#i did sorta put the two readings on the same post so i can see the confusion

[pouletaulait]

"Do you even intend to quit – not really" 🧐

After reading Chapter 58 I thought about this exchange between Yashiro and Kage for a bit:

At first sight this might suggest that Yashiro actually considers staying in the Yakuza. I think based on what we know and how this statement is framed though, I come to the conclusion that this suggests the exact opposite in fact; Yashiro’s reluctance to stay in the Yakuza shines through yet again.

Granted, in the above scene Yashiro does in fact say that he doesn’t really want to quit BUT what he said before that stood out to me. Confronted by Kage about how he’s still affiliated with the Yakuza he first diverts his question by saying „don’t say things as if you’re an ordinary person“; I think this points out that Yashiro doesn’t like to think of himself as that different from Kage (or „civilian“ people in general, probably), he’s sorta putting the two of them onto the same level… outwardly he appears to lower Kage’s „status“ as a law-abiding citizen to his own, but, objectively speaking they both know that Kage is not in fact a shady person (at least from what I can tell, after all, he doesn’t appear to be affiliated with any „shady“ people apart from Yashiro and Kage always complains about Yashiro dragging him into these affairs). So, what this ends up doing is lifting Yashiro’s status up (I hope I’m phrasing this in a way that makes sense). Anyway, I think what this conveys is that Yashiro still looks down on Yakuza members (he’s definitely not proud of being one) and that he’s still not fully comfortable with people viewing him as a member or even acknowledging his Yakuza-status himself. He then goes on to say that it’s not easy to leave. Now, this could suggest a) that it has been on his mind (which we already know to be true) and b) that he feels the need to justify the fact that he’s still affiliated with them. Only when Kage questions him again Yashiro finally says that he doesn’t REALLY want to leave. His way of phrasing it doesn’t sound super convincing and he probably says that to get Kageyama off his case and also because, if he is honest with himself, he still can’t see himself actually taking that step after all. I know I might be reading too much into this but it stood out to me that Yashiro didn’t just throw Kage a snarky comment like „why the hell wouldn’t I still be a member?“, in the same vein as his first comment „what kind of upstanding guy runs a shady illegal casino?“ Instead he is somewhat opening up to Kage in his own way.

Anyway, this conversation is yet another puzzle piece that plays into the theory I’ve had from the beginning, that Yashiro will leave the Yakuza eventually. From all we know so far, Yashiro has never really come to terms with being a Yakuza and has generally a very negative opinion of them. The topic of Yashiro struggling to accept this role and the re-occurring questioning of what makes a Yakuza, who’s a good Yakuza, who’s not fit to be one, etc. strongly suggests to me that this is an integral part of this story as a whole and is most probably gonna be relevant to the conclusion of the story. It’s made clear that Yashiro never wanted to be Yakuza in the first place and he’s still reluctant, like… some 20 long years later 😯. I don't want to include too many quotes here because there are far too many instances that could be mentioned and this post is already getting too loooong, as you'll see 🫣, but there are some I'd like to mention. First I'd like to point to one quote from Yashiro that leads me to believe that to him being a Yakuza is not in fact his real identity but rather a role he is playing. He says to Ryuuzaki in Chapter 5:

He sees himself more as an actor rather than a real Yakuza and interestingly enough, that’s what he had aspired to become as a teenager: (aspire might be too strong of a word here but I think in a way he really did):

Now, I know that I'm arguing that Yashiro is talking about himself here ,even though, he's not just referring to himself in his comment to Ryuuzaki but the fact that he talks about Yakuza being just like actors in general and then further generalizing his statement to „people spend their lives acting“ still plays nicely into Yashiro's perception of his own life which will become relevant in a bit *bear with me*; it suggests that he thinks that people are not really free to be themselves because they have to play their role which emphasizes his passive approach to life in general „I have lived my life accepting it all“ (I reference this quote further down).

Every time Misumi tries to drag him in deeper, Yashiro is acting completely reluctant. We first saw this in the very beginning of the story when Misumi and Yashiro talk about the succession and Misumi says to Yashiro „be mine once more“ (Yashiro doesn’t want to give him an answer), when we learn through Hirata’s secret recordings about the details of another conversation between Misumi and Yashiro in Chapter 14 (Yashiro still doesn’t give a straight answer) and we see it again in Chapter 36 when Misumi basically says to Yashiro „don’t forget what you are“ after the time-skip (Yashiro distracts Misumi from the conversation by provoking him). He doesn't agree to anything but he never outright refuses either (he's completely passive).

His reluctance is further demonstrated by the fact that after the time-skip Yashiro’s not really a full member anymore. He used what happened after Hirata’s attack on him to the best of his abilities in a way to distance himself from the group but he couldn’t take the last step. But this clearly points to Yashiro wanting to get out for good.

I think it’s noteworthy that the only time he completely rejects the idea of quitting (as far as I remember), is in Chapter 27 when he speaks to Ryuuzaki in the back of the police car:

This stands out to me because he says this after he’d made up his mind that he was gonna die. So why keep fighting it at this point? (I’m so glad our cute boy is not in such a dark place anymore 😭)

Yashiro has also tried to keep Doumeki out of this world because he cares so much about him. Unfortunately, he wasn’t successful but the statement Yashiro made about the Yakuza in Chapter 22 becomes relevant again, now that Doumeki got a back tattoo (which as we all know made Yashiro furious beyond belief). Yashiro said something along the lines of „do you have any idea how many upright citizens walk around out there with full body tattoos? And how many Yakuza wear normal business suits?“( I hope this translation is somewhat accurate . I had to take it from the official German translation which is not the most exact at times but the only English translation I could find, didn’t seem to be correct 😅) Basically he’s saying, it’s never too late to quit. This was some unfortunate foreshadowing if you ask me but it gives me hope that Doumeki’s status as a full-fledged member and him getting a tattoo won’t prevent them from leaving the Yakuza world behind.

I just cannot imagine Yoneda-sensei making this aspect such an integral part of Yashiro’s character and bringing this topic up again and again if it isn’t gonna be relevant in the end… I know it might be a red herring but I really doubt it at this point. I read the manga as a story of a traumatized survivor of SA finding happiness in life (yes, I’m very hopeful that both Doumeki and Yashiro are gonna make it out alive because anything else would be too cruel🫣). For Yashiro the Yakuza is a hindrance to his freedom and happiness because it’s not who he truly is as a person and as long as he stays he’s going to be under Misumi’s control and Misumi is gonna try to use him, just like his stepfather and all the other men who SAed him when he was a teenager used him. In a way he’s still this powerless child getting used by others. He was an easy target for Misumi because Yashiro was „completely indifferent about himself“ as Misumi put it. This indifference stems from the abuse he suffered. When Yashiro got shot he remembered the SA and he says: „I have lived my life accepting it all. I’ve felt no sorrow. I’ve blamed no one. My life can’t be said to be anyone else’s fault.“ This expresses exactly what Misumi saw in Yashiro: He’s so broken that he doesn't even feel anger, he is beyond caring about himself, his well-being, his future. Putting it differently; he doesn’t love himself and he doesn’t think that he deserves love or a different, better life. This is why he doesn’t really put up a fight against this fate. He’s still passively accepting everything.

To sum this up, it’s mainly his trauma that prevents him from quitting, just like it keeps him from being able to accept Doumeki’s love. Since I believe this story is about Yashiro overcoming his trauma and finding happiness, I think it would only be fitting that once he’ll be able to accept that he is deserving of love, hope and happiness, he’d finally find the courage to take control of his own fate and break away from the path that he felt forced to follow.

And yes, I'm aware that quitting won't be that easy because of Misumi's obsession over Yashiro BUT even though I don't like Misumi too much and I think he's a creep, he's in his own way quite lenient when it comes to Yashiro, I have to give him that. So, I have high hopes that he actually meant what he said about "caring about Yashiro as a person" and will let him leave without too much trouble.

Of course we don’t know much about Doumeki’s plans for his future but if Yashiro and him end up together (which is what I’m hoping for) he’ll most likely go along with Yashiro’s wishes, I guess 😉 And I know, sweet Nanahara would be disappointed but I bet Yashiro and Doumeki would still find a way to adopt their big baby boy into their little family 😜

maybe they’re gonna open up a beach bar in Hawai’i and Nanahara would flirt with the guests and give away all the drinks for free 🤣

On a more serious note, I hope I didn’t get any of the quotes completely wrong. Nuances tend to get lost in translation so it’s kinda "risky" to base a theory like this solely on translations but most of it comes down to my personal interpretation of the story anyways. And I’m sorry if most of this seemed too obvious but I got the impression that I seem to feel more strongly about the fact that Yashiro might gonna leave his days as a Yakuza behind than others in the fandom and I felt the need to present my case 😉

If you actually made it through my ramblings to down here, you deserve some 🍪🍪🍪 😘

[rosemist50]

Okay look, I know I usually put the old version of the design first, so it's like reading it from then to now, but that means when I get a notification on the post, the old art is what shows up in the thumbnail, and it kinda throws me off, sooo I'm changing it. New art first.

Anyways first up is Tawnypelt!! She is one of the most redesigned cats, I have such a hard time getting a design I like for her. Sorta same story as in the previous post; I like her old design, but not enough for her as a protagonist, if that makes any sense? If she stayed as a side character then I think I'd be fine with the old design the way it was, but now that's she's a protagonist I wanted to change it. Then is the one and only Moonpaw!! :3 Her body design has stayed pretty much the same throughout design testing. Next is fixing up the new kits to follow the Super Edition's allegiances preview thing. I put Leafkit on the new one even though her design didn't change so that I wouldn't need to pull up two separate images in any drawings. Branchkit and her are now twinsies! And Grasskit is described as auburn?? Gave that a shot, most of her body design is taken from Branchkit's old one, I thought it was a better blend of their parents than Grasskit's old one. Then is Rapidkit, Floatkit, and Troutkit. Rapidkit and Floatkit pretty much swapped most of their design elements, and Troutkit got some spots and color changes. And thennn Russetfur!!! Wow! I did NOT like her old design, so here's a much better one.

Tawnypelt design extras under the cut

Y'all,, okay, so Tawnypelt's design gave me so much trouble omg.... You can see I started tweaking it in May, three months ago. All of these were Tawnypelt design concepts that I didn't like for one reason or another. I knew I wanted some yellow in there for her mother but that was kinda it. I know split face is popular with her, but with Moonpaw being split faced already I didn't want to make Tawnypelt also one. Too much white in the face was the problem with the first two, then not enough, then I took a break and came back at it with a full page of just throwing stuff at the wall (and a scrapped Branchkit idea hehe). I sorta wanted her to also have some brown, but I couldn't get it to look right so I scrapped it, then I tried a sort of lykoi style, which I thought looked cool but ultimately decided against, then got to the last two where I was trying alternating black and brown, and I liked how the first one on the end looked on paper, but when I put it in digitally there wasn't enough black so I ended up going for all black instead. And here we are now 😁 I very much hope that I like this design enough to keep it around for a while.

[laugtherhyena]

Sooo I was reading about the Nijiue siblings from one of your latest posts and got curious.

How do they all feel towards Iroha?

That depends? In the Student out if time Au/story blog they manage to fix their relationship and free the other 3 from the Nijiue parents but if we're taking a route close to canon things aren't that great amongst them :(

Hitaru has always tried to help her siblings in any way she can, she was essentially their caretaker figure since Ayato and Emina never bothered much with parenting. So she obviously cared and worried about Iroha a lot, just as she did for her other siblings, but due to the parents always piling her up with work and try to set her up with a suitor as she's the oldest daughter Hitaru didn't got to spend as much time with her siblings as she wished she could and before she knew it Iroha had dissapeared. She was greatly upset over her dissapearance and even tried to look for Iroha in certain occasions, but was punished by her parent's for "putting her duties as a Nijiue aside" and as the years went by she sorta lost hope that they could ever find her again, even tho deep down she always wished she could see her just one more time.

Jiro went through the same abuse as Iroha whn he was younger, being locked up in a room and forced to draw 24/7 until deemed enough for the Nijiue family standards, so he had a lot of empathy towards her and wished he could have done something to help her in that situation but because Jiro was so anxious and terrified of his parents he never did. When Iroha dissapeared he blamed himself for not standing up for her as her older brother and always assumed the worst must have happened to her when she vanished so he never actively tried to look for her like Hitaru did.

Akemi is.. Sorta the problem child of the family, ignored and highly criticized by the parents she seeked approval of for so long to the point it made her resent them and want to find a way to expose it escape from there grasp with her siblings of who she didn't have the best relationship with, she tends to be pretty mean to Jiro and gets annoyed at Hitaru for being a doormat for so long, but she did genuinely love them and wanted to see them grow a spine and fight back agaisnt their abusers. She butted heads with Iroha the most, as the two were always competing and getting on each other's case, but when Iroha ran away Akemi developed a strong admiration for her for being brave enough to leave their horrible situation, even if she did leave them all behind.

She always wanted to meet her again and see the kind of person her little sister became, but that never happened because Akemi died around the end in the tragedy after surviving a good chunk of the apocalypse alongside Jiro and Hitaru after their house was raided and the parents killed.

Akemi was partiality crushed by debris of a collapsing building, while her siblings did try to take the wreckage off of her and get her out of there, given the extent of her injuries there really wasn't much they could do to save her at that point. She passed away next to the two people she loved the most in her short life and although her siblings were deeply upset over her death, they took it upon themselves to follow her wishes and move foward instead of sulking in despair.

Hitaru and Jiro were later found and brought to the Kisaragi foundation where they were offered shelter as long as one of them worked there, so Jiro joined Rei's division while Hitaru was recovering from losing their sister since she took it the hardest. She still doesn't work there in the current time even tho she is doing a lot better, but she does visit the place frequently and chats often with her brother, Minako and Midori.

After the events of Sdra2 they are told of everything that happened to Iroha, including her involvement with setting up the Utsuroshima killing game and ties with Mikado and void. Needless to say, neither of them were happy with that information, learning that your little sister became a terrorist responsible for the deaths of several people is a horrifying revelation tht leads to both Hitaru and Jiro disowning her.

While neither of them like Iroha anymore, Jiro dislikes her significantly more than Hitaru as he sees her as no different from their parents now; a self-centered vile human being willing to hurt and throw others under the bus if it means she gets to come out on top. While Hitaru has developed a level of disdain for her, as much as she dislikes Iroha and what she became Hitaru is as sad as she is angry because she still sees her beloved little sister in her despite everything Iroha has done, i feel like part of her blames herself for Iroha turning out like this too. It hurts for her to be around Iroha, but she did visit her in her cell a couple times before Iroha an Syobai escaped from the foundation.

With the two on the run, Jiro does his best to help Tsurugi's division locate their whereabouts, as he wants nothing more than bring Iroha to justice, while Hitaru just wishes Iroha would take responsibility for once and turn herself in.

[danganronpa96]

The most recent asks made me think of this.

How would the victims in 69 react to their Killers' execution? Same with 96, but cut out poor Bojack, for obvious reasons.

I assume by “most recent” you mean the slightly older asks by now (you can tell how long it has been and I will not stop apologising)

Now we can only hope no one who hasn’t read the fics comes across this post

DR69

Mr. Krabs (-> Mario): Krabs wouldn’t have appreciated being tricked with money like that, so going in he feels a little justified. However, upon watching Mario’s determination, and acceptance, he can’t help but feel a sense of sympathy towards his strength, especially facing death in front of his brother.

Dedede (-> Ashely): Dedede was pretty angry for being killed, especially by someone he deemed rather small. He was shocked when Red saved Ashley from falling, but a part of him felt bad once the two were both killed, their friendship reminding him of his own with people like Escargoon (and Kirby to a degree).

2D (-> Teto): As he didn’t see his killer (as that hand message was created by Miku), if we assume 2D thought it was Teto at first, he would be pretty devastated someone who he thought he could trust by proxy of Miku would do something like that to him. He’d watch her get executed, but he wouldn’t have much of an opinion. I say this because he often puts up with harassment from Murdoc, so he’d just be more or less speechless this is how things came to be.

(Bonus, Miku -> Teto: You know a bit of Miku’s reaction at the end of chapter 3, but for more detail, she found it entertaining but a little depressing. Even if she knew the execution was fake, a part of her didn’t want to see Teto partaking in it).

Peter (-> Sans): Peter wouldn’t really know why Sans was in a giant hall, or why the bear kept multiplying like a sci-fi clone movie, but it was a bit cool to watch, to say the least. That was, until the weirdo stepped in. If it was early seasons Peter he would be more sympathetic to the situation is all I’ll say.

Fluttershy (-> Brian): Hopeful their plan would work, only to see it cause another death did hurt Fluttershy. However, as Brian exposed himself to protect Parappa, she understood the sacrifice. She definitely cried a lot when Brian was being approached by the car, and a small part of her knew he was going to do something with the gun I believe, from what she knew previously.

DR96

Walter (-> Hiroshi): Walter Hartwell White pours himself a whisky and takes a big sip in lawful justice… sorta. He was pretty mad he was bested by some young man he hardly knew, and didn’t feel all that bad watching him die. Maybe it’s that idea that he would be okay with poisoning a child but that hasn’t happened so what does he know (dripping in sarcasm).

Retsuko (-> Kaidou): Retsuko was pretty upset dying so young, especially with a close call in the past. However, she can’t really bring herself to hate Kaidou, and got a bit teary at the end of his execution when Saiki showed up. She doesn’t know if she can entirely forgive him, but she feels horrible about the punishment he faced.

Yuri (-> Mai): For ruining her plans, Yuri is pretty peeved at Mai. She feels as if it was an “I told you so” moment as she gets executed par the death game cycle. Even if so many of her friends were affected. Although… No. No change of heart here. Those final moments were just human instinct.

(Bonus, Ena -> Natsuki: I feel like Ena would handle death quite differently from most people, being pretty indifferent towards their killer. Considering the circumstances as well, Ena is happy Natsuki wasn’t executed.)

[kumoriyami-xiuzhen]

Hakuoki Drama CD - Hijikata Biyori Track 11

Well, guess who passed out early on Sunday when she intended to translate then just couldn't afford the time to translate until now? 😅 Anyway, I'm going to work on a number of the Biyoris since they're short so I can actually put out a few things on time or schedule... because I'm going to be pretty occupied until the May 2nd (presumably), though I did rush this a bit.

Also, I'm pretty sure that the Hijikata Biyori tracks that remain untranslated are tracks: 12, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36 and whatever the Sendai [?] thing was [if memory serves, it's a dialogue with only Harada and Shinpachi]. Please let me know if I'm missing something... or if I included a number of one that was already translated.

This post is to make up for last week! Will start working on the post for this week in a bit since I actually have some time today!

Hakuoki Drama - Hijikata Biyori Track 11: Letter [according to jisho, the JP 文 can alternatively be interpreted as 'texts', 'writing' or 'literary arts'. sorta leaning towards the last one because of Hakumyu LIVE]

Translation by KumoriYami

Harada: Ahh.... so sleepy.

Toudou: You drank too much yesterday, Sano-san.

Harda: Heisuke, aren't you the same?

Toudou: I don't drink until I get hungover.

Hijkata: It's already lively this early in the morning. [added in "already" for sentence flow]

Toudou: Uwah, Hijijkata-san.

Hijikata: Did you go to Shimabara last night?

Harada: Ah.... yeah. Do you have something to say about that [the word here I have translates to "idea / opinion / suggestion / objection / complaint" so I changed that to something more in line what I thought would be appropriate for the character]

Hijikata: No comment/No objections [same explanation as last line] . At this time, the organization is always changing, which has made things chaotic. It's fine to relax once in a while, but… ahh…

Harada: But... what.

Hijkata: It's fine to loosen up, but don't overdue it. In the future, you'll be shouldering the Shinsengumi's reputation, and be making achievements in Kyoto [reword later?]. You guys, you're in the position of being role models for the rest of the troop.

Harada: U-Uh... Toudou: I get it, Hijikata-san. Don't stare at us like that so early in the morning.

Hijikata: Ah, right. Hm? What is it?

Toudou: Um, These letters are are from the Shimabara nee-sans [check audio. the word I have is 'elder sisters' so I'm pretty sure that this fine…]. One, two, three, four. Here, for you.

Hijikata: Ah, yes. What a hassle/You've worked hard.

Harada: Hijikata-san, aren't you enjoying yourself to some extent?

Hijikata: But I don't go overboard. Well then.

Toudou: Ah, he escaped.

Harada: He really has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. He lectures people then runs away. That's right, Heisuke, let's storm into Hijikata-san's room together.

Toudou: Why? Harada: I'm sure he has a smile on his face as he reads those letters right now. Let's go and check it out.

Toudou: Ah, Sano-san, wait!

Harada:...How is it it?

Toudou: He seems to be writing something.

Harada: Oh? Has he already started writing his reply? How about it?

Toudou: Hey, wait, San-san...ah!

Hijikata: What are you two doing!

Harada: Ah, no, um...

Toudou: W-We wanted to see what Hijikata-san is doing. Lo-Look, you've been busy with a lot of work lately. We were wondering if there was something we could help you with…

Harada: Yes, that's right!

Hijikata: I see, you're just in time then. What I writing just now...

Harada: Eh? It's okay to look? Then...

Hijikata: I'd love to hear your opinions.

Toudou: Eh?

Hijikata: Hurry, read it.

Harada: First/One, it's forbidden to violate Bushido.

Toudou: First/One, leaving the Shinsengumi is strictly forbidden.

Harada: What is this!

Hijikata: The number of members of the Shinsengumi will increase in the future. In order to provide better leadership, I wanted to write down some rules that the Shinsengumi members must abide by. I was just working on a draft.

Toudou: Eh? What? Will you need to commit seppuku if you violate them?

Hijikata: Ah. As a samurai, you must pay with your life. Harada: That makes sense, though isn't that too harsh?

Hijikata: Well, both of you sit down. I'll explain what I haven't written down yet. If there are things that disrupt the troop affairs, I plan on having them banned. Additionally, meaningless fights are also unproductive…

Toudou: Where is the response.*

Harada: Don't say that.*

Hijikata: I will especially not tolerate fights within the Shinsengumi. I don't have time for that sort of thing. Also…*

[*I'm not entirely sure about these last bits since one of the tls I saved has this in an order where it looks like that some of the lines might overlap/have things spoken in the background. will fix them later after I hear the audio.]

-----end-----

also, ive been so busy that i havent even gotten around to organizing my latest merch haul... only got around to organizing the bromides.

[aprillikesthings]

LAST EPISODE

s5 ep13 heart pt 2

LET'S GOOOOOOO

it's 1:21pm and I have laundry to do AND Easter Vigil service starts at 8pm, can I get this all watched before 7pm?

Or am I gonna sit there in church vibrating in place for two hours knowing I have three minutes left on the episode or some bullshit lol

(That's longer than usual, yes. Easter Vigil is actually one of my fave services of the year--we start outside lighting candles (the ones inside have been out since Thursday night, even the one we otherwise never put out), then walk into the dark church, then sorta speedrun bits of the old testament (with a hymn after every reading) and then we decide OKAY IT'S EASTER NOW :D and turn on the lights and make a lot of noise and sing a few more hymns--we don't sing or say alleluia during Lent so all the hymns have that in it. There's often MASSIVE amounts of church incense, too. Anyway by the end it's a bit of a party. Apparently some churches have an actual party after the service.)(side note if you're new-ish to these posts that I'm Episcopalian, like, the priests at my church are a gay man and a woman, we're cool people mostly I promise)

See this is why these posts take forever. Why do I keep infodumping shit. This is what it's like to watch things with me in person, though.

If I get through this episode before Easter Vigil my reward is gonna be coming home and taking an edible and rewatching the last two episodes without screenshots so I can just cry over them.

oKAY

eh? that's new. like putting that on screen like that in dead silence. No intro sequence.

oh right Adora is injured. :( And it's some kind of magical monster thing that did it--a security thing put into the Crystal Castle by the First Ones

when she touches her wound the Failsafe glows, and it's making static-y noises and looking glitchy, that can't be good

the nasty tentacle monster thing is still there buT SO IS CATRA YAYYYY she shatters at least one of its eyeballs? I think?

my brain: this is like Caitlyn helping Vi after she got stabbed by Sevika, the wound is even in the same place :D me: wrong person has the red jacket on also Catra isn't going to buy some illegal potion thing to dose Adora with

(you should watch Arcane)

DOES SHE EVER SAY IT LIKE THAT BEFORE THIS?? oh god she sounds so breathless and relieved

Adora: "You can't be here! It's too dangerous"

And she stands up and starts to fall over and fucking Shadow Weaver helps her stand up, uGH

LOOK AT MY BB KICKING ASS

oh god so Shadow Weaver basically drags off Adora, Catra's like "I'll catch up, okay?" and Adora's like "no no Catraaaaa" her voice is cracking and everything, she doesn't want to do this without her and also worries about Catra and that tentacle monster thing

I'm not gonna screenshot it but poor Glimmer is fighting her dad, who is still chipped and Evil.

Bow is fighting Scorpia, also chipped and Evil. Oh hey Melog shows up and makes Bow invisible.

Micah is MEAN when chipped. He calls Glimmer a failure.

Glimmer: "My mother raised me to be brave. My friends taught me to be kind. And I'm stubborn. I get that from you. I will never stop fighting! And I won't lose another parent! I love you, dad."

She blasts him with enough magic that he collapses.

Bow, invisible, types away on Entrapta's computer she set up in the Horde thing, but when he gets it to start to do its thing he gets excited and says "I've got it!!" and Scorpia hears it and blasts him and is standing over him about to get him.

Bow: "Prime may have made you do a lot of things, but he can't turn you into something you're not. So, right now, all I need you to do is trust me."

Her eyes get normal for a second and she yells, and Bow slams a button on Entrapta's computer. There's a bright light.

Where Sea Hawk is holding Mermista, her chip goes dead and falls off. We get a lovely montage of other characters from all over Etheria, like Huntara and the folks at Elberon, who'd been chipped having their eyes go back to normal!

Scorpia: "oh my gosh I am so sorry!!"

yeah she's definitely back to normal lol

up on Horde Prime's ship:

lol

"My device worked! I knew it would!"

Bow: "Hey, everyone. I'm Bow."

(lol there's so much story in just this frame alone)

But yeah they show people from all over Etheria stopping to watch him speak, including his dads.

"Right now, we're the only thing standing in the way of him controlling it forever. You might be feeling hopeless. You might be thinking "We don't stand a chance." And maybe we don't. Prime's too strong. His army is too powerful. But that's not gonna stop us. We need to show Prime we're not afraid of him, because we have each other. And we have love. We can't give up. And if we go down, we go down together. We need you. All of you."

"It's time to fight. For She-Ra, for our homes, for each other!"

Broadcast over, back to Horde Prime. "Put an end to this mockery."

Catra injures the tentacle monster thing, but now that green is spreading into the room, and as Catra runs down the hall towards the Heart, she stops as Horde Prime shows up in hologram form

"I had such high hopes for you." like what, dude. keeping her around and chipped like a fucking puppet as an example? eugh. (something something about how her speeches to Adora while chipped were an obvious reference to people proselytizing high-control faiths)

the moment of distraction is enough for the tentacle monster to grab one of Catra's legs and she screams in pain D:

also there's still a bunch of earthquakes happening as these two limp towards the Heart

Poor Adora is just weakly going "No...no...wait" Shadow Weaver: "Don't lose your focus. We're so close."

What's this WE shit.

But also damn one thing Shadow Weaver and Horde Prime (and Light Hope!) have in common is they both believe love and affection and "attachments" are weaknesses. Shadow Weaver just cannot seem to get it through her head that Adora's love for Catra (and vice versa) is helpful here. Not a detriment. Love isn't a distraction!!! It gives us a stable ground of security and safety from which to do hard things!!

Meanwhile poor Angella told Adora "take care of each other."

This is pulsating, and so is the Failsafe on Adora's chest

OH NO oh god Okay being near that much hardcore magic is making Shadow Weaver powerful--her hair does the floaty thing for the first time since, what, s2? And she starts reaching for it, but THEN--

Adora yells Catra's name and starts walking back towards her, and Shadow Weaver's hair falls down again and she says the most weirdly desperate-sounding "Adora, wait!"

Prime's hologram is still torturing Catra along with the actual tentacle monster

(someone has drawn rule 34 of that thing but I'm not looking for it. I am content to know it exists.)

AND THEN THE MONSTER GETS BLASTED BY SHADOW WEAVER AHAHA NICE

about time she was useful amiright

okay so is this Shadow Weaver actually realizing she's been wrong about The Power of Love, or is this just her begrudgingly accepting that these two are Sold as A Set, Do Not Separate, and unless Catra's there Adora won't be able to use the Failsafe because she'll be looking for Catra the whole time???

Like is this an emotional epiphany or just pragmatism?

oh god so she magically shoves Catra away (towards Adora), but Catra runs back to Shadow Weaver

And y'all I know I talked about this a LOT way back in earlier seasons but I cannot tell you how accurate this keeps being in regards to dealing with an abusive parent. Like if you'd asked me, even after I cut off contact, if I wanted my dad to die, I would've said No! Of course not! At that point I didn't know whether the no-contact thing was temporary or not. I just knew I needed time and space to not be constantly stressed and anxious, for a notification on my phone to not immediately fill me with so much adrenaline my hands shook.

Anyway Shadow Weaver puts up a magical shield to keep Catra back

Shadow Weaver's response is amazingly calm and quiet. "Please, Catra. You need to make sure Adora reaches the Heart. The magic must be set free."

Her fight with Tentacle Monster isn't going well.

Catra's voice is heartbreaking here. "Stop it! It's going to kill you!"

"But you, this is only the beginning for you."

;_;

STICK THAT KNIFE IN AND TWIST IT! YEAH!

Catra's crying "no...no..." and a hand reaches out and grabs hers

LOL FINALLY HIT THE IMAGE LIMIT okay going to reblog

what a moment for it pfft

[league-of-blorbos]

This is gonna be a long and weird post from me, and I don't know if it'll even be comprehensible in the end, but I just wanna put my thoughts out there about my feelings for Jhinhwei and why even as everyone else has fallen in love with this ship, I'm struggling to get into the idea of it.

(And to get this out of the way, this is all just my personal interpretation of these characters, I'm not gonna shame anyone for shipping something I don't or reading a character differently than I do. I'm doing this mostly cuz I just wanna voice my thoughts on this pair and maybe hear from people who think differently than I do. Also the other ships I tagged will make sense in a moment I PROMISE!)

It's not that I don't understand the appeal, oh no, this ship feels like it was handmade to appeal to Tumblr's love of darker, tension-filled, inherently toxic, homoerotic romance. It's LoL Hannigram, it's someone who's at least somewhat moral falling obsessively in love with a psychopath, and now they're at a cross roads of if they want to try to remain a decent person but abandon their love, or embrace the darkness within them and allow themselves to be in love with this horrible person. There's so much potential for drama and complex explorations of love and obsession that this ship should absolutely grip me.

But it doesn't, even as it's gripped others who like the same other pairings that I do.

My two other favorite ships (bear with me, I think understanding why I love these two helps rationalize why I don't ship Jhinhwei), the ones that have actually worked their way into every crevasse of my brain and I think about scenarios of them while trying to fall asleep is Kayn/Rhaast (big shock I know /s) and Simon/Betty from Adventure Time. They are also two pairings that delve into obsession and where neither partner is fully good (or in Petrigrof's case, more like good people with unintentionally toxic behavior).

Let's start with Rhaayn cuz I've rambled enough about that ship on here to fill a library (hehe voicelines references). Rhaayn is more of a classic enemies to friends to lovers with the Symbrock dynamic of Rhaast being a parasite that is fighting for control over Kayn's body being thrown in there for spice. The fun with this ship is seeing how their fight forces them to have to share moments of closeness and eventually bond with the other, and how through those moments, Kayn and Rhaast both find a perfect mirror for themselves. They find someone with the same level of bloodthirst and similar war-related trauma, but also someone who balances them as they are opposites and the same in so many ways.

Petrigrof (spoilers for both Adventure Time and Fiona And Cake) is sorta the opposite of Rhaayn in that a lot of Rhaayn focuses on how they fall in love, while Petrigrof's main story starts after already being together. The other way they're different is that while I very much SHIP Rhaayn, I'm kinda lying when I say I SHIP Simon and Betty as my favorite part is that they don't stay together in the end. The Youtuber Sarcastic Chorus has already done an amazing analysis of this ship that matches a lot of my feelings on them, but to sum up, how Petrigrof ended is all due to Betty and Simon's mistakes. They loved each other so much that Betty was willing to throw so much of herself away for Simon, while he was blinded to how much she was doing for him, and even in the moments where he did recognize Betty was doing too much, he let her keep trying as he thought it would undermine their relationship if he didn't. And I love that their story is a lesson in how even well-meaning obsession can be toxic and that you need to know when to walk away and move on, even when it hurts you and the person you love.

Simon is just as madly in love as Betty is and vice versa, and they're both equally responsible for the way they ended up. While with Rhaayn, both crave each other's company because they've found someone who is just as violent and fucked up in all the same ways as they are.

But compared to those two pairs, Jhinhwei feels too unbalanced, and not just due to the power imbalance. To summarize it, my other ships feel like two people who ruin each other (or heal each other, or both!), while Jhinhwei mostly feels like Jhin trying to ruin Hwei and the main draw is Hwei choosing to accept the ruin and his internal struggle about it. The story of them, as I read it, focuses almost solely on Hwei's arc and you could theoretically have him effect Jhin just as much, but first, any attempts for Hwei to "fix" Jhin would just recreate the issue for me in the other direction, where it's now about Jhin's internal struggle with Hwei trying to heal him. Second, I have a hard time reading that as anything other than drastically changing Jhin's character to the point where you might as well make an OC.

That last point is definitely more of a personal problem as I have way more trouble getting into Jhin's headspace than I do with Hwei or Kayn or even Rhaast. But to me, Jhin is almost more of a force of madness than a character I can dive into the complex mind of, and I'm kinda ok with that. A lot of people love trying to figure out how these characters' brains work and why they are who they are, but just like how Riot never wanted to unmask Jhin (until that goddamn concept art came out!), I'm ok with leaving the mask on and letting some things about Jhin remain mysterious, even at the cost of Jhinhwei not meeting a lot of the criteria to be a ship that I really fall in love with.

[butterflydm]

WoT reread: pre-Sanderson books

spoilers through knife of dreams

I deliberately took a break in between the Jordan books and the Sanderson ones, mostly so that I won’t be ‘grading on a curve’, basically, and will be able to judge Sanderson’s characterization on its own terms rather than just being relieved that I no longer have to read CoT/KoD Mat & Perrin. I would honestly have preferred Mat standing in a field picking his nose for two books rather than the character assassination that we got in CoT/KoD, so my bar for the male characters was VERY low going into the Sanderson books, back when they first came out.

Anyway, as I enter The Gathering Storm, I just want to note what everyone should be doing next, per their most recent PoVs in the previous main-story book, and also my general feelings on the characters as of where we ended in KoD:

Rand: desperately trying to make a truce with the Seanchan, even if he has to return women to slavery to do it. Other than that, he’s basically been refusing to do anything plot-related for the last two books, mostly just treading water instead (despite there being several plot-related things that he COULD have been doing). I’m frustrated with how Rand’s plotline has ground to a halt so that we can spend way too much time with Perrin and Mat’s pointless sidequests. Theory: Jordan couldn’t figure out how to get Rand to what happens in the ending, so he focused on Mat and Perrin in order to avoid thinking about Rand.

Egwene: she is currently captive in the White Tower and her next plot point was very clearly stated in KoD - she will be serving Elaida at her next dinner that evening. Her current plot is essentially the same as the plot she's had the last six books -- become undisputed Amyrlin Seat of a united White Tower. This is really one of those plotlines that’s good but, wow, really should have taken place over fewer books.

Elayne: she's won over the Houses and now just needs to be officially crowned and then buckle down to the work of getting Andor ready to help during the Last Battle. Proud of her, love her so much. Egwene and Elayne (and the prologues) were basically the only good parts of CoT & KoD for me. Rand & Nynaeve had one or maybe two good scenes each in that entire section.

Mat: in CoT & KoD, he lost almost every good quality that he had EXCEPT for his loyalty to Rand; instead of keeping his promises being about him (secretly) being a man of deep integrity, it has essentially become a weird fey thing where he apparently feels a compulsion to keep his word but puts it off for as long as possible first. He completely threw away all his character growth from the earlier books and considers slavers to be more worthwhile companions than Aes Sedai. Expects that the next time he will see his 'wife' is being faced off against her troops on the battlefield and is somewhat sad about this (because he's talked himself into liking her despite her being a genuinely awful person) but he's prepared to do it anyway. I am DEEPLY disappointed in Mat, for the most part. His characterization basically fell off a cliff in CoT. He does still have enough loyalty to Rand and enough intelligence that he didn't actually betray anything to Tuon during their time together -- he didn't tell her Rand was his friend (Talmanes did, sorta by accident) and he didn't tell her about his medallion (Setalle Anan did, in a very bizarre characterization reversal of her own where she went from vehemently anti-slavery in WH to kissing Tuon’s ass and giving up other people’s secrets to her. I will note that trying to ‘reason’ someone out of bigotry doesn’t require throwing your previous friends under the bus and betraying them! -- post-WH Setalle Anan is kinda Opposite Day to the Setalle Anan that we got to know in ACoS & WH, who thought of Mat as a loveable rapscallion and who hated slavery, as opposed to CoT/KoD Setalle Anan, who automatically sides with Tuon against Mat because they’re both women but is willing to have ~reasonable discussions~ with Tuon about the pros and cons of slavery and is also literally fetching and carrying for a slaver) -- but CoT!Mat is just straight-up an inferior character to pre-CoT!Mat. Jordan just... really trashed Mat in these two books and it feels like most of the reason that he did it was so that Tuon wouldn’t be required to experience any character growth because Mat just rolls over for her instead of challenging her (there is so much rolling over and not challenging Tuon in these two books. And the few people who DO challenge her are all people that she instinctively non-persons anyway, so it has no impact on her) and spends the majority of his page time attempting to appease her. And destroying a main character in order to prop up a minor character is such a poor narrative choice. Just... everything about how Mat was written in CoT & KoD has frustrated me so much. Poor writing choices that turned a favorite character into one of the worst in the series. IMO, the outriggers were the worst idea that Jordan ever had, because it led to him tanking a major plotline and major characters in his main story. Mat transforms from being a “good and great man” (to paraphrase Nestelle from WH) who risks himself to free slaves into being a selfish and weak-willed patsy for his slaver ‘wife’, who looks the other way when she reclaims ownership over all the slaves in her ‘rescue party’. Anyway, his next plan is to go north to Caemlyn to the Tower of Ghenjei to help Thom save Moiraine & then he was going to reunite with Rand, because he has a lot of Last Battle-related help that he can deliver to him (or maybe the other way around). 

Nynaeve: has not had a plot of her own in a while; the last time she had a plot that wasn't basically "help this man over here" was TPoD.

Perrin: finished his own soul (& woman) selling story in KoD; has been reunited with Faile (the only thing he cares about), so should FINALLY be heading back to Rand, one way or the other. I am disappointed in Perrin, but that's nothing new. He did sink to a new low in KoD, now officially being a slaver himself, having sold two hundred-ish women into slavery. So... there’s that.

For secondary/tertiary characters who we know about:

Aviendha: traveling with the Aiel in Arad Doman and 'catching up' on her Wise One training.

Galad: leading seven thousand Whitecloaks, having 'deserted' from the Seanchan forces and planning to work with Rand & the Aes Sedai to fight in the Last Battle.

Ituralde: working with the Dragonsworn to try to rid Tarabon of Seanchan and firm up Arad Doman as a bulwark against the Seanchan invasion.

Pevara & Co: in the Black Tower, having just made a deal with Taim to bond with Asha'man.

Tam: recently found out his son is the Dragon Reborn (not from Perrin)

Gawyn: still taking orders from Elaida, does not yet know Egwene is prisoner in the White Tower.

Lan Mandragoran: riding from the furthest west part of the Borderlands over to the furthest east part of the Borderlands, to fight against the Shadow.

Cadsuane: still hasn’t taught Rand ‘laughter and tears’, which is literally her only goal.

Loial: plans to talk to the Great Stump to try to convince the Ogier not to abandon the world right before the Last Battle.

Forsaken: Moridin has declared that no one is to hurt Rand but definitely please try to kill off Perrin and Mat; at least some of the Forsaken are all "lol nah I'm gonna try to kill Rand anyway".

Tuon the slaver overlord: being an asshole High Blood/Empress and in deep denial that, by her own beliefs, she should turn herself over to become a damane; her main goal is probably forcing Rand to kneel in front of her; general villain-type goals of invasion and enslavement of others, etc. It really is a shame that Jordan decided to yeet any potential for her character into the void. She was intriguing in Winter’s Heart. And then never again, lol.

Bashere: there was an assassination attempt on his wife back in the CoT prologue that made him agree to something that he’d been asked by “the man who spoke to me yesterday” and we haven’t really checked in with him since then.

Olver: in LoC, he was a war orphan who was a believable child who seemed like a genuinely interesting addition to Mat’s story. In ACoS, all he cared about were boobs. In WH, he barely even noticed that the Seanchan had invaded, because he still only cared about boobs. In CoT, he briefly acknowledges that the Seanchan are the bad guys hunting them but does not at all react to them similarly to how he reacted to the Aiel in LoC - he shows no signs of anger over Mat having been injured by the Seanchan invasion, despite anger towards the Aiel due to his parents dying in the Aiel invasion being a big thing for him in LoC. In KoD, he’s buddy-buddy with Head Slaver and once again obsessing over boobs (this time, leering at a slave’s boobs, which. you know. charming). The only book where I’ve been able to stand Olver was LoC tbh. He's been just a weird & exaggerated parody of Mat in every book past that.

Minor general spoilers below for some things I vaguely recall about the last three books (no spoilers about the ending):

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I’ve read the Origins book & glanced over Sanderson’s retrospective on writing the last three books, and he mentioned some specific bits that were already written by Jordan, so I will probably keep that in mind as I read. I’ve only read the Sanderson WoT books once, so I’ll be finding out now if the experience is different this time around. 

I do feel like some of the criticisms that I’ve seen of his writing are already very present in CoT & KoD, though, specifically:

Mat’s character being noticeably more sexist (honestly, all the male characters feel like they’ve gotten more sexist the last few books; Mat is just the most obvious example).

Mat feeling wildly out of character to who he’d previously been.  Wildly out of character. To who he’d been in Winter’s Heart. Which took place one week before Crossroads of Twilight picks his story up again, and suddenly Mat doesn’t give a shit about the Aes Sedai that he risked his own escape to help ONE WEEK AGO. He’s completely forgotten that his little sister (among other women he cares about, like Elayne, who he had an entire book about coming to terms with, and like Egwene and Nynaeve) is a channeler who Tuon would happily debase and destroy until she groveled at Tuon’s feet. Mat’s reactions to almost everything Tuon does are just such character assassination that I can’t even acknowledge CoT/KoD!Mat as the same character as EotW-WH!Mat. His reactions just seem... so bizarrely off from anything he would have done previously. It really does feel like Jordan parachuted in a pod!Mat from a parallel world. I LOVED EotW-WH!Mat. You couldn’t pay me to be in a room with CoT/KoD!Mat.

Nynaeve not having a storyline of her own or doing much of anything unrelated to the men in her life.

Sanderson didn’t fix any of those problems (from what I recall) and it would have been nice if he had, but he didn’t create them either.

Some other things that I personally dislike in the series as of KoD and that I am curious to see how Sanderson handles compared to Jordan:

Slavery being an Acceptable Evil, especially with Mat, in particular as of CoT/KoD, only caring about slavery when it threatens him personally and not giving a shit about other people anymore (and he cared a LOT in Winter’s Heart. The contrast between how deeply he cares about saving the Aes Sedai & Windfinders in WH vs treating the Aes Sedai like unwanted pests in CoT is incredibly jarring). But, in general, it feels like Jordan decided that the main PoV male characters aren’t going to care about slavery if the slaves are primarily women which is... such an ugly look. It feels like the Seanchan storyline went off the rails hard in CoT & KoD, and I don’t personally feel like “but the planned outriggers!!” is a valid excuse for destroying a main storyline and main characters so badly. Having ALL THREE of the main male PoV characters coming to the conclusion that other people being enslaved is the ~price they are willing to pay~ for what needs to be done is...  it’s very much that Lord Farquaad meme, yes? “Some of you may die, but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.” Mat deciding that he needs to defend and protect the slaver overlord hurts other people, not Mat. Perrin selling two hundred women into slavery is hurting them, not Perrin; Rand sending the damane back into slavery... etc. They are not ‘making sacrifices for the greater good’, they are sacrificing other people. They are saying that these specific people (who are all women) are not worthy of being allowed to have free will and lives of their own. And that author putting that storyline in three different plotlines implies things that wouldn’t be implied if only one of the main guys was doing it. “Women’s freedom is negotiable” is basically the message in Rand, Perrin, and Mat’s storylines in CoT & KoD. “When we say we want to save the world, we don’t mean women.” And I did not get the feeling that was the original intention of the damane/Seanchan storyline! Which is why CoT & KoD rank so incredibly low on my ranking order. Because it feels like Jordan broke the narrative promises that he made about this storyline all the way through Winter’s Heart. I think Jordan exploring this idea (of his characters willing to sacrifice women’s freedom for the sake of saving the rest of the world) could have worked in a critique kind of way if it had only been in ONE of the plotlines while the other two plotlines were about things other than allying with the Seanchan. Mat’s character is the one that gets the most distorted by this plotline, so I would have tossed his out entirely. Perrin’s is mostly in character -- his entire plot here was that he would be willing to do anything for Faile, even vile and evil things -- but I think Jordan actively deciding to have him LIKE Tylee even as her people are carting off her new slaves in the background was a character-breaking choice. Rand’s plotline would genuinely be fine (because he’s the most reluctant of the three PoVs on allying with the slavers)... except that Min and Nynaeve should have mentioned the sul’dam secret. It’s wildly frustrating how useless they are in the Seanchan plotline when they literally know THE key secret about the military and economic might of the empire. Jordan had them suffer convenient amnesia so that he could do his ‘allying with the slavers’ plotline.

The domestic violence that is endemic in the majority of the male-female relationships in the series. In particular, I am curious to see if Sanderson ever has the female characters hauling off and straight-up punching their ‘love interests’ in the ribs the way that Jordan so frequently had them do. This is an issue that really started around A Crown of Swords and has gotten steadily worse (in The Shadow Rising, Faile punching Perrin is called out as a bad thing by Perrin and by the end of the book, neither of them are being violent with the other, but in ACoS and beyond, violence is just treated as the norm in romantic relationships). 

Related but adjacent, I am also curious to see if beating/spanking remains as large a fixture in the series as Jordan had made it in the last few books.

Women being politically/magically diminished in order to be in a relationship with non-political/non-magical men (ex. Morgase and Tallanvor; Siuan and Gareth; technically Juilin and Amathera but that feels like the most understandable of the examples).

Women being stuffed into Fates Worse Than Death while men just get to be killed off (and the Seanchan becoming a dumping ground for “out of control” women that Jordan didn’t want to kill off).

Min being a liability to Rand but the narrative keeps telling us she’s Best Girl, Just Trust Me.

Tuon being a genuinely cruel and malicious person, but Mat keeps telling us she’s Better Than Most Nobles, Just Trust Me.

Okay, I think that’s everything I wanted to note before I started my The Gathering Storm reread.

[bisluthq]

Hi! I hope this isn't a rude question but from what I remember you live in South Africa, and I was super curious. Yesterday I read a post on reddit from a female solo traveler who was planning to travel for months, first landed in Johannesburg, spent two days there, felt super unsafe, cancelled her whole trip and went home. A lot of comments were saying it IS super dangerous there and she just did poor research. Is it really dangerous there? If yes, is it just Johannesburg or all over?

not a rude question! My take is, honestly, it’s as dangerous as you let it be. Johannesburg has some pretty dodgy areas which I wouldn’t recommend to tourists and it’s a VERY big city - just geographically/spatially not even talking about population - so I wouldn’t recommend for any tourists (solo or not) to go without a guide/group. I’d book in with a guide. It’s a REALLY cool place though - I know many Brits and Americans who actually preferred it to Cape Town and rated it on par with their safari experiences. There’s a lot to see and do, it’s vibey, the people are lovely. But if you try diy your itinerary/accommodation and rely totally on Ubers like yeah you can put yourself in some pickles. You do need a guide or to like be relatively local (I’ve spent a fair amount of time there for work and for my brother’s competitions and to go to my embassy and because I was very briefly seeing this girl who lived there when my ex and I were breaking up but sorta not broken up idk anyway I flew up there to see this girl a few times and I can honestly say I’ve never had any funny or bad experiences there. I liked it and felt safe but I’ve also lived in South Africa since 2001 and I have friends there so it’s really not the same as a foreigner going by herself). A weird thing multiple people have told me now is the train system there is nicer than Europe’s and I guess it is lol. It’s very on time and very clean and not like whatever is going on in France or Germany or the UK (side note I personally thought the Italian trains are great but they were def dirtier than the Gautrain system). So there are yk a lot of… really state of the art things about Joburg.

Cape Town is a lot safer and more “European” so easier to go with no plan/guide. I know sooo many women who’ve traveled here solo and had a rad time. Again, obviously be smart lol like don’t do dumb shit but that’s a good rule of thumb traveling anywhere.

I mean okay here’s a story - when my bf was in college (he’s American - or rather Californian which is its own thing but he was in college on the East Coast) he started dating this French foreign exchange student and that summer he took a summer school course in London in part to be able to see her more. Two of the girls on his course were friends of his from school so they were staying together and anyway these girls wanted to go to Paris for the weekend and see Paris and all and that worked well for everyone ergo they basically arranged a swapsie situation - his gf would come to him in London and they’d have the flat to themselves and these girls would get to use her apartment for free. All good. The girls were told very explicitly like what trains to use and when the last one leaves but they were partying and the guys they were with told them that actually there’s a later train and they believed them because cute French boys idk I guess and obviously it turned out there wasn’t a later train - obviously V knew when the trains to her apartment stopped running lol - so these boys and their girl friend offered to drive them back to the apartment, which they accepted, and then like the Americans invited them up like for a thank you nightcap and these people proceeded to badly SA the American girlies and rob my bf’s gf’s apartment. The girls obviously left to go home to the US immediately the next day and my bf’s gf broke up with him because all her shit was stolen lol because of his moron friends so she wasn’t happy with him. That’s a real story that happened - doesn’t mean I’ve ever felt unsafe in Paris though. I’ve felt like I’m overpaying for shit but I’ve always been… safe. I’ve actually taken the last train in Paris myself and it was totally fine even though I was not sober lol and the American girl *I* was with there (not romantically like we were just vibing together) also had nothing bad happen to her at all lol so it’s not even a dumb American thing. It’s like… bad shit sometimes happens.

Basically, my take is touristy South Africa isn’t unsafe tbh any more than any other touristy part of the world (if you go into really bad areas that’s different) but keep your wits about you dudes if you do decide to go and obviously feel free to hmu.

[leon-swedfinqs]

Hello!

I just found your DND au and just hjlhryfxcuy I love it.

Would in your au Aziraphale and Crowley also just instantly know Muriel is from the church like they just instantly knew in canon they were an angel?

:0 Hello!!! I’m glad you like it!! I’ve been trying to post about it more and my partner and I wanna outline a fanfiction possibly, so feel free to indulge haha

So Muriel’s role in the AU/story is interesting! To answer your question simply: well…sorta :).

Muriel was sent out by the church’s bishops to find Aziraphale and report back about his whereabouts after he was banished for his magic. The bishops wanted to know how advanced he was with magic, and if there could possibly be a way to bring him back to the church.

In the show’s canon, Muriel is the same age as Aziraphale and Crowley (to our knowledge), however for context for the AU, Muriel is roughly 15 years younger than Aziraphale. The two of them did know each other back when Aziraphale was still serving, but it has been roughly two decades since he left, so his memories of what his brothers and sisters looked like is a bit muggy.

Muriel was specifically sent out on this investigation mission because they hadn’t earned their halos yet, so they could blend in to the crowds a lot easier and be inconspicuous. When they started following the team around, Aziraphale and Crowley weren’t very suspicious of them at first. They just seemed like a sheltered young adult excited at the prospect of seeing wandering adventurers, and kept following them around out of pure curiosity.

What ticked Aziraphale off was when he saw Muriel watching a bard perform magic in a town square while performing, and he went to go talk to them.

“It’s fascinating, isn’t it?” Aziraphale smiled as he approached the curious follower. “I’m not sure if you had a bard back in your old town, but it’s one of the most intricate convocation types a person can study. It’s an art mixing beautiful music with intent and inspiration.”

“Oh, I had no idea magic wasn’t completely evil…” they muttered. “Singing is one of my favorite things! And just with that someone can cast spells…?”

The wonder and awe at the realization that magic was something beautiful waved a red flag for Aziraphale, as it reminded him of the old rhetoric that would be preached during sermons. It made him a bit more wary about their new traveler.

Over the course of their mission, Muriel would continue to slip up and say something that caused Aziraphale alarm.

Calling him out directly about his daily prayers, asking him who he was praying too.

Occasionally they would say something that would again fall within the rhetoric, something that was just slightly off coming from someone who “just came from a small town”.

What finally confirmed those fears was when Crowley approached him one day (Muriel has been traveling with them for months now) with a smug smile on his face, holding what looked to be one of Muriel’s notepads.

“Look, listen — I’m not a softie, but this kid makes it really hard to put up the front sometimes,” he laughed as he draped over the couch Aziraphale was currently lounging on, catching up on his reading between missions.

“Hm? What’d they do now? Were they playing with Crawly?” Aziraphale hummed.

(Crawly is Crowley’s pet snake. Technically, he named himself after the snake, not the other way around)

“They let me borrow their notepad when I was trying to cook earlier, because I wanted to record the recipe in case it came out really nice. I know I shouldn’t but…I did look at a few of the pages,” Crowley admitted. “They seem to adore everyone, writing down facts about the things they like. Like, here: ‘Anathema is quite akin to a nice cup of jasmine tea in the evenings. When she’s with Newt, she takes it with two sugars, as he tends to steal the cup sometimes and finds it bitter without them’.”

Aziraphale giggled. The two have been getting very close recently, and he’s been finding it quite endearing.

“They seem to especially look up to you,” Crowley grinned. “Like here, it says ‘Brother Aziraphale is very particular about keeping the living room tidy. He doesn’t seem to get annoyed when I help him clean up after mission debriefing, I’ve even heard him hum along sometimes’. You’re a brother to them Angel.”

As Crowley nudged his partner with his elbow to sorta egg him on, Aziraphale sat frozen, staring down at his book. The dots seemed to connect in his brain in that very instant.

It took some time for them to realize that Muriel was actually part of the church, but once the truth came out things became a bit…rocky and difficult.

But don’t worry! Things do work out, the tension doesn’t last very long :3c

[elfstuck]

Gettin the Band Back Together

Finally watching the Homestuck Recap and trying to catch up. (It is 8pm on Apr 13 for me, as I write this. I want to post something for Homestuck Day that's not just 'hey I am aware it's Homestuck Day.') I have not given up on this blog, but as you can see, it is not at the top of my "do this now" priority lists.

(Since I last did serious blogging here, I have created two (tiny) solo TTRPGs, watched BNHA and Untamed and read ridiculous amounts of fic for both, and gotten a Real Job. With. Like. Union benefits. Also my father died in the early Covid era (not of Covid) and this made the whole lockdown thing much easier to handle because I had no interest in being social for at least six months after that.) (And every week, my Google calender says "Reminder: Homestuck liveblogging!" which has served as a weird touchstone for normality throughout the hellscape years.)

GENERAL NOTES: I want ZERO SPOILERS. NONE. I have a friend (@chibipaw) to help me by reading my inbox, but that just means "she will delete stuff that has spoilers" and I won't see it. I have a broad definition of spoilers. Like. I do not want to hear "oh you'll see that one again" or "wait'll you see what happens when they meet." I was not happy to be told that the people chatting with Our Protagonists were the trolls I'd heard so much about. Don't assume "everyone knows that"; I have managed to block out an incredible amount of knowledge about this fandom.

I am here for the tentabulges. Eventually. I will be reading all the depraved fic. Eventually. I ship them all. Eventually.

…I may ship them all before eventually.

Lemme see if I got this:

It's John's 13th birthday. It has been John's 13th birthday for longer than John has been alive.

His neighborhood got blown up. But he's safe (…for some values of "safe") in the Medium, where things are weird.

Kernelsprites. More than one of them.

Rose is playing with the server version of Sburb

Dave is arguing with trolls

Jade is doing something with a dreamscape something or other

Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey

Wayward Vagabond yay

Midnight crew. Midnight crew song. (Not actually part of the story.) (I want Midnight Crew song fanfic.)

Prospit. Derse. Multiple peoples with the same initials in different settings.

Chess war something (I have kinda stopped paying attention to the recap.)

Multiple strange worlds: Land of Wind and Shade; Land of Light and Rain; Land of Heat & Clockwork, all of which I want custom dragons for. This is complexified by the fact that Flight Rising expanded its color scheme while I was reading Homestuck, and also there are now swarms of new dragon types so I will have to rethink my plans for LOWAS and LOHAC dragons. I don't think I've seen Jade's realm yet.

Trolls with initials that are all "lower case letter followed by capital letter," with meanings that maybe attach to zodiac signs. (PLZ NO SPOILERS I already know too much.)

Flash has died but I have the Unofficial Homestuck Collection and also there's something kinda-sorta like Flash support in Firefox now although I may not have all the features I used in the past.

I have lost both my place in the story and my awareness of context so WHO CARES HERE WE GO.

…Is this too long? Should I bump the actual liveblogging to next post? Should I put it under a read-more tag? I have lost all sense of how I normally pace these things.

gC gives John (eB) a map. An FL4 map. Because that was a thing when Homestuck was written. FL4 files are no longer viable ways to give information. However, given what I know of HS trolls, that would not prevent them from using it.

(Huh my HSLB folder already has a "Google LOWAS.png" file which means this is probably ground I have already covered. Oh well.)

GOOGLE LOWAS

John goes to gate on top of mountain, sees pretty swirly colors that are LOLAR, and crashes into Rose's room. Talks to Dave on Rose's computer.

…Yeah, this looks familiar. Huh.

Look this is the last pic from my regular liveblogging days:

if someone could give me a link for that page, I'd be grateful. In the meantime, I'll go through from where I am and try to catch up. I probably backed up some deliberately but I am now entirely lost.

John is chatting with two Daves. One in orange. One in red. There are timeline issues. I think.

John goes poking through Rose's room. (The wone with MEOWMEOWMEOW all over the walls. Rose: Not the sane one.) He grabs some books with his captchalogue. Or into his sylladex. Dammit, I have forgotten the terminology attached to my favorite feature of this game. Story. Webcomic. Whateverthefuck this is.

Gets the codes from the books.

…and then we're back to… Dave in Derse? Dave and Rose in Derse? Back to John, getting his birthday gift from Rose: some kind of purple-black stuffed rabbit. More bunnies in boxes for John. John is happy with all the bunnies in boxes.

(Huh I already had a 'Chaos Dunk' image too, but not the animated gif. Apparently years of ignoring this have not changed my ideas about which images are interesting & worth sharing.)

This section has NEW RELEVANCE since I am now into Untamed fandom and gifts of rabbits are emotionally meaningful in ways that they were not when I started reading Homestuck. If John loves receiving bunnies, does that make him a Hanguang-Jun analogue? I will have to explore this idea.

John leaves a salamander for Rose in thanks.

There are pesterlog conversations of which I understand almost nothing. Timey-wimey shenanigans. Gonna hope I can pick up the gist of it later because I am not rereading the whole damn thing up to now to get context for these, which I kind of had before but have long lost.

There is a jam session with Dave and Rose in Derse, with 5 musical options. These are selectable by having Dave press buttons. Or by clicking on them directly in the new app.

These open in separate tabs in the Homestuck Collection. Right. The other reason to work my way through Homestuck: The music is awesome.

Of these, I like Derse Dreamers best.

Huh. the Collection and the website have DIFFERENT CONTENT wtf. Website: Page 1720. Altered from the original - the sound button is at the top because Flash support is now all wonky. Fine. But the second picture here isn't in the collection. (I am fine with this. I don't like the second picture. But it means, sigh, I really will be needing to go back and forth between the Collection app & the website. Ghah.)

Plz throw thoughts at me so I will be inspired to keep doing this.

Only. Not spoilery thoughts. Please.

[bees-tornado]

hello stranger! I will ask you some questions! 6, 9, 26, 32!

thank you for the numbers stranger I owe you my life

6. Which route is your favorite?

I’m very biased towards Verdant Wind, largely because it’s my first route, but also because Claude is there + the way it explores and uncovers the game’s lore + it has the best final battle IMO. I really really like Azure Moon’s story though so it’s a close second.

9. What is your favorite scene in the game (can be in the main story or a support convo)?

Okay because this question is sort of open-ended I’m gonna do main story AND support convo.

As for animated cutscenes, I have two favorites. One would have to be the VW final fight, I won’t describe what I like about it in great detail because there’s a certain someone I know who will probably be reading this and still needs to finish VW cough cough, but it’s just a really cool sequence and I just think Claude really gets to shine in it. Two would have to be the Blue Lions’ Flame Emperor reveal because. Yeah. Uh. Wow. That was really something. The laugh? The shot of the spear flying by Edelgard? The way it really showed Dimitri’s monstrous strength for the first time? Very good. I had been looking forward to seeing how Dimitri cracks in that route and it did not disappoint when I finally got there.

As for supports, I’m not sure if I can pick just one, but a moment that really stayed with me was a Sylvain line from his B Support with Annette:

“There's just one thing I want you to remember. Guys like me who hate hard work and sorta get by on our wits? It all falls apart eventually. I'm smart enough to know that. So I respect people like you. I mean it.”

It’s a line that really personally resonated with me, and that was probably around the time I realized how much I liked Sylvain as a character.

Some of my other favorite support chains include Bernadetta/Sylvain and Bernadetta/Yuri, but it’s been so long since I’ve seen some of these supports that I’m sure I’m forgetting a few.

(Okay, I’m gonna try to reel myself in with all the text from this point on, because if I don’t I’ll never finish answering this ask lmao)

26. Who is your overall favorite character?

I love both Bernadetta and Sylvain very much but if I had to choose my overall favorite (looks nervously at merchandise on wall/shelf/etc.), I would have to go with Bernie. She was actually the first student character besides the house leaders that I knew about before the game came out and I knew I would have to recruit her.

I’m not sure how well I can put it into words unless I write a whole essay about it (that might be its own post one day), but I see a lot of both my gf and myself in her, and there are a lot of things about her character that are just really charming.

She caught me a little off guard early in the game because she had a lot more going on than I expected, but just like Sylvain, I think there was one moment when Bernadetta really captured my heart, that being when she showed up at the graveyard in Chapter 10. Not only was she (iirc) the only person to explicitly leave flowers for Jeralt, but she left her room and went all the way across campus during exploration hours for the first time to do it. She has several moments like this, where she goes above and beyond on her own volition despite her anxiety. I dunno, I just think she’s neat.

32. What is your favorite post-timeskip character design or outfit?

I love so many of the post-timeskip character designs, but there are two characters in particular that really blew me away when I saw them for the first time after the timeskip.

First of all is Bernadetta, they just made her soooo pretty for no good reason. I love her hair, her bow, her earrings, her pauldrons, her outfit, her color scheme, and how they kept her silly little bicycle shorts. Rip to the hoodie, but she has this sort of yellow cloak-like piece with the clasp that sort of gives off the same vibe.

Second is Lorenz, they took away his haha funny academy haircut and made him downright majestic. I also love how the rose is incorporated into his armor.

Anyways THAT’S IT! I’M DONE

[taki118]

SuyaLight Master Post Part 9

I really like these two there’s not a lot of content for the fandom as a whole soooo here’s my submission as I get every moment of these two royals who literally share a braincell (and I love them for it) First up this is just on the manga if you are anime only its going to have stuff you havent seen, yes even with what the anime covers (so read it) and there will be spoilers so beware. If you prefer Demon Monk/Cleric/Leo (which I don’t really get) I am sorry this isnt for you. Lets go! Part 1 is here Part 2 is here Part 3 is here Part 4 is here Part 5 is here Part 6 is here Part 7 is here Part 8 is here Part 8.5 is here

So picking up where we left off, they are in the neutral zone for training and Suya is upset that humans are bad mouthing the demons, so she wants the to show off her tacts though are ummm Twilight says it best

Suyas ‘help’ drives the demons to try and keep her out of it.

But those same humans get into trouble with some other demons and get saved by our main group.

It does the trick and even impresses Suya

Another trial to get where they want appears but Suya gets distracted and gives chase earning Tilights ire

I like that she asks for permission and he just scolds her.

They make it to the head of the neutral zone who happens to be Suya’s aunt

THey think Suya would be a good choice to talk to her on their behalf but ummmm

Probably the nicest way Twilight could put what Suya did. And he has great hopes for her help

Hopes Suya immediately kills

I love that he can tell she’s faking.

Twilight always gets the brunt of accusations for Suya’s behaviors

The Aunt challenges Twlight but Suya calls her out before anything happens

Much like Suya herself the Aunt sees potential in Twilight and his goals (Almost like an approving inlaw that makes 2 with the mother)

And our pair run off into the sunset....sorta

Even though she’s using him to carry her, Twlight still sees the best in Suya and perhaps really does have the best assessment of her actions

They are all exhausted from the training and Suya “Graciously” offers to help.

Twilight is aware that Suya almost never does things without another goal but he’s not in a position to fight her.

He’s actually really touched and impressed by her work ethic and abilities 

Until she starts going beyond what he asked.

Then his fears resurface, he knows Suya fairly well at this point.

I simply adore that they share the same goals and ideals, they don’t want to just be incharge because of their birth but because they earned it.

Twilight is touched believing he now has an alley for his goals

But his instincts were proven right.

He tries to talk to her on not abusing her power just cause she wants things but Suya is Suya.

[caffiene-fueled-fuckery]

My M*A*S*H Fic Olympics Contributions

Hello!! I thought I’d link the pieces that I wrote for the M*A*S*H Fic Olympics that ended on Monday. I didn’t get to do all 7 days, but I got 5, so I’m super proud! Links and brief summaries below!

Day 2: Weather

Title: When It Rains, It Pours

Pairing: Gen, Hawkeye & BJ, Charles & BJ

Prominent Tag(s): hurt/comfort

Word Count: 1,129

Status: Complete

Day 3: Horror

Title: Blood in the Water

Pairing: Father Mulcahy & OC

Prominent Tag(s): hurt/comfort, trauma response, blood and gore

Word Count: 2,159

Status: 1/2 Chapters

Day 4: Orange

Title: Shades of Amber, Heart of Gold

Pairing: Gen, Max Klinger & Kellye

Prominent Tag(s): POV Max Klinger, One-sided Attraction, Colour Theory

Word Count: 362

Status: Complete

Day 6: Injury

Title: God, Keep My Head Above Water

Pairing: Father Mulcahy & OC

Prominent Tag(s): Deaf Character, Hearing Loss, Hurt/Comfort, Developing Relationship, Mutual Pining

Word Count: 3,766

Status: Chapter 1/?

Day 7: Secrets

Title: Halfway Between

Pairing: Gen, Radar O’Reilly & Max Klinger, Radar O’Reilly & Henry Blake

Prominent Tag(s): s03ep24 Abyssinia Henry, Episode Continuation, Max Klinger Sees Ghosts, Grieving Radar O’Reilly, Canonical Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort

Word Count: 1,868

Status: Complete

I had a lot of fun the past week writing all these pieces! It was definitely a challenge, especially being so new to the fandom and trying to gauge how my interpretations of the characters fit into the narratives. I’m typically an angst writer, so the short piece about Kellye was a challenge, but I ended up being really proud of it! Also, the OC in both the fics with Father Mulcahy are the same OC. I’ll put some details about her down below! Those fics were both floating around in my head before the fic olympics started so yeah, it was self-indulgent. Apologies, lol. If you give any of these a read, I’d love some feedback! Reblogs are welcome! :)

About my OC in the two Mulcahy fics:

Name: Della Woods

Gender: Female

Pronouns: she/her

Sexuality: Straight

Birthday: May 12th, 1922

Age: 29 (at the start of the war)

Hair Colour: Chocolate brown

Hair Style: curly, falls just below her jaw

Eye Colour: Light brown

Skin Tone: very pale

Height: 5′9″ (yes she’s tall for a woman, esp in the 50s)

Job: Nurse, has experience with psychiatric patients (though this doesn’t come through in the first fic, I hadn’t really thought about it yet)

Love Language (giving): Physical Touch (main), Words of Affirmation

Love Language (receiving): Quality Time, Words of Affirmation

Temperament: Energetic, Playful

MBTI: ENFJ

Scars or markings: One above her left hip that curls around onto her stomach (from an accident many years ago), lots of freckles

Her relationship with Mulcahy: they’ve been really close friends/best friends pretty much since Della joined the 4077th, which was just after Mulcahy did. He got very comfortable with her over time because she never tried to pull anything on him, but she wasn’t cautious around him and actually called him by his name (which is John in these stories bc I can’t keep up with how many times it’s changed, but he tells the other nurse to call him that so idk that’s what I went with). She’s very physically affectionate and likes to tease him, and she’s pretty much the only one who can get away with that. Aside from Hawkeye, she’s the only one that Mulcahy will be vulnerable in front of. 

While he’s shy, Della is a social butterfly, and she’s kinda wild when she wants to be, which makes him worry. It’s warranted, she’s a bit of a daredevil, lol. But when the roles are reversed and he pulls something reckless, she’s all over him. And again, aside from Hawkeye, she’s the only one that’s comforted him/seen him cry, and also is the only one that knows how to handle him when he gets sorta panicky (I wrote in another post somewhere that I headcanon him as having terrible anxiety). They both love each other a lot and overall it’s a very playful relationship, but don’t mess with either of them because you will feel the other one’s wrath. 

When it comes to jealousy, Della knows she gets jealous and tries not to, but ultimately fails. Mulcahy on the other hand doesn’t understand why his chest feels so tight when he sees her off with some guy or hears the other men talking about her (she sometimes sleeps around and dates but it’s really only because she can’t have the person she really wants. Or at least she thinks she can’t). They both have rather intense feelings for each other, but Della never said anything because she figured she could never have him and he never said anything bc of his vows and also a lot of denial. TLDR; they’re chaotic and playful but also very emotionally close and care about each other a lot. Best friends fr. 

Other random facts about Della:

-she’s incredibly perceptive to subtle changes in people and their moods

-99% of the time is chaotic and playful but when something happens or someone is upset she immediately cools to like 1% and is incredibly gentle. It’s like whiplash, honestly. 

-she’s terrified of birds. Especially chickens. But somehow, hot chicken sandwiches are her favourite...

-she has a friend back home who is deaf and knows very basic ASL

-her mother died when she was a teenager

-she’s from Philadelphia, PA, just like Mulcahy, but they never met before the war

-she became a nurse and moved into an apartment with her best friend, but her friend moved out when she got married, and now Della just has a vacant room in her apartment back home

-she shares a tent with Nurses Kellye, Baker, and Able

-Klinger knows she has feelings for Mulcahy but never says anything about it. Just sort of gives her a knowing look

-Frank actually doesn’t bully her like he does with a lot of the others. He actually seems to like her. And everyone is bewildered by this. But Della is a little shit and will use it to her advantage to help the others

-Mulcahy may be camp therapist tm but Della is group therapist tm. She’s also the only one who knows how to calm Mulcahy when he’s anxious (I head canon that he has horrible anxiety but I’m likely just projecting but its fine) and is the only one (other than Margaret and BJ/Trapper) who can calm Hawkeye when he’s it one of his rants or is overstimulated (back on my ADHD/Autistic!Hawkeye bs)

-She used to play field hockey

-She finds her dress uniform too stuffy and would much rather wear her worn in fatigues instead

-She’s a night owl and goes on walks a lot at night after stressful days

Anyway yeah so that’s my M*A*S*H OC. I might make another who is closer to Radar’s age bc let’s be real, he needs a friend his own age. Thanks for reading if you made it this far. I was brainrotting and needed to put all of this info somewhere so here it is!

[simpsonsnight]

Episode #709

Treehouse of Horror XXXII Season 33, Episode 2 | October 10, 2021

Welcome back to "the blog I refuse to proofread"

Opening: A parody Bambi with Bart as Bambi and Marge as Bambi's mother. This specifically spoofs the scene where Bambi's mother gets her head cut off with a chainsaw. In this version, Homer is a deer who gores the hunter, played by Mr. Burns. It's only edgy on it's surface level, but the satiric point is that Disney sometimes makes scary stuff for kids. It's a soft ribbing of their parent company at best.

Story #1: A parody of Parasite, which I never saw. This one's okay, but it's just not leftist enough! Rainier Wolfcastle is the rich guy's house. I really do think the Simpsons writers, who probably all own houses exactly like his, do sorta seem to have more of an interest in dunking on the working class. See, I wasn't even kidding when I said it wasn't leftist enough. YOU THOUGHT I WAS DOING IRONY, BUT I ACTUALLY FEEL THAT WAY AND BELIEVE THE STUFF I'M SAYING ABOUT THIS. AAAAUUUUUGHHHHH

Story #2: In the second story, Bart scares Lisa and Maggie with a spooky story on Halloween, causing them to interrupt Homer and Marge's love-making sessions. Homer sets his sights on the tree-house, and decides to chop down the tree in the backyard, citing it as the cause for his woes. Every year is the same thing, "three scary stories. Two of them good, with a lame one in the middle". Hey, I smiled.

The tree gets zapped by lightening and comes to life, pulling it's roots out of the ground and going on a rampage. It can somehow zap alive other trees, who form a posse against the humans. This one is dumb but fun visually, so I like it fine. And ya gotta respect the fact that it contains their least offensive trans joke yet, when Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors says he identifies as a tree, because he's a "transplant". Not the most incredible joke in the world, and it's maybe a little hubristic of the Simpsons writers to think they can pull off non-alienating trans jokes. But it's worth noting, I guess.

Story #2.5: OH! They did a short! Because of their weird-ass four-act structure where the third act is very very short. It was Vincent Price reading a rude story in the style of Edward Gorey. One of couplets is a recreation of Bart the Lover.

Story #3: "Dead Ringer" is a parody of The Ring, which I literally watched last Halloween for the first time. Good idea, Simpsons, to parody a thing I know about. Anyway, I found this one to be the weakest.

And that's this one. I'm back, baby! (I am probably going to abandon this blog again right after this post)

MAIL BAG

Aw. AW HELL NO.

People say "The Last Exit to Springfield" is one of the greatest it's not its one of the worst why The Big Book of British Smiles we do not have those teeth. I know Americans need to have theirs cosmetically whitened. It makes no sense the book.

I'm starting to think that no book in the whole world makes sense. I look at those things and I'm just, like, "what is this". You know what I mean? This guy gets it.

I know fans and former fans like to trash the show and even think the show will last forever and ever and ever. But if you have some common sense the show will end if either Matt or a voice actor passes away. Everything comes to an end sometime.

I would not put it past the corporate entities that own the show to have bullied the cast into signing away artificial intelligence rights to their voices in the events of their deaths. It's just a hunch that I have. It was probably the only reason they were able to reach a deal in the last strike or whatever.

How dumb was Marge in the soap box racer episode agreeing with her sisters giving Homer the father test didn't she get it was probably to break them up.

Marge loves her family and is inherently trusting. These are good qualities, unless you live in a world where everyone around you has refused god's grace. She inherited a terrible world that is not suited for her. In other words... can you blame her?

The real reason on why Springfield Stem Academy was a failure was because the idea was from Marge Simpson and the episode had the name Lisa Simpson The Miseducation of Lisa Simpson. Both of them females.

Many in the community will argue that it is canon that "Man smart. Woman Smarter" as sung by Our Favourite Family, but many forget that was a Halloween episode, and thus not canon. Man Smart. Homer/Bart.

Homer a jerkass suppose he didn't know that the word was jackass? Also Homer has always been an ass when he was supposed to get Lisa a new saxophone reed. But went for a beer first. Then it caused the pony incident Lisa always wanted one but it was an incident with ponies being too expensive.

Ponies can be very expensive. Just ask my friend BING CROSBY! HAHAHA GOT 'IM. Nah, I think Homer got it from online. I get all my stuff from online.

[typhin-hoofbun]

A Milestone

I kinda forgot Tumblr existed for a few weeks, so I forgot to post here to celebrate, but on January 16th, I hit a milestone. Two years of writing.

In that two years, I wrote over half a million words. In 73 chapters across three series. It's been a wild ride. My first story is still going, I haven't finished "Princess Tells Her Story" yet. (I probably will with Book 3, I can't think of anything I can really throw at the duo to challenge them after they've defeated a broken, insane god.)

I've had a pretty small following, but a loyal and supportive one, and I am eternally grateful for that. I can't wait to see where I'll be next year, or the year after that, or the year after that, and so on. ^_^

After Princess Book 3 is done, my next project is probably going to be rewriting Princess Book 1 to be better. It's a little bit of a mess, since each chapter, I didn't know if it would be the last thing I ever posted. So I tried to end it in a way that didn't leave active hanging threads, sort of a "We'll be okay" vibe, in case I couldn't continue. That made it very episodic in nature, since I didn't want to end on a cliffhanger, just in case. I also started a lot of threads that I never properly followed up on (looking at you, Brotherhood of Shadows) because I got distracted. I was very much winging it without any plan. Well, a little bit of a plan, there was quite a bit of "laying groundwork for things planned in Book 2" going on... ^_~ But still, I want to do it better, make it more cohesive, strip the "recap" bits, etc. Handle Princess's backstory better, too. Without properly planning it, it just sorta feels rough around the edges. But it'll be a while yet, I'm barely a third of the way through Book 3.

One of those readers sent me a gift for my anniversary. A box of oranges, from an orchard in Florida. They are absolutely delicious and wonderful and I love them. That reader is none other than my own mother, so of course she knows I love oranges. (You just can't get oranges that good elsewhere.) I just wanted to gush because I'm still giddy about it.

I do still kind of want to publish my work some day. It'd be nice to be able to bring in some extra income, but it'd also just be amazing to see my books on store shelves. To know someone is gonna wander those aisles like I did, look through all the covers, and a stack of paper printed with words is gonna be one filled with words I put together. Of course, anyone who picks up my stuff is probably gonna be doing the same thing I did: grabbing anything with a non-human protagonist on the cover, hoping desperately someone can put words to the feeling of "This human body is Not Me" so they feel less like they're going insane. Even if they aren't conscious of it, like I wasn't. While internet publishing like an e-book via Amazon lacks that feeling of awe, I might still do it anyway. (Would have to get together money to commission cover art, though. I'd love to get "Cover Art" stuff for each book anyway, even if I don't publish, because it'd be cool. ^_^ )

Really, I'm happy with anyone who enjoys my stuff, regardless of their reason. It's just the scenario I come up with in my head, Kid Me surrounded by endless books and trying to find one that lets me see someone else Being Different, and lets me feel it. ^_^;;

I should probably try to post on sites other than FurAffinity. I started to post to Royal Road, but I dunno, something about it just kinda grates on me, I guess. Don't know what. If people have suggestions for sites I should post to, I'd love to hear it. It's been a while since I posted a link to my stuff, so in case anyone reading this hasn't taken a look, here you go.

It's always interesting to see how some people will only follow one story, and some people will follow all three. Vayryn gets the most attention, people love yinglets. Princess gets almost as much as Vayryn, people love dragons but there's so many dragons that it's easy to get lost in the flood. Flopsy doesn't get much attention, she doesn't have people that go looking specifically for hoofbuns. I love writing all three, though. (In the latest Vayryn chapter, she attends a convention and runs into Valsalia himself. The real-life Valsalia said I did "a pretty spot-on impression", which I think is awesome. I tried to capture his friendly, approachable vibe, and I'm glad it came across. ^_^ )

Anyway, I'm going to end this here, because it's already insanely long. Love you all, I'm going to bed! (It's 5:19 AM now...)