#i probably forgot about so many things but those are the Essentials

[imamuzansimp-oldblog-seoseoya]

types of kisses the uppermoons would prefer from this list

cw: kissing, fluff, morning kisses, forehead, nose, cheek, neck, lip kisses, pda, pinning against wall, jealousy (if u squint), lap, slight suggestive (mostly in muzan and dōma’s part), slight ooc (especially for muzan but it’s my hc muzan in private that we should all be well acquainted with), simpery bc have you met me, manga spoilers for dōma

a/n: this has sat in my apple notes app for wayyyyyyyy too long now

the list (creds to a tumblr i forgot the name of i saved this a long time ago):

Kibitsuji Muzan

5, 1, 4, 7, 10, 13

5 (in secret kiss): this is muzan we’re talking about. no way is he showing you his affection in public. i know i have my whole ‘softie in private™️’ muzan thing (really have to think of a better name), but key word: private. the day he shows affection in public is the day i stop liking kpop (jk i’ll never stop).

1 (good morning kiss): since muzan is a softie in private™️, he will gladly shower you with good morning kisses as soon as he wakes up. if you are asleep it does not matter, he’s waking you up.

4 (kiss on the neck): he’s a demon, who i believe has a side of him that’s very flirty and spicy. if you’re a human and you give consent, he’s kissing, biting, licking your neck and feeding off the blood from there. if you’re a demon, he’s still going to kiss, bite, lick, and suck your neck. he is not picky

7 (against a wall kiss): muzan + secretly very into steamy stuff + very dominant = muzan who loves a place where he can cage you in and watch you get flustered 

10 (jealous kiss): as an extraordinarily possessive person, muzan would get jealous A LOT. which leads to a lot of jealous kisses.

13 (lap kiss): especially when he’s jealous or horny. let’s be honest we all know he’d do this if you were an actual object of his affection.

Kokushibo

3, 5, 7, 8

3 (kiss on the nose): let’s be honest, besides lip kisses, this is the only place on his face that you can kiss. his forehead is almost nonexistent and his cheeks are just eyes, unless you’d like to kiss those.

5 (in secret kiss): i feel like since kokushibo is so loyal to muzan, he wouldn’t want to kiss you in public since he’d either be in front of muzan or in the human world. besides, he’s more introverted and a demon so i don’t think he’s big on kisses in public for your reputation especially

7 (against a wall kiss): i don’t even know why, i just feel like he’d like to flex his height on you if you’re shorter than him (which is likely, he’s 190 cm/6’3”). since he’s so tall, why not flex the height while making it intimate?

8 (top of head kisses): again, on his head there are only so many places to kiss since you miss two facial features. he’d like kissing your head, but since he’s likely so much taller it makes him feel secret butterflies when you manage to kiss his head

Dōma (istg i hate this man yall dōma simps better be glad im writing for him)

i’m tempted to include everything but i’ll just put: 4, 7, 10, 12, 13

4 (kiss on the neck): this guy is the most thirsty demon (second only to karaku obvi) and we all know it. he’d probably get grumpy if he couldn’t kiss ur neck at least 10 times a day (separately. the 20 something neck kisses he gave when you woke up only count as one).

7 (against a wall kiss): dōma is……… well it’s dōma, the same guy who says akaza might get stronger if he eats women, the same guy who wanted to make inosuke’s mother his wife, the same guy who forms a crush on the people he kills. using that logic he will gladly pin you up against the wall and kiss you until you’re essentially a tomato. he will not stop even then, he won’t stop unless a

pressing matter appears (aka nothing).

10 (jealous kiss): he gets jealous easily, so why not kiss you out of jealousy too?

12 (accidentally witnessed kiss): using the same logic as 7, he loves showing you off, unlike the previous two demons. he will “accidentally” leave the door wide open when he pins you on the bed and kisses the breath out of your lungs (a common occurrence) and sucks a lot of the blood right out of your veins (another common occurrence. did you ask/want/let him? i don’t know, but i doubt it. sorry)

13 (lap kiss): do i need to explain more? 

no. 

will i? 

yes.

this man… chances are he’s not keeping it in his pants for that one.

Akaza (ITS THE BASKETBALL! *said with love*)

2, 8, 9, 13

2 (forehead kiss): since he actually has one (looking at you koku), he’s kissing yours and you’re kissing his. that��s how it’s going to work and chances are he’s going to be a blushing mess because he is weak to even a woman’s glance *watches him sip respect women juice*

8 (top of head kisses): idek why i just feel like he’d enjoy them.

9 (shy kiss): he’s shy boi with women. we all know this. when you two are in private and he’s not busy punching dōma’s face off (i love it when he does), he is with you. with you while somehow being shy even though ur dating

13 (lap kiss): he’s a respectful demon, so he’s not going to drink your blood, but he is going to act like it with the way he’s kissing your neck roughly

Sekido

4, 6, 7, 10

4 (kiss on the neck): let’s be honest, his name means accumulated anger and he quite literally has anger written on his tongue, he’s being rough with his kissing and trying (and failing) to let off some steam. absolutely the roughest out of every uppermoon, if you thought muzan and dōma were biting a lot get ready to meet this guy. he will not stop until your neck is quite literally all red. props to you for not passing out, although you probably already did

6 (public kiss): he is angry in public, and he will kiss you to try and calm down (not like it works)

7 (against a wall kiss): probably pushes you a bit too hard since he doesn’t know his own strength.

10 (jealous kiss): i don’t think i need to explain, just look at 6

Karaku

4, 7, 12, 13

4 (kiss on the neck): ……… if it’s not obvious i’m sorry for you. the kanji on his tongue is literally pleasure

7 (against a wall kiss): again, i don’t need to explain

12 (accidentally witnessed kiss): like with dōma, the kiss is only “accidentally” witnessed. he totally didn’t leave the door wide open as he pinned you up against the wall

13 (lap kiss): ………………………….. YES

Aizetsu

5, 8, 9, 12

5 (in secret kiss): shyer than akaza 🥹! (he’s so precious im sry) every single time he kisses you it’s a shy kiss.

8 (top of head kisses): chances are he’s taller, so he kisses your head when he feels lonely. most of the time you’ll also be cuddling in bed

9 (shy kiss): just read 5

12 (accidentally witnessed kiss): unlike dōma and karaku, it is a genuine accident. he didn’t mean to leave the door open when he wanted to cuddle with you and shower you with kisses, he just did

Urogi

1, 6, 7

1 (good morning kiss): loves these. more specifically, loves receiving these. he doesn’t necessarily need sleep, but when he does wind up falling asleep, it’s next to you. you’ll usually wake up before him and wake him up with the good morning kisses he adores so much

6 (public kiss): his name means sky joy and ur telling me he wouldn’t get so happy he starts making out with you in public? he also just likes lowkey showing you off

7 (against a wall kiss): signature move: gets so happy he pins you against a wall and makes out with you

Gyutaro

2, 3, 4, 11

2 (forehead kiss), 3 (kiss on the nose), 4 (kiss on the neck): please give this poor man some love. he grew up only living for his sister and everyone else turning up their nose at him. forehead, nose, cheek, neck, everything kisses are a must

11 (first kiss): your first kiss with him was magical, whether it was also your first kiss is up to you, but it was definitely his and he relished in every moment of it.

[morethansky]

***TBB FINALE SPOILERS***

"The Cavalry Has Arrived" aka MY OTP IS CANON NOW

A truly absurd amount of meta and thoughts and screaming under the cut:

Overall

• I...loved it????? This is the biggest plot twist of all for me. Like I've said incessantly, I've had so many issues with the writing choices for this show, and I'm so grateful the brainrot set in so I could start watching it through a fandom lens and have way more fun with it than through a media critic lens and being a hater. But like...that was actually really satisfying to me within the parameters of where the show had led to in the last four episodes??

• As everyone on the planet probably knows by now, I would've been much happier if this show had led to the Batch choosing to do the right thing and joining the clone resistance, and if we never get another clone series, I will continue to be unbearable and salty about the lost potential of telling that story. But after Echo left and we stopped following his story, I gave that hope up. And ofc nothing about my criticism of this season is invalidated. But given the pieces on the board, I'd pretty wholeheartedly give the finale my stamp of approval!

• I'm ultimately glad that this show ended on a "We don't leave our own behind" note, because that's the clone energy and general Star Wars energy I'm looking for, and they did a great job of applying that theme to every non-villain in this episode, minor and unnamed characters included—but it's still so darkly funny for them to have continued to push this idea even though the first season is literally about them leaving their own behind and moving on. And then Crosshair calls them out on it. And then he just...leaves himself behind. Even in their first appearance in TCW, the Batch's entire vibe is that they keep trying to convince Rex to leave his own behind lmao. I just feel like the show wanted this adage to tie everything together, but then forgot to keep applying it somewhere along the way. But hurrah for this abundant use of it!

• My overall biggest criticism was that even within this one episode we got back on the rescue/captured/rescue/captured treadmill. It's the biggest plot crutch of the show. It's so goofy that Omega and Echo rescued both the children and the imprisoned clones by themselves. The setup made it so that by going to rescue Omega, Hunter, Wrecker, and Crosshair actually put her in more danger. And because they were there, more clones died, wtf!! But I do like the narrative flip—Echo and Omega were both saved by the Batch in their introductions in this era, and here are they are being the ones to save them in return. Omega and Echo also are the characters in the main cast who deserve the rescuer plotline the most, since they have been consistently portrayed as helping those in need no matter what.

• Hilariously, one of the most pivotal roles that the Forest Trio plays in regards to the GFFA at large is that they were essentially Rampart's rideshare drivers, thus enabling him to be there and force Nala Se not to hesitate to destroy Project Necromancer.

Rampart and Nala Se

• Hemlock saying his work makes him indispensable is fantastic dialogue; it just seems like some dickish thing he would say to shit on Rampart, but it ends up giving Rampart the idea to try to leverage his work to become indispensable himself, and in saying that line, Hemlock ushers his own ruin!!! This is the kind of script work I've been begging for.

• Also I was so right about Rampart being like a Kallus foil! That infamous shot of him in his sad, sterile room after Bahryn is mirrored here with Rampart sitting in pretty much the same position, except his path is the opposite from Kallus's.

• They did an EXCELLENT job with Rampart's fate. I was worried they were neutering him these last couple eps, even if the comedy was gold, but this was very well done. Everything that happens leading up to his death makes complete sense for his character, and it accomplishes the very key plot point of destroying Tantiss. At the start of the season I couldn't figure out how and why the Batch was going to end up delaying Project Necromancer for like thirty years, so I feel validated that they pretty much don't. Very typical of this show to not have the protagonists do the heroic work, but fuck it, I like this instance.

• The humanizing of Nala Se in this show has always been a bit of an interesting choice given that this is feels like such a direct successor to TCW and she was so clearly a villain there. But although they don't quite redeem her, her motivations and her fate were also artfully executed here. Her conversation with Omega pretty much takes into account every Nala Se scene in this show, which is a great way to wrap her character up. And I really like the mirror of Nala Se giving Omega her datapad in the season premiere, and Omega giving Nala Se a datapad here. Both times, Nala Se is determined to set Omega free.

• And I'm so glad there was a follow-up to the destruction of Kamino as well! Nala Se getting a bit of revenge against one of the beings responsible for the genocide of her people and destruction of her homeworld is not something I expected at all, and I love it. And the setup of Nala Se picking up the detonator and Rampart picking up the blaster is just fantastic, because you know from just those two shots that Rampart is willing to kill to gain Palpatine's favor for himself, and Nala Se is willing to die to make sure the being she loves will be free.

Echo and Omega supremacy

• Give me an Echo-led rebel show where he convinces all sorts of people in the Empire and the underworld to defect/help them, please!!! He's so good at it, completing Emerie's turn so efficiently! We have to assume Rex is also good at it given his cell and that he has clone spies and even undercover agents, but every time he sees Hunter he has tried and failed to recruit him lmao. Also REX'S NAMEDROP but him not showing up surely means...we'll see a continuation of his story soon after this...right??? Also this means Howzer still lives, oh, thank god.

• "Because it's exactly what I would do." Strategist Echo comeback yessss!! A nice little callback to the Techno Union arc that kicked this story off as well. And HELL YEAH Omega's relationship with Echo is my favorite out of all of her connections, and I'm living for their spotlight together this ep. I'm extremely invested in found family stories not relying on nuclear family narratives, and I love that you see throughout the show that Echo doesn't "raise" Omega like a kid—he trains her like a cadet. Like someone who he intends to be his equal, which is a nice and very appreciated contrast to others treating her like a precious sheltered baby.

• Their goodbye scene in "Truth and Consequences" is one of my favorites in the show, and I just adore that when Omega is upset, Echo doesn't coddle her—he reminds her of her duty to watch over the others, giving her a purpose and a reason to stand tall. When he conveys that he was worried about her and thinking of her while she was captured, he gifts her a weapon he designed and made for her during that time, so that she won't have to be defenseless after being defenseless for so long in captivity. It's so clone trooper, and I love it and the glimpses these details give us about clone culture and how the older clones cared for the shinies and the cadets and showed their love for each other.

• I also liked that Omega couldn't have escaped without Tech's training, since slicing was so vital. And all her stealthy stabbing is of course reminiscent of Hunter. And finally some emotional payoff for the ongoing bit about Wrecker being afraid of heights! I'm weak for inspirational Star Wars quotes, and this show hasn't had many, but "Just stay focused on what's ahead, not what's below," is a lovely one.

Forest conversations, my beloved

• The Kiners scored the fuck out of this episode!!! So many clever, thoughtful reprises. This is the first reappearance of Crosshair's theme that's played on the synths since he began healing! And then it segues into a soft violin tremolo version that makes me cry, and then it intertwines with "The Sacrifice" from Tech's death, ouchhhh. I have a lot of meta I need to write out about the tracks "The Reunion" and "They Always Work It Out" and how they say so much about Hunter and Crosshair, but I can't believe how well my analysis paid off in the cues in this scene! More on that in another post.

• Gosh, Wrecker's injury scared the shit out of me. But I love him so much and I'm glad he got at least a little moment, even if he didn't really have a story arc here. Or you know, in the entire damn show. And I ultimately liked that the purpose of it wasn't just to freak us out but to give them a plausible disadvantage and to give Crosshair someone to fuss over the whole time and act more recklessly because of it, thus reiterating this key character trait of his.

• I love Crosshair being worried about Wrecker and Hunter and them being worried about Crosshair. That's the squad content I crave and have been missing!! Unfortunate that it specifically has been happening when Omega is out of the picture. Writers, I swear to you, you can do both.

• Can't believe it took another half season for someone to say something about Tech's death, and it was Crosshair, who wasn't even there?? Cool line and sentiment, but man, so frustrating. I like this callback to his conversation with Rampart, though. "Depends on who's giving them" and in this first act he keeps trying to give those orders himself. Thinking of Rex on Umbara: "We're not programmed. You have to learn to make your own decisions."

• God the forest conversations in this ep and the previous one fed me so much. Hunter saying, "And so do those clones" had me literally jumping out of my seat and cheering. Baby boy, it took you so goddamn long, but thank you for finally actually giving a shit before the conclusion of your story. And "It's what I deserve," hnghhh that's the good shit, and it hearkens back perfectly to "I belong in here." And Hunter immediately telling Crosshair hell no made me very happy. And then later Hunter saying "Crosshair—" when he's worried Crosshair is still going to sacrifice himself, but Crosshair reassures him that he'll be right behind them... My heart! What a Crosshunt feast we got in this ep!!!

• Can't believe we also got so many Crosswrecker moments from the get-go and they kept coming! And my three precious little Techwrecker crumbs: the way Crosshair specifically chooses Wrecker to say the cutting remark about Tech to; the way Wrecker bows his head because that was right on target; and Wrecker being the one to watch Tech fall and to scream, "Don't do it, Tech!" in "Plan 99" yet the one to say with such conviction here, "We've always known the risks. And so did Tech." That's just so...finally accepting your beloved is gone ;_; Not really deserved by the text, which kept all but a total of like maybe one total minute of mourning off screen for some fucking reason, but.

Clone X, more like Clone Sexy

• There aren't nearly as many Clone X dudes as I expected?? I guess Crosshair's situation wasn't that rare after all? Or do they just run through them super quickly because Rex's team keeps taking them down?? Regardless, god, THEY ARE ALL SO SEXY. The way they animated their movements was so creepy and hot. And them not speaking was so eerie, I loved it. And then the moment that CX-2 did was so effective and terrifying!!! But remembering that those were clones in there is so, so heartbreaking.

• I really like that Echo really felt like both a clone trooper AND the resistance agent he is now this whole episode, and Hunter, Wrecker, and Crosshair actually briefly got to feel like commandos. The slick stealth and silent communication was also very sexy.

• MY GOD, I loved these action scenes. They were lit and choreographed so cool, they were super intense and had real consequences and close brushes with death, and the logic of the fight flow was really good, too. A character being incapacitated because they went to try to help an ally is always a wonderful driving force for action and gives it that crucial character-driven element that raises the stakes, and is great for making sure the main characters aren't too OP, and there was a ton of that here.

• Hunter and Wrecker getting shot by laser cannons and Hunter pushing Wrecker away from the blast made me shriek in terror AND THEN CROSSHAIR SHOOTING THE PILOT DEAD ON NO HESITATION NO ANXIETY NO TREMOR BECAUSE HOW DARE YOU HURT MY HUSBAND I'M FUCKING LIVINGGG. And then Wrecker stumbling over to Hunter and lifting the debris like he does in TCW. Boom, three pivotal character-driven action scenes in a row that divulge a key characteristic of each character! Excellently written and directed.

• Also I am SO SO SO HAPPY that we're getting to see this protective Crosshair come out in full force!!! This is the Crosshair who risked his life to try to save Mayday, who shouted hysterically when Hunter fell into the ice and was so desperate to get him out, who worried over Omega on Teth. I also really like this contrast with how he was about Echo—"Echo's on it." He knows Echo will get the job done and be safe and that's despite his former prejudice against regs. He's worried about Hunter and Wrecker and that's despite previously spending time trying to hunt them down. And when he suffers consequences, it's because of him worrying about them, and that's so delicious.

• Finally got to hear Crosshair screaming! And Hunter was already the screamer in this show, but goddamn does he get to scream in this episode. Thank you, directors, for this whump material! My man Steward Lee never lets me down.

• THE WAY THAT WHEN CROSSHAIR IS TRYING TO SAVE WRECKER HE REACHES FOR A DC-17 OMG!!!! I feel so validated! And just like with Mayday, he's incapacitated afterward...

• God the way CX-2 waits to be tossed the vibrosword and then leans down with it while Crosshair is already incapacitated is SO brutal, like this is not a battle injury. It's straight up what Anakin fucking Skywalker does to Count Dooku just before he becomes a Sith Lord, like holy shit, dude. This scene is so cool and I've watched it 10,000 times over the past 24 hours, but also why did he do that lol, is he just supposed to be particularly cruel?? Obsessed with tormenting Crosshair for some reason?? Also, these vibroswords are exactly how I've pictured Ahsoka's being in A Future for Us :D

• At this point I was like, uhhh, the messaging of Crosshair struggling with this psychomatic hand tremor since the first episode of the season and then the symptom literally being taken out of his........hands sure is a Choice, especially coupled with how they've treated Echo (or you know, not). When they showed him still with the symptoms later, I was very relieved, AND THEN HUNTER LITERALLY CURES CROSSHAIR THROUGH THE POWER OF THE LOVE AND FAITH AND TRUST HE HAS FOR HIM IS THERE ANYTHING MORE BEAUTIFUL IN THE WORLD???? But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Echo is the GOAT

• "You were helping us, Dr. Karr?" / "I am." I love this subtle line and how Emerie acknowledges that she wasn't sure of her loyalties before but is certain now. And I love that she says such a clone trooper thing, "You have my word," and then doing the clone shoulder pat, especially in direct contrast to the natborn kids hugging Omega just before.

• "Hey, kids. ...And other kids." is just so fucking 501st, I can't explain it. I'm just so ecstatic that they did Echo such justice in the end, giving a nod to everything about his character, even his dorkass cadet personality. And it wasn't just so he could die, thank god!!!

• Like Echo even got a DARTH VADER homage??? That's his mass-murdering general (affectionate). More on this here!

• Also is there anything more Big Dick Energy in the world than Echo eviscerating Rampart—who either the clones would recognize as a former vice admiral or at least see his captain rank plaque—with what may not be a theme this show really earned but is ABSOLUTELY a theme that Echo deserves and has shouldered for over two seasons...and then just straight up shoving him out of the way so that he can talk to his brothers???? And with his stormtrooper helmet—which is like Echo refusing to dirty his hands (including his new, long-awaited one) by touching Rampart oh my god??? Sexiest man alive.

• So the answer is no, there isn't. Fives is hollering from the afterlife. Half those clones immediately developed a crush on him in that moment. That one clone later placing a blaster in Echo's arms so gently confirmed this for me (remember the symbolism of Echo making the energy crossbow for Omega? He even gives her his borrowed blaster in this scene), but it's so sad that he died because of it, whyyy.

• Also I love the "Clones don't leave our brothers behind" riff on the "We don't leave our own behind" adage. It's very fitting that Hunter would put it that way because he only means his squad (+/-1), whereas Echo would see it as meaning his people.

• And I love how when Rampart first shoves Echo, the clone in front that Echo's been talking to prickles and makes brief eye contact with him, to be like, "Should we take him? I've got your back." I felt that girls (gender neutral) in the bathroom energy so hard.

• The clones helping each other out of their cells made me so emotional. And it's the same way that Hunter and Crosshair do later...

• Echo asking for volunteers, just like Rex did on Umbara..................

• I think this post is breaking and I'm still only two-thirds of the way through my rewatch, oops. And yesterday I stayed up until 8 a.m. after I put it on again after watching it for the first time... I'm so normal about this show. More tomorrow!

• Part 2!

[jeannereames]

Dr. Reames, a simple question from someone interested in history but who is not part of the academic world: in order to study Alexander the Great and Ancient Greece in general, how much Ancient Greek does one have to learn? Would you need to learn Demotic Greek or the many other dialects, such as the one from Macedonia? As in, you’d need to learn one or more versions of Ancient Greek?

Thank you in advance! I always enjoy your responses!

How Much Greek Do I Need to Read about Alexander?

It depends on how far you want to go…what’s your end-goal?

If you’ve no desire to make it a profession, the good news is you need very little Greek.

Most ancient Greek and Latin texts are available in translation in the major languages of (European) Classical studies: English, French, German, Italian. Now, if you want them in Polish, or Japanese, or Bengali, you’ll have more of an issue. But the Loeb Classical Library (and LOEB ONLINE) has English translations of virtually all extant (still existing) Greek and Latin sources, and if you’ve got access to a (larger) college library, they probably have them, even if you have to ask them to get things out of storage. Latin is red (PA6156); Greek is green (PA3612). Budé is the French version of Loeb, btw.

Loeb texts also have Greek and Latin on the facing page, but I mention them because they’ve got translations of (almost) everything. One can find cheaper versions without the Greek/Latin from Penguin, Oxford, et al. But those don’t have, say, Aelian, or Athenaeus, or the obscure texts of Plutarch’s Moralia. Loeb does. That said, the Alexander histories (Arrian, Curtius, Plutarch, Diodoros, and Justin) are all available in relatively cheap translations. Much earlier, in answer to a different ask, I listed our main sources on Alexander, extant and lost. It’s a longer read, but perhaps of interest.

(See below for more online sources in translation.)

So, no, you don’t need Greek. But, if you’re at least moderately serious about reading beyond pop history, you will want to learn a few Greek words to better “get” Greek sensibilities. Say, timē (τιμή), which means honor/public standing/esteem, but has all these attendant connotations. If you start reading the Serious Stuff (articles and academic books), authors will throw these around so it’s useful to know them, as they tend to carry an entire freight of meaning we don’t want to explain every time we use them. These are words I make my students learn in my intro to Greek History class (2510), so there aren’t many. (Undergrads put up with only so much, ha.) For Alexander, it’s also useful to know the Greek names of some units, such as the Somatophylakes (the royal Bodyguard of 7), or the Hypaspists (the specialist hoplite phalanx, not the same as the Foot Companions), or even the name of the long pike (sarissa). But you can make do quite well with a vocab of maybe 30± Greek terms.

It's only if you want to pursue research at the advanced (graduate) level that you’d need Greek. Even then, it’s mostly Attic Greek. The only time you’d need dialects is for quite specific study and/or epigraphy (inscriptions). Epigraphers are language specialists. Most of us, even the “pros,” don’t work at that level. But yes, if you’re getting into extensive examinations of passages, it’s good to understand the language for yourself, not have to trust a translation. Translations are, by definition, interpretations.

I hope that encourages some folks to embark on reading the original (primary) sources. Of more import for these is to understand HISTORIOGRAPHY. Even those who can read the Greek, but lack historiographic training, tend to take stuff at face-value when they shouldn’t.

Go HERE for a discussion of historiography (with regard to Alexander). Again, it’s part of a specific ask, but I explain why we need to know something about the historians who are writing our texts, in order to understand those texts. It’s another longer read, but essential.

Almost forgot! If you prefer video, I've also talked about the sources on TikTok: Part I: Intro & Lost Alexander Sources and Part II: Extant Alexander Sources

Some Useful Online Sources to Bookmark:

Perseus (at Tufts.edu): clunky as hell because it’s old (in internet years), but indispensable. English/Greek/Latin/other texts in translation and original language, plus all sorts of other tools, including an image bank. Pitfall: these are translations outside copyright, so old and sometimes problematic. Still, it’s free, and so-so much stuff here. Every person dealing with the ancient Med world has this one on speed-dial. (You can find other online sources with various texts, but Perseus has, again, almost everything; it’s the online Loeb.)

Stoa Org Static: a version of the original where you don’t have to sign in. Takes you to various super-helpful pages, including the Online Suda (a Byzantine encyclopedia you can search: look up “Hephaistion” there. *grin*) Bunch of other helpful links.

Wiki Digital Classicist hypertext list of topics ranging from the Beasley Library (of pottery) to the Coptic Gnostic Library and various online journals. Just click around, see what’s there.

Topos Text: clickable map of places which includes all references to them in ancient sources. So if, say, you want to know where X places is, mentioned in Arrian, you can find it on the map.

PHI Searchable Greek Inscriptions: I have used the tar out of this. It’s much easier than Inscriptiones Graecae, and comes with English translations.

More Online Resources: more links. This is just one of various collections out there.

Again, ALL this stuff is free. Even when you may have to pay (like Loeb Online), the amount of material you can now lay hands on even without a uni library is fantastic.

JSTOR: requires a subscription, but, if you’re a college student or can get access via a uni library, you can look up material for free. Problem: JSTOR has different subscription packages, and only the really big Class-A Research schools have large holdings for Classics. I’m regularly foiled in things I need, as my library is smaller. I use ILL (Interlibrary Loan) a lot. If you can’t get what you want via your school JSTOR or ILL, sometimes you can purchase a solo copy of an article via JSTOR Google Scholar. But (hint) always check the journal’s website itself. It might be cheaper there! (The Ancient History Bulletin, for instance, is super-cheap; check their archives. Karanos [Macedonia only] is FREE.) Same thing sometimes with books. Certain publishers have rental options, Open Access, etc.

Also Academia.edu first: Your savior…if the author is a member, and has uploaded the paper you want. We frequently face restrictions on what we’re allowed to upload, and when. Yet we may list an article we can’t yet release publicly. That doesn’t mean we won’t send it to you privately via email if you message us and ask nicely. 😊 Especially if you’re not providing an entire wishlist, or asking for a book for free. It depends on the person, and whether they have a PDF.

[trans-luis-serra-navarro]

I remember there was a headcanon about Luis attending a school that had secret connections with Umbrella. Now I can't help but think if Leon and Luis have a kid, they would do extensive background checks on schools their kid would attend, because they'll want to make sure none of those schools were associated with Umbrella/have ties to corrupt companies/organizations.

Thank you so much for sending in an ask!!!!!!! But yesyesyesyesyes I know the headcannon you’re talking about!!!!!! From memory I think either @geddy-leesbian or @hamartia-grander made some pretty extensive posts going into this idea??? Either way its really fascinating to think about!!!!

For those of you who don’t know, the headcannon/theory basically revolves around the fact that Luis was able to graduate school seemingly pretty quickly/was considered a ‘child prodigy’, and that in-universe theres a few characters who attended schools created specifically by Umbrella to essentially indoctrinate them; one of the most notable being the Umbrella Executive Training School that William and Wesker attended.

Umbrella has a few random facilities like this (like the Rockford Prison) And considering the fact that Europe seemed to be a relatively big hub for Umbrella, it DEFINITELY wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that they’d have a similar school with the intent of training/indoctrinating ‘child prodigies’ to work for them in the future, and it’d be even less pf a stretch to assume that Luis, who came from a VERY sheltered religious background, would be a very easy subject to pick (cuz! yippee!! capitalist grooming am i right or am i right!!) It’d also absolutely lend a hand to why Luis grabbed as many items as he could and just BOOKED IT immediately after finding out what their plans for Nemesis REALLY were (I could talk about that part of his life/that realisation for HOURS oh my GOD)

EDIT I FORGOT TO ADD: Umbrella on some level does work quite like a cult. I’ll link a post that does a MUCH better job explaining it than I could in the replies of this post, but creating facilities for the sole purpose of indoctrinating already vulnerable young people into being on board with your project and isolating them from friends and family is like. Cult behaviour 101 BFNEHENDJDJ which is VERY painful to think about how Luis got roped into cults THREE times. Valdelobos before Saddler showed up wasn’t EXPLICITLY a cult, but considering it was isolated from modern society and heavily Catholic theres a strong argument to be made- then of course theres Umbrella- then of course he was blackmailed into working with Los Illuminados. I’ll make a post going deeper into that SOMEDAY, but like,,,, just the tragedy of his life being one big cycle he cant break is just. So devastating man are you KIDDING ME

I’m not like. SUUUUUPER knowledgeable on super obscure lore stuff like locations/facilities etc, so if you have a question about that specifically @highball66 would probably be a better person to ask!!!!

But again we know like. NOTHING about the inbetween time between Luis running away from Valdelobos as a child and him popping up as one of Umbrella’s top scientists other than the fact that he was a child prodigy and he excelled in college- hell even the dates/ages get kinda wonky at times BHFNEHENEUDNSIS but also this is Resident Evil where things get wonky a lot of the time so!!! Eh!!!!!!!

I have my own personal theory on what he did during that time inbetween I would be SO MORE THAN HAPPY to ramble about HDNEHENDJDN

BUT TO THE POINT OF YOUR QUESTION!!! YES!!!!!!!! ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!!!!! Plus just in general with Leon having a lot more enemies than friends, doing background checks on teachers or whatever would probably seem like paranoia to an outsider but to them?????? Nah you can NEVER be safe. Plus Leon’s like, a government agent- he obviously doesn’t have a TON of autonomy but I can imagine he at least has SOME power to dig up information on people. AND, the both of them literally went through hell and back to save Ashley, who was kidnapped right under the presidents nose- So like!! Hell yeah they’d be paranoid abt where their kids going man!!!!!!!! Rightfully so I think!!!

[hcfiles]

Why is he struggling financially? I'll give you an example. Well, maybe two (and this isn't meant to make anyone feel stupid, just fyi).

Let's take Witcher season 2, he made 1mil per episode. 8 episodes, 8mil in total. Sounds like a lot until you factor in that he doesn't take home 8mil. 60-80% of that goes to: agents, managers, taxes (A LOT goes to taxes, actually) and staff. While agents can only make 10% managers can claim 30% or more, or even charge a commission scale. His staff from what I've observed can be anywhere from four to six people, at least, who are either being paid the bare minimum for their industries or they're being paid very well. The revenues from streaming are so dogshit they might as well not be counted as much more than coffee money. Then you have to factor in his personal expenses, bills and whatnot. After he pays out the essentials that 8mil gets whittled down to 3.2mil or 1.6mil, and given how richly he likes to live that doesn't go very far. Fans assume he invests and is smart about his money but in truth we really don't know that. Another example was his last cameos for Superman. We know he got paid $500k for both in total. He probably walked away with anywhere from $100k to $200k before his personal expenses. Again, I know it sounds like a lot and for us average folk it would be. But this is the guy who shells out money for things like gifts and pizza for a full filming crew, who stays in luxury rentals that are not always paid for by studios and always flies privately. He like many other celebrities has all the hallmarks of someone who spends it as soon as they make it, and now he's not making as much as he used to. I would wager he's being kept afloat by family money right now, or those investors he met in Jeddah. For his sake, I hope it's not the latter.

And you forgot to include expenses he has supporting the entire family of his brother. There you go. It's explained why he's broke.

[m1ckeyb3rry]

SitH thoughts under the cut for the roughly two people that have read that story:

- why is Y/N so shippable with EVERY character EXCEPT FOR COLT (literally the main love interest)

- like the conversation with reiner on the bridge??? so romantic and for what…wdym you wished you knew each other in a world where you weren’t both terrible people. wdym you’ll meet each other in another life some time. WDYM YOU’LL FIND HER IN THAT NEXT LIFE HUH REINER 🤨🤨🤨🤨

- her and hadrian have a narrative reason to be shipped so ig i can’t complain about that but i still can’t get over the impact that he has had on everyone reading the story. bro was there for 1.5 chapters max and he’s still on everyone’s minds even now. those pseudo-italian genetics are strong i suppose

- i have actually tried to figure out why it is that friedrich seems like more of a love interest than colt at times though (besides me being the BIGGEST victim of second lead syndrome) and i think i’ve finally got it!!

- the story is essentially Y/N’s life story, and while it was inspired out of a love for colt, the story more so focuses on the effects of things like war on a person (in this case Y/N), and how “cool girl boss beating up and killing people and getting no trauma from it” is a trope that just doesn’t make sense. so Y/N was created first and foremost to be a way to depict these impacts and to be a character that does questionable things and is faced with real consequences for them instead of just being hailed as a hero

- meanwhile colt is a character i’ve borrowed from isayama, so i can’t do much about his base characterization (although i’ve certainly pushed the limits on that), but i was the person to make friedrich, and as his writer, i can say that he was quite literally created just to love Y/N. of course he does other things and has other relationships and (hopefully) seems like a character that has more to him than just ‘being in love with Y/N’, but that doesn’t change the fact that at his core, being in love with Y/N is his narrative purpose, just like showing Y/N the other sides of war is hadrian’s. this is especially hard for me to navigate when writing because i have to show that while also trying to make sure that he doesn’t take over the story (which is after all a colt fic).

- i would say that in the beginning, her and colt were closer due to their more compatible personalities, but her during (and post) war personality is much more in line with friedrich’s just because he’s a lot more cynical and blunt. i’m somewhat limited by the canon in terms of how things like athyae affect colt because he does have a generally kind and almost naive?? personality in the small crumbs we get of him in the show, so i have to balance that with also making sure that everything he goes through does have an effect on who he is as a person the way it does on friedrich and Y/N

- this story is going to be so sad in the end. like it’s already probably my least happy work just because of the grim stuff that it covers, but i would like to reemphasize that Y/N’s life…is not that great. i think she’s my most tragic Y/N because everything that happened to her was brought about by a choice she made — to be a warrior candidate, which is not something she was forced to do. the L/Ns were decently well off, her parents loved her, and she was generally happy if not bored with her life pre-candidacy. but then she made that one fatal mistake and now she’s become what she is and she can never really leave and it leads to a general life of pain anguish and suffering (although i will say that my best friend heard my plans for the ending and said that it was relatively happy compared to what i normally write, so take that as you will)

- i forgot how self-aware the characters are at some points. there’s this one scene where friedrich and colt literally make fun of how many guys like Y/N (because at the end of the day she’s still Y/N duh ofc she’s beautiful everyone likes her) and it’s so unserious…even despite how heavy the fic can get there is some levity here and there which i forgot about tbh. but the story will literally go from Y/N having a crisis about something to friedrich and colt saying some bs like “i really admire [him] for not being one of the many men to instantly fall in love with you” “true seems like he really had remarkable self-restraint” “what a commendable fellow”

- i love marek and i am very sorry for what i put him through but would i do it again?? yes. also he and Y/N are rlly cute together

- at this point i’ve gotten so attached to these characters that i could genuinely write fics about them. like fanfics about a literal fanfic. fanfiception.

- atm i think writing one of those otome isekai stories (they are my guilty pleasure) with Y/N from this fic specifically would be so fucking funny and honestly i might do it just for personal enjoyment but idk if i would ever post it because it would be such a derivative work that anyone going into it expecting an aot fic would be angry and disappointed because the only aot character in it would be colt and idek if Y/N would end up with him in such an au

- okay most of these were about Y/N’s relationships with every character BESIDES colt but her and colt honestly are really sweet together

- he cares about her so much and honestly there are many times where i’ll be writing and i’m like “nah colt deserves better” because he is SO patient with her it’s insane

- on a similar note i think it’s crazy how we’re almost at 150k words and there’s been ONE kiss (which barely even counts because it WASN’T WITH COLT)

- but at the same time the lack of romance is kind of on purpose because Y/N is NOT in a mental state to be in a relationship atm and i hate that whole trope of ‘getting a romantic partner and getting over your trauma immediately’ as that’s just not realistic. colt and friedrich are there to love and support Y/N but all three of them know that the way they are currently is not conducive to being with someone long term. there’s a lot of trauma there that needs to be resolved and spoiler alert it will not be for a very very long time

- there’s so many interesting dynamics that Y/N will have with future characters that i’m excited to write but they’re all like 200k-300k words away which is killinggg me

- ship in the harbor will definitely be my longest story and i’ve changed a lot both as a writer and a person since beginning it, so it’s super special to me. thank you so much to everyone who reads it and comes up with theories about it and falls in love with its characters — i know it’s such a niche fic and it’s been rough at times and i’m so spotty with updating it, but i really do love this little version of the warrior candidacy program and what was going on in marley while the scouts were busy doing their own thing. here’s to many more chapters (but hopefully not too many more years) of me stealing what i want from isayama and filling in the rest as i please, so that this entire mess of a story comes together into something that’s somewhat comprehensible and makes at least one person cry

[enchantra35]

Reflections on V4 & V5 of RWBY by a first time watcher

(Lengthy post ahead)

Hi, it's be again, back on my bullshit. First of all, I'd like to say that I didn’t expect my first post to get that much attention LOL. I'd like to clarify (again) two points:

First, I agree with most people's explanations. I didn't mean to sound like I was accusing fans for not thinking that bumbleby would become canon. My intention was to point out to some earlier hints, and I realize now that I could have used some better phrasing. As I explained elsewhere, when rwby aired, I was too young to know anything about the state of queer representation in media at the time. Now of course I know better, although I never got to experience that kind of anxiety - at least, not to that extent. My second point is that I was mostly referring towards homophobes and incels who were trying to persuade shippers that bumbleby wasn't happening, and not to fans who couldn't be certain due to the overall circumstances.

With that said, the aim of this post is mainly to discuss some things I've noticed while watching volumes 4 & 5. There wasn't much I wished to comment on after finishing v4 as I found it very transitional, so I decided to do one unified post for both volumes, especially since someone suggested to watch these volumes as one. Let me now get to the main points I'd like to mention.

-Edit: I forgot one of the most important motifs imo; the moon. I noticed how each volume it looks bit by bit more ruined, showing how the world below is also falling it chaos and society as it is known is destroyed. Also, it's eventual (potential) complete destruction will make the nights darker, symbolizing the triumph of evil. I love subtle details like that.

- Ozpin's and Crow's dynamic really reminds me of Dumbledore and Snape. Ozpin in particular reminds me very much of Dumbledore - and I definitely don't mean that as a good thing. Although he clearly has good intentions and he's a "good guy" per se, sometimes it feels like he's using his students as sacrificial lamps for the greater good. Personally, I'm not exactly font of the idea of pushing the fate of the world onto the shoulders of a bunch of teenagers. Oscar is still a KID and all he's ever known is how to be a farmer and suddenly he's sharing a body with one of the smartest and most powerful people to ever walk the earth and their fates are suddenly intertwined. That's so insane. And on top of everything, Ozpin isn't 100% honest with him. I'm glad that Yang confronts him about keeping secrets. I will give it to him however that he's honest enough to admit his mistakes.

-Raven is probably one of the most fascinating characters. Can't say whether I like her or hate her, but there are so many layers to touch upon. It's interesting how she's constantly trying to prove to others - and essentially to the viewers as well - that she's cruel, smart and calculating (and she definitely is all those things) and that she doesn't care about trifle things, but ultimately she fails, as it is evident by the end of volume 5. She does care about Yang (although she has a very strange way of showing it) and her tribe most of all. She's also smart enough to see Ozpin's shortcomings.

- I liked how they explored Yang's trauma from loosing her arm and how she copes with the loss. "A part of me is lost" is such a powerful statement and it points to how everything has changed, but Yang accepts it.

-At the same time, that girl has no chill with that prosthetic arm. She straight up dismantles it off her shoulder just to win the wrestling against Nora (and later on to elude Mercury. I bet that if anyone asked her to give them a hand, she would just toss it on their feet then laugh her ass out. She's so silly, I love her.

-With that said, I wish they could have explored a little bit more of Jaune's trauma, but still I think we see well enough how Pyrrha's death has affected him. But why the FUCK did they have to give him more trauma in order to unlock his semblance? Another of his friends almost dies before his eyes, give that boy a break, good Lord.

- Ren and Nora 👀. I love me some good childhood bestdriends to potential lovers. Their background is so tragic but there's something about then growing up together that makes me feel things. I love their dynamic and I think it's pretty hilarious (collected, quiet guy and loud, silly, powerful girl). It was nice how they gained some catharsis when they finally killed that monster. And the symbolism when they hid under similar building where Nora tried to calm Ren down? Literal tears.

-"I was struck by a lighting and I lived. What a Wednesday" GIRL WHAT, LMAO

- I really enjoyed Blake's and Sun's dynamic, whether someone sees them romantically or platonically (for me personally it's the latter, but that's besides the point). Sun has always been a great friend, and although he can be really annoying sometimes, he is there for Blake and he's able to make her see things clearly and persuade her that isolating herself isn't a good thing. I feel like without him around, things for the Belladonnas would have been very different. He's a bit of a himbo, but I love him.

-The angsty Bees got me really well this season. Yang's anger is definitely justifiable and she has every right to be upset.

-"What if I wanted her to be here for me?" BITCH-

-Weiss pulling the "what's that supposed to mean?" every time the Bees are being angsty will forever be funny to me. The OG Beekeeper.

-That said, I think that she explains Blake's point of view really well and I liked how she reached out to Yang although "they aren't that close" (her words, not mine) and seeks to comfort her.

-Did I say that I hate Weiss's family? (Except maybe Winter, but the rest can go burn in hell). I'm GLAD Weiss realizes that ream RWBY is her true family. You love to see a good found family trope.

-Genuinely CANNOT stand the Bees this season /j. Blake seeing her team again and the only person she calls out for is Yang? And Yang's puppy eyes when she sees Blake again? WHY ARE YOU GAY?

-One of the funniest lines was when Crow was like "How can six children make so many noise while having dinner?", like BUDDY, you just answered your question. Tired uncle Crow for the win.

[creative-jackalope]

*chanting* Ford Pines ! Ford Pines ! Ford Pines !

(for the headcanon game LOL)

HI THIS WAS SENT TO ME A REALLY LONG TIME AGO AND I FORGOT TO POST THE RESPONSE,,, This has been in my drafts for like a year I think oopsie. Aaaaaaaaaaaanyway--

---

[Send a character’s name to receive four different headcanons!]

OH BOY do I have many a thought about this man. Picking just four is tough and these are going to be so long so I’ll place them under a read-more.

Heads up - significant Gravity Falls spoilers!

Headcanon 1 - Canon-Compliant:

This is a relatively common headcanon already, I think, but Ford is absolutely covered in scars from his time in the Multiverse. He also already had some from his years in Gravity Falls. If you can name an injury, Ford's probably experienced it at some point - bitten, stung, broken bones, shot, stabbed, fallen from a height, poisoned, burned, he's seen it all. (Thankfully he's managed to keep himself away from fatal or debilitating harm, but there's still time! :D His common sense and self-preservation instincts leave something to be desired and his hero complex never quite went away.) He isn't too fussed about others seeing the scars, usually, but he tends to be evasive if asked about them - he prefers not to think about his time in the Multiverse in too much detail.

Headcanon 2 - Hilarious: 

Ford is resolutely convinced that, throughout his time working with Fiddleford, he did an astounding job at hiding Bill and their partnership. He is 100% certain that Fiddleford couldn't ever have known, not in the least! It does, however, turn out that Ford is a terrible liar and has about as much subtlety as a fork in the garbage disposal. That's not even counting the moments (that Ford is unaware of) when Bill would talk directly to Fiddleford, making no pretenses but never telling Fiddleford exactly who he is other than a 'friend' looking after Ford and helping build the portal. At one point Bill even tried to directly tell Ford that Fiddleford knew, hoping they'd get to stop the charade - Ford just laughed and brushed it off, saying, "Don't be ridiculous, he doesn't suspect a thing!" Bill didn't care enough to push the topic.

Headcanon 3 - Painful:

[CW: Substance misuse, life-threatening physical illness, mental illness, paranoia] Being possessed repeatedly by Bill had serious effects on Ford’s body which neither of them expected. Towards the end of their partnership, his body essentially began to treat Bill like a parasite - his immune system began attacking his nervous system. This caused swelling in his brain, accompanied by fever, hallucinations, chronic headaches and light sensitivity, and just in general an awful time all around for him. After the betrayal, it didn’t matter if Cipher was actually tormenting him or not; hallucinations of him were enough to fuel Ford’s paranoia, and depriving himself of sleep to 'protect' himself from these hallucinations did extremely little to help. The one saving grace is that Ford began to self-medicate with steroids in an attempt to keep himself awake and alert for longer periods, which had the (accidental, on his part) side-effect of slowing/reducing the swelling and suppressing his immune system's attack on his body - and likely saved his life by keeping him going until he finally ended up in a hospital. He has long-lasting damage from this, though thankfully things have improved with time, and he has learned to live with and work around the lingering symptoms. He's still not certain how much of the torment in those years was actually Bill, and how much of it was his own paranoia and illness... If he's honest with himself, he'd rather not know.

Headcanon 4 - Canon Is Dead:

Stanford Pines likes poetry and I will die on this hill. I know this directly contradicts Journal 3 (”I never understood poetry, to be honest") but, in my eyes, Ford loves self-expression through written and visual mediums. He is a man who has always struggled with expressing things like emotions verbally, which is part of the reason he ends up using his Journals more as a diary than as a record of research methods and discoveries, and so art as an expression of things you can’t otherwise put words to fascinates him. The written word, in general, is something he loves - whether fiction or non-fiction, poetry or prose. Poetry in particular is something that helps him with recognising his own emotions and understanding them. As such, I explain the Journal 3 comment either as “-plugs ears- he didn’t say that” or “he’s being deliberately snarky because he knows what the Hand Witch is implying and he doesn’t like it or want to admit/acknowledge it”.

...

Now I’m. Stretching the rules a bit lmao.

Here are some in-depth extras that are important ones to me, but don’t particularly fit the above categories.

Bonus Headcanon 5 -  Trauma, coping mechanisms, and the importance of social support after so much isolation:

[CW: Discussion of PTSD symptoms] Basically implied in canon already, he has some pretty serious PTSD as a result of his years spent paranoid and alone in the Multiverse, and suffers from frequent nightmares as well as occasional flashbacks, amongst other things. One of his biggest coping mechanisms for the related anxiety is being armed so he can defend himself at a moment’s notice. At first after returning, Ford never went without his weapon belt, not even at the Shack, and all it took was an errant floorboard creak for his hand to fly to his gun. After a long while, he steadily got used to the idea that he was home, and he was safe, and started to forgo the belt more and more whilst in what he felt were safe places (ie. in the Shack or on the Stan O’ War II). Despite that, he still feels the need to be armed for reassurance whenever he goes out, even if it’s just to the town - and there are days where he will, without explanation, carry a weapon in his safe places too, something that Stan tactfully doesn’t mention. However, later on those same days Stan will usually a spot a new anomaly and insist they need to stay home so he can tell Ford about it, then spend all evening spinning a grand tale of how terrifying and fantastical it was in great detail, until Ford either is listening with complete awe or is terribly unamused and poking holes in the blatantly fabricated story - either way, the gun often ends up on the table, forgotten.

Bonus Headcanon 6 - Probably the most important one to me and plays a massive part in how I characterise Ford as a whole - I apologise for how LONG this one is but I have so so so many thoughts about it:

Ford is autistic and was diagnosed as a child, in the 60s. He grew up masking a lot of the more “obvious” traits, like repressing many of his body stims, because of bullying and family pressure - he was already “weird” and this just made him stand out more, so he tried to hide it. Big traits he had as a child that carried over to adulthood were his bluntness, difficulty in relating to others, sensitivity to sensory input (noise and texture were the main ones), and how he would focus intensely on particular topics that interested him. Behind-the-scenes he also received a lot of support from Stan (who I headcanon as ADHD and autistic, though his traits present very differently to Ford’s and he was never assessed or diagnosed, instead just treated as a ‘problem child’), and as such, began to struggle a lot more than he thought he would once Stan was no longer in his life and couldn’t secretly help him through things. As an adult, since he started living alone and had embraced his polydactly and made it his, Ford steadily started unmasking and just let himself exist in all his “weird” glory; including being more vocal about his own limits and needs, both personal and social. He stims a lot with DD&MD dice (which he is an avid collector of) as well as whatever little desk toys he can find (especially physics-based ones), and also has several hand-based stims like tapping or rubbing his fingers. One of his anxious stims, picked up during the nights where he was trying to keep himself awake, is tapping his thumb against his fingers sequentially and counting along “one, two, three, four, five”. Counting is general is an action he finds very soothing when he’s stressed or anxious. Finally, one thing that has never, ever changed about him is that once he gets focused on something he Will Not Stop - he’ll forgo food, sleep, and anything else because he simply forgets he needs it once he gets into the zone, and he’s terrible at reading the signals from his body informing him he is hungry or tired. Having others around, like Fiddleford and Stanley, to prompt him to look after himself is something he benefits from heavily.

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

Wow, I'm mad at myself for being late to the favorite fic subject coming up /j

Personally, I'm a huge sucker for cya and have itysg as a second(however, if we decide to count your other fics then... itysg would be third while your smile makes me smile would be second). I think it's the amount of world building that makes it so interesting for me along with the fact that it takes place before the archon war. Like, there hardly passes a day where cya doesn't just... scoot right over into my thoughts making it kinda hard to reread cause it know it so well </3.

I am sad to say that I haven't checked out BitA yet. When I first saw it while looking for some other fic of yours to read, I didn't really like apocalypse stories much. I might check it out though cause I'm a lot more open to those kinds of stories now. I also remember starting every good intention, but I don't remember why I stopped... I think I had to get off my phone for a bit and just... forgot to continue? Idk I really should check those two...

You really get me Sprinkles- those murder mystery fics are so good! I remember reading one of genshin that was also mixed with a time loop and I just ate it up-(it was sadly discontinued and then deleted from ao3, but not before I managed to download it for future offline reading-) I'm honestly interested in those wriolette ones you mentionned, may I have a few recs if you don't mind? I need more wriolette in my life.

i do in fact have some wriolette murder mystery / cop mystery recs

A Match Made in France by oooohscar - not a murder mystery per se but it does contain mystery investigations. it's basically furina trying to matchmake neuvillette and wriothesley and she quickly discovers they work well as investigation partners? and so she starts trying to get them to investigate things together, but then shit gets out of hand. it's so fucking good and so fucking funny. like it's pre-reveal furina but i can forgive the mild ooc and- y'know, furina portrayal pre-trauma-reveal (?) just because it's so well written and hilarious (and also she's not portrayed entirely as a brat, i find her more absurdly histrionic than anything). also it's not just furina pov, it switches between all of them. it's incomplete but updating, and absolutely worth a read

The Gambler's Debt by Marsrevale - much more serious than the one above, this one is a murder mystery through and through. the mystery is still only starting, so it probably has a long way to go, but i'm patient so i'll keep up. it's basically neuvillette and clorinde going to investigate a series of murders in the fortress of meropide (this is a sort of modern au so meropide is a gambling house / hotel i think) and wriothesley is the main suspect, but there's also stuff going on between neuvillette and wriothesley bc they knew each other long ago but only wriothesley recognizes him. idk how else to describe it, it's really intriguing so far, i hope the mystery pans out nicely

Hold my hand, never let me go by Jinnmi - also a proper murder mystery, this one is about what is essentially a branch of fontaine's police force for criminal investigation led by wriothesley and the many interconected cases they have to solve. neuvillette is sent as a consultant to keep an eye on them, but ends up basically joining the team as they all try to solve a big case that seems to threaten the country whole and is also somehow connected to wriothesley's past. this one is very good, the murders might be a bit too gruesome for sensitive people? but still, really nice. i love the unsettling vibe of whatever the one behind this all is planning, the suspense is also really good. still updating and i rush to it every time a new chapter comes out, it had me in a chokehold when i first found it.

hope those sound interesting!

[bitchlessdino]

Guilty Pleasure Pt. 3

Pairing: Jihoon x f!reader x Mingyu

Genre: angst, suggestive content

Word count: 2.8k

Tags: situationship!mingyu, roommate au, mentions of insecurities, angst, pining (mutual and one sided), suggestive language and content

Summary: You know what’s shittier than liking someone taken? Liking someone taken by your best friend.

author note: hehe

Chapter list

Jihoon was freaking the fuck out. He had gotten used to you being around, he had to, but your behavior around him was peculiar. It was like something in you…shifted. You would not only stay over like you usually did, but you’d also stay past Mingyu’s time to leave for work. It was as if you were staking your claim at their residence.

In his eyes, you were a bit more free-willed than most people he encountered, at least you made it that way. And not many people at this point would continue to have sex with someone knowing their roommate would be around, at least not as often as you two did, but the circumstances have surpassed sex at this point. You were around as much as Mingyu was, if not more, making Jihoon wonder if you ever had your own place, to begin with. You essentially became another roommate.

Then there’s this tension he’s feeling when he’s around you. Your gazes fall on him a little longer than they should’ve. You’re wearing less and less articles of clothing around him, leaving almost none to the imagination at times. It felt like more clothes were on the floor than on your body, even remembering a pair of underwear left behind on the couch. You didn't change how you talked though, but it felt that’s what made it harder for Jihoon to confront you about these things. That and the never-ending guilt of being madly infatuated with you.

“Hi, Jihoon!”

You greet him from the couch in familiar article clothing that made his eyes shoot up. “You’re here…In my shirt?”

You styled the same shirt you borrowed about a week ago when that waiter spilled all those soft drinks on you. There was no way he could forget it. It was also the same shirt used to…pleasure himself the same night. Jihoon built up a cool sweat remembering the stains of sweat and cum he’s left on that thing. He takes a harsh swallow.

He really should’ve thrown that away by now.

“Yeah. It’s just so much comfier than Mingyu’s. I feel like I’m drowning in his clothes. I hope you don’t mind,” tossing a piece of popcorn in your mouth, lifting the top hem of it for a sniff, “It smells clean so.”

He coughs into his fit, somewhat almost choking on his own drool. “No. No. Go nuts. It’s just, you might as well pay rent. You’re here all the time now. 

You straighten up your back, worried if you’ve become a nuisance by overstaying your welcome. “Oh sorry–”

“That’s not what I meant. Just, it’s cool. Where’s Mingyu?”

“He’s, uh, busy. Not sure with what, just busy enough to rush out of the door.”

“So just us?”

You nod with a grin. “Yeah, for a while anyway.”

That wasn’t good. Sure, you’ve been left at the house alone, sure, all three have been in the house, but the only other times you and Jihoon were ever alone together were the moments he planned on leaving. Now he’s home with no option to leave, especially when he’s made it apparent he has nowhere to be. It’d be weird if he isolates himself in his room, wouldn’t it?

“Join me,” You offer, patting the empty space next to you, “You can pick what we watch.”

He’d be a fool not to take up that offer, or he's the biggest fool in the world for agreeing to it. Either way, here he was sitting side by side with you on the couch, the micro hairs of his arms standing tall. His heart was probably pounding a thousand miles a minute. His sanity was holding on by a single thread just knowing there’s a short distance between your knee and his. He felt like a blushing teenager all over again.

He’d sneak gazes at you from the corner of his eye. You would mindlessly eat your popcorn and eyes glued on the first Ironman movie, almost as if you forgot he was there. He couldn’t move a muscle even if he wanted to, he felt frozen.

You laughed at the funny scenes, made comments about Tony Stark's questionable character, and lightly shoved Jihoon to point out interesting moments on the screen. He would enjoy the movie if you weren’t all he could focus on. Eventually, there was a point that night he’d calm down. You were dozinb off at this point, your guard falling as your head swung back and forth in the air. Your eyes are already entirely shut, and your body’s gravity naturally settles on Jihoon’s shoulder, causing his peace to be cut short.

Your face so close taunts him, breathing out of your nose down his chest, ticking his skin. He attempts to push you away, nudges you by the shoulder, and even attempts to move you by hand. He takes the side of your head, deciding to bring it up against the couch but instead, he finds himself staring at your sleeping figure.

From the delicate layering of your lashes against your soft cheeks, to the peaceful heaving of your chest as they took paced breaths. You looked delicate, beautiful, ethereal. He parts your hair away from your forehead, fingers brushing over your soft skin, and he feels breathless under your wordless spell.

He shifts his legs slightly to regain some sanity but doesn’t let you go. He could feel what most people knew as butterflies, the sounds of the TV drowning out in the background as Jihoon is lost in the heat of his own movie. He feels greedy, and the tingling sensation of his hands against your face sends him the itch to hold you closer. He pushes more hair out of the way for your comfort, so he tells himself, tucking them away behind your ears until your eyes begin to flutter open and stare back at him, his finger frozen behind the back of your ear. 

Your vision was still disorienting from your slumber, unsure of what you were seeing. The man you couldn’t help but think about for weeks on end staring back at you with an innocent, but startled, look in his eyes, as if he was caught doing something he shouldn’t. There is this moment of silence you have. It was long enough to notice the longing in his expression and how it matched yours. Although no words were spoken, it was all seen in his eyes, his breath, and his presence.

You were dreaming again, you thought. This image just happened to be a lot more vivid than others. Like any dream, you reach up to him, hand cupping his warm cheek, fascinated at how realistic it was this time around, and notice his gaze soften. You admire the smooth sensation of his skin before capturing him in a liplock. His were as soft and plush as always, but unlike your visions, he was warm. 

His arms loop around your body in an embrace, finding your waist naturally and pressing up to the heat of your body. His lust takes control of him and kisses you like he feels he’s meant to, stroking your sides and memorizing your body with his fingertips. Love in every touch.

It was then you figure out it wasn’t a dream at all and your eyes shot open. You froze under his grasp and now you weren’t the only one to realize the reality as Jihoon is the one to push you away. A stern expression takes over him as he dumps you aside and stands up from the couch. He doesn’t meet your eyes as he leaves you with a few last words. “I’ll pretend that never happened and so should you.”

But you wouldn’t. How would that even be possible?

Jihoon traps himself in his room for the rest of the night and avoids you entirely after that incident. He doesn’t answer your texts, makes sure his work gives very little opportunities that you’d be alone together, and he would leave as soon as you’re in his sight.

You look up at the ceiling of Mingyu’s bedroom in contemplation, surrounded by the heat of his half-naked body.

“What are you thinking about?” He mumbles with closed eyes, taking over the structure of your hand and clasping it with his.

What else could you have been thinking about?

“Not much.” you breathe out.

“Okay…Ready for another round?” His tone perks up.

You softly scoff, a smile curling up on your face. “Aren’t you tired?”

He shrugs, running a hand through his messy hair, “I think you could wake me up.”

He crawls on top of you, peppering kisses around your neck and grinding against your body. You throw your arms around his neck, trying to get into it, but ultimately you feel your body involuntarily reject him. “Gyu, sorry. I’m just a little…out of it.”

“Anything…I can…do to help?” He speaks between his kisses.

You blink back up at the ceiling as Mingyu settles on your neck, “I was thinking over some things.”

“Am I one of those things?”

You shut your eyes, the pang in your heart hurting more than it should’ve and you push the bigger man off of you. “I-I don’t know. I’m just…I think I’m gonna call it for a night. I’m sorry.”

You pick up after yourself, collecting clothes to put back on your body as Mingyu sits up distraught, concern written all over his face as he tries to calm you down and hopefully prevent you from leaving. “Hey, hey. What’s wrong? What’s happening? If I did anything—“

“No,” you sigh, “I’m just having some…strong feelings right now and you don’t deserve that. Not with what we have.”

“Hey, I’m more than a hot piece of meat. I’m your friend. Come on,” he extends a hand, “tell me what’s wrong. We can fix it.”

“I don't know if it’s something I can just fix.” You slump down in his bed, knees to chest and face to hands, “I feel like I screwed up Mingyu and I don't know if you're the right person for this.”

Mingyu sighs, sounding discontent. He grew rather fond of you in the past few months, looking past the body, face, and pure allure you just emit and seeing the human behind it. You become this insecure, unsure person that gets indecisive or self-deprecating and whenever you think you make a mistake, you put yourself down. He wanted to uplift you, reassure you, and just be with you. He was enjoying your codependency and vulnerability; it gave him a sense of fulfillment. Whatever he was feeling for you, he just wanted you to be happy and to see you so stressed for a reason he didn’t know, he knew he would scour the earth to fight whatever it was in your way.

“We’ll never know unless we talk it out,” He strokes the side of your head with kind, doting eyes. 

How could you even explain this to him if you wanted to? Would it have made you a bad person to say you were thinking about someone else while you were with him, specifically someone he knew? His best friend and roommate at that?

“Fuck it.” You hop back in bed, take off your shirt, throw yourself on Mingyu once again, and evade your internal conflicts. Mingyu gladly obliges, reciprocating your kiss with equal amounts of vigor, but questions you in your urgency, aware of undisclosed issues he knew you still had. “But…the talk?”

“I just need to forget. Take your dick out for me, baby.”

You shouldn’t have done that. You should’ve been honest. However, Mingyu’s cock was some damn good sense of relief. Mingyu gave you some mental space, generously patient with you coming out to him with the truth. Although he gave you plenty of opportunities to for you talk out these issues with him, you always found some way down his pants and he was only a simple man. So, he let you be. After some time later, everything began to make sense.

Mingyu noticed his roommate being home a lot less, and sleeping over at Vernon’s a lot more than he typically did, but that didn’t bother him initially. Jihoon is a workaholic at heart, he would be out of the place a lot, but Jihoon made himself seem avoidant. It was like he had something to hide, which seemed likely. Jihoon was a pretty private guy, for the most part, but Mingyu didn’t doubt whatever truth his roommate had to hide would’ve been anything but harmless.

The picture all came together when he noticed the apartment door cracked open haphazardly. Distraught voices, yours in particular, on the other side discussing something that would make him think twice about what he thought he knew about the people he cares about.

“Jihoon, you can’t ignore me forever.”

“I’ve been doing pretty well so far.” 

The distress was evident in your tone, urging Mingyu to press an ear to the door as they do in those romantic comedies during an intense scene between the main protagonist. In this case, it was you and what he could assume to be Jihoon, and then there was himself, the nosy supporting cast. 

“You said you were going to forget it happened. Well, guess what. It happened and you’re acting weird about it.” A clap to thighs resonated, obviously from you that done it in frustration.

“I’m not…where’s Mingyu anyway?”

You sigh, noticing the immediate abrupt change in topic. “He’s picking something up from the pharmacy down the street. I stayed back.”

“…why are you doing this to me, y/n?”

Mingyu had to see the situation unfold. In a squatting position and space only enough for one of his eyes to get a view, he leers through the tiniest crack the door mustered. He was lucky enough to get both you and Jihoon in his only direct line of view. He lays a hand against a wall to ground himself steady, noticing your physical states on opposite ends of the spectrum. Your body language was open and directly gave attention to the person you were talking to, while Jihoon was evidently more closed off.

“I just want to talk to you again. Like we used to.”

“We can’t do that,” Jihoon emphasizes, he glares with his voice almost hissing back at you.

You furrow your brows back at him, taking a step closer to him. “Why not?”

“We…I can’t.” Jihoon’s figure slumps down, his voice faltering in the softest, faintest tone.

You soften your gaze, getting closer and closer to him, “If it’s about the kiss…I think about it every day, Jihoon.”

Mingyu’s eyes shot up at this, trembling from behind the door as he sees you approach Jihoon with longing in your eyes. Mingyu didn’t even think you could make a face like that. Was that what it looked like? What were the expressions you gave to Mingyu?

“Y/n. Stop,” Jihoon manages to gasp out, clenching his teeth in utter frustration. “Just stop.”

You reach out to grasp the fabric of Jihoon’s hood, “I can’t. I like…I like you.”

“Y/n—“

Mingyu sees through the crack of the door you brushing your lips against his roommate, languidly moving into the kiss before Jihoon completely succumbs. He sees the other man pull you by the waist, kissing you like he’s done it, or imagine himself done it, a million times. His hand smooths over the hair on the back of your head, returning your kiss tenderly. Your body reels in Jihoon’s embrace, savoring this moment in its entirety. 

Mingyu felt heated, grips the door in a hot sweat.

“Oh! The door is open!”

Both figures on the other end repel each other swiftly, pushing each other to opposite ends of the room. You retreat to the farthest part of the kitchen and Jihoon stood in the middle of the living room. Mingyu pushes the door open and refrains himself from any strong apparent emotions, utterly failing.

“Hey, Hyung!” He greets his roommate briefly before dropping his pharmacy purchase by the front door and making his way toward you. He picks you up from the ground and pulls you in for a deep, passionate liplock, tongue invading your mouth, urgently trying to fill the absence of Jihoon’s presence with his. 

“Hi, gorgeous,” Mingyu gasps as he parts.

“Mingyu.” You exasperate, eyes wide with warm cheeks, Mingyu unsure if it was because of Jihoon, Mingyu, or the possibility you were caught in the middle of your midday rendezvous.

“Yeah, I’m gonna get going. See you guys later.” Jihoon makes his escape, grabbing his bag, and closing the door he disappears behind, a bitter taste left on his tongue: a sense of reality.

MIngyu doesn’t tear away from your gaze even when Jihoon departs, hands slipping past your waist and down the flesh of your ass, feeling you flinch under his touch. “I don’t know if I can wait until the movie. Let’s fuck right here in the kitchen.”

“Mingyu,” You halt him, pushing his hands off your body and staring back at his hungry daze with a pitiful expression. Mingyu expression’s drops gradually, hurt by your reluctance, but doesn’t let you go, and instead grips you by your wrists. His throat goes dry seeing your face wash over with guilt.

“I think we need to talk.”

[uniquethingtastemaker]

Diasomnia and Mulan Parallels in Chapter 7

We gotta talk about Diasomnia and the subtle Mulan motifs because I haven’t seen many people talking about it in relation to chapter 7 and I’m seeing the signs everywhere.

So obviously Twisted Wonderland has dropped hints and has referenced Mulan multiple times, especially when it comes to Diasomnia. The first time I remember it being extremely prominent was in the Halloween event. The relationship between the two being dragons, which makes sense. However, there’s a lot more connections than just that.

Silver represents and is twisted from a lot of things, much like Lilia, but one of those things is the silver sword used by Prince Philip to kill Maleficent. Now there’s also another movie where a sword and physical fighting is important and you guessed it, it’s Mulan!

Let’s talk about the parallels between Mulan and Diasomnia especially when it comes to chapter 7.

Lilia and Mulan’s dad are in the same position. Both fathers are getting older and have lost their prowess and power they once had.

Silver and Mulan are also in the same position. When the war comes to China and the draft is announced, Mulan steps up for her family and father, who’s too old to go to war, and goes in his stead despite her family’s disapproval and devastation. When Malleus overblots and Lilia is too weak to counter him, Silver steps up to save his family from this sleeping curse despite Malleus’s active disdain and outrage. Both of them choose to do the harder thing. Mulan had the option to stay home and just act as a good wife in order to help her parents and Silver could have decided to stay in his dream with Lilia because that’s what he wanted most of all, but neither of them do that. Mulan goes into the military to protect her father and her family, while Silver opposes Malleus because he wants to respect and honor his father’s last wishes and knows that this isn’t what he wants, and it’s not easy. Mulan desperately struggles to stay in the military and is only barely able to make it (I’ll Make a Man Out of You). Silver has to give up his dream and desire to be together with his father and then fight one of his closest relatives essentially on the matter, which is emotionally taxing.

Mulan is also the underdog, the least likely person to save China, and much like Mulan, Silver is too. Mulan is a woman, who's often considered weaker than men. Similarly, Silver is a human surrounded by fae, who’re known to have more magical prowess and power and long life spans. They’re the unexpected ones who will defeat someone who’s considered an impossible enemy.

Now Silver’s Unique Magic is a foil to Malleus’s Fae of Maleficence. You could consider Silver a mirror to Malleus, a reflection. Which could be connected to Mulan, as she sings Reflection and ends up seeing her reflection in the sword before deciding to cut her hair off and go to the military.

Now, while not 100% confirmed, I’m inclined to believe that Sebek has heavy aspects of Shang incorporated into his character. Much like Shang’s actions of kicking Mulan out of the military when he finds out she’s a female, Sebek parallels this by believing that fae are stronger than humans and discriminating against them. Now, Shang comes around to the idea of Mulan, a female, saving all of China and is pretty cool with it and seems a bit proud of her. Now, I have a distinct feeling that Sebek is going to do the same in terms of coming around to humans. The first year gang is gonna show him that humans are just as powerful as fae. Maybe not in the exact same way, but they do have their strengths. Just like how Shang might have been physically stronger than Mulan, Mulan was more creative with her environment than he was.

Malleus is probably acting as the Hun’s leader whose name I forgot and I also forgot his motive for going to war too so can’t say much about him.

I also have a distinct inclination that the first year gang, or at least ADeuce is gonna play a part in this because of how they inducted Ortho into their group and how they’ve been grouping them together so far. I’m thinking that in terms of story roles, the first year gang is gonna act like Mulan’s besties in the military who dressed up as beautiful women to get inside the palace along with Cricket and Mushu. Defeating the Huns was a team effort in Mulan and I have a feeling it’s going to be the same for defeating Malleus. I mean, defeating Maleficent was a team effort in Sleeping Beauty. The fairies helped Philip escape, gave him weapons, and buffed him in order for him to one shot Maleficent. I can see that happening with Ortho being the striker.

Also if my thought process is correct for Sebek, that means that he’s going to end up bonding with other humans besides Silver and who’re better candidates than the first year gang? Besides, Ace hasn’t gotten his unique magic yet, so it’s probably going to happen in Chapter 7 and if not, chapter 8. I’m not exactly sure how Twisted will end, but that’s not the main concern at the moment. We gotta survive chapter 7 first and I’ve already cried over these characters two times already.

[snobgoblin]

oh my god you guys have no idea I've just been exploding to tell you this one all day

(warning this one's a little dark, think the darkest elements present in both fnaf and Gorillaz)

OK GOD OK SO. fnaf Gorillaz au. BUT. it's a bit more complicated than that, it's not a 1-to-1 theyre the same for like, anything, it's basically "Gorillaz characters and their backstories are essentially the same except theyre in a completely different setting mirroring the events of fnaf"

OK SO. I'll try to make this as short as I can

-Murdoc is William Afton

-Russel is Henry Emily

-Noodle is an amalgamation of those two's children who died in accidents

-2-D is a nightguard

(I thought Russel and Murdoc would be perfect for Henry and William because they're both really into robots)

OK. so. in this, Murdoc and Russel are partners. they adopt this kid, Noodle, together, and realize that like them she really loves technology and music. (it's easier to combine William and Henry's families into one since there aren't many gorillaz characters) they just think the world of Noodle, they love her more than anything, so they build two springlock suits to entertain her. 1 (Spring Bonnie) Cortez the Raven and 2) (Fredbear) Katsu the Cat. Noodle loves these things to death, and one day she decides that she wants to try on the springlock suit, and she died (kind of mirrors both El Mañana and the tragedies that struck in fnaf)

well understandably, this destroyed Murdoc and Russel. so they opened up a pizzeria (known for their off the walls flavors) to maybe, hopefully fill the void of making that kid happy with their animatronics. this time, with a different Cat animatronic with sunglasses, Mike the Monkey, and a new, colorful Cortez the Raven, as well as an unnamed Pig (also I'm not entirely sure if Golden Freddy and Fredbear are one in the same tbh but there would be a fifth)

well Murdoc decided he just couldn't stand it anymore and he wanted to make a deal with Satan. if he sacrificed five children, he could get Noodle back. so he killed these bullies that frequented the pizzeria

those bullies being, the gangreen gang. well Russel just felt awful about this, I mean his friends were killed, he's gonna have strong feelings about these kids being killed. so he tried everything to bring them back, taxidermy, prosthetics, but he found out that stuffing them in suits did the trick, but because their souls then went into the animatronics, the deal did not work

well anyway I forgot a lot of what I was trying to remember today but shit hits the fan in every way imaginable, Murdoc gets springlocked and then Russel has no friends, no family, no partner, and really no reason to live so he burns down the pizzeria with him inside

I also want to do something with Cyborg Noodle- like, in the books, Charlie was a robot the whole time and had no idea the real her died as a child

OH I forgot to mention 2-D becomes a night guard bc he heard some freaky shit went down and he wants to know All The Secrets he's very curious about it. like a real life horror movie. he probably would also be like Phone Dude from fnaf 3 (really excited about the murders to the point of salvaging everything from the fire to make it a horror attraction)

[greetings-inferiors]

Hey, I realize you do like maths. As someone who didnt go through highschool but got a highschool degree with only REALLY BASIC maths knowledge, I wanna ask: - Any advice or recommendations for someone who wants/needs to catch up/go from elementary to highschool maths ASAP many years after dropping the subject?

It seems to be an interesting subject but I had teachers that were so bad at teaching and so good at shaming and traumatizing that it blocked me and made me avoid maths like the plague, I do want to start over with maths and try again while making it a good experience this time, I need advice. Pls help. (anonymous cause embarrassed to admit I can barely get around with the basic 4 operations and begin getting lost when it goes into fractions, decimals, porcentages etc, and as a college student I should know advanced stuff like factoration and complex expressions by now)

I am incredibly blessed with the fact that I love maths, and had great teachers. I don’t really know how to get good at maths because by the time I was actually conscious about liking maths, I was already pretty good at it. I never had that thing of having to be better, because I’ve always just been good at it, and the things that I didn’t know I enjoyed learning so I just learnt them.

The problem with having to relearn something is that you FEEL like you’re better than you are. I stopped learning Japanese for a few months, and when I come back to it, I’ll have to go over basic kanji again, my brain tells me that I know it, but I don’t. I need to go over the basics, but before I learnt the basics with the spark of learning pushing me through. Now I’ve got to essentially revise something I forgot. It sucks.

What I’d recommend, is by jumping into the deep end. There are lots of maths videos on YouTube, and they’re really interesting, but you won’t understand anything. But that’s fine, because the things you don’t understand, you can watch videos about those. And the parts of those you don’t understand you can research into that. It may not be the most efficient way to learn, but eventually you will. Trial by fire and all that, and it might be more fun because you’re looking at stuff that interests you! You’ll find that the simple stuff actually has rather complex and interesting explanations, which I find really cool.

If you want to relearn quickly, then you just have to study. It sucks, but that’s just how it is. I don’t know what elementary school is, I assume it’s 11-14, and high school probably means gcse, which is 15-16.

Some basic tips:

Think of the operators as logically as possible. When you see 5x15, literally think of 15 added together 5 times. Think of 6/20 as 6 lots of 1/20 (which itself is 0.05. Maybe even think of it as 1/2 times 1/10.) basically just think of the operators as simply as possible until you’re able to think of them as their own thing. Then you can start introducing indices, square roots, etc.

Don’t be afraid of using a calculator (learning how to use a calculator effectively will massively boost your mathematical literacy).

write everything down (don’t rely on your mental maths. If you literally have to do every single equation on a piece of paper (assuming calculators aren’t allowed), do it. Never trust your mental maths until you’re certain that you’ve got good mental maths. Seriously, 90% of mistakes come from trying to make a shortcut in your head and messing up. Many people, my self included in the past, see writing down your working out as a sign of weakness, it isn’t.

Try to avoid the divisor symbol as much as possible, it isn’t actually an operator, it’s shorthand for fractions (the dots are placeholders for the things in front and behind). Honestly, you should prioritise getting comfortable with fractions. They’re really useful, especially in algebra.

If you get good at algebra, you’ll be good at almost everything maths can throw at you. Being able to rearrange equations is a skill that you will literally never not use. It also helps you with regular number equations because you can think of the numbers as variables. It sounds weird or as if you’re complicating it, but it can help.

(A/B)*C=(A*C)/B. It’s surprising how useful it is, and how often I’ll forget about it lmao

Look into geometry! Everything you do in maths can and has been described with shapes. And for some people that can help them visualise it! If shapes help you with maths, look into shapes! Geometry!

Factorisation is essentially just the reverse of multiplication. (2*5*7)=70, therefore the prime factors of 70 are 2,5, and 7. The same applies to algebra. Just think of what could be multiplied together to make x^2+3x+2. And hey, there’s a really handy formula for finding out the factors of quadratics that I highly recommend memorising if you think you’ll need it!

And most of all: try and have fun! Basic maths can be very tedious, but think of it like learning a language. Once you get the alphabet (numbers) and grammar (operators) out of the way, you’ll start to see all of the complex words and phrases you can create, and understand. And, best of all, you will NEVER stop learning, so you may as well start now!

[alpinelogy]

10 & 19!

Lourdes do you have the slightest idea what have you just asked me? Thank you so much for asking :DD

10. Is there a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

maybe we got lost (in translation) a thousand times over. Beyond the fact that it is my second fic that has broken the 100 kudos barrier which is already insane to me cause I did not expect anyone to read it since its a niche ship imo, the way people see the fic is so different from the way I saw it as I wrote it. For me it is a fic mainly about language and communication and how it changes based on who we talk with. Also specifically Esteban's relationship with English is very much based on my own experience with it, from being thrown into an English-speaking group and told to swim to English slipping in even when he is speaking in a different language ('the language spoken is a mess of French and English') Meanwhile at least from comments people see the relationship between Esteban and Lance way more strongly than I do. Which fair, it was partially written as a love letter to my bilingual friends who try to understand me even when my brain does not comprehend language and in hindsight I sometimes ignored the language part in favor of developing their friendship so I can see where they are coming from. And the fic is tagged as estelance so... lol Essentially what I am trying to say here is that people focused on way more on a part I considered secondary than I did while writing it, but I can see why. Also I've gotten so many nice comments on it and even tho I forgot to respond to them I do reread them on the regular because they spark so much joy (also first time someone whose writing I enjoy commented on my fic and it sent me for a loop lol)

19. Give us a small teaser from one of your WIPs.

I actually dont have that many wips rn, I know, shocking, its mostly just scribbled ideas and disconnected scenes. And kinkmeme claims cause I currently have uh... 50 of those

Anyway i do have this. A race engineer!Oscar AU Loscar in which Logan has never been normal about anything related to Oscar. Ever. Starring Logan as a pining mess, Oscar as the calm and collected love interest and Fred, Alex, and Liam as the victims of Logan's pining

“Good morning Logan.” Oscar says as a first thing on the first day of testing over the radio and Logan returns back to his thoughts of screaming, almost vibrating out of his seat in excitement. Goes back to his year old promise of not doing anything stupid ten seconds into the season. Hopes that when the cameras catch his inevitable joy after he gets back to the garage it will be brushed off to just being glad to be back in the car, rather than anything else. As a worst case scenario, he will just put up the Alex Albon patented peace signs because those always somehow make pictures so much more grounded and Alex is really onto something there, Logan needs to study it. He will need it for this year. Probably. Maybe. Most likely. It's fine. It's, whatever. It's definitely not that Logan also spends so much time looking at Oscar in meetings that Fred has noticed. It's definitely not that Fred, with all the subtlety he has, cornered Logan in his drivers room and unceremoniously asked what gives two days into the season. Logan deserved that one probably. When Logan tries to brush him off, it seemingly works because Fred lets himself be brushed off, does not mind Logan redirecting the conversation onto another topic instead. Logan does not know what actually awaits him days later. It's Liam this time, who corners him a few days later, after testing, after the first race weekend of the year properly starts, right after the last free practice before qualifying. Being Formula Two teammates must have done something to their understanding of personal space between each other because Liam waltzes into his driver's room like he owns the place without even knocking. Logan has a half mind to kick him out just for that, force him to knock before entering.

(this got long but look, this is 300 words out of 7.8k that i am fighting to stay under 10k it's small okay?)

fic writer ask game

[popculturebuffet]

American Pop Review: All Those Dreams, All Those Sons (birthday review for Brotoman.exe)

In Loving Memory of Ron Thompson 1941-2024

Hello all you happy people and it's time to kick off your shoes i'm breaking the news as it's time for a LONG delayed look at American Pop. So as a bonus my patrons get, in addition to a 5 dollar review a month for 5 dollar or higher patreons, a review on their birthday. As a gift for their support. I forgot to ask about Brotomans and gave him his late... and even later as some delays kept hitting this poor thing and I kept feeling awful about it. Thankfully we're FINALLY here and talking about Ralph Bakshi's American Pop.

While most of you seeing this probably know who Ralph Bakshi is , a quick refresher for those who don't: Bakshi was an animator, and one of the rare ones who focused on animated films geared at adults. He'd branch out on occasion, doing the Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings and in his mind and no one elses Wizards for a family audience, but he primarily stuck to tales breaking down society and being filled with sex and drugs. It's remarkable to me he could do this and saddening we don't have more people trying to make animated films for adults. And I love children's animation, I do, but ther'es some stories you simply can't tell and also have kids come see the movie. Sometimes i'ts because you want to have a cat do drugs, sometimes you want to have a man fuck a cartoon, sometimes you want to write a riveting generational saga about a families constant all too real tragedies.

If that last one sounds like a bit of a departure, it is. After making Lord of the Rings Bakshi wanted something more down and earth, a musical fable with more relaistic characters, pushing rotoscope as far as he could. The result was.. only a million more than it's budget, but still resulted in a critical darling and cult classic among animation fans. It probably didn't help it was promoted as a rock n roll epic.. when only half the film , if that, has rock in roll in it. The rest is a stark generational saga of failure, loss, and dreams and it slaps. So come see what I mean under the cut.

Production wise I don't got much that I haven't already said and the few bits I do are best so let's get cracking.

American Pop is, as mentioned, a generational saga following 4 diffrent men from boyhood to manhood. It's not an easy watch as only one of these stories has a happy ending the rest all being some form of tragedy as the shortsighted choices and passiveness of these men destroy them and damage their children. It's a hard saga yet anchored by moments of joy humor and music and a triumphant ending, and to tell it properly i'm going to break it up into 4 sections, one for each main protaganist. Now some of our protaganists spill into their kids sections, as you'd expect but it's pretty clear when their story ends and their child's begins. It's a neat sweet spot between anthology film and a narrative film: the film is still essentially one long narrative, but each protaganists story has a clear ending bleeding into the next generation.

Zalmie

Our story begins with Zalmie, a small child as he and his mother prepare to flee russia during one of it's many porgoms, targeted riots designed to wipe out the jewish people that resulted in many lost lives and immigrants. It's a genocide I didn't honestly know happened till this movie and should be talked about more, as it's all too chillingly familiar to the kinds of tactics we see used against minorties today. The porgoms are also the inciting incident for Don Bluth's american tail.

So our hero and his unnamed mother come to New York, where the bulk of our stories take place and the love of Bakshi's life. Most of his films are set in New York. The only one's that don't are his 4 fantasy films and Cool World, which chooses Vegas again. It's clear the city is in his bones and every frame we see of it is lovingly drawn.

That's one of the films strengths: It's backgrounds: only a few characters are rotoscoped to life, a process where ink is drawn on real photos of people to help get thier movements down. Bakshi seemed to use this a lot using it for his tolkien duology and this film. For the backgorunds he uses photos resembling cartoons from the time or historical photos, giving us nice impressionist faces in the crowds. He'll also frequently use live action stock footage to segue scenes which is less effective to me , but I get the budget wasn't that high so you have to make do.

The rotoscoping itself looks pretty good. It can look uncanny valley in places as this was long before they could easily edit it digtially, and even then as we've seen modern equilvents can still look really weird, see in a scanner darkly (Which I need to watch) or polar express (Which is still really good). But it mostly works here.. the teeth never look right and shots with a lot of teeth can look hilarously bizzare, but for the most part it allows some nice flexible expression on the faces they gently edited the best they could and for the big bombastic emotions to really pop.

Zalmie gets into the music scene and begins a generational love of the craft via a burlseque club he happens upon. He's quickly hired by Louie a man with big ears, and a bigger mouth and who takes the kid under his wing, with some minor reluctance but it's clear while he tries to put up a wall he takes to the kid and his talent at handing out chorus sheets for the crowd to sing along to. Sadly back then David Byrne wasn't born yet to summon perfect choruses with his telepathic powers, you had to make do.

Zalmie's mom isn't super happy with his new life, but accepts a gift of a banana he got from an organ grinder.

Sadly.. we don't see his mom for much longer as next scene.. she dies. And it's a historic incident too, thank you wikipedia as I otherwise woudln't of known as they link to it in the plot summary for the film, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. So in the film you see women banging on locked doors.. and it's real. Employers locked the doors to stairwells to prevent unathorized breaks. I don't have a gif for that as it's so inhumane and horrifying to basically lock your workers inside a possible oven I can't joke about this. it's just.. my god. Thankfully this nightmare lead to better saftey standards.. but also cost 146 people their lives in truly horrifying ways... and in this reality Zalmie's Mother was one of them.

In a truly moving scene though without saying a word... Louie takes him in, putting an arm on the kids shoudler. While he tries to deny he's bascially Zalmie's new dad, it's very clear he is.

So cut to puberty which isn't good on our hero: While Louie had him as a singing act puberty's cutting into it homer simpson style. Unlike Abe instead of wrining his hands Louie is TRYING to keep his adopted boy afloat and assumes it'll change back.

Tragically.. it never gets the chance. Zalmie gets drafted into world war one. The good news is he gets uso duty. He ends up as a horses ass, figuratively, and wants to sing again, to get back out there, but it's still not bad... till the planes raid and a stray bullet hits im in the throat. For the rest of the film Zalmie has a deeper voice and it's clear the impact leaves a mark on more of his neck. Louie once again shows he's a stand up guy by showing up at his bedside. Awww.

So later Zalmie's become a deep voiced clown.

And I really like Zalmie's voice, that raw rasp to it. He's played by Jeffery LIppa whose wikipedia article is basically "he exists". That underlies his talent as Zalmie undergoes a bit of a transformation as the movie goes on. But we'll get to that for now Zalmie meets Doris, a stripper working at the club he's working at and is immeditly in love. With Louie's encouragment he goes after her and we get a really charming scene. He goes to her dressing room, she invites him inside and they just stare lovingly at each other as they strip down. While I try my best words really can't do this justice, it's just this look of pure love and attraction between two people. The proof that sex can be romantic in the right context even if we don't get this far because rotoscoping sex would be awkward as fuck.

So instead we cut to some time later as Zalmie's trying to encourage Doris to be a singer, having heard her voice and knowing she has talent.. but while I never have any doubts he actualy cares for doris... I have just as little doubt this is more for him. He could sing, he's badly wanted this, and now he can't so he's projecting onto his wife. He's already shown to be a pretty good manager in Louie's stead, an organizer, he could be happy with that. But he WANTS the big lights, the fame, and even if it's just through his wife it's something.

So they try it.. but let's say 8 months later they've hit a brick wall: Doris has talent but is heavily pregnant and Zalmie is forced to have her perform anyway as he can't afford to marry her. Enter Palumbo, the local mob boss who Louie introduces Zalmie too.. and he'll help both with Doris' career and the wedding.. if Zalmie delivers a few packages for him.

So Zalmie does reluctant at first.. but over a few scenes he settles into the life: his wife is performing in the top clubs, his son is by his side , a young boy at this point, and he has everything he could want. He's gone from hating what he has to do simply to get by.. to welcoming it while Delores is clearly more uneasy when their now having regular poker games at her home.

Sadly Delores.. dosen't get much fleshing out. SHe's mostly there to love Zalmie, be a tad reluctant.. then die horribly, stuffed in the fridge.. or in this case given the wrong package meant for Zalmie that winds up with her exploded off screen. She just dies to create angst for Zalmie and his son Benny, and in general the women in this film are more plot devices than genuine characters. The film does a good job giving the major romances belivieable chemistry, so it dosen't harm the film, but it's noticable as fuck that not a single one really gets to speak and are mostly shuffled aside.

So with Delores sad death.. we move on. Zalmie's story gets to continue the longest, spreading out across three chapters, but he's no longer the focus after that. No the POV shifts to

Benny

It's the late 20's early 30's at this point and when we see Benny next we've time skipped: It's something very common in this film, with big time jumps happening fast. It feels like a biopic in that regard, if for people who never existed: it has to cover a VAST swath of time but unlike a biopic isn't bound by real life so it can pick and choose what we see easier without feeling like it's cutting important stuff out. It still does here and there but most of the time skipped is stuff there wasn't a story for or we get the gist of anyway after we jump ahead.

So Benny is a young man now, working in a dive club with a do-wop act and denying his father's attempts to get him a better job, a conversation that feels well lived in, like this is far from the first time. It's also made clear, if not said WHY Benny refuses: he knows what his dad's up to, having been playing the piano, his talent and calling, when his mother died. He dosen't want any part of the Palumbo family.. which is unfortunate as Salmie needs him to marry Palumbo's daughter. He's resistant till he reads between the lins and gladly agrees knowing his dad probably can't say no and live long.

So we have a suprisingly charming wedding, with Palumbo and Salmie declaring each other brothers and everyone goofing around and Louie is there.. and Louie has not aged. I can't honestly tell if this is a pact with the devil thing or a John Stamos thing.

And.. the two hit it off.. we ge ta deeply romantic scene in their new mansion where again despite teh female characters mostly being props.. bakshi and his actors pull of honest to god chemistry. He makes something that should be schmaltzy, two people crammed together by their parents genuinely falling in love, and make it feel earnest and cute.

So some time later we're back where we started.. while Benny's performing in a much more upscale place, Zalmie is berating him... but this time.. it's because he thought about the army and Zalmie said son you fucking high. His reasons are also clear: if he makes it out of the war, he can support his family... and get away from THE family. As the next stretch will make clear his wife also isn't too keen on mob life and Benny likely dosen't want to fall for the trap his dad in: Getting in deeper due to debt and having to do worse and worse things that could get his family killed in the crossfire. Zalmie seems dead to it, accepting of what he lost.. but Benny remembers.

Tragically it's this heroic impulse, wanting a better mob free life for his family.. that leads to Benny's end. What happens to the poor guy in WWII is easily the best scene of the movie: Benny is inflirtrating a town when he spots a piano, playing it. Maybe he misses his art, maybe he just knows he dosen't have long to live. But this one moment of simply wantin ga break.. costs him as a German soldier sneaks up behind him... and even knowing he's going to die and leave his family behind... Benny plays. He plays soulfully from the heart, his last performance and his best... and he dies for it. the Soldier letting out a thankful danke.. before savagely murdering him. A reminder war knows no peace, no freinds.. and no hope. He leaves behind a wife greving her father forces to get remarried and a son...

Tony:

Tony grows up comfortably in the suburbs like his dad and thus catchs the end of his grandfather's story: Zalmie is brought before the senate to testify and while Palumbo is confident he won't talk.. he does. Zalmie's story ends here as he lays out why: his son died leaving him a wreck, he got thrown in prison, and Palumbo's assurances h'ed get out slowly stopped coming. Zalmie's story.. is a heartbreaking one: a kid with all the talent and potetial who slowly lost his parents, his wife, and his morals, and despite everything still lost his son. All he has left is the truth: he knows he probably won't live long.. and dosen't care. And given Palumbo dosen't come up after this it's safe to say he probably did go down. Did Zalmie go with him? We'll never know. Tony didn't find out, so neither do we.

Instead Tony becomes a beatnik, adoring poetry slams and really getting into it. Thus he's a bit pretentious and jokey, but a good kid and my faviorite of the four, with Ron Thompson giving a standout performance. Thompson originally auditioned for a bit part, but his delivery of "GREETINGS PIZZA MAN" got Bakshi's attention, he asked who he was then cast him as Pete, our Finaly Belenski and eventually Tony. As a result he got top billing thanks to Tony having a sizeable role and Pete getting used in all the promotion as the modern star.

But we'll get to him later.. for now the focus is on Tony who hammy as he is feels isolated at home, his sisters and brothers ignoring him and his mom and step-dad both not really paying attentoin. So he steals his step dads car and books it for California. It's also a large part of why I think Palumbo went down: while Tony's Parents never came looking his grandpa would've gotten pissy over what he saw as an insult. So without him around Tony gets a clean slate. We neve rfind out what happened to his family or his poor mother who already lost her husband nad, no matter how lax she might've been it's left unclear, lost a son.

So Tony heads to the wild cornfields of Kansas, doing dishes for a night and meeting a waitress named

While they have the standard Belenski starring at each other adorably we've come to expect, with him giving a fun monlogue about she's the prize in the box of cracker jacks we call life. Which yeah, is pretenious as it sounds, but also cornily sweet and fits given Tony's likely still 17 at this point. What Teenager isn't a tad corny? It's what makes the character works: he goes into operatic rants and what not, but he comes off like any overdamatic teen and tends to be funny in the process.

So Tony can't convince the waitress girl to go with a strange man she just met to california. It was the 50's, they didn't know how bad that sounded. So they have a one night stand as represented by a train going through a tunnel

And we cut to tony i'm guessing a year or two later, washing dishes in a dingy club. He clearly WANTS to be on stage but his boss points out he can't sing and he can't play guitar.. even though there's a wide wooly world of insturments. He quits after a rambling monologue about dish washing, that again is funny because we're clearly not entirely laughing WITH tony, and frankly given the boss is a douche and thinks there's only one insturment in the world, I support this.

Tony then gets lucky... metaphorically this time, as he plays the harmonica, Benny's harmonica likely recovered from his body, and his sweet groove attracts Frankie Hart, the lead center of a six piece band and her guitarist also notices and invites him up in the 60's sense of piece brotherhood and passing the joint around, which he gladly takes. To the films credit it dosen't portray weed as the reason some of these guys get into hard drugs later or evil, just something done casually which for 1981 is progressive as hell. We weren't to just say no YET, but it was coming.

Bennie can't sing, though guitar man poitns out the obvious EVERYONE can play guitar, and his harmonica skills aren't exactly prime. He can WRITE though and eagerly takes them up on their offer to read some running home to get it and making some on the way home. For this segment a lot of real 60's songs are used and if I haven't covered the soundtrack it's not becaause it's bad, more because I don't recognize a lot of the songs and they play breifly. Music is at the heart of this movie.. but it's only mildly a musical. It still counts as there are music numbres and several factor into the plot, as well as a load of montages, it's got music in it.. but it's all brief and mostly lisecned. IT's still good and Tony's chops get him a regular gig with them.

Tony still wants to perform.. but is happy to soak in his music being sung. He's honestly fine being simply a part of things.. at first. But a later performing session shows two problems: The first is a drug problem: Frankie has one and Tony's been knocked down to her suplier, the second issue being she dosen't seem to value his music or at least acts like it. She still invites him on stage for a performance.. but after he'd done some acid kool aid leading to a truly trippy rendition of don't you want somebody to love you that really works. The songs been used a fuckton for promotoin and stuff by my time, but it works well thematically her.e

Tony fall down and go boom and it's here his story really gets tragic: his grandpa fell to his ambition, his dad fell to simply wanting some peace... Tony's fall.. is drugs. He gets addicted to painkillers and starts to spiral, seprating with the band for two months , feeling they don't need him in his stupor and thinking they fired them. We think that too.. till he returns to the studio and instead has simply been misisng, mildly butthurt Frankie married the drummer for all of two weeks. His spirit returns when she shows up and slaps the shit out of him... and says she needs him.

The relationship.. is about as healthy as it sounds. The two are happy together.. but also feed into each others addiction and by our next time skip while Frankie and co's album is a huge hit and they've got jimmi hendrix opening fo rthem, with an awesomely animated stand in of him. And while usually I feel Purple Haze is overplayed as it gets used in pop culture all the damn time as the stock "I'M DOING A DRUGS" song, it works here.. for basically the same purpose but also to contrast Hendrix at the height of his powers.. and to have them ironically opened by someone who'd also die far too soon from too much drugs. Tony and Frankie are burnt out at this point, and clearly out of their mind.. and have a guest. A young blonde haired blue eyed boy. Their in kansas. And like you Tony quickly connects the dots and freaks out a bit over it.. and the heroin in his system.

He dosen't have much time to react as after she sings for the kid.. we cut to Frankie dead. And while over the top.. tony's reaction is utterly heartbreaking, his face broken as he clings to her. Their relatinoship wasn't healthy.. but he still loved her.

Tony decides to get out of music and take his son Pete with him. Tony is... no less stable, spending most of their time dealing drugs and selling drugs and yells at his son for buying cornflakes and taking care of the groceries and you know.. being the parent in the relationship. I'ts heartbreaking: Tony was a mild ass.. sure.. but he was just a wide eyed kid who could've gone far , as could've frankie had he not got hooked on drugs and she not died from it. INstead h'es just a washed out wreck of his old self, heavy bags under his eyes, not even THAT much older. It's a truly heartrending end and a sign of what heavy drugs does t oa person and it's not pertty.

Eventually things hit their breaking point on a park bench: Tony wants to sell Pete's guitar, pete obviously does not and reveals during the argument he knows Tony's his father.. and it's why he's been protecting him. Tony's eyes go wide.. and he realizes both that his kid has been trying his damndest to save him.. and that he's beyond it. He dosen't want to get clean and won't.. and being around his kid is forcing the poor kid to take care of him when ther'es more to him. Granted his solution of pawning the guitar and telling a random passer by to tell him goodbye is... something, he coudl've gone to his family, but the fact Tony got as far as "shit I need to leave before this poor kid ends up like me" is still something. And as tony fades into the abyss, to never return... we move on to our final scenes

Pete: Pete gets the least screentime. Techncially I consider the start of pete's story to come at tony's end but they overlap heavier than Zalmie with his son. At any rate Pete really only gets about 20 minutes of screentime, 10 of which are purely focused on him and not entertwined with Tony's tragic end.

Pete has done okay for himself but not great. On one hand he's got bitching shades, a love of music like his papa, and a slick purple jacket I really want. He also has a cool tendnecy to drop his shades when he sees something musical and intresting. Despite having a short runtime we do get a sense of who pete was: someone whose cool, has swagger.. and deals drugs to get by, but learned from his old man's horrifying example to not do them himself as far as we can tell. He also has a girlfriend. She sure exists.

He's tired of dealing though having the good sense to get out of crime his grandpa had his great grandpa learned too late and his father never learned so when dealing to a band he knows asks to play. They shoot him down and the exec says they can find anothe rdealer if he refuses... but when he almost walks out the need for drugs is too strong and the lead singer makes a compromise: they'll play ONE song. not recording it. Pete agrees and dosen't throw away his shot.

It's here he sings, or rather a recording of Bob Seger sings, night moves, a song I truly love and is awesome, a simple song about a first time.. fitting how his parents met and what his mom told him. Thing is.. that's not what bakshi wanted. Bakshi wanted Freebird, which fits the father son angle more, even if it's sung to a lover instead of a child. Me I prefer Night Moves as a song and feel it still fits.. but agree Freebird fits better tonally.

No matter the song the band and label is impressed and we end with Pete singing a medly of songs as he rises to rock stardom... and the film rises to batshit insanity, using green colored footage of the actors singing and performing, splices in bits of Pete's family history he likely dosne't know about, and in general being what I assume acid feels like. Ralph Bakshi would know. But i'ts a solid finale and I like the lack of finality: We know Pete made it but we don't know if that holds, if he stays sober unlike his old man, if he ever finds said old man or any of his family. Learns more about them. We just know for one breif moment, after over 70 years of strife, a belinskiy reached his dream.. and that just has to be enough.

American Pop is excellent and if this hasn't convinced you to watch it I don't know what will. At the time this article was pubished it's free to view with ads on youtube and I strongly recommend doing so: It's a tragic yet joyous tour through parts of music I hadn't really carred to look into before but might now. A love leter to music, new york, america and those who didn't quite make it. It's a wonderful film and well worth your time

thanks for reading

[thefangirltreehouse]

general observations (cyberpunk 2077)

just to preface, i’ve not played through the main story at all since 2021 on my base playstation four and i’m currently replaying on my playstation five. i played as fem!corpo!v both times. this will probably have continued updates as i get further into the endgame. (now beat the campaign as streetkid!fem!v and half-way for nomad!male!v)

“don’t look now, but that’s jenkins’ girl.” i know it’s probably not intentional but that sounds like a loaded statement.

the way kerry calls fem!v “doll” is so fuckin’ cute.

wakako calls her “honey” which again, very cute. also was dying at her “is this the dali lama?” when v sarcastically implies she simply couldn’t fathom murdering for money.

the peralez’s are one of those couples and i cannot get that out of my head.

fuck the voodoo boys. i didn’t pay much attention the first play-through and ended up siding with them because of how much the game makes it clear that you shouldn’t trust corpos and i hadn’t wrapped my head around the evelyn stuff. choose netwatch and felt a little better this time.

joshua still makes my skin scrawl and i dislike those like him irl but i wish we had more interactions like what happened with vasquez - him seeing v as a legitimate dangerous liability. (i’m genuinely surprised they didn’t do that with river, surely he done some digging into v?)

i’m terribly paraphrasing but i’ve noticed there is a couple of thugs in a coronado / arroyo side mission that are like “yo, that’s v.”

i saved brick and royce, kinda disappointed you’re stuck with royce in the totentanz mission - nice to see dum dum remember v by name and how nippy v gets over jackie’s mention. (royce or millitech obviously kill brick because his grave is there).

honestly i just wanted more of the ol’ samurai geezers.

i forgot just how many npc’s hit on fem!v in comparison to male!v like, fingers guards, jacob, the roadie, general population, the bargest guards when leaving the black sapphire (that might be both v’s), they also say “ooh! you little whore!” and also kerry’s “nice rack” dig at johnny. not to mention how many folk call her a bitch, slut, cunt and white during combat.

skippy’s disturbia never gets old, especially considering it’s seventy-years-old at that point.

i still don’t understand why there isn’t an option to give kerry back his guitar - that he clearly wants back - if you’ve met him before the padré side-quest.

really not a fan of having to build quickhacks when you’re essentially buying a blueprint.

“where’s kerry been hiding you?” oh he definitely told them the ‘new output’ shtick.

jesus christ it is so much easier to make money now.

i know it’s the future and things are a little more blasé plus he’s an old, jaded rockstar but i was a little taken aback with just how much kerry calls us cracks “whores, cunts, sluts and bitches” like chill.

a little disappointed aurore had no intention of fucking v.

i can’t stand grimes but i wish we had one more mission for lizzy wizzy

style-wise, phantom liberty is a massive step-up but the clothing in this game is atrocious especially if you want to wear anything girly.

it’s nice to be able to see the colour of v’s hair this time.

i love my little type-66 avenger.

corpo!fem!v is the perfect foil to johnny. also love how some the most notable people in johnny’s life are women. alt, rogue, denny, nancy and depending on your choice, v.

i don’t really ship johnny with v, but the “old married couple” dig was spot-on.

i’m personally conflicted on so-mi, but i’d probably lean towards saving her. that said, i fundamentally believe v wouldn’t. she’s looking for a lifeline and so-mi purposely dangled it over her. she’s not got beef with the nusa, they’re offering what so-mi cannot.

still cannot stand the photo-mode filters.

i’m forever curious about the sobchak cut storyline that was given to river and takemura.

vik’s mocking, “ooOOoooh” towards zetatech and not being allowed drink on the job.

leigh’s acting when johnny simply takes v’s body / tries to give it back in mikoshi after the rogue arasaka mission and just the entire langley section are so well executed. v and river’s farewell’s in langley and in the badlands will always break my heart.

sampson’s grave just read’s “he loved his car.”

fem!v yelling, “rust in piss, shitbot.” goes so fuckin’ hard, also streetkid!fem!v’s first confrontation with hanako.

i know v isn’t trying to blow their cover, but i so wanted to turn around and go, “bitch i have kerry and nancy’s phone number.” to that nippy samurai vendor.

oda is so hot and for what? but the shit-eating grin i have every time he’s pissed at v.

objectively the most fuckable man in this game is default!male!v

misty’s accent has changed so much in the phantom liberty ending.

so has male!v, like i noticed it almost instantly. so much gruffer, which works… if v was still twenty-seven and not rounded back to twenty-three

actually, the age change was so fuckin’ stupid. v works better as twenty-seven, especially corpo!v. the ties music has to the game, to v specifically with the twenty-seven club. v and jackie being eager and dumb enough to accept the job from a disgraced fixer, but competent enough to see it through with ‘years’ of experience. above all desperate enough to finally get their big break.

i’d like to put forward a theory that yes, night city has changed in the two years v is out of the game but not as much as the delamain sequence implies. instead, it’s just a much dire and vulnerable perspective. the perspective of a powerless bystander who isn’t a one person army taking on maxtac with their wits and a pistol, taking out a whole room of gangoons with a mere glance or going toe-to-toe with araska’s most formidable soldiers with ease. v is seeing night city on the other side and it’s fucking petrifying. same goes for the player who’s been running around night-city like a god on a power trip. (it reminds me a lot of what final fantasy xv did in the original chapter thirteen. stripping back noctis’ literal god-like power, his arsenal and taken his support network, leaving a sad little king all alone in a hostile environment ready to make or break him.)

speaking of final fantasy xv… listen, i like river. i do, but i think i was a little less harsh on him because i knew he was a love interest prior to meeting him but he really needed more padding and i know it’s due to river being the remnants of sobchak but even a few missions of him setting up his business with v’s help (which could’ve kept gangs like maelstrom and the mox more relevant in the games later act) prior to the dinner at joss’ (not to mention the lack of a arc kill-switch as i know many lesbian players weren’t keen on his advances - which could’ve been done when johnny picks up on river’s behaviour). also… for how ‘progressive’ this game is giving the straight / bi girlies a ‘family-man’ angle…? how ground-breaking.

fuck meredith, gimmie a one night stand with blue moon!

fumes + afterlife on growl fm are majestic, like growl fm generally is such a great addition.

when johnny says “aware.” and v correct’s with “aggressive” to hellman.

someone’s gotta tell judy she’s got a really shitty taste in women.

listen, maiko’s an a-class bitch but i can’t help but love every scene she’s in. that “yes v, i mean you.” is so good!

as much as evelyn is to blame for the heist, she’s dealt the worst hand as it’s collateral. t-bug, dex, jackie and v to some extent are allowed to comfort of death, evelyn… not so much.

male!v in particular very much feels like judy’s guard dog, fem!v is in it to fuck around and find out in messing with maiko and the claws when it comes to judy’s post-heist arc.

the differences in line delivery are so interesting with each v, i mean it makes even more sense considering they are confirmed to be different people. like a good example is when johnny appears in the peralez’s braindance, male!v says “what are you doing here?” with a genuinely curious and amused tone, fem!v is immediately over johnny’s antics before he’s even begun. however, it’s almost the reverse when johnny comes out with his bullshit “sisters of god” analogy, male!v sounds unconvinced, fem!v sounds sceptical but mildly curious.

i adore the idea that millitech had their grubby fingers in the heist, like the implications that everything relied on two low-level merc is incredible (highly recommend this video for more on that)

i always knew johnny was an unreliable narrator, because he’s johnny but after listening to talsorian game’s line manager it just connects so many missing points - especially of the blackhand variety.

so… i went back and played phantom liberty and honestly, the best outcome is for everyone (perhaps, except v) to honour so-mi’s wish to die. reed lives and eventually agrees with v’s choice, myers’ ego is shot, massacre of innocents avoided and not to mention the access to blackwall weapons. the caveat is obviously alex. now that i’ve done that ending, whilst i don’t forgive her, i understand so-mi’s motive and can sympathise, like fuck the nusa. after evelyn, so-mi’s arc is the most heartbreaking.

guess dino really does know everyone, considering reed is his bouncer.

i wish you could ask viktor about farida.

it’s actually insane that edgerunners is only a year prior to v’s story, i know streetkid!v is aware of david but i’m surprised there’s no comment from corpo!v, considering counter-intelligence was involved (there’s a scene in jenkin’s office) and perhaps not in their life-path role yet but v is undoubtedly working for arasaka during david and smasher’s fight. actually on that, corpo!v doesn’t even comment on smasher when jackie mentions him. like v isn’t a millitech, biotechnica, petrochem or a netwatch corpo, they’re arasaka.

so-mi’s va did such a fantastic job, especially when she and v are in the core.

first time around i play games on easy - so i don’t get spoiled at release), then do my second on hard (which is getting really annoying games are locking it behind beating it on normal) but whilst i prefer this game on hard, easy mode makes you feel like a fuckin god.

fuck that blackwall ai, i love my erebus (both playing and story implication - you can’t convince me that ain’t lilith / night-corp / mr. blue eyes texting v) but it what cost? ‘cause if you know anything about me, then you know i can’t stand horror, especially horror games other than until dawn. i play pseudo-tank in almost everything, not really possible in most horrors. i lack compete tact and i’ll admit that.

speaking of lilith, the implications are amazing. one, it’s why narratively i like so-mi going out on her own terms because trusting blue eyes? i think not. i mean think about it; liilith is attempting to breach the human world and who are her high-profile proxy contacts? promising them life? a ticking time-bomb netrunner or arguably the most dangerous human being to walk the earth. (if you’ve not looked into it, then give this a watch)

telling myers to suck it was excellent, although i fear she got the last laugh with that five-thousand eddies payment.

the parallels between v and reed’s final conversations in ‘four scores and seven’ and ‘who wants to live forever’. which each one explaining to the other how to take on their new life. you can hear the optimism in v’s take and similarly with reed at langley however the player knows how it feels when the shoe is on the other foot, it’s easy to tell reed to move on with his fresh start but it’s so difficult to stomach as v.

as a filmmaker, judy’s passion for braindances hits so much, especially during pyramid song, same with alex and evelyn honestly.

i know half the moniker is in how they die but the idea that v in one lifetime: stole from arasaka, survived a bullet to the brain, killed adam smasher, kurt hansen and maman brigette whilst yes covertly, saved the presidents life, took on maxtac for the most part alone and played samurai’s final gig with the original members, filling in for THE silverhand but still can’t be considered a nc legend if they don’t take down arasaka? *sniffs* hmmm… i’m smelling… shite?