#i will try to make my vibes less Rancid before then!

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

they should invent a waking up that isn't excruciating

[dark-side-blog3]

How would you rank the six Jojo leads from the OG continuity from worst to best to end up with?

I'm gonna take this as an add-on to the would you rather game from before, so the answers will be super self-indulgent, and yandere.

Short answer is I would prefer to end up with none of the yanderes, at least not the jojo's. But in terms of damage, I suppose Jonathan is the safest, and Giorno is the worst. It should be Jolyne because Stone Ocean is more dangerous, but Giorno skeeves me out more. Jolynes only so low because everyone around her would instakill me.

+++++++++++++++++

Jonathan is a milk toast of a man. He's unthreatening, because of his noble code. If I got isekai'd, the worst Johnathan could possibly do to me is just have me associated with him, because Dio would fuck me up just to mess with him. In which case, I'd either have to avoid Jonathan so hard Dio can't target me, or I'd have to glue myself to his side so he could protect me from Dio. Which would be what feeds into his tendencies, but they're not really dangerous, so I suppose I'll just have to suck it up.

Joseph is funny and charming, and in earlier parts, he's cunning and witty. He leans heavily into the bad boy heartbreaker persona, so the idea that he's going to be possessive of his partner wouldn't seem out of the ordinary. And all of these would make him the match if it weren't offset by the cheating. How Suzie didn't kill him, I don't know. Her patience is infinite. I, on the other hand, would kill us both. Until then, he wouldn't be too bad.

Jotaro and I would fight way too much. He only wants to talk about his interests, and I can't shut up about my interests, and there is zero overlap between the two. There are only so many times I can endure a Clint Eastwood marathon, and there are only so many minutes he'll let me talk about pinnipeds or linguistics. I couldn't care less about the actual crimes he commits, but the clash of interests would be what makes him the (second) most unbearable.

Josuke has never faced long-term interpersonal consequences to his actions, which means that he'll be genuinely surprised if I stay mad at him after a fight. He nearly beat Okuyasu to death and they're best friends. He punched a hole through his mom and never got in trouble. So why am I still mad at him a week after a verbal fight that didn't even get violent? The world will never know (I will tell him every day, he just doesn't want to hear it). The only reason I wouldn't try to piss him off too much, like saying I got isekai'd and I can't stay in Morioh, is because I've seen Angelo. I choose to not be a fucked up rock Josuke does shameful things with.

Giorno is fucking creepy if you don't hear his internal monologues; which if isekai'd, I wouldn't be able to. I'm with Abbacchio on this, I don't trust this motherfucker. He just stares as people get injured in front of him, and waits until the last possible second to help them, and he's so obviously scheming behind those eyes. I would avoid him like the plague, even if I somehow got involved with the mafia. He's just so... Weird. And calculating. Giorno isn't the only smart jojo, but he is the most intimidating for his intelligence. The vibes are just so rancid on him... I'm throwing myself into the Tiber before I enter this narrative.

Jolyne is a puzzle. I'm not sure what I'd do if I got isekai'd... Do I avoid her and avoid the ire of Anasui, or get my ass beat by the enemy stand users literally everywhere? Not to mention the regular people who just happen to be in a supermax, who will probably prey on me for being an easy target. I'd be totally lost in terms of what to do. At least with the others, there's a hope of escape, or playing my cards right to utilize them. But I don't think there is a good strategy with Jolyne except carefully slotting myself in the toxic friendzone, and hoping for the best. At least it shouldn't be impossible to do.

[mothybean]

Airhead Part 4

My schedule the following week was insanely jam packed. It was as if all of my professors congregated to drop an assignment nuke on us. I had about 10 different assignments to complete, 3 of them were Heimerdinger’s. He drove me nuts. I had a feeling that he only became a college professor to stroke his own ego;surround himself with others who were “less intelligent” than him to make himself feel superior. I’m pretty sure it was compensation for his height. He was as tall as a stepping stool. I don’t think there was one person in our class that liked him. The moment his name was mentioned, faces would scrunch as if they just caught a whiff of rancid garbage mixed with sulfur on a hot summer's eve.

I was drowning. I was back where I started, semi clueless. Humpledink must’ve had a sixth sense knowing I was receiving help and decided to bump up the difficulty of the material. Either that, or it was my own fault for daydreaming in class. Those baby blue clouds were still vivid in my mind. I’ve been thinking about her ever since. I didn’t have the courage to reach out to her, even though I wanted to. A part of me was super nervous to even see her again. I kept running through possible scenarios of us studying together, a lot of them were painfully cringey. My biggest worry of them all was that it was going to be mega awkward.

I sat at my desk, staring at my science assignment, my hands tangled in my hair with frustration. I reread the first question at least ten times and I still didn’t understand what he was asking. Why was this so fucking difficult?! I groaned and gently knocked my forehead against my desk. I kept my head pressed against the wood, drumming my fingers against my skull. I inhaled deeply, running the idea through my head a few times before exhaling. That's it. I had to bite the possibly awkward bullet and let Jinx know I needed help.

Once again, I stood in front of Vi and Jinx’s home, only this time I ditched the weighted backpack and just brought my laptop. I figured I’d travel light in case I needed to make a run for it again-which I promised myself I wouldn’t. I was crushing hard on her. How did I expect to get close if I put distance between us? I gave the front door a solid few knocks and glanced down at the familiar cursive words beneath my feet. They needed to toss this damn thing, it didn’t match the vibe on the inside. I wasn’t a fan of cheesy suburban white mom decor. No offense.

I heard the door unlock, my eyes still glaring at the jute mat. I adjusted my laptop in my arms, silently taking a deep breath to soothe my nerves. With what little courage I managed to summon, I lifted my foot off the porch step, but immediately froze once I took notice of who answered. Jinx stood in the doorway wearing an oversized white t-shirt, a mischievous grin plastered on her lips. Her hair, no longer in braids, fell to her ankles like silky curtains. I swallowed hard. Could this girl be anymore attractive?

“H-hi.” I stammered, trying my best to keep my composure as my eyes ping ponged from her’s to her legs to my feet. Not even a couple of seconds in and I already feel like I’m making a fool of myself. Nice one Y/N.

“Hey Y/N.” She greeted me in a husky tone, pushing the door open wider to let me in. “Let’s get to it.” She smiled and flipped her hair over her shoulder as she started down the hallway, leaving me stunned at the door. I stood on the front porch watching her hips slightly sway with each step. Damn. I cleared my throat and furrowed my brows, reeling my eyes back into my sockets. I needed to chill. I was here for a study session, not a simp session.

I stepped inside, softly closing the door behind me. Eager to be close to my blue hair crush, I kicked my shoes off near the rack and walked down the hall with haste. I felt like I was gonna puke. I entered the living room, gripping the life out of my laptop. There she was, sitting comfortably on the far end of the couch, one foot propped up on the cushion, the other planted on the floor. Suddenly, studying became a distant memory as my eyes hungrily scanned the blue haired angel, tracing her tattoos yet again. I desperately wanted to touch them. I bet she was as soft as she looked.

“You ready?” Jinx asked, twirling her hair around her finger, a devious smirk still plastered. Something told me she knew I had the hots for her. Anyone with eyeballs could tell. I made it painfully obvious. I was never great at hiding my true feelings, especially when I was embarrassed. My facial flushing always gave it away. It wasn’t a cute pink tint either. My cheeks would go redder than the devil’s ass cheeks. I’d be shit out of luck if I wanted to pursue professional poker.

“Mhm.” I murmured, sitting on the opposite end of the couch as her, my hands slightly trembling as I opened my laptop to turn it on.

From my peripheral vision, I noticed Jinx staring at me, still twirling her long bluenette locks around her index finger. Avoiding her obvious gaze, I kept my eyes forward, intensely staring at my laptop’s update screen as if it was the most interesting thing in the room. Of course it would be updating right this second. I tapped my fingertips lightly against the touchpad, hoping my taps would encourage my hunk of junk to update faster.

“Technical difficulties?” Jinx questioned with a small chuckle, scooching a tad closer to me to inspect my screen. My mouth felt like the desert.

“Yeah…I’ve had this thing for a while. I’ve been denying the updates for so long I guess it finally had enough.” I laughed nervously, bouncing my leg slightly as I watched the update percentage rise slowly. I cupped my hands around the back of my neck and let my elbows fall. Safe to say it was time for a new computer.

I felt Jinx shift on the couch, causing my specific cushion to sink a bit on the side. Before I could even glance over at her, her legs stretched out across my lap, on top of the laptop.

“Oh!” I gasped, my eyes darting back and forth between her silky smooth legs and my piece of shit laptop. At that moment, I didn’t give a damn if the thing fell to the ground and shattered into a million pieces if it meant staying in our current position.

“Whaddya think?” Jinx asked, her hands dragging the hem of her oversized white shirt upwards, revealing her upper thighs. “I’m thinking about getting more tattoos, but I’m not sure what to get yet.”

I stared at her legs, my mouth slightly agape as I studied the blue clouds that traveled up her right leg. I gulped, unsure of what to do or say, this was so abrupt. The only thought that bounced around was to let my hands fall onto her beautiful legs. Using what little courage I had in me, my eyes traveled up her legs towards her thighs, stopping briefly at her pastel lavender underwear that was slightly visible before finally meeting her eyes.

“They’re…” I started, my eyes taking a quick peek at her underwear again before looking back at her. “They’re great.”

Jinx chuckled dryly and laid down on her back, not once removing her eyes from mine.

“Ya think so?” She definitely knew. I already knew I was crimson red, that was a no brainer. It was a dead give away at this point. I nodded, still staring into her blue orbs. Jinx found the hem of her shirt again, rubbing the fabric in between her fingers for a moment before slowly lifting her shirt up even more, her underwear fully visible at this point.

My body tensed as I felt the full weight of her legs on mine. I glanced at my laptop, slightly hoping the update was complete as an excuse to collect myself. Ironically, the percentage was at 69%. I felt myself blush even harder as an intrusive thought conjured after seeing the sexually coded number. What the hell was even happening? Looking back over, Jinx’s shirt was now lifted up high enough for me to see everything up to her collar bones.

“I think it suits me. What do you think, Y/N?” She questioned as she slightly moved her left leg against my stomach. Holy hell I was going to explode if she kept touching me.

“Yeah, I agree…” I trailed off. I felt like a horny teenage boy as I drooled over her figure, mentally marking the parts of her I wanted to kiss the most.

Jinx quickly sat up, her legs still weighted on mine and leaned against the back of the couch, her face mere inches from mine.

“What’s wrong?” Her tone was playful. I glanced at the laptop, checking the percentage. It was stalling at 99%. Come on you stupid piece of shi-

Jinx removed her legs off of me and stood up from the couch, almost knocking the computer off my lap in the process. She stood in front of me with her arms crossed as her eyes traveled from my face down to my laptop. Her face was hard to read, the smirk she was wearing was replaced with a more neutral expression. I had no idea what was going on inside of her mind and that scared me.

I looked back at the screen and a wave of relief washed over me. The update finally finished, the screen now displaying the home screen. I opened my mouth to say something, but Jinx took the computer off my lap and placed it next to me. I raised an eyebrow in question, watching as she slowly took a step forward, placing her hands on either side of my head, her palms against the back of the couch.

“Do you think we should study later?” Jinx asked in a sultry voice, her face leaning closer to mine. My heart was pounding. Was she about to kiss me? Our lips, centimeters from touching, a sudden annoying beeping sound echoed throughout the living room. I pulled back from her face and looked around for the source.

“Get up.” Jinx said sternly. I furrowed my brows, unsure of what she meant. “Get up.” She repeated as she pushed off the couch.

My eyes shot open, my eyes darting around my surroundings. I was in my bedroom. Holy shit, that was a dream?

[dirty-bosmer]

From the edgy oc asks, for Nim <3

10. What's an AU that would be interesting to explore with your OC?

13. If you met your OC, would the two of you get along?

25. What is your favorite thing about your OC?

Sneaking this one in during work hours, heeheee. Thank you for the ask <3

What's an AU that would be interesting to explore with your OC?

Oooh, I got asked this one a month ago, and I still think about those alternate endings a lot. I have two:

1) Nim joins Mathieu in destroying the Dark Brotherhood, Lucien dies at Applewatch (she joins in the effort LOL it's✨cathartic✨), kills the rest of the Black Hand, and gets her happy ending with Lorise and Raminus and a happy family :)

2) Nim decides to be Listener, moves to Bravil, has a full blown affair with Arquen. Lucien still goes crazy because the power has been completely shifted and he can no longer control her. After a year or so, she gets extremely bored tho and fucks off to the Shivering Isles with no warning, leaving everything in shambles :)

I have some really stupid modern AU texts between Lucien and Nim that I've thought about posting before. I might draw them eventually. We'll see...

If you met your OC, would the two of you get along?

Honestly, idk XD I think it depends on the context that we met in. If we were drunk in a bar bathroom or university roommates, I think we'd be really good friends. We'd go to parties together, study together, probably would have made each other's college lives feel less lonely by just... being alone together, if that makes sense. Doing our own things but knowing someone else is there when we need them, which is how the relationship with some of my closest friends are. We're all pretty introverted until we're not lol.

But if we met while she was elbow deep in her Dark Brotherhood shit, I'd be like girl you are stressing me out!! There are some rancid vibes wafting off of you and I am trying to write my thesis! I have my own neuroses and cannot handle another person's self-destruction right now!! Also I have a really hard time sitting idle and shutting my mouth if I know my friends are doing dumb shit/fucking around with trash people. I'd tell her to get her shit together and I don't think she'd like hearing it 😔

What is your favorite thing about your OC?

Probably her resilience. Despite how painful her life has been, it's never broken her spirit or stopped her from scrabbling toward happiness. She goes through a lot of traumatic stuff over the course of her life and the events of the fic, but I never wanted it to strip her of hope. In fact she's kind of delusionally optimistic that things will somehow work out in the end despite her inability to stop making terrible choices lol, and I guess I respect that even though she knows she's doing awful things, it doesn't stop her from helping out those she can.

[yloiseconeillants]

for the cursed ship memery, but based entirely around what potentially boggles the brain trying to imagine the vibes. but. yloise and hw era estinien??

Ok so . before we go any further . a history lesson wrt: my playthrough - I played through the game until just after the vault, when a combination of factors, including:

Discovering That Gpose was an Option in the Game and Not Just Something That The PC Players Had On Hand That Was Forbidden to Me

Developing a More Intricate and Nuanced Understanding of My Own Player Character Who Was Originally Way Too Much Like Ysayle

Being Pissed Off at the Giant FC I Was In Because They Would Not Stop Making Fun of RPers in the Chat Box

Wanting To Play Through the Rest of HW as DRK But Not Making Any Actual Progress on the Leveling Requirements,

led to me restarting my character on another server, complete with a new surname that was not a Silly Joak because I legitimately thought there wasn't going to be a Cid in this game like some kind of fool and decided to change the established Duskwight surname 'Cibleroit' to 'Cidleroit' for a chuckle and then immediately regretted it the second that said Garlean appeared.

What am I about to bring up happened before all that. In the Aether Times. In the Yloise Cidleroit Times.

But originally, I was somehow convinced by the presence of like Exactly Two RPers out there in the Internet Space that Haurchefant/Estinien was like. a bigger ship than it actually was, so I just sort of assumed going in that whatever bullshit my character was going through with Haurchefant, which at this point was a LOT more angsty and a LOT less clown (like. not clown at all, actually. She was a completely different character in many ways) made her metamours with Estinien and the Entire Road Trip Scenario was this incredibly awkward 'get to know the person that your bf is also fucking' with a side of 'also the newer party who isn't even Ishgardian is also Heavily Fucking Around with the Leader of the Heretics on this road trip and their sexual tension is getting on your nerves let alone the political ramifications' thing.

Anyway I did end up Almost Writing like 6 pages of Gutwrenchingly Awkward Yloise/Ysayle/Estinien bath sex on a yellow notepad during work hours (I say almost because I never edited it into anything like. Readable, so it's a combination of sentence fragments, tense-jumping paragraphs, and diagrams). Like, hair getting caught in armor when it's trying to get removed, it being too cold to be comfortable type of shit, someone slips down some stairs, it was bad. I was actively removing any amount of Perceived Sexiness in a smut situation because the vibes were meant to be Completely Rancid. And they were. It was post-Vault, Ysayle has to Dom the Sad Out of These Two Losers and Yloise Won't Stop Crying and Estinien isn't even attracted to either of them but he's mad because he feels abandoned and not being given the space to grieve and doesn't want to be alone and honestly I should just not be allowed to write anything ever-

so yeah i think if we're looking for cursed Yloise/Estinien, i've already written it, i've moved on, I didn't know that aymeric was going to get more than three lines in the entire game at this point, whatever.

[allwormdiet]

Insinuation 2.1

In which I'm sure Taylor has no lingering troubles as a result of last night

Yeah no shit you feel awful, Taylor, you just had an awful night and then got maybe two hours of sleep if you're lucky. That's a wretched way to start things off, and the fact that she's gonna stick to her routine anyway feels like borderline self-punishment.

This is a little mean but a little funny. Bewildered And Defeated: The Danny Hebert Story. Poor son of a bitch.

And of course he's surprised, he knows how Taylor's night began and ended.

Points to Danny for trying here. And another little heartbreak centered on the Hebert family, that Taylor just doesn't trust him enough to tell him about her life, even if it might make it easier for him.

She's lied to him every day since she woke up in that hospital. This isn't new, this is just harder to dismiss immediately.

I remain shocked that there's even a union still standing here, given how awfully things have gone.

First time we hear about Uber and Leet, and outsider perspective both those guys seem to have rancid vibes; I don't really expect that to change.

More to the point though, this is a friend and work associate of Taylor's dad who's going to work for a supervillain team because he can't get money the honest way, because there's no fucking work in the Docks and nobody's coming to save them. Taylor seems to remain utterly unsympathetic to this plight, and she's even cracking jokes about it, and her dad is laughing. That... kinda sucks. Like someone two degrees of separation from you is throwing in his lot with organized crime because he can't put food on the table the way he could before, have a heart.

Whatever. Let's move on.

Hey, wow, Danny actually steps up to the plate here, good on him. I was expecting that to just slip past for another ten chapters before it came up in an argument or something, but he's pulling the trigger now.

(Also, further proof that Taylor lives in the same kinda "bad part of town" where all those crack whores and gangsters live, don't act so above them girl)

And the thing is that Danny is right, he's actually more right than he can imagine because he's thinking small potatoes compared to the big fucking dragon that almost turned his daughter into a charred pile of viscera on a roof. I don't know why Taylor bristles so hard at her father's concern for her, is it because she thinks he's as helpless as she is? That might be it but that doesn't feel like it covers everything.

Then Danny alludes to the bullying, and it sucks that she like. Can't even trust him with that. That he has to step lightly on this subject because his daughter can't deal with it head on. She doesn't even acknowledge his question and he lets it drop, again, and I just. God. Agony.

"Sorry" means you're gonna do your level best to not do it again. It's another lie, and it's another hurt.

This feels so much more alarming than how they're treating it. Taylor got hit with a fireball and her hair got singed in the process, that's maybe the clearest physical marker of how close she came to dying, and she manages to play it off as getting too close to the stove?

I don't think Danny buys it, but he doesn't call her on it either, and so he lets Taylor go and she starts running from it all as fast as she can. That feels intentional.

Current Thoughts

I am begging on my hands and knees for the Hebert family to get their shit sorted out, it is agonizing to watch this dance they do around each other, this avoidance and cowardice and just. Ugh. It's realistic and that makes it worse.

More little gripes about Taylor's perspective on people even marginally less fortunate than her, turning to criminal acts as a matter of desperation. I hope she gets better about that but I kind of doubt it.

Let's move along from here

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s4 ep17: Retrospect

Somehow I'd never seen this one before, and all I can say is thank goodness, because it's far and away the worst episode of Voyager, and one of the worst episodes of Star Trek, I've ever seen. Not only was it full of plot holes you could drive a truck through, but it's whole message was shockingly clueless and insensitive, and honestly made me angry to sit there and watch.

(Long post below the cut- Content Warning for discussion of sexual assault:)

I have no idea who thought this storyline was a good idea- there's like four different writers credited, so hopefully it's just a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth, but if this garbage was what anyone actually set out to make- MAJOR YIKES!

The whole theme of the story is that women shouldn't be believed when they accuse a man of attacking them, and that even investigating such an allegation is a terribly bad thing to do because it will ruin that poor man's life. Really. That's what this episode is about. Even in a pre-Me Too movement world, these were some absolutely rancid takes.

When a used car salesman-ish arms dealer comes to Voyager to try to sell them a cannon, Janeway agrees to trade for it. He's arrogant and rude, he gets angry and bitches at Seven, and tries to shove her out of the way in engineering, to which she responds by punching him in the face. He complains to Janeway that he did nothing wrong and she attacked him unprovoked, which is provably untrue, since it was observed by other characters. The guy is obviously a jerk, and Janeway attributes the incident to Seven's lack of social graces as an ex-Borg, and that's that, it seems.

But then Seven has a panic attack and flees when the Doctor uses medical devices to examine her for her routine check up, which she can't explain. The Doctor finds unusual activity in the memory center of her brain, and decides he's going to be an amateur psychologist today (um, no??? playing psychologist when you're untrained is bad, duh!) and tries to help her delve into her memories to find out why she reacted that way to the medical instruments. Seven rediscovers an incident with used car salesman guy- we see in flashback when she was on an away mission to his planet, when they were alone in his lab. He fired one of the guns they were testing on her, then he experimented on her Borg implants to steal nanoprobes from her, and erased her memory of it.

The whole rest of the episode is basically a rape investigation, since the allegory here is not even a little bit subtle. The alien guy denies it and makes a fuss that he's being persecuted, it will ruin him, he's a poor victim, blah blah. Janeway and Tuvok are shockingly sympathetic to him, and skeptical of Seven from the beginning, which is like, um, wtf??? Just because Seven doesn't like to follow Starfleet rules, it doesn't make her any less credible. (Though why they were even assigning her duties again right after Janeway supposedly took away her access to the ship's systems in the last ep, idk! Wanna know why your disciplinary actions don't work on her, Captain? Because you don't follow through with them! Can't just say you're giving her a time out, and then not do it, and expect her to learn anything.)

At every turn it's suggested that Seven imagined the whole thing, or that she's just remembering incorrectly, which is wild considering how many times they've had aliens or space anomalies messing with their brains before. The whole thing has a major 'she's just a hysterical woman' vibe, which is super gross, and even the Doctor, who seems to be the one character who believes her, seems a little too into the idea that she was attacked, and keeps going on about how she was so horribly violated, and she should be angry, and she'll feel better when her attacker is punished. All of which is like, oh my god, what?? First of all, leave her alone and don't tell her how to feel, and secondly, stop telling her that punishing someone who hurt her will magically make her feel better, that's not how it works!

When they investigate the guy's lab, they find active nanoprobes, which leads them to believe he intentionally fired on Seven, and his planets authorities try to arrest him, but he transports away to a ship and flees. (Which seems a little far fetched that he would have all that in place if he wasn't doing shady stuff, but this episode isn't about logic.)

Back on the ship, they test out Seven's nanoprobes to find out if they would activate whether the phaser was fired intentionally at her, as Seven claims, or overloaded accidentally, as the guy claims. They find that the nanoprobes react the same way either way, which everyone inexplicably takes as proof that alien guy is innocent. What?? That doesn't rule out anything, either thing could still have happened! But they don't investigate further, they consider the case closed. How quickly everyone turns on Seven is legitimately the most chilling thing I've ever seen on the show, and all the more so because it wasn't even supposed to be.

The amount of plot holes here are glaring- Seven and Tom are the only crew who go down to a strange planet, full of aliens with guns, and they split up? For two hours? Without checking in with each other, or the ship? What??? How is that safe?!? That can't possibly be Starfleet procedure- that's a recipe for getting your officers killed. Next, Seven remembers seeing a female lab assistant in her flashback- did they look for her and interview her? No. She also saw them inject another guy they had strapped down in the lab with Borg nanoprobes that started to assimilate him- did they look for this other guy? Or a body that's half Borg buried somewhere? No! That's kind of important!! If they really were stealing Borg technology to use as weapons against people, that's very bad and dangerous, and they absolutely had a duty to investigate that possibility and stop it, but no, they don't. As soon as they get their (totally inconclusive) nanoprobe evidence, they decide Seven is just confused/delusional/whatever, and that alien guy is totally innocent (wtf??). They try to track him down to apologize (wtf??) but he kills himself by blowing his ship up (wtf??) and Seven and the Doctor feel guilty about it (major wtf??) and have learned their valuable lesson about how bad it is to make false accusations. (off the charts wtf!!!!!) I just... cannot even begin to unpack everything wrong with this scenario.

First of all, they went to the trouble of setting the guy up as someone who had acted agressively and lied before, yet then turned around and said, actually, he's totally trustworthy, it's Seven who's wrong for suspecting him, which is such a cop out. Making an episode about how it's wrong to distrust strange men, even when their behavior shows that they're disrespectful and aggressive, is a terrible and harmful message to put out there, especially on a show that kids watched.

Meanwhile, showing the audience what Seven saw, then saying it wasn't real, without bothering to explain what it actually was, feels like being gaslit by a TV episode.

Next, the idea that a mere accusation of wrongdoing could ruin a man's life is, quite frankly, offensive. They can say 'oh but it's an alien culture' all they want- the aliens in Star Trek have always just been thinly veiled allusions to our own society, and in reality, accusations against men rarely have negative consequences for them, even when they're true. The accusers usually get worse consequences than their attackers. Men get believed, and continue to work in their fields, respected and celebrated, while women get doubted, and hated, and slut shamed, and sometimes even targeted for more violence. (I recently read an article about a woman musician in the NY Philharmonic who was drugged and raped by two of her male colleagues, and when she came forward with her story, despite having actual evidence against them, the orchestra believed the men, despite the guys track record of bad behaviour to women, and they fired her instead of them, and told everyone else in the orchestra they were forbidden to even talk to her or listen to anything she said. And this was just a few years ago! The parallels between that situation and this episode are so strong, and realizing that a show you love is taking the side of institutional misogyny is like being hit in the face by someone you trusted.) In the real world, any kind of assault allegations ruin the accusers lives, which is why people only brave coming forward if it's true. That these writers have the audacity to say that the (miniscule) possibilty of someone being falsely accused is worse than the possibilty of someone being assaulted, and worse than their attacker going free to harm more people, is apalling. What was the alternative here? That Seven should have just said nothing? Are they saying she should have just let it sllde, because no matter what might have happened, this guy's reputation was more important?? Jfc, these attitudes are exactly why we need the Me Too Movement! And then to blame Seven for the guy's choice to freak out and kill himself is also apalling. His actions are not her responsibilty- putting that on her is more misogyny.

And then, if we're to believe that he didn't do it, and what Seven remembers isn't what really happened, then what the hell did happen??? They never answer that! They never even bother to investigate at all! If she's having panic attacks and flashbacks, they owe it to her to find out what's going on and help her. Especially since she's often performing delicate work that affects the whole ship, they need to figure out what's going on with her for the safety of the whole crew, so she doesn't have random flashbacks and freak out in the middle of an important mission. (And you know, because they should care about her well-being in an of itself!) They wrote it off as 'oh, she experienced a lot of trauma as a Borg, she's probably just remembering that and getting confused!' but even so, that's something that needs to be addressed! But no, they seem content to let her live with flashbacks or delusions or whatever they are, and never addresss it again. (Sloppy writing alert!!) (Also, how come in every other episode they jump to Tuvok mind melding with someone- but not here?? When an investigation (and a main character's mental health) depends on it?? Janeway should never have let the Doctor run around playing unlicensed psychologist, she should have just asked Tuvok to help Seven find the real memory from the start, and not only would it have avoided this whole situation, we would have had a far more interesting episode.)

And then, to top it all off, in an episode where Seven experiences what may have been an attack or a traumatic memory, it then becomes all about the Doctor! The last scene is him going to the Captain saying that he's going to delete his subroutines that make him want to do more than his medical programming because he got carried away with trying to be a psychologist when he's unqualified, and it made him mess with Seven and led to alien guy's death. (Which tbh, is more self-awareness than he usually has.) But then Captain Janeway says no, don't do that! Who cares what negative consequences your actions have, you should do whatever you want regardless of how it affects other people! I absolve you of responsibilty in this because you Learned Something! (She didn't say it in so many words, but that was the gist.)

It's legitimately one of the grossest episodes I've ever seen, and not worthy of Star Trek at all. I just want brain bleach to scrub it from my memory so I can keep loving the show as much as I did before. This is up there with 'Cogenitor' for the Worst Star Trek Episode Ever prize.

(This is another episode that should come with a trigger warning whenever it's aired, although I wish it would be pulled from rotation altogether. This is full of deeply harmful tropes that should be consigned to the past.)

Tl;dr: The most offensive, misogynist nonsense to pass itself off as Star Trek that I can think of, besides Enterprise's 'Cogenitor'. The absolute worst episode Voyager ever did. 0/10, a failure on every level.

(Addendum: I listened to The Delta Flyers ep after I wrote my recap, and they had co-writer Lisa Klink on to try to defend it, but it honestly doesn't change my opinion of the episode. She said the theme they were originally going for was based on some study that showed that people can be easily led into believing they remembered something that didn't happen, but that was totally lost in the final episode. The Doctor didn't even suggest anything to Seven when he tried to help her retrieve the memory, so you can't construe that as a theme of the actual episode no matter which way you look at it. The use of a female character as the accuser and a male character as the alleged assailant, the use of the words 'he violated me' when Seven recalls an incident that's uncomfortably similar to a drugging and date rape- the parallels are undeniable. That, coupled with the constant questioning of Seven's perceptions, and everyone's quickness to sympathize with the male character, despite him already having demonstated his inclination to mistreat women and then lie about it, are just too much to be able to interpret this episode in any other way in good faith. Even in the 90s, for anyone to be so tone-deaf to not see how this looked- I just can't give anyone a pass here. I was disappointed that Lisa Klink didn't just admit she screwed up- as a writer, if you have to explain what you really meant with a story after the fact, you didn't do your job right. The reason audiences 'misinterpret' this one isn't because they're not smart enough to understand what you were saying, it's because you didn't say it well. They made those choices to put those words on the page, put those characters in those situations- own up to it. Reflect on how your words made your audience feel, take the criticism and learn from it, and do better in the future.)

[sillyandquiteawkward]

:333 can I hear the design process that went into Ford? Or Tate?

Or if it was for Fallout OCs, curious on the Kennedy or Bayley “Concept Idea to Current” transition :>>>

<- had too much fun, did everyone mentioned.

oo so when it came to ford and tate, i had a general idea pretty strong from the get go, so there wasnt much exploration, and i wrote general notes i wanted to include in their designs and then kinda just went for it. in my notes and story plotting they were simply referred to as the waiter and the PI.

these are basically the first iterations for them, tho tate took me a while to figure out. tate was also skinnier but then i was like no i need to design with my Heart so i made him more stout instead just a simple tall guy with a dadbod body type. i just always ended up liking how ford turned out so he didnt have many changes (notably it ends up being just his hairstyle).

once i got the gist of the characters down i went back and started looking up clothes and pulling ref images to really hone in on their sense of style and fashion, since that was something for this comic i really wanted to portray. then i went back and drew a bunch of drawings of them in different outfits and tried to figure things out. like tate evolved from trenchcoat and jumpsuits to more simple things like tshirts and jackets.

i made the control meme. and then. i put them on the back burner as i did other things for months. and when the new year hit, i ran to start drawing them again to start the comic on a whim, and did the simple, draw what you remember and see whats the most important character traits. i think i wouldve liked to have more time to really iron more things out before i jumped into the comic but i feared being stuck in planning hell and never being able to Start.

--

kennedy is a fun one bc i designed him to be a matching cowboy oc pair with raynersjournal and an overall group of four. simply the concept idea for kennedy was red badboy cowboy twink. another kind of design i did in one based on vibes and probably google images of cowboys for clothes insp. i am a little foggy on my thought process for designing ken but that was pretty much it. one and done type guy. i think i was feeling particularly inspired by funky eyebrows and giant sharp nose shapes.

i think kennedy has been pretty consistent in characterization, but i think i tend to draw kennedy less boxy now, and ive smoothed him out because ive shaped him more into this devious snake oil kind of guy that looks sweet, instead of this whirlwind fireball. for a second, i stopped drawing kennedy with his square jawline, but ive been trying to make sure i remember to draw it bc i think its a good trait of his that makes for nice contrast in his feminine design.

--

bayley is Also interesting bc he had several pre-designs which is different for me. the concept of bayley being a fucked up scientist to be the antagonist for cc's story was first inspired by one of my goretober prompts, where a unknown scientist was attempting to vivisect hancock. his design was very minimal and more of an after thought.

after that came me trying to come up with a story and a scientist for cc to Have his third arm from. then i tried to doodle some scientist design with that inspiration from mr. goretober and came up with this guy.

but i didnt like him! i didnt think it was the right type of dynamic Look and i wasnt in love with the design so i tried again when i went to actually make ccs into comic. which is where we get this guy who looks More like bayley, but without the sideburns.

his sideburns grow as time goes on, longer and longer, until i start drawing them Bushy and big and the rest is history, i think i was inspired actually by how ray drew them one time and i just took it and ran. another bayley off shoot is evil bayley who channels mr goretober in his rancid vibes, while looking like regular bayley, bc i love au clones.

[minijenn]

Jen Tortures Herself With Every Dreamworks Animated Movie Ever: Bee Movie

According to all known laws of aviation... eh, forget it. You know the rest.

So uh... Bee Movie is surprisingly pretty good? Yeah, I know, I'm surprised too. I mean of course, Bee Movie is an Iconic Staple of Meme Culture and for good reason, its humor is just... probably some of the most insane shit out of Dreakworks ever (more on that in a bit). But it's also a pretty compelling roller coaster ride of a movie that held my rapt interest the whole way through???

So what's the story here? Barry B Benson is a bee who ventures outside the hive and meets a florist named Vanessa, whom he of course falls in love with (and she falls for him too, its fuckin weird man). Eventually, Barry discovers that humans make a profit off the backs of bees by selling their honey, so he decides to sue the entire human race. Yeah that's really the fuckin plot they came up with. It's fucking wild, man, from start to end.

Our characters here are just as wild to match that crazy ass plot. Barry is a snarky lil fella, but you can tell he cares about his... people? Bees? Idk man this movie has short circuited my brain. Anyway, Barry is a fun character to follow as our main. Vanessa is a little less developed and kind of all over the place personality wise, and well... she falls for a bee. Enough said. Barry's best friend Adam is cool, almost dies from stinging a guy, so that's fun. We also have Ken, Vanessa's ex-boyfriend who literally gets cuckolded by a bee this movie is actually insane.

The comedy here is just... ridiculous. Again, there's a reason why this movie has produced so many iconic memes. I cackled out loud at some of these jokes and references, many of which I imagine would probably go over a kid's head (the Sting and Ray Liotta jokes especially like... c'mon those are some deep cuts). It's kind of breaking the recent trend I've been noticing from Dreamworks where they're aiming down for a younger audience. Instead, Bee Movie harkens back to their earlier movies, aimed more at adults with blink and you miss them naughty jokes that are actually really funny here?

The animation is also like... insanely impressive for the time this came out? Some of the camera angles and movement on these bees is just... amazing? The flying scenes really make you feel like you're flying along with Barry, taking you through densely colorful and sometimes actually beautiful setpieces. I also enjoyed the worldbuilding inside of the hive and all of the little devices they use to produce honey. I feel like this movie is doing what Antz was trying to do, but accomplishing it so much better, with way less Rancid vibes than Antz had.

The music is also fairly solid, not as many pop songs as you'd expect from a memey movie like this, but the ones that are very are pretty good and backed by a competent score. I think my biggest gripe with this film is... well, it's a little all over the place and out of focus? Like one minute it's about Barry struggling to figure out what he wants to do with his relatively short life, then its about him falling for Vanessa, then its about suing the humans, then its about restarting pollenation so the entire planet won't shrivel up and die? (yeah did I mention this film has an environmental message?) Really, this movie is kind of just... a jack of all trades and a master of none? All of its various plots are ok, but none of them are standout fantastic. It's just... a little messy??

But really, I did enjoy myself watching this movie. I didn't think I was going to, because its been years since I've seen it and well, the internet rags on it all the time, but it's surprisingly well-made! It really is Dreamworks at their most Dreamworks (warts and all) and I think that's a testament to why its so memorable (in both good and bad ways lol). Anyway I just got one last thing to say before wrapping up this review:

Ya like jazz?

Overall Rating: 7/10

Verdict: Watch the Entire Bee Movie but every time they say literally anything the movie starts over until you die

Previous Review (Shrek the Third)

Next Review (Kung Fu Panda)

[see-arcane]

You mentioned Penelosa's uglyness, and it reminded me of the fact that Jonathan never calls Mina's face beautiful or pretty, remarks her youth etc. In fact, one time he describes the aftermath on her face later that day. "She was very, very pale—almost ghastly, and so thin that her lips were drawn away, showing her teeth in somewhat of prominence."

Not only did he not feel repulsed, he stayed up the night after, just looking at her sleeping face ("Her lips are curved and her face beams with happiness..." Later-- "How strange it all is. I sat watching Mina’s happy sleep, and came as near to being happy myself as I suppose I shall ever be.") for hours until she woke up and looked at him in the eyes (to make him promise to keep silent).

WARNING: Spoilers for Arthur Conan Doyle's, "The Parasite" and a giant slab of text ahead.

The thing is, even in "The Parasite," we aren't explicitly told that Miss Penelosa is ugly--she's just immediately put in an unflattering light by the narration of the protagonist, Austin Gilroy. His first estimate of her, well before he lets her try mesmerism on him and gets the unpleasant mind control ball rolling, is:

Any one less like my idea of a West Indian could not be imagined. She was a small, frail creature, well over forty, I should say, with a pale, peaky face, and hair of a very light shade of chestnut. Her presence was insignificant and her manner retiring. In any group of ten women she would have been the last whom one would have picked out. Her eyes were perhaps her most remarkable, and also, I am compelled to say, her least pleasant, feature. They were gray in color, — gray with a shade of green, — and their expression struck me as being decidedly furtive. I wonder if furtive is the word, or should I have said fierce? On second thoughts, feline would have expressed it better. A crutch leaning against the wall told me what was painfully evident when she rose: that one of her legs was crippled.

I was worried even before this that Gilroy would have something to throw in about race, as she's written as being from Trinidad--apparently where the party's host, Prof. Wilson's, wife is also from. The only saving grace*** is that apparently neither Gilroy (nor ACD) felt the need to add explicit racial themes to her being ~visually unpleasant~

An unpleasantness that, to Gilroy, seemingly centers only on her being over 40, a little plain, having a bad leg, and cool-ominous eyes. That's it. The horror of it all. (eyes rolling out of my head)

When compared with the kind of descriptions we get for certain male characters in horror literature, ala Edward Hyde's innate rancid vibes, Erik the Opera Ghost's outright decayed-corpse-bad looks, and Dracula just sweating Instant Dread (c) wherever he goes so that it sends everyone into an uneasy panic? It kind of just looks like ACD wrote a character with some shitty opinions about women who don't exist in the Pretty Perfect Maiden demographic on purpose, the better to have a narrative payoff when Penelosa starts making her legitimately creepy puppet master come-ons and acts of increasingly dangerous vengeance.

Doyle invented Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, two of the most forward-minded characters in literature to ever come out of that era. Along with all the extremely varied characters they help and/or cast icy side-eyes at for being the exact type of haughty prick Gilroy is being before Penelosa pulls the rug out from under him.

This is in addition to Penelosa never really being shown such disdain or disregard by any of the other characters. Mrs. Wilson, for the millisecond of screen time she gets, is obviously still a close friend from their history in Trinidad. Prof. Wilson is too enamored with the potential of her gifts when it comes to his own studies to even remember she has any looks to notice. Gilroy's fiancée, Agatha, is likewise thrilled at her talent and the honor of being tapped to demonstrate it at the party and never makes a sour comment about her.

Well before the villainy kicked in, Gilroy is shown to be the only one being an ass (at least internally) about Penelosa's appearance. Although, we do get some choice words from him later as she starts dancing him along to her whims. Such as:

 I am for the moment at the beck and call of this creature with the crutch. I must come when she wills it. I must do as she wills. Worst of all, I must feel as she wills. I loathe her and fear her, yet, while I am under the spell, she can doubtless make me love her.

He really cannot help mentioning the crutch. Calling back specifically to her physical condition, rather than just sitting with the already-terrifying prospect that is 'This stranger has decided they want me as a lover. I am already in love, already in a relationship, but they have such total control over me that they can walk me along like a doll against my will. This stranger can force me to do anything and I cannot stop them.' In classic literature terms, just as the situation with Dracula and Mina was, it's all but setting up a neon sign declaring, This is the beginnings of enslavement. This is violation waiting to happen. If something is not done, this could very well end with rape.

But no! Got to mention she's handicapped first! An over-40-years-old creature of a woman! Icky!

Meanwhile, here comes Mr. Jonathan Harker.

Mr. Gets a Good Grade in Sweet Young Man Wherever He Goes.

Mr. Holiest Love.

Mr. Would Rather Die Than Join the Sexy Vampire Ladies in Eternal Bloody Undead Harem Hijinks in the Castle.

Mr. I Will Fight God and the Devil and Turn My Blade on My Own Friends Before I Let Mina Be Slain, Even For the "Greater Good."

Mr. She Will Not Go into that Unknown and Terrible Land Alone.

Jonathan Harker and any kind of 'othering' are not on speaking terms. Not before, and certainly not after, being willing to send himself to Hell to protect and/or join Mina in undeath as a monster. He's made of unconditional love for his wife, on top of being a reflexively polite and friendly golden retriever of a man as a rule, and, as you said, never refers to Mina's beauty as one of her attractive traits. He reserves that just for points of her character. He makes out with her in front of their friends when she successfully figures out Dracula's escape route using her sexy sexy wits. He can admit when she's looking ghastly from suffering the ill effects of the whole mess, plus Dracula's bullshit. It never dents his love for her any more than his illness spoiled him in her eyes. The Harkers don't play like that.

Jonathan especially would have no shitty ageist or ableist commentary to make about Penelosa and would, I'd think, be one of the few people--and likely one of the first men--to be outright gentlemanly toward her, simply because that's just how he is. This combination of general kindness, his all-encompassing devotion to the One He Loves, and the implied notes throughout Dracula that he can swing wildly between lash-batting winsome damsel-gentleman and burning-eyed robust berserker cryptid powered by love is the kind of thing that would be catnip to plenty of lonely hearts.

And, unfortunately, is the very thing that would get Miss Penelosa to switch gears from dragging along Gilroy as a victim of opportunity and turning towards the Romance Lottery Jackpot that is Mr. Harker. She wouldn't even have to use her mesmerism hooks on him to have him be cordial and engaging! Imagine that! This is the same guy who got Count Dracula running on tangents about himself for whole nights at a time (and likely saved his neck for Far Longer than he'd have gotten away with if he were to get Gilroy about it).

Jonathan is--like Mina--very good at getting people to open up about themselves and their stories. He'd legit be casually charming and friendly Just Because, never registering Penelosa's looks however good bad or plain they are. Up until things took the inevitable Oh Shit turn, he'd really think he was just making another friend, never batting an eye about Penelosa's appearance, period.

(Something something, 'This person I'm attracted to was nice to me! I Have Decided We Are Soulmates and I Am Going to Keep Them.' taken to nightmare extremes.)

((I'm sure Mina will take all of this well. :^) ))

[enniewritesathing]

1, 2, 7, 9, 15, 20, 21, 26, 28

Hey girl heyyy 👋

what’s the last screenshot you’ve taken for your story?

(ominous...)

2. describe your story in three words or less

Werewolf Therapy Session // Holy Shit, Dude // John Curses ALOT // Get His Ass! // These Memories Suck // He's Not Okay

(I can go on, lol)

7. whats the biggest risk you’ve taken with your story? did it pay off?

The biggest risk (so far) is telling this story in general and how I'm not holding back with the subject matter(s). I know simblr tends to shy away from like bloody/gory shit and all of that, even as it's integral to the story itself, and... y'know, it's Sicko Hours at Ennie's place (I've got juice!); there's so many TWs. It's like that one post -- tws for a heads up, tws for 'oh word? 👀' very ymmv.

I'm not sure if it's paying off, though. Slightly over it at this point.

9. what about your story are you looking to improve on?

So, a while back, tumblr switched to the new text editor, which means that I got knee capped into 30 pics each post. And for those who've been here a minute, my posts were always long with multiple scenes. Like 5. I'm having to condense things and really having to think what shots to use (even if I take the same amount... the most I've took for a scene was like 250 something.)

tl;dr - pacing. I know it's a little wonky; I'm trying my best here! 😫

15. what have been the highlights of creating your story?

Getting to use all of this CC I've gotten over the years!! All of it is so super niche-y and without it, I wouldn't have been able to tell this story (accurately). It's also great how everything's coming together, y'know? I've had skill growth since the last time I did this, and my skills and editing are really shining through.

20. choose your favourite shot from your story so far

ngl, there's so many, but this one?? let me count the ways:

The sheer fury of The Werewolf has in this scene, but I like how this shot came out. The toxins in his veins that are (unbeknownst to him) actively killing him at this point. He's in unimaginable pain, but his anger is even more. He's had it.

The veins themselves and how you can see them as he's fighting it. (I've had to double them up and also use some others for his face as well.)

the fucking monitor in the background (lord do not get me started on that but it's for Enhancement and leave it at that.)

The Werewolf making his proclaimation: "I will fucking kill every one of you; you will not get away with this and you will suffer my pain."

if anyone else is intrigued by this -- I guess this part will be my hook.

And I felt that. Really. I struggled with that whole scene basically until I posted it, but I feel like I got the emotion part of it down. if I'm gonna be honest, I didn't know what to do for that scene until I had a Rogue Thought™️, and I made damn sure I was gonna be able to pull it off. I say I did.

there's so much more I can gush about this part but we will be here all night lol

21. choose your least favourite shot so far

It's a good shot but it's my 'least' favorite is because of what happens. (aka pics taken before disasters.) And really, this shot alone tells you what kind of person Charles is. This mfer's vibe? Hideous. Rancid. Abhorrent. Etc.

26. have other sim stories inspired you? 

of course!

28. if you could reproduce your story in another medium (movie, novel, comic, etc.) what would you choose and why?

Comic, hands down. I say this because if it were a movie, it wouldn't make sense and also, who tf would play John/The Werewolf? No one is even close!!

[lavenderandlaurel]

year in progress: january

january was rough, ngl. as usual I have taken on too many responsibilities in addition to work and I really felt it towards the end of this month. really really hoping things will settle down after two particular side projects are done, and to that end I finished drafts of both things which I now need to edit and send out. trying, as much as possible, not to let my anxiety/guilt about being or feeling behind get in the way of, yknow, actually doing the things.

I also really felt the lack of in-person community I have out here. I've been here not quite three months, and I know these things take (a lot of) time, but a lot of the attempts I made to meet people were somewhat less than successful. (synagogue: no one is my age and everyone wants to talk about how rabidly pro-israel they are all the time! book club: rancid vibes! chinese club: first time was great but the second week was exclusively assholes! meetup dinners: relentlessly heteronormative) I'm celebrating the fact that I gave these things a try, though, and I will give them all a few more chances before I reevaluate.

work-wise, I am mostly manufacturing my own stress. I continue to be amazed with how chill my coworkers are (at least in my department) and how...not-evil management is. part of it is the shift to nonprofit from corporate, but that's definitely not the only thing. I can see myself being at this job a long time if I can just figure out how to live here (just that). having a car will make that easier, but I made zero progress saving for that this month because of stupid external circumstances that are hopefully resolved.

some good things this month:

watched (and rewatched, lol) the bear, which is such excellent catharsis and chicago nostalgia

started a couch-to-barbell program and went to the bouldering gym several times. getting closer to my pre-move climbing levels (moving from v2s to v3s)

got approval and funding to go to my field's big conference

wrote a fair amount, including work on a WIP I've had since december 2022

cooked some delicious new stuff!

made plans to take an actual, real vacation in march

rediscovered some great albums that have been my soundtrack of late: ezra furman's perpetual motion people, sufjan steven's illinois, cheekface's emphatically no., the mountain goats' getting into knives, and vampire weekend's contra

[ibijau]

the vibes of "darkover landfall" are so fucking rancid

I remembered I didn't much like it when I'd read it before but damn, it's really, really rancid

like. I... understand some of the decisions made in the novel. Yeah, survival calls for some pretty harsh measures, so I understand why the characters act the way the do, and decide the way they do.

but having the career driven woman who finds herself pregnant against her will be treated as irrational and selfish by everyone because she's vocal about not wanting this... and then it's told to her face she's definitely gonna love it once the baby is there, because the only reason women stopped wanting to be mothers is overpopulation.

I'm almost at the end of that first novel so I'm gonna finish it, but it makes my skin crawl.

I think that the decision of having basically only male pov doesn't help this novel. The fact that it's a prequel also doesn't help, because it's trying way, way too hard to rationalise elements that appear in the rest of the series. Like, the people of Darkover in ages to come invented nothing, it was all decided by their more technologically advanced forebears who planned it all!

And also I guess that while I'm willing to accept some high degree of misogyny from science fantasy novels about pseudo medieval telepaths, it's a lot harder to accept when everyone is from a "modern" setting (late 21st century I think?) and they still feel comfortable treating women as physically inferior to men by default, and less rational to boot

[forcebookish]

After watching the latest episode and going through the 5 stages of rage and grief, I’ve made my peace with the fact that Top has been character assassinated- hopefully Force gets a better role next year. Forgive me for this but Mew and Boeing hits more than Mew and Top atm. I know I know, I hate myself for it. Now that I’ve seen 10 episodes, I will say I can’t wait for the day the BL fandom allows actors to be great, we could have had something special. The show should have had one established pair instead of two because clearly the louder fandom will always disrupt the story the creators are trying to convey. The sheer amount of misunderstandings and hate the actors and the characters have gotten has had me wondering if I’ve entered a parallel universe. Like nobody is mad at Boston for being slut (neutral) people are mad he assaulted Top and deliberately hurt his friend just because he could. Or the hate Mew got for telling Ray to stop drinking unless he wants to die before 30 as if Sand didn’t say a similar thing this episode, it’s almost as if Mew is very familiar with his highly volatile drug addicted friend’s patterns of behaviour. Also, I think Boston was wrong for sleeping with Atom because sleeping with your friend’s younger brother is faintly incestuous to me and he knew Cheum would disapprove, he also knew how much Atom idolised him- like just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Atom was soooo foul for lying though. They way these constant violations are glossed over in the show, not a single one of these characters understands boundaries.

I have a theory for the narrative arc Jojo was setting up before the fandom decided to get childish. So Mew and Top’s relationship has never felt completely transparent or truthful despite how much they like each other so I think the second part was to explore Mew and Top finally seeing each other for who they really are without the rose tinted glasses, remember the dinner in darkness and the silent disco, whether they get together will depend on whether Jojo wants to make a statement on how your first relationship and heartbreak defines you. For Ray and Sand, it’s the BL loves saves all arc, it’s a bit cliche but sometimes in life the right person at the right time can change your life. And for Boston and Nick, my theory is that Boston’s narrative arc is about how being closeted (not his choice) and repressed affects you. Boston thinks everyone sees the world they way he does, his is comfortable in his sexuality and sexually liberated but unable to openly date because his father is a politician, he’s free in every way except in the public expression of his sexuality and for someone who enjoys doing what they want when they want, it probably feels like flying with one wing clipped. He’s hiding something so everybody else is hiding something, especially Top and Ray who are of the same social class as him. As for Nick, Boston has no issue with mess, Boston just doesn’t like someone else’s mess on his plate so Boston/Nick is less about them getting together and more about Boston learning the consequences of his actions.

i agree with a lot of your points here, anon, but what in the fuck do you mean by "hits more?" you think that mew and boeing would... work?

boeing is a fucking snake and no part of me believes that he or mew are serious about each other. look, topmew's vibes in this episode may have been bad, but boeing's vibes were rancid. and it's hard for me to believe that this is 100% different from how he acted when he and top were together.

i'm not sure what you mean by character assassinated? because i do think he's getting the short end of the stick, certainly, but i don't think this was a bad role for force - even if they seem to be sabotaging him by cutting his scenes. top is still my favorite character and he's done nothing to prove that he shouldn't be - it's just that no one seems to fucking like him except the top defenders and me😭 even when they (cheum, mew, THE AUDIENCE for example) should😭😭😭

i don't if i'm with you on the narrative, re: topmew and sandray but i don't know if i can put it into words lol the narrative keeps letting me down. all i know is that topmew are endgame and i'm clinging to that, and the hope that mew finally gains some perspective. i just want them to be happy. i guess i can comment on sandray in that i hope it's not a BL saves all, because that would be supremely lame and i think boeing's going to fuck everything up for them. idk, i think there's going to be a timeskip and i'm hoping that at least topmew have their shit together before then, but i don't think sandray will. recovery takes a lot of work, and i have a hard time believing that ray won't relapse before the end of the series.

and re: boston, i don't know if he's in the same social class as top and ray? not really the point. boston has had so little character development and we've only known that he was closeted since ep7. it took ten episodes for him to realize that he was a shitty person lol and he doesn't have a problem exposing other people's secrets so it's not something he's self-aware of. idk, i kind of don't get nickboston? i do now, but not so much their foundation and how they got here. i have to be honest, i don't care enough. i still think that they're going to be in new york in the timeskip but... uh, i don't know.

in general, i'm not convinced that anyone's trying to make a "statement," at least not when it comes to the couples or the ending. i think there were themes and throughlines that challenge some worldviews and genre expectations, but having something to say about these kinds of relationships is not a vibe i've gotten. "consent" is certainly a theme, but it's a little inconsistent and i don't think there's any sort of lesson being told, just some tropes and stereotypes being subverted. there's not a moral to the story. it's just the trajectory of some college students and how they navigate the relationship of boyfriends, friends with benefits, and fuck buddies while falling in love and how it complicates their friendships. iirc p'jojo has gone on the record saying something similar too.

very interesting takes, anon! a little heavier on the boston meta than i typically prefer haha but still interesting to think about!💗💗

[saints-who-never-existed]

Choose violence ask game: 1, 13, 16, 24

the character everyone gets wrong

I mean, obviously I’m going to say dear sweet Ned, aren’t I?

I don’t think everyone’s wrong in the way they interpret him – that’s definitely too harsh a word – I just think the fandom’s view of him is often very limited. Everyone just gets so wrapped up in the vision of him as a miserable sopping wet dishrag of a man they forget that that’s not all he is and not all he ever was.

I’m not trying to go too far the other way and cast him as some kind of super-capable wonder-boy but that said, he’s been fifth in command of the whole expedition for the best part of eighteen months when we meet him in Episode One and there’s nothing to indicate that he’s not been doing a perfectly good job of it.

Like, the most fascinating part of the show to me in general is how each character is profoundly changed by their experiences, how they grow, how they deteriorate, who they were before and who they become. I suppose to sum it up again, I think often people get too focused on what he became that they miss all the possibilities in who he was before and miss a lot of the nuance of the journey from one state to the other.

13. Worst blorboficiation Kicking the wasp nest with this one but honestly, Hickey…?

I love the guy, I really do – he’s a fantastic and fascinating character with no end of incredible discourse written about him. I suppose I just feel sometimes that a lot of that good nitty-gritty analysis I like so much gets drowned out a bit by a cavalcade of posts reducing him, however hilariously and jokingly, to just everyone’s special little murder-boy who can do no wrong. I’m trying so hard not to sound like a fuddy-duddy wee misery-face, and I’m failing but, yeah, I suppose I just see a few too many of his rough edges shaved off just a little too often for my liking.

16. You can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

This one stumped me so I’ll keep it nice and vague.

I suppose there’s certain ships that I don’t really vibe with but in all honestly, it’s not the specific pairings, it’s more that I’ve never really been bothered with all that in the first place. Like, I’ll read some here and there but it’s less about the featured relationship and more about the story itself and how the relationship is used as a mechanism for telling that story… if that makes sense…?

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

See, I don’t really have an answer for this one either as I don’t think I’ve been involved in much discourse beyond my own ramblings…?

That said, the first thing I thought of was a truly outstanding post I saw a while ago but can now no longer find that involved a chart denoting which characters have milk and how likely they’d be to let you suckle at it because, lemme tell you, that post re-terraformed my brain and slapped me straight in the tits.

Not a day goes by that I don’t think of it and find myself disputing character's chart placement and lactation capabilities…

[imperial-nuisance-rudje]

People reacted positively to it on discord so I may as well post about my Haurchefant Lives/Conjurer!Haurchefant AU here

So! Everything stays the same for the Light Party up to a specific point: Ayulsa actually realizes why she is getting Rancid Vibes from her pals standing in a specific spot before it's too late, and shouts a warning/starts casting Flare. Haurchefant still blocks the spear of Light, but its weakened slightly by having a Black Mage dumping all her MP into it to try to knock it off-course, which gives Shayun time to drag his fiancé out of the direct line of fire when the shield breaks.

Haurche is still majorly fucked up by this, and the scene mostly resolves as normal save for the fact that he's stabilized—but very much in a coma, with a mangled arm and a torso full of metal shards. The Light Party leaves him to be treated and they all still behave like in the timeline where he dies, save for Shayun spending every spare second he has in Ishgard by his bedside, because the man is in a coma and the actual medical professionals have no idea if he's ever going to wake up even if his condition doesn't suddenly degrade, though once he's more stable they do amputate the arm and remove the most dangerous-to-leave-in bits of shield. He wakes up shortly after Nidhoggstinien is taken out, thankfully during one of Shayun's vigils so he wasn't alone, and is in immense pain and severely disoriented and weakened by being in a coma for literal weeks. It's quickly apparent that Haurchefant is never going to be a frontline fighter again—even if he had a working shield arm, the shrapnel injuries (aggravated by the fact that a few of those metal bits had been infused with Light) cause him constant pain that gets much worse when he exerts himself (which is always, at first, due to the physical atrophy being in a coma causes even at the best of times).

This is emotionally devastating to a man who has spent his entire life making himself as close to Ishgard's knightly ideal as he could, which takes a bit of thinking among the Light Party (because while only one of them is engaged to Haurchefant, they all are very fond of him) before A'pple comes up with an idea: once Haurchefant is able to stand for long periods again, they will teach him conjury (they would have started with books, but they are only fully literate in their specific dialect of Rava script and Garlean—they're still learning written Eorzean at this point).

By the time Haurchefant is well enough to travel, Emman has been in charge of Camp Dragonhead for a while (and him learning this was Not Pleasant for either Haurche or his father when Haurche confronted him about it—it was less about the replacement (he is well aware they can't leave it without someone in charge for the time it would take him to be able to even do desk work) and more that he had to find out about it way after the replacement happened rather than being consulted/informed right after he woke up) and it hasn't exploded, and he asks to join the Light Party when they next visit. They are more than happy to have him along, so the rest of the game has Haurche as a companion.

Stormblood is when things get fuzzy and is a major part of why I haven't started writing—I know things go mostly the same, with more Haurche giving input on military affairs because he didn't lose any of his knowledge there, and that while during Zenos duel 1 Haurchefant does stay standing with Shayun when everyone else (including Ayulsa and A'pple) is knocked off their feet, his attempt to block a direct hit fails due to not having all his strength back.

I have some vague ideas for Zenos Duel 2, but there's massive gaps between that and even then the end result is more "Haurchefant also impresses Zenos, and Shayun is actually willing to tell Haurche about his Echo flashback about Zenos's childhood, which massively recontextualizes Zenos's everything to him", which is not really enough to, yknow, write a story about. (Yes this has a Haurche/WoL/Zenos endgame of course it does who do you take me for)

Incidentally, while Haurchefant is not a natural at conjury (or any kind of magic), he's very determined and willing to practice and A'pple is a good teacher, so he ends up being very good at it. The only reason A'pple doesn't teach him white magic by the end of StB is because they're not totally certain his body could handle it since it takes him a lot of effort to do magic. ...Also, they're a little afraid of the Padjal WHMs. Just a bit. (Save them from the very old preteens, Haurchefant.)