have a long-winded ramble:

I don't think early fic writers have much impact in the situation with Aventurine's character now, since most people can look at when a story was posted and go "Oh, this was before we had ____ information."

I think that Aventurine's problem is being a male character in a gacha game. Gacha game characters are designed to sell. Hoyo can sell female characters very, very easily. Give her huge tits and a visible underwear strap and you're good to go. I love all my guy friends, but I'm not gonna sugarcoat it: straight men are not the hardest audience to please. Hit a particular fetish (feet, spandex, dommy mommy), and you're gucci.

Nah, we all know why Jade's trailer is Like That.™

Male characters in gacha are harder to sell because women as consumers are a little harder to predict. Does every woman want a tall, ripped hunk? Shit, no, small cute boyish models like Aventurine are selling better now? Why?! Would a bad boy be more popular than a nice guy??? It's harder to account for women's tastes, especially because they are often (a little) less visually-oriented.

Hoyo is good at what they do though, and they've figured out that male characters sell very well when they possess at least one of two specific traits:

Endearing vulnerability/helplessness

Gay ship tease

Give a character both, like Aventurine? They might as well be printing money.

That sound you hear is Hoyo's stock prices rising.

So, from the very beginning, Hoyo is incentivized to create a character that appeals to people, a character people will want to crack their wallets open for. And they achieved this, first and foremost, by giving Aventurine traits that female players (in particular, but men too), find especially appealing: emotional and physical vulnerability.

We see Aventurine's pain. We sympathize with his grief. We identify with his struggle to make meaning of his difficult life. He's our woobie, blorbo, babygirl, whatever the hell they're calling it now.

He can't hide his suffering anymore. He's on the very edge. He's a dude in distress. He's surrounded by enemies! He misses his mama! He's been betrayed! No one understands him like you do, dear player!

The ultimate feeling evoked is: He needs to be saved.

When people talk about male power fantasies, I think they forget that women can experience them too, and "Emotionally vulnerable man that only I (or my favorite character) can fix" is actually a female power fantasy.

And from there it's really easy, right: the people who shell out cash to buy warps for their harmed-husbando feel like they've saved him; the people who are into mlm ships look for the nearest hot dude to be the savior Ratio was waiting for his time lol.

Morally and intellectually, this type of deep-down-golden-hearted, emotionally-wounded male character is very easy to digest. There is nothing to dislike about this type of character or role in the story: this character is a good guy who has just gone through so many terrible situations, whose victim status makes him endearing, and whose lack of agency means that any of the questionable or downright bad things he does are always the result of someone else forcing his hand, and never something he would have chosen himself.

His motivations are always clear and consistent: get free, heal, and live happily ever after.

Insert the Wreck-It Ralph meme: "Do people assume all your problems got solved when a big strong man showed up?" But to be fair, a big strong man did kind of solve Aventurine's problem, so--

Anyway, it's simple. It's straightforward. Morally, it's pretty cut and dry, black and white: Aventurine is our hero, which means everyone dictating the course of his miserable life is evil.

Hoyo is not remotely discouraging people from literally buying into this emotional appeal.

And trust me, I get it. I'll be the first to admit that hurt-comfort is its own entire genre in fandom because it is so appealing. People eat up Aventurine's tragic backstory like candy! The idea of watching a character go through hell at the hands of bad guys just to finally find a happy end is like the definition of everyone's favorite story.

In fact... people love Aventurine's suffering so much, they have invented whole new ways for him to suffer that aren't even in the game.

This is where we get all the headcanons that Aventurine was a sex slave, every single person he meets hates him because of his race, the Stonehearts are executioners holding knives to his throat, Jade enslaved him to the IPC with a lifelong contract, his material possessions belong to the company, the IPC is forcing him to take only the most dangerous missions where he is being required by his evil jailers to continually put his life on the line... You name it and I promise you, I can find a fanfic where Aventurine suffers from it. 😂

Bro can't even sleep in on his day off; life is so hard for this man.

Being serious: if the game is telling us that Aventurine is a victim... Why not make him the perfect victim?

Why not envision an Aventurine with no freedom, who bears no responsibility for any of the horrible situations he is in or any of the dubious things he does?

It's so natural to like that version of Aventurine, so appealing to see a totally powerless underdog use his own wits and charms to claw his way up to freedom. Or, if you're the kind who really relishes angst: It's even appealing to see Aventurine lose more. To delight in fics where he loses his wealth, where the IPC punishes him for past crimes while he's powerless to stop them... (I assure you, this is many people's cup of tea and the fanfics prove it!)

Ultimately, there's nothing wrong with liking characters who are exactly this straightforward! It's completely fine to embrace characters that are intentionally written to be morally above-board, whose primary role in the story is to generate angst by being a good person who suffers, or those characters who never show unlikable traits, bad decisions, or contradictory actions.

The problem is that that's just not who the game is telling us Aventurine is.

Hoyo may be capitalizing off people who love to envision poor Aventurine still living his life as a slave... But the game also needs to tell a complicated enough story overall to appeal to people who don't care about this specific husbando--Aventurine's role in the actual game's plot has to be interesting enough for almost everyone to appreciate it, not just Aventurine's simp squad. (Don't get mad, I'm in the simp squad with you.)

So his character doesn't stop at just being a pure-hearted victim who is still waiting to be saved.

Aventurine is not that easy to label, and I think the biggest struggle in this character's fandom right now is between people who prefer the even-more-angsty, still-a-slave Aventurine versus people who want a morally grey, self-destructive character instead.

To me personally, while I greatly understand the appeal of fanon!Aventurine and the joy of a really juicy angst fic where characters lose it all, I think that missing out on the depth that canon is suggesting would be a real loss on the fandom's part.

The character motivations that Aventurine shows in the game are complicated. They cancel each other out. They're basically self-harm! He makes almost every situation he's in worse for himself--on purpose.

He is a good person, but also a person who has done unspeakable things. He does have morals, but he's not above allowing those who don't have them to use him to their advantage.

He's both the victim and the victor. He's his own worst enemy. He's a lost little boy who's been making terrible decisions for himself since he was like eight years old, and a grown ass man who is barely managing to fake his way through an existence that destiny is not letting him quit.

This kind of character is a lot harder to embrace. He's done things that most people would find appalling--like willingly joining up with the organization that let his entire race be massacred. He's invented a whole new peacock persona to frivolously flaunt riches he doesn't even care about (Poison Dart Frog Self-Defense 101). He actively plays into racist stereotypes about his people to manipulate others through their preconceived expectations. He's made a mockery of his mother's and sister's hopes and dreams by endlessly trying to throw his own life away.

He has flaws! He bet everything he had on a ploy without doing his homework to find out if the people he was risking his life for were even still around. (Maybe he already knew, and couldn't bear to admit it, even to himself.) He's intentionally off-putting and obnoxious to everyone he meets (Poison Dart Frog Self-Defense 102). He terrifies everyone who gets close to him by (seemingly) carelessly throwing himself into the jaws of death without the slightest provocation.

He knowingly allows the IPC to exploit his power and talents for profit. Did everyone forget that his role in the Strategic Investment Department is asset liquidation?! Like, his actual day-to-day job is ruining people's lives. Canonically, Aventurine kills people when his deals go bad.

His motivations change off-screen in two lines of story text. We're told in one line that his biggest reason for joining the IPC was to make money to save the Avgin, then in the next line we find out that's impossible. And... then what? What motivations does he even have now? The whole point of his character arc from 2.0-2.1 is that he was on the edge of giving in to utter despair and nihilism because he couldn't even perceive a single reason to stay alive. He has no purpose in life before Penacony, and that didn't start with the Stonehearts at all??

People keep saying Aventurine was held in the IPC by golden handcuffs, but how do you tie down someone for whom profit is meaningless? What can you offer to a man whose only desire is to bring back something already lost forever? How do you imprison someone whose only definition of freedom is, canonically, death?

Working for the Stonehearts is obviously not healthy. But that's why Aventurine was doing it--because taking dangerous missions allowed him to put himself at risk. The job that he originally pursued hoping to save his people became a direct means to self-harm, and the IPC's only real role in that was just happily profiting off the results.

The journal entries for Aventurine's quests are there deliberately to tell the player what is on his mind, and none of it has to do with escaping from his job:

Like... Work is the least of this man's problems.

At really the risk of rambling on too long now, he's also just a massive walking contradiction:

Aventurine is among the most explicitly religious characters in the game, yet he's one of the only people in the entire game that we have ever seen actively question his people's aeon.

You might be tempted to think Aventurine's risky gambles with his life as an adult are a result of giving up after finding out about the Avgin massacre... Butttt no, Hoyo makes sure to tell us that even at knee-high in the Sigonian desert, Kakavasha was already willing to risk himself in a fight to the death against monsters because even back then he found his own life to have less value than a single memento.

He's the "chosen one" who will lead his people to prosperity... except they're all dead.

He's explicitly suicidal... andddd also a pathstrider of Preservation.

He wants to die... He doesn't want to die. He wants to make it end, yet goes to staggering lengths to continually survive. (Every plan risks his life on purpose--but every plan's win condition is also to live.) He life is the chip tossed down, but his hand is trembling beneath the table. When faced with an otherwise unsurvivable situation, Aventurine literally became a winner of the Hunger Games. He beat other innocent people to death with his own chain-bound hands just to come out alive.

He knows the IPC failed the Avgin and left them to die... and he still willingly sought out a position of power in their organization. Maybe he really is after revenge... but maybe not.

He starts his journey in the IPC with a truly noble goal in mind: to help his people using his newfound wealth and power. He's a good guy who did genuinely want to save the Avgin and repay all those who helped him. But once it became clear he was too late, once it was obvious he would have no use at all for that monetary wealth and power he risked his life to get... What did he do with it? Unlike Jade, we don't see him over here donating to orphanages. (I'm not that heartless; I'm sure he does actually do a lot of good things with his money on the side, but the point is that the game does not show us that--it shows us, over and over again, Aventurine putting on a wasteful, over-indulgent persona toward wealth. We've supposed to feel how meaningless money is to him, how meaningless everything is becoming to him.)

He outright refuses to use underhanded tactics or to cheat at gambles, which is meant to show us that's he's more morally upright than his coworkers. There's an entire exchange where he says that he'll never stoop to using manipulation the way Opal does. But... he doesn't have any issue fulfilling Opal's exact agenda. He was never remotely morally conflicted about denying the Penaconians their freedom by dragging Penacony back under IPC control.

He's willing to risk his own life, which is one thing--but he's also willing to risk other people's well-being. Topaz accuses him of constantly egging their clients on into dangerous situations; we've actively seen him shove a gun into Ratio's hands and pull the trigger with no care for how Ratio would feel about that on their very first meeting... Dragging the Astral Express crew into the entire Penacony plan in the first place was exceedingly dangerous...

To me, I just think it's vital to understand his character through the lens of these contradictions because they demonstrate the extreme polarity of Aventurine's life: from rags to riches, from powerless to empowered by multiple aeons, from willing to kill to survive to killing himself... He has quite literally lived a life of "all or nothing," and while he is the victim of many terrible situations out of his control, his arc as a character involves facing the truth of himself and the future his own actions are hurtling him toward.

Frankly, the Aventurine that canon is suggesting is a little annoying. You want to grab him by the shoulders, shake him, and say "Why are you like this?!" And he won't even have an answer for you, because he doesn't even know why he's still alive.

In the end, to me, this is so, so much more interesting. I can read an endless supply of hurt-comfort fics where Aventurine escapes the evil IPC and Ratio is there to fill the void in his life with the power of love and catcakes and be a perfectly happy clam online, but I want canon to continue to serve us this incredible mess of a man who constantly takes one step forward and two steps back.

Who is fully aware of his role as a cog in the grotesque profit-wheel of cosmic capitalism and still manages to say he never changed from the rags-wearing desert rat of the Sigonian wastes.

Who over and over again flirts with nihility but, ultimately, even if he has to wrest it from the grip of the gods themselves with bloody, chain-bound hands, chooses life.

[caleohateclub]

the epic fandom:

[stinkyeggbow]

''I could fill oceans with what I feel for you''

[wisteriagoesvroom]

*stands on soap box* oscar piastri is sexy actually! he is very dedicated and focused and talented! just because he was quiet in his first year thrown into the insane media circus and with two big personalities (lando and zak, not to mention the other 19 drivers + team dynamics on the grid) doesn't mean he doesn't have a personality! he is tactical and smart actually! he has that cool composure that mclaren really needs right now! he has the insane juniors track record! he said "fuck it" to $4mn of Alpine investment and advocated for himself to have the best possible f1 drive! he gets this look in his eyes when he's determined that is extremely compelling! he drives like a capybara with a toothache and the only antidote is him winning! his eyebrows are cute when he does that frowny thing! his story is in the making and he is writing it right now and we have the privilege of watching! *alarms sound* *is dragged offstage*