#i'm not contextualizing

[guildwarszeke]

got icebrood saga yesterday and working on the first episode

didn't know jorm was a triple G girlboss DAMN

they also got rid of my milf and replaced her with another, twenty year younger milf. tragic

[deoidesign]

Can you tell who my favorite character is right now...

[elipri]

Look man I too miss DamiAnya and want to learn more about Anya's and Yor's past but that doesn't mean that the current arc is "badly paced", in fact I think the pacing is actually excellent. Endo is handling an extremely sensitive (and sadly painfully relevant) topic with so much care and respect. I don't think it's a stretch that most people have been affected by war in one way or another, be it recently or in the past.

These flashbacks are also re-contextualizing two side-characters who will most likely play an important role later. Not to mention all the lore and even young Donovan!

Like Imma be real I think a good chunk of the fandom is too impatient and even counting months of when character xyz last appeared. That's not exactly fair to mangaka and their schedule. Let Endo cook!!!

[blackpearlblast]

honestly one of the things that's been wild for me to learn lately is that israel was responsible for enforcing the idea that the holocaust was an unparalleled genocide that stands apart from everything else that's happened in the course of human history. even before i understood well enough how deeply interconnected all genocides are, when i was a kid, i really fucking hated it. it felt so wrong to me for the holocaust to be The Genocide of human history. it felt disrespectful to other groups who had gone through genocide and it felt like weirdly dehumanizing and tokenizing to us. i didn't want to think of jews as The Group Who Went Through A Genocide, i wanted to see us how i was familiar with in our culture our holidays our art our singing our prayers. that's how i wanted other people to see us too! not that i was ashamed of what we had gone through but i just didn't want people's perception of us to just be that we were victims and i didn't want other peoples victimhood denied to them through that either. but yeah kind of wild to learn that israel and zionist rhetoric seems fairly responsible for this pet peeve of mine from childhood before i even really had a greater consciousness of solidarity or anything.

[zoeology31]

People really should watch sports. Or at least engage with some type of competitive real-time skill-based community: esports, chess, speedrunning, etc. Each community has a rich intersection of history, culture, technical knowledge, and broader societal impact (not all of it good and/or accessible, but there's always a way), and experiencing that can really teach you a lot about humanity and the world we live in.

This post brought to you by everyone who compares Blaseball with 17776/20020 sounding like the "getting a lot of boss baby vibes from this" meme. That's sports fandom culture. What you've identified is sports fandom culture.

Blaseball and 17776 aren't offering an alternative to sports, they're a commentary and a celebration, in the most morally neutral sense of that word. They're both an exaggeration of the most ridiculous or unfair elements and an idealization of what sports could be. Sports are powerful, sports are human. That's the point.

[notachair]

Since atla is again having an extra surge of popularity, I'm shooting my shot:

[ID: (Rest of image description in alt). At the bottom of the image sits the text: "Zuko: Okay. Well, I can't remember how it starts, but the punchline is "leaf me alone, I'm bushed."" ID end].

Did we ever find out what the setup for this joke was? I feel kinda haunted by it. If not- anyone wanna make their best or worst guesses?

edit: I now know what "I'm bushed" mean, but go ahead anyway 👍

haunted thoughts in tags ↓

[whetstonefires]

duolingo teaches me such batshit things and because they've removed all the tips and grammar fact pages and like, actual information from their app over the years i just have to sit with having been trained like a dog to understand that the mandarin for for japan (日本) is 'reuben.'

like. the sandwich.

[somestorythoughts]

Eldritch Echo

So. I haven't seen the Bad Batch and don't really intend to, but I have read some fics (please do not take that as me saying that's the same as understanding the story) and between that and my thoughts of eldritch stuff in Star Wars and a cool art piece I came across that I think was referencing something I don't have the context for, I started wondering what it'd look like if of the Bad Batch, Echo was the only eldritch/cryptid/vampire/otherwise not human one. NOT because of the Techno Union, but because of something that happened sooner OR he'd always been like that. And I might put a bit of that in my vampire clones thing but I was thinking eldritch and I ended up writing a thing. So. Enjoy:

***********

Crosshair’s willing to admit he doesn’t dislike Echo. He respects the guy’s resilience and his willingness to go with the flow, which is necessary for someone working with their team, even as he rolls his eyes at Echo’s tendency to twitch at the state of their ship and his reluctance to drop the “sir” when talking to Hunter. More than that Echo has zero qualms about sassing him if Crosshair picks a fight and it’s a lot of fun to rile him up.

That said. Echo is also really freaking weird.

Crosshair is very observant, between his eyesight, his role on the team, and his training he had to be and either something’s very off about Echo or he’s started hallucinating because he keeps seeing things that don’t make sense. Not for a reg and not for a cyborg.

He explains this the Hunter once, trying to see if he’s noticed anything, and Hunter frowns. “Can you give me an example?”

“His eyes for one.”

Hunter blinked. “What?”

“We all know what most trooper’s eyes look like. And we’ve seen some variations. But they don’t change color. I’ve seen his eyes go golden or violet, and it wasn’t the lighting.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes I’m sure what do you take me for?” Crosshair snapped. “Look. Next time we’re on a sunny planet. Take a look at his shadow. It doesn’t match him at all. I’ve seen it prowling around him like a tooka without him or a light source moving. It doesn’t look like him either. And remember that time we were sparring and he panicked and bit me? I asked Tech, the Techno Union didn’t do anything to his teeth, but I know what bitemarks look like and that was not it.”

Hunter sighed. “I’ll pay attention but-” He paused. “Huh.”

“What?”

“It might not be anything.” He replies and only knowing that he’s getting to the point keeps Crosshair from interrupting. “But remember how I told you guys that people smell like animals? They’re distinct from each other, and you know I can’t describe it cause I tried to describe you guys, but it’s not like they smell like flowers or old books or whatever people like to think they’d smell like unless they’re wearing a scent. Echo, he doesn’t smell like a trooper. I just never thought about it for some reason.”

“And what does he smell like?”

Hunter frowned as he tried to find the words. “Well. He does smell a bit like a trooper and a bit metallic. But he also smells like, what’s was the spice in that cake you liked so much? The one we found on that mission with the weird vultures?”

Crosshair hummed. That had been a really freaking good cake. “The lady said it was a cardamon cream cake. So he smells like cardamon?”

“Cardamon and lilies and wet dirt is the best way I can describe it and I know it’s not his soap cause he uses the same stuff as the rest of us. So yeah. I guess I’ll pay attention.”

Two days later Crosshair gets confirmation that something’s up in a way he did not expect.

Because walking around in the dark in the middle of the night is his job so it’s already odd to find Echo leaning against the cabinet in their ship’s tiny kitchen in the pitch dark. “You’re going to trip reg.” Crosshair says and leans over to get the lights when Echo looks up.

And twelve pairs of golden violet eyes meet Crosshair’s.

He staggers back, trips over something, falls. “Crosshair!” Echo grabs his hand, pulling him up, then scrambles for the lights as if he forgot they might be necessary and Crosshair yelps as the light hits his eyes.

He blames that and the shock for blurting out; “What the hell are you Echo?”

Echo blinks, looking hurt. “I’m a trooper. Like you all.”

“Troopers don’t have twenty-four freaking eyes.” Crosshair hissed. They aren’t there now, he’s got 2 brown eyes in the exact same shade of brown nearly every trooper has, but Crosshair knows what he saw. He knows what he’s been seeing.

Echo tilts his head. And he grins. It’s a smile Crosshair’s seen before, whenever Echo’s about to respond to his taunts with something cutting and clever, part “take that” and part inviting him to share the joke. There’s nothing off about that smile save for that it’s mirrored in Echo’s shadow, splayed against the cabinets behind him too dark for their lights.

“The Bad Batch.” Echo muses, like there’s a joke Crosshair hasn’t caught yet, and he’s never had a reason to call Echo dangerous even when he didn’t trust him, but he’s starting to feel cornered even though Echo hasn’t moved. “You think you’re the only strange ones. ‘Don’t worry Rex, we know how to handle a reg.’ Never mind that Torrent was always a little crazy, or it used to be. Never mind that I was an ARC and a damn good one, and we’re all more than competent. And I appreciate what you all did, in welcoming me into the squad, I appreciate it more than I can say, and I do really like you guys, but you are so freaking cocky. So certain you can handle anything. And to be fair you’re damn good at your job, but sometimes it’s annoying. So.” He grins that taunting grin again. “You want to know what the reg’s deal is? Figure it out.”

He leaves. His grinning shadow lingers a moment before following. Crosshair stares.

And then decides that a glass of water isn’t gonna cut it and goes for the stash of moonshine.

[thyredwarden]

fic idea: varric x hawke arranged marriage au. everything's same, their families just decide it's a good idea.

[forlouren]

i so badly want mae to get a jedi gf for season 2. i am driving myself insane at the prospect. something something something your first taste of gentleness being at the hands you assumed could only ruin

[official-linguistics-post]

Can you define what a word is rly quick thanks <3

(I'm only trolling you a little bit, I do wanna hear what you have to say tho)

no <3

[dual-domination]

Gui Mian, inspired in Guardian Vol. 3 official arts, for Chapter 26 of In endless mist and rain, drawing your silhouette again and again

[loracarol]

Poseidon isn't in God Games because in The Odyssey Poseidon was off in Ethiopia receiving sacrificial offerings when Athena asked Zeus to intercede on Odysseus's behalf.

But at that moment, Poseidon was among the Ethiopians, very far away, those same Ethiopians, the most remote of people, who live divided in different groups, one where Hyperion goes down, the other where he rises. Poseidon went there to receive a sacrificial offering to him— bulls and rams—and was now sitting at a banquet, enjoying himself. But other gods had gathered in the great hall of Olympian Zeus.

(source)

Which like, yeah, it would be cool to have had Poseidon in God Games, but the fact that it's canon to the Odyssey made me laugh.

But also now I'm picturing an Epic AU where everything is the same, but in Get in the Water, Poseidon is wearing a dumb little party hat and still snacking on sacrificial offerings & he's pissed because he had to leave a party early for this fuck u Odysseus.

[thatswhatsushesaid]

one more teaspoon of salt, tho it's more moody and navel-gaze-y this time

remember when i still enjoyed nie huaisang as a character... remember when i wrote meta just about him and did deep dives into his character in both the novel and cql....

what else do the die-hard nie stans plan to take from me 😢

[otomehonyaku]

ŌKAMI SHŌJO TO KURO ŌJI Vol. 6 Limited Edition Drama CD ☽ Track 5・Super Sadistic One-Liners I'd Like Sata-kun to Say to Me!

Original title: 佐田くんに言ってほしいドSセリフ集 Voiced by Sakurai Takahiro (Sata Kyouya) English translation by @otomehonyaku Click here for the audio (provided by myself, do not repost this audio anywhere)

And now for something completely different—yet still something I know my fellow Ruki enjoyers will be able to appreciate (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄) Some of you may know that Sakurai voiced another pretty sadistic character back in the day: Sata Kyouya from Ōkami Shōjo to Kuro Ōji (Wolf Girl and Black Prince). Alongside the anime, two special, full-length drama CDs were released in a limited edition bundle with the sixth and tenth volumes of the original manga.

This track is a compilation of sadistic one-liners fans sent in to have Sakurai read aloud. I'll translate the rest of the drama CD at a later date, but I thought it would be fun to post a little teaser hehe (>/////< " )

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

00:00 Welcome to the ‘Super Sadistic One-Liners I'd Like Sata-kun to Say to Me!’ corner! (honk honk)

♫

Kyouya: So you want me to kiss you? Heh. The only possible answers are yes or yes (1), right?

♫

Kyouya: You’re such an idiot for forgetting your gloves on cold days like this. C’mon, give me your hand. Give me your hand. Holding hands will warm them up a little, at least.

♫

Kyouya: Typical for guys like me to fall in love with you, right?

♫

Kyouya: Don’t cry. I’m the only one who gets to make you cry.

♫

Kyouya: I’m the only one you have, right?

♫

Kyouya: Live only to serve me.

♫

Kyouya: There’s no way men can be around someone like you. You think I’m gonna talk to you?

♫

Kyouya: You’re such an idiot!

♫

Kyouya: Don’t you dare leave my side. Huh? Don’t misunderstand. This is an order.

♫

Kyouya: If anything, I do like your eyes. You have a good eye for looking at me all the time, after all.

♫

Kyouya: You really are the type of woman who can’t do anything if I’m not around.

♫

Kyouya: You’re being cheeky. I know a good way to shut you up (2).

♫

Kyouya: Don’t wag your tail for any other men but me.

♫

Kyouya: Why don’t you try and make me say ‘I love you’? Just once.

♫

Kyouya: Did you really think I’d let you get away?

♫

Kyouya: You’re better off staying by my side.

♫

Kyouya: I’ll decide when I fall in love with you.

♫

Kyouya: What? You don’t even know what to do when I tell you ‘stay’ (3)?

♫

Kyouya: Right now, your only job is to be my pillow (4). Just shut up and stay still.

♫

Kyouya: If you keep crying out like that, I'll tie you up real tight.

♫

Kyouya: That’s how you tell me you love me? Try again and come at me like you want to pry a confession out of me. That’s the bare minimum. You won’t get your little hands on me unless you do. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

He says イエスかはい (‘yes or hai’) where hai is obviously also ‘yes’ but in Japanese. ‘Yes or yes’ works for me too hehe. 

Implying that he’s going to kiss you.

Referring to telling a dog to ‘stay,’ as the whole gag in this series is that the female protagonist Erika is likened to a wolf/pet dog.

Implying that his head is in your lap.

[apollos-boyfriend]

richarlyson's latest book: translated

page 1

i've come to the realization over something important about my conscience . . . about my memories . . . i'm not able to prove that i'm real . . .

page 2

and everything that i saw . . . in lapses . . . of a callous pain . . . agonizing . . .

page 3

i can't prove that i'm real . . . [alternatively: i can't make myself [be] real]

page 4

i can't . . . but

page 5

proving to that which i call me . . . that exists . . . these paintings exist . . . they are real . . . and consequently . . .

page 6

i'm real

page 7

:>

page 8

. . . the vibrant colors . . . will continue . . .

page 9

and the upcoming pieces that i see . . . as well . . . for i need to be here . . . i see a distant island a lighthouse a bell clouds the ocean . . . an ocean that reflects a dark sky . . . beaches . . .

page 10

and no one can leave this place. [alternatively: no one can leave here.]

page 11

3/3

page 12

i'll still be here. we cannot escape.