#i'm sorry for the long post 😅

[lanistas]

Omg I love Babylon 5, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!!

Hiiiii! Thank you for asking, I can talk about Babylon 5 for days 😃 (This is probably going to be a very long and chaotic post, but please bear with me 😅)

My most vivid memory of Babylon 5 is me crying my eyes out in February 2017, when I watched the final episode of season 5. My mom walked in on me in the kitchen, ugly sobbing and struggling for breath, and, well, my mom was very concerned for my well-being, to put it mildly lol.  And I guess this perfectly illustrates my relationship with this show. The story, the characters, the themes and motifs that Babylon 5 dared to explore influenced my psyche and became an integral part of me, and I was super not ready to let go when it was time to watch “Sleeping in Light”.

Like with any other show that I adore, it’s very difficult for me to explain which aspects of said show I like in particular. As I am first and foremost a shipper when it comes to watching and analysing tv shows, John Sheridan and Delenn of Mir were the main reason why I decided to start Babylon 5, and John/Delenn remain one of my most beloved OTPs up until this day. However, once I started properly watching this show and understanding it better, I realised that Babylon 5 is not only a shipper’s paradise, but also an incredibly well crafted and coherent show, a true masterpiece when it comes to weaving a compelling and logically consistent story. To add to the gradually developing plot, every character has their role to play, and each character is well written, complex, and important to the narrative. John, Delenn, Susan, Michael, Londo, G’Kar, Lyta, Marcus, and so many others – all of them taught me important lessons and helped me overcome real life struggles. They taught me courage, compassion, honor, but also they taught me that nobody's perfect, that both human and non-human beings can make stupid decisions, can take a wrong turn, may be difficult and insufferable, but it doesn't mean that the world is beyond saving. In fact it means quite the opposite, and that's what the characters in this show prove to the audience time and time again.

One more thing that I love about Babylon 5 is the fact that it doesn’t shy away from discussing difficult topics, very often mixing sci-fi concepts with philosophy, psychology, cultural studies, and even religion. As someone who studied intercultural communication at university, I cannot help coming back to Babylon 5 and choosing scenes and moments from different episodes that I can analyse from that perspective. Moreover, Babylon 5 managed to masterfully comment on politics, political institutions, and various types of conflicts, which also impresses me and makes me adore Babylon 5 even more.

All in all, I want to say a huge ‘thank you’ to J. Michael Straczynski, to the cast and the crew of this show for bringing Babylon 5 to life. I will never shut up about it, and I will never stop recommending Babylon 5 to people 😄

[jakeyp]

IVES' 3K FOLLOWER CELEBRATION succession as a horror for @rebecca-weltons 💕

[joshdonnas]

In which Ainsley makes an innocent question and gets subjected to The Joshdonna Show ™️ (featuring Sam).

17 PEOPLE (2x18) | The West Wing (1999-2006)

[doubleedgemode]

that post u made about A.B.A regarding her classic GG quotes is so interesting I had no idea she said that! I haven’t played the earlier games, would u happen to have screenshots of where she says that or where I might be able to see some of her classic/unused quotes ? I just like having that stuff on hand lol. Thank you!

Thanks to you, anon, for making me revisit the screenshots, and sure thing! I'm gonna link the page, keep in mind it's super meaty and covers a lot of characters so ctrl F search will be your best friend to find specific character/quotes :)

I found them in this big quote compilation in guiltygear.ru, click the sentence to go there. (Kudos to @/solradguy's big gg neo.cities archival efforts making me find the page)... BUT before anything, important DISCLAIMERS❗:

1. Some of the quotes in general can get kind of explicit or with double entendres so uh keep that in mind.

2. Something I just learnt after going to find you the translations, it's to keep in mind their author: See, this is better explained in the aforementioned ne.ocities archival, but a lot of the site's translations were made by someone who, without going too much into detail, is... a controversial member of the community, who is known for putting a good bunch of misconceptions and mistakes into their translations. (Also they have, in my opinion, unsavory and even problematic takes about the franchise. Don't try to argue with them, just block, per proper net etiquette) I don't know japanese so I don't know if this quote index suffers from that so in the end, we'll have to take all this quote info with a huge grain of salt.

Keeping all this in mind, this is already probably a wordier answer than you expected BUT since we are at it, I'll ramble about some A.B.A quotes (in no order) that I found interesting about the topic under the cut, if you want to read that.

First and third quotes in this picture are pretty self explanatory about this part of her character. The vs Faust intro... Man, that looks straight out of her strive song. Dunno if they pulled inspiration from that, but it seems even in the classic days they had a pretty clear idea of part of A.B.A's story being existing and thriving in her own unique way.. Which makes me kind of emotional for some reason ;_;

These were NOT unused as far as I can tell, but obviously do correct me if wrong!

I find it fascinating how much of clear glimpses these are are into her law obsession (more on that specific one later) and believing herself to be a high class person and looking above "lower classes" shoulders.

Some of these aren't exclusively about the aforementioned topics but they mention her cooking god knows what creatures (like in that one infamous xxac ending) and just.. being a scared, pathetic individual at heart. Sigh.

There are probably more examples of all this but this post needs to end sometime today.😭 So, returning to her law thing being an obsession in capital letters, look at her ingame overdrives:

But before that, the elephant in the room: People's observations of her instakill looking pretty taxing to her to perform and even making a berserk Paracelsus look like even he thinks this goes too far are not far from the truth. "I might not recover this time... Dying!!!" What else can I say, that's just sad.. and very interesting lorewise about the toll of this kind of summonings. Yeah, people noticed that in strive, she can summon the same exact door as in her insta with no struggle (or at least not the same level for sure) indicates her power or skill have improved which is so so fascinating.. Anyways. Back to the law thing. We've always had a huge sign under our noses: Her saying Evidence in her overdrives. While sure it can be evidence in a more general meaning, like proving facts or something, it does call to LEGAL evidence, too

...Maybe that was super obvious for everybodh but I'm afraid to admit I didn't connect the dots til now haha 😅

I cannot access my xxacp copy right now to see if her saying shouko during her overdrives is correct, but were we to take this as truth and also trust a japanese language study site as solid because. Again I have zero knowledge of japanese... According to Nihongoclassroom..

It can be used in a legal setting.

And with this we can neatly wrap this up... Tdlr I guess she's living up to her creator being a mansion owner (which isn't precisely cheap) and it gets so interesting and double edged (HAH) if you believe her classic games was as self aware while doing this and fooling herself as strive A.B.A is.

AND she has or had a HUGE interest in law (and if u allow me to reach mayyybe morality too?). While probably not as core to her as her key thing, she sure has told the audience almost as much as it.

[help-me-find-a-name-please-lol]

CM HOTCH/REID HEADCANONS

My headcanon about Hotch leaving in Season 12, Reid's reaction, and trying to have it make some kind of sense.

Disclaimers:

This is the first rewatch of the later seasons I've done since it aired on TV, and I've only just finished Season 12 episode 4 (I do, however, know the early seasons ridiculously well).

From LDSK onwards, I only ever really watched it for Hotch, Reid, and the Hotch/Reid dynamic. I didn't really watch it after Hotch left, but caught bits and pieces because my roomates did.

Yes I know why Thomas Gibson left the show and why they had to suddenly wrap up his character. No, I don't condone violence in the workplace. I also never dove deeply into the behind-the-scenes lore of this show, cast and crew interviews, etc etc. This will purely be relating to the show as it was depicted on screen, and my love for the characters as their own entities.

I am not going back to fully source which eps all my observations come from, cos I'm supposed to be working on an assignment rn and CM transcripts are a ducking nightmare. I just wanted to put this idea out there cos I think we all need a bit of self-soothing after the crap they fed us to write Hotch out of the show.

Also fun story I just came back to finish writing this after being interrupted by what I though was someone trying to break into my house at 4am (heard a noise, gate wide open, can't see anyone but damn, scary. My town's big on crime, too). SO my thoughts may now be even more disorganised thanks to the adrenaline crash headache I'm currently experiencing.

So anyway like I said, just finished watching S12E04 Keeper, during which Reid gets a call we don't hear, is visibly upset by it, and takes a bit of prodding to discuss it with JJ and Rossi. He then reveals that he was just told his mother left her care facility on her own and was found wandering confused around a casino. He takes minimal convincing to head back to Quantico and lines himself up another couple of days off to visit his mum (yes I'm Australian, this is how we spell it lol).

MY HEADCANON: This is when Hotch called Reid to tell him that he was going into witness protection and wouldn't be coming back. (Exactly how much was discussed on the phone vs possibly being discussed/explained later in person is of course open to interpretation, but enough for Reid to know Hotch wanted to say goodbye and to not tell the rest of the team).

I know that his mum's issues are an ongoing valid storyline. But this is why it was also a plausible excuse for Reid to come up with on the spot as to why he was upset.

Another thing that makes it entirely plausible that the phone call was about Hotch is the long, significant staring Reid did at Prentiss as she walked away after they discuss what supposedly happened with his mum. To me that could scream that Reid was actually dealing with something team-related, and was already grieving how it would affect the other members of his team that he's keeping it from. He could have gazed down or elsewhere to communicate his worry for his mum to the audience, but he specifically turned and watched Prentiss leave, looking all angsty.

What's a heck of a lot less plausible:

His mum, who has been in care since Reid became a legal adult, suddenly escaping her care facility, despite having been in care for well over a decade and who now needs even more supervision due to Alzheimer's on top of her Schizophrenia. Yeah, escapes happen, but to make it all the way into a casino and being found in a confused state? When this didn't happen before Reid flew up and got her diagnosed her with Alzheimers? Even though she'd been getting some increased freedoms for doing well on her new meds prior to her sudden worsening with the Alzheimer's onset?

Hotch leaving without saying something directly to Reid first. Yeah, I'm a shipper, and I know Hotch has his son to think about, but I call BULLSHIT. Hotch knows all about Reid's abandonment issues and there is no way he'd want to end up on the same mental list Reid keeps alongside Reid's father and Gideon. When Gideon went AWOL, Hotch returned from suspension, despite the fight he knew it would cause with his wife, because "the team" needed him. Then Haley stressed "no, they need Gideon". Fully believe this was all just about Reid (I also kinda low-key believe Haley had an inkling about Hotch's thing for Reid but anyway). Hotch, Reid and Morgan functioned as a team while Gideon was on leave after the bomber case, Morgan didn't even really want Gideon to come back and would not have been that thrown by his absence. Reid however we all know was very emotionally-involved. And it's Reid that Hotch pulls aside to get his head back in the game (and who then gives them a breakthrough in the case shortly after, at Hotch's encouragement). When Gideon had officially left and Hotch addressed the team about it, he mostly directed what he was saying towards Reid, when he said that he couldn't explain why he'd left the way he did, etc. And when Hotch was trying to decide whether he'd take over as section chief after Strauss left, again he was addressing the team but pretty much turned and spoke directly to Reid when he said something along the lines of "if I decide to leave the BAU, you'll be the first to know". He also saw how much it killed Reid to be lied to about Prentiss (and you can see he felt like shit about it during Reid's assessment). This man. Would NOT. Have left Reid without saying goodbye. That's the hill I'm dying on. On top of that, Hotch is always the most emotionally-compromised whenever Reid is in danger, and he knows it (he let Gideon know he was currently a terrible example of "handling things emotionally" while Reid was being held by Hankel, resulting in Gideon's weak reassurance of "We'll get him"; when Reid got on that train with Elle he tried to stop it then immediately went to chat with the sniper; when Reid was in the cult compound he had to hand off negotiations to Rossi; when Reid was protecting Owen Savage; heck he practically yeeted Morgan out of the way when Reid was trying to talk down Maeve's stalker and they heard a gunshot. Etc etc.). And whenever Hotch gets emotionally affected by other things (eg that defence attorney for amnesia/coma guy, or regarding his brother), Reid is the one who can break through that and keep him steady. Reid is VERY IMPORTANT to Hotch and I don't see him hurting Reid in what to him is the worst way someone could do it.

Reid being so chill about Hotch suddenly leaving without saying goodbye. Goes without saying, yeah? But I'll say it. I get that they've been trying to paint him as more emotionally-mature and that he was able to handle Morgan leaving, but it is SO not the same relationship or circumstance and Reid would not have taken Hotch's departure in stride like that. I get that they also wanted the show and its characters to move on as quickly and as apparently unaffected as possible, but it still clearly flies in the face of proper characterisation. Reid is brilliant and back when he was being held by Hankel, I'm sure he could have found any number of ways to communicate with a specific team member at that moment, but he chose Hotch. He knew Hotch would be the only one capable of putting his ego aside at being "picked to die" and to listen properly to the rest of Reid's message. Once he confirmed that his message was correct and that he was in a cemetery, Reid was so sure that Hotch understood his message and would be coming to save him that he let his guard down for the first time. I think he only picked up that gun and shot Hankel with it in the end to just superstitiously make sure that the bullet never did reach Hotch (and to "free" Tobias, or whatever. Either way Hankel wasn't going for the gun or to use Reid as a shield when he turned to face off with the FBI and any of them could have taken him down easily). They've only been getting closer and closer over the years, on-screen and off (Fist-bump anyone? Always standing close together? Plus Reid's been teaching Jack magic tricks and was the one to get him smiling and laughing after Hotch got arrested by SWAT, which you know would make Hotch even more gooey for him). They're 100% an army of 2/hyper-competent power couple (take for instance the way Hotch and Reid were mirrored against Garcia and Kevin when she referred to her own pairing as the President and Vice-President after the bank blew up?) who can probably achieve 90% of the team's success level on their own. That super-serial-killer chick may have talked about Reid losing a "protector" in Morgan, but Hotch has always been the one Reid has come to or looked to. He was pretty distraught about the idea of Hotch leaving to be Section Chief, not that long ago, too. Also, constant super-crush behaviour which I could list but this post is already very long. Reid would not just immediately go "Prentiss is our leader now, this'll be great!". FFS.

Anyway we all know the way they wrote Hotch off was bullshit, hence the suuuper-long monologue to explain everything that's apparently happened off-screen, and yeah he'd totally enter WITSEC without even telling the team (until he decided to resign) when Peter Lewis had already hacked it once and killed the person on it before the team figured out who he was after and got there 🙄. All of it is super implausible. But to me, nothing more so than Reid's poor imitation of shock/surprise and almost total lack of emotional reaction. Him knowing beforehand, because Hotch already said goodbye to him, is the only thing that will ever make me be at peace with this crap from an in-universe POV.

This could all be shot to pieces in the next ep lol, but for now I'm just glad my brain has a way to make sense of it.

[uhbasicallyjustmilex]

does anyone have any tips on how not to be a crippling perfectionist about your writing?? i have been staring at the same five paragraphs of the next chapter of four walls for a whole week and i've reached the point where i actually want to defenestrate my own laptop

[trashyandtiredsol]

sol. Sol. Sol. Sol. Sol.

SOL.

ilysm.

you are so friggin extraordinary.

never change.

you're amazing.

Kept trying to think of some paragraph long response to this but I'm absolutely shitty with words-

SO

Tam. The feeling is very mutual- for you and everyone I've talked to at some point since I've been on this hellsite we call Tumblr /affectionate

Talking with everyone on here, sharing my art with everyone- just existing with everyone on here and seeing what y'all create has turned into such a huge aspect of my life (especially my social life like- y'all ARE my social life at this point 😅)

Plus I'm fuckin so glad I decided to try out Tumblr when I did cuz it was around a sorta traditional point in my life (moving outta a toxic ass house and away from a toxic, isolated life and my ex supposed father figure). Coming on here and talking with you and everyone else brightens my day and I'm glad to be a part of everything :3

[multicolour-ink]

In honor of Mario Day (and the movie 2 hype 🤭) here's a throwback to the first Mario fic I wrote after a long time, just after the movie's release.

[moonfromearth]

Clyde S. Dale

for @loveryss Embracing Erin Unofficial Bachelorette Challenge~!

About Clyde...

Age: Young Adult Aspiration: Championship Rider Traits: Snob, Outgoing, Music Lover Backstory: Clyde left his small town in Chestnut Ridge behind the moment he aged up, heading to San Myshuno to find fame and fortune in the music industry. However, after his debut album flopped hard, his manager suggested he "return to his roots." Begrudgingly, the Clyde S. Dale brand was born, and everything in Clyde's life became about keeping up the cowboy image. Now, Clyde has returned to his hometown, determined to reconnect with his cowboy image for real and not just as a marketing tool (though this has proven quite a challenge after so many years spent in the city softening him to the realities of ranch life). Always one to put himself out there, despite his adjustment struggles, he's signed up to be a part of Erin's bachelorette challenge in hopes of finding someone to learn and grow alongside him. Bonus Facts that didn't fit in the backstory section: - His real name is William Taylor. Clyde S. Dale was his manager's idea. - His first album had a very electronic pop sound, much different from his current music. - Super outgoing and always the one to carry a conversation. No need to worry about awkward silence when he won't stop talking. - Hasn't given much thought to family life. Has always been more focused on his career. He has more of an, "If it happens, it happens," mindset on the whole raising kids thing.

Download Here (Google Drive, CC Free!)

[it says cc in the gallery an I don't know why I swear he's cc free]

[pttucker]

"Thank you." The words spilled out and Yoo Joonghyuk replied indifferently. "Don't say anything that isn't in your heart. I know you dislike me." "Of course, I dislike you. I hate you. You are the person who took my role." "I don't know what that means." In Lee Sookyung's head, time flowed slowly. She heard that it should move quickly… then why? Was it because it was hard and difficult? "…I've known you from a long time ago. That kid often talked about you. He came to visit his mother in prison and only talked about this." –This time, he challenged the 12 gods of Olympus. The young face of Kim Dokja as he talked happily. Many thoughts had floated on this child's face. Yoo Joonghyuk spoke like he felt Lee Sookyung's heart rate slowing down. "Lee Sookyung. Don't let go of your mind." Lee Sookyung barely maintained her blurring consciousness. She continued to be drowsy on Yoo Joonghyuk's back. "In any case, at least once… I wanted to thank you." "You are saying things that I can't understand."

Okay, so I've been thinking this for a while now but is Joonghyuk perhaps literally unable to comprehend that he's a character in a novel?

Like, at first I just thought it was a secret (obviously it was) and he didn't know and then I thought that maybe, for some reason, he just didn't care because he's so goal-motivated and has crushed down all his own emotions beyond what's needed to save the world, but now I'm really starting to wonder if he literally cannot process it. Like maybe he has his own version of Fourth Wall but it stops him from realizing that he's a character in a novel no matter what people say.

Like, Han Sooyoung literally calls him "protagonist" to his face but it's Han Sooyoung so it's quite possible he brushed it off as that's just how she sees the world as a writer.

But we also have the fact that people were starting to recognize that the world was following TWSA way back before Dokja got lost for three years, heck people were recognizing it both inside and outside the Seoul dome way back when he pretended to be Joonghyuk for the first time. Since then, rumors have been spread all across the internet and there's apparently still functioning news agencies because Dokja's party members are treated like celebrities.

So you'd think by now that it has to be common knowledge right? If nothing else, Sooyoung can't have been the only person to ever say something weird or act weird around the Yoo Joonghyuk. It wouldn't shock me at all if people haven't tried to interview him like they did with Heewon and Jihye.

So does he genuinely have no feelings in regards to finding out he's a fake person? Do none of the other characters not care either? We've had plenty of POV scenes from other characters but thinking about it, the one time that we see the novel openly discussed is between Dokja and his mom, Dokja and Sooyoung, Sooyoung and Sangah...all non-characters...

And now we have Dokja's mom trying to have this serious conversation with Joonghyuk and he's saying he doesn't understand and while you can take that to mean that he doesn't understand how he helped Dokja since he's only recently met him, I'm starting to wonder if it's not more literal - that he literally can't process what she's talking about.

Like, Dokja literally just got done showing the giants the literal scenes of TWSA and Joonghyuk had no reaction whatsoever. Like, maybe in that particular instance he wasn't able to see those scenes, only Dokja and the giants could, but still...

"Where are your parents?" "I was told they died in an accident." "You don't sound sad." "I can't grieve what I can't remember." Lee Sookyung knew. He didn't remember because it wasn't in the original novel. Everything about Yoo Joonghyuk was just a character setting. From the beginning, Yoo Joonghyuk's parents didn't exist. Lee Sookyung hesitated for a moment. "Yes, humans are like this. Do you think I remember all my childhood?" "…Is it memory loss?" "Everyone gets memory loss. Little by little, we will forget our memories and one day, we will forget everything."

And then on the other side we have this. It almost feels like Sookyung is trying to reassure him that it's normal not to remember things that happened when they were children and she specifically goes out of her way to say humans are like this. Like she's trying to tell him that he's still a human and reassure him that this is normal and not from him literally being a made up person.

So maybe he does know and has just been quietly processing it? Or maybe he does have a Fourth Wall, maybe all the characters do, but instead of blocking them from understanding, their versions keep their reactions to the real world muted whereas Dokja's keeps his reactions to TWSA muted? So they're aware but just can't bring themselves to care???

Like, I could see maybe one or two people just genuinely not caring, and maybe one of those people is Joonghyuk just because of how emotionally exhausted he has to be by now (both him AND 1863rd) but you're telling me that Lee Jihye doesn't have some opinions on all of that? Lee Hyunsung hasn't at least asked Dokja what he was like in the novel? Shin Yoosung hasn't asked about what she did in a future without Dokja taking her under his wing?

And then finally we have this:

Yoo Joonghyuk spoke, "Sometimes I remember things. I remember someone watching me." It was the first time Lee Sookyung heard this story and she wondered, "…Who was watching you?" "I don't know either. There was a gaze watching me for a long time. There were times when I often felt the gaze." After Yoo Joonghyuk's words were over, Lee Sookyung didn't talk for a long time. There was a long silence before Lee Sookyung laid her hands on Yoo Joonghyuk's head and spoke in a gentle voice. "Maybe it was your parents." Lee Sookyung stared up at the sky. Numerous constellations were watching them.

I feel like Sookyung is once again trying to make him feel better by saying it was his parents but at the same time Joonghyuk isn't really connecting the whole "Dokja came to talk to me about you every day when he was younger" to "Dokja knows my entire life story including my future" to "someone has been watching me for years." Or, if he is connecting the two, he's unwilling to verbalize it and just seems like he's side-stepping the whole issue?? So either he can't process that he's a character or can but can't really feel it?

Well, if nothing else, I do love it when we get mentions of Joonghyuk feeling like someone was with him during his hardships just the same as Dokja felt that Joonghyuk was there with him during his.

[theclassiccake]

Finally got a chance to post this!!!

It's not often Val gets dolled up, but she wouldn't miss @cosmiconix's Masquerade Ball for the world! Thanks again for the invite!!! 🥳🎉

Happy Halloween!🎃

[ambivartence]

I've seen you post quite a lot of concerts this year so I wanted to know all the concerts you've been to in 2022 :)

omg i- yeah i've been to a lot this year...... 😂💸💀 it's the first year i've ever been to a kpop concert ever!! it started by taking my friend to a twice concert in february, then literally on the way home on the train we booked more concert tickets and it's honestly spiraled uncontrollably from there. in total i've been to 11 concerts and 3 music-festival/convention format events and saw a total of 30 unique soloists/groups perform live (31 if u include the kq trainees that opened for ateez <3). i even have a running tag #📷 for any content i post using my own fancams 😎

my year was something like: february twice, april bts, may kpop.flex in germany (these were the tickets we bought on the way home from the twice concert bc my friend is a huge moomoo and i'm a huge multi so i was easily convinced LOL we managed to get barrier spots the second day which sadly nct dream was day 1... and oneus also got covid 💔 the final lineup was mamamoo, kai, nct dream, monsta x, enhypen, dreamcatcher, ab6ix, (g)i-dle, and ive), july ab6ix (bought these the night after seeing them in germany haha they included soundcheck + hi-touch which were fun^^) & stray kids & dreamcatcher (which i wasn't planning on going but bought tickets the day-of haha), august seventeen and kcon LA (finally saw tbz after my june concert was canceled 😥 lineup: stray kids, nct dream, ateez, the boyz, itzy, wjsn, cravity, enhypen, kep1er, lightsum, loona, ini, to1, p1harmony, nmixx, stayc), september sunmi, october blackpink, november ateez & the rose, december yerin baek and LA3C which we went for seventeen's ~50 min set LOL

yeah so i've essentially gone to a kpop concert every month this year which is def one of my fave parts of being a multistan hehe 🥰 i already have tickets for p1harmony's tour next january as well as oneus in february and have been keeping an eye on any announcements about new stops for mamamoo's world tour! we'll see how many more memories i can make in 2023 :)

anyways here's some of my fave pics i took from the year below the cut, mostly from kpop flex haha (warning very long sry):

extra bonus: jeon woong levitating right side up and then upside down (aka mid backflip haha) in the back of the 2nd pic lol

[rejectshumanity]

“I won’t do it. I won’t become them.” / sherry

oh, his little knight cannot begin to comprehend how she fascinates and amuses her god; nor can she fathom the utter delight with which he imbibes the futile conviction beheld in her attempt of resistance. cruel glee dances within the amber depths of his scintillating stare, the only lights in the darkness that swallows the room. like beacons, they beckon her to come forth — to seek refuge with him.

❝ sherry, ❞  he chides with infinite patience,  ❝ there is nothing to fear. ❞  the tone of his words is achingly gentle. it warms the room with an intoxicating, dangerous sweetness, irresistibly tantalizing even to she, who should know better than to trust in his false kindness.  ❝ rejoice, little one, in the happiness you will experience upon relinquishing your mind to me. the anxieties that plague you will soon yield to endless bliss, never to trouble you again. ❞

the vampire is behind her now, impossibly swift when he bridges the gap between them to draw sherry's trembling body into his own. one hand lovingly strokes her soft, brown hair with tender reassurance. it is almost a shame, he thinks, to subdue such a brilliant creature as she, in her ongoing crusade against a merciless fate — but she is far from the first to bend to his will. helplessly ensnared within his grasp, escape seems nigh-impossible now as the fearsome tendrils formed of his golden locks hover insidiously in the surrounding darkness, readying to strike.

❝ this is my gift to you, sherry. you have suffered arduously in my service. what greater reward is there but the relief your dear heart desperately seeks? I, DIO, shall alleviate your sorrows forevermore. you will weep no longer from grief, but with everlasting gratitude. ❞

angsty sentence starters | ACCEPTING

[acephodel]

To help with Brain Boredom at work I've spent this week assembling a playlist with one song per letter of the alphabet. I did this by combing through my entire library of liked songs on spotify (over 3k songs) and narrowing it down to my Number One Favorite song per letter.

For some letters it was very immediately apparent what one I would choose (looking at you, Normal Song) but for other letters, trying to cut it down to only one song felt like I was murdering my own children.

Surprisingly, there are no Florence, Evanescence, or Fleetwood Mac songs on the list at all. May have to re-evaluate my entire life (moreso than I already have been the past several months lollllll)

[audioandart]

The New Comment Section Sucks

Or at least, it appears to be new, I got it a couple days ago (read, just a little over a week ago). It could be I just got it late 🤷‍♀️

I've sat with it. I've tried to see if it has merit. Any pros. I don't usually like change so I tried to be conscious of that and not let that cloud my judgement. I tried looking at Tumblr on multiple devices to see if perhaps any issues was my phone (it wasn't.)

The new comment section does not work. I haven't seen anyone else say this so honestly who knows, maybe it's just something with my account, but in case this is an actual problem and maybe there's someone else out there who's noticed it doesn't work and feels like they're losing their mind because they don't see anyone else talking about it, here's this post.

I'll start with the only pro I've noticed. The fact that you can immediately see which comments are in reply to other comments. Great! Something I've bemoaned in the past was the difficulty to find the start of comment chains. It wasn't too difficult or upsetting for me but it could definitely be a chore. It is pretty nice to immediately be able to see what is from where.

The cons. Oh dear. I'll go in least bad to absolute worst imo

The replies are not seen automatically in some chains. I'm not sure why some chains they are automatically visible and in some they aren't but I don't think it's good? One of the ways people communicate here is jumping into a conversation they see in the replies, but they don't do that if the effort to see the reply is too high. In many situations it's too high to press the small button (that I doubt people with vision issues of any sort can see) that also for some reason some times breaks the comment section and launches you back to the top. Most of this is a nitpick but the broken button and its size is a problem.

The new background. I don't have vision problems but I can't see, I cannot imagine it being good for anyone who does have them. The greyish blueish color behind black text is NOT helpful. Idk, I do know there are some people who this would actually be good for, but I think it's very important to at least maybe have to option to have the normal black and white, because some people need that to see. (Including me, please bring it back.) Honestly, the comments have just been made endlessly less accessible. I genuinely have to reread things multiple times because I cannot retain what I'm reading. Long story, but yes the background color affects what my brain retains. Iirc it affects everyone's brains but I digress.

When typing, the comment box (where you type) no longer stays at the part you're typing, but at the very top. You can no longer see what you're typing past a point. I'm also not sure this is or isn't my device, but I checked this on multiple and it still happened so I'm leaning towards the site. This started gradually before the change.

I cannot find my comments. This also started gradually before the change, and is why I thought my account was broken, but I was since informed by multiple people that my comments are genuinely just disappearing. Deleted it would seem, however it hasn't been staff. Small simple things like a little compliment on art. Literally just a "good job!" gone from the site. (And just in case someone thinks it might be the op deleting something on their post, about half of the people who informed me my comment was gone was the op. They were trying to respond to the comment I left for them and found it was no longer there, so it isn't them.) And it happens days and even months after the comment was posted, as well as completely randomly. However, some comments I've posted aren't deleted, because I'm receiving replies to them. They just aren't visible to me (and ONLY me) anymore. I also assumed this could have been my Internet, but I've tested that multiple times as well and found it is still just Tumblr. I've literally been in the middle of a comment convo when the person trying to respond to me will have to ask what I said because my comment(s) are suddenly gone. And I usually can't remember! This is usually at least a week or two after I posted it. This is not good. I also only was able to respond because comments weren't linked, and now that they are I won't be able to respond to the people asking about my comments because if I can't find the start, I can't find the replies.

Replies are also gone. This is the worst offender. Every single reply someone has left on any of my comments are GONE. I receive notifications on them, and not only are MY comments straight up gone, COMPLETELY, because for some reason all of a sudden, after this change ALL my comments no longer exist, but any reply left on my comments I can see don't exist. To everyone who's tried to reply to my comments recently and I haven't gotten back to you, this is why. I'm being super serious. I've received probably about 10 replies since the change. I know, I'm so popular. I haven't been able to find a single one. And from the little notifications I got, these seem to be pretty important replies! I would very much like to reply! But I can't! It's not just aggravating, or frustrating, but also very concerning. Someone out there, anyone, have any of you had this happen or is this one really just me? Etc etc if anyone has had this happen please feel free to reach out to me, I would appreciate the examples for if I bring this up again, thank you very much.

Basically, @staff, I say this out of frustration but also concern. While it's nice to have the comment sections just that tiny bit neater and slightly more intuitive in the sense that you immediately know what is in response to what, this feels very much like a monkeys paw situation. The rest of the comment section has broken. Almost in it's entirety... Please, PLEASE for the love of god fix this. I'm hoping that if anyone comments on this post, something about it being my post will let my actually see the damn things, but I don't know. We'll see!

And to everyone who's NOT staff, please if you have examples I would love to hear them. If I'm not responding to your comments below, send me a dm because I probably can't see them. I'm serious about appreciating any stories because it would help greatly to know it's not just me... 😅

[mariaurore]

(OOC) Hello o/ I am back with another build and it comes with a side of learning process 😅. I feel It's good to learn new things. Keeps us moving forward, keeps our minds active, y'know?

So, I showed my Free Company in FFXIV this household-couple named "Pancake" in my world because our FC is named "Blueberry Waffles" and we have ranks named everything from "Waffle" to "Crepe" to "French Toast", etc. We also get members who like to name their characters after foods.

One member suggested I buy this very specific pagoda behind the residence of the Pancake household and name it "The Waffle House" in honor of the FC. Well, I unfortunately had to let them know that's not possible as that's not a plot for sale in the game. This was also after I had already created my own restaurant for Mari. So adjusting my plans for her restaurant to reflect the vibe of "Blueberry Waffles" was already long gone.

But it did inspire the idea of putting together the Cafe I wanted + Blueberry Waffles. That was something I could do 👍🏻

Only thing is... I guess I didn't fully do my research? I knew I wouldn't be able to own a Cafe- but I thought I'd be able to set a menu. I was completely wrong about that 🤷🏻‍♀️

This is where that learning process bit comes in.

You can change menus of restaurants even if you do not own it. But not cafes.

Infact I fully encourage this- for my builds at least. When I eventually post up Celeste and any future restaurant builds, I want people to sift through the menu and alter it in any way they desire. And the primary reason for this is because I have the S&S Cookbook Mod.

This is purely speculation but If you download my Restaurant, you'll likely be uploading my menu with it and I have the modded recipes in my menu. They're going to fall off, i.e. disappear (if you do not have the same recipes). What you'll be left with is a very empty menu. Get where I'm going with this? You'll want to add more options to it again by customizing the menu so it's no longer bare.

You can do this by going into Build mode of the restaurant:

Click on the cogwheel as shown in the screenshot. You can also change staff attire from here.

When I was researching how to change the Cafe menu, I was so baffled when people brought up this cogwheel in build mode because I couldn't find it. This would be why:

It's not there. That's how you know you cannot edit a menu.

In addition, at first I thought I could plant down a ThriftTea Bubble Counter with the Espresso Bar. Nope, can't do that.

I could "tend it" at least, I guess? We get these cool things, and ideally they could be used in a cool ways, but then EA limits us. I don't get it. Why can't I have a typical Cafe? 😾

I could have left it in, because there are mods out there that bring in sims who will work behind interactable objects like this if they are placed on the plot. But not everyone has those mods, let alone even knows about them. (This is the mod I'm talking about: https://www.curseforge.com/sims4/mods/auto-employees-custom-lot-trait)

I'm not sure that mod is for me, but to each their own.

So, what kind of drinks can we order here?

I have no idea why the prices are slashed. It's possibly because of my mod though, ngl 😅

This being my first time in a cafe, I didn't know what to expect and ordered a Macchiato. I wanted to see the cafe operate as usual. But what does Mari do?

She picks up a croissant. Eats that one and picks up another one 🤦🏻‍♀️

It didn't seem like there was much rhyme or reason to what was going on. The barista just kept creating things and everyone inside just kept grabbing things off the counter at random 🤷🏻‍♀️. Is this normal? 🤔

After some more internet digging and being unable to find another way to make that Bubble Tea Counter work, I decided to just add another Espresso Bar and delete all the Boba Tea related things I had on the walls.

Yeah... little did I know that would also not work 🫠. Only 1 Barista seems to spawn in at a Cafe - no other staff or employees. Again, you would need that mod if you want more "Staff" or "Employees" or people with skills that can use interactable objects like that to spawn on the plot.

But the option to "tend" is there- if you're looking to raise your barista skills. I have no idea if the other barista will yell at you though if you try 😅 and it doesn't cost anything.

I noticed the Barista whom was tending the shop, was bouncing between both of them. So... maybe it's not so bad having both in there? Aesthetically, for modders, should the player want to "tend it" and for this reason.

If nothing else, whoever places it can always delete the extra one 🤷🏻‍♀️

It gets a little busy in here.

This build was made on a 20x15 plot. I did that intentionally so that it can be placed anywhere. I also uploaded it that way.

Tags are #Teku #TekuTiger #Mari #Cafe #SmallCafe

I later moved it to where I wanted it in my world, in San Sequoia, on a larger plot.

I know I say that I try to use the least amount of DLCs, but this time I didn't do that 😅. It was so hard trying to get my FC's vibes with the furniture in this game with what I had available. I still feel like I didn't fully capture it. To restrict that even further would be impossible.

Bathroom on the top floor, couple angles of the first floor, and a close up of the patio in the front.

After I placed it, I just added several trees and a couple of benches, and called it a night. Someday I'll get into landscaping, but it's not in the foreseeable future 🙃